The upcoming Republican Party convention

750k for Paul Simon. Their concerns about the grass are about as phony as can be.

Cycloptichorn

Bush is on vacation again, spending another week at his pig farm in B.F. Egypt:



That's 38 vacations in 3 1/2 years. Nice.

But what's really funny is that the White House claims Bush will be writing his acceptance speech this week.



So what, did he fire Karen Hughes and the rest of his speechwriters?

In any event, if he's going to take time off, the next 2 1/2 months are the perfect time for him to do it.

Did they actually say he'd be writing it!? Perhaps, too, he will deliver it at Coopers Union.

6-8% bounce.

People have been brainwashed by the litany of false accusations that some news orgs haven't had the decency to retract. They see the lies in F911, and think if so many others are buying it, it must be true. They have gotten trapped in the surge of lemmings, running mindlessly toward the cliffs...

They've been pummelled with false statistics, and flat out lies about Bush's record.

And, THEY will be watching.

When they see what the record is--what incredible progress Bush has made in hamstringing global terrorism--and when they finally see the progress that has been made in Iraq--hear the words in the 911 Commission's Report--and backed by the Butler Report--when they know Bush has been falsely accused of lying for political expediency, and that the 16 words were true-- and hear the overwhelming number of service personnel that have stories to tell that we should hear--the Indies and the Middle Americans, who have fallen prey to sound bite attacks will find much more in common with those inside the GOP Convention than the nutcase liberals outside.

They will be reminded that it is incredibly easy to stand around and say you can do better. Why then, after 30 years in the Senate doesn't the one who 'can do' better, HAVE ANYTHING to point to as an important acheivement? If he 'can do' better, why hasn't he DONE better?

His voting record will be shouted from the rooftops. There will be nowhere from John Kerry to hide from the one that will bury him--himself. His own record, his own votes, his own words. Bush could never inflict a wound on Kerry that could cut deeper than Kerry's own past.

My opinion.

My opinion:

Sofia,

While I disagree with most of your political positions, I find your posts sincere and thoughtful.

You have asked about Kerry's record in the Senate, and I believe the link (below) will go a long way towards answeriing any questions you (or anyone else) may have on that regard.

http://www.votewithavengeance.com/kerry.html

The non-partisan website's author writes:"The main reason for the existence of The Election 2004 Project is because, after having endured the nightmare of last November's presidential election along with the rest of the country, held captive by partisan warfare and growing malaise, I'm concerned about the future of this nation. ....... My purpose is to present a pool of innovative and forward-thinking candidates from both the Democratic and Republican parties."

As you may already know from my posts on other political threads, I deplore Bush's record. IMO, he has aligned himself with extremists, he has bitterly divided the country on social issues, and he has rendered us less safe from the terrorist threat via his unjustified, ill-planned, pre-emptive invasion of Iraq which has brought massive instability to the region and has alienated us from much of the world.

For a documented description of HIS (Bush's) public service record before becoming president, you can check out Molly Ivan's "Bushwacked" which provides exraordinary detail regarding his disastrous record in Texas.

John Kerry's record is nothing less than stellar by comparison.

Kerry has over 25 TIMES the number of passed bills as Dick Cheney. He was one of the first Senators to inquire about and seek the truth during the Iran-Contra scandal. He is accused of being a flip-flopper, yet remarkably his voting record shows him to be very consistently liberal, which doesn't seem like flip-flopping to me....

I think he HAS done well as a senator. Many people agree with me.

Cycloptichorn

P.S. I think your 6-8% bounce is a little off. Never underestimate the power of protest

Liberal nutcases.
Sofia's opinion.

Noted.

That won't do you any good. These "bounces" are known for disappearing in 10 days or so.

With a five point Kerry lead opening up after the convention, a disappearing 6 point bush bounce puts him a point ahead of Kerry for a couple fo days, then falling back.

You should be hoping not for a bounce, but a slow build up. thjat's what Kerry got.






Doesn't work that way. First, the Democrats get as many votes from the Midwest as the Republicans.

Second, the way it works is that independent voters break for the challenger at the end. It is as if the incumbent president has four years to convince the voters, and if he can't, they go to the other guy.

It comes down to a lot of people decide a couple of days before the election "Do I want another four years of this", and if the answer isn't an enthusiastic "Yes", the incumbent gets booted.

I don't know about you, but I'm sick of politics.

I'm going over to Col Man's thread about pigs in Berlin. Now that's what I call news!

pigs in Berlin........

That's not political ?

Bloomberg won't compromise on Central Park, but he is offering protesters discounts on meals, museums and office supplies, among other things --as long as they promise to remain peaceful.

And as long as they're willing to wear a button identifying themselves as "Peaceful Political Activists."

Seriously:



The Whitney, the Museum of Sex, and the Pokemon store, eh?

I'm holding out for Yankees tickets...

I understand and empathize with the anger, but I honestly believe the protests must be peaceful in order to be effective.

Many right-wing extremists have already tried, over months, to equate protest with lack of patriotism. (This infuriates me.) The protesters will not be effective if they allow themselves to be portrayed (fairly or unfairly) as radical, America-hating whackos. I suspect he media is just waiting for confrontations to develop - it makes for far more "interesting" news.

