A day or two ago, a diary was posted that really merits more attention.  Timing-- that is, the news cycle, the heat of the primary wars, and even the time of day that a diarist posts-- can be more decisive than content sometimes.  

Okay, so that's my pitch-- take a look at this, will you?  http://www.dailykos.com/...

Lambertstrether (gotta love that name!) provides links to a staggering list of prominent republicans who have been caught abusing animals in the most abhorrent ways and ties it to the vaunted Republican cant about family values.  Sure, we've heard about these scandals, one by one (remember Frist & the kitties?) but putting them together makes an impressive point.  What's more, I bet that if anyone did some serious research on other republicans, elected or running for office, the list would get a whole long longer.  After all, who'd have thought of checking out Huckabee a few months ago?

Here's the link & two opening paragraphs. It's not a fast read but it's worth the time.

http://www.dailykos.com/...

You might remember near the height of the 2004 election, Sinclair broadcasting, which owns dozens of mid-market TV stations across the nation, chose to run a Bushie Infomercial/political hack piece and give the Swift Bobbleheads a whole hour to savage John Kerry with all manner of psycho-babble about the reasons behind Kerry's service in Vietnam

Jon Lieberman, who headed up their Washington Bureau, took umbrage to using the Bureau's reporters for such a blatant hit piece with no redeeming news value.  He went public with his complaints after he got nowhere inside the corporation.  He was fired.  He moved on.... Or at least tried to

If you've got the time, read it.

Both  'start out' by scorching GWB, Cheney, and the rest. Both, apparently, combine hand-wringing and excoriation. And when that happens, as other diaries have pointed out, this admin is toast.

But where does Brooks end up?  What does he share with Noonan?  (click on the flip)

Or are we just going to stand by and watch them utterly destroy Public Broadcasting?  Are we helpless?

First the News, courtesy of the Washington Post:<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/26/AR2005092601598.html>

Perry criticized for pushing his own charity foundation.

AUSTIN - Gov. Rick Perry, in hurricane relief tours around the state, in news releases and on his official state Web site, has urged Texans to contribute to three groups: the Red Cross, Salvation Army and the OneStar Foundation.

The last of those is a volunteer-coordinating effort founded by Mr. Perry.

more on the flip

But there's another aspect of this catastrophe to which we need to give some attention and thought..  How can one man & his staff cripple the resources and initiative of an entire first world country?

August 08, 2005
By Todd Shields

The Federal Communications Commission has hired as an advisor an anti-pornography activist and former lobbyist for groups that push for Christian precepts in public policy. The move may herald a reinvigorated campaign against broadcast indecency and bring renewed pressure on cable to reconsider its racy offerings.

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001010563

My opinion: they want Jon Stewart's head.  Why do I think that?  And what, if anything, should we do about it?

Briefly, the American Century is over, finished, Bush killed it, there is a great big shift of power beginning globally, and, given the willingness (& eagerness)  of this radical RW administration to bully-occupy-slaughter-loot whole regions of the world, this is not such a bad thing.

follow my reasoning, won't you, and tell me what you think..

Check it out. http://newyorker.com/talk/content/index.ssf?050314ta_talk_hertzberg

<quote>
[Most of] the Senate's democratic imperfections... spring from the arithmetical disparity among state populations. Fifty-one senators--a majority--can represent states with as little as seventeen per cent of the American people. Sixty senators--enough to stop a filibuster--can represent as little as twenty-four per cent. That's theory. What about reality?

more after the jump

Another benefit of Gov. Dean's emphasis on shifting attention and resources to grass roots is that local action flies under the radar.

We must never underestimate the lock the GOP has on corporate media.  The minute an event, person or idea surfaces, the echo chamber turns on it in unison, like a herd of stampeding elephants, using uniform, highly organized (as if legislated) talking points. Effectively trampling  opposition before any argument has a chance to take hold.

The best way to counter this, imo, is to employ in the arena of news=o=tainment the strategies of guerrilla warfare.

What do I mean?  Read on, Macduff.

It provides links to http://www.projectbluechristmas.com/  a site which provides lists of companies that do not donate disproportionately to the Republicans (that is, either they contribute more or less evenly or do not contribute at all).  

 Amazon is not on that list. You want to know why?    

Like vampires, the light of day kills this stuff & converts it instantly into an advantage for our side.

How many people know about the black baby myth pinned to McCain? Or the push polls in Iowa saying "Did you know Howard Dean has a Jewish wife?" In a national election if ordinary people learned that this sort of vicious shit is a GOPer trick, the backfire would be huge & vast, seems to me.

He's not in Texas any more.

What do you think it means?  I'd really be interested in hearing kossack opinions.

