Letters to the Editor
Published Letters: 32 Editor's Choice: 3
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Lay off the guns bullshit, Salon
[Read the article: The GOP's dwindling anti-gay parade]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Listen, that little pic on the graphic equating guns with homophobia is exactly what has allowed Democrats to be cordoned off by the NRA, effectively, for the past 12 years.
Do you not realize the damage that has been done to populism, anti-corporatism, reproductive rights, democratic principles, and true power for the people, by the benighted anti-gun mouthpieces of the Democratic Party? Shit, folks, the NRA made mincemeat of John Kerry. Why? His goddamned votes in the Senate on guns!
See if you can follow this reasoning:
If you are pro-choice, you are not going to get fundamentalist votes. But respecting a woman's right to choose her reproductive destiny outweighs that objection.
If you are pro gay and lesbian rights, you are not going to get fundamentalist votes. But respecting the rights of others to live as they wish in peace outweighs that objection.
If you are pro separation of church and state, you are not going to get fundamentalist votes, but the dire consequences of oligarchy outweigh the objection.
See a pattern?
It is possible to take on three good causes, and many more, without isolating anyone other than fundamentalists.
Where Democrats and Liberals have gone terribly wrong is by allowing them to assemble their coalition.
Listen kids, it's important:
Gun owners have been driven from the Democratic Party. Yet, a lot of them are sick to death of the religious hokem issuing out of Republican Party. Trust me, gun owners can can be separated from the religious nuts as easily as one may pry a ripe pistachio from the husk. All it takes is a little fucking thought on the part of Democrats. Listen to Howard Dean. Listen to Nicole Para of California.
How does one win elections? One builds coalitions. How does one build these? By prying good people out of the coalitions they are in and getting them into your's, that's how.
Democrats, we need to win this election. I think we will. But if we use the power gained to shit on gun owners, we are going to get our asses kicked down the road. It is about time we began the joyful process of triangulating the dominionists out of power. The first step in this easy maneuver is to pry the gun owners out of their hands and into ours.
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Insight on Matthews
[Read the article: "It's Chinese or something"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Matthews is living in the past. His objections to Hillary appearing on stage with her husband were unaccompanied by objections to male candidates who appeared on stage with their spouses. Since when is doing that out of order?
Hillary's awkward appearance stems mostly from her inability to clap correctly and authoritatively to music. The richer and whiter you are, the more likely you are to take up the cadence on the downbeat. All she needs is some time with a good gospel choir to snap her out of it.
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Here's an example of Paglia's "level gaze" from 2000.
[Read the article: Camille's back!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Bush would probably make a competent, if not great president. He's no verbal whiz, but as I said in this column last spring, much of the national electorate is sick and tired of the glib, smartass Ivy League establishment and its alumni network of casuistic lawyers and snide media coteries. Maybe the country could use a nice, stiff dose of West Texas dust and the old, strike-it-rich romance of black crude. (See "Giant," the 1956 film now a TV staple, where the oil baron is played by rebel icon James Dean.)"
"West Texas dust!"
"strike-it-rich romance of black crude!"
"James Dean!!!"
O giddy swoons!
I personally don't forget this kind of shit. Over 3100 American servicemen and servicewomen are dead and tens of thousands more mutilated because because of Bush. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. DEAD. The guy is the voice of the bigot, the careless, the greedy, the stupid, the worst in America. It didn't surprise me when our country's dumbest people coalesced to put him into office while being led around by the nose by the likes of Limbaugh and Robertson and Falwell. But at least a lot of those folks are coming to realize that they were indeed sucker punched.
Paglia, on the other hand, knew better all along. She is a professional bitch. I am disappointed in Salon for rehiring this traitorous turd, but one nice benefit will accrue: Salon's readers are going to drag each and every one of Paglia's snickering little columns out into the sunshine.
There, they will flay them into tiny atoms.
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JimR!
[Read the article: Camille's back!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Time to hop out of the kiddie pool, young man. Forget Paglia. This Max Frost attitude of yours will not serve you well in the big, mean, world. Launch your weapons from firm ground; study up; get the arcane references. You need them to matter.
Best,
Scott
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To M and Nobody
[Read the article: Carrying the message]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You guys give me hope. I am off cigarettes now, but it was so hard I have no idea what it must be like to get off a drug that causes you to puke in its absence. Say what you will about Marlboros, you don't get doubled over wretching when you give those little fuckers up.
Heather, this show is going to have to go a long way to be better than what you wrote about it.
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Done
[Read the article: Blog news]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Glenn, I am delighted to encourage your good work with a few bucks and encourage all of your readers to consider following suit.
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Cheesy, but not lawless
[Read the article: Even the lawlessness was lawless]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The garble you link to are guidelines for the Justice Department's Pardon Attorney with respect to petitions for clemency. They in no way restrict the President's power to pardon and if they presumed to do so then they would be in violation of Article II of the Constitution.
The Executive may pardon whomever he pleases. Impeachment is the only exception.