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Agathon
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Leafs 4TW!! - CPA
Dec 2002
time: 00:31
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quote:
Originally posted by Timexwatch
Most people don't care if he was wrong on Iraq. The issue of dead soldiers in Iraq matters more than the lack of WMDs. |
I don't think that is true. The real situation is summarized in the conditional "If nothing really goes wrong, then the justification for the war doesn't matter."
People seem to be becoming less sanguine about the war (down to 50% approval this week) and it looks like hard questions are now being asked.
It isn't just body bags, it's the cost of the war and the seeming lack of a decent exit plan that is worrying people. The US is also starting to look even more ridiculous going cap in hand to the UN. The notion that the whole thing was a dumb idea is becoming more popular.
quote:
He's weak on the economy, yes, but will most people care to learn anything about the cuts beyond "They were tax cuts for the rich!"? |
Probably not, but if the holdings of the less than super-rich continue to stagnate or get worse, he's in trouble.
quote:
As long as he's "bombing Sand Farmers" (to quote my roomate) and there isn't another attack on the continental U.S., it's successful in most people's eyes. The question isn't is he failing or not. The question is whether Bush will be able to bang the drum on that issue come election time. |
But as you say, nothing is really happening. Tangible results matter more than what might have beens.
quote:
When will the rest of the world realize that
a) Foreign Policy isn't that important to American Voters when Election time arrives |
That used to be the case. Post 911 it's all about the rest of the world. 911 proved that you can't sit on your island and ignore the world outside.
quote:
b) We just don't care what the rest of the world thinks. As long as the rest of the world is portrayed as Frano-German Eurocoms who hate America, Crazy "Islamofascists" or Communists in the media, we simply won't give a damn. Americans do not care what you think. |
Of course you do. You only have to read the endless diatribes against the French and the UN to see that this is false. If you didn't care what the French thought or did, why make such a fuss?
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chegitz guevara
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Ft. Lauderdale, FL Communist Party of Apolyton
Jun 2000
time: 00:31
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Editor's note: Following are excerpts from Dean's campaign speech at Copley Square in Boston on Tuesday.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Sept. 24, 2003 | We're here today to talk about what's at stake in this election. Ten months from today, we'll be coming back to Boston, not just to decide who will be the Democratic nominee, but to determine the future of our democracy.
Two hundred and thirty years ago, right here in Boston, 50 dedicated patriots known as the Sons of Liberty boarded three ships in Boston Harbor to protest a government more concerned with moneyed interests than its own people. Those 50 patriots believed that they had the power and the duty to change their government.
What they did that night became known as the Boston Tea Party. It marked the beginning of the first great grassroots campaign in our history. Their action -- which they took together -- set this country on the path to freedom and democracy. And a King named George -- who had forgotten his own people in favor of special interests -- was replaced by a government of, by and for the people.
The people who boarded those ships in Boston Harbor joined together in common action to create a free society based on individual liberties. And through that action, they changed the course of history.
Democracy and freedom, forged through action. That is the story of America.
It is also our hope for the future.
Today, once again, we stand here in Boston as patriots -- and we stand with more than 410,000 other patriots across this nation who have joined our campaign, and countless millions more who share our values.
We stand here as Americans, once again willing to take action to restore a government of the people.
We stand here as Americans who are no longer willing to allow the further depletion of our nation's treasury through tax cuts for this administration's wealthiest contributors.
We stand here as Americans who are no longer willing to accept an administration whose handouts to industry are squandering our most precious natural resources and causing irreparable harm to our environment.
We stand here as Americans who are no longer willing to accept the partisan squabbling in Washington by both political parties, while 41 million Americans live without health insurance.
And we stand here as Americans who are no longer willing to accept an administration lying to the American people about the reasons for sending our sons and daughters and brothers and sisters to die in a foreign land.
We stand at a critical moment in American history. Either we come together and take action now to restore a politics of participation and a politics of the people, or we allow the Washington insiders and the special interests to continue to make the back room deals that are destroying people's faith in our government.
