Progressive Movement

Well, well, Fredo finally takes the fall, as I and most others predicted. And a little too late, as I think this fine analysis by Jonathan Turley of George Washington University explains.

I like Turley’s non-partisan explanations, but would caution progressives from such mild language. But Turley makes clear that Gonzales failed because he did not uphold the Constitution. Change ‘uphold’ to ‘violate’ and you have some solid messaging.

Something like:

‘The AG breaking the fundamental law of the land!? That is tantamount to treason. He should have done the moral thing and stepped down months ago.’

The conservatives are already spinning this as harsh political partisanship. But getting into that debate is a bit misleading. Sure, Fredo did everything for Bush’s political agenda, but the focus should be on his illegal activities that put Bush above the nation.

So yes, it is partisan politics, but it is his loyalty to Bush over his loyalty to country that is the problem, not the partisanship on its own right.

So I would focus on that. However, (more…)

Messaging, Bush, Alberto Gonzales, Law and Order Frame, Competency & accountability frame | No Comments »

Check out this new YouTube video by Robert Greenwald and Fox Attacks about FoxNews trying to sell a war with Iran. The great thing about this video? It parallels the messaging used to sell the Iraq War with what Fox is saying now about Iran.

In fact, this video is getting so much play, MoveOn.org has picked it up and is running a fundraising and petition campaign around it. They want to use it to persuade other MSM not to believe the hype that Fox is selling. To sign the petition (I did) check it out here.

Messaging

I have to say, if you know nothing about the reality of the situation, it is very easy to fall into to fear trap. It comes down to a simple calculation, which side to you want to take the risk on being wrong, the peacenik or the war monger? If the peacenik is wrong, your screwed. If the warmonger is wrong, you have invaded another country without real just cause, although you did depose its leaders who do not like you. The safe better is with the warmonger.

My feeling is that sooner or later, the public will support a war with Iran if the media does not counter the conservative spinmachine. That is why Greenwald’s video and the corresponding effort to pressure other MSM to not buy the warmongering hype is so important. As long as the media does not pick up the ‘bomb Iran’ refrain, we have a chance at heading off a war with Iran.

Now I have not seen any polling on what people are feeling about invading Iran, but I cannot imagine it is very high. And it likely will not get very high while we are stuck in Iraq. But the fear mongering worked well in the lead up to Iraq, and it will work well with Iran (more…)

Messaging, Iraq, Elections, Iran, Diplomacy, Administration, media, Analysis, weak on defense label, Foreign Policy | No Comments »

The news channels were abuzz with the news of Sen. John Warner (R-VA), calling for beginning a troop withdrawal by Christmas. Yippee! Finally the big break we have all been waiting for from Warner. Certainly the Republicans will all fold their losing hands now and support withdrawal. How many troops does Warner want home by the end of the year?

5,000

Well, certainly he has a date set for when all the troops will be home, right?

Not exactly.

In fact, he said he will continue to resist efforts to force the President to bring the troops home. He simply thinks that bringing home 5,000 troops “will get everyone’s attention” to the region that we do not have an open ended commitment to Iraq.

Yeah, right.

Look, rather than praise Warner, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, for breaking with Bush, he should be nailed for trying to pull yet another magic trick on the gullible public. To once again quote my football coach, ‘talk is cheap’. Warner needs to vote for withdrawal or cutting the funding for the war or he needs to be called out for hoodwinking the American people.

This goes for all the other wishy-washy Republicans trying to have their cake and eat it too. You do not get counted (more…)

Messaging, Iraq, John Warner | No Comments »

The Dems bent over and grabbed their ankles for Bush on warrantless wiretapping, and if Bush pushes hard enough, they probably will do so over Iran too. The U.S. now wants to list the Iranian Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization, largely because the U.S. claims they are aiding Shitte forces in Iraq. If Bush then gathers enough ‘evidence’ of Iranian involvement in Iraq, the American public may just yet support fighting a new enemy. Do not believe me? Search Google for ‘Iraq’ and ‘Iran’ over the last 24 hours and see how many stories come up about how we need to fight Iran if we want success in Iraq. Scary.

