Letters to the Editor
fahrender
Published Letters: 24
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Stonecutter, please, relax. Have a drink.
[Read the article: Let's give "Blue Dogs" the boot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]So.......What's your point? It's a bad, corrupt world out there and Congress is in on the fix just hoping to get their's? We didn't know this already?
I'm sorry, but Glenn's intellect is, shall we say, every bit as sharp as yours - and that's giving you a benefit of the doubt. But being the admirer of Maureen O'Dowd you are inclines me to a wee bit o' the auld skepticism. Whatever.....
What Glenn has done, week after week, month after month, is provide a cogent analysis of some of the aspects of criminality that fuckwad and his minions have perpetrated on this country. What he's written in this post seems to have struck a nerve. It involves, like, actually doing something!
Lots of nervous nellies clasping their pearls and stumbling toward their fainting couches. They're saying, "NO! You can't DO something! It's O.K. to write critical posts and all but, please, Glenn! No action! It might mean There Will Be Change! And we can't handle that! Oh, the Uncertainty of it all. Everything won't be nice and predictable! Rahm and Chuck and Arlen and Nancy! Oh Nancy! She just won't be able to handle it! And then the Republicans will git us again!" Like they didn't do it just two weeks ago even while broken and bleeding, scattered and in chaos.
But there has been not. one. cogent. argument. countering Glenn's. Not one.
Your criticism? it's not for "citizens engaged in the business of living, working, raising a family. or just plain economic survival."
Maybe not, if they literally don't have time for being involved in what we're doing, that's OK. But if you expect Glenn to take on the true enemies within and comfort the masses simultaneously, why not ask him to tie one hand behind his back as well?
Will Glenn's strategy work? The only way to find out is to try it. You can piss and moan and be Mr. Critical if you want but I'd rather do something, even if it fails. So far, the first step is working. We've got their attention. And the "Money Bomb" is yet to be released (August 8th). Maybe it's just me, but simply being snide about the darkness seems less than worthless.
It's a bit of a stretch to claim that "the whole country has moved to the right over a long arc in time". Parts of it did, yes, once the depression got tidied up and people forgot that FDR's policies actually worked for the economic benefit of the working class. Once they began enjoying a relatively comfortable life they got suckered into Reagan's hoax. They may have thought that they could get by and wouldn't need the trickle down that never happened.
Do they still feel that way? Not so much. They never imagined Bush. Much less Cheney. and, and, and, .......
People today are beginning to realize that they need a functioning government, and one that isn't a closet theocracy. They're also beginning to realize that labor unions just might have something to offer them besides mindless obedience and corruption.
We won't be reliving the past century, no, and there is no magic bullet to cure everything and everyone won't be getting a sparkle pony. But the election in '06 wasn't just about Iraq and the blatant ineptitude and criminality of Neoconism. We're headed into something which is different. I don't know exactly what it will be but if we're lucky and remain vigilant, it won't be controlled by Karl Rove and Rush Limbaugh. And if we can reach down in the toilet and rescue the fourth amendment. And, oh, habeas corpus?
Ergo, punish Chris Carney and, if possible, Steny Hoyer for having no principles whatsoever.
And, just one more thing, go ahead and make a play for O'Dowd. She might be up for it. But, if things go well, don't become complacent. She can be treacherous.
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Obama and the Left
[Read the article: Progressive complaints about Obama's appointments]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]i agree with Glenn totally, that Obama has never pretended to be anything more than a centrist. people on the "left", some of them, expected more of Obama, but these people, many of them, haven't figured out just how Obama can do what they want him to do without him paralyzing himself politically.
agendas be damned. this country is in a truly perilous state. if Obama can preside over an economic stabilization, get a good health care plan in place and terminate the more hare-brained military fiascos we're up to our ears in we will be bloody lucky. the least we can do is to allow him to choose the people he feels comfortable with as key players in his administration. i have no idea if he can achieve the aforementioned goals but second-guessing him at this stage in the game is ridiculous. i am reminded of a story Lincoln told in a similar situation:
A farmer was riding a mule into town. the mule was an unruly sort that kept kicking and bucking. the farmer payed the mule no heed and the mule kept up his unruly behavior. finally it caught it's foot in one of the stirrups. when this happened the farmer leaned over and quietly said in the mule's ear, "if you want to get on, i'll get off."