Well, that worked out well...
Yesterday, an amazing thing happened. After the Senate's shameful vote, and after President Bush called MoveOn "disgusting," their email started to fill up with messages like this one:
"I'm currently in Iraq. I do not agree with this war, and if I did support this war, it would not matter. You have the RIGHT to speak the truth. We KNOW that you support us. Thank you for speaking out for being our voice. We do not have a voice. We are overshooted by those who say that we soldiers do not support organizations like MoveOn. WE DO.
YOU ARE OUR voice."
And then came the donations. By midnight, over 12,000 people had donated $500,000—more than they've raised any day this year—for a new ad calling out the Republicans who blocked adequate rest for troops headed back to Iraq.
The message from MoveOn members was loud and clear: Don't back down. Take the fight back to the issues that matter.
Thanks again, President (and Senator) Dipshit!
Yesterday, an amazing thing happened. After the Senate's shameful vote, and after President Bush called MoveOn "disgusting," their email started to fill up with messages like this one:
"I'm currently in Iraq. I do not agree with this war, and if I did support this war, it would not matter. You have the RIGHT to speak the truth. We KNOW that you support us. Thank you for speaking out for being our voice. We do not have a voice. We are overshooted by those who say that we soldiers do not support organizations like MoveOn. WE DO.
YOU ARE OUR voice."
And then came the donations. By midnight, over 12,000 people had donated $500,000—more than they've raised any day this year—for a new ad calling out the Republicans who blocked adequate rest for troops headed back to Iraq.
The message from MoveOn members was loud and clear: Don't back down. Take the fight back to the issues that matter.
Thanks again, President (and Senator) Dipshit!
107 comments:
Not sure "dipshit" is the right choice here, shoes. How's about "dickhead?" Works for me.
And I gotta say, he gets creepier every day. Just watching that made my skin crawl. Gots to go take a shower!
Keith Olbermann is back from his surgery and covering the pRez & the bush-Dog dems. 16 of whom voted lock-step with the thugs and passed a Republican amendment condemning MoveOn.
Here's where you can sign a statement to FIGHT BACK against yet another attempt to suppress any sentiment other than that of the current fascist administration.
http://pol.moveon.org/pac/fightback/
After all the REALLY disgusting and NASTY Swiftboating tactics used by this abusive administration against what certainly appears to be the majority will of Americans this cannot go by without a groundswell of disapproval by We the People.
Thanks, Kira, signed and donated. Keith is supposed to do one of his special comments on the moveon issue tonight. Should be great!
I LOVE Keith's Special Comments and I'm so glad he's back. Don't much care for his "replacements." They're fine for Entertainment Tonight, but no replacement for much needed News instead of sNooz.
Keith Olbermann...now there's a reliable unbiased source for news and opinion. NOT!!
Get your head outta the sand, lb2zeroes. You need help.
Thanks again, Kira, I'll check it out. Meanwhile, you might want to take a look at the update to the Barbara Lee post (fifth one below). She has a defunding letter circulating that's got something like 80 signatures already. There's a link to see if your rep has signed on. You, too, h nicole!! It's THE Barbara Lee!!!
Thanks moneysmith. Will do! Love that Barbara Lee.
It's almost a full time job signing petitions & contacting our debased congress.
However - my "respresentatives" in gov't are corrupt republicans who think the world is flat and bush is god, so I don't even have to look!
Ah the bushzarro world of rove-tronics Stalin machines.
Really...what ever happened to the good old days when a guy could get a hummer in the White House. This country is going to hell in a hand basket. tsk tsk
"WASHINGTON — The Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly passed a measure condemning MoveOn.org for a newspaper ad it ran last week attacking Gen. David Petraeus. The move came as President Bush accused Democrats of cowering to the liberal political action group.
The measure passed in a 72-25 vote, with none of the Democratic presidential candidates supporting it. Sponsored by Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn, never one to shy away from forcing Democrats to go on record on politically sticky issues, the amendment to the defense authorization bill did win the backing of 23 Democrats."
A ray of sunshine for those in the dark.
Yup - infinitely more honorable and dignified than this peccant charlatan.
Can't get up to speed, can you LP2zeroes?
Please try to keep on the relevant subject matter.
Thank you.
In sharp contrast to the lionisation of Gen. David Petraeus by members of the U.S. Congress during his testimony this week, Petraeus's superior, Admiral William Fallon, chief of the Central Command (CENTCOM), derided Petraeus as a sycophant during their first meeting in Baghdad last March, according to Pentagon sources familiar with reports of the meeting.
Fallon told Petraeus that he considered him to be "an ass-kissing little chickenshit."
Well, Shoes, that's why he's such a favorite of the Commander in Cheat.
The 22 Democratic senators who voted in favor of becoming ad police today. Four of them, Pryor from Arkansas, Landrieu from Louisiana, Baucan from Montana, and Johnson from South Dakota are up for election next year and have stars by their names.
Arkansas:
Senator Blanche Lambert Lincoln (D- AR)
Pbone: 202-224-4843
Fax: 202-228-1371
Webmail: http://lincoln.senate.gov/html/webform.html
*Senator Mark Pryor (D- AR)
Phone: 202-224-2353
Fax: 202-228-0908
Webmail: http://pryor.senate.gov/contact/
California:
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D- CA)
Phone: 202-224-3841
Fax: 202-228-3954
Webmail: http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactUs.EmailMe
Colorado:
Senator Ken Salazar (D- CO)
Phone: 202-224-5852
Fax: 202-228-5036
Webmail: http://salazar.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm
Delaware:
Senator Thomas R. Carper (D- DE)
Phone: 202-224-2441
Fax: 202-228-2190
Webmail: http://carper.senate.gov/aemail.cfm
Florida:
Senator Bill Nelson (D- FL)
Phone: 202-224-5274
Fax: 202-228-2183
Webmail: http://billnelson.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm
Indiana:
Senator Evan Bayh (D- IN)
Phone: 202-224-5623
Fax: 202-228-1377
Webmail: http://bayh.senate.gov/LegForm.htm
Louisiana:
*Senator Mary Landrieu (D- LA)
Phone: 202-224-5824
Fax: 202-224-9735
Webmail: http://landrieu.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm
Maryland:
Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (D- MD)
Phone: 202-224-4654
Fax: 202-224-8858
Webmail: http://mikulski.senate.gov/mailform.html
Senator Benjamin L. Cardin (D- MD)
Phone: 202-224-4524
Fax: 202-224-1651
Webmail: http://cardin.senate.gov/contact/
Minnesota:
Senator Amy Klobuchar (D- MN)
Phone: 202-224-3244
Fax: 202-228-2186
Webmail: http://klobuchar.senate.gov/emailamy.cfm
Missouri:
Senator Claire McCaskill (D- MO)
Phone: 202-224-6154
Fax: 202-228-6326
Webmail: http://mccaskill.senate.gov/contact.cfm
Montana:
*Senator Max Baucus (D- MT)
Phone: 202-224-2651
Fax: 202-224-0515
Webmail: http://baucus.senate.gov/contact/emailForm.cfm?subj=issue
Senator Jon Tester (D- MT)
Phone: 202-224-2644
Fax: 202-224-8594
Webmail: http://tester.senate.gov/Contact/
Nebraska:
Senator Ben Nelson (D- NE)
Phone: 202-224-6551
Fax: 202-228-0012
Webmail: http://bennelson.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm
North Dakota:
Senator Kent Conrad (D- ND)
Phone: 202-224-2043
Fax: 202-224-7776
Webmail: https://conrad.senate.gov/webform.html
Senator Byron L. Dorgan (D- ND)
Phone: 202-224-2551
Fax: 202-224-1193
E-mail: senator@dorgan.senate.gov
Pennsylvania:
Senator Robert P. Casey (D- PA)
Phone: 202-224-6324
Fax: 202-228-0604
Webmail: http://casey.senate.gov/contact.cfm
South Dakota:
*Senator Tim Johnson (D- SD)
Phone: 202-224-5842
Fax: 202-228-5765
Webmail: http://johnson.senate.gov/emailform.html
Vermont:
Senator Patrick J. Leahy (D- VT)
Phone: 202-224-4242
Fax: 202-224-3479
E-mail: senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov
Virginia:
Senator James Webb (D- VA)
Phone: 202-224-4024
Fax: 202-228-6363
Webmail: http://webb.senate.gov/contact/
Wisconsin:
Senator Herb Kohl (D- WI)
Phone: 202-224-5653
Fax: 202-224-9787
Webmail: http://kohl.senate.gov/gen_contact.html
He might very well be. The military was gutted of all the old pro soldiers by Clinton and what we are left with are not the experienced warriors we once had. Hopefully with the new Republican administration that will be elected in '08, we'll be able to continue the rebuilding of the Military with the experienced warriors coming out of Iraq and Afghanistan.
