Letters to the Editor
kovie
Published Letters: 641
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On Dylan Thomas
[Read the article: The administration's FISA falsehoods continue unabated]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]it doesn't look as though the Bush White House is planning on going gentle into that good night...
Well, the important thing is that they do go, not how they go. And of course none of us really expected them to just up and die. It's never that way with such thugs.
The climactic shootout at the end of LA Confidential comes to mind. Cheney's the CoP.
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Helpless Dancer
[Read the article: The administration's FISA falsehoods continue unabated]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I also saw her CSPAN appearance, and noted this remark, which I think she made more than once. However, in light of her many other remarks defending what she claimed was the legality of this program--as well as the nonsense that she spouted to defend her call to Iglesias--I found her remarks to be not very credible. She is not an honest broker in any of these matters, and thus not to be taken at face value.
I think that she's trying, like Specter, to have it both ways, criticizing this program in order to curry favor with moderates, but then claiming that it's still legal. Listen to her words. She says that she wishes that the administration had worked with FISA and gotten congress to amend it as necessary, yet also claims that they were fully within their rights to spy without warrants.
What does that mean? This makes no sense to me. Either the administration is breaking the law or it isn't. There is no grey zone here, and her transparent attempt to act as if there is speaks to her dishonesty. It's like saying that you really shouldn't cheat on your taxes, but it's still legal. Huh? It's almost like she and Lanny Davis, who said much the same things on CSPAN last week, spoke from the same script. And they may well have.
I've yet to hear an elected Repub speak honestly about these issues. They just can't or won't do it. There is simply no serious independance or honesty on the other side. They've decided to walk in lockstep come hell or highwater. I'm hoping that it takes them all over a steep cliff.
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When all you have is snark
[Read the article: Attacks on civilians, torture and lawless detentions]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I posted the following remarks last night on Digby, but I think it works just as well here.
There are only a handful of acceptable answers to these kinds of questions [i.e. about Arabs, Islam, the occupation, defending ourselves, terrorism, foreign policy, etc., by GOP candidates]:
-More torture!
-Expand Gitmo!
-Die Arab Die!
-9/11!
-Al Qaida!
-Jack Bauer!
-I'm the commander guy!
-Ron Paul must die!
-Rock the casbah!
-Look, it's Harry Whittington and he's got a gun!
-They're coming after David Gregory's kids!
And if I'm not mistaken, JPod just openly advocated genocide, in a major US paper (albeit a tabloid rag), and no one called him on it? No one? Is this not precisely what Burke meant?
One can and perhaps should certainly speculate why so many Americans appear to support torture, violence, murder, even genocide, and what this says about the country and where it's headed. But I think it's also time to ask what we can do about these people and their corrosive views. How do the majority of Americans whom I assume do not feel this way keep this minority of Americans from taking them further down their preferred path?
Historically, it's always a determined minority that hijacks an entire country into adopting or supporting its crazy and evil views. How much would it take for them to get most Americans to go along with this on a mass scale in the US itself? They've already effectively gotten them to agree to this in Iraq and Afghanistan, and god knows where else. What would it take for them to be able to make it happen here? These people are clearly out of their minds and quite evil, but they seem to have a knack for being taken seriously and listened to.
And Cheney is trying to do an end run around Bush and Rice on Iran right now and basically force Bush's hand on it. Scary stuff. If congress doesn't look into this right away, I don't know what to think. What the hell do Levin, Biden, Skelton and Lantos think we put them in charge for? We have the makings of a truly catastrophic set of events transpiring soon, and they do nothing about it but make pretty speeches about how their hands are tied (i.e. they don't want to take political risks and/or they actually wouldn't mind if these things happened).
Perhaps David Gregory really should be worried for his kids.