Letters to the Editor
Nequals1
Published Letters: 334 Editor's Choice: 7
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Pure Political Corruption
[Read the article: Democrats' responsibility for Bush radicalism]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The sole means to arrest this purposeful march into fascism is to vote out every single elected official who has not done the will of the people at every level - local, regional, state and federal - and then to purge the partisan hacks from every agency of government until We, the People are back in control of our government.
The governed have not consented to what is being perpetrated in our names.
The Constitution is in flames.
It will be ashes in the elections in 2008 do not fully purge the corruption fully from all levels of government.
Glenn, your post today is a clarion call, and it requires lanterns in every belfry and true patriots to act.
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Aim, Strategy, Principle and Belief
[Read the article: The strong and tough Democrats]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]They waited around, as always, with no aim and no strategy and no principle and no belief and allowed the President to dictate their behavior and control the debate.
No - I disagree on this point.
Their aim is to please their contributors, donors, corporatists and lobbyists.
Their strategy is to try to wait out the remainder of the term and try to blame Republicans.
Their principle is to win at all costs.
Their belief is that their self interest trumps party which trumps constituents, which trumps the Constitution.
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Sitting on the Constitution
[Read the article: Chris Dodd on FISA, habeas corpus and Democratic capitulation]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If only all senators and representatives would quit sitting on their copies of the Constitution in their pockets, open them up and READ what's written.
Dodd said, "I will never forget, it was a night in New Hampshire back last fall, and I'm talking about health care and talking about education and something else -- and I said "I just want to share with you something I care about." And I talked about this and the room exploded. And I was startled and I realized, "God, people really do care." I thought I was the only one who did.
Why would he thinks that no one cares unless he isn't making himself available and LISTENING to his constituents. Methinks this statement is refreshingly honest and reflects the isolation that senators and representatives keep from their actual voting constituency. When the vast majority of their interactions are with campaign donors, corporatists and lobbyists, it's no wonder that they are ignorant of their voting constituencies needs, wants and desires.
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Smear and Fear Republicans
[Read the article: Smearing Bill to get Hillary?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Republicans must surely have a death wish. This is so old, and it projects just what "values" they don't have. they live to wallow in the filth that they dredge up.
Three quarters of the American public is so over that and over Republicans' slime machine.
Let the Republicans implode on the excrement of their own making, and let the rest of the country get on with restoring the Constitution, protecting our civil rights and repairing the gross and widespread catastrophic damage that they have done to the country and its citizenry.
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Bush was working WITH Libya, Not Against It
[Read the article: The brutal, uncivilized Libyans]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It's the oil, Glenn.
Not only did Rice and Bush not condemn Libya, but they actively promoted US/Libyan relations around tourism, and oh yes - oil. A look around the Department of State website will find no statements of condemnation - or of addressing the wrongful imprisonment of the nurses and physician at all. It was the global science and healthcare communities who kept the issue alive and who pointed out the fallacy of the charges and the evidence which proved the innocence of the accused. It was the international diplomatic community sans the US which intervened to negotiate the terms, conditions and release of the workers while the US pursued its oil interests in Libya.
But let's get back to the torture definition, shall we?
US aid workers, tourists, contractors, US citizens serving on foreign assignments, journalists and military personnel who are captured will have NO protections against torture since Bush defines it as solely methods which directly cause death or organ failure, or are intentionally obscenely humiliating (and who can prove intentional). Those quaint Geneva Conventions are out the window for Americans - all Americans.
Where is Congress' remediation of this?
The US not only is no longer on moral high ground, but it has made low the high ground and is rapidly sinking into the quick sand.
We, the People, are having no effect on moving Congress to act to impeach Bush, Cheney and Gonzales, to enact corrective legislation to restore the Constitution - or to do the will of We, the People, in any meaningful way.
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Follow military healthcare developments
[Read the article: Various items]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]and you will know the strategy. The evac hospital in Balad was made enormous and permanent. The Commanding officer crowed about it in detail several weeks ago, and he specifically bragged about its permanence using the same 10 year timeframe. It's staffed by both USAF and US Army personnel, and it's located strategically for missions in both Iraq and Iran.
At a time when no target date has been set for a U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq, the new Balad hospital looks ready for an extended U.S. stay.
“It’ll be good for 10 years, depending on how well you take care of it,” said Col. Brian Masterson, the hospital commander.
The new hospital — four steel-walled, interconnected buildings erected at a cost of $9.7 million — should also end problems with electrical power too erratic for some sophisticated equipment, with feeble air conditioning that allowed afternoon temperatures to top 100 degrees inside the tents, and with water supplies sometimes insufficient for intensive treatment of burns.
The U.S. command had vetoed a proposal for a $43 million “brick-and-mortar” hospital to replace the tents, to avoid giving the U.S. military presence too permanent a look, Masterson said. The new facility also wasn’t designed for eventual handover to Iraq’s health care system, he said.