I'm confused again. The Repukes say that the Democrats have no ideas

[zbdent]

yet every time Dems come up with a plan, they always say we're coming up with new ways to tax and spend on big government programs which "won't work".

So, which is it?

[Mabus]

1. The Dems have plans, the thugs don't like them

so they dismiss them and say we don't have plans. Got it? Because that's the way it works.

[tenshi816]

4. You're right, and what makes me even more angry

is the way the "liberal" media follows right along with that RW talking point and refer to Democratic Party as "disorganized" and "chaotic", and so on. They've helped to cement the perception of "those darn crazy Dems" in the mind of the average citizen.

[Mabus]

8. The "Liberal Media" is also a RW concoction

dating back to the 70's. It was proposed by Nora Efron and popularized by, get this, Spiro "The Embezzler" Agnew.

Yes, the so-called Liberal Media myth is one of the biggest hurdles that we need to overcome. Gore was really on point in one of recent speeches when he criticized the American media:

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, there was - at least for a short time - a quality of vividness and clarity of focus in our public discourse that reminded some Americans - including some journalists - that vividness and clarity used to be more common in the way we talk with one another about the problems and choices that we face. But then, like a passing summer storm, the moment faded. Gore on the Threat to American Democracy

Gore's recent comment expands on what he said to Josh Benson in a New York Observer interview in 2002 about media bias:

"The media is kind of weird these days on politics, and there are some major institutional voices that are, truthfully speaking, part and parcel of the Republican Party. Fox News Network, the Washington Times, Rush Limbaugh -- there’s a bunch of them, and some of them are financed by wealthy ultra-conservative billionaires who make political deals with Republican administrations and the rest of the media." (He's talking about false messiah Sun Myung Moon and Rupert Murdoch.) Gore continues, "Most of the media been slow to recognize the pervasive impact of this fifth column in their ranks -- that is, day after day, injecting the daily Republican talking points into the definition of what’s objective as stated by the news media as a whole." (Original article is archived at NYObserver.com. I got this quote from Conanson at: http://www.salon.com/politics/conason/2002/11/27/bush/index_np.html)

[ellenfl]

9. maybe it's time to show people WHO

owns these networks. rev. moon and murdock? they're FOREIGNERS buying our government. h*ll, moon is KOREAN! surely we can get some mileage out of that.

ellen fl

[tenshi816]

14. Yes - agree with you totally. It's something

I think about a lot. When I moved to England nearly 20 years ago, it wasn't an issue and over the years I became somewhat complacent about it because I had/have the BBC as my "local" news channel. I started to wake up when the Repugs - aided by the media - started hounding Bill Clinton (I remember thinking what nonsense it was to distract him from doing his job because of sex - a real 7th grade mentality).

I wonder what the megachurch people would think about how much Rev. Moon has infiltrated the Republican mainstream.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Yuo hit the frame on the haed

any democratic plan involves the tax and spend democrats

Democrats need to find a way to break that frame

Republicans hate america, but we cannot say that, so Democrats need to reframe taxes as service fees, the commons

[zbdent]

10. Breaking that frame - the point out how, for 40+ years, the Repukes

were saying "We cannot have deficits!" and now, under Bush, they embrace them - as a way to kill the promises to the PEOPLE . . .

[woodsprite]

3. The dems have no ideas that the repubs want to hear. n/t

[zbdent]

12. Repuke on the left (of the picture)

[Brotherjohn]

5. Oh, the one that really bugs me is this: What's your alternative on Iraq?

Sweet jeezus! Nearly ANYTHING would be light years better.

But basically, the Bush admin has fouled up SO BAD, and left us alll with SO FEW OPTIONS, that they long ago gave up their right to demand "an alternative" from ANYONE! They've forfeited that right with their extreme incompetence.

But it's also a straw man argument. Of COURSE there are alternatives that opponents have proposed. Begin withdrawing soon, set a timetable, stop handing out billions to cronies, actually engage in something called diplomacy, and um... I don't know... maybe stop engaging in and actively defending TORTURE!.

It's just that none of that has quite the "pizazz" as, well... endless war. So they falsely claim "You have no plan!"

Recently, a Bush admin spokesperson was on real Time w/ Bill Maher, and he was spouting the nonsense that "If a President Gore had been in power, what would he have done? Sure, after 9-11, he might have gone into Afghanistan... but then what? He would have continued to ignore Iraq, the real problem, etc. etc. ignoring democracy in the Middle east, etc. etc.."

Well, that was the worst of this straw man argument... If you do not start a war, invade and conquer and occupy Iraq, then you are "ignoring the problem".

What utter bullshit! It seems to me, based on actual facts that we now know, that the IAEA and the Clinton administration successfully kept Iraq completely contained (despite hallucinogeic claims to the contrary by the Bushies). They were, and Gore would have been, more engaged in a real way with the Mid East than Bush has ever or will ever be (and not just Saddam, who was never the only problem in the Mid-East or South Asia).

That's the psychosis (psychopathology?) of the Bush administration: If you're not at war, you're "doing nothing".

They are really very dangerous and need to go... now... before we get into Iran, and probably find ourself at war with the entire world shortly thereafter.

<End of rant>

[EFerrari]

6. If we have no ideas, then how is it that we can discriminate

against Godfearing Replicants in all our leftwing universities, newspapers and movies?
:eyes:

[kentuck]

7. No ideas are better than some of the Repub "ideas"....

Ideas that are created out of thin air, lies, are no "ideas" at all. Ideas that kill deserve no alternative, other than the outright condemnation.

[ComerPerro]

11. Moreover, if the Republicans have so many plans and ideas

then why aren't they exercising them?

[zbdent]

13. They have -

tax cut
tax cut
tax cut
tax cut
bomb Iraq
tax cut
tax cut
tax cut
tax cut