Time Line

This is from a Republican and former CIA officer: Here

Apart from the cowardly and tawdry effort of the Bush Administration to smear Ambassador Wilson for the simple fact of telling them they had their facts wrong, the outing of Valerie Plame marks the first time in the post-World War Two era that government officials with security clearances participated in the deliberate outing of a CIA officer. It does not matter whether she was under official or non-official cover. It does not matter whether she was sitting at a desk or working overseas. What does matter is that elected officials entrusted with the responsibility to protect national security secrets chose to break this trust for petty political reasons.
I don't know if Karl Rove or Lewis Libby or others will be indicted. But this much is certain: What was done to Valerie Plame was an outrageous betrayal. If the President cannot recognize or acknowledge that simple fact, he does not deserve to be the Commander in Chief of the United States. It does not have to be illegal to be wrong. Mr. President, people under your command have done wrong and you sit idly by doing nothing to hold them accountable. Sadly, this is the common theme of your Administration.

The Game

Please join us in the comments for The Game.

Karl Rove

We can only hope.

Al Gore

An intelligent and on the money look at todays media.
Yeh, what he said.

Harriet Meir

A story for some background.

Coffee Table

Keep on rollin, rollin, rollin.

Links!

Links..Gotta have'em

A great place to start studying environmental issues.

Some really cool pictures of real stuff.

Its Free! And legal!....wow could you misread that one!

My most beloved freebie. Slimbrowser . As quite a tester I have tried most browsers and this one wins far and away. Tabbed browsing real big for me . I often need to have more than one or two things open at a time. Many other great little pluses that you get too. Searchbar is great. I can't work without it. It must be on every computer I use. Yes, I'd be happy to do your commercial. It does run on IE engine.

By Golly there is good news out there!

Someones interpretation of the truth.

Reading Room

Headline: Could it be?? Oh Pleaaase don't let me down again !!!

More reason for hope. He's such a loveable guy isn't heeeeee.

Yea Minnesota! Thank you for climbing off your frozen asses to do SOMETHING productive ! I'll have more of this please.

Or some of this please . Or This.

Are we at no friends and allies yet? One more down. Not that this is a very nice guy anyway. The only reason there was any allegiance was money and a military base. Could this be part of the problem?

I see she's still busy creating her fantasy liberal and denying any accountability for anything. Can you get more irrelevant?

This Week-Comments

Anonymous said...
More and more jobs have been outsourced out of the country since the 60s,too. Most of the jobs that have been created are service industry jobs that are low wage, part-time, and with no benefits. Some are temporary. Having a vocational/college education doesn't guarantee one a job, either. Many of the data entry/computer jobs have been outsourced, too. Instead of cutting the salaries of the CEOs, middle management/office jobs were cut and those personnel who remained and who were working on salary rather than recieving an hourly wage had their hours increased so they basically are working constantly. Supposedly, there isn't supposed to be discrimination based on age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, etc. Hello! We still need affirmative action, especially now that the white supremecists have gotten the idea that they can fix elections in Fla. and Ohio to get THEIR candidate (Bush) into office TWICE. Also, try being a displaced homemaker who has stayed home to raise children and been out of the workforce for ten years or more. Pretty tough to find a job with no recent work history. A lot of the unemployed who don't get counted have given up looking. There is a surplus of labor esp. for unskilled work and you better believe that if they can hire an immigrant, a kid, or someone else who will work for less, they will. Not that it's all the corporations' fault when you consider that health care is so expensive that they can't afford to insure their workers. And of course, the health care/pharmaceutical industries/HMOs donate big bucks to the GOP, don't they?Plus, the Republican Religious Right that is so against birth control, as well as abortion, will succeed in making sure there is a huge poorly educated workforce so we have an even bigger surplus of labor. Competition for jobs results in lower wages and no benefits. Read "The Grapes of Wrath", Game!

The Game said...
Well said Ron and anonymous,It is not simple...I said that.People that can work and don't ruin the system. People want to help the poor, but get discouraged when they see free-loaders and con artists. Many people are quitting at the Wisconsin State Fair right now...because the people from New Orleans that are still there are people that force others to hate them. All the hard working, honorable people have left. All that are left are people who have sex in the hall, get arrested for assult, steal and do drugs. Sometimes it is hard to distinguish between people who need help and people who expect it and make it a way of life.

