Even the Deep South is in play...But not with Johnny
Sunshine Edwards...No, it has to be a sharp-edged
sword ticket running on a theme of BETRAYAL, built on
the foolish military adventure in Iraq, the
incompetency, exploitation and cover-up surrounding
the the tragedy of 9/11 and the _resident's
destructure and duplicitous economic policies ...Al
Gore lit the fuse one night a few weeks ago in Tennessee: "He
BETRAYED this country...Truth shall rise again!" Yes,
it has to be Kerry-Clark, Kerry-Graham, or maybe the
wild card Kerry-Landreiux running on NATIONAL SECURITY
and ECONOMIC SECURITY can break the Bush cabal's
"Expanded Confederacy" Electoral College
strategy...Here is some insightful, inspiring
commentary from Oxford, Mississippi...
Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal: Most troubling
for me, though, is the blatant arrogance of Bush and
his people; the contempt for our intelligence, the
unshakeable faith they can spin any event, revelation,
or ugly truth to their own benefit. The arrogance in
assuming that this is a nation of cattle, to be led
whichever way they see fit. The unbridled arrogance
that the South is theirs for the taking, no matter
what, no matter how many lies are revealed. I won't
buy it. I know my friends and neighbors and they're
not stupid. They will hear the truth, and there will
be consequences. There must be.
Repudiate the 9/11 Cover-Up and the Iraq War Lies,
Show Up for Democracy in 2004: Defeat Bush (again!)
http://www.djournal.com/pages/story.asp?ID=54198&pub=1&div=Opinion
MITCH COHEN: Bring on truth and consequences
3/10/2004 8:58:04 AM
Daily Journal
For the better part of 40 years, the American right
has practiced the politics of division with
bare-knuckled ferocity. In the process, they've
evolved into the greatest marketing firm this nation
has ever seen; masters of the Big Lie, which, told
often enough, becomes truth. The current
administration is the ultimate product of this long
tradition, preaching Orwellian Up-is-Down-ism on every
front imaginable.
You've got to hand it to them, really; they're good at
what they do. The massive offensive on public
discourse and media influence has effectively put the
GOP's ideas front and center in the American mind,
much more so than the Democrats have long since been
able. Even when Republican rhetoric and reality are
but marginally linked, if at all, the success they
achieve is outstanding.
By diverting public attention from vital concerns of
the day, and focusing instead on small, inflammatory
and divisive issues, political debate is defined, and
therefore, controlled. For example, while
conservatives were screaming of liberal media bias,
the liberal media gave "conservative" voices twice the
airtime as "liberals" debating the subject.
And all the while, corporate Republican backers were
well on their way to swallowing up 90 percent of the
media outlets in this country, shifting the
perspective and reportage of most markedly to the
right as they did.
Great cultural influencer
It's no secret the media is the great cultural
influencer. Whether it's been because of media
dominance, or the simple, awesome power of repetition,
a great many Americans have been convinced religion
and love of God is not about doing good, loving your
fellows and making this world a better place than you
found it, but rather about "protecting the sanctity of
marriage" and restricting women's rights to make
decisions regarding their own lives and bodies.
Patriotism has morphed into unquestioning agreement
with the current administration, and any show of
disagreement or attempt to encourage debate, the ugly
mark of a traitor.
As election year shifts into full gear, the onslaught
continues; pundits, think tankers and loyal
Congressional foot soldiers rise to the surface once
again, to divide this country on the basest of levels.
Expect no less from the undoubtedly bloody battle to
come; Karl Rove will pull out all stops to prevent
another one-term Bush presidency. This is the
culmination of his life's work. This is personal.
When the Massachusetts Supreme Court blew away the
barriers to same sex marriage, Rove jumped for joy and
the president issued a somber, terse denouncement
almost immediately. The plan has always been to paint
John Kerry as another Dukakis, the prototypical New
England liberal. This ruling out of his home state,
pure gravy. Now they push to scar our Constitution
with its very first discriminatory Amendment. This is
what they'd have us focus on, so we will forget.
They would have us forget
There's so much they'd have us forget.
551 lives and counting, lost in a war sold on false
information, a war we did not need to fight. David
Kay's stunning admission: "We were all wrong" about
Iraq's WMD capabilities. Stonewalling the 9/11
commission and politicizing the timing of its report.
"Outing" a covert CIA WMD operative for political
purposes.
The erosion of our civil liberties by way of the
Patriot Act. The covert surveillance and infiltration
of citizen groups opposed to administration policies.
The continued use of the act for non-terrorism cases,
wholly unrelated to national security.
The vice president's secretive energy policy-shaping
meetings and equally secretive duck hunts with Justice
Scalia - who is hearing the case to make records of
those meetings public. The list goes on and on.
Troubling arrogance
Most troubling for me, though, is the blatant
arrogance of Bush and his people; the contempt for our
intelligence, the unshakeable faith they can spin any
event, revelation, or ugly truth to their own benefit.
The arrogance in assuming that this is a nation of
cattle, to be led whichever way they see fit. The
unbridled arrogance that the South is theirs for the
taking, no matter what, no matter how many lies are
revealed. I won't buy it. I know my friends and
neighbors and they're not stupid. They will hear the
truth, and there will be consequences. There must be.
Mitch Cohen is a media consultant and freelance writer
who lives in Oxford. E-mail him at:
mitchcohen2k@bellsouth.net.
Appeared originally in the Northeast Mississippi Daily
Journal, 3/8/2004 8:00:00 AM, section B , page 3