Democracy itself is at stake in this election. The extreme right wing of the Republican Party has shown nothing but contempt for democracy. From the impeachment of a sitting President, to the recount in Florida, to opportunistic redistricting efforts in Colorado and Texas, and now in the recall effort in California, a narrow band of right-wing ideologues have subverted the democratic process whenever they haven't liked the outcome.
And making a joke out of our system of checks and balances, this administration has sought to expand the powers of executive privilege to such an extent that they've created a presidency that believes it answers to nobody.
But we are going to make them answer to us.
Our democracy is our strongest institution. Yet it is also our most fragile.
Two hundred and sixteen years ago this September, our founders laid out their vision and purpose for America in the Preamble to our Constitution. But at every turn, the Bush Administration has turned our Constitution on its head.
The Constitution seeks to form a perfect union -- but this administration has divided us by race, gender, income, religion, and sexual orientation.
The Constitution seeks to establish Justice -- but this administration has appointed radical ideologues to the courts.
The Constitution seeks to insure Domestic tranquility -- but this administration has capitalized on domestic fears of terrorism for political gain.
The Constitution seeks to provide for the Common Defense -- but this administration has underfunded homeland security and done nothing to protect our ports and harbors.
The Constitution seeks to promote the general welfare -- but this administration has cut funding for child care and education.
The Constitution seeks to secure the blessings of liberty for posterity -- but this administration has shackled our children and grand children with the largest deficit in the history of our nation through reckless tax cuts.
Americans who today aren't even old enough to vote will be the ones who will bear the full cost.
The ideal of democracy is more powerful than money; yet today our democracy is threatened by a flood of special interest money pouring into our nation's capital.
Our founders understood that threat. James Madison and Thomas Jefferson spoke of the fear that economic power would one day seize political power.
That fear has been realized with the Bush administration.
Under the Bush Administration, the largest corporations and the wealthiest individuals benefit from tax-cuts that are bankrupting the states and starving Social Security, Medicare, and our public schools.
These tax cuts reward the largest political contributors at the expense of today's middle class, whose property taxes are skyrocketing.
The flood of special interest money into Washington has transformed the system of American government from a government participated in by all to a government accessible to only a few.
The oil companies write our energy policy; big pharmaceutical companies draft Medicare reform without price controls; and in Iraq, Halliburton is awarded a $1.7 billion no-bid contract.
It is a government of, by and for the special interests. The only way the American people are included in the process is that we are left to pay the bills. And the cost is high -- to our economy, our environment, our children's schools, and our health care.
But the problem extends beyond this Administration, as bad as they are. Today, there are 33 lobbyists for every member of Congress.
Only you have the power to right these wrongs. Only you have the power to send those lobbyists home.
The special interests can only win if the American people continue to drop out of political participation.
But we are going to defeat this President by bringing millions of people back into the political process.
And we are going to defeat the special interests through the hard work and individual contributions of millions of Americans...
This administration has forgotten the lessons of history. The Berlin Wall fell not only because we were strong militarily, but also because we showed those living on the other side that America was a place of hope. Through their admiration for our government, they demanded change within their own country...
Two hundred and two Septembers after the creation of our Bill of Rights, Attorney General John Ashcroft drafted a document that has eroded our Constitutional rights and broken down the mutual trust between the American people and their government -- and between Americans and each other -- by making suspects out of all of us.
That is not the act of a patriot.
A true Patriot Act is not born out of fear, but out of trust; it is not born out of division, but out of community; it is not born out of suspicion, but out of faith in each of us.
We need to remind this administration what a Patriot Act is.
A neighbor lends a hand to a friend in need -- that is a Patriot Act.
A mother struggles for her children's future -- that is a Patriot Act.
An immigrant becomes a member of our American family -- that is a Patriot Act.
Men and women risk life and limb on behalf of our country through our armed services -- that is a Patriot Act.
Americans come together as a community and as a country to declare their values, their rights, and their very independence. That is a Patriot Act, as it was in 1776 and as it is over two hundred years later, and as it will be, through our actions, over two hundred years from now...
We believe that together we can create a force strong enough to change history and take back our country.
We're meeting up. We're organizing. We're putting out flyers and knocking on doors. We're writing letters to one another, and talking about how we can shape the future of our country. Some come together through Meetup.com and deanforamerica.com, and others find each other through word-of-mouth and involvement with their community.
