My LTTE was published today! Thank you, DUers who helped

[CTyankee]

inform me so I could write the letter! DU is an incredible "search engine" all on its own. I can always draw on a wealth of information, originality and wonderful humor.

Here is the letter:

To the Editor:

It is interesting to see the strained defense of President Bush's disastrous war and his further attempts to weaken the U.S. Constitution, as expressed in a recent spate of letters to the Register. However, it is not surprising to see such Repubican smoke and mirrors in a week where the carnage in Iraq took 200 lives and brought the number of U.S. service members' casualties to 2,189. The week was also highlighted by the spectacle of Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill trying frantically to disassociate themselves from their erstwhile friend and supporter, Jack Abramoff, and giving the "bum's rush" to the disgraced former House majority leader, Tom DeLay (R-TX).

One letter writer couldn't resist the old standby of Republican talking points: blame Bill Clinton for terrorism and 9/11. In fact, of course, President Clinton was aggressively pursuing terrorists, particularly Osama Bin Laden, throughout his administration. As a matter of record, the last indictments and convictions of foreign terrorists in the U.S. happened under the Clinton presidency. Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, along with their cohorts, are now serving 240 year sentences each for their role in the March 1994 World Trade Center bombing.

We still await similar accomplishments from George W. Bush.

[Libby2]

1. Very well done!

Thanks for sharing it with us.

[CrazyOrangeCat]

2. Nicely done!

[Catch22Dem]

3. Excellent letter

Neither crass nor inaccurate. Very well written. Congrats on getting it published. Yay you! :D

[Olney Blue]

4. Good job!

:yourock:

Nothing like a CTYankee to put the ball in the chimp's court!!!!

[Jane Austin]

5. Great letter!

Congratulations.

[xchrom]

6. you RRROCK!

:yourock:

[Jade Fox]

7. Wow. That is very good.

Restrained, concise and to the point, but very hard-hitting.

A plus in LTTE writing, CTyankee!

[spooky3]

8. Fine work!

[ananda]

9. Great letter, and..

.. it's 2418 Americans dead now.

[CTyankee]

11. oh god, that many!

I got that number actually from a Maureen Dowd column. The week in question was week before last so the letter seems a bit out of date, given the whole Alito thingie this past week. Our paper doesn't exactly jump on letters when they are timely! I wrote it last Sunday, having seen the letters I was responding to on Saturday and then going on DU to ask for some assistance on the whole "blame Clinton for 9/11 thing" and got this amazing fact about the two men who were convicted in the first WTC bombing. What a surprise and NOBODY is pointing this out!

DU is a jewel for this kind of stuff. I love doing research on topics that really interest me so it is a joy writing letters like this. But I want my stuff to be accurate.

I always said I aspired be a crank once I retired, and now I am one!

[Viva_La_Revolution]

10. We still await similar accomplishments from George W. Bush.

[progressoid]

12. K&R

[gratuitous]

13. {Crack!} It's a long fly ball, back, back, back . . .

Gone! Home run!

[OneTwentyoNine]

14. And... the LAST balanced budget with money in the bank...

happened under the Clinton Presidency. We'll NEVER see a similar accomplisment under ANY Bush in the WH.

[CTyankee]

17. god, you' re right!

Sad, but people just don't remember and I blame them for getting this crew in office.I am so mad that anything I can do, including writing letters to the editor, I will do. I just can't sit still and let this pass unnoticed. These letters to the editor were so full of crap I had to narrow down my response considerably. Otherwise, the letter would have taken all of the space on the editorial page! Since that couldn't be, I decided to concentrate on just one or two areas.Luckily, I live in New Haven, a very progressive small city with Yale University, so I am not alone.

[Rebellious Republican]

15. Spot on CTyankee, very well crafted.

:applause:

[sendero]

16. Sweet...

... great job!