BREAKING THE HABIT
Re: Liz Mair’s Dianne Feinstein, Enemy of the Left:
I wouldn’t lose too much sleep over the Left’s discomfiture with Feinstein. I’m surprised at The American Spectator‘s rush to defend her, though.
She’s still the current champion of abolishing the Electoral College, a scheme designed to deliver the presidency into the hands of the ruling party in the major urban centers of the U.S., and to eliminate the inclusive intent for those in the less populated states. All the while, she opposes a similar move in her home state.
She’s still the one who, with her husband, profits obscenely from commercial dealings with the country oppressing Nepal (not to mention Tibet), while their nonprofit American Himalayan Foundation hustles donations for the poor oppressed Nepalese.
She’s still the one who steered ultra-lucrative Defense contracts to her husband’s firms for work in Iraq, while having helped bash Halliburton for obtaining similar contracts.
She’s a liberal Democrat. She only seems human when compared to her buddy Barbara Boxer. She will work to elect Hillary Clinton.
So she voted to confirm an AG candidate nominated by fellow liberal Democrats, and for that she wins your praise.
— Dennis Dilley
California
Sorry, Senator Feinstein, no sympathy here. You and your leftist colleagues must now reap what you helped sow. You, Harry, Hillary, Teddy, ad nauseam, set these left wing nut roots into motion, and now, can no longer control them. Congratulations! Aren’t you all proud of what you helped spawn, all in the name of your inane partisan hatred of George Bush. I think Mary Shelly wrote a book with a theme similar to this.
Many of us CT Republicans helped save Lieberman, and to his credit, he has responded as the only rationale voice within the national Democrat party. Last week, he declared that your party was now controlled by the paranoid hyper left. Sorry we can’t help you in California with your censure problems, but perhaps you can take a page out of Hillary’s playbook, and claim that those bad boys at the CDP’s executive board are picking on the girl. No fair!! That should work, after all, it’s working fine for Hillary, just ask de-fanged Wolf.
— A. DiPentima
Hamlet detected a rotten odor manifesting itself in the land of Denmark. Call me paranoid, but I smell something rotten coming from the Land of the Left, and it smells a lot like Zyklon B. Besides being hardcore, died in the wool Liberals (yes, with a capital “L”) Senators Lieberman and Feinstein have one other attribute that dare not utter its name; the unspoken (at least unmentioned by the press) common denominator is that both are Jewish.
While the Right has a reputation, deservedly or not, as being the party of exclusion, the Left is the truly discriminatory. Christians are welcome, as long as they are able to shed their beliefs in the sanctity of life. If you wish to pray, please take that outside our tent, or at least our schools or other public meeting places. Labor is always welcome, but remember you are here to work; your leaders will do the talking for you. Free thinkers are welcome as long as you mouth the ideas of the Royal High Muckity Mucks. Capitalists are fine — if you earn your money making Hollywood Kultursmog, otherwise, just leave your cash. Muslims are just wonderful. Ask anyone. Jewish people are also swell, but those Zionist need to stop the moaning about their victim status and the oppression of the Palestinians. That type of intolerance will not be tolerated by the Democrats. Ah, there’s the rub. It is not an anti-Semitic flavor; it is anti-Zionist stink that causes some to spew.
Sadly, the vast majority of the Jewish population of America (no need to hyphenate; we are proudly and fully American and proudly and fully Jewish), vote Democratic. On good days, the Left carps at Israel and supports the Palestinian movement, on bad days, the Left is openly hostile to the interest of Israel, yet Jews continue to give material and moral support to the Democrats without questions. Pavlov’s dogs would have stopped salivating when the bell was peeled if they were given rancid meat time and time again. Despite a solid track record of political correctness at the expense of Jewish and Israeli interests, nothing much changes in Jewish support for all things Left.
Maybe if Feinstein and Lieberman voted as they have and were not Jewish, they would still have received the wrath of the true believers, and this writer is simply being paranoid, but one does not have to smell brimstone to know that a mob is coming to burn down the house.
