Letters to the Editor
damaged goods
Published Letters: 40
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how liberal has obama truly been, anyway?
[Read the article: The baseless, and failed, "move to the center" cliche]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]and don't hand me that national journal survey -- i really wish some campaign reporter or even someone on obama's staff would do a breakdown on its methodology. there is simply no way obama could be considered more liberal than kennedy, or feingold, or any number of true lions of the senate.
i would have liked to see obama make any of the crucial senate votes this year on a host of issues, none larger than the fisa bill that chris dodd singlehandledly shut down last winter. i am more than tired with the excuse that the campaign is too consuming for trips back to the capitol. if obama wants to lead, then he should show us how he would lead. DO SOMETHING.
seriously, the whole premise of obama's candidacy to nonprogressive voters has been that here is a black candidate who not only embodies the best of america's promise, he is nothing to fear. so i can understand this slide to the mythical center. don't upset the folks who aren't your base or give them any reason to come out and vote against you.
this breathtakingly cynical move got its most public display in 1996, when president clinton -- simply to dismantle a talking point for the dole campaign that had no chance anyway -- backed a republican welfare bill. keith olbermann, take note, just as now, the argument was: we'll take this off the table as a weapon for the republicans, and don't worry, we'll fix it later.
p.s. the welfare bill never got fixed. and the tone was set for government that turns its back on the neediest of its citizens. the fisa bill, keith, won't get "fixed." for you to believe in a secret plan makes you as credulous as those who believed nixon in 1968. (except you don't really believe, do you, keith? you are just feeling heat from your corporate handlers.)
as glenn amply demonstrates, this is part and parcel of the false shrine the washington political complex has built and kneels before. it's not leadership to reverse who you at least claim to have been. the republican lies told about democratic candidates for several elections now have been effective because they touch on a fundamental truth: people know when they're being played, and resent it. and this works into the repub strategy of putting mccain out there "as someone you know" -- even if we really don't.
once again, playing THEIR game by THEIR rules.
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thank you, thank you, thank you....
[Read the article: The right's game-playing with "dual loyalty" and "anti-Semitism" accusations]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...for this critique, glenn. i know you do so fully understanding that this now makes you a target for breathless abuse yourself. and yet you take it on, anyway. because that's what brave souls committed to intellectual honesty do. they see a thing, and call it by its proper name.
as opposed to the jewish neo-cons who, in the manner of cowards and bullies, tar all opponents with a baseless smear. they do harm to their own cause by crying wolf so promiscuously and eroding the charge of antisemitism in the process. nice work. but then, they're mostly hacks, and smearing is the only weapon they know.
when true antisemitism rises again in this country, and it will, it will be due in no small part to the very policies the neocons have foisted on the united states. eventually the dots will be connected in a way that will be "bad for the jews." but don't expect the neocons to take responsibility for that. accountability for them? nuh-uh.
it's no coincidence that now, as the neocon agenda chokes on its disastrous overreaching, its defenders become ever more inarticulate and sputtering in their rage. but that doesn't mean they don't still wield a true menace. (ref. cheney, "death throes")
and don't think they'll take their lumps and go away. not a chance. so we have to learn how to speak out against them. which is what glenn has done here.
bravo.
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we all know the democratic congress doesn't care...
[Read the article: Congress votes to immunize lawbreaking telecoms, legalize warrantless eavesdropping]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...about appearing to be weak before the greatness of the mighty bush.
no, this is about kneeling to the telecom lobby -- and by extension pledging fealty to their true masters, the corporate class that gives not a single rat's ass about the constitution, or really this nation, except as a market.
that dime's worth of difference nader prattled on about in 2000 looks to be less than 2 cents these days.
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man it is so great the dems control...
[Read the article: Democrats' strategy: Strength through bowing]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]..the congress, because they'll apply the breaks to these thuggish republicans who give bush everything he and his criminal cabal want.