We've seen the warning signs: personal attacks on Democratic bloggers, paranoid fearmongering, and nearly psychotic spin. The national Republican party is promising the dirtiest campaign in history, and you should all be prepared. Regardless of what the likes of Karl Rove, Dick Wadhams, Scott Howell, and Mary Matlin dig up, trump up, or scoop up, it all means one thing: Republicans are terrified.
Republicans nationwide, including George Bush, George Allen, Thelma Drake, Frank Wolf, Tom Davis, and Virgil Goode are terrified that voters will hold them accountable for their historic failures in Iraq, New Orleans, and Washington.
They are scared enough to say anything, do anything to hold on to the power they've abused. When it all happens, remember what you're fighting for. Remember that there's a chance for change in America in November, and there are great Democratic leaders like Jim Webb, Phil Kellam, Al Weed, Andy Hurst, and Judy Feder ready to right the ship of state.
America has one day and only one day to hold accountable the most profligate Administration in American history and its kowtowing Congress. They're terrified of being held accountable and they'll do anything to hold on to power. Keep your positive message in mind and never stop fighting, regardless of whatever slime the Republicans can trump up.
Campaigns of misinformationSwiftboating has little to do with the truth. It's a smear campaign waged on misinformation and allegations so damning the public is disinclined to give the target the benefit of the doubt. The significant money that goes into swiftboating campaigns is hidden as much as possible and used in unmistakably shifty ways. The group doing the swiftboating is usually a 527, a tax-exempt organization that can raise limitless amounts of soft money.
The next time you hear something negative about a candidate from a group you've never heard of, ask yourself who stands to gain from the attack? The next time you hear outlandish allegations popping up out of nowhere, check and see if a "Vets for Fill-in-the-Blank" group is involved. Since the success of Swiftboat Veterans for Truth, scores of similar groups have proliferated. But it doesn't have to be a group; individual candidates are taking up the task of swiftboating their opponents themselves.
Read the whole thing!
http://www.alternet....
Be prepared. Anticipate their charges against Webb and our congressional candidates. I hope all of the candidates' staffs have done oppo research on their respective candidates so there will be no surprises -- other than the out and out lies spread by the GOP agents.
Also, understand that much of the slime will not come from the GOP's official machine. It will come in the forms of a whispering campaign, anonymous blog posts, flyers on windshields in church parking lots, and independent 527 groups.
Put on your helmets and flak jackets. We are in for a fight...
Beyond "swiftboating" candidates, the Repugs are poised to make a constitutional asssault its surrogate platform. As Jon Stewart says, they've got "nothin'" The ploy is to distract us from fending off questions and rationale regarding that issue and not work directly to campaign for our candidates. The only solution I can think of is to find people to talk to voters door to door for Webb and a separate crew to go door to door to explain to neighbors what the amendment really does. Cincinnatti revoked its Amendemnt after such a campaign. And it's a really conservative city. Never underestimate the power of neighborly talk.
As I wrote elsewhere, MSNBC fired Eric Alterman yesterday. He's now working at Media Matters.org and continues to work for The Nation and American Progress Action. But the politics are obvious. Yesterday we learned that the first-rate investigative reporter one of the two best in the country (besides Seymour Hersh) BBC reporter and author Greg Palast (www.gregpalast.com) has been charged for the supposed "crime" of taking photos of the FEMA trailer encampments in NOLA and the locked down, boarded up public housing. 100$ of public housing is shut down in NOLA. A sizeable number of units are habitable, but developers want the land for development. So everyone formerly in public housing in NOLA is out of luck. They can't even get their property back. That would be "illegal" too. Talk about secret law! To work around this we must grow more and more people who'll pick up the slack. No one can really replace Greg Palast. But, besides supporting him and his investigations, we can look toward successors and fund their investigations. William Rivers Pitt may be such an alternative. Maybe RK might want to get into investigative stuff (after the election!). Goodness knows, there are enough really good researchers here. Many of you are awesome.