— Ira M. Kessel
Rochester, New York
I am confused. I have read Ms. Mair’s article. Then I reread it very carefully. Am I supposed to feel sorry for Sen. DiFi? Is this sympathy supposed to be automatic simply because she is marginally more sane that Sen. Boxer or the majority of Congressmen from California. Perhaps because she is not quite as unbalanced as Congressman Stark, I should give her a pat on the back. Yes, when the rubber meets the road, she will generally vote not to totally dismantle America and give it to the UN. Big deal. Isn’t that setting the bar of acceptability awfully low. One could opine that Congresscritter Jane Harmon is better than Sen. DiFi, and I wouldn’t vote for either of them.
If the whacked-out, tin foil hat crowd that now owns the Democrat party wishes to visit discipline on their members that have fleeting moments of sanity, so be it. The party is theirs, they own it. The more that the George Soros wing of the party does, the sooner the American electorate will awaken, come to their senses, and send these Socialist to Canada to enjoy their Socialism and let us non-Socialists return our country to the one that the founding fathers envisioned, invented, and set in motion.
— Ken Shreve
On a very tiny island of sanity in Socialist New England
Nice job, Liz. It does, though, make me flinch when anyone attaches a word like “centrist” to Dianne Feinstein or Joe Liebermann. Both have almost perfect records as feminist-environmentalist-socialists. The only flaw either has seems to be the sort of patriotism that we used to take for granted even in left-wing office holders. Harry Truman or Lyndon Johnson would be comfortable with either one and I don’t regard a man who wanted to socialize medicine, or in the case of Truman, was unconcerned about Soviet agents in the State Department and Treasury, as a “moderate” or “centrist.” But I certainly agree with you, Liz, that it shows how far out of the mainstream so many Democrat activists are today that they would treat Truman or Johnson as traitors.
— D.M. Duggan
When Senator Feinstein publicly and strongly comes out and votes against sanctuary cities, gun control and freely elective abortions I will believe she is the “enemy of the left” — but, not before that time.
— James Pawlak
SNAKE EYES
Re: Shawn Macomber’s Running Rebels Run Into CNN:
Shawn Macomber’s article on Las Vegas is a joke, right? This did not really happen, did it? Have dems gone right to the monkey house, with no stops in between for some real class which should be part of the process of coming to be elected to the most difficult position in the world?
Are they going to have pony rides and balloons for the visiting leaders of the world and hand out bubble gum for dessert? The type of behavior is simply not acceptable with most people, making a circus of the process is pandering to the people who really don’t care about politics, they simply want to get the goodies, have a few laughs and go home and rest because the world, now, is in good hands.
Wait awhile and find out how the Clintons can again ruin any respect for Americans who would be stupid enough to again vote in these two and then complain for years, while they bring back the social Washington and the celebrities can come and get paid back for their efforts with a sleepover in the Lincoln bedroom. Where all the idiots who have done nothing of any real good for the country this year while they continue to whine about President Bush, who, I might add, did not sit and whine about the all the mess he inherited simply because he has the integrity to not get down to their level. The level of the 11 year old who has not and will not ever grow into a decent human being. They have failed in all they do, they just don’t know it yet.
Hopefully, the voters of America see this, but I have no real hope for that, as most people do not look past the fact they will do great harm to America, more than we can imagine.
But! You get Bill back, great days ahead!
Mr. Obama was put into the run for president for the very reason we saw Thursday night. He is there to make Hillary look good and strong and whatever, it is just a game to her. He is being used by the dems and he may be aware of this or not, but like the other useful fools they have used in the past like MMoore, and poof Cindy who has made a laughing fool of herself and they do not care….Let’s see where he ends up, maybe as VP or simply someone who finally sees the light and like Cindy and Kerry do, keep fighting for something they will never achieve, ever. Sad people.
— Carole
STAR POWER
You’ve got to admit it
The lady is strong.
Her determination is fierce,
And her reach is long.
She could rule the land
With an iron rod
And scare the hell
Out of Ahmadinejad.
Will she play the girl?
I think not. Indeed
This femme’s in reality
No quivering reed.
With an overflowing war chest
And plenty of clout,
Mrs. Clinton will assure
The boys’ night out,
And the election season
Will be a hoot,
As Republicans try to
Give her the boot.
We’re in for a bumpy ride,
But it will be fun.
Get out the popcorn
The show’s merely begun!
— Mimi Evans Winship
ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK
Re: William Tucker’s Let’s Move Wall Street:
Don’t look now, baby, but the move is already under way.
