Waiting for justiceOh, what a shame for the United States to cut off funding for UNESCO for granting full membership to Palestine. Is the Congress looking at campaign contributions and the Electoral College or justice?
How could the Palestinians continue to wait for justice from the U.S. when our Middle East policy always has to be sanctioned in the Israeli Knesset? How could we continue to negotiate when the land in dispute is being devoured by the stronger party with the blessings of the most powerful nation on earth?
Unless our government becomes an honest broker, the Palestinians have no choice but to seek statehood through the United Nations. President Obama, I am sure, knows the destructive power of the "settlements" in the peace process.
BRAIMA DABO
Winston-Salem
Objectivity
During the past several months, there have been no fewer than 11 articles written by Bertrand Gutierrez concerning the sad plight of the area's "undocumented" and "unafraid" Hispanic students and their efforts to push for the enactment of the controversial DREAM (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors) Act. Gutierrez, while obviously very sympathetic to the cause of the "Dreamers," did manage to maintain a modicum of objectivity in his reporting. However, this was definitely not the case in his coverage of a rally held recently by undocumented students at Forsyth Technical Community College ("Young immigrants rally for rights," Oct. 25).
Two-thirds into his column, Gutierrez dropped any semblance of objectivity and began to express a blatantly personal opinion: "But the rally was about more than money (i.e., the fact that undocumented students must pay out-of-state college tuition rates). It was about this immigrant generation's burgeoning effort to find a place in society. It was about respect — the simple notion that people without the nine digits that come with a Social Security card or without the proper papers to be in the U.S. are just as worthy as any other human."
As a professional newsperson, Gutierrez knows (or should know) that his type of subjective comment belongs on the editorial page, and not as a part of a (supposedly) factual account of a news event.
JACK B. LUCAS
Winston-Salem
The paragraph reflected comments by participants, and should have been attributed to them.
— Carol Hanner, Journal managing editor
Corporations
A corporation is a legal document, not a person. It's created by lawyers, not by God. They shape the law to benefit their clients. Corporatists and large investors are the prime beneficiaries, not the public. Corporations are not moral institutions. They're money machines. They must profit or perish. It doesn't matter whether their products benefit the consumer or kill him. For a century, tobacco companies have been addicting and killing millions without danger of executive prosecution. One can sue the corporation, but not the CEO. He's legally protected as a corporate employee. His decisions must be legal. Morality is optional.
God grants humans a limited life span. Lawyers grant corporations immortality. They live and grow in power for generations. GE, Ronald Reagan's sponsor, had the money and political clout to make him governor, president and a conservative icon. Reagan was an excellent "investment." GE got billions in war contracts.
Later, two CEOs, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, consumed Reagan's massive military inventory in two protracted, tragic wars. The military-industrial complex is eager to negotiate new lucrative contracts. From a corporate perspective, war, like greed, is good. GE's current CEO, Jeffrey R. Immelt, advises President Obama.
Five conservative Supreme Court justices declared money to be "speech." This neutralizes voters, enabling corporations to select and elect future presidents. The tea party will determine which CEO the "Corporate Party" nominates for president.
The light from the "city on a hill" flickers dimly now. Megacorporate CEOs prefer manipulating from the shadows.
JOSEPH J. CUTRI
Winston-Salem
Hmmm, funny things going on this am. Page disappears and re appears while Bob's two comments are now in invisible ink.
ReplyDeleteThe disappearing posts are a problem on this forum. It's also one of the reasons I so seldom contribute. The other is that I lack the intellectual fire power of Bob, Whitewall, OT, Stab, Author and even sometimes Mr. Bucky.
ReplyDeleteI guess we get what we pay for though.The site is free. I doubt any of us would pay to mingle here.
lol "I would never join a club that would have me as a member" Groucho. I deleted the page erroneously.
ReplyDeleteI can trash a whole page,:), but not individual posts.
ReplyDeletewordly...intellectual firepower is not needed really. Most of us prove that from time to time. Come ahead on and join.
ReplyDeletethere's a little trash can by the date and time stamp and it only shows up on your own posts.
ReplyDeleteBob....it is good to know I wasn't just imagining things.
ReplyDeleteyou probably are, just not that. :)
ReplyDeleteyou see yesterday I started the day with a delete that I re-wrote and posted. I think the mulititude of deletes that followed were a bluff so this morning I let it be known that I control the Aces. Mess with me and I'll delete your whole day, :)
ReplyDeleteLet me get my calendar out........
ReplyDelete@Bob's 0848hrs: I was wondering if deleting posts could be done on your side of the fence. I guess that answers my question.
ReplyDeleteLet the record reflect that nobody has ever deleted any of my posts. They wouldn't dare.
ReplyDeleteFor all you yahoos out there that want them to be deleted. Grow-up. I actually throttle my posts back at times.
Wordly, get in the game. Nobody knows everything, and if someone claims that they do, then they are a nitwit and/or an idiot. That's why I call Rush an idiot as often as I can.
Rush, you're an idiot.
¡Grácias, Bucky!
ReplyDeleteDr Cutri needs an answer to yet another one of his "historical summaries". Lets see, try this for an answer.."Fair share" as a concept is boiled down to this: the half of the population that pays no Federal taxes is being unfairly burdened by the half of the population that does not pay "its fair share". No, that's tax policy. Maybe corporations are "greedy"? No can't be. He said they are just registered legal documents and not a person. How can a legal document be greedy? Maybe as long as Government is envolved in every aspect of our lives, it only makes sense that every aspect has to have a lobbyist for each aspect simply for protection if nothing else? After all, you can't run a whore house without whores.
