New voice on the Opinion page

I believe that Amy has a valuable perspective to share with Valley readers, one with which many will not agree, but that needs to be part of many ongoing, balanced debates. My hope is that the Bee will add her column on a regular basis and that she will begin to fill the often gaping liberal hole in the mainstream Valley media.

I think there is a severe shortage of radical leftists in the media. Please carry her column!

I'm a registered Green & peace activist. I'm also a Vietnam vet. Volunteer means you sign a contract willingly.

Watada is a disgrace to the uniform. At what point should we allow those in the military to "resist" orders? I'd rather not see Goodman's opinion again after this article.

Mike Kobata asks, "at what point should we allow those in the military to 'resist' orders?" A better question would be "at what point should a person in the military resist orders?" It was established at Nuremburg that "following orders" is no defense when those orders are illegal.

Mr. Watada is convinced that this is an illegal war. The military court will probably disagree, but to call him a "disgrace" is tantamount to saying that people in the military should follow orders no matter what. We may disagree with his reasoning, but we should not disagree with his integrity. He is prepared to face the consequences for following his conscience. That seems like something we all should be willing to do, if we consider ourselves principled human beings.

If Ms. Goodman's columns are all of this caliber, I hope we see more of them.

It doesn't seem like an opinion piece so much as, just "good journalism." There has never been a time in our country's historywhen so many military personel have spoken out against the civilian leadership in D.C., and yes, it's disturbing, and it's scandalous ... and that's where you'll find Amy, she is an investigative reporter. (She once had Bill Clinton so flustered he lost his cool)! Please give her some space, I agree w/ Michael Der Manouel.

I appreciate Amy Goodman's column and hope she will be regularly featured in The Fresno Bee.

I support Mr. Watada's position of study, critical thinking and a difficult choice based on integrity at great cost to himself. He is a man of character.

May I also suggest Katha Pollit and Patricia Williams from The Nation magazine, and of course, for that Texas flavor, Jim Hightower is very entertaining and is always on top of any legistration before Congress.

With Molly Ivins gone from your opinion page she will certainly need to be replaced by another Bush basher/Hate America writer. Although a significant portion of your readers will find her delightful the rest of us need constant reminder of the extreme wackiness of the left to keep us on our toes. I would welcome her because I expect nothing more from the Bee. As far as Watada, he should put on his jammies and have his mommy read him a story.

"Bush basher/Hate America writer" (as if those are synonymous)? What an odd concept - that those who don't want to see any more American troops killed, or the American economy plundered to continue an ill-advised war must "hate" America?

I'm so glad I gave up trying to be a conservative a few years ago. It's so liberating to be able to think for yourself.

The thing is, Brian, we, the hateful/bashers don't have our own TV network, or multibillion dollar public relations machine, or even a viable political party...you wouln't begrudge us an occational column would you?...after 26 years of the "reagan era" you got everything you ever wanted -- the house the senate, the white house, even the demacrat party came over to embrace "voodoo ecomomics", and permanent war, and now that it's all unravelling, you're angry at socialists? Name one.

The McClatchy Group, Ted Turner, CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, NPR, The Democratic Party, Hollywood etc.. I don't see things as unraveling and I don't begrudge you a new Molly. We have Victor Davis Hanson who actually writes from a historical perspective instead of an emotional one as most of the leftist columnists do.

Actually The Bee's list of syndicated columnists are quite balanced.Fox News does at least offer contrasting views unlike the networks listed above. I think the Reagan era lasted 8 years not 26, there was that 8 year era of Clinton when our country was sold out to the Chinese and little was done to protect ourselves from threat that President Bush has had to deal with while also cleaning up the economic mess left behind. If you remember correctly the economy was going into a tailspin prior to the 2000 election. Sorry to interrupt your fantasy with fact.

I think it's rather telling that if you go to a left-wing blog you will see plenty of criticism of those so-called "liberal" media outlets like CNN, NY Times, Washington Post, the major networks, etc. But conservatives (and the Bush administration) seem to like Fox just fine. I think that indicates just where the actual bias is.

I imagine the shareholders of the large corporations you name would be surprised to learn that their investments are NOT with solid, capitalist, publicly traded companies. Bill Clinton was right-wing, by any measure, he made his career through union-busting, he fast-tracked NAFTA and GATT, and on average, bombed Iraq every week for 8 years. Vic Hanson? How often can one be wrong and remain unapologetic? Like Jay Ambrose, Mona Charen, and all the rest, these are people who feel betrayed, and are still in the denial phase of their grief. Fantasy? go back and read their columns from the last 6 years.

You should definitely consider Amy Goodman as a journalist in your newspaper perspective editorial. We are bombarded by the far right impact in the main stream media and Amy offers the othr side of the truth. She is outstanding in her journalism and the American people are in desparate need for the truths regarding the wars and social justice issues that she has to offer. During these critical times ,we need more journalist like Amy Goodman!