How to draw a bad cartoon

To the editor:

An effective political cartoon takes an actual situation and applies techniques such as satire, exaggeration and caricature in order to make a valid point in a humorous way. But the cartoon must have some basis in fact in order to make sense.

The political cartoon by The Arizona Republic’s Steve Benson, published in Monday’s Review-Journal, depicting U.S. Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham conducting a witch hunt against U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, fails in this respect. Is Mr. Benson saying that Susan Rice never appeared on numerous Sunday morning shows saying that the attack on our Libyan consulate was the result of a video? Or that the murder of one of our ambassadors is trivial and not worth investigating?

This cartoon’s only message is to serve as an example of a bad cartoon.

James Moldenhauer

North Las Vegas

Wind costs

To the editor:

In her Wednesday letter, Sarah Propst, executive director of the Interwest Energy Alliance, reveals the true cost of wind power.

The 30,000 megawatts of power generated by wind in a 15-state territory, using the current NV Energy billing rate of 11.5 cents per kilowatt, would not begin to pay off the $60 billion capital investment she touts in her letter. But the investment is mainly government money, so who cares, right?

Henry Schmid

Las Vegas

Obama’s legacy

To the editor:

President Obama is worrying about his legacy, according to reports.

Are you kidding me? Because the mainstream media are in the tank for this president, he could be responsible for wiping out half the population with the plague and his “legacy” would be skillfully saving the other half despite the insurmountable obstacles he faced because of George W. Bush, the Republican Party, global warming and racism.

J.J. Schrader

Henderson