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For The Trees
Who is our economy FOR, anyway? About the Authors: Dave Johnson John Emerson Richard Reich Thomas Leavitt
Recent Posts: BEST OF STF: Dave's: Articles not at STF: The ATLA Speech on building a progressive infrastructure Lowering the Bar The Attack on Trial Lawyers and Tort Law Who's Behind the Attack on Liberal Professors On the Right and their communications infrastructure: Why Republicans Win Win or Lose The "Conventional Wisdom" Machine Some History of the Conservative Movement HOW TO FIGHT BACK An Amplifier Of Our Own Don't Blame the Democrats How They Do It 1 2 3 4 Getting Rolled Other: You're Gonna Get Drafted Scalia and Self-Government Who is Our Economy For? Voting Machine Story Link Collection What's Wrong with this Picture? (Voting Machines) Like Meat in the Supermarket Get Active Thin Line 1 2 3 Fixing Social Security Seeing the Forest I, II, III "Incredibly Positive News" The Breadth of It The Republican Crony Club Moon Bush Ralph Nader is a Scab John's Best Of: Kerry Smear Page Bandar Bush 9/11 Commission Report Damages Bush -- if you read it Florida Goon Squad Intimidated the Supreme Court The Use and Abuse of George Orwell Zizka's Archives (John's previous identity) Zizka Sampler News Sources: AlterNet BuzzFlash Common Dreams Cursor Drudge Retort Information Clearing House Smirking Chimp TruthOut What REALLY Happened Links to Other Weblogs: |
![]() 10/02/2004 Through the Looking Glass Through Charles Dodgson's blog I discovered that David Neiwert has a new series on the conservative movement. Repetition Thanks to Get Donkey I saw this movie over at Oliver Willis' blog. While you're there, Get Donkey will show you what Kerry REALLY said about a "global test." (Why do the Repubican just lie about everything?) What Kerry SAID was: "But if and when you do it, Jim, you have to do it in a way that passes the test, that passes the global test where your countrymen, your people understand fully why you’re doing what you’re doing and you can prove to the world that you did it for legitimate reasons." The "Flip-Flopper" Label -- How It's Done Salon has an article by Matthew Craft today, Winning the war of words, that talks about how the Republicans are so well able to get the public to believe their misleading and distorting slogans. From the article: "After months of tireless repetition, the Bush-Cheney campaign's 'flip-flop' charge against John Kerry has become a national cliche.I'm sure you noticed that during the debate Bush kept repeating the "mixed messages" line. Over and over. Whatever the question, Bush returned to this theme, even when it did not seem to be an appropriate answer to the question. This line ties into the "flip-flopper" campaign theme, because what a "flip-flopper" does is send "mixed messages." You and I are informed and know that Kerry IS NOT a flip-flopper, of course, but what about the general public? The Republicans have spent something like 200 million dollars repeating this message over and over and over and over and over. And not just in TV ads. They are using every channel through which people receive "messages." For example, I've written about receiving e-mail chain-letters -- those things your sister-in-law from Kansas is always forwarding to you, that have about 300 other people's e-mail addresses at the top and have already been forwarded eight times -- that have as the actual message a joke, another joke, a joke about Kerry being a flip-flopper, a joke, and a sign-off about God smiling on little children or something. Well, where do you think those originate? This is just one example of manipulating a channel through which people receive messages. The result of this comprehensive message communication effort is that people who don't spend a lot of time informing themselves about what is going on in the world have heard this single message repeated on the radio, through the internet, on TV, in articles, and, most importantly, from friends. And so it has become "conventional wisdom," or what you might call "a truth" that you can not trust Kerry because he is a flip-flopper. The Republicans laid out this plan of attack a long time ago and have consistently stuck to this one theme, repeating it over and over, right through the debate and continuing with the ads they are running today. This is how it is done. From the article, 'That's exactly what research shows,' said George Lakoff, a cognitive scientist at the University of California at Berkeley. 'Repeat something over and over and it gets in people's brains.' Republicans, Lakoff argues, have found success through 'framing' issues along lines that fit their worldview and sticking to them. The Democrats aren't nearly as effective."Most people do not have time to study issues, and, instead, rely on other cues to decide who to vote for. The Republicans have studied this process and manipulate people using these cues, while Democrats continue to believe that just taking positions on issues is enough. This is why Kerry always talks "positions" and Bush always talks "values." The way to reach people is at a deeper level than "issue arguments." From the Salon article, His [George Lakoff's] book "Don't Think of an Elephant," with a foreword by Howard Dean, came out on Sept. 15 and quickly made a cameo among Amazon's bestselling books. What's surprising about Lakoff's analysis is how it can be used to make sense of otherwise conflicting ideas. His theory of political preferences, taken on its merits, offers insights into the Zell Miller enigma and might explain the mystery of why people don't