Can’t be trusted
No matter how hard he tries, no matter how well orchestrated his backdrop, G.W. Bush just can’t seem to connect anymore with the American people in a way that they’ll trust him, at least not on vital pocketbook issues like Social Security.
One reason for the President’s loss of credibility is clear — public realization that the Iraq war has turned out to be a big mess, its painful losses ballooning wildly larger than Bush’s initially soothing assurances.
And long-standing doubts about the president’s competence have resurfaced, as jobs are squeezed, fuel prices soar and GOP missteps take their toll.
Because the president has shown such little regard for the truth concerning his rationale and conduct of the war and its unplanned for consequences, Americans just don’t trust him now with managing pivotal changes to bedrock government programs that have proven vital to generations of working families.
When it comes to Social Security reform, it’s widely felt that the president speaks through his hat. After all, it’s a program for which he may not even be eligible and on which he’ll personally never have to rely.
Cord MacGuire
Boulder CO
Bush is history
Does President Bush want to go down in American history as a monster crank? I can hardly believe what we have been reading and hearing about his actions and plans! How Bush is thinking of destroying most of the social programs, safeguards, guarantees, rules which have made this the greatest of countries and unique in the world. Is this possible?
George T. Gaylord Jr.
Tustin CA
People’s nostalgia
Donald Todd’s letter in the Feb. 5 PWW, in which he commented on the PWW’s name, and said, “Actually, I do not like the ‘People’s’ part at all as it seems to me that it smacks too much of nostalgia for the 1930s and early 1940s. It feels outdated to me. Several others here agree with me on this.”
I agree with Don, but for a different reason. The word “People’s” has taken on an ultra-leftist connotation, which several people have told me they find to be a bit of a turnoff.
Have you found this to be the case? If so, then you might want to consider shortening the name to just plain “Weekly World.” The main thing is to get our paper read by more people, right? For years, it was called simply “The Daily World” (not the “People’s Daily World”), and it enjoyed a much wider readership. I like the new look. Keep up the good work!
Dave Zink
Seattle WA
Editor’s note: When the Daily World merged with the People’s World on the West Coast, in the mid-1980s, it was called the People’s Daily World or PDW. Thanks for the input.
Bush lied
Bush has lied to the people about Iraq and the weapons they were supposed to have. Bush should be impeached. Why is Bush allowing all these young men to be killed when he himself kissed ass to get out? My son, if he were of age, would never go. The American people that uphold Bush must have a problem.
Marge Boudreau
Tonawanda NY
Gerry Adams visit
Two events overshadowed Gerry Adams’ annual St. Patrick’s Day visit to the U.S. The first was the Belfast bank robbery (the largest in European history) in December 2004 and the second was the murder of Robert McCartney, a Republican supporter, outside a Belfast pub. Both events have, in varying degrees, been laid at the feet of Sinn Fein and/or the Irish Republican Army.
Adams, the president of Sinn Fein, at the just-concluded convention of his political party denounced acts of criminality and called for McCartney’s murderers to surrender to the authorities. Two IRA volunteers, of the dozen of those involved in the murder, have complied with this directive.
Adams and Martin McGuiness initiated and have pursued the peace process for the north of Ireland since 1998 at which time the IRA called for a ceasefire.
Money from the December 2004 bank robbery in Belfast has been found at a police recreational center. In spite of this and the fact that no evidence has been submitted to prove IRA involvement in the robbery, the British government, the Dublin government and the loyalist political powers have tried, convicted and punished both Sinn Fein and the IRA.
For hundreds of years the British government has appropriated Irish land, slaughtered and starved its people and portioned the country. It’s clear where and why they stand where they do!
It is ironic that Bush, who is responsible for hundreds of thousands of American soldiers currently occupying the sovereign state of Iraq, condemns the occupation of Lebanon by Syria and ignores the 17,000-member British occupying force in the north of Ireland.
Nancy Gallen
Franklin Square NY
Not Dorothy’s Kansas
I am a 38-year-old father of three boys. I remember a time when I felt exasperation when a New Yorker would ask me how Dorothy and Toto were. Not anymore.
Somebody please razz me about being from the Land of Oz. I need to hear that so I can forget that Kansas has become a hotbed of bigotry, homophobia and Christian fundamentalism.
Topeka is the home to the “Reverend” Fred Phelps, whose web site states God hates homosexuals and on April 5 the state voted 2-to-1 to outlaw same-sex marriage.
Sam Brownback, one of our U.S. senators, is spearheading the conservative agenda to turn back the clock on many of the progressive gains we have made over the last century. His “glorious” efforts include his strong support of the “Constitution Restoration Act,” which would grant judges the leeway to mete out biblical punishments, and would legally define God as the ultimate source of U.S. law in lieu of our Constitution.
Contrary to Bush’s belief, and that of many of the Christian right, we are not a Christian nation. Our government was intended to be secular.
The Christian Right needs to study history, sociology, psychology, and constitutional law to a much greater depth if they hope to ground their arguments in reality. However, if they studied too deeply, they would find that their position is absurd. Ignorance can be bliss!
Jason Miller
Overland Park KS
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