Letters to the Editor
WeikuBoy
Published Letters: 487 Editor's Choice: 62
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A Republican Call For Impeachment
[Read the article: Salon Interview: Camille Paglia]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]As a right-wing Republican who firmly believes rich people should pay no taxes and that all members of the democrat party (except Joe Lieberman) should be immediately taken away to Gitmo for treason, even I must confess George W. Bush and Dick Cheney made false statements of fact about non-existent WMD and connections to 9/11 in order to start the war in Iraq, and should be impeached. If fudging the truth about a tawdry yet legal affair that resulted in nothing more serious than a stained blue dress is an impeachable offense, then I guess lying to start a war that has thus far killed 3000 of Our Troops (not to mention a half-million or so non-Christians) should be as well. I say this very reluctantly, as a right-wing Republican who only wants what is best for Corporate America.
[Wow, it really works! All I have to do is preface my remarks with "I'm a right-wing Republican, but . . . " and suddenly I'm no longer a kook fringe leftist, but rather a "concerned patriot". Thanks, Camille Paglia!]
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Intellectual Learnings Make Benefit Great Party of Corporate Rich
[Read the article: Salon Interview: Camille Paglia]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]OK, having just read a nice story on Borat in EW, I get where Camille is coming from. She (and Salon) are just being hip and getting right on top of this whole Borat thing. Ha ha ha! Madam Paglia make extinguish lib'ral intellectional sexytime same as way Borat glorious Kazakh movie hero. Hi-five!
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No "Waters" in Casablanca; Camille is Misinformed
[Read the article: Salon Interview: Camille Paglia]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Ms. Paglia actually said a lot of smart things. I think the reason she received such harsh reviews from the left is mainly because she received such glowing praise from the herd of right-wing day-trippers to Salon who either didn't read or didn't understand her comments about them (e.g., "nascent fascists"). But here's where she's wrong:
1) Bush Jr. is NOT a "decent man". No "decent man" could lie about WMD and 9/11 and cause the violent deaths of a half-million people who had no connection to al-Qaeda or Osama (who bin-Forgotten). Even if the neo-cons convinced him that occupying Iraq's oil fields is truly in America's long-term best interests, it's not a "decent" war.
2) It's laughable to call the GOP the liberty party. Even prior to the Patriot Act and the warrantless surveillance of citizens, Gitmo and Abu Ghraib, torture in secret prisons, signing statements by the unitary executive, and the abolition of habeas corpus -- even before all that -- the drug war made a mockery of all that conservatives claim to cherish: small government, state's rights, personal liberty, free markets, etc.
3) It's laughable to say the GOP is not the party of rich "fat cats". The GOP's top priorities even as we speak are eliminating the estate (excuse me, "death") tax, and gutting social security, the linchpin of the middle class safety net. Meanwhile holding down the pitifully low minimum wage, when CEO salaries are truly obscene. The Republican party doesn't just practice class warfare. The Republican party IS class warfare.
4) Ms. Paglia is naive about the "satanic force" of the right-wing echo chamber. She is apparently unaware that the shocking percentage of Americans who think WMD were found in Iraq and that Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11 is highest among Fox viewers (and, I'm guessing, listeners of the right-wing talk radio of which she is so fond).
On the other hand, if her point is that Fox is really not much worse than the rest of the corporate media -- which acted as cheerleaders for the Bush-Cheney Iraq War while refusing to hold Bush-Cheney to the same high standards of honesty and integrity to which it so zealously held Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and John Kerry -- well then, she has a point. Among her many other good points.
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P.S. - Camille Misinformed
[Read the article: Salon Interview: Camille Paglia]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Many others have already pointed out her astonishingly ridiculous assertion that no Democrats have military experience. Rather than repeat the long list (to which I add George McGovern, whose shabby trashing became the prototype for the GOP politics of personal destruction), I merely agree that the Bush-Cheney neo-cons are chickenhawks who had boils on their butts and other priorities when it was their turn, but who now lose not one minute of sleep over the horrible deaths of other people's children.
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The Right-Wing Echo Chamber Visits Salon
[Read the article: Salon Interview: Camille Paglia]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The flood of right-wing tourists, who apparently were TOLD that Ms. Paglia has validated their prejudices, and have felt the need to leave graffiti on Salon's walls, are providing a pretty good pcture of the fantasy world inside their day-to-day echo chamber, to wit:
1) Make stuff up. Like the nonsense about "80% of the fighters in Iraq being non-Iraqis". Like O'Reilly on Letterman last night trying to bluff Dave with Ansar al-Islam. Make it up.
2) Be clueless concerning your enemies. Address liberals as if they are Stalinists from the 30's. (I swear one jingo just bravely decried "central planning"). Conflate Saddam Hussein with Osama bin-Forgotten, even if the result is 23,000 needless, pointless casualties.
3) Pretend defeat is victory. 23,000 casualties is what Cheney meant by "cakewalk". Abandoned relics from the Iran-Iraq War are "the WMD." Sunni Insurgents and Shia militias -- stop, that's too complicated for folks who've never been outside the U.S.
4) Ignore reality. What, there were no WMD? Five years after 9/11, al-Qaeda continues to threaten the West, and Osama bin-Forgotten? La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la We can't HEAR you.