Letters to the Editor
jtanneru
Published Letters: 45 Editor's Choice: 1
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Billions!
[Read the article: Money for nothing?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I just received a letter from Spencer Bachus (R-AL) explaining his vote to sustain Bush's SCHIP veto by saying that he was opposed to the $6.5 billion measure becasue some of that money could go to illegal aliens and adults without dependent children.
What is he talking about? Well, it's simple. If an illegal alien borrows a citizen's name and social security number, that alien could be provided healthcare despite not having legal residency in the United States.
And if a state had previously used SCHIP funds to provide health care to adults, they could continue to do so for a period of time, but no additional states could do so.
See? According to the congressman and quite a few others spouting these same bogus talking points, BILLIONS of taxpayer dollars being squandered on illegals and adults without dependent children.
But the same congressman says nothing about billions in war profiteering and fraud committed by these contractors overseas. I guess they'd rather see our taxpayer dollars go to Dyncorp than some brown-skinned baby or indigent Midwestern adult.
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Deception, to the Point of Hiding Their Motives
[Read the article: Anonymous Liberal for Glenn Greenwald: FISA reform and the honesty gap]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The "honesty gap" that AL refers to is simply everywhere. How many of us can say with certainty why we are fighting in Iraq? Alan Greenspan says it is about oil. Others have claimed some type of Middle East domino theory, or psychoanalyzed the President's relationship with his father. Never mind the question of whether lies were used to justify the war. We still don't have the straight story, and I am starting to wonder whether the most cynical theories about domestic political advantage are true.
Or take the recent arguments for sustaining the veto of SCHIP put forward by Republican Congressmen. They claim they actually support funding healthcare for children, but they oppose this bill because the provision to verify the citizenship of recipients isn't strong enough. LIARS! They wouldn't override the President's veto if he vetoed the Bible!
The slightest hyperbole by Al Gore in his global warming argument is greeted with scorn and derision, supposedly impeaching his credibility, but at least we know that Gore believes that climate change is a problem. The Republicans have been lying to disguise their true intentions. They don't want us to know what they are trying to achieve. That's an important difference, I think.
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As long as they're spinning this thing...
[Read the article: The agenda of our pro-war pundit class]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Why not go all the way to declaring victory and bringing our troops home? Ok, David, we can all agree, the surge is working. Let's go home now.
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Who Can Be The Best President?
[Read the article: Hillary Clinton gets serious]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The question primary voters should be asking is "Who can be the best President?" Please, lets not have another election where we nominate someone because we believe they will have the best chance of beating the Republicans! I remember the 2004 primaries when John Kerry was voted Most Likely to Succeed. We should not handicap our candidates against the perceived nominee and expect that we can predict the whims of the American voter just because some silly Sunday morning pundits think they can do it. Lets choose whoever we think will be the best President and have enough faith in democracy (small "d") to assume the rest of the voters are capable of doing the same thing.
And while Hillary is not my first choice, I will campaign for her if nominated. I will not be dissuaded by how "polarizing" everyone seems to think she is. As one commenter has already noted, Republicans hate her because Bill Clinton was the only Democratic President in recent memory to be widely remembered as successful. They waged a war against him in the court system to create the polarization in the first place.
Despite recent experiences to the contrary with Democratic disappointments, I believe that the majority of Americans will be willing to judge her on her own merits if they have the opportunity.
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That Reminds Me
[Read the article: Candidates beware -- I'm on the beat]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I stopped watching basketball for the same reason. My favorite team only seemed to lose when I was watching the games. After I stopped, though, they started losing without my watching them. It was almost as if my decision to stop watching them caused them to lose!
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Chummy means votes
[Read the article: Hillary and the mean kids on the bus]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Bush's ability to charm reporters probably had more to do with his "victory" than anything he said on the campaign trail. Don't you remember the endless speculation on which candidate a person would like to have a beer with? Who do you think was drinking all that beer?
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Another non-Clinton Supporter agrees
[Read the article: The witch ain't dead, and Chris Matthews is a ding-dong]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm with alarajrogers. I'm a male Edwards supporter, but I have been personally moved by the recent week's coverage of Clinton's campaign. When Tuesday's NYTimes carried the headline about Clinton's Stress, with the picture of Hillary tearing up, I remarked angrily to my wife that Clinton was getting much worse treatment than Guliani received after his big "headache".
The thing is, we're all stressed. When I watched the video of Hillary choked up because the country was headed in the wrong direction, and the outcome to the race is important to her as an American, I got choked up, too. Not because I sympathize with Hillary's so-called narcissism, but because I am moved to see that she, like me, grieves the tragedy that has befallen our nation during the Bush years.
And when I read the Times' cynical attribution of her comments to "stress", it made me mad. When I read Edwards's response to her tearfulness, I almost renounced my support for him. In a political culture where the marathon campaign has become a tough-guy competition, and Edwards himself is wearing his fatigue like a badge of heroism, I don't approve at all.
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For those of us who aren't there
[Read the article: Getting ready for the Democratic showdown]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Who is the demographic? Young supporters of Obama in Midtown Manhattan?
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Get with the program
[Read the article: Hillary Clinton's Web 2.0 presidency]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]44% of everyone on the internet is a content-producer, including everyone posting to this blog. There are 70 million blogs out there, with a new one every second.
In an era where the FBI supposedly doesn't even have a computer on everyone's desk yet, we need a president who understands how important the internet is.