Corp. Media Bias,Polls,Waffling,VoteBuying SPARKS New Dynamic of Self-Publishing

by CultureJamCleveland Saturday, Jan. 10, 2004 at 7:41 PM
spacebuddy008boing@yahoo.com

The candidates believing the assessment by the weapons-manufacturer-owned-media and their ridiculous polls, because they get coverage fall into trap of having to accept and be defined by it. Later finding out their dependence on orchestrated reality control and conventional wisdom, causes the rug to be pulled out from under them> as events, time and the fluidity of the new info-sharing environment made possible by real peoples participation with self-publishing, pushes the envelope to more accurate and genuine picture, actual portrayal of the environment, Here on the ground in 2004.The truth, morality and validity of the progressive message is that powerful. NPR DEBATE OBSERVATIONS

Corp. Media Bias,Pol...
afp.jpg, image/jpeg, 453x573

NPR Debate-Recognition and Trust in Consistent Out in Front Authentic Plans with Principle and Purpose is Becoming Plainly Evident

Finger to the Windbag Image Posturing OR..the Trust of Authentic Clear Concrete Plans with Commitment to Action?

An analysis of the Record in reviewing the candidates remarks from the transcript of the Jan6th debate in Des Moines, will show this conclusion: The credibility lacking in mainstream media's managed thrust of the "major" candidates is continually seen through as the deliberate vagueness of their proposals, often filled with turn off, boring, suspect minutae details. Do they really want to bring more people into the process, many who haven't been voting are waiting for someone to vote for and these very people add an unknown variable of unpredictability that conventional political operatives may not be ready for and not know how to deal with!

Image posturing and stylistic showmanship is being trumped as the Progressive candidate D. Kucinich continually, consistently focuses Plans on the carefully thought out Right thing to do. Not only inspiring people looking for a True New Breed of Leader, but also invigorating because of its Truth-Focus, Believability, Trustability that what he says IS Doable, and what he promises, if we help and support, IS possable AND necessary to be done.Through his actions, authenticity and integrity we can GET OFF the carousel of pedantic waffling, machevellianistically finger to the windbag, corporate diversionary tactics from listening to tired, conventional political marketers of what will "sell" to the public.
Sunk costs in Least Common Denominator,cynical, UNdemocratic manipulation by buying votes and endorsements with dirty corporate money, AND contempt for the intuition and intelligence of the Public is really stifling growth, change, creativity and a NewDay Forward!

I am going to do this in a list of comments on the dialogue from the start to close of the debate wher no body movement antics, personal characteristics or photo geniality played a part because it was audio only. Voices, Feelings, Words took on added meaning.

In predebate commentary by Mara Liasson they mainly referred to media favorites Dean, Kerry and Gephardt for Iowa. The candidates believing the assessment by the weapons-manufacturer-owned-media and their ridiculous polls, because they get coverage fall into trap of having to accept and be defined by it. Later finding out their dependence on orchestrated reality control and conventional wisdom, causes the rug to be pulled out from under them> as events, time and the fluidity of the new info-sharing environment made possible by real peoples participation with self-publishing, pushes the envelope to more accurate and genuine picture of actual portrayal of the environment, here on the ground in 2004. The media-favorite candidates realize this though, that explains the need to not define their positions clear enough , in order to give them plausible deniability, this is why Waffling occurs! If they really believe their platforms are powerful and desire for Real Change hardcore enough, they would not accept the overblown bedazzlement by a mass media who knew and does not point out the deception by this current administration, with regards to the justifications for leading us to war, Jessica Lynch, mission accomplished photo-op and On and On and ...The Beat Goes On...If the media's product is Credibility, they must have had a going out of business sale because the shelfs are EMPTY.
Those who get our info from the Internet, (thank the military they invented it) Independent Media and foreign media, understand the credibility is about squandered down to ZERO.

SEE THESE RECENT RANTS ESPECIALLY EARNEST PARTRIDGE FROM WWW.CRISISPAPERS.ORG
The most effectual engines for [pacifying a nation] are the public papers... [A despotic] government always [keeps] a kind of standing army of newswriters who, without any regard to truth or to what should be like truth, [invent] and put into the papers whatever might serve the ministers. This suffices with the mass of the people who have no means of distinguishing the false from the true paragraphs of a newspaper."
Thomas Jefferson
The truth, morality and validity of the progressive message is that powerful, as the right-wing media machine well knows.

