Letters to the Editor
had_enough
Published Letters: 846 Editor's Choice: 50
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@nickr...nice
[Read the article: Could Joe Biden please shut up again?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Nickr wrote:
"Supporting the war" is the new "opposing the war."
No, really. I don't get it anymore. Republicans offer enough votes to pass a withdrawal bill, then Democrats propose a new one with no deadlines. ...
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Nice. This is happening because EVERYONE on Capitol Hill is deathly afraid that THEY are going to be blamed for this war. Bush and Cheney and Rove have been so good at deflecting responsibility for this disaster that both dems and GOP'ers are certain someone ELSE is gonna get handed the blame for this debacle. That Bush and Cheney will never really be blamed for the war because too many dumbass voters voted for them, TWICE. And now those voters don't want to have to face, and admit to, how bottomlessly stupid they were.
I know if I were in Congress about now, I'd be very, very worried, regardless of party, because the American voter is too goddammed fucking stupid to really understand what's going on here. And that same voter is too ego-bound to ever admit that they made a dreadful mistake.
Dems didn't win in 2006 by converting a lot of Republicans. They won by mobilizing more Dems, and independent swing voters who tilt GOP, but went Dem, that time. Barely.
Imagine it. Those 50-million voters who voted for Bush in 2004, unable to admit how dumb and irresponsible they were to do such a thing. People who do dumb shit and then can't accept the blame, like to blame other people for their stupidity... this is Psych 101, and our politicians know the problem well..
So, everyone on the Hill is gyrating frantically, trying NOT to be the one the "American People" ultimately blame.
The GOP handled this amazingly well after Vietnam, and almost totally avoided blame for that mess, when, by rights, they should have had well over 50% of the blame (considering that Kennedy got us into the fucking thing to placate the right-wing of the GOP THEN. These spit-wads have been making trouble for us all for a long, LONG time.)
I expect we'll be seeing even deeper weirdness in this department as the war, and the political season, drag on.
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@tyler...yes, but...
[Read the article: Could Joe Biden please shut up again?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm not going to go out of my way to defend John Kerry. He made a lot of mistakes in his campaign, and he still nearly won. Nearly.
And he appears as opportunistic as any politician. Not that that's such a big surprise. Or even much of a sin. Politicians are generally opportunists as a matter of professional skill.
But, Tyler, we don't *know* what Kerry would have done. His current actions do not necessarily reflect what he would have done if he were president. That is the definition of an opportunist. If being an opportunist means being flexible, I'm all for it.
On the other hand, I DO know what Bush and Cheney have done, and it's been a perfect disaster.
Again, this idea that they're "all the same" is hogwash. If Gore had won in 2000, this would be a far different, and almost certainly far better, world.
But, that is speculation. And it didn't happen.
What DID happen is we got the Worst. President. Ever. And YOU helped put him in power, Tyler. I'm glad you take responsibility for that...does that mean you will vote for a Democrat next time? Because if you vote GOP again, you haven't taken responsiblity for anything, if ya get my drift.
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granted...
[Read the article: The nuclear-powered poison pet food economy]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...we'll probably have a few nuclear accidents in China before all's said and done.
Still, you have to give the Chinese government credit. Unlike OUR government, they appear to be somewhat more realistic about the impending decline in world fossil-fuel production. Nuclear power plants throughout the country may be dangerous in some theoretical long-run..but in the short run, those plants will supply electricity as stocks of fossil-fuel run short.
What are WE doing to protect ourselves? Fighting an utterly pointless war in Iraq.
People who say that war was for oil are deluding themselves. Or, at least deluding themselves about what a "war for oil" in this era of multinational, stateless oil companies actually means.
Just because American oil companies get the lion's share of Iraqi oil at some future date, doesn't mean the United States will get that oil. Au contraire...those oil companies will sell to the highest bidder, as they always have. Hell, all that oil in Iraq could go to China, if they pay more than we're willing to.
That's the reality no-one talks about. Once oil is out of the ground, it's in a world-market, and it can go anywhere.
and anyone who thinks the chinese were so stupid as to let us have all that Iraqi oil...think again. The chinese are lot more hip to reality than our leaders are. Which is, I believe, where I came in...tootle-oo...
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@diana powe ... great post...
[Read the article: Fred Thompson, "tough guy" and "folksy cultural conservative"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Diana wrote:
That's what validates Richard B. Cheney's credentials as a conservative and that image is what really matters to the authority-worshipping masses that constitute the Republican base.
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Just an attagirl here..this was a great post. It reminded me strongly of something I read just after the 2004 election. The reporter had gone around with GOP operatives, canvassing neighborhoods for voters. The reporter talked to many GOP voters. In a couple of striking instances, when asked why they would vote for Bush, these voters say "he's a christian, he shares my values." Any kind of attempt to point out that, in fact, Bush did NOT share their "values" was simply ignored and dismissed.
It's some kind of psychosis. Mass psychosis. A very human thing. Believe what makes you feel good. Dismiss the rest.