Long live Ted Rall's liberal views

Rally round the pyre, boys. Pin the rascal's picture on a voodoo doll and burn it in effigy.

Better yet, for those who are utterly appalled by the inclusion of Ted Rall's "Liberal Point of View" compositions in Hernando Today, you should take note that your comments have become authoritarian, making demands that the editor suppress opposing views through censorship, the traits of fascism.

The most recent flurry of letters in protest of Ted Rall began in November when he criticized media coverage and public outcry over the shooting of 13 soldiers by a psychiatrist gone psycho at Fort Hood and yet there remains no concern that, "The American military has killed roughly two million people in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2001."

Then there was the call to deport Rall after he stomped at government justification and media consensus that adding 30,000 American troops in the undeclared war in Afghanistan would result in some pre-determined, self-proclaimed victory on December 31, 2017, when in reality the culprits we seek, the terrorist groups known as al-Qaida, have always been and continue to be securely holed up in Pakistan.

The run-Rall-out-on-a-rail charge coming from the right-brigade has continued through his latest column where he apparently carried out some heinous crime against humanity when he expressed an opinion that the human race is doomed by its own short-sighted discourse on addressing global warming/climate change and that it's already too late, baby. No health care plan can save us from gagging to death on all the toxic crap we humans have spewed into the atmosphere over the past few decades. In this case, Rall's comments didn't warrant criticism.

Republicans should find some degree of comfort with the candid disdain Rall has readily expressed about the 44th president of the United States.

"Obama is useless. Worse than that, he's dangerous. Which is why, if he has any patriotism left after the thousands of meetings he has sat through with corporate contributors, blood-sucking lobbyists and corrupt politicians, he ought to step down now - before he drags us further into the abyss."

"He is a monster, and he should remove himself from power."

What prompted Rall to make these statements was Obama's plan for "preventive detentions." If a policeman or other government officials think you might even want to commit a crime some day, you could be held in "prolonged detention."

"Bush was bad. Bush was evil. Obama is worse than Bush. Preventive detention marks the death knell of American democracy."

Furthermore, although he had supported Obama's campaign of "hope" and "change," Rall felt such distaste toward the president's haphazard programs to get us out of the Great Recession that he wrote, " ... it is clear that Obama is more Hoover than FDR. When Bush flew home to Texas, we thought we were getting an FDR to replace a Hoover. Instead, we got another Hoover." And that, "There has been virtually no investment in public infrastructure. There will be no public jobs programs. It's increasingly evident that Obama should resign."

Reader comments were very supportive. "I never thought the day would come but - I agree with Ted."

"Hell must have frozen over ... I never thought I would agree with Ted Rall!"

"I applaud Obama for continuing to keep the Bush policies in place. After all, they do work."

"It'll be alright Ted. We made it through eight years of Clinton and then eight years of Bush didn't we?" So endearing, don't you think?

Rall continues to make unflattering statements about the president. "Obama has done more damage than Bush. And no one's stopping him, which makes him worse."

"Obama's policies are at least as bad as Bush's." And, "He [Bush] was the worst president the U.S. ever had. Until this one."

Readers with conservative views needn't be overly concerned about leaving a little room on the Op-ed pages for a liberal's point of view. You don't have to read Rall's columns. If your comfort zone is limited to the beliefs of others that mirror your own, you will have sacrificed an exchange of ideas among freethinking men and women to your neurotic isolationism.

By all means, feel free to chastise the editor for his decision to print Ted Rall columns as he will, regardless of criticism. Chris Wessel will always deliver on the freedom of speech through the freedom of the press. It keeps democracy alive.

Long live Ted Rall's Liberal Point of View.