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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
michael_carr
Published Letters: 117 Editor's Choice: 7
GEORGE BUSH WAS NOT "RE-ELECTED." STOP. REPEAT. GEORGE BUSH WAS NOT "RE-ELECTED." STOP. REPEAT. GEORGE BUSH WAS NOT "RE-ELECTED." STOP. REPEAT.
"A" cover-up worked... it's just not "THE" cover-up to which E.J. Dionne is referring. I know we've read all of the same post-election analyses and have come to different conclusions, and your condescending resident centrist / apologist Farhad Manjoo has contemptuously dismissed those of us who -- if not contested the results outright -- believe there were enough idiosyncracies and irregularities to at least question the overall outcome of the 2004 presidential election.
Enough of the electorate knew something was wrong, just as we did in 2000. I will contend that the cover-ups by a negligent press now complicit in stolen elections is part of larger vortex of deceit and denial... and that combined with an apathetic public is creating an overall cover-up of reality. THAT is the real problem here.
No, it doesn't really matter if the remains of Asbury Park disappear... as long as Rebecca has her article, and Carrie has her book publishing deal of that fabulous photograph collection... well, then, the kids are all right!
Rebecca Traister is one of those writers that... like someone with whom I have a meaningful relationship... I alternately love and hate...
When she is good, she's really good... but when she's bad, I really just want to say "no more... it's over."
And that's how it was with this article, which was so good right up until that very end. Where she ruined it. It just made me want to roll over and wonder why I even bother sometimes.
I called Senators Boxer and Feinstein to urge them both to support a filibuster. I then asked why we're even having a public debate about issues such as abortion rights, torture, warrantless spying, equal rights, etc., when it seems our elected officials cannot even muster the political courage to use whatever tools are available to defeat such a radical, monumental appointment as this.
Given the nuances of contemporary politics, there was a time I would have liked to see Hillary Clinton run. However, I think that whatever small window existed for this possibility is now closed. Had she risked sporting the infamous "flip-flop" label and admitted that this illegal invasion/occupation was a mistake, I probably could have accepted that. Anything now is too-little-too-late.
And whether or not the 2000 and 2004 elections were "stolen" is water under the bridge. But the narrative after these travesties should have been about election reform, and not about reaching out to red-staters and the "morality" of the Christian right. Hillary and Company (i.e. the DNC and the DLC) have done very little as leaders to accomplish anything of what should be an opposition party.
As an ardent Dennis Kucinich supporter in 2003, my first choice is Russ Feingold. I honestly don't think that he carries the same baggage as Kucinich, and perhaps Howard Dean, and I believe that we have probably learned many lessons from those campaigns that can help a candidate like Feingold.
At the risk of seeming as stoogy as George W. Bush, I frankly could care less about pollsters, pundits, and pajama bloggers. I prefer to contribute to someone who speaks to issues. If confronted with a candidate inclined to steal elections, and/or a public willing to compromise issues for that and less, then the people get what they deserve and things will have to get much, much worse.
Frankly, we've seen very pessimistic scenarios concerning the future of this country on the very pages of Salon. My view is to let the chips fall where they may. But I'd rather do it with some integrity left. And Hillary Clinton is unfortunately not part of that left.
It is time we start discussing Salon's exit strategy for Farhad Manjoo.
His breathless flirtation of reaching for the right represents a neo-liberal strategy of failure that we are all too familiar with now, and I frankly don't need to read any more of these dismal efforts on the pages of Salon. Combined with an outright contemptuous dismissal of anything truly left -- such as stolen elections and voting reform -- I find his desperate pursuit as exactly that... desperate.
Color me idealistic, but I really think we need to focus on presidential candidates that speak to issues... Although this is much too early to discuss, my vote is on Russ Feingold.
I would like to see more attention focused on this possible candidate for 2008.
I'm not sure how long it took Mr. Frum to achieve "legal" immigrant status, but I am sure that he -- as a conservative Canadian -- had a much easier time of getting into the U.S. and achieving permanent residency than his counterparts south of our borders.
I realize that my response may be late to the table on this issue, but I was wondering about the explosive increase in "Gentleman's Clubs" during the last decade, and on the parameters of, shall we say, conservative-identified suburbs.
What do we make of the men trowling these places at all times of day and night -- from lunch time lingerie shows, to the drug-fueled, late-night to early-morning crotch diving endemic to these establishments?
They are definitely chasing something down... but for what pole?
Among the media outlets reporting on the bank-monitoring story was none other than the Wall Street Journal. Although I don't know how to what extent, if any, their reporters were involved in breaking the story, but I believe their version at least appeared on the same day.
But you probably won't hear any noises from anyone questioning their involvement or culpability. And they probably won't be discussing their arrogant, elitist, "left wing" agenda... because the Wall Street Journal's agenda is anything but.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
219 Democrats and one Republican join in favor of the legislation, which passed by a narrow margin
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Salon headlines in your mailbox