vote in their self-interest.We (Progressives, Liberals, Democrats) need to start thinking past the election cycle. Thinking that a candidate or political party is going to somehow magically know what to say to lead all of us out of this mess is not realistic. What we need to do is restore in the widespread general public underlying Progressive values, and this will bring support from which candidates can draw their strength. This is what the Right has been doing for thirty years. They have been manipulating the public's underlying values, and THEN their candidates can show up and use code-words to tap into that underlying value "language" they have developed. This is a long-term war we are in against the Right. They way to win our country back from the "conservative movement" is to work to bring people's underlying values and ideals back to Progressive values and THEREBY win elections. To accomplish this we must start forming AND FUNDING an infrastructure of Progressive "advocacy" and communications organizations. These organizations will study how people receive and interpret messages and how to make them "stick" in people's minds. They will craft language to communicate our shared values and ideals and make them available to other Progressive organizations as well as reaching the public through numerous channels. They would work to restore in the widespread general public an understanding of basic values like Democracy, and to reinforce Progressive values of community, sharing, nurturing and tolerance/understanding. (Read the article to see what I write it this way.) FROM those underlying values will come the votes on specific issues and for specific candidates! Trying to do it from the candidates is backwards. I'm not going to give away the rest of this article -- go read it. I will, of course, be writing about all of this a lot more. So do your homework, read the article, and get Lakoff's book! Earpiece II Someone else noticed. Bush was Wired in Debate: "Bush may not have misspoken but there was something very curious about his speaking style: the unnatural way he would be at a loss for words, pause a couple of seconds looking down at his lectern--as if listening--and then looking up, deliver a full sentence as if it had just come to him out of the blue. This occured several times during the 'debate.' He seemed to be getting live help." Cheer up a little! Cheer up! Diana Moon's debate coverage (go to 2.10.04 and read down, no permalinks) reminds us that Kerry won decisively, so we should gloat a little. (Though she also points out that Bush is plenty smart, but just emotionally unstable, which is less cheering.) Hesiod at Counterspin Central went on hiatus right when I finally put him on my everyday list. He has a nice partisan attitude and comes up with lots of interesting stuff. Anyway, he's been up and running for awhile now. Saturday Night Live It has occurred to me to be sure to tape Saturday Night Live tonite. I can't wait to see their version of Bush in the debates! OMG! Get This On The Air!! Go see this emotional ad, "A Mother's Tears" at Real Voices and then send them a check to help them get it on the air!!! I cried watching this. THIS is why we are so angry at Bush! Look what he has done to people both here and Iraq! And watch this short video, keeping in mind that Iraq and the people in the video had nothing to do with 9/11! Kerry fucked up: he trusted Bush! FYI, here's Debra Saunders' attempt to respin the debate -- the first RNC plant I've seen. Nothing new here, just the same old "flipflop / didn't support the troops" stuff: if Kerry doesn't support Bush now, why did he support him then? (Rimshot). Her big point: "But when Kerry attacked Bush on Iraq, he unwittingly crafted a grand argument against himself."It's true that a lot of people do blame Kerry for supporting Bush's fraudulent and disastrous war, but it really doesn't seem that Bush supporters should go there. I doubt that this is the best that the Republicans can do, so we should be keeping our eyes open. And we should keep reminding people that Bush lost the debate because he's spoiled, whiny, uninformed, and incapable of functioning outside his bubble. And because his showpiece issue, the Iraq War, was promoted with lies and turned out horribly. UPDATE: The Chronicle also has its version of the "Debates don't really matter" spin: "But Republicans and some independent pollsters, many of whom conceded that Kerry had a stronger night than Bush, expressed doubt that the debate would significantly erode Bush's advantage in the polls. They noted that initial assessments of debates are often short-lived. In 2000, for example, two of the three polls conducted immediately after the first Gore-Bush debate showed Gore the victor, though narrowly, over Bush. Within a week, the conventional wisdom was that Gore's sighing and hyper-aggressiveness had hurt his standing." In other words, the Republicans are relying on the ability of their media plants to make people forget what they saw with their own eyes. That worked last time -- we can't let it happen again. SECOND UPDATE: Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard says the same things: "it won't wear well" and "Kerry contradicts himself". Writing II As long as we're doing tributes to good writing, try Somerby: BUZZ, SPIN AND NARRATIVE: It will take a while for spin to form. But we did emit dark chuckles when Aaron Brown asked the Boston Globe’s Nina Easton about last night’s just-concluded debate. The great gods Buzz and Spin weren’t yet active. So Easton bowed low to her cohort’s third great god—Narrative:EASTON (9/30/00): I think very much tonight you saw—you saw clearly two different men. You saw a thinker and a believer.If you want nuance, your guy was Kerry. If you want clarity, your guy was Bush. And if you want Narrative, just call for Nina Easton! Would anyone have described the debate this way except in fealty to this great god? Brilliantly mouthing these familiar old spins, Easton reminded us how her tribe works. In time, their great god Buzz will send new Spin to earth. But while they wait for Spin to appear, some pundits bow low to Narrative. 