Letters to the Editor
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more Sidney lies
He issued many "signing statements" (a device originally designed by Samuel Alito when he served as an aide in the Reagan Justice Department) to express his own understanding of the meaning of enacted legislation and how the executive branch would or would not enforce it.
Wrong, wrong, wrong! The first president to issue a signing statement was James Monroe. Bill Clinton made 247 signing statements compared to GWB's 130. As they say, you can look it up!
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blumenthal nailed it
this article pretty well sums up why i was so angry when bush was elected (by the people republicans allowed to vote) in 2004. when i realized that the people who voted for him were not cruel people who liked the america they saw at abu ghraib but instead had been repeatedly fooled by republican lies, i felt a little better. we'll see if those folks are paying attention yet this november. (please, please be paying attention. pretty please with sugar on top?)
markl, the damage to empiricism was actually done by what is called "objectivity" in the media (not bush himself). there is no truth, only two "sides" arbitrarily defined by what think tanks are taking calls before deadline. for example, it didn't matter to busy people with two jobs and three kids that weapons inspectors weren't finding banned weapons, when there were enough republicans around to shout that they just had ta be there. they're still saying it, from what i understand.
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Hey, Barndog...
...do you think you are discrediting Blumenthal's writing with those quotes? Your're not.
Nowhere in his piece does Blumenthal claim the Democrats disagreed with Bush's claims or tried to get the truth out. To the contrary, it's their complicity that allowed Bush to march to war so easily. The fact that the Democrats were also peddling false and misleadinng information doesn't mean Bush shouldn't be criticized for lying to the American people, or that Blumenthal's analysis is incorrect. If I'm wrong and my opponents are wrong, that doesn't make me right.
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A correction to the text
Forgive me for not reading the whole string of letters, to see if this has already been raised...
A correction on the first page, regarding the popular vote losers/electoral vote winners--Benjamin Harrison did NOT decline to run again. He was defeated in his bid for reelection by Grover Cleveland in 1892, making Cleveland the only US President to date who served non-consecutive terms.
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cornhole barndogstyle
Just get back from your meeting with your probation officer, bucko? None of your fascist blather changes an iota of the truth: we were lied into and endless war of attrition, a bloodsucking civil war in which America plays only the role of victim and aggressor. Occupying the Middle East: now isn't that just what ol' Bin Hidin' said we'd do? Is Osama approving our foreign policy along with Prince Bandaid? Have fun drinking bad beer with your klan buddies tonight. Wash that sheet; it's disgusting. Smells like, um, dog shit, just like your posts. Sweet dreams, and seig heil.
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Salon Should Send Advance Notice...
If I had known that we would have a nine-page comprehensive Sidney Blumentahl story on W.Bush today, I would have called in sick, in order to spend the whole day here.
I have not read all the well-over-one-hundred responses yet. Has anybody said this?---
"Radical" is an appropriate adjective for W.Bush, but I hate to read it here. Abe Lincoln was a "Radical Republican" in his day, but back then, that just meant he was an okay guy. I worry that the utterly shameless W.Bush supporters will take our label "Radical", and say Abe was a "Radical Republican" too, even though it meant something radically differet back in Abe's day.
Get thee behind me, W.Bush supporters! Do NOT use "Radical" as a compliment for your reactionary creep.
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Blumenthal, partially right
George Bush is a failure as a president because he has failed the Republican party. He could have been smarter and more effective in Afghanistan and Iraq. In his simplicity he recognizes one truism though, that we’d still have been hated had we done nothing after 9/11. We were hated when Clinton was president before 9/11, Americans are hated because we’re the top dogs, people will resent this, even our European allies. A lot of British hate Americans, and they are our best allies. Bush’s provincialism in the long run though will hurt America. We need to educate ourselves on the mass of humanity outside our borders.
Bush is wrong on immigration. His soft stance fails the majority of Americans who are not wealthy enough to hire an illegal Mexican to do their dirty work cheaply for them. His soft stance has allowed millions of racist Hispanics to flood into our country at the expense of legal immigrants from Africa, Asia, and Europe, and at the expense of non-latino working class American citizens whose wages suffer due to the illegal Mexicans. We can't illegally emigrate to Mexico en-masse, why the double standard?
Bush is wrong on stem cell research, that holds out the promise for miraculous cures, if only Bush had the imagination to see this.
Bush is right on Kyoto though, the Chinese and Indians won’t ever comply, why should they, it will slow their development. Why shouldn't they all have a laptop, cellphone, and SUV like Americans as they are wiling to work harder?
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Evil Enough
Sometimes I get worked up into such a liberal lather that I can’t even keep the Bush outrages straight. It’s like running around a trash heap, trying to convince a conservative that someone has made a mess. But when the narrative is laid out so succinctly (and I agree that much was omitted), I’m incensed anew, and exasperated all over again at those who want to push conspiracy. Isn’t this enough? By accusing Bush of things like planting tons of thermite in the WTC, you play into the hands of neo-cons who happily paint all criticism of Bush as unpatriotic, irrational and extreme. Can’t we just stick with the hard evidence? There’s such a good case to be made, we don’t need Bush to be any more dastardly than he obviously is. Let’s make a clear, reasonable case, offer some real alternatives and take back what’s left of our country.