Letters to the Editor
Frank Smith, Bluff City, KS
Published Letters: 162 Editor's Choice: 15
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Fiddling while Rome burns
[Read the article: Ask the pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Reading these musings while C-Span is replaying Thursday's congressional hearings on the FAA's failure to oversee carrier maintenance provides a more than bit of vertigo.
Inspectors and supervisors, way too cozy with the airlines they were supposed to be monitoring, ignored major problems and persecuted or ignored whistleblowers, while we in the cheap seats blithely relaxed, no more aware of danger than were the tulips Smith was hauling from Belgium to NYC.
I was reminded of the old Bob Newhart routine, as some congressmen probed FAA execs, about the "Grace L. Ferguson Airline and Storm Door Company. This is where deregulation has brought us: Traveling in flying deathtraps that have somehow managed to stay aloft.
ATA has just declared bankruptcy, the TV crawl tells us. How many more carriers are pushing the fiscal limits and skimping on maintenance and self-inspections in order to stay ahead of their own bond holders?
I look forward to The Pilot's comments in his next column.
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The Boxer rebellion
[Read the article: Sizing up Petraeus on Iraq]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Though the Salon article doesn't mention their objections, I particuarly appreciated Russ Feingold's and Barbara Boxer's questioning of the Petraeus-Crocker duo.
Boxer was particularly effective. With the huge surplus that the Iraq government has, as a result of oil revenues, and the huge domestic deficits we have thanks in no small part to the war, why isn't it paying for things such as costs of hiring the Awakening?
The answer, or non-answer from Petraeus and Crocker was that they'd bring it up when they went back. The truth is that Maliki's Shiite government isn't going to spend a dime to pay Sunnis not to kill Americans, or the Iraqi army or police, or anyone for that matter, including "al Qaida in Iraq."
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Craig? Too far north and west!
[Read the article: Larry Craig has David Vitter's back]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Vitter needs southern support.
Maybe Mark Foley can help.
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Blowback rules!
[Read the article: How Iraq spawned wider terrorist chaos]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Any student or expert in Near East policy could have predicted the five-years-plus chaos that has reigned in Iraq. Anyone without neocon leanings, that is.
What's happened in this unfortunate town should come as no surpise. What is a surprise is that the author predicts that nothing but a "victory" by the U.S. in Iraq can help the situation.
There is no victory to be had. Our expedited abandonment of the occupation is our best course for preserving our economy, our armed forces, and may force the country of Iraq to deal with its own problems. Sticking around will only recruit more jihadists.
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That's $1.1 million in campaign funds for attorneys
[Read the article: The GOP's "Culture of Corruption" lives on]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Don Young is toast. The FBI bloodhounds have been sniffing around his butt for almost two years, after the richest man in Alaska (Don's biggest contributor) turned state's evidence. If Don's lucky, he'll get Senator Ted Stevens for a roommate.
If Alaskans are lucky, Don won't get indicted until after the primary. Any one of the three Democrats running would be a vast improvement on Don.
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The Times is right, but not for the right reason
[Read the article: New York Times editorial scolds Clinton ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The demographic in Tuesday's turnout hugely favored Clinton. Three women voted for every two men. Only 10% of Pennsylvania's population is African-American. Obama took urban and suburban Philadelphia voters by a huge margin. During the right-wing Disney-owned, ABC "debate," the two moderators including former Clinton-staffer George Stephanopolous pecked incessantly over drivel while Hillary stood smiling by. Hillary has far more "baggage" than Obama, but we heard none of it in Pennsylvania because she's doing corporate America's work for them and they know who the real danger is.
Despite those handicaps, Obama's loss in the delegate count was minimal. By midnight, Philly's vote lacked 3% in completion. Since Obama was leading 2-1 there, he'll pick up another 1,200 votes over Hillary before the count is complete. She won't regain any in uncounted votes on balance in the rest of the state.
So Obama, really the sole target of negative campaigning, from Hillary, McCain, the right wing and the media, didn't do badly at all.
If you look at the other side of the ledger, however, something very interesting took place. The Republican primary turnout was incredibly uninspiring. Even sure-thing McCain showed signs of weakness. Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee together picked up more than one of every four hard core votes.
Hillary was toast before Pennsylvania's primary and made no progress toward making any serious dent in Obama's insurmountable lead.
The sad part is that Hillary is unable to admit that, just as Bill could not confess to his indiscretions. Until the party pushes her to that admission, she will drag Democrats down even further than she already has done. What can she be waiting for? "Obama had sex with Reverend Wright. Film at 10!"?
She will obviously be hard pressed to split Oregon and Indiana and will get slammed in North Carolina and Puerto Rico. South Dakota and Montana are inconsequential. That leaves Kentucky and West Virginia and not enough delegates to make a dent. She's 20 points down with one minute on the clock and the ball is on the 50 yard line. At this point, it doesn't matter who has possession.
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"Amazing success" my posterior
[Read the article: Charlie Wilson's unfinished war]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]While every country deserves to run itself, to sort out its own problems, it would be hard to make an honest case that shovelling hundreds of millions of U.S. taxpayer money to corrupt and murderous warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar (with little going to other factions) helped liberate the country from the Soviets or accomplished anything else useful. The first pro-Soviet Afghan government, in fact, had established the education of women and made other reforms that gave them some credibility. What the U.S. accomplished covertly in Afghanistan was hardly an "amazing success" by any stretch of the imagination. We augmented and inspired the heroin trade that now dominates the world. We trained and armed the very mujaheddin that had as little regard for us as did Hekmatyar and proved their antipathy on 9/11.
The screenplay for Charlie Wilson's War was rewritten into a piece of fiction, thanks to pressures over the unendurable embarrassment that the obvious issues of blowback would have brought upon the Bush 41 White House.