Boy howdy, do these folks know how to throw a party or what?
Coolidge, wearing flip-flops and round movie-star sunglasses, came here with 39 other handpicked young activists. They would later be joined in a resort hotel nearby by 360 other Republican students from 118 universities and a few high schools for a kind of conservative boot camp designed to cement their beliefs.
Over the next couple of days, they all heard former attorney general John D. Ashcroft say to them that “the three things you find in the middle of the road are yellow lines, dead skunks and moderates.” They bought books from Nonie Darwish, the controversial author of “Now They Call Me Infidel: Why I Renounced Jihad for America, Israel, and the War on Terror.” Movie night featured a screening of “Rediscovering God in America,” narrated by Newt and Callista Gingrich….
“They are somewhat like so many other, more senior conservatives — a little disillusioned right now,” said Lee Edwards, a fellow at the Heritage Foundation. “To quote Reagan: ‘What we need is a party of bold colors, not pale pastels.’ Young people love bold colors, God bless them.”…
Whoa. “Rediscovering God In America” from Newt Gingrich. No hypocrisy there, no siree. And read the article to see who their conservative heroes are. Indoctrination by goober. Boo yah! As Digby says, “Adorable.”
(Photo via cybele-la.)
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2
Christy!
Oh, well, close but no cigar! Congrats Steve-AR, you’re No. 1, not 2. Now go and tell downstairs if you haven’t already. (That’s the consolation prize for not being No. 1. I don’t have to go tell them downstairs, you do!) Now to read the post!
Training bots to go into power and politics.
On the other side ignoring the youth/base.
So the choice is:
- Mind Control (with money)
- Disenfranchise (and a kick in the head)
Not a surprise that an up-and-come would choose the loot just for having an R sewn on their shirt.
“Rediscovering God In America” from Newt Gingrich.
I can’t wait for “The Sanctity of Marriage” by Rudy Giuliani and “Staying Awake in the Senate” by Fred Thompson.
Can’t keep up with Christy today. I’ve also been meaning to ask Christy:
What kind of coffee do you drink? I’d really like to know…*g*
Even hallucinogens eventually wear off. Kool Aid with these people seems to only increase the worst side effects.
Sorry, Christy, I just can’t today. I just can’t!
ifthethunderdontgetya @ 5
With an introduction by Cheney!
From Christy’s WaPo link:
Recidivist. Or maybe even irridentist.
Biodun @ 10
I wonder whether anyone asked these kids why they aren’t fighting in Iraq?
Is Callista the former staffer Newt “re-discovered God” with atop his Congressional desk during the Clinton impeachment while still married to another woman?
OT..WEEEEEE Dow down 218……2000 redux..It’s the economy stupid
Biodun @ 6
Heh. On a roll this morning, that’s for sure.
The “dead moderate in the middle of the road” metaphor should be remembered by those Democrats considering compromise and bipartisanship…
TeddySanFran @ 12
What?
Who?
Biodun @ 6
The hot version of Jolt Cola, no doubt. *g
Gee, I don’t know that God was lost in America.
A chickenhawk retreat. I wonder if this is where they learn about washroom toe tapping ethicate???
AZ Matt @ 17
If there is a God, I don’t think he would want to be found anywhere near the R’s America.
AZ Matt @ 17
Yeah, I thought that was Albert Brooks. Remarkable resemblance.
eCAHNomics @ 19
Why not? Can you think of any group that needs Him more?
Boxturtle(Attn Wingnuts: What if God really is black, Jewish, female, and pissed?)
Here’s another one from the WaPo link, a real doozy:
ifthethunderdontgetya @ 15
Well, she is prayerful…
All this gopper godliness has really made me dislike religion :/
867-5309
Oh wait…looks like it’s not that kind of a good time – or any kind, in my book.
Reeducation of already-misinformed wingnut youth – is this what der leader refers to as catapulting the propaganda?
peanutbutter @ 14
Speaking of that ..WTF is going on with the Obama campaign? Are they drinking the Lieberman Koolaid? Obama attacking Hillary using Novak and Jeff Gerth? Next thing you know they will use Ed Klein as a reliable source.
