Letters-to-the-Editor

Journal Watch

ABQjournal: Las Cruces Puts Runway Damage at $1 Million

City

officials said airport staff warned members of the president’s advance team and a pilot that runway 4/22 did not have the weight-bearing

capacity to handle the big cargo jets or the Boeing 757 the president flew in on. …

[Republican?] Mayor Bill Mattiace said the

incident could be a ”blessing in disguise” if the city is able to gain federal funding to build a stronger, longer runway. [mjh:

‘federal funding’? As in ‘money stolen from taxpayers’?]

Well, I’m relieved to see (in my own anecdotal, unscientific

way) that the Albuquerque Journal finally mentioned the damage Bush’s recent visit did to an airport runway in Las Cruces (a few days

after the story broke). I’m even stunned it made it to page one (well below the fold, proving it is still not as important as Kerry’s

crime against commuters). Notice this headline writer doesn’t mention Bush.

I’m still waiting for the editorial demanding Bush pay for the repairs. mjh

Letters-to-the-Editor

Journal Watch, Part 2

ABQjournal Opinion: ‘State of the Art’ Road May Be Headed South [har-har]

After U.S. 550 was completed, the Heartland

Institute, a conservative think-tank hailed the arrangement. “One key factor in the project’s success is that the state is not telling

Koch how to build the road, … (allowing) innovative practices often not available to the public sector.”

Today’s

Journal Editorial deals with problems with US550, formerly NM44. In 521 words, they fail to mention Gary Johnson once. This is the

virtual Gary Johnson Memorial Highway, a road many saw as a great big thank you to conservative Republicans in the Four Corners. Gary

cheated and violated process to build this road in an outrageously unorthodox manner, all the while promising that this was the

innovative way to do things (borrow and stick us with the bill later). Now we see this was not merely incompetence but criminal. Not that

Gary will be held in any way accountable nor brilliant Republican innovations discredited. mjh

Election

Lying Liars

“One of my movies was called True Lies. That’s what the Democrats should have called their

convention.” – Ahnold Schwarzenegger

Let us remember that Arnie represents the minor so-called ‘moderates’ of the

Republican Party. His primetime appearance was meant to soften the impression of the Radical Right as rapacious ogres, a view one might

get from paying the slightest attention to anything they say or do. This dim brute is the nice face of the Republican Party.

mjh

Theirs

What Are Friends For?

Dear Albuquerque Trib,

Thank you very much for burying in your backpages that embarassing story

about our president saying that the war on terrorism cannot be won. This, a war Bush has spent hundreds of billions of our tax dollars

and hundreds of US soldiers lives pursuing.

Although one might argue it somewhat newsworthy that Bush believes this war is unwinnable,

I can understand why the Republican Par- … I mean the Albuquerque Tribune would have qualms about letting the New Mexico public see

this on your front page.

Why, it was very noble of you folks to have reported it at all! Keep up the good work filtering the news for

us! You’ve been doing an exemplary job!

(Not Even) Sincerely,
Jim Mullany

Mine

The Party of Lincoln

I heard Arnold Schwarzenegger tell the Republicans he is proud to be in ‘the Party of

Lincoln’ (they were quiet, then even hostile when he invoked ‘the Party of Teddy Roosevelt’ — Roosevelt, don’t we hate him? — but

finally cheered at ‘the Party of Ronald Raygun’).

The Party of Lincoln — yeah, I want to hear Georgian Zell Miller embrace the

Party of Lincoln (and Sherman, as y’all know). Best not to remind former Dixiecrats that this is the Party of Lincoln — that dog won’t

hunt. Only way folks have been able to stomach the Party of Lincoln is cuz it’s also not the Party of Civil Rights (delivering the rest

of what Lincoln promised). Sure would be nice to get Raygun on the $5 bill and get rid of ole Lincoln.

How did the Party of

Lincoln get a lock on the South? Where did all those voters who supported George Wallace go? If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.

Just don’t ask Arnold, he was still groping iron when the Federal Government became the enemy of Jim Crow.

If you believe the

government is accountable to the people and not the other way around, you’re a Republican — according to Arnold’s script. BUllSHit.

From day one, this administration has embraced secrecy beyond even the paranoid Nixon. Secrecy is the key to avoiding accountability.

This administration supports countless measures that restrict individual freedom, making us all accountable to the government. This is

the Party of the Patriot Act, the Party of Free Speech Zones, the Party of Ashkraft.

Oh, but everybody loves Arnie. After the

Republicans, the Party of Thurmond, of Helms, of Lott, amends the Constitution to curtail freedom (but only of women and gays — at

first) and codify bigotry (er, I mean, to defend the sanctity of marriage, divorce, infidelity and spousal abuse between a man and his

woman), then they can amend it to allow foreigners to become President (well, white ones). mjh

"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds." — Sam Adams