October 5, 2004
The BuzzFlash Mailbag
The opinions expressed in the Mailbag are not necessarily those of BuzzFlash. Read the BuzzFlash FAQ for info on submitting to the Mailbag.
Subject: Time To Take Fox News To Task
Hi Gang!
Dan Rather and CBS have been hung out to dry for the Bush documents and now there is the irrefutable fact that a FOX News correspondent deliberately posted a fabricated story on the internet.
It's time for FOX News to be put on the hot seat, complete with an in-depth analysis of how biased they are as well.
Fox News Channel admits reporter posted fake story about Kerry (AFP/Yahoo)
Jerry Peurala
Westfield, IN
Subject: Ministry of Propaganda Directive Issued
Pentagon wants 'uplifting accounts' about Iraq
Administration wants upbeat reports, will 'curtail' bad news about Iraq.
(Christian Science Monitor)...The Post also reports that the administration is moving to "curtail distribution" of reports that show the situation in Iraq growing worse. In particular, the US Agency of International Development said this week that it will "restrict distribution" of a report by its contractor, Kroll Security International, that showed the number of attacks by insurgents had been increasingly dramatically over the past few months. Attacks have risen to 70 a day, up from 40-50, since Iraqi Prime Minister Alawi took office...
A BuzzFlash Reader
Subject: 2nd debate
IF Bob Schieffer is Tom's older brother and Tom was president of Texas Rangers when Bush owned it, then Bob needs to clearly state this at the outset of the debates, and not try to hide it. It is unethical and a conflict of interest not to do so.
A BuzzFlash Reader
[BuzzFlash Note: They are brothers, and Tom was president of the Rangers. See: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/7583.htm.]
Subject: "beyond pandering" Fox interview with Karen Hughes
Did not see this on your site, so don't know if you caught (on air or via transcript) one of the purest examples of the "art" I have ever had the horror to read.
A Fox interview with Karen Hughes after the debate.
Let me give you two of the "questions" to whet your appetite:
Transcript: Hughes Lauds Bush (Fox News)
QUESTION: First of all, I never saw the president this passionate or articulate -- really on his game tonight....
QUESTION: Also, I think what the president did very effectively tonight is he showed Kerry as weak, unreliable and unsteady as it relates to the war on terror, and a flip-flopper. The only thing consistent about John Kerry is he is inconsistent. That is...
(I did not see the broadcast - from the transcript it appears that Karen had to barge in at this point to show that she could hold up her end of the spinning.)
I would love to know who the "interviewer" was.
Keep up the good work.
Doug S.
Subject: don't expect it from fox (as sent to various media outlets)
i saw gw bush say on tv that john kerry said he thinks other countries should have veto power over our national security decisions. i did not see that and i watched the whole debate. where and when did he say it? if kerry didn't say it, then why doesn't the media say so instead of misleading people? i don't expect any ethical standards out of that fox station but the rest of you should have some journalistic decency.
sharon swift
memphis
Subject: New Suppression Tactics
No one is talking about this very blatant voter suppression tactic: Residents in HUD-provided Section 8 housing were evicted and or courted off to jail days before the final days to register to vote in the November 2nd election.
Is anyone standing up for these people? If they have been in the houses this long, why is NOW a perfect time to evict and or arrest them? How do they vote in the coming election? Are they eligible to vote?
Poor Face Reduced Rent Aid: Officials Foresee Homeless Increase (Washington Post)
P. Jones
Mesquite
Subject: Drudge video referencing pulling notes from pocket
Gents/Ladies,
First of all - Great work!! I've directed many folks to your site. You are doing a great service...
After seeing your post on the Drudge reference to Sen. Kerry pulling notes from his pocket as he approached the podium, I went to the digital recording on our cable box for a closer look... Kerry clearly pulls a pen.
Here's the catch - so did Bush... The low resolution playback on the web makes it hard to discern, but unfortunately, it was only a pen that the Bushman pulled from his pocket.
Thought you might like another set of eyes on this... Keep up the great work!
Slime and Skull Drudge Report 10/4 (tvnewslies.org)
Regards,
Joe Petrucci
Subject: his masters voice
just read the link to the article about bush wearing a wire during the debate, and it occurred to me-
why not do up a graphic of bush staring into a speaker- like the old RCA Victor ads- only replace Nipper with bush.
Totally appropriate. An instantly recognizable icon for the puppet president
Keep up the good work Buzz
Ardyjay
Subject: Kerry's medical record shows shrapnel!!
On Kerry's Journey to Health, Stops for Shrapnel and Cancer (NY Times)
EXCERPT, paragraph 11-12:
A group of veterans has challenged the validity of the three Purple Hearts that Mr. Kerry received for wounds he suffered while serving on Swift boats in the Vietnam war. These critics suggested that the shrapnel that hit him in one mission was rice, not metal.
However, CT scan X-rays taken at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston document that two pieces of metal shrapnel are embedded deep in Mr. Kerry's left thigh, next to the femur, said Dr. Gerald J. Doyle, Mr. Kerry's personal physician in Boston who reviewed the X-rays at the request of this reporter, who is a physician. Doctors treating the wound in 1969 decided to leave the shrapnel in place. "One piece of shrapnel is about the size of a bullet, the other a bit smaller," Dr. Doyle said.
Kevin G.
Subject: The Messiah has arrived; burn the heretics at the stake!
I watched the first Presidential debate on C-SPAN. Here are two of the brief called-in comments I heard after the debate:
"I'm supporting George Bush in this election because I know he is working hard to bring about the Revelations and the Rapture."
"I'm voting for George Bush in this election because I'm so glad that we have a good Christian man in the White House."
