Women's rights issues in Israel; defining success in Afghanistan; Newt Gingrich's rise in GOP polls

Re "A Republican's eccentric race for president," Nov. 14

You write that presidential hopeful Gary Johnson finds the campaign process "unsavory." The article continues: "He half-jokingly suggests campaign reforms that would force candidates to wear NASCAR-style jackets covered with the logos of all of their corporate sponsors."

Why "half-jokingly"? We voters should demand that all candidates include their sponsors' logos in every political ad and include a "brought to you by" line in every speech.

Gerald M. Sutliff

Bakersfield

Powerful sheriff

Re "Does the sheriff get a pass?," Postscript, Nov. 12

The public vote is basically a joke insofar as removing an incumbent from office. The voting public has to wait years to remove someone from office (in L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca's case, four years), whereas a commission or a mayor can do it within a reasonable time.

Four years is a lot of time for someone to continue making a mess of things. No one in office should slide by like that.

George A. Weinstock

Calabasas

For the labels

Re "Cigarette graphics go too far," Editorial, Nov. 9

We strongly disagree that U.S. District Judge Richard Leon was right to block graphic cigarette warning labels. There's no inconsistency between requiring effective labels on dangerous products and protecting 1st Amendment rights. Government requires warning labels on thousands of products, and legal precedents provide ground rules for regulation of commercial speech. Warning labels don't restrict speech; they provide information. A different federal judge upheld the warning labels as constitutional using this very reasoning.

The warning labels truthfully depict the consequences of smoking. In truth, the victims of the industry's marketing manipulations are the 400,000 Americans who die each year from smoking.

Matthew Myers

Washington

The writer is president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.