This administration has no interest in negotiating compromises with Iran. That is not what empires do. They dictate, everyone else complies or rebels. Cheney/Bush want regime change in Iran, and any talks with Iran is just window dressing, like the inspectors in Iraq were in the run up to the war. It is a box they have to check off before they can claim obstinance on Iran’s part and justify war.

But there is another way. Witness a recent religious delegation to Iran from the U.S. Joe Volk of FCNL wrote daily diaries of the trip, and his viewpoint is one not often repeated by the pro-war media. Pretty interesting observations. For instance, he is not convinced Iran has decided to pursue nuclear weapons. They might, but a lot of that depends upon how the U.S. treats them. If we are belligerent, they will do what their national security dictates, and that means getting the one weapon that will guarantee we will not attack them. Why do you think we are negotiating in earnest with North Korea and not Iran?

Anyway, I love the idea of a religious delegation to Iran. At a time when radical Muslims can claim with a certain amount of truth that Christians want to destroy Islam and that the war in Iraq is an attempt to force corrupting Western culture down the throat of all Muslims, it is important that we have Christian leaders show that this is not the case.

Our Voices Together also does interesting work on this front. In other words, how do we as a society, a cultural, or as an individual make that connection between different worlds to show that we are not all that different, and that we have more in common as humans than not? If we can bridge this divide, support for terrorism and extremism will decline.

Iraq, Iran, Diplomacy, North Korea, Terrorism, Foreign Policy | No Comments »

Check out the headline from this Time story - “The Surge’s Short Shelf Life”. On the surface it is not a phenomenal headline. It suggests the escalation worked for a short time. The second impression is that the escalation is no longer working. But implicit in the title is the notion that the escalation can and has worked. That is not good. This is a conception that has to be destroyed.

Only if you get further into the story do you see that the impression that the escalation is working is false. So the headline should read “Bombings destroy false impression the escalation is working”. Now that is a true headline.

Here is the best part from the Time story.

Tuesday’s bombings were also a reminder that even successful U.S. military operations can have a short shelf life - a sobering thought for Bush Administration officials and independent analysts who have recently been talking up the successes of the “surge.” After all, the area around Qahataniya was the scene of a major anti-insurgent operation barely two years ago. In the fall of 2005, some 8,000 American and Iraqi troops flushed a terrorist group out of the nearby town of Tal Afar in an operation that was a precursor to the “clear, hold and build” strategy that underpins the current “surge.” A few months later, President Bush cited Tal Afar as a success story for the U.S. enterprise in Iraq.

The bombings, whose death toll now exceeds 300, occurred near Tal Afar.

Using a specific example of how progress in Iraq eventually comes undone helps to neutralize any positive news coming out of Iraq. No matter what progress you point to, sooner or later it goes bad. Thus, the Time story has it right, when you read it in its entirety (luckily it is short). Any so-called success in Iraq is illusory.

The bombings will undercut General Petreaus’ likely overly rosy assessment in his upcoming September report. The conservative pundits are going to battle stations about how well the escalation is working (note my previous post here), and this bombing destroys that notion, just as the suicide bombers in May and June destroyed the utopian views about the success of the escalation in April, its first month.

Of course, then the war mongering neocons claimed the escalation had not really started, despite the fact they were singing its praises in April.

Now they have no such recourse, and Iraq’s deadliest bombing, perhaps ever, just squashed any notion that the escalation has been a success.

Iraq, Petraeus | No Comments »

Wow, second in the Iowa straw poll. Romney won, as expected. But the man many thought has won some of the Republican debates is finally catching fire. Enough fire to burn out Fred Thompson’s chances? Unlikely, since they are going for the same votes and Thompson has big buzz, but this may give Huckabee a chance.

Not to say I told you so, but I never understood why Huckabee has not caught fire before now. He is solidly conservative yet has a history of bi-partisanship as a successful Governor, lost a bunch of weight (something many Americans need to do), and has a grassroots message.

In fact, listen to the interview below. They guy sounds downright populist. If he was not a right-wing social conservative Christian, he might even be a progressive. Going after Wall St.? Dang, sounds like a flaming pinko!

