Letter to the Editor
They say that the Democrats don't have the votes to stop the war but that isn't true. Bush is going to come to Congress wanting another 50 billion dollars. Democrats have the votes to not give Bush any more money. If you fund the war you are supporting the war. I'm tired of funding the politicians who are funding the war so I refuse to give money to politicians of either party who keep voting for the war.
This week they are going to lie to us again and tell us that we're winning. We are not winning because to win we have to defeat the people who we are trying to liberate. After 5 years we are told over and over that we are almost there when the reality is that it keeps getting worse and worse. The time has come to shut it down and get out of there. If you really want to stop the war then cut off the money.
Even though Liberals / Democrats / Homosexuals want to put a homophobic spin on the issue that Craig was kicked out and Vitter wasn't, I'm not sure I can agree entirely.
Yes - Republicans hate gays. So a gay trist is different than a straight trist in the Republican party. So because Republicans hate gays then they have to toss their gay members.
Having said that, Vitter did is deed in private, behind closed doors. Craig was in a public rest room and the difference is that do we want gay guys cruising public rest rooms for sex? Rest rooms are a plact to go for the bathroom. It's not a gay bar. I don't want people looking at me through the cracks in the stalls trying to make eye contact with me.
Public sex is different than private sex in that you are subjecting people to your sex acts who don't want to be involved. That includes heterosexual public sex as well. So if you get caught by police having public sex then that's a crime and as long as it is a minor crime and just something involving a fine I don't have a problem with law enforcement protecting our restrooms.
Having said that, Republicans claim that they clean up their party and have superior morals. Vitter admitted that he had contact with a prostitute. Craig pleaded guilty. To me that's the same thing because if a senator admits to a crime that's politically the same as pleading guilty. So the Republicans should either kick out Vitter or they should quit bragging about their superior morals. By keeping David Vitter on board they are saying that sex with prostitutes is acceptable to the Republican Party.
There are a number of problems with Senator Larry Craig's story even if you believe what he admitted to in the police interview and other Larry Craig statements.
Then according to the police report Craig was peering at the cop through the crack in the door trying to make eye contact. Craig didn't reach for toilet paper on the floor but had his palm up and touching the bottom of the divider. The cop indicated that he established foot tapping communication with Craig and that they exchanged pickup signals that gay men use to signal they want sex.
Even though the standard of criminal conviction is "beyond a reasonable doubt", if Craig's story is impossible and it's clear he's lying then that undermines reasonable doubt. So a jury conclued Craig is lying and the officer is truthful the Craig goes to jail.
Letter to the Editor
Apparently Senator Larry Craig is considering reversing his guilty plea and fighting charges that he was trying to pick up men the restrooms for gay sex. But Larry's story just doesn't add up. For example, I'm 51 years old and been using the Men's room for a long time. Never in my life did my foot ever come close to touching the foot of the guy in the next stall. That just doesn't naturally happen. Then if Larry has a "wide stance" - if I had my legs so far apart that my foot was touching the guy in the next stall, I wouldn't be able to get my pants down. As Judge Judy would say, "If is doesn't make sense, it isn't true."
Letter to the Editor
The problem with people who rely on belief think that if you believe something, and get everyone else to believe it, that makes things true. Bush thinks that if he convinces himself that we are winning in Iraq and he can get America to believe it then we win. But that's not reality and reality always wins in the end.
The reality is that we are not winning in Iraq because in order to win we have to defeat the people who we are trying to liberate. The reason there is no Iraqi army is because we destroyed and dismantled it and we can't rebuild it. Iraq has no real government. The government that's there has no power and is fighting among themselves. Iraq is now just tribes at war with each other. The only thing they all agree on is that they want us out.
So it doesn't make us a winner if we believe we are a winner. All it does is allow things to continue to get worse until we get to the point that we can no longer ignore Bush's failure. One can not achieve victory by twisting the truth and ignoring reality. So even if Bush and the Republican controlled media want you to believe that the occupation is working and you believe it, that doesn't make it so.
Letter to the Editor
They say that ignorance is bliss and the Senator Larry Craig incident has shattered my ignorant bliss. I've used the restrooms at airports for some 30 years without even considering that guys were in there trying to pick up other guys for sex. I was very happy not knowing anything about this and now when I walk into a public restroom I'm going to be aware of what might be going on around me. The innocence of just going to the bathroom is now gone.