OCT 16 - 31, 2004

VOL. 2 ISSUE 20

OCTOBER 22, 2004 – Ah, it’s fun to watch the Bush/Limbaughians’ desperation.

This article from the National Review Online  is a great example of where the Bush campaign and its supporters are at the moment.

They have entirely given up even attempting to sell their candidate based on his record or the issues.  Instead, the author, a man named Victor Hanson (see:  VictorHanson.com,) says that Kerry will lose the election.  And what is his strong case for why that will be?

“At least six reasons come to mind that have little to do with issues or substance,” says the author.

Yes, Mr. Hanson has stated the Bush campaign’s last desperate hope perfectly.  They can just hope that people will not pay attention to “issues or substance,” because even they realize at this point that their guy has a horrible, indefensible record that is his worst enemy.

So instead they, constantly, try to change the subject to grade-school level, irrelevant topics.  Conveniently, Hanson lays it all out for us.

“First,” writes Hanson, “(Kerry) comes across, perhaps unfairly so, as an unfriendly sort… Second, Democrats should have learned after the Dukakis implosion not to nominate a Massachusetts ultra-liberal… Third, most of us don't like lawyers all that much, at least in the abstract when we are not in need of wills or defense counsel, or being sued… Fourth, Kerry… talks of raising taxes on those who make over $200,000, but he should start with Teresa, who paid a rate far lower than most blue-collar families.  Fifth… despite her elegance, intelligence, wealth, and verve, Teresa Heinz Kerry throughout the campaign has proven to be a walking time bomb… Sixth, at first it seemed neat… but now… MoveOn.org is… beginning to grate.”

This is the best Bush’s propaganda machine can come up with at this point.  Just to recount what their overt strategy is:  1) Make sure to shift attention away from “issues or substance,” trying to trick people into forgetting they are unemployed, their son has died for lies, and gas is $19 a gallon; 2) Call Kerry names, like “unfriendly”; 3) Call Kerry names, like “liberal”; 3) Call Kerry names, like “lawyer”; 4) Attack John Kerry’s wife; 5) Attack John Kerry’s wife; 6) Call a Kerry supporter annoying.

There it is people, the Bush/Cheney re-election platform.  Really inspiring, eh?

The Bush campaign has followed exactly this strategy themselves, except they have added a heavy dose of flat-out delusional dishonesty.  Every ad they run now doesn’t attack John Kerry but, “John Kerry and his liberal friends in Congress.”  Yes, calling him names in embarrassing desperation.

And their entirely delusional claims makes one wonder if it is truly a mass hearing problem, widespread mental illness, or truly a record low level of morality that has the Bush camp completely running against an opponent who doesn’t exist, someone who wants the government to takeover the healthcare system, will retreat from Iraq, and who wants to raise everyone’s taxes.

Yes, they are not running against John Kerry but against Rush Limbaugh’s fake “liberal” alter-ego, the fictional guy Rush and Hannity et. al spend more than half of their shows creating.

This is all they have at this point, and it is truly sad to watch (unless you take joy in watching incontinents wander about without their diapers on.)

The question people want answered is what is in store for this final week before Chump Check 2004, the last chance to try and sway things before America decides if it wants to become the Holy American Empire or return to being America the Democracy.

Campaign-wise, above answers all of it for the Bushies.  But we know it is all about the right-wing domination of the media and the ground war.

We all see how the polls, like they did last time, are doing their best to make the President seem inevitable and ahead.  (In case you don’t remember what happened last time in terms of polling, here is a round-up of what the polls told us on election eve 2000.)

That is about it, people.  Truly.  All the Bushies can due is try to raise stinks over things that divert attention from “issues or substance” and put out fake polls in the hopes it discourages enough Kerry supporters from going to the vote.

And then, on election day, we will see the routine they have been running for years now.  Midway through the day, it will begin with Matt Drudge’s website running fake exit polls claiming Bush is running away with it by a landslide.  These reports will start to cross over into the “mainstream,” i.e. non-Moderate Independent, corporate-owned-and-operated media, and before most of the nation goes to the polls, before Democrats in particular, who, in order to vote, have to go after work and wait in long lines, cast their ballots, the story will be leaking out everywhere – the fictional story, mind you, that the election is Bush’s.

During the California recall election this past year the play out of this game was particularly amusing.  Drudge, right on cue, leaked info about a supposed Schwarzenegger lock at 4PM, right before the Democrats of Los Angeles and San Fran, etc. were about to get off of work and go wait in line to vote.  By 4:30, the two main news radio stations in LA, KFWB and KNX, were reporting about supposed exit polls that had Schwarzenegger running away with it.  Who had they gotten the info from?  As they stated clearly on the radio, Daryl Issa – the Republican who initiated the recall in the first place.  (see article: Five Lies That Were Definitively Debunked By The Last Election)  The next day, when reports showed that voting in Democratic areas where this info was leaked was abnormally low, the media openly speculated that maybe the early release of this poll info suppressed the vote in these Democratic areas.

Duh.

And while reporting these Democrat-discouraging polls and talking all day about how long lines were in the Democratic areas, the radio was also reporting how quickly lines were moving in mainly Republican areas, like Orange County.

This is what we will see on election day.  Fake polls claiming a massive Bush victory will be leaked out via Matt Drudge to start, then leaked through talk radio, then regular radio, then FOX News, then the rest of TV.  As this occurs, there will be horror stories about massive lines and discouraging problems in Democratic areas, while reports from Republican areas will talk about how smoothly everything is and the joy and pleasantness of voting there.

