The "US mainstream news media" is trying to deep-six Kerry-Edwards. It is not even subtle. The LNS has reviewed dozens of examples from the air waves and the print media, over the last several days, but we are tired of documenting it. We are not going to waste our time on it. Just do la ook up on "It's the Media, Stupid," in the LNS searchable database and you will have hundreds of examples. Turn-out is what everyone needs to focus on now, turn-out and toughness. Will enough of you show up on Election Day? And will you have the toughness between now and then to survive this revolting performance by the Corporatist media? Kerry-Edwards understand what's going on here. They know what time it is in America, even if some of our fellow citizens are living in a fantasy world. That's why Kerry-Edwards are going STRAIGHT to the Electorate, and even rolling into towns so small they have never been visited by a Presidential candidate...It is only going to get worse from here on out...Here is a report from the frontline...Remember, what Bill Clinton said at the DNC, "Remember the Scipture, "Be not afraid." Of course, he was not only talking about Al Qaeda, he was talking about the brown shirts of the "vast reich wing conspiracy" that wants to break you with the Corporatist media's propapunditgandists, and convince you that Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mekong Delta) is just "not connecting" and that your fellow citizens feel "safer" with the Three Stooges Reich in command. Are we living in the Land of the Zombies. The LNS does not think so...We have squandered an unprecendented federal budget surplus and plunged the nation hundreds of billions of dollars of deficit this year alone because of tax cuts we didn't need, the US military is over-extended, disillusioned and trapped with no exit strategy, fighting against a hostile populace in a war we did not have to start and lied our way into, we have lost four years we did not have to spare in the struggle against global warming...No, we are not living in the Land of the Zombies, and yes, there is an Electoral Uprising coming in November 2004...TURNOUT and TOUGHNESS...That's the battlecry now..."Be not afraid."
CRAIG GILBERT and ALAN J. BORSUK, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: After scooting across Lake Michigan by high-speed ferry, Democrat John Kerry staged a large, raucous rally along the Milwaukee River Monday night, deriding President Bush's leadership in the war on terrorism and portraying the election as an all-or-nothing pivot point in the nation's future.
"Everything is at stake!" Kerry told thousands of supporters who packed into Pere Marquette Park and lined the opposite side of the river. "Jobs! Health care! Education! Civil liberties! Civil rights! The Constitution! Social Security! Medicare! Our children! The environment! Our future! All of it is on the line."
The high-stakes intensity of the campaign could also be seen Monday in noisy confrontations between Kerry and Bush supporters and the use of bullhorns and air horns by a small group of Bush supporters to try to disrupt the speeches, prompting Kerry and his wife to respond to what the candidate termed "goons."
While she was introducing her husband, Teresa Heinz Kerry referred to the group's audible call for "Four more years."
Said Heinz Kerry, "They want four more years of hell."
The Kerry crowd followed with chants of "Three more months."
Kerry also responded to the pro-Bush chanters, saying they wanted to "drown people out" with their megaphones.
"We don't want to be drowned out," Kerry said. "I want to thank George Bush for sending the goons here tonight to excite us to do a little more work! Thank you!"
Be A Smash-Mouth Patriot, Show Up For Democracy in 2004: Defeat Bush (again!)
Original URL: http://www.jsonline.com/news/nat/aug04/248359.asp
'Everything is at stake,' Kerry tells riverfront crowd. Race's intensity visible in exchanges with Bush supporters
By CRAIG GILBERT and ALAN J. BORSUK
cgilbert@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Aug. 2, 2004
After scooting across Lake Michigan by high-speed ferry, Democrat John Kerry staged a large, raucous rally along the Milwaukee River Monday night, deriding President Bush's leadership in the war on terrorism and portraying the election as an all-or-nothing pivot point in the nation's future.
Kerry's Milwaukee Stop
"Everything is at stake!" Kerry told thousands of supporters who packed into Pere Marquette Park and lined the opposite side of the river. "Jobs! Health care! Education! Civil liberties! Civil rights! The Constitution! Social Security! Medicare! Our children! The environment! Our future! All of it is on the line."
The high-stakes intensity of the campaign could also be seen Monday in noisy confrontations between Kerry and Bush supporters and the use of bullhorns and air horns by a small group of Bush supporters to try to disrupt the speeches, prompting Kerry and his wife to respond to what the candidate termed "goons."
While she was introducing her husband, Teresa Heinz Kerry referred to the group's audible call for "Four more years."
Said Heinz Kerry, "They want four more years of hell."
The Kerry crowd followed with chants of "Three more months."
