The Incredibly Unpopular President

5:08 pm EST August 26th, 2005 | Republicans | 1 Comment

How long?
How long do we have to wait for the media to truly acknowledge how unpopular George W. Bush is?

A new Gallup Poll reflects further erosion in President George W. Bush’s job approval rating, continuing the slow but steady decline evident throughout the year so far. The poll — conducted Aug. 22-25 — puts Bush’s job approval rating at 40% and his disapproval rating at 56%. Both are the most negative ratings of the Bush administration.

You wouldn’t know this to watch the media. It’s wall to wall laudatory coverage of the popular wartime president as he chops wood, and makes straw man speeches against hippies. George Bush is getting away with what Bill Clinton never could: a drop in popularity that the media refuses to acknowledge.

Previously:
Somebody – Anybody, Please Tell The Media
The Out Of Touch Media
Who Will Tell The Media (Redux)
Who, Who Will Tell The Media?

Standing Up

5:08 pm EST August 26th, 2005 | Politics | 37 Comments

Some argue that you’re either with Cindy or against the idea of America…

Right Wing Front Group Tries To Sell Roberts To Black America

4:08 pm EST August 26th, 2005 | Politics | 19 Comments

This is pretty ridiculous

Several prominent figures in the African American community today strongly rebuked Mychal Massie and other right-wing African Americans for comparing Supreme Court nominee John Roberts, who has a record of opposition to civil rights, to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

In a press release from the right-wing front group Project 21 announcing an event scheduled for this morning, Massie said Roberts “represents the beliefs of great Americans such as James Madison and Martin Luther King, Jr.

But Roberts’ record clearly shows he tried to limit voting rights protections, permit federal funding of discrimination, and strip the Supreme Court of its ability to protect civil rights.

“I knew Martin Luther King. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a friend of mine. John Roberts is no Martin Luther King, Jr.,” said George Mason University Professor and civil rights leader Roger Wilkins. “As a matter of fact, John Roberts is far closer to Brad Reynolds, whose tenure at the Justice Department was devoted to tearing down everything that King and the civil rights movement had achieved in the 1960 s.”

Where We Are

3:08 pm EST August 26th, 2005 | News | 9 Comments

It amazes me that we’ve put these brave guys in these situations when they could be out and about killing terrorists that actually threaten us.

Insurgents in Anbar province, the center of guerrilla resistance in Iraq, have fought the U.S. military to a stalemate.

After repeated major combat offensives in Fallujah and Ramadi, and after losing hundreds of soldiers and Marines in Anbar during the past two years – including 75 since June 1 – many American officers and enlisted men assigned to Anbar have stopped talking about winning a military victory in Iraq’s Sunni Muslim heartland. Instead, they’re trying to hold on to a handful of population centers and hit smaller towns in a series of quick-strike operations designed to disrupt insurgent activities temporarily.

“I don’t think of this in terms of winning,” said Col. Stephen Davis, who commands a task force of about 5,000 Marines in an area of some 24,000 square miles in the western portion of Anbar. Instead, he said, his Marines are fighting a war of attrition. “The frustrating part for the (American) audience, if you will, is they want finality. They want a fight for the town and in the end the guy with the white hat wins.”

That’s unlikely in Anbar, Davis said. He expects the insurgency to last for years, hitting American and Iraqi forces with quick ambushes, bombs and mines. Roadside bombs have hit vehicles Davis was riding in three times this year already.

“We understand counter-insurgency … we paid for these lessons in blood in Vietnam,” Davis said. “You’ll get killed on a nice day when everything is quiet.”

Topic: Iraq

Gimme Links

2:08 pm EST August 26th, 2005 | Uncategorized | 11 Comments

As part of my duty to help the progressive blogosphere get smarter, I’ve asked you to send me links. Not just links on an issue, but links on a regular basis. The right-wingosphere thrives on links but the progressive blogosphere is too stingy with them and way too insular for its long-term viablitiy. I don’t get enough emails with people saying “check this out”.

So start doing that. Send me emails and send them to other bloggers.

