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June 16, 2006

David Broder Continues His Long, Twilight Struggle Against Reality

David Broder on Meet the Press last November:

MR. RUSSERT: David Broder, is it possible for official Washington--the president, Democratic leaders, Republican leaders--to arrive at common ground, a consensus position on Iraq?

MR. DAVID BRODER: It's possible, Tim, but they won't get there by arguing about who did what three years ago. And this whole debate about whether there was just a mistake or misrepresentation or so on is, I think, from the public point of view largely irrelevant. The public's moved past that.

Reality, via a June 9-12 NBC/Wall Street Journal poll (pdf):

(via)

Posted at June 16, 2006 07:24 PM | TrackBack
Comments

The height of AMERICAN CORRUPTION, "The public's point of view is largely irrelevant."

Posted by: Mike Meyer at June 16, 2006 09:34 PM

What further proof do we need that the belt-way democrats are completely out of touch with their base? Lieberman is in trouble in his own state, the democrat base there does not seem to be thrilled with Lieberman, and in fact Lieberman is so worried he may lose the nomination that he might be running as an independent. And there are two reasons Lieberman is in trouble. One, he is an outspoken supporter of the war in Iraq and two, is an outspoken supporter of destroying social security.

And of course it is not that Bush gives a damn about lying he is worried about the permanency of a republican majority in all three branches of the government. That is the real game in town the republican majority and its survival.


Posted by: rob payne at June 16, 2006 11:33 PM

While I was down in W-D.C.
Certain folks were not glad to see me
I was just trying to get out the VOTE
When some little weasel
Dropped them a note
It said
Check out the POLITICS
Practiced by this OALF
And if they ain't just RIGHT
Feed him CONFINEMENT loaf-----Frank Zappa

No need to worry about Joe L. there's another weasel waiting in the wings to take his place. It'll be business as usual.

Posted by: Mike Meyer at June 17, 2006 12:03 AM

Mike, you are probably right, the eternal optimist I see, but Lamont is trying to appear as a progressive and people do seem to like it. If he is or not of course is another question.

Posted by: rob payne at June 17, 2006 12:17 AM

Soon we get to watch the producers of the bobble heads turn the ship, and force their charges to acknowledge how far out of line they are with the general public.

Silly republicans have created themselves a losing issue for 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016...

As we saw, unfortuneatly, in Vietnam the casuality figures during an occupation only grow, and the atrocities only get worse.

They can't play the disaster card anymore thanks to Katrina, they can't play the war card anymore hacing written their latest villian out of the storyline, and worse they can't even play the liberal card anymore as they are alienating the majority of the public in doing so.

Posted by: patience at June 17, 2006 02:24 AM

rob payne:
My cup's ALWAYS half full.

Posted by: Mike Meyer at June 17, 2006 02:12 PM

George Carlin: Some people say the glass is half full. Some people say the glass is half empty. I say the glass is the wrong size.

Posted by: Jonathan Schwarz at June 17, 2006 02:50 PM

Okay, okay, I don't expect a Mr. Smith goes to Washington but I do think it is interesting that Lamont has been gaining on Lieberman I think the last poll was something like 53 percent to Lieberman and 40 percent to Lamont. Even if Lamont beat Lieberman which I don't really expect it probably would not change anything. I guess what I am trying to say (I know, blab,blab,blab) is that the democratic base may be looking for something better than republican lite. Even republicans are unhappy over Iraq. And I know, I know, nothing is going to change the corruption until serious campaign reform but that is not in the cards as far as I can see.

George Carlin: "I predict increasing light at dawn and decreasing light at dusk."

Posted by: rob payne at June 17, 2006 06:53 PM

Check out this WaPo article about Obama and note how the frame the story.

EAST ORANGE, N.J. -- Barack Obama was standing before a packed high school auditorium when he noticed a familiar face in the crowd -- none other than singer Dionne Warwick. He paused, flashed a mischievous smile, then let loose with a perfectly on-key performance of the opening line of her hit song "Walk On By."

The audience of 300 students and adults roared with approval.

Obama, a first-term Democratic senator from Illinois, seems to be hitting the right notes these days. During Senate recesses, he has been touring the country at breakneck pace, basking in the sudden fame of a politician turned pop star. Along the way, he has been drawing crowds and campaign cash from Democrats starved for a fresh face and ready to cheer what Obama touts as "a politics of hope instead of a politics of fear."...

The money he is bringing in for fellow Democrats is shaping up as an important influence on 2006

...He praised Clinton's approach to Congress and prominence. "One of the things that both Hillary and I recognize is that we are conferred a huge advantage by virtue of our notoriety," he said. "We don't really have to chase the cameras.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/17/AR2006061700736_3.html


Notice the lack of substance in this article, Obama sings a nice song and the crowd goes wild which is very nice but all it is about is portraying Obama as the rising star of the Democratic Party yet there is little to distinguish him from what we already have for the most part.