In addition, Bush will, through the media, do what he did right before the 2002 elections and the Democratic Convention:  have big news about the War On Terror suddenly leak through to the media and hit front pages everywhere.  The day before the Democratic Convention it was – if you even recall anymore – a report about a big capture of a big Al Qaeda figure.

Don’t recall?  Right, that is because it was a non-story about a fakely significant capture that was simply used to piss for the President all over the Democrats’ gathering.

Just to refresh your memories, an excerpt from our report on the incident:

Right before the Democratic Convention, Tom Ridge shows up at the Fleet Center in Boston and makes a very public appearance to show the Republicans are there and have to protect the Democrats in this War on Terror.

Then - and this one never even got commented on - just hours before Kerry was to give his Convention speech, a news story is dropped reporting that a "high-level" al Qaeda suspect involved in the 1998 bombings of our embassies in East Africa. Read the CNN story on it and tell me if you notice something.  How about this sentence: "The Pakistani security sources said the arrests took place Sunday morning after a standoff that began Saturday night in Gujrat, just southeast of Islamabad."

The arrest happened Sunday, but the story was held until... just hours before Kerry was to give his convention speech almost 5 days later. It broke all over the place, such as in this USA Today story, just hours before Kerry was to speak (look at the time this article was posted: 3:43 PM the day of Kerry's speech.)

Nice work, huh?

So, during this last week of the campaign, we are going to have name calling, fake polls, discouraging media reports for Dems on election day, encouraging reports for Bushies, and stories planted in the press to sway the electorate.  Yes, as we have said again and again and again, there is really only one issue, one lynchpin that holds the Bush/Limbaughians’ chances together:  the right-wing domination of the entire non-Moderate Independent media.

The Republicans likely have one other thing planned.  If they truly feel (i.e. realize) that Bush is about to get shellacked, they will break out a nasty smear at the last moment.  Rumor is that they have some rather vicious personal attacks (notice the plural) on Kerry and wife that they have purposefully been holding off on for these last moments.  So just picture the weekend before the election, a big al Qaeda/War On Terror success story is planted to explode in the media while, at the same time, a nasty smear about Kerry is echoed in a fashion that makes the Mary Cheney lesbian thing seem like it was ignored entirely.

This pathetic patchwork of media manipulation and grade-school level name calling is what the Bushies have in store for America in their final week.

The Kerry camp, on the other hand, has unprecedented ground plans that make the Bush team seem like GI Joe dolls up against actual human armed forces.

Thousands – you read correctly, thousands - actually, in total, tens of thousands of Kerry supporters from “safe” states will be rolling out on busses, flying out on planes, and invading the battleground states, providing the troops that will ensure no Bush/Limbaughian games stand in the way of America being restored to sanity.

The Bush/Limbaughians claim Kerry wouldn’t know how to fight a war?  Check out these preparations for election day.

“Six so-called "SWAT teams" of lawyers and political operatives will be situated around the country with fueled-up jets awaiting Kerry's orders to speed to a battleground state. The teams have been told to be ready to fly on the evening of the election to begin mounting legal and political fights. Every battleground state will have a SWAT team within an hour of its borders.

“The Kerry campaign has recount office space in every battleground state, with plans so detailed they include the number of staplers and coffee machines needed to mount legal challenges.

"Right now, we have 10,000 lawyers out in the battleground states on Election Day, and that number is growing by the day," said Michael Whouley, a Kerry confidant who is running election operations at the Democratic National Committee.

“While the lawyers litigate, political operatives will try to shape public perception. Their goal would be to persuade voters that Kerry has the best claim to the presidency and that Republicans are trying to steal it.

“Democrats are already laying the public relations groundwork by pointing to every possible voting irregularity before the Nov. 2 election and accusing Republicans of wrongdoing.

“On Election Day, Whouley will head the so-called "boiler room," probably in Washington, that tracks vote counts and ensures Kerry doesn't concede too soon. Whouley was the aide who, after noticing Florida was too close to call in 2000, called Gore's team in Tennessee and told them to put the brakes on the concession speech.”

Sounds like someone who knows how to plan a war to me, taking all aspects into consideration.

In the meantime, thousands of Kerry volunteers will hit the ground in Nevada, Arizona, Florida, Ohio, and other battleground states in unprecedented – and unparalleled by the Bush campaign – fashion.  They will arrive on buses, like the one our Al (of the daily news updates) will ride on this week.  (Stay tuned for photos and details.)  Al tells us celebrities, ranging from starlets like Alyssa Milano to Kerry family members, are always on the scene.  Never before have people from safe states organized themselves into such bus trips, nor has a campaign put such an emphasis on and work into making best use of its assets.  Gore – and all previous campaigns – simply let the people of their safe states mainly sit out the election.  Kerry – as he did during the primaries – has put primary emphasis on moving resources from where they are plentiful to where they are needed, not letting any potential asset go to waste.

And of course, in this final push up to the election, you will have the playing out of the Kerry Curve  which will have disaffected Americans swarming into Kerry’s camp as it truly hits them that to choose Bush is really to choose more of the same, while Kerry at least gives some possibility of better.  The job losses, oil prices, health care dilemmas, war in Iraq, and all the other issues have the vast majority of Americans feeling America is on the wrong track.  The only question was if voting for Kerry was safe and might actually make a difference.

The Kerry Curve will dictate in a large way that they will determine that answer to be yes.

And so this last week will be a match up between a solid candidate with the people swarming to his side and legions of troops out defending and helping facilitate the election process against a man left so personally devoid of confidence and self-worth that all he can do is call names and hope media manipulation will be enough.

Folks, as we’ve been saying for months and months and months now, this one’s not even going to be close.