Letters to the Editor
-
Swensker
YKW ought to change his career.
He should be a Brazilian astrophysicist.
He can jog at the beach in Bermuda shorts.
Somedays we all need to run around the White House?
Everybody could much jelly beans, and wear pink socks, and hopscotch in shined penny loafers.
-
Scientician
Please consider changing the title of this piece to "Journalists, McCain and false Iran/al-Qaida link"
I was speaking ironically in referring to the "Iran/al-Qaida link," but agree that the potential to misunderstood is greater in a title, so I took your advice and changed it. Thanks.
-
Thine Over-Plastered Cities Gleam!
Okay, my fiends, I'm gonna put it to ya straight: It's a dry day, the Sun is shining, the SuperHawk is running great, and I look great in my leathers. You think I'm gonna hang around here? Feh on that, folks. I'm bound away, so far away, across the wide Putrid Sound.
I've heard some laughable rumors about guys who think they look better, and have faster bikes, than Mooser! That must not stand! It will not stand! I can't stand it! And if I can still stand by 8:30am, I'm takin the boat to Settle! (From Bummertown)
I leave you with the maxim (no, not the Yamaha of that name) which has guided me through all the shoals and shallows of the modern American Landscape:
Leave No Turn Unstoned!
God Bless you all, and I hope to see you later, if that's all right.
-
Jim nailed why Johnny McSame (thanks Kevster) poses grave danger
On GG’s appearance on Antiwar Radio, Jim posted this response on their blog:
“Virtually every discussion or article I see on the media’s biased reporting almost always misses this important link. Both McCain and Lieberman are huge Israel supporters and share Israel’s and the US’ goal to control the MidEast and expand the present aggression into Iran. The media, who has shown time and time again that they are pro-Israel (just look at the coverage of Gaza), and owned by military contractors, certainly share this view as well. So, why wouldn’t they give McCain a pass, every time?”
McSame’s Serious foreign affairs advisers clearly by all the support Israel propaganda and McSame will only give the same lip service to addressing the Palestinian oppression and will go after Iran if Cheney hasn’t pulled it off before he leaves office.
Glenn’s past articles on AIPAC and the unwillingness of the M$M and politicians to challenge the Israeli Lobby and their evangelical religious supporters along with the Iraq Study Group’s position on this issue shows how nothing will change in the Middle East until our government challenges Israel to change their apartheid policy and find a way to piece through compromise.
I am a strong supporter of Obama, but my biggest problem with him is that his support of Israel appears to be more of the same. I hope his stance is due to getting elected and that his true position will finally address this issue head on.
Our future in Iraq and with the Muslim world totally depends on it.
-
John Hagee and John McCain
Just as they don't examine sufficiently McCain's statements on Iran/Iraq/al Qaeda, the press doesn't sufficiently look into why on earth McCain would seek out for over a year the support of John Hagee who wants to bomb Iran post haste and who has all kinds of terrifying ideas about Iran, Israel, etc. Why not?
-
Pandering, uninformed or senile?
McCain may have just mixed-up his standard red-meat applause lines to the GOP rubes with what he's supposed to say when in the "reality-based community." He's been pandering so hard it's easy to see how might get confused -- the man's 72-years old, after all.
It'll be interesting to see if the M$M is as forgiving (since he has no comparable domestic policy "bonafides") when he serves-up these laughable Republican staples:
* The Bush tax cuts went primarily to the middle class and need to be made permanent
* Tax cuts increase government revenues (despite record deficits)
* Social Security should be privatized
* Exploitive private health insurance companies are better than a national health care system
-
OT - this is what censorship looks like
It's well known that Yahoo! and Google, among others, have had contracts with the Chinese government to implement an internet there that gives the government -- how shall we say this -- a bit more control. I've ranted before about how numbing government surveillance is when you actually experience it, so here, in full technicolor is what it looks like, and why you should thank the American corporations for their abject support of human rights abuse and government surveillance and censorship to make a buck. As I've said before, no matter how thick skinned you are, this will change what you write, even if you decide to defy it, which will then require both a decision, and usually a small but important conference with your loved ones. The following was garnered by Reporters Without Borders, and was posted on QQ which is an internet instant messaging service site popular with Tibetans:
Announcement from the Internet Surveillance Bureau
We inform Internet users that it is forbidden to post news about Tibetan events. From today, the Internet Surveillance Bureau will carry out filtering and censorship.
It is forbidden to post, circulate or discuss reports about Tibetan events in Chengdu.
Anyone infringing this ban will have their IP address sent to the police who will take the necessary steps.
If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear. Have a nice day.
-
And yet....
McCain is 71 years old, 72 by the time we go to vote. In recent years he's also led a privileged life, and isn't used to being challenged by anybody. Judging by the information that's available, he's not as dumb as GWB, but he's just as obtuse about most of the issues that concern Americans, and like most ignorant people with power, he can be vicious when spoken to without what he considers to be the proper respect.
Maybe the happy crew on his bus won't snitch on him, but in the next seven months, he'll be on camera a lot, and he'll be watched and listened to by many more people than that small coterie of venal scribes assigned to his campaign. He'll also have either Hillary or Obama sticking pins in him, either of whom is just as skilled as he is at it. What's more, both have far more energy to devote to maintaining an even keel than he does.
I don't care how many Liebermans he has whispering in his ear, or how many reporters in his inner circle who make their living pretending to be deaf. I don't think that it'll be all that long before everyone knows just how many people it takes to keep him standing upright and facing in the right direction. If I were his handlers, this would already be keeping me up at night. Even with the best people working on it, there's a good chance that the McCain-as-strong-happy-warrior propaganda torrent will have passed the flood stage long before November.
Being just a bit younger than he is myself, I'd normally feel a little sympathy for an old geezer tested beyond his limits. In this case, though, I have little. McCain is way overdue for his comeuppance.