You'll be dying of nuclear fallout if this administration continues unchecked. TIA.
Here's something else I think is relevant:
http://tinyurl.com/2r5ab7
Citizens Arrested for commiting FREE SPEECH in Washington DC.
Senators Lieberman, McCain, and Graham gave a pro-war speech/rally at a public park in Washington DC.
A small contingent of antiwar / antibu$h protesters were counter demonstrating. The pro-war organizers told the counter war demonstrators they could not shout anti-war slogans, nor could they congregate in a group. They proceeded to read copies of the US Constitution and they were promptly arrested.
For reading the Constitution, no less. It's looking more and more like Police State.
Top ten wish list of those who deserve to be hung for treason:
1. Cheney
2. Bush
3. Ashcroft
4. Rumsfeld
5. Rove
6. McCain
7. Lieberman
8. McConnell
9. Graham
10. Feinstein
I am beginning to think we should do a top ten "Republican List" and a top ten "Democratic List" because it's just too hard to leave so many people out right now, especially among the Democrats.
Thanks for the lists, h nicole.
And I definitely agree we need to advertise the bush Dog DINOs & the reality-challenged Dems.
1. Clinton
2. Kennedy
3. Gore
4. Albright
5. Clinton
6. Reno
7. Reich
8. Berger
9. Begalia
10. Murtha
Cute, LP2Zeroes.
Kennedy? Really?
Eli Pariser, Executive Director of MoveOn.org's Political Action Committee, accused Bush himself of betrayal.
"What's disgusting is that the president has more interest in political attacks than developing an exit strategy to get our troops out of Iraq and end this awful war," Pariser said after the press conference.
"The president has no credibility on Iraq: he lied repeatedly to the American people to get us into the war. Most Americans oppose the war and want us to get out. Right now, there are about 168,000 American soldiers in Iraq, caught in the crossfire of that country's unwinnable civil war, and the president has betrayed their trust and the trust of the American people."
Here is a great site for a lot of pertinent anti-war quotes:
http://antiwar.com/quotes.php
As I read through the list last night looking for something to ad to my most recent letter to Congress, I picked out a few quotes that sounded relevant to what I was trying to say w/o caring much who actually said it.
How appropriate (given the protests going on in Jena) that three out of the five "cutting room floor" quotes that I considered using (after I eventually decided on Abe Lincoln) were from Martin Luther King, Jr., his son Martin Luther King III, and Malcolm X, respectively...
"The greatest purveyor of violence in the world today is my own government."
~Martin Luther King, Jr.
"We all have to be concerned about terrorism, but you will never end terrorism by terrorizing others."
~Martin Luther King III
"You're not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong no matter who does it or who says it."
-Malcolm X
Here ya go:
http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=917
The Bush Dog Campaign: Creating a Public Record
Loved JFK and RFK was pretty dam sharp, but Teddy is a sot who's brain has been fried by too much alky. And he let Mary Jo die in about 10 feet of water and he grew up on the ocean...about as close to murder as you can get. I actually had Kofi Anan as #2, but didn't want to get blasted about him not being a US citizen, even though he should be hung by the World Court.
It's not about Right or Left, it's about Right or Wrong.
One of the reasons I got rid of my TV was not to have to watch Bush on the TV news every night. The flip side is that it makes you a little insecure about how informed you really are, like when Bush said that Mandela was dead, I thought to myself, oh, geez, when did I miss that?
Here is what Mandela thinks about Bush and Cheney. I hope Mandela lives to see the day when they both hang.
(From Wikipedia)
Iraq invasion views:
In 2003 Mandela criticised the foreign policy of the George W. Bush administration in a number of speeches. Criticising the lack of UN involvement in the decision to begin the War in Iraq, he said, "It is a tragedy, what is happening, what Bush is doing. But Bush is now undermining the United Nations". Mandela stated he would support action against Iraq only if it is ordered by the UN. Mandela also insinuated that Bush may have been motivated by racism in not following the UN and its secretary-general Kofi Annan on the issue of the war. "Is it because the secretary-general of the United Nations is now a black man? They never did that when secretary-generals were white".[39]
He urged the people of the U.S. to join massive protests against Bush and called on world leaders, especially those with vetoes in the UN Security Council, to oppose him. "What I am condemning is that one power, with a president who has no foresight, who cannot think properly, is now wanting to plunge the world into a holocaust." He attacked the United States for its record on human rights and for dropping atomic bombs on Japan during World War II. "If there is a country that has committed unspeakable atrocities in the world, it is the United States of America. They don't care."[39]
As a member of the United States House of Representatives in 1986, Dick Cheney had voted against a congressional resolution calling for Mandela's release from prison. In 2002, Mandela called Cheney a "dinosaur".[40]
OT, sorta to h nicole:
I've been reading earlier entries on Shoes' blog and ran across a link you posted to www.checktheevidence.co.uk -- good find!
So, thanks for posting it!
PS Have you guys seen this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zajRoutjcok
Bob Fitrakis from Columbia Ohio is a Professor of Political Science as well holding a JD degree and has received many awards for journalism. [You may know him from his work exposing election fraud.]
Introduced by Jim Fetzer, Fitrakis' presentation is about exotic weaponry, weather control & touches on HAARP - using only DOCUMENTED gov't & news reports.
Keith "rabid dog" Olbermann is so good at covering politicial issues that he now has a show on before NFL games. He should probably stick with the football.
I contracted MoveOn. to let them know I left (one of the many reasons) the Dem. party because of their affiliation with MoveOn. Also, agreed with Pres. Bush that the add was DISGUSTING.
Poll on Glenn Beck Show (3rd highest ratings of talk shows in country). Q: Should Pres. Bush take out Iran's Nuclear Program?
91.8 Yes 8% No
Nobody ever said Dubya was the most articulate president ever to speak. But, taken in it's entirety, without the literal nitpicking, he was saying that Saddam killed all the Mandela type people in Iraq. He knows Mandela is still alive and Saddam didn't kill him. That's all there is to it. You people obsess on making mountains out of molehills. Saddam killed thousands of "Mandelas" while in power...that's a fact.
Might be georgie's on meds, kira. Whatever, he more like Hannibal Lecter every day. Could be he's into laura's stash. She got the glassy eyed stare and fakey smile of serious Rx abusing.
Most excellent youtube link -- haven't seen it all, but whoa, lovin' it -- that's some great stuffs!
Did you guys see my girl Babs at DailyKos yesterday, blogging with the best of them?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/9/20/125410/087
San Francisco bloggers were trying to steal her away as their representative. I think the idea was that they wanted Barbara Lee to be the Speaker of the House instead of Pelosi, which would not be a bad idea, though personally, I am not too keen on the idea of losing the best representative in the country to nothing less than the presidency!
Absolutely, I saw Barbara Lee's diary at DKos and commented because Waxman hasn't signed onto her letter. I called his office and asked him to get with it.
Shoes posted something in the earlier BLee item, too.
What I want to know is what does it take to get DiFi recalled? She's the West Coast version of Joe Effing Lieberman.
Does anybody have the scoop on Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah?
Offhand, I would label him as a Troll instead of an Operative (a troll is somebody who is simply unaware of, or even purposely blind to, the facts for whatever reason and can be converted, while an operative is a paid, purposeful bad guy who should be hung for treason).
I got an e-mail earlier from somebody from his office who was interested in my September 20 letter to the US Senate, and he asked about my home address. I am a very open individual and just gave it out freely to him.
Just letting my homies here know -- if you stop seeing my daily posts here, you have my full permission to worry!
h nicole, did you post that letter you mention [of 9/20 to the Senate] on the blog? Just wondering what the gist was & why your home address was requested.
But, now thinking about it, when signing petitions to gov't officials, I have noticed that your name won't be counted if you don't provide home addy - I would think because it would be easy to scam with fake names.
"Does anybody have the scoop on Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah?"
He's a dyed-in-the-wool asshole, don't trust him.
I find it disturbing that in the 21st Century there are so many who unashamedly laud red-faced, loud mouth bigots like Beck, Limbaugh, Coulter, Hannity, Pat Robertson & so forth ad nauseum. In fact, supporters of these hacks proudly wear & display the badge of allegiance as though it’s a medal of honor!
Is it possible to de-evolve?
