Letters to the Editor
Frank Smith, Bluff City, KS
Published Letters: 131 Editor's Choice: 15
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Have a heart!
[Read the article: A new low in political advertising?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Not needing one at this point, I'm not a great fan of heart transplants. They cost the taxpayer or his or her health plan an enormous amount spread over all the beneficiaries, often to save the life of a patient who had been smoking most of his or her life. Actually, few are done after an individual is over 55, so I'm not a candidate either.
However, the attack on a recipient is hardly atypical for right-wing Republicans. More specifically, it is "lying with statistics." I think about 10% of all recipients die within a couple months of the operation: from there, the chances of post-transplant longevity improve dramatically.
Anyone who votes for a candidate who has launched such a scurrilous attack should be ashamed of themselves. Of course, anyone who votes for a liar who claims, as did Senator Saxby Chambliss, and many other Republican congressional candidates (Jim Ryun, are you listening?), that his or her opponent is in league with Osama bin Laden should also be ashamed of themselves.
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Bill's Belinda
[Read the article: Front-page news, again]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]For those who have other than merely prurient interests, and who would like to see photos of Belinda with her clothes on, there are more than 100 casual, unposed shots of the Canadian "politician" at: http://www.belinda.ca/photogallery.asp?print=true
Please skip the set taken at the Aurora high school graduation in the interests of expediency as it features mostly pictures of other people's children.
Lest Salon readers think Ms. Stronach is just a wealthy lightweight, a north-of-the-border version of heiress Kathy Harris, but without the $2,800 dinners with lobbyists, go straighaway to this hard-hitting interview: http://www.thehammer.ca/content/2004/0129/belinda_stronach.html
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Dizzying spin
[Read the article: Half empty or half full? Busby loses in California]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Bilbray's razor-thin victory may have been a gift from Busby who misspoke just before the election on the very issue he ran on - immigration. That gaffe alone may have cost her the election. What deserves further comment is the hordes of "volunteer" Republican congressional staffers, said to be 160, that descended on the 50th California District to work this election. A similar effort in 2000 resulted in a deliberate Miami riot that halted the recount and installed the loser as president. The public should ask how and why so many staffers can be dispatched to electoral struggles far from Washington. This was a taxpayer-financed Republcan win.
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Meanwhile, the NY Times bestseller list...
[Read the article: Memo to Coulter: Your Swift boat is leaking]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It appears that Coulter's most recent bilious blathering has once again found its target market. Her most odious domestic slatherings to date have been greeted by a rapid rise to #2 on the NY Times bestseller list. One would be hard put to find an uglier measure of the level of hatefulness in the U.S.
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Aaarrrgggg! Where's Sparky????
[Read the article: This Modern World]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It's Monday. How are we supposed to survive without Sparky 'splainin' stuff to us? HELP!!!
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It's not just about "macaca"
[Read the article: George Allen's "macaca" two-step]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Though Allen claimed that he wasn't commenting on Sidarth's ethnicity, he also had said, "Welcome to America and welcome to Virgina," or some similar remark.
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Objective reporting?
[Read the article: In Navajo country, racism rides again]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]When I read the story about the alleged resurgence of racism I expected Salon's typical objectivity. I am extremely familiar with racism in the U.S., and specifically its manifestations against Native Americans. I've lived in majority Native American communities for many years and am fortunate to number many among my dearest and oldest friends.
I successfully intervened just a few months ago in a situation where there were credible allegations of maltreatment of a Hispanic woman in the Farmington jail. I've been visiting the community for decades.
However, upon researching some of the facts presented in the Salon story, I was distressed to find out that the writer committed "sins" of reportial omission. One reader commented, correctly, that the Navajo killed in the Wal-Mart parking lot was extremely intoxicated. After police were called because it was reported that he was beating up his girl friend, he apparently attacked the responding officer and took his baton to assault him. An investigation found a thumb print on the baton and the post-mortem revealed a .21 BAC. That's equivalent to about 7 drinks in the previous hour and represents extreme intoxication. The presumptive level for DUI in New Mexico is .08.
The white killer who is mentioned as doing time for the death of a Navajo woman also killed other whites, and recently a white and two Navajos were killed by another tribal member allegedly in a dispute over methamphetamine.
Although it seems that Navajos are arrested at a disproportionate rate in Farmington, given that they constitute only 17% of its residents, it should be noted that many, many Navajos come to Farmington to shop, socialize and unfortuately, to drink. I should note that the dry reservation is enormous and that the crime rate is quite low. It is probably the most tidy group of communities I have ever visited, notwithstanding race, geography nor class. Judging all Navajos by the behavior of some in Farmington, or judging that city by what happens to them while they are there would be as unfair as judging all Cuban émigrés by the behavior of many Marielitos, or all college students by spring break in Aruba. Though most are decent, sober and responsible, there is a disproportionate number of those with behavioral problems represented in those who choose to travel to Farmington.