10/01/2004 Writing Matt Stoller, writing about Washington, DC at The Blogging of the President: 2004: "But the most striking thing, to date, is the segregation. This is a black city living next to a white city, and the two interact only in certain stylized ways. The white city fears the black city, the black city resents the white city, serves it, fears it, and occassionally, mugs it. I live in Adams Morgan, which is near a lot of bars and yuppies. Nearly every retail outlet or Starbucks I enter is staffed entirely by blacks, and the customer base is mostly white. It's amazing, not good, not bad, like a couple that has resolved to not get divorced while making no plans to stay together, and above, angrily sleeping in the same bed, night after night. " Don't let anyone forget "President Whiny" The post-debate spin is on the way. Immediately after the debates, everyone but Bush's near-psychotic core constituency knew that Kerry had crushed Bush. (When Karl Rove says that the debate won't change anyone's mind, you know that his guy lost really bad.) But memories fade quickly, and the Republican plants in the media will soon be talking about a completely different debate which is more to their liking. Here's Busybusybusy's summary of David Brooks, a couple of months ago: "If you were impressed by Kerry's convention speech then trust me, I re-read the transcript and it's really not nearly as good as it sounded when you heard it with your own ears." That's what they're going to try to do. In 2000, people who had actually watched the Bush-Gore debates mostly thought that Gore had won. But the mighty Wurlitzer went into action, and within a few days it came to be believed that Bush had won. Hopefully Democrats will be smarter and tougher this time around. David Brock's Media Matters has compared what various Republican tools said before and after the debates. Before the debates, they said that the debates were very important, and that Kerry was really going to have to come through, or else he was dead meat. After the debates, the same people said that debates are really no big deal. (Digby is also tracking the post-debate spin, and Cursor's Derelection 2000 page is a great source.) The Bush team's immediate response to the debates was mostly a rehash of old stuff, especially the old flipflop/waffle smear. That's a good sign: it means that they haven't been able to come up with anything new. But the RNC vermin are resourceful and diligent, and we should be keeping our eyes open for whatever new BS they manage to cook up. In the meantime, we should just keep asking "What the hell's going on in Iraq?". "Whatever happened to Osama anyway?", "What was Dubya doing when he was supposed to be in the Alabama Guard?", and so on all the way through the Bush Top Ten Fuckup List. But we should not let them forget this debate, when President Whiny made his grand entry. Allow me to quote myself from this morning:
Reuters relays Bush spin Mehlman's spin fails: his first three call-ins were pro-Kerry Bush spin on debates (from Racicot) (Note that "What They're Saying: Debate One, Volume One" is missing, as is "What They're Saying: Debate One, Volume Two": the early reviews were pretty uniformly anti-Bush. If anyone can find a cache, send it in. Racicot: "Truth and optimism are not competing ideals". Sounds like denial to me. Bush always chooses optimism over truth.) Bush on national security: Be very afraidOil, California, Iraq :: OIL YURICA REPORT: Fraud Traced to the White House: How California's energy scam was inextricably linked to a war for oil scheme. Investigate Lehrer!!! Michael Bérubé: The liberal media paid attention when Bush’s hometown paper delivered a long, detailed endorsement of Kerry, but were strangely, suspiciously silent about the color of Kerry’s face! I demand an investigation!! Send those left-wing Sun-Times editors to Gitmo!! The Party Taking Over CIA Well, lots of Senate Democrats voted for Porter Goss to be head of the CIA, and guess what? No, he's not turning it into an arm of The Party, is he? No! They wouldn't do THAT! Would they??!! DUH! SO MUCH FOR THAT 'DE-POLITICIZING INTELLIGENCE' THING Fox Forges Picture Boing Boing: Did Fox News Photoshop a picture to make President Bush look taller? Even Frank Luntz.calls it for Kerry! Buried inside bloomberg.com: http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=email_us&refer=top_world_news&sid=aJyjmfDHdRJ4 Frank Luntz is the eminent Republican wordsmith (contract with America) and consumate pollster and spinster. Last Few Days to Register! There are only a few days left to get registered to vote. And, if think you already are registered, but you live in a state with a Republican Secretary of State, it might be a good idea to be sure you are STILL registered! America's Moral Choice From another reader: Kerry was good in his debate against Bush, but not good enough. Here he is debating the worst president in the history of the United States, this should be a piece of cake for him. But first and foremost, Kerry didn't bring up the fact that US