by David Burn | Oct 12, 2004 | Politics
Frank Capra’s 1939 classic, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, reveals one man’s brave attempt to negotiate a thoroughly corrupt system–the United States Congress. In a case of real life imitating art, we now have Jack Davis, a lifelong Republican from upstate New York running for his district’s House seat as a Democrat. Mr. Davis, a grandfather of 13, and owner of a manufacturing company, is running to save American jobs, something he knows about on a first-hand basis. Workers at his plant make $25/hour on average.
by David Burn | Oct 12, 2004 | Media, Politics
I applaud Sinclair Broadcasting’s transparency. I know many liberals are outraged that the owner of 62 TV stations has ordered the airing of right wing propaganda on the eve of the election, but it serves to hammer home one of the points I continue to make here–that the mainstream media is in the pocket of the Republican Party (click here, or here, to learn how they actually achieve this). This stunt makes Fox News seem legit, and that is a very tall order.
Carlton Sherwood, producer of Stolen Honor
The thing that gets me about this Sherwood guy and slanderers like John O’Neill is the fact that the atrocities in Vietnam are so well documented. Even worse, is the fact that our military is engaged in the same torturous behavior today. To pretend otherwise is as delusional as it is dangerous.
If you’d like to view a true documentary, one with no political axe to grind, here it is. Thanks Frontline.
by David Burn | Oct 11, 2004 | Politics
“The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.” – George Orwell
Republican strategists–notably Ken Mehlman, Andrew Card and Karl Rove–are wildy successful takover artists. Their greatest conquest may be the English language itself. To deflect the glaring weakness of their ideas and the candidates who spout them off, the minds behind the scene shamelessly accuse their Democratic challengers of the very things they themselves are without question guilty of.
Karl Rove, a.k.a. Big Brother’s little helper
1) Bush-Cheney have attacked both Kerry and Edwards for missing key votes in the Senate, when no President in U.S. history has taken more time off than Dubya.
2) Bush-Cheney claim Kerry is unfit for the role of commander-in-chief, while they have five draft deferments and one absent without leave between them.
3) Bush-Cheney claim to be fiscally conservative, when in fact they are spending our money like drunken sailors.
4) Bush-Cheney accuse the mass media of liberal bias, yet there is not one name-brand journalist (except Lou Dobbs) willing to consistently challenge this administration.
5) Bush-Cheney assert that the world is a safer place today, while the nation of Iraq is in complete chaos and daily being flooded with more terrorists, Iran and North Korea are arming their nukes, genocide is occuring in Sudan and Russia is regressing into totalitarianism.
The question I have is why Democrats are not better prepared to expose these blatant lies, and belittle the liars who tell them. Some might say it’s important to honor the office, if not the man. No! We cannot honor those who willfully destroy the truth, The Constitution, the economy, etc. Doing so only contributes to the problem.
by David Burn | Oct 10, 2004 | Politics
“Daily the corporate supremacists pull Kerry–through money, Wall Street advisers and sheer power–in their direction. If the liberals do not demand from Kerry commitments in detail that pull him toward the necessities of the people, guess in which direction he will continue to move. If he wins the election without mandates, corporatist dogma will follow him decisively into the Oval Office.” -Ralph Nader, in today’s Washington Post
Ralph Nader is the only Presidential candidate who has worked his entire life to help people by battling corporate greed. But because he’s marginalized by the mainstream media and now also by frightened Democrats, too few people are prepared to vote for him.
Ralph was on C-SPAN today and spoke eloquently and persuasively, as he always does. It took a caller who emigrated to the U.S. from Ethiopia to point out that throughout American history, the Dems and Republicans have been little more than flimsy fronts for corporate interests. Ralph picked up on this and described the crucial role third parties have played in moving some of the biggest issues we’ve faced as a nation forward. Issues like slavery, women’s suffrage, and workers’ rights. I understand it is work to pick up a history book, but if we’re going to get out from under corporate control and reinstitute American democracy, it will be necessary.
Loyalist Democrats are asking what Nader hopes to achieve by running for President this year. I think the answer to that question is pretty plain to see. He wants the Dems to adopt his agenda. To achieve that goal one must apply pressure. Nader’s candidacy is holding them accountable, and in my estimation it’s some of the most important work of this ubercitizen’s life.
by David Burn | Oct 9, 2004 | Politics
Yesterday on CNBC Ana Marie Cox, a.k.a. Wonkette questioned whether Bush was wearing a wire during the first Presidential Presentation (to borrow Lou Dobbs’ phrasing). I though it was a joke, for Cox is hilarious and being funny and outrageous is her thing. Now, today I see there is more to it. The idiot-in-chief was very likely being fed his answers, which is strange enough, but what truly baffles is why his answers were so lame. Why cheat if it does not further your cause?
by David Burn | Oct 7, 2004 | Politics
Many otherwise intelligent Democrats are still, to this day, concerned about Ralph Nader costing them another election. This despite proof that Nader did not cost Gore the election in 2000. It’s been my contention all along that Gore cost Gore the election, via his very own brand of ineptitude, including his absurd distancing from Clinton. But don’t listen to me. Al From, founder and CEO of the Democratic Leadership Council, wrote in Blueprint Magazine (1-24-01) that according to their own exit polls, Bush would have beat Gore by one percentage point if Nader hadn’t run in 2000. In other words, Nader draws voters from both parties, independents, and from people who would otherwise not vote.
