Feedback from the Issue of Thursday, October 2, 2008

Coles was a dishonest scumbag: Total crook, and New Times should win an award for its reporting [on Mortgages Ltd.]. Fraud is fraud ("The Tangled Legacy of Scott Coles," John Dickerson, September 18).

He was a dishonest scumbag who took advantage of many people. I know many people who wouldn't do business with him and are hardly surprised.
Seth Goldberg, Paradise Valley

Wrath of God for Scott?: Wow, taking advantage of a church, a house of God? Boy I would not want to be him on Judgment Day!
Susan White, via the Internet

Ouch: Scott took the easy way out and took hundreds of regular working-class people with him. His actions caused my company to close down. I am out of a job with two kids and a mortgage to pay.

I can't tell you how much I hate this man. I, and the rest of the people who were hurt by this, will move on and rebuild our lives with our wonderful families. That is the good news.

The other good news is that when we all look back and realize we have pulled up our bootstraps and fixed our lives, he will still be dead, and the world is a better place because of it.
Name withheld

PALIN PATROL II

Fenske and Palin — two peas in a pod: After reading Sarah Fenske's article, ("Sister Sarah," September 18), it becomes painfully apparent to me that Fenske and Palin are two peas in a pod.

Both Palin and Fenske make a mockery out of Barack Obama's work as a community organizer. Both women act as if Palin's stint as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska (a city of 9,000 people), was comparable to the responsibilities of a mayor of a large city or a governor of a major state.

Sadly, both believe that you can be a good mother to a big family and still maintain more than a full-time job.

Just how solid is the judgment of a college-educated woman who gets pregnant in her mid-40s when it's a well-established fact that the chances of bearing a child with Down syndrome become so much higher?

Who made the decision to drag Levi Johnston to the Republican National Convention? Who is advertising his "engagement" to Bristol Palin? Who forced him to remove his revealing MySpace page from the Internet? Who flip-flopped on the "bridge to nowhere"?

TV reporter Charles Gibson's interview with Palin proved two major things about her. First, she doesn't answer questions honestly but chooses to dance around issues to hide her obvious ignorance. Second, clearly she's honing her skills on her way to becoming a major bullshitter. So very modern Republican.

We're about to conclude eight years of a disastrous presidency headed by a bottom-of-his-college-class president and a conniving vice president. Do we want to top that idiocy with another bottom-of-the-class president and an inexperienced loudmouth BSer?

The citizens of our nation need to wake up now before it's too late.

This letter was not written by a die-hard Democrat. I would have liked the opportunity to vote for Ron Paul. With him out of the picture, the next viable candidate became Obama. The McCain/Palin ticket is a dangerous political combination threatening the security of the United States, the financial/economic status of our country, and our foreign relations.

The Sarah Fenskes of our nation just don't get it. For the rest of you planning to vote, let's not make the years following January 20, 2009, another Jerry Springer Show.
Coni Cabot, Phoenix

Wendy lives up to her name: What the heck is up with you liberal women?! You constantly bitch about rights of women and how the playing field needs to be even and fair. Now you're bitching that a woman [Sarah Palin] has made it ("Mommy Dearest," Amy Silverman, September 18)!

What's it going to be?! You want it even or you don't? Tell you what, when you figure out what you want, then come to the world with your feminist plans. Otherwise, shut it.

When you bitch and scream about unfair sexism rampant in our society, anyone with common sense hears only the sound of the adult voices in the Peanuts cartoons: "Mwah-mwah-mwah. Mwah-mwah. Mwah, mwah-mwah, mwah-mwah-mwah-mwah."
Wendy Whiner, Tempe

Worse than Cheney? Is that even possible?: After reading Sarah Fenske's article about Sarah Palin, I had a sudden bout of vomiting. I'd always thought Fenske wore blinders, but now I'm firmly convinced that she must have a bag over her head. How can anyone defend Sarah Palin with a straight face?

In her recent interview with Charles Gibson, Palin stated that she would have no reservations about the United States invading Pakistan. Charlie showed a tape of Palin ranting in a church before a congregation: "Our national leaders are sending U.S. soldiers on a task that is from God."

How can Palin lead a country when her own 17-year-old daughter's running around having sex and producing illegitimate offspring, while Palin's ranting about abstinence?

How about the ongoing investigation into Palin's trying to get the Alaska State Police to fire her former brother-in-law? How about Palin's [at first] backing the $485 million boondoggle "bridge to nowhere? What our country doesn't need is somebody worse than Dick Cheney as vice president!
Bill Demski, Glendale