Letters are posted as we receive them during the week, and before they are printed in the paper, so check back frequently to see new letters. If you'd like to send a letter to the editor, use this postmarks submission form, or email your letter directly to mail@austinchronicle.com. Thanks for your patience.

Dear Editor,
    I checked in on Harvey Pekar, from time to time, for 30 years or more ["Harvey Pekar and Bob Swain: In Memorium," the Arts, July 16]. Everything I've seen indicated that he was graceless, irritating, and narcissistic; either he married a woman just like him or trained her to be so; and he wrote about subjects in which I have no interest. Much of America doesn't seem to feel that way. More power to them, but I don't get it.

Dear Louis,
    My compliments on last week’s “Page Two” [July 9]. The previous week [“Page Two," July 2], you’d piqued my interest by mentioning the importance of often unrecognized supporters of music scenes, so I was amped to see that you spent the next week elaborating on that idea.
    Though I’m from a younger generation, your notions resonate with me. Regardless of age, we’re at the shows for reasons that are both personally selfish and socially unselfish, but above all it’s because we love it and don’t know any other way to find the grail. I’ll try to remember this the next time I’m suspiciously eyeing the creepy old guy at an otherwise youthful show.
    Great column. Great lyric choices. It all reminded me of my favorite writer, the late, great Lester Bangs. Keep up the stellar work.

Dear Editor:
    The people of Texas have been publicly warned today that we have an ethically compromised judge on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals who did not accord a person about to be executed with access to open courts or the right to be heard according to law, yet she has been allowed to keep her job. Sharon Keller's actions were not in accordance with the accepted principles of right and wrong that govern the conduct of her profession as a judge. This is the worst-case scenario for Texas, because now we know that the problems in the Texas death penalty system reach to Texas' highest ranking criminal appeals court, and yet the judge who closed the doors to justice remains on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
    A public warning is useful, but it is not enough. Keller should be removed from office. The public warning tells us that if you seek justice in Texas, proceed with caution because Keller is the presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
    The Texas Legislature can help restore integrity to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals by impeaching and removing Keller from office. We now have the findings of fact from the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, so it is confirmed that Keller has brought discredit to the Texas judiciary by her misconduct hindering access to justice. It is up to the people of Texas now to take the findings of fact and act on them by seeking to remove Keller from office through their elected representatives using the impeachment process or at the ballot box in 2012, when she is up for re-election. Since Keller is not up for re-election for another two years, it is in the best interest of justice that the Legislature removes her from office.

   [Editor's note: See this week's update by Jordan Smith, "SCJC to Keller: Consider Yourself Warned," News.]

Dear Editor,
    I would like to thank the Chronicle for the continuing stories that you do on the heart and soul of our local community. I remain convinced that Austin has a special place in our coming future, a positive future which has yet to be discovered through the present chaos. An example of the current chaos is Katherine Gregor’s stories on what passes for planning in Austin [“Best-Laid Plans,” “Sustainable Planning,” “Plans in Play,” News, July 16], i.e., that we have too many chiefs and not enough people. Compare this to Gregor’s stories from work I did a few years ago [“Developing Stories: Neighbor Power,” News, May 18, 2007]. The fact of the matter is that of the eight governmental agencies that are referenced in Ms. Gregor’s stories in the July 16 issue, Austin Community College is the only planning effort that is grounded in the community with it’s Campus Advisory Committees (see www.austincc.edu/cac). This present effort at ACC’s Facilities Master Plan should come in on time and under budget. This master plan, the first in ACC’s history that is regional in its scope, is scheduled to come to the Austin Community College board of trustees at the end of this year. I believe and hope that it will provide ACC with multiple layers of opportunities for the community college to be just that, a community resource for all of us to utilize in the coming economic challenges. I believe that ACC will be in the forefront of developing our new and better local economy. Won’t that be interesting to see?

