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Re: the Aug. 31 article "Dump your car for a bicycle or bus? Yep — and here's why."

Thank you so much for the feature documenting the differences between driving a car, biking and riding public transportation in Tucson.

The "One Week on the Bus, By the Numbers" summary tells us that the writer traveled 89 miles by bus, waited a total of 4 hours and 26 minutes for rides, walked up to 2.5 miles at a time. and saved a whopping $6.40 in gas costs.

Case closed. See you at the gas pump.

Re: the Aug. 31 article "Dump your car for a bicycle or bus? Yep — and here's why."

The article was sensible and well-balanced. However, I would add to the list of "Five Tips" a sixth: When riding in the Downtown or Midtown area, whether commuting or for exercise, ride a mountain bike or a hybrid/comfort bike with wide tires.

Many Tucson streets are poorly maintained with broken glass and/or patches of sand or gravel in the bike lanes. They aren't well-suited for lightweight road bikes with narrow tires.

Re: the Aug. 31 article "Dump your car for a bicycle or bus? Yep — and here's why."

The real question left unanswered by the Star's investigation is how to encourage more people to switch from driving to work by themselves in private cars to using alternative transportation?

The answer, as in nearly all civic issues, is financial.

Alternative transportation must be seriously less expensive than driving solo in order to encourage the masses to even consider making this leap.

Consider making car driving more expensive on an incremental basis. For example, charge $2 a gallon for the first 10 gallons of gas purchased per month, $4 a gallon for the next 10 gallons that month, $6 for the next 10 gallons, and so on.

Undoubtedly there are reasons why this idea can't work, but if it did work, prudent people would find ways to cut back on driving, including trying the bus, dusting off the bike and carpooling.

What a relief it is to know that Democrats now are beyond partisan politics.

As someone who had both his motorcycle tires deflated at Sabino Canyon, was dangerously cut off on Grant and flipped off several times around town a few days after the 2004 election, I feel so relieved to know that this year I might support a presidential candidate with a bumper sticker and not have to be fearful of retaliation from progressive Tucsonans.

Re: the Aug. 30 article "Ruling: USDA can prohibit costly testing for mad cow."

A small meat producer began testing for mad cow disease by itself. The big corporate cattle barons whined that the competition would force them to start testing, too, which would cut profits.

The Bush Department of Agriculture came to the rescue, enacting a regulation prohibiting meat producers from testing for mad cow disease. The small meat producer sued and conservative federal judge Karen LeCraft Henderson upheld the regulation.

So thanks to the Republicans who refuse to allow government to work so they can demagogue government as a failure, and then refuse to allow the private sector to do the job our taxes are paying the Republican government to do. We can all sleep well tonight knowing that if we are poisoned to death by bad food, air or water, corporate profits are still being protected by the Republicans.

A few weeks ago the tiny country of Georgia started shelling a city full of Russian citizens, killing hundreds of them. The Russians naturally struck back and we are now bumbling toward a potentially disastrous confrontation with them.

I had hoped that Barack Obama would speak out against this madness, but instead Joe Biden has called for strongly supporting Georgia.

John McCain is not only calling for confronting Russia, but his top foreign-policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, is a paid lobbyist for the Georgian government.

We may end up at war with Russia if we are not extremely careful. And if the potential President McCain were to be incapacitated during this crisis, the fate of our Republic would be in the hands of a self-described "Hockey Mom."

Can someone tell me why it is necessary during a disaster that every politician, TV station, newspaper, radio station in the whole country must travel to the area?

What a way to waste the resources of an area already experiencing major problems.

I'll bet that the people in the disaster area would rather use their limited resources for themselves instead of feeding, protecting, providing housing, et cetera, to some people who have never even know that the area existed.

I have great admiration, respect and appreciation for anyone, like Sen. John McCain, who has served our country through their military service.

That said, I don't think referencing one's military service is an acceptable response or mitigating factor for:

● poorly worded or ill conceived answers to a reporter or interviewer's question;

● lack of relevant knowledge on a crucial issue facing our country;

● or support of questionable leadership or bad decisions of others merely to garner the votes of a segment of the electorate.

This is not what I would call "straight talk."

Re: the Aug. 30 editorial cartoon by David Fitzsimmons.

The cartoon is indicative of the elitism of some liberals. Fitzsimmons portrayed John McCain supporters as unkempt boozers watching television propped up on a box of ammo. The only thing he left out was the "Bible thumpers" that were alluded to in remarks by Barack Obama when he thought no one was listening.

One of the reasons that I'm supporting McCain is that he believes, as I do, that we will end the war in Iraq and bring our troops home with their dignity intact.

Obama's idea of ending the war is to tell our troops to "Lay down your arms. Now, raise your hands over your heads."

We have a son serving his fourth tour of duty (three in Iraq and one in Afghanistan) and we're certain that he would find Fitzsimmons' remarks as offensive as we do, but still will protect his right to submit his drivel for publication.

The Arizona Daily Star welcomes original letters and guest opinions with ideas, viewpoints, criticism and news analysis that encourage discussion on issues that have an impact on the community.

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Submissions may be edited for clarity or length. All submissions become property of the Arizona Daily Star.

Only original material bearing the writer's name and sent exclusively to the Arizona Daily Star will be considered for publication.