Letters to the Editor
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Agree, with caveat
I Agree with Mr. Engelhardt's assesment across the board. Looking back, you can see them sowing the seeds of their own destruction with Shakespearean hubris- a couple of suicides and a ghost and I think we have something.
I do want to point out, in typical stickler fashion, that the jet that the president "co-piloted" [putting to good use at last all of that government funding flight training] was a Navy jet, not an Air Force jet, as was reported. Sort of goes without saying why that would be the case.
Ohterwise, Hazzah.
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"Airforce Jet"
RE: America's Tipping point
In an otherwise well thought out article, Mr. Englehardt identifies the aircraft that Mr. Bush got a ride in for his infamous "Mission Accomplished" photo op as an "Airforce Jet". In fact, it was a Navy S-3B Viking, an twin engine fanjet originally designed for Anti-Submarine warfare. I should know, that's my old squadron.
Just thought you'd like to know, hate for that to be seized on by some yahoo who could say "Hey, they can't even get the aircraft type right"- never mind that it's not really that germane to the article. Mr. Bush's flagrant misuse of the military to advance his own political ambitions, on the other hand, was quite accurately described by Mr. Englehardt.
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America's tipping point
Bravo, Tom Engelhardt, Bravo!!! A standing ovation for your outstanding piece!
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America's tipping point
Mr. Engelhardt left out another element, perhaps the hidden key element, of the Republican
Agenda. Which was to steal as many trillions of
dollars and dollars-worth-of-assets, from the public, and give all that stolen wealth and money to the Republican Upper Class. The Republican Upper Class Tax Cuts have already transferred the
several trillion dollars of "surplus", which was
really our pre-paid Social Security Money, to the
Upper Class. They only need 3 more years to steal
several trillion more dollars. That, and pro-pollution counter-enforcement at all the relevant
Federal Agencies to allow the Upper Bussiness Class to steal several trillion dollars yet more
in unregulated theft of natural wealth from ecological and geo-physical systems. So the key
core Republican Agenda has been successful so far,
with crucial help from some key Vichy-Laval Democrat collaborators, who voted for Bushite tax
cuts, the Iraq invasion, the Bankruptcy Reform Bill, and on and on.
So what profiteth it the Nation to witness a
Republican crack-up, when there is no viable opposition party to correct and reverse the Republican agenda, and take back all the stolen
trillions?
If the Democratic Party wants my presidential
vote, it will nominate 2 candidates from among those Democrats who voted against the war at the time. A stay-the-course Nixon Democrat like Clinton, Biden, Lieberman,Bayh, etc. will not get my vote under any circumstances. If that is what the Democrats choose to offer me, then let Haley
Barbour be President.
If the Democrats want my interest, they will run Authentic Democrats like Dean, or Feingold, or
a few others, who were Right From The Start, and
who will run on a New Contract With America-style
list of Bushite legislation they plan to repeal,
and Bushite moles they plan to purge from the Federal Agencies. (A promise to co-operate with
the Hague in any war crimes trials it might wish
to pursue would be an extra proof of sincerity,
though I can understand a cynical-political reluctance to commit to such a thing.) In any
event, a Hillary Vichycrat Party won't impress too
many people any more. In fact, I suspect that such a party and such candidates will produce some
of the lowest turnouts in American election history.
And finally, nothing even the most Authentic
Democrat wants to achieve means anything while
the digi-fraudulent vote-casting and ballot-counting system remains in place. An Authentic
Democratic Party would at least address that problem.
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RE: America's Tipping Point
I think that Mr Engelhardt underestimates the biggest reason for the worm turning against Bush. I think the tipping point was Hurricane Katrina. The bumbling and ineptitude that followed showed Americans that despite all the bluster they were no safer now than they were before 9/11. If you're going to force people to exchange liberty for security you'd better deliver on that security when they need it. Iraq is a rotting sore for this administration and all the other scandals hurt, but I don't think that it was what changed the tide, it simply added to the unease that people were already feeling.
All politics is local and while hearing daily reports of new deaths in Iraq is demoralizing, I think it was seeing thousands of their fellow citizens starving and abandoned in the flood waters that really changed people's viewpoints and changed the unease to total mistrust. No amount of color coding could gloss over that.
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The Missing Iraq War Startup Factor
In his article "America's Tipping Point," Mr. Engelhart notes several factors which fueled the fires of reasons for setting up a battle against Saddam Hussein. One point which is theoretical, only a hypothesis on my part, has been too often omitted from published explanations of what may have lured the White House to working out a "justification" for invading Iraq. One cannot peek inside the mind of another person, but I offer this guess on one of President Bush's motivators. I'm betting that it was old fashioned tribal/clan/family warfare: "He (Saddam) took a pot-shot at my daddy. I'm not going to let that attack go unanswered. Sadaam will pay dearly for his affront on my family."
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Beware the rock back
All well and good that the points in the article are true.
But not good if, for more than a few moments, we believe that the terrible swift sword of Karl Rove and Dick Cheney lies broken and covered forever.
The neo-cons have not been out-smarted or out-talked - they are fallen on their own petard, and with little or any help from the rest of us.
We need to anticipate their next moves and plan out defenses (and offenses) now.
By the time they move next and surprise us, we will, once again, have lost. And move they will - soon.
1918 was more than just the year of the flu - the four minutemen were stalking the land.