I was at the DNC recently (not inside as a delegate), and I spent some time in the streets observing the so-called "protesters". They were few in number and, for the most part, extraordinarily passive/peaceful, gathering together in small groups to give quiet speeches. Only once did I see anything non-peaceful: a very small group had gathered around one lone individual who had apparently decided to set fire to our flag. Most people there were not involved at all; in fact, the whole event was more of a non-event. Yet THAT was what was all over the news.

It would be effective, in NYC, to see huge numbers of peaceful, flag-waving, America-loving, anti-Bush people in the streets, which is what most anti-Bush people are.



(p.s. I'd go for the Yankees tickets, too!)

I agree with angie--peaceful protests would be viewed in a non-negative way...however, the plans to 'disrupt' the GOP convention will cause a backlash, IMO.

ehBeth--

I see you 'noted' my use of nutcase liberals. To clarify, I expect to see nutcaseliberals in the streets--but don't consider ALL liberals to be of the nutcase variety...

Hmmm.... "non-negative"....

That would be 'positive', yes?

I wouldn't go THAT far...

There's been talk about how the Republican convention will highlight primetime speakers who diverge from party orthodoxy on litmus-test issues like abortion, tolerance for gays and lesbians, and voting the GOP party line even if one claims to be a Democratic Senator from Georgia.

This is an example of the GOP's standard strategy of campaigning as centrists and concealing the fact, once in office, they'll govern as right-wing radicals.

It is orchestrated to conceal the real face and agenda of the Republican party in the era of Tom DeLay and George W. Bush.

So I did a little counting, and came up with this:

The Democratic convention featured 30 speakers who have run for elective office, aren't the candidates or their families, and aren't speaking at both conventions. (No Glenn Close, Madeline Albright or Ron Reagan for this comparison.) The GOP is still adding speakers, so we only have 17 names to compare (which excludes appointees like Rod Paige and Elaine Chao who've never run for office). Despite the fact that the GOP has barely half the number of announced speakers, despite the fact that the Democratic convention was in Boston, and despite the fact that the Democratic nominee is from Massachusetts, already more Republicans from Massachusetts (2) are slated for primetime than were Democrats (1).

The 30 Democrats who spoke at the convention hailed from 23 different states; so far the current and former GOP elected officials speaking during prime time represent just 14 states. The percentages of speakers from Democratic, Republican or swing states is almost identical; 15 of Democratic speakers (50%) were from states expected to go solidly for Kerry; 3 speakers (10%) were from solid Bush states. The other 12 speakers (40%) were from 11 of the approximately 20 swing states (for this discussion those include AR, TN and NC). For a mirror image, you would probably expect 50% of the Republican speakers to come from solid Bush states; after all, leaders of a national party are usually concentrated in states where their party is strong. However, in terms of percentages, the Republican lineup isn't a mirror image, it's almost an exact reflection of the Democratic lineup, with 44% of their speakers coming from Democratic strongholds like New York, California, Illinois, Massachusetts and Maryland. Another 44% are from swing states. And only 2 (12%) are from states expected to be Bush strongholds.

What's fascinating is that other than Bush and Cheney (neither of whom is actually from Texas, but let's not quibble), none of the highlighted Republican speakers (turncoat Miller doesn't count; he's a Dem, remember? :wink: ) are from the regions generally associated with the Republican party; Texas, the Deep South, and the very conservative states of the Plains and Rocky Mountains. And while a case could be made for NC (Dole) and TN (Frist), Democrats are extremely competitive in contests there; they're in the swing, neither locked up for Bush. Contrast that with the Democratic convention, which featured Al Gore (TN), Jimmy Carter and Max Cleland (GA), and Bill Clinton and Wesley Clark (AR).

And while I did tabulate the races of the speakers at both conventions, I decided that card should be discarded for the purpose of this post.

What with all the racial, religious and class prejudice in this country, one of the most overlooked prejudices is regional. Despite the racism that exists in states north of the Mason-Dixon line -- Martin Luther King claimed the worst racism he ever encountered was in Cicero, Illinois -- Northerners too often smugly think themselves superior to the people they view as bigoted crackers who still haven't gotten over losing the Civil War and who (allegedly) want to ram evangelical Protestant Christianity down everyone else's throat. Some of the representatives of this stereotype come from recent and current leadership of the Republican party: Strom Thurmond, Jesse Helms, Dick Armey, Tom DeLay, James Inhofe and Trent Lott -- each of them Southerners. Ultraconservative Rick Santorum will be there to throw red meat to the ideologues at the base, but he doesn't have a southern accent.

For decades now the GOP has concealed its real agenda with trickery. (You've seen this manifested in sideshows such as George Herbert Walker Bush declaring his love for pork rinds.)

Pandering to poor and lower middle-class whites in the South helped both Bushes get to the White House, but it's come at a high price.

W's (authentic) Texas accent is code, in political whispering, for the type of social conservative disdained by many swing voters (and more than a few moderate Republicans) outside the South. In places like Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, New Hampshire, and in the suburbs of cities like Philadelphia and Cleveland, a Southern accent doesn't evoke notions of down-home gentility, it recalls images of the Scopes Monkey Trial, firehoses aimed and attack dogs unleashed at civil rights marchers, and more recently the socially destructive policies of the DeLay Congress and the Bush administration.

The false façade of the Republican party is what's on display next week.

It's a carnival sideshow, designed to bait-and-switch America once again.

Are you gonna buy it?

Thanks, Onion:

It will be interesting to see how Cheney's gay marriage comment willplay at the Convention.

I was so proud of him today.