Kerry: too weak for the War on Wolves?

[shereads]

From what I've heard, other states are being cheated of their share of presidential campaign commercials. As a Floridian, I've been treated to a non-stop feast of propoganda that I truly wish you all could share.

The Republican barrage began before the Democratic primaries. By the time the final pancake was flipped, some of us were so numb to communication that we thought the election was over and the Democrats were too late.

So we hardly blinked when the judges rendered their decision:

Dean's pancake was fluffy and delicious, but its free-form shape didn't sit well with Tim Russert of NBC's "Meet the Press," who declared him unelectable. Kerry's pancake was a bit flat, but scored bonus points for roundness and even browning.

I had seen so many Bush commercials before the numbness set in, that I had the president confused with voiceover talent Hal Riney and thought he had personally carried that flag-draped casket away from Ground Zero. Once the Democrats fielded a team, Florida had to alter time itself so we could be exposed to campaign advertising 25 hours a day.

I thought I had seen it all.



That I was still sufficiently alert to notice these recent additions to the TV slugfest leaves me worried that I might be capable of awareness when the polls close on Nov. 2. If the experience is even half as depressing as my recurring dream of it has been, Nov. 3 will find me curled up in the fetal position in the crawl space of a Hialeah crackhouse, living on raw mice.

Allow me to share:

Today I saw a Bush/Cheney commercial that appropriately resembles a fairy tale. A pack of wolves are skulking through a forest to the accompaniment of spooky "Blair Witch" music as a voiceover delivers the disturbing news that Kerry is Weak on Terror. Being Weak on Terror, she warns, will lure more terrorists. The wolves turn, in unison, to look directly into the camera. One of them snarls and rushes us.

For the first time, I have to wonder if John Kerry might actually be planning to eat America's children.

More Oprah-esque than Grimm is the second commercial that cut through my protective shield of numb acceptance and Celexa: We learn that a teenaged girl lost her mother on 9/11 and became "withdrawn" until she received a hug from President Bush. Even I, a staunch Democrat who remains convinced that GWB is resolute in his commitment to mediocrity, have to admit that Healing Hugs are better than Terrorist Wolves.

On the local front, Senate candidate Mel Martinez has devoted his entire media budget to telling us that the Democratic candidate, former university president Betty Castor, is Weak on Terror. As proof, he offers evidence even more disturbing than the news about Kerry and the man-eating wolves:

Two years before the World Trade Center attacks, Martinez' opponent learned that the FBI was investigating a professor at her university, who might be connected with a terrorist group called Al Queda. She didn't fire him! The rest is history.

Granted, the same terrorist suspect was later invited to Republican fund-raising events in Florida, while Martinez himself was a campaign manager. During a TV debate, he was asked why Castor should have fired the professor months before Martinez' own party hosted him at a dinner for President Bush. Martinez explained that the question was irrelevent.

I can see his reasoning here. Castor could have fired the man; Martinez and the Bush campaign could merely have snubbed him socially.

 

[rgraham666]

Don't worry shereads.

Canada allows all kinds of refugees in.

 

[shereads]

Don't worry shereads.

Canada allows all kinds of refugees in.

Thank you, RG, but I think I'll stay here. Not out of any noble purpose, but because I'll be incoherent and unable to coordinate anything as complex as cross-border travel. I'll be fine, really! An average crack 'ho can earn up to $2 a day plus expenses. With the lipstick-red stilleto pumps I bought before the breakdown, I hope to do even better.

Also: Don't panic or anything, there are rumblings among the populace that Cheney thinks Canada's flu vaccine pipeline could be more efficent with U.S. supervision. We may have to liberate you.

 

[Wildcard Ky]

I'm one of the lucky ones that has been spared the deluge of Pres. campaign commercials. Ky was decided long ago.

I'll be glad when the damn election is over. It's one of those deals where you're absolutely sick of hearing about by the time it rolls around.

