Letters to the Editor
Elephantman
Published Letters: 1312 Editor's Choice: 15
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Panask - Clarification on the Larry Craig Rule
[Read the article: More men claim sex with Craig]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]No, I don't need or expect any "assurances" from the Salon readership on what the media will do in the future. If it turns out that there exists some credible evidence about Senator Clinton's bisexuality, yeah, I think it will get big coverage. Big is probably not the right word. Overwhelming is probably a better word.
At that point, all of the Democrats and those on the left will cry foul, I am certain. They will call it a right-wing smear campaign, dirty politics, and worse.
The "assurance" that I wanted, but don't really expect from Salon readers and editors, is that they will apply the Larry Craig Rule to Senator Clinton. The rule that says that private homosexuality is relevant in the case of any closeted politician who has voted negatively on any gay rights issues.
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Are there any WikiLeaks entries for Al Qaeda manuals?
[Read the article: WikiLeaks reveals another Guantanamo manual]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You know, the ones where they describe the manufacture of suicide vests, and IED production. Or where they discuss the selection of which marketplaces, police stations or electrical substations to bomb?
Anything about the killing of infidels in the name of the Prophet, peace be upon Him?
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Has anyone actually read the "Key differences" part of the 2007 NIE on Iranian nuclear programs? The part where the NIE noted what was different in the 2005 and 2007 Estimates?
[Read the article: Giuliani advisor: Doubt the NIE!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Quick show of hands among the Salonistas. Anybody?
Hey, it turns out that in 2005, the NIE said that Iran was still determined to make a bomb. But in 2007, it now says that the Iranians quit their program in 2003! Who's on first, What's on second, and I. Don'tKnow is on third...
Here's the link:
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/international/20071203_release.pdf
What is consistent in all of the reports: the Iranians are bad guys who want to build a bomb, and only external pressure is preventing them from doing it. Most assuredly, the pressure includes ordinary international sanctions, as well as non-public military threats from the US and Israel. So what part of all of that is the administration not getting?
James Taranto of the WSJ OpinionJournal.com page, who noted the link above, has it right. To Democrats, the NIE isn't about national security. It is about domestic politics. That's okay, he acknowledged. The bad part would be that if, in 2005, the NIE was two years off about when the Iranians had stopped their weapons program, what's to say that the 2007 NIE isn't two years off about when they might re-start the program?
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Unwittingly (and none of the other Democratic candidates or NPR News Democrats caught him on it), Biden offered up one of the stupidest Iran thoughts in the debate.
[Read the article: The Dodd and Biden show]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]From the NPR News website, this is how they characterized one Biden moment in the debate:
"Sen. Joe Biden (DE) challenged the idea that the Senate vote influenced Iran's nuclear plans. 'With all due respect to anybody who thinks that pressure brought this about, let's get this straight. In 2003, they stopped their program,' Biden said."
At the time, Biden was attempting to refute Senator Clinton, who was defending her vote with a bipartisan Senate majority to declare the Iranian Revoultionary Guard a "terrorist organization."
In the far-left echo chamber that passes for Democrat political discourse these days, Biden probably sounded brilliant.
But didn't anyone think about what it might have been that "pressured" the Iranians into aborting their nuclear weapons program in 2003, if that is what is now accepted as fact from the NIE? What was the biggest thing that had happened in Iran's neighborhood just before that time?
American troops liberated Iraq from the Saddam regime, that's what!
Connect those dots, Senator Biden.
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Not so clever, Ondelette
[Read the article: The Dodd and Biden show]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]@Elephantman
What I think you're trying to say is that since the U.S. so conveniently eliminated Iran's biggest enemy, they no longer needed to have a nuclear deterrent, right?
Good point.
-- ondelette
Uh, negative on that one, Ondelette.
Iran's biggest enemy might have been Iraq, but Iran's biggest NUCLEAR enemy is Israel. Iran knows how Israel operates; quietly at first, then with F-15's.
And a free, democratic, western-oriented Iraq might just be a bigger threat to the mad mullahs in Iran than Saddam ever was. It won't be easy to establish a free, democratic western-oriented Iraq, but I can't imagine that eliminating Saddam wouldn't be the first step. Right? You got any better ideas on that? And don't you agree that the mad mullahs in Iran, and not the mostly American-loving citizenry of Iran, are worthy of being presured in every way possible?
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"Good luck about hearing REPUBLICANS on NPR..." Uh, yeah.
[Read the article: The Dodd and Biden show]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I don't know how I should respond to that. "Amen" comes to mind. So does, "Damn straight." Either way, an "NPR/Republican Debate" sounds a lot to me like the mirror image of the "Fox News/Congressional Black Caucus Debate."
What does NPR host Michelle Norris' husband do, now that he is no longer working for the John Kerry campaign?
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Cripes, just a day ago Salon writers were ridiculing Stephen Hadley for questioning the 2007 NIE, and now Joan Walsh says the 2005 NIE was the bad one...
[Read the article: The NIE changed everything. Yeah, right]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Sheeeesh! Talk about shooting the OLD messengers!
Anyway, I know what to think about at least some of the 2007 NIE contributors, based on this:
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110010946
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"Floyd Leverett"
[Read the article: The NIE changed everything. Yeah, right]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Joan, who is "Floyd Leverett"? Is he the NIE's staff pharmacist in Mayberry?