Letters to the Editor
bloomsbury
Published Letters: 401 Editor's Choice: 5
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two kinds of hope
[Read the article: A week of petty though typical attacks on Obama produced nothing]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You ain't seen nothin' yet. Obama talks about the audacity of hope but in fact he, himself, is the Republican's last hope.They're hoping those southern whites who've kept the Democrats out of the white house so many times will do it again: there's no other form of hope for the Republicans than that racism, sexism and ignorance will win for them again. That won't stop the imbeciles who work for the mainstream media from displaying their own crazy beliefs and attacking Obama, but the people pulling the strings from behind the Republican party prefer anyone to Hillary Clinton, because they believe that letting a woman become President is sacrilege AND they hate her guts AND they're terrified she might actually win and do terrible things. Like fixing the health care debacle, for example. SOCIALISM, they scream. For these fanatics,still happily living in the 19th century, the only thing worse than an uppity black man is an uppity woman- but they're equal opportunity bigots and hate both equally, in spite of their phoney praise of Obama. However, their real calculation is that like-minded fanatics in the south also believe that women and blacks can never be President. That it would defile the office. The stuff that's being written so far is nothing compared to what will start to be rolled out once the run for the white house begins in earnest. Watch the mud fly! No candidate can win without the south and the Republicans are betting their last throw of the dice on the fact that Obama won't win the south. Hillary on the other hand could still pick up the working class/female vote in the south. All in all, the Republicans face a Musharraf moment, when the electorate is so angry and disgusted that they stand a good chance of being annihilated electorally whoever gets the nomination. What's so disappointing about the campaigns for the party nominations and the media commentary is that the candidates don't really talk about concrete policy and if they do the media isn't interested and just plays its sexist, racist games. The standard of commentary is lower than a snake's duodenum. Obama should be scrutinized: over things such as his support for free trade agreements and his endorsement of Joe Lieberman, but the only analysis anyone's likely to get from the media consists of lies, bigotry and gossip, as if Obama was just another media figure, or worse, another media creation like Paris Hilton. Obama himself plays into this with his catchcries, setpiece moments (with Oprah for example) and speeches that are all about belief in the future rather than learning from the last appalling eight years. Most of the media just want to see Obama give Hillary a bloody nose. For them politics is just another sport and they live in a sound byte where the past doesn't matter, all of which means they're now so irresponsible and ignorant that they've actually become a danger to democracy.
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the iceman cometh
[Read the article: McCain: Reformer or phony?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I can picture all those bible bashers who hate McCain sooooo much turning to each other and saying two words in righteous tones: whited sepulchre. Others who hate the Republicans for purely secular reasons and have bitter memories of what they did to Bill Clinton will say: those who live by the sword will perish by the sword. Stand by for a media feeding frenzy. Sex and corruption - how can the media resist all the money they can make out of all of this? They can't. Glenn Greenwald wondered if the 2008 election would be the usual frat boy crap. He has his answer. I would call this a pre-emptive strike, sort of like the one McCain wants to launch against Iran.
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where's my documentary?
[Read the article: From "Sicko" to Iraq-o]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The doco I want and indeed yearn for is the one on the sickos responsible for Iraq and Afghanistan and 9/11. When are they going to make that one? Even Burt Bacharach has written a song about them called 'Who are these People?' That's the crux of the matter. Looking at the havoc they've wreaked has its own horrible fascination, of course, but to work out how they did it and who helped them and what it all means, that's what's needed. The whole world needs to understand it because it can't be prevented from happening again unless all the facts are out in the open and it's understood in all its horror.
I know that it will reveal treason and global criminality beyond human comprehension but it must be comprehended if democracy is to survive. A cover up is a luxury none of us can afford and while these docos do a fantastic job I doubt that a movie like 'Rendition' will ever win an Oscar. I would be overjoyed to be proven wrong on that one but Americans have a tendency to want to cover up their war crimes and as they say, Move On. Michael Moore deserves something far better than an Oscar for inventing a genre of doco that actually makes money.
Perhaps the French (who he praises in a baffled way in 'Sicko') could award him the Legion of Honour.