Continuing on the string from last post...

Slate ran an article yesterday showing the political equivalent of an aikido move, one that you've picked up on here: liberals have to reverse the way they portray their beliefs, not in terms of money or horse sense, but in terms of morality. The GOP has steamrolled Democrats now in two elections by playing us as limp-wristed, flag-burning, afraid-to-fight sissy boys with money that we didn't earn from labor. Let's turn it around on them.

A minimum wage law rewards people who want to work for a living rather than sell drugs. Giving vouchers for private schools is for people too afraid to sit down with their kids and help them pass classes. Gay rights isn't about sex, it's about equality-tell people that if the GOP had their way, we'd have been going back to giving the vote only to white male landowners. Play up every stupid, racist, deceitful thing a GOP has done: we have a president who's an ex-drunk, a VP with two DUI's, and Alan Keyes is about half a step away from firebombing abortion clinics. Do any of these men live up to Christ's example of humility and servitude? These are questions that you can pose to the 'average' GOP voter to give them a pause.

If you taking a GOP veteran is too slimy to handle, sit on the sidelines. John McCain may be a hell of an example for POW's, but his record on women's rights, the environment, the Keating scandal and his massive funding from the telecommunications industry show him to be a modern-day conservative scumbag; that makes him a prime target for Democratic military activists. The mere fact that fellow servicemen are going after him will make him weaker in upcoming senatorial races. He's a senior senator with lots of influence-veteran or not, he's got to go. Like the theory that we're haphazardly applying over in the sandbox, chop of the head-the senior congressional GOP leadership-and the snake will die.

Start local, think global, and show people that the GOP isn't the moral party in America.

Synopsis of plenary session at DemVet

Main points:

Local politics--all levels
School curriculum and objectives
Creating a 501(c) and/or 527
The Media--eyeballing and pressuring
Changing the terms of the debate and reframing issues, maintaining clear message
Keep a scrapbook on local wrong-doing politicians
Pressure corporate behavior
Boycotts
Election misconduct
Impeachment
Filibuster

A few of the details:

•School Boards, Municipal Councils, County goverments, building workable local organizations that have a stake in who wins up the line is important.

•Take back the party at every level. Local stuff is a great idea, but I don't think people make enough of an issue of WHY things suck locally (no federal money, so budgets are slashed), and that really needs to change.

1. Strip away the encrusted layers of elitist and seniority-driven leadership of the Democratic Party.

2. Identify and train a new generation of Democratic candidates for Congress and the Presidency. A basic training program in how to speak and how to campaign.

3. Pick candidates who have fire in their belly.

4. Identify the long clear lines of thinking that makes democracy a good form of government, then mold and model the party message around these ideals and goals.

If I left anything out or if anything needs clarifying, drop me a line.

Oh, and kick ass and take names.

I forgot to mention, we need think tanks and intelligence gathering.

More on priorities...setting up action as a 501(c) was mentioned. Who has the resources and/or experience among us to pursue that? I know diddly-squat about this kind of thing, but the wife is an accountant, and she's in it to win it.

So when do we can start talking organization?

gm all
Its great to see everyone leaving constructive ideas. I live in a small town in Vermont which is based on a town gov system with lots of opputunity for participation. Building locally from the ground up is always a sound plan. On another happy note, all the talk is of ASHCROFT resigning..........yay.

I'm an advocate of experiential education, of using a real life project to draw on and apply what one has learned in a practical way.

To that end and in relation to developing a strategic plan as laid out at Rockridge Institute, http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/research/rockridge/stratinit
we might want to think about a project that is a small, very doable step, but will snowball later on.

My suggestion is the School Preamble Initiative I stated in the "1964" comments. Does anyone have other ideas we could start with?

Taking back the terms of the debate from Rockridge Institute:

The radical Right's messaging and framing infrastructure doesn't seem so fearsome if you know how to spot its weaknesses.

The radical Right is acutely aware of cases where the general public has progressive values and would ordinarily reject their agenda. The Right’s approach to such cases is deception, often through the use of Orwellian language — language that means the opposite of what it says.

