Letters to the Editor
chhabili
Published Letters: 382 Editor's Choice: 4
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Political opportunism
[Read the article: Matthew Dowd's not-so-miraculous conversion]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Matthew Dowd's conversions from democrat to republican and then back to democrat, smacks of political opportunism of the worst kind. Where was his moral meter when he unleashed republican dirty tricks, what did he ever see in George W. Bush while governor of Texas, that convinced him that Bush was the man for both democrats and republicans? Did he not know that during Bush's tenure as governor, capital punishment reached its ugly zenith? Did he not know that Texas was on its way to a prison economy as George W. Bush crowded jails, prisons and penitentiaries with offenders (mostly minorities) that kept the capitalist engines greased with free labor? And was "every child" really living a tenth of Bush's opportunities? When I read his mea culpa in the NYT I had to barf. Who was he trying to assuage but the mean spirited republicans who saw welfare mothers as freeloaders while cheerleading the freeloadings of Kenneth Lay and Enron at the expense of the taxpayers; the demonizing of the Arab world while expediting the "rapture" for the second coming, so christians could bring "democracy" even if they had to kill every last Islamist in Iraq and Afghanistan; Oh please Matthew Dowd, people like you should just go away and find fame and fortune elsewhere. Who knows where he will hang his hat should the democrats remain spineless and let the republican machine mow them down again.
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Hoisted by his own petard
[Read the article: John McCain's Iraq problem]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Ah!!! The Press' love affair with John McCain is always astounding. Characterizing him as a moderate republican by many in the fourth estate has been specious at best. McCain is an opportunist and will pander to just about any extremist point of view, just to get him through the primaries - and that means the christian right, more troops in Iraq, immigration xenophobia, anti-gay rights, anti-Choice and the list goes on and on. So what makes him so moderate in the eyes of the blind journalists? Would he have had any respect for Democracy at home, he would have switched his parties. Instead, sad to say, he now even panders to Bush who once upon a time won primaries by a full assault on McCain. It is so sad to think that a former POW would unthinkingly send young men in harm's way.
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Media was complicit, not ignorant about the facts
[Read the article: Iraq: Why the media failed]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Gary Kamiye would have us believe that the Bush administration so swayed the mainstream media, that they became unwitting accomplices in the lie toward the march to war in Iraq. No, no, no. The corporate media was willing and more than able to be used as a propaganda machine for the right wing because they thought they had everything to win and nothing to lose. Even though their credibility has been low ever since the Reagan revolution and the aftermath of the rise of christian and corporate extremism, the media has been strategically complicit in aiding and abetting the right wing agenda for their own nefarious ends. How can anyone justify the enormous salaries these readers and pundits pocket for their less than honest dissemination of news? How can anyone doubt the double standards of punditry and gasbags in relation to how Bill Clinton was hounded and how George W is allowed to get away with impeachable, yea criminal offenses? Gary Kamiye's article is sort of patronizing in his condemnation of the media. He should be holding them more accountable for their duplicity in leading the nation astray.
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Remember Guiliani Time?
[Read the article: A new low for Giuliani]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Remember the times when NYPD Blues (not the TV show) crowed "Guiliani Time" as they ruthlessly beat young African American males and jammed plungers up their rectums because Guiliani was mayor and they would be protected no matter how morally flagrant their punishment was and unprobable the cause. I shudder to think that Rudy, the abusive husband and father, and the self righteous cleaner of street thuggery, is now trying to thung the nation into believing that 9/11 could happen again if he is not on the watch. He is a man of no principles. His blind ambition aided and abeted by the unscrupulous right wing in this sorry coutry, may get him elected. And this will only be a continuation of the far right agenda which has been in place for the last 30 years. This time, prepare for an end to democratic rule. I would argue that democracy ended when Bush got elected the first time around.
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Let s/he without sin cast the first stone
[Read the article: When good actors do bad things]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Family dynamics aside, which one of us would have a parent qaurtered and pillaried on world television by the smarms of ha "The View" that bevy of virtuous punditry who know all and say all which all amounts to nary a hill of beans. I wish Alec did not have to leave the show. I've never watched the show, but can't he and Basinger somehow erupt an epiphany for the good of the kid? This is not about winning or losing, Kim and Alec, but grace. Grace, that quality of being considerate and thoughtful. Maybe this episode will pave the way to grace for the three of you. And all my very best.
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Why did the media even give him a platform?
[Read the article: The stone is cast]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Jerry Falwell was first and foremost delusional and badly needed help for living in the real world. He so lacked credibility when he opened his mouth to spew damnation on anyone who did ot adhere to his reality of an unforgiving and furious deity. So why did the media even court him? Here is Larry King who will undoubtedly again give him a platform and Fox and other networks who will be damned of they speak ill of him. I am disgusted that the same mainstream media that would shun the likes of a Noam Chomsky or others who care about ALL humans, should give this hateful man even a second of air time. He lived his life full of hate. I wish that someone had shown him the way to real love of ALL people