NOV 01 - 15, 2004

VOL. 2 ISSUE 21

NOVEMBER 4, 2004 –  Since Rush Limbaugh began his rise in 1992, the story has been the same.  The Republican Revolution of 1994 gave Congress to the Republicans.  People were shocked and startled.  Then the Republicans had the Presidency and Congress.   Then the Presidency and both houses.  And now, dominance in all three, and are in position to lock up the Supreme Court for another generation.

And still the Democrats don’t even begin to realize this is the problem.

Why is it such a problem?

Look at the setup:  John Kerry buys a 30 second ad for tens of thousands of dollars.  He gets to say what he wants for 30 seconds.

Then, for the next 24 hours, 7 days a week, the GOP is on the air – without competition, all over all of radio and TV – tearing John Kerry and what he said apart, using lies and distortions and personal attacks and anything else they feel like.  And all of this not only costs the GOP nothing, but makes money for the people doing it, as corporations are allowed to pay for these programs with ad revenue.

John Kerry or any Democratic candidate can say what he wants at rallies, get his10 second snippet on the nightly news or in a newspaper.

Then, for the next 24 hours, 7 days a week, the GOP is on the air – without competition, all over all of radio and TV – tearing John Kerry and what he said apart, using lies and distortions and personal attacks and anything else they feel like.  And all of this not only costs the GOP nothing, but makes money for the people doing it, as corporations are allowed to pay for these programs with ad revenue.

And the Democratic candidate – whoever it is – can get, at last, 90 minutes, not of airtime to him or herself, but at last ninety minutes without the other side able to cut them off or interrupt during one of the few debates, and the public can see that the Democratic candidate, such as John Kerry, is far superior.  By 2 to 1 the American people can feel John Kerry is the better man.

Then, for the next 24 hours, 7 days a week, the GOP is on the air – without competition, all over all of radio and TV – tearing John Kerry and what he said apart, using lies and distortions and personal attacks and anything else they feel like.  And all of this not only costs the GOP nothing, but makes money for the people doing it, as corporations are allowed to pay for these programs with ad revenue.

Nothing is making the Democrats get it.  Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is on film naked, on film doing drugs, on record bragging about drugs and gang bangs, has dozens of women who say he harassed them, is on film grabbing women’s butts and talking about how stupid Americans are for liking breasts when butts are the best, Arnold can have all of this and avoid all interviews – like Bush does – and even avoid all debates and still, not only does he win the Governorship of a massively Democratic state, but  the press is starting to anoint his presidential candidacy.   A foreign-born drug user, gang-banger, nude poser, ass grabber – and he is on his way.

It is not the candidate.  It is not the agenda.  It is not the get out the vote effort or campaign strategy.

It is the right-wing-owned-and-operated media, stupid.

Again:  both parties want to get the growing Latin vote.  The Democrats do grassroots work, buy ads, make pamphlets, try to embrace the right issues.  The Republicans… buy a radio station, such as the one they bought 1 year ago in Los Angeles, 830 AM, and create a Spanish-language, 24-hour-a-day propaganda station, using the formula they have used all over the world and now in America for over a decade.  Indeed, it was the man who owned the station that launched Rush Limbaugh that bought this station.

And no, it is not just the obvious propaganda and news propaganda-talk and “news” programs.  For example, if you happened to watch the deciding game of this year’s World Series, you might have noticed something.  There were repeated cutaways to shots of troops watching the game, cheering the ending.  Did you notice what the caption was?  No, not, “US Troops In Baghdad.”  No, not, “1^st Infantry, Iraq.”  The caption read, “Multi-National Force, Iraq.”  Yes, subtle propaganda trying to refute a charge the President had been hit with lately on the campaign trail, that he had, “gone it alone in Iraq.”  Again and again during the game, with millions and millions of Americans tuned in just for the sake of seeing the Red Sox win their first World Series in a generation, there was the cutaway, and the caption, “Multi-National Force, Iraq.”

The game was on Fox; not the news network, the regular network.

This has all been part of a well-planned, multi-faceted effort to have one party take control of the US and keep control.  It is exactly what our CIA has been doing around the world for decades, such as in South America.  They want one side to stay in charge in Colombia – we all hear this.  How do they accomplish this?  How do they influence elections in Iran?

Here in America, they started by setting up a Voice of America type propaganda network on the radio, the type we openly admit to broadcasting into places we want to influence.  They set one up here at home, set up a print propaganda press, bought up the TV outlets, pushed legislation allowing more and more consolidation of ownership, until basically all of TV and radio and print are right-wing propagandist owned-and-operated.

