Letters to the Editor
Peter M.
Published Letters: 154 Editor's Choice: 48
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The Message We Didn't Hear
[Read the article: The president attacks his critics]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I couldn't agree more with your conclusion; not only was this an empty message, but the President couldn't have picked a much more inappropriate day for it. What was the message we didn't hear on Veteran's Day? We didn't hear the President's plan for "winning" the war and insuring that no more young men and women die. We didn't hear his plan for boosting Veteran's benefits and honoring their service. We didn't hear his plan for taking care of the families of fallen Iraqi soldiers or making sure they have the equipment and leadership not to fall in the first place.
A couple of years ago, my grandfather died at age 87, and a Marine Corps honor guard came to his burial site to give a final tribute to a fellow soldier. I saw a Marine officer openly weep for a man he never knew, a man whose service to this country was finished before that officer was even born. Wouldn't it be refreshing to see our President shed even one tear for the over 2,000 young men and women who have died for his misguided mission, and wouldn't today have been the perfect day to do it?
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Neo-McCarthyism
[Read the article: Blacklisted by Bill O'Reilly? Not yet, but we've got our fingers crossed]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Maybe Bill O'Reilly is just trying to promote the release of "Good Night, and Good Luck" by reminding us what McCarthyism looks like. With any luck, so many people will want to sign up for his Black List that his servers go down. You can count me in.
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Why haven't we heard from the "other" side?
[Read the article: Playing the Michael Moore card]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It seems ironic that, especially with the administration attacking Democrats who voted for the war (putting aside, for the moment, the questionable accuracy of that statement) and are now against it, that we haven't heard more from those who opposed the war in the first place. Am I just missing those stories, or are those other Democrats sitting out this fight?
Of course, if they did speak up, we'd no doubt hear about how they were dishonoring the troops. Consistency has never been a necessary quality of the administration's arguments. The one bright spot is that I think moderates have finally had enough of this defensive posture. Americans don't want to hear about how the Democrats are wrong or how they voted for the war and then against it; we, blue and red, want to know what the President is going to do to fix it, and all of the "hey, no fair!" statements and Cheney appearances in the world aren't going to answer that essential question.
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What do we call them today?
[Read the article: Another day, another military installation, another Iraq speech]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm getting a headache trying to keep track of what we're supposed to call the enemy in Iraq. I was just getting comfortable with insurgents, and now that's apparently taboo. Whereas an insurgent is one who "revolts against established authority, especially a government", Donald Rumsfeld has made it clear that we're fighting "enemies of the legitimate Iraqi government". Obviously, that's complete different. One group opposes a government, whereas the other acts in opposition against an institutional authority. It's like night and day.
Maybe I tuned our President out, but I don't even recall hearing what these new terms, "rejectionists" and "Saddamists", mean. Are Saddamists the same as Baathists? Maybe he said "Sodomists"; we know how the GOP feels about that.
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Let's pay them for 11 months
[Read the article: A delay for DeLay's sake]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]At $158,100/year (not including benefits) for 435 House members, one month's pay is about $5,700,000. That ought to get back a few student loans and food stamps. Just for reference, house.gov says that the first House meeting in 2005 happened on January 4th.
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The Media Let Osama Get Away
[Read the article: Bush: Trust me on spying]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Not only was it treasonous to report on our eavesdropping, but apparently it was also the media's fault that Bin Laden got away. We were tracking his cellphone and then they reported it (which, apparently, he immediately read, being as they get all the major papers in the Iraqi desert), leading him to immediately cancel his Verizon contract and switch to smoke signals.
I don't think I've ever seen Bush take less responsibility for something. In a very telling sign, when he first went to make this point, he slipped and said "Saddam" before correcting himself and saying "Osama". Look no further than that Freudian slip for the real reason we haven't caught Bin Laden.
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House Schedule Change?
[Read the article: Patriot games, Part 2: Pettiness and personal pique]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Has that schedule change been verified? The House website hasn't posted the 2006 schedule, which I doubt is just due to a busy webmaster, and I haven't heard anything about it in the mainstream press. Hastert's maneuver strikes me as a major abuse of power, and yet I've heard virtually no one talking about it. I'm not sure if this is an appropriate forum for questions, but if Tim or anyone has some follow-up or has sourced this, I'd appreciate it. I attempted to contact one of Delay's potential 2006 opponent's campaigns, but haven't heard back.
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Do the math, Ahmed
[Read the article: So much for Ahmed Chalabi]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm sure there were problems with the Iraqi election, and I'm sure our government will gloss over them, but it takes a lot of fraud to make 0.36% of the vote into the winner. I think we can be pretty clear on what the Iraqi people thought of Chalabi.