Notice as well how it emphasizes money, campaign cash and how because he his bringing in money he is shaping up as an "important influence" It is all about money, nothing but money. Obama may be a fresh face but there is nothing fresh about his approach to politics which is you have to be republican lite like Hillary Clinton.

So really this is how things are shaping up according to the WaPo, the influence of money and the corporate giants who already own the government and Obama is ready to cash in on it.

Fresh face, stale message.


Posted by: rob payne at June 17, 2006 11:08 PM

Until YOU THE TAXPAYER take final control over the vast wealth that supports this government and feeds its corruption, NOTHING will change for the good. We will continue on OUR downward spiral. "Business as usual."

Posted by: Mike Meyer at June 18, 2006 01:17 AM

No form of government is perfect, corruption is an integral part of human nature and nothing will change that. There is no final point of arrival where we say all things are as they should be. Rather it is a constant process of fixing what is being broken. You might call this an effect of entropy. The real point is the extent of corruption and if you accept the fact that there will always be corruption then the best we can do is to keep the degree of corruption down to a level that is less harmful than what we have today.

If you clean your house once a week you are keeping entropy down to an acceptable level if you don't clean your house for several years you now have a real problem. This is what we are facing today. Under Bush and his administration the level of corruption is almost unprecedented, in affect by allowing Bush and the Republican Party to be the majority leadership we have not cleaned our house in years, thus we have the huge problems we are facing today.

When you consider the article in the WaPo about Obama we see that the media is trying to frame reality for us, according to the propaganda, and that article is pure propaganda, we can see that this is a way to keep the status quo. We do have more choices than Hillary or Obama or whom ever the DLC would like to shove down our throats. Instead of accepting the status quo we can give our support to more progressive candidates but even so this will not happen over night. And this is because we have sat and whiled away the hours allowing the wealthy to achieve an inappropriate amount of influence over our government.

Posted by: rob payne at June 18, 2006 03:10 PM

The form of this world is passing away.

Posted by: Adam Kotsko at June 18, 2006 07:41 PM

rob payne:
True there is no cure for corruption. It can be brought down to a livable level. Sadly, Congress or the Administration are NOT up to the task at hand. If fact you could well say they are part of the problem. Supreme Court? I don't think so, as that's a stacked deck. Only one wild card in the deck that can trump this hand full of aces, THE TAXPAYER.

Posted by: Mike Meyer at June 19, 2006 12:22 AM

Mike Meyer,

agreed that this congress is not up to the task as they have their snouts stuck in the old feed bag and the supreme court is in the pockets of the repugs but you have mentioned the taxpayer a few times. I would be interested if you could elaborate on that a bit. What avenue do taxpayers have, are you talking about not paying your taxes or something along those lines? I am not being sarcastic here at all, it is just that right now it seems that we as citizens have been cut out of the process and it is difficult to imagine how we are going to affect change for the better other than working through grass roots movements.

Posted by: rob payne at June 19, 2006 02:56 AM

This IS working at this time in Wyoming. 1 July we loose the sales tax on food, a fair tax cut as it affects EVERYONE equally. Rich or poor you can only eat a belly full at a time. 19,000 signatures petition against a hostile legislature, signers won. CITIZEN'S VOICE AND SIGNED PETITIONS WORK.

VOTER INITIATIVE ON THE BUDGET AND TAXES - THE FINAL SAY-SO FROM YOU - THE
TAXPAYER.
This concept is - that you, the taxpayer - since it is YOUR money - should have
total control of how much taxes comes out of your pocket to support your
government, and with a 'yes' or 'no' - final say-so - agreement vote, a go or
no-go vote, on any and all budgets that said taxes contribute toward.

In other words, if you agree with how your tax dollars are going to be spent -
you vote yes. And if you don't agree - then you vote no, at which time the
legislature will have to come up with a budget that the taxpayers will agree to
vote yes on. Otherwise, the money just doesn't get spent - it sits in the
treasury.

Afterall, you own all three - the money, the pocket it comes out of, and the
government it's spent on - it's your money, not theirs.

Michael Meyer, Chairman
Voter Initiative Political Party of Wyoming (VIPP).

Posted by: Mike Meyer at June 19, 2006 05:27 PM

Mike Meyer,

Thanks for clarifying your tax payer statement. How does something like this affect public schools at a time when many states are hurting for money? You still have to keep your infrastructure intact such as fixing public roads and such, are these types of things being hurt by getting rid of the food tax?

Posted by: rob payne at June 19, 2006 11:49 PM