The Coming Ugliness

Editorial Reviews

Building Red America: The New Conservative Coalition and the Drive For Permanent Power (Hardcover)
by Thomas Byrne Edsall

From Publishers Weekly
In this comprehensive and insightful book, Edsall shows just how much angrier Democrats could be?-not least of all at themselves?-if only they knew the half of what was going on. A senior political reporter for the Washington Post, he knows the capitol's ins and outs as well as anyone, without the bedfellowism of some other Washington journalists. The book goes a long way to explain why Bush, who ran in 2000 as a "uniter, not a divider," proceeded with an aggressively right-wing strategy once in power. Beginning with the revelation to conservative thinkers in 2000 that the "center of the electorate had collapsed," Edsall assiduously details every aspect of their successful push to galvanize their base and emasculate their opponents. "Without pressure to accommodate the center," he adds, "Republicans in the majority have been, with little cost, relatively unresponsive to criticism." Hence, the administration managed to draw both working-class evangelicals (using classic "wedge issues" like race and outrage over gay rights and abortion) and wealthy K Street lobbyists with little consequence. But he also shows that the Democrats lack salable strategies and have lost "a decisive majority of white voters." With depth and journalistic clarity, Edsall illustrates exactly why, more than ever, Democrats need their own Karl Rove. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Book Description
From one of America's most distinguished political journalists, a penetrating analysis of the Republicans' plan to make themselves the permanent majority party, and what it means to the rest of us
It's no secret that the Republicans are aiming for a generation-long realignment that will establish them as the majority party for the rest of our lifetimes. But few people outside the far right understand what that means. Any realignment has huge effects on political culture, and this one is more ambitious than any other in our history, including the Democratic takeover in the 1930s. It is the first deliberate realignment. It involves cultural changes--in the media and in the academy--that were never part of previous realignments. And it encompasses institutional changes in areas like foreign policy and the judiciary, whose independence was always respected in the past.

Every aspect of society and every office of government is being turned to the purpose of strengthening Republican institutions--businesses, evangelical Protestant churches--and weakening Democratic ones, such as unions and consumer groups. Building Red America will bring home to readers for the first time the true extent of the Republican takeover of American politics, by revealing the chief architects of political revolution.

The result is a masterful--and disturbing--work of political journalism that challenges all of us to wake up and take heed before the world has changed beyond recognition.

Egads, another book I JUST HAVE TO READ! ....and I will with your recommendation.

Did you find out why Eric was fired? You know GE makes munitions, don't you. He probably teed off the Military Industrial Complex with his articles. I am surprised that Keith Olbermann on MSNBC is not censored or fired.

I am going back to reading John Dean's book "Worse Than Watergate" that came out right before the '04 election. I somehow didn't finish it and wish that I had. His "Conservatives Without Conscience" was excellent. A true conservative should be irate with this administration.

Frightening to think that they can do whatever they choose to do without being called to account because of the secrecy and amorality.

Building Red America: The New Conservative Coalition and the Drive For Permanent Power

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #11,142 in Books

Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War (Hardcover)
by Michael Isikoff, David Corn

Aug. #'s: Total Viewers Vs. Aug. 2005
I will add HLN and CNBC, ASAP...

Total day:

FNC CNN MSNBC
Aug. '06: 933 584 277
Aug. '05: 1,001 433 220
% change: -7% +35% +26%


Primetime:

FNC CNN MSNBC
Aug. '06: 1,511 902 371
Aug. '05: 2,093 748 349
% change: -28% +21% +6%

SierraSong wrote:

Building Red America: The New Conservative Coalition and the Drive For Permanent Power

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #11,142 in Books

True. On the other hand, #3 on the political bestseller list...

Quote:

Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War (Hardcover)
by Michael Isikoff, David Corn

So, where does that leave you, missy?

Isikoff....Isikoff....that name rings a bell. Oh, yeah - isn't he the one who 'created' the "Koran/toilet flushing" story which turned out to be false?

Isikoff lied...people died.

He did 'apologize', though.