We agree, it unbelievable that there is an audience for such backward, negative, bone-headed, evil, comedian commentators.
There's no "misunderestimating" the stupidity of the American (right-wing) public.
"there are so many who unashamedly laud"
It's because we're the majority. And that's also why we're called Conservatives. The vast majority of us keep our mouths shut, work, and go on with life and only express our opinions at the ballot box. There are a growing number of us, like me, who are becoming more and more vocal, either to express our view point to the others who are becoming more vocal, or those like me who just love to take it to the enemy.
And as some one here said (one of the few smart statements I've read here)..."it's not about Right or Left, it's about Right or Wrong"...that is correct. I live in a county that for over 100 years has been a "Democratic" county. But they are not "Progressives", which is a buzzword for radical. The Democrats in my part of the country support the troops and war on terror because they value their freedoms and history and know that the USA is the best country in the world. And only when the rest of the world enjoys the freedoms and values that we have will mankind truly progress to the next level.
The "Ideal" world is the Star Trek world. Race does not matter, money does not matter, everyone is allowed to rise to their own level of competence, and those who are satisfied with their level are allowed to do so without being looked down on. We are a llooonnnnggggg way from that ideal. Only when everyone is fed, no more despots rule, and everyone putting forth their best effort with their given capabilities will that happen.
Moveon gave away over $58 Million to candidates and elected officials. Do you even have a clue as to how many schoolbooks, tractors, garden seed, cans of beenie weenies, or whatever that could have bought for the "poor downtrodden masses"? HUH? They are nothing more than a PAC that has gone mainstream and are no different than any other "Establishment" entity that you rag on.
Get with the program....grow up and smell the roses....and ya' know what makes roses grow real good?...BS..trust me I'm in farm country.
Mooo Mooo
There is no better oxymoron than "moral majority."
It's delusional to believe "conservatives" [if by that one means republican] are the majority. After 30 years of losing out to the Democratic Party, the coalition of Gingrich, Rove & PNACers decided to take things into their own hands to WIN by damn - thus the black box voting machine was born. "The election's over. We won. It's all over but the counting, and we'll do the counting." [Peter King, 2004]
And they did. 2 stolen elections - the first only with the out-of-bounds decision handed down by the "conservative" Supremes & the 2nd with machines built to flip vote totals plus a plethora of crimes which served to disenfranchise thousands upon thousands of legitimate voters.
So, no. Whatever is perceived to be a "majority" is based on fraudulent numbers.
And that definitely has the odor of a warm & juicy cow pie.
Shoes, you got to get sound on this blog so kira can hear me clapping and yelling how right she is! girl, you nailed it -- most excellent reply!!
Funny the mention of Star Trek, because I was thinking earlier about the commenter who was helping little georgie out - deciphering his press conference speech for us - "he was saying that Saddam killed all the Mandela type people in Iraq." Well, that's up to speculation, for sure.
Anyway, I couldn't help thinking about the Borg mentality. The Bush Borgs!
The minds of all Borg drones are connected via implants and networks to a hive mind, the Borg Collective, personified by the Borg Queen and controlled from a central hub.
[Thanks Wiki for the description.]
And that about 'splains it all to me!
Yes, we can tell "you" are the majority...hence a total of about 5 or 6 different posters on this blog spouting the same "progressive" BS. It's funny, but the last time I looked there was a Republican in the White House.
And your "stolen election" story is old and was never correct in the first place. All and any recounts even according to Goreon's method still showed GWB winning. And thousands and thousands of votes weren't counted because they were fraudulent. Felons are not allowed to vote anymore than dead people can vote.
Get over it...Move On...
Sorry 2zeroes, you're vastly incorrect. The syndicate is in control of the machine so far, but we will overcome.
When Jeffrey Toobin, author of The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court, appeared on Thursday's Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert grilled him about the meaning of the book's title. "Do they have secret handshakes? Is it like the Da Vinci Code? Are there bizarre sexual rites going on there?"
Toobin had to admit he wasn't aware of any secrets of that kind, but did confide that "Justice Souter was so upset about the result in Bush v. Gore that not only did he almost resign the Court because he was so upset, but there were times when he thought about the case and he wept."
"You say the justices have tried to put the decision of Bush v. Gore behind them and move on," Colbert said. "That sounds like one of those movies where a bunch of frat brothers inadvertently kill a prostitute and then later she comes back and haunts them and kills them one by one. Is that it? Are they haunted by that decision?"
"I think some of them are," Toobin responded. "Some of them, I think, the Bush presidency hasn't quite worked out as they had hoped."
"But they weren't making the decision based on wanting Bush. They were making the decision based upon the clear law," suggested Colbert.
"Well, that's that they said," replied Toobin.
"Are you calling them liars?" asked Colbert.
"Not liars, but I think sometimes political motivations do play a part," Toobin conceded.
Last time we checked, Missouri was right nextdoor to Kansas. Perhaps you
(LB200) should read Thomas Frank's book,"What's The Matter With Kansas?" to see where your "people" have gone astray.
“This is the true story of how conservatives punk'd a nation. Tom Frank has stripped the right-wing hustle to its core: It is bread and circuses-only without bread. Written like poem, every line in its perfect place, “What's the Matter with Kansas?” is the best new book I've read in years, on any subject.” — Rick Perlstein, author of “Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of American Consensus”
“What's the Matter with Kansas?” is the most insightful analysis of American right-wing pseudopopulism to come along in the last decade. As for Kansas: However far it's drifted into delusion, you've got to love a state that could produce someone as wickedly funny, compassionate, and non-stop brilliant as Tom Frank.” — Barbara Ehrenreich, author of “Nickel and Dimed”
“A fire-and-brimstone essay on false consciousness on the Great Plains. 'The poorest county in America . . . is on the Great Plains, a region of struggling ranchers and dying farm towns,' writes native Kansan and Baffler founding editor Frank, 'and in the election of 2000 the Republican candidate for president, George W. Bush, carried it by a majority greater than 80 percent.' How, Frank wonders, can it be that such a polity-honest toilers descended from free-soil, abolitionist progressives and prairie socialists-could back such a man who showed little concern then and has showed little concern since for the plight of the working class? And how can it be that such a place would forget its origins as a hotbed of what the historian Walter Prescott Webb called 'persistent radicalism,' as the seedbed of Social Security and of agrarian reform, to side with the bosses, to back an ideology that promises the destruction of the liberal state's social-welfare safety net? Whatever the root causes, many of which seem to have something to do with fear and loathing of big-city types and ethnic minorities, Kansas voters-and even the Vietnam vets among them-seem to have picked up on the mantra that the 'snobs on the coasts' are the enemy, and that Bush ('a man so ham-handed in his invocations of the Lord that he occasionally slips into blasphemy') and company are friends and deliverers (lol) . . . Even so, he sees the tiniest ray of hope for modern progressives: after all, he notes, the one Kansas county that sports a NASCAR track went for Al Gore in 2000. A bracing, unabashedly partisan, and very smart work of red-state trendspotting.” — Kirkus Reviews
"The largely blue collar citizens of Kansas (or Missouri)can be counted upon to be a "red" state in any election, voting solidly Republican and possessing a deep animosity toward the left. This, according to author Thomas Frank, is a pretty self-defeating phenomenon, given that the policies of the Republican Party benefit the wealthy and powerful at the great expense of the average worker. According to Frank, the conservative establishment has tricked Kansans, playing up the emotional touchstones of conservatism and perpetuating a sense of a vast liberal empire out to crush traditional values while barely ever discussing the Republicans' actual economic policies and what they mean to the working class. Thus the pro-life Kansas factory worker who listens to Rush Limbaugh will repeatedly vote for the party that is less likely to protect his safety, less likely to protect his job, and less likely to benefit him economically."
I gotta read that book!
=========================
It was during Clinton's 2nd term I noticed something happening to the dialogue & discourse in the country that I found disconcerting. It all began to make sense when I read Thom Hartmann’s discussion on this same thing. I noticed because I had studied NLP [Neuro Linguistic Programming], something Thom Hartmann has studied extensively. Here’s a snip from transcript of his radio show:
“It's no secret, in fact there's a whole industry around it [submodality anchoring]. But it had never in my experience been brought into the political arena. It was just considered too hot, you know, over the top. And in the 1988 Bush campaign, George Herbert Walker Bush, they did this, they Willie Horton-ized Michael Dukakis. And I was, Louise and I were in New York, attending an NLP conference actually, put on by a guy, Joe Riggio, who's just a brilliant NLP trainer and there was another person there who ran one of the major NLP websites and I mentioned to him the Willie Horton ads and he said, "Yeah, so-and-so" and I'm not going to out this person, I'm not going to name him, but, "a mutual acquaintance of ours has gone to work for the republicans". And, you know, I got it that it was no accident. And, of course, you know, Frank Luntz is also the big guy in all this. Not that he's out of the NLP world but what he's using is NLP stuff.