 

[shereads]

I'm one of the lucky ones that has been spared the deluge of Pres. campaign commercials. Ky was decided long ago.

I'll be glad when the damn election is over. It's one of those deals where you're absolutely sick of hearing about by the time it rolls around.

I hear you, Wild. Remember how glad we were when the war was over? I bet it'll be like that.

 

[Edward Teach]

I hear you, Wild. Remember how glad we were when the war was over? I bet it'll be like that.

I wasn't gonna comment on another damn political thread, Sher. Look what you made me do.

Ed

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

Here in California, people like to pretend like the state is up for grabs.

It's so pathetic that it takes all my effort not to laugh out loud at the poor Campaigners.

Only 5 and a half more days until its over and I get drunk in either despair or celebration.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Here in California, people like to pretend like the state is up for grabs.

It's so pathetic that it takes all my effort not to laugh out loud at the poor Campaigners.

Only 5 and a half more days until its over and I get drunk in either despair or celebration.

Why burden yourself with a choice? Despair works eually well no matter who wins.

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

Why burden yourself with a choice? Despair works eually well no matter who wins.

Since it's the only real choice I have on election day with senate and president both predetermined, I'm keeping it all to myself like the greedy bastard that I am.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Here in California, people like to pretend like the state is up for grabs.

It's so pathetic that it takes all my effort not to laugh out loud at the poor Campaigners.

Only 5 and a half more days until its over and I get drunk in either despair or celebration.

I also live in California and I can't recall seeing a single presidential commercial on TV. I see them for other candidates and for ballot propositions but not for president. I don't watch all that much TV and I don't pay much attention to commercials anyhow but it does seem strange.

PS: That is NOT a complaint!

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

I also live in California and I can't recall seeing a single presidential commercial on TV. I see them for other candidates and for ballot propositions but not for president. I don't watch all that much TV and I don't pay much attention to commercials anyhow but it does seem strange.

PS: That is NOT a complaint!

I go to college.

Sociology students are Hi-larious in their cute little drives and pleas of "you can make a difference".

 

[Colleen Thomas]

I also live in California and I can't recall seeing a single presidential commercial on TV. I see them for other candidates and for ballot propositions but not for president. I don't watch all that much TV and I don't pay much attention to commercials anyhow but it does seem strange.

PS: That is NOT a complaint!

Hardly any comercials here in NY either. I saw a couple of the swift boat ads, but that was on satellite stations, not locals. I saw more at home in Mississippi before Kerry gave up on the south than I have since I got home.

One advantage to living in a state that was predetermined before the candidates were even announced.

 

[shereads]

Jon Stewart on gay marriage:

"It's definitely a threat to marriage. My wife and I got married for the usual reason: because gay people couldn't. We did it out of spite."

Asked if Dan Rather should resign:

"There's no excuse for airing a story based on documents that might have been faked. You use documents like that to justify a war. Not to smear the president's military record."

 

[shereads]

Why burden yourself with a choice? Despair works eually well no matter who wins.

I can't entirely disagree, considering the depth of the hole we're in. A win by the Jesus/Gandhi ticket might set things right, but they aren't on the ballot.

Perhaps what Luc is calling "elation" is really Despair Lite.

If I still held out hope, I'd be right there with him on the cheerleading squad for Despair Lite. (What amusing bumper stickers! Defeat Despair. Elect Despair Lite in 2004.)

Personally, I think Despair Lite is too much to hope for. I have a sense of foreboding so black I can almost smell the smoke. It can't entirely be accounted for by the fact that we're about to return a man to the one job of his adult life at which he's been a total failure, and not just a failure. (His failures in private business can't be considered total failures, no matter what the stockholders might think. Those jobs made him rich, and as far as I know there were no fatalites.)

Sure, it's a scary and depressing inevitabiity, but the irony is so rich, I can't fail to appreciate it. I mean, how often does a country rally around leaders who accidentally invaded the wrong country!



See? Bush alone can't acount for my cloud of despair. It's bigger than he is.

