Army Post Road

     Letter-To-The-Editor in today’s Des Moines Register

History lesson

Before they celebrate the great patriot Jack Murtha too much, perhaps the Democrats should remember another great American war hero. Valiant in battle and esteemed for his leadership, he was given high command and admired by his subordinates and superiors alike.

Benedict Arnold is remembered less for his military gallantry than he is for his later actions. According to the logic currently put forth by many Democrats in defense of Murtha, not only does no one who did not serve in the military have the right to condemn Arnold, but his later actions were legitimized by his early service.
— Larry Disney, Pleasant Hill.

     Larry is a former Republican candidate for the Iowa House(?) and the former chair of the Polk County Republican Party.

     As a soldier, and a supporter of the President, I don’t think you really understand how encouraging it is to hear your president say, “shit”. “See the irony is that what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit and it’s over,” President Bush said to Prime Minister Blair. Right on Mr. President, right on.

     Here’s a few letters-to-the-editor that were published in today’s Des Moines Register:

Copperheads ride again

Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican elected president of the United States, was determined to preserve the Union and, to a lesser degree, to abolish slavery. During the first two years of the Civil War, Union forces suffered defeat after defeat, and a growing number of Democrats, including some high-ranking Union officers, felt that the North could not defeat the South and Lincoln was totally inept.

These Democratic leaders and their followers were referred to as Copperheads. They urged the government to negotiate a peace treaty with the Confederacy and allow it to secede from the Union. There was a growing amount of this Copperhead philosophy among the Northern public and media.

In spite of this, Lincoln would not flinch and stayed the course. Lincoln ran for his second term and barely defeated Gen. George McClellan, the Democratic Copperhead whom Lincoln had fired as commander of the Army of the Potomac for failing to take Richmond.

Today, we enjoy living in the United States of America. Most of us rejoice over the fact that Lincoln stayed the course despite growing criticism from fellow citizens and the media.

Is history repeating itself?

— Dudley Dowell, Cumming.

     Not much else I can add to that or this next one.

Yellow ribbons on cars do not equal patriotism

I was at a gas station and was asked if I wanted to buy one of those yellow ribbon magnets for the car. I said “no.” The follow-up question was, “So you don’t support the troops?”

There are a couple things wrong with this question.

First, buying one of these over-used symbols of Iraqi wars does not, by itself, indicate a support of troops, nor does not having one suggest disrespect.

Second, these magnets are made by some company taking advantage of the wars to make a profit. It is commercialism at the bloody expense of the young men and women fighting for American interests (regardless if people accept the reasons for the war).

There are better ways to show patriotism. Write letters to the soldiers and let them know we care; arrange to send care packages. Remind Congress and the president to take care of our soldiers during and after combat. Treasure your liberties that they have fought to preserve.

Most important, vote, because they fight for you to have that right. My humble admiration and thanks go to our brave soldiers.

— Tony Hansen, Des Moines.

     The issue may seem moot to some by this point but regardless of that I’m going to weigh in: the recently pulled Internet video produced by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee was nothing short of pure disgrace and heartless political opportunism. The thought that the coffins of my slain brothers- and sisters-in-arms were used in a political ad is the largest smack in the face to all of our countries servicemembers and veterans and their families imaginable. Consider the reaction if someone were to use the pictures and video of President Kennedy’s coffin on Air Force One or the riderless horse before his funeral caisson. What kind of reaction would come from the Democrats and the Kennedy family if someone, especially a Republican, were to try to make political hay from those somber images of American history? Even when the ad was pulled after protests by a large number of Congressional Republicans and two Democrats (kudos to those two for their honesty in the matter of denouncing the commercial), the DCCC issued no apology, only saying they were going in a different direction with different ads. That sickens me; they unscrupulously try to profit from the concrete symbolism of the flag-draped coffins of these fallen heroes and they don’t even apologize for it? They’re truly lucky none of the coffins were identifiable because every family of these deceased servicemembers ought to be raising such a hellstorm for these Democrats that the forthcoming election should only be a formality of their dismissal.

     Dang. I was hoping the first response to my letter in the Daily Iowan would’ve been from a left-of-the-spectrum lunatic that I could just tee off of and have a little fun with. But, the first published response actually was a thought out and reasoned one, even if he did quote a socialist labor organizer. I’ll pound out a response and let’em have it later today (or tomorrow, we’ll see how early the socializing begins).

