Letters to the Editor
Ralph Kramden
Published Letters: 30
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At Passover, a young Republican's fancy turns to thoughts of plagues
[Read the article: The right-wing brain in action]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What an appalling mistake we made - failing to exterminate all "Sunni men between the ages of 15 and 35."
No doubt they rejected the notion because it was too Jewish.
(with apologies to Mel Brooks)
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SusanMc - I'm with you
[Read the article: Our benevolent surveillance state]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If the federal government is going to collect information, why not use it to good effect? It wasn't on record that Cho was using any prescription drugs, but it was known that Cho had some serious problems, and those problems were communicated to campus police and university officials. He was briefly committed to a mental health facility.
Yet Cho was able to buy his firearms legally, breezing through the background check with no alarms raised.
If one claims that they don't want government collecting information like this, then because of the gun laws as they exist in this country, one has to accept that these incidents are highly likely, if not inevitable.
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One wonders
[Read the article: Gonzales' Fan Club of One]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Just how badly would Gonzalez would have to do in order to lose the confidence of this administration?
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Are you sure that we want *good* questions for a Republican debate?
[Read the article: Fred Hiatt and the "Triumphant Top Gun"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]So you want to "ensure that the GOP candidates are forced to answer real questions"?
This might make such a "debate" too interesting. It might intrigue the "center" and give them a reason to support a Republican. I'd prefer a forum with insipid questions, boring and unsubstantive.
On the other hand, that's how we got here, isn't it?
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Shorter Tony Snow
[Read the article: Gonzales' yearlong effort to block Comey's testimony]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Go ahead. Impeach us. I dare ya. I double-dog dare ya."
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@jackifus
[Read the article: Right-wing noise machine: Plame not covert]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Since Ms. Plame was indeed covert at the time that Armitage outed her, I'm curious why there were no charges brought against him?
If I recall correctly, Armitage didn't know (or should have known) she was covert. I think that's the same reason Libby wasn't tried for the outing, only the lying - Fitzgerald couldn't establish beyond reasonable doubt that Libby knew Plame was covert.
Now, the original crime was perpetrated by whoever directed Libby to spread the "Plame is CIA story" around, as long as that person knew Plame's actual status.
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Glenn, you *can't* be serious...
[Read the article: The great right-wing fraud to repudiate George W. Bush]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Rush Limbaugh, November 8, 2006 (Bush approval rating -- 31%):
Liberalism didn't win anything yesterday; Republicanism lost. Conservatism was nowhere to be found except on the Democratic side
This must be a fabricated quote. Certainly Rush said "Democrat side".
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Talk about burying the lede!
[Read the article: Sen. David Vitter, a leading Christian social conservative]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You forgot it entirely! Unless the reader knows to click on the link, one might not realize Vitter was a client of the DC madam.
Not that *I* think there's anything wrong with that. (Being the madam's client, not burying the lede, that is.)
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"Working the refs" works. Slowly, but it works.
[Read the article: Little outbursts of journalism -- what causes them?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Given how systemic and deeply rooted all of these political and media failures are, what is the point of writing about them day after day, and complaining on a case-by-case basis about them? Why beat the same drum every day?
As frustrating as it can be, this sort of day-to-day pressure on individual journalists and political figures is the most effective weapon possessed by blogs, websites and other organizations devoted to forcing into our public discourse various perspectives and narratives which are otherwise excluded.
[...]
Slow and incremental progress of this sort is the only kind that is viable, and ultimately, the only kind that really matters.
This is an excellent point. The rabid right-wing has been working the refs for over 20 years, and the result is the sorry state and extremely limited scope of our mainstream media.
Push-back like this is the best way to rehabilitate our discourse.
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Glenn, you're missing the point
[Read the article: Bush's magical shield from criminal prosecution]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Things are just so much more efficient this way.
Bush was just going to use commutation and pardon to allow his administration's officials to flout the law anyway. Preemptively blocking prosecution like this just short-circuits the process.
No muss, no fuss!
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What disturbs me most
[Read the article: The mainstream, sane, serious Joe Lieberman]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]is not that Lieberman is a complete Middle East hawk, and embarrassingly close to Christian evangelicals who only love Jews and Israel as a means to an end. This we have known for a long time now.
It's that Lieberman, a most literate and educated man, would let the phrase "Eesh Elo Kim" go out under his letterhead. (It's "Elokim" - one word.)
Sorry for the nitpicking, but this nit was too big to ignore.
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I'd quibble with one thing
[Read the article: Reply to Dan Drezner]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]and I don't think it's a minor point.
Glenn writes:
In the last 10 years alone, we bombed Iraq, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, Sudan, Afghanistan again, Somalia, and Iraq again.
This is true. But in the case of Iraq the first time, we were acting as an arm of the UN. And in the case of Yugoslavia, we were acting as an arm of NATO. (Not sure about Somalia.) We do spend more on our military than the rest of the world combined, after all, and the alliances we belong to look to us to be their "big stick".
For the purposes of "imperialism", therefore, the Iraq and Yugoslavia bombings aren't really on our account.
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@Paul
[Read the article: Reply to Dan Drezner]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The participation of client states in a military action doesn't negate the label of Imperialism. It actually rather enhances it since the actions of the allied states are also controlled by the Imperial power.
Are you claiming that the states of NATO and the states comprising the Security Council of the UN are controlled by the US? If so, it doesn't pass the laugh test.
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Re: Update V
[Read the article: Joe Klein's defense of warrantless eavesdropping and telecom amnesty]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The problem, of course, is that political officials do not generally get into office and then expend any real efforts to diminish their own power.
The irony, of course, is that once a Democrat (especially Hillary, but any Democrat will do) gets into office, see how quickly oversight by Congress and especially by the MSMedia materializes as if from nowhere.
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In honor of Update VII
[Read the article: Harry Reid works to ensure telecom amnesty, warrantless surveillance]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]A West Wing quote:
People want leadership, and in the absense of genuine leadership, they'll listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone. They want leadership. They're so thirsty for it they'll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there's no water, they'll drink the sand.