Letters to the Editor
Frank Smith, Bluff City, KS
Published Letters: 131 Editor's Choice: 15
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Republicans do have our heads spinning...
[Read the article: This Modern World]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I just posted this note to the right wing noise machine virtual rag, "Townhall." It refers to this article: http://www.townhall.com/columnists/column.aspx?UrlTitle=holy_moly,_mark_foley&ns=BurtPrelutsky&dt=10/09/2006&page=full&comments=true
Monday, October, 09, 2006 5:28 AM
When "facts" are not facts...
I've been hearing regularly from right wing commentators that "Gerry Studds had a relationship with a male page in 1983." Of course that's wrong, and they must know it even as they spin it. In Burt Prelutsky's article, Studds was said to be unapologetic, but of course he wasn't. He admitted it was inappropriate to have a relationship with any page, because they are in fact subordinates to House members. It was said he "turned his back," on his House colleagues, when his reprimand was read for the 1973 affair. Actually, he faced the Speaker. The same commentators must know that. A reprimand is the mildest form of action taken by the committee. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,953990-1,00.html
Then we're told that our hero, Newt Gingrich, demanded the expulsion of both the batchelor Studds and the married Dan Crane for these ancient affairs (Crane's was in 1979). Of course, Newt had an affair with a Congressional ultimate subordinate over which he dumped his second wife. http://www.robertscheer.com/1_natcolumn/99_columns/081799.htm
This adultery and betrayal was about the time Newt engineered the impeachment of Bill Clinton for having an affair with a subordinate.
In 1983, the House Ethics Committee spent eight months dealing with the Crane-Studds matters. In 2004 the Ethics Committee found Tom DeLay guilty of three serious violations and recommended reprimands. DeLay removed the Republican members who voted for reprimand, replaced them with his allies, then changed the rules, which shut down the committee for all of 2005.
It appears that Burt is hoping we're all unread, or retarded or something. Please don't continue to insult our intelligence with spin masquerading as "facts."
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Pharma-friendly Johnson
[Read the article: Blue-state backlash?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I spent years as a Hepatitis C activist and it was clear the the problem was as much one of the pharmaceutical industry as it was of the disease itself. Countless thousands were sacrificed on the altar of unrestrained profits and larcenous corporatism. During that time the industry had no better friend in Washington than Nancy Johnson.
Since then, I've become prominent as an advocate for seniors. It has been quite obvious that PhRMA has been as substantial an enemy of older Americans as it is of those in the grip of terrible diseases.
Medicare Part D has been, predictably, the biggest fiscal and policy failure of the Bush administration, after Iraq. It is quite simply, a trillion dollar giveaway to the profiteers who have been the most irresponsible element of the health care crisis in America. It is inconceivable that this piece of special-interest, corporate welfarism could have passed without the energetic, unswerving and well-paid support of Nancy Johnson.
It's time to throw the bums out, and Johnson deserves nothing better than the bums' rush.
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Tony's snow job - Waterboarding as a charitable fund raiser
[Read the article: Like it never happened]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]One would like to be a fly on the wall when Snow confronts Cheney: "Jeez, Dick. Do you have to make my job THIS hard?"
In the past, if memory serves, Snow has begged off on making excuses for Darth Cheney, referring the gaggle of sychophants in the press room to Dick's own press secretary. Why didn't he take that out, this time?
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Public financing of elections
[Read the article: W. rocks the vote]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It's ironic that the party most adverse to publicly financed elections would spend this much taxpayer dough trying to rally the faithful and that Salon would miss the bottom line.
Out in the heartland, Cheney was sent in to rescue Jim Ryun who hasn't done anything special since losing his second consecutive Olympics in 1972. He does "speak in tongues" at campaign appearances, which guarantees him a big vote out in Jesusland. His lackadaisical representation and cuddly relationship with Jack Abramoff, as well as the nighttime sight of all those Ft. Riley boys arriving in caskets has apparently sunk in with the voters. Darth Cheney rushed in for a fundraiser that vacuumed up $210,000 for $1,000 photo ops with the architect of the Iraq disaster. I figure it cost the taxpayer about $500,000, which means the U.S. Treasury could have simply sent the campaign a check, skipped the pics, and saved the $57,000 an hour it takes to operate Air Force 2.
Apparently, the magic has worn so thin it required a visit from Dubya himself to boost further boost Jimbo's sagging polling numbers, so Topeka welcomes the First Moron himself this weekend. All praise.
Why it's the best government our red-ink government money can buy.