Letters to the Editor
dwg
Published Letters: 145 Editor's Choice: 18
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Newt:
[Read the article: Give Newt a chance]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"No, our current campaign style is so dysfunctional that I'm not sure how you could create a leadership position from within a campaign. You almost have to create the leadership position before you run."
That's "dysfuntional" thanks, in huge part, to you, weasel. You made it your business to politicize everything, and you're still claiming that those who have led the way in honestly addressing the environment are doing it for partisan reasons. Bull. Something is happening that's potentially terrible for all of us - way beyond the millenial American political slugfest that you helped usher in. If your Frankenstein Republican party didn't snicker and bait about it, they could be part of the solution, just like in the old days when civil discourse was civil - like, before you.
I'll reach out to you and anybody who takes the problem seriously and looks for a shared solution. And I'm glad to see you feel the same way. Let's do it.
But I'll reach out without an itch to bitch-slap you if you start giving Al Gore and other "partisans" their due. They'be been creating their leadership positions honestly and with great compassion, and it ain't about tax-and-spend, or any other junk-phrase you bandy about.
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Marktgarten:
[Read the article: Give Newt a chance]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Feel free to start the ball rolling with Newt's great ideas. I'm for most of them, same as when other people suggested them first. Happy to hear he's on the team.
In the meantime:
"There are 35,000 McDonald's around the world, about half in the U.S., and half overseas. That's because people voluntarily decided it was a better product."
Does anyone want to fact check this one with some third world countries?
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Encore
[Read the article: Goodbye, Mr. Bush]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thank you Mr. Blumenthal, for taking the events of the past 7 years, and beyond, so very seriously, and for unending courage in exposing the malady in plain view. Three years ago it seemed that we had no chance to restore balance to the country. Your columns were lifelines to many, as shown today, and proved that moral, rational analysis still existed outside the Bush Bubble. We've come some distance, and watched a thin new Democratic majority wax and wane, showing how easily a foothold can be almost lost, and how quickly Cheney and neocon thugs will pounce again. Iran, "habeas lawyers", Giuliani redux. It doesn't stop until we stop it.
Your Wednesday column was always a highlight of the week. Strong and impassioned, mythic and true. I'll miss it tremendously.
If you're moving into the Clinton campaign, then they have a chance to rise above the absurd media puppeteering and make policy instead of news. I'm greatly heartened to know that you're steering any of the possible candidates - it raises the bar for all the Democrats, and helps lay bare the fearful heart of the modern Republican power ploy.
The sleeping American giant has been re-entering the world for some time, and wrenchingly dealing with its footprint and its shadow. 9/11 hit people between the eyes with what they already knew - our unexamined connections to the world at large - and America bugged out. The Cheney-cabal that took advantage of that, and their idiot figurehead, have brought this country to the verge of no influence at all - a place of all shadow. We will lose what we need, they say (oil, domination), and so we lose it by squandering our confidence and our soul.
We still have much to offer the world - and we can still be a light of reason and inclusion. I know you'll be doing everything you can to help get us there.
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Unwatered
[Read the article: America's water war]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]BBC News online consistently posts articles about the projected and current effects of global warming. Here's their most recent post about the new IPCC report:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7098902.stm
This report has had less interference from the US and others in watering it down. IPCC Chairman Pauchari says we have five years, till 2012, to take significant action to avoid the worst scenarios - 2 to 3 years really to address the problem. More than that will be too late.
Of course the droughts in Australia, the West and Atlanta are connected. Central America may become more savannah-like; Sydney unsustainable. Other areas will be inundated with more violent storms. It's the same amount of water in the world, just in different places. It's a small window, but there's still time.
Why do we have representatives at the IPCC conferences trying to dumb down the findings? (The US wanted to excise the "likely and possible effects" section in the current report, but were unable to.) What does that say about our ability as a country to respond to an environmental crisis - Atlanta, New Orleans, Phoenix? What does that imply about any profound crisis - foreclosures, for instance - being dealt with by this or a similar administration?
I don't need these questions answered. I need to find leadership elsewhere if not from our government, and act. I don't need to hear someone say that a city - anywhere - is worth losing. (I'm from New Orleans - we've done that one, thanks.) Our populations can't reverse, but they can slow; our communities can't disappear on an armchair whim, but they can identify options. We can be smarter, and more aware of each other, not less.
We have a chance with a new administration. And we can frontload their first decisions by making it clear to them and to the media (including Salon) what matters. It's just not about Hillary's diamonds or pearls anymore, or how Fred Thompson smells, really, is it?
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A joyful noise
[Read the article: The Snowman is the least of their worries]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]A great list, a list for the ages. Tim, you made my day. There is just so much to worry about and so little time. Not to mention the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths. And Hannibal's elephants. God help us, elephants.