The Cheney patrol will keep trying to stop dissent, and even bipartisan discussion. They have no solutions, only quagmire, but question the patriotism of ours. The solution to this is also to grow our ranks. Every day more people will speak out if only they see others doing it. Show them the way and they'll speak with courage as well. The more who speak out, the more who will. It's that simple.
Many bloggers are being harrassed, including this one. Character assassination and electronic stalking, is just a part of it. They think we'll cave if they just give us a bad enough time. They think this is still high school and the bullies rule. They question the logic, intellect, character, patriotism (and everything else) of a person all the while quoting Ann Coulter and Michele Malkin (how logical and intelligent is that!). I'd be embarrassed if I were they. But they are beyond shame and beyond stupidity. The solution here is to find stress managemnt techniques that work, and forge ahead. Personally, blogging reduces my stress. And reading all your comments give me the hope I need to sustain my own. And a good laugh helps too. Thanks to those who've provided those too!
I also recommend an RK summit, eithr before the election or after (or both). I think we should scrap those bipartisan blog summits. They (the summits) are a distraction and geared toward sapping our courage stifling us. The other side won't quiet down. You know that's true. You can tell yourself how much sweetness and light you experienced, but in the final analysis, it's a waste of time because it won't stop the attacks and we won't have gotten our own work done. Have no guilt. We should stick to policies of generally not attacking individual bloggers and citizens and holding public officials to account. (There may be rare exceptions, but it should not be typical). Don't make a habit of stooping to their level. Don't let them define the parameters of the debate on your blogs. That is, for example, don't feel obliged to discusss "strawmen" they put out there, or revisionist or out-of-context disinformation. indeed ignore the heck out of them. They are not worth responding to because they dont' really want to discuss with us.
More later...
That's better than it could be and there's still time. The hardest terrain is right here in SW Virginia. (Let me out of here!) Seriously, I love my friends and the beauty here, but this is ridiculous. Ignorance and meanness have no bounds, it would seem.
Over on the DNC site, www.democrats.org, there's a more hopeful picture. The banner across the top features a party building tool. There are two feature articles. One is critical of the Bush administration for the failure to capture Osama Bin Laden, while definitely a critical article, it doesn't use "what if" scenarios, but comments upon actual news. The second feature is news about primaries and the 50-State strategy.
From these, it appears that the DNC approach is a bit more grounded and realistic than that of the RNC.
The RNC site displays an attitude more befitting a cornered feral cat than a statesman.
I should have written: "One is critical of the Bush administration for the failure to capture Osama Bin Laden. While this is definitely a critical article, it doesn't use "what if" scenarios, but comments upon actual news. The second feature is news about primaries and the 50-State strategy."
Sorry, I.Publius. I failed to preview and correct the error in my post. I know that copy-editing is more important than content for you. I hope that this edit will help you sleep better at night.
Are you fear-mongering, just like the despicables?
I'm happy they're promising to spend 90% of their war-chest on "dirt research" and negative ads. Anything that drains their finances is likely to be good for us, since our tit is far smaller than theirs.
And I hope their ads are as negative as possible. Not only is there more "meat" for rebuttal in those, but your "Joe Schmoe" is getting fed up with "negtive *only*" campaign format -- vide what happened in the Kaine/Kilgore race.
The trick/s is/are to have candidates on whom no *real* dirt can be dug, even if it's "not proven" yet (I hope Georgia's "90 thou in the freezer" Jefferson loses today's primaries, even if he's cleared of all wrongdoing later. He's like Lieberman; the "I" comes before the "we" for him). And to be alert; if a smear comes, *slam* the ball right back into their court. Kerry's "gentleman's comport" regarding the swiftboating was what cost him the elections. Let's not repeat his mistake.
PS I'd *strongly* advocate dirt-digging of our own, to hold in reserve... A 3-prong fork is more efficient than a 2-prong one. We have an *army* of volunteers (bloggers). And we have a really fertile dirt field to plow, with the Repubs in charge... :)
They've been doing counter research on Allen for months and there's lots of dirt there.
The Hits were the first source for the Barr Labs story and the Durbin Amendment story.
You *shall* read the daily hits.
;)
As far as I can tell, Allen hasn't done anything.
Time for change.
