Tracing the message of conservatives

Ever make a mistake? Ever say something really stupid? Better hope your not an opponent of a conservative political candidate.

Their method is this:

Find one stupid thing that somebody has said or done and DEFINE that person by it. You remember, flip-flopper... It's beyond judgemental, it's simplisticly psychotic.

Would you like to be defined like that? That's what conservatives and perfectionists do to people (I've done it, just ask me about a mysogistic actor I know).

Hey you, you're that person who said women drivers should be shot.
Over there, you didn't pay your credit card bill on time.
I'm going to come after you and remind you of that over and over and over--welcome to the 21st century in rightwing politics.

This is what the right did to Cindy Sheehan. Forget that she was a grieving mother, an anti-war protestor, a passionate patriot. She lost her mind and said that foreign fighters in Iraq were fighting for freedom. Naive, yes, evil, no.

But do a simple web search and you will find page after page of conservative news sources and blogs reporting this single, crazy comment.

I tried to look up when Bush was interviewed by Brian Williams and made the comment that he "generally means it" when he takes the blame for things (regarding Katrina).

No one noticed. I couldn't even find it on a website of Bushisms. Our president IS a fake, according to his actions in this war (meeting with experts for 45 MINUTES this morning?!?! Woo, got a lot done there!), social security and environmental actions, but no one notices.

Good thing we've got Cindy Sheehans number, though, eh? Oh, and remember that Delay and Libby are just being tried on technicalities.

The rightwing, "It's not what we DO it's what you SAY." Ugh!

Peace.

Beware of the war on whatever

In regard to the post below, I meant to point out that only a fearmonger would frame small issues and problems with events as a "WAR on Christmas." It's a cynical and conscious attempt to generate fear and hatred in people. No one I know would be offended by being wished Merry Christmas, or Happy Holidays (Jew, Christian, Muslim or Buddhist). Any wish is meant kindly, for G_D's sake. And again, as I mentioned in Who's Stroking Your Holiday (below), who cares who Sears and KMart markets to? Isn't Christmas about Christ's birth?

I've been noticing that a lot of conservatives use bullying tactics in their communication, like "You should," "People should," "This is how it is," and liberals tend to use "I" or non-offensive language, like "I worry that..." "I feel that..." "I think that..." It's fascinating and reflects our different philosophies on life and human relationships (I must admit, I was more like a conservative in my first marriage--shudder).

Peace,
Urban Pink

Do we want to be right or to win?

The problem with liberals is that we can't escape our elite intelligence. We are so damn smart that we think that being right is all that matters. Letterman cut through this elitism with an effective knife last night when he said to Bill O'Reilly (I paraphrase), "You know I'm not smart enough to go fact by fact with you but I just get the feeling that 60% of what you say is crap." Not only was Letterman right, he was right without sounding like an elitist.

That isn't true on the this web site's comments: Media Matters An argument ensues between a conservative and liberal over the meaning of "comparison." The argument goes so far off course of the original idea, that O'Reilly is full of crap, and just becomes a glaring example of how liberals lose arguments. It's like being in a fight and pulling a single hair instead of punching someone in the gut.

We try to be right.
We try to be perfect.

If you'll notice, conservatives generally don't try to be either for their folks (the dumber the better, just look at our President). But they do point fingers at us when we're imperfect (Cindy Sheean), which makes us shudder and weaken (Oh no! We're not perfect!). Then they continue the fight by bullying and striking fear into people. We need to point this out, over and over, and tell people we have an optimistic plan for the future. Who cares if we're right on the facts (we generally are and this doesn't win admirers) and on the definition of words (of course we are, and this makes people feel inferior). We need to get along and lead our way out of this mess of fear and fake perfectionism.

Looking back at 2005

"I want to say one thing specifically to the world today. This was not a terrorist attack against the mighty and the powerful. It was not aimed at Presidents or Prime Ministers. It was aimed at ordinary, working-class Londoners, black and white, Muslim and Christian, Hindu and Jew, young and old. It was an indiscriminate attempt to slaughter, irrespective of any considerations for age, for class, for religion, or whatever." The Mayor of London, shortly after July's transit attacks.

