Gadfly

Three cheers for Hayes. Gadflies are in the American tradition and there are too few of us who have the courage to stand up for our convictions and fight injustice. KAY ROBERTS Sherman Oaks

After a string of disruptions during Los Angeles City Council meetings, several members are considering changes in the rules that govern when the public can speak, as well as how the proceedings are televised. Council President Herb Wesson said one proposal would move the public comment period — when people are given two minutes to speak — to the end of the meeting. Another idea broached by Councilman Paul Koretz would do away with the longtime practice of airing council meetings on the city's government access television channel.

Re " 'Gadfly' Gets Unusual Reward -- a Victory," Oct. 28: City watchdog Fred Siegel of Lawndale has helped redefine the ubiquitous city hall gadfly: a civic-minded resident who does his or her homework before stinging deserving, inept bureaucrats and their tunnel- visioned city councils. Lino S. Paras Duarte

Tempers flared at Los Angeles City Hall on Tuesday when a councilman said he was tempted to "clock" a speaker who called out "Heil Hitler" during a public comment period. The spat began when political gadfly Michael Carreon stood up during the City Council meeting to talk about problems in the 14th Council District, where he lives. When Carreon turned his attention to several council members who he said weren't paying attention, Councilman Tom LaBonge, who was chairing the meeting, stopped him. LaBonge instructed Carreon not to address his comments to specific members, as per city rules.

Re "County Supervisors' Bid to Stifle Gadfly Draws Fire," Nov. 26: It seems that anyone who exercises the hard-won right to freedom of speech is deemed a gadfly, traitor or worse. I recall a couple of stifled gadflies named Jefferson and Franklin who stirred up trouble with the previous "Mad" King George. They decided to put their objections in writing. It began, "When in the course of human events.... " Tony Pereslete Culver City

If "Expect No Light Verse From San Francisco's Poet" (Feb. 16) is correct, then Lawrence Ferlinghetti got it wrong when he consulted Plato's "Republic" on the role of the poet as gadfly. There is no place in a well-ordered commonwealth for the poet, Socrates says. His creations are "poor things by the standard of truth and reality" and he appeals "not to the highest part of the soul, but to one which is equally inferior." If we let them, poets will set up a "vicious form of government in the individual soul."

Your editorial (Aug. 14) on Howard Jarvis, "Death of a Gadfly," is an insult to a great American who helped his fellow citizens combat the "spendocrats" in government who insist on overtaxing the homes of the taxpayer to pay for their overspending. Proposition 13 saved our home and everyone we know is grateful for the tax relief. Why then did Proposition 13 take root in the rest of the United States? It is because gluttonous governments in other states, not only California, were also exceeding reasonable tax rates and needed to be put on a fiscal diet.

The article "Excavation: Encino slow-growth gadfly gathers support in bid to delay construction of two office buildings" (May 10) connotes, in the use of the word gadfly, irresponsible journalism, bias on the part of the writer of a news item and a trivializing of the very real efforts and concerns of Gerald A. Silver on behalf of Homeowners of Encino. The most remote possibility that more of the "Lost Village of Encino" could lie beneath two redevelopment sites deserves, without question, further investigation, regardless of pro- or anti-development attitudes.

The Times is to be commended for its report revealing the Los Angeles County Supervisors' deplorable action (Metro, Oct. 7) restricting public comment at board meetings in the name of controlling the "gadfly" nuisance. It was duly noted the supervisors' action goes a lot further than restricting "gadflies" and it will substantially limit public debate on issues. These elected officials should be reminded to look over their left shoulder in the board room at the marble inscription above their heads where the Abraham Lincoln quote reads, "Government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth."

Re "Digging Into Seymour Hersh," Commentary, Jan. 27: Max Boot may not like the stories Hersh digs up or how he writes them. But here's a question: Boot is a well-connected fellow, at ease in the halls of power and among those in the know; what stunning, paradigm-shifting stories has he brought to the public square lately? Boot can fact-check Hersh and attack him all he wants -- the fact remains that while there are dozens of Max Boots beating the drums of war and frantically spinning rationalizations in defense of the powers that be, Hersh is a virtually peerless gadfly.

