Letters to the Editor
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You letter writers are really something else
While I do not doubt that George Allen is an asshole and that "macaca" was probably a reference to skin color, when I read "Welcome to America", I did not immediately think Allen meant to imply the guy is not American. Considering the context, he meant that the location and the crowd were "America", whereas the young man is from the un-American "big city" and supports a candidate that is not sufficiently "American".
Are you all too young to remember the cold war response to criticism of the US government - "Go back to Russia!" - usually directed at people that were clearly American? It is a rhetorical device, not to be read literally.
I have lived in rural America, and I can tell you that the people I knew when I lived there would have taken it that way.
Furthermore, he picked on him because he works for his opponent, not because of his skin color. This is not the kind of thing we need to spend so much time on. It is kind of silly, actually. And certainly not worthy of the lead story.
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Quick Comment about the GOP's "Real America"
Without the "Movie Moguls", there'd be no "Real America". Hollywood is a politician's best friend, no matter their party. It keeps the masses distracted and entertained, so that they're not seeing what's going on "behind the curtain".
These people play us for morons. They're just the updated version of snake-oil salesman...and one and the same as any "Hollywood mogul".
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wrong
>>While I do not doubt that George Allen is an asshole and that "macaca" was probably a reference to skin color, when I read "Welcome to America", I did not immediately think Allen meant to imply the guy is not American. Considering the context, he meant that the location and the crowd were "America", whereas the young man is from the un-American "big city" and supports a candidate that is not sufficiently "American".>>
interesting rationalization, but wrong. Virginian's know the young man was born in Virginia, grew up in the suburbs, not the big city and is now going to college at UVA, a small college town. So that whole story you weave is wrong. Even Mr. Allen, who was not born in Virginia knows that Charlottesville is a small college town, since he went to the same college.
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the real problem as I see it
is less the stupid name and far more the implication that Siddarth is some kind of visitor to the US instead of a citizen, born and bred -- the continued equation of "American" with "not ethnic."
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VA Red State? Not really.
Hey, you can't really just paint VA as a red state. Our past two governors have been Democrats, in the last Presidential Elections VA voted 54% for Bush, not really a sweeping mandate there. And it's not just NoVa that votes Democrat. I'm in the city of Richmond, which went 70% to Kerry/Edwards. And in the county where Allen made his remarks (Dickenson County), it split 51% for Kerry/Edwards and 48% for Bush/Cheney. Dickenson county's, US Rep is a Dem. Dickenson did go with for Kilgore gov (51%), but that was the only race in which the county went Republican. And you would be wrong to say that Dickenson county is "Allen people" since they didn't help put him in office...they went with Robb in 2000!
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wtf?
"Furthermore, he picked on him because he works for his opponent, not because of his skin color. "
C'mon, I'm just sayin', are you really that naive? Sure, mentioning that he works for the opponent is a convenient excuse for picking on him, but that's all it is, an excuse. The guy is a racist fuckhead, and should have no place in American government.
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I only wish this would sink his campaign. As if.
Hey, this guy is a goodoldboy and as such, will be reelected by the rednecks of VA time and time again. It truly doesn't matter what he says.
Whether the proto-fascist Republican party will nominate him in 2008 is always still possible. Look at goodoldboy Georgie W. and all the baggage he came with about his dodging service in Vietnam, his drinking, his failure to accomplish a damned thing prior to running for office, etc and yet look at the fool we've now got in the White House.
It's all for naught. And, by the way, didn't you mean "ivory tower professors" rather than "Ivy League professors?"
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How do you think macacas feel
Seeing that your headline substituted the name of their species in the space where the word "shit" would go. That's pretty offensive, I must say.
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Idiocy
Putting aside the fact that George Allen is a racist (he is) and that the comments he made were offensive (they were), the very fact that he would make such comments to a video camera being operated on behalf of his political rival, even accepting strictly for the sake of argument that "macaca" was just some nonsense name he conjured from thin air, shows pretty unequivocally that he is an idiot. We have enough idiots in Congress.
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Good for you, Robbie
Sounds like you've done some real soul-searching and came to some painful realizations. Good for you, man - it's people like you that give the rest of us hope. Stay strong and keep doing the right thing! God bless you!
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The Bar Has Been Lowered.
The slack-jawed, mouthbreathing countenance which our President posesses has certainly inspired others with "less-than-average social integration skills" to chase the dream of American politics all the way up to POTUS. While I applaud the dream, it is frightening what comes crawling out of the woodwork these days. Especially when you consider that all it takes is a little stuffed bogeyman dancing at the end of a stick while chanting a soliloquy of war, terrorism, fear, hatred, enemies, Jesus or god or both and of course the wont of the opponent to destroy America. It is all bought hook line and sinker in one stupendous, eyes closed gulp. These days, we see a bully pulpet cast much the same as it was at the beginning of the Revolutionary War; North vs. South; Us vs. Terrorists and their Supporters; Black vs. White. Americans are divided exactly along very visible and palpable lines. Sen. George Allen is a mechanism to bring that into further (we must admit) un-American division. Sen. George Allen is someone who will not fit into the future of an America which is ACTUALLY integrated into the larger world socially and spiritually. One day soon in our lifetime, we will look back at these darks days and be thankful for it as it will be a pungent reminder of whence and whither - what we have come from and what we are going to.
Fellow Americans, please consider this by Albert Einstein; "Any fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius-and a lot of courage-to move in the opposite direction."