To Shanghai. PetroChina just had a $1 trillion dollar IPO, and there are plenty of other big ones right behind it.
But, look on the bright side. After hyper-ambitious Democrats have used phony criminal investigations and insane environmental requirements to chase every sane business and entrepreneur out of the country, they will have no choice but to start prosecuting actual criminals for a change.
After all, there’ll be nobody else left.
— Martin Owens
Sacramento, California
Mr. Tucker writes an interesting article here. I have no doubt at all that what he reveals is the Gospel truth. If anything the situation is probably worse than he describes.
Personally, I wouldn’t live in New York on a bet, and living in New York City, please, I would rather go to jail. It is, however, my confirmed thesis that folks get the government that they, deep in their heart of hearts, desire and demand and deserve. I have for many decades now thought that you were required to be a masochist to live in New York City. I have a real hard time working up generous amounts of sympathy for the folks that continue to endure New York.
I have a somewhat minor nit to pick, however. Mr. Tucker writes, “New Yorkers are so enamored with their own ‘progressivism’ that they fail to note the rest of the country has long since zipped by them in making government responsive to voters.”
Excuse me, but has he ever heard of New Jersey, or Pennsylvania? How about Chicago, or San Francisco, or the Boston environs of Cambridge, and Amherst, et al. I assume that Mr. Tucker lives in New York. One always sees one’s own situation as the worst, and tends to pooh pooh the severity of the situation of those in other cesspools of progressivism. Perhaps Mr. Tucker would prefer to live in Los Angeles or Oakland, California. He would probably love Austin, Texas, or Colorado Springs, Colorado.
I could go on, but I am sure that you take my point. No, Mr. Tucker, the rest of the country has NOT zipped by New York in making government responsive to the folks that have to pay for it. We can’t even successfully figure out how to make the federal government consistently responsive to the majority of Americans instead of the noisy minority, much less successfully figure it out for the plethora of state and local governmental units. There is always some new crook, er…I mean politician, to figure out a new scheme to keep them a step ahead of us.
— Ken Shreve
AT GROUND ZERO
Re: Jackie Mason & Raoul Felder’s The 9/11 Blame Game:
Bravo to Jackie Mason and Raoul Felder for “The 9/11 Blame Game.” On Sept. 11, before the second plane struck, my brother, Capt. William F. Burke, Jr., of Eng. Co. 21 called family and friends in the city to warn them, “We are under terrorist attack!”
Sometime after 10 AM, when on the 27th floor of WTC 1 and aware of the collapse of WTC 2, he ordered the successful evacuation of his men (by radio; it worked) and that of Eng. Co. 21 and the civilians they help save. He stayed to assist Ed Beyea and Abe Zelmanowitz, co-workers and friends at Empire Blue Cross. Ed was a quadriplegic and Abe would not leave him behind. Somehow they got to about the 21st floor. There they called family and friends. Ed’s family called Abe’s; they were “with a fireman and on the way down.” The woman Billy called begged him to be safe. “This is my job,” he told her, “this is who I am.” Minutes later WTC 1 collapsed and Ed, Abe and Capt. Billy Burke perished with the other 2,746 innocents, Sept. 11, 2001.
ON 9/11, Billy immediately understood and recognized the threat and acted. Of course we must study the events of 9/11 and learn from our many mistakes, before, during and after. However, we are not the bad guys; they are. It was not NORAD, or the CIA or the FBI, it was not the buildings or the radios or Bush or Clinton. It was the terrorists.
— Michael Burke
Bronx, New York
SAVINGS WITH A SMILE
Re: John Carlisle’s The Greening of Wal-Mart and the “Due Left” letters in Reader Mail’s Obladi Obama:
Just read all the bad letters about Wal-Mart and I want to say I LOVE Wal-Mart. I make out my grocery list using ads from other stores and when I check out, the everyday prices at Wal-Mart are usually lower than the sale prices of the other stores. The store in Cleveland, TX is clean and the employees are wonderful. NO I do NOT work for or have ever worked for Wal-Mart, but they save me lots of money every week.
I do wish they would get off the “Greening” kick and do what they do best, care about the customer. Liberals are never going to like Wal-Mart, like liberals are never going to love Republicans….stop beating a dead horse.