Will a more conciliatory, power to the people, conservative message (very traditional in fact) reach the hardened Republican primary base? Looks like it might in Iowa.

Elections, Huckabee | No Comments »

A reference to the first post-Gabriel Genesis album. Wow. Anyway…

Karl Rove has exited stage left. Now there have been numerous pontifications on this momentous event on the liberal blogs or commentary sites, such as on Salon, The Crimsonian, and Ohio.com (this one is good), so there is little I can add that probably has not been said already. If you do not like those, go to Tecchnorati, click on the ‘Karl Rove’ tag, and knock yourself out.

Bush’s inner circle, other than the undead Alberto Gonzales (he cannot be killed), and the Teflon Dick Cheney (nothing sticks to him), is almost gone. Bush has no friends really left. Do not be surprised if Gonzales ends up leaving soon either. With no one effective by his side but Cheney, and he has little cache left, Bush’s lame duck Presidency just got lamer.

And you can quote me on that.

In the video, political analyst Jeff Greenfield makes a good point. The person running your campaign is not always the person you want running your policy. Rove is an evil mastermind, but really only regarding elections. I still think that if it was not for Rove in 2006, the Republicans would have lost up to 20 more seats in the House.

But as a policy advisor, Rove falls way short. Policy, for what it is worth, is not all about triangulation for winning the elections. There has to be real substance that helps people; the policy has to be grounded in the real world. Rove did not understand that.

So his reputation will likely be that of a brilliant and immoral campaigner, but an inept, disastrous policy thinker. And his contributions, such as they are, will ultimately expose conservative political philosophy as a failure as well.

Messaging

How should progressives talk about this? Simple, the rats are jumping off the sinking ship. Not ‘like’ rats jumping off, but real rats jumping off the doomed ship. Bush’s ship has hit the iceberg and is taking on water fast. Rove, the rat, has decided it is time to bail.

At the end of the day, while Rove may be evil, Bush’s Brain, the Architect, Turd Blossom, and all that, the messaging should focus on who is left, and that is Bush/Cheney. With Rove gone, Bush will lose direction, the ship really will sink, and the lameness will get lamer, although perhaps less morally repugnant.

So repeat the bit about Bush being a lamer duck than he was already, and then the analogy of the rats. Bush can still make stuff happen (witness the authorization of warrantless wiretapping a week ago), so we have to do everything we can to weaken him further. Use the Rove departure as an opportunity to do that.

Messaging, Bush, Analysis, Karl Rove | 1 Comment »

I said in my last post that I would analyze the differences between the House and Senate Energy bills. Well, here it is, as promised.

There are some big differences between the House and Senate Energy bills (requires log in). In order to create the best bill, and thus put Democrats in the greatest PR position to advance their cause to the public, here is what they should do.

Renewable Electricity Standard – This is a no-brainer. The Senate has passed this three time in the last five years or something like that, but the Republican House always shot it down. Now the House passes it and not the Senate! It should not be a problem for the Senate to accept the House position.

And they should. Requiring all utilities to get 15% of their electricity from renewables by 2025 is the single biggest thing we can do to advance renewable energy, create a market for alternative energy sources, make renewables affordable, and reduce our carbon dioxide pollution.

Over 20 states have RESs anyway. The public consistently supports it by pretty strong numbers. Passing this would show the them that the Democrats can deliver on meaningful and ground-breaking legislation. Moreover, it proves they are making good on their promise to improve the environment and fight climate disruption.

As I have said before, success is the best messaging, and RES would be a major success.

Fuel Economy (CAFÉ) - Strange the Senate would pass this and not the House, but here we are. Now the Senate giving the House an RES while the House gave the Senate and CAFÉ would be a fair trade off, no? The Senate wants the average fuel economy of all new vehicles sold to be 35mpg. This is easily doable and the public strongly supports it. Pelosi supports it. So drag the Neanderthals with you make it happen. It will save Americans money, decrease oil and gas consumption dramatically, and will cut CO2 production significantly.

Like RES, (more…)

Energy, Analysis, fuel economy/cafe | No Comments »