Dear Louis:
    [Re: "All Shades of Black," Screens, July 9] May I recommend a film noir? The most unconventional of them, of course. It’s recent, in color, has music, and is a comedy – a very dark one. It’s also the best-looking movie that I’ve seen in five years of Alamo-going. The DVD commentary is about its cinematic artistry. It’s extremely misunderstood by critics – don’t read reviews before seeing it. Okay, one review: “Death to Smoochy is often very funny, but what’s even more remarkable is the integrity of [Danny] DeVito’s misanthropic vision.” Probably the most original movie, it’s not designed for the general public. Grandmothers fled the Alamo. It’s not a feel-good Barney thing. Lots of adult language, situations, and violence.
    Here’s what qualifies it as noir: a protagonist espousing leftist ideals, as 1950s noir protagonists often did; an antagonist in a caper for the money, as 1940s noir characters often were; each is pulled into a world beyond his control, spiraling into desperation and violence; detective themes; character development, not technology, drives excitement; extraordinary scene composition with long dolly shots, scenes in one take, Chiaroscuro lighting, shadows and lines reflecting characters’ fragmentation, many night shots, and the city as a character; plenty of fast-paced dialogue as (especially) Warner Bros. used in noir films; much backward and forward movement within scenes.
    Robin Williams, Jon Stewart, Edward Norton, Catherine Keener, and Danny DeVito were never better. Williams authored a good bit of his dialogue and all of his crazed tap dances. His decline from a corrupt, defrocked daytime children’s TV star into a paranoid lunatic is his masterwork. Stewart as corrupt accomplice, wonderful. Norton’s (own) hopeful anthems sung to methadone clinic junkies, then songs about all-natural cookies, soy dogs, and when to call 911 on stepfathers, plus his operatic ice show, are all tremendous. Same for Pam Ferris, the Irish mob boss against “the roughest of all charities,” the Parade of Hope. Harvey Fierstein, ultimate mob/charity boss – wow. Overall: highest recommendation.

P.S. p.s. Best noir classics votes: first place (tie): Pickup on South Street, Panic in the Streets. Second place: There is none. That’s how we know first. Third place: The Damned Don’t Cry.

Dear Editor,
    I appreciate the Chronicle including my letter [“Postmarks,” July 16] detailing how Texas taxpayers might well be on the hook for Formula One’s $25 million “sanctioning fee.” I also appreciate Richard Whittaker’s printed reply that this issue only merited coverage in a sidebar to his main story [“Austin at Very High Speed,” News, July 9]. Yet there’s another matter that got no coverage: According to the June 11 Statesman online edition, Gov. Rick Perry’s office has turned down an open-records request for any “documents, correspondence and communications to and from the governor’s office related to the behind-the-scenes discussions to bring the race to Texas.” Comptroller Susan Combs, widely credited as the driving force behind the state’s support, has denied the same open-records request, as has Austin Sen. Kirk Watson, who in the last legislative session quietly added Formula One to the list of events eligible for taxpayer dollars from the state’s Major Events Trust Fund. I don’t know; maybe this coordinated effort to avoid transparency passes the smell test of your intrepid reporter. To me, however, it stinks.

   [Editor's response: Editorially we use sidebars to highlight an aspect of a story that deserves special focus and in-depth coverage. They are certainly not used in an effort to de-emphasize part of a story.]

Dear Editor,
    Thank you for the excellent article by Katherine Gregor on the need for coordinated regional planning [“Best-Laid Plans,” News, July 16]. One topic that was not addressed is the potential role for the state in facilitating coordination. For example, although the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization can develop a plan that calls for clusters of development, it has no authority to require local jurisdictions to comply. Much of the coordination depends on good will among jurisdictions, and there need to be more requirements and incentives for cities to implement measures that promote a more sustainable future. In addition, state restrictions on the ability of counties to collect gas taxes and vehicle registration fees for transportation projects limit funding options for implementing regional transportation plans. The Texas Department of Transportation could help to facilitate regional plans if it was not so singly focused on roads, and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality could play a real role in coordinating efforts that impact the environment (such as the two water treatment plants mentioned in the article and measures to reduce greenhouse gases) if it were a functioning agency instead of one that must be browbeat by the Environmental Protection Agency to do its job. Texas is far behind some other states in this regard, and the divide will continue to grow because of the lack of anything other than feeble efforts from the state Legislature and nothing at all from the Governor’s Office. Our ability to have coordinated long-term planning and development affects our ability to grow sustainably, which will increasingly affect the competitiveness of the region.