Attention of the progressive opposition must be directed to the media itself. Thoughtful criticism can be effective, but ridicule even more so. No doubt about it, the US media appears ridiculous to journalists abroad, and the American media must constantly be reminded of this. Pratfalls by the “establishment” media should be exposed and publicized:

Walter Cronkite, whose public statement of the futility of the Viet Nam War led LBJ to say “if I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost the public;”

Is the entire journalistic profession in America totally devoid of discerning patriotic individuals, prepared to take chances? In the past, many American journalists have risked their liberties, as still others have given their lives in defense of freedom. Is it asking too much for a few well-healed and well-placed individuals to risk their jobs?

But just imagine Dan Rather or Tom Brokaw or Peter Jennings or Ted Koppel on camera, pulling out a privately prepared statement from his coat and ignoring the teleprompter, and then telling it like it really is – warning the public of the disasters ahead to which the Bush policies are surely leading us.

The whole rotten structure of Bushevism, however impressive on the surface, is vulnerable to assault by facts, by appeals to simple decency, compassion, justice and patriotism, and in no small part by well-aimed barbs of ridicule. Goliath is fearsome, but he could fall in an instant.

If this is to happen, the media must play a decisive role. However dismal its performance today, the journalistic profession has a history of coming to the rescue of democracy, albeit belatedly, in its time of peril. And just a few well-placed individuals might be all that it takes.

And we progressive citizens have a crucial role to play. We must plead, demand, protest, and boycott the media lackeys and their sponsors, and conversely we must support the emerging media voices of progressive dissent and their sponsors. As we boycott the scoundrels, we must tell them so. And as we support the dissenters, we must also tell them so.

http://www.crisispapers.org/essays/media.htm

Watch How They
Choreograph The News
By Marjorie Tietjen
Daystar1952 (at) yahoo.com
1-5-4






The fact that there are nefarious motives behind the all pervasive, ever increasing media propoganda, is becoming so obvious that if it were not so serious and effective, it's transparency would be laughable.
Many Americans realize there is something very wrong with the media. It is admitted by quite a few that the news is very sensationalized but it is felt that this is because T.V Networks are competing against each other for ratings. People don't want to go any further with the reasoning. The media and other corporations are really meshed with our government structure and until people acknowledge that the public is being manipulated by the media/government for political goals, we will continue to be enslaved and controlled.
The following quotes reinforce the idea that the past and present administrations are pushing for One World Government and that the media is the essential tool to bring this about.
"We are grateful to The Washington Post, The New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost forty years. It would have been impossible for us to develope our plan for the world if we had been subject to the bright lights of publicity during those years. But the work is now much more sophisticated and prepared to march toward a World Government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferrable to the national autodetermination practiced in past centuries." David Rockefeller, founder of The Trilateral Commission, in an address to a meeting of The Trilateral Commission, in June, 1991
"The propaganda is immense. The "daily news" and "social movements" seem orchestrated to destroy families, communities, and any other method folks have of holding themselves together through connection. Connections with the opposite sex. Connections through age. Connections to God. When these connections are severed so are our strengths. It is so important for men and women to see themselves as allies, companions, necessary cogs in the great wheel of life rather than as competitors. These New World Order folks want us to orphan our children, abandon our elders, fight with our spouses, distrust our neighbors. They want us drugged, dependant, devoid of meaning, purpose, strength. They want to patent God's creation. They can only appreciate what they can profit from. Their medium is fear. They control all major institutions on this planet and all forms of information like "news", advertising, entertainment, publishing, education, etc. through which they try to shape the way human beings think and feel about themselves. Caught like we are in this virtual matrix of darkness, what is a person to do?
Humanity needs to know that we are here for each other. We need to reconnect and not be so fearful and suspicious of our fellow human beings. The media / illuminate knows that connections between people are not in their best interests. Their goal is to disconnect us from each other. Whether it's pitting children against parents, males against females, one nationality against another, creating the illusion of separate political parties, etc - this is one sure method of a few gaining control over the masses. We are all so busy being fearful, angry or competing with each other that we have no time or energy left to step back and view the whole situation.
http://www.rense.com/general47/watch.htm
The Karma of Spin
January 6, 2004
By Rodger Stevens

"At a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act." - George Orwell

So I find it very interesting that over the span of the past couple of years, White House-generated spin has begun to congeal in a most karmically revealing way. Events which were grandly presented as having happened one way turn out to have happened in quite another. Those of us who yearn for peace, and for honest disclosure by those in power can hope that maybe we're seeing an emerging trend.

