I think that may have been the biggest crowd there, EVER.

My son was there, too. He got invited as what they called a "Presidential Scholar" in high school, for his great grades. He said he damn near froze his feet off, but he was so excited to be there that he didn't care. Our brainy boy forgot his cold-weather boots, of course. Also, he said his group was nearby when georgie-poo and laura departed from Washington afterwards. He said he saw their helicopter lift off, and he was in the crowd that was singing "Na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na, hey-hey-hey, goo-ood-BYE!" He sang along, too!

That's my boy!!!!

Welcome to DU, PennsyvaniaMatt!

Sadly, that was just indicative of everything that was to come. These assholes were just bound and determined NOT to accept Barack Obama as duly-elected President. SHEESH! And they called US the Sore Losermen. They were, and unfortunately still are, just gonna find fault with EVERYTHING about him.

Glad you're here. I, too, hope john roberts is sufficiently ashamed of himself and chastised enough that he will swim nude up the Potomac that January day rather than blow the soundbite - AGAIN. That was a frickin' national disgrace. And if he had been a Democratic appointee botching the Oath for a republi-CON President-Elect, we'd never be hearing the end of it.

Welcome to DU, Catch2.2!

That's the whole problem, though. We as a nation are not feeling well. We are ill. We have norquist disease. I'm trying to think up a good word for it, like romnesia for wrongney. But he is a disease. An opportunistic infection that has blighted most of the country, kinda like a political Dutch Elm Disease.

And yes, I'm attempting, in my word and phrase choices, to dehumanize and minimize him. To make him a thing. All the easier to despise.

And remember that - quite literal - "war of words." The newt gingriches and frank luntzes of the world have thought up all these verbal devices to help paint the correct word pictures to get the desired meanings across to the unsuspecting targets (ie: ordinary citizens and potential low-information voters). They do focus group testing of words, phrases, concepts, slogans, and figure out just the exact perfect ways to convey messages. What words and phrases don't just say something, they INFER or IMPLY or SUGGEST. It's almost like subliminal advertising.

Words and phrases are carefully analyzed and categorized as to whether they're positive or negative connotations. Words with positive meanings or associations are deliberately and purposefully to be used when speaking of things or concepts or individuals that are supposed to be regarded positively. The same exercise is done with more negative words and phrases. Those are, in turn, supposed to be used whenever referring to something you don't like and you want to turn others against as well.

gingrich had a whole book full of them, developed through his GOPAC during the early 80s when he rode into Congress on reagan's coattails. For all things CONservative, regressive, republi-CON, or GOP-related, you were told to use positive words to associate them with. Words like "family," "American," "concerned citizens," "freedom," "liberty," "people of faith," "traditional," "hard-working," "God-fearing," and more. For all things Democratic or liberal or progressive - oppositional or negative words and phrases were used like "socialism," "hippie," "limousine liberals," "the looney left," "tree-huggers," "unAmerican," "godless," and worse. What used to drive me mad was that the term "do-gooder" was actually a put-down. A put-down!?!!!?!?!?!???? Doing good is a negative thing? Since when??????????????????? But yeah. It was. It was a derogatory term. One step lower than "nanny state." But in a "You're On Your Own" world, or an IGMFU world (I Got Mine, F-U), we can't have this "kum-by-ya" crap. Even "kum-by-yah" is a put-down. So is "peacenik." And "women's libber." Some of us were demeaned by the use of the term "bra-burner."

frank luntz and others were the ones who focus-group-tested all these words and phrases to see what registered and how. They made a science out of it.

So - if you wanna change the tax laws or cut taxes or whatever, the word "tax" has to be rendered SECURELY negative. Why not attach
the word "relief" to the word tax - because the phrase "tax relief" implies that taxes are something bad from which one yearns for relief. Notice, in the last few years - since Obama became president - the phrases "job-creating" and "job-killing" have been added to everything from legislation to toilet paper brands to actual people. Slap "job-creating" on any crap-ass legalized piracy legislation and BOOM! Instantly you have this nice little mental sticky-note or audio earwig that's gonna bury itself into your tissues and take root, and make itself a nice permanent home. BOOM! "Job-creating" - whatever it's attached to suddenly becomes something good, positive, desireable, admired, coveted, something to be hailed, promoted, protected, increased, accellerated, enforced, even worshipped. "Job-creating!" Hey, says the low-information viewer/listener. Well, THAT thing creates jobs! Must HAVE! And on the flip side, a "job-killing" fill-in-the-blank-here is a total negative, toxic, a loser, an undesireable, a poopy-head (to quote the ever-eloquent overflowing bathtub candidate), and something to be avoided, hated, defied, ignored, demeaned, scorned, bad-mouthed, minimized, vilified, brought down, destroyed.