For example, the term compassionate conservatism is used because leaders on the Right have traditionally been considered mean and lacking in empathy toward people who are needy, poor or oppressed. The term compassionate suggests that conservatives do care about such people, although their policies go in exactly the opposite direction. And indeed, certain conservative theorists are open as to what compassion is to mean, namely that removing “interference,” especially by the government, allows disciplined people who are seeking their self-interest to become prosperous.

This use of language is no accident.

Frank Luntz and his associates are well paid to devise such language. What does Luntz advise?

* When talking to women, use words women like, such as love, from the heart, and for the children – no matter what is being said.
* When talking about our environment, use the words healthy, clean, and safe – even if you’re advocating policies that increase pollution.

In a recent version of their regularly updated language manual, there is a chapter titled "The Environment: A Cleaner, Safer, Healthier America". In it, Luntz acknowledges that the scientific evidence does not support the conservative position on global warming. What does he suggest?

"The scientific debate is closing [against us] but not yet closed. There is still a window of opportunity to challenge the science."

And Luntz is listened to.

This strategy has been adopted in how the Right talks about the “Clear Skies Act,” which increases pollution and mercury contamination, and the "Healthy Forests Act," which permits clear cutting and the destruction of forests.

This is part of a major strategy. The radical Right knows that it does not have a majority that accepts its worldview. If most Americans really believed what the radical Right does, no resort to such distortions would be necessary.

This is crucial for progressives to understand, because Orwellian language reveals weakness.

Progressives commonly wring their hands in despair when conservatives use Orwellian language. They shouldn't. The use of Orwellian language signals to us where conservatives are weak. Forget that their deceptiveness is immoral. The point is that they are weak and are revealing their weakness. If they had public support, they could freely call their initiative the Dirty Skies Act.

Progressives can use the Right’s Orwellian weaknesses to our advantage. We can focus the public’s attention on it by highlighting the discrepancies between what the radical Right says and what it does. Do not hesitate to rename their Orwellian legislation. For example:

* Do not call it the “Clear Skies initiative.” Call it the “Dirty Skies initiative.”
* Do not call it “Healthy Forests.” Call it “No Tree Left Behind.”
* Do not call it “Compassionate Conservatism.” Call it “Callous Conservatism".

News
The Radical Right's Weakness
11-04-2004
Progressive Frames for Taxes
11-01-2004
What is a "Swing Voter"?
11-01-2004
Women Really on Their Own
10-28-2004
Is the American Dream Dying?
10-27-2004
More...

Funny thing. Paul's remarks got me thinking. And I don't like it My head hurts.

Seriously though, I live in a pretty Democratic township. We now have an 8-1 advantage on the town council. Still, I could win a school board election around here.

On a different note, the Imposter President (he did not win that election) has handed us the huge opportunity to reframe who handles the economy better and even who is better on taxes. Let us take it. If we can manage to get on local boards and offices, then lower costs by cutting waste and thereby managing the budgets better than the Republicans, that perspective will carry over into national politics, and we need to create that perception. Look, you can talk gay and abortion all you want, but that does not motivate the majority of the electorate, but promise someone fifty cents back on his taxes and a lot of people get all excited. They'll still complain like hell if their roads are full of potholes, but they will also still take the tax rebate and not make the connection between that rebate and those potholes. So we need to make the Democratic party, or a third party, the ones who gave them better roads.

While getting my ass beat in physical therapy today (pain is a great motivator):

1. Expose every fraud - For example, here in Michigan they've raised the cigarette tax $2.00 this year. People are going in droves to Indiana to buy them. It is a crime. I also know who's buying them online.

2. Infiltrate the churches. This sounds rather subursive, but it will come in handy. At solid information of political involvement, challenge the non-profit status 501(c)3 tax exemption. Use your basic recon skills.

3. Everyone knows someone who's milking the system somewhere, somehow. I do. Insurance fraud, taxation fraud, child support, installing water heaters, electrical devices,etc. without permits, etc. Ratfucking you say? Too fucking bad. This is war.