Ron said...
Democat. I think we can do what we want within parameters and it will work. I want conservatives on the show and on the blog. I am so happy to be on the side I'm on I will be glad to talk about it. I guess I don't see an enemy. I see the loyal opposition. I think the more we can reach out to people, even if we disagree on many things, we can be as one country instead of two. I am seriously troubled by the bitter division between Americans. I have the same horror and disgust and , frankly, shock that anybody was left that hadn't at least sort of figured out the whole deal by now. One of the other things that seriously troubles me is the hate and revulsion that we seem to feel toward the other side..from both sides. It's visceral.Somehow I don't think we are going to move America forward if we continue on that path. We need to understand again that we are America and we're in it together. The good and the bad. Family bickering is one thing but visceral hate is another element altogether.If there is unity in 48% of us there is still only unity in 48% of us. Unity means to include everyone to me. The problem with Populism is I would only consider it true populism if that 90% was controlling the 10% and sadly right now it's precisely opposite. Can we make true change on the landscape of America or are we going to continue down a path that certainly is not working? It's time for a new paradigm.

Dedanna said...
From Jim's blog:For the Pro-War MoronsThis needs no comment, with the exception of what is at the second site..."The images on this website are gut-wrenching. They show both the suffering of Americans and Iraqis. This horror is what American senators unanimously voted to continue. Even if you are an American with a weak stomach, it would be cowardly to avoid looking at what you voted for. If you can't bear to look, skip the pictures and read the text, and remember if you cannot bear to even look at the suffering, how dare you insist anyone else bear the reality of it."

The Game said...
Rove did nothing Frist..nothingDelay...nothing Have to look at the context to see why Bennett said this.

The Donkey said...
Sat Oct 1, 7:41 AM ETWASHINGTON (AFP) - The administration ofPresident George W. Bush broke the law as it resorted to illegal "covert propaganda" in trying to sell its key education initiative to the public, US congressional investigators have found.

Anonymous said...
Walter Cronkite was on Larry King tonight. It is obvious he holds the president in contempt. He holds the tax cuts for the rich in contempt, and said so. He also said we need to pay our teachers well before we spend any other money in this country. He said we are an ignorant people. And if we don't put more of a premium on education, we will remain ignorant.He said the hurricanes gave us an excuse to get out of Iraq NOW, and we should take it. Of course in the window of my truck I put "Walter Cronkite says the media no longer provides us with the information we need to make informed decisions..." he also said we could vote for John Kerry or vote for more of the same, and he could not imagine ANYONE would want to vote for more of the same.Too bad the "liberal media" spent so much time interviewing the Swift Boaters before the election, and not more time interviewing Walter OR the 1000 veterans against the war, OR former Rep. Senator Marlowe Cook or John Eisenhower, or the dozen Nobel Prize winning economists who supported Kerry, OR all the scientists and environmentalists who came out against Bush. That darned Liberal Media!!Lonna

Democat said...
To The Game:Re: Tom Delay-I suggest you read some books by Molly Ivins who is a Liberal Democrat from TX, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and has been a journalist for many years. As she hails from TX and was co-editor of "The Texas Observer" for quite some time, she knows her stuff about Texas politicians, etc.In "Bushwacked" she wrote that Delay, a former bug exterminator, never saw a government regulation that he liked. He is in favor of making DDT (which I think is made in TX) legal again. Why does Tom Delay hate the environment, especially the raptors whose eggshells break after they've been exposed to DDT? Delay voted to prevent unemployment extentions in 2002 when the economy was really bad and unemployment was really high. What does Delay have against the working man/woman? He opposes ergonomic regulations and apparently is in favor of industries such as meat packing plants being able to run assembly lines at a rapid pace with workers making repetive motions for 8-10 hrs. a day until they are virtually crippled and have to go on SSD. Again, why does Delay hate working people?Delay has been instrumental in gerrymandering in TX to make sure Republicans not Democrats get elected. I have no doubt that he is involved in campaign financing shenanigans. He's called "The Hammer" for a reason and is undoubtedly putting pressure on at least the GOP members of Congress to back Bush's destructive policies/judicial picks by threatening their re-election chances. This isn't fair play. Do you think this is the American way? I sure don't. I have NEVER read anything about Delay that was GOOD. The guy is a crook and deserves to go upriver. I don't know if he will. I saw him on the news, laughing and smiling, so he apparently thinks he'll beat the rap. Talk about smug! If nothing else, I hope his political career will be totally completely EXTERMINATED for the good of the country.

