Yeah, baby! Primary!
Blue America candidate Mark Pera in a race against odious anti-choice Blue Dog Dan Lipinski, who really does need running out of the party:
Since slipping into office, the younger Lipinski has frustrated progressive constituents with a less-than-liberal voting record. He is opposed to stem cell research and a woman’s right to choose, earning him a zero-percent score from Planned Parenthood and NARAL. His ACLU rating is one of the lowest for any Democrat outside of the South, partly because of his support for the Protect America Act, an update to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that the ACLU says "allows for massive, untargeted collection of international communications without court order or meaningful oversight by either Congress or the courts." Lipinski has not done much to end the war in Iraq either, voting with 85 other Democrats to pass an emergency supplemental appropriations bill that lacked a withdrawal deadline.
Markos has announced an ambitious goal of 5,000 donors for Pera this week. Americablog is also joining in. We’ll need about 2700 to get there. Blue America has 170 donors so far for Pera, and I think if we can get to 300 we can have some sort of "Pera Primary Party" on the blog. Dunno quite what that means, but suggestions gladly taken in the comments.
For those who have had a bellyfull of race and gender baiting, implausable denials and "Democrats for a day," here’s your opportunity to do something positive.
It’s also a really nice opportunity to stick it to the DC Dems, who seem dead set on shoving corporate cons like Al Wynn down our throats.
Remember — a donation is a donation, so even $5 or $10 counts.
You can go "Pera Positive" here.
Related posts:
- Pete Stark: “Brain Dead” Blue Dogs Just Looking to Raise Insurance Industry Cash
- Sick for Profit by Brave New Films
- Peggy Noonan: Health Care Protests Haven’t “Gotten Out of Hand”, Just “Plenty of Booing”
- WellPoint Sues Maine to Raise Premiums 18.5%
- Halfway There: Donate for Organizers in Arkansas to Primary Blanche Lincoln
Spotlight
Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About Firedoglake
Advanced search
Zed?
This could be a very frightening February for the Corporatist Dems.
Hi Jane — And yes I’m sick of the Pressies. Will spend my time and attention (and money) on smaller races.
Lots to be done on state and local levels where the Dems have been disorganized and/or infighting for too long.
Even the Gov.’s Dem. primary race in NC is heating up to be nasty…and unnecessarily so.
Can I raise two hands?
This is one of two things that ‘have made my day’, today! ;0)
“For those who have had a bellyfull of race and gender baiting, implausable denials and “Democrats for a day,” here’s your opportunity to do something positive.”
and two feet? . *s*
I got another phone call from the Dems asking for $$.
I told them I give to individual Dem candidates using Blue America.
The caller began to challenge my decision re:not giving to the Dems.
I told her that when impeachment is on the table and we are leaving Iraq, I’d give to the Dems as a group.
She hung up on me.
BTW: this is the second time I’ve been hung up on by the Dems.
And this after being advised the call “might be monitored for quality purposes”.
I love the John Laesch bumper sticker I received.
:-)
That’s a bit of an awkward image, but I’ve seen Kobe do it, so I know it can be done.
To a Pera Dime Majority.
Granholm from Mich. just on Wolfie taking it to “Washington” (and not happy with the DNC).
Leslie: LOL! “monitored for quality purposes” — whose, theirs or yours?
Re:
The local blue dogs know better than to bother to call me. So my advice, FWIW, build a reputation as a dangerous (and sometimes effective) radical and the parasitic Dem Party insiders will steer clear. :’)
Me,Raven, RayDuray, and I think Mack are all former or current Illinois residents and we all happen to be here on a day when there are two back to back posts on Illinois candidates?
Just what are the odds? I wonder what their stand on bike paths are I use to ride to Elgin from Crystal Lake. But see that is an example of how local we can get on these races.
Still I wonder Hilary was born in Illinois and has lots of friends working for Daley, Obama is from Chicago. Who is leading in the polls, and who is Daley supporting?
Brother, can you paradigm?
And speaking of the Blue Dogs, don’t miss this on Matt Stoller’s blog.
http://openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3220
Butterfield is my mother’s rep. Time for a letter and some calls.
