Online-only letters

A satirical setting

Greek-style stage décor

not a reason to panic

The latest scandal from the Democratic National Convention seems to be that Sen. Barack Obama is going to give his acceptance speech on a stage set resembling an ancient Greek temple. Uh-oh, he's half-black, born in Hawaii and now he thinks he's a Greek god!

Excuse me, but exactly when did America become this stupid?

Obama is speaking on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King's famous "I Have A Dream" speech. It was delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, whose design is a takeoff on the Parthenon. Obama's stage is meant to evoke that setting.

Now that the Republicans and the fellow-traveling media are on a crusade against Greek Revival architecture, we're going to have to do something about our currency and our public buildings, including the U.S. Capitol, the Washington Monument, the Jefferson Memorial, the Treasury building, and, of course, the subversive Lincoln Memorial.

Quick! Someone call Bill O'Reilly!

— Charles Pluckhahn, Seattle

Public payment

Why are taxpayers footing

the bill for McIver's fines?

I thought the City Council was representing the people of Seattle and that its members were city employees.

Councilmember Richard McIver has abused this trust on so many fronts. He was in court for allegedly beating his wife, he was cited for ethics violations and now he is using the taxpayers' money to pay for these violations? What a great leader and a role model!

Does he think he is better than other city employees?

Anyone else would have been punished for this and hopefully fired. Why is he still employed, representing and making decisions on behalf of the people of Seattle?

— Farokh Talebi, Kirkland

A matter of medical marijuana

Legitimate, authorized users

should face fewer restrictions

Reporter Jack Broom's article on Monday's Washington state Department of Health hearing on the second, more conservative proposal for defining a 60-day supply of medical marijuana was fair and gave good information ["More comment time on medical pot limit," Local News, Aug. 26].

But a couple of items the reporter didn't mention seem worth noting: One is that not one individual — of the 50-plus mentioned as providing testimony — spoke in favor of the far-tighter restrictions on supply. My interpretation is that the folks who put together the fear-based proposal (as opposed to the science-based one) feel no need to face those whom it would adversely affect — largely very sick people. They also do not like facing citizens asserting the simple fact that the only thing making marijuana dangerous is the war on drugs.

The other item is that the impression was given that Washington state citizens are only being harassed for their legitimate — authorized by a physician — use of medical marijuana by federal agents. This is not true.

In many places in our state, people are losing their medicine, their ability to grow their medicine, and often their jobs and homes due to rogue municipal, county and state officials who will not curb their zeal for the war on drugs.

A last point is the need for the Department of Health to get to work immediately on standards for dispensaries. Unless and until the governor can actually control law enforcement in this state, we will have to provide this stunningly cheap, effective, benign herbal remedy through some method other than patients growing their own. Pot plants take an awful lot of care for a sick person.

The state should simply grow, regulate and tax it, to help keep it out of the hands of children. If people really understood that it is literally not possible to overdose on marijuana, that it has been a part of the medicines of the world's peoples for many thousands of years and that it would give us a fabulous mechanism to fund education and health care, I think most would agree with me.

— Carla Cole, Seattle

Change we can't believe in

Republicans ultimately at fault

for Iraq war and domestic woes

As the smears from the right pick up speed, I hope voters will remember why the issue of "change" must not be forgotten. Just remember the past eight years. If that isn't enough, and when you hear the blame for the damage done during this time shifted to the Democrats, remember this: For the past two years, Republicans in the Senate have blocked progress on all the big issues. This year, they even set a record for the most filibusters.

And we must never forget that disaster we call the war in Iraq. By the way, today we learned that President Bush wanted to keep troops in Iraq until 2015. The Iraqi government said 2010. They finally agreed on 2011. The press will, of course, give Bush a free pass on his desires to continue the occupation.

Heaven forbid we should actually hear about why we shouldn't be there.

— David McKenzie, Federal Way

Now for some serious monkey business

Creation of Cle Elem chimpanzee

shelter just the first step

I am thrilled for chimpanzees Burrito, Jamie, Jody, Foxie, Annie, Missy and Negra, also known as the "Cle Elum Seven," because they get to live out the rest of their lives in a sanctuary after decades in labs ["A life beyond the lab cages," Local News, Aug. 25). Unfortunately, approximately 1,200 chimpanzees remain in laboratories today in the United States, the only country to continue the large-scale use of chimpanzees for invasive research.

However, there is hope for those chimpanzees still waiting for their turn. This year, the Great Ape Protection Act was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by a bipartisan team of lawmakers lead by Reps. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., Dave Reichert, R-Wash., James R. Langevin, D-R.I., and Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md.

This federal legislation phases out the use of chimpanzees in research and retires those chimpanzees owned by the government to sanctuaries. We encourage the other members of Washington state's delegation to join Rep. Reichert, and urge readers to contact their federal representative, to ask for cosponsorship of this critical legislation to get chimpanzees out of labs and into the sanctuaries they deserve.

— Kathleen Conlee, director of program management, animal-research issues, the Humane Society of the United States, Washington, D.C.