View Story | 329 comments
Comments: Expand Shrink Hide (Always) | Indented Flat (Always)
I wouldn’t think a fine upstanding public servant like Ari Fleischer would be capable of lying to the American people, so I guess he must just be confused.
Capable? It was his fucking job description! Thanks for your service and for another great diary, TAR.
"Salvation for a race, nation or class must come from within. Freedom is never granted; it is won. Justice is never given; it is exacted." A. Phillip Randolph
by Savage on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 09:54:59 AM PDT
[ Parent ]
And I guess the glitch with my computer is gone now, too.
by The Angry Rakkasan on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 10:07:55 AM PDT
The stupid bullshit from Ari Fleischer is going to backfire just like the stupid bullshit from the Swift Boat Veterans backfired... Right?
The Democrats don't really need to pay attention to this bullshit, any more than Kerry needed to pay attention to the Swift Boat bullshit... Right?
Why should the Democrats run their own $15 million campaign, especially when we keep hearing that the Republicans are broke, the RNC is mired in debt, there's no money for Republican candidates, etc, etc... Just $15 million for an ad campaign out of thin air.
Nothing here for the Democrats to worry about and spend whatever it takes to refute... Right?
Kill me before I have to think again!
by Jacob Freeze on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 10:48:04 AM PDT
A response is in the works.
by The Angry Rakkasan on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 10:49:48 AM PDT
I can hardly wait!
Will it be a press conference with Senator Leahy? "In a few months I will ask someone to ask someone else if anyone thinks these commercials should be declared in contempt of Democrats."
Or maybe Harry "The Little Bunny" Reid will shoot them down? "All people of good will can agree that these commercials were probably not made by people of good will."
Or maybe Nancy "Off the Table" Pelosi will rise to the occasion? "__ ____ __ _ ___."
(I can't even dream up anything as absolutely forgetable as a response to attack ads by Nancy Pelosi.)
by Jacob Freeze on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 11:04:06 AM PDT
"We have more important things to do."
"It's worth it if you can win."
"I have to recuse myself due to a conflict of interest. I'm under contract to Satan. Hail Satan!"
We said we want change, and they gave us a handful.
by MouseOfSuburbia on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 03:24:16 PM PDT
on the NYTimes blog: Go to YouTube. They are not accepting comments on the videos, but you can do the following:
Reason? Connecting 9/11 to Iraq.
by NYFM on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 04:43:05 PM PDT
... behind this crap today:
Bush backers begin surge of their own President Bush's speech today to the VFW is the opening volley in a White House campaign to build support for keeping troops in Iraq. And, as Steve Henn reports, the president will have some well-financed allies backing him up. [...] Steve Henn: Freedom's Watch, a nonprofit group formed just two weeks ago, plans to spend $15 million in the next month airing ads like this one featuring a veteran who echoes Bush's arguments for staying in Iraq. Freedoms Watch President Brad Blakely says he'll spend millions targeting individual members of Congress and airing ads nationally. But for now he's keeping the details of his strategy under wraps. [...] This may be a campaign but Blakely's group doesn't have to follow campaign-finance laws. Freedoms Watch was able to raise millions almost instantly because it's organized as a 501c4, a special kind of tax-exempt nonprofit. Groups like this can legally accept huge donations and they never, ever, have to disclose the names of their donors. For those looking for an end-run around campaign restrictions...
Bush backers begin surge of their own
President Bush's speech today to the VFW is the opening volley in a White House campaign to build support for keeping troops in Iraq. And, as Steve Henn reports, the president will have some well-financed allies backing him up. [...]
Steve Henn: Freedom's Watch, a nonprofit group formed just two weeks ago, plans to spend $15 million in the next month airing ads like this one featuring a veteran who echoes Bush's arguments for staying in Iraq.
Freedoms Watch President Brad Blakely says he'll spend millions targeting individual members of Congress and airing ads nationally. But for now he's keeping the details of his strategy under wraps. [...]
This may be a campaign but Blakely's group doesn't have to follow campaign-finance laws. Freedoms Watch was able to raise millions almost instantly because it's organized as a 501c4, a special kind of tax-exempt nonprofit. Groups like this can legally accept huge donations and they never, ever, have to disclose the names of their donors. For those looking for an end-run around campaign restrictions...