Topic: Site Stuff

It’s Iraq, Not Vietnam

2:08 pm EST August 26th, 2005 | Democrats | 9 Comments

Chris Bowers has a good post on this issue

While progressives admire and appreciate those trailblazers who came before them, unlike conservatives we are not bound to follow in their footsteps. Iraq is not Vietnam, and we should not mistake it as such. The actions that succeeded in ending the war in Vietnam will not succeed in ending the war in Iraq. Even more importantly, the progressive movement cannot suffer another twenty-five years of ossification where we offer unrequited worship to the institutions and methodologies of our forebearers.

This is what bothered me and has bothered me since I went to the Take Back America conference. Way too many of the constituents were of the aging hippie variety who don’t have a clue that the way we fight these battles nowadays is via organization and the media and not singing protest songs with Joan Baez.

It is 2005. Stop protesting.

From The Forums

1:08 pm EST August 26th, 2005 | Uncategorized | Comments Off

Currently under discussion at Forums @ OliverWillis.com

Graph of gas prices vs Bush approval rating
Pat Robertson wants Hugo Chavez dead
The Religious Policeman is back on the beat!
Alba: It’s A Tradition Now
Gaza: What’s Your Take?
[ Poll ] ABC: Commander In Chief
Longoria!
[ Poll ] Average Bush approval in next three polls

Feel free to come add your two cents (or more).

Topic: Site Stuff

“Stay The Course”

9:08 am EST August 26th, 2005 | News | Comments Off

Yes, it’s perfectly in line with America’s interests to keep this up

Political violence surged Thursday along many of Iraq’s ethnic and sectarian fault lines, while Shiite and Sunni Arab political leaders haggled past a third deadline without reaching accord on a draft constitution.

As the two-day death toll around Iraq reached 100, fighting between two powerful Shiite militias in the southern city of Najaf subsided, with 19 reported dead overall. The clashes Wednesday night and Thursday between the Mahdi Army, loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, and fighters allegedly linked to the government-allied Badr Organization were the deadliest between Iraqi militia forces since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.

Topic: Iraq

Fighting Right

8:08 pm EST August 25th, 2005 | Politics | 10 Comments

Progressives have a problem: they’re gun shy. Not in a military sense – in fact World War II was presided over by two Democratic presidents whose domestic policies would appear practically socialist on today’s sliding scale – but in a rhetorical sense. Democrats have decided that they are going to eternally doom themselves to responding to the right, when in fact the only way to get anything done – especially in the press – is by dominating the story, owning it.

Republicans were able to set the media agenda against President Clinton even though he had the bully pulpit of the White House, yes, having the congress to investigate every cockamamie scandal Newt Gingrich could dream up was a heck of a tool, but it didn’t stop there. Right-wing pressure groups overwhelmed the press with a neverending stream of press releases, media availabilities and flooded the zone with information of their own to create an alternate universe where the moderate, popular, Democrat was transformed into a power hungry socialist. Clinton’s only advantage was that he fought fire with fire and the public never fully bought into the whole caricature.

Progressives and progressive groups need to get that they’re not just in place to issue pleas to Republicans. If I get one more email to “request” that so-and-so apologize, or “ask” that so-and-so be removed from his or her job, I’ll scream. Progressives need to learn the language the right has used to great success and turn it up to eleven. It is long past time to demand things of the government and the opposition party. It is long past time to pound your fists on the table and issue press releases and marching orders to media surrogates to tweak the national agenda to do your bidding.

The media has effectively outsourced its research function to the nonprofit sector, rarely is their any original reporting done – and certainly not enough to fill the gaping maw of the 24-7 news cycle. Progressive nonprofits and media organizations must do the press’ legwork for them. Document the excesses (and they are numerous) of the conservative movement, and beat up on the press until they report the story – and beat up on them again if they don’t report the story appropriately. The media is nothing more than an amalgamation of human beings and subject to the same sort of browbeating and persuasion that produces results.

Again, it’s time to cease the supine posture of prostrating yourselves and begging for decency. Instead its time to be aggresive, forceful, and repetitive to the point of numbness if you want to get anything real done.