Letters to the Editor
Air Force Vet in Amsterdam
Published Letters: 90 Editor's Choice: 7
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A kind word for Bush 41
[Read the article: Who needs Dana Perino when you have the NYT's Michael Gordon?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]@ Susan Wood
The comparison to Bush the elder and Somalia is not really fair. At that time there was tremendous pubic pressure on that Bush Administration to do something to stop the starvation and other suffering in Somalia, and there was a pretty broad perception that the U.S. Military - fresh off its success in the Gulf War I - could easily manage a limited mission in a poor, benighted failed state.
It is possible that when Bush 41 eventually did overcome his reluctance to go into Somalia, he took into account that it would not be his problem for very long, but I think you would hvae to be overly cynical to believe that kneecapping Clinton on the way out was his hidden agenda. Now as to what motives Bush 43 might have in attacking Iran, I am far more cynical.
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What Glenn did NOT say (volume 2,457,400)
[Read the article: Who needs Dana Perino when you have the NYT's Michael Gordon?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]@ Electro Robot
At no point did Glenn contend we are going to actually bomb Iran, though that is not beyond the real of possibility given the current lot in charge; The post was about the recklessness of the New York Times and its scrivener Gordon.
As the end of the Bush usurpation comes happily nearer I am becoming increasingly hopeful that he will leave office without having Bombed Iran, and that the whisperings to Gordon that might suggest otherwise are merely a reprise of the tactic of scaring the electorate into voting Republican. But I have misoverestimated Bush & Cheney before.
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RE: What Glenn did NOT say (volume 2,457,400)
[Read the article: Who needs Dana Perino when you have the NYT's Michael Gordon?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Why did my spellcheck chage "fecklessness" to recklessness"?
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Why not a HRC-VP?
[Read the article: Night lands Clinton closer to oblivion]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Hillary as Obama's running mate would be no odder than LBJ running with JFK. Electorally it should be a plus; it could only help keep on board those Clinton supporters who say they will vote for McCain if their candidate loses (though I like to think that once the initial anger and frustration passes most of them would wake up to what madness that would be). She is the kind of policy wonk that could be a helpful VP, and Bill as second laddie would be far less an issue than he would be as first laddie.
Why would Hillary accept? First woman VP would not be as historical as first woman president, but still a pretty dramatic first; and even if Obama would serve for eight years, she would in 2016 still be younger that McCain is now, or Reagan was in 2000 - and as a woman the actuarial tables favor her over those two gents in any case.
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@Christopher1988
[Read the article: Night lands Clinton closer to oblivion]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]- To say what's already been said a different way, maybe you never read MacBird?
I had not, but after one quick google I am resolved that I must track down a copy, so thanks for the tip.
Though unless one subscribes to the Vincent Foster murder meme, I don't expect a Clinton Vice Presidency to provide fodder for a MacBird Part II.
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@ GG
[Read the article: The right's selective political manipulation of Catholicism]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]-- Just because you think you're above these tactics and they only work on "folks with stunted minds and no growth potential" doesn't mean they can or should be ignored. What else needs to happen for that lesson to be learned?
Indeed. Because those who Alan Bennett (not the playwright, surely) describes as "folks with stunted minds and no growth potential" - or for that matter the same group of people described in less perjorative terms - do vote. That is why Bush received enough votes to manipulate his way into office.
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A bit off topic .... truer words were never spoken.
[Read the article: McCain's scary economic advisor]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Another disturbing McCain supporter actually said something I agree with for a change. Responding to a question whether he would consider being McCain's running mate, Lieberman told a press conference:
"I am spending all the time I can outside the Senate to help him become our next president. He can find somebody better to be vice president."
Yes, even McCain could find a small army of people who would be a better Vice President than Lieberman.
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@ "Offer him an ambassadorship to some small, faraway country ..."
[Read the article: Reid: "Lieberman is an important vote for this caucus"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Israel is small and pretty far away; and how could Lieberman possibly turn down that chance? The senator from Tel Aviv becomes the Ambassador to Tel Aviv. It has a certain symatry.
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Dealing with their own lies
[Read the article: The rantings of hateful leftists and Arab paranoids]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]One effective way to avoid scrutiny of a lie has always been to feign stunned outrage that anyone could so much as think the liar is not being truthful, accompanied by the suggestion that the accusation could only be due to some hidden agenda, irrational belief, or distorting emotion. You can get a lot more mileage from this strategy than a flat denial which can, at least in theory, be disproven, assuming someone (like a hypothetical vigilent press corps) would make that effort.
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Rummy repeatedly lied about this
[Read the article: In Iraq to stay]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]“I have never, that I can recall, heard the subject of a permanent base in Iraq discussed in any meeting.” - SecDef Donald Rumsfeld at an April 21, 2003 newsbriefing.
Amazing what one can get away with with a lapdog press.
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Yoo note
[Read the article: John Yoo's ongoing falsehoods in service of limitless government power]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I note from the Berkley Law School website that Yoo has been a professor there since the 1990ies, before he became infamous at the DOJ Office of Legal Counsel, so it would seem likely he had tenure before that, and so remains secure in his position no matter what.
At least as worrying is that his course load includes Constitutional Law and - wait for it -Separation of Powers Law. Like giving an arsonist a blowtorch.
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@ shooter242
[Read the article: John Yoo's ongoing falsehoods in service of limitless government power]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Do you have proof that there are NO AlQaeda or battlefield combatants affected by this ruling as Yoo indicates? If not, then your statement here is false and his is true. I would think it more likely that both of you are partially correct.
Actually it is you in his WSJ op-ed piece who writes as though every prisoner at Gitmo is an A-Qaida terrorist; GG was rebutting that demostrably false assertion, not claiming no one at Gitmo has Al-Qaida links.
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Joe career progression.
[Read the article: A McCain-Lieberman ticket?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I just want President Obama to appoing Liebermann as the U.S. Ambassador to Tel Aviv and get him out of the Senate at the earliest opportunity.