MAILBAG:

I read with great amusement, in the Sept. 18 Mailbag, the public hanging of Congressman Dana Rohrabacher.

The same old whiners are complaining about the congressman’s behavior. The truth is that they are mad as Hades that he is indeed in office and that we the people like him so much that we keep reelecting him.

As far as I am concerned the primary responsibility of any office holder is to keep us safe, safe from each other and, in these times, safe from the terrorists who have sworn to kill us and end our way of life.

In my view, Rohrabacher does an excellent job at both, and that’s why we’ll send him back to Washington, much to the consternation of his persistent detractors.

Bill Borden

Huntington Beach

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following three letters are in response to “Calling attention to Obama’s hypocrisy,” Sept. 25.

Stick to the subject when examining Obama

I am not sure what Patricia Mattson was going for in her essay comparing the Bush administration’s failed policies in Iraq and Afghanistan with Barack Obama’s position on the issue of legal abortion. The nefarious, deceitful and unconstitutional actions taken by Bush and his cronies leading up to and since his declaration of war have nothing to do with a woman’s right to choose. I suggest that next time Mattson compare apples with apples and oranges with oranges. In other words, if she just wants to expound on her opposition to free choice then stick to the subject and don’t try to confuse readers with other hot-button issues.

Charlotte Costello

Fountain Valley

Anti-Obama letter was illogical and dishonest

I was perhaps as floored to read Patricia Mattson’s Sounding Off article as any I have ever read in the Independent. I have heard of one-issue voters before, and one-issue candidates, but I have never seen someone try to use one issue to characterize a candidate’s positions on entirely different concerns. How bizarre, irresponsible, illogical, intellectually dishonest, malicious and perverted! If this is the depth of what the opposition to Sen. Obama’s campaign will sink to, then I will be doubly glad when he is elected in November.

Tim Geddes

Huntington Beach

More serious problems at hand than pro-life debate

According to Patricia Mattson, Obama’s positions on all matters both foreign and domestic are wrong because he is pro-choice, and this issue trumps everything else.

When are these right-wing radical anti-abortionists going to learn that right now our country has more serious problems both at home and abroad than the debate between pro-choice and pro-life?

Stan Helfman

Huntington Beach

Observe World Farm Animals Day

Will 2008 mark the beginning of the end for the U.S. meat industry?

The escalating costs of corn and soybeans caused by harvest shortfalls, rising global demand, and government-mandated ethanol production are forcing widespread cutbacks in the number of animals raised for food. So does the current credit crunch.

A recent report by the prestigious Pew Charitable Trusts recommends a phase-out of intensive confinement, which would force additional cutbacks.

For the animals and caring consumers, such cuts are long overdue.

The 10 billion animals killed for food in the U.S. each year have no life before death. From birth, they are caged and crowded, deprived and drugged, manhandled and mutilated.

At the slaughterhouse, they may be scalded, bled, skinned and dismembered, while still conscious.

Although 93% of consumers condemn such abuses, no state or federal law prevents them.

Recent undercover investigations by humane organizations have documented egregious animal cruelty at California and Iowa slaughterhouses. The resulting media coverage has led consumers to examine their own role in subsidizing extreme animal cruelty with their shrinking food dollar.

This is why, on or close to today (Gandhi’s birthday), 400 communities in all 50 states and two dozen other countries observe World Farm Animals Day with public education events (see www.WFAD.org).

The purpose is to expose and memorialize the cruel treatment of animals raised for food and to promote an animal-free diet.

It’s a great opportunity for each of us to reject cruelty and to embrace a healthful, cost-saving plant-based diet.

Henry Redfield