And while the President is amassing a war chest bundled in $100,000 and $200,000 increments by those he calls Rangers and Pioneers, Americans from across the country are redefining campaign finance reform through their $50 contributions...
With mouse pads, shoe leather and hope, we are building an American community strong enough to take on the power of money in politics and deliver the White House to its rightful owners -- We the People.
This September will go down in history -- as the month when the people stood up and believed they could take their country back.
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Imran Siddiqui
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The Potterverse
Jan 1970
time: 00:31
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quote:
it's interesting to read what the victims of right-wing hate-media think |
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPentagon...N20030924a.html
quote:
Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) - Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee returned from a recent tour of Iraq with a message for the American people: The establishment media is presenting a biased and unnecessarily negative portrayal of the military and political progress in the newly freed Middle East nation.
"I flew from Baghdad to Kuwait with Sgt. Trevor A. Blumberg from Dearborn, Mich. He was in a body bag. He'd been ambushed and killed that afternoon," wrote Rep. Jim Marshall (D-Ga.) Monday in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "Sitting in the cargo bay of a C 130E, I found myself wondering whether the news media were somehow complicit in his death."
Marshall is one of seven members of the House Armed Services Committee who traveled to Iraq earlier this month to see for themselves whether the American military has become "mired" in its efforts to rebuild the country. He decided to make the trip because of "bleak" news media reports that "contrast sharply with reports of hope and progress" from the Defense Department. What Marshall found surprised him.
"I'm afraid the news media are hurting our chances. They are dwelling upon the mistakes, the ambushes, the soldiers killed, the wounded, the Blumbergs," Marshall wrote. "Fair enough. But it is not balancing this bad news with 'the rest of the story,' the progress made daily, the good news.
"The falsely bleak picture weakens our national resolve, discourages Iraqi cooperation and emboldens our enemy," Marshall added.
Marshall is not alone in his criticism. Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), the ranking minority member of the committee, said at a press conference last week that the establishment media is dwelling on the negative news to the exclusion of the positive.
"The media stresses the wounds, the injuries and the deaths, as they should," Skelton said. "But, for instance, in Northern Iraq, General [David] Petraeus has 3,100 projects, from soccer fields to schools to refineries. It's all the good stuff that isn't being reported."
Reporting 'by the numbers' may hinder accurate coverage
It may be a matter of mathematics as to why "all the good stuff" is not being reported.
Marshall recalled that 774 journalists from various western media outlets were embedded with U.S. troops at the height of the conventional war. While Fox News Channel alone had 27 reporters embedded then, Marshall complained: "Today, there are only 27 embedded journalists from all media combined.
"During the conventional part of this conflict, embedded journalists reported the good, the bad and the ugly," Marshall recalled. "Where are the embeds now that we are in the difficult part of the war, now that fair and balanced reporting is critically important to our chances of success?"
Steve Rendall, senior analyst with Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), a liberal media watchdog group, acknowledged that the U.S. news presence in Iraq lacks depth.
"Yes, there are too few American reporters in Baghdad and throughout Iraq. I would agree with that point. I do think that there should be more," Rendall said. "But I don't agree that there aren't an awful lot of sources for Americans, especially those with access to the Internet."
Rendall: 'Politicians should probably stick to making policy'
Rendall believes the reports of widespread Iraqi opposition to the continued American presence in Iraq are accurate, and he discounted most of the congressional delegation's remaining complaints.
"Politicians should probably stick to making policy," Rendall said. "Politicians returning from Iraq, who were just given a V.I.P. tour, mainly including contact with top-level American officials, both civilian and military officials, are really not in a position to tell us the whole story about the facts on the ground in Iraq."
Rendall did acknowledge that he has no way of knowing what other contacts the members might have had with Iraqi citizens.
While claiming there should be more American reporters in Iraq, Marshall lamented the work of those who are there, describing "the harm done by our media" and concluding, "I'm afraid it is killing our troops."
Tim Graham is director of media analysis for the conservative Media Research Center, of which CNSNews.com is a division. He believes Marshall's analysis of the news coverage coming from Iraq is accurate, even if his conclusion is exaggerated.
