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,
    Hello, as an avid moviegoer, I usually refer to The Austin Chronicle for times and movie reviews. I went to see Self-Medicated this weekend, and I have to ask, what was Marrit Ingman medicated on when she watched, reviewed, and then gave the AC pick and three stars to this movie [Film Listings, Aug. 31]? I would go so far as to say it was one of the, if not the, worst directed, acted, scored, thought-out movies I have ever spent money on. As far as "a compelling small-scale drama," what movie were you watching? When was this movie anything but "inelegant"? The terms embarrassment, bitter failure, and train wreck, I think, are more accurate descriptors of this film. And "Lapica is a talent to watch," I will take your advice on that and avoid any future offering from him at all cost.

Dear Editor,
    Houston Texans fans in Austin and surrounding areas are fed up with KEYE TV. They have decided not to show the Houston Texans season opener in favor of their division rival the Tennessee Titans. We have taken a stance as they started doing this last year.
    Please see www.keye42sucks.com for the full info. KEYE does not support Texas football.

Dear Editor,
    Budget Revelations: Is there real accountability? Real affordable housing? When core needs (i.e., affordable housing and health care) are effectively addressed, the entire community benefits exponentially from this investment. A committed investment in public services creates a regenerative cycle of sustainability for our community. This invariably enhances public safety, by reducing the probabilities for crises and desperation. Investing in public services is the investment that promotes a high return and also saves money in the long term.
    Therefore, in response to Gray Panther Mr. Clint Smith’s question [“Postmarks,” Aug. 17] regarding Wells Dunbar’s “Budget Revelations” [“Beside the Point,” News, Aug. 3] and Austinites Lobbying for Municipal Accountability follow-up “Postmark” (“Insist on Accountability!,” Aug. 24), I too would like to know: “What's Happening With Housing Bond Funds?” How will these funds and the programs be managed and accounted for? And where’s the genuine responsiveness from our elected representatives regarding questions raised by its citizens and taxpayers? Referencing the question raised by ALMA: What good is a budget if the programs still lack accountability? City of Austin’s internal waste needs to be cleaned if we are to have any effectiveness with our tax dollars.

Dear Editor,
    When one contemplates the future, one must learn from the past. Gov. Shrub and the “Machiavellian” Rove pushed two programs through the Texas Legislature – “No Social Promotion” and the much tougher TAKS test morphed from the easier TAAS test. Anyone with a half a brain knew it would create scholastic havoc and dropouts – which it has done both. Because the scheming duo knew that if Bush didn’t win the presidency he wasn’t going to run again for governor, they had the two programs go into effect in 2003, when the duo knew Bush would not be around. Let the next poor schnook deal with it. The dubious Bush/Cheney/Rove tax-cut program for the rich will, according to the wise and erudite former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan, bankrupt the country when certain portions become effective in 2008 through 2010, when the trio know Bush will not be around. Let the next poor schnook deal with it. Now we come to the Iraq war. Bush, with his ever-shifting obfuscations and lies about why we are at war in Iraq and no matter how many of our fabulously brave military personnel are murdered and maimed in the interim, will do and say anything to keep the war going past January 2008, when the treasonous trio know Bush will not be around. Let the next poor schnook deal with it. At that point in time, the now former President Bush, the “Machiavellian” Rove, and “Darth Vader” Cheney, supported by the radical, fanatical extreme far-right-winged bigoted zealots, will go on a book-writing, TV-appearing, PR campaign tear blaming the new president, Republican or Democrat, with the loss of the war – an inevitable loss then as it is a reality today. All the death, destruction, and loss of human treasure, between now and then will occur, all because Bush wants to try to exculpate his blackened reputation from the rubble pile of history, where it most assuredly will reside. One can only wonder the name of the last soldier to die because of this mendaciously moralistic maniac. How tragic – how sad.
    Now, we also know, from Bush’s own lips, his important agenda for the future. Along with trying to repair his scummy reputation, he is thinking about the big, fat, speaking fees he’ll make while sending our brave soldiers off to die. One wonders if he will share half of the filthy lucre with the Gold Star Mothers whose sons and daughters were murdered and maimed in Iraq? What a pathetically, pitiful, pustule Bush is. How sad – how disgusting.

Dear Editor,
    The subsidies to the big developer at the Domain reminds us again why we desperately need a different kind of City Council [“Are We Masters of Our Domain?,” News, Aug. 31]! We can have a pro-neighborhoods and pro-local-business council; all we have to do is refuse to accept anything less.