ReplyDeletehmm, Herman Cain v Gloria Allred, this should be fun, just ask Tiger Woods, Anthony Weiner, or Mark Hurd.
ReplyDeleteThis North Dakota Oil Boomtown Has Also Seen A Surge In STDs And Crime
ReplyDeleteGood afternoon folks!
ReplyDeleteLTE 1: The US asked that UNESCO hold off recognition of Palestine, but UNESCO went ahead and did it anyway. The US actually does want to be an honest broker, which is why it is not rushing a Palestine statehood into being without assurances of a stable ME afterwards.
LTE 2: A fair question concerning editorializing within the article followed by a reasonable explanation by Ms. Hanners. These articles have generated by far the most comments on the Journal site, so they must matter a great deal to the local populace. That's probably why there are so many of them.
LTE 3: A good summary of the differences between a person and a coporation by Dr. Cutri. I would think anyone who is incorporated should be a bit alarmed over the comingling of corp with person, because if the difference becomes too blurred, it destroys the very reason for incorporating in the first place: liability protection. Political contributions should be limited to individuals only. Although MS's amendment declaring life starts at conception is way over the top, it sounds like there needs to be an amendment stating a person who is born is the only one with recognized constitutional rights and not legal documents filed with a state.
Ms. Hanner's explanation is reasonable, but not timely. She only provided the explanation when called on it. Kind of like offering to give back the the money you stole when you are caught.
ReplyDeleteEditors do not generally read the paper AFTER it is published. They're already working frantically on the next issue, so Ms Hanner, who is an excellent managing editor, by the way, probably was unaware of the problem until called on it.
ReplyDeleteAlso keep in mind that the paper is now copyedited in Richmond. Local editors would have caught the mistake right away.
It would probably help to know something about the subject before commenting on it, but that certainly doesn't stop some people around here.
Oh boy, here we go. You just had to know that Gloria Allred was lurking behind curtain #4. Got to love her line about Cain offering her client his idea of a stimulus package.
ReplyDeleteI said months ago that this would be the most entertaining contest in many moons. The GOP is raining fools. Who's next?
The Israelis are doing us no favors in the court of world opinion, but they have carte blanche to do pretty much whatever they want. It's frustrating, to say the least.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theonion.com/articles/huntsman-quietly-relieved-to-be-polling-poorly-amo,26506/
ReplyDelete"Huntsman" on the GOP base:
"They're terrifying. We're talking about people who blame the unemployed for their own predicament and literally applaud the idea of letting those who don't have health insurance die. What would it say about me if they gravitated toward me personally or approved of my political principles?"
To call them savages would be to insult real savages.
ReplyDeleteAs we liked to say in the Navy, these people are whale shit, and you know where that ends up.
Good evening, folks!
ReplyDeleteWordly, please post as often as you like. Your comments are as worthy as any.
It appears that the Palestinians seek statehood via bombs, kidnapping, and Katyushka and RPG-7 rockets. The world ignores their terrorism while decrying the Israeli response. The Israelis know something about genocidal ideologies.
Unfortunately, the Israelis inflame matters with their settlements, from which they should withdraw. However, defensible borders for Israel should be part of the overall peace process, as should statehood for the Palestinians, minus the Little Kates and RPG's.
LTE2: I daresay the reporter did indeed lack objectivity. Her response to the LTE notwithstanding, I suspect that the editor gave him a bit of schooling about his reporting.
LTE3: Well well, Dr. Cutri weighs in with his antibusiness ideology, after having earned a comfortable income from payments from insurance corporations. We have a White House and Administration infested with union hacks and stooges, ditto the Senate. But, it's terrible that organizations composed of people might actually band together to express political opinions. Just as unions have done for years, disregarding campaign funding laws. Now, organizations can do that, but unions and Cutri don't like level playing fields. Neither does the press, as CU dilutes the media's king-making power.
There is some danger in corporate involvement, as some of the people who make up corporations are foreigners. But, if you're really worried about that, check out the contributions to President Obama's 2008 campaign. A lot were odd dollar and cent amounts. That is because the exchange rate turn even foreign currency amounts into odd dollar and cent numbers. You didn't think President Obama's $600 campaign fund came just from within our borders, do you?
OT, fair comment about editors not reading articles after publication. Also good point about local editors being more likely to catch these errors. I am certain Ms. Hanner is an excellent editor. Bottom line, however, is that this substantial error was missed before the publication. Better to acknowledge late than never, but better yet to catch these flaws before publication.
ReplyDeleteBo, Carol is the managing editor, so doesn't really see much of anything...her time is spent on the editorial committee, deciding what is to be covered, and, to a greater extent, refereeing bouts between a very highly motivated group of journalists, all of whom want their stories on the front page.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, once the stories are written, they go off to Richmond, where the editors have little local knowledge, and there is little opportunity to change them once they come back. This is not restricted to the Journal. Most dailies across the country are in the same boat, thanks to the internet, and the cheapskates who love to criticize but don't want to pay their fair share of the extremely high cost of publishing a daily newspaper.
The recent change to online subscriptions is an attempt to, among other things, bring editing back home. It was triggered a few months ago by the New York "Times", which began charging for local content. It amuses me that so-called "conservatives" think that the NYT is some kind of "liberal" outfit. No newspaper in the world puts more effort into the accuracy of their reporting. If you don't like what they write, that is just your own bias at work.
If you buy the far less accurate efforts of the Wall Street "Journal", which has been forced on more than one occasion to print retractions to phony articles, that also reflects your bias.
Yeah....yeah....the Times was real accurate in its reporting of McCain's alleged love affair too.
ReplyDeleteRush you wouldn't know the truth if it hit you up side the head!