"Are we really getting an accurate and complete picture? No, we're not," Graham said. "Obviously, the thing that's most newsworthy to the families of our troops, which is that they get killed, is about the only question we're getting [answered]."
Of Marshall's contention that inadequate media coverage is contributing to the deaths of American troops, Graham said: "That's a little too strong...for me."
Graham says: 'Realities of newsgathering' dictate what is and is not covered
Graham concurs with the assessment that there are too few western journalists covering Iraq. While the limited number of American reporters there may be affecting the coverage U.S. audiences receive, he said there are also other factors to consider.
"This is one of the realities of newsgathering that we all understand. You don't put on the front page that your dog is still alive or that traffic wasn't so bad today," Graham explained. "There are a lot of things in Iraq that are going right, and they're not newsworthy because they're not disastrous."
Graham compared the coverage of random attacks against coalition forces to the coverage of power outages following Hurricane Isabel.
"If regular life resumes in Iraq, it's not news because it's dull," Graham added. "The danger you get in is when you think the only thing that's newsworthy is the power's out. In Washington right now, the big story is that some power is still out, because it's unusual."
Rendall agreed.
"Especially with too few reporters there, it's going to be hard to get journalists to tear themselves away from those dramatic scenes to go and talk about the reopening of a school or the building of a soccer field, which are all worthy things and all newsworthy under normal circumstances," Rendall explained.
"But in a case where the story just down the street has to do with Americans coming under fire and sometimes dying," Rendall continued, "I think reporters will be guided by priorities that have to do with sort of the flash and the spectacular aspect of the combat stories and also the drama of them."
While Rendall dismissed the congressional complaints of media bias in the coverage of Iraq, Graham hopes news consumers will consider the liberal leanings of the establishment media and remember that a presidential election is not too far in the future.
"The media's coverage of this sounds more like a campaign and less like objective reporting," Graham said. "It sounds like 'softening up' the opponent."
In a limited defense of reporters, Graham said the nature of the news business is also affecting the coverage.
"Anybody who's going to vote, anybody who's going to form an opinion on how we're doing in Iraq," Graham cautioned, "ought to realize, with a grain of salt, that the news media doesn't feed you the happy news."
Democrats' complaints about media make perfect 'man bites dog' story
Graham also noted the irony he saw in the most vocal complaints about the Iraq coverage coming from Democrats in Congress.
"Usually, the news media loves a 'man bites dog' story," Graham observed. "And there's not a better 'man bites dog' story than Democrats critiquing the media for being too negative about a U.S. war. I think that's a rather remarkable thing." |
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yavoon
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quote:
Originally posted by Japher
Yes, I am a supporter of capitalism. Yet, I am also a supporter for Lazze-faire politics, especially in the corporate world. If the market has better use for the land then good, use it for the better use. Yet, in many cases the government dictates the market, as with Ag zoned land and water allocations which limit these zones.
Note: I have been eyeing the central valley for sometime as a place for emerging biotechs. Seems that it is a great place to go because the city water systems can handle the large amount of waste generated by the biotech industry, since those water facilities are use to handling contaminated water from the Ag industry... |
isn't there a little irony in supporting farming in america by saying that politicians should stay out of it?
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Brtndr4u
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Manor Arwennick
Jun 2000
time: 23:31
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I won't make up my mind until Nov.04'
Dean makes me think McCarthy,Dukakis,Carter
Clark makes me think McCain,North,Ike
Bush makes me think Bush,Bush,Bush
None of the above strike me as deep thinkers or problem solvers.Now if Powell was a canidate or even Rice,I might have an easy decision.Both Clintons are opportunist extrodanaire,they don't want Dean to get the nomination because it would ruin Hill's future plans for 08'
Sharpton,Mosley-Bruan and Dennis Kunnerich(sp) are the only real liberal progressives.The others are centrist.No matter what the Dean folks tell you.But none have a snowballs chance in he11.
Holy Joe,Gephart,Edwards,Kerry are just pissing into the wind IMHO.
As always the South will decide the election again,with Florida again the focal point.
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25-09-2003 02:37
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