The Oregonian responded to my letter to the editor!

[gratuitous]

Holy smokes! The "letters editor" for the Oregonian did a follow-up to the letter I wrote the editor, asking for confirmation of my address, which I supplied in a voice mail. I laughingly said that they weren't seriously going to print it! For those of you who missed it, my letter was as follows:

To the Editor:

It was nice to see that the Oregonian has finally cottoned on to some of the tactics of the rabid right, even as it adopts them. ("The low bar for Guantanamo", June 24, 2005 editorial.) The editorial repeatedly references Sen. Dick Durbin's remarks as "stupid" or "foolish," but fails to quote Durbin at all as an example of this alleged stupidity or foolishness.

Sen. Durbin quoted a passage from an FBI report on its investigation of the conditions at the Guantanamo Bay prison opened, operated and maintained by the Bush administration. After noting some of the egregious treatment of the prisoners there, Sen. Durbin opined that if someone came across this description without any other context, a reader might conclude that these persons were being incarcerated by some mad regime -- certainly not the United States. In fact, these prisoners are being held by our government in our name, and their mistreatment is being meted out and paid for with our tax dollars.

It's certainly shameful to know that the United States had joined the despicable mad regimes of the 20th century in maltreating persons, holding them without charge or due process, and subjecting them to torture. I fail to see what is "stupid" or "foolish" about objecting to this. Unless, of course, the Oregonian is siding with people who think that chaining prisoners to the floor until they piss and shit themselves, or tear out their hair in their extremity, is in keeping with our nation's image and traditions.

I look forward to your further explanation.

gratuitous

[Oreo]

1. They're coming for you

why dya think they wanted your address ;)

[gratuitous]

2. Oops, hadn't thought of that

Like my address is a total secret from the authoritays. I'll find out soon enough when I board a plane at an international airport later this week.

[ailsagirl]

3. Good for you-- let's hope you see it in your newspaper soon

[gratuitous]

4. Genuine gratuitous

Vanity bump.

[Broken_Hero]

5. Good reply, insightful....

They did the same thing with Deans remarks about RW being mostly white christian males thing, they sping it around to make it into an attack, good job on the letter, proud of ya...:)