Letters to the Editor
Frank Smith, Bluff City, KS
Published Letters: 118 Editor's Choice: 12
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"As far left as it gets...," my butt.
[Read the article: "As far left as it gets..."]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]So the Arcata Green majority City Council chooses to condemn the war on Iraq and to think the Tyrannic Duo should be impeached? According to the latest Zogby polls, they're closer to mainstream America than is the Democratic party.
Frank Smith
Bluff City, Kansas
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The Twilight Zone
[Read the article: In the Twilight Zone]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Schell's able portrait of the isolation of "Coalition" forces and bureaucrats within the Green Zone fortress is a metaphor for worldwide U.S. foreign policy.
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What the "R"s aren't saying about McKinney & the Keystones
[Read the article: What we missed this week (McKinney, mostly)]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]NY Times: "But House Republicans have seized on the incident, saying Ms. McKinney's exchange with an officer assigned to protect the Capitol complex was in stark contrast to a Democratic Party campaign pledge this week to bolster American security and support law enforcement." "Actions speak louder than words," Sean Spicer, a spokesman for the House Republican Conference, said Friday in an e-mail message. "The Democrats' security agenda was revealed this week, and it is not something to be proud of." "Representative McKinney appearing with (Danny Glover) the star of 'Lethal Weapon' is not exactly the image you want to be sending," said Ron Bonjean, a spokesman for Speaker J. Dennis Hastert.
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I'm guessing Hastert's office has developed a serious case of amnesia regarding the incident where Congresswoman McKinney was grabbed from behind. Perhaps he could consult with Sen. Tom Coburn to see if there's a remedy, since the good doctor had a far worse incident happen in his own district. It might place this matter in better perspective. Perhaps Sen. Frist could look at the videos of both incidents and tell us exactly what the difference is, and why there should be complaints from his side of the aisle about one, but not the other. Could the diagnosis be a terminal case of partisanitis?
In 2001, Rep. J.C. Watts took two weeks to apologize for an incident in which he was clearly and solely at fault. Watts had not just "left his car unattended in a no-parking area," as the Times put it below, but abandoned it in front of the OKC departure entrance for quite some time. He then got extremely surly with the Oklahoma police sergeant who had ticketed his vehicle. The sergeant handled it very professionally, despite considerable guff handed him wholly without provocation by Watts, who sat on the Homeland Security Committee at the time. From the Watts' website: "While at the University of Oklahoma, Watts was quarterback for the Sooners, leading them to two consecutive Big Eight Championships and Orange Bowl victories. He was voted the Most Valuable Player in the 1980 and 1981 Orange Bowls. From 1981 to 1986, he started for Ottawa and Toronto in the Canadian Football League and was voted the Most Valuable Player of the Grey Cup, the CFL's Super Bowl, his rookie season." Watts is 6'2" and played college ball at 205#. I imagine he bulked up considerably in the Canadian league.
NY Times: October 10, 2001: Oklahoma: Apology For Airport Incident:
Representative J. C. Watts Jr., Republican of Oklahoma, who says he supports tighter airport security, had a confrontation with a police officer who ticketed him for violating new security rules at Oklahoma City's airport and has apologized, his office said. After being issued a $15 ticket for leaving his car unattended in a no-parking zone on Sept. 28, Mr. Watts, a member of the House Republican leadership, stuffed the ticket under the officer's badge.
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Immigrant rights in the heartland
[Read the article: "We're here. We're not going anywhere"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Business brought me from distant, depopulated, rural Kansas wheat farms to Wichita on April 10th. Taking advantage of that opportunity I joined a City Hall rally organized by Sunflower Community Action, accompanying 4,000 vocal but peaceful marchers past the offices of a typically unresponsive U.S. Senator Pat Roberts. Protesters displayed a broad Hispanic solidarity. It seemed the numbers of 2nd, 3rd and 4th generation Kansans gathered there were as large as those of their green card-holding and undocumented brothers and sisters. Marchers demanding respect and equity around the country are the harbingers of a new and welcome day in America.
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"You're doing a great job, Rummy!"
[Read the article: What Rumsfeld knew]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Shame on all those nay sayers who fail to appreciate the valiant efforts of our Secretary of Defense to protect us all! I've heard he'll get the recognition he truly deserves when he's featured as the cover boy in the next edition of Spankers' Monthly .
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The "oppressed" core
[Read the article: The truthiness hurts]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Colbert's criticism of the White House press corps was spot on. With the brave and increasingly marginalized exceptions of people like Helen Thomas, they have turned into a mob of timid, fawning stenographers.
Am I the only one who watched in disgust Rumsfield's press conferences a few years ago? He joked about the "Shock & Awe" that was butchering thousands of conscripts (as if a similar number of innocents were not being simultaneously blasted out of existence in homes, schools and hospitals) and the press corps responded like android laugh machines?
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He dances with them what brought him...
[Read the article: The Pombo mambo]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The Annapolis Center for Science-Based Public Policy has received $658,575 from ExxonMobil since 1998.
1998
$183,500 ExxonMobil Corporate Giving
Source: ExxonMobil 1998 grants list
2000
$190,000 ExxonMobil Foundation
40K project support 50K 'policy conferences'.100K 'discussion making light of scientific uncertainty'
Source: ExxonMobil Foundation 2000 IRS 990
2001
$27,500 ExxonMobil Corporate Giving
Source: ExxonMobil 2001 Annual Report
2001
$35,000 ExxonMobil Foundation
Source: ExxonMobil 2001 Annual Report
2002
$50,000 ExxonMobil Corporate Giving
childrenÕs asthma
Source: ExxonMobil 2002 Annual Report
2002
$70,000 ExxonMobil Foundation
general support
Source: ExxonMobil 2002 Annual Report
2003
$27,500 ExxonMobil Corporate Giving
General Operating Support/Annual Dinner
Source: ExxonMobil 2003 Corporate Giving Report
2003
$75,000 ExxonMobil Corporate Giving
Project Support
Source: ExxonMobil 2003 Corporate Giving Report
2004
$75, 000 ExxonMobil Foundation
Source: Exxon Giving Report 2004
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Bush practices
[Read the article: Bush practices]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Couldn't be more simian if he started throwing turds at the camera!