Letters to the editor

Editor,

California legislators have a Proposition 93 initiative on the February 2008 ballot for a term limit adjustment to extend their terms. We California voters, in 1990, voted for lawmakers to serve no more than six years in the assembly and eight years in the senate. We need to keep it that way.

The "wannabe” career politicians want special provisions that would grandfather in sitting legislators to give them extra time. They claim they need more time in office to learn a broad range of policy and become more effective. I claim that if they can’t enact legislation in the years they are in office, that they can’t do it at all.

I don’t blame them for wanting "to serve” longer terms. At or this past Dec. 4, Assembly members got a 2.75 percent pay raise (plus living and car allowances). California legislators are the highest paid in the nation. Every elected state official got raises — two got a 5 percent raise. In their times of huge deficits they keep looking out for themselves.

Don’t let Proposition 93 "pull the wool over your eyes.” Come Feb. 5. vote no on Proposition 93.

Walter Haag

Millbrae

Hydrants and fewer stops

Editor,

I have what I believe is part of the fix for the lack of parking spaces in San Francisco and a change that would improve the Muni System.

No longer prohibit parking in front of fire hydrants. I doubt parking in front of one would inhibit the SFFD from connecting to a hydrant and/or fighting a fire. If a driver is concerned about potential damage to their car — park elsewhere, i.e. "Park at your own risk.”

On standard size city blocks Muni stops should be, at a minimum, 2 blocks apart and in some cases 3. Four if it makes sense.

Implementing the above should not only improve Muni services but will provide an additional (500 - 1,000?) parking spaces.

Larry Hurley

Daly City

Perez-Gonzalez’s appropriate disposition: Deportation

Editor,

The police want help from the public to apprehend 28-year-old Jose Perez-Gonzalez, an undocumented resident, who is a suspect in nearly beating to death a 78-year-old woman last Saturday during a botched home burglary in Daly City ("Elderly woman brutalized” from the Jan. 18 edition of The Daily Journal). The suspect is well known to San Mateo County authorities due to his many previous felony arrests for assault and known illegal immigration status!

Our local law enforcement agencies "en mass” should be sued handsomely for their collective failure to turn Jose Perez-Gonzales over to immigration and customs enforcement for appropriate disposition – deportation. What more information do we need to know that his behavior indicates he is an immediate danger to other people’s lives and property?

Does the public really believe our law enforcement agencies are really concerned about illegal immigration? Do our law enforcement agencies feel bad for setting up an elderly victim, who may not have been a victim, if they had discharged their duty to remove him from our communities? How can our "Sanctuary Cities” and "Look the other way Cities” hold their heads high when our laws are snubbed by our politicians? Is there any sympathy for the victim by employers who have created a cheap labor pool to exploit illegal immigrants?

It is time for our politicians and law enforcement to reaffirm their oaths of office and direct the enforcement of our immigration laws. It is time to fine employers for hiring undocumented immigrants. It is time to remove the "Sanctuary City” status across the nation including Redwood City. It is time to deport all illegal immigrants en mass and set up a guest workers program leading to citizenship.

Jack Kirkpatrick

Redwood City

Middle East plan is deja vu

Editor,

George Bush’s plane got back from the Middle East a lot faster than it took going over. After all, he left 30 billion U.S. dollars on the runway in Tel Aviv. That’s about $4,285 for every Israeli. What did he get for that sum? The right to lay out a reasonable plan for the end game. Not that the plan was breaking any new ground, the Arab States made pretty much the same offer in 2002 and the Geneva Accords of 2003 (please Google) hammered out by moderate Palestinians and Israelis got it down to individual streets and neighborhoods as to who got what. What about the claim that it’s always the Israelis and not the Arabs who have to make concessions? Well to get that into perspective we’d have to use that 30 billion to install some Palestinian settlements and outposts overlooking Israeli cities and then join them with some Palestinian only roads and then declare them "insecure.” We’d then have to arm 18-year-old Palestinian kids and have them on that road stopping Israelis wanting to pass, and keep them waiting in long lines in the bad weather while "checking” their belongings and their papers. Get it?

Mike Caggiano

San Mateo

Lantos is not the locals’ man

Editor,

There is some talk that we ought to name the tunnel at Devil’s Slide the Tom Lantos Tunnel. No. Tom Lantos has not been a good representative for the people of this district. We are glad that he is retiring and hope to be able to replace him with someone that is not such a war monger. A year ago, San Mateo County voted in a measure in favor of cutting the military budget and redirecting these funds to our badly needed domestic programs — like education, transportation, health care, environmental clean up and creating a new sustainable energy system. Hopefully our new rep will not vote as Mr. Lantos did — yes for funding endless wars with the billions of tax dollars we send yearly to the state of Israel. It would be good to have a representative who has the concerns of the citizens of District 12 as a first priority.

I’m sure they are building a new housing development in Israel (on Palestinian land) funded by the United States. This settlement of Jewish people would be proud to have their settlement named after their favorite congressional representative, Mr. Tom Lantos.

Patricia Gray

Burlingame