Things are still very tight financially here. Trying to get a new practice up, running, and financially dependable. I’m still, many months, sweatin’ the rent. Now I *could* give some very small donations, but then I get lots of campaign solicitations in the mail.
I don’t mind that, but they’re losing money on me, what with the costs of printing and mailing.
Makes me think that my small donations actually hurt, rather than help. Suggestions?
Can’t abide Leslie but the elderly mom just “loves” Jack and especially his letters from viewers.
With the guild strike still going, some of those letters are the best writing on TV.
I was examing Big Al Wynn’s finances at Open Secrets and see he has received funds from the Billy Tauzin Committee & intriguingly, the Friends of Rosa Delauro. What’s up with that?
*raises hand*
I am sick, sick, sick of it, and it’s only January.
OK, I kicked for what I would have spent on beer for one night if I was still drinkin’.
Donations: I’m in. Let’s teach these clowns a lesson.
Today I feel as if I am the luckiest man on the face of the Earth. I have just finished grading a math quiz I gave this morning. Not a single one of my kids placed below a C-plus. Now you may say ‘C-Plus’? Big deal. Well it is a big deal for a some of my students. These kids worked really hard. My lady and me did a tutor and swim thing last summer in math and English at our house. And it looks as though it paid off. We’re going to do the same thing this coming summer. All “our” kids will be invited to swim in our pool (and do math and English) and their folks too. I’m so pleased.
Old manufactured storylines die hard:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/2…..edemocrats
Time’s Michael Duffy does his best to put a few more steps into the tired song and dance of “the Democrats can’t get their shit together.” Can one article possibly be filled with more one-sided negativity than this deception by Michael Daffy?
This one has always been particularly amusing to me especially considering how messed up the Repubes are and have been. They always seem to miss that part of the story.
Just finished a trip throughout the U.S. and every single Dem friend I talked to is extremely excited about Nov no matter who the Dem Prez candidate is. It’s looking like a Blue Wave through Congress as big or bigger than the one in ‘06, which was perhaps the biggest DemocratIC sweep in U.S. History. The Dem voting so far is shattering all records and completely dwarfing the Repube turnout. Yet, if you read Time Magazine, you’ll conclude that the Dems are in disarray and are “about to screw it up again.” (to quote the article)
Many years ago, I came to grips with the fact the any Conglomerate Media outlet has nothing to do with pursuing any truth. They exist now to advance misleading and carefully constructed storylines on the electorate. Nothing more…nothing less. I bet Michael Laffy is gonna get a little someting extra in his check after this laughable screed.
Sick of it and am glad I’m moving to PA …where I won’t be voting for a couple of months.
Yow. Where is Punaise? A pun cascade sounds like just the thing to take my mind off the candidates!
Here’s the deal. First get rid of the Republicans. Then get rid of some naughty Democrats.
yeah, but where your vote doesn’t count
Obama+Hillary+Harry+Nancy. What does this add up to?
This scene:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…..pepad.com/
Hill O, beens
Re:
I’d guess nearly 1:1.
Compare to the “Birthday Paradox”
Say that you are in a group of people and find that two have the same birthday. Most will find this surprising. However, it turns out that for the likelihood of this to be 50:50, all you need is a group of 23.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday_paradox
Perhaps a site manager can come along and tell us how many people are viewing FDL at any one time. I haven’t a clue, but I’d imagine it to be in the hundreds of lurkers compared to the dozens of contributors. So if there are 200 people here, and there are 50 states, the odds approach unity that at least four people would be from Illinois.
pain & heartbreak
“Mark” my words, every Blue America donation will lead us to “Pera” Firma.
Well… someone has asked me, in an email from upstairs, if I’ve thought about supper? I replied ‘yes I have’, and responded, ‘have you thought about anything in relation to KP?’ She said yes. And we laughed.
A little something to make your day brighter, you remember those days don’t you!!
http://users.telenet.be/leukelinks/flash/queen.htm
Where’s Punaise? Perhaps Punjab?
Kiddo,
I wish I had had a math teacher like you. I wouldn’t have been math-phobic…or at least would have learned to deal with it! Bless you and Lahoma.
