So let me get this straight, Hillary Clinton has experience because her husband was President and she was his wife?

Ok, so the wife (or husband) of an airplane pilot will be ready at a moments notice to fly the plane because they've seen their spouse do it?  Hmmm, I think I will pass on that flight.

A year ago Cuba had a Category 5 hurricane that destroyed 20,000 homes and required evacuation of 1.5 million Cubans.  The hurricane resulted in ZERO deaths of citizens after a successful government led evacuation....

So our government can secure an area in Iraq to set up military hospitals but they can't do it here?  We can set up a frontline MASH unit in a country with suicide bombers, surface to air missiles, RPG's, and enemy combatants trying to kill us but we can't do it in a stadium in the U.S?

IF Bush goes after Kerry again on tort reform and other domestic issues Kerry should simply reply:

"Mr. President, you've had four years and an unopposed House and Senate, so where is it?"

He should just repeat that ad nauseum tonight.

Bush talks all big, but he hasn't done shit in this country for healthcare.

If Bush tries to get all morally superior about abortion and his embrace of the "culture of life."  Kerry should simply say,

"Now how is it that you value life, yet as governor you executed more people than any other Governor in the country."

What if Kerry opened with some variation of:

"I know the President and I agreed to a thirty page list of terms for this debate, including  the fact that we may not address each other directly.

Mr. President, I am willing to wave all these rules, and talk to you face to face, about any topic you want.  Lets discuss this man to man, nothing is out of bounds, nothing scripted.  I am not afraid to defend any position on anything I have taken.  So what do you say?  Lets talk about the direction of the country like two neighbors, not this scripted fake debate where we can't even talk to each other.  

I'll understand if you are afraid to leave your script Mr. President, and you want to stick to the thirty pages of rules.  But if you truly believe all those things you say, you should have no problem convincing Americans.  You can even ask me the first question, Mr. President.  Anything.  Anything you want, even my vote on the 87 billion.  What do you say, sir?"

Why the hell are we debating about a war that was 30 years ago?  Did Kerry forget we are in one NOW with people dying NOW?  I know Bush is loving every second of this because nobody is discussing the disaster in Iraq.  The more Kerry fights it the more he helps create news that's not about Iraq.  The focus should be on now and the future.  Kerry should draw attention to the fact that Bush has created a war that is a disaster.  Many of those who are over there volunteered on the assumption that Bush was trustworthy in terms of a plan for this war.  Where is it?

On that matter, Bush has had four years of unopposed rule (in terms of the House and Senate).  I think Kerry should remind people:

Bush promised healthcare for every American.  Where is it?

Bush promised help with prescriptions for the elderly.  Where is it?

Bush promised a smaller, more efficient federal government.  Where is it?

Bush promised a healthier environmental policy.  Where is it?

Bush promised a new, stable, free Iraq.  Where is it?

Bush promised an America that leads the way to a better world.  Where is it?

He has had four years to do any one of these things, and yet not one has been done.  

For the love of God Kerry, lets debate the present, not the past.  All this week has done has allowed Americans to forget about Iraq and wonder, "gee does Kerry lie?  does he have a temper?"

Bring it back to the stuff that matters.  We are being played for fools debating all this Vietnam crap.

Now if Dean were the frontrunner and Drudge had dumped the same allegations do you think the news media would show such restraint?  

I know it sounds like a conspiracy but I am starting to believe my own theory that after Dean said he would break up the media giants, he was destroyed by them.  This was reinforced by the fact that the owner's of the major networks have given more money to Kerry's campaign than anyone else.  Lastly, Kerry seems to be getting a free ride in the media for all his changes of position (after the orgy of Dean bashing when he was the frontrunner).  Now Drudge puts out this smear and no one picks it up.  Lets recall that the whole Dean scream thing was started when Drudge said "DEAN GOES NUTS!!!"  and the media promptly went nuts too, though until that point it hadn't.  Maybe I am just too paranoid, but I feel like there is an invisible hand in all this.

Imagine if Dean bows out and forms a new party in preparation for 2008 ('04 is gone).  Wait a second, hear me out...

Imagine he forms a centrist party.  One where the basic tenants grab the turf between the two other parties, taking the (prior) traditional fiscal conservatism of the right, and some of social liberalism of the left.  Social programs to fund a social safety net, but a balanced budget to fund the programs instead of a gazillion tax increases.

