Smells like partisanship

Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen's actions regarding the state Government Accountability Board reek of slimy partisanship. If he is interested in moving up in the national Republican Party, he needs to find a better way to do it.

Shame on you, Van Hollen.

-- Erin Ebersole, Sun Prairie

In their nomination acceptance speeches, neither Barack Obama nor John McCain proposed that we step back from the impending collapse of the federal budget under the weight of $50 trillion of long-term fiscal exposures and benefit entitlements. Neither candidate described any effort to contain the cost of health care or military spending. Neither candidate proposed to address global warning in concert with other nations.

Neither candidate said one word about energy conservation. Neither candidate expressed any regret or worry about disappearing polar ice. Neither candidate acknowledged future generations will suffer from our reduction of energy and natural resources.

The candidates were silent on these topics because the majority of voters refuse to recognize any limit or constraint on their short-sighted lifestyle. Instead, they demand tax cuts funded from borrowed money. And McCain and Obama both approve that message.

-- Bruce Beck, Madison

Palin an extremist

Sarah Palin may be a newcomer to the national scene, but her views reflect the same strident, negative right-wing rhetoric of the past.

In a time when our country needs leaders who can work together on multiple crises here and abroad, Palin offers extremism and name-calling instead of a serious look at the issues.

She is against embryonic stem cell research and abortion even in cases of rape and incest. She has ties to big oil, denies human impact on global warming, and has absolutely no national security experience. All concerned citizens need to investigate this candidate's record before casting a vote for such an extreme and divisive candidate.

-- Kelly Terrab, Madison

McCain's no governor either, Gov. Palin

Sarah Palin has mentioned multiple times that Obama and Biden have less experience as senators than she does as a governor. Why is she missing the point that McCain is also a senator?

-- Judy Zabriskie, Monona

What happened to UW's core mission?

I didn't like UWMadison Business School dean Michael Knetter's statements about how the UW doesn't charge enough tuition given its quality. He said "we are giving it away."

Our university is not a private sector product auctioned by price in the marketplace. It is a public good made possible by public investment for well over a century. Its world class status belongs to the people of Wisconsin, and affordable access for residents is an option they own.

Maybe we do need to increase revenues for UW, but it would be invigorating to hear its leadership hawking paths to fiscal reconciliation that go beyond the simple notion that first and foremost we have to charge more and pay higher salaries.

The usual comparisons to other universities are self-fulfilling prophecies in perpetuity. Besides, since when is it our goal to be Michigan, Indiana or Illinois?

As an alumni of the business school, and as a parent of two college students (that's $36,000 per year), I'm embarrassed that Knetter demonstrates something very close to disdain for the core mission of our university.

-- Gene Becker, Madison

Where's the equality in accommodations?

I read in the Wisconsin State Journal that Muslim workers at a Gold n' Plump processing plant will be given special prayer breaks and won't have to touch pork products because of their religion -- all worked out by the federal Equal Employment Opportunities Commission.

Will this same commission now work out a similar agreement for pharmacists who believe it against their faith to issue abortion-inducing drugs? We've already seen the answer. So much for "equal" accommodation.

-- Rich Kuckkahn, Sun Prairie

'Fake money' is root of financial woes

The Sept. 11 State Journal editorial, "Downsize failed mortgage giants" misses the point. Yes, they got too big, which always makes a bad thing worse. But the real point is that they shouldn't exist at all.

The Fannie and Freddie GSEs were to help more people buy homes by providing below free-market rates. What they predictably did was foster excesses in homes sizes and costs, plus corruption in Washington (as with all money pots).

It is a classic house of cards, created by the D.C. vote-for-me gang. This scheme could not have been funded without the fake money called the U.S. dollar, created "as needed" by the Federal Reserve.

On the facing page of the same edition of the State Journal, a guest column by A. Helen Davidson suffers from the same lack of awareness about the role of fake money.

The "prosperity" she refers to is also fake, because it is the "high" created by gobs of fake money in our financial system. This is the same as a heroin high, and includes the pain of withdrawal called Wall Street failures, and eventually a depression.

-- Dave Redick, Madison

If Bush hadn't been made president

A recent letter to the editor asked "What if it was Gore or Kerry?"

Had George Bush not been appointed president by the Supreme Court in 2000, I can confidently say that there would have been no war in Iraq. Many of the 4,000-plus lives would not have been lost, thousands more disabled for life.

Millions of Iraqi families would not have been touched with their own losses, and we would not be trillions of dollars in debt.

Had there been a President Gore instead of Bush, more attention would have been placed on our dying planet, the staff and cabinet members of the president would have actually known what their positions entailed. FEMA would have had a director who could engineer a crisis of the magnitude of the Katrina tragedy, and a Justice Department that would not have been taken over by right-wing neo-cons.

Real strides would have been taken to get a handle on the health care mess, and oversight and accountability would not have been taken away from our financial markets.

There definitely would not have been the huge tax breaks to the corporations and wealthiest of our country. Diplomacy would have been front and center instead of bullying, threatening and bombing.

The writer of that letter gives "Bush a passing grade." I find that the grade "F" isn't low enough.

-- Judy Brownrigg, Lodi,