I am sick of the Pres Primaries but I really feel bad for those people who live in the state that vote early. The commercials and robo calls have got to be driving them insane.
fire-pera-lake. Raising one hand a fishing for my CC with the other, as I head over to chip-in @ Blue America…
Boo ya
I’m in N.W.PA and it is no progressive paradise.
Mike Myers, AFAIK, is still a Canadian and is therefore raising a glass to the primary-free electoral system in Canada.
The election writ is dropped. 28 days later, we have a new government.
I think the parties are allowed to spend less than a dollar per voter, or ~$15MM.
Speaking of local issues a commentor from Canada said something about the Great Lakes naval base firing depleted Uranium shells into the Great Lakes that is Chicago’s and a good portion of Illinois water supply.
The Left owns green issues if we can make that an issue we would get the votes of every Mom with kids who still drinks tap water.
*raises hand* was sick of it from the get go. Nothing but a bright shiny object.
This is a scream. ;0)
Thanks for asking, Jane.
Yeah, I’m sick of it - just as I’m trying to find time to help my local Democratic Party District pool get ready for the Feb 5 caucuses.
But I gotta tell ya – I’ve never seen young people – college age and 20-somethings – get as pumped up here over a candidate as they are for Obama. At least not since watching the Bobby Kennedy crowds in Oregon and California in May and June of 1968.
I’m talking to some of them, trying to direct them toward Diane Benson, which isn’t all that hard. After Feb 5, we need to tap a lot of these young people around the country who are helping their Dem Prez guy or gal, and direct their attention to local Dem and US House Dem candidates.
and raise awareness of nuclear weapons.
Re:
I have a pet theory about the dramatic expansion of the Presidential horse race this cycle. The obvious reasons that we are being forced to endure this crap is that both the MSM and the consultant class inside the Corporate Party are keen to generate the extra revenue to be derived from what is obviously of no political value whatsoever, i.e. the endless back-and-forth bickering that this campaign must naturally descend to.
But there is perhaps a more sinister plan being set in motion here. Ever since the 1960a the Republicans have understood that, as is said, demographics is destiny. And the destiny of a party representing the WASP elite is to fade to irrrelance as America becomes more brown and poorer over the coming generations. So the natural response of the elites is to try to suppress new voters coming into the system. Many studies have been done, and it’s pretty obvious that participation in the ritual of voting is less and less important to each succeeding generation of Americans. And for the most part, people who decide to opt out and not vote because they sense that their votes don’t count are much more realistic than those of us who continue with the ritual.
So a cynic would say that the outrageous and ridiculous campaign we see today is being driven by the desire to make politics to unappealing to the masses that they just simply turn away from politics in droves. Thus making the insider’s game of elite politics that much easier to keep in the hands of the few.
I just had a vision of Erin B asking the GOP candidates at a debate if they knew that all the water at a debate from Illinois came directly from the area where the Navy was firing depleted Uranium shells.
Then Rudy, McCain and Grandpa Fred drink the water to show that they don’t care about any liberal radiation, before Erin can tell them that her Geiger Counter is clicking.
Do you know what your Prick in the Presidency is doing?
1 euro is $1.49 to buy.
And of what we are doing to Iraq.
AP – A threatening radio message at the end of a video showing Iranian patrol boats swarming near U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf may have come from a prankster rather than from the Iranian vessels, the Navy Times newspaper has reported.
I agree with your idea but it is to bad that Bush messed up so big that voters are not fat and lazy anymore the Iowa and New Hampshire numbers suggest that the GOP’s worse nightmare is happening.
More people are coming out to vote this election even for the Primaries.
Don’t give me no lipinski, or you might end up with a Pera black eyes.
Yup, if it is nuclear material in our own backyard it is nuclear material in Iraq. The recognition is over due.
looks like moveon is getting behind Donna Edwards. That makes me happy. The more, the merrier mojo behind blue dems.
good! :)
I gotta say, after watching for twenty minutes: Tweety has no more credibility on race than he does on gender. He’s flogging the MLK statement from Hillary pretty bad.
Well. I don’t know about the rest of you, but we, in this house are sick and tired of all these brown people in Iran telling us, the mightiest nation in the world, what we can and cannot do. I say bomb ‘em.