It is questionable whether, in the past, such momentous attempts at spin have ever come unraveled as quickly and convincingly as we are seeing Bush's do. Even the Warren Commission's whitewashing of the Kennedy assassination, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, and Pearl Harbor itself have festered for decades without falling apart as resolutely as Bush's escapades. Is there some cosmic message being delivered here?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/04/01/p/06_spin.html

Kucinich, Lieberman and Braun made better impressions and scored more points than the three "so-called" pumped up front runners, I can't see how anyone finds any of them believable, exciting or inspiring, vain if all they have to fall back on is hype

1st question at the U-shaped table in the Npr debate to Dean:

CONAN:40 years ago, war on poverty, why so many still in poverty,

Dean is given a gift ! and blows it> see transcript (open 2nd window to refer back and forth to transcript)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59300-2004Jan6.html



most of his answer speaks to Medicare rip-off, a factor in some way, but he does not reach out to working poor, whites , blacks or latinos, no comment about inner city or rural poor. He NEEDS a broader base and didn't take the oppurtunity to talk about poor people, I am one. Kucinich tags outreach to the poor on another answer about education. Was Dean to prepared, planned with pat answers? The War on Poverty was a huge Democratic Party positive accomplishment.

Not much happens for long periods for my interest or liking. There is pedantic, narrow focus on miniscule differences on programs and policies concentrating on semantics, minutae and personal attacks. Avoidance of holistic generality, major themes, vision that Braun, Kucinich, Lieberman do so well that somehow simplifies Yet clarifies the picture-painting necessary to see what direction we All could and should be moving.

RELIGION

Lieberman claims we are most religiously observant and tolerant country. My reply is what about actions and results of our often, make-em-up as we go along policies. And why does Lieberman use the name Joe, when Joseph is more biblical, is he a regular guy?

UN

Next challengeable remark comes from Dean , saying yes UN needs reform, because Syria and Libya are head of human rights comission. I say what about Guantanamo, premptive aggressive war, cheered executions including ,and least we forget, since atrocities continually occur and then leave the scene without resolution, the use of predator drones to carry-out extra-judicial assinations in sovereign territory.(Yemen) Isn't the individual human's soul , mind and heart sovereign, also? Thats why we need to stand up for our human rights including Peace of Mind and freedom from organized bombardment of our thoughts. feelings and beliefs by sophisticated techniques of propaganda mass-mind management by gigantic broadcast and print monopolies ,aligned with the powers that happen to be right now.

Kucinich points out hypocrisy of teaching peace through talk and not teaching through example;

CONAN: Congressman Kucinich?

KUCINICH: What credibility do we have as a nation trying to teach peace when we're involved in war against Iraq at this very moment, in the ongoing occupation in trying to control the oil and privatize the country?

The way that we teach peace is through example. We need to set aside policies of unilateralism and preemption. We need to set aside policies of nuclear first strike. And we need to engage the world fearlessly and confidently: once again, not the America of duct tape and plastic, but the America of Francis Scott Key's "land of the free, home of the brave."

After the break the question is sprung to Kucinich about the occupation and incentives to UN to resolve.Alot of people know about the ONLY plan to get out ,so see the transcript for his careful ,sensible answer.

Here is a thought, A Dream I had this morning or last night. I would like to ask Dennis and his campaign: that when the new house session starts, as the pressure from the Waking Public , realists in the military, the troops and their families insistence continues to grow, will Kucinich push hard on an effort ,and I Bet he Will, to win support and push the withdrawl plan through Congress to Stop the killing, save the limbs and get the servicepeople home safe before the July convention in Boston? Like he said in his closing statements, there are mothers and fathers counting on US, who very much desire to rejoin families, end promised tours of duty and some may want to be delegates. This would make candidates current hopelessly inevitable positions of real potential possibilities embarrissingly wrong. Information and Intelligence demands to be Free if we Let it flow, we can be free to Live in Peace!

Next is Dean's response, because Dennis put alot of thought and planning in his crystallized assessment of the political scene, climate. He is out in front, the 1st to espouse the Right position. So as in other debate they are trying to siphon, assume and steal his ground. And ya' know what here comes Dean, a quote widely spread on the web and in Kucinich's press releases from a recent debate Dec9th, check maybe even Jan4th, Where Dean says we need to stay a couple years, Well guess what? Now it's moving closer to Kucinich's position , quote from Dean,"I'm with Dennis" and now what was years a couple of weeks ago is now down to " as soon as we can ", Carol-Moseley also is saying now as soon as we can, Very telling don't ya' think they could be worried Kucinich is psychic, crystal clear is often his insights , perhaps he or his advisors have a crystal ball!

