Letters to the Editor
Frank Smith, Bluff City, KS
Published Letters: 137 Editor's Choice: 15
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Alaska far more volatile than Salon guesses
[Read the article: A big November ahead for Senate Democrats]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Mark Begich is not only well thought of, he's the son of a popular Alaska Congressman who died with Hale Boggs in a plane crash.
Ted Stevens might easily be indicted before November.
Congressman Don Young also may be indicted. He's spent the bulk of his campaign funds on attorneys, but the FBI has him in their sights.
The electoral mood in Alaska also deserves mention. Three Republican legislators have been convicted thanks to FBI stings, searches, wiretaps and hidden cameras. They've been sentenced to years in the federal pen. A fourth awaits a trial ruling before proceeding. The ex-Governor's Chief of Staff pled guilty as did the richest man in Alaska, who has turned state's evidence and has the goods on Ted Stevens. An outgoing Senator has just been indicted and Stevens' son Ben, an ex-State Senate President, will probably be the next indicted. Billions of dollars in prospective taxes were lost to the corruption by the oil industry.
The only chance of Republicans retaining Young's House seat is for an uninspiring and obscure Lt. Governor to beat him in the primary and to somehow win the general.
The scandals have been 99.44% Republican. Obama, smelling blood in the water, is the first Democratic presidential candidate in decades to open a campaign office in Alaska.
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Disney = Fox in a tuxedo
[Read the article: Additional key facts re: the anthrax investigation]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Disney is a right wing corporation that conspired with others to elect George W. Bush president, one that hires hacks such as George Stephanopoulos to regurgitate attacks on Obama, Pelosi and other Democrats. Why should Glenn Greenwald be surprised that they are operating as a mouthpiece for the administration?
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If male prostititute "Jeff Gannon" can get White House press credentials...
[Read the article: Embedded reporters or Republican activists?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...why is anyone surprised that fake "reporters" from the McCain campaign are being repeatedly sent to Iraq to proselytize on the taxpayers' dime?
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"Reporting," my arse.
[Read the article: The National Enquirer responds]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What "reporting" was done here? The only way that the Enquirer could have known about Edwards' arrival at the LA Hilton was to have been part of the setup. They're known for paying for stories. How much money and to whom did they pay for this
"scoop?"
Was it the mother? Her boy friend? They simply couldn't have known about it any other way. There was no other way they knew the mom was going to be driven down from Santa Barbara. There was no way they would have known what rooms she had rented. There was no way they knew Edwards was actually going to show. There was no way they would have brought along enough individual teams of bozos to stake out the first, the fourth and the basement floors.
Edwards got his "just desserts," but he also was very cleverly set up.
Follow the money. This is not "reporting" by any stretch of the imagination. To call it such is to dignify it, and to simultaneously diminish the value and ability of the few actual reporters we have left in this country. This is, purely and simply, "entrapment, "bribing" and "spying." This is Linda Tripp conning Monica Lewinsky.
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FBI "explanation" wanting, but doesn't eliminate Ivins
[Read the article: What's the answer to this?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The FBI's theory that Ivins drove to Princeton during the work day to mail the letters clearly doesn't compute. The round trip from Ft. Detrick to Princeton is over 400 miles. With traffic delays, paying tolls, buying gas perhaps, etc., there's zero possibility he did this between 9:52 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. If he actually was so careful about avoiding scrutiny, he wouldn't have dared to drive fast enough to make it. It's more likely, if he did mail the anthrax, that he signed out and went home to make preparations for the trip, probably grabbed a snooze (as he'd worked late hours before the fateful day), and was more ready to make the drive the evening of the 17th. The unique envelopes from the local Maryland post office point to someone at Ft. Detrick having done the deed.
Usually, the FBI is more thorough in doing investigations. They should have dismissed the mid-day trip as impossible and focused on real possibilities. This should result in personnel action for whoever dreamed this one up and whoever signed off on it.
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McCain's poor judgment and incuriosity
[Read the article: John McCain, Internet dunce]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Kudoes to Salon for this article. I'm a long time policy wonk but didn't realize that he had Michael Powell on his lobbyist team. Powell's tenure at the FCC was an unmitigated disaster for the American public. McSame seems to have a knack for picking the worst of all possible advisors, from Joe Lieberman to foreign policy Iran/Iraq war hawk Randy Scheunemann (see Salon 8/1/08). Phil Gramm's demise leaves Nixon's "Jew counter" Fred Malek atop his staff "economic advisors."
The Senator's laziness is equally disturbing. I had no idea he chaired Commerce and Science for six years plus serving two more as ranking member. How was he able to occupy that position for so long, yet still be blissfully ignorant about the capabilities of the Internet in building a participatory and educated citizenry? That is simply astounding, nothing less than prodigious dereliction of duty. Again, lacking rudimentary computer skills, McCain must be entirely dependent on his ideologically driven groupies, greedheads and industry shills for information. I am reminded of Dubya's statement that he "read the headlines," as if that were an adequate measure of a grasp of issues. Surely the U.S. can't afford that sort of intellectual sloth for another four years.
We're a nation that elected Teddy Roosevelt, a crusader who wrote 40 books and read a book a day, even when he was president. How can we have come to this?