I'm of a same mind as rhfactor who has been all over these threads, and it is heartbreaking to read about his experience with the Dean campaign giving his group the brush-off.
Rapid response should be something we in the netroots do well, but how to make it actually happen. The organization, the money... we have the talent already.
Misled Into War: A Timeline/DowningStreetMemo.com
by highacidity on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 04:53:43 PM PDT
Another action item is to call the toll free number and express opposition to their position. Sure, they'll hang up on you eventually, but once the call goes through they're paying for it.
The business registered for the toll free number pays for the calls, and it turns out that calls from payphones assess the toll free owner an additional fee in the USA as mandated by the FCC, so if you can still find a payphone use that!
by donnas on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 04:59:37 PM PDT
Molly Ivins inspired classical smack-down whipping the chit out of these chickenhawks.
Get pissed. Ignor get even. Make them laughing stock that need to be ridden out of DC now.
Possum for Congress Make Peace Possible. Jerry Northington.
by llbear on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 11:07:03 AM PDT
I want to see some Democrats who are mad as hell, not just on Daily Kos, and not just in the great dark obscurity of the American public that rates Bush as the worst President anyone can remember...
I want to see some really angry Democrats on TV and in Congress, Democrats who respond appropriately to the rape of the Constitution and the sacrifice of so many young soldiers for lies!
You know what the appropriate response is! Bite off their fucking ears!
Why are Leahy and Pelosi and Reid acting like it's just business as usual?
by Jacob Freeze on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 11:20:22 AM PDT
Follow the money. It's getting away.
by bablhous on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 11:37:04 AM PDT
Not responding to the Swift Boat campaign resulted in losing the election.
I hope you are correct that there is a response in the works. I for one would be happy to "donate" some money - to make sure the response is widely seen.
Grandma Jo
by JWC on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 11:49:29 AM PDT
to VoteVets.org.
This sig line shows a complete lack of imagination.
by weelzup on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 12:34:40 PM PDT
videos. Cold blooded political opportunism of the worst stripe. Have they no shame?
Well, duh, stupid question.
But these are powerful ads for the portion of the populace that just doesn't get it. I hope they backfire, but they could be trouble.
We find that after years of struggle we do not take a journey, but rather a journey takes us. John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley
by tigerdog on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 10:57:24 AM PDT
think they will be troublesome for our side.
We all know the score, as you mentioned, but the general populace will buy into this crap.
"I don't think the heavy stuff is coming down yet"
by MadMs on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 11:18:59 AM PDT
I agree. They will seem ludicrous only to the educated and well-informed. IOW, not to most of America.
Lisa
Yes I know Obama isn't the perfect progressive candidate. Yes, I know that sucks. Now let's get him elected.
by Boston to Salem on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 11:26:24 AM PDT
should shorten this and air this one. It is powerful, emotional and so true. It is so hard for we military families to watch but it is the awful truth.
The one thing we know about the McCain campaign...is that they're very good at negative campaigns, they're not so good at governing- Barack Obama
by wishingwell on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 04:58:36 PM PDT
...is laughable.
The one is an authentic grassroots organization that rose up to speak truth to power, in the process vocalizing the aspirations of a group of Americans that otherwise had no voice in the MSM.
The other is a bunch of DC insiders with piles of money and 0 popular support, pushing in calculated fashion the propaganda of an unpopular and discredited administration that already has plenty of defenders in the echo machine.
And then there's the whole "organizing the little people for elector success" thing. Somehow, I doubt this "Republican MoveOn" will do much of that.
But other than that, they're just the same, right?
more bloggie goodness.... More foodie goodness...
by jeremybloom on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 10:48:26 AM PDT
The DC insiders with piles of money are the grass roots.
What an impressive crowd: the haves, and the have-mores. Some people call you the elite; I call you my base
-- He Who Must Not Be Named.
I won't be complacent this time. Been there, done that, got the orange jumpsuit.
by Nowhere Man on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 11:14:47 AM PDT
by jwb95 on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 01:08:17 PM PDT
:)
by jeremybloom on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 01:35:14 PM PDT
The numbo's that are gullible enough or scared enough or dumb enough to vote twice for Bush will eat this crap up.
Propaganda is powerful.
by foxklub on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 12:04:22 PM PDT
wide narrow
View Story | 329 comments