Response to, “The Indy’s Guide to the Primaries,” Feb. 4:

I am very disturbed by the economic advisor of Barack Obama being from the Chicago School of Economics and a “Shock Doctrine” follower as described by Naomi Klein. Hillary Clinton’s economic advisor, Gene Sperling, has a law degree. I don’t know who is more apt to give away more of the economy to corporations. I would have voted for Dennis Kucinich, but he is out of the race. This is another depressing election in futility.
—Gail Pean

Response to “NYPD Shills Terror Bill,” Feb. 4:

I suggest the answer is five time zones away in the once tropical paradise of Hawaii. There are now 161 military bases in Hawaii and hundreds of abandoned and leaking military toxic waste sites. Hawai’i is dependent of the military and the seven million tourists who visit the Island each year for a cash economy. In 2007, citizens and native Hawaiian Islanders discovered alarming radiation spikes blowing in the wind from the Pohakuloa Live Fire Range. Citizens radiation monitor spikes were taken very seriously by the Army and the Pentagon. They immediately denied that any uranium weapons were ever used in Hawai’i, despite the clear evidence in front of their lying eyes. The Army Brass used the same bogus arguments the NYPD did a few months later about this bill before the City government requested by Mayor Bloomberg and the so-called [U.S. Department of] Homeland Security bureaucracy. Tell them to put their proposed fascist law where the sun does not shine New York City.
—Bob Nichols, Project Censored Award Winner Correspondent, San Francisco Bay View newspaper

Response to “Don’t Just Vote, Take Action!” Feb. 4:

I find this anti-public education stance by this progressive newspaper problematic. What The Indypendent should be advocating is greater funding for public education. This statement, in a sense, advocates for abandoning public education — and in its place supports the ultra-flakey alternative free school.

I think it is great that this paper supports education reform groups, but with your rhetoric of “breaking the stranglehold of our youth” it is to the right of Republican idol, former Gov. George Pataki. Pataki’s Commission on Education Reform advocated for a $4 billion a year increase in New York City public school funding.
—NEA

Response to “Return of the Winter Soldier: Iraq Vets Prepare Atrocity Testimony,” Feb 4:

… What all the vets need to know is this, it’s the leadership that is dishonorable for leading America’s young men and women into this horrific debacle, which has absolutely nothing to do with defending America, and everything to do with maintaining the power and influence of certain people and corporations. Don’t let yourselves be duped into defending these criminal monsters, if it is honor you are concerned about, stand up to defend the U.S. Constitution and the U.N. Charter, which so many died to protect and uphold in WWI and WWII, that’s honorable. Put the war criminals on trial, Winter Veterans 2008, the world supports you! —Stephan Larose