Letters to the Editor
Jim White
Published Letters: 1316 Editor's Choice: 15
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Supporting factions rather than cultures
[Read the article: Follow-up to the silence from the ADL regarding Fox News and right-wing talk radio]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]shooter242, quoting the ADL Charter and then commenting:
"The immediate object of the League is to stop, by appeals to reason and conscience and, if necessary, by appeals to law, the defamation of the Jewish people. Its ultimate purpose is to secure justice and fair treatment to all citizens alike and to put an end forever to unjust and unfair discrimination against and ridicule of any sect or body of citizens."
ADL Charter - October 1913
Who said that these folks are not supposed to be affected by politics?
On a thread that was probably several weeks ago, someone pointed out that the biggest failing of the Bush foreign policy is its propensity so support (and arm) selected factions (at the expense of other factions) rather than supporting cultures or even their institutions in the form of governments. As stated here, the ultimate goal of the ADL Charter appears to be aimed at this laudable goal of providing support and preventing injustice aimed at sects or factions.
Sadly, the information that has been presented here today by many commenters, especially sysprog, is beginning to convince me that at least under Foxman's leadership, ADL has fallen into the same trap as Bush, and is missing the opportunity to support a more just and peaceful world.
Specifically, instead of rolling out the "campaign" against a nuclear Iran last month, why didn't ADL question the Bush administration about its dismissal of Iran in the spring of 2003 when it wanted to open wide-ranging negotiations on all aspects of dispute, including their nuclear program and recognition of Israel's right to exist? This would seem to me to be a much more promising area of effort, where the Iranian people, the Israeli people and the world could benefit. This even would have supported the immediate ADL goal if one of the primary proponents of hate against Israel could have been convinced to reverse course over a negotiating table rather than at the end of a weapon.
Needless to say, shooter continues to fall into this same trap and agitate extreme factions against one another. For him, its all about the fight, never about what's right. But thanks for the quote from the charter, it did contribute to the discussion.
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Dragging themselves down to our level--Not!
[Read the article: The remaining GOP base -- the 30%'ers and the Broder/Ignatius pundit]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This time Broder (or Cole dictating to Broder, depending on how you read it) is making things up even in the same column where he actually cites a poll demonstrating the exact opposite of his point. The "dragging themselves down line" actually appears in the paragraph immediately following the poll data illustrating the opposite point:
Congress as a whole rated only 29 percent approval, down 14 points from its start in January. The reason: People think it has been spinning its wheels. By 82 percent to 16 percent, those polled said it has accomplished little or nothing this year. Half blame Bush and the Republicans; a quarter, the Democrats; and a separate fifth, both parties.
Let's see, if "half" blame the Republicans for the lack of progress in Congress and a "quarter" blame Democrats, then twice as many people blame Republicans as Democrats.
That's hardly at the "same level" in my book. In fact, a "quarter" sounds to me that there was even a little leakage from the "30%'ers" out of the group blaming Democrats. (Checking the actual poll, the numbers are 51% blame Bush and the Republicans, 25% blame the Democrats, 20% blame both parties equally and only 2% fall into the group blaming neither party and 2% had no opinion.)
Broder and Cole, I call bullsh*t.
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WT and ondelette
[Read the article: The ADL purports to respond again]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I think they meant the disgusting title. Notice that Gulf War I (estimates on Wiki vary from 20,000 to 200,000 fatalities) is completely missing and that the only deaths in Iraq from 2003 to present are 75,000 listed as "domestic". We got ourselves a certified wacko here. Notice there is also no citation.