A continuing daily series of peeks into editorial pages of local, rather than national, papers. The goals are to give a better sense of the pulse of the nation by seeing how local papers see national issues, to give a forum for all of us to share our own local editorial pages, and to discuss the issues raised.
Today's Pulse includes a letter to the editor from the Orlando Sentinel calling out Democrats, an article from the same paper about guns that has one line that will make you laugh and then cry, and a column from the Atlanta Journal Constitution about republican bullies.
Enjoy, and give me some feedback. Do you like these? Are they worth the time? And do they meet the aforementioned goals?
First, this Orlando Sentinel letter to the editor looks like a great Kos rant. I wonder if the guy is a regular. I had a hell of a time cutting it at all, so follow the link and enjoy:
Democrats are cowards
By Gary McKechnie
After getting kicked, beaten and abused for the past five years, you would think by now that Washington Democrats would recognize the source of their failures.
It's cowardice. ...
After November, I believed the mass of lies, deceit, corruption and callousness would destroy the machine the president and his party had created. Even though Republicans have stolen enough rope to hang themselves, I'm afraid it's Democrats who are sending themselves to the gallows. ...
Democrats backed corporations so banks and credit-card companies can extract billions more from bankrupt debtors -- even if the financial hardship is the result of catastrophic illness or accident. One exception: Bankrupt corporations can cut their losses, not pay pensions and allow executives to walk away wealthy.
Thank you, Joseph Biden.
Condoleezza Rice, who ignored warnings of al-Qaeda's attack and frightened an already anxious nation with lies of an Iraqi mushroom cloud, was given a free pass to become secretary of state. Alberto Gonzales, the rare attorney who argues for legalizing torture, is now America's attorney general. Democrats remained mute as the House ethics panel rewrote its own rules to protect the thrice-rebuked Tom DeLay.
Thank you, Bill Nelson. ...
Just because Washington Democrats believe the corrosive rhetoric of Republicans and seem willing to turn the nation over without a fight doesn't mean that I have to give an inch. America's too important for that. I'm going to speak up and fight back and pour on the steam until the very end.
So, thank you . . . Harry Truman.
The next is actually an article from the same paper. One line from a democratic state congressman was just too wonderful to pass up:
Guns and Terrorists
...
But under a proposed law swiftly moving through the Florida Legislature, people who think their lives are in danger outside their home will be immune from prosecution if they fight back. ...
The law would allow people who feel they are under attack to "meet force with force" under immunity from prosecution or civil lawsuits. Under the provision you could punch someone who punches you or even kill someone you think is about to kill you. ...
Rep. Ari Porth, D-Coral Springs, questioned whether the law would lead to death over even the most frivolous disagreements, such as trying to check out 15 items in a supermarket's 10-items-or-less lane.
If one person in line challenges another, and they get in a heated argument that escalates to threats, he asked, what could happen?
"Can I then pop a cap on him, proceed to check out with my 15 items and then ask for cleanup on aisle three?" Porth, a prosecutor, asked. ...
Lauded by the National Rifle Association, the proposal unanimously passed the Senate and could end up on the desk of Gov. Jeb Bush as early as next week when House members will likely give it their third and final approval.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution questions Republican's belief in state an local sovereignty, and concludes they are just bullies:
Republican bullin a china shop
...
To pander to conservative and rural voters, for example, Republicans in the General Assembly trampled two local ordinances enacted by the city of Atlanta.
This week, the Legislature voided an Atlanta law that gives preference on city contracts to companies that pay their employees a living wage of at least $10.50 an hour with health insurance, or $12 without. Earlier, GOP lawmakers had passed a bill preventing Atlanta from fining Druid Hills Golf Club for refusing to treat partners of gay members the same as spouses of married members. ...
When he was first elected, President George W. Bush reassured the nation's governors:
"While I believe there's a role for the federal government, it's not to impose its will on states and local communities." He then oversaw an unprecedented expansion of the federal role in state affairs and an unprecedented rise in spending and debt.