Are they high! It was a Prank is Bush’s cover story? Fourth graders tell better lies!
The only people with access to Navy radio signals are the Navy. My friends dad was a ham radio operator he somehow got some equipment to listen to what he wasn’t suppose to and some guys in suits took it away.
This was in America preBush somehow I don’t see Iran, Saudia Arabia or any of the other anti press freedom countries in the area letting their people have that equipment.
I wonder if they chop off your ear for that?
Since it is unlikely that it was the locals that leaves the Navy, the CIA and Blackwater.
A pun cascade sounds like just the thing to take my mind off the candidates!
or a punk-ass, ‘kay…? (d)
.
(that’s OK, I don’t know what it means, either.)
I don’t like Matthews. I don’t like Obama. And I don’t like Hillary. I like Gore, Dodd and Edwards.
back from the reeducation camp so soon?
Just got off the phone with Blue America candidate Siobhan “Sam” Bennett of PA-15, her race is picking up steam and money. Emily’s List [I know, I know] is interested and she is getting a lot of national attention.
Cool, I voted for Sam on DFA!
I like Sam Bennett a lot.
We need our people in Illinois to make this an issue. We could so clean up there and in every state downstream !
After Rudy lied about ground zero being safe nobody would believe any GOP denial of radioactivity!
I wonder what cancer rates are if you drink the water?
Just voted for her in the DFA poll
I mentioned to Bennett I was particularly concerned about the politicization of the Justice Department, that was like buying the refs, and she said she would use that along with my phrase “we’re not acting like grownups” with respect to our international relationships.
She is up to speed on the war, economy, other candidates who are running, just a pleasure to talk with someone so knowledgeable. More and better Democrats please!
Am I missing something?
Every response to the Team Clinton attacks I’ve seen from Obama has been of this variety:
Outside of the necessary pointing out of differences, I have never seen anything from Obama even remotely close to the vitriol displayed by the Hil&Bill show toward Obama starting after Iowa. What’s Obama supposed to do…just grin and bear it? I like how he’s handling it. (I’m talking about the candidates and spouses directly, not surrogates, who cannot possibly be controlled at all times in any campaign staff, and yes I realize there are times campaigns might use a surrogate to get more controversial ideas into the discourse.)
The Conglomerate Media is attempting to lump Obama into the “politics as usual” camp, which is not true IMO. They are trying to take away his main assest, which is that he’s not like the others. I wish more of the Netroots would stop lumping him into this immature name-calling as well.
Of course, is he has been doing this, I’d be happy to see some examples so I can have a more educated opinion about this.
Oh and of course I gave her a welcome from firedoglake and said how much we had enjoyed having her talk with us here, and she said being here was great and gave her an enormous boost in donations and interest in the blogosphere.
I like Gitmo, for re-education. Plus it’s a great retreat in the winter months. Something about that little place that lends itself to enlightenment seminars. Plus, it’s rather sheik. For macho guys. Don’t you think? ;0)
Re:
The GOP and the Dem Party are but two wings of the Corporate Party. Having advanced the militaristic aims of American corporations quite successfully in the past 7 years, we will now be given the false hope of having the Dems take over and provide us with some attention to domestic issues. But don’t be fooled into thinking that the elites who control both so-called “parties” in America aren’t pulling the strings of the marionettes we have as “candidates”.
Look at the funding of Hillary and Obama. Both are largely drinking from the same well, i.e. Wall Street funders. Neither will make any serious attempts to rationalize the egregiously anti-progressive tax schemes that unduly reward the already rich at the expense of the rest of us. Sure, a lot of George Bush’s tax cuts from his first term are due to expire (”sunset”) in 2010. That alone is enough reason to vote Democratic and insure that these odious giveaways are curtailed. But the damage has already been done, the horse is out of the barn. The dramatic rise in the national debt during the Bush term guarantees that an ever increasing percentage of taxes collected by the government flow right back into the wallets of the fat cats. Compound interest will be seen soon as compound terror.
