Letters to the Editor
Holly McLachlan
Published Letters: 543 Editor's Choice: 3
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Is there any sign of a consensus reaction yet within the Democratic Party establishment?
[Read the article: Major new ad campaign -- aimed at Blue Dog Rep. Chris Carney -- begins]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Will the Carney ad campaign be ignored by the Democratic establishment, or will they have a MoveOn/Petraeus NYT ad-type of hissy fit?
That is really the only 2 reactions I expect just now -- either haughty disdain expressed by pretending nothing unusual is happening, or much wailing & gnashing of teeth, rending of cloth, and general theatrics.Which seems to be the case?
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Maybe
[Read the article: Major new ad campaign -- aimed at Blue Dog Rep. Chris Carney -- begins]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]....But let's say that Carney came out and said: "After further consideration, I have decided that telecom immunity is wrong and I will oppose any bill that includes it."
Meanwhile, there were still, say, 5-10 Blue Dogs -- including some vulnerable ones -- supporting and agitating for it. Wouldn't it be preferable to declare victory in Carney's case and then aim the weapon at one of the other recalcitrant Blue Dogs?
[...] if we do this sort of stuff, and they do change behavior, and then we pull the trigger anyway, what then is their motivation to listen? -- GlennGreenwald
You still have useful ammunition through ~October '08, in the form of the not-yet-deployed ad campaign (as long as you retain enough money to unleash it at will. If you leave yourselves too broke to use it while going after some other target, then I can gay-rawn-tee you'll lose him, and possibly others.)
Go ahead and give him a break if he changes his behavior pattern (not just his tune in public, but his actual voting and activity pattern.)
Who's next on the priority list?
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Blue Alpha Dogs?
[Read the article: Major new ad campaign -- aimed at Blue Dog Rep. Chris Carney -- begins]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I can guarantee you that this will not be ignored. This is going to get some real attention from several different directions, particularly the blue dogs, whom I'm beginning to develop a real dislike of... -- casual_observer
Can anyone suggest sources of information about the Blue Dog Caucus? Particularly who the leaders are and have been in the past, and about the seniority levels of its members, which committees they sit on, etc.?
I've seen the term thrown around quite a bit for a while now but, I do not have an adequate understanding of who they are. -
It's (more) fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.!...than wear board shorts, dreads, nipple rings and 4/20 tattoos
[Read the article: Various items]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I didn't see a "West Coast" lifestyle. I saw a young black man dancing with two hot hippie chicks, one of them "ethnic." Sounds like a beer commercial to me. And what's more mainstream American than that? -- Baldie McEagle
That sorry ad was as unhip as humanly possible. But, the dancing trio of Big City Sinners looked like old footage grabbed from a 1980s era music video. The Village Person in the middle, the washed-out Cyndy Lauper wannabee on the right......... none of it harkens back to the early 70s. And they sure weren't archetypical pierced, tattooed, BurningMan attendees from today's Left Coast.
The ad did reveal a fair bit however, about the fossilized mental images of depravity that still rattle around the minds of my generation of Republican social conservatives. It seems as though there is a powerful contingent of rightwing Republicans who will never get over their disgust at the nihilism and misery of the early 80s. Their obsessions are a blight on the next generation.You're right about the mainstream beer commercial aura. There was no whacky tabacky smoke wafting around that group.
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In Practice..............
[Read the article: The California marriage decision and basic civics]
[Read more letters about this article: Here][I]t is not a ridiculous statement on jurisprudence to argue that the California Court should have abstained from the gay marriage questions because the legislature, the executive, and the people had been working hard to resolve the issue.
...[T]here is no authority for a court [...] to refuse to hear claims that citizens' constitutional rights are being violated simply because there is an ongoing political debate taking place about that issue.
You're invoking a doctrine which just doesn't exist.Courts don't have the prerogative to turn their back on citizens who have properly invoked the jurisdiction of a court in order to complain that the state is violating their constitutional rights -- certainly not because there is some live debate over those rights violations. If you believe otherwise, I'd like you to point to an example where the U.S. Supreme Court or California Supreme Court has ever done such a thing. -- GlennGreenwald
Glenn, we regularly read that the Supreme Court of the United States has chosen either to hear/review or not to hear/review certain cases. In fact, I had the impression that in any given year they decline to review more cases than they take on.
If the California Supreme Court operates in an analogous manner, it could have in practice 'shined on' this one until after the 2008 elections were over. Without any recourse to bogus, ersatz principles in re: prerogatives.
How, specifically, was it necessary for the CA Supreme Court to have taken on this case, at this time, and to have ruled on it when they did?
While I don't want to encourage the ever-voluble conspiracy theorists here, I have to consider that a Republican-stacked court may have been happy to throw out this bomb, just at this time, for entirely political reasons. The Elephantmen are too happy by half.
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Charming as ever....
[Read the article: The California marriage decision and basic civics]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]... Jebbie is a bottom. -- Electro Robot
Given that Jebbie has just stated that he's hetero, you've managed to make him look very good in the eyes of all the women hereabouts.
I don't expect you to have any understanding of what I'm alluding to, so don't get stressed over it.