Letters to the Editor
Cocktailhag
Published Letters: 483
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Wet firecackers
[Read the article: Democratic complicity in Bush's torture regimen]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This must surely be the hundredth Eureka moment that finally awakens the public and the press to the current "white house horrors" to vanish into thin air amid the roar of crickets.
From the energy meetings to Enron, from the Downing St. memos to Abu Ghraib, from Hurricane Katrina to the the Libby trial, each gross violation of American law and tradition was duly reported, and quickly forgotten.
While congress clearly has been complicit, I think that the slavish devotion lavished on the right by the media is the real cause. Democrats refuse to honor their offices because to do so would be tantamount to self-immolation; not just on Fox but in the Washington Post on down.
Courage simply is not rewarded, unless it's the false kind that dresses up for TV.
Admittedly, it's a chicken or egg question, but Democratic leaders' pathetic acquiescence is rational, albeit unacceptable.
Of course, it's hard to test this theory......
Cowardice seldom ruins careers, and if everyone's doing it, no one wants to take bravery out for a spin.
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Lifelong learning
[Read the article: Democratic complicity in Bush's torture regimen]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]@jkalos
I have often found your posts thought-provoking; but this evening you have reminded me of the rare moments in my higher education that I thought the whole endeavor was actually worthwhile.
Utterly disillusioned by journalism school, which for reasons that I not only found mystifying at the time but find downright dangerous today was completely subordinated in its mission by the vast majority of students who were pursuing advertising and public relations, I ended up majoring in history because of professors like you.
The only thing we humans all have in common is our gift of reason, and my perspectives were challenged, but by no means formed, by what I learned from teachers who understood that powerful truth.
I have spent the subsequent 20 odd years continuously exploring, evaluating, and building upon what I learned back then, and am constantly hoping others would join me in this journey, indeed even Shooter.
But your ability and evident desire to reach even the most resistant and difficult among us shows me that you really have found your calling, and your students are lucky indeed.
Thanks for your efforts.
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Jonah the Whale
[Read the article: Various items]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I don't think enough of us are worried about poor Jonah, having to face those egghead Amherst DFH's, who no doubt due to their chosen diet have more rotten vegetables to throw than he would encounter at Club for Growth or AEI.
Now, I'm sure that his sturdy constitution will valiantly be able to withstand fearsome volleys of the usual tomatoes and such, but couldn't a well-aimed turnip or rutabaga pose a horrifying risk of grave injury, despite his substantial avoirdupois?
Some of you have suggested that he might find a measure of protection from his loving and protective mother, who as Cocktailhags go, makes me look like a teetotaling ingenue. But remember, this is an evening event, and no amount of gin-soaked, beef jerky-like toughness for which we hags are famous is worth a hill of beans after happy hour.
And as I recall, she really did her best work on the telephone.
I plan to check with the Los Angeles Times to suggest that they pull that cannon-equipped limousine that Gen. Otis used to threaten union organizers and such out of mothballs and dispatch it to Amherst posthaste.
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The Glory of the Surge
[Read the article: The agenda of our pro-war pundit class]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It was always apparent to me that the surge was nothing more than an ad campaign, one of the countless product rollouts with which we've been assaulted since this idiotic made-for-TV war began.
Just like Nixon, the Bushies only know how to haul out "a P.R. offensive to counter this," never a plan to achieve an observable goal.
The surge consisted of several things:
1) A pullback of troops to fortified areas.
2) Rebranding every "enemy" death "Al Queda," and revel in their deaths. (h.t., Bill O'Reilly....)
3) Complete abandonment of rebuilding efforts.
4) Replacement of all communication personnel with wingnuts like Glenn's erstwhile penpal.
5) Tossing money and weapons in every direction, regardless of the results down the road.
6) Message discipline and repetition, repetition, repetition.
7) Rely on the impenetrable credulity and desperate wishes of the punditry to transform such desperate and ultimately futile gestures into "success."
Unfortunately, such a craven and cynical plan worked, as far as it goes.
The last part, 8) Take the money and run, is still in progress.
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A good pedicure...
[Read the article: The agenda of our pro-war pundit class]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]@pedinska....
I hope your pedicure survived, especially if it's Jungle Red.
Why is it that such a patently obvious snow job was so universally swallowed, hook, line, and sinker?
Naturally I exclude its most already-discredited proponents like Brooks, Friedman, O'Hanlon, and on and on ad nauseum....
But honestly, even the slightly less compromised outlets in the press include a subordinate clause when describing the latest carnage or debacle on the order of, "despite the reduction of violence?"
Does it pop up like a spell check alert when they report what they see with their own eyes?
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@Noballsbutbefore
[Read the article: The agenda of our pro-war pundit class]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]That is, before you started being a good german authoritarion follower.
The fact is, that torture is vile and unamerican, regardless if sadistic nutcases like you get your rocks off on it.
Whether or not the twisted practitioners of such despicable inhumanity actually, or "just" psychologically, inflict such terrors on other human beings, they nonetheless have left their souls in the ditch, and because of their vastly greater power have made themselves even lower than those they gleefully torment.
Whatever moral authority any of us might have felt was our birthright is utterly squandered in the face of such atrocities.
And whatever credence anyone would accord your arguments, however specious, are irretrievably lost when you show your naivete and lack of human decency in supporting them.