     I haven’t found much to write about since Monday. Working and socializing, no true highlights. We met some interesting girls Tuesday and last night. One girl is the daughter of a prior brigade sergeant-major of ours and another girl we met only in passing was the (underage) daughter of the post commanding general. The second interaction was interesting and brief, to put it politically. We also found some new girls to go out on the boat during the weekends with us. That’ll be nice.
     I do want to add a few comments about the new conflagration in the region around Israel. I really don’t see the situation getting better without it getting much worse and by that I mean a broader war in the Middle East involving Syria, Lebanon, Israel and potentially the United States and Iran. I have no doubt the Israelis could handle Syria, Lebanon, and Hizbollah/Hamas on their own but I don’t believe Syria would go down without taking advantage of the United States’ presence in Iraq to spark as widespread a war as they can. I do not see a war involving the US and Israel vs. Syria, Lebanon, and probably Iran as a good development at all.
     Wars against Syria and Iran would be more straightforward in the sense that they have large(-r) state-funded, uniformed militaries that would fight conventionally but who’s to say they wouldn’t copy a page from the playbook used by the Saddam Feydayeen? Throw down their uniforms and fight as guerrillas.
     It’s all speculation in the very early stages of a conflict that may flame-out very quickly too. We’ll have to wait and see.

     It’s like the Del.icio.us for beer. You can create collections of your favorite beers and your favorite places to drink it. It’ll also link you to other members of the site who share the most beers in common with you. The clever name of the site? Coastr. Look at my profile and see if you can find me where I’m drinking and figure out what beer to buy me.

     It’s not even hyperbole folks, it actually happened. The Daily Iowan fired (atleast they have the honesty to come forward and admit to the situation) a columnist of theirs for plaigarizing a report from the Democratic Policy Committee. I’ll just let their, “Oh Shit, We’d Better Hurry Up And Cover Our Asses,” letter speak for itself.

We here at The Daily Iowan recently learned that the July 6 column “Minimum wage no-brainer” was largely plagiarized from a report released June 29 by the Democratic Policy Committee. On behalf of The Daily Iowan staff, I sincerely apologize and deeply regret that such a piece appeared in our newspaper.

Per staff policy, the harshest possible action has been taken against this employee, and John Heineman will no longer work for this publication. We performed an investigation of all his previous work since joining the paper in the fall of 2005. This search revealed no prior cases of plagiarism.

We have treated this situation with the utmost caution and deliberation in hopes that never again will a member of our staff perpetrate this breach of professional ethics.

In light of this episode, the DI has begun discussing ways to prevent the recurrence of plagiarism in our pages. Already, Opinions staff writers are now required to submit a file to their editor detailing through what research and from whom they gathered their story’s information. We are pursuing ways to prevent plagiarism in our other departments.

Every day we strive to produce fair and accurate stories, and we understand that such an infraction can be damaging to our reputation. We nevertheless hope that this incident will not deter people from continuing to read and trust in The Daily Iowan.

- Meghan Sims, editor

“I sincerely apologize and take full responsibility for my mistake. It has been an honor to write for the DI - even though I am ending my tenure under these unfortunate circumstances. I still encourage anyone who has an active opinion on the issues of our time to consider expressing your views through the paper. It is truly a platform that can be used for positive change.”

- John Heineman, former DI columnist

     I will swear to you here and now, people, that my Letter-To-The-Editor that appeared in the DI last week was entirely of my own creation. Who would rant and rave with such style and vocabulary as I?

     Choice meat in the opinion pages of today’s newspapers. In today’s Daily Iowan we find this fine, whacky rant about Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-CT):

Lieberman’s failure

Joe Lieberman (I will not disgrace the office of senator by calling him that) has betrayed his office, his party, and our country. Much like Bush openly admitting treason to the media and the world without fear of reprisal, Lieberman has forsaken his oath of office in favor of a personal power grab.

I have always voted my conscience and will actively campaign against ALL Democrats, should the Democratic Party not do the right thing and publicly condemn Lieberman for his actions and rhetoric.

Taking the steps to plan for his failure then re-emerge as an independent is deplorable. He has made his commitment to the Democratic Party, and that party has always been there for him. Now, when faced with his imminent defeat, he plans to further disgrace himself by abandoning that party in favor of a mad grab to stay in office.

