Letters to the Editor
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Dr. Frankenstein and His Monster...
Are you saying we should have the Dr. Frankenstein destroy his own monster? He's pillaged the villages, wreaked devastation on livestock and surrounding vegetation and torn apart its citizens limb from limb. Now the drumbeats are sounding and the natives are getting restless...
Now if only Dr. Frankenstein can face the monstrosity of his creation, and put it down humanely before a full-scale rebellion that could wreak wholesale havoc for years to come.
Hmmm.
Thank you. Once again, with a few succinct words you put so much truth into perspective.
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Hey Jude
Let's Repeat what Jude said: Say it over and over... WE didn't elect them
Jimmy Carter says our voting system is more corrupt than many 3rd world countries. Ohio, Florida, New Mexico, Florida again. Gore and Kerry probably won.
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Mary E; repeat these words over and over
"The Democratic candidate of (insert year) was behind in the polls. He was behind after the votes were counted. He was behind after the votes were recounted. He was behind after the votes were re-recounted. He was behind after the votes were re-re-recounted. He was behind after independent auditors examined the elections afterwards. It's conceivable that the Democratic candidate of (insert year) lost."
Rinse, lather, repeat.
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SOUND FAMILIAR?
The decline is the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness. Prosperity ripened the principle of decay; the causes of destruction multiplied with the extent of conquest; and, as soon as time or accident had removed the artificial supports, the stupendous fabric yielded to the pressure of its own weight.
The Empire was firmly established by the singular and perfect coalition of its members. The subject nations, resigning the hope, and even the wish, of independence, embraced the character of citizens. But this union was purchased by the loss of national freedom...and the servile provinces, destitute of life and motion, expected their safety from the mercenary troops and governors, who were directed by the orders of a distant administration.
The happiness of hundreds of millions depends on the personal merit of one or two men or perhaps even children whose minds were corrupted by education, luxury, and despotic power The multiplication of oppressive taxes was countered and evaded by the rich, who shifted the burden to the poor.
Sound familiar? It's Edward Gibbon on the Fall of Rome.
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Nero Diddles
The decline of Rome is an apt parallel. There's a pretty convincing case to be made that America hit its apex better than thirty years ago. We didn't notice the deflation of the balloon at first because we were so far aloft. Now that the descent steepens, some of us are waking up. commander codpiece makes a perfect Nero if you switch diddling for fiddling.
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PLEASE! Remove "Nero Diddles" -'tom martin" posts! 18 of them.
There are eighteen (18) identical "Nero Diddles" -'tom martin' posts, which disrupts the flow of this discourse and prevents the reader from summing up the general direction of this discussion. Maybe his computer stuck and he re-sent the same letter eighteen times; maybe he did this with intent.
As to those who say the DEMOCRATS "lost" the 2000 election. YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT. NONE. In Florida we had so many eye-witness accounts of Voter intimidation, uncounted ballots, recount tampering, fraud, voters turned away the polls that many were literally sick with anger.
That the media chose to ignore it doesn't mean it didn't happen. Whether anyone is around to hear the tree in the forest fall or not, doesn't mean that it didn't -- or that in toppling it didn't take down a few others with it.
In 2004, they simpply hacked the election with the electronic machines.
The people who say it didn't happen, who choose to disbelieve are A: Believers of lies, B: Co-conspirators, C: Accomplices D: Part of the problem or E: ALL OF THE ABOVE.
APOLOGIES IF THIS SHOWS UP TWICE.
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Why I will never, ever support McCain
In the 2000 election, the Bushies smeared McCain in the southern primaries--or has everyone forgotten the "McCain has a black baby" campaign? I thought that was one of the most despicable personal attacks in politics ever, because it was not aimed at McCain, it was aimed at his family. That made it uglier than most. It had no purpose other than to hurt, and was designed to appeal to the worst nature of the stereotypical bigot--which also demonstrates ample disrespect for the electorate it was meant to influence. Never mind that McCain's daughter was not running for office--with the Bushies, any slander is OK if it lets them win; nothing is too low.
That doesn't mean that the targets of such a campaign have to roll over and play dead, or pretend that that kind of dishonorable behaviour is OK.
What would you do if someone slandered your family? Most of us would be fighting mad, and would go after whoever did it, even if only to vent our displeasure verbally. It's a normal human reaction, defending our loved ones.
What did John McCain do? Crawled up Bush's butt faster than you could say "miscegenation!"
Would you be caught dead in the same room as the person who slandered your family, much less cozying up to him or her? I know that I would not. Yet there was McCain, making all nicey-nicey with the shrubster. It turned my stomach.
I wonder how McCain's family felt, taking one for Team Repuglican, as it were.
Friends, if McCain will not stand up for his own family, what makes you think he will stand up for you or me? The man has demonstrated time and again that he will sacrifice anything--values, ideals, even his own family--to win an election.
For chrissakes, even the Mafia don't go after each other's families. They have more honor than that, and they're called "criminals."
For these reasons, I will never trust, much less support, John McCain.
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What the PDB really said
Garrison's Bush I grey eminence was wrong. The 6 August 2001 President's Daily Brief said nothing about hijacking airplanes to crash into buildings. There were a couple of passing references to hijacking and one mention of surveillance of federal buildings in New York, none of which were attacked on 9/11. The PDB ended with the reassuring note that FBI had 70 full field investigations underway related to the Bin Laden threat. Much as I hate to say it, on the basis of this PDB it's the intelligence community rather than the President or Condi Rice who was asleep at the switch.