GIVE USA TODAY A PIECE OF YOUR MIND! Re: Rocky Anderson Attack

[helderheid]

Simple courtesy by public officials should always be in good taste
Updated 9/2/2006 10:27 AM ET
WASHINGTON (USATODAY.com) — You know that civility in public discourse has fallen on rough times when the mayor of the capital city of the nation's most Republican state fails to welcome the visiting president of the United States and instead calls him all kinds of names — in public.
That happened Wednesday in Salt Lake City just before President Bush arrived in town to speak to the American Legion Convention and do some fundraising for Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah.

Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson, a firebrand liberal Democrat with a reputation for bombastic language and a touch of histrionics, headlined an anti-war rally in front of City Hall only hours before the president flew in.

In the process, he called Bush "a dishonest, warmongering, human-rights-violating president."

Needless to say, Anderson, who is not seeking re-election, opposes the war in Iraq and believes Bush and his leadership have led the country to ruin.

MORE >>>

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/columnist/benedetto/2006-09-02-simple-courtesy_x.htm

:mad:

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

1. Oh, brother. What is it about USA Today? They made a stab at

legitimate journalism with their story about the TelCos selling our info to the NSA. And, guess what, they got hit back, by the powers that be, although they never had to retract the story.

Now, they're back to cowering corporate coverage. :eyes: MKJ

[splat]

8. Editorials are publishers' views, news coverage is by journalists n/t

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

13. True that. Thanks for the clarification.

edited to add: Well, he's their employee, not an independent syndicated columnist. So, he's just doing what he's been told to do. MKJ


MKJ

[dolo amber]

2. It's a sad day when "telling the truth" = "calls him all kinds of names"

:eyes:

[dogday]

3. Fuck Courtesy, Tell The Truth Rocky!!!!

Give Bush respect when he has not shown any for the people of this country...

Where is the respect in Iraq?

Where is the respect in NO?

Where is the respect at the gas pump?


Bush has not earned an ounce of respect, but he has earned my distrust and my disgust.....

[rocktivity]

4. Uh, Anderson was ELECTED by the MAJORITY of

"of the capital city of the nation's most Republican state"!

And maybe if your paper was more tolerant of other points of view, which is what the American free press is supposed to be about, maybe Anderson wouldn't have had to do what he did to get your attention.

:headbang:
rocknation

[ComerPerro]

5. calling the president a rapist and a murderer was ok in the 90s

and was actually encouraged.

And I heard the word "liar" used in the media, both on TV and in print, used regularly to describe Clinton.

We not only can't call Bush a liar, we even get shit on when we say he "misled"

[Mad_Dem_X]

11. Bingo! I recall all the Clinton bashing

back in the 90's - I had never heard so much hatred directed at a president in my life. They called him every unsavory name in the book, and the media printed it all, not to mention every little detail of his sex life. Now we have a "president" who is 100 times worse, and the media is afraid to say anything!!

[oc2002]

6. They have liberals in Utah?

I thought they branded free thinkers as 'witches' and burned them at the stake.

Anyway, the article is a silly rant. Ah. poor little king georgey Bush the FIRST.

[helderheid]

18. Hell yes there are liberals here.

http://pdamerica.org/articles/news/2006-09-01-23-28-41-news.php

[NYCGirl]

7. It is marked clearly as "opinion". Write the columnist, not the paper. NT

[GrpCaptMandrake]

9. Hey, Helderheid!

Good to see you're still holding down the fort out there!

The columnist must've been filling in from his regular gig as USA Today's very own version of "Miss Manners." I say that because a real political columnist might have noted that the Busheviks snubbed Rocky in their plans for their little Nuremberg-on-the-Great-Salt-Lake Rally.

But of course, we can't be mean to Chicken George. That wouldn't be polite, now would it? It wouldn't be polite to point a finger at a man whose orders have killed over a hundred thousand Iraqi civilians, half of them women and children, and some of the women pregnant. That wouldn't be polite, would it?

If you get a chance, listen to Will Kimbrough's "Less Polite" from his new album "Americanitis." Kinda nails the spirit of things.

[helderheid]

19. will do - thanks!

:hi:

[marions ghost]

10. OK to write the columnist

But actually this USA today writer is giving Anderson's speech some publicity it didn't get anywhere else in today's muzzled media. If I didn't know anything about the speech and read this, I'd still want to look it up.

[RB TexLa]

12. What do you want told to them, to not run opinion pieces?

:shrug:

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

16. LOL, now they complain when called to task. He's no independent

voice. He's employed by Gannett News Service, which owns USA Today. He's their employee and, as such, is toeing their line.

I love the last two paragraphs..

To be sure, there are many in this country, like Anderson, who oppose the war in Iraq so intensely that they believe Bush should not be respected. They have a right to protest in the streets if they want.

But if things have become so bad that a mayor of a major city feels no need to be a polite host to the president of the United States, and in fact chooses to be boorish, then something is terribly wrong. We can protest without being nasty. Critical without being rude. Simple courtesy by public officials should always be in good taste.

Unless it's "go f*** yourself" Cheney, or "people who oppose the war would appease Nazis" Rumsfeld. MKJ

[helderheid]

20. Of course not. However, telling him how YOU feel is encouraged.

[proud2BlibKansan]

14. So it was okay to trash Clinton

but we have to respect bush?

We got a bigger blowjob from Katrina than Bill got from Monica.

[Cha]

15. Here's the address!

[e-mail]

[ccpup]

17. My letter

In response to Mr. Benedetto's recent call for more civility from our Public Officials, may I just take a moment to remind him (and the "fact checkers" at USA Today) that worse things were said repeatedly, in public, on the Senate Floor, in the House and even in this very paper by Republicans about President Clinton, his wife and even his daughter.

Like most bullies, Mr. Benedetto and the Republican Party can sure dish it out in shockingly vicious style, but, once they get slapped back, they blubber endlessly about the end of civility and good manners.

Fortunately, most Americans are waking up to the absurdity of this line of thinking and are beginning to see the Republican cry babies for who they really are: big, blubbering bullies.

[helderheid]

22. big, blubbering bullies. PERFECT. Incredible letter!

:applause:

[EFerrari]

21. I told them it could have been worse. He could have said

"fuck you" on the floor of the Senate. :evilgrin: