Letters to the Editor
damaged goods
Published Letters: 42
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so many indicators of civic life out of balance...
[Read the article: Various items]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]1) the thing we have to realize going forward is that out of power, the right wing will become even more dangerous. you'll recall in the 90s how gordon liddy on his radio show said the way to deal with federal agents is to shoot at their heads -- and he won a talk-radio industry award. this shrieking now is laying the media landscape groundwork for truly horrifying assassination scenarios.
2) the eternal "in club" mentality between washington journalists and their so-called sources will never change. the names will, but not the behavior. because of this, both sides are absolutely fair game for mocking and disrespect. the funny thing is, such calling to account is the only thing that gets these highly serious narcissists in their stuffed shirts or pleated skirts in an uproar.
3) On FISA, my assumption, glenn, has been from the beginning that warrantless wiretaps were used to eavesdrop on every democrat and compile comprehensive files of information with which to blackmail into compliance. this doesn't give the dems a pass -- cowardice is as cowardice does -- but it explains why even now, with congress in their control, they fail to stand up against clearly illegal behavior.
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the true Bush Doctrine...
[Read the article: George Bush's latest powers, courtesy of the Democratic Congress]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...is on display here. help me break the law, and you'll never do time.
it's a family heirloom. bush 41 did it for his buds caspar weinberger and george shultz (causing lawrence walsh's head to explode along the way); bush 43 has done it for scooter libby and a cast of hundreds. extending it to corporations? there's your W legacy.
the saddest part of this is how equal a partner the democrats are in this. there's never been more clear evidence that our "representative" government only represents the interests of the sociopaths at the top and their corporate allies. and if that makes me sound like a flaming loon, so be it. these days, reality has a well-known flaming-loon bias.
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oh, one other thing...
[Read the article: George Bush's latest powers, courtesy of the Democratic Congress]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...if this reading is correct (a nixonian "if the president does it -- or says it's ok -- it's legal") what exactly differentiates a president from a monarch?
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is there any chance at all...
[Read the article: George Bush's latest powers, courtesy of the Democratic Congress]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...that the law itself can be ruled unconstitutional? i realize it would take a couple of years for it to even reach the supt court, but i am looking for some sign that all is not lost.
oh hell, who am i kidding?
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don't know why the true conservatives don't join the fight...
[Read the article: What Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer and Fred Hiatt mean by "bipartisanship"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...oh, that's right, there aren't any.
meanwhile, obama won't do thing one to oppose this. he's hardly going to derail his financing express by ticking off the telecoms. he's all about making nice with the corporations, not scaring them.
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back in 2000 it was possible...
[Read the article: The New Republic syndrome]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...to imagine the rise of a third party -- the greens seemed to be the one in best position to gain ground.
the repugs had been sufficiently discredited by their baying at clinton's heels to prove themselves to be nothing more than the chewtoy of the talk-radio right-wing foamers. the dems, with clinton as repub lite, had positioned itself to become the great middle-ground party that the dlc and new republic types got so hot and bothered for. that left the greens to grow solidly on a base of surefooted, relentless progressive policies.
then came al gore, george bush, the biased media and, let's not forget, scalia and the assassins of justice.
ever since the watergate reforms, which granted public financing of campaigns essentially to the two major parties (and the occasional exception), this country's body politic has been rotting from within based on this stagnant system that only pretends to give voters choices. at the time, astute political correspondents noted that what watergate reforms had done was to codify the two-party system at the expense of third parties; indeed, they called it the incumbent protection act.
maybe the way to look at obama's renunciation of public financing is as a way to reassess how campaigns are financed, and thus, how alternate parties may grow. hey, a false hope is better than no hope at all.