Dear Editor,
    I’m a little dismayed that a group of criminals can go on a weeks-long crack cocaine and alcohol fueled binge [“Sanders Family to Settle With City?,” News, July 16] and that same group can drive through apartment complexes in East Austin discharging firearms (we are very fortunate they didn’t kill an innocent bystander). Then, later, when one of the cocaine-fueled criminals is killed by an Austin Police Department officer while reaching for a gun, the city of Austin is considering giving his family a huge cash settlement to be paid for with tax dollars belonging to all of Austin’s citizens?
    This just doesn’t make sense. If anything, the city should be suing the families of those cocaine-fueled criminals for putting the families of East Austin at risk. I can’t help but wonder why we would reward bad behavior? And before you make the assumption that I don’t understand all of this, you should know my 22-year-old nephew was murdered by the Irving Police Department several years ago. The circumstances were nothing like this. Jeremy put no innocent bystanders at risk. He was killed in custody inside the Irving city jail.
    There’s a saying that goes around the streets, and it’s repeated in the rap music of today: “Ya wanna be a gangsta? Then get ready to die like a gangsta!” Rewarding someone’s family for their adult child living like a gangsta is setting a very bad precedent.
    Please don’t set a precedent of rewarding bad behavior with my tax dollars.

Dear Editor,
    Based on News items I've read in the Chronicle the past two weeks, I expected the MetroRail train to be empty when I rode it Downtown from Highland Station this morning (Friday). I was shocked when the train that pulled into the station was almost full. Every pair of seats on the train had either one or two riders. The photo of a totally empty train that you chose to run on July 16 was very misleading [“MetroRail in Search of Riders,” News]. You also did not mention what I heard on the radio – ridership was actually up in June compared with May. Please be more accurate and objective when choosing photos to accompany News stories.

   [Chronicle Capital Metro reporter Lee Nichols responds: A single train ride does not give a full portrayal of MetroRail's overall ridership. I could just as easily point to a couple of trips I took Downtown this summer on nearly deserted trains. I did not mention June ridership numbers in the July 16 article because, at the time I wrote it, those numbers had not been made public. June ridership was 837 boardings per day, up slightly from May's 775. Nonetheless, it does not invalidate my main point: Ridership is still less than half what Capital Metro predicted the Red Line would have by now.]

Dear Editor,
    Thank you Austin Chronicle and Stephen McMillan Moser for remembering Bob Swain [“After a Fashion” and “Harvey Pekar and Bob Swain: In Memoriam,” the Arts, July 16]. He was a great hero for arts in Texas back in the day, and though I acted with him for just a year at First Repertory Company in San Antonio, the struggle that Bob epitomized lives on. Que viva!

Dear Editor,
    One million dollars looks like this: $1,000,000 (six zeros). For 1 billion, multiply by 100 (nine zeros). For 1 trillion, multiply again by 100 (12 zeros). To date, the Iraq war has cost $1,700,000,000,000. The final tally, years ahead, is estimated at 3 trillion-plus U.S. citizens' taxpayer dollars.
    Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and the Pentagon assured us that these costs would be offset by Iraq oil revenues. Does anyone know how much the U.S. has gotten back from Iraq oil revenues? Are Exxon Mobil, BP, and the other oil companies working hard to bring Iraq oil profits back to U.S. taxpayers?
    Do corporations do that kind of thing? Hypothetically, how would the U.S. economy and budget look today if Congress had refused to authorize Bush’s Iraq war? Count the zeros!

Dear Editor,
    Just a knowing comment about an error in one of your articles – a review of the new Blaze Foley album [“Texas Platters,” Music, July 16]. The statement that is incorrect is that Lyle Lovett came to Blaze's fold posthumously. True that Lyle did not record a Foley song until after his death, but “Big Cheeseburgers & Good French Fries” and “Election Day” were part of Lyle's performing repertoire long before his demise. Just sayin'.

Dear Editor,
    Lee Leffingwell may mean well regarding the 3C Challenge [“Headlines”, News, July 16], but his statistic suggests my family of five uses 25,000 gallons of water each month. Ridiculous. The primary water waste is not household use but lawns. City residents would be better served by cutting the cost of installing gray water lines in all new developments and offering homeowners associations significant rebates to retrofit older developments.