Letters to the Editor
Westmiller
Published Letters: 75
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Watching the Train Go By
[Read the article: "The message is so powerful, in spite of my shortcomings"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Wow: look at that train! How does it go so fast? Is it really going to stay on track? Let's talk to the operator and see what kind of gloves he wears."
An attempt to paraphrase the Ron Paul interview, which offers questions as vapid as might be profered by a third grader. Reading this and the accompanying article, one might imagine that the objective is to obscure any message or content beyond the workings of the train. No wonder that readers conclude that Ron Paul is all motion and no substance.
Anonymous: "Ron's "message" is really devoid any actual content."
Within the context of most media coverage, one could imagine that Ron has not been in Congress for 20 years, speaking at great length on thousands of issues and writing regular columns that discuss those issues in great depth. He's happy to discuss any of his positions for hours ... if anyone would bother to ask the questions.
When you really question his supporters about the specifics of what Ron wants to do ...
Of course, every supporter of every other candidate knows all of their positions in detail. But, given the opportunity to ask Paul to explain any position, the Salon interviewer defers to questions about process. How vapid.
I think Ron's supporters (all 500 of them) are caught up in the hype and don't really have a clue ...
I suppose it's a good thing that Paul's opponents have no comprehension of the breadth and depth of his support. At minimum, 87,000 active MeetUp participants (ten times that of any other candidate). YouTube videos that have been viewed 7.8 million times (millions more than Hillary), and $4.2 million in contributions for one day at an average of $108 each. Still, just stories about the train, rather than the engine that runs it.
All of Ron's platform positions are readily available at his website, well documented and discussed at dozens of other sites that reproduce his speeches and writings. To date, I've never seen a significant review or rebuttal of those concise and clear commentaries on important issues. Salon should be leading the way.
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Hiatt of Concupiscence
[Read the article: What the president knew]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Concupiscence: the innate tendency of human beings to do evil
The entire tribe of warmongers should be hiding their faces in shame.
Bottom line, they have caused the deaths of thousands of American soldiers on false pretenses and totally fabricated hysteria.
That should be a capital offense.
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If she had known then ...
[Read the article: The NIE changed everything. Yeah, right]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]... her worst move since she voted to authorize the use of military force against Iraq ..."
But, that frivolous terrorist allegation was just to "pressure Iran" to stop building nuclear bombs. Had Hillary known then that they hadn't been building bombs at all, she might have voted otherwise. Maybe. Or not.
Isn't ignorance bliss?
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The Authoritarian Manifesto
[Read the article: Death to the Fed! A Ron Paul manifesto]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"... the critical issue [of] how well the government manages the economy ..."
Economists who fantasize that they can "manage" the economy are insane. The FED governors should be committed for even trying to pretend that their judgement is wiser than 303 million Americans operating in a free market.
Ron Paul's point is not that he could manage it better, but that government has no "business" even trying to run the economy: that's fascism (private ownership under government control).
BTW: Alan Greenspan has admitted that he joined the FED only to mitigate the meddling. He supports Ron Paul's "hard money" position and pointed out that his guide to inflation was the current "dollar price" of gold.
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Bingo!
[Read the article: Michael Bloomberg: Trans-partisan savior]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"... an empty addiction to vapid notions of Establishment harmony"
Lovely summation. I'm sure there are thousands (millions?) of ego-massagers in New York who would happily work on Julius Ceasar's presidential campaign ... for a cut of the action.
How did this guy ever earn a dime? He doesn't even understand the difference between capitalism and fascism.
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One small step for (a) man ...
[Read the article: FISA 101]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]At least the House didn't immediately cave into the Pass My Bill or You Will Die argument. Hopefully, that's one small step toward eliminating the basic threat to our freedom: the secret, rubber-stamp, subjective FISA Court itself.
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Read the Justice Department Filings ...
[Read the article: CNN's John Roberts helps out Mike McConnell]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"I don't think I ever even heard a Bush official or any Bush follower make the argument that telecom amnesty was necessary to keep the "prying eyes of attorneys" away from Super-Secret Information about "The Program."
Immunity has nothing to do with spying "cooperation," it is solely intended to ensure telecom complicity with the administration's unconstitutional spying.
Read the government defense briefs in ACLU etal v. AT&T.
Big business wants to be immunized when the "Commander in Chief" gives orders, no matter how obviously they violate the Bill of Rights.
The ponderous error of Bush was in admitting, as prelude to defending, communications seizures without warrants. The program isn't a secret, but the entire "Intelligence" establishment is desperate to avoid any constitutional reprimand from the Supreme Court. They have to get the case thrown out, because they're losing.
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The "ding" in your own eye
[Read the article: Jane Fonda drops the C-word, O'Reilly freaks out]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It's amusing that Salon can ridicule the hysteria and word censorship of other media, while substituting "ding" for its own use of the same word. Hypocrasy, by any other name, would be as putrid. If Comedy Central can say "shit" 243 times in one episode, certainly Salon can say "cunt" just once in an internet video clip.
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Your next column, please ...
[Read the article: The Leader isn't protecting us and keeping us safe]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I applaud your rebuke of the "We Have To Protect You From Death With Every Power You Can Give Us" rant. But, please help me review the facts, as I recall them:
Unwarranted wiretapping has produced the conviction of fewer than two people for terrorism, after the fact. Of some three dozen "terrorists" charged, half were thrown out of court for being frivolous or entailed blatant entrapment. All the remainder were convictions for sending money (frequently provided by undercover FBI agents) to "named" terrorist charities.
The fact is that the "war on terrorism" is actually a war on innocent American's rights. None of the billions spent on "intelligence" or "defense" have protected us from another potential attack by our own domestic breed of theocrats and fascists. It's just one big con game.