First, Wow!, thanks to Armando for the front page.
Second, thanks to everybody for the input, especially the new sites with newspapers. I'm using them. Also, newspapers and locations are highlighted, and authors are named. Where there is no author it's the editor or editorial board. I included editorials, columns, and letters to the editor. I considered cartoons, but didn't include them because they only make sense in their entirety, and I didn't want to be a regular copyright violator, given that I'm doing this diary daily. Feel free to add your own from any part of your (or anybody else's) editorial page.
And now, on with the show.
As you might guess, editorial pages around the country were all Pope, all the time. But no Pope here, because they all said pretty much the same thing- what a wonderful holy guy, RIP. They were really obits in the opinion pages. That's not a surprise, given that the body is not cool yet; however, the Pope won't find his way onto the pulse until the real critique begins.
I did find editorials and letters about the economy, social security, the intelligence report, and some great Ann Coulter hate:
Here's a guy in Arkansas suggesting an alternative to Bush's Social Security plan, and it sounds like a lot more fun:
The (Conway, Arkansas) Log Cabin Democrat
Babies the Key
by Dale McFeaters
Out there on a smile and a shoeshine, President Bush is trying with Willy Loman-like doggedness to sell his plans for Social Security reform. But even his audiences of carefully screened true believers don't seem to be buying it.
The president needs a Plan B and, curiously, out of Australia comes a plan that would save Social Security. It's more circuitous than the president's, but lots more fun.
Concerned about a paucity of little Australians, the government offered women a bounty of $2,319 for every baby born after July 1. And the good citizens responded with 133,400 babies, the most born in a six-month period in 14 years.
In announcing the program, Peter Costello, Australia's equivalent of our treasury secretary, urged his fellow citizens, "You go home and do your patriotic duty tonight." (We always thought "mate" was an Aussie term of endearment, not a command.) ...
What we need are government officials like Peter Costello who can tell the people to go forth and breed so we can save both Social Security and Portland. It would also give the Department of Homeland Security something really useful to do. We could start by changing its name to the Department of Homeland Fertility.
The economy is on a lot of people's minds, and they are starting to notice that Bush has definitely not helped. In Connecticut one editorial board blames Bush for the mess:
The Day (New London, Connecticut)
Sobering Economic News
The next time anyone tells you the economy is getting stronger, take these facts into account:
- The dollar has fallen by 31 percent in value versus the euro since 2002. ...
- Some analysts expect the dollar to lose almost another 10 percent versus the euro, so it would take $1.40 dollars to equal a euro. They expect the dollar to fall against the Japanese yen, too.
- The U.S. budget deficit is now 3.5 percent of the total Gross Domestic Product and the trade deficit is worse, at 6.3 percent of GDP. Together, the deficits are about to exceed $1 trillion annualized. ,,,
- Stocks, measured by the Dow Jones Industrial Average, fell 2.6 percent in the first quarter of the year, compared with 0.9 percent in the same period last year.
- The central banks of Asian countries, notably China and Japan, now hold $1 trillion in dollar-denominated reserves. ...
This is what the great Bush policy of tax cuts and spending increases have visited on the American people: a sputtering economy, huge budget and trade deficits and a dollar worth much less than before.
It's no surprise the intelligence report is front and center. In Seattle, the Post Intelligence adds its own two cents:
Seattle (Washington) Post Intelligencer
Wrong or Dead Wrong
The presidential intelligence commission is forcing the country to look at the effectiveness of U.S. spy agencies. We need to start by reviewing some of the primary conclusions about weapons of mass destruction. ...
Going forward, the report urges policy-makers to push harder on sources, risk and accuracy. We need skeptical thinking. ...
The biggest concern, though, is what about the remaining international challenges before the United States? Can we trust any intelligence about Iran? North Korea? Or anywhere in the world? ...
Imagine the dramatic reform that would be required if the military had failed as badly as our intelligence agencies have. There would be sweeping and swift actions. We could not wait.
