Letters to the Editor
djtoth
Published Letters: 289 Editor's Choice: 47
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Profanity?
[Read the article: First time for everything]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Attacking a nation without cause is profane. Violating the fundamental laws of our nation is profane. Ignoring global warming is profane. Opposing stem cell reserach is profane. Giving tax breaks to the rich is profane. Failing to develop an effective policy for energy, healthcare, the environment, education, and national securty is profane. Saying words like shit and fuck, those good Anglo-Saxon words thought crude by the Fench somehow just isn't in the same league.
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Flagging the DIfference
[Read the article: When a flag-draped body is different from a flag-draped body]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The real difference is that Republicans believe the flag is their symbol.
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How to Tell If Ann Coulter is Joking
[Read the article: Ann Coulter, felon?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Ann Coulter has no sense of humor. A sense of humor requires wit, which is something that you can't plagiarize unless you can distinguish what is funny from what is not. Stringing together hateful epithets, which apparently she mistakes for journalistic style, isn't funny: it's psychotic. So is claiming to send powdery substances through the mail.
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Correcting the Record
[Read the article: The Times stands corrected -- finally, sort of]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]One of the many important things that Salon does is to correct the record. This 'error' was particularly serious and points to real problems with both the reporter and her editors. No one journalist should have made such a blunder, and no editor should have allowed it in print. The response from the Times was inadequate. I encourage Salon to continue to pursue the story.
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Shock and Awe
[Read the article: A congressman's surprise discovery: Iraq isn't going so well]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]A Republican Congressman actually noticed that the war isn't going well. This, of course, has been classified information closely held by the majority of the American people, but now the good Congressman has leaked the information to the Bush administration and the Congress. Hopefully, we will be able to keep our policies about global warming, energy, stem cell research, healthcare, education, election reform, and political ethics secret, at least until after the next election.
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Naming the Game
[Read the article: It's like 9/11, only different]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I encourage Salon to expose phoney political ads used by all parties as well as the propaganda and marketing techniques behind them. It is time we boycotted political ads and forced the parties to come to us with meaningful dialog on real issues. It might also be time to tell the pollsters to take a hike as well. That would force candidates to think on their own rather than pander to polls.
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Lieberman, A Democrat?
[Read the article: Lamont surges, Lieberman fades in primary poll]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]How can Joltin' Joe remain a Democrat when he never really was a Democrat to begin with? I give Lieberman credit for the stands he has taken even though I disagree with many of them. He is one of the few politicians willing to risk his career to support what he believes to be right rather than spouting the party line. That would make him an Independent, something we sorely need in a Congress crippled by bipartisan conflict. Lieberman can support his positions with reasoned argument, another rarity in Washington. But, he is not a Democrat.
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Out of Thune
[Read the article: Quote of the Day]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I love the use of the passive voice in political rhetoric: Mistakes have been made. Laws have been violated. Rights have been trampled. War have been started for no reason. Signing statements have been added to laws. Prisoners have been tortured. In Thune's case, flip-flopping has occurred. Shit, according to George W. Bush, happens.
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Just One Step in the Process
[Read the article: Spying on Americans gets its day in court]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]As much as I would like to celebrate, this decision is just one step in a long process that may not be completed until after Bush is out of office. The law clearly favors the government in cases like these, although it makes a clear distinction between legitimate needs to protect national security and cases like this where the information has been made public. There clearly needs to be a better process in which both national security and the constitutional rights are protected. There are too many cases, like this one, in which the executive branch has been able to cover up illegal actions under the guise of protecting national security.
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Don't Count on It
[Read the article: For Democrats, reasons for hope?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It is important to remember that the government has done nothing to fix the voting system. It is not the votes you get that count; it's how you count the votes you get.
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Viet-Nam Wisdom
[Read the article: And in other news, freedom is slavery and ignorance is strength]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]When I was in Viet-Nam in 1968, we had a saying that I think is particularly apt: fighting for peace is like fucking for virginity. The path to peace, Grasshopper, is an inward journey.
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The Last Throes of Democracy
[Read the article: "Mission accomplished" in reverse]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Cheney was right. We were in the last throes of the insurgency prior to civil war, all out regional conflict, and World War. The Bush administration has been drawn into the Chinese finger trap that is the Middle East. He has proven once again that the military superiority of the United States is exceptionally good at winning the battle and losing the war. In doing so, he has undermined the most fundamental principles of democracy at home. Much the like the regimes he claims to oppose, he has consolidated power illegally in the excutive while ignoring the will of the people. He has insured that wealth is concentrated in a small percentage of the population while ignoring the needs of the majority of Americans. Most of us don't see that we, too, are headed for collapse. Bush's extremism has polarized the nation. It will not be much longer before we cannot recover.
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"Drawing a Balance"
[Read the article: It's murder, yes, but we've got to strike a balance]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Josh Bolton can't even get the cliches right. "Drawing a line" is not the same thing as "striking a balance." I would submit that Bush has done neither. According to Bush, it is murder to use some stem cells for research and not others while at the same time it is not murder to dispose of certain embryos but it would be murder if they were used in research to benefit humanity. Nor has Bush struck a balance between the majority who favor stem cell research, and the minority who do not. Rather, he has selectively imposed the morality of the minority on the majority. The minority get the meat, and the majority get the bone. In the final analysis, Bush has struck a balance between ignorance and stupidity, and drawn the line between fascism and democracy.
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Stay the Corpse
[Read the article: An army of one]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This is the kind of 'proof' that Cheney and Bush used to get us into the war in Iraq in the first place.