You nailed them: Mr. Gonzalez, If you continue writing articles that paint a less than favorable picture of the sitting president, you will make an enemy of not just a man, but a whole party, and a wealthy, powerful Texas family. You live in Texas, correct? Maybe it will be in your best interests to keep quiet; leave this topic alone.
Just kidding! What a great article! ("Amateur Hour," by John Gonzalez, March 3.) Kudos to Mike Murphy for having the presence of mind to record his phone conversations (a true Republican in that sense, right?) and not to be intimidated by phoned-in threats.
When I got to the part of the article where you called Forti back and confronted him, I was laughing so hard. You really nailed him!
Joshua Danowitz
New York City
Poor Texas: If Murphy had an IQ higher than a box of rocks, he wouldn't be a Republican in the first place. This thoroughly despicable party betrays everything it touches; its only appeal is to ignorance and bigotry. Poor Texas, so close to Bush and Rove, so far from decent politics.
Dorothy Conley
Via e-mail
Every vote counts? Yeah, right: What a great article about Mark Murphy. Keep up the good work exposing the manipulation of democracy as we know it! Someday, all our votes will count again. Unfortunately, just not soon enough.
Jim Schoppman
St. Louis, Missouri
Killing their own: What a truly wonderful story. I want to donate to his campaign. I used to be a Republican in Orange County, but after witnessing the Bush/Reagan extravaganza, I felt like the Republican Conventions (and behavior) were eerily similar to the Nuremberg rallies of a distant time. Now it seems as if my mental observation was correct; Republicans are not Americans, they are Nazis who kill their own and allow no dissent. I am now a Green, but if more people like Murphy would run, I would gratefully return to the party.
Stephanie Georgieff
Santa Ana, California
Hitler's Jews
Tenacious scholar: This is a fascinating article ("In the Wolf's Mouth," by Glenna Whitley, February 26). Thank you! I found it enlightening and informative. I also found the fact that Mr. Riggs persevered in spite of his early childhood learning difficulties inspirational in itself. I look forward to the opportunity to read his books and to view the film. Kudos to Glenna Whitley for presenting this story to us!
Angela Ghoreishi
Memphis, Tennessee
All kinds of questions: My question is, How valid is this story? Does this pose a threat to any further investigations of brutality toward Jews? Does this impact the culture of Jews by splitting them apart and disgracing their families? I have a tendency to believe your paper, because it is reputable. The massive murdering of Jews--coupled with the knowledge that some Jews decided to join Hitler's band--leaves me with a lot of wonderment, confusion and morbid thinking.
Abraham Workman
Dallas
Mayor Scrub-Scrub
The world outside your front door: I have been reading about Laura Miller and the city of Dallas, and I don't understand the small-mindedness with which she runs the city ("Lysol Miller," by Jim Schutze, March 4). It seems that the mayor and the city council never step outside their front doors. Please go somewhere and see how life goes in other cities. I have been all over the world and taken public transportation in L.A., Manhattan, San Francisco, Paris, Munich and Amsterdam, just to name a few, and it seems that in most of those places thousands of people use public transportation and it is very efficient and gets you where you're going in minutes, not hours. The mayor and all city decision-makers should have to take public transportation for one month to get to and from work to see how it just doesn't work. Today Laura Miller is quoted as saying that news boxes are trash; everywhere I have ever been, small or large, there are news boxes on the street.
The potholed streets are what make the city look poor. There is no thinking to the future here; it seems to be a completely foreign thought process. Dallas is not a small town but is being run like one. Wake up, or it will be too late and too overwhelming and too expensive to fix anything.
Buddy Head
Dallas
Sinking Ship
Massive oil spill: Thanks, Josh Harkinson, for writing such an in-depth report on all of the shortcomings and bureaucracy of the ABS and similar classification societies ("Shipshape?" February 12.) Please keep us up to date on what happens with the upcoming trial against ABS.
Tami Peters
Dallas