Steve-AR @ 13
It tested and broke through the 13000 level, but has rebounded a tad. NASDAQ also suffering, dropped to under 2600 before a little recovery.
tw3k @ 24
What’s the bumper sticker? Something like:
“God, I love your son-
it’s your followers I can’t abide…”
These young folks really aggravate me! One has to wonder how a young person can be so lacking in idealism, especially one who allegedly embraces the teachings of Christ, as to wholeheartedly endorse the “Me first, greed is good” ethos of Reaganism. Obviously they are too uneducated to understand the implications of Iran-Contra, the Salvadorian death squads, Grenada, and the general unethical conduct of the members of the Reagan administration.
Steve-AR @ 26
That was a bad move to believe that…and worse off he went public with his demands when he simply could have called the Clinton campaign, asked about it, and if they denied it, ask them to attack Novak jointly to squelch the rumor. Shows a lot of inexperience.
Early OT (apologies)–
Even AP flunks Condi:
Condi can’t, simply can’t, pull off any deals.
newtonusr @ 28
i dunno,
My karma ran over your dogma?
OT..Today is the 144 anniversary of the Gettysburg Address
newtonusr @ 28
Oh God, Save Me From Your Followers
Poor poor Condi:
(Same link as my 31.)
nonplussed @ 29
Maybe it’s because Hypocrisy and Moralistic Cheaters are most common in religious types who see the world in black & white.
tw3k @ 24
I wish you could meet some Mennonites I know. They don’t do anything or say anything about their beliefs…there’s just this special very loving quality that shines out when they’re around. It’s like light to someone lost in a tunnel, or water to someone who’s thirsty.
The definition of “religion” is “man’s doctrine”. God (in Heaven) doesn’t have a whole lot to do with it.
Steve-AR @ 33
Apologies to Christy or Jane or Teddy or PW or anyone who has this ready for the front page, but…
If there is a God, please, please, just give us someone else with a mind at work.
ifthethunderdontgetya @ 5
“Total Recall Made Easy” by Fredo Gonzales.
“How To Control Tim Russert (and David Broder)” by Darth Cheney.
“Who Could Have Anticipated 9-11?
Ha! Ha!” by John Ashcroft.
The GOP/Rove/anti-Clinton crap is having an effect. It’s making this die hard HRC Demo non-Hillary supporter into a sympathetic Senator Clinton possible fan. So keep it up boys.
Newtie and Tommie DeLay. Talk about two rotten peas from the same disgusting pod.
peanutbutter @ 34
Fewer words. Better.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 41
We knew you’d come around… ;)
Biodun @ 31
Rice is a zero, zilch, zed, nothing.
The economy down the tubes…
newtonusr @ 39
Thanks for that, newtonusr. Memorized it when I was about 12 and actually still remember the whole thing.
Biodun @ 35
Paging Catholic theologians: Can the earthly manifestation of the divine actually take a vacation? Nice Condi smackdown, though; the world would be better off if no one met with her.
I watched the video with the wapo article. At the end one young republican said he didn’t know how anyone with ‘common sense’ could be a liberal. What an upside down world they live in.
Margot @ 37
That I can handle. At least they aren’t using religion as propaganda or killing those not of their own religion.
TeddySanFran @ 48
Is she really all that’s keeping us from bombing Iran?
ironranger @ 49
Gerson was on the Leonard Lopate Show on WNYC today. His “values” are starting to sound like a laundry list of liberal ideas. We need to be very careful that these wingnuts don’t come into the D party. After all the time it took us to get rid of the racists, we don’t want to have to go thru that again.
spurious @ 47
A few years ago, C-Span had a “Lincoln Day.” Reenactment of the Lincoln-Douglas debates and Sam Waterston delivering this speech in costume. Chilling.
eCAHNomics @ 51
Cosidering the way she’s been run over by the Cheney bus for the past few years, I sure hope not!
MayDaze @ 54
So why do you think we haven’t bombed Iran yet? Cheny’s clearlt chomping at the bit.
I watched a limited amount of their meeting this weekend on c-span. Had to switch channels to keep from hurling. Those people are insane!
newtonusr @ 39
The Gettysburg battlefield is worth the effort to visit. It is gradually being returned to how it looked in 1863. The last time I was there, the most sobering point was standing at the tree line where 12,500 Confederate troops lined up for the assault on the Union line. From the tree line you look across a one mile field to where the Union guns were lined up. They then marched across the field and were shot to pieces.
What’s with all these love letters W keeps getting from his high level female employees?