troops have been torturing enemy prisoners under Bush’s watch, and Bush and his administration have taken none of the responsibility for this. "They are trying to to convince us to lose faith in John Kerry" From a reader: I approached the debate tonight with a lot of anxiety because I knew that the media would be merciless if Kerry made any mistake and would forgive Bush anything. "This is the Road to the Draft" Steve Gilliard's News Blog : You're in the Army now: The Army needs about 75K new enlistees a year, a number they usually get. The real issue is that they may not make their numbers even then. If the number of non-hs grads drops below 80 percent, then a draft may really be around the corner.Gonna vote THIS TIME? President Whiny Bush feels sorry for himself. "It's mean to talk about our allies like that". "I do too know the difference between Saddam and Osama". "It's hard work...." Where did the John Wayne Leader of the Free World go to? He was fluffing his sound bites. You have to nail them -- otherwise they sound as stupid as they really are. He was hesitating for as much as a second, with that panicked President Bunnypants look on his face. During large parts of the debate, he was backpedaling, treading water, or running out the clock. Rove says that it was Bush's best debate, but that it didn't change any minds. Go figure -- that must be one of the mysteries of faith-based spin. Rove knows that Bush lost. Faces of Frustration Go see the new video, Faces of Frustration. Go see this, e-mail the address to friends. This video says it all! Remember the way hearing LATER about Al Gore's "sighs" changed people's perceptions of that debate? Watch this video, spread it around... ![]() 9/30/2004 Now Things Get Dangerous Kerry did very well, and even the Republicans admit it. Bush kept repeating "mixed messages" as he was supposed to but the focus-group magic didn't seem to work so well this time. Bush is actually everything we've all been saying -- a spoiled rich-guy who has always had someone show up and bail him out, and consequently hadn't prepped for the debate -- he kept expecting $150,000,000 of "flip-flop" ads to have already eliminated this guy -- or maybe he just couldn't believe that after being hit by that kind of money Kerry even showed up. So what happens now? We can let up a bit from worrying that the election is going to just continue rolling down a path toward Bush actually winning more votes than Kerry. After this debate it does not look very good for Bush. But are the Republicans going to accept that things are turning against them in the election? Are the corporations that have been enjoying no-bid open-ended defense contracts and huge subsidies and tax breaks going to calmly start figuring out how to make an honest living? Are Tom Delay and Dennis Hastert ready to loosen their hold on the balls of the Ethics Committee and take their medicine? No, now is when they get dangerous. How many people do you think are going to jail if the Republicans lose their power over the Justice Department and the FBI and the investigative committees of the House and Senate? How many of them stand to lose their heads to raving mobs if there is ever an audit of what has been happening to the Treasury since Bush took office? Nope. Now is when they get dangerous. You think the Swift Boat Vets smears were bad? Watch your backs. Trippi on Kerry Joe Trippi at Hardblogger - "Why this guy waits til the last days of a campaign to show this fighting side is beyond me— but it seems to work for him and it worked for him tonight." Complete online polls list, with URLs Pay particular attention to Florida, Ohio and other swing states. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x927474 Scorpion Remember the story about the frog and the scorpion? Bush smirked -- he can't help it, it's what he does. Mixed Messages As I click through channels, most of the Republican commentators are repeating "mixed messages" undermine our safety. So that's the prepared message of the debate. It's clearly a POWERFUL focus-group message. And they know it. It is repeated over and over, especially by Bush, so it might be the only thing people remember tomorrow. Online Polls Go vote in online polls: ABC News: http://www.abcnews.com/ CBS News: http://www.cbsnews.com/ CNN: http://www.cnn.com/ Fox News: http://www.foxnews.com/ MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.com/ USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/ Kerry Stomping Bush I never thought I'd be saying this, and there is still a half hour left, but it appears that Kerry is just fucking stomping Bush. Maybe the rest of the country will be under the focus-group-tested spell, but I think Kerry is just stomping him. Two Faced Bush says "you gotta have a president who'll pursue the terrorists" But he also said, "I don't know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority." and, responding to a question about bin Laden's whereabouts "I am truly not that concerned about him." ![]() Bush On Defensive Bush is totally on the defensive, and he seems to only have one talking point that he repeats over and over: "What kind of message does criticism of the President send to our troops?" And "Sending mixed signals." Yes, it's a great, tested, focus-group line, but repeating it over and over to EVERY question? Update He has repeated that SEVERAL times now. He just said that Kerry driticizing the Prime Minister of Iraq undermines the war effort. It must have tested very powerfully in the focus groups! Earpiece? In the iddle of an answer, Bush was getting heated up, starting to shout. Suddeny