Imagine a party that says its ok to have a gun in rural areas, but there is a huge penalty for one in urban areas.  Hunting rifles great, assault weapons not so great.

Imagine a party where healthcare is funded in a large part by taxes on alcohol and cigarettes- the biggest costs on our current healthcare systems.  Imagine tax breaks for individuals who have a healthy cholesterol level, blood pressure, and safe driving records.

Imagine a party where abortion is safe and legal, and always something that is believed to be preventable through public education about birth control (yes, even teaching teenagers about condoms).

Imagine a party where the military is well funded, powerful, and used as a last resort instead of when it's convenient.

Imagine a party that truly is a party by the people, not the super rich people, but by all the people.  Where the people with the best ideas and the greatest leaders rise to the top based on ability instead of those who are handed positions of power.

Lastly imagine a party that embraces capitalism but recognizes there must be laws that prevent it from spiralling out of control.

Isn't it time that we form this party?  Isn't this the majority party that already exists but doesn't have a name?  Isn't it time.....

When I watched Dean on Harball on December first 2003 (the Hardball College Tour) I thought he did fantastic.  However, when he said the following I turned to my brother and said, "Holy shit, that was the dumbest thing he could have said, even if it's true."  I truly believe that because of this the media turned against Dean and took him down.  Look at the graph of Dean's popularity http://www.grumpyoldbear.com/~schwa/iaraw03-sunday.gif (sorry I don't have a national graph) and look at when his popularity nosedived- right after he said this.  His media coverage up to that point had been fantastic, suddenly it became totally negative.  The scream coverage was the final karmic piece set in motion from the following statements.  This my fellow Deaniacs is what killed Dean, not anything else.  Never, ever tell that hand that feeds you that you are going to punish it.

The following is excerpted from Hardball:

DEAN: I would reverse in some areas.

First of all, 11 companies in this country control 90 percent of what ordinary people are able to read and watch on their television. That's wrong. We need to have a wide variety of opinions in every community. We don't have that because of Michael Powell and what George Bush has tried to do to the FCC.

MATTHEWS: Would you break up Fox?

(LAUGHTER)

MATTHEWS: I'm serious.

DEAN: I'm keeping a...

MATTHEWS: Would you break it up? Rupert Murdoch has "The Weekly Standard." It has got a lot of other interests. It has got "The New York Post." Would you break it up?

DEAN: On ideological grounds, absolutely yes, but...

(LAUGHTER)

MATTHEWS: No, seriously. As a public policy, would you bring industrial policy to bear and break up these conglomerations of power?

DEAN: I don't want to answer whether I would break up Fox or not,

because, obviously

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: Well, how about large media enterprises?

DEAN: Let me-yes, let me get...

(LAUGHTER)

DEAN: The answer to that is yes.

I would say that there is too much penetration by single corporations in media markets all over this country. We need locally-owned radio stations. There are only two or three radio stations left in the state of Vermont where you can get local news anymore. The rest of it is read and ripped from the AP.

MATTHEWS: So what are you going to do about it? You're going to be president of the United States, what are you going to do?

DEAN: What I'm going to do is appoint people to the FCC that believe democracy depends on getting information from all portions of the political spectrum, not just one.

MATTHEWS: Well, would you break up GE?

(APPLAUSE)

DEAN: I can't-you...

MATTHEWS: GE just buys Universal. Would you do something there about that? Would you stop that from happening?

DEAN: You can't say-you can't ask me right now and get an answer, would I break up X corp...

MATTHEWS: We've got to do it now, because now is the only chance we can ask you, because, once you are in, we have got to live with you.

(LAUGHTER)

DEAN: No.

MATTHEWS: So, if you are going to do it, you have got to tell us now.

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: Are you going to break up the giant media enterprises in this country?

DEAN: Yes, we're going to break up giant media enterprises. That doesn't mean we're going to break up all of GE.

What we're going to do is say that media enterprises can't be as big as they are today. I don't think we actually have to break them up, which Teddy Roosevelt had to do with the leftovers from the McKinley administration.

No matter what happens, even if Kerry wakes up with the dead girl/live boy, this is why we cannot win.  We are don't have the power.  The media does and always will.

The following link has a letter from Kerry, sent a week apart during the first Gulf War.  I think this alone could bring him down if it gets picked up by the media.

