Letters to the editor for Tuesday, Jan. 27

In his Jan. 25 column, Gov. Tim Pawlenty uses a quote from Winston Churchill ("If we open a quarrel between the present and the past, we shall be in danger of losing the future") to try to evade any comparisons between the dismal failure of his policies and the success of the very different policies of other recent Minnesota governors. He wants us not to notice that his "no new taxes" philosophy has brought many indicators of social well-being in Minnesota from way above average to average and below.

I have another quote for the governor, this time from the philosopher George Santayana: "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

ELIZABETH J. HINDS, MORRIS, MINN.

•••

Some DFL Legislators see a pot of tax dollars and they drool over how to spend it to their best advantage. After six months of meetings, the commission appointed to recommend the spending of a portion of the lottery money dedicated to the environment was ready to approve its list of projects. But three DFL legislators (House Reps. Jean Wagenius, Lyndon Carlson and Tom Rukavina) saw an opportunity to play politics and decided to divert money to self-serving projects.

This should raise a big red flag for all who voted yes on the amendment for clean water, wildlife and the arts.

JOHN R. PENAS, WOODBURY

Gov. Tim Pawlenty has two ideas for resolving the state's $5 billion-plus deficit. He would cut business taxes in half and then, with his "Minnesota Jobs Recovery Act," cut some more business taxes.

As reported in the Star Tribune and by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, two out every three U.S. corporations paid no federal income taxes from 1998 through 2005. The study covers 1.3 million corporations, most of them small.

Both nationally and here in Minnesota the tax burden has shifted away from business and high-income individuals to the middle class and below. This is not fair or financially sustainable.

CREIGHTON ORTH, PLYMOUTH

•••

The potholes on Chicago city streets are numerous and more than 6 inches deep! No such thing as a snow emergency here; they only plow down the middle of the street. Imagine if you had to park your car on a foot of snow, then get it out the next morning! Oh, and while you are looking for a spot when you get home from work, look out for people's junk. They shovel "their own" little spot out, then leave a couple lawn chairs out to keep "dibs" on it!

Just a little perspective for us Minnesoootans!

JOE ROSS, CHICAGO

I am disappointed that the Star Tribune appeared to characterize our conversation as an official endorsement from the Lowry Hill Neighborhood Association for one party in what the paper has labeled a "neighborhood feud" ("Neighbor vs. neighbor," Jan. 24). While individual neighbors may have chosen sides, LHNA is neutral on this matter and is equally representative of all residents in the Lowry Hill neighborhood.

CRAIG WILSON, MINNEAPOLIS;

Regarding the Jan. 24 picture of U.S. Rep. Barney Frank and the attending article about congressional influence in which banks get bailout money: Too bad the paper couldn't find a picture of all 535 members of the House and Senate lined up like hogs at a trough. They have already wasted more than $1 trillion by giving it to banks so broke they still have a negative net worth. What common good for the nation could possibly come from giving money to bankers who had no intention of loaning it out?

DOUG CLEMENS, BLOOMINGTON

It is implicit in the editorial from the San Jose Mercury on the use of torture (Opinion Exchange, Jan. 25) that torture was widespread enough under the Bush administration to warrant high praise for President Obama "turning the page" on its use. Yet in the Star Tribune's Jan. 23 article on Obama's executive order, it was pointed out that the order has limited immediate impact because "military interrogators have been required by law to abide by the Army Field Manual since 2005, and since 2003 the CIA has not used waterboarding."

The editorial, and the Star Tribune's decision to reprint it, only serve to perpetrate a growing myth that the United States was somehow a torture nation under Bush, and that we have been saved from it by President Obama. Weren't we all supposed to put that kind of acidic partisanship behind us with the new administration? Let's at least base our criticisms and our praise on facts.