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/…..uch-a-man/
eCHAN
Yup, gotta have eyes in the back of our heads with the R’s.
ifthethunderdontgetya @ 15
Perfect.
She even has the requisite crazy eyes.
eCAHNomics @ 55
Maybe W’s gut is making better decisions (?)
Steve-AR@57
Second that. I haven’t visited it in about 15 years, and it was threatened by nearby development. Seems like you’re saying they’ve been keeping that at bay. Good.
I just visited Yorktown.
Very much worth going to these places where history occurred. Besides the obvious tangible learning experience, there’s something intangible about being there that makes history much more important & relevant.
Women R’s have a very low bar when it comes to men, imo.
MayDaze @ 54
Really, isn’t she around just to say the US really really cares about democracy and world peace? Just to say we went through the motions of diplomacy? That’s it, isn’t it?
Oh the poor little things!
It must be really really hard to think for themselves on those liberal campuses too, seeing as how they are fully indoctrinated by age 4.
Liberal colleges, bloggers, and laws, oh my!
Two can play at that game, Johnnie-A — the only things you find on the far-right side of the road are broken-down cars and the ditch they’ve run into!
OT, but I have a question. At over sixty, I have never sent a letter to the editor until late Saturday evening. I faxed it to our local Arizona Republic, but as you would imagine, this being apx the fifth largest city in the country, I don’t know what the chances are that they would choose to publish my letter. I was wondering whether the paper contacts the author of letters to the editor to tell them when or whether their letters will be published. I don’t even subscribe to the paper, so I will probably have no way of knowing other than a contact from the paper. Also, can you send a letter to the editor of say the WAPO, or NYT, even if you don’t live in their area? Should I try?
newtonusr @ 53
I’m guessing Newt didn’t say anything about his latest cause, the environment…
do-si-do @ 64
DING!
eCAHNomics @ 58
Big love.
Biodun @ 22
Whaddaya think the odds are she thinks it’s un-American to criticize Bush, too?
eCAHNomics @ 58
There’s something a little creepy about that handwritting. Isn’t there a commenter here who does HW analysis?
It’s just so perfectly girlie and curly and and squirrelly.
MayDaze @ 61
From the movie “High Fidelity”, John Cusak says, paraphrased, “I’ve lived by my guts my whole life, and I’ve come to believe that my guts have shit for brains.”
Ann in AZ @ 67
Somewhere on their website they should have a paragraph or two about what their LTE policy is, which should answer your Qs. I think typically they don’t notify you in advance, you just have to look for it.
I don’t read LTEs so I don’t know whether NYT & WaPo publish out-of-town letters, but you can scan them for a couple of days & figure it out. NYT probably does because it’s now a national.
newtonusr @ 74
LOL Can someone send that to W?
MayDaze @ 76
president@whitehouse.gov
Be my guest!
Ann in AZ @ 67
Yes, they should contact you before they publish it. (They’ll want to confirm your identity, at least, though there seems to be some courtesy involved, too.) I’ve gotten “we’re considering publishing your letter” a couple of times from the WaPo, but have never been published.
You can definitely get letters published in the NYT and WaPo wherever you are; they consider themselves “national” papers, so if you’re reading it, you’re equally entitled to comment. I don’t know, but that may be commonplace now that most newspapers are on the web.
eCAHNomics @ 77
They probably already have me on their list, but why take the chance? Hi, NSA guys!
Oklahoma kiddo @ 41
Hi OKK! How’s tricks?
Interesting catch from Rove’s Newsweek article (h/t americablog)
Phoenix Woman’s upstairs… (And I grabbed the zed. What’s new? *g*)
867-5309-eee-9!
Oh, hey Loo Hoo. I ducked on Santiago Creek, b/c that was the Santiago Fire in my area last month…
Maybe a more lucky name. Surf Cities FP ain’t bad…
Ann in AZ @ 67
I’ve been published in the WaPo (but I do live in the area, so no help there). They contacted me three times: once to take my statement that I wrote the letter myself and to confirm my identity, once so that I could okay a preliminary edit of my letter (they insert party affiliations and edit titles of officials and things of that sort), and once the day before the letter was run to tell me about it and get my okay on the final version of the letter that would be appearing.
Hope this helps.
Phoenix Woman upstairs!
“Troops Leave, Violence Drops”
peanutbutter @ 84
Suz said Santa Cruz is the real Surf City. Don’t want to start a north/south divide like we had in the 80’s!