he stumbled, looked down like he was listening to something, and completely changed the pace, smiled a little... I think he has an earpiece! Someone told him to calm down! Update After Kerry answered the last question, the camera was showing both of them. As soon as Kerry finished and before it was Bush's time Bush cocked his head to listen to something, then gave an answer. Update - Remember, Bush DOESN'T KNOW that he's on camera! It's against the rules, but the networks are doing it anyway. First Lie Bush lasted less than a minute. He said ten million Afghans are registered to vote. From June: Karzai Reports 3.8 Million Afghans Now Registered to Vote. (Karzai is President of Afghanistan.) Help Me Make Truth and Facts Matter I want to make truth and facts matter. During and after the debate tonite please post comments here with details of Bush's misrepresentation or distortions of facts, outright lies, and other twisting of the truth. We know he is going to do this, it's what he does. I want to collect these and then get people to start contacting the media, local and national, to try to get them to report on this. Seeing the Forest is not one of the hugely trafficked sites, but there are enough people reading here to swamp phones and e-mail, and this DOES make a difference. If Bush lies or distorts I want us to pin it down, and drive it home. Help me. Rox Populi's Own Best Political Bloggers Contest Rox Populi : I Call Bullshit and Offer My Own Best Political Bloggers Contest. Go see what Seeing the Forest is nominated for, and add your own categories and nominations in the comments. ![]() Jobless Claims Up In case you missed this today: U.S. weekly jobless claims rise: "The number of Americans seeking first-time jobless benefits jumped unexpectedly last week as the impact of recent hurricanes battering the Southern United States continued to be felt.Not good at all. We're a big country -- lots of people lose jobs and find jobs each week. Brad DeLong has said that approx. 350,000 is a break-even level for our economy -- anything higher than 350,000 means the overall economy is losing jobs. They say this is beause of the weather in Florida, and it may be. But that's still a lot more people who have lost jobs than are finding them. After The Debate Tonite Some post-debate ideas from an e-mail I received: National and local news organizations will be conducting online polls during and after the debate asking for readers' opinions. Look for online polls at these national news websites, and make sure to vote in every one of them: Blatant Tax dollars blatantly spent to propagandize Americans and influence the election: U.S. Effort Aims to Improve Opinions About Iraq Conflict (washingtonpost.com): "The Bush administration, battling negative perceptions of the Iraq war, is sending Iraqi Americans to deliver what the Pentagon calls 'good news' about Iraq to U.S. military bases, and has curtailed distribution of reports showing increasing violence in that country.This is the kind of thing people go to jail for in free countries, unlike here. Bush brings us closer to the old Soviet model every day, with The State promoting The Party and The Party making all decisions. 9/29/2004 Sedition Act Coming See this story, Bush camp rips Kerry rhetoric: "President Bush's campaign manager yesterday accused Sen. John Kerry's campaign of parroting the rhetoric of terrorists, signaling a new level of aggressiveness in advance of tomorrow's presidential debate.Criticizing the President in wartime... 'FIRE BAD!' My prediction: After the election - if Bush is the one in office (notice how I never say "elected" or "wins." We have learned that there are other ways to take office...) - the Congress will pass a partner to the Patriot Act. It will be a Sedition Act, making it illegal to criticize the govenment, especially the President, in time of war. A thought experiment ... A Thought Experiment, over at Media Matters for America: "A thought experiment 9/28/2004 Because We Want To skippy the bush kangaroo writes, "we blog because we want to. when we stop wanting to, that's when it's time to quit." And I use capital letters because I want to. Is E.J. Dionne Becomming a Blogger? In How to Win the Heartland, E.J. Dionne says what us bloggers have been all about ever since 9/11 happened: "The reluctance to explore what Bush knew before Sept. 11 and what he did about it stands as one of the great mysteries of American journalism."Yes, it does. Perhaps THE great mystery of American journalism - what's left of it, anyway. What Kerry Actually Said -- Entirely Consistent To people who accuse Kerry of "flip-flopping": If you want to be an honest person you owe it to yourself to actually read and understand Kerry's position before you accuse him of things like changing positions. Fair enough? I encourage anyone who really wants to know what Kerry's position on the war was to read the statement he made to the Senate when he voted to allow the use of force. He says his vote was based on President Bush's promises to get sufficient UN authorization (Bush didn't) if he was going to use force, and only to use that force as a last resort if Iraq did not let weapons inspectors in. (Bush didn't.) Excerpts from John Kerry's Statement on Iraq Before the War: First, he had been told by the Administration that there were WMD. (Remember, the Administration was NOT sharing intelligence reports that contradicted this case for war.): "... Why is Saddam Hussein pursuing weapons that most nations have agreed to limit or give up? ... Why is Saddam Hussein attempting to develop nuclear weapons when