It’s not just Fox or Limbaugh.  It’s all the local ownership, like Sinclair.  It’s Disney, who owns the ABC News that owns and operates right-wing propaganda talk radio from coast to coast, like WABC in New York and KABC in Los Angeles, while refusing to air anything left-wing, like Michael Moore.  It’s GE who owns NBC whose MSNBC cable network has hired the likes of Michael Savage, Scarborough, Licklow and Kissass (otherwise known as Ludlow and Kramer.)  It’s Time Warner, who is majority-owned by a Saudi Prince friend of the Bushes, who not only helped influence the election with their bogus polls – which, despite being so far out of line with all others were widely reported – and other articles in their TIME magazine, but also own… CNN – yes, Ted Turner is long gone, now the Saudi Prince is in control of what should be dubbed the Conservative News Network but, instead, is fictionally called a Democrat equivalent of FOX, a complete fiction meant to help keep up, in the midst of all this reality, the fiction of a “liberal” media.  It’s Viacom, which owns CBS, whose CEO stated plainly that he was pulling for President Bush, as all media outlets are, he said, because of media deregulation.  It is the New York Post, Washington Times, Chicago Tribune (which also now owns the LA Times,) Philadelphia Enquirer.

It is basically all newspapers, all TV, all radio – even where the majority of the people and would-be audience are liberal, such as in New England – home of the liberal – or California or New York; even in these places the airwaves are all right-wing all the time, with no rebuttal or compliment from the middle or left, funded by corporate ad dollars.

Liberals were going to start a radio network and TV network.  Air America got on only in a handful of places, the TV network never materialized.  Meanwhile, Larry Elder was given an hour a day on major network TV stations all across the nation in the months before the election.  Who is Larry Elder?  He was given a talk show in which he pretends he is not a political person, that he is just there to talk about relationships, etc.  Reality is he is on the radio – a Disney-owned station – for hours every day being yet another carbon-copy right-wing propagandist.

Another right-wing propagandist, Elder, managed to get on the air, on major TV networks from coast to coast, while Air America and Al Gore’s would-be network got almost nowhere.

Once the Bush/Limbaughians, thanks to their domination of the entire non-M/I media, had control, they systematically worked to consolidate power.  They miscounted the 2000 Census, refusing to make adjustments to ensure an accurate counting, and so, in the end, the Census bureau reported that white, non-urban Americans were over-represented in the final census figures by about 3 percent.  If you noticed this past election, the Red States carried more electoral votes this time, the Blue fewer.  This was aided greatly by this – a direct shifting of electoral votes through manipulation of the Census.

And of course we all know about the redistricting, not just in Texas but also it was attempted in Colorado.

But none of this would be possible, none of this would matter, if it were not for the right-wing domination of the media.

And nothing that the Democrats or anyone else do, no candidate they choose, nothing will stop – or, more accurately now, break - the Bush/Limbaughian hold on every single branch of our government.

And none of this will change, none of this will improve, the Bush/Limbaughian hold on every branch of the federal government will, just as stated in their plan, last for generations.

If we do not take back the media now.

Unfortunately, even to this minute the Democrats have not even begun to criticize the media’s bias, never mind take action against even the worst of the worst of it, such as talk radio or Fox, on.  So the reality of them realizing and taking on the entire media as the right-wing puppet it is is non-existent.

It is up to us America.  There are two goals to be achieved if we want our nation back:  one, take on the right-wing propaganda machine that is the entire non-Moderate Independent media; two, fix the voting process so that it is credible, not some non-recorded electronic fiction.

To do this, we must invade the Democratic Party in mass, replacing the useless eunuchs in charge with people who get it and will do something about it.  If you don’t believe there is a chance for this, just look at the DNC’s website right now (see: www.democrats.org )  It is a blank slate, the entire site is gone, just the letter of defeat.

We must invade and become the candidates, we must ensure never again do candidates run without making the right-wing bias of the entire media a central issue, we must infuse the party with people who will take action.  If you don’t think we can do this, you don’t understand the basic reality:  there is no Democratic Party, there are only people who decide to get involved in something called the Democratic Party.  It is a desperate party now, a failed one, and a directionless one.  We must take it over and make it work, as no third party could ever begin to take on the Bush/Limbaughian GOP.

Start now by finding your representative at http://www.house.gov and sending this battle cry to them.  Then write your Senators (http://www.senate.gov .)  Then write and call and e-mail the DNC. (see: http://www.democrats.org/contact )

The days of pointing out what is wrong and complaining and trying to make the case via the media or internet alone are over – they showed themselves to not be enough.

If you truly care about your nation, if you want to have it again, one day, as a democracy with a free media, fair elections, and a separation of Chuch and State, you must take action yourself, a lot of it, and the day to begin is now.

Start with the above – and forward this to everyone you know – and there are millions upon millions – who are ready to defend their nation - and stay tuned to The Moderate Independent.  (Send us a note letting us know what action you have taken at comments@moderateindependent.com .)