And just last month, the president's decision, along with congressional Republicans, to disregard the rulings of Florida's judicial system and barge into the Terri Schiavo tragedy made even party loyalists queasy.
"How deep is this Congress going to reach?" asked U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.). "How deep is this Congress going to reach into the personal lives of each and every one of us?"
After this legislative session, that's a question every Georgian ought to be asking.
The Newark Star Ledger comments on Guantanamo and detention here:
Guarding the detainees
Once again, a judge has reminded the Bush administration that its authority over detainees at Guantánamo Bay isn't absolute. A U.S. district judge Tuesday halted the Pentagon's attempt to "unilaterally and silently" ship some of the prisoners outside the reach of U.S. courts without giving their lawyers a chance to appeal. ...
This isn't the first time the White House has been admonished for thinking the law doesn't apply to Guantánamo prisoners. The Supreme Court was appropriately blunt in 2004 when it told the administration that Guantánamo is not a legal black hole. It ruled that the detainees could challenge their detentions in civilian court. Months later, a federal judge shut down the early stages of military tribunals, ruling that they violated the Geneva Conventions.
No matter how desperately the White House wants to keep its handling of detainees at Guantánamo secret, the courts rightly have remained vigilant.
A letter writer to the Yuma (Arizona) Sun is concerned that most people aren't really good investors, and that Bush's privatization plan is therefor a bad idea:
Average person won't make wise investments
...The administration's plan for revamping Social Security is similar to the Thrift Savings Plan that Civil Service Employees were encouraged to join about 10 years ago. The TS system had three categories. Plan one invested your funds into aggressive growth stocks, plan two invested in slower growth blue chip stocks and plan three invested in bonds. Civil servants could choose any plan or combination of plans to invest their savings.
At the time, I was seven years from retirement, President Clinton was in office and the stock market was booming, so I put all my savings in plan one and it grew by leaps and bounds. When President Bush took over, the aggressive stocks plummeted aggressively and so did my investment. Fortunately, it was not tied to my Social Security. ...
I notice that most of the Bush plan supporters are either young college graduates or successful businessmen and politicians who don't really need or don't expect to need Social Security when they retire. I applaud AARP for speaking out against a plan that will risk the security of our children and tax our grandchildren for its implementation.
A columnist for the Boalusa (LA) Daily News writes about Mrs. Schiavo's death:
Life and death: Untying the Gordian knot
Seems to me...
The national agony over the Terri Schiavo dilemma does not end with her death. The debate rages on. And, once again, the passion over this issue illustrates just how polarized the American populace has become.
...
CT scans on Mrs. Schiavo certainly indicated a severely atrophied brain. But at what point, if any, does a human being cease to be human? If the scientists can't tell us this with any degree of certainty then the politicians surely aren't qualified to do so. Yet politicians were lining up to defend continued life support in an attempt to gain political advantage from this very personal tragedy.
...
No doubt, it is serendipitous that the Schiavo issue has diverted the spotlight from an investigation of Mr. DeLay, in his home state, accusing him of laundering campaign funds and other fiscal misconduct.
Nevertheless, last week Congress voted to remove the Schiavo case from state jurisdiction to the federal courts. President Bush then dramatically rushed back to Washington in order to sign the legislation, as though he is incapable of carrying on the functions of the President from Crawford or Kennebunkport or anywhere else he happens to be. It was pure theater.
...
To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, `tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
Shakespeare's Hamlet, Act III, sc i.
The editorial board for the North Platte (Nebraska) Telegraph noticed that tax exemptions to businesses, not only don't work, they come out of the pocket of everybody else. Wouldn't it be nice if all the other conservative states started to notice, too? Wal Mart would be on the run, having to actually compete rather than be subsidized:
Market exemption don't always work
...
Maybe it's time to recognize that Nebraska can't spend, grant and exempt its way out of the problem of declining population in rural areas. After all, when a new tax exemption is passed to entice someone to locate here or remain here, that is an exemption from taxes the rest of us must pay. And when we expand grant programs, the money given away is money that comes from the rest of us. How much more can the rest of us afford?