Maybe its Justice Rehnquist's illness. And the realization that Bush/Cheney may get to nominate his replacement, win or lose.

They'll get the solid majority they need on the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, strip us of the inalienable right to defend ourselves in court - and those are just the short-term possibilities. With a majority of the court bent on doing their Christian duty, who knows what fun we might have in coming years?

Every scowling, purse-lipped, woman-fearing, homophobic Ashcroft-clone with a Bible and a law degree will be contriving cases to test the godliness of our laws. We'll be halfway to a theocracy, faster than you can be prosecuted for writing pornography.

That's despair.

 

[Xelebes]

Thank you, RG, but I think I'll stay here. Not out of any noble purpose, but because I'll be incoherent and unable to coordinate anything as complex as cross-border travel. I'll be fine, really! An average crack 'ho can earn up to $2 a day plus expenses. With the lipstick-red stilleto pumps I bought before the breakdown, I hope to do even better.

Also: Don't panic or anything, there are rumblings among the populace that Cheney thinks Canada's flu vaccine pipeline could be more efficent with U.S. supervision. We may have to liberate you.

Oh goodie, and we were going to actually start holding the vaccine on you all if you don't open the border to either our beef or our softwood and then keep oil from you and trade it to China instead for the other.

I'm kinda depressed none of them ever really talk about real issues that are actually hurting the US economy more than out-sourcing.

No beef from Canada means meat packers lose jobs, farmers go out of business because they rely on the cross-border trade for the flow of beef between the two nations. It's how the farming thing has been done for the past 100 years and now a Republican senator from North Dakota thinks this is a good plan to reassure his seat in this election.

Now with the lack of cheap of softwood, less homes are built because in the hike of prices of wood, meaning less construction jobs (where most of the respectable lower-middle class jobs are) and milling jobs (which is another well paying respectable job) and manufacturing. The appeasing to the US foresters has done nothing good other than increase the demand on US wood which can only mean very little job creation in that department.

Outsourcing is a scapegoat. Non-compliance with the NAFTA and other free trade agreements that the US has made with other nations has not only screwed over the US, but Canada and other nations.

Outsourcing is a small problem compared to other issues.

 

[Edward Teach]

I can't entirely disagree, considering the depth of the hole we're in. Perhaps what

Perhaps what Luc is calling "elation" is really Despair Lite.

Personally, I have a sense of foreboding so black I can almost smell the smoke.

Maybe the dark cloud isn't what I think it is: the inevitabiity of a Bush victory. Maybe its Justice Rehnquist's illness. And the likelihood that Bush/Cheney will get to nominate his replacement, win or lose.

They'll get the solid majority they need on the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, strip us of the inalienable right to defend ourselves in court - and those are just the short-term possibilities. With a majority of the court bent on doing their Christian duty, who knows what fun we might have in coming years?

Every scowling, purse-lipped, woman-fearing, homophobic Ashcroft-clone with a Bible and a law degree will be contriving cases to test the godliness of our laws. We'll be halfway to a theocracy, faster than you can be prosecuted for writing pornography.

That's despair.

Pat Robertson has a lawsuit/propaganda mill named the American Center for Law and Justice, which is housed in the same building as his law school at Regent University in Virginia Beach. It is staffed by maybe a dozen permanent lawyers and practically all of the law students working part time.

A couple of years ago, on Larry King Live, Robertson boasted that the ACLJ had filed over 100,000 lawsuits in the US. I think he mispoke since it has only been in existance about 25 years but there is no doubt that they file a ton of lawsuits. They will undoubtedly be working overtime. Hell, I saw the head of ACLJ on TV a while back urging churches to violate the IRS rules mandating that churches claiming tax exempt status not advocate for political candidates. He said that the ACLJ would defend them.

In recent years Robertson has opened The European Center for Law and Justice which is filing lawsuits all over Europe and Asia.

Incidently, most of Regent's law school faculty are tax lawyers. Wonder why?