But the really revolutionary thing that needs to happen, the repudiation of the debts of America’s children and future generations caused by the profligacy and willfully destructive creation of debt by the maniacs in the GOP will never occur. We shall simply see those in charge repudiate the debt by means of hyperinflation, imposing further hardships on those with fixed incomes and no ability to capitalize on a destroyed national currency. And as has been the case since Allan Greenspan imposed the odious increases in FICA taxes to pay for Reagan’s tax breaks for the rich, the middle class will continue to be stripped of their assets in order to further enrich the malefactors of great wealth.
Absolutely. Do you have any link resources for the use of DU in training exercises?
just don’t forget to take care of your Styrofoam cup!
Time for dinner guys. Nothing fancy. Chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, gravy, and salad and cooked carrots. My lady has bounded down the stairs and says she could eat a horse. We’ll eat. You do politics.
A message from Jim Goodnow on the burning of Of Yellow Rose Peace Bus. He needs our support!
Linky did’nt work try this one….hangs head in disgust :>(
http://i269.photobucket.com/al…..romJim.flv
Naval vessels routinely monitor all the electronic bands. Any unencrypted radio transmission would be heard and it was apparent that this person was transmitting on the common mariner’s navigation frequency, which every one uses to avoid problems in the confined waters of the Straits. So the explanation in this case, even from W, is not that lame.
Donnie McClurkin?
Common Cause solicits you to Petition for Verified Voting.
Imitation the sincerest form of pandering? Hillary, Christian Soldier.
More at BagNews.
As I said last night, I had the opportunity to slam Obama and Hillary’s campaign on a telephone survey and I took advantage of it.
And in the process I heap praise and support on Edwards.
My Mistake
I am there!
Does anyone know why, when I hit the link button, the script prompt comes up, I enter the url, hit okay, and nothing happens. How come a second box requesting a name for my link doesn’t pop up?
I still do my links by brute force but I understand it wants you to type what you want to call the link, highlight it and then go to the link thingie.
Or I may be an id10t
Divide and Conquer? BagNews notes that color-coded campaigning might just be damaging to both the Pink Lady and the Black Man.
If I were a Republican Party strategist, this is exactly the sort of bickering among the enemy’s camp I’d hope to enourage. Just look at how well things worked out for Dean and Gephardt as they battled each other in the early winter of 2003-4 in Iowas. With perfect hindsight, we can see that was a joint suicide pact. Why repeat history?
there isn’t a second dialog any longer. You need to highlight the word(s) you want for a link then click the link button. For me, if no word is highlighted you’ll need to manually add the word to link.
Can I make an editorial suggestion. Whenever you have an article about a Congressional or Senatorial Campaign could you pretty please put the District and State these guys are running in. Not all of us are such political junkies that we can automatically know where candidates like Jim Laesch or Mark Pera or even located.
If we have to click through a link to find out it may prevent a lot of people who can help by assisting in the campaign (perhaps same State) or contacting relatives in that State, even if they can’t make a monetary contribution.
LOL!! I knew you’d come through, Pun…
Re:
Try this. First type in some text into the comment box. Then highlight that text. Next click on the chain-link tool. Now when you enter the URL, it will be associated with whatever text you’ve chosen to highlight.
HTH
Not watching, but is this just one more way Tweety can trash Hillary? He hasn’t learned much after being totally discredited last week.
I tried to post a link on an earlier thread and the same thing happened. I finally just pasted the URL into the comment. Something’s broken.
US to Sell Precision-Guided Bombs to Saudi Arabia
Link yes Great Lakes no hope you don’t like NW Salmon http://www.commondreams.org/he…..109-02.htm
Will look some more later.
Thanks tw3k and Ray. I just wanted to see if I could do it. Much obliged.
Good point Edward…which I think is also a very good reason we need to be careful on not alienating those who have that energy. If we constantly prate on just how horrific up-ticket candidates are, we risk being taken with a grain of salt when we try to get support for down-ticket candidates. That doesn’t mean to roll over. But it also means that we shouldn’t exaggerate the differences between candidates (especially without actually comparing what our favored candidate has said about the same issue).