Then, tough question from Conan to Gephardt about misled by CIA, check answer but my feeling is he sounded like he was a blamer, passing the buck, slough it off, quick.

Next revealing highlight- foreign policy comments about how to tame, rule the world. Kucinich says implications of administration's policy of nuclear first strike and of developing new nuclear weapons, in the nuclear posture review, that once the administration took that position it lost credibility with the world community to ask any nation to disarm, Gephardt, Lieberman followed saying nothing about this, but criticzed Madhassas schools in Pakistan, not defending, know nothing about, Conan says to Gephardt- " Where do we get off telling other people how to run their schools?" Lieberman tries to seize foreign policy toughness too , by displacement of confusion, underlying anger to foreign, alien, enemies, others, You know the Serenity quote, basically saying change what one has control over and change begins at home, within. Telling others what to do before we get our own house in order. Kucinich brought up the hypocrisy of that in earlier reference Teach Peace through action quote, Attempting to get a grip on that holier than thou, uncompromising, ethnocentric,inflexible false attitude, that later will hopefully be more focused as the starting point in getting to the heart of this matter in future debates.

Conan makes better point than some candidates will allow themselves to make next, "How do you convince them not to teach hate?, how do you convince them to do that? Stop buying their oil! " Yes, I say American ingenuity, new clean energy is around the corner.

THE Nitty-Gritty about the hijacking of our foreign policy. Here is Kucinich's response to cutting pentagon ,necessary for domestic rebuilding, where he again emphasizes that war without end mentality will PROHIBIT a world without end!

CONAN: Well, let's get Congressman Kucinich. We've not heard from him for a bit. And then we'll go to Senator Kerry and then to Congressman Gephardt. And then back over to that side of the table too.

KUCINICH: It's interesting to hear Governor Dean's assertion about how he won't balance the budget -- or how he will try to balance the budget when he refuses to admit that there needs to be cuts in the bloated Pentagon budget.

I don't see how in the world, when you have something that at this point takes up about 50 percent of the discretionary budget...

CONAN: Congressman Kucinich is holding up a pie chart, which is not truly effective on the radio.

KUCINICH: Well, it's effective if Howard can see it.

KUCINICH: Fifty percent of the budget's taken up by defense: How you going to balance the budget if you refuse to cut the bloated Pentagon budget?

Lieberman again goes back to Bush politac-tics, it's the other guy, the barbarians at the gates, the bogeyman next door.

CONAN: And I promise this will be the last one: Senator Lieberman?

LIEBERMAN: OK, I wanted to speak about Saudi Arabia. How do we convince them to stop supporting the madrassas? Because its in their interest.

Because, you know, this is a classic case. You try to ride the back of the tiger, he's going to eat you up. If they don't stop the spread of radical Islam, they're going to be overthrown.

The great victory that we will win in the war against terrorism is not just to capture and kill bin Laden, but it is to empower the great majority of Muslims to live better, freer lives. And we can only do that if the leadership -- too often despotic, often sitting on top of gravely impoverished people -- will allow us to help them open up.

Dean, " Ultimately we will have a program of tax fairness for middle class people.'

Other candidates attack with accountant-type details. Kucinich and Braun get to the point, Progressivity, Progessivity, Progressivity, and thank you, Mrs. Braun, She pointed out Kucinich's rightness several times, ex. Single Payer, Single Payer, Single Payer.

All the questions about people's personal income, money, etc. belie the fact that in past elections that may have been an important campaign issue, though in this one, I believe that Kucinich is recieving better guidance. People are scared of the Recklessness, the Audacity to blatantly flaunt fairness and decency. I think major themes, principles, core values, genuineness, underdog-leaning, will drive the vote. Along with Spiritual rejuvenation brought into public policy for balance.

Break: Dean gets questioned on temper and insists on answering zingers from Gephardt, rankling him during the break, and shows a little insecure vulnerability by insisting on answering tax questions from the last hour, before dealing with the tempermant issue.

Next Section: Kerry, Dean, and Gephardt get all combatative and in a dither about boring particulars, because, as I think they wrongly assume, they are in the lead from the biased corporate polls. Half the battle in the past was to project invinciblity. And it has worked in the past. This time people are better informed, with their B.S. detectors on Red Alert.

