Firing Back
In response to the Inbox letters by Tom Louderback and Joe Elder (LEO Weekly, June 12): Hey, Tom Louderback, are we reading the same page here in the June 12 issue with the attack of Kentucky’s own Rand Paul? That’s what I was talking about — how libs attack the right wing. To Michael Gregoire, Rand Paul actually said it in that speech at New Hampshire. (The GOP didn’t need to dilute their messages to bring in the younger voters). Maybe Michael was mad at Rand Paul for going after the minority votes, not just whites only. To Joe Elder, who said I was from a different planet, I said you had to watch all news stations to find the truth, not just one station. I listen to Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh with an open mind. It’s where I found out about the Benghazi scandal that had happened on Sept. 11, 2012, while some of the media was blaming it on a YouTube video. The libs do tell people that the rights are money-soaked, greedy bigots, which is not true. The rights are successful independent people who don’t need the government’s help to live the American Dream!
Jacob Schagene, East End
Ditch Mitch
The Republican Party, under the leadership of its most powerful politician, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, is in the process of committing political suicide. Just playing the role of obstructionists and lacking the ability to appeal significantly to African-Americans, Latinos, the LGBT community, women, youths, seniors, the middle class and poor, the GOP could become a minority party for decades to come.
Since 2010, when Sen. McConnell introduced the “make Obama a one-term president” strategy, McConnell has expediently embraced radical Tea Party policies and ideas. For two years preceding the 2012 presidential election, Fox News, ultra-conservative newspapers, conservative talk radio and Republican politicians falsely proclaimed over and over every day how terrible a president Barack Obama was. GOP demonizing of Obama and refusing to work with him didn’t stop our president from being re-elected. Voters were not fooled by Republican propaganda, obfuscation and congressional obstruction.
Mitch McConnell and the Republican Party could write the book they are living out: “The Power of Negative Thinking.” No political party should want or choose to be a “Party of No.” The best thing that could happen for the GOP and America would be for McConnell to go down in defeat when he runs for his sixth Senate term in 2014. He is a master strategist, champion fundraiser, proud obstructionist — tough to beat. But hopefully, Democrats will come up with a viable candidate, and voters will finally see the light and send McConnell into retirement. He has been in the Senate far too long.
Paul L. Whiteley Sr., St. Matthews
Kill ’em with Confetti
President Obama’s decision to arm the rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad places him in the kind of pickle that is familiar to those who have contemplated bestowing serious firepower on groups of dubious provenance in regions of the world traditionally hostile to the U.S.: How do we know the weapons we provide won’t fall into the hands of our enemies, particularly Al-qaeda? Thankfully, the gun manufacturers we rely on for our freedom may have already solved this problem. For years, gun manufacturers have been marketing brightly colored, festive weapons to women and children. Rifles, shotguns and handguns in neon and pastels are readily available for purchase. Combine these high-visibility arms with Al-qaeda’s penchant for videotaping its atrocities, and you’ve got yourself a tracking system.
So if five years from now, an Al-qaeda terrorist executes an Israeli soldier with a bright pink Hello Kitty M4 carbine and posts a video on YouTube, we will know that weapon fell into the wrong hands. And we needn’t stop with small arms. Our anti-tank weapons can be adapted to shoot streamers and confetti. Claymore mines can riddle the enemy with glitter as well as deadly shrapnel. These inexpensive modifications can provide Obama with the transparency and accountability he is powerless to promise us. If we are unable to stop ourselves from arming dangerous people and are unwilling to cease involving ourselves in ground wars in the Middle East, we might as well have some fun with it.
Brian Smith, Germantown
