Letters of Hope and Futility

Dear readers,
Please check out another excellent post about our economic woes at Blue Lyon, http://bluelyon.wordpress.com/
Signed,
Fiery Side

Dear neighbor,
Take heart. I'm writing to some people who can still help you.
Signed,
Cathylee

Dear democrats in power,
After all the betrayal you--Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and all the rest of the congressional democrats--have inflicted on us, I'm sitting here, willing you to do the right thing. Climbing on board one last time to hope there's a shred of decency in our REPRESENTATIVES.

Finally, at long last, prove me right, democrats. Convince me that I haven't been a proud Democrat all these years of my life for nothing. After validating the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, the bankruptcy bill, the Supreme Court justices, THE IRAQ OCCUPATION--just to name a few--give us something to believe in again.

Don't let Paulson put the CEOs and Wall Street in the lifeboats.

Put Americans back in their homes, instead.

Start with my neighbor, could you please? He's about 60, disabled, and spends his days drinking in order to forget he's got only a short time left to spend in the house he bought a couple of decades ago. Maybe you could just save his garage for him. It's filled with a lifetime of tools, machines, and stuff he's collected. It's all that really matters to him.

Try this, democrats: put a face on your actions. Make them real. Think of my neighbor.

For once, after all these years of rolling over, backing off, and, in the case of the democratic nomination, lying and cheating--for once and finally, DO THE RIGHT THING.

Now. Please.

Signed,
The Woman Who Lives Next Door To Another Soon-To-Be-Homeless-Person

Euphemisms, Lies, and Leaders

Voilà, a sampling of rhetoric to gloss over Senator Obama's crafty, calculated, and utterly impolitic MOVE TO THE CENTER.

'The conversation is rising about what the left should properly do when the presumptive nominee appears to emphasize his moderate side...'

'Senator Obama is a nuanced, sophisticated speaker.'

'He's a good politician. He's doing all he can to make sure people know he would govern as a post-partisan moderate.'

'He’s being proactive by taking centrist stances on issues that are important to a lot of people in this country...Obama is doing what he has to do in order to win.'

What tripe.

I'm getting downright fatigued with the unscrupulous manipulation of language to disguise actions by politicians that are entirely self-serving and ineffably stupid.

Let's just speak plainly. The Senator from Illinois has lied. Either he lied when he laid out his stances on public campaign financing, wiretapping, the death penalty, free trade, diplomacy, immunity for telecoms, handguns, the 'surge', and more---or he's lying now.

I have two problems with that.
1.How am I to impress on my teenagers the dishonor brought to their lives by lying when our would-be leaders spew lies like stock in trade?
2.How can I vote for someone who lies, bold-faced and with impunity?

There's another thing I teach my children: when you compete in any venue, do it with honor. Win, but win with honor. Without it, any win will be empty and will do justice to no one. Witness the 'win' to which we've been subjected these last, long eight years. We are all the poorer, even those with lots more in the bank.

Is it too much to ask that our leaders possess an iota of integrity?
Can we not have a win with even the outward perception of honor?