And at the time I was living in Atlanta, actually in the northern suburbs of Atlanta, we lived in Roswell. And which was a district represented by Newt Gingrich; he was my congressman. And I could tell you some wild stories about that - some day we will. But about that time, or just shortly thereafter, actually I think it was the, must have been like '92, I'm not sure what year it was. Anyhow, Newt came out with his, you know when he came out with his 'Contract on America', which was masterfully framed stuff in NLP terms. He also came out with his word list. And it was in a memo, a secret memo, that went out to GOP leaders and frankly I'm not sure that Newt wrote this. You know, he was a good, although he still follows these rules, it's possible he wrote it. But I'm guessing it was my old NLP friend or somebody like him. I'm quoting; the memo was titled "Language: A Key Mechanism of Control" by Newt Gingrich. Newt wrote, "Often we search hard for words to help us define our opponents. Apply these words to the opponent, their record, proposal and their party". And here's the list of words that Newt said you should always use whenever you are going to describe anything democratic or liberal. Always attach these words to the world 'liberal'. And of course this, you know, all the right-wing talk show hosts got this too.
"Decay, failure, fail, collapsing, deeper, crisis, urgent, destructive, destroy, sick, pathetic, lie, liberal, they, them, unionized bureaucracy, compassion is not enough, betray, consequences, limits, shallow, traitors, sensationalists, endanger, coercion, hypocrisy, radical, threaten, devour, waste, corruption, incompetent, permissive, destruction, impose, self-serving, greed, ideological, insecure, anti-flag, anti-family, anti-child, anti-jobs, pessimistic, excuses, intolerant, stagnation, welfare, corrupt, selfish, insensitive, status quo, mandates, taxes, spending, shame, disgrace, punish, bizarre, cynicism, cheat, steal, abuse of power, machine, bosses, obsolete, criminal rights, red tape, and patronage."
And as I went through that list, you probably recognized a lot of words that you've heard in the context of discussions about about democrats and liberals and there's no, and it's no accident. What was amazing to me during this last election was the number of cons who would come onto shows like Crossfire and talking about John Kerry, would just pull these words out of the hat. On the other hand, Newt said, to the Republicans, that there are positive governing words, positive words that should be attached to any discussion of the GOP or GOP policies, conservative policies. Any reference. He said, in fact he said, "memorize as many as possible" of these words. That's a direct quote. "Positive Governing Words". Here's the words that Newt said should be attached to all things Republican, and have been, basically, ever since this memo came out more than a decade ago, certainly by right-wing radio talk show hosts.
"Share, change, opportunity, legacy, challenge, control, truth, moral, courage, reform, prosperity, crusade, movement, children, family, debate, compete, actively, we, us, our," (this instead of they or them), "candidly, humane, pristine, provide, liberty, commitment, principled, unique, duty, precious, premise, caring, tough, listen, learn, help, lead, vision, success, empowerment, citizen, activist, mobilize, conflict, light, dream, freedom, peace, rights, pioneer, proud, pride, building, preserve, pro-flag, pro-children, pro-environment, reform, workfare, eliminate good-time in prison, strength, choose, choice, fair, protect, confident, incentive, hard work, initiative, common sense, and passionate." Newt Gingrich's official word list.
And this is very, very powerful stuff. What I am sharing with you is that we have been on the receiving end of two decades of psychological warfare that's only been played by one side.”
Excellent postings Shoes. Glad to see you're busy and going to such effort to counter me.
I might suggest you include a little Coulter and Gingrich in your vast amount of research. Never hurts to research both sides before forming an opinion, instead of going with the "masses".
And to go with K's Black Box Vote Flippers theorem...guess what?
Elvis is alive, Hitler is alive, a 6 month old boy 4 inches tall can walk, and OJ is innocent...it must be true, because I have the magazines that say so, complete with pictures.
Oink...
http://thinkprogress.org/index.php?p=309
Luntz Watch: 9/11, The Perfect Distraction
Feb. '05
[Influential conservative strategist Frank Luntz has produced a 160-page playbook to advance the right-wing agenda. Think Progress cuts through the spin and gives you the tools you need to fight back. Check here for updates throughout the week.]
In his memo on how to manipulate American perception on the economy, right-wing spinmeister Frank Luntz advises conservatives to “resist the temptation’ to use facts and figures about the economy. (You know, all those pesky statistics about lower wages, unemployment, skyrocketing deficits, etc.) Instead, he advises, you can’t go wrong if you continuosly remind people about the terrorist attacks of 9/11. “This is the context that explains and justifies why we have $500 billion deficits, why the stock market tanked, why unemployment climbed to 6%.”
Oh, yes, he advises preying on the emotions tied to the terrorist attacks to distract Americans from the truth about the economy, writing, “Much of the public anger can be immediately pacified if they are reminded that we would not be in this situation today if 9/11 had not happened.” It’s also an easy way to get President Bush off the hook: Luntz points out that convincing people that the struggling economy is a consequence of 9/11 (as opposed to, say, Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy) will convince people “it is unfair to blame the current political leadership”
Finally, Luntz advises, 9/11 is the perfect way to dodge responsibility for sinking the country in red ink. In a section headed “Without the context of 9-11, you will be blamed for the deficit,” he points out “supporters are inherently turned off to the idea of fiscal irresponsibility.” The best way to counter that fact? “The trick then is to contextualize the deficit inside of 9/11.”
"we have been on the receiving end of two decades of psychological warfare that's only been played by one side.”
Sounds to me like the winning side must be a little smarter than the other side. What's the problem?
Does "right or WRONG" ring a bell?
Right or Wrong has nothing to do with winning...
Depends on your definition of "winning."
Winning is doing whatever it takes to defeat evil and protect the weak and innocent. Might makes Right.
Well, then, it seems you're upholding the wrong side in this.
So, depleting the budget, throwing the country into a recession, protecting the rich & powerful by stealing from the middle class & the poorest among us, shredding the Constitution, waging a war of aggression solely for occupation, trampling on our rights as citizens [etc. etc.] is the RIGHT thing to do???
Might is right?
Bluto?
"Glad to see you're busy and going to such effort to counter me."
It's no effort, trust me.
click....x 2
Woof!
Busy blog today.
Yes, Kira, my September 20 letter, entitled, "Your Oath of Office and Potential Acts of Treason" is posted in the next string down. I always post my letters to Congress here just for public documentation purposes.
The 9/11 Truth Movement is my main deal, so I presented all the strongest publicly available 9/11 evidence to date in one letter and put the entire US Senate on notice that any senator who continues to support a regime that obviously murdered innocent US civilians on 9/11 in a false flag attack is tantatmount to treason -- and they can't, as of September 20, 2007, proclaim "ignorance of the evidence" as a defense at any future trial.
Yeah, I suspect it may have gotten the attention of a few senators for sure!
As for A-holes -- I don't care as long as they are not operatives. In fact, it is probably going to be the Orrin Hatch's out there (assuming he is not an op) that save the day in the end. Sort of like Saul converting to Paul in the bible -- these "A-holes" end up being the strongest proponents of doing the right thing (just from being so pissed off from being so misled) if you can give them a chance to "see the light" so to speak.
Again, Orrin Hatch might not be the one, but it will be an Orrin Hatch-like Republican who will be, I'm almost certain.
More Thomas Frank...
"This long-running conservative, (right-wing, gay bashing, immigrant hating, religious nut-ball, NASCAR-lovin') revolt is rife with contradictions. It is an uprising of the common people whose long-term economic effect has been to shower riches upon the already wealthy and degrade the lives of the very people who are rising up. It is a reaction against mass culture that refuses to call into question the basic institutions of corporate America that make mass culture what it is.
It is a revolution that plans to overthrow the (liberal) aristocrats by cutting their taxes."
How smart is that?
While I admit I really do admire your spunk Nic, do you REALLY believe that all your letters are gonna' make one IOTA of difference...one way or the other? Do you really think the Congress is going to investigate itself for all their supposed "crimes of treason"?
Your intelligence and drive are obvious, but your naivety and delusions are somewhat saddening.
"How smart is that?"...the writer or the theory?
Neither is very smart.
