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,
    Voting should be free and a freedom. Any law that requires any cost to vote should also be backed up with funds so that anyone who wants to vote has the means to do so. We are, after all, a democracy, and we want everyone to have the right to vote. Or don’t we? Do we, or don’t we? Why would you want to be elected based on lies? Do you not believe in the American way? Do you not believe that you should be elected in an honest manner, by the votes of everyone who wants to vote? Texas and other states have voter ID laws. Rick Perry, having just entered the presidential race, said there’s a “big black cloud” over America, and we’re not supposed to know what he means. If we even suggest that it’s a thinly veiled racist tea party remark, the message would be about our opposition to the tea party. I’m not going to live in a world of lies. Any attempt to keep people from being allowed to vote, despite the stupidity of the human race, is wrong. Voting should be a freedom, a holiday, take the day off, get out and vote.
    I’m very poor, but I will pay for one person’s voter ID. Will you?

Dear Editor,
    I agree in some respects with Michael Ventura's article last week [“Letters at 3AM: An Extraordinary Silence,” Aug. 12]. His facts are correct in his citations about the Pakistan war, which is being waged in a covert and highly immoral manner, including the use of drones which are killing untold numbers of civilians. This contributes to the deep hatred of the U.S and bolsters the cause of radicalism. I fully disagree with his premise that "there is an extraordinary silence … and nary a peep of anti-war protest." There are many groups protesting all six wars, including Iraq Vets Against the War, Veterans for Peace, CodePink Austin, and others. The problem is the minuscule or nonexistent coverage of the many actions and events that have taken place. About 70 miles north of Austin at Fort Hood, the GI coffeehouse Under the Hood has been helping active duty soldiers and vets with psychological and legal referrals to assist with post-traumatic stress disorder and for those wishing to resist redeploying to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We frequently send out press releases about activities related to our anti-war protests … the response from the media is frequently dead silence. Next time, be a little more introspective and dig deeper and ask more question about the local activist community.

Dear Editor,
    Why is it Jim Hightower thinks that using money borrowed from China to create temporary jobs for Americans so they can spend it on Asian products is going to provide the solid solution to our economic woes that Americans crave? He has to look no further than the 24 counties that surround Austin to see what real economic development means. These are the Texas counties fortunate enough to contain Eagle Ford shale oil and gas. Sure “elite CEOs and big investors” [“The Hightower Report,” News, Aug. 12] are grabbing some gains. But so are lots of landowners, small-town businesses, blue- and white-collar employees, and all those local governments. Jobs are being provided by Americans to Americans to create American products – including petroleum as well as associated machinery. The profits realized will buy better lives with enough left over for the kids’ college tuition. OK – so someone might be getting rich as they give jobs to others: that is just is traditional American way. It’s called capitalism. Is there some other better legacy we might want to bequeath to our future generations?
    America’s real job creators aren’t broke. They just need more respect and freedom for enterprise. And they need Washington to embrace a proven economic policy recognizing that production not spending produces wealth (commonsense Austrian economic policy vs. ivory tower Keynesian claptrap) so we all can prosper.
    I often drive through some of the aforementioned counties. The improvement in economic well being is readily visible. On the other hand, hard as I might look, I cannot discern any effect from the $1 trillion in funny money that Washington in its progressively paternalistic wisdom has rained down from on high except that we are now drowning in debt and the recession shows no signs of abatement.

Hello,
    Mr. “Reporter” Austin Powell. You left out a critical person and instrument in the Shiny Empire section of the Justin Marler bit [“Off the Record,” Music, Aug. 12]. That is I, the drummer. Did you forget something? Just the facts, ma'am.

Dear Editor,
    Regarding the Baylor Street art wall and the graffiti that's appeared there [“End of the Road for Baylor Street Art Wall?," News, Aug. 12]: Austin seems to be under siege by graffiti taggers, as best they can. Well I would like to urge all caring Austinites to do what I do when I see graffiti: Call it in.
    The Austin Police Department's nonemergency number is 311, and you can call that anytime and report graffiti, and they'll send out Graffiti Abatement, who will clean it up for free. I've reported hundreds of tags all over Austin. It's easy.
    To Ramon Martinez's friends in the vandalism industry, your visual litter isn't art, and it's going away. Get your own canvas!