Ed

 

[Colleen Thomas]

I can't entirely disagree, considering the depth of the hole we're in. Perhaps what

Perhaps what Luc is calling "elation" is really Despair Lite.

Personally, I have a sense of foreboding so black I can almost smell the smoke.

Maybe the dark cloud isn't what I think it is: the inevitabiity of a Bush victory. Maybe its Justice Rehnquist's illness. And the likelihood that Bush/Cheney will get to nominate his replacement, win or lose.

They'll get the solid majority they need on the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, strip us of the inalienable right to defend ourselves in court - and those are just the short-term possibilities. With a majority of the court bent on doing their Christian duty, who knows what fun we might have in coming years?

Every scowling, purse-lipped, woman-fearing, homophobic Ashcroft-clone with a Bible and a law degree will be contriving cases to test the godliness of our laws. We'll be halfway to a theocracy, faster than you can be prosecuted for writing pornography.

That's despair.

Up until Kerry took on some of Clinton's advisors, gave up on the south and came out swinging against the worst of g dub's flubs in the swing states, I felt it was an in the bager for the Gop. Now, it's really anyone's race.

That said a Kerry presidency seems no more likely to be good than another four of Dubya. Nobody likes the man, any support of him I have seen is couched in portraying him as less awful than Bush. While he will likely appoint judges who are more likely to uphold my reproductive rights, these same justices will be soft on crime and more likely to uphold attacks on my right to own a fire arm. It isn't a matter of one candidate standing up for my rights, merely a matter of choosing the basic inalienable rights I want to see annuled.

No matter which one wins, he will preside over a country where he can't claim a majoirty support him and if Bush wins, it's very likely he won't even be able to claim a majority of the voteing public support him. Iraq will still be there, to slap either with the fact they have no exit strategy. Israel will still occupy Palestine. Radical Islamisists will still hate us. We will still be hemmorageing jobs. And the world will go right on chugging along.

Doomsday predictions aside, the supposition that either one could buy an Effing clue is farfetched in the extreme. Some will choose the devil they know. Some will choose the devil they don't. Whether you get Mepestopholes or Baalezebub you are still getting far less than you could hope for, much less than you should expect and quite possible, even less than you are resigned to getting.

You are pinning your hopes on John Kerry. I am pinning mine on a meteor smacking DC and forcing us all to start from scratch with new reps who haven't had time to get fat and indolent and a new pres who has some ideas and integrity.

We don't agree on much. In fact, by your own words we can't be freinds because we don't agree. Yet I suspect in the long dark watches of the night, both of our hoplessness comes in the same shade of black.

-Colly

 

[shereads]

Outsourcing is a small problem compared to other issues.

The economy is a small problem compared to the issues these people care about. The Cheneys of the world don't rely too much on the fate of one country. They talk the talk, but they think and act globally. Why else would Halliburton with Cheney at the helm have used foreign-registered subsidiaries to violate trade sanctions against Iraq?

Ask yourself what might have motivated Cheney to push so hard for war in Iraq. Remember, he's not on a mission from God like GWB. Cheney's god is the expansion of power. What did he stand to gain? What has he gained, with or without a civil war in Iraq?

Cheney and his peers operate globally and their interests were hampered by years of trade sanctions against Iraq. Pressing for sanctions to be lifted would never have been politically viable while Sadam remained openly defiant.

Invade Iraq. Remove Saddam. Reshuffle the deck and shake up all those oil-rich Arabs...And just by coincidence, our first humanitarian gesture toward the defeated Iraqi people was petitioning the U.N. to lift trade sanctions. Cheney won the war he cared about. The rest is just clean-up.

 

[Xelebes]

The economy is a small problem compared to the issues these people care about. The Cheneys of the world don't rely too much on the fate of one country. They talk the talk, but they think and act globally. Why else would Halliburton with Cheney at the helm have used foreign-registered subsidiaries to violate U.S. trade sanction?

