Letters to the Editor
pacificwhim
Published Letters: 201 Editor's Choice: 37
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Some facts
[Read the article: Losing bin Laden]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]1. Bush has indeed left bin Laden alone because he's more valuable popping up from time to time screaming, "Booga booga!" than in a U.S. prison. We will never catch him while Bush is president.
2. Bush will keep us in Iraq as long as he is president, because no one has the balls to cut his funding, and because many of us still buy into the idea that he will act based on reasonable information. Psychopaths don't do that. They listen to the voices.
3. The Democrats will never impeach these monsters. Never. They lack any guts, convictions or sense of duty to the people whom they serve.
4. As utterly bereft of any principled leadership as this country appears to be, it's prime time to bring on the Greens or Independents to challenge not just the Repugnant party candidates in Congress but the Democrats as well. They all deserve a swift boot out the door. Public outrage means this is the best chance in years for some indys to grab some seats.
Now, a plea: Mr. Gore, please, please run. Please.
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Please...
[Read the article: Obama and the general]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...can we dispense with this blathering and get to the inevitable?
The talking heads will talk.
Democrats will speak of outrage and incompetence.
Right-wing nutbags will spew their usual lies.
Activists will demand that the funding for the war be pulled or made conditional.
Bush will stick out his monkey chin and posture incoherently.
The Democrats will back down.
And this ghastly political abattoir we've built will run on, shredding thousands of lives with no purpose beyond the ego gratification of a simpleton and his puppet masters.
Gads. We truly are Rome in her last days. Somebody pull the fucking plug already.
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Bring 'em on
[Read the article: "Outreach," the Bush administration way]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I have no problem with this. See, since impeachment appears to be off the table, the best we can hope for is to so thoroughly disgrace and discredit the entire Repugnant Party before the 08 election so they're electorally wiped out by voters. Then, of course, starts the task of kicking the shit out of the Democrats, but that's another thread.
But with the GOP goal in mind, I can't think of much that's more effective than turning the reins of government over to the batshit-crazy fundamentalist Xtian wing. Let them choose their presidential candidate based on whether he would allow gays to marry at a time when more people are concerned about losing their homes. Let them vet the AG nominee at a time when soldiers continue to meet death in Iraq for no good reason. Let them make the GOP even more of a laughingstock than it already is (a big sloppy thank-you foot tap to you, Larry Craig!).
Then when the Dems mop the floor with them in 2008, we can listen to them whine for another 40 years while they wait for Karl Rove's illegitimate son via a jackal to grow to manhood and remind them how to win elections again.
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THAT.
[Read the article: Sex and the presidency]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]WAS.
AWESOME.
Brilliant, brilliant. I love the Neanderthal thinking of the Wash. Times columnist just skewering itself. And Kim Cattrall as a coup de grace?
This is why The Daily Show makes up about 70% of my TV time.
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Didn't take long
[Read the article: Was the Tasered student asking for it?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What was that, three posts before some Neocon clown pulled out a Cindy Sheehan slam? Um, let's see, the difference would have been that she lost her son in war while this guy was a pissed off college student probably looking to end up on Jon Stewart. She was camping out in Crawford looking to start a dialog with the Resident while this guy was coming off like one of those wacko 911 conspiracy theorists.
OK, so how you gonna pull Bill Clinton, Hillary and Ted Kennedy into the discussion now? It never fails.
IMO, the cops were put in a bad spot. You can't let people take over the mic in a public forum like that, and if they refuse to step down, you remove them. The guy was an idiot for resisting and sounded like he'd been rehearsing for weeks with his "Oh my God!" when they tased him. Now he'll go on the Daily Show, write a book and be a blogging superstar for about 6 months.
Whoopee.
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Friendly is easy
[Read the article: "I'm the C student, and just look at who's the president"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Quiet Type,
Don't be surprised that the WHPC is chuckling and buddy-buddy with Bush at these ridiculous excuses for press conferences. I'm a journalist and I can tell you being pals with your sources is a hell of a lot easier than being confrontational. The press is so thoroughly corrupted and co-opted that to be a hardass political reporter means doing the following:
1. Asking rough, nasty questions and getting stomped on by a president and press secretary who won't answer them.
2. Getting raked over the goals personally on right-wing nutjob blogs and talk shows.
3. Possibly being de-invited from press events by the most secretive, anti-media administration in history.
4. Being chewed out by editors and advertising execs for possibly costing your paper ad dollars from conservative advertisers.
5. Losing source access and having to work 18-hour days finding new sources to write the hard-hitting investigative stories you should be writing, leaving you no time to write your book.
None of these is an excuse. There is NO excuse for some of these reporters not ripping Bush to shreds with their unanswered questions, thereby getting more Americans to start asking them, and getting them asked in editorials. But it is much easier to be buddy-buddy with the Resident, chuckle at his witty Texas bon mots, then go back and write a story that parrots the administration's talking points.
So the question really is, why aren't we turning out more journalists, editors and publishers who have a street fighter mentality, who take deadly seriously the single most important duty of the free press: to hold those in power accountable for their actions.
Answer: Money, of course.