Saturday, October 22, 2005

reviewjournal.com -- News - VIETNAM VETERANS: Goodman announces 'operation'

Dear Mr. Howard,

TMitchell@reviewjournal.com; KHoward@reviewjournal.com

Your recent article on Mayor Goodman's Operation Welcome Home contained a grossly wrong statement of fact - please correct and retract this.

You reported:

"When U.S. military personnel came home 30 years ago as the Vietnam War ended, many were told to take off their uniforms and put on civilian clothes or else face the scorn of an ungrateful public.
Angry crowds sometimes gathered to spit on them when they returned."

There are no substantiated reports of soldiers returning from Vietnam being spat upon.

Crowds angry at the war did gather. Some US low-level personell may have recommened civilian clothes instead of uniforms. A few misguided civilians may have directed their scorn at soldiers instead of politicians. But protesters spitting on veterans? Entitlement mentality wishful thinking, and a re-writing of history for a purpose.

I was too young to serve, but many cousins and acquaintences did. They all reported that they returned to a different America - one that did not have an unquestioning support for the war. Many felt, and still feel, disrespected for the duty they did for us, but none report anything like spitting.

In many ways, these soldiers were the victims, not of the public but of the politicians. They universally feel, as do todays soldiers in Iraq (two of my nephews included) that they should either be given a clear task and the proper support to complete the task, or that they be removed from harm's way.

I will be waiting for notice of your correction.

sf

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2005/Oct-18-Tue-2005/news/3877922.html
reviewjournal.com -- News - VIETNAM VETERANS: Goodman announces 'operation': "When U.S. military personnel came home 30 years ago as the Vietnam War ended, many were told to take off their uniforms and put on civilian clothes or else face the scorn of an ungrateful public.
Angry crowds sometimes gathered to spit on them when they returned."

Friday, October 21, 2005

'Rudderless White House' Fights Miers' Choppy Seas - Los Angeles Times

Last November, it was obvious that:

The economic recovery was going slow and benefitting a small, and wealthy, portion of the US.

The war in Iraq was based on either lies or stupidity.

The insurgency and civil war in Iraq was increasing daily.

Top level Executive branch officials were suspected of or implicated in crimes involving national security.

Disaster preparedness was already under scruitiny.

etc.

Observing this rationally, no president with this record would be re-elected. Yet a (small) majority voted for him.

Now a majority of these people think he is doing a poor job. It was obviously the same job he was doing when they voted for him.

Was it just the response to the natural disaster? The worsening of the war in Iraq? Their obvious loss of real income/purchasing power? The millions that have fallen off the unemployment count, unable to find an equivalent job, or any job at all? Is George W. Bush a different, lesser, man than he was before the election?

Did they just figure out that he is not the man do do all this "hard work" moments after the election?

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

New York Daily News - Home - Michael Goodwin: She's already failed

So Harriet Meirs had an opinion - so what? She's entitled to that. It may or may ever mean anything in relationship to her (potential) Supreme Court opinions.

What should bother those on the right as well as the left is that her opinion was in favor of a constitutional amendment to ban most abortions in the US. The reasonable among us on both sides realize that abortion, gay marriage, and using turn signals on the freeway will never be a part of the US Constitition.

The very idea of any of these cultural ideas growing permanent roots in the fertile earth of this document is a wacky liberal interpretation of the Constitution, and (not very) deep down, every sane constitutional scholar (trust me, I'm not claiming to be one) knows this to be true.

Whether Harriet Meirs has ever failed (she seems to be generally successful in her vocational life by any objective measure), I just do not know. Maybe, just the fact that so many on the left and the right object to her should tell us that she actually is the right person for the job, who knows...