my local paper printed a response to my LTTE . . . of 5/31/05! . . .

WTF???

on May 31, my local Gannett rag printed my letter to the editor, which was in fact a response to another letter . . . so I open today's edition, and there's a response to my "recent letter" that castigates me for giving Saddam and other dictators a "free pass" . . . it reads:

Go after the dictators
(Original publication: December 30, 2005)

In response to Michael Micinowski's recent letter, "Not a moral president," I find terribly disturbing the willingness of people who want to give Saddam Hussein a free pass, but I understand their motives perfectly.

For those who think like the letter- writer, it doesn't matter that this monster massacred hundreds of thousands of people and aided and abetted terrorist groups whose ultimate goal is to kill you and disrupt our way of life.

You should thank your lucky stars we have a president who stuck his neck out on the line to protect our nation, unlike someone like Al Gore or John Kerry, who would have stuck their heads in the sand or bowed down to the self-serving thieves running the United Nations.

You can't stand idly by and let heinous dictators and war criminals take control of society's reigns. Thank goodness the majority didn't.

Zach Katsihtis, Bardonia (NY)

http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051230/OPINION02/512300345/1016

that was in response to this letter which, again, appeared on May 31:

Not a 'moral' president
(Original publication: May 31, 2005)

Richard Eggers asks if senators find it hard to accept that "a moral man sits in the White House." By what standard can a president who lies us into an illegal war be considered moral?

Are the deaths of more than 1,500 Americans and the maiming of thousands more moral? Is the destruction of Fallujah and the killing of countless innocent civilians moral?

Is the use of depleted uranium weapons that kill and injure both Iraqis and our own soldiers while contaminating the countryside moral? Is "rendering" captives to foreign countries for torture moral? Is slashing benefits for our injured veterans moral?

If Eggers stopped listening to the propaganda and looked instead at the facts, he'd see that the Bush record is quite possibly the least moral of any president in our nation's history.

Michael Micinowski, Stony Point (NY)

they probably won't print it, but I will be preparing a response to Mr. Katsihtis, who obviously needs some educating about just who and where the real dictators are . . . sheesh . . .

Zach Katsihtis

but just curious- which brutal dictator does the US have the right and the moral obligation to go after next?

Hmm... how about George Bush, who is responsible for the deaths of well over 30,000 Iraqi citizens?

"You can't stand idly by and let heinous dictators and war criminals take control of society's reigns."

This is why I support the impeachment of George Bush, and his removal from office.

Coward.

But yes, you're entitled to a rebuttal letter in my opinion. Keep it short and to the point. It's tempting to point out his faulty understanding of "recent" or his horrible misspelling of "reins" which somehow made it into print, but stick to your original point about Bush's morality deficit, including the newest revelations of domestic spying and the rotten bad luck Bush seems to have had in picking so many criminals to surround him: Scooter Libby, Karl Rove, Tom DeLay, Bill Frist, Michael Brown and other ethically challenged or incompetent high-ranking Republicans.

Does this guy think he's J. Edgar Hoover or what?

You can't stand idly by and let heinous dictators and war criminals take control of society's reigns.

Huh? The US has been "standing idly by" for years. Kim Jong-Il, Crown Prince Abdullah, Qaddafi, Mugabe, to name a few.

What an idiot.

Hey, let's just put totally wrong words out as someone else's "quotes"!

I don't see how your letter gave Saddam Hussein a "free pass" . . .