Letters to the editor for Saturday, Sept.13

How is it that the media insist on grilling Sarah Palin as to her readiness to become president? She's been the Republican Party's nominee for vice president for a little more than a week.

The election is two months off; the inaugural is four months distant. Don't you suppose she will learn a whole bunch of facts, policies, skills and scenarios relating to her office and the administration needs in that time period?

She has proven herself to be a quick study for all manner of earlier leadership positions.

MAURICE MICKELSON, MINNEAPOLIS

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If Sarah Palin is ready to be the vice president of the United States, then I would like to announce the opening of my medical practice on Sept. 30. Until then, I'll be spending time with a doctor. I'll be ready, too!

PENNY VAN KAMPEN, EDINA

The front-page headline on Friday was "'I'm ready,' Palin declares." Really? The biggest news of the day was that a candidate said she thought she could handle the job? To think that the most important thing that happened in our world yesterday was that someone said she was ready to do a job she wants is breathtaking.

KATHY MAGNUSON, ST. PAUL

If Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae had been allowed to fail, the impact would have been worse than the Great Depression. All bank lending would have had to stop -- no loans to anyone for anything.

The only institution holding greater debt than these two is the U.S. government. This debt crisis is the direct result of Bush administration's malfeasance over the past eight years and has deeply undercut our standing in world's economic leadership.

The Bush administration is solely responsible for pushing America and the world to the brink of economic disaster in order to profit America's richest ultrarich.

After reading Katherine Kersten's Sept. 10 column, I was thinking how ecstatic Catholic school parents are going to be! For generations Catholic parents have been scrimping and saving to afford the luxury of a high-quality education that included their faith traditions and values. How happy they will be when they hear that the government will now be subsidizing parochial schools!

As a Catholic school educator of 22 years, and a parent who put my sons through Catholic schools, I am very excited for this new trend in education. The parents who have been paying tuition all these years will have more spending money and will boost the economy! The parishes will have 25 percent more of their plate collections to support social justice causes! The teachers' salaries will be in line with their public school counterparts! It's a win-win-win situation.

We'll go on providing top-notch education, and we promise not to complain about all the years we have struggled in the past to keep our schools thriving. We would even be willing to move our religion classes to the end of the day (and hold the buses). I'm sure the rest of our Judeo-Christian brethren who have been supporting religious schools will be just as thrilled.

Where do we pick up the subsidy checks?

SUSAN KERR, EDINA

ROSE MORIARTY, MENDOTA HEIGHTS

The Sept. 12 column "Iran is a clear threat and Congress has a chance to act" is just more scare tactics that could lead us into another war.

Is there clear evidence that Iran poses any real threat? The resolution before Congress is strikingly similar to the one that was used to authorize the Iraq war, which was based on false assumptions. Urge Congress to vote no on the resolution before we are fooled again.

JIM DAHLGREN, CRYSTAL

I want to explain why I did not attend CivicFest.