4. Know the law. You are sitting at a computer terminal aren't you? You have at your fingers a very powerful tool.
Deep cover covert action is sometimes required and necessary. In my group of friends, they are equal Dem & rep. The rep group always fucks the system whenever they can. ALWAYS. Why do we manage to look the other way all the time?

5. In Michigan also, ( ask around you'll find out for yourself in your state & locale) we are supposed to get electronic voting machines before 2006 mid terms. (thats the word) Somehow, this needs to be intercepted, by lawsuits, demands on reciepts, implimentation of testing procedures (wife is a software pro) and everything possible. A 527 comes to mind, with the media campaign starting ASAP. The
fuckers stole 3 elections now in a row. Are
you going to let this continue to happen?

I still am mad as hell, and the time is now to stand and deliver. If preznit diebold plans on changing the senate cloture rules to field his game plan, then we'll field our own. Meanwhile, let the ratfucking begin.

Be the fucker while you have the chance, because you may not get a second one.

I'm not sure this is the going to work, so just in case, look up "Organizing for Social Change" by Kimberley A. Bobo.

Bummer, can't post using html.

Lotus: sure you can...I never disabled it. What were you trying to post?

Jo, I'm doing my state, town by town (we only got 300 of them or thereabouts, so I can do this) and color-coding it by percentage of purple. Because we need to *really* understand what happened, not tell the story that conforms to our assumptions and the media narrative.

Now this is a "red" state that went blue this year, just barely, for the first time in a long time. Lots of rural {...} land and backwoods, full of guys with pickup trucks and cigar-smoking women in those hill, and yards full of chickens and cars on blocks. (It's the upper end of Appalachia. Some of those cars on blocks have been there for 60 years.)

When I worked at the big chain bookstore, Left Behind sold like hotcakes.

You'd think it wouldn't have gone blue, and you would think it would be the rural areas that would be the reddest, right?

Except not.

We were *nearly* turned red by MA - and, I'm discovering, VT - expats, meocons who want cheap land, low taxes and no minorities around them. The people with the big salaries, the MDs and law degrees and the CEOS in their escalades sold us out - and so did the Libertarians up north. (The Libertarians are not our friends. I have been saying this all along. They will not be, until the GOP starts taking their guns away, or until the police start enforcing marijuana laws on the rich and not just unemployed millworkers.)

It was the *real* hinterlands - not the manicured countryside bought up by wealthy retirees who want to play gentleman farmer in Chester and Auburn, but the bits of NH that you'll never see on a postcard, unless I start a really perverse line of anti-postcard New England cards, with photos of tarpaper 200-year-old houses and rusting Tin Lizzies behind them - that held us.

--And the area around the Naval Shipyard, where *real* patriotism trumped property values.

Some good news... Colorado has Democrat control of both the state's house and senate - first time in 40 years! And we elected a Democrat for US Senator, first time since Nighthorse-Campbell switched parties to become a republican. And here in Colorado Springs, ground zero for the religous right, I saw MANY Kerry and other 'This Democrat For' signs. We even reelected a DEMOCRAT to the state legislature by a 55% to 45% margin. THAT's UNHEARD OF! I think that if we isolate the south (mostly a lost cause as far as national elections are concerned), work on the north and west, the country can go blue again. Besides, don't you suspect that as they get more extreme the country'll sour eventually. And don't forget that some people actually voted to force Bush and the repubs to KEEP THEIR mess!!!

Jo, I'm trying to paste a special iframe link to the book at Amazon.com. But if there is an angle bracket, the preview window just deletes the whole link. So, if you put the angle bracket back in front of the i in iframe, it will turn into a link. It just won't do it in the comment window.

iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=freethinker-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=092976594X&fc1=000000&lc1=0000ff&bc1=<1=_blank&IS2=1&bg1=ffffff&f=ifr" width="120" height="240" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0">

I'm with Barndog, let's fuck the bastards raw at every turn. I've had it with this bullshit.