He has reinforced the opinion of the vast majority of Americans who believe it is time for ALL INCUMBENTS to go away and start anew with a real government of, by, and, especially, for the people.

Please take this message to heart, and take it to your party. The Democratic ship is taking on water fast and may soon join the Titanic, where it belongs, if the course is not altered soon.

Mark-Stephen Woodburn
Solon resident

     Comrad Woodburn, you missed your true calling as a Commissar in the Red Army. You would make Comrad Uncle Joe gush with admiration for your demand for loyalty.
     I’ll just skip commenting on the painfully ignorant comment in the first paragraph about President Bush and any treason.

     And from the Press-Citizen:

City needs to change charter

A decision in the Charter Amendments case has been filed at the courthouse by Judge Thomas. This decision is in favor of the plaintiffs and against Iowa City. If the city appeals the decision, the argument will go all the way to the state Supreme Court for final determination.

However, if the city does not appeal, then the City Council is obligated by the decision to place on the ballot the three proposed amendments to the City Charter that were petitioned by over 1,600 qualified voters of Iowa City.

Briefly, these amendments would create a retention election for the chief of police and the city manager, create a permanent Police Citizens Review Board with the power of subpoena and instruct the police to make the investigation and arrest of personal use amounts of marijuana a low priority. [Emphasis mine]

Carol deProsse
Lone Tree

     Yep, Carol deProsse wants Iowa City to become that town. That town that quite unsubtly says, “Hey kids! drugs are ok! As long as you don’t smoke pot standing in the middle of the intersection of Clinton and Washington, we’re cool, it’s no big deal.” Ms deProsse wants Iowa City to be that town that thumbs its nose, flicks its chin, and every othe manner of defiant gesture at the Legislature and says, “Hey man, F- YOU! We do what we want around here. You can take your state laws and STUFF’EM!” She wants Iowa City to be that town. And by the way, what does Ms deProsse care about the Iowa City Charter? SHE LIVES IN LONE TREE!

     Peanut Butter Jelly Time. It’s hilarious. Just watch it.

Clearly, the reason for dancing is to show off how good we are at bipedalism. In your face, kangaroos!

     Anything else need to be said? Found it in Megan’s blog, From The Archives in this post.

     Did the NY Times forget itself? Doesn’t it know it’s not supposed to publish articles showing the economy is in a good place? Did they forget they can’t publish articles showing Bush Administration policy has worked out for the better? What happened that they let an article about rising tax revenues and shrinking budget deficits get published?
     Let me share a few choice, tasty morsels from the article with you:

An unexpectedly steep rise in tax revenues from corporations and the wealthy is driving down the projected budget deficit this year, even though spending has climbed sharply because of the war in Iraq and the cost of hurricane relief.

     Hold on, is that right? The times is telling us that even though taxes were cut, and according to them cut the deepest for the rich, tax revenues are rising? Not only that, but much of the increase is coming from big business and the wealthy? I think I need to see that again to be sure.

An unexpectedly steep rise in tax revenues from corporations and the wealthy is driving down the projected budget deficit this year, even though spending has climbed sharply because of the war in Iraq and the cost of hurricane relief.

     Yep, it looks like I read that right. Let’s see what else is says:

Tax revenues are climbing twice as fast as the administration predicted in February, so fast that the budget deficit could actually decline this year.

     There’s going to be much wallowing and gnashing of teeth and tearing of clothes after this coming from liberals. Deficits might actually go down this year when all the government is doing is giving gilded swimming pools to the rich and handing out price gouging licenses to Big Oil?

     Let’s look a little further into the article:

Corporate tax payments are expected to exceed $300 billion, up from $131 billion three years ago. The other big increase is an extraordinary jump in individual taxes that were not withheld from paychecks, usually a reflection of taxes on investment income and executive bonuses.

     Hang on a tick, let’s stop and catch our breath here. Is the New York Times really reporting that three and five years after tax cuts were passed, tax cuts that they helped to tell the whole country and world would cause the lower half of society to live in our 21st Century-version of the Irish Potato Famine and the upper half of society to be perpetually stuck in the 1999 party, that revenues from corporate taxes and dividend and capital gains taxes has gone up? The tax cuts that were supposed to finance Bill Gates’ aquisition of Lichtenstein has actually caused the rich in America to pay a net increase in taxes? Be still my beating conservative heart, I’m not sure I can handle this. All of this almost makes me want to go out and shoot a gun and kick a hippie or something.