I say this because I find that Edwards, Clinton and Obama are, from my perspective much closer on policy issues than many assert that they are. None of them are my “dream candidate” and I think any realistic inspection of their health-care, energy, and foreign policy perspectives will demonstrate that. From my view on the left windowsill that means that I am going to have to swallow one of three candidates that are less than ideal. That being said, I’m not going to make the mistake from that “perspective” and think that these folks are clones of the Republican candidates either.
Depleted uranium (DU/U-238) is a highly toxic material. It is about half as radioactive as natural uranium (U235) and twice as heavy as lead. Depleted uranium has a half-life of 4.5 billion years. It is known to have been first used by U.S. Army tanks and Air Force jets during the 1991 war against Iraq with devastating effects on the environment in the region.
In 1995, the Army Environmental Policy Institute concluded, “If depleted uranium enters the body, it has a potential to generate significant medical consequences. The risks associated with depleted uranium are both chemical and radiological.”
“How can the Navy fire depleted uranium rounds and spread radioactive material into prime fishing areas off our coast?” said Dave Mann, Seattle environmental attorney. “The Navy is willing to put us all at risk, including its own sailors, to improve its warfighting capabilities”, said Glen Milner, of Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, who received the information through the Freedom of Information Act.
The U.S. Navy memo was released through the Freedom of Information Act in December 2002 to Glen Milner of Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action. The memo states in June 2001, the USS Fife, a U.S. Navy destroyer stationed at the U.S. Naval base at Everett, was “CONDUCTING GUNNERY OPERATIONS CONSISTING OF 5” 54 LWGM/BLP AND CIWS/DEPLETED URANIUM ROUNDS IN AREAS W237C AND W237F… (ALL TIMES JUN 01)”
Areas W237C and W237F are warning areas west of the Washington Coast between Neah Bay and Ocean Shores. This area is prime fish habitat for a number of endangered species.
http://www.gzcenter.org/articles/navydu.htm
Re:
I second that emotion.
Hi!—Our Best and Brightest (Jane)has posted another (twofer see new post) read for all at the lake “Meddle for Mitt In Michigan!”—-
Enjoy—-
Re:
I think you may misunderstand the essential role of Chris Matthews on the Idiot Box. His job is to create memes that are favorable to the elites. It’s not likely that he’s unaware that he is a fraud. It’s less likely that he’s going to come out and tell us that he’s a fraud, or a shill or a propagandist.
You have false hope and perhaps a touch of naivete to think that Matthews will be chastised and embarrassed by the current animosity he faces on the Internet. The best we can hope for is that those who control Matthews marionette strings decide that he is no longer effective and replace him with another as yet underexposed propaganda tool. Matthews act is totally ersatz. I’m quite taken aback by the visceral and emotional response he’s able to exicit from many people.
Don’t like Matthews? Turn your TV off. If enough of us do so, Nielsen will eventually point out to the elites that their ruse isn’t working.
***
Many here will find the Truth Emergency Conference to be held in Santa Cruz in late January to be a terrific antidote to corporate-TV poisoning.
http://www.truthemergency.us/
Excellent Ray!!!
More of this please.
About ten years ago, I attended a Chomsky lecture where a young man from Russia was also in attendance.
We’d both spoken with Chomsky and were walking out together when he said,
‘It must be wonderful to have more than one party to vote for.’
I looked at him and said, ‘Believe it or not, Americans only have one party as well, but it has two wings. This suggests, to many people, including Americans that there really is some possibility for choice, but, in point of fact, both factions represent the interests of the wealthy and well-connected. It is a sham, a lie, a joke, and most often the joke is on the people.’
‘But how can this be so?’ he asked.
‘If it is possible for you to stay here for a long enough time, then you will understand,’ was my response.
I’m afraid I left him sore perplexed, just as many will be regarding what you have said here. They will deny it and counter that it is not so.
But it is more true than not. Were this not the case, what we have seen with respect (or lack thereof) to the impeachment process would not be occurring. An impeachment would end up being too embarrassing all-around.
It is easier for people to believe that the d’s are being blackmailed than to grasp the quite evident truth that all is done willingly and only theatric effects, a thin veneer, describe our ‘democracy’.
http://watchingamerica.com/index.shtml
I’m using Firefox/Vista. I’m not suffering the problem you discuss.
