excellent post Jane.

I almost never watch network news (and I don’t have cable/satellite)… but for some reason I tuned in to ABC new last night… cus occasionally they are sane.

But Charles Gibson jumped on the bandwagon… while interviewing Stephanopolus (the louse).. Gibson repeated the “Democrats are all over the place” mantra at least twice..

plus they played a soundbite from Pelosi that (admittedly) was a bit weird, and then Gibson ridiculed it.

The media have the American public (well those that are partially paying attention) by the balls… and the Americans by and large are too dumb to figure it out.

I will not stand for the American people being called “dumb.” 56% of the American people opposed the invasion of Iraq. Feb. ‘03. 56%! And that number has now grown to 75%! They have been resisting and rejecting relentless 24/7 war propaganda, and have been from the beginning. This is so wonderful! Why are you not celebrating it? The American people are not dumb. What the American people are is disempowered, and, above all, DISENFRANCHISED!

Sorry to jump in 8 hours later. Been at work. Just caught up with this thread. Had to say it. I really, really object when people say that the American people are stupid sheeple, etc. And it is a big strategic mistake. If the American people were succumbing to the war propaganda, that would be one problem. But their amazing and growing resistance to it poses a very different strategic problem: how to re-empower and RE-ENFRANCHISE them?

Think about the rightwing Bushite electronic voting corporations counting all the votes under a veil of corporate secrecy. Think of the purges of black and other Democratic voters, the vote suppression (Greg Palast puts it at 4 to 6 million votes).

This is a very, very important strategic question and it doesn’t help to keep throwing the word “stupid” at the American people. That is not their problem (except maybe being stupid–or uninformed–about WHO is counting their votes, and HOW). If the votes were being counted in a way that everyone can see and understand, I guarantee you we would have no war in Iraq, and none of this other fascist crap.

So we have a president of the United States standin up sayin that victory consists of violnce reduction- who has INCREASED violence FOURFOLD in four year’s time- and not one fucker from the press even MENTIONS this obscure fact.

But they have their yellow armbands on, though, don’t they?

(Iraq body count.org)

Eureka Springs @
175

Bob – They don’t have daffodils aka jonquils in Hawaii?

Hawaii has little flowers like orchids, anthiriums, poinsettias and such

“Little” HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-A-A-A-A-A! That’s a good one. Flowers in Hawaii, some of them imports from other tropical lands, are BIG, GAUDY, IN YOUR FACE and about as meek and demure as Roseanna-danna-danna. Since I moved here from Arizona, the contrast with the fragile, ephemeral and delicate beauty of the flowers of the dry grasslands of the north part of Arizona were quite a contrast with the flowers of Hawaii.

Bob in HI

OK give him one- but the funding only lasts for six months. After six months, congress will assess the Clusterfucker’s progress (using the very same benchmarks that he hates- and which are not actually IN the bill) and if he hasn’t made progress- no more dough…

This really isn’t hard.

Bob – They don’t have daffodils aka jonquils in Hawaii?

Ah! is it just a difference in name only?

Daffodils are bulbs that require freezing temperatures, IIRC, because they bloom when the soil thaws. The soil doesn’t freeze here, except up in the mountains. Maybe they have daffodils in Maui upcountry, or on Big Island. But there aren’t that many people who live at elevations high enough to grow them. So far as I know. But then, I’m just a mainland haole who’s only been here for about 3 years.

Bob in HI