Now the point which Kucinich nails Hollow Dean with, How you gonna take back the country if you don't step on the budget toes of Those who have taken the country? The military industrial complex along with the pharmacuetical, energy and financial monopoly cabals. How ya gonna pay for all Dean's programs, Conan asks. Dennis points out in previous excerpt how will you provide for pressing domestic needs AND balance the budget without cutting the bloated, obscene and wasteful defense budget? Over 50% of discretionary spending is Frankensteinly Wrong, Wrong, Wrong. With Just , Honorable Leadership the World will be our friend.Economic wars are just as debilitating as the surprisingly few incidents of terrorism which have occurred since the "Pearl Harbor-type event."

For a while nobody says much that makes me smile, jump-up, applaud or put hands in the air, till Kucinich answers question about appealing to conservatives. Like always gives clear, concise, think on your feet answer , here it is, By the way, generally the questions and their tone was fair, professional and not inflammatory, slanted or insulting as in the ABC debate, where that network was taken to task.

Here's another e-mail that we have, and let's put this to Congressman Kucinich.

"It's clear from the last several elections the United States is divided, close to half Republican and half Democrat. What do you believe you have to offer those conservative voters that make up just about half the country -- maybe a little bit more, maybe a little bit less -- and how will you make sure that you represent the country as a whole?"

KUCINICH: Well, it's important for a president to represent the country as a whole. The world view that I bring to the presidency is looking at the world as one, as interconnected and interdependent.

And as president of the United States, I'll easily appeal to conservatives, because I was one of the leaders in the House of Representatives in trying to knock down the Patriot Act, which I voted against and which I've introduced legislation to overturn, and which as president I'd instruct the Justice Department to seek to repeal.

As president of the United States, I think I'll appeal to conservatives as someone who wants to conserve the air, wants to conserve the water, wants to conserve jobs, wants the United States sovereignty to be protected by withdrawing from NAFTA and the WTO. These are the kinds of values which I think have the possibility of winning the White House.

KUCINICH: And so my candidacy has the broadest reach. I can bring in Greens on the environmental issues, Natural Law Party members on environmental issues, Libertarians on the Patriot Act, and I can bring in Reform Party members on trade, and bring disaffected Democrats who want an old un-reconstructed FDR Democrat back in the White House.

I believe Sovereignty point was the first time it was brought up in this process, and very important. Note quote from David Rockefeller earlier. These extra-parlementarian , globalistic addicted, super-rich show no allegiance to America, the Land or the Rule of Constitutional Law, By enrichment consolidation achieved by purchase of the political process, sending jobs overseas and avoiding oversight in off-shore tax havens, AND then tell us what to do, defining our Future, from behind closed doors. Sharing the wealth fuels dreams for all and diminishes suffering and the need to do crime and waste money on the no spin-off economies expenditures on security and armament. As infrastructure and services and hopes falter what will be left to defend?

Series of trivial, frivilous question's follows. Did Republicans include these to get soundbites for Fox news to snicker and make locker-room fun of?

Section 4 - Supreme court questions, only one who mentions Roe v. Wade is Kucinich., by the way I think he is very strong with women. Women were the clear majority at the New Years Eve party in his hometown.

Next highlight, Kucinich again, about President of all the people, Uniter. Poetic comment- " A house divide against itself cannot stand. Our American Eagle needs two wings to fly."

First comment that next sticks out is Lieberman's about fire-prone, flood - prone building:

CONAN: Senator Lieberman, Americans continue to build their homes and business in fire-prone areas, on flood plains and on beaches that are susceptible to hurricanes. It cost taxpayers, through taxes and insurance premiums, millions and millions of dollars.

CONAN: How can this be addressed?

LIEBERMAN: You've stumped me. I guess I have to say I'd talk to the experts. You can do it with some zoning laws, but that's local. To some extent, when you get to a crisis stage, of course, the federal government enters with things like flood insurance.

CONAN: And the Army Corps of Engineers does have some influence.

LIEBERMAN: And the Army Corps does, so I'm going to take advice from you after the time is over about what my program as president should be in this regard.

CLOSING REVELATIONS:

Dean: ordinary, new face Dem., new face White House, take back America(quote Jerry Brown 1992) best not worst in us, Constitution says people control country our campaign shows that , or do you put on a show? 1/4 of all our money comes from those under 30, wouldn't that be an expected breakdown? 15-30/30-50/50 and up----Vague Imaging WHAT WILL YOU ASSUREDLY REALLY DO?