"On Saturday, Isikoff spoke to his original source, the senior government official, who said that he clearly recalled reading investigative reports about mishandling the Qur'an, including a toilet incident. But the official, still speaking anonymously, could no longer be sure that these concerns had surfaced in the SouthCom report. Told of what the NEWSWEEK source said, DiRita exploded, "People are dead because of what this son of a bitch said. How could he be credible now?"

Isikoff says that a longtime reliable source (a senior U.S. government official who must remain anonymous, dontcha know) told him that there were new details that might mention the flushing of a Qur'an down a toilet.

Then an 'anonymous' senior Defense official remains silent when asked about said Qur'an flushing incident. Newsweek thinks this silence was 'misleading'. Of course they did.

Since there were 'allegations' about other treatment of prisoners, well, this old Qur'an flushing thingy didn't seem such a stretch to Newsweek.

Oh - and they bring up the old "but, but, but we werent the FIRST to report Qur'an abuse allegations". Like that's meaningful in any way to what Isikoff did.

Quote:

"On Saturday, Isikoff spoke to his original source, the senior government official, who said that he clearly recalled reading investigative reports about mishandling the Qur'an, including a toilet incident. But the official, still speaking anonymously, could no longer be sure that these concerns had surfaced in the SouthCom report. Told of what the NEWSWEEK source said, DiRita exploded, "People are dead because of what this son of a bitch said. How could he be credible now?"

Indeed. So Isikoff never had any real evidence of any such incident, but decided to pretend he did anyway.

Isikoff lied......people died.

But.....he apologized.

"On Saturday, Isikoff spoke to his original source, the senior government official, who said that he clearly recalled reading investigative reports about mishandling the Qur'an, including a toilet incident. But the official, still speaking anonymously, could no longer be sure that these concerns had surfaced in the SouthCom report.

Keep Away the Vote

Published: September 21, 2006
One of the cornerstones of the Republican Party's strategy for winning elections these days is voter suppression, intentionally putting up barriers between eligible voters and the ballot box. The House of Representatives took a shameful step in this direction yesterday, voting largely along party lines for onerous new voter ID requirements. Laws of this kind are unconstitutional, as an array of courts have already held, and profoundly undemocratic. The Senate should not go along with this cynical, un-American electoral strategy.

The bill the House passed yesterday would require people to show photo ID to vote in 2008. Starting in 2010, that photo ID would have to be something like a passport, or an enhanced kind of driver's license or non-driver's identification, containing proof of citizenship. This is a level of identification that many Americans simply do not have.

The bill was sold as a means of deterring vote fraud, but that is a phony argument. There is no evidence that a significant number of people are showing up at the polls pretending to be other people, or that a significant number of noncitizens are voting.

Noncitizens, particularly undocumented ones, are so wary of getting into trouble with the law that it is hard to imagine them showing up in any numbers and trying to vote. The real threat of voter fraud on a large scale lies with electronic voting, a threat Congress has refused to do anything about.

The actual reason for this bill is the political calculus that certain kinds of people ?- the poor, minorities, disabled people and the elderly ?- are less likely to have valid ID. They are less likely to have cars, and therefore to have drivers' licenses. There are ways for nondrivers to get special ID cards, but the bill's supporters know that many people will not go to the effort if they don't need them to drive.

If this bill passed the Senate and became law, the electorate would likely become more middle-aged, whiter and richer ?- and, its sponsors are anticipating, more Republican.

Court after court has held that voter ID laws of this kind are unconstitutional. This week, yet another judge in Georgia struck down that state's voter ID law.

Last week, a judge in Missouri held its voter ID law to be unconstitutional. Supporters of the House bill are no doubt hoping that they may get lucky, and that the current conservative Supreme Court might uphold their plan.

America has a proud tradition of opening up the franchise to new groups, notably women and blacks, who were once denied it. It is disgraceful that, for partisan political reasons, some people are trying to reverse the tide, and standing in the way of people who have every right to vote.

On the brink of what could be a power-shifting election, it is kitchen-sink time: Desperate candidates are throwing everything. While negative campaigning is a tradition in American politics, this year's version in many races has an eccentric shade, filled with allegations of moral bankruptcy and sexual perversion.