Online-only letters

Free market

Economical correction

It is called a "correction," not a "free fall" ["Is free market in a free fall?," Times, News, July 24]. Corrections happen after long periods of growth. If it did not occur, the average house would now be north of $700,000 and we'd all be crying about affordable housing.

On gas prices, last I checked, cartels, such as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, are the antithesis of a free market. As I recall, the government has also intervened to limit domestic supply for environmental reasons. Unless reporter Peter Gosselin would like to introduce rationing, limited supply and growing demand means prices have to rise.

— Paul Woods, Maple Valley

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

Bailout bill morally irresponsible

I urge your readers to request that Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell vote against the mortgage-bailout bill, and to ask President Bush to veto ["Rescue plan for housing is on the way," Times, page one, July 24].

As a young adult, I feel the message sent by this legislation is morally irresponsible. Americans must learn the hard way that there are consequences to living out of their means. In the long run, I feel it is more beneficial for our economy if the citizenry understands this.

What message do we send to the youth, my generation, if we tell them that the government will cover their mistakes — at taxpayer expense? If Congress tells the American people that their mistakes will be covered by the federal government, it reduces the incentive to live responsibly. I do not expect the taxpayers to cover my debt; why do I not get the same courtesy in return?

This bailout will only plunge our nation further into debt, which the American people will eventually be responsible for anyway, all while sending the wrong message to the people.

I respectfully and strongly request our senators take the high road and vote against this bill. Their votes will not go unnoticed come election time.

— Dan Anderson, Tacoma

Plan lacks common sense

I am a 15-year-old who is currently set to inherit this country's outstanding $9.5 trillion debt. I was less than thrilled to learn this week that the debt ceiling would be raised to $10.6 trillion under the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bailout plan recently passed by the House.

While I am not particularly enthralled to learn that I have been unwillingly conscripted to pay $9.5 trillion in the first place, the fact that our government continues its irresponsible and reckless slide into astronomical debt makes me genuinely angry. Worse yet, an untold amount of that money will be paid to prop up weak banks after the poor choices they made in the housing bubble.

My 3-year-old sister can tell you that bad behavior should not be rewarded, and any kid in my social studies class knows that you don't make an economy stronger by throwing money at failing companies. It seems that our government has long forgotten the rules of common sense.

— Tucker J. D. Cholvin, Snohomish

Alaska Airlines

Give more coverage

I don't live in Seattle. I live in Alaska. Which means that I get to fly on Alaska Airlines quite often. I would think folks in Seattle might use Alaska Air or Horizon Air quite often, as well. Also, the Alaska Air Group Inc. is headquartered in Seattle. So why does The Seattle Times spend so little time informing its readers about the goings-on with this company that so many of us depend on?

In your July 24 online edition, you posted Alaska Air's quarterly report, written by Seattle Times staff ["Alaska Air plans job cuts, fare hikes," Times, Business]. Then, a link is provided to a news release from the company, which, as it turns out, was basically paraphrased in the main article.

Microsoft and Boeing aren't the only Northwest companies of which we need and want information. In fact, you could probably forgo one or two articles a month from the Microsoft beat to instead cover other Northwest companies, and we'd all be better informed. Please do some research, some interviews, some legwork. I look forward to reading more about Alaska Airlines in the future.

— Ted Wilson, Juneau, Alaska

Bridge tolls

A Vermont proverb

Regarding the $6.85 bridge toll ["Will $6 tolls drive people from bridge?," Times, page one, July 24], a Vermont proverb:

"You can shear a sheep many times, but you can skin him only once."

— Chuck Hastings, Federal Way

State spending

Gregoire's investments make fiscal sense

It's really no surprise that state spending increased by a large margin during Gov. Christine Gregoire's first term ["How state spending rose $8B under Gregoire," Times, page one, July 20]. And, despite the booming economy that permitted the budget increases, not all people in the state were prospering. In fact, Washingtonians at the low end of the economic ladder — those with incomes in the lowest fifth — suffered a drop of 4.2 percent in real income in the past decade.

So I give the governor high marks for her stand on covering all child health care by 2010. Many working families are at risk of becoming uninsured or underinsured as cost-of-living prices, like gas and food, continue to climb.

Gregoire's sensible investment in children's health will help buffer working families from financial strain from medical bills, lead to less time away from school and at work and save the state a bundle through fewer emergency-room visits and improved long-term health.