Dear Editor,
    Isn’t it ironic that Jennifer Kim is seeking a motion to ban panhandling when she and every other council member makes innumerable individual solicitations to support their campaign efforts. Although the measure has been pulled temporarily, this is clearly a red-meat issue intended to woo the “personal responsibility” voters who find it inconvenient and unaesthetic to look at these folks, let alone acknowledge the reasons that they are out there.
    None of us want to have people begging on the street corners of our neighborhoods, yet very few of us will vote for leaders who suggest we need to pay for services that will help reduce or prevent this. Alcoholism, drug abuse, schizophrenia, and other causes of homelessness and poverty are an intractable part of every society on the planet. Some societies find ways to keep the negative impact of this to a minimum, others continue to elect leaders who vilify and blame the homeless to get votes but do nothing to solve or improve the situation.

Dear Editor,
    The Aug. 24 letter to the editor from Austinites Lobbying for Municipal Accountability titled "Insist on Accountability!" [“Postmarks”] reminds me that accountability is a strong weapon toward achieving checks and balances when public officials are selective in decision-making, particularly during these times when citizens' basic rights to safety, shelter, and speech are rapidly diminishing. I ask, was the city accountable when it received and managed Housing and Urban Development grant funds for code upgrades and repairs to homes in East Austin? Did the city in the Nineties fail to meet its fiduciary and management responsibility regarding the HUD housing grant program targeted for East Austin homeowners? Is the city meeting its fiduciary duty with its current housing loan program? Is the city failing in its fiduciary responsibility in managing the $55 million affordable-housing bond funds when it dips into such funds to create new staffing positions? Is the city meeting its fiduciary responsibility if it allows only 7% of the city's 2008 budget for Human Services? Are public officials accountable when local regulatory agencies enact arbitrary and capricious decisions regarding water, fire protection, and roadways without policy or due process? Are the city and county accountable if police and sheriff training programs fail to diffuse unconscious prejudices in its officers who enact biased threats and harassments upon citizens? Are landgrabs occurring when we observe 1) redistricting of floodplains, 2) demolition of affordable housing without affordable replacements, 3) formation of private land trusts with oversight boards composed of public officials, and 4) selective distribution of annexation approvals and access to water?
    Are we as citizens insisting on accountability when we fail to seek information to become informed? Are we as citizens accountable if we fail to require accountability from our public officials? Do we insist on accountability?

Dear Editor,
    Re: “Treat Her Right” [“Hey, Hey, Hey!,” Music, Aug. 31]: You guys do remember the LeRoi Brothers, don't you? They had a great cover of the Roy Head classic on their Forget About the Danger … Think of the Fun EP. I'm sure it was way better than the Barbara Mandrell or Mae West versions.

Dear Editor,
    “An electronic voting system is to a mechanical one what a nuclear bomb is to a hand grenade. … If someone manages to sabotage it, the results can be catastrophic.” (“Election Company Has Long Criminal History” by Daniel Hopsicker, see www.thelandesreport.com/Sequoia.htm.)
    Last month the state of California determined that every electronic voting machine now in place can be hacked (see www.bradblog.com). There are scores of documented irregularities in elections where these machines were used going back many years.
    The companies that make these machines won’t let you see the source code. It’s a proprietary secret. You’re just going to have to trust them. You literally have a much better chance for an honest transaction when you play a slot machine. At least those machines are heavily tested and regulated by the state in Nevada.
    We outsource things like garbage collection and road construction. Elections are inherently governmental in nature. They should never be outsourced, period. Scrap the electronic voting machines, every one of them. Go back to paper ballots.
    The hanging chads were a convenient red herring in the 2000 presidential election. The real crime in Florida 2000 was illegally removing 80,000 black voters from the rolls so that they couldn’t vote. Wonder which candidate they would have voted for?
    Paper ballots are the only way to go (see www.blackboxvoting.org).

Dear sirs,
    Even though I have great skepticism about the nature of the hereafter, I hope that there is a special area of hell reserved for the Larry Craigs, the David Vitters, and the Mark Foleys of this world. They were responsible for paralyzing this nation over the idiocy of Monicagate for two years and persuaded more than a few voters that the GOP was a "morally superior" political party. (No excuses for Bill Clinton, either.) They convinced a sizable amount of their voting base that the most serious issue facing this nation in 2004 was gay marriage as they attempted to condemn homosexuals to second-class citizenship. What a strange display of self-loathing and misdirection.
    Hopefully the GOP will renounce the sanctimonious phonies and revert to a party of fiscal conservatism and less government. I don't agree with that GOP, either, but at least it is not reeking of hypocrisy and we can get back to talking about policy and not "moral values."
    It is quite possible for imperfect men to do great things if we could all quit worrying about things that are ultimately none of our damn business!

