Letters to the Editor
Published Letters: 2149 Editor's Choice: 7
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From the NYT
[Read the article: What were the pre-2005 "other intelligence activities"?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Senator Russ Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, a Judiciary Committee member who also sits on the Intelligence Committee and has been briefed on the classified N.S.A. activities, said he was “appalled” by Mr. Gonzales’s testimony. “I believe your testimony is misleading at best,” Mr. Feingold said. He said he could not elaborate in an unclassified hearing.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, who also sits on both the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees said he agreed with Mr. Feingold, stating, “I have exactly the same perception.”
Other lawmakers who were not at the hearing but who attended the meeting on March 10, 2004 at the White House, also challenged Mr. Gonzales’s account. Mr. Rockefeller and Representative Jane Harman of California, who in 2004 was the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, insisted that there was only one N.S.A. program, making Mr. Gonzales’s assertions inaccurate.
IOW there are indeed Congressional Democrats who have at least SOME knowlege of what the H these folks are all talking about. In particular I hope that Mr. Feingold shows some leadership on this issue.
@ Holly re: "It has been abandoned for years now, removing any "national security" justification for ongoing secrecy. -- Glenn Greenwald
Sometimes its tactically valuable to pretend that someone's claims are true and then argue from that premise. If EVEN GRANTING your opponents statements, you can still demonstrate that they are absolutely full-of-it, then your position, having proven them to be liars becomes even stronger.
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shooter know this 'cus Alberto told him so....
[Read the article: What were the pre-2005 "other intelligence activities"?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Unless you want to cross the border with data, your person, or commerce, all the rights ennumerated above remain intact
John Ashcroft on the other hand, knew better.
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Having it both ways
[Read the article: Michelle Malkin's hate sites]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]One of the more infuriating aspects of this whole business is how Conservatives go out of their way to depict Liberals as inneffectual and not angry enough but then turn around and clutch their hankies when that turns out not to be the case.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/24/AR2005062400097.html
In the words of Karl Rove:
But perhaps the most important difference between conservatives and liberals can be found in the area of national security. Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers. In the wake of 9/11, conservatives believed it was time to unleash the might and power of the United States military against the Taliban; in the wake of 9/11, liberals believed it was time to… submit a petition. I am not joking. Submitting a petition is precisely what Moveon.org did. It was a petition imploring the powers that be" to "use moderation and restraint in responding to the… terrorist attacks against the United States
And they wonder why we call the F&%kheads?!
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I've said it before.
[Read the article: The mainstream, sane, serious Joe Lieberman]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Religion is simply politics seasoned with the extra confidence that comes from thinking that the Creator of the Universe has your back.
What makes things all the more confusing is the fact that most people beleive that there is, at most, one God but as we all know theres more than one set of instructions.
Add to that the fact that the set of instructions Christians believe specifically states that we should love our enemies and respond to evil with kindness and one is forced to a singled inescapable conclusion. These people are WHACKED!
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This remains a danger
[Read the article: The mainstream, sane, serious Joe Lieberman]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]For a person to think that most or all Christians are like the Hagee groups would be a mistake as I have found many that are not in any way like these particular folks are.
As one well versed in Dawkins and Shermer and Dennett, I am well aware of the tendency to paint all Religious people as equally misguided but it's both politically inexpedient and logically fallaceous to do so. (My personal view is that the Universe as a whole should be given at least as much credit for being conscious as we give the subset we refer to as Humanity.)
As has been pointed out in this thread already however, that to take a late interpretation of a allegorical story and turn it into a course of political action that includes the wholesale slaughter of innocent people, pretty thoroughly flies in the face of anything that any thinking person could possibly consider sacred.
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@WT lest we forget...
[Read the article: The mainstream, sane, serious Joe Lieberman]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Please do not fold, spindle or mutilate!
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Beleivers in the supernatural
[Read the article: The mainstream, sane, serious Joe Lieberman]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]that's true of most believers-in-the-supernatural. From where I sit, they're ALL mentally-ill.
A heartfelt sentiment but nevertheless precisely one that I feel we need to work past if we are going to have a positive impact on this country. The sad fact is that humans as a whole have an annoying but pervasive tendency to believe in the supernatural. We can study it and attempt to explain it but we can't wish it away.
http://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Spell-Religion-Natural-Phenomenon/dp/067003472X
The easiest thing to do is to demonstrate how the supposed "Christian Right" violate the very precepts that they pretend to revere. Confining your attention in Scripture to words actually attributed to Jesus provides a remarkable amount of ammunition in this regard. After all, he spent quite a bit of his energy railing against hypocrisy and Lord knows, there's no shortage of that to be fouund in THIS day and age.
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Symbiosis
[Read the article: The mainstream, sane, serious Joe Lieberman]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]BushCo and Al Qaeda - very good example of symbiosis.
Unfortunately their relationship to the rest of is as indeed parasitic. Both require people willing to hate and engage in violence without actually understanding why. This is of course where religion comes in so handy. Any time you can speak of "infidels" with a straight face, you've got them where you want them.