most nations don't even try, and responsible nations that have them attempt to limit their potential for disaster? ... Why does he develop missiles that exceed allowable limits? ... Why is he seeking to develop unmanned airborne vehicles for delivery of biological agents? [. . .] Although Iraq's chemical weapons capability was reduced during the UNSCOM inspections, Iraq has maintained its chemical weapons effort over the last 4 years. Evidence suggests that it has begun renewed production of chemical warfare agents, probably including mustard gas, sarin, cyclosarin, and VX. Intelligence reports show that Iraq has invested more heavily in its biological weapons programs over the 4 years, with the result that all key aspects of this program--R&D, production and weaponization--are active. Most elements of the program are larger and more advanced than they were before the gulf war. Iraq has some lethal and incapacitating agents and is capable of quickly producing and weaponizing a variety of such agents, including anthrax, for delivery on a range of vehicles such as bombs, missiles, aerial sprayers, and covert operatives which could bring them to the United States homeland."ALL of these "intelligence reports" given to the Senate by the Bush administration turned out to be untrue, largely based on reports supplied by Chalabi plants -- and the Bush administration KNEW IT. Eventually he starts to get around to his reasons for voting for the resolution, ... I traveled to New York a week ago. I met with members of the Security Council and came away with a conviction that they will indeed move to enforce, that they understand the need to enforce, if Saddam Hussein does not fulfill his obligation to disarm."It's all there. It is exactly what he is saying now. He was voting for this in order to force Iraq to let weapons inspectors back in, which Iraq did. Kerry goes on to predict what will happen if we do not build a solid international coalition in conjunction with the UN, and the prediction is what is now occurring. It's long, really long, and it goes on (and on and on and on) from where I left off, but I encourage you to read it so that you will understand what Kerry said he was voting for, what the President had promised the Congress and the UN, and how the President broke the promise. The President asked Kerry for his support, appealing to his patriotism. It was a trick and a betrayal, and Bush is now twisting what Kerry did to make him appear unpatriotic! It is Bush who has flip-flopped all over the place. But worse, Bush conducted a bait-and-switch operation on us, and launched aggressive war, and is using every dirty trick lie in the book, accusing everyone else of what he himself has done, calling people unpatriotic, even treasonous, BECAUSE they supported him when he asked, in the name of the country. ![]() The Left Coaster Catches Gallup At It Again! The Left Coaster: Gallup Is At It Again - Yesterday's National Poll Had 12% GOP Bias: After supplying CNN and USA Today with a poll two weeks ago that showed a double-digit Bush lead amongst likely voters that turned out to have a significant bias in its sample favoring the GOP, Gallup did it again yesterday.This raises two questions in my mind:
2. This is exactly what we would expect to happen before the election if there were a conspiracy to undercount Democratic votes in the new voting machines. Steve asks, "By presenting these polls with this kind of bias, and then ensuring through CNN and USA Today the farthest possible media saturation, why is Gallup not guilty of engaging in a political disinformation campaign?"Indeed. Combine this with stories like the Ohio Repubicans refusing to allow new voter registrations because the paper is not heavy enough - and other irregularities there (another here), pluss all the news coming out of Florida, and it can start to look like this will not be a legitimate election. Surprise. Watch your backs! An Excellent Point Stirling makes an excellent point over at The Blogging of the President: 2004: "As the facts later showed, there were half a dozen scams to shave off votes from Gore - no one of which was enough to scew the election by itself, but taken together they were. The media put their thumb on the scales in favor of tax breaks and consolidation, we therefore got Bush. The political system fell into line, we therefore got a strong unilateral control of power. The legitimacy doves said 'tie election! tie election!'. But in a tie election one would get a government of national unity, a group that governed from the center by consensus. The other theory - the unspeakable one that the election had been stolen - predicted a government from the extreme. Which theory has turned out to be more predictive of Bush and his government? The tie election theory, or the election theft theory?"An excellent point. If it were a CLOSE election, we would have gotten a government of unity, governing from the center. But no, we got a far-right extremist government, governing by decree, excluding the Democrats from participating in legislation, using government agencies to consolidate their power, and launching attacks on the opposition. Repetition Repetition works. Remember that. Repetition works. Poll Shows Bush With Solid Lead: "Bush's relentless attacks on Kerry have badly damaged the Democratic nominee, the survey and interviews showed. Voters routinely describe Kerry as wishy-washy, as a flip-flopper and as a candidate they are not sure they can trust, almost as if they are reading from Bush campaign ad scripts. [emphasis added]"Have I mentioned that repetition works? Someone ought to mention this to the Democratic leadership. They seem to like to pursue a strong theme for about a week, and once it starts looking good they think it worked, and move on. Bush has been on ONE theme since the start of the campaign about six years ago, and repeating that. He does that because repetition works. 