Letters to the Editor
iowademocrat
Published Letters: 22 Editor's Choice: 6
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No Keyboard is Good??
[Read the article: iPhone doomsters: Cracked screen, broken keyboard?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Ever since the iPhone was first demonstrated, I have wondered how many people that IM on a phone actually look at the screen while they are typing. On a screen with no tactile keys, they'll HAVE to look. Also, the iPod feature is great, but not if you want a great iPod. AT&T is the only carrier. I actually have AT&T, and my phone barely works in my house!!
All this for a low, low $600.00.
Not for me.....
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The Fall Guy vs. The Bill Guy
[Read the article: Bush and Cheney walk, too]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]While there is a tenuous semantic link between the perjury President Clinton was impeached for and the obstruction I. Lewis Libby was convicted of (both men lied, were caught, and paid some sort of price), no reasonable comparison can be made that says the seriousness of the two matters is at all equivalent.
Clinton lied to conceal from public view an embarrassingly dumb and morally indefensible intimate dalliance with a star-struck aide. He covered himself and his administration in shame for his personal failings, and he made inert his most prized political gift, his amazingly persuasive appearance of sincerety in public. Interestingly, the American public reelected him to office, despite knowing all about it. His crime was personal, not official, they decided.
Libby lied to protect his superiors - who just happened to be the President and Vice-President of the United States, among others - for being caught red-handed trying to exact revenge on a diplomat who wrote an op-ed critical of the Bush administration's attempts to conjure up a basis for a war they wanted to wage. The revenge took the form of ruining the career of the the man's wife, who was a CIA expert who had developed information the administration preferred to disregard, but which was the basis for her husband's op-ed. Libby's crime arose not from some personal failing, but from extra-legal tasks carried out in the White House, which he and his superiors supposed were more important than the truth, the law or the welfare of the country.
Now, let's see.....
The first case resulted in an impeachment, which was high theater, but of no actual import other than to drive home to the American people that Democrats were slime, suitable for incessant ridicule. Clinton, after having been caught, did the profoundly American thing - he cut a deal that involved publicly admitting his malfeasance, and which cost him his law license, and nearly his family. In return, he got to pay all the legal costs he had incurred along the way. Luckily for him, speeches by ex-presidents are lucrative.
The second case brought about a criminal trial resulting in conviction for a Federal felony. The perpertrator, Mr. Libby, despite being merely the fall guy for his alleged friends, remains mute and in a state of suspended animation that serves the dual purposes of protecting the more egregiously guilty parties, and providing the remaining few administration apologists some plausible talking points to distract the public for a week or so from thinking about the geopolitical disasters at hand. The president commutes the prison sentence, but not the fine. Speeches by fall guys are also lucrative.
I believe the voting public has already decided which incident was more important to them. The coming elections will validate this point of view, I am confident.
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Moral Decay?
[Read the article: The waning power of the War Myth]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"The poor are always with us, so, there it is... what is there to do?" (with apologies to E. M. Forster)
If we knew that by staying we could avert such a blood bath, we would owe it to the Iraqi people, whom we have harmed so grievously, to remain. But the fact is that no one can really predict whether our departure will cause such a blood bath.>
The underlying moral and ethical questions raised by the above statement are left unexamined by the writer. It surely is easier and more convenient for Americans to give ourselves a pass by positing that we owe the Iraqis nothing on the basis that there's nothing we can do about the situation on the ground. Let's let the statistics stand - they're probably about right - but, let's not let the assumptions go unconsidered.
It's easy for Americans to ruminate about "tragedy." We thinking folks mostly prefer the tragedy of Darfur, since it can only by tenuously connected to us. But, it's less palatable to consider a tragedy that we are responsible for, such as the one in Iraq. Dismissing thought of our undeniable responsibility for the unpleasant outcome that lies ahead on the basis that there appears to be no solution, true or not, is unacceptable.
We need to think long and hard how our national ethical and moral debts shall be paid, for paid they must eventually be. If progressives, peaceniks, Democrats and the rest of us in the anti-Bush universe are not willing to accept this, we'll probably end up with President Mitt Romney - and deserve him and whatever else comes our way.