Truly appalling, yet it says it perfectly:

http://www.tnr.com/etc.mhtml?pid=1261

Kerry voted against the first Gulf War, yet voted for the war in Iraq!  

Jeeezzzuuussss can you imagine what Rove is going to do with that one????  

From the NYT today...

That may be why Mr. Bush chose to swipe at Mr. Kerry in some off-the-record jokes in a speech on Saturday night at the Alfalfa Club dinner, an annual banquet for Washington's political upper class. The official position of Mr. Bush's advisers is that he is too busy running the country to pay attention to the campaign, but someone must have forgotten to tell the president.

"I think Kerry's position on the war in Iraq is politically brilliant," Mr. Bush told the Alfalfa Club guests at the Capitol Hilton, according to a guest who heard the remarks. "In New Hampshire yesterday, he stated he had voted for the war, adding that he was strongly opposed to it."

If Dean loses (NH and the nomination) is there anyway to turn all his supporters into a movement?  BTW- I don't mean a third party that's going to split the democrat vote. If Dean loses I am really going to miss posting my ideas and thoughts on the BFA, I have given a ton of money, time, and hope and I don't want all that energy to be lost.  Do you guys have any ideas for how all this can be channelled into something productive and powerful for this country?  Don't say put all that energy behind Kerry- I'll vote for the guy if he gets the nom but beyond that forget it.  He couldn't excite a box of matches.

Could we start a society of some sort?  Whether public or secret (I had to throw secret in there since I'm reading the Da Vinci Code) we could somehow keep bringing people in.  Kos and other blogs would be our way of speaking.  We could have media watchers to keep them from distorting things.  Money could be used to but TV ads much like moveon.org does.  We could have meetings, run for local elections and slowly start to change things.

If there is nowhere to go and no one has anything to offer a lot of Deaniacs will just go back to indifference.  I don't want to see that happen, DFA has been the coolest thing I have ever been part of (and I'm a 31 year old ER Doc).  Our stated goal would be to take our country back....  What do you guys think?  DON'T LET THIS INCREDIBLE THING DIE!!!

I hope to God Dean wins, but we need a plan B, or all is lost.....

Kos- are you there?

I just took a random poll in this room and here are the results (yesterdays numbers are in parenthesis):

Dean: 1 (1)
Kerry: 0 (0)
Lieberman: 0 (0)
Clark: 0 (0)
Edwards: 0 (0)

All others:  less than 0%

Its obvious that Kerry has stalled and that Dean is clearly more than double his vote.  This is such an amazing comeback for my man Dean.  I have just released these numbers publicly- they are just now front page on the following:

www.nytimes.com  "DEAN'S BACK FROM THE DEAD!"
www.washingtonpost.com  "THE COMEBACK KING!!!"
www.cnn.com  "POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE IN NH!

It seems fairly obvious to me that Dean is probably going to get second in NH.  I have a bad feeling that will kill his campaign, since Kerry is already getting the media love fest.  I give Dean a 1 in 10 chance of winning NH.

I went on Edwards blog and posted to all former Dean (and current Edwards supports) to watch this one minute video of Dean's "meltdown" unedited and to make up their own mind.  (Here is the link if you haven't seen it:  

http://www.webmastersforamerica.com/Idiom_Studio/video1.htm

And here is the next posting in their blog:

"Ignore that Video
Posted by RP
Sunday January 25, @02:55PM
That video was a calculated attempt by the Dean campaign to destroy Sen. Edwards media coverage after Iowa. It succeeded and was immediately followed by the "resurrection" of Dean on Primetime Live.

Go post your media poison somewhere else.

This well is still clean."

That my friends is HILARIOUS!!!

please watch and post (flip out later)

http://www.webmastersforamerica.com/Idiom_Studio/video1.htm

This is a video of Dean's speech from the crowd, watch the video (its only a minute long) and make up your own mind.  I almost punched my fist through my computer screen at the end of the video.  This makes me want to cry and scream and nuke the fucking media.  I seriously feel like vomitting right now.  Watch this video, and you will see why.  Pass it, for the love of this country......

http://webmastersforamerica.com/Idiom_Studio/Default.html

This needs to spread throughout the blogs....  since the media obviously won't play it.

GO DEAN GO!