One man's resistance: 'Why I turned against America'
by Jason Burke in Baghdad

'There is no greater shame than to see your country occupied'

Early one morning this week, when the police have yet to set up too many checkpoints, Abu Mujahed will strap a mortar underneath a car, drive to a friend's in central Baghdad and bury the weapon in his garden. In the evening he will return with the rest of his group, sleep for a few hours and then take the weapon from its hiding place. He will calculate the range using the American military's own maps and satellite pictures - bought in a bazaar - and fire a few rounds at a military base or the US Embassy or at the Iraqi Prime Minister's office. Then Abu Mujahed will shower, change and, by 10am, be at his desk in one of the major ministries.

"Charley Reese is a columnist for the King Features Syndicate. He turns out three columns a week and is known as a staunchly committed conservative."  

VOTE FOR A MAN, NOT A PUPPET
by Charley Reese

Americans should realize that if they vote for
President Bush's re-election, they are really voting for the architects of war - Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and the rest of that cabal of neoconservative ideologues and their corporate backers.I have sadly come to the conclusion that President Bush is merely a frontman, an empty suit, who is manipulated by the people in his administration. Bush has the most dangerously simplistic view of the world of any president in my memory.

And it leads me to this question:  When every part of the culture, high and low, comes out visibly and vocally against a candidate = party = agenda, how can he/it/they possibly "prevail" (to borrow their word)?

Everything hot is Democratic. Are you ready? A little traveling music, maestro, if you please.

Music:
   Springsteen, Dixie Chicks & Co-- on tour against W.

Fashion:  
   Sean Combs/Tommy H.-- Vote or Die (with gorgeous t-shirts)

Art:
    the extent of  the   art on display this week in NYC, according to the NYT blew me away.  There's so much of it, all the way up and down the ladder of prominence.

Movies:
    1) the wave of popular anti-Bush documentaries from Moore's big splash to Bush's brain, Control Room & yesterday's entry on Kerry's band of brothers,  plus, The Manchurian Candidate;  
     2)  the participation of Rob Reiner, John Sayles & other flash film directors in political ads for MoveOn.
     3)DiCaprio, Affleck & others on Kerry's tour

TV:
      1)Jon Stewart rules-- hottest thing on the tube-- fresh where cable is old old old
       2) Tweety, Tucker & others begin to turn their coat and slither towards the border-- RNC tries to muscle them back in line.  Will it work? who knows?  But even a little slip in the sleaze is refreshing.  All they've got left are the oldies (Novak, thy name is douchebag)

Radio:
      1)In no time flat, Air America zooms to #2 in the ratings-- Even Clear Channel, jiggling coin, begins to do business here.
      2) Howard Stern brings his 8 million to Kerry

Books:
     take your pick.

Blogs:
    Does the NYT & the Bush Campaign read Instapundit any more?  Who quotes LIttle Green Footballs?  
    Whereas dK, Talking P, Washington Mo. Pandagon, Agonist, My DD are racking up hits almost as fast  as the numbers on the national debt sign spin.

A few years ago, if you remember, it seemed as if all the new ideas, all the energy and momentum were coming from the right.  And the progressive side of things seemed limp, paralyzed, depressed, and idea-less.  It felt terrible.  Frightening.  Now, it's the Limbaughs and Novaks who seem old and out of it.  Everything and everyone smart, fresh, attractive and committed is being birthed from our side of the aisle.

Where the culture leads so emphatically, IMO, the rest of the country is bound to follow... sooner or later.  Soon enough for November? I don't think we can miss, because the energy is both rising from the bottom and descending from the top.  W is in the juicer.  (if they dont steal it-- always the same proviso)

Please add on any hopeful signs I may have overlooked... ok?

One other thing-- as long as I've got your attention-- I have always felt that the endlessly repeated maxim that the country is evenly divided is a myth.  52% didn't vote, correct.. more or less..?  That means, it was only 48% that was evenly divided.  IOW, the rad-cons and fundies can muster represent approx. 24% of the general population-- which feels about right to me, frankly.

So, let's take a poll

Rich applies this beautifully to the Repub sleaze team--endlessly churning out one lie after another about all things/ people/ programs Democratic. And what have the D's done? Mostly choose between going belly-up like a puppy with a big dog or shouting back (often shrilly)or going to B&N for a(nother) book.

Example:  Bruce Bartlett writing in the Grey Lady lists their heaven...
"Especially after the Republicans won control of Congress in 1994, we all dreamed of the paradise that would be ours if we could just get a Republican in the White House. We could fix the budget and the tax system, rein in the bureaucracy, neuter the trade unions and trial lawyers, and do all those other things that could never be done because Democrats were always blocking the way."