We're in Iraq now -- so it's not worth re-debating the war -- but would the United States have invested billions of dollars and even more in terms of human life for such a risky enterprise had we known all along that Saddam posed no threat to U.S. national security? If the answer is yes, we'd be dead wrong. Again.
The Contra Costa (California) Times publshed a column by a former Bush Homeland Security apparatchik. The most entertaining part of the piece decrying the failure to protect chemical plants is his attempt to shift the blame from chemical company lobbying to Congress' busy schedule. Look for the bold.
Mobile Terrorism
By Richard Falkenrath
...Of the all the various remaining civilian vulnerabilities, one stands alone as uniquely deadly, pervasive and susceptible to terrorist attack: industrial chemicals that are toxic when inhaled, such as chlorine, ammonia, phosgene, methyl bromide, and hydrochloric and various other acids. ...
The federal government has the authority to regulate the security of chemicals as they are being transported on roads, railways and waterways.
With only one minor exception, the administration has not exercised this authority in any substantial way since Sept. 11.
There has been no meaningful improvement in the security of these chemicals moving through our population centers.
In a desperate step, the District of Columbia council recently voted to ban hazardous material shipments through downtown Washington.
CSX is suing to block implementation of the ordinance. The federal government is supporting CSX's effort, an awkward position for a security-conscious administration that has so far failed to mandate a systematic, nationwide reduction in the vulnerability of this sector.
The administration can and should act immediately to enhance the security of toxic chemicals in transit nationwide; no new legislation is required. Specifically, the departments of Homeland Security and Transportation should promulgate regulations that will, over time, require chemical shippers to track the movement of all hazardous chemicals electronically; ...
But the federal government does not have authority to regulate the security measures inside chemical plants and storage facilities.
President Bush has twice called on Congress to pass legislation granting the Department of Homeland Security this authority. The 108th Congress declined to do so. It is often alleged -- incorrectly -- that lobbying by the chemical industry was behind Congress' inaction. The real reasons had to do with the full agendas of the committees involved; the administration's competing legislative priorities; and the obscure, esoteric and theoretical nature of the issue.
Falkenrath was deputy homeland security adviser to President Bush until May 2004. He is now a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution and senior director of the Civitas Group, an advisory and investment services firm serving the homeland and national security markets.
In Pine Bluff, Arkansas the Pine Bluff Commerical not only wants Bush's federal propaganda to stop, they want it criminalized:
Enforce Propaganda Law
Congress was careful, when it authorized expenditures for propaganda broadcasts overseas ("Radio Free Europe" and the like), to specify no federal agency was authorized to propagandize Americans with "the government line," here at home. ...
But it seems that the Bush administration on March 11 sent memos to federal agency heads and general counsels "rejecting" that ruling. ...
Say again? It's the executive branch that now decides what the law is, and not the Congress?
The legal counsel's office "does not agree with GAO that the covert propaganda prohibition applies simply because an agency's role in producing and disseminating information is undisclosed or 'covert' ..." Mr. Bradbury wrote.
This is nonsense. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., said through a spokesman March 14 he will try to attach language to an appropriations bill to clarify that taxpayer money cannot be spent on such efforts.
He and other Democrats are on the right track, but they need to go much further. Federal agencies should have "public relations" and "media" departments only for the purpose of answering questions and helping citizens understand the rules and regulations they enforce. Promoting policies that fill their own feeding troughs should be rigorously barred, violations punishable by individual imprisonment.
At The Argus, a Bay area, California, paper, Brenda Payton is worried about the nation's soul:
Don't ask, don't tell about torture
AFTER the Sept. 11 attacks, we were warned our world had changed. In all the ways we imagined the scope of change, we probably never thought we would condone torture. But as revelations about the torture of detainees shipped overseas come to light, how else do we explain our strange lack of outrage. We seem to be pursuing a "Don't ask, don't tell" policy. ...
The United States sends detainees to countries known to use torture and receives an empty promise that torture won't be used. Government officials claim because they received the assurances, they are in compliance with United Nations and U.S. prohibitions against the use of torture on or off U.S. soil. However, other government officials who visited prisons overseas said it was worse than "Don't ask, don't tell"; it was explicitly understood that torture would be used. ...
