Letters to the Editor
Baloo.
Published Letters: 223 Editor's Choice: 8
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Obama's Top Foreign Policy Advisor admitted Obama is not ready to answer the phone
[Read the article: It's 3 a.m. Who do you want answering the phone?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]That is why Hillary "anything to win" Clinton is kneecapping her own party. If experience is the criterion by which to elect a president, which it is not, then they both lose against McCain.
Obama has said from day one we don't need the kind of experience that led Rumsfeld and Cheney to ignite a civil war half-way around the world, a war that will cost us blood and treasure and get us nowhere.
John McCain wants to follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of hell and he may drag us there with him!
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RE Math, KcM and RealityCounts
[Read the article: Let 'em duke it out]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]KcM is right about the math. Clinton has to win each of the remaining primaries with a margin of at least 15%--that is, in each and every state that has a primary left in order to overtake Obama's delegate lead. That is obviously not going to happen, in Mississippi, to name one example.
Is it Huckabean fortitude that keeps Clinton going? Or is she hoping she'll get her way with Michigan and Florida? Does she think the superdelegates will favor her over Obama despite the fact that Obama has won the pledged delegates and is a stronger candidate than Clinton according to the polls, according to independents, and according to the Republican party itself?
RealityCounts--your argument is flawed because this is not the general election and the Democratic Party is not the US Congress. It is a political party that wants to win, not shoot itself in the foot. It is precisely because the general election comes after the primary elections that the superdelegates will not vote against the pledged delegates. To do so would be to second guess and rebuff their own support. So, your idea of reality is a bit skewed my friend.
It may still be a little to early for this but I think the best thing Clinton can do for the country and for her career is to concede gracefully.
That's reality as I see it.
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We are the ones being haunted, not Pakistan!
[Read the article: Killing ourselves in Afghanistan]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It is true. Pakistan has been pissing on Afghanistan for decades. In the 1980s they did it with American help by funding and training the anti-Soviet Afghan Mujahideen. The Mujahideen was the insurgency at that time and they got most of their weapons and training from the US. The Russian forces were trying to do what we are doing now, namely win the hearts and minds of Afghans by building roads, railroads, schools, hospitals...you name it. The Soviets wanted to stabilize and modernize Afghanistan. It was in their interest to do so. The Pakistanis, however, along with the CIA and the Mujahideen did everything they could to derail that activity and succeeded. The Russians were complete failures in their attempt to rebuild and modernize Afghanistan thanks in large part to us. Now we're over there trying to do the same thing and who's trying to derail us? Iran. So, it's not just Pakistan you have to worry about. We're fucked from both sides.
In short, we are the ones that are really being haunted here not the Pakistanis. The Pakistanis have consistently pissed on Afghanistan since the beginning of its history as a nation and will likely continue to do so until we stop pussyfooting around with them and lay down the law.
This whole cluster fuck is one reason why McCain, who thinks the real fight is in Iraq, is an absolutely idiotic choice for president. It's more of the same retarded Bush policy. It is also the same reason why Obama has far better judgment then either McCain or Clinton in this area, because he has been saying for some years now that the real fight against Al-Qaeda is in Afghanistan. He is right and has been right on this issue for years. The other two are either completely ignorant or gung-ho but in the wrong direction. Wake up America!
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The cost "of" our freedom "to" our freedom
[Read the article: A sickening truth at Guantánamo]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Empire is an unfeeling monster, a clumsy giant without regard to individual life, a brute force moving through time, paving the history of the human race along a cruel path. We live on the shoulders of that giant and enjoy the fruits of its lethal labor. The alternative is either to kill the giant and live on the ground with all the other people or to try to teach the giant to be more sensitive, more humane...an allegory.
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The banality of racism
[Read the article: Geraldine Ferraro still needs to apologize]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This is not malicious racism. This is the banality of racism. It is malodorous but so prevalent as to be virtually undetectable, like the smell in a room one has been in for a while. Most Americans don't even smell it. They don't get it. It is not that Ferraro's words are offensive but rather that the person speaking them becomes offensive by virtue of a deficiency in insight, empathy, wisdom, humor. These are the words of a bitter person, a person who does not know how to be honest with herself, who lacks a capacity for self-critique, a person who uses patently false generalizations to shield herself from her own prejudice. It's like an autowreck, fascinating and gruesome at the same time!
The meaning of "Yes, we can!"
Ferraro - "No, you can't. It's only because you're black that we let you parade around on TV. You're just a token to make us feel better about ourselves and how fair and just we are as a nation. But really, you can't."
Obama - "Yes, we can!"