REDNER RESPONDS
I feel compelled to respond to your "Short List" (Short List, "Holy Brown-nosing," May 17-23) that mentions my 8-Point Contract with the Voters of Hillsborough County. With respect to the intended humorous nature of your "Short List," I feel that your "joke" is yet another tired cliché regarding my campaign for the County Commission. This election is about issues that are crucial to the future of Hillsborough County: growth management, education, transportation and the environment. The current Hillsborough County Commission is a shambles on these fundamental issues, and that's no laughing matter!
Joe Redner
Tampa
MANIC PANIC
Once again you have created an article (Don't Panic! "Has the War on Terror made the world safer from terrorism?" by Andisheh Nouraee, May 17-23) of no value whatsoever. I am very surprised that you are able to publish such nonsense, and more surprised that you get paid to feed us garbage. Of all the articles from you that I have read, not one of them answered any questions for me. Maybe you should call the column something else so people aren't hoodwinked by your misleading information. What about the real questions that your blind, leftist, liberal-ass chooses to ignore? "How many new schools have been put up for the children of Iraq since Saddam was pulled out of his rat hole?" or "How many women and men of the FREE IRAQ are able to start their own business?" or "How come there were six terrorist attacks under Bill Clinton and only one under the current administration?" or "Why wasn't state-sponsored terrorism, i.e. Saddam and Iraq, investigated after the First World Trade Center attack?" or simply "Why does the news media, who have an inherited obligation to show the American people both sides of the story, ignore all the positive things going on in that war?" or, wait this is the best one yet, "Why does Creative Loafing/Weekly Planet insist on allowing you to cloud the vision of the readers and either lie or talk about irrelevant crap that you call writing?" Your biased gibberish is doing nothing short of exposing the one-sided, liberal-minded attitude of the Weekly Planet. I'm real sick of seeing you commie, socialist pigs get all the print and air waves. It's about time for a new look at things. I urge the Weekly Planet to find someone else to write this article, someone who will look at this war with a less biased approach. And don't think just because I'm writing this that it makes for good publicity; sure I read the Weekly Planet, but I can't tell you anything past the "Don't Panic!" section. I throw the publication away in disgust or use it for the bottom of my birdcage so the crap can build up on your articles.
Please send your resume to some complete entertainment publication and quit giving the people of this area more left-wing, biased crap; we get enough. One more thing, next time you write more crap, just think about the innocent victims and families affected by the atrocities of terrorist on September 11, 2001, instead of your own selfish ideas.
Dave Lopez
Sarasota
THE REAL CRIME
An excellent piece (Final Persecution, "The End of Sami," by John F. Sugg, May 10-16). My only disagreement is with the contention that Palestinians could have prevailed with "the tactics of MLK and Gandhi." The Israelis would have assassinated them as they have many other Palestinian leaders, something that is not often written about in this country. The Palestinians don't have a chance as long as the world stands by and gives Israel a free hand with annihilation and genocide. I've asked myself what I would do in their shoes. I'd take up the gun because the oppressors understand only one thing — the power of retaliation, and that includes the U.S.
Also, since when is lying to reporters a crime? Our government even pays reporters to lie and plant false stories. How about lying to the general public? I think that is a real crime.
Raff Ellis
Orlando