Some angry local letters.....about Saddam. Folks are waking up.

[madfloridian]

Some Central Florida folks are quite aware of the Saddam ploy

SNIP..."Bush tried in vain to link Saddam to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, but a link could not be made. Then the Bush administration either flat-out lied or used less than credible intelligence about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction.

Bush now claims that liberation was the mission. With casualties mounting, Bush should get his mission statement straight on why we went to Iraq and why we are there.

Saddam Hussein must be turned over to an international tribunal rather than an Iraqi judicial panel of puppets set up by the Bush administration. The full scope of atrocities committed by Iraq must come to light as well as the involvement of the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations......"

And from another one:
SNIP..."Am I in the minority by being outraged that our daily dead are only referred to as a statistic with minimum coverage?

Am I in the minority by being outraged that the administration gloats and preens on Saddam's capture while our innocent soldiers die and are wounded in an illegal and immoral "war"?

Am I in the minority by being outraged when our dead and wounded are brought back under the cloak of semisecrecy for fear of showing the true impact of our escapade into a venture without merit?...."

MORE:..."Wake up Americans. Something is wrong with this picture. We caught the bad guy in Iraq. Oil prices are stable, stock market is on the rebound, but the price at the gas pump jumps 10 cents per gallon in one day. To me, this is nothing but greed. Happy holidays....."END SNIPS

What is that folks are saying about the South? Huh? I know some of these folks, and they are NOT the transplanted Northerners. We are not that far from MacDill AFB in a very conservative area.

Any other Southern folk have some good letters to share from your area?

We still get the Praise Bush type now and then, but people are waking up.

[eleny]

1. Send Guy James an email and let him know!

[wanderingbear]

2. Im ignoring the Saddam Ploy...

Or any other ploy Bush comes up with..As far as Im conserned every word that come out of Bushes Mouth is lie..
I will continue my 20 year battle against the Bush Family no matter what they do or say..

[cirej2000]

4. 20 years?

Damn, you qualify for full retirement benefits!

:)

[wanderingbear]

12. Well.Theyve been at it..

longer then I have..

[madfloridian]

3. And an even angrier one.

Voters can turn government around
Jeb Bush gets the "blind hog" Legislature to pass whatever he likes without
regard to voter opinion. Jeb, however, only frightens me a little bit.

On the other hand, George W. Bush scares the hell out of me. Like Jeb, he
paints his own scenario, but that is one big brush he is using.

As a retiree living on Social Security and some other small incomes, I
visualize the nest egg I thought would last about 20 years being gone by the
time George W. would complete a second term. I will get no help at all on
the high cost of drugs. I will find a way to buy drugs from Canada. My
Social Security raise was based on the rise in soybeans. It didn't even pay
for the increase in my homeowner insurance.

The economy is not cured, inflation is here whether they admit it or not, we
are in a needless war that we can't turn loose of, the national debt is
rampant, AARP has sold out to the highest bidder, and the most bothersome
problem of all: "We little people are still sitting on our thumbs."

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. Yep people are waking up

slowly but surely

[DFLforever]

6. Good news - despite the efforts of the mighty GOP Wurlitzer and their

darling Dem presidential colleagues.

[dave46]

7. Shouldn't the Iraqis

prosecute Saddam? They'll feel totally neglected if we give him to the international courts, which can go on for years and years and most Iraqis want Saddam dead, where an international court most likely will not have a death sentence. It would be unfair to Iraqis and another reason for them to dislike America as well as the international community.

[0rganism]

10. It would be unfair to Iraqis? Say What?

Now whether or not you think a public lynching of Saddam in Basrah is "fair to Iraqis", it's a little bit late to be considering all the little things we can do to be "fair".

It was unfair to put Saddam in power back in the '80s.

It was unfair to sell him all those fancy chemicals to use against the Iranians and Kurds.

It was unfair to invite Saddam to invade Kuwait, and then jump all over Iraq for the next 12 years.

It was unfair to incite a Shia uprising in southern Iraq, hang them out to dry, and then point to the mass graves from the reprisals as evidence of Saddam's inhumanity.

It was unfair to embargo medical supplies, leading to a sharp rise in infant mortality during the humiliating "sanctions regime".

It was unfair to create a phoney excuse for an invasion that killed tens of thousands of Iraqis.

I'm sorry to say it, but any potential benefit from allowing the occupation authority to publicly execute Saddam is far overshadowed by the lingering stench of unfairness that permeates the entire sordid history of US intervention in the region. Far better to do what seems "fair" by the standards of the international community and attain some standing with our potential allies once again, IMHO.

[Terwilliger]

17. Well, Iraqis could use a sustained water supply and electricity

Hell, Bush won't give Iraqi's control of their oil, and their government will only be acceptable if they do exactly what the US tells them to do. Assuming that n Iraqi court will give Saddam a proper trial is ludicrous.