Those in the "conservative" movement who vote against their own interests,
(are not exactly rocket-scientists.)
Like we've said here before...
"There are only two kinds of Republicans: Millionaires or Fools."
Moving on...
what exactly was the subject of the "disgusting" commercial? does anyone have a link so i can see for myself.
All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.
Thomas Jefferson
Great letter, h nicole. Have you heard back from anybody else?
Shirley heezgay,
It was an advert in the NYTimes. You can access it here:
http://pol.moveon.org/petraeus.html
Shirley, it was a full-page ad in the New York Times last week with the headline: "General Petraeus or General Betray Us?" I'll try to find a link to the visual.
Two interesting things: As you may have read here or elsewhere, Petraeus' own boss, Admiral Fallon, called him "an ass-kissing little chickenshit" earlier in the year
(http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39235) and the "Betray Us" nickname was bestowed on him by his own troops, according to a right-wing blog where it was being discussed.
Shoes, thanks for alerting me to Thomas Frank. Excellent reading.
"...do you REALLY believe that all your letters are gonna' make one IOTA of difference..."
Not to criticize, but this statement is American apathy in action.
Nic isn't the only one writing to senators and representatives in this country.
Saying one person can't make a difference is the same excuse for global warming (which I know you think is hooey), for raising consciousness on society's issues etc.
If History has taught us anything, it's that one person most certainly CAN make a difference.
Rosa Parks
Abraham Lincoln
Sir Sandford Flemming
Alexander Graham Bell
Mother Teresa
Brenda Howard
Diana Spencer
The Dalai Lama
Sylvia Rivera.
...and on and on.
but it works both ways, though. Adolf Hitler made a huge difference, too.
Thanks, Kira and MS...
I checked it out.
I can see why HE would think it was disgusting. Because it sounds like it rings of truth.
Kira, the NLP summary is spot on. It's all about language. Too bad the Dems are missing the boat on this.
(sigh)...For the record...
There's never going to be another investigation of 9/11.
Nobody is going to be impeached.
Nobody in congress is going to be tried for treason.
and...paraphrasing Churchill, Winston, not Ward...
"A man who is not a liberal at 20 has no heart. A man who is not a conservative at 40 has no head."
Doesn't mean someone over 40 can't still have a heart and a head.
Truth is not georgie's friend, shirley, you got that right.
Now I got a plane to catch, but before I go I can't let this one slide:
"Moveon gave away over $58 Million to candidates and elected officials. Do you even have a clue as to how many schoolbooks, tractors, garden seed, cans of beenie weenies, or whatever that could have bought for the "poor downtrodden masses"?"
Nope. And don't know how many schoolbooks, tractors, seeds, or beenie weenies the ONE TRILLION $$$$ we spending in Iraq would buy either but I bet it's a helluva lot more than $58mil. Not to mention moveon money was donations, iraq war money is taxpayer bucks, should go to helping all us, not killing & maiming.
ciao, y'all - I be in Paris (as in France) if you need me.
Oooh Stayhungry - "I be in Paris (as in France)"
I'm sooo jealous. Have a bon voyage.
moneysmith said...
Kira, the NLP summary is spot on. It's all about language. Too bad the Dems are missing the boat on this.
Listen to the Dems talk. They've been brainwashed too! When interviewed by media they constantly use the G-OP language against themselves.
Someone needs to create a deprogramming camp for the Dems. Anybody know an Intervention Specialist who could handle the job?
http://tinyurl.com/2xs7g9
This guy will put your knickers in a knot...hilarious and true.
"Someone needs to create a deprogramming camp for the Dems. Anybody know an Intervention Specialist who could handle the job?"
Gingrich/Coulter/O'Reilly/Limbaugh Special Education School For The Liberally Challenged comes to mind.
>;}
Yeah, I just reread that last comment of mine about Senator Hatch possibly being some kind of hero in this in the end, and I have to admit it does sound pretty naive, but what the hay? I'd rather be naive and give it a go than savvy and afraid of my own shadow.
Is there anybody out there under fifty that buys the official government story on 9/11? I have always suspected this may be an age thing as much as a female thing.
It is why I document as much as possible now w/o caring so much what the short-term effects are on the mostly over-fifty (and male) audience in the Congress. I know it's just a matter of time for the geezers to die off and make room for the truth to finally surface, along with a wave of young female congresspeople to boot -- I hope.
Sept. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Dozens of corporate executives who backed President George W. Bush for re-election in 2004, including some of his top fund-raisers, are now helping Democrats running for president.
http://tinyurl.com/2738td
Well, I take that back about nobody under 50 believing the official Republican story about 9/11. I suspect these two noose-waving teenagers from the cess pools of Louisiana have no problem believing only dark-skinned people could be responsible for 9/11...
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/21/car.nooses/index.html
Glad you took my "observation" constructively Nic...that's how it was intended. Some more food for thought.
Liberal/Democrat--More Government, restrictions of rights, such as gun control, higher taxes, everyone conforms to a "standard", and so on.
Conservative/Republican--Less government, lower taxes, anybody can own anything they want, such as guns, individuals can be who they want to be.
Stop and think about the conflict in philosophies. Let's take guns for an example. You would think a person with "Liberal" leanings would let anybody that wanted to own a gun, own one. Freedom to protest, GLBT issues, women's rights, abortion, "freedoms" and so on, but you have no right to own a gun. Next, let's take taxes. You would think a person with "Liberal" tendencies would want less taxes, less government control, more individual "freedoms".
Conversely, a "Conservative", by definition, would want more control, more rules, and less "freedoms" for the individual. Everyone should conform to the "norm" and follow strict rules. No V-8 cars, etc., mandatory standards for everyone to follow. Instead, Conservatives believe in less government, the right to keep and bear arms, lower taxes, fewer "rules" for the individual to follow.
Some old political buddies of mine and I used to discuss these conflicts in philosophies ad nauseum years ago and there is a lot more to it, and quite frankly, I've forgot most of the finer points, but I know you'll get the gist of it. Just stop and think about "Liberal" vs "Conservative" theories and practices. Makes ya' wonder sometimes who really is a Liberal or a Conservative.
As long as we are making broad generalizations, let's take the evolutionary point of view:
Republicans are cavemen: use intimidation and physical force to get what they want (namely protection of territory as a means to feed and shelter family), feel most comfortable in hierarchical structures, cavewomen must be controlled lest they weaken the tribe and get everybody annihilated, cavewomen especially not allowed to sleep around.
Democrats are cavewomen: use indirect means and social pressure to get what they want (namely protection of territory as a means to feed and shelter family), feel most comfortable in non-hierarchical structures, cavemen must be controlled lest they invoke rage in other tribes and get everybody annihilated, cavewomen more tolerant because they have to deal with the day-to-day reality of rearing children, who make lots of mistakes.
As with anything, balance between these two extremes is probably best. Currently, we are behaving WAY too much like cavemen, IMHO.
The most pressing issue to me, therefore, is that we need to get the number of cavewomen in Congress up from the current 17% to 50% ASAP, and I don't care at this point whether they are Republicans or Democrats by name, quite frankly.
"(namely protection of territory as a means to feed and shelter family)"...
If it weren't for cavemen, there would be no cavewomen.
..and yes, if it weren't for cavewomen, there would be no cavemen for the next generation.
It's a vicious circle...called Life.
Yes, h nicole, more, more, more women progressive Democrats in Congress! That's what it's going to take to bring about peace. As Sally Field tried to tell the world when the a**holes at Fox censored her:
http://tinyurl.com/2xmqsg
Women understand the value of life. They understand how to negotiate, how to reach out to others to resolve differences. And if it's necessary, they will fight to the death to protect their young. But they don't send their young out to die protecting them.
Men can develop these skills, but first they have to get over themselves and look at how few do. Congress (and a lot of the nation)is filled with egotistical, chest-thumping, my-balls-are-bigger-than-your-balls losers who blame everyone but themselves for any problems. "It's 9/11's fault, it's the extremists, it's the Democrats, it's the liberals, it's Bill Clinton, blah, blah, blah."
It's so interesting to watch them as Bush plummets in public opinion polls. Their state of denial is like a death grip. They squeal louder -- CLINTON! EXTREMISTS! 9/11!!! LIBERALS!! -- just like someone who is talking to a non-English speaker and thinks that if they yell the person will understand.
What a hoot! It just shows how desperate they are to retain control, even though they know it's slipping further away every day.
Ooops, forgot -- stayhungry, how dare you go to Paris without me? I'll let you get away with it this time, though, and see you in NOLA in December! Ciao, ciao!
