Letters to the Editor
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Plus ca change...
I'm deeply disappointed in this move by Mr. Blumenthal, but hey...I guess everyone has the right to pay the bills however they may.
Two quick points on the actual content of the article:
1) If the Repugnicans simply MUST have an "infallible" leader, couldn't they have done better than GWB? Or did it require a dimwit like him, because anyone with half an ounce of sense couldn't have pulled off the gig?
2) This "infallible" thing may be happening again, and as one may expect, with a similar dimwit, Mitt Romney. See the following article, in which Romney in essence admits that he learned everything he needed to learn in the late 1960's, and hasn't changed much since then.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/15/us/politics/15romney.html
When will the Repugs STOP believing that a refusal to change thought or action, regardless of evidence to the contrary, is an attractive quality in a leader?
Huh? When?
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but you've got to ask yourself...
why?
why would the GOP under Bush become obsessed with the imperial presidency?
A military response to Al-qaeda to 9/11 even to the most hardened but clear-eyed neocon would have been seen as the counter-productive response that it became. But that is not what they were trying to do. They sent the army where they wanted a business presence and that means, resources, growth, money, corporate interests and all that other stuff.
Whomsoever is truly responsible for the events of 9/11 there is not a shred of doubt in my mind that the War on Terror is utterly bogus, and is being used to turn your country day by day piece by piece into an uglier, more brutish and more primitive place.
Make no mistake this is a total crisis, and my reading of it is that it ain't over yet, since they're in for a penny, they will be in for the pound that is attacking Iran.
Oh woe!
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The Sad Truth
From all indications, the lesson of this presidency will be that the President's powers truly are unlimited, and, as long as he doesn't get caught in sexual misbehavior, he can commit any high crime or misdemeanor--even the highest international crime of unprovoked, aggressive war--and get away with it. He just has to surrender that power when his term is up.
The Nixon White House argued during Watergate that for a limited time the President of the United States is an absolute monarch. The Supreme Court at the time rejected that argument, but the Democrats who now control the Congress--along with our supposed guardians in the mainstream press--are tacitly endorsing it by giving the Bush White House a free pass to junk the Bill of Rights, bankrupt the nation, wreck the economy, and launch pirate raids on sovereign states.
I will miss Mr. Blumenthal's columns, but I wish he and other mainstream commentators would quit scolding and start demanding impeachment.
Respectfully,
Jim Crutchfield
Long Island City, NY
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Goodbye Mr. Blumenthal.
I wish you luck and prosperity. The latter, via your signing-on to the Clinton campaign's try to wrest the throne from the GOP has been ensured contracturally, for now. The former, I fear, will remain unrealized as she may well, with your help, win. She is, like Bush and Cheney, a polarizing figure who has no new ideas, or owns ones she will not be able to enact once the assult by the GOP begins. It will be more fierce than the sackng of Rome, the burning of Atlanta, or Custer's ill fated treck into the Bad Lands. It will be withering and protracted. Do you really need or want to help bring this kind of of gridlock back for the next four years? Your learned prose was a delight to read, and gave me tremendous ammunition to use in discourse with people who politically were not on the same page as you and I. It will be sorely missed. One has to wonder how a mind like yours could possibly feel the urge to usher another four years of hate-you-to-deatgh politics onto our already exhausted electorate...
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Please
Please, take Shapiro with you.
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Goodbye, Mr. Bush and take the trash when you go.
A very interesting but sad elucidation of the American political agenda. Mr. Blumenthal is to be commended. His observations point to a sad trend that appears to be re-appearing world wide; the assertion of the divine right of "Kings". At a time when America need a leader who can focus the strengths of the people, it has one who is busy pitting the people against each other over issues that should be left to an individual's conscience rather than dissection by politicians.
The sad reality is that America may be in trouble. Other nations noticeably China and India appear to be in the ascent. America is still the most powerful nation on earth economically and militarily. On the other hand it can no longer, if it could, claim the high ground in terms of altruism. Even the military might may be an allusion. Fighting a gorilla type war with nuclear weapons or smart bombs is neither cost effective or productive. As to economic strength perhaps America's strength lies in the fact that it owes so much that the countries holding the debt cannot afford to let America slide into economic ruin lest they follow in the suction.
What is sad is that the American people have been been seduced by the pursuit of a paradisaic afterlife rather than often unpleasant here and now.
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Give my regards to Hillary
And, yes, if she actually reads your stuff rather than just uses your stuff (and you), she'll do two things as she goes forward. First, she'll drop the Clintons' damned Dick Morris fetish for play-the-rubes policies like school uniforms and flag bunring amendments. Two, she'll again raise that Right to Privacy Amendment she ran up the flagpole a few months ago but immediately pulled down when not enough of the big donor class saluted it.
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We don't and won't have political leadership at the highest level
Sidney Blumenthal clearly outlines the tremendous job ahead of the next president and congress to bring the USA back to a Constitutional government. But, we can't count on any individual candidate for the presidency in either party to provide the leadership required.
We have to go with what we have! And what we have in so-called leadership positions are mediocre people. Mediocre people when they are united can do it. That's how the republicans gained ascencency. What is the unifying force? We can't abuse religion like this admistration does!
The missing ingredient in leadership is the will of the citizens! No matter who is in power it will be very difficult for her or him to give up the imperial presidency and white house that Bush and co created. Citizens have to be alerted, educated and organized. And not along partisan lines -that's part of our problem. We think of republicans or democrats instead of people!
The role of journalism seems of paramount importance in this effort. This means that a major focus should be on getting and cultivating a few responsible journalists to tell the story correctly and to keep repeating it. Most of the wimps we have designated as journalists are only news makers instead of news reporters.
The imperial presidency didn't happen just with Bush's appointment by the Supremes - it took many years of careful planning to eventually subvert our government. The change has been systemic, not personal.
Where are the think tanks and citizen associations to provide the impetus to recapturing our country? That's our major challenge.