In today's Letters to the Editor page of the Seattle Times, there are 8 letters, all about the capture of Saddam:
2 applaud the capture and praise the President and/or criticize the anti-war left
3 applaud the capture, but claim that the US is just as bad or worse than Saddam.
1 applauds the capture, but says that Saddam was never a threat to the US and expresses outrage that Osama hasn't been caught yet
1 applauds the capture, but launches into an incoherent ad hominem attack on the Bush family.
1 says the capture will only make things worse for US troops in Iraq
Meanwhile, over at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, there are 9 letters today, all about the capture of Saddam:
1 says the capture will only make things worse for US troops in Iraq
3 characterize the capture of Saddam as irrelevant because Osama has not been found
1 says that "The capture of Saddam was not in itself worth the death of one U.S. soldier"
1 blames George H.W. Bush for giving Saddam "millions" and lots of help
1 writes:
Now Bush will go after clean air and senior citizens Hooray! George W. Bush killed thousands of Iraqis and hundreds of Americans to capture the wrong guy. Oh, how we'll sing his praises when he defeats clean air, clean water and senior citizens. Onward Christian soldiers.1 writes:
Dub-Ya has captured his Poppy's old ally, Saddam! Hip, hip, hooray...I can practically hear the celebratory rifle shots in the air around the National Republican Party headquarters...In their version of the neocon "Mein Kampf" titled "The End of Evil" and published this month, Richard Perle and David Frum want the United States to "win it all" in order to implement a grand vision of how things ought to be.Only 1 of the 9 applauds the capture: "Everyone's happy, except for Howard Dean"
Yes, out of 17 letters in today's Seattle dailies, 14 found an excuse to whine and moan about the capture of Saddam Hussein and only 3 did not.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at December 16, 2003 12:11 PMAha, come ze tomorrow editions ve begin ze counteroffensive. Zose poor editors haff no chance.
Posted by: Insufficiently Sensitive on December 16, 2003 12:47 PMIf there's a counter-offensive, it will be small, if at all.
While the Times isn't as bad as the P-I, the members of those Ed boards hate Bush just as much as any DUer. Why do you think all those letters ran today? I was shocked they didn't put out a special edition yesterday just to air the bitching.
I've lived in this state for most of my life, and I've never, ever seen it this bad.
Yes, I can't stand the Clintons, but it doesn't consume every fiber of my being. These people have lost all rational thought in their blinding hatred for a man who simply doesn't want to see a mushroom cloud over an American city.
They are fools. I don't debate them at parties. We don't bring up politics at family events. Somebody asks snidely about my Rossi sticker? They get no response. It's just not worth it.
This state has a history of armed political conflict and death (Everett in 1916; Centralia in 1919) and we're not far from it now ... especially if Bush wins in '04.
Seattle is rapidly on the road to replacing the San Francisco Bay area as the idiotarian capital of America.
Posted by: Joel on December 16, 2003 05:41 PMJoel, Seattle already has been the idiotarian capital for quite some time. The only thing that's new is that it's becoming better known as such.
Posted by: Stefan Sharkansky on December 16, 2003 05:45 PMHey guys,
Seattle's bad. No doubt.
Come live in the Olympia area and you'll get a whole new perspective. It's militant down here.
And "that college" doesn't help matters. They've been very quiet lately. Makes me nervous.
jimg
Posted by: jimg on December 16, 2003 07:47 PM"You can argue with ignorance, but you can't argue with stupid."
I have often wondered why Seattle and SF attract the loonie left: do you suppose that they consciously flock together out of a need to escape from a balanced environment?
I think a leftist needs to be in a place where they don't have to fight to survive or succeed, where the govt is bloated, where the welfare state is enormous, where the homeless rule the streets, where the laws cripple business and capitalism wherever possible. Where the world owes you a living.
I moved here from Norfolk, VA (after leaving the service). Luckily my initial social nexus was Seattle Pacific Univ. (grad 97). An oasis of relative sanity in a limo lib neighborhood, it is trending ever left now.... It takes effort to keep institutions conservative, as newcomers try to be all things to all people. On the "spiritual" left, there's a strange but obvious confluence between those who say you can hate our way of life and national character and still be a patriot, and those who say you can dispense with scripture and still be a believer.
Most of the professors were anti or ambivalent about Iraqi Freedom, but a healthy contingent pursued the logic of ending a terrorist, fascist tyranny as the merciful and practical choice.
I have to ask myself sometimes if I really want to raise a child in this irrational, sometimes frivolously obdurate community. Then I remember the many great callers to local radio, the multitude at the rally for the troops ("In Our Name" at Ft Lewis).
There is always, always hope. And why should the leftie misanthropes get to enjoy all the beautiful scenery?
Maybe it is the editorial staff that is making the Seattle look so bad. I would like to see a count like Shark made for the letters printed for the letters received. Who knows, maybe the whiners were actually in the minority. (But probably this is wishful thinking, otherwise how to account for the apparently solid support for Baghdad Jim).
Posted by: Wilinsky on December 19, 2003 03:03 PM