They can be counted on, week in and week out. Whatever the issue before the Compton City Council, Joyce Kelly, William Kemp and Lynn Boone will be there. They'll arrive early, clutching manila envelopes stuffed with documents. They'll be impeccably dressed: Kelly in a smart outfit with matching hat, Kemp in dapper suit, tie and shoes of ostrich or alligator leather, Boone in high heels and a perfectly coifed do ? blonde by L'Oréal. They will sit in the front row, or on the aisle with easy access to the podium.

WASHINGTON -- Shirley Sherrod has filed a defamation suit against Andrew Breitbart, the conservative gadfly she alleges triggered her firing by the Obama administration and ignited a national debate on race and reverse discrimination. Sherrod was the Georgia director for rural development for the U.S. Department of Agriculture until last June, when Breitbart posted online a heavily edited video excerpt of her speaking to a Georgia civil-rights group in which Sherrod, an African American woman, suggested that she once discriminated against a white farmer seeking help.

Andy Martin, a political gadfly who ran for President Obama's former Senate seat in 2010, announced Wednesday in New Hampshire that he will run for the Republican nomination for president on a "birther" platform. Speaking on WTPL radio, Martin cited the stated intention of Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie to settle questions about whether Obama was born in the state as one motivating factor. As one of the first candidates to announce his candidacy for the White House, Martin said he will force a broader discussion of the issue.

Edison International last spring allowed its shareholders for the first time to vote on the compensation of the utility giant's executives. It was a sweet victory for investor activist John Chevedden. Working out of his Redondo Beach condo, the retired engineer had put forward a resolution calling for such "say on pay" votes at Southern California Edison's parent company. The nonbinding proposal won the support of a majority of shareholders, setting the stage for management's change of heart this year.

The woman behind the infamous e-mail that aired criticisms of Sarah Palin to millions across the cyber-globe sat at a computer screen scrolling through unread messages, as dozens more popped into her inbox. "Let's see, what is the next one?" Anne Kilkenny said with a smile, killing time before her family attended a Saturday evening church service. She clicked and skimmed the words: "Hateful liar." She opened the next one: "I think you are nothing more than disgruntled and jealous in some way!!

Yosef "Tommy" Lapid, a Holocaust survivor and political gadfly who rose to prominence in Israel as a defender of secular Jews, died Sunday after a long battle with cancer. He was 76. Lapid had been hospitalized in Tel Aviv last week, less than a month after lighting the torch at Israel's commemoration of Holocaust Memorial Day.

Bouncing down a dirt road a couple of summers ago, past a gentle patchwork of barnyards and soybean fields in central Iowa, farmer Kent Friedrichsen strained over the steering wheel of his van and stared through the windshield in dismay. His soybean fields, where he'd used seeds developed by Monsanto Co. and sprayed with its popular glyphosate weed killer Roundup Ready, were littered with yellowed leaves and dead plants. Four days earlier, the plants had been waist high and emerald green.

Jerry Brown: What part of "you lost the primary election" don't you understand? JIM SHAFFER Hemet

Uber-gadfly Shirley Grindle has been saying for years that it's time to hand her job over to someone else. And what a job it is, enforcing the Orange County clean-government rules that Grindle is responsible for getting passed over the last 30 years. She scrutinizes campaign statements to see if candidates are taking donations above the limits. She keeps tabs on index cards, 50,000 of them boxed in a spare room at her house.

If he hadn't already, Sid Soffer now officially passes into local legend. Not for being a former Newport Beach restaurant owner, which he was. That'd be too tame. Not for being a former Newport Beach and Costa Mesa city council gadfly, which he most certainly was. That may come off as too trivial. Not even for being a millionaire who wore a bushy white beard, jeans and T-shirts and kept a collection of "classic" cars on his lawn. That would be too cliched.