Letters to the Editor
Nita Martin
Published Letters: 271 Editor's Choice: 62
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Tom DeLay weighs in
[Read the article: Larry Craig and the double standards]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Under questioning by Matt Lauer today about Craig, DeLay got very huffy, and claimed Lauer was being unfair by mentioning the Foley, Vitter and Craig situations. In fairness, the context was the impact of Foley on the election, and the potential of these new scandals to snuff out some hopes.
DeLay launched into a decades-old litany of Democratic Party scandals, including the relatively recent $100,000 in the freezer mess...and Barney Frank's ancient history. I waited for Lauer to remind him that the Republican scandals were just the "recent" sex scandals, and didn't encompass all the other recent and current GOP corruption investigations and indictments. And to bring the hypocrisy factor into play. Didn't happen.
And once again, viewers who don't have the facts, were left with a whole load of lop-sided crap by a GOP spinner who is, himself, a great example of GOP scandal and disgrace.
He was hyping his book...and as its title implies, it appears he doesn't have the good sense or good grace, to just go away.
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I'm all for expansive delving into just about anything on the information superhighway
[Read the article: Why bathroom sex is hot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]However, when people are dying in Iraq, the Justice Department is corrupt, our national resources are being gutted, New Orleans is rotting, health insurance for kids is being denied, etc. etc. etc.....and last, but not least....the President is now DEPLOYING TROOPS TO WASHINGTON, D.C., I can't help but be disappointed when I open my e-mail and find the big story on Salon is headlined "Bathroom sex is hot".
Although I don't at all object to the piece, I just question whether this salacious fluff is the MOST IMPORTANT thing in your bag of goodies, today. If it is...woe is me. I suspect it's just an attention grabber, which I expect on the weekend. But blindsiding those of us who are expecting gritty but smart-ass commentary on the dirtier world outside the bathroom stall is a no-no on a weekday. Think about it. I know we're facing a holiday weekend...but still....
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Ok, case in point
[Read the article: Why bathroom sex is hot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If you were going to run a story about this as the FEATURED piece, it should have been Joe Conason's article, which was well-written, researched, intelligent and thoughtful. And nowhere did Conason have the need to coyly write "No, really!", like the virtually giggling Hannaham.
Again...not about being gay, or gay stuff...strictly about editorial judgement.
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Liberals/progressives against illegal immigration is not some kind of myth
[Read the article: The ballad of Ramos and Compean]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There are plenty of us who think that the GOP represents a huge part of what is wrong with American ideals, ethics and agenda. And yet we still think that illegal immigration is a problem that needs enforcement.
It doesn't need to be dealt with by sappy "poor brown-skinned people need our sympathy" approaches as one poster suggests. Nor by "illegal immigrants have rights too". They don't. The only legitimate right they have as an illegal non-citizen is to go home.
If I illegally enter another country, I can expect to be imprisoned and/or sent home. If I try to get a job as a non-citizen in most European countries, I am prohibited, except under special circumstances that have everything to do with putting the rights of that country's own citizens first.
The biggest problem with Alex Koppelman's article is the blatant portrayal of his own assumptions as fact.
And dissembling. Following an account of rabid support for the agents, he reveals that the question posed for viewers was:
"Do you believe the Justice Department should be giving immunity to illegal alien drug smugglers in order to prosecute U.S. Border Patrol agents for breaking administrative regulations? ... Yes or no."
Who would think that illegal drug dealers should get a pass for "administrative" screw-ups by border agents?
This story is being told as though both sides are larger than life in the "righteousness" of their position.
Some border agents said a fleeing drug dealer had "something shiny" in his hand. They didn't say he had a gun. The suspect was an illegal alien with a van full of drugs. The agents covered up their ineptitude. Fourteen shots without a hit. The suspect's mother-in-law is indignant. The officers are given 10 years, the suspect is uncharged.
There is indeed something wrong with this. On both sides. Illegal immigration problems are not going to be solved by sending feckless agents to prison, or letting drug-smuggling illegal aliens go free because no one can prove he wasn't armed.
For this to become the defining standard of a cause on either side is absurd...
...as ridiculous as Alex Koppelman's assertion that wanting a clampdown on the flood of illegal immigration is the domain of the far right, and that those who want it stopped are "anti-immigration."
A van full of drugs. A fleeing illegal. This is not a question of "anti-immigration" posturing, Alex.
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Getting caught:
[Read the article: "A victim of circumstance"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The GOP definition (along with Craig and his family)is "being in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Works in practically any situation but Iraq.
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One needs only
[Read the article: Dick Cheney's top aide: "We're one bomb away" from our goal]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]to read about the life and times of J. Edgar Hoover to see the creative ways domestic spying can be brought to bear on Americans who have differing political ideals, are campaigning against your candidate or sleeping with your sister, or are just plain annoying.
Or to read about the McCarthy era to see how applying a label (communist then, terrorist now) can allow those with overreaching power, and greed for more, to ruin the lives of harmless Americans.
And now we have a whole legion of David Addington's and 21st Century tools. Woohoo. Somewhere in the basement of the White House, someone is salivating. And waiting for that bomb.