The PG seems desperate to justify Obama's 'flip'

The stunning incoherence of the Post-Gazette editorial page was on display in the June 24 editorial response to Sen. Barack Obama's opt-out of public financing ("Money in Politics: Obama's Choice Underscores a Broken System"). Spinning like a top, the PG calls the decision "something of a flip-flop" and "at odds with the ethical high road" of Mr. Obama's campaign. Who are you kidding? Sen. Obama sees a big payday by opting out. Why should he let a little thing like past commitment to the campaign finance system get in the way?

Torn between running interference for Mr. Obama and apologizing for him, the PG then lashes out at ... President Bush? The PG further suggests, without evidence, that Mr. Bush's big presidential campaign donors are somehow criminals -- "rustlers," in your words. What are we to conclude? Ah, yes, that evil Bush made Obama do it! Can this really be your response?

The fact is, having endorsed Sen. Obama and his hope-in-change message in the Democratic primary, the PG is beginning to recognize that Mr. Obama is a talented but unprincipled opportunist. Perhaps he's not the man you thought you knew, to paraphrase one of the senator's most frequent quotes about past associations he now finds embarrassing.

Suffering buyer's remorse is understandable. Is it necessary to make PG readers suffer through your incoherent rantings, too?

DOUGLAS POWELL
Robinson

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Illogical drilling

Hats off to the Post-Gazette for seeing through the push by President Bush and John McCain to promote offshore oil drilling ("Feeding an Addiction" June 19).

Aside from the obvious environmental threats posed by drilling for oil in the waters off America's coasts, this proposal doesn't even add up from an economic perspective. Even President Bush's own Energy Information Administration says drilling in currently protected offshore areas would not significantly affect domestic oil production until 2030 and the impact on pump prices would be "insignificant."

Instead of threatening pristine coastal areas and continuing our reliance on polluting energy sources, the United States needs to produce cars that go farther on a gallon of gas, invest more in public transportation and alternatives to driving, and develop clean, renewable energy sources. These policies will lower energy costs, reduce dependence on foreign oil and make necessary cuts in global warming pollution.

NATHAN WILLCOX
Energy and Clean Air Advocate
PennEnvironment
Philadelphia

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Enviro-impatient

So now the tree-huggers are of the unanimous opinion that offshore drilling cannot make a difference in the price of gas because it takes 10 years to come to fruition. I'd like to know how they came up with that figure (unless they plan on protesting for that length of time?), and should scientists abandon searching for cures for diseases because people are going to die anyway?

TIMOTHY BRIDGEMAN
Robinson

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Use-tax solution

A series of letters in the PG seems to mirror an ongoing national debate. In response to Jim Welch's letter "The Way to More Oil" (June 12), Anthony Biondi's letter "Oil Restrictions" (June 17) and Scott Fingal's letter "Quick Fixes Are Not the Answer to High Gas Prices" (June 18), I must propose the following solution to the energy dilemma.

A use-tax, levied against those elements of society that include negative externalities, reduces demand for those elements, thus reducing their impact. Negative externalities for carbon-based energy, such as global warming and dependence on global petro-politics, are not entirely reflected in the "price-at-the-pump," and so should be included as a use-tax.

To make this use-tax politically viable and socially just, reduce income taxes to offset government revenues and encourage economic growth. A sliding scale would negate the impact on the poor.

As a nation and planet, we must develop energy generation strategies that lack harmful by-products. Our sun shines more energy onto Earth every day than humans consume in a year -- it is an exploitable resource. We must invest in solar/renewable energy now, funded by use-tax revenues. For the short-term goals of economic stability, we must have plentiful energy, and so we should open domestic energy reserves conditional upon the use-tax.

We can meet short-term goals of secure energy supplies and long-term goals of an economy based on solar/renewable energy. Goals on both time scales must be part of the same plan and must foster the same result. Can the U.S. citizen, politician and businessman come to an effective consensus?

CHAD ELLIS
Highland Park

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Cruelty toward a cub

I'm responding to the June 21 article "Police Call Shooting a Bear Necessity; Townfolk Growl." I'm an ex-hunter, and I'm very familiar with black bear behavior. They are extremely timid and are easily intimidated. I've seen little cats and poodles chase an adult black bear up a tree. If left alone, the black bear will climb down and run away. Black bears are not aggressive and will run away like a frightened dog if confronted. At most, this bear cub should have been humanely tranquilized, captured and released.

These townspeople were not animal rights activists, but local residents, including hunters. They were upset, because they were witnessing the senseless killing and animal cruelty of a defenseless bear cub, who was trying to run away. No ethical person can watch senseless cruelty without objecting.

Once again, this demonstrates the lack of sound judgment by the Pennsylvania Game Commission. Jerry Feaser of the PGC pointed out that Pennsylvania has plenty of bears. He doesn't even get it! These are the guys who are supposed to protect and manage our wildlife and they obviously have no regard for their lives. They view wildlife as just a cash crop for their monthly paycheck.

There are animal cruelty laws in this state. If these officers had shot a harmless dog like this, they would have been charged with animal cruelty. It seems obviously unjust that a harmless bear cub isn't afforded the same protection.

GEORGE NAGLE
Greentree

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Our achievements

I would like to invite Alan Shuckrow ("Gas Prices Won't Drive Suburbanites to the City," June 12 letters) to visit my safe and beautiful city neighborhood and the high-achieving Pittsburgh public school where my children attend.

Reflecting the dedication and effort of faculty, administration and parents, Pittsburgh Allderdice High School students won the following competitions this year: Junior Engineering and Technical Society (second place in the nation), Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science (four statewide first-place winners), American Chemical Society test (first-place student statewide), Senior High Math League (second-, 15th- and 17th-ranked students out of 353), Science Olympiad (first place regionally), Computational Linguistics (first- and second-ranked students in Pennsylvania), Slippery Rock World Language Competition (first place overall), National Merit Scholarship Corp. (20 students recognized) and Pennsylvania School Press Association (eight gold medals).

Allderdice students are also Academic All-American athletes and winners of regional contests in creative writing, civics, community service, photography, choral music, entrepreneurship, fencing, environmental science and more. Pittsburgh Allderdice has more students admitted to highly selective colleges than any other high school in the region.

I know that other Pittsburgh public schools also can boast notable achievements and feel extremely fortunate and grateful to live in the city where I can save money on gas, live in a safe neighborhood and obtain a quality education for my children.

ROSANNE LEVINE
Squirrel Hill

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Data erasure undermines records safety

Recent developments in the Democratic Caucus "Bonusgate" scandal have displayed an additional underlying issue which will, and has, compromised integrity, safety and efficiency of our state government. By this, I am speaking about computer backups.

The June 22 Post-Gazette article "Veon Data Files Erased" said a shared network directory that contained a wealth of information that could have implicated former House Minority Whip Mike Veon and the Democratic Caucus was deleted around the time that a lawsuit was filed for investigation into illegal bonus payments to staffers. As shocking as this may be, the truly scary phrase was "triggering an unsuccessful in-house attempt to restore the data." This means there were apparently no backups of some government information. If this is true, Pennsylvania is one crashed computer away from losing untold amounts of information.

Common practice is to keep archival tapes so that it is possible to restore data from several time periods as well as to be protected from losing all data if a tape is bad. Also, it's standard to test backup routines to make sure the tapes are viable. It is unconscionable that no data was able to be restored.

The concern we should all still have is whether policy and practices are in place to prevent anything like this -- intentional or accidental -- from happening again. Government should take this opportunity to disclose its disaster recovery procedures so we can rest assured for the future.

ADAM LANG
Philadelphia

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