Ask yourself what might have motivated Cheney to push so hard for war in Iraq. Remember, he's not on a mission from God like GWB. Cheney's god is the expansion of power.

Cheney and his peers operate globally and their interests were hampered by years of trade sanctions against Iraq. Pressing for sanctions to be lifted would never have been politically viable while Sadam remained openly defiant.

Invade Iraq, remove Saddam, reshuffle the deck and shake up all those oil-rich Arabs...And just by coincidence, our first humanitarian gesture toward the defeated Iraqi people was petitioning the U.N. to lift trade sanctions. Cheney won the war he cared about. The rest is just clean-up.

I'm not talking about the presidential election. I'm talking about the senator election that's happening and all the important issues have to do with senators and congressman and not the President.

 

[shereads]

I'm not talking about the presidential election. I'm talking about the senator election that's happening and all the important issues have to do with senators and congressman and not the President.

You've seen the mood here. Do you really think a candidate whose campaign is focused on complicated issues can defeat ones on the Terror bandwagon? The election has successfully been focused on our fear of another terrorist attack. Every time there's been an incident that turned the public's attention to other issues, there's been an Orange Level Terror Alert. We shoudn't be so easy to manipulate, but we obviously are.

Edited to add: even our local races for City Commisioner are terror-themed. Who wants a bumper sticker that says, "Let's get those potholes filled" when you can have "So-and-so is weak on terrorism."

 

[Xelebes]

You've seen the mood here. Do you really think a candidate whose campaign is focused on complicated issues can defeat ones on the Terror bandwagon? The election has successfully been focused on our fear of another terrorist attack. Every time there's been an incident that turned the public's attention to other issues, there's been an Orange Level Terror Alert. We shoudn't be so easy to manipulate, but we obviously are.

Edited to add: even our local races for City Commisioner are terror-themed. Who wants a bumper sticker that says, "Let's get those potholes filled" when you can have "So-and-so is weak on terrorism."

You'll get over it. If not, you'll have invaded Canada because we started adding tariffs on our oil in response to the tariffs not being lifted or more tariffs being put in place and use the label "terrorism" for namesakes or something.

 

[shereads]

You are pinning your hopes on John Kerry.

I would be, if I had some hope and a sharp pin.

I'm not just a liberal, Colly. I'm a fan of the South Carolina Fighting Gamecocks. I can smell impending defeat in a stadium full of stale beer, popcorn and vomiting college freshmen. For people like me, a fun football cheer is "Fall on the ball!"

Hope? Is that the stuff those undecided voters are smoking?

We don't agree on much. In fact, by your own words we can't be freinds because we don't agree.

I didn't say we couldn't be friends because we don't agree.

Yet I suspect in the long dark watches of the night, both of our hoplessness comes in the same shade of black.

We have hopelessness! That's more than most married couples have in common.



I'll make guacamole. You bring the Doritos. We'll gossip and do our nails.

 

[shereads]

In recent years Robertson has opened The European Center for Law and Justice which is filing lawsuits all over Europe and Asia.

This will do wonders for what's left of America's credibility. I feel so proud.

 

[rgraham666]

"So an army avoids strength and strikes at weakness." - Sun Tzu

As I've said before, if the U.S. invades Canada, I know the U.S. weakness.

So do the people that back Dubya. They're using it to win the election.

Sorry, folks. I think Shrub's gonna win this one.

 

[Pure]

shereads, you're gonna hava lotta chance to read the Bible, which you've sorely neglected.

and hey, you guys, Pat Robertson is one of the sanest Christian conservatives these days**; you should be worried about Bob Jones Jr. (is he still around?), the 'Family Research Council', etc.

there's gonna be some great parties in Texas and the white stuff will be flowing like talcum powder.

ADDED: Change that to 'was'. PR has just endorsed GWB as the lesser of evils. (Perhaps he expects Bush to win, and would like NOT to be consigned to outer darkness.)