9/27/2004 Asking Again - Why Did Bush Stop Flying? I'm asking the question again. Why did Bush stop flying? The other day I wrote, Do any of you fly, or know any pilots? Ask ANY pilot if they can understand why a young man would stop flying fighter jets if they didn't absolutely have to. And not only that, why would someone refuse to take a flight physical and stop reporting for Guard drills? MOST of us would face serious consequences for such behaviour. (Of course, most of us would face serious consequences for selling shares of a company when we knew they are about to report a loss. Or for running up a massive deficit. Or for launching a war against a country that did us no harm and was no threat to us, when we were already in the middle of another war.)Keep asking the question: WHY DID BUSH STOP FLYING? Digby! Digby! Digby! Please, please read this piece by Digby at Hullabaloo. I just want to repeat this because it is just so right, and should be echoed around the blogosphere": It is what led me to the point at which I am able to say without any sense of restraint or caution that I would put NOTHING past them --- even a staged terrorist attack. This is because every time I think they have some limits, they prove me wrong. As the old saying goes, fool me once shame on you, fool me twice...won't get fooled again....THIS is what we have all been trying to say to the Democratic Party for more than three years now. This is NOT your father's Republican Party. They are NOT fooling around! This is NOT about America for the people who have seized control of the old, honorable Republican Party, or about the public good. No, it is about getting and keeping power and using that power to further a weird, cultish, ideological/theocratic agenda and they have been working toward this end for decades. This is the old John Birch Society crowd, and their current agenda reflects that right down the line. Read Digby's piece and the pieces it points to -- and WATCH YOUR BACKS! Update If you're STILL not mad enough, or don't believe that the Republicans are capable of ANYthing, then go read this. Cracking the Code Figuring out what the Republicans are up to is only partly a matter of understanding frames and framing. Sometimes those frames are also codes, a secret, insider language, to which those of us who are not evangelical Christians or otherwise up-to-date on neocon lingo haven't even got a clue. I'll give just one example, but it's a good one. It was recently reported that the RNC had sent out mailings to two states, Arkansas and West Virginia, on September 24 stating that liberals are going to take away their Bibles. I think that neither the press nor the Democratic party had the slightest idea what was really going on or what this means. It was understood as just another dastardly Republican scare tactic. Edwards responded by saying that this was outrageous and Bush should insist that they never do anything like that again. Ha! Rove must have been laughing up his sleeve, it was so obvious that only the insiders, those with secret knowledge, understood what was being said. The public response, in fact, helped to reinforce and spread the desired message. To most of us it would mean that the RNC is saying that secular liberalism will ban reading the Bible. I don't think that's how they meant their audience to understand it. A Google search on "liberals Bibles" brought up 59,100 hits. The battle about "liberals" and "Bibles" has been going on for many years. This battle is terribly important to those involved with it, and the rest of us not only know nothing about it but could care less. Looking into this immediately takes one into an arcane never-never land where only the initiated dare to go. I haven't been to West Virginia for years, but I've recently been to Arkansas. I dearly love Arkansas, so what I'm about to say is an explanation, not a criticism. In Arkansas towns, there seems to be a little church on almost every corner. Vastly more churches than, for example, grocery stores. The mainstream churches are represented, often have large impressive buildings just like everywhere else, but what's happened is that the denominations have split and split again into countless little, separate denominations, each accusing all the others of heresy. Heresy is a very important concept, and accusing each other of heresy is pretty much the local game, like bridge or baseball in other parts of the country. Arkansas is a poor state, and people have to have something to do on those long summer evenings. So what's a heresy? Mostly anything "liberal." "Liberal" does not mean what we think it means. Ultimately, "liberal" means anything that in any way could be traced to the Enlightenment. in other words, although this is never spoken, all the principles on which the Constitution is based, the ideal of society as a contract between reasonable people, everything we think of as the basis for modern civilization. The mainstream churches are understood as having been corrupted by the Enlightenment and to have fallen into "liberalism." The Episcopalians, of course, since they now have a gay Bishop, are the Devil's spawn. But so are the Unitarians, the Presbyterians, and even most of the Baptists. And they mean that literally. The word Bible is also a