Letters to the Editor
Frank Smith, Bluff City, KS
Published Letters: 131 Editor's Choice: 15
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Why didn't Lincoln just let them secede?
[Read the article: Anti-Obama ad a winner for McCain]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Linda Daves, the head of the NC "R" party, is clearly a complete idiot. Her statements to NPR are worth a listen:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89922205
She indicates it is incumbent on her and her Latter Day Klan to air the ad. "I don't know why they're calling it offensive," she says, huffily. She's just trying to deal with "the information flying around." When asked if it isn't more important to discuss jobs and the economy, she says they've copiled "a dossier" on the latter, "to get that Democrat record out also." "I about fell out," she continued.
She brings to mind another famous southerner, George Wallace and his quote after losing a primary, “Well boys, no other son-of-a-bitch will ever out-nigger me again."
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And will he denounce Bob Perry?
[Read the article: Will McCain denounce Floyd Brown?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Given that Bob and his Swift Boat millions will be back, beaming from his success in turning Kerry from a decorated hero into a traitor who didn't really deserve all his medals, in favor of erasing the memory of the draft dodging Dubya's year of drunken Absence With Out Leave.
From Wikipedia, here's a look at the books on Bob's spending: "In the 2004 election cycle, Perry gave $4.45 million to Swift Vets and POWs for Truth, a 527 group; he was the largest single donor. In that cycle, Perry also donated $3 million to Progress for America Voter Fund. In all, he donated almost $8.1 million to 527 group in 2003-2004. In mid-2006, Perry donated $5,000,000 to found a new 527 group, the Economic Freedom Fund. The $5 million makes the group one of the top ten in the 2006 election cycle. He also appears to be the sole donor to Americans for Honesty on Issues. These groups have primarily paid for negative advertisements targeting Democratic Party candidates in the 2006 United States general election."
So what will be Perry's meme, this time around? My guess it will be the tried and true, "Negro predator of white virgins and innocent wives." You saw it first here.
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Excuse me. I didn't realize I was joining a virtual wagfest.
[Read the article: Opus]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I thought I might leave a clever remark, but it appears that all the pros are out for this one. I am clearly outclassed.
I personally feel that BB is likely faking the symptoms, probably to get "script docs" to write for opioids. I had a Brooklyn dope fiend bud, half a century ago, who used to trek from "writers" to "writers," as he complained of tic douloureaux. He had the symptoms down pat, twitched his way to an endless bounty of Dilaudids.
BB could truly be afflicted, of course. Spasmodic torticollis can be a symptom of hepatic failure, a consequence of lifelong dipsomania.
On the other hand, he may just be trying to malinger his way out of missing deadline.
"Torticollis" is derived from the the term "portcullis," a medieval gate. According to the famed lexicographer, Gus Portokalos, it is, as are all other words, derived from the Greek. http://www.amazon.com/My-Big-Fat-Greek-Wedding/dp/
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"I didn't realize" is wearing a bit thin.
[Read the article: McCain rejects John Hagee endorsement]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Hagee's and Parsley's views have long been well known, particularly Hagee's opinion that the Catholic church is "the Great Whore" and Parsley's opinion that the U.S. was founded for the purpose of wiping out Islam worldwide. If there is a heaven, Tom Paine must be there laughing his butt off.
McCain energetically sought out both of these ignorant radicals to endorse his candidacy. Apparently he and his campaign staff hoped that the truth about these nutcases wouldn't be taken up by the usually fawning and docile press.
Here's the latest, just hours after McCain repudiates Hagee:
McCain Rejects Parsley Endorsement
May 22, 2008 10:34 PM
ABC News's Bret Hovell reports: Sen. John McCain rejected the endorsement of a second controversial pastor Thursday, saying there is no place for the Rev. Rod Parsley's comments about Islam.
"I believe there is no place for that kind of dialogue in America, and I believe that even though he endorsed me, and I didn't endorse him, the fact is that I repudiate such talk, and I reject his endorsement," McCain said in a statement.
The rejection of Parsley's endorsement comes several hours after McCain rejected the endorsement of Pastor John Hagee, who made controversial comments about the Holocaust and Catholics.
ABC News's Brian Ross reported Thursday on "Good Morning America" that Parsley has called Islam "the mouthpiece of a conspiracy of spiritual evil," and that Islam is an "anti-Christ religion that intends through violence to conquer the world."
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Rationalization and cooptation in the press room
[Read the article: Scott McClellan comes clean]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm surprised that Bayard hasn't written more about McClellan's rationalization that the press should have been more diligent in exposing the lies when they were told. It's akin to a criminal suggesting that police incompetence, rather than himself, was really to blame for the latter crimes in a spree.
Possibly the worst yet most telling performance I saw by the collective complicit press was when Pentagon reporters guffawed together at Rumsfield's joking about how easy it was to kill Saddam's conscripts by the thousands in the air war, how little resistance Iraq could muster to the carpet bombing of civilians. Couldn't they visualize for an instance blood cascading from flattened homes, schools and hospitals? Did they still believe the "smart bombs" and "surgical strikes" hokum that were Bush 41's bywords in 1991?
Was the carnage in Iraq any different in effect than the collapse of the twin towers, the crushing of London under Vee bombs, or the watery entombment of thousands of sailors at Pearl? Would the capitol correspondents have laughed at those tragedies?
The problem is that "our" individual "enemies" are of little consequence to our press, whether they are children firebombed at Tokyo or Dresden a half century ago, or Iraqi kids sizzled by white phosphorus at Fallujah. Those laughs were perfect testimony to the dehumanization of those who are not "us." The war was only possible when waged on a dehumanized "enemy."