Letters to the Editor
Published Letters: 361 Editor's Choice: 12
-
Announcment counts as well
[Read the article: The TSA's plan for tricking terrorists]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]One more thing......
While the federal government has been doing a poor job on security, the NYPD has done a fine job. One of the things they did recently was announce that they would search people entering the subway system.
Then they did it for a day or so, and stopped. This was not about the searches. it was about the announcement, and the possibility that searches could take place in the future. There's not a whole lot to be done to secure the subways, but one thing you can do is make people think twice about using them as a target. Even if they don't do it, announcing that searches will be randomized will have a deterrent effect.
-
You just don't get this whole security business, Tim. Get guns OFF planes
[Read the article: An air marshal shoots and kills; the GOP cuts the funding]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Just as you didn't get the value of random searches, you don't understand that putting guns on planes doesn't make the planes safer.
All putting a gun on a plane does in a world of suicidal hijackers is change the nature of the attack--the object becomes getting the gun. 8 guys can get a gun from one if they don't care about being shot.
And it doesn't matter, because passengers and crew won't permit hijackings anymore.
-
DCI, not SecDef
[Read the article: Uncle Sam is listening]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]A comment on TPMCafe points out that the NSA is not under the purview of the Defense Department. It reports to the DCI.
-
Filibuster
[Read the article: The filibuster's pros and cons]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If the appointment of this justice, committed to unlimited presidential authority, regardless of statute is not a reason to filibuster, then what is?
This question has been greatly simplified by the President assertion that laws don't apply to him during "wartime." Bobbing and weaving over Roe v Wade is one thing. The question of whether the President must obey the law is another thing entirely.
I happen to share atrios's position--that there are no pro-choice republicans. If Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, Lincoln Chaffee confirm this guy, then they cannot claim to be committed to equal rights for women. But that issue, as important is it is, has been thrust to the sidelines in the face of Bush's claim that he need not obey the law when he deems it inconvenient.
-
Outcoached
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Denver was flat outcoached. The Steelers had a game plan, one they executed, as King says, with ferocity. But they had a plan. Denver simply looked they were not prepared for what was gonna happen to them.
-
Promises
[Read the article: Spinning the Alito defeat: It makes progressives stronger!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]For at least a decade, NARAL and other pro-choice organizations have used someone like Alito as their reason for existence. They have bombarded my mailbox with requests for money so that this nomination could be prevented.
As far as I can tell, they did nothing to stop this nomination. They didn't even withdraw their endorsement of Chafee. I guess they're just one more beltway bandit.....
-
Um, it's easier that way?
[Read the article: A message -- or many -- from the Democrats]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]How can a national political reporter possibly report on a mid-term election taking place in 435 electoral districts and 30-odd states if the candidates are going to persist in talking about different things in different races? How can Adam possibly do his job unless Ed Kilgore writes down the list of important issues, and sends them over every day?
The short answer is you don't want to get your political coverage of a midterm election from a guy in Washington. It's interesting, because this is another area where blogs are superior to the newspapers. Kos is doing a fine job of covering the Congressional elections, picking out key races, and explaining why they're key and using local blogs as a resource. MyDD is doing a fine job of identifying national trends, and doing analyses of local races--what seats are in play in the senate, where the likely pickups are.
That is reporting that is head and shoulders above chit-chatting with "national democratic leaders" and writing it up.
-
A note to Wilkow
[Read the article: The baby and the petri dish]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I sent this to Wilkow a few minutes ago:
I just read the Salon War Room mail interchange. Because of the SD law, this issue is not going to go away. The anti-abortion people are going to have face up to the fact that the central credo of their political position is a lie. They don’t really believe that a human being comes into existence at conception and that abortion is murder. That is the question that is being asked in the hypothetical situations posed. But it doesn’t really matter whether or not you will have to courage to admit that people who say this aren’t telling the truth, nor that you yourself won’t admit that you don’t really think taking a morning after pill is the same thing as offing a 6 year old.
It doesn’t matter because the South Dakota law makes it very clear that nobody believes in this equivalence. The penalty for performing an abortion is a maximum of 5 years for a doctor. No penalty for the mother. This premeditated act, directing one citizen to perform an act that anti-abortionists have said is murder is without penalty, while actually performing this act a felony at the same level of possession of half a pound of marijuana. This penalty is substantially less than the fetal death law, where a man can be found guilty of a felony at the same level as murder if his abuse of a woman leads to a miscarriage. So the premeditated act carries a much lighter penalty than the act that has the result as an unintended side effect.
I think you just gotta suck it up, and admit that there’s a difference between 16 undifferentiated cells and a squalling 2 year old. The SD legislature has already done so. Maybe that will make it easier.
-
Of course you root against your bracket. And Dave Sims
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You construct your bracket with your head, but you watch the games with your heart. You take a shot at the underdog that'll advance, pick the one and two seeds elsewhere, and then watch the games, rooting for the underdogs.
Domestic tranquility issues led to my listening to the Huskies vs Huskies on radio rather than TV, and I gotta say that Dave Sims does a really fine job at play by play.