More Tabloid Rag Ranting

I know I've been a little obsessed with the inanity that are the local papers, specifically the Daily News here in New York City, first with sports columnist Mike Lupica's op-ed piece, because we all want to know what a sports writer thinks about the Not-At-Ground-Zero-Not-A-Mosque, and then raging over the ridiculous editorial that takes credit for forcing President Obama to make a statement regarding HR847, the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, as if somehow the president was secretly against it because he hadn't commented on it.

Usually I don't bother with their crappy coverage, but I stopped by to see if my letter had been published (...heh...) and caught a couple of letters written by others in the Daily News' "Voice of the People" section. I suppose the editors don't bother fact checking anything written by their readers before publishing because what I read was pretty appalling.

Here are a few goodies:

Move the mosque

Fairfield, N.J.: Mayor Bloomberg has it wrong. Today's soldiers are not fighting for our country's religious freedoms but to keep Islamic terrorists out. Respect is a two-way street. The mosque builders should build somewhere else.

Beth Evans

Really, Beth? So I suppose the soldiers don't mean it when they say, "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic..." in the first line of their oath?

Sickened by health plan

Brooklyn: Besides President Obama's support for the Islamic center and not giving seniors the $250 raise promised, there might be an even worse controversy awaiting him. Although promising that his health care reform wouldn't impose any new middle-class taxes, buried in the law it states that workers' health care premiums paid for by employers must be declared on W-2 forms starting in 2011 and be taxed. This would put many middle-class workers and retirees into higher tax brackets. Our taxes would rise by thousands a year. Nice going, Mr. Obama!

Myron Shulman

Oh, Myron. You really must stop believing everything Rush tells you, or what you see on Fox News.

If Myron had just taken 30 seconds to fact check his claims (like I did), he'd know he was dead wrong. 750,000 checks have already been sent out to alleviate the Medicare donut hole written into the law back in 2003 (what party was in Congressional majority at that time? Please remind me, Myron) with another 3 million checks estimated to go out over the next fiscal year.

And while it is true that employer health care premiums will be added as an informational line on your W-2s, it will not be considered taxable income. By the way, as FactCheck.org notes...

Those who followed the 2008 presidential campaign may recall that it was Republican candidate John McCain who proposed to make the value of employer-sponsored health insurance taxable. Democrats hated that idea; Barack Obama ran an ad claiming, falsely, that it would be the "largest middle-class tax increase in history."

So it is ironic that some of President Obama’s critics now claim that the bill he signed would do what his opponent proposed and he denounced. Ironic, but false.

It took 30 seconds, Myron. Check your facts before assuming the smear e-mails you're receiving are true.

An open wound

Sunnyside: We are not saying they can't build their mosque. We are saying they can't build it there. We will never fully heal from 9/11. I still cry.

Lynn Ward

We know what you're saying, Lynn, and it's still wrong. As long as they are abiding by zoning laws and city ordinances, it's perfectly legal. As I've said before, would you prevent the Roman Catholic church from building near the Oklahoma City bombing site because Timothy McVeigh was raised Catholic?

Over his head

Monroe, N.J.: President Obama's lack of experience is showing. He has taken a bad economy and made it much worse. Now he's in favor of the "victory mosque" at Ground Zero. America has proven that it's not a racist country by electing him, but he is not meant for this job.

Tom Scott

The economy is bad, but in my opinion, President Obama hasn't made it worse. Although we are technically out of a recession (GDP growth for two consecutive quarters), unemployment continues to hover between 9.5 and 10%. However, had it not been for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, we could be currently looking at an unemployment rate of up to 16%.



Red lines: Bush's job "growth" in his last 13 months in office. Blue lines: Obama's first 15 months. Although we're not out of the woods yet, it looks like positive job growth to me. But all you have to do is read the "victory mosque" comment to know where Tom Scott's head is, and no matter how hard he looks, he's not going to find any common sense up his ass.

You see where I'm headed with all this so I'll stop now and there are more than a few common sense letters in this "people's editorial" section. But what's the point of publishing them if they're not fact based? There are not two equal sides to every argument. Sometimes, actually most times, one side is right and one side is wrong. I just wish there were more vetting by the common man before deciding which side they chose to believe.