Readers Write for Friday, April 17

In regard to Wednesday's tea parties, where were these people when the Bush administration was borrowing and spending massive amounts to pay for a war Americans didn't want and deregulating the financial system, creating this crisis?

MAC SANTIAGO, MINNEAPOLIS

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Are the people out on these tea-bagging demonstrations willing to stop driving on tax-funded streets and roads and highways, stop taking Medicare and Social Security and unemployment benefits, stop going to hospitals funded with public money, stop calling the cops when they're the victims of crime, stop protesting in public parks, close prisons, do away with national defense, etc.?

If not, they should lay down their signs, go home and stop letting the conservative rich who are behind these protests make fools out of them.

JOHN NESSET, MINNEAPOLIS

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Congress rushes to give money away without giving any thought on how it will be repaid or how the money should be spent. Why is it handing out bailouts?

DAVE ZIMMERMAN, COON RAPIDS

Minnesotans seem to have forgotten that Norm Coleman won the only objective measure of the Senate election -- the machine count on election night.

All Coleman was asking for in his contest of the election results was that the voter intent standard apply equally in every county. By denying approximately 4,000 votes from categories that other counties acknowledge counting, the judges have elevated the status of certain voters and denied others the right to have their vote counted.

Doesn't anyone care to know who actually won this election?

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I think it's wrong for either party to accept money from outside of Minnesota for our Senate or any other race within our state. We should not let outside parties help decide our state's future leaders.

MIKE WISNESKI, EDINA

I find it very disturbing that the State Department refrains from calling the Somali pirates "terrorists," but a recently released report by the Department of Homeland Security has no qualms about calling American right-wing extremists potential "terrorists."

DHS uses Timothy McVeigh as its poster child of a right-wing extremist, and by inference, lumps those who oppose stricter gun legislation, abortion and illegal immigration as right-wing extremists and potential terrorists. DHS even claims that right-wing extremists are attracting disgruntled veterans to do acts of violence against our government yet offers no evidence that this is happening.

ANDY WESTERHAUS, BURNSVILLE

As a security officer who works in a building with court-related proceedings, I find it ironic that Hennepin County judges would say getting injured is "just part of the job" (Star Tribune, April 15).

Yes, I understand getting injured can happen. As someone who is on light duty after being attacked from behind by an individual, I find it a little tough to take that some judges deem that OK.

In my case, my attacker was already on felony probation; currently, he's on the street while I'm getting treatment. If he doesn't show up for his hearing, no problem; he just stays on the street.

Since part of my job, and that of many other court deputies, is to protect judges from these kind of folks, how about the judges step up? Whatever happened to the old line about "throwing the book at the bad guys"?

Gov. Tim Pawlenty thinks one tool for balancing the state budget is to furlough state employees for up to 48 days. In the division I work for, we have already had more than a dozen full-time jobs eliminated. We are doing more work with fewer people. If our hours are involuntarily cut, Minnesotans who count on us are the ones who will feel the pain.

I work for child support enforcement. Parents who have their children living with them count on us to get their support to them, especially in these troubled economic times. Parents who pay child support rely on us to help them get their child support orders modified to be fair if they lose their jobs or their hours are reduced.

Pawlenty feels the job he does for the people of Minnesota is too important for him to take an unpaid furlough. My coworkers and I understand exactly how that feels.