Letters to the Editor
swilldog
Published Letters: 184 Editor's Choice: 20
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the empty platitude meme
[Read the article: Bowling for votes in Wisconsin]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]From the article, this bit from a Republican supporter:
"I would like to think that Republicans are more grounded, practical, pragmatic," Moore said. "Democrats, especially those followers of Obama, are fanciful, non-realistic swallowers of vague, vacuous platitudes. They're just trite statements that mean absolutely nothing."
Funny thing about that: Barack "Empty Platitudes" Obama's website spells out a staggeringly large array of issues, with reasonably well laid out positions on each issue, along with proposed solutions.
John "Practical, Pragmatic" McCain? Not so much. His website is remarkable in its lightness on ideas and solutions. Not that I'd expect the GOP faithful to bother to research the candidates. As the woman at the Holler House said -- and I'm paraphrasing here -- they'd vote for Hitler if he was a Republican. ;-)
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conspiracy theorists, unite!
[Read the article: Bowling for votes in Wisconsin]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]So I've been noticing a LOT of unhinged Hillary supporters/Obama haters, generally (although not exclusively) posting as Anonymous. Crazy perceptive of me, I know. ;-)
Initially, I thought to myself: "Well, god bless 'em, they're passionate, although I'd venture a bit misinformed." But then they all started to sound similiar. And increasingly illogical at times. And I began to wonder.
Then I heard some callers on the Sam Seder Show (Air America on Sundays. I download the podcasts, and highly recommend it). And lo and behold, a few shrill callers irrationally complaining about how all this support for Obama is making them hate hate hate hate him and as a result they're thinking of sitting out this election or voting for McCain out of spite.
Then I started poking around the web at other blogs/news sites. And by golly, same stuff.
So I started to wonder: Is this part of a concerted campaign to sow discord amongst us Democrats and discourage Independents from voting Democratic? Is this more right wing dirty tricks stuff?
I have my suspicions, but no answers. And of course, I often end up beating up on myself for being so cynical as to assume that such dirty tricks stuff is everywhere. People have every right to be passionate, after all. But there's such a widespread and consistent craziness to it, that it seems almost scripted.
So please consider my plea to you, kind reader of page 15 or so: The vitriol that you feel compelled to respond to, that seems to so greatly raise your ire, my very well be designed solely to do that very thing. To dampen your inclination to support either Democratic candidate.
On the other hand, it could be 100% for real. If so, I shudder to think of what it would mean if this were a true and genuine social phenomenon.
A caveat: I do NOT think that every single empassioned Hillary supporter is some sort of GOP dirty trickster. There are a bunch of well-informed (and not so well-informed) supporters of her candidacy, just as there are on the Obama side. It's not my goal to paint with such a wide brush, but it gets harder to avoid when so many are posting such stuff anonymously. Food for thought for the Salon editors out there, perhaps.
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smells like an ambush
[Read the article: "Name some of Barack Obama's legislative accomplishments ... if you can" ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Matthews is well known for ambushing interviewees with this kind of crap. And Kirk Watson (a reasonably good mayor of my beloved Austin, TX before making his way to the House) is a pretty ripe target for this kind of ambushing. He's not a legislation wonk, so it doesn't surprise me that he wasn't ready to pull out a detailed list of Obama's legislation.
And someone else put it pretty clearly: what great legislative accomplishments did Big Dog Bill have coming into the office? And from the looks of Hillary's list posted above, hers doesn't exactly light the world on fire, either.
It'd be a reasonable thing to go on about if Obama was running on his "extensive list of legislative accomplishments," but he's running that flag up the flagpole now is he? He's running on his vision and his rather exhaustive platform of issues and solutions.
This is all just pundit theater. Nothing to see here.
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the false TX delegate partitioning "controversy"
[Read the article: Hillary Clinton's Texas-size moment ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Some anti-Obama shill actually had a point that should be addressed:
Black districts in Texas are getting more proportional delagates then Hispanic/White districts...Why are the Dem's pitting one against another...
The delegate partitioning in Texas is based on well-established and somewhat arcane party rules, but the gist is pretty simple: The delegate count is formulated based on the voter turnout of the last two elections. The rules drafted by the TX Democratic Party were formalized last year and published in August 2007 -- looooooooooooong before Obama emerged as the front-runner.
Feel free to take a look at what the Washington Post had to say about it, complete with a link to the PDF of the selection plan:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/17/AR2008021702461_pf.html
Basically, it all comes down to the fact that the predominantly hispanic and rural districts had a lower Dem voter turnout than traditionally black and urban districts in 2006 and 2004. Sorry, but there's no "there" there. End of story.
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re: "this is news?"
[Read the article: McCain's other lobbyist connections]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Lobbyists and former lobbyists are everywhere. The revolving door between government and lobbying firms has been a source of righteous or otherwise indignation for as long as I can remember and I'm getting up there. A former lobbyist even ran for the Republican nomination. Give me something with a little more substance.
This is news because McCain presents himself as somehow above and apart from the corrupting influence of lobbyists in Washingtonian politics today. How is that not substantive?
McCain: "Vote for me! I'm above the fray! I'm all about doing what's right for every day Americans, not doing the bidding of special interests! And if you don't believe me, ask my powerful lobbyist friends -- they're my closest advisers!"
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Kingston on Maher
[Read the article: Various items]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]When he started blathering about Obama's lack of lapel pins, I was sooooooooo desperately waiting for Maher to stop him in his tracks and say:
"Wait a minute -- where's your lapel pin, douchebag?"