For the second time in as many days, a prominent Republican has likened Pres. Obama’s policies to socialism.
WASHINGTON (CNN) – Another prominent Republican told the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday that the president’s spending plans are pushing the country to the brink of socialism.
Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, the only member of the senate to earn a perfect rating from the American Conservative Union, called President Obama “the world’s best salesman of socialism” on Friday in describing his prime time speech earlier this week.
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Socialism is the new GOP meme word for the successful execution of democracy in America by the people.
The strategy is brilliant and the Dems are clueless as to how to respond, and in fact have been caught flat footed.
The GOP machine has won another important battle on another important front in the war to control the terms of the discussion.
Author Archives: Ron Sheridan
prescience: When this man predicted a global financial crisis more than a year ago, people laughed. Not any more…
prescience (prĕsh’əns, -ē-əns, prē’shəns, -shē-əns)
n.
Knowledge of actions or events before they occur; foresight.
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Nouriel Roubini: I fear the worst is yet to come
When this man predicted a global financial crisis more than a year ago, people laughed. Not any more…
Dominic Rushe
As stock markets headed off a cliff again last week, closely followed by currencies, and as meltdown threatened entire countries such as Hungary and Iceland, one voice was in demand above all others to steer us through the gloom: that of Dr Doom.
For years Dr Doom toiled in relative obscurity as a New York University economics professor under his alias, Nouriel Roubini. But after making a series of uncannily accurate predictions about the global meltdown, Roubini has become the prophet of his age, jetting around the world dispensing his advice and latest prognostications to politicians and businessmen desperate to know what happens next – and for any answer to the crisis.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article5014463.ece
Senator McCain needlessly endangered the lives of over 100 US Troops for a Photo Opp
Last week Senator John McCain attempted to sell a rosy picture of the situation in Iraq on CNN with Wolf Blitzer. He failed of course. He got smacked down in grand fashion. It was actually quite embarrassing to watch a man of his former stature demonstrate such a large degree of disconnectedness.
It got worse, much worse. Over the weekend I saw pictures on the major networks of the Senator in Iraq wearing a bullet proof vest, walking in an area outside the green zone, in a market I believe.
This was clearly another stunt in a series of stunts all designed to pull the wool over the American people’s eyes. On this matter Senator McCain has clearly “jumped the shark”. This was nothing more than a PR stunt which was part of his political agenda to sell an unsubstantiated rosy scenario to the American people.
But the important issue is not his false and failed message, so much as his careless disregard for the troops. The news coverage said there were over 100 soldiers and 5 helicopters on hand for this media spectacle. How dare he endanger the lives of US servicemen and women, and Iraqi civilians so he can have his self serving political photo opp!
Try to imagine the extent of the GOP outrage if Senator Hillary Clinton or Senator Obama or for that matter any other Democratic Candidate had done this.
My question is will the Democrats and the MSM media call him to task for this blatant PR stunt and the more serious danger it posed to US troops?
You can bet your as the GOP machine would lay to waste any Democrat who would dare to pull off such a disgusting pr move, and rightfully so. Hell I’d join them!
LEONARD PITTS: MOST BELIEVE WHAT THEY WANT TO BELIEVE
“Maybe you already knew this intuitively. Now you can know it to a scientific certainty. Drew Westen … a professor of psychology at Emory University in Atlanta and author of a new and still-unpublished study test whether people make decisions based on bias or fact. Bias won hands down.
In a key scenario, respondents were led to believe a soldier was accused of torturing people at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. The fictional soldier claimed to have been following orders from superiors who told him the Geneva Convention had been suspended. He supposedly wanted to subpoena President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to prove his case. Respondents were asked if he should have that right.
Some were presented with strong “evidence” corroborating the soldier’s story. Others had only his word to go on.
But the strength or weakness of the evidence turned out to be immaterial. Researchers were able to predict people’s opinion more than 80 percent of the time based simply on their opinions of the Bush administration, the GOP, the military and human rights groups. Those who had less affection for the president sided with the soldier even when the evidence was weak. And fans of the president tended to side with him even when the evidence was overwhelming.
We believe what we want, facts be damned.”
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The GOP machine understands this and that’s why they almost always win.
Planting the seeds for the theft of the election by lowering expectations?
Bush Lawyer Anticipates Delay in Tally
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By Jo Becker – Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 16, 2004; Page A07
President Bush’s top campaign lawyer said yesterday that the winner of next month’s presidential vote may not be known for “days or weeks” after Election Day if the contest is close.
Experts predict that a large number of absentee ballots will be cast, which could take time to count. For the first time nationwide, voters whose names do not appear on the rolls will be allowed to cast “provisional ballots,” which will be counted only after a post-Election Day review determines their eligibility.
In addition, some battleground states will count overseas military ballots received after Election Day as long as they are postmarked before Nov. 3. In Florida, for instance, military ballots received through Nov. 12 will be counted.
Tom Josefiak, the Bush-Cheney campaign’s general counsel, said he worries that the uncertainty caused by potential delays could undermine confidence in the outcome. “If it’s a close election in any one state, it may be days or weeks before we know who actually is the winner,” he said. “I hope that doesn’t happen.
Josefiak’s comments came as most national polls show Bush and Democrat John F. Kerry in a dead heat. Four years ago, a similarly close race between Bush and Vice President Al Gore deadlocked in Florida and produced a 36-day whirlwind of lawsuits as Democrats sought to recount votes and Republicans pushed to stop while Bush was ahead.
Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Jenny Backus denounced Josefiak’s comment. “It seems like the Republicans want people to somehow think that the results they see on election night aren’t accurate, which is a far cry from where they were in 2000,” she said. “Maybe they think they’re going to be behind.”
No Accountability
I just had to make this my first post to SeeingTheForest because I have been saying to anyone who will listen that the most obvious chariacteristic of the Bush administation is also one of their greatest potential weaknesses. And that is their lack of Accountability. They are accountable to one for anything. It’s a simple concept folks, and I believe a huge vulnerability that the voters can and will understand. Take a look at what David Broder over at the Wapo has to say on the subject (sorry I have yet to master the fancy HTML stuff):
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“the accountability questions for Kerry and Edwards are outweighed, in my view, by the startling refusal of Bush and Vice President Cheney to acknowledge the errors and failures of their audacious policy in Iraq.
When has the United States launched a preemptive attack on a foreign nation with as little provocation — and as spurious a rationale — as this war on Iraq? The great selling point was Saddam Hussein’s possession of weapons of mass destruction. Last week, that contention was definitively demolished in a 1,000-page report from the head of the U.S. inspection team in Iraq. Charles A. Duelfer concluded that Hussein did not possess and had no real plans or programs to develop biological, chemical or nuclear weapons.
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I think the Kerry and Edwards campaign should hit them hard and often on this point. This is in my view the administration of Zero Accountability.