Letters to the Editor
Pope Ratzo
Published Letters: 12
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Within our grasp
[Read the article: Comcast's efforts to protect members of Congress who, in turn, protect Comcast]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm really glad this wiretapping bill has gotten under Glenn's skin as much as it's gotten under mine. For some reason, this of all the miserable and unconstitutional actions of the Bush Administration, bothers me most, probably because it's basically the Bush Administration saying "we can get to any of you, and you can't stop us". If we can't stop them from illegal wiretapping, then we can't stop them from any of their other criminal activities.
I'm not someone who can generally afford to spend $100 on a campaign in a district where I don't live, but this one is important enough to me that I felt I had to do what I could to help out. We have to send a clear message to our Democratic senators and congressmen that if they're going to aid and abet something that's this bad, we're going to go after them and we won't forget.
That Comcast is comfortable enough in their ownership of elected officials that they think they can play this way, they have to be taught a lesson too. I'm not in a position to do very much there, except to cancel my Comcast service, but I've done that. When it comes right down to it, I really don't need cable television anyway - not when I've got the internet. And if Comcast can get away with this, we might not have the Internet for long either.
Anyway, stay strong Glenn. A lot of us count on you.
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Obama's first big test
[Read the article: Time magazine uncritically prints Nancy Pelosi's "justifications" for the FISA "compromise"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The FISA issue is going to be Barack Obama's first serious test of just how "different" he's going to be from the corrupt and weak politicians who precede him.
The thing about leadership is that you can't wait until after you are elected to be one. You can't "play ball" during the campaign with the idea that you're going to "get real" once you're safely in office. That's what the GOP does.
My wife and I have stretched our budget in order to give Barack $50 here and $100 there. I am so tired of supporting a Democratic Party that has no will, no backbone and no notion of right and wrong that I swear I won't write another check until I see someone stand up and fight. My wife agrees and she is a devoted Obama supporter.
This month, my puny political contribution is going to the Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF) and that's where it's going to keep going until I see that there is some substance inside Senator Obama's rhetoric.
I don't know how else to say this.
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You Bet!
[Read the article: The New Republic syndrome]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Yes, Glenn, of course it's important to fight to the bitter end, even if you know that the issue is probably lost.
As my chess coach in high school used to tell me, as he would beat me time and time again: "You fight, you lose. You fight again, you lose better".
It's important that these weasly "Blue Bitch" Democrats learn that if they're going to roll over for the Right's demands, they're going to get bloodied in the battle. And if they get up, they'll get up with GOP fleas.
If Barack folds on this issue, it doesn't mean I won't vote for him in November, but there will be no more money and vocal support from my wife and me.
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I only wish..
[Read the article: Journalists, their lying sources, and the anthrax investigation]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Glenn,
While I applaud your efforts to expose the absolute corruption that has infected our entire mainstream media and their news organizations and their complicit role in propagating the lies of the Bush Administration, I am afraid that it's going to take some very great, very shocking event to change the direction of the media in becoming an arm of the US Government (GOP-style).
Just as it took Watergate and the fall of Richard Nixon to bring about the reforms in intelligence gathering of FISA, it only took thirty years for the thugs in our government to destroy those reforms.
It will take a special prosecutor, then impeachment hearings, then criminal prosecutions of George Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld before any change occurs. But the Democrats in our government do not have the stomach for these investigations because so many of them are also complicit with the authoritarians on the Right.
I don't know how you keep from getting too discouraged to work, Glenn, but I salute you for it. Keep trying.