Letters to the Editor
dcutler
Published Letters: 14 Editor's Choice: 1
-
Red State Welfare Jive
[Read the article: The reddest place in America]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I get particularly annoyed by nonsense, non-fact based arguments that suggest my (insert locality here) is Red/Conservative because
"we believe that money doesn't grow on trees, and we don't expect Washington to send us money."
According to http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/16/16065.html
US census Bureau, Madison county has an estimated population of 30,975.
Again according to the US Census bureau http://harvester.census.gov/cffr/asp/Geography.asp Madison County Idaho has received $4,825,324 in "Direct Federal Payments" to individuals (principally in the form of Agricultural Subsidies), and $27,275,839 in "Other Direct Payments" principally in the form of PELL grants (all those nice college students) and Medicare / Medicaid grants. That works out to $1036 for every man woman and child in the county. Thus, Washington is "giving" roughly a $1000 to every citizen in the county.
If you compare this to say my own county, Montgomery County, Maryland, a blue county, in a blue state, inside the hated beltway, we find the federal government has provided $10,808,934 in direct payments, $746,746,372 in other direct payments for our 927,583 residents, or $816 per capita.
If Maryland is Blue and Idaho is red it has NOTHING to do with the fact that Idaho doesn't "rely on Washington" for its Welfare income.
-
Neocon Revisionism, Not Sexism per se
[Read the article: Pissed off about Iraq? Blame the women]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]To the extent that I have understood the limited snippets leaked from the Vanity Fair article, I believed that the thrust of that comment was really NeoCon Revisionism, not sexism.
The context, to the extent that I have understood it is, Why is the Iraq war such a mess? The NeoCon answer is "Because Bush bungled it," and the reason he bungled it is because he surrounded himself not with brilliant neocons who would have understood and adapted and made everything better, but instead with toadies who always agreed with him, and some of whom are actually in love with him.
The issue isn't their gender per se, but their lack of independent objectivity, and their belief that Bush can do no wrong. The underlying problem in their view is Bush's desire to surround himself with such people, rather than independent thinkers.
-
Defending Newt... slightly
[Read the article: If only Newt Gingrich were president]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It is incredibly good sport, and absolutely easy to belittle and abuse the silliness of the neocons, but this particular criticism may be slightly off base, and if I had to guess, Newt's strategy might be pretty close to what actually happened.
The idea is Newt says this is what he would SAY to the Iranians, not necessarily what he would do.
The notion being that in these sorts of high stakes negotiations both sides want to offer options, and all the options need to be credible. War was never a credible option. Blockading gasoline imports and exports, and destroying refining capacity is a very credible option.
So, it is not inconceivable that this is PRECISELY the approach the Brits took. The approach the Iranians privately and offer two options.
Option 1: We destroy your gasoline refining capacity, blockage your harbors, and allow you deal with the economic ramifications at your leisure.
Option 2: You return our sailors, politely, and we say kind polite things back in the press.
Your choice. Decide.
This may very well have happened.
The key is that Newt said this is what he would SAY to the Iranians. That is quiet different from actually DOING it. He didn't really advocate doing it. He said we would SAY that he wants to do it, but not that he would actually do it.
That really is different.
Frankly I would advocate saying that you were going to destroy the oil refining capacity, even if you had no intention of ever doing so, as this is the best most credible and most devasting threat.
This is the stick. The carrot is the nice comments about friendly relations.