The cost of one hospitalization for a treatable condition like an ear infection costs the same as two year's worth of continuous coverage under Medicaid for a child.

No matter your political party, it is clear that this investment, which will extend health care to more than 80,000 children, makes good fiscal sense.

— Mark Secord, executive director of Neighborcare Health (formerly Puget Sound Neighborhood Health Centers), Seattle

Tent City 4 lawsuit

Show some compassion, Mercer Island

I was disappointed to learn that a group of Mercer Island residents is suing to prevent Tent City 4 from locating on the island ["Mercer Islanders fighting Tent City," Times, Local News, July 24]. While it is unlikely that any neighborhood would truly welcome the temporary tent city for homeless people, I would like to think that a community — our community — would be willing to show some compassion and do their part.

I can accept the fears and concerns. But I am greatly troubled by the willingness of some people to dismiss the worth and dignity of those less fortunate.

Mercer Island should host Tent City 4. Island residents may benefit, as well. It would be a firsthand reminder of just how fortunate we are.

— Wayne Gullstad, Mercer Island

Obama vs. McCain

German restaurant isn't Germany

Does the McCain campaign actually think Americans will equate Sen. John McCain's speech to a handful of supporters in a German restaurant with Sen. Barack Obama's speech to a crowd of 200,000 in Berlin ["Obama aims to win over the world," Times, page one, July 25]?

After all, our powers of discrimination are already pretty acute from trying to discern the slightest difference between McCain and President Bush. In fairness, however, history has shown us that if a person has enough charisma, the public will dispense altogether with such critical distinctions as, say, a Berliner versus a doughnut.

— Glenda Brown, Issaquah

Berlin crowd was nothing special

Obama "win[s] hearts abroad" — not quite. Here was nothing left to chance: Each summer, Berlin is bursting with tourists eager for something special; and with a high unemployment rate, six weeks of vacation per year and unlimited sick days, you can always rely on Germany to produce a crowd.

A more realistic picture: The vast majority of those polled nationwide by a leading German newspaper said the hype around Barack Obama is rather unnerving.

— Edda Kuhlmann, Bellevue

Berlin support may not be a good thing

What are we to make of Obama's immense popularity in Berlin, the capital of a people who have disastrously been misled by their leaders twice in the last hundred years at a great cost to us in

lives and fortune?

— James Keefer, San Francisco

Streetcar spill

Find a solution for dangerous rail grooves

The streetcar race should be the poster child forwhy something needs to be done about the dangerous rails of the S.L.U.T. ["Crash dims streetcar race fun," Times, Local News, July 25]. The problem of bike tires getting caught in the rails and causing serious injuries cannot be ignored.

Isn't there some sort of treatment the grooves could get to make them less grabby? Could the gaps be filled with a rubber compound that gives way to the steel wheels, yet prevents a bike tire from sinking in deep enough to stick? We live in a town full of brilliant engineers. Time for someone to invent a solution.

— Dave Edson, Bellevue

Light-rail proposal

PRT would give us more for our money

Let me see: $18 billion for 34 miles of track equals $530 million per mile [$18 billion question," Times, page one, July 25]! That seems just a tad more expensive than the monorail track that Mayor Greg Nickels concluded was "too expensive" and did everything in his power to scuttle.

Is anyone in the Washington State Department of Transportation or the mayor's office aware that there is a transportation system called PRT (Personal Rapid Transit) that is ready and waiting to be built? The company MegaRail Transportation Systems Inc. has a working prototype that can be built for about $11.25 million per mile. That is 1/47th the cost of what the Sound Transit monopoly and vampire Nickels is trying to suck out of us.

Just think, we could take that $18 billion and build 1,600 miles of track instead! This would easily overwhelm the light rail that has already been built. That should have some effect on traffic don't you think?

Oh, and MegaRail is projected to run at a profit, but we can't have that, can we?

— Jeremy Dunn, Everett

Radovan Karadzic

What about Cheney, the other evil?

Imagine my great surprise and profound disappointment when I started to read a guest columnist's article titled "Eyeball-to-eyeball with evil" [Times, guest commentary, July 25] and discovered that it was about the capture of Bosnia war criminal Radovan Karadzic. When I first saw the article's title, my thought was, "At last! Someone got an on-the-record interview with Vice President Dick Cheney!"

I guess I'll just have to wait awhile longer before our homegrown war criminal is forced to talk. Waterboarding anyone?

— Donald Suppner, Seattle