We Voted With the Weekly

I salute the Weekly for having the integrity to endorse Howard Dean for the Democratic primary [Endorsements, Feb. 26-March 3]. While so many in the media jumped on the bandwagon to say that Howard Dean is unelectable, you held your ground and encouraged Democrats to vote for him on principle, despite the fact that his official campaign has ended.

I think it is safe to say that the majority of the wounds to the Dean campaign were not self-inflicted. Dean suffered from a brutal combined assault from Kerry, Gephart, and Lieberman. Even more damaging than this was the well documented bias against him from the major media outlets. The fatal blow was the blatant misrepresentation and subsequent overplaying of a portion of Dean’s speech after losing the Iowa caucus. ABC later apologized for this unfair treatment but it was buried in the back pages.

The combined efforts of callous politicians and biased journalists succeeded not only in defeating the dreams of Howard Dean but the dreams of millions of Americans who felt that they finally had a spokesman they could believe in.

A Kerry win already looked inevitable. For the primary, however, I preferred to vote for the one candidate that truly represented our best interests.

David Hansen | Carmel

Killing and Dying for The Big Corporations

“War is just a racket.” That’s Major Gen. Smedley Butler, US Marine Corps, talking, not some sheltered college professor…no indeed. Awarded two Medals of Honor, Major General Butler, as he says, “…spent thirty-three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country’s most agile military force, the Marine Corps.” He served in all commissioned ranks from second lieutenant to major general. “And during that time I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for big business, for Wall Street and for the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.

“A racket is best described,” says Major General Butler, “as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses. I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.

“I believe in adequate defense at the coastline, and nothing else. If a nation comes here to fight, then we’ll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag.

“Looking back I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate a racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.”

I like that…it’s not our esteemed Noam Chomsky, or Mahatma Gandhi, it’s just a fellow who knows what he’s talking about.

Araby Colton | Carmel Valley

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The Weekly enjoys publishing letters about articles that appear in these pages, about issues of local importance, or about local readers’ concerns on almost any topic.