Dear Editor,
    My message is twofold:
       1) Am I missing something, or did you remove the ability to comment on film reviews? May I ask why this ability was removed? I don't want to assume it was an issue with reviewer ego vs. free exchange of ideas.   
    2) Marc Savlov's review of Rise of Planet of the Apes [Film Listings, Aug. 12]: First, does anyone else have an issue with a reviewer telling the story of the movie? It really is possible to review a movie without telling us what is going to happen. Second: I'm really sad Savlov gave this movie two stars. His opinions about this movie seem to be all tied up in comparison with the first version. Why can't it be OK that this is a completely different movie and judge it on its own merits? I consider myself a film snob, and while yes, I found a few spots in this movie to be "cheesy," overall, it felt like a masterpiece. Countless times I realized my jaw was hanging open in awe, and all of those times it was because I was looking at – or into the eyes of – the central character, a creature mostly computer generated. Is Savlov's issue deeper than misplaced defensive loyalty to the first version of this film, and/or is he expressing subconscious fear of change?

   [Editor's note: The problem with reader comments that Mr. Swain refers to has been fixed. It was solely a technical issue. The Chronicle apologizes for the inconvenience.]

Dear Editor,
    I saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes the weekend before the Chronicle review was published [Film Listings, Aug. 12]. I rated the movie 2.5 stars, partly because I did not care for the impossibly sappy ending. The beginning and middle worked well. My main problem with it is James Franco. In the last movie I saw him, Your Highness, his job should have been the straight man for the comedian playing his brother (Danny McBride), rather than acting as if he was in on the joke. I heard from a co-worker/film buff that Franco had given interviews to the effect that Apes was beneath the stature of an actor of his caliber. Marc Savlov writes that this incarnation of Planet of the Apes was bereft of the humor of the original. That is plainly wrong; there are plenty of laughs in this version. I don’t think Savlov is being disingenuous, just that he approached it from the standpoint of every movie critic who hated the prequel before it was made. Shallow though it may be, I was hoping that Franco would have a rear nude scene, in homage to Heston’s in the original – not in a sex scene (or bondage scene like Heston’s), but in the time-honored tradition of he-got-caught-with-his-pants-down humor. In keeping with other reviews I’ve seen, the audience at the screening I attended was rooting for the apes in the battle scenes; the neighbor was such a psycho, representing human behavior, that one wondered if we might all deserve to go extinct. I would warn that those sensitive to scenes of animal cruelty may be uncomfortable during some of the action.

P.S. P.S. I'd love it if Louis Black stuck to writing only about film and music, as he suggests in his latest column [“Page Two,” Aug. 12].

Dear Editor,
    With all this time on our hands, you’d figure millions of laid-off and underemployed Americans would be educating themselves about the economy. Not so, apparently. How else can you explain the traction of the false GOP argument that “debt” is what got us in this mess? According to what I've been reading, the truth is far simpler:
    The rich are always getting richer, but when too much capital becomes concentrated into too few hands, a sort of "fail-safe" is activated as poor and middle-class people lose ground. They can’t buy as much as usual, stifling the demand side of the economic equation, resulting in small corrections called “recessions.” But when the rich get richer in too quick a period and recessions don't correct enough, the result is a very painful once-a-generation correction called a “depression.” In the latter case, the only cure to righting the ship of capitalism is the dissolving of wealth – stocks, bonds, asset values – until that disparity eases.
    Fact is, the only thing that will reignite economic demand is money in the hands of the poor and the working people, and the only institution that can do it is the federal government. As unintuitive as it may seem, we need more federal spending right now, not less. Paul Krugman and Robert Reich are practically screaming that right now. But since Americans aren’t hearing it, a train wreck is coming.