On a broader point, the protection against torture is one of the elements that distinguish our democracy. That democracy has already been compromised with the loss of civil liberties due to the fight against terrorism. Now it seems we're willing to compromise the very soul of the country. Political observers point to the ease with which Alberto Gonzales was confirmed as attorney general as proof the issue has died down. It never heated up. Where is our outrage?
Prescription drugs and pharmacists refusing to dispense them are still on the agenda. The Bakersfied, in California, is not happy:
Don't block prescription access
Legislators and the pharmacy industry must act quickly to ensure that pharmacists do not jeopardize patients' health by refusing to fill legal prescriptions on grounds of personal religious or moral beliefs.
Reported incidents of the trend are increasing around the nation, especially for women purchasing birth control pills -- the most widely prescribed medication in the U.S. -- as well as the so-called "morning-after" pill. ...
What must be done quickly are short term steps to achieve a balance between pharmacists' right to act according to their conscience and the vital right of access to needed medications by patients:
- Require pharmacies to ensure that at least one pharmacist is available to dispense medications as prescribed.
- As an alternative, have a standing agreement with a nearby pharmacy to fill prescriptions in a similarly timely manner. ...
But that is a substantially different issue from refusing to allow a patient access to a properly prescribed drug or therapy.
Such a practice constitutes an unacceptable patient endangerment. The time for legislators and professional associations to seek ways to balance personal ethics with medical necessity is now, not when the issue becomes a crisis.
And finally, I promised you some good Ann Coulter hatred. Apparently, citizens of Tucson aren't happy with the Arizona Daily Star running her column. There were five letters over two days, and here they are:
Ann Coulter has rabies
Joseph Stalin once said "A single death is a tragedy. A million deaths is a statistic."
Terri Schiavo's tragic situation prompted President Bush to comment, "It is best that we err on the side of life."
It appears that the choice to invade Iraq was a matter of statistics. Over 1,500 U.S. military personnel and over 100,000 Iraqi men, women and children lost their lives.
No doubt Ann Coulter can explain our president's logic.
George B. Reichart
Retired advertising manager, Tucson
I am astounded the Star would decide to keep Ann Coulter as a guest columnist, especially with her anti-veteran tirades. MSNBC was smart to fire her after she told a disabled Vietnam vet, "You're the reason we lost the war." This embodiment of "conservative principles" is also the same person who accused Max Cleland, former senator of Georgia and disabled Vietnam vet, of being drunk and blowing himself up with a hand grenade, thus causing himself to become a triple amputee.
Her tirade against the judiciary, and her asking the president's brother to break the law is clear lunacy.
She does not deserve a voice in the Star or any other mainstream paper.
I think the Star already created a balance with David Brooks, George Will and William Safire.
Jim Robinett
Tucson
The addition of Ann Coulter to the Star's Saturday lineup borders on the incomprehensible. To treat such epithet-infested rants as valid opinion stretches the tyranny of equal time too far. It is disturbing that the political right has managed to put the media on a defensive to the point where newspapers like the Star feel forced to give radical right-wing nuts like Coulter the same status as more thoughtful commentators. I fail to believe that the editors of the Star truly view Coulter as adding a useful voice to the nation's political discourse. A wide spectrum of opinion is welcome, but that does not mean suspending sound editorial judgment.
Terje Skotheim
CEO, Intex, Tucson
Do I have this correct? Ann Coulter tells a disabled Vietnam war veteran,"People like you caused us to lose that war." She then was fired rightfully by MSNBC.
Then the Arizona Daily Star hires her, so she can spread more of her venom. Where is the integrity? Where is the shame?
Charles F. Mullen
Retired steelworker, Tucson
Everytime an Ann Coulter column appears in the Star, I join the rush to the UMC emergency room for a communal rabies shot.
Richard Rampell
Retired English teacher, Tucson
