Letters to the Editor

Recently a friend of mine was commiserating with me about the potential loss of funding for a school computer program. I said that I thought a letter to the editor would be a good idea. He stated that "nobody reads letters to the editor." Wrong. They do. He wrote his letter and was inundated with replies.

So, my suggestion, go and do it. I keep trying (edited for the NSA).

To the Editor of **********:

Mr. *****, a retired Army officer I assume, has an important comment in the Sunday *****. In short, he reinforces your prior editorial and concludes that a change of the Army Field Manual to allow “humiliating and degrading treatment” would place us in “clear violation of our duties under the law.” This is a serious matter. It is of overwhelming seriousness. It goes to the very fabric of our Society as described in that time worthy document, the U.S. Constitution. It is a moment of stealth and deceit, signifying everything. But, sadly, it is not new.

As documented by Charles Savage of the Boston Globe, President Bush has issued over 750 “signing statements” in the last five years. What is a signing statement, you might ask? It is a statement attached to a Law (passed by Congress) by the President exempting him from the strictures of the document he has just signed! Did you know a president could do that? I didn’t. As detailed by Elizabeth Drew in the current issue of the New York Review of Books, Mr. Bush issued a signing statement with the McCain amendment making torture illegal indicating that he would “interpret the bill as he wished.” Now we have that interpretation and it is the direct opposite to the intent of the McCain amendment.

We no longer have a President of these United States under the rule of Law. We have a megalomaniacal disaster.