Dear Editor,
    Kudos to Jordan Smith for her interview with Rob Kampia [“Reefer Madness,” News, Aug. 31], and I commend the Chronicle for devoting a regular column to the war on drugs, the blueprint for the PATRIOT acts and other abuses to the Constitution.
    I think it is time the Chronicle devotes a major issue to prohibition in general. Alcohol, abortion, ganja, guns, and gay rights: all these fronts in the culture wars have been the undoing of many worthy social causes, and "progressives" are just as likely as conservatives to support them with the same slash-and-burn attacks. The goal? Punishment of hated peoples.
    These senseless exercises in prohibition can blind us. I propose this example: George W. Bush's equation of the Iraq war with the Vietnam War has most talking heads either dismissing or rationalizing Bush's stance with some sort of historical comparison. But a look at the far right (which controls the GOP) reveals that its unquestioned fervor and bloody determination stems from a hatred of the "Sixties counterculture." What better way to remind Americans of what caused the downfall of our nation than to bring up the chief focus of that counterculture, Vietnam?
    The GOP knows whom they brung to the dance. Whom did the rest of us bring?

Dear Editor,
    We are so far into the looking glass that the truth has lost all meaning. The Government Accountability Office has to release the truth about Iraq secretly. If the war was going as well as President Bush and the Republican Party keeps insisting, why does the report have to be released secretly? Why does President Bush have to rewrite Gen. David Petraeus’ progress report? Because things are going so well that Gen. Petraeus might overstate the progress? We have been lied to for almost five years now, and thousands of our soldiers are dead. When will we stand up and say enough? When will it be your turn to stand up? Or are we too far gone to ever recover? The Bush administration and the conservative government is a house of cards. Two million more people do not have health insurance. You, yes you, can be jailed and tortured without trial. How can this happen? Through limitless wiretapping and data-mining your purchases. Maybe the reason our senators and congresspeople cannot stand up to resident Bush is they are being blackmailed like in the John Grisham novel The Firm. Who among you can believe anything President Bush or a Republican tells you about anything? I close with these words: I double-dare you to do something about this conservative nightmare. Call a congressman or senator; write a letter like this one; tell a friend that you’ve had enough; hold your breath; just get involved. Your country is lost!

Dear Editor,
    Thanks for the story on "Treat Her Right" [“Hey, Hey, Hey!,” Music, Aug. 31], a song near and dear to me ever since my '66 start-up garage band added it to our repertoire – ever since I first heard it, actually.
    Does anyone know why it is so hard to find on CD? Any of Roy Head's compilations that I've found do not include the original version. I finally found it on an out-of-print Best of '65 CD, which I bought used, but it shouldn't be that hard, should it? I mean shouldn't everyone have a chance to enjoy this classic?
    To that end, I want to share this YouTube link to a '65 performance of "Treat Her Right": www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ga4mM01SeE.
    Enjoy!

Dear Editor.
    Re: “Road Rules” [“Postmarks” online, Aug. 28]: Shoal Creek requires bicyclists to straddle that lane if they want to ride safely because our gutless City Council caved to a few loud and irresponsible neighbors on Shoal Creek Boulevard and prioritized both-sides on-street parking over bike lanes, against the objections of the Texas Transportation Institute consultants they ostensibly hired to tell them what the right design was. Your anger is misplaced; the cyclists are mostly doing what they're supposed to do – give parked cars a very wide berth and do so far enough in advance to be safe.
    In other words, bikers didn't get 50% of the road. They didn't even get 5% of the road. They got absolutely nothing but the mistaken impression that they belong in an unsafe facility dodging parked cars. Thanks, Allandale!

Dear Editor,
    Re: “Immigration Reform: Cornyn's Current Take” [News, Aug. 31]: Sen. John Cornyn is one of the fairest and most honest men we have in Washington today. He tries to do for all his people and also the United States of America to keep all the dreams of all his people who are legal!
    Massey Villarreal, from what I read, is stating that the congressman isn't taking care of the illegals, who stand up in Americans' faces and say, “We aren't going to follow your laws, and we aren't leaving!” Villarreal and his groups ought to be proud to help honest congressmen/women to help their people. Not backing illegals who blame the U.S. for not deporting them when they should have. And did many times, but they broke the laws time and time again coming back into the U.S. If Villarreal and his groups are not interested in helping right a wrong their people are doing, then we don't need them here to tear down our America. Can't the illegals stand up and say: “Yes we are at fault; we didn't abide by the U.S laws, and now we have families, and children suffering from what we did. We should have followed the laws of America!” America has bent over backward to help our immigrants. We give free food in our schools and hospitals and so many other programs. Americans and legal immigrants are tired of people who come and don't even appreciate what this great nation has done for them. Yes, big businesses have done them wrong, but it's because they are illegals. They get away with it. But these businesses couldn't do this if the illegals had followed our laws and entered legally. I feel sorry for your children that you have caused this outrageous hardship on, and you alone are to blame, not the U.S. And it's not our place to right your wrong.
    This is written by a great-grandmother of eight, who was raised in a neighborhood consisting of Hispanic, Polish, Italian, black, and white people, in a two-block area. Who all are proud and legal and thankful to have lived there, and this was back in the 1940s.