Bon Voyage!
Je suis en retard, Rester Affame, mais bon voyage...
Meanwhile, back at the cess pools of American society, as we all wonder why it is so difficult for a certain segment of the population to believe that anybody other than "those evil dark-skinned people" could have carried out the attacks on 9/11...
http://tinyurl.com/36ut6k
For those of you who may think I was referring to GWB in a tasteless way in the above post, en retard just means "late" in French, that's all...
"I think there's a pattern here for conservatives and their social attitudes. They don't mind restrictions on free speech, until they have something provocative to say. They want to restrict reproductive rights, until someone close to them has an unwanted pregnancy. They want to break down the church-state wall, until they feel like their faith is in the minority. They want to treat embryos as people, until they suffer from an ailment that could benefit from stem-cell research.
And they balk at the idea of equal rights for gay people, until it's their daughter who is looking for equality.
The key to social change in this country seems fairly straightforward: wait for conservatives to have more life experience."
Steve Benen
http://tinyurl.com/247sba
REQUIRED VIEWING:
http://tinyurl.com/2g4zg6
So, you quote one soldier and he speaks for all? Not for the soldiers I've seen and listened to on commercials for FreedomsWatch.But of course, we wouldn't find anything supporative of the war here. I also let MoveOn know what I thought of their disgusting ad and I'm sure I'm not the only one. But no one will ever know.
And does Sally Fields know that there are "mothers" who raise and support their children to become suicide bombers?
What exactly was wrong with the moveon.org ad other than telling the truth?
Read the Bush=Saddam 2.0 article and watch the video link above.
"What exactly was wrong with the moveon.org ad other than telling the truth?"
Duh!
"WASHINGTON — The Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly passed a measure condemning MoveOn.org for a newspaper ad it ran last week attacking Gen. David Petraeus. The move came as President Bush accused Democrats of cowering to the liberal political action group.
The measure passed in a 72-25 vote, with none of the Democratic presidential candidates supporting it. Sponsored by Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn, never one to shy away from forcing Democrats to go on record on politically sticky issues, the amendment to the defense authorization bill did win the backing of 23 Democrats."
In case you didn't know, in this country, majority rules. And The last I looked The Dems controlled Congress.
Like we said, what's wrong with telling the truth? The first amendment was still in the constitution is it not?
Support the Troops? Tell that to that family in Haditha.
http://tinyurl.com/34pndq
Blind Patriotism is just that, blind.
War's a bitch and people get killed. So what? No one condones wanton murder, but in the heat of battle, sometimes things get confused and bad things happen.
So what do you want to do? Go back and investigate every civilian death over the last 1,000 years and make sure "reparations" are made?
"In the course of Article 32 hearings, which have not yet concluded, conflicting testimony has been presented, some of it rebutting the case made by prosecutors and widely cited in the media. The investigating officer has told the prosecution so far, "The account you want me to believe does not support unpremeditated murder."[6] On 9 August, LtGen James Mattis dropped the charges against Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt, who had been accused of murder, and against Capt. Randy Stone, accused of failing to investigate the incident.[7] On 23 August, the investigating officer recommended charges against Lance Cpl. Stephen Tatum be dropped as well.[8]
Article 32 proceedings continue against two other defendants."
Sounds to me like what is necessary is being done.
And I'd a hell of a lot rather be blind with patriotism(I'm not) than ignorance, gullibility, and naivety.
THE POLITICALLY CORRECT ELITIST LEFTWING LIBERAL HANDBOOK
Our Hallowed Sixty-Six Commandments
1. You have to believe that the AIDS virus is spread by a lack of federal funding.
2. You have to believe that the same teacher who can’t teach 4th graders how to read is somehow qualified to teach those same kids about sex.
3. You have to believe that guns in the hands of law-abiding Americans are more of a threat than U.S. nuclear weapons technology in the hands of Chinese and North Korean communists.
4. You have to believe that there was no art before federal funding.
5. You have to believe that global temperatures are less affected by cyclical, documented changes in the earth’s climate, and more affected by soccer moms driving SUVs.
6. You have to believe that gender roles are artificial, but being lesbian is natural.
7. You have to be against capital punishment for criminals, even murderers, but support abortion on demand.
8. You have to believe that businesses create oppression, and governments create prosperity. As a true Elitist Leftwing Liberal you have to believe that no Americans ever lost their jobs or became homeless except during the Reagan and Bush Administrations; these are problems that can be solved only by lotsa money and Liberals in the federal government.
9. You have to believe that hunters don’t care about nature, but loony activists who have never been outside of San Francisco do.
10. You have to believe that self-esteem is more important than actually doing something to earn it.
11. You have to believe that the military, not politicians, start wars.
12. You have to believe the NRA is bad, because it supports certain parts of the Constitution, while the ACLU is good because it supports certain parts of the Constitution.
13. You have to believe that taxes are too low, but ATM fees are too high.
14. You have to believe that Margaret Sanger and Gloria Steinem are more important to American history than Thomas Jefferson, General Robert E. Lee and Thomas Edison are.
15. You have to believe that standardized tests are racist, but racial quotas, preferential treatment and set-asides are not racist.
16. You have to believe that Hillary Clinton is normal, and really a very nice person.
17. You have to believe that the only reason socialism and communism haven’t worked anywhere it’s been tried, is because the right people haven’t been in charge. You must also vociferously deny the fact that “Nazi” is an abbreviation for Adolf Hitler’s Nationalsozialist party, because Hitler makes socialism look bad, unlike humanitarian socialists like Josef Stalin, Mao Zedong, Fidel Castro, Ho Chi Minh, Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein and a host of other socialists who raped, tortured, maimed and slaughtered their own people in the name of political and economic advancement for the plight of the downtrodden.
18. You have to believe conservatives telling the truth belong in jail, but a draft-dodging liar and sex offender belonged in the White House.
19. You have to believe that homosexual parades displaying drag, transvestites and bestiality as well as organizations such as NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Love Association) and other groups that promote pedophilia should be constitutionally protected, but symbols such as the Cross, the Star of David and manger scenes at Christmas should be illegal.
20. You have to believe that illegal Democratic Party funding by the Chinese government is somehow in the best interests of the United States.
21. You have to refuse to discuss the issues in a rational manner and whenever someone attempts to do so, throw a 3 ring tantrum, rant and rave, go into a lunatic rage and outshout them (preferably with profanity and name-calling) and stick to personal slurs, smear tactics, slander and building strawmen so you can knock down the strawmen (oops, sorry, strawpersons) and hopefully sidetrack the conversation away from your lack of ability to support your positions or refute the arguments of others. When you can’t think of anything plausible to say, and name-calling and personal slurs are no longer working because people with IQs above ginger snaps can see right through such childish tactics, an especially effective prepubescent ploy that will at least convince other Elitist Leftwing Liberals, is to claim your adversaries hate America, or if you’re on the cowardly side, indignantly ask them why they hate America even though it’s obvious that its the Elitist Leftwing Liberals who hate America and Americans. Uncles Lenin and Stalin always urged us to accuse our adversaries of the very things we’re trying to hide. If you repeat this enough times, Elitist Leftwing Liberals will be offering awards - they may not be candy bars, but, you will be sure to win some snickers.
22. You must always ignore the message and attack the messenger. When stuck, remember the tactic that won’t reveal to other Elitist Leftwing Liberals your unwillingness to rebut the issue under discussion or your inability to think or say anything original: smugly change a couple of your adversaries’ words, parrot and repeat their comments back to them verbatim and even if it isn’t true, by all means always be sure to accuse your opponents of using the very tactics the Elitist Leftwing Liberals try to hide, remembering all the while that Unca Lenin would be proud as punch.
23. No matter how credible a source may be - always do your Elitist Leftwing Liberal duty and rabidly claim it’s been debunked and discredited and call anyone who believes it “mean spirited”, crazy, a Nazi or any other of the monikers from the Elitist Leftwing Liberal grab bag of infantile epithets and sarcastic sobriquets even if you invented your “data” out of thin air or found it on the webpage of some Elitist Leftwing Liberal lemming on the lunatic fringe. See Article #27 for the suggested politically correct buzzwords to use in your tantrums.
24. Whenever demonstrated facts don’t agree with your agenda, twist them and mangle them until you can make them fit into your prejudices, the media will assist you greatly.