They've been on this for at least 30 years. More like 40, I think, 'cause reagan didn't just arrive, fully-formed, on a half-shell on the ocean waves. A lot went into building him and the favorable, fertile environment of the national mindset in which he was to be planted. lee atwater was at work back then and there have already been clips of him giving lectures about effective wording and phrasing. In one clip, he referred to what we now all recognize as dog-whistles, describing how people used to use the "n-word" regarding the racist feelings they had, but you really couldn't say stuff like that in polite company anymore, so you could say OTHER things - like "states' rights" and so forth, to subtly telegraph what you meant to say, and other fellow racists who felt as strongly about the rectitude - even nobility - of their own racism and had no intention of changing their views would understand your message very clearly. And if they didn't, you keep on doing this and they'll pick up on it soon enough. It used to be NOT respectable to be greedy and selfish. Once even regarded as sinful. But these lovely folks changed all that and made it respectable - through this lexicon they developed and the way they evangelized it across the American political and social landscape.

It's the money talking. The corporations et al. The free-marketeers. The rich. They've bristled against the New Deal for decades, because it leveled the playing field, and deep-down, the captains of "the sanctity of competition" hate that more than anything. THEY want the upper hand, the edge, the fix. They want the game rigged so they win. Fairness for all is no fair to them. The more level the playing field, the more the OTHER guy has an even shot at winning, and we can't have that if we're to claw our own unimpeded personal way to the top of the ziggurat. So basically all these annoying "rights" and "programs" and "benefits" and "entitlements" that the rich and elites don't need because they already have PLENTY in all those departments, are bad things. They must be done away with. After all, ayn rand says we're entitled to keep everything and we're not supposed to have to share or make a little room for anybody else.

For example, ever wonder why it's the CONservatives who want to do away with affirmative action? It's total IGMFU. clarence thomas, for example, was MORE than happy to avail himself of all the advantages that affirmative action offered - in its design to help level the playing field and give those who'd been historically shut out a chance to get inside. But once HE got in, he wanted to shut the door and lock it behind him so nobody else could get in after him, and make use of those advantages he used.

These assholes have been at this Satan's Work FOR DECADES. It's perception management. The main objective was to make this shit respectable so it would be much easier, even to the point of being systemic, to enact their agenda into law - and preferably into the Constitution. They've been working on this for a LONG time, trying to change the nation's views from progressive to CONservative. Trying to push the pendulum as far as they can to their side and then tie it in place there. They infuse the mind with positive and negative associations to things - and then the job is done. The impressions are made, and they stick. It's almost like they've made your mind into a mine-field.

At least there are more people waking up to this, and recognizing it as a fact. These are the building blocks of that alternate reality we've known about, and fought against, for years, and that the mainstream media and other Pox Noise/limbaugh critics have only just recently discovered. Thank Heavens the awakening has finally begun.

What WE have to do is make sure nobody dozes off again.


Aw, crap. Glad you're here! Sorry to be so long-winded.

Fucked up the soundbite.

First Black President. HISTORIC BEYOND ALL BELIEF AND MEASURE. And john idiot roberts fucks up the soundbite. That's why, when you see clips of that day in any retrospective or documentary or ANY such thing, all you get is the brief "I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear" and then they cut away abruptly. 'Cause the rest of it is a mess and unusable. Pissed me off royally, as a former newsperson! One extremely important soundbite - HISTORIC. And we're stuck with a truncated one because the Chief Justice couldn't keep his lines straight. On THIS of ALL Presidential Inaugurations. Presidential Inaugurations don't get any more historic than this one!!!

There was NO excuse for somehow getting flustered and blowing the order of the words. You don't get flustered. That's YOUR JOB as Chief Justice. You're not authorized to get flustered when you're swearing in the freakin' PRESIDENT of the freakin' United freakin' States of freakin' America! You don't get to be flustered. If you're Chief Justice forcryingoutloud it's your damn JOB to get it right and have it together on that day - especially THAT HISTORIC a day. This isn't some fifth-grader's book report presentation forcryingoutloud!

