CRAZY LETTERS

More crazy letters in the ol' hometown paper again. I've decided to stop trying to refute those letters because that's how you get screwed up. Not because they aren't easily refuted, but because you have to quote their letters for yours to make any sense, which eats up the amount of words you're allowed to use, and it drags you down to their level, blah blah blah. So rather than respond to the crazy letters that appeared this weekend and today which I will share below, I composed this one of my own to send:

In March of this year, President Bush said withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq
is "an objective" which "will be decided by future Presidents," implying that
the Iraq war will last into 2009 at least.

That's because Bush and the neocons need the cover provided by the catch-all excuse of "we are at war" to finish their project of undermining the Constitution and the American way of
life.

They've made a lot of progress so far--they've eviscerated our right to privacy by allowing domestic spying. They've effectively nullified our voices in Congress by letting Bush negate sections of bills through signing statements without having to veto anything. They've jeopardized the future of our children through the "birth tax"--i.e., the intentionally massive deficits they've created. They've chipped away at our right to due process of law through
their detention policy, which allows the President to declare anyone--even
American citizens arrested on American soil--an "enemy combatant" and lock them
away without access to counsel or specific charges.

And that's just a small sample of the stuff we know about.

There's only one way to change this dangerous course. We must elect congressional candidates this November who will undo all this, be they Republicans or Democrats (but make no mistake,
Democrats are the preferable choice). We must end this war in Iraq and this
concurrent war on our freedom, which Bush and the neocons cynically and
mistakenly call a "war on terror."

Crazy Letter #1

This is from the same woman who wrote a couple months ago that if the Iraq war is still going on in 2008, Bush should be allowed to have a third term. Here's a link and here's a sample:

Shame on those who open the doors of criticism of our president. He has led us through more tragic disasters than any other president: terrorists attacks, war, hurricane Katrina, earthquakes, tsunami threats to our shores, devastating wildfires.

He is the president for ALL the people of this great country and we should express our support of him before the wolves maul him.

George W. Bush has been a great leader, exhibiting faith, honor, integrity, courage, loyalty and strength of character. Incompetent? Never!! Heartwarmingly human? Yes! Impeachment? God forbid!


He has led us through "more tragic disasters than any other president?" And then list tsunamis as a threat to our shores? The mind boggles as to how to respond to this nonsense! The only thing one can assume is that she has never attended a single American history class nor watched the History Channel even once. Either she's a lunatic or is completely unaware of history before November 2000. She is completely in the minority with this opinion.

I think it must be a comedy routine. There is no way a rational human being could believe the things she is saying.

Crazy Letter #2

This one has an obsession with ketchup and betrays a reading comprehension problem on the part of its author.

Check out the Heinz connection

Mr. Essex's letter to the editor (June 2) urging us all to "vote the war backers out of office" is full of half-truths and utter swill. If war-profiteering is what's going on in Iraq and Afghanistan, and "Bush and Company" are the ones profiting, what would Mr. Essex say to the fact that in every dining facility in theater the only brand of condiments to be had comes from the H.J. Heinz Corp.?

This notable company has verifiable connections to one John F. Kerry, and could not possibly be making a profit off the War on Terror, could it?

If Mr. Essex thinks that "voting the war backers out of office" consists of simply voting a straight Democratic ticket, then he is sadly mistaken; many of the most prominent Democrats are making a king's ransom off this war, and no amount of contrived socialist rhetoric will change anything as long as there is money to be made.

On this same subject, it seems that it is only evil for companies connected to prominent Republicans to make money; companies affiliated with prominent Democrats are only engaging in healthy entrepreneurism, I guess...

My suggestion to Mr. Essex would be to spend some time in Iraq or Afghanistan, and see firsthand the good works that are being done by the soldiers, sailors and airmen of the U.S. military, without the snide elitist commentary of CNN and their ilk clouding the issue.

As far as I'm concerned, until you've been there and seen what's happening firsthand, you have nothing worthwhile to say.

The ketchup connection is obvious--and laughable. But you might ask, where's the reading comprehension problem? If you read the letter this writer is responding to, you may notice that it never once uses the phrase "vote war backers out of office." However, the ketchup letter refers to that phrase twice. The problem is that "vote war backers out of office" was the headline chosen to sit atop the original letter--and it was a poor choice of headlines. The original letter was more about not being afraid and not letting the neocons or the Osama bin Laden paralyze us with fear.