Letters to the Editor
jeff in doha
Published Letters: 24
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Will Roberts
[Read the article: One-sided rules of political debate]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]the ultimate counter-example would be finding the right calling an active duty soldier a traitor
While I don't recall the right calling an active-duty soldier a traitor by name, when the right said a vote for Kerry (or any anti-war dem in the last mid-terms) was a vote for the enemy, they were speaking not just of voters within the US borders, but of a certain percentage of our armed forces (I want to say 37%, but I'm not sure) in Irag and Afghanistan as well. Ditto when they used the phrase "cut and run" to imply that war opponents were cowards. Many of those war opponents were and are in Iraq at this moment.
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OT, but only slightly
[Read the article: One-sided rules of political debate]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Incidentally, two of the authors of the NYT op-ed of 19 Aug., "The War As We Saw It," have apparently been killed in Baghdad.
http://dailykos.com/story/2007/9/12/0926/28618
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regarding Frum, from TAPPED
[Read the article: Various items]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]From TAPPED:
THE NEOCON MERGE TEMPLATE REVEALED.
Read the following and see if you can guess whether David Frum is writing about Iraq back in 2003, or about Iran today:
"You want realism? It's this: The emerging US-____ confrontation is a confrontation of ___'s choice and ____'s making. It is ____ that has determined to seek nuclear weapons, ____ that has declared it will use those weapons aggressively against its neighbors, and ____ that has made a nonsense of the long negotiations with the UK, France, and Germany. We are rapidly reaching the point - maybe we have reached it already - where ____ has succeeded in reducing our choices to two: acquiesce in a nuclear bomb or stop it by force. As for the idea that the present ____ regime can be a negotiating partner - a constructive force in the region - or anything other than a menace to its neighbors or its own people, well we need another term for that. How about "fantasy"?"
Answer: Why should anybody give a ____ what David Frum writes at this point?
--Matthew Duss
at http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=10&year=2007&base_name=the_neocon_merge_template_reve
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Re: Shows how far we have gone
[Read the article: The "liberal" position on the Surveillance State]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]adamwho says:
I heard Justice Stevens discuss the fact that when he was appointed he was considered a conservative but is now described as a liberal.
And when I was a youth, now-Democrat Jim Webb would have been a reasonable, middle-of-the-road Republican.
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they, "the Democrats"
[Read the article: House Democratic leadership: not just complicit but also self-destructive]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]We need to be clear that when we speak of "the Democrats," we're not speaking of all Democrats. But 20 to 30 Democratic senators generally side with Bush (and enough representatives to, with Republicans, create a majority in the House do the same), not because they're afraid, not because they are following some inexplicable strategy, but because they agree with him, they're on the same side. They're part of that Establishment that we railed against in the 60s; they haven't gone away. And unfortunately, those Democrats include almost all House and Senate leaders. That means that, on most issues, the majority of us are represented by 25-30% of the Senate and 40% or so of the House.
Looking at it that way, I think, allows us to identify the problem. It's not "Democrats" (though for sure it's Republicans). It's those few that believe as Republicans and thus side with them on issues such as this.
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GG
[Read the article: House Democratic leadership: not just complicit but also self-destructive]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I don't understand the desire constantly to make excuses for the people who are continuously subverting everything you believe.
Accusing Reyes, Reid, Pelosi, Rockefeller, Feinstein, and others of being on the wrong side is hardly making excuses for them. It's simply pinpointing where, in addition to Republicans, we ought to aim our arrows. One doesn't have to be a Blue Dog to be wrong. And some Democrats, a majority, in most cases, come down on the right side of the most important issues. You wouldn't have seen Bobby Scott, my representative, doing what Reyes did Sunday, for example. Nor would you have seen Russ Feingold (not my senator, unfortunately) doing it either.
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Meghan brings clarity for us
[Read the article: "The guys from the Politico brought my mom flowers"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]My God. Of course, we read about this event, but seeing it gives a whole new understanding, the picture being worth a thousand words thing, I guess. Anyone in attendance must not be permitted again to cover McCain in any area but the society pages (do those still exist?). Ever. They simply can't be adversarial, and if they're not adversarial, they might as well be stenographers, copyists.
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David Paul Kuhn
[Read the article: The Politico claims the Iraq war will help McCain]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I read the Politico article expecting it to be Onion-like satire, then looked over Kuhn's bio expecting to find at least some comedy writing in his background, but no, it wasn't satire, and no, he doesn't appear to have ever been a comedy writer.
So I guess it's just a self-delusional piece. It could become dangerous, though, should the Dems start believing the line (certainly some already do) and thus start running away from the war as an issue in November when, especially in the presidential race, they should put McCain's embrace of it and of Bush front and center.
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they, them
[Read the article: High-level right-wing discourse]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Isn't this in part indicative if the bigotry that comes from the typical conservative/Republican sense of victimhood? "'They' are ruining our country, our world, my life. We must fear 'them,' mock 'them,' hate 'them.'"
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Juan Cole, Leila Fadel
[Read the article: Ken Pollack: Al Qaeda is a great "catch-all" term]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Any critic of the Iraq war who's not a "fierce critic" isn't really a critic at all--consequently, "critic" or "well-informed critic" or some such would have been a better appellation for Juan Cole.
Speaking of good, accurate reporters, anyone who hasn't done so should check out Bill Moyers's interview with 26-year-old Leila Fadel of McClatchy on last night's Bill Moyers Journal. If any "experts"--or Republican presidential candidates--really wanted to know what's going on in Iraq, she and Cole make for good sources.
See http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/index-flash.html. It gives hope. Not all reporters are simple stenographers.
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Cindy Ross, and Mister Dot's Republicans
[Read the article: Ken Pollack: Al Qaeda is a great "catch-all" term]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I see Cindy Ross beat me to the Moyers link. Oh, well. I'm in good company.
Regarding Mister Dot's "Republicans," I was thinking something similar regarding the debate questions and Brooks' and others' lack of apology for them and what voting constituency may think such trivialities really matter.