Air tape so public can help

I'm perplexed as to why the Madison Police Department is against releasing the Brittany Zimmermann 911 call for help tape, especially so if a voice other than Zimmermann's can be heard.

With all the people listening to a released tape, there's a chance someone might hear something identifiable and come forward.

A lot of police dectective work is the result of public input.

-- James Graves, Albany

Solis will be great as secretary of labor

I was astonished to read in your Dec. 21 editorial that you opposed Rep. Hilda Solis for secretary of labor because she "is too much an advocate for unions and not enough of a promoter of policies to keep the U.S. work force competitive."

For the first time in decades we have a pro-worker appointee to head the Department of Labor -- and this is a bad thing? Perhaps we've gotten too used to thinking of the Department of Labor as really being the "Department of Management" or of "anti-labor."

Solis has stood up for workers who have been illegally fired, for workers trying to organize a union against vicious harassment by management, and for workers trying to provide the best services to the public.

She is also a longtime advocate of "green manufacturing" to create jobs and move the country toward energy independence.

Those values, plus the leadership of the union movement in developing the world's most highly skilled workforce through apprenticeship and training programs and fair rules of international trade, will make the American workforce more competitive, raise wages and begin to restore a strong middle class in our country.

-- David Newby, president, Wisconsin AFL-CIO

Government inaction worsens problems

For years our federal government was aware of the coming shortfall in domestic oil production, but nothing was done. The result has been $150 a barrel for oil and over $4 per gallon for gas.

Now it is predicted that within 20 years, our demand for electricity will grow by 30 percent. Is our government building new power plants, be they clean coal, nuclear, etc? No.

Because of the temporary drop in oil prices, even T. Boone Pickens is delaying his wind generation project. I guess if he can't make another billion he won't play.

-- Robert Linn, Lyndon Station

War is not answer; war is the problem

If anyone ever doubted this truth, look at the present situation in the Middle East. Since 1947 the Israelis and Palestinians have been waging war over control of the territory. In this latest round hundreds of Palestinians have been killed.

But the end of the attack is filled with uncertainty. The Israelis "have clear military goals but no political vision for how to end the confrontation," according to a wire story carried in the State Journal Dec. 20.

For 61 years Israel has depended on military superiority to "win" this political discussion. To keep Israel "safe," the United States has consistently supplied Israel funds for weapons, $2.4 billion in 2008, according to "Intelligence Report: Who Get U.S. Foreign Aid," Parade, Dec. 14.

What has this overwhelming military might bought Israel? Time -- the ability to delay coming to a mutually satisfactory compromise with the Palestinians, an extension of its borders, and the freedom to ignore international law.

But these advantages have come to Israel at great cost. It bears the animosity of neighboring countries and most of the Muslim world, it's constantly on the alert for possible attack and it's regarded as a pariah nation.

War has not been the solution for the Israeli-Palestinian crisis. War is a continuing problem.

-- Lee Brown, Madison

Fix 911 problems, don't just cast blame

I was surprised that the Dec. 28 editorial on excessive secrecy did not mention the unexplained suspension of the dispatcher who took the 911 call from Brittany Zimmermann. That horrific murder and the 911 details need to be known to assure everything that could have been done was done.

This undefined blame of the dispatcher reminds me of the joke about the manager who tells an employee that he is going to publicly blame him for the department's recent failure.

The employee becomes incensed and states, "But I didn't do anything wrong!" The manager says, "I didn't say you did anything wrong. I said I was going to blame you."

This is only funny in the abstract and when it does not ruin your own professional reputation. If things are wrong, let's fix them to prevent future errors, not just try to blame people.

-- Philip E. Klein, Madison

We can't afford light rail's red ink

Mayor Dave Cieslewicz seems to support a light rail system in Madison, but I do not think that's an infrastructure that we can afford, ever.

There are only four metropolitan areas in the United States in which ridership on these rail systems is near 10 percent of the population, and those rail systems are always financially in the red.

Metropolitan Madison would be better off to improve and expand the existing bus transit system, which will still lose money because of low ridership.

If light rail in large metropolitan areas such as Chicago cannot pay for itself, why would we in Madison ever think that a light rail system would be anything other than a cute but very large black hole?

-- John H. Pickle Jr., Lodi

Outsourcing hurts local businesses

I find it ironic that the Government Accountability Board's new Web site, created by a company from Connecticut, was launched using the Minneapolis skyline for the Madison home page. Serves them right.

Why did this project need to be outsourced? I can't believe there aren't many Web site development companies in Wisconsin that would have done it right the first time, and probably for less than the $1 million that the board is paying this out-of-state firm.

This is just another example of unnecessary outsourcing of business. It's pathetic that our lawmakers can't understand why Wisconsin is reputed as being unfriendly to small business.

Add to outsourcing the fact that Workforce Development cut funding for programs that assist in the creation of small businesses, and it's not surprising.

Funding to create businesses that would pay taxes to the state is cut, hurting businesses that would hire Wisconsin residents, who, in turn, would pay income taxes to the state. Go figure.

Would the erroneous mailing that showed people's Social Security numbers have happened if we had used a Wisconsin-based business? We'll never know. But I'd bet that a Wisconsin-based business would know the difference between the Madison and the Minneapolis skylines.

-- Joan Pape, Blue Mounds