Letters to the Editor
damaged goods
Published Letters: 38
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not only doesn't mccain appear to be very smart...
[Read the article: John McCain's Vietnam-based view of war]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...he gives the signs of being uncoachable. vietnam is a flashpoint issue for him, but in fact it runs across the board for him. his temper is legendary, he seems to hold fast to misguided notions, and when he's called on something, like when he backtracked from his admissions that he isn't too sharp on economic issues, he lies or tries to joke his way past it.
that is, he is another in a series of not-the-brightest-of-students who wins the popularity contests that presidential elections have become.
george bush has set the bar stupefyingly low, but the repubs have had a preference for putting "the guy you'd want to have a beer with" out front for a generation. (and why is it never noted that you COULDN'T have a beer with bush, btw?)
i've been relying on the tendency of the american electorate to swing back and forth from intelligence to dunces in its choices for president. lord knows we've been overdue for someone in command of policy issues. yet for the first time i'm thinking that in the inevitable debate or debates pitting mccain vs. obama, or even clinton, the dem will mop up the floor with him on facts, figures and tactics, and he'll STILL get a ride from the media and the public because he's supposedly more of an affable fellow.
there's your october surprise.
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i saw kristol a couple weeks ago...
[Read the article: The NYT's latest Kristol embarrassment]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...rode in an elevator within him, actually. it was all i could do not to throttle the son of a bitch. he's short, tending toward stout, and chronically red-faced, as if his body knows to be embarrassed by what the sour spirit within it is doing.
he struck me as nothing more or less than a dweeb who had been mocked and ridden hard in middle school and has spent the rest of his life working out his impulses to bully his perceived tormentors. a typical enough arrested-development psychosis, but one that happens to be in the position to make the entire planet pay for his unquenchable unhappiness.
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the elevator within...
[Read the article: The NYT's latest Kristol embarrassment]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...rode in an elevator within him, actually.
yuk. inside william kristol? whatever the opposite of fantastic is, that's what THAT voyage would be.
elevator WITH him, not within. sigh. preview is my friend, preview is my friend.
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Carney = Lieberman
[Read the article: Major new ad campaign -- aimed at Blue Dog Rep. Chris Carney -- begins]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]in the new administration, blue dogs will be the primary enablers of right-wing policies. it's not so much that they're ideologically kindred spirits. it's that they're kept by the same corporate sponsors as their republican stablemates.
beyond that, any democrat who would be seen in the same sentence as douglas feith deserves expulsion for his or her embrace of a war criminal. really, carney's district deserves better representation than someone that stupid.
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this is exactly the mindset...
[Read the article: Michael O'Hanlon's defense of his pro-war record]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...that these "serious" policy wonk thumbsuckers have, that these forever wars are merely the extension of academic parlor games in thinktanks. the atrocities that are unleashed? those have nothing to do with them. please pass the chardonnay, would you?
so here it is:
being right on analysis of the consequence of national actions -- not important.
giving cover to the monied interests that seek to profit from the chaos and suffering of others -- all important.
being proven wrong, laughably, dismissively not important.
and all those folks who think such things as the truth matter, that opposing fearmongering and preemptive war matter, that trying to save the country's soul matters, -- well, such people who care so urgently are hideously naive and boring to boot.
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the new republic article is useful only in showing the fundamental...
[Read the article: The California marriage decision and basic civics]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...lack of understanding of how our nations -- a nation of laws, not men -- is supposed to operate.
i typically ascribe right-wing punditry to intellectual dishonesty, i.e., the writer knows better than to believe whatever sophist argument s/he is supporting. that is, to me, the greatest sin a columnist can commit.
in this case, i think that sadly, i don't think the brookings clod is advancing a subversive line. i think he is merely revealing a widespread ignorance about how the united states government is supposed to operate, based on the principles written out in the constitution.
(one of the less-noted effects of the relentless right-wing assault on the constitution is how over time the constitution has come to to be less highly regarded by the public, which now sees it as a set of fungible guidelines to be easily dispensed with when cirumstances are said to demand its shelving. the constitution: just another position paper.)
but the courts have always been the branch of government to defend the rights of the minority against the tyranny of the majority. democracy is not the rule of the mob; it's precisely that tension, that the law, and its correct application by the courts is supposed to balance.
another bush legacy.
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this is terrific reporting...
[Read the article: How telecoms are attempting to buy amnesty from Congress]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...and with a purpose. would that regular press types recall how to do this. note that this material, about fees paid to lobbyists, is available to dedicated journalists like glenn (or, say, charlie savage on the bush signing statements). the trick is, you've got to do the work. and there's no percentage in that in today's decadent-media environment.
it's also possible there are causes pursued by lobbyists that dovetail with the public good, though those are few and far between, lost in the general lawless climate.
because that's mainly what lobbying is these days: rigging "the game" that the rest of us call laws. and those regulations they can't write in their own interests from the outset, they have to pay more to rewrite once they violate them.
tsk, the high price of doing business without accountability.