Kerry: tough, common sense, decency, fight not BushLite----Vague Imaging WHAT WILLYOU ASSUREDLY REALLY DO?

Gephardt: Experience, ideas, What about plans? MLK quote can't be what I want to be , till you be what you want to be----Vague Imaging WHAT WILL YOU ASSUREDLY REALLY DO?

Lieberman: Experience, yes at keeping convenient middle-of-the-road policies in the fore, preventing bold change, Though sneeks in word bold when talking about starting appropriation circling research project to cure plagues that he says kill thousands, "millions" millions -What? take on where strong-foreign policy, he is not strong there, Lieberman doesn't go far enough to burst the image bubble there, to do that he should have concurred with Kucinich's assessments, Lieberman is trying to outflank with more extra-judicial uni-lateralism, and the familar New Ideas (1984-Gary Hart) Vague Imaging WHAT WILL YOU ASSUREDLY REALLY DO?

Carol - Moseley Braun's closing comments were genuine, believable and honest.

Kucinich: Emphasized Continual Leadership, clear, constructive, concrete, achievable plans and the 1st to state them simply and plainly, transparently. He means what he says, his image is equal to his words, statements, Willing to be judged by his examplary actions , his record. States the obviousness, rightness, justness of the cause and let the people fill in the dots, Paint the Picture. He will help pave the road to Peace and prosperity with our help. Words spoken = Actions taken, Kucinich wants Government that Trusts the People and Earns the broken Trust of the Covenant.

Congressman Dennis Kucinich of Ohio?

KUCINICH: Thank you.

The Iowa and the New Hampshire elections are, in effect, a referendum on this country's policies in Iraq.

I stand alone among all the candidates in this race in Iowa in calling for the United States to get out of Iraq. I've had a plan on my Web site now for almost three months, which explains how we can get the U.N. in and the U.S. out of Iraq. It's possible to do that.

And we have a 130,000 troops who are counting on us -- many of them mothers and fathers -- who are counting on us to bring them home, not to leave them there for any reason whatsoever. We need to get the U.N. in and the U.S. out.

KUCINICH: My election is going to be a continuation of my leadership. I was the first with a plan to get out of Iraq, the first to oppose the war, the only one in this race who actually voted against the war, the first to oppose the Patriot Act, the only one in this race who voted against the Patriot Act, the first to promote withdrawal from NAFTA and the WTO, the first to draft a plan for single-payer universal health care, and the first to talk about 100 percent parity for our farmers.

This is an election where we can reclaim America. My election is about the end of fear, the beginning of hope and reclaiming our great country.

Thank you.

CONAN: Congressman Dennis Kucinich of Ohio.

A LONG HABIT OF NOT THINKING A THING WRONG

GIVES IT A SUPERFICIAL APPEARENCE OF BEING RIGHT

AND RAISES AT FIRST, A FORMIDABLE OUTCRY IN DEFENSE OF CUSTOM

BUT TUMULT....SOON SUBSIDES

TIME MAKES MORE CONVERTS THAN REASON

-19TH CENTURY WRITER

FIRST THEY IGNORE YOU

THEN THEY SHAME YOU

THEN THEY RIDICULE YOU

THEN, THEY FIGHT YOU

THEN YOU WIN, LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL

GOD BLESS YOUR PURE HEART,

JEFREE P.

"A new, spiritually based social activism is beginning to assert itself. It stems not from hating what is wrong and trying to fight it, but from Loving what could Be and making the commitment to bring It forth."

-Marianne Williamson -- Taken from "Healing the Soul of America: Reclaiming Our Voices as Spiritual Citizens"

DUDE! Where's My Anti-War CANDIDate?
Excerpts from article at www.imwithdennis.com newswire titled Campaign Compulsion + remarks from ABC debate claiming we all need to stay there a few years.

SORRY FOLKS, DEAN WAS PRO-WAR
A case in point is the recent admission by Howard Dean that he had supported (as did Sen. John Kerry and Rep. Dick Gephardt) the Biden-Lugar resolution allowing Bush to go to war with Iraq. Although Biden-Lugar placed restrictions on Bush, requiring him to “make available to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate his determination that the threat to the United States or allied nations posed by Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction program and prohibited ballistic missile program is so grave that the use of force is necessary, notwithstanding the failure of the Security Council to approve a resolution,” it would have allowed him to go to war with Iraq without a vote from Congress.