25. Once you’ve told a lie or slandered someone, be sure to repeat it as often as possible until it becomes true. “Members and front organizations must continually embarrass, discredit and degrade our critics. When obstructionists become too irritating, label them as fascist, or Nazi or anti-Semitic …. The association will, after enough repetition, become “fact” in the public mind.” [ ~ Communist Party, Moscow Central Committee, 1943]
26. You have to believe that all spirituality and all religions except Islam are bad.
27. You must use the following buzzwords as often as possible without necessarily knowing their definitions: “Nazi”, “Hitler”, “gestapo”, “police state”, “police brutality”, “totalitarian state”, “imperialism”, “imperialist”, “running dogs of [fill in the blank], “greedy corporations”, “shrub”, “fascist”, “paranoid”, “paranoia”, “goosestepping”, “ruling-class”, “class-strife”, “class warfare”, “stolen election”, “unconstitutional”, “racist”, “entitlements”, “hate”, “bourgeois” or better yet, “petty bourgeois”, “counter-revolutionary”, “progressive”, “red-baiter”, “witch hunt”, “inquisition”, “anti-Communist”, “deviationist”, “revisionist”, “reactionary”, “multiculturalism”, “oppressed”, “unilateral”, “victims of Yankee oppression”, “plight of the [fill in the blank] people”, “victimhood”, “mean-spirited”, “McCarthyism”, “jingoism”, “flag-wavers”, “neocons”, “alternative(s)”, “empowered” and, of course, overuse of the indispensable “F” word.
28. You have to believe that there were never any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, even though they were used against Iran, the Kurds and the Iraqi people and even though the many Democrats warned us about WMD before the Iraqi invasion: William Jefferson Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Sandy Berger, Madeline Albright, Senators Carl Levin, Tom Daschle, Robert Byrd, Jay Rockefeller, John Kerry, Bob Graham, Ted Kennedy, Representatives Nancy Pelosi and Henry Waxman and vice-president Al Gore to name only the most vociferous.
29. You have to be a purveyor of perennial pessimism and a dispatcher of doomsday gloom and hyperbolic hysteria whenever you can work some scare tactics into the foreboding warnings of eventual catastrophe at the hands of your adversaries, i.e. people who disagree with you.
30. Whenever possible, if you hear or read something that seems quite logical and might influence someone against the Elitist Leftwing Liberal viewpoint, be sure to pounce on the exception or some tiny, inconsequential irrelevancy, such as the misspelling, poor punctuation or mispronunciation of a word, unusual facial expression, article of clothing or some morsel of arcane trivia or irrelevant minutiae in an attempt to derail the conversation into petty bickering replete with name-calling and personal slurs. [Use of the “F” word is particularly effective, especially when combined with prepubescent profanity and puerile posturing.]
31. Always have unkind and accusatory slurs cocked and ready to use regarding any armed forces personnel, especially military people in harm’s way other than your own candidates, sell-outs, turncoats, traitors and those who are guilty of or advocate treason. The exception, of course, would be soldiers killed or wounded when a Republican is president - then take an indignant stance and shriek hysterically at the tragedy - don’t worry other Elitist Leftwing Liberals will realize your disdain for military people who are characterized favorably when you think it will make conservatives look bad in the eyes of Elitist Leftwing Liberals, the lunatic fringe and the politically illiterate.
32. When your adversary presents a particularly damning discovery, pervert it, twist it around, fabricate something out of thin air and accuse him of something he didn’t say, falsely attribute your invention to him and then proceed to argue against your own creation with the hope nobody will notice. This is best done by beginning your remarks with “Translation:”, “hence”, or “in other words” or “so what you are suggesting” or “are you saying that…” followed by the most implausible, irrelevant non sequiturs you can fantasize.
33. You have to remember that nobody but your adversaries, real or imagined are ever to blame for anything and no one should ever be accountable or held responsible for their words or actions - they’re just misunderstood or some such sociological mumbo-jumbo. Blaming without offering solutions is the typical modus operandi of Elitist Leftwing Liberals.
34. Remember our venerated motto: Victimhood is a veritable virtue! You have to be a victim of as many forms of melodrama as possible and be ever vigilant to promote victimization of almost anything and anyone although that’s very difficult to reconcile with the assertion that nobody’s to blame for anything they do, except, of course, the people who don’t agree with you. Whenever you get confused, remember the Double Standard will always come to your rescue when it’s difficult to justify victimhood to people who are rational.
35. You must always have Double Standards, a higher standard that you demand of nations, corporations and individuals you don’t like and especially people who don’t agree with you - and another set of standards for yourself and your Elitist Leftwing Liberal confederates which is preferably no standards at all.
36. You must with all your heart and soul hate America and Americans and bash them at every opportunity, while claiming you love America though you contend that American patriots are really traitors. And do remember to accuse people who don’t agree with you of being the ones who hate America and Americans. This won’t confuse people with IQs above eggplants, but remember some of our best friends are about as intellectually astute as ashtrays. While Elitist Leftwing Liberals hate red-blooded Americans, remember we have blood also and it’s always “B Negative”.
37. You must always remember that you are a member of the grown up 4-H and it is incumbent on you to always display their watchwords: hallucinations, hyperbole, hysteria and hate.
38. Remember to claim that the flag is only a piece of cloth and stands for nothing while you explain how you love America and that’s why you howl and hurl hateful epithets regarding America and Americans, especially those who disagree with you.
39. You are always to belittle and deride concepts such as optimism, patriotism, honor, honesty, faithfulness, fidelity, loyalty, courage, bravery, principles, trust, trustworthiness, reliability, responsibility, respect, common-courtesy, common decency, kindness, Good Samaritanism, sacrifice, patience, fortitude, values, integrity and character as being naive and passe. Call anyone who uses those words, “judgemental” and “intolerant”.
40. You are encouraged to lionize, venerate, yea, worship sloth, lust, self-centeredness, selfishness, instant gratification, slander, criminal behavior, drug addiction, degenerate behavior, promiscuous sex, lewd remarks and behavior, rudeness, crudeness, crassness, smutty language, vulgarity of all kinds, disrespect for authority, laws, law enforcement and military while showing respect for prostitution, drug dealing, gang-bangers, organized crime, pornography and generally everything that would aid in tearing down the social fabric of the United States of America and all she stands for.
41. Be sure to exhibit incessant anger at America and Americans in general and rage at conservatives, centrists and anyone who doesn’t agree with your ideas.
42. You must be “politically correct” when it suits your purpose and point out that political correctness is a form of freedom rather than more mind-control, but, it’s more important to demand that others be “politically correct” than actually follow those demands yourself.
43. You must always offer praise and/or excuses for all of America’s enemies, especially terrorists who aren’t really murdering cowards, but, rather multiculturally misunderstood.
44. You have to believe that just because your candidate lost an election (by all means stomp and shout “election fraud” or “stolen election”) or an unacceptable law was passed there’s always the possibility of going to court where an Elitist Leftwing Liberal judge is presiding so that you can get your way in spite of the wishes of the electorate and those of their congressional delegates as elections and legislation are more effectively decided by certain judges and their courts than by the voters and their legislatures. But, be sure to stress that you believe in the Constitution and remember to always claim that the candidate, election or law you don’t like is unconstitutional. In fact, for argumentation purposes, it’s always a good idea to claim that any law or action that doesn’t please you is unconstitutional as it’s an excellent buzzword and makes you sound like you might know something esoteric. After all, guys like Noam Chomsky and Alan Dershowitz made a career of such tactics.
45. Whenever someone says something that rubs your prejudgements the wrong way, ignore the contents of the remarks and vilify, defame, malign and slander that person while claiming everything that person has ever said or will ever utter is wrong. You are encouraged to take cheap shots and engage in name-calling and ad hominem attacks, but, above all, if you’re a true standard-bearer for the Elitist Leftwing Liberals, avoid discussing issues you can’t debate - which are, of course, all of them.
46. Honor multiculturalism and know its “truths”: “Multiculturalism, n. The doctrine that persons of European ancestry are morally inferior to all other human beings.” ~ John Derbyshire, inspired by Ambrose Bierce and his Devil’s Dictionary.
47. When confronted with something that is critical of Elitist Leftwing Liberals, read or listen to one or two lines and jump to conclusions (it’s the best exercise many Elitist Leftwing Liberals get) that the beginning was awful (meaning it might ask an Elitist Leftwing Liberal to actually think or to look at Elitist Leftwing Liberals in an uncomplimentary light) - and claim you didn’t bother to read the rest or listen to the remainder all the while claiming to be open-minded.