Ray,
Greetings from JeffCo, brother. We got Bush & Co. to fight for Colorado, that was a win right there, and we're just getting started. We got them to show their hand. Next round, we're playing to bring the pain.
You guys did well up there, even though everyone down the hill had written you off. Good job!

I'm just sick and tired of people all around me taking advantage of what alot of us served to protect - and then rubbing it into our fucking face.
Why should we let them get away with it? If it wasn't for people like us in the first place, they might not have this freedom.

They always talk about 'thank a Vet', speaking english? - thank a Vet' - and all those nice catch phrases, but the truth of the matter is - they could give a fuck less.

Just as long as they have theirs.

That's the society in which we live in brothers & sisters. I believe the time has come to stand up and defend once again, the values of justice, bearing, integrity.

From the Marine Corps NCO Leadership Traits:

*Justice: The ability to administer a system of rewards and punishments impartially and consistantly.
*Bearing: Creating a favorable impression in carriage (how one carries him or herself), appearance and personal conduct at all times.
*Integrity: Uprightness of character and soundness of moral principles, includes the qualities of truthfulness and honesty.

I know many of you understand these - but sometimes refresher courses don't hurt.
Additions are always welcome.

Barndog, thanks for the refresher. It reminds me of the values of the Bushido in "The Last Samurai." The values of a life of compassion, discipline, and service. Where have they gone?

Wow, that's so true about the textbooks. Texas Board of Education is notoriously packed with RW fundies who've been using everyones tax money to push their own agenda, in our kids books. I'll have to supplement teach my kids at home and straighten them out on what's being taught that's wrong (creationism).

Yankee in exile:

Not to mention the Red State - Blue State Welfare issue...

Oooops.... I mentioned it.

Gee... they're playing both sides of the fence again I see.

How unappalled I am. /sarcasm OFF

Fundies are commanding the Marines in Fallujah also.

Today a Marine Colonel Gary Brandl of the United States Marine Corps commented:

"The enemy has a face. It is Satan's. He is in Fallujah, and we are going to destroy him."

Bzzz bzzz bzzz -swing- bzzZZZZzzz missed me :-p

I've posted a blog regarding wedge issues and what we might be able to do turn important issues that don't get much air time into in-your-face wedge issues. Please visit at http://neolotus.blogspot.com/ and leave comments.

My bookmarks and screenshots from the other night are gone... :(

I had a shot of some of the election return totals in the FLA counties and how the numbers of total to registered did not match , not including provisionals.

One of the atrios haloscan comments or dKos feedbacks was where the linkw as provided.

My other link was a fallujah quote from a marine commander who mentioned he "awaited orders from Allawi". WTF.

Wedge issues- use the fundies language against them. There are bound to be some of those "Harry Potter is of the Devil" types who have the ears of people like Ashcroft.

Just a google away from connecting the dots.

An old friend who worked a bookstore at a college town used to read me excerpts of Lynne Cheney's lesbian novel as a joke. He kept it for a prank and to humor wifey with it... He said "whatcha think?" Then he waits a few seconds and says "you know the Sec. of Defense- his wife wrote that!" The Orwell media let it slide.

The media bought and sold a lie to America once again. Say one thing, do another- must be Republicans...

exile don'ty fret about fundie schoolbooks for Texas, they've worked that line since the Oswald days... they would shoot someone over it if they could get away with it.

Wisconsin today voted to allow teaching creationism as an alternative scientific theory. Since there is actually nothing even resembling science involved in creationism (no observable or deducible phenomena, no obesravble phenomena, nothing, in fact, except a badly translated, thousands year old religious book), it is, of course, completely absurd.

Jo, thanks for your work. I am knee-deep in red here in central GA, but we built a GOOD grassroots group here, and we are not giving up.

1. We are going to seek a candidate for our state senate seat ourselves. Our local Democratic Committee is really weak, and our incumbent Democratic state senator was so bad, I couldn't vote for her. We are going to find our OWN candidate and push him/her for 2006.

2. We are putting together a list of local Dem-friendly businesses, promulgate it, and let them know why they are losing our business.

3. Many of us have moved here from other areas of the state, and so have connections to representatives in other areas of the state. We are going to write to every one of them DEMANDING a voting machine paper trail.