***
For those who are ready, I suggest that instead of passively watching TV and getting addled by the obvious propaganda that you consider “Watching America” as an intelligent alternative. These fine editors are scouring the world’s media to find out what smart people outside the Empire are writing about us.
BillyRay Sez Check It Out!
This reminds me of the story, probably apocryphal, about Russians coming to America.
A handful of years back a couple of Russian retirees came to visit their cousins in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, NYC, NY, USA, NAU.
These two had become best friends when they worked on the Editorial Board of Pravda and Tass in the good old days of Leonid Breznev and Yuri Andropov. Let’s call them Vlad and Ivan.
Vlad: “You know Ivan, after our two weeks here in America we’ve sampled nearly every media there is. It’s a marvel. TV, radio, newspapers, periodicals and the uniformity of viewpoints expressed is breathtaking.”
Ivan: “Why yes, Vlad, I see that the dialectic of capitalism is nearly universal in all media here. But what’s funny is that no one here seems to know what a dialectic is.
Vlad: “Yes, it’s somewhat sad to think that in the nation that won the Cold War, that they just as obsessed with religion, UFOs, hypnosis, the occult and the cult of personality as we were, and are, back home.”
Ivan: “But what is truly most remarkable is the lack of dissent among the media here. Even at the heights of Breshnev’s repression, there was far more expression of dissenting opinions among our intelligentsia. Granted, a lot of that was in the form of samizdat, but nonetheless, the people were smart enough to know that they had to ridicule and discount everything we said at Pravda and Tass.”
Vlad: “And what is so striking here is that it appears that the American public is a great herd that actually believes the word of their government. How extraordinary.”
Ivan: “Yes Vlad, it’s both surprising and disappointing in equal measures. Frankly, I’m looking forward to our little vacation ending so I can get back a place where we have a free press, or at least one not bought and paid for by only one wing of the criminal elite who run this planet. In Russia, at least we have some competing oligarchs, though come to think of it, the People don’t have a voice at home either. Oh well, I’m so happy that my samizdat, surreptitious as they were, had more effect on the people’s education than my decades of propagandizing for a pay check.”
It’s a little problematic to use “guilt by association” with candidates since they appear, and are supported by so many different people. I would imagine you could find unsavory people backing any campaign if you look enough.
Yes, I wish Obama would’ve told Donnie Come Lately to take a hike, but again, what did Obama himself say that was so negative or unseemly? I know he’s not for gay marriage, but John Edwards is “uncomfortable” with homosexuals, so are both of them not worth support because of this? For some it might be, which is understandable.
I feel Obama himself or Michelle Obama have been quite good and mature in their public appearances, unlike this embarrassing diatribe:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/…..airy-tale/
It is unfair to lump Obama’s actions so far into the same class as that childish rant.
Just thinkin’ outside of the balloon!
Perafect!
Is it also unfair to associate Hillary Clinton with the “fantasy” statement Bill Clinton made?
How many associates have to say something before you accept that it is coming from the candidate?
What if things are said via recorded phone messages or direct mail or on blogs favored by one candidate’s followers, but not in the mass media or on blogs where lots of candidates are supported? Did the candidate say it ‘out loud’ or was it merely a dog whistle?
These are serious issues for how a campaign should be run.
Actually, I have really become interested in the politics, our government, industry, and mostly the Mainstream Media that influences America. If there is anything it is how so many America minds can be influenced and directed by cleaver Mainstream Media News telecasting.
In observations there are Americans that understand how debate and analysis can be convoluted, twisted, tricked, and changed for deception, or avoiding blunder, fraud bias abuse while bending ideals to opponent’s disadvantage.
Simply put Mainstream Media Journalist have mastered how to shape your decisions with likable, caring, compassionate, human kindness, layered with what can start as light rascal gaming, completely deceitful doubt, cleaver deception that is wrong but made to look right, and vagarious ambitious levels of out right bias that stems from personal to deep seated corporate roots that have long existed held power, and profits over the electorate. Again, simply Journalist are the word masters of actually lying and taking context deliberately to make a wrong seem right.
That is the real and only reason America is screwed up. It’s the Media stupid.
Look at the Internet and the blogs they hold the real truth.