I Get Published (Again)

I used to get irritated about having wingnuts with my morning tea and toast. Then, I realized it's nice to have something to riff off of. I have sympathy for the writer. He's an older citizen as I've gleaned from some of his other letters. I'm sure he is being brainwashed by the Right Wing Propaganda Machine. I do what I can to help, though. So, here is the letter which may well have caused an Earl Grey spit-take.

I agree with Mr. Obama when he states the GOP-led House is doing nothing. Well, that is great. They are, in reality, doing us a great favor, rather than wasting and throwing away our hard-earned tax money as Obama and his family are doing. Obama and his administration are destroying this country.

The Republicans, on the other hand, know what they are doing in support of the USA and “We the People.” Hooray for the GOP. Keep it up until that character gets out of office. As long as he is in office, we are on the road to bankruptcy.

P.S. Be smart and vote for Elise Stefanik in November. We need young people like her in Congress.

And my response:

I see in Sunday’s Post-Star there was an “Obama is destroying our country” letter. It was ironic that on the front page that day was an article, “What keeps the U.S. on top?” Included in the piece was the fact that June was the fifth month in a row of “200,000 plus job gains” for the first such stretch in 15 years (from the Clinton years by my count). Also, that “the U.S. economy is expected to grow at a healthy 3 percent pace the rest of the year.” No good news for Obama haters.

Even though a Democrat and liberal, I’m still quite happy to see the stock markets do well. My investments are dear to me, and I’m more than satisfied with the 145 percent increase that has taken place in the S&P since Obama took office. I like to contrast that with the 37 percent drop that occurred in that same market during the former administration when I go to vote. Was Elise Stefanik involved in economic policy in any way with her work there?

I believe I’ll ignore the letter writer’s advice and support Aaron Woolf. The Republican wrecking crew in Congress seems to be well staffed already. Don’t believe they need additional members to hold meaningless votes to repeal the ACA or investigate Benghazi for the umpteenth time.

And a note to Al Scoonzarielli: please never stop writing to the editor!

Al is someone whom I've adopted as my role model in editor-letter writing. Been smiling all day because he had one today that ran right before mine.

Congrats to Mr. Tingley on his recent award, thanks to the charming Mrs. Merrill for her kind comments, and thanks to Mr. Vanderwarker for taking it easy on me while correcting me for mislabeling Condi Rice as defense secretary. Many folks, me probably, wouldn’t necessarily have been so gentlemanly.

This, however, opens a door. Ms. Rice was never even questioned about being warned about bin Laden in August of 2001 and doing nothing. Hillary Clinton seems to be being held to a different standard, as it would seem anyone connected to Barack Obama is. Why do you suppose this is? Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush and others were reviled but not like this. What is it about Obama that seems to bring forth such a forceful, negative reaction from so many way before he even got elected? Can anyone think of one thing that might differentiate this guy from our other presidents? Hmmm? Anything come to mind?

And John Siebrecht, try reading the paper before assuming you know what’s in it. You decided that the “liberal” Post-Star only reviewed George Clooney’s movie, him being a liberal darling, while ignoring Mark Wahlberg’s latest. Your reasoning was that the libs love Clooney but Marky Mark’s movie — his name back in his rapper/underwear model day — “Lone Survivor,” concerned terrorism, a decidedly more patriotic theme than anything Clooney could possibly offer so, of course, the “liberal press” declined coverage. Had John read the review of Clooney’s “Monuments Men,” he’d’ve seen that it was about a group of heroic men who thwarted a Nazi scheme, always a patriotic endeavor, and they didn’t give the movie a great review. And a few pages in was the review of “Lone Survivor” with Hollywood darling Marky Mark, and they loved it.

I'm still working on becoming as polite and as gentlemanly (even if he denies it) as Al is. Much as I like throwing a blog post up here now and then, it doesn't get quite the eyeballs that the Post Star does. It's not the NY Times, but it does have a circulation of around 35,000. And it's not the preaching to the converted that posting and commenting online is.

It's also quite likely that no one from my district in NY is going to come here and then go out and vote for Aaron Woolf based on my pearls of wisdom. Maybe my gentle ribbing of Elise Stefanik in the local paper will have some effect, though.