Aside from Gore’s glaring weakness as a candidate, there is substantial evidence that Republicans, most notably Jeb Bush, cost Gore the White House.
“In the months leading up to the November 2000 presidential election, Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, in coordination with Governor Jeb Bush, ordered local election supervisors to purge 57,700 voters from the registries, supposedly ex-cons not allowed to vote in Florida. At least 90.2 percent of those on this “scrub” list, targeted to lose their civil rights, are innocent. Notably, more than half–about 54 percent–are black or Hispanic. You can argue all night about the number ultimately purged, but there’s no argument that this electoral racial pogrom ordered by Jeb Bush’s operatives gave the White House to his older brother.” -from Gregory Palast’s article* in The Nation
Then there’s the fact that the broadcast media in this country is firmly in the hands of the right, or else strong-armed by the right, as is the case with CBS. As previously reported here, and elsewhere, John Ellis, a venture capitalist, freelance journalist, blogger and first cousin of both Jeb and George Bush, was the man responsible for calling the election for Bush on Fox News after a conference call with his two power-hungry cousins. Every other network quickly fell in line with this erroneous pronouncement. From there it was for the courts to settle, and settle it they did.
*Palast also reveals that nationwide, 1.9 million votes were never counted in 2000, for reasons of spoilage.
by David Burn | Oct 7, 2004 | Politics
“There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part; and you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop.” -Mario Savio, speaking in Berkeley in 1964
A group of private citizens in Nelson, British Columbia are planning to honor “the courageous legacy of Vietnam War resisters and the Canadians who helped them resettle in that country during that tumultuous era.” The organizers of Our Way Home National Reunion Weekend also planned to unveil a monument in Nelson, B.C., during their July 2006 two-day festival. That is, until Fox News got wind of their plans. Now Nelson’s political leaders, concerned with losing American tourism dollars, say “Not in our town.”
In direct opposition to this retro-fearful approach, we have Berkeley, California celebrating the 40th anniversary of The Free Speech Movement this week. More than 50 events are being held to mark the movement’s 40th anniversary, including an echo of the captive police-car episode. The week’s highlight will be a noon rally Friday atop a police car in Sproul Plaza with former Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean among the speakers.
Mario Savio
by David Burn | Oct 6, 2004 | Politics
Given the dire seriousness of Bush-Cheney’s repeated lies told to the American public, I find it odd that the Veep would allow such a careless slip during the debate last night. In his desire to disparage Senator Edwards, a man he claims has outsized ambitions for a first-term Senator, Cheney said he had never met the man from North Carolina, despite his weekly trips to the Senate. In fact, Cheney has met Edwards three times prior to last night.
Edwards and the Veep at a prayer breakfast in 2001
In an even crazier twist, Cheney asked people who doubted him (I forget on which point) to go to Fact Check dot com. He meant to say, Fact Check dot org, a nonpartisan site run by the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center. The Fact Check dot com people (who run a for-profit advertising site based in the Cayman Islands), deluged with traffic, slyly redirected their site to George Sorros dot com. Billionaire investor George Sorros, is a powerful opponent of the sitting administration. Ah, the internet.
by David Burn | Oct 5, 2004 | Digital culture, Politics
NYC blogger and frelance copywriter Paul Ford of F-Train fame describes the inherent logic in getting the far Christian right to vote for Kerry. From his blog:
“Maybe the rapture is coming, and all of those who have taken Jesus into their heart will be pulled to heaven soon. Which is why I’m asking you to vote for the godless devil-candidate, the abortion-loving, bible-hating John Kerry. Because if you vote for George W. Bush, and the rapture comes, his entire administration could vanish at any moment, plunging our government into chaos.”
by David Burn | Oct 1, 2004 | Politics
Tonight George Bush–possibly for the first time since becoming President–had to stand still and listen to criticism. And it’s quite evident he didn’t take it well. Each time his opponent, Senator John Kerry, attacked him for his failed policies in Iraq, Bush winced as if he’d never heard such nonsense. Given that Bush refuses to read newspapers or hold regular press conferences, it’s possible that he never has considered how many American people are truly upset by his reckless and arrogant behavior. While readers of this blog certainly know I’m no fan of the Democratic Party, I am pleased with Kerry’s willingness and ability to bring Dubya down a notch.