Well, fiddle-dee-cee…I would think of that as more of a shamelessly cheating bastard smile, but it’s all in the eye of the beholder, I suppose.
eCAHNomics @ 55
Since they never do anything for any reason except to expand their own power, I think they haven’t figured out how to sell it. Contrary to our general fears that starting another war would get them another “rally round the flag” response, I think it’s likely that their polling has told them that it would be seen as an escalation of the unpopular Iraq war, and would label the GOP even more solidly as nutcase warmongers who are destroying our military to no one’s benefit but their own. And while Cheney just wants to use his power while he has it, Bush’s concern about his own reputation (though not anyone else’s, even the GOP’s) is balancing his messianic streak.
(I’m thinking of the Hersch article earlier this year about how they were switching their plans from trying to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities to trying to bomb bases that were supposedly being used to interfere in Iraq, because the armed forces didn’t think bombing away their nuclear research would work — that was all about selling the idea to the military.)
Anyway, that’s my take.
Redshift @ 89
I think that’s a good start for a way to think about it. I’d very much noticed that they aren’t being successful in their marketing campaign, but wasn’t thinking about that as an impediment to actually launching the attack.
Loo Hoo. @ 87
Ha ha! Oh, dear, that’s what Huntington Beach here claims to. Forgot about that, isn’t there actually a lawsuit pending?
Awright, more think-cap-y stuff…
Redshift @ 78
From FDL, don’t remember who, instructions for writing and LTE:
letters to editor template.
– No more than two paragraphs, max. Try to limit yourself to the 100-200 word range. As TRex said, this is no time for the Unibomber Manifesto. Be succinct and you are more likely to get published. Longer letters are more likely to be edited by someone else — you are much better off doing your edit yourself.
– Stick to a single issue.
– Mention your Representative and/or Senator by name. Their staff is much more likely to pay attention, and the editorial folks at the newspaper will as well. A lot of Congressional offices use clipping services to pull LTEs for them where the name is mentioned, so you have a much greater chance of them seeing your letter by including names.
– Highlight the local impact of the issue, this has a much more effective reach for your letter and makes a broader potential statement to readers who may not be as familiar with the subject matter.
– Do send in LTEs to your local newspapers, to newsletters in your community and other smaller publications. These have quite a reach in terms of readership, and you are more likely to be published there than in a larger national publication.
– Humor can be very helpful. So can doing a little research on the style of your local newspaper and its editorial staff.
– Avoid being shrill, name-calling, or getting personal. You want to criticize facts not beliefs. Be sure to do your homework on your subject. Use facts, figures, and expert information in the form of short quotes where it is useful.
– Always proofread. And then proof it again.
– Try to read your letter from the perspective of a reader who has no background in the subject. Will it make sense to someone who isn’t watching a lot of C-Span? Who doesn’t read blogs? This is important, because those are people you are trying to reach.
– Always include your name, address, day-time phone number, e-mail information and signature. Editors like to verify letter content before publication, so make it easy for them and you are more likely to get yours published.
http://rhetorica.net/archives/006269.html
Loo Hoo. @ 87
Anything happening on the petition fraud issue?
Anything in the MSM. Googling produced one news item from 11/04, so this has been going on for two weeks now, at least:
http://www.mercurynews.com/pol…..ck_check=1
Ann in AZ @ 67
Anne, something for you @92,
Santa Cruz is “surf City”. Ah Danny. Remember when we did S.C. every year. You surfed and I scuba dived all through high school. And you became a Navy medical corpsman in ‘Nam. Recall the time when you were there for me when I bit off more than I could chew with those guys from Ponderosa at half time at Cordova? We both got bloodied but good. But we licked ‘em. Remember the CYO dances? Danny’s been gone now for quite a while. This is for you, Danny. Bless your Irish soul.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVhn_-5GkWs
TPM has a bit up on Stevens and Young, and who’s going to be running for Young’s seat. They didn’t mention Benson, so I did.
The crack-up with these losers (well actually they will likely make money and all that)…
is that many of these people would believe the opposite of what they do if the message were different. Hell what kind of congnative dissonance is required to have one set of ideas and ideals for Regean & Poppy – then change 180 degrees for Clinton – and then swing back for baby Bush? Gonna enjoy the flop on that flip in 2008 Nov.