The Donkey said...
The Donkey curses the spammers.

Hearts And Minds

As a lifelong media person I have a strong interest in how to win the media campaign. I study it a lot and as a participant I see and notice quite a few things others may not think about. I would hope I could convince you to take a little time and read this entire presentation. I believe this guy is spot on. If we could build this, winning would be something we could get use to again. Here's a few pieces but please read the whole thing.

They know that the media will give priority coverage to their personal attacks and that it will distract attention away from any of the "substance" blather that Democrats always like to talk about. In order for Democrats to win back the Swing Voters they've lost to the Republicans through these tactics, they are going to have to "define back." That doesn't mean that we need to simply bash the Republicans at every opportunity; that's something we already do. But for all of our arguing and complaining about the Republicans, we still tend to subordinate it to the ideals of "civil discourse." Unfortunately, that instinct is not enough to guide us; not when the other side has become a master of The Image Campaign. What Democrats need to do now is create an image of The Republican Politician that is threatening to Swing Voters, one that they will not ultimately want to identify with. That kind of campaign strategy takes some sophistication of thought.

Whenever Bush’s hand-picked crowd applauded his ridicule of Kerry, it created an image of The Democrats in the minds of swing voters that was never effectively answered by the Kerry Campaign (or by the Gore Campaign or by the Dukakis Campaign…). In his own image-bytes, Kerry came across as something of a stern teacher. This was actually not that bad of an idea, but it lacked some important emotional elements that would have established Kerry & The Democrats as the group that is superior to the Republican gang, the one that Swing Voters should want to be associated with. Kerry could have presented himself as the wise teacher who has been forced to make fun of the smart-mouthed kid in front of the whole class because he proposed a truly foolish idea that, while superficially appealing, would have ended up hurting everyone in the long run.

Yes, show graciousness but feel condescension. Be sure that you intently communicate your fear of the damage that these people can do to America.

Democrats need to understand the importance of showing Swing Voters that they fear Republican rule. The more apparent it is to Swing Voters that a lot of Americans are truly scared of George Bush & The Republicans, the more they’re going to wonder if maybe they should also be afraid of him. (Typically, we first learn to fear things that we didn’t fear previously after seeing fear in the faces of others.) Some Democrats might think it would be better for us to emphasize our anger, but we need to be aware of the ways that this can backfire. We do not want to be characterized as “Angry People” who are always angry [in a threatening sort of way]. Voters need to see that behind our anger is a real fear for the well-being of the American People and for America’s reputation around the world. We should never be reluctant to show our fear of Bush, but we need to make it clear in our tone that our fear is appropriate and that our anger is controlled & justified.Think of the many times when Republicans have accused Democrats of “hating America” or of “hating George Bush.” They make this charge to invoke an image of people who are imagined to be inherently angry and who are therefore a threat to 'us normal people.' Now think of how that image changes if—when we are accused of hating—we point out that people only hate that which they fear. Whenever we are accused of hating the Republicans, we need to keep repeating to the media that no, it is fear that we feel. It’s our best defense. We want the Swing Voters to see us as people who fear the Republicans, but we also want them to see that we are also brave enough to take on the threat. Like the sergeant said to the private in the foxhole, “Everyone’s afraid, son. But we can’t let that fear stop us. We still have a mission to carry out.” We are afraid and angry. We just know that we must oppose evil when we see it. Verbalize fear. Show courage.

When such fears are used to intentionally mislead citizens into voting against their own best interests, then the use of fear is unethical. In contrast, if the fear that politicians inspire is legitimate—and their intention is to alert voters to a danger that they can protect themselves from—then the use of fear is virtuous. What Democrats need to understand clearly is that Swing Voters can be persuaded to fear either party. Right now, too many of them fear The Democrats more than they fear The Republicans. They will return to their identification with the Democratic Party only after they have been persuaded that it is The Republicans whom they ought to fear, not the Democrats. It is the Republicans who are not like them, who are simply looking for yet another opportunity to play them for fools.

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