Damn idiot should have had it memorized. Should have brought it on cue cards. Hell, shoulda written it on his frickin' hand if he had to. He had more than two months advance notice and plenty of time to practice and memorize the relatively few words that he was in charge of that day. He knew this was part of his job as Chief Justice. This came as NO surprise to him as far back as when he himself was sworn in. Probably further, when he was nominated and, no doubt, ran through, or looked up, or had it fully explained to him, what his duties would be if confirmed by the Senate. I'd bet he practiced stuff like that in the bathroom the same way any actor or actress with dreams of greatness picks up a shampoo bottle in the bathroom and practices their thank-yous for the Oscar they fantasize that they just won.

And who cares if Obama interrupted or whatever. Makes NO difference. It's still THE JOB of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States of America to swear in the President. YOU'RE swearing HIM in. It's NOT the other way around! It's YOUR JOB to get it done accurately. Especially when the Presidential Oath is 30-some-odd words long. And it's a work load that comes up only once every four years, so it's not as though there's no time to practice or prepare.



I lost all respect for this clown john roberts on that day. Can't even keep the wording of the Presidential Oath straight? GEEZ...

Oh Irony!

Yeah, I've been on kind of a bliss-out since Election Night. That, plus general lack of sleep and now all the turkey we've been eating for several days now.

I too have been savoring it. Just savoring it! It's the sweetest victory! One of the sweetest Election Nights EVER!!!

Btw, it's a GREAT honor to have you here posting on DU, Congressman-Elect Grayson!

SO cool to be able to post on your threads! I've been a fan for quite some time and I'm so glad you were elected again! We need you back in the House because so many of 'em still have such backwards views!

We also need to KEEP REMINDING THEM that they do NOT have a mandate, they LOST seats in the House, their numbers are DECLINING, while Democrats GAINED. We don't have the House under our belts yet, but that's what they said about our chances of keeping the Senate. We not only kept it, WE ADDED SEATS (and they LOST).

AND they need to be reminded that two of the biggest names in teabaggery, joe walsh and allen west - WERE DEFEATED. How's THAT for a "mandate"?????

They keep trying to avoid or forget these FACTS. We need to keep this REALITY squarely in their faces.

Welcome to DU, jamtoday! And thank you!

Glad you're here - just generally speaking!

That's one thing I really seriously, maybe even severely appreciate about DU. It's helped me think and reason and analyze and connect the dots. When you look at how many wrongs there are - and how easily many of them are connected - it can just shake your world! And DU has been there for many of us when we've had crises in our lives. Sometimes when you just have to vent, or rant, or try to figure something out, there are people here ANY time of day or night. And if nothing else, they're here to remind you that you're not alone! And you can ask MANY of us who suffered through the anguish of Selection 2000 when the media turned into total lapdogs and wouldn't cover the truth. You had to come to the internet, and to places like this, in order to feel even a big normal. There was no - "am I crazy to think this?" It's like a veritable think tank here! Even more agonizing, though, is how many of us were mired in various levels of "am I crazy to think this?" And some years later it finally comes out that we were NOT ONE BIT crazy to think that - we were spot on.

It usually takes the mainstream media awhile to catch up with us here, whether it's reporting on other than sensationalist quick-hit cheap-shit news OR the serious, thoughtful, and meticulous analysis of events and people's motivations here. Glaring example: anything they're now saying in the mainstream media, pointing out and pondering the reality of the alternative universe built by the republi-CONS and neoCONS and all the rest of the CON-JOB perpetrators on Pox Noise and elsewhere? WE were talking about it in depth and detail HERE in DU - YEARS AGO.

Oh Good Lord that's gonna kill john derbyshire!

WOW! What a terrific invention!

Understand completely your mixed feelings about it, but all the better for safeguarding the lives of miners. They're there through no fault of their own. It's the greedy corner-cutting owners who should be hauled away. I like that phrase of yours: "Hate the coal industry but love the miner."

This is actually not merely an invention. It's a public service!

Agreed. That one wasn't funny at all.

A dry drunk with delusions of godhood and a big-ass Oedipus complex for which the rest of us had to pay dearly (john mcsame and mitt wrongney have it, too - but they were never quite able to wrest away the ultimate Alpha Male position from daddy). I saw a documentary on the 9/11 Commission yesterday on MSNBC. It made me furious all over again. All over again!

I hate that bastard. And that fucker cheney too.