Letters to the Editor
Mikko Silvennoinen
Published Letters: 14 Editor's Choice: 4
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Blumenthal
[Read the article: The Woodward coverup]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I have to say I've admired Salon for years for its diversity and the heady mix of the profane and - dare I say it - the sacred. As my affair with Salon became more and more passionate, I noticed that especially Sidney Blumethal's learned yet seemingly effortless, even breezy columns are one of the main things that make me come back time and again. And subscribe as a premium member. His prose is pristine, his touch cultured. He deftly marries eloquent flourishes with razor-sharp political commentary. Bravo, I say.
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Bravo!
[Read the article: "Never have the freedoms we cherish seemed so imperiled"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I heartily applaud Senator Byrd's supremely eloquent speech. Too little of the unsurpassed rhetoric of the Founding Fathers and Lincoln has survived to these divisive days when name-calling, labelling of opponents and dirty innuendo seems to reign supreme. As a foreigner, it is heartening to see that in the great nation that is The United States of America, there still survives the spirit of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Kennedy.
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Good article, one small fib
[Read the article: Farrell dog]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]A very enjoyable, insightful article by Stephanie Zacharek. I have to say I enjoy the way she takes movies very personally and even though at times I vehemently disagree (and sometimes her prose can get a little purple) with her, I always take her opinions seriously. However, in this piece there was one glaring passage that I couldn't simply let be. And that was describing Oliver Stone as a director uninterested in the acting of his actors. That is just bollocks, if you'll excuse my French.
Oliver Stone is one of the few contemporary more-or-less mainstream directors who take acting extremely seriously. He made us forget Charlie Sheen is Charlie Sheen, for Pete's sakes! Wrung authentic emotions out of Tom Cruise! The fact that Alexander was hammy has more to do, I think, with Stone getting lost in his decades-old vanity project, much like Scorsese erred with Gangs of New York. Give Oliver Stone respect where respect is due!
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the emperor has no clothes
[Read the article: Iraq: The big lie]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The entire Iraqi débacle has been like observing a car crash in extreme slow motion, ever since the invasion. From Powell's shameful PowerPoint presentation at the U.N. to the current quagmire, was there ever a chance of things going differently, really? Perhaps the most absurd "difference" between conservatives and liberals in the U.S. is the "optimism gap" that even George Will of Washington Post editorialized about. There are even polls of how conservatives are living a more happy life than those negative, French-loving liberals!
It has always seemed to me that this "optimism" has been a blind faith in the robotic repeating of these empty, meaningless slogans. How many times has Bush promised victory in this war against a noun? In how many speeches has he promised that "as the coalition stands down, the Iraqis stand up"? I've come to believe that many conservatives deny a large part of reality because they're unable to rationally deal with the quite understandable psychological angst of a complex, morally ambiguous reality.
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folly indeed
[Read the article: Cannon fodder at State]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I hesitate to offer my views on American policy as a European, a Finn in particular, after having had some insults hurled at me in some instances by Americans calling me all sorts of names with common pejorative "foreigner" somewhere there in the mix. That is why I am so heartened by enlightened Americans like Mr. Blumenthal who are not afraid to give real meaning to the term "dissent", something that seems to be all too rare, sometimes a sin, in the current American political climate.
It baffles me to no end why the great American masses are not outraged by these sorts of administrative sleights of hand... But I guess it's exactly because of that, they are not grand gestures, trumpeted at tightly coreographed media events (where president Bush still, even with the script in hand, usually manages to make a fool of himself publicly, to the seeming delight of his hard-core followers). It is, though, a matter of life and death when state department officials are sent to extremely hostile environments with no military support. And for the sake of what? For the administration to be able to say that they are building the infrastructure in Iraq, not just containing the chaos. A child with the will to see would see the monumental arrogance of power (to use a term employed by Anthony Summers to describe Richard Nixon) at play here.
The U.S should have had the guts originally to mount a full-scale occupation both in Afghanistan and Iraq to put their money where their mouth was. I for one hope that before president Bush's term is over, the scales will really fall from the Americans' eyes in a big way.
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hopefully he won't swing too far
[Read the article: Jon Stewart, John McCain and "Bullshit Town"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I have to find out more about John McCain's views and actions in Congress. This guy seems like a Republican one can do business with! I've always thought of him as seemingly amiable and, indeed, straight-talking. That's why I've been worried about his recent activities. However, one has to naturally at least make the appearance of pandering all sorts of constituencies if one wants to be the President of the United States, especially a Republican one.
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I take Snow Job over McClellan any day of the week and thrice on Sunday
[Read the article: The tears of Snow]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm as anti-Bush as the next 67% of the Americans guys and gals (or whatever Bush's dismal approval ratings happen to be)
but I think it's a positive step that the administration has deigned to hire someone who's actually... wait for it...
COMPETENT. I bet it was difficult to kow-tow to the liberal media and stoop to hiring someone based on actual merit,
even though Mr Snow is obviously a tried and true conservative. I haven't been able to catch his first performance here
in Finland, but I'm sure McClellan's farcical press conferences are safely behind us now. If you don't like what Snow's
saying, at least you have the comfort of enjoying the performance!