Besides, the world needs to know how complicit the United States is in the creation of the despot Saddam Hussein.

[KharmaTrain]

8. It's Downhill For * No Matter What

I'm heartened to see rumblings in my predominately Repugnican Chicago suburb. People here have never been keen on the invasion and now some see the real possibility that their little boy or girl could be swooped up in this mess. These are also people who saw their retirement savings virtually disappear overnight in 2001, then the loss of many high tech and good paying service jobs that have seen their incomes shrink, and they're no fool to think whose responsible...they've just been too overpowered by the wingnuts to speak out.

The Iraq mess strikes some bad tones here on a couple of fronts. There's the isolationists who see this as a dark-hole nation building mess with no end in sight and no outcome assured...not a very good investment. Then there's the costs...that $78 billion extra got wheels turning to...especially in light of shrinking incomes and rising prices. It'd be one thing if this money was going to enact some "democratic" change, but that's not even in the cards at the present time...and this money is going for schools and post offices in some god-forsaken hole half a world away while our own schools cut programs and garbage collections are cut to every other week. No tax break (that only some, not all in this area got any benefit from) or flag waiving will calm the distrust and concerns for this regime by many of its moderate supporters.

There's a tremendous core of discontent in this country and it's focusing more and more on this regime, but this is just a whisper in the loud noise generated by the Rove and RNC machinery. We have to keep asking these people to come forward, feel comfortable doing so, speak openly and freely about how they feel and then work with us to change things for the better. It's a tough job, but the truth is on our side and so is the majority...we just can't sit back and wish and bitch, it means unifying and expanding the message that this regime must go NOW!

[Poiuyt]

9. On the other hand...

One person wrote into my local paper complaining about how "The News Hour" honors servicemen who have died in Iraq. I don't remember any exact quotes, but he felt that such displays were only to turn the public away from Bush and his war.

[snippy]

11. Those becoming disenchanted with Bush's invasion of Iraq need to be

reminded that nearly everyone involved with foreign policy in the Bush administration regularly talks of or refers to the next pre-emptive war. If more people are beginning to think that the invasion of Iraq was perhaps misguided, what do they think of Bush's plans for future invasions? These people also might want to demand that Bush define "victory" in the war on terror.

[madfloridian]

13. And a letter that shows anger about Jeb and his brother and everything.

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20031219/NEWS/312190336/1037/EDIT04
SNIP..."Jeb Bush gets the "blind hog" Legislature to pass whatever he likes without
regard to voter opinion. Jeb, however, only frightens me a little bit.

On the other hand, George W. Bush scares the hell out of me. Like Jeb, he
paints his own scenario, but that is one big brush he is using.

As a retiree living on Social Security and some other small incomes, I
visualize the nest egg I thought would last about 20 years being gone by the
time George W. would complete a second term. I will get no help at all on
the high cost of drugs. I will find a way to buy drugs from Canada. My
Social Security raise was based on the rise in soybeans. It didn't even pay
for the increase in my homeowner insurance.

The economy is not cured, inflation is here whether they admit it or not, we
are in a needless war that we can't turn loose of, the national debt is
rampant, AARP has sold out to the highest bidder, and the most bothersome
problem of all: "We little people are still sitting on our thumbs."

[Syrinx]

14. there have been some good anti-Bush letters in the local paper

But I can't seem to find them online. Oh well. Here's a couple that are pretty good, even though they don't specifically criticize Bush.

Here's one on BBV.

*snip*

But if we can’t trust voting machines, we will never be able to trust the politicians that are elected, because issues about whether they were elected fairly will hang over their heads.

That’s why we should insist that new touch-screen computerized voting machines print out a paper receipt for use in the case that a recount is necessary. These machines, like all computers, are vulnerable to hacking, power-outages and crashing.

*snip*

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20031218/NEWS/312180332/1028/EDITORIAL3

And here's one on the encroaching police state:

*snip*

Don’t the Tuscaloosa Police have us under close enough surveillance already, what with the ubiquitous spy cameras everywhere? I mean, they can already zoom in on women’s chests to make sure they aren’t hiding contraband in their shirts -- what more can the chopper do? Maybe the cops will mount a mini-gun on the chopper next, a la Blue Thunder. Then they’ll really show us who’s boss.

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20031219/NEWS/312190350/1028/EDITORIAL3

[madfloridian]

15. You know what is interesting? The RW Tampa Trib has good letters only.

I just did a search there, and there are very few if any letters criticizing the war or the Bushes. All that means is that the paper chose not to print them.

I know people who have written letters to them, but they never get printed. They are good ones, too.

We stopped home delivery because of their bias.

[Syrinx]

16. what doesn't make sense...

Is that they are printed in my paper, but they don't seem to show up online.

[Tinoire]

18. Thanks for the nice note before I go off to bed! Awesome n/t