Letters to the Editor
WeikuBoy
Published Letters: 487 Editor's Choice: 62
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Did FDR keep a pet goat?
[Read the article: Why we are really in Iraq]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Five years ago, following the 9/11 attacks, Junior spoke to Congress; and it struck me as very odd that, rather than the six months or so needed to round up al-Qaeda, he talked with certainty about how this new "war" would last many years. So either the neo-fascists in the White House came up with the idea of having Junior play the role of a perpetual wartime president in the first eight days after 9/11, or else 9/11 was merely a convenient occasion for putting the republicans' perpetual war/unitary executive plan into action.
As for the previous respondents who say the failure in Iraq was about something besides Junior as a war president -- oil, birthing a new Middle East, or crusading against Islam -- you are right, but that doesn't mean Frank Rich is wrong. Gary Kamiya's article makes it clear that the various GOP factions supported the war for different reasons. The military-industrial-media complex, the red-state Christofascists, the think tank neo-cons, all had unique motives; and if the deciding factor within the West Wing was being able to call Democrats traitors for voting against GOP farm subsidies and bridges to nowhere, then that is perfectly consistent with everything we know about Junior as well as Rove.
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Bush-Cheney: Great or Greatest?
[Read the article: Why are so many Americans still hoodwinked?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]In addition to the faith-based credulity of the hate-radio listening GOP base, no one has yet mentioned the possibility that the stupidest one-third of adult Americans (who are, by definition, stupid) simply do not distinguish Pakistani from Iranian Muslmis, much less Saudi from Iraqi Arabs. Thus, in their minds the U.S. did invade "the nation" connected to 9/11, and is now fighting "the terrorists" there; so what's the problem? This theory would explain the utter (and seemingly sincere) exasperation of some right-wingers when they respond to critics of the Bush-Cheney disaster in Iraq by vehemently shaking their heads and solemnly asking, "Don't you libs understand that the U.S. was ATTACKED on 9/11?"
Maybe they also don't grasp that Osama bin-Forgotten, because THEY can clearly recall seeing him pulled from a spider hole three years ago in Iraq? (Hey, it's possible.)
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GOP Disinformation Must Be Corrected
[Read the article: Why are so many Americans still hoodwinked?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Gassy Nell" is incorrect regarding Florida 2000. A consortium of the mainstream media, including the New York Times and/or the Washington Post, conducted a thorough recount that showed Al Gore won Florida. It's not surprising that "Gassy Nell" has not heard this, because the members of the consortium, not wanting to undermine the legitimacy of the Bush-Cheney regime, buried the news. Had the result been otherwise, you can be sure it would have been trumpeted by the Bush-Cheney cheerleaders in the corporate media.
The U.S. popular vote, decisively won by Vice President Gore, is relevant in showing how completely democracy was overturned and crushed in 2000. The flawed electoral college gave republcian votes in Wyoming (the smallest state) FOUR TIMES the electoral weight of Democratic votes in California; yet Gore STILL won had all Florida votes been counted.
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History Rewrite! (Paging Karen Hughes)
[Read the article: Revisiting GOP attacks on President Clinton]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I certainly don't recall the so-called republicans offering their support to President Clinton on ANYTHING in the 1990's. I do clearly remember their bitter opposition to his leadership in stopping the genocide in Kossovo and in going after bin-Laden (wagging the dog). This is when the GOP came up with the slogan of returning "adults" to the White House; and it was my impression that their intent was to destroy the very notion of the "loyal opposition".
The republicans never tried to alert their commander in chief to a terrorist threat that they alone were quick to spot -- THEY were busy trying to destroy the Clinton presidency. Nor, as we know now, did these so-called "adults" do much if anything about al-Qaeda in the eight months after they took office, or in the five years since then (Osama bin-Forgotten).
As for "Joe" who persists in trying to hijack this discussion, the excerpt he posted shows, notwithstanding his false assertions, that Clinton was focused on al-Qaeda, as well as on North Korea and a host of other threats around the world. Which is more than I can say for the Mayberry Machiavellis, who are only interested in defeating Democrats in the U.S.
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National Lampoon's Van Souther
[Read the article: Revisiting GOP attacks on President Clinton]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The attack on the U.S.S. Cole took place on 10/12/00, less than one month before the 2000 "election" made Clinton a lame duck. So the question you really need to be asking is why the Bush-Cheney "adults" chose to do nothing about it in the EIGHT MONTHS prior to 9/11. Add in the shameful truth that FIVE YEARS LATER Osama still bin-Forgotten and al-Qaeda continues to terrorize the West, and you have what ought to be an impeachable dereliction of duty by the so-called republicans. It is the corporate media's refusal to raise any of these issues that angered President Clinton -- and rightly so! This concerted right-wing effort to cover the Bush-Cheney failures by blaming Clinton instead will not stand.
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Beltway Democrats Emulate Success of Whig Party
[Read the article: Democrats may come to regret not opposing Bush on torture]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It would be repetitious and therefore tedious to respond with an enthusiastic "right on!" to every Glenn Greenwald post that deserves such acclaim; so let me just give one blanket "Right On, Glenn!" for all of his excellent War Room commentaries.
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Caste Away
[Read the article: The intellectual elite ... my ass]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thanks, Andrew, for a very interesting post on a very interesting subject. I really enjoy your column (sorry, blog) -- the meatiest and most useful portion of Salon.
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Nighttime in America
[Read the article: The intelligence report cites "leftist" groups as a terror threat]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The right-wing noise machine is seizing on the report's assertion that victory in Iraq will be a defeat for "the terrorists". Wow! Really? Three and a half years and 20,000 casualties in a war that wasn't supposed to happen (see: cakewalk, stupidly naive predictions of), and these neo-fascist enablers STILL imagine that "victory" is some sort of mere triumph of the will? We urgently need a Battlestar Galactica moment where someone who can get past the media filter (Laura? the Twins?) calmly tells Junior that the war is over -- and he lost.
The U.S. won the war in Vietnam every day for ten years, until it, too, was finally lost.