Hello but does anyone remember the London bombings? You'd think it had never happened the way Americans don't hear about it in the news, the way Bush keeps saying the same old things over and over about the war on terror keeping us safe at home. Who's home? Isn't England part of our "homefront?" What are we really doing to prevent such attacks here?

Peace

Who's Stroking Your Holiday?

I saw that Congress is considering a bill (or resolution?) to protect Christmas, I presume, in the context of Fox News' lovely phrase "the war on Christmas." Oh, the suffering majority! Can we please stop this war because it makes me, someone who's MINORITY religion doesn't celebrate Christmas, feel like an ENEMY of Christmas (which is wrong because I'm a big fan of the mortal Jesus, if anyone remembers him at this time of year...)

Last year I remember people getting offended when the school my niece attends changed their Christmas celebrations to Holiday celebrations. I didn't get the problem since it was a PUBLICLY FUNDED school. Jews got blamed, although I'm not aware of any up there in rural Illinois, when it was apparent to me that the real culprit against "Merry Christmas" was SECULARISM and the wish among many to keep sticky, awkward religion separate from PUBLICLY FUNDED school activities (after all, Christ isn't in Christmas much these days even for Christians, ask the Pope about it).

Why anyone cares which religions Target markets to is beyond me. And a Holiday Tree is a laughable attempt by a seller to market a tree to a larger audience, not to take Christmas out of the picture. So there's another trend that angry Christians might want to fight: opportunistic CAPITALISM! Besides, if you're hankering for a dose of Corporate-Christmas, just walk into any Starbucks and take a deep breath.

Now a bunch of conservative blogs are saying that the U.S. GOVERNMENT Post Office isn't issuing religious stamps (Madonna and Child stamps). First of all, USPS is IN FACT ISSUING MADONNA AND CHILD STAMPS. And second, they ARE ISSUING MADONNA AND CHILD STAMPS. Get yours now!

It seems to me that blogs like these are short on facts and big on fear (try to find a stone cold fact among their paranoid, bleeping threads):
What War Michelle?

And why in the world does "Happy Holidays" make someone angry? Why do you choose to see the cup half empty? Why must everyone and our government stroke YOUR holiday by name?

Merry Christmas!
Happy Chanukah!
Good Kwanza to you!
Happy New Year!
Enjoy the winter solstice (which is truly the basis for this season, and the tree, anyway...HELLO)!

Bush and our Constitution

Bush claims that his test for Supreme Court nominees is that they adhere to a strict interpretation, you could say literal, of the American Constitution. He talks about upholding it in one breath, while he's undermining it with his own actions--spying on Americans outside of established law (when there appears no need to do so!!!). According to John McCain, the White House can legally spy on anyone and get court approval AFTERwards (within 72 hours).

They choose not to do that, and publically admit it.

What are these fascists doing to us?

In his press brief today Bush misleadingly says they get oversight (A LIE), he says he's not using dicatorial tactics (A LIE). They basically say the truth is a lie, and lies are the truth. It's 1984 folks. We need to get these crazies out of the White House, pronto.

Let's Trust Bush and his cronies to tap our wires without oversight and in SECRET

Bush Vows to Continue Spying on Americans

Bush and his Justice Department can willy nilly spy on U.S. Citizens. Sure they say that they only spy on terrorist connections, but with Bush's caveat of, "You're with us or against us," pretty much anyone who disagrees with him falls into the terrorist file. I think that there's reason to believe that they've spied on anti-war protestors, maybe they spy on political opponents as well. Who knows? There's NO Congressional or Judicial oversight, and it's SECRET. If this program deserves the light of day, and could deter terrorists, why is it secret? King George indeed.

Wake Up America. We have a dictator and a CABAL running our government. How do we trust it?? Impeach now.