The final word on the 2004 RNC...
Reuters, Sept. 3, 2004: The average monthly U.S.
military death toll has been about 55 troops in the
17-1/2 months of war. Forty-two U.S. troops died in
Iraq in June. After the hand-over, 54 were killed in
July and 66 in August."
There is an Electoral Uprising coming in November
2004...
Michael Moore, USA Today: I can't believe all of this
whimpering and whining. Kerry has been ahead in many
polls all summer long, but the Republicans come to New
York for one week off-Broadway and suddenly everyone
is dressed in mourning black and sitting shivah?
Exactly what moment was it during the convention that
convinced them that the Republicans had now
"connected" with the majority of Americans and that it
was all over? Arnold praising Richard Nixon? Ooooh,
that's a real crowd-pleaser. Elizabeth Dole decrying
the removal of the Ten Commandments from a courthouse
wall in Alabama? Yes, that's a big topic of
conversation in the unemployment line in Akron, Ohio.
Georgia Sen. Miller, a Democratic turncoat, looking
like Freddy Krueger at an all-girls camp? His speech —
and the look on what you could see of his strangely
lit face — was enough for parents to send small
children to their bedrooms.
My friends — and I include all Democrats, independents
and recovering Republicans in this salutation — do not
be afraid. Yes, the Bush Republicans huff and they puff, but they blow their own house down.
Cleanse the White House of the Chicken Hawk Coup and
Its War-Profiteering Cronies, Show Up for Democracy in
2004: Defeat Bush (again!)
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/columnist/2004-09-02-moore_x.htm
Posted 9/2/2004 10:33 PM
Why Democrats shouldn't be scared
By Michael Moore
NEW YORK — If I've heard it once, I've heard it a
hundred times from discouraged Democrats and liberals
as the Republican convention here wrapped up this
week. Their shoulders hunched, their eyes at a droop,
they lower their voice to a whisper hoping that if
they don't say it too loud it may not come true:
"I...I...I think Bush is going to win."
Clearly, they're watching too much TV. Too much of
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Zell Miller, Dick Cheney and
Rudy Giuliani. Too much of swift boat veterans and Fox
News commentators.
Action heroes always look good on TV. On Wednesday
night, the GOP even made an action-hero video and
showed it at the convention. There was White House
political czar Karl Rove and other administration
officials dressed up for "war" and going through boot
camp on the National Mall in Washington.
I could only sit there in the convention hall and wish
this were the real thing: Rove, national security
adviser Condi Rice and Co. being sent to Iraq, and our
boys and girls being brought home. But then the lights
came up, and everyone sitting in the Bush family box
was having a grand ol' hoot and a holler at the video
they just saw.
For some reason, all of this has scared the bejabbers
out of the Democrats. I can hear the wailing and
moaning from Berkeley, Calif., to Cambridge, Mass. The
frightening scenes from the convention have sent John
Kerry's supporters looking for the shovels so they can
dig their underground bunkers in preparation for
another four years of the Dark Force.
I can't believe all of this whimpering and whining.
Kerry has been ahead in many polls all summer long,
but the Republicans come to New York for one week
off-Broadway and suddenly everyone is dressed in
mourning black and sitting shivah?
Exactly what moment was it during the convention that
convinced them that the Republicans had now
"connected" with the majority of Americans and that it
was all over? Arnold praising Richard Nixon? Ooooh,
that's a real crowd-pleaser. Elizabeth Dole decrying
the removal of the Ten Commandments from a courthouse
wall in Alabama? Yes, that's a big topic of
conversation in the unemployment line in Akron, Ohio.
Georgia Sen. Miller, a Democratic turncoat, looking
like Freddy Krueger at an all-girls camp? His speech —
and the look on what you could see of his strangely
lit face — was enough for parents to send small
children to their bedrooms.
My friends — and I include all Democrats, independents
and recovering Republicans in this salutation — do not
be afraid. Yes, the Bush Republicans huff and they
puff, but they blow their own house down.
As many polls confirm, a majority of your fellow
Americans believe in your agenda. They want stronger
environmental laws, are strong supporters of women's
rights, favor gun control and want the war in Iraq to
end.
Rejoice. You're already more than halfway there when
you have the public on board. Just imagine if you had
to go out and do the work to convince the majority of
Americans that women shouldn't be paid the same as
men. All they ask is that you put up a candidate for
president who believes in something and fights for
those beliefs.
Is that too much to ask?
The Republicans have no idea how much harm they have
done to themselves. They used to have a folk-hero
mayor of New York named Rudy Giuliani. On 9/11, he
went charging right into Ground Zero to see whom he
could help save. Everyone loved Rudy because he seemed
as though he was there to comfort all Americans, not
just members of his own party.
But in his speech to the convention this week, he
revised the history of that tragic day for partisan
gain:
As chaos ensued, "spontaneously, I grabbed the arm of
then-police commissioner Bernard Kerik and said to
Bernie, 'Thank God George Bush is our president.' And
I say it again tonight, 'Thank God George Bush is our
president.' "
Please.
There were the sub-par entertainers nobody knew. There
was the show of "Black Republicans," "Arab-American
Republicans" and other minorities they trot out to
show how much they are loved by groups their policies
abuse.
And there were the Band-Aids. The worst display of how
out of touch the Republicans are was those Purple
Heart Band-Aids the delegates wore to mock Kerry over
his war wounds, which, for them, did not spill the
required amount of blood.
What they didn't seem to get is that watching at home
might have been millions of war veterans feeling that
they were being ridiculed by a bunch of rich
Republicans who would never send their own offspring
to die in Fallujah or Danang.
Kerry supporters and Bush-bashers should not despair.
These Republicans have not made a permanent dent in
Kerry's armor. The only person who can do that is John
Kerry. And by coming out swinging as he did just
minutes after Bush finished his speech Thursday night,
Kerry proved he knows that the only way to win this
fight is to fight — and fight hard.
He must realize that he faces Al Gore's fate only if
he fails to stand up like the hero he is, only if he
sits on the fence and keeps justifying his vote for
the Iraq war instead of just saying, "Look, I was for
it just like 70% of America until we learned the
truth, and now I'm against it, like the majority of
Americans are now."
Kerry needs to trust that his victory is only going to
happen by inspiring the natural base of the Democratic
Party — blacks, working people, women, the poor and
young people. Women and people of color make up 62% of
this country. That's a big majority. Give them a
reason to come out on Nov. 2.