What we are doing is marketing exemptions from those sky-high taxes which the rest us must pay. And all that really does is increase the burden on the declining number of full-fledged taxpayers.
It is sad commentary that our tax structure has become so punitive that the main thing we have to offer prospects is a "get out of jail free" card from the taxes even little old ladies on fixed incomes have to pay. ...
Why not take a look at affordability?
Tax exemptions, by their very definition, acknowledge the fact that our taxes are too high. As population figures continue to decline, it's time to consider the ultimate tax exemption: lower taxes.
For everyone.
A letter writer to the Bozeman (Montana) Daily Chronicle sees the Schiavo case as an indictment of the "ethics of the left." You've just got to love the phrase "post-birth abortion." Did this letter writer make it up, or is it a new part of the freeper lexicon?:
Ethics of the left
With Terri Schiavo now dead, we can objectively evaluate the ethics of the American left.
In the weeks leading up to her forced death by starvation and dehydration, millions of American leftists have led us into the brave new world of post-birth abortion, with claims that justice is served. After all, unsubstantiated heresy reported by her adulterous husband seven years after Terri first entered her altered consciousness, was sufficient for the Florida State judiciary to end her life. ...
Villarea [a Texas death penalty case], you see, is good enough to live. Schiavo and the unborn on the other hand, aren't. To the left, I believe that I now know everything about your ethics that I need to know. Your secular assumption of the mantle of God is not only arrogant, it is destructive to society, and will once again lead to your continued political defeat regardless of how many times Hillary Clinton and Howard Dean invoke the name of God -- a God whose true nature of love has been perverted beyond all recognition.
A wonderful look at what Christianity has become for one man, in The Times of South Mississippi. So the priest didn't call the cops- why didn't he stop them?:
Christian love sure isn't what it used to be
What ever you do for the least of these, you do for Me.
That line stuck in my head the other morning when I attended the early mass at Sacred Heart. I had a friend going through a special ceremony, so my wife and I were there to show our support. ...
I was just enjoying watching the people get ready when I noticed a sight I'd never seen, a homeless man sitting in church. He was unshaven and had long unwashed hair. His clothes looked to be falling apart, but despite it all he was smiling. I'd imagine he was just happy to be warm and dry in the church because he wasn't bothering a soul staring at his feet.
My attention wandered to the front where people were coming in so I turned away from the man. It wasn't but a few minutes later when I saw a police officer walk up to the fellow and ask him to leave. The smile was gone now as he gathered up his meager belongings and slowly trudged out the door. People around him simply looked away, I guess seeing that man in their church bothered them. ...
When Father Pat got up for his homely, he wasn't his normal, cheerful self. He was almost stoic in his attitude as he talked about stewardship. It wasn't until he closed that he made mention of them homeless man. I could tell he he was ashamed of what happened because he didn't call the cops. Someone in the congregation had called the police to escort the man out. He did not condone this action, and said it should not have been done. ...
A few days later I saw the man walking down the street. I couldn't help but wonder what he thought about being thrown out of a church. What was his perception of Christians and their beliefs?
Finally, two letter writers to the Burlington (Vermont) Free Press are concerned about the nuclear option, and how his Senators will vote:
Republicans want absolute power
...
We know that the GOP wants to have and is conspiring to acquire absolute power when it comes to appointing what could be four Supreme Court justices during George Bush's presidency. We also know that their agenda is to reward corporations and the extreme right. I would like to see my senators fight against this filibuster "buster" but more importantly I'd like to see them also work diligently to bring moderate Republicans and more conservative Democrats into the fold of those against this "nuclear option" in our own Congress.
---------------------
...
Despite Senate confirmation of almost 95 percent of President Bush's nominees, radical Republicans are threatening to eliminate the filibuster to gain complete control over the Supreme Court. They want to use the court to pay back big donors by rolling back worker protections, environmental laws, and privacy rights -- all at our expense. This is not a partisan issue. Ultimately you don't even have to oppose President Bush's judges to oppose the "nuclear option." This is about supporting checks and balances and opposing absolute power in the hands of one party. And that's something we can all agree on.