Letters to the Editor
James V
Published Letters: 35 Editor's Choice: 2
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Profitability
[Read the article: Answers for Joe Klein]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Of all the things broken in this country (in particular with it's politics) it really seems to me that money is at the root of nearly all of them. Does anyone else feel a pang of disgust when politicians get magnanimous and refer to themselves as "public servants"? Not only do they rarely serve the public but they also are certainly not surviving on anything near a servant's wages. These pundits and beltway insiders are certainly no different. And while they enjoy seeing themselves as playing an important role in how Washington works, in the end they are simply just a part of the broken bureaucracy. Just like some mid-level assistant's assistant in some nameless corporation, most really have no real purpose. Their very existence is defined simply by their being. They are what they do but no one knows how or why. And they operate with with one central goal: keeping their jobs.
Our education system, our healthcare system and even our government are all examples showing that when you turn these things into businesses for profit or for sale to the highest bidder they break. When your focus is on making a profit, then profit becomes what's important relegating whatever true purpose these things may have served as afterthoughts or how you talk about them in mixed company.
I don't want to get too wrapped up in the tangled discussion of all of Capitalisms pros and cons nor how central that concept is to our very society, but I do think that there needs to be a line drawn with profitability on one side and the public welfare on the other. Without those lines the public will continue to be largely left out of the equation. There are so many opportunities for people to make money in this country, can't we just say that these few are not among them? Certainly removing politics from the list is vital to our nation's future.
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Seal Island
[Read the article: Talking the talk]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I think qazwart gets to the heart of it. It's party discipline.
It reminds me of a recent piece I saw on National Geographic. There is safety in numbers and like Cape Fur Seals sensing the Great White sharks, the Republicans are gathering in numbers before swimming out to sea to feed. They are doing this in order to better protect themselves and maybe confuse their looming predators. These predators I'm referring to are not simply the Democrats in Washington but also the people of this country and the issues that THEY feel are important (regardless of what the pundit-for-hires say the people want). And it appears that the Republicans are very much afraid that the upcoming elections could quite likely be a feeding frenzy and they don't really have a clear idea how they are going to avoid it.
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Good answer
[Read the article: "I don't have an answer for you"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I was going to post... you know I'm glad we have a chance to... that is to say it's important for all of us, in this post... in these changing times, that we all have something important to talk about. That is to say what we are all interested in here is certainly very important to be thinking about as we move forward. If you look back I think you'll find that what we started to address in the... I'm not going to second guess here, we had started to address these things but now we are moving forward and addressing this...this very important issue I think you'll agree...with a way forward that is both new and important.
I think I'm going to go get drunk now...
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Groundhog's Day
[Read the article: Gonzales loses another senator, faces "no-confidence" vote]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"I would hope that the attorney general understands that the department is suffering right now, and he does the right thing, and that it allows the president to provide new leadership," Coleman said.
That's a stunningly stupid comment Mr. Coleman.
Does someone need to run through the laundry list of "leadership" selections that this president is responsible for that turned into complete disasters? There are many. Perhaps someone should simply remind him that the man whom he is asking to resign was selected BY this President? While they are at it they could also remind Mr. Coleman that the "straw the broke the camels back" in this ongoing travesty actually INVOLVED the President directly?
It's just like the movie Groundhog's Day only it's not one man reliving a day, it's one country reliving a nightmare... the same crimes over and over and over...
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Fear & Loathing in South Carolina
[Read the article: Who's afraid of Ron Paul?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]kickstarts, you hit it spot on.
And not only does he represent the only more traditional (also see endangered) Republican but he is also a considerable threat to all of their campaigns with more exposure. While personally not a Republican, I do have to admit a certain glee at watching the other candidates get all frothy at the contrast.
The last thing that the fear & loathing party wants is a candidate that has any semblance of ration or reason. That's contrary to all the regress they've made over the last decade or so. And the more that Republican voters are exposed to him the more dangerous he will become. He's most dangerous because in some cases he is saying what Americans REALLY think and feel and not what the paid pundits and Washington politicians SAY they think and feel. And as any new-fangled Republican worth his salt will tell you, they just can't have that!