Please critique my LTTE on the torture bill

[leftupnorth]

The rubber stamp Republican Congress recently banned torture, but gave the president the power to change the definition of torture at will. The bill allows for the indefinite detention of anyone the administration labels an "enemy combatant", including American citizens, without counsel or charges. The Supreme Court, with two Bush appointees, is our last defense against this assault on the Constitution.

People who object to this bill are systematically labeled "cut and run" by Bush and his followers, and attacked with a barrage of strawmen arguments and fools' choices. Aided by the "liberal" media, they offer you choices between liberty and security, between "terrorist rights" and "American rights", between "fight them here" or "fight them there". Only those who are afraid of real debate would use these dishonest and destructive tactics. Democrats and reasonable Americans believe in liberty with security, fair trials and treatment for the accused, a comprehensive strategy to effectively fight terrorism here and abroad that includes aggressively seeking alternatives to foreign oil. Bush Republicans do not.

The truth is the Bushies and their Republican enablers in Congress have crippled our ability to fight terrorism more than any terrorist could have done by force. They have demoralized our armed forces by abandoning Afghanistan and not planning for and defining victory in Iraq; they have put our kids in debt to China, Saudi Arabia, Japan, and India for the sake of tax cuts; they have failed to secure our borders, ports, airports, and nuclear plants. Democrats stand ready to address these problems but they need your vote to regain the majority. Republicans are afraid of the truth, they will try and distract you with with the tactics indentified above. Don't fall for it, friends. Stand up, fight back, vote Democrat!

[OhioBlue]

1. good letter.

A couple of suggestions. First, re-read it and pretend that you don't know what we know. Because that is your audience. They really just don't know as much as we might hope.

Second on specifics... you might add "mythological" in front of "liberal media"...

Also, you might want to find a way to stress important words. I don't know how you do it in a letter to the editor tho....