Letters to the Editor
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@Arne Langsetmo -- I personally have no problem with people being rich
It's the wise and responsible use of the money that's important.
A Tesla Roadster! Sweet!
For those who don't know:
http://www.teslamotors.com/
(I have no affiliation with Tesla or any of its associates.)
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Michael H is right...
Not spending money speaks as loudly as spending it.
Would that we could organize that kind of strike. Aside from breaking heads... one of the most effective actions in the South was the transportation strike. It affected the bus companies and local businesses, too.
I'm not holding my breath, though.
However, as Barbara Ehrenreich recently pointed out at the Huffington Post, the loud voices of (reluctant) non-spenders may be heard above the din, no matter what:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/barbara-ehrenreich/smashing-capitalism_b_61144.html
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Yeah, but...
G.G.:
"Hundreds of thousands of people protested the invasion of Iraq before it began, but with the media how it is and the political culture being what it was, how much of an effect did that have?"
But what if nobody had gone out and demonstrated? Then the narrative would be, "hey, look, nobody went out and demonstrated."
Oops, that *is* the (false) narrative, cuz the demonstrations got so little coverage.
We never really know what effect we're having. I've been in huge demonstrations that seemed to achieve nothing, and I've been on tiny picket lines that apparently yielded surprisingly big and sudden results.
There's no strictly rational basis for anything we do. For instance, in purely economic terms, the individual costs of, say, voting in an election almost always outweigh the expected benefits. Thus we have the old joke about the two economists admitting to each other, sheepishly, that they went and voted.
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Re: El Cid: I want to be a left gatekeeper
Just keep doing what you are doing, helping BushCo by preventing "The Truth" from being reported along with all your "left gatekeeping" friends on George Soros' payroll.
In the mean time, for those who want to take more direct action, I suggest Monkeywrenching.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkeywrenching
The right wing gatekeepers tried militias and bombing federal buildings and stuff. That didn't work out too well... but maybe we are ready!!! Overthrow the New World Order!!!
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About Miss Kidman
It's the wise and responsible use of the money that's important.
A Tesla Roadster! Sweet!
For those who don't know:
http://www.teslamotors.com/
(I have no affiliation with Tesla or any of its associates.)
-- Michael Harold
Pssst...Michael. Don't tell anyone, but my latest girl friend, Nicole Kidman...I don't have anything to do with promoting her career.
http://tinyurl.com/2kkoqu
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@Glenn and his critics
Glenn wrote:
People's minds have to be changed - the way they think has to be different - and that, in turn, requires a much different way for how our political issues are talked about.
Exactly so. Look peeps, early in my adult life I voted mostly (but not exclusively) GOP. Last election I did a straight Dem ticket. But the corrupt thinking among the politicians, the punditocracy and the Beltway goes way, way beyond either party.
I've never voted for a 3rd party candidate, and almost certainly never will. Yes, I'm a lower-case "l" libertarian, but the LP is too extreme and unrealistic, and won't bring about the things I most care about domestically, such as rehabilitating the 4th Amendment and repealing the civil asset forfeiture laws our drug policy has wrought. The LP is too full of nuts and some aspects of its platform are, to put it charitably, not serious.
We are stuck with two major parties. At this point the GOP is infinitely worse, in the aggregate, than the alternative. So, I opt to pressure the Democrats to defend our Republic and Constitution. If some genius can provide me a map to a truly viable 3rd party alternative, I'll look at it, but for now I think that is daydreaming nonsense.
If the Democrats get a clue that they can keep the 40% or so of we libertarians and the Independents galloping away from the GOP by standing up strongly against the Republican debacle, they will win many more elections. But as politicians, they have to be urged to believe this will keep them in power, and challenged to do the right things. Glenn sends that message; in my own small way so do I. I don't take to the streets because it isn't my thing (but it could become so).
Changing the parameters of the political discourse in this nation is critical. That's what I see Glenn doing. It is a crucial piece of work.
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Is the Overton window shifting?
Earlier today, I noted the number of references to the Constitution in published responses to Gonzales' resignation. This trend continues very strongly in tomorrow's editorial which has already been posted at the NYTimes. This editorial pulls no punches in citing the utter contempt for the law that Gonzales demonstrated. For example, regarding the Constitution:
There was a more basic problem with Mr. Gonzales’ tenure: he did not stand up for the Constitution and the rule of law, as an attorney general must. This administration has illegally spied on Americans, detained suspects indefinitely as “enemy combatants,” run roughshod over the Geneva Conventions, violated the Hatch Act prohibitions on injecting politics into government and defied Congressional subpoenas. In each case, Mr. Gonzales gave every indication of being on the side of the lawbreakers, not the law.
Further, rather than parroting the "common wisdom" that Americans are "sick of investigations", the editorial board has this to say:
Congress — in particular, Senator Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont; Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York; and Representative John Conyers, Democrat of Michigan — deserve credit for keeping the pressure on, even when critics were saying there was nothing to the scandals. But many questions remain to be answered. High on the list: what role politics played in dubious prosecutions, like those of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman and Georgia Thompson, a Wisconsin civil servant.
That's right, not only have the investigations to date been a good thing, but they also should continue in a thorough manner.
I await the spin from the punditocracy.
Link:http://tinyurl.com/2p2mt6
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@Kitt -- You're kidding me, right?
Nicole Kidman. Wow. (She's cute.)