Dean’s pro-war admission came only after Sen. John Kerry brought it to light. It is no secret that Kerry’s vote for the “blank check” war resolution that passed in Congress fatally damaged his candidacy, while Dean’s highly touted anti-war stance as put forth in TV campaign ads—unquestioned by the media—led him from a seemingly invisible presence among Democratic hopefuls in August to the head of the pack by December.

This example also highlights the financial windfall of campaign advertising, which delivers a huge amount of money to mainstream media owners. During the last presidential election cycle, from January 1999 to September 20, 2000, alone—a period that does not include the last six weeks of the campaign—$342 million was spent on ads, according to a study by the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center. The 2004 campaign is expected to be even costlier. Apparently, if the White House is for sale, media outlets are doing the selling.


PERVERSION OF DEMOCRACY

KOPPEL: We've actually made it through the first half of this debate and we are now moving into a more unstructured part of the debate, during which, Senator Kerry, you can feel free to tell me precisely where to put those questions if you don't like them.

(LAUGHTER)

Let's begin with this one about Iraq. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz issued a memorandum today at the Defense Department saying that no country that is not a member of the coalition, that has not been active in Iraq, is going to be permitted to have any contracts in Iraq for the rebuilding of that country. What do you think about that?

KERRY: I can't think of anything dumber or more insulting or more inviting to the disdain and potential failure -- disdain of countries and potential failure of our policy.

This policy is not about Halliburton. It's about Iraq. It's about the Iraqi people. It's about America's role in the war on terror.

And what this administration is doing is actually putting America at greater risk, putting our soldiers at greater risk, and making the chances of success more remote.

KERRY: The only way to be successful ultimately is to transfer to the United Nations the full measure of authority for the reconstruction of Iraq, and for the governance transformation of Iraq.

And by doing that, we will undo the sense of American occupation and take the target off of American troops. This administration is inviting failure.

And if I can just say very quickly, the ad they're running in New Hampshire, right now today, denigrating Democrats for asking questions, is an insult to the politics and democracy of our country. And George Bush ought to be ashamed of the campaign that he's already running.

(APPLAUSE)

KOPPEL: When you talk about turning to the United Nations to run the reconstruction of Iraq, who do you envision having the responsibility for the safety and security of those U.N. personnel?

KERRY: The security component in the proposal that I've put forward several times now, and most recently at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York several days ago, envisions the United States being responsible for the security component, but with other nations.

KERRY: The problem is you can't begin to get the other nations participating until you share the outcome risks and responsibilities.

As long as we're stiff-arming the world, the way this administration has on three separations -- when we first took the vote, when the statue fell in Iraq, and finally when George Bush went to the United Nations -- on each occasion, he has pushed the U.N. and the world away from us.

We deserve leadership that knows how to build real alliances, that respects multilateralism and that understands that our troops today are at greater risk because of the arrogance and ineptness and recklessness and ideological rigidity of this administration.

I will change that. And I will go back to the United Nations and invite the world to respect the influence and power of the United States again.

KOPPEL: Governor Dean, you no doubt...

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... you no doubt heard or heard about Senator Clinton's views that we will, in all probability, have to keep if not the same number, possibly even a greater number of U.S. troops in Iraq for some extended time to come.

Do you share that view?

DEAN: I don't share that view. I think we need to bring in foreign troops. I think Senator Kerry is right.

First of all, here's what has to happen. What the United States did was appoint an governing council for Vermont -- for Vermont, for Iraq.

(LAUGHTER)

That was -- they'd like to appoint one for Vermont these days, I'm sure.

You cannot expect the Iraqis to think that they have their own government if we're appointing their people. We need an election.

Oddly enough, one of the mullahs over there who is a conservative Shiite is right. If you don't have an election, then the Iraqis themselves are going to have no investment in their reconstruction.

KOPPEL: And if you do have an election, then the Shiites hold a significant majority.

DEAN: They may, but it doesn't -- the Shiites are not necessarily uniform. Those people -- actually, the model is Afghanistan.

Our military did a great job in Afghanistan. And I supported the war in Afghanistan because 3,000 of our people had been killed, and I thought we had a right to defend ourselves.

But the fact is, since the military did a great job, this president has made a mess of it. He's trying to turn Afghanistan into a democratic country by signing over four-fifths of the country to the warlords.

