You want liberal? Try S.F. Chronicle

As a former Georgia Tech student and a resident of Atlanta from 1984 to 2000, I have been following the debate [in recent letters to the editor] over the AJC's editorial stance with interest and some amusement ("AJC changes," @issue, July 19 and 23).

I am living in Northern California and would suggest that anyone wanting to experience a truly liberal newspaper try the San Francisco Chronicle. Although I have been away from the Atlanta area for many years, I still read the AJC online to counterbalance the somewhat overenthusiastic liberalism of our area papers.

Op-ed pages are meant to deliver opinions (hence the name), and we are fortunate to live in a society which encourages a range of them.

RACHEL BLAINE

Petaluma, Calif.

McCain never defines 'win'

John McCain's opinion column is essentially an attack on Barack Obama and contains no substantive policy statements ("We must win Iraq war, and not just withdraw," @issue, July 24). McCain never defines what "winning in Iraq" means, nor does he tell us anything concrete about what strategies or policies he would use to "win" in Iraq if elected president. If McCain knows how to win in Iraq, why has he kept this a secret for the last five years?

VICKI POWERS

Atlanta

Big Oil likes high price per barrel

All the recent calls for offshore drilling as a solution to gas prices fail to take into account the raison d'etre of oil companies. It is not to sell oil, it is to make as much profit as possible. Considering that Exxon made record profits last year without drilling for more oil, one has to wonder why it would be motivated to drill more. More oil would drive the prices down, which means they would make less money per barrel, all the while absorbing the additional costs of producing more oil.

Oil companies already have drilling leases for oil-rich land that they are not using, and there are thousands of acres in Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve that have yet to be leased. There is no shortage of available oil fields. The fact that the oil companies are not using them seems to reinforce the notion that producing oil is not their primary focus.

The only two solutions for driving down oil prices would be to force oil companies to drill more or to regulate the price and/or profit per barrel (which would in effect motivate them to drill more). Both ideas are anathema to "small-government" Republicans, who would rather use the talking point of offshore drilling as a political football than focus on a workable solution.

The issue at hand isn't opening more areas for drilling, it's getting the oil companies to drill in the areas already open.

ROBERT ROUSE

Atlanta

Paper's judgment has landed in the gutter

I enjoy an editorial cartoon as much as the next guy; however, to depict the president of the United States as a drunk sprawled in the gutter reaches a new low for Mike Luckovich and your editors (@issue, July 24). It is obvious that the AJC has total contempt for our president, but, for goodness sake, please show respect for the office.

JOHN WOODY

Tyrone

MARTA goes to plenty of places

Have any of the people claiming that MARTA "only goes downtown" actually ridden the train to a destination other than downtown? MARTA will take you to most intown festivals and those that you can't walk to (Inman Park, Virginia-Highland, PRIDE, Decatur Arts Festival all come to mind) from station shuttles. You can go to the High Museum, Oakland Cemetery, the zoo, "the Ted," Lenox Square and the airport. I routinely use MARTA for my regular doctor visits around the Northside-St. Joseph's area. Beats the heck out of Peachtree-Dunwoody Road or I-285 traffic any day. If you go to their Web site and look at schedules and stops, [you'll find] you can go to plenty of entertainment venues.

Yes, it can be crowded, and they can be off schedule, but I can count on only two hands, in the 30 years I've been riding the train, the "bad times," and most of those occurred during the Olympics. So get out of your car and get on the train. You might be pleasantly surprised!

SUSAN C. BEECHING

Atlanta

Can't we handle a little controversy?

About the recent uproar over radio talk-show host Michael Savage's comments about autism, I listened to that particular show, and not once did he say autism did not exist. He did, however, say that not every child with a nervous habit turns out to have autism —- which is true. Doctors are quick now to hand out drugs to any child in question.

What has happened to sane reasoning on the matter? Instead of demanding he be thrown off the air, why don't we have a national dialogue on autism? Instead, we want to silence the man and throw him off the air. What kind of country are we becoming that we can't handle a little controversy?

FRANK PRICHARD

Atlanta

Hold rights sacred for Americans

I watched a program re-enacting the destruction of the World Trade Center towers. It is both sad and frightening. Sad for the loss of innocent life, over 2,800 people. Frightening because it reminds one that there are people who wish to destroy us in the U.S. and our way of life.

Lately, there has been much in the news about the "rights" that we should give the very people who want to destroy us. We guarantee these rights at our peril. If we, as a country, lose the concept that the United States should come before all others, we are doomed. The rights and privileges that so many have died for over the years are for us, not for the people who wish to destroy us. I hope and pray that we are not going to guarantee our country away.

BILL BURNS

Stone Mountain

Political polling a waste of time

I find it puzzling why Alan I. Abramowitz and networks are using poll numbers in July for an election in November ("A very red state changing its hue?," @issue, July 23). If we used poll numbers for July for previous elections, Gore and Kerry would have won.

There are also too many polls to pick and choose. There is a poll showing McCain up by five in North Carolina and one up by 15. There is a poll that shows Obama up by one point in New Jersey and up by four in Connecticut. Who cares? It's July; the election is four months away. The only poll that counts is the one on election day.

M.L. DOLPHAN

Atlanta

 MIKE LUCKOVICH / Staff
Mike Luckovich's 7/24/08 editorial cartoon: "Wall Street got drunk" . . . "By osmosis" —- depicting President Bush as a drunk sprawled in the gutter.