Kerry also responded to the pro-Bush chanters, saying they wanted to "drown people out" with their megaphones.
"We don't want to be drowned out," Kerry said. "I want to thank George Bush for sending the goons here tonight to excite us to do a little more work! Thank you!"
Kerry pressed his criticisms of Bush over the report of the 9-11 commission, calling the president slow and reluctant to react to the need to reform the intelligence system.
And Kerry said the country's ability to gather intelligence was undercut by poor relations with allies under Bush.
"The way you win the war on terror is know who they are, where they are, and being able to go get 'em before they get us. And that requires the best intelligence in the world. And that requires the best cooperation with other countries we've ever had," Kerry said.
"The one thing they do worst," he said of the Bush Administration, "we need to do better."
Kerry's visit came on day four of a two-week post-convention trek across the country, mostly by bus, partly by train.
Riding the new ferry from Muskegon, Mich. - Kerry's only stretch of boat travel on the coast-to-coast swing - was a touch of novelty and theatrics that also provided a quick beeline from one battleground state to another. The marathon trip was designed to build on last week's Democratic National Convention. Some polls have given Kerry a modest boost after the convention, others little or no boost.
Busing across southern Wisconsin today, Kerry will stop in Beloit for a town hall meeting and drive on to Iowa.
Kerry was joined on stage at the Milwaukee rally by Wisconsin's two Democratic U.S. senators, Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold, and rock musician Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters.
In her lengthy introduction, Heinz Kerry, describing herself as a "sassy" grandmother, went through a litany of reasons to choose her husband over the Republican incumbent.
"It is important to have a president who not only understands, but enjoys complexity," she said.
"It is important to have a president that believes having friends and making friends in this world is not a sign of weakness but a sign of strength . . . It is important to have a president who can actually admit to success and failures, that learns from both. And it's vital for anyone intelligent to acknowledge mistakes and maybe change a position," she said.
Republicans have accused Kerry of flip-flopping.
Responding to Kerry's visit for the Bush campaign, Republican Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker accused Kerry of "talking down the future" in his downbeat assessment of how the nation is doing under Bush and "ignoring" his own Senate record.
"Wisconsin voters aren't going to trust a candidate who plays politics with the war on terror," said Walker in a statement, criticizing Kerry's vote against an $87 billion appropriation for the Iraq war and reconstruction.
In his speech, Kerry painted a grim portrait of the home front under Bush, from poverty and homelessness to shrinking wages.
"We think we can do better," said Kerry, who promised to roll back the Bush tax cuts for high-income Americans and "invest in education, health care and job creation."
About 30 Bush supporters chanted loudly during the speeches by Kerry and his wife, sometimes setting off air horns. The pro-Bush group was on the Kilbourn Ave. sidewalk overlooking Pere Marquette Park, almost a full block from the stage, but it could be heard throughout the park, including on stage.
Tom Lange, 18, of Waukesha said he was setting off an air horn during Kerry's remarks because "we want them to hear us and not hear what he has to say."
Lange said it's "probably not nice, but it's my beliefs."
Michael Gaspar, 18, of Waukesha used a bullhorn frequently before and during the rally to welcome Kerry supporters "to Bush-Cheney country" and to spur on the Bush supporters.
Asked why he was leading the Bush volunteers in loud chants while Kerry was speaking, he said, "I'm doing this to show my support for President George W. Bush."
"I have the right to speak also," he said. "I'm just attempting to get my voice heard."
There were several incidents of scuffling between Kerry and Bush supporters during the rally, including one in which it appeared a Kerry supporter attempted to throw a large Bush-Cheney sign into the Milwaukee River. Police and sheriff's deputies on foot and on horseback moved into the crowd several times and ordered people to move on and to break up their confrontations. No arrests were made, although one man was pinned to the ground by a sheriff's deputy at one point.
About 100 Bush supporters lined the Kilbourn Ave. sidewalk before the rally so that thousands of Kerry supporters had to slowly shuffle past them as they waited to go through security checks to get into the park. Supporters for each candidate exchanged chants of campaign slogans, mixed frequently with insults.
Many of the Bush supporters carried waffles or waved flip-flops in the air, symbols of their view of Kerry. Several held signs criticizing Kerry's views on abortion and challenging his standing as a Catholic.
In addition to the large crowd in Pere Marquette Park, more than 1,000 Kerry supporters lined the Marcus Center of the Performing Arts side of the river, where they were able to hear reasonably well and see the stage in the distance.
From the Aug. 3, 2004, editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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