— Elaine Kyle
A FORTY-YEAR DIFFERENCE
Re: Joseph Baum’s letter (under “Schools and Society”) in Reader Mail’s Obladi Obama:
While I agree with the thrust of Joseph Baum’s thoughts on the Public School system not being the problem in and of itself, I would remind Joe and his fellow educators that 40 years ago failure was an option in school for a pupil and there were consequences for failing that had merit. That option no longer exists for the most part and it is the Teachers who pass failing students and Administrators that graduate failing students from one grade to the next over 12 years that rob the society of any chance of setting the student and their irresponsible parent(s) on a better path. It cost the taxpayers just as much to school a moron as it does a genius, but 40 years ago morons didn’t end up with a High School diplomas that meant nothing to society as it does today.
Yes, society is deteriorating but the institution of Public Education has led that charge rather than maintained the standards required and let the results speak for themselves rather than just take the money for 12 years and certify a moron after 12 years of taxpayer support. Teachers, Administrators, Parents and Pupils have an equal part in this equation but all those paid professionals involved with the education process have the sole responsibility of enforcing standards of excellence and not becoming part of the problem. Several of my friends home school their children because the Public School system maintains no standards of substance and panders to the lowest common denominator in society. Failure is an option in life; it should be in taxpayer funded education also right from day one.
— Thom Bateman
Newport News, Virginia
DISAGREEING TO DISAGREE
Re: Mike Dooley, Clif Briner and Mike Showalter’s letters (under “Dorell Open”) in Reader Mail’s Obladi Obama:
Uh-oh, looks like I’m being triple-teamed again. Some additional clarification is in order.
A beneficiary of affirmative action who renounces it after implicitly accepting it in order to advance his career is not the same as a privileged white person who happens to be the beneficiary of racial advantages and then decides that the system is unfair. The former could be characterized as disingenuous while the latter could not if he grew up within a status quo that he only recognized after the fact. In other words, if Clarence Thomas thought that affirmative action was bunk, which he apparently did from an early age, he would have been more intellectually honest if he had rejected it outright at the beginning by not accepting what it had to offer him personally. On the other hand, a descendant of slave owners can disapprove of his family’s history without any inconsistency of thought, because the injustices occurred before he was born, without his participation. He can, for example, consistently support affirmative action either on its own merits or as a corrective to redress past wrongs, because he never believed in slavery.
Regarding Justice Thomas’s nomination within the conservative context, it is fair enough to say that a conservative president can nominate someone whom he thinks is in alignment with his agenda. However, in choosing Clarence Thomas, George H.W. Bush was certainly thinking about keeping people happy by appointing a black to replace Thurgood Marshall. The fact is that there were undoubtedly dozens of conservative judges who were more qualified for the Supreme Court than Clarence Thomas. In my opinion, this makes Justice Thomas especially boorish, since he willingly participated in the favoritism of which he ostensibly disapproves while denying a more qualified person the job.
Yes, George Washington was a revolutionary, and there was no inconsistency in his repudiation of British colonialism.
— Paul Dorell
Evanston, Illinois
Re Dorell Open and the comments of readers on Paul Dorell’s stunningly stupid statement that Justice Thomas “seems to be biting the hand that fed him.”
At the risk of having Mr. Dorell carry out his threat in a letter to TAS in 2006 to “please warn Diane Smith that her e-mails are being covertly monitored by dangerous leftists…” and his tinfoil hat fantasy that “they” might conduct an e-mail assault on me. I’ll take the risk.
Allow me to add my read of Justice Thomas’ reasoning. Clarence Thomas merely wanted to be recognized for his intellectual effort rather than because of a law that he felt obscured or diluted the individual’s accomplishment. He resented being lumped in with everyone who shared his skin color, their ability and ambition notwithstanding.
Surely Mr. Dorell can understand that yearning — as he went to such lengths to prove his brief membership in the Mensa Society….
— Diane Smith
South San Francisco, California
HOOSIER HERO
Re: RiShawn Biddle’s No Parent Left Behind:
As an Indianapolis resident who supports school choice, I’m thrilled to see RiShawn Biddle writing for your publication. His iconoclastic work at the local newspaper was a breath of fresh air.
— Happy Camper
