Letters to the Editor
maureenodonnell
Published Letters: 578 Editor's Choice: 5
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Uncle Fester, I've read your letters and they're always well- reasoned.
[Read the article: Obama hits back at Clinton ad]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I do know what you mean. I spent a lot of time reading "The Irish Times" site last year and quite a few writers to that site are incandescent with rage about American foreign policy - halliburton, Blackwater, the lot who have fattened on the war. You might be surprised to learn that, although I posted on that site I confined myself to commenting on our own national scene where we have our own Hibernian "chancers" in politics. I only came to the Salon site in January as I was suffering from mid-winter ennui and curious about what might happen in the US this November. I never felt any empathy with Hillary Clinton as we're two very different types of women but I began to take her side when I read some of the scurrilous remarks about her and the grotesque one-sidedness of the media. There's a Profile of Chelsea Clinton in "The Irish Times" magazine (March l, 2008) and I read with absolute disgust what John McCain said about Chelsea as a teenager. I'm not going to repeat it but you probably know it anyway - it's about a young girl's looks and a linking her to Janet Reno. There would be uproar in any country that I know if a senior politician were to make such a depraved remark about a girl (or boy) barely out of childhood.
There has been an historical affection for America in this country. My own great-grandmother went out on the tender to join the big ship which would take her to America but changed her mind at the last moment because she was the youngest in the family and believed she would never see her mother again. If she had hadn't changed her mind at the eleventh hour I wouldn't be here now annoying a few Americans. I suppose there's some irony in that.
Everybody understands that Americans want their country to be better but I'm not sure what way you're going now. I don't know whether the expressiong "going from the frying-pan into the fire" means anything in the US and all I can say is that I hope that doesn't happen. I must go to bed now. You've most likely guessed that I do like to argue (as a child my father told me I'd have the last word or die in the attempt) but someone else can have the last word now as I'm very tired.
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Manos 99, it's snug as a bug in a rug.
[Read the article: Obama hits back at Clinton ad]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I don't like smugness. Night-night, as we say over here, before we go to bed.
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Truth Machine and Manos 99. it really is very honourable to snipe at a writer who's clearly stated that she's logging off for the night
[Read the article: Obama hits back at Clinton ad]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Why is it that some of the Obama supporters convey the strong impression of being very nasty "pieces of work". Manos 99 clearly didn't understand that Obama's much-vaunted speech of 2 October 2002 contained inaccuracies about the war-record of Stanley Dunham, Obama's maternal grandfather. The fact that Obama had used the patriotic allusions in regard to his grandfather was to emphasise his American-ness but they are based on a fallacy. It seems that simple facts cannot shine through clouds of fantasy so I'll repeat what is true. Either this was a rhetorical flourish in Obama's speech, misleading boastfulness from a grandfather to a grandson or something introduced into Obama's speech in Illinois (before his election to US Senate) by a speechwriter to puff that speech up into something with more resonance. Whatever the reason, neither Manos 99 nor his accomplice were able to deal with the facts and descended to inane belittling of me. I'm not a granny, Manos 99 but if I were would that be a blot on my character and render my opinion worthless? I'm not stupid either as someone who drapes truth about his/her screen name implies. Stanley Dunham could not have spoken to American soldiers who were first into Auschwitz as the Russian Army was first into Auschwitz, Treblinka was razed to the ground in August l943 and by l945, when the Germans were defeated, it had been grassed over and turned into a farm, Words matter and the truth matters even more. Deal with it instead of indulging in sneak attacks on writers who have clearly indicated the intention of leaving the site overnight.
The latest now is that Senator Obama, the epitome of smugness and presumptuousness, as the nomination is not yet in the bag for him, has stated that he will have Republicans in his Cabinet. Some parts of the jigsaw are falling into place. The name Chuck Hagel has been mentioned but I must read "The Sunday Times" carefully over breakfast before I comment further.
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WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? Obama plans to court Republicans and hopes to appoint Republicans to his Cabinet
[Read the article: Obama hits back at Clinton ad]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]According to "The Sunday Times" (World Newsa 2 March 2008), Obama would like to appoint CHUCK HAGEL, the Republican Senator for NEBRASKA and an opponent of the Iraq War, and RICHARD LUGAR, the Republican leader of the Senate foreign relations committee.
Senior advisers confirmed that Hagel, a highly decorated Vietnam war veteran and one of McCain's closest friends in the Senate, was considered Obama's ideal candidate for defence secretary. Some regard the outspoken Republican as a possible vice-presidential nominee although that might be regarded as a "stretch"".
This article was written by Sarah Baxter who spoke to the candidate aboard Obama One as he crisscrossed Ohio and Texas. All of the above can be verified on TimesOnline.
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Why is Barack Obama making "come-to-bed eyes" at Senators Chuck Hagel and Richard Lugar?
[Read the article: Obama hits back at Clinton ad]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Can anyone explain why Senator Obama would consider going outside his own Party for Republican foreign policy experts? Apparently, Senator Hagel, although Republican and a friend of John McCain, opposed the war in Iraq and that is now the only shibboleth that's required to be among "the good guys". I'm not sure why Senator Lugar is regarded as such a trophy but I await enlightenment. I have noticed that, apart from Uncle Fester, my question on the reference to Auschwitz and Treblinka, as mentioned in Obama's speech in October 2002 and which is on his website, provoked the type of hissing that could be associated with an angry gander, a particularly bad-tempered fowl when out-of-sorts.
I'd like an answer to my question, please.