However, the thing we ought to take out of Afghanistan is their model for how they're writing their constitution. They had an elected group of people who came to meet in Kabul for quite some time. They wrote a constitution which is an Afghan version of democracy. That can work in Iraq, and that's the first prerequisite.

Secondly,...

KOPPEL: You're talking about doing a constitution before you have an election?

DEAN: No, we're talking about doing the election first in order to have the people who write the constitution who are not seen by the Iraqi people as stooges of the Americans.

DEAN: That's the only way to get the Iraqis to buy into their own constitution.

Then we need to go to all those countries that the president insulted on his way into Iraq and get them to rethink their policy towards helping us under the auspices of both the United Nations and ourselves.

That means a new president. This president is never going to repair the damage he did to the moral leadership of this country, because he's incapable of it. He personalizes policy difference, and that is a fatal mistake when you're running anything, whether it's a business or a state or a country.

If we do that, we will be able to do what the president's father successfully did, which is bring 100,000 foreign troops into Iraq, preferably from Arabic-speaking and Muslim nations, to internationalize the reconstruction of Iraq.

Now, the reason I agree with Senator Clinton is this. We will be able to withdraw our Guard and Reserves -- who have no business being over there for a 12-month tour of duty -- we will be able to withdraw at least one of the two divisions. But we will not be able to withdraw an American presence.

The tragedy of what we did in Iraq, which I have opposed right from the beginning, is that now we're stuck there, because there was no serious threat to the United States from Saddam Hussein, but there is a threat from an Iraq with Al Qaida in it or with a fundamentalist Shiite regime which is closely allied with the Iranians.

President Bush said a few weeks ago on a Sunday night that Iraq was at the crossroads of the battle against terrorism.

DEAN: That wasn't true before we went in, but he has made it so and he has endangered the security of the United States of America by going into Iraq and that was a mistake.

KOPPEL: And having said that...

KUCINICH: Ted?

KOPPEL: ... I just want to make sure I understand you correctly and then...

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KUCINICH: Ted?

KOPPEL: Just one second.

KUCINICH: Ted?

KOPPEL: I just want to make sure that I understand Governor Dean correctly. In other words, you're saying, given where we are today, a continuing presence of some number of U.S. troops is going to be essential over a period of, what, years?

DEAN: Over a period of a few years, until the Iraqis really are able to have a democracy which is strong enough not to allow Al Qaida to emerge and has a constitution that's widely enough respected so they will not have a fundamentalist Shiite regime.

KOPPEL: Congressman?

KUCINICH: Well, I'd like to take issue with something that's been said here. You know, the war's not over. The war is not over. We have 130,000 troops there. And the occupation equals a war.

Now, my plan, which I mentioned earlier, which is on a Web site at kucinich.us, and I'd like everyone to look at it, calls for the end of the occupation, for the United States to get out.

Now, the U.N. will not cooperate unless the U.S. takes a change of direction. And here's the change of direction: The Bush administration must let go of its aspirations to control the oil in Iraq.

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They must hand over to the U.N. the handling of the oil, on a transitional basis, so the U.N. can handle it for the Iraqi people until the Iraqi people can be self-governing.

KUCINICH: The U.S. must hand over to the U.N. the contracting process. No more Halliburton sweetheart deals, no more war- profiteering, no more bids going to people who have contributed to the administration.

The United States must let go of the plan to privatize the Iraq economy, because, frankly, that's a violation of both the Hague and Geneva conventions, and that's another sticking point.

We have to turn over to the U.N. the cause of governance and helping to write a constitution.

You know, you can't say, as Dr. Dean has, that you're against the war but you're for the occupation.

(APPLAUSE)

Because by keeping our troops in Iraq for years, you're essentially keeping the war going.

The New York Times had the article yesterday, Ted, and, you know, maybe you saw it, how there is tough new tactics by the U.S. to tighten the grip on Iraqi towns. I mean, the tactics that this administration is having our men and women use are intensifying the war. There's going to be greater casualties.

Now, the plan that I just talked about, in addition to having the U.S. provide for rebuilding what we blew up, providing reparations to the innocent Iraqis who were killed, providing an opportunity for -- we have to provide some money so that we can bring U.N. troops in.

KUCINICH: But, Ted, unless we get the U.S. troops out of there totally, we're never going to see a situation where that war is going to be over. We're going to continue to be attacked.

And we need to get the U.N. in and get the U.S. out, end that occupation. And this is a centerpiece of my campaign for the presidency of the United States.

(APPLAUSE)