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 [email protected]. Thanks for your patience.

Dear Editor,
    The only thing, at this time, worse for our economy than raising taxes would be not to raise taxes.

Dear Editor,
    In listening to the advice of the tea party, House Speaker John Boehner and his associates have practically assured the re-election of President Obama. The tea party has little or no influence east of the Mississippi, and that is where presidential elections are won. In electing President Obama, America's signaled that intolerance was on life support. The tea party wants to revive that era, and it simply will not work.

Dear Editor,
    Being a radio fan, I was pretty excited to see the Chronicle with a big ol' retro radio splashed on the cover. Lots of radio news in Austin lately, nice to see some coverage of it. Even the blurb "Radio Hams" seemed promising, sure sounds like some of the radio folks here.
    But the story itself was fluff, lo-cal fluff at that [“Radio Snack,” Food, July 15]. The "meat" of the article mentions five shows, one of those a national show being rebroadcast locally, another by a Houston resident who drops in every six weeks to get clued in. Of the remaining three, one is not even on the radio: Growing Home is a podcast. This leaves two Austin-based food shows on the radio dial. And while I am a longtime fan of Cecilia Nasti's show, it's only five minutes long. Add that to the one hour of Food Love Austin on KOOP, and you have 65 minutes weekly of "Austin foodies serving it on the air.”
    Is this what it takes to make the cover of the Chronicle now? A page-and-a-half story about 65 minutes of local programming? How about something on the encroachment of KDRP-LP's signal by KVET-FM? Or the loss of college stations across the country, including KTRU at Rice? A cover story on radio matters sure seemed promising, but this was a disappointment. Maybe if Phil Music and his dishwashing buddy Larry Monroe had done a food show on KUT, he would still have his job there and would have made the front page!

Dear Editor,
    I appreciate the effort of the Chronicle to bring to light the struggles some artists on the East Austin Studio Tour have been going through in these past several months. However, the article [“East Austin Studio De-Tour,” News, July 15] does not describe my situation correctly, as the author did not bother to verify facts with this artist.
    The article states that "Barry George had received four complaints about a space at 204 Attayac between March 2010 and 2011." I personally was unaware of these complaints until I received a certified letter describing code violations from Code Enforcement in early January 2011.
    For the record, from the moment I received the violation notice, I contacted Code Enforcement and have worked to try to resolve the issues the city raised with my studio. I have spent months of effort and hundreds of dollars out of pocket to build new fences, rearrange my creative materials, and demolish part of my studio.
    Through the support of Sylvia Benavidez in permitting I have been able to pull permits and work to satisfy the city. She has been the bright spot in this whole process. In fact, on the day this article went to print, she notified me that I had resolved all my code issue permits.
    However, along with the financial burden and stress I have experienced since early January and the loss of the studio for creating, and for that matter even the desire to create, I have lost the ability to be a part of EAST, of which I was a founding artist. The reason? Even though I own the house next door and the studio, I choose to live a few blocks away. Therefore I don't fit Code Enforcement's description of a "Home Occupation." Help me be part of EAST again.

   [Mike Kanin responds: Barry George and I were not able to connect for a conversation about his code issues; I'm glad to hear he's resolved his immediate problems, if not his status as an EAST artist, which is troubling. However, the documents on file with Code Compliance support the version of the story we reported.]

Dear Editor,
    Cave of Forgotten Dreams “is can’t-miss material, especially … [in its] 3-D version” writes your movie reviewer Marjorie Baumgarten [Film Listings, May 20]. Too bad it was showing at the Violet Crown. The first Sunday that it was showing, we drove down to the Crown from Georgetown to find out that the theatre only holds about 20 seats, it was sold out, and the price for two senior tickets was $28. They don’t seem to want to recognize seniors there, and didn’t seem to care if we saw the 3-D movie or not. I later found out that features during weekdays were priced at only $9 each, but still with no senior discount. So, we tried it again this Friday, July 15. We again drove from Georgetown to the Downtown Crown and, this time, found that our showing was canceled.
    We got a refund, but wasted most of the day and a lot of fuel. No senior discount, extremely high ticket prices, and unreliable service. The Violet Crown sucks. There will soon be a time when even the trendy people hanging around the theatre will find a new place to show off. Nothing will make me happier than seeing the Crown close its doors.

   [Marjorie Baumgarten responds: We're sorry to hear you had a bad experience at the Violet Crown. Based on your complaints, I'd like to offer some general tips in regard to attending screenings there: Make advance reservations online (especially if you plan to go on a weekend evening). Although each of the Violet Crown's four theatres seats about 50 people, you can reserve the exact seats you want online and there is no service charge to make the reservations. Plus, the venue charges only $1 for 3-D glasses instead of the $3 most other theatres charge. Seniors and students may not get a discount, but at least everyone gets four free hours of Downtown parking with validation.]

Dear Editor,
    In the July 15 edition, p.12 “Headlines” [News], the Chronicle referred to Ron Paul as "the coastal crackpot.” It's not the first time the man has been ridiculed in your publication. But I would like to know, who are the sane politicians in the Chronicle's world?
    Could it be any one of the mainstream Democratic or Republican politicians out there, perhaps Obama or Bush, who support unending war, death, and destruction; the end of Habeus Corpus; illegally spying on American citizens; whistle-blower crackdowns; bailouts for the criminals who brought down our economy; unprecedented increases to the enforcement budget in the war on drugs; and so on and so forth?
    Are those the "noncrackpots"? Good luck with those guys.