Wherein I Get Called a Traitor with 5 !'s After Eight Short Posts

I've made a point of getting a Letter to the Editor (LTE) of our local newspaper published at least once each month since last summer. Over these past months my writing has evolved from simple rebutting of our local Conservative columnists to writing on original topics. Part of the change from rebutting columnists is that the newspaper has introduced commenting in their on-line version. This on-line commenting is moderated but apparently only filtered for obvious spam, as evidenced by the range of opinions that actually gets posted.

A comments thread I participated in became extremely amusing to me extremely fast today. Unfortunately, it is also a sad example of what now-a-days passes for "educated discussion" on immigration in this county.

Now that the Republican Party has settled on their candidate for President, Saint John McCain of Hanoi Hilton, we quickly see the main theme of the Republican campaign; Fear, Fear, and Fear.

Today, I had my first-ever column under my byline published in my local newspaper.  I credit the ability to write clearly, articulate my thoughts, and actually have the needed facts at hand, to this incredible community.

Our ever-wonderful TPM today reported on yet another instance of rethugs showing their support for the troops.  This time, it was GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell answering a question without pre-rehearsal.

I've written a letter to him, asking some basic questions on his position.

I do believe I've just been insulted and treated to some pretty strong contempt by Andy Parks, Co-host of the Grandy and Andy Morning Show on WMAL, AM 630, http://www.wmal.com, out of Washington, D.C.

It started innocently enough when I e-mailed the station yesterday, to file a complaint about the Rush Limbaugh Show.  WMAL is the local outlet for Limbaugh's show.  I'm still pissed about his September 28 "Phony Soldiers' comment and still doing what I can to take Limbaugh down a notch or two.

So, yesterday I used WMAL's "Contact Us" form and sent in this e-mail:

Rush Limbaugh's latest "Phony Soldiers" smear, and his pathetic attempts to cover it up, has seriously pissed me off.  Seriously enough that I have now written to my senators, Webb and Warner, requesting that Limbaugh be pulled from the Armed Forces Radio Television Stations (AFRTS) network.

My letter below:

Last Week the Liberal activist organization "MoveOn" ran a half-page advertisement in the New York Times against the pending September 11 Iraq report.  The report was previously planned to be presented by the U.S. Army General Field Commander, General Petraeus.  MoveOn used a clever play-on-words with the General's name, referring to the General as "Betray Us" to make Their Point.  Their Point being that MoveOn was simply asking the General to be honest in his report, not parrot President Bush's talking points.

This ad has caused an uprising of angst and outrage amongst Conservatives all across these United States of America.

Today is the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's landfall on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.  Its two years after what is now being called the greatest natural disaster to ever hit the U.S.  

While my wife and I were among the lucky ones, August 29, 2005 was still traumatic.  In fact, I can honestly state it's taken this long for me to personally sort things out and take stock of how our lives have changed these past two years.

Once again, our own Jonah Goldberg, the greatest living writer of all time, has presented us with a column of striking insight concerning the urgent need for privatizing our public schools.  

He makes one profound poin after another, but most people reading it would never know.  Most people reading this column would be dumbfounded by Jonah's second paragraph describing all the ills of public education as:

I wanted to thank the people who posted comments of support yesterday on my diary Immigration Hysteria on a Sunday Morning.  This is my follow-up diary  describing what I truely believe is swift and proper action by the medical agency involved.

Yesterday I did contact my insurance agent and discussed Sunday morning's incident with the home nurse.  Our advisor became noticeably upset over my description of the event and promised to pass the information to the medical agency.  She apologized several times for what happened and promised the incident would be taken care of.

This afternoon I received a phone call from a woman from the medical agency in response to my complaint.

My wife and I are currently in the process of buying some additional life insurance.  Not a big deal or at least it shouldn't be.  Part of the process now-a-days to buy life insurance is take a medical exam, and the insurance companies actually make this part easy by sending a nurse-practitioner to the prospective client's home for administering the forms and lab work.

Yesterday, we had our home visit.  As part of the nurse's visit, she subjected me to some of the ugliest anti-immigration crap I've been personally subjected to.  

Over at CNN they're running a poll on Libby.  Here's the two questions:

Do you think Bush will pardon Libby?

Do you think Bush should pardon Libby?

Our local Prince William County, Virginia, newspaper "The Potomac News" ran a letter to the editor today that ranks as one of the most hateful screeds against illegal immigration that I have ever read, anywhere.  Even though I have already pegged this particular newspaper as a radical right-wing newspaper, I was still shocked they would print such a letter.  I had to respond.

Here are excerpts of the letter I specifically responded to.  If you have a strong stomach, you can read the letter in it's entirely at the website (can't link directly for some technical reason).  

While this may be a few days late, I've finally had time to respond to Columnist David Broder's offensive and idiotic comments in his February 6 column.  For those few who missed it, Broder wrote a column about about the recent DNC conference where all ten 2008 presidental contenters spoke.  

The National Review Online "The Corner" by my most beloved writer, Jonah Goldberg, arguably the greatest living writer of all time, strikes serious pay dirt with todays post Save The Polar Bears.

This treat offers his suggestions on solving the prospective threat of a world with no polar bears.  

I've just writen Jonah Goldberg and invited him to come down to Mississippi for a visit.  The occassion was his recent commentary on Townhall.com titled Give Bush a break.  Among other things, he made this incredible statement:

And then there's Hurricane Katrina. Yes, the federal government could have responded better. And of course there were real tragedies involved in that disaster. But you know what? Bad stuff happens during disasters, which is why we don't call them tickle-parties.

Today is the one year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. On this one-year anniversary, everyone here is nervously watching another potential hurricane move north hoping it hits someplace where FEMA parks don't exist.

Okay, I'm jumping in with my own post guaranteed to get me flames and praise - but I don't much care about either right now.

I want someone to tell me, in 25 words or less, just why in the hell we always need to unconditionally support Israel?  With the "we" being the people of the US of A.