Maybe that's not surprising. George W. Bush fits the pattern of the anti-Christ in Revelations. After all, the author of Revelations was seeking to anathematize the Roman Empire. Among those who fancy themselves emperors, certain personality patterns do seem to recur.
And now we have, on DVD, on October 5: The Passion of the Bush. As we read in Frank Rich's article in the New York Times of 3 October: "The portentous question posed at the film's conclusion by its narrator, the religious broadcaster Janet Parshall is: "Will George W. Bush be allowed to finish the battle against the forces of evil that threaten our very existence?"
I see. Anyone who stands in the way of George W. Bush completing his godly battle is a heretic and should be immediately burned at the stake. Also from Rich's article: "He may not hear "voices" instructing him on policy, testifies Stephen Mansfield, the author of one of the movie's source texts, "The Faith of George W. Bush," but he does act on "promptings" from God. "I think we went into Iraq not so much because there were weapons of mass destruction," Mr. Mansfield has explained elsewhere, "but because Bush had concluded that Saddam Hussein was an evildoer" in the battle "between good and evil." So why didn't we go into those other countries in the axis of evil, North Korea or Iran? Never mind. To ask such questions is to be against God and "with the terrorists."
Now I'm puzzled. It's not exactly a secret that Our Dear Leader seems to prefer attending church in his own mind or with his own disciples in some secret lair; Bush does not attend church regularly. Not to mention that, when he did go to church, he was a United Methodist, not a Southern Baptist or any other kind of End Times fundamentalist.
On the other hand, Kerry attends Mass regularly, but keeps his mouth shut about it. Somehow, that rings just about right to me. I guess George W. Bush isn't really a brain-damaged psychopath. He's just a brain-damaged narcissist.
One fundamental principle must be borne in mind constantly ... propaganda must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over. -- Josef Goebbels
Donald L Feinberg
Naperville, IL
Dear BuzzFlash,
Thank you for your wonderful work.
I have an idea for Kerry's next debate with Bush. The topic of taxes is sure to come up and Bush will launch his usual string of outright lies, barely true half-truths and lurid fantasies to convince ordinary Americans that Kerry is intent on raising their taxes.
May I humbly submit a response to our esteemed nominee.
KERRY: If you earn less than $200,000 a year, I will not raise your taxes. But George Bush and I are both very wealthy men who have become even wealthier because of Bush's tax cuts. So, I will raise my own taxes so that your children can go to college. I will raise my own taxes so that you can have affordable health care. I will raise my own taxes because I believe that the wealth of this nation should be invested in the people of this nation.
George Bush will cut his own taxes, and your children will not be able to afford college. George Bush will cut his own taxes and you will not be able to afford adequate health care.
George Bush will cut his own taxes because he believes the wealth of this nation belongs to him and his rich friends.
Just a suggestion for Senator Kerry. And keep up the good work!
Christopher Schario
Auburn, ME
Subject: How Bush Has the American People Duped About Chalabi and Allawi
They had to acquit Chalabi -- their former flunkie. After all, he knows far too much about the U.S., and the Bushes in particular.
Even Allawi (the prime minister) was a former member of Saddam's regime. How is that for sovereignty, trust from the Iraqi people? Allawi should actually join Saddam in his cell. Instead he gets to pronounce judgment on his former boss! But, this is just more of the way the GOP operates. After making the pronouncement that Al Sadr would be hunted down and killed, Mr. Al Sadr is now invited to join the upcoming elections in some capacity. Why, because they know he retains the capability to make a real mess of things? How does one emerge from being hunted to being coddled? Oh well, the same thing happened with Chalabi -- why not Al Sadr?
Italian minister proposes to invite al-Sadr to Iraq Int'l Conference (AP/Hindustan Times)
A BuzzFlash Reader
Subject: The Middle Class Squeeze
In today's The Dallas Morning News, the main article is The Middle Class Squeeze, which pretty much covers what I have been saying the past four years. More and more millionaires while the middle class is being destroyed. As a professor at Harvard was quoted -- If we weaken the middle, we weaken America. People are being left behind, and it threatens the American dream -- a home, a two car garage and a college education. If the middle class continues to shrink, the experts warn, the country would suffer economically, socially and politically. The article states that middle income has decreased 3.4 percent. It will likely continue to decrease with continued exporting of jobs and rising inflation and huge deficits.
Republicans have had the majority in Congress for nearly twelve years and the Bush administration's policies are making it even worse, supporting the corporations with tax cuts to transfer factories and jobs overseas, while putting the taxpayers ever deeper in debt with outrageous deficits. Even responsible Republicans are turning against them. Now we have inflation raising its ugly head while people are just trying to survive. It's past time for a change. Even if things are turned around, there will still be rough times ahead.
Squeeze play: Rising costs, lower pay have middle class stretched thin (Dallas Morning News)
One bright spot -- Newsweek magazine poll has Kerry ahead of Bush now.
RB
Subject: Section 8 Cutback...Feds cut housing assistance to low income workers...which could force many into homelessness
This problem is worse in Florida. I asked Sharpton about this in front of the media in 2000, what was so important about Florida and HUD? I asked this at the Ride against Racism, the Bus from Broward to Miami.
Poor Face Reduced Rent Aid: Officials Foresee Homeless Increase (Washington Post)
Elvira
Subject: Fox News
Concerning the two major issues with Fox News today, the Carl Cameron "joke" where he fabricated Kerry quotes and Fox reprinted them as fact plus the report where Jane Roh was "taken in" by a parody group called Communists for Kerry. Can the editors at BuzzFlash make this a HUGE issue? Can you somehow get ACT, MoveOn and True Majority behind this to send out