48. You must take it as your sworn duty to do your utmost to prevent people from printing, voicing, writing or otherwise disseminating any communication which is either unfavorable to or not in agreement with Elitist Leftwing Liberal dogma and you must also strictly enforce Political Correctness, while at the same time doing your best to muzzle and silence those who don’t agree with you. Tell adversaries to “Do as I say, and I’ll do as I please!” This is not censorship, hypocrisy or Double Standards, but rather, “Freedom of Speech” an important Constitutional Amendment written to give Elitist Leftwing Liberals their God-given rights, even if they renounce and don’t believe in God and even if they think rights are only for Elitist Leftwing Liberals.
49. If you don’t agree with the points of others, under no circumstances should you present a rational counter argument or discuss the issue itself when it is much more effective to call people liars and cast aspersions on their veracity. This is also effective if a person makes a mistake, don’t overlook or excuse the error or admit there was a possibility of a mistake - call them liars ferociously, unless it’s a petty sideline mistake that will help you construct smoke and mirrors, in that case see Article #30 above.
50. Conservatives suggest that people should “hate the sin, love the sinner”. Remember, as an Elitist Leftwing Liberal you must always hate the sinner [person or corporation who doesn’t agree with you] and love the sin as all sins are “relative” and finding anything wrong with them is “judgemental”. This may be difficult to grasp at first glance since Elitist Leftwing Liberals don’t believe in “sin” [unless it’s being applied via Double Standard, see Article #35, toward corporations or people who don’t agree with Elitist Leftwing Liberals] except for hypocrisy which is the only sin, when applied to our opponents and is one of the most effective slurs in our arsenal. See Article #54
51. You must never be willing to take the consequences of your own actions or words or expect your confederates to do the same as long as you can unjustly lay the blame on someone else. But, of course, it is critical that you demand that people who don’t agree with your ideas be held to strict adherence of taking the consequences of their actions: See Article #35 above regarding nurturing our trademark: Double Standards.
52. When asked to “cite” or give citations, sources or support for your propaganda, you can do one of 4 things: Use secondary sources which supposedly give “expert” Elitist Leftwing Liberal opinion on the primary sources when they’re not ignoring them, taking phrases out of context, twisting their words or perverting their meaning; make an official-looking, bogus website (provided you know someone who knows how to make one and is also literate enough to write without a spell check) with the fake “facts” you’ve presented; refer them to a propaganda site that may or may not support your claims or the third and preferred solution is to give them the URL of an official or universally accepted website and claim vehemently that the so-called information you’ve invented, created or faked is from that website though anyone who looks won’t find it there.
53. Remember, “A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money.” ~ G. Gordon Liddy
54. You have to support and promote socialized medicine as “Socialized medicine is based on the belief that, while individual bankruptcy by medical bills is tragic and wicked, bankrupting the entire country is beneficial and noble.” ~ Nicolas Martin [”If you think health care is expensive now, wait ’til you see how much it costs when it’s free.” ~ P. J. O’Rourke]
55. When your adversaries make statements that ring true, seem logical or appear to have merit, ask them completely irrelevant non sequitur questions in an attempt to evade the issue and derail the conversation. If that doesn’t work, announce with all due grandiosity that your opponents refuse to answer your questions or give cites, therefore, they cannot support their assertions. This ploy of course won’t work with people who can think, but, it will bring Elitist Leftwing Liberals and the lunatic fringe out of the woodwork to jump on your bellicose, bungling bandwagon.
56. You must always vociferously and incessantly point out that the reason any conservative’s failing is always major news is that it allows liberals to engage in their very favorite taunt: “Hypocrisy!” Hypocrisy is the only sin that really inflames us Elitist Leftwing Liberals and, of course, only applies to others because Liberals can always invoke the time-honored Double Standard. Inasmuch as Elitist Leftwing Liberals have no moral principles, we can sit back, march, or otherwise create a ruckus as we criticize other people for failing to meet the standards that liberals simply renounce. It’s an intriguing strategy. By openly admitting to being philanderers, draft dodgers, liars, weasels and cowards, liberals avoid ever being hypocrites. Remember, admission that morals and ethics are passe always gets you off the hook - but, do not hesitate to point out the immorality or unethical behavior of people who don’t agree with Elitist Leftwing Liberals.
57. Remember, as a cheerleader for decadence, when any despot, criminal or maniac is treated in any way differently from the way he treated others, it’s your sworn duty to scream to the heavens that he isn’t being treated with dignity and is being embarrassed in spite of the fact he may have raped, tortured, maimed and slaughtered others; as an Elitist Leftwing Liberal you must remain silent about the victims of despots, criminals and maniacs. The victims got what they deserved and despots, criminals and maniacs are to be honored, lionized, venerated and if they’re bad enough, worshipped.
58. As an Elitist Leftwing Liberal, you must believe that all America foreign policy must have the unanimous approval of France, Russia, Syria, Cuba, North Korea, Communist China and the United Nations.
59. You must learn to be agile at pulling the old Elitist Leftwing Liberal Switcheroo. Naturally in normal discourse, you must incessantly and nauseatingly bash your country, slur and slander the founding fathers and American istitutions like the police, FBI, CIA, etc., calling them terrorists and murderers, disparage all religions except Islam, denounce all military institutions and personnel, chide all people who have moral convictions and on and on [See articles 1-58]; but, remember, when trying to win a petty bickering match, employ the Elitist Leftwing Liberal Switcheroo - which means dropping your old mantras and bromides and immediately feigning to embrace your opponents’ views momentarily while you don the mask of reverence for those you hate, but are aware that your adversaries admire. This is particularly effective when showing mock concern for American armed services personnel who are in harms’ way under an administration that doesn’t have Elitist Leftwing Liberal Lemming approval. If you are successful enough in public discourse and if you exhibit it with enough ferocity and frequency, you may be eligible to win a toaster from The Elitist Leftwing Liberal Liberty Lobby.
60. As an Elitist Leftwing Liberal, you must be like a feminist bookstore in that you have no humor department, therefore display no sense of humor while making zero effort to distinguish between serious commentary and obvious humor, satire, and sarcasm. It helps clarify the profile of Elitist Leftwing Liberals.
61. As an Elitist Leftwing Liberal, you must shout “Hypocrite” and “Hypocrisy” whenever your fantasies indicate that an adversary accepts the entirety of a political party, political administration or political philosophy. If the person purports to have any disagreements with that political party, political administration or political philosophy, maliciously call them “Hypocrites” while foaming at the mouth, gnashing your teeth, beating your breasts and tearing your hair. It’s the Elitist Leftwing Liberal Catch-22 where you are going to brand them “Hypocrites” no matter what they say or do. After all, “Hypocrite” is our favorite word and the only sin we recognize - in others, of course.
62. You must always be conscious of Political Correctness. “‘You’re not allowed to call them dinosaurs anymore.’ said Yo-less. ‘It’s speciesist. You have to call them pre-petroleum persons.’” ~ Terry Pratchett
63. Remember, one of the Elitist Leftwing Liberal hallmarks is to try to instill fear and use whatever scare tactics are available. This in conjunction with doomsday prophecies, perennial pessimism and hopelessness, real or imagined, will hopefully amplify the fear in others. “Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd.” ~ Bertrand Russell
64. Whenever someone offers documentation or legal proof, one effective method of obfuscation is to claim the documents, certificates, court orders or whatever were forged, fraudulent, fake or fudged. The same thing can be done when someone offers proof of candidates’ popularity because they were elected to office - you can merely spare the gore and claim the election was rigged and the rightful candidate was robbed. Remember Uncle Joe’s Maxim: “Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything.” ~ Josef Stalin
Poor Uncle Joe didn’t know about using the courts to circumvent legislation and elections.
65. You must always insist that the _Holy Bible_ must never be read in schools - even by students who get free condoms (though it can be burned) but, it’s acceptable reading in penitentiaries and people testifying in court must swear on the _Holy Bible_, but, the _Bible’s_ “Ten Commandments” cannot be displayed at the courthouse by court order.
66. You, as an Elitist Leftwing Liberal, have to believe that all of the above is part of a vast right wing conspiracy.
Remember that in order for us to coerce loyalty we must levy severe warning that failure to adhere strictly to the demands presented in this consecrated manifesto is considered HERESY and could result in your not receiving invitations to important Elitist Leftwing Liberal functions such as homosexual marriages, ritual flag burnings, tossing medals (yours or anyone else’s) onto the White House lawn or marching in “Free Saddam Hussein” protest rallies wearing official footwear: John Kerry Flip-Flops.
STAY LEFT - YOU FOOL! ~ “No amount of money, influence, persuasion or words can possibly paint Elitist Leftwing Liberals in a worse light than they gladly portray themselves!”
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