coded word. Their Bible, as they interpret it, in no way resembles the Bible most of us recognize. Each word has its own secret, arcane meaning and one has to find out what that meaning really is -- while, at the same time, taking the Bible absolutely literally. No allegorical or literary interpretations allowed. The Biblical controversies have also been raging on for years. How literally should one take it? Which version should one take literally? There are those who equate the King James version with the Antichrist, and those who would kill to preserve every sacred word of it. However, it doesn't really matter what the Bible literally SAYS. What matters is what the Bible is interpreted to MEAN. And each little denomination, each little congregation, has its own interpretation, with everyone else's version considered to be heresy. But the really BIG, dangerous, awful heresies are the interpretations of the Bible one learns in those literally damned, take that seriously because they mean it, mainstream churches like the Presbyterians and the Baptists (but not all of the Baptists.) That's the point on which all these little denominations can unite -- against the really BIG "liberal" Enlightenment inspired heresy. So -- one would have to somehow know that what the RNC mailing is really saying is something like if the Democrats win those heretics in the mainstream churches and their Biblical interpretations will be more important for setting public policy than yours. It will no longer matter how you interpret the Bible. They're not really saying that anyone is going to ban the Bible, but that they're going to ban their interpretations of it, and maybe the particular translation they've accepted as the Word of God. This could be why the moderate Republicans have become so unwelcome in the party. So many of them tend to be Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians, Unitarians, the Devil's spawn (they're actually occasionally called that) liberals corrupted by the Enlightenment, for God's sake! Well, I said this was arcane. Somebody in the Democratic party should be paying attention to identifying these insider coded words and what they mean. There are millions of people who know all too well what they mean, relish the fact that the rest of us don't know, since we're going to Hell because we don't know, and they will vote for Bush on that basis. Because Bush knows. Daily Two-Faced Liar Report A surprising story from Reuters! A press organization is actually investigating whether Bush's statements are true!! Key Bush Assertions About Iraq in Dispute: "Many of President Bush's assertions about progress in Iraq -- from police training and reconstruction to preparations for January elections -- are in dispute, according to internal Pentagon documents, lawmakers and key congressional aides on Sunday.I reprinted so much of this article because there is just so much in it that is astonishing. One article prints a little bit of the truth about what is going on, and it is just too much to take! It is so different from the news the public has been receiving. One question is, does Bush even have any idea what is oging on in Iraq, or even care? Another is, will it matter to the public, even if they DO find out this information? Of course, the Republican line on this is that the "liberal media" lies and should not be listened to. ![]() Oregon, sane Republicans http://www.oregonlive.com/commentary/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/editorial/109594063089030.xml http://www.oregonlive.com/public_commentary/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/editorial/109611397171980.xml http://www.oregonlive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news/1096286180262511.xml?oregonian?lcg http://www.oregonlive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news/1096027307176160.xml?oregonian?lcwa http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040930/REPOSITORY/409300379/1037/NEWS04 Nationa Guard Callup http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-ARMYPAPER-359116.php http://www.charleston.net/stories/091104/sta_11reserve.shtml http://www.sltrib.com/nationworld/ci_2416732 http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&ie=UTF-8&q=%22Individual+Ready+Reserve%22+&btnG=Search+News http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20794-2004Oct9.html 9/26/2004 TalkLeft Suggests Draft Likely TalkLeft: Newsweek: Are Iran and Syria Next: Apparently, Bush's advisors agree that a preemptive attack is not on the horizon because we've expended our military wad in Iraq. Doesn't that just make a draft more likely? Not to Bush advisors, who say "covert action of some kind is the favored route for Washington hard-liners who want regime change in Damascus and Tehran."Shrill. Too Insider I started this in the morning but was out all day... a comment on bloggers becomming too "insider" for new readers to understand. At Eschaton this morning, Atrios has this: "BalanceThat's the whole post. This is terribly blogger-centric and insider. I would bet that only a small fraction of his readers understand what he was trying to say. Compare this to Josh at Talking Points Memo writing about the same show: "Of the four panelists, one is the profoundly middle-of-the-road David Broder, a paragon of Washington's establishment assumptions. For the sake of discussion, let's call him balanced or neutral.Atrios, you have new readers at your blog -- especially today! They aren't "in the know" but they are interested and want to explore this online phenomenon. 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