We are going to rebuild our party from the ground up starting right here

Thanks again for your efforts. You can be HMFIC of any op I'm in,

Otter
ex-LCDR MC USNR

A letter from House Judiciary Committee to the GAO shows that Democrats on this committee want an investigation of the election. It also shows the Republican chairman of the committee does not want an investigation, since he didn't sign the letter. The recipient of the letter, David Walker, comptroller general of the US, would be the starting point. A flood of inquiries to his office would at least make him a little nervous. If we all write, we may encourage Walker to do something.

Read letter at: www.nomorefakenews.com

The Honorable David M. Walker
Comptroller General of the United States
U.S. General Accountability Office
441 G Street, NW
Washington, DC 20548
webmaster@gao.gov

My 7-year-old nephew came home the other day and said, "Mommy, the kids at school said John Kerry's not a Christian."

I think a major portion of our job is just showing people that we're not who they say we are. We don't hate America and we don't want to ban the Bible. That starts here in the "red" states, like the great state of Ohio.

I believe this came from AmericaBlog:
(hope they don't get pissed)

Interesting piece by David Brooks today in the New York Times about how the "values" phenomenon may not have been the overwhelming force so many people say it was in this election. Of course, Brooks uses his argument to take swipes at "liberals" for their arrogance, when it's people like Gary Bauer making the "values voters" claim much more than any lefty I've seen. Brooks may be right about the values stuff. But if Bauer, Reed, and Robertson want to claim victory, let's hold them to their word. Or at least God's word.

I live in a red state, and for months now I've been continually reminded by letters from Bauer's people to the editor of my local paper that I can't be a Christian and support gay marriage, abortion rights, or embryonic stem cell research at the same time. I can't even say I'm "not a good Christian," I'm simply NOT a Christian if I support any of these things even a little bit. There's no room for debate, for finding some scrap of scripture that might help my case. I saw the voters' guides being distributed at churches and it's pretty clear where they stand on a couple of issues. Go directly to hell, do not pass GO, do not collect $200.

I looked long and hard at the bible (yes, I've read it - shocking!) and couldn't find the words "embryonic stem cell research" anywhere in it. I did find, however, "Thou shall not kill." So I get it. Pretty clear.

So here's my question -- why did these voters' guides ignore the death penalty? "Thou shall not kill" seems pretty clear to me. I know some bullshit arguments have been made citing a couple of passages in Genesis and Exodus that skirt around the issue. I know some "scholars" suggest that even though Jesus refused to support the execution of an adulterous woman in the Book of John, that doesn't mean he opposed the death penalty. I just keep going back to "Thou shall not kill." Pretty clear. You either support it or you don't.

Another question -- why did these guides ignore the war in Iraq? There are plenty of stories in the Bible about wars, and "just wars." The Pope doesn't think this is a just war. I realize he's just one Christian, though it seems he's a fairly influential one. It's my understanding that Catholics are supposed to follow his lead on stuff like this.

So American Christians, and our Head Christian in Charge, need to face up to it. If you support the death penalty, you're violating God's law. There's no wiggle room here. If Bush were a Catholic, he couldn't receive communion. Because he supports the death penalty, he's going to hell. There is absolutely, positively, no room for compromise on this. Don't give me some bullshit justification from some circumspect quote in Genesis or Exodus. Thou shall not kill.

By the way, I think it's OK for dems and libs to read the Bible. I'm a big fan of the Sermon on the Mount. I'm not trying to preach to anyone. But this is a pretty good read, and I've found it very fulfilling when someone questions my values by looking at my vote. (end)

As for myself - I've never once seen anything in the bible about 'in-vitro fertilization' being God's will either.

Pretty clear to me.

Semper FI

1. Timely
   
2. Strategery
   
3. Webb wins
   
4. Huh?
   
5. Bunnypants in Bagdad
   
6. Outage
   
7. Filthy Lucre Watch
   
8. Playing the numbers
   
9. My letter to Countdown
   
10. Jefferson's Nigerian Scams