Columbia Disaster Stirs Bush-Despising Letters to SF Chronicle (They Sound Like DUmmy Rantings)

Media Research Center ^ | February 5, 2003 | Brent Baker

[PJ-Comix]

Is the San Francisco area part of the United States or has it joined France? After running a bunch of very far-left, America-hating and Bush-despising letters on Sunday and Monday commenting on the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, the San Francisco Chronicle's editorial page editor, John Diaz, acknowledged “the cynical, even hateful, tone of many of the letters.” But, he amazingly reported, “the outtakes were considerably harsher and more jaded than the selection we printed.”

     Even “harsher”? Wow. The letters he ran included one which declared: “I fear that the illegitimate Bush administration will use this tragedy just as they cynically have used 9/11. They have manipulated us into war with Iraq.” Another asserted that with Bush in office “Washington is awash with evil.” And one woman spewed this venom: “Throughout the Biblical Scriptures, God has often acted like a supernatural terrorist, unleashing unexplained calamities against enemies. Could it be that God is trying to send a strong message with this latest tragedy to the lying, two-faced hypocrites in the White House?”

     In OpinionJournal.com's Best of the Web column (www.opinionjournal.com/best), James Taranto has highlighted a couple of the wackiest letters and Diaz's realization of their extremism.

     Here are the wackier letters run by the San Francisco Chronicle:

     -- Published on February 2:

MISSION TOO FAR

Editor -- The loss of the space shuttle is indeed tragic. This was the mission too far. These vehicles just can't tolerate 20-plus years of extreme stress. I fear that the illegitimate Bush administration will use this tragedy just as they cynically have used 9/11. They have manipulated us into war with Iraq. What's next? Have they no shame, no honor?

PAUL H. TAYLOR
San Francisco

     For all of the February 2 letters:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/02/02
/ED312.DTL

     -- Published on February 3:

WATCH OUT

Editor -- Another tragedy, another day of mourning.

When the space shuttle Challenger blew up, I cried. With Columbia blowing up, I wonder, instead, of the timing regarding Bush's war schedule, and I wonder about the first flight to carry an Israeli. I know, just pure coincidence.

Cynical? You bet. Cold and heartless? After two years of false terrorist warnings, why not? The White House does not have an exclusive right to speculate outside the box.

Facts will not interfere with President Bush making political hay out of this, just as he did with 9/11. Washington is awash with evil. Watch and listen to the administration's responses, especially Karl Rove.

GARY HUYGEN
Petaluma

GOD'S PLAN

Editor -- I was wondering if anyone ever considered that God might just well be a kind of supernatural terrorist, intervening in things such as the space shuttle exploding over Texas, President Bush's home state.

Throughout the Biblical Scriptures, God has often acted like a supernatural terrorist, unleashing unexplained calamities against enemies. Could it be that God is trying to send a strong message with this latest tragedy to the lying, two-faced hypocrites in the White House? Is Bush going to declare war on God?

CHERYL MERRILL
San Francisco

     For all of the February 3 letters: 
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/02/03/ED112522.DTL

     In a February 4 column titled, “About those letters...,” Chronicle editorial page editor John Diaz admitted the letters were a bit “startling.” An excerpt:

Several readers have called or written to complain about the selection of letters we have printed about the space shuttle Columbia tragedy.

Where, they asked, was the universal outpouring of grief for the seven brave astronauts and their families? Why were so many of the letters tinged with gratuitous bitterness toward President Bush or otherwise infused with cynicism or conspiracy theories?

Frankly, my colleagues and I were asking the same questions Saturday as we sorted through the several dozen e-mails and faxes that came in after the disastrous breakup of the shuttle on its final descent home.

It's always perilous to try to make any generalizations out of the composition of letters sent to a newspaper. They are not necessarily a representative sampling of the readership, especially when they are arriving on a sunny Saturday morning in early February.

Still, two things struck me about the first waves of letters. One, they were coming in relatively small numbers for a news event of this magnitude, even taking the weekend into account....

Even more startling was the cynical, even hateful, tone of many of the letters. The outtakes were considerably harsher and more jaded than the selection we printed.

One letter writer flat-out accused the government of a secret plot to "sabotage the mission to direct future finances away from NASA to further the military industrial complex." A recurring theme was resentment that Bush would somehow exploit the tragedy for political gain.

One letter speculated that Palestinians would be "dancing in the streets" upon hearing of the deaths of the U.S. and Israeli astronauts. Another wondered why television was showing "so much empathy" for the deaths of agents of two countries who were responsible for "uncounted Palestinian deaths, every day" in the occupied territories....

For all the readers who asked, we do want to print more letters that pay "tribute to the memory" of the Columbia crew, as we have today. But we can only choose from among the letters we receive.

     END of Excerpt

     For the column in full:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/02/04/ED59224.DTL

     For the more reasonable February 4 letters:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/02/04/ED79189.DTL

[PJ-Comix]

It sounds like half the DUmmy Forum are residents (and letter writers) of San Francisco. Talk about nutcases!

[harpo11]

Makes me wonder if someone had the rare foresight to ensure that San Francisco would be the world headquarters for lunatics. At least packed in one liberal hellzone they can be easily observed and used as a vividly illustrative study on the subject of dementia and why it primarily affects left wingers.

[KSCITYBOY]

I check up on the Du from time to time and find that most appear to be hateful, petty little people. I'm sure quite a few have major personal problems and some seem downright deranged. Lurking over at the DU can take the joy right out of living. They are a depressing sad bunch of misfits without a clue. Sometimes I want to see how the far-left is reacting to the news of the day, but it's always the same any crap anyway. The ideas over there all have to fit in thier little box a hated for America and Bush. I find I lurk less and less in their little cesspool of hate. They lack original thought.

[highpockets]

During the Klintoon administration, they would have never printed letters calling him names. Even if they had recieved a thousand a day. They would have towed the Democrate line, their readers none the wiser. They will always print attacks on our President. They are biased and essentially dishonest.

They believe this administration is illegitimate. So they will print letters saying it.

Hell they will send the letters if none arrive.

[PUGACHEV]

The woman who thought that the shuttle disaster was God's way of sending us a message was on to something! We need to be more alert for these things. We need a cult of priests to practice divination in order to advise our leaders of what God wants and what God doesn't want, and when he's angry and when he's pleased.

I can certainly see how these people out in San Francisco deserve their reputation as progressive thinkers.

[clintonh8r]

...God might just well be a kind of supernatural terrorist, intervening in things such as the space shuttle exploding over Texas...

....and fires, earthquakes and AIDS epidemics, Mizz Cheryl Merrill from SAN FRANCISCO,, hmmmm?

[Monti Cello]

This is simply additional support that liberals are to be listened to for amusement and value alone. Reading this article is like a trip to the zoo. Interesting to observe, pointless to engage (you don't debate a howler monkey), but ultimately harmless under normal circumstances.

The white-hot hatred and the irrationality Bush spawns are a concern only to the degree they motivate sabotage of the democratic system. The freaks are discrediting themselves more each day. Their minority is shrinking, but increasing in volume to maintain a mirage of importance.

We just need to keep the radicals in the cage of their minority status, and let the solid wisdom of the people guided by a responsible leader prevail in future elections.

[TrappedInLiberalHell]

supernatural terrorist

It's hard to take someone seriously when they come up with a gem like this. One might as well talk about 'magical policemen'!

[rogue yam]

This is why we FReep!

Sunday, Feb. 16, 1 pm, steps of City Hall.

Be there! Aloha!

[steve-b]

I check up on the Du from time to time and find that most appear to be hateful, petty little people.

Typical DU "discussion":

DUfus 1: Damn Chimpy lucked out when we got attacked -- now he's just using that to make everybody forget how he stole the election. Well I aint forgotten!
DUfus 2: Yeah, we'll impeach pResident Dumbya and throw him out on his ass!
DUfus 3: He didn't luck out -- his rich oil friends set the whole thing up just so he could steal the oil from all those countries.
DUfus 4: Hey Bush: [line of animated finger-flipping smiley icons]
DUfus 2: I wish the Big Dog had run again in 2000.

[weegee]

The is what cities get for giving the homeless computer email accounts.

[weegee]

you forgot this one:

DU5us: High five! Congratulatory pat on the back. Great thread!

< 2 more graphics and a lengthy repeated BarbraStreisand quote) >

[weegee]

I overheard a heavy longhaired baby boomer woman at lunch today. It was a Chinese buffet and the restaurant typically runs the news at lunch on a big screen tv.

Today they were airing the UN hearings on Iraq's weapons program. Powell had just finished his presentation when the restaurant opened.

The woman had not heard many of the points and was tossing out talking points to her 2 co-workers who went with her to lunch. Some anti-Bush rhetoric, some "we can't call up reserves because they make up the nation's police force" panic stories, and similar distraction tactics. She did not appear to be listening to a single word on the tv.

Later their discussion turned to the space shuttle tragedy and she seemed a little more reasoned in her acceptance that the flight was doomed early on. She didn't pin blame on George W. Bush for this (although posters on DUh did).

I'm glad that I am not having to deal with such partisan musheads right now. Some friends are working on launching a "local"/"regional" music/nightlife/art-culture magazine but some of the contributors want some political coverage as well. Basically this would consist of some claptrap against Bush and the war. I asked why the political coverage wouldn't be "local" if the music coverage would be and was told that "local politics are just fine". When I mentioned all of the scandals and corruption it was suggested that maybe I should be writing it and then that shifted to "it'll just bore people and they'll turn the page".

Good ol' "free speech". I don't see any merit in voicing my support of the president, conservistism, military action in Iraq, or other political discourse to such close minded people.

Here on FR is where I let my politics fly (and we are not all in agreement; some posters are even downright rude or presumptive in their replies). In a periodical, space limits what opposing (or sympathetic) viewpoints are heard. In conversation, fact checking is difficult, article linking/citation is non-existant, and nothing can be "verified" that already transpired in a discussion.

[johnny7]

I don't see any merit in voicing my support of the president, conservistism, military action in Iraq, or other political discourse to such close minded people.

Oh, I do! Pisses the hell out of them.

I was in the Florida Keys after 911... having a nice dinner of red snapper.

An older party next to me, two tables away, claimed loudly that Bush knew about 911 beforehand.

After listening to this crap for 5 minutes, I dropped my knife onto my plate and gave them my “kiss of death” stare.

All was quiet thereafter.

[StayoutdaBushesWay]

I can't go over there! You have a stronger stomach than I do!