Letters to the Editor
Reality-based Liberal
Published Letters: 774 Editor's Choice: 100
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C'mon Tim
[Read the article: A change of power in Congress? Doesn't bleed, doesn't lead]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Exposing Fox as having partisan priorities in its coverage is hardly breaking news -- everyone knows it's an extension of the GOP's corporate right wing.
More bold observations might be how the New York Times, NPR and other "liberal" outlets also pick and choose stories to present distorted pictures that aren't so out of line with Fox (NPR news programs are gushing over troops surge lately by having on only guests that pretty much think that's okay).
Or if you want to talk about the significance of the Dems taking over, perhaps observe how Obama sanctimoniously decries special interests’ sway in Congress and calls for major change (today's Post), yet amazingly never mentions campaign finance reform. You could observe that the banking industry is one of Obama's major donors and how Obama helped defeat an amendment to the bankruptcy bill that would have limited interest rates at an already usurious 30%. That would be breaking news for most of Salon readers, I bet.
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orbitboy:
[Read the article: A change of power in Congress? Doesn't bleed, doesn't lead]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If my partner distracts you with a shell game while I pick your pocket, that shell game isn't trivial, it's tactical. Fox's choice in coverage - and the choices of most news outlets - are tactical too. Maybe "bias" isn't the right word, but it's not entertainment.
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This signifies deeper problem
[Read the article: Heck of a job, everyone]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Tim's right that the administration's misleading bullshit and outright lies are so commonplace that no one should be surprised by this, and that is itself a problem.
When a room is littered with smoking guns, no new smoking gun will represent the last straw ... unless that smoking gun comes in the form of a mushroom cloud (sorry, couldn't help myself there).
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Re Barnaby's call not to defund
[Read the article: The party's over]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Barnaby,
Defunding is governing. It is not only Congress' duty to allocate the nation's resources, but a Supreme Court ruling during Vietnam found that congressional funding was legally an endorsement of policy.
I would add that if one considers this war immoral and illegal, as I do, then it is not a prerogative of the Democratic Congress to wait for the right political moment, anymore than it is okay for someone who witnesses a rape below their apartment window to put off a call to the police until American Idol is over.
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Collusion
[Read the article: White House correspondents: Don't knock Bush]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]So the WH correspondents believe it's their duty to prop up an unpopular and irrefutably dangerous presidency? For whom do they work? Seriously.
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Administration assumes we are stupid - and have got it right so far
[Read the article: The Alberto Gonzales School of Constitutional Interpretation]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The Bush crowd just makes stuff up as they go along – without even trying to make their own assertions and interpretations internally consistent. Their assumption is that they and their analyses will be treated as legitimate by the press, public and opposition party, even if questioned. So far, that assumption is a safe one.
It's time the left went beyond claiming the emperor has no clothes and started acting like it.
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This is not about a bad lawyer
[Read the article: The Alberto Gonzales School of Constitutional Interpretation]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Folks, I'm sorry but I have to disagree with most of these posts. These guys are not necessarily uninformed about the law (a moot question really); they don't care about the law. Gonzales is not paid to interpret the law, he is paid to justify whatever the administration wants to do, legal or otherwise. What the administration calls legal interpretations are nothing more than propaganda -- bullshit that causes the rest of us to present alternative legal analysis instead of impeaching them for attacking and defaming the constitution. And we fall for it hook, line and sinker when we ascribe non-criminal motives and ineptitude to what is, in fact, treason.
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Why is Huckabee Running?
[Read the article: Huckabee for America]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I think he's been recruited to split the far-right vote with Brownback, who the establishment doesn't want. Huckabee is an idiot who couldn't win if he were the only candidate, and whoever encouraged him to run knows he's a loser. He can't speak well, hold up under questioning, or even present the right-wing viewpoint coherently. The only practical impact of his entry is that Brownback is going to have to share votes, and I doubt that's an accident.
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Bush is right
[Read the article: The senators vs. the president]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Congress should defund or shut up. Personally, I think they should defund soon (with some stipulation that there will be money to transition troops and arrange a UN role, etc.). That's Congress' only power and it's clear that Bush isn't taking friendly advice, so this resolution is essentially a way to pretend to voters that Democrats care. It's not like banks get votes from Congress that pretend to help them, they get "bankruptcy reform" cosponsored by the Democratic leadership that puts real cash in their really stuffed pockets - so why should 60%+ of the nation get worse treatment than Citibank?
That's why I agree with comments about the Democrats and their lack of spine, spirit or principle. And as for Buffalonian's comments about Nader - it wasn't Nader or his voters who lost the election, it was the half of Americans who voted for Bush. I can't get over the fact that so many Democrats are so chicken shit that they'd rather beat the left for not selling out rather than suggest that Bush are to blame.
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Last line...
[Read the article: The senators vs. the president]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Should be "that Bush VOTERS are to blame."
Would also sign on to complaints of other posters that any Democrat who passes a resolution committing to fund the troops is cutting of their nose to spite their face. Worse, it takes a great presentation by Webb after the SOTU and turns it into a lie. Webb said Dems would pass a resolution to go on record, but if the advice isn't taken their going to "show the way." Well, the only thing they've got left after the resolution is defunding, so I guess the new tough talk from the Webb's of the party is just that.
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Good for Feingold
[Read the article: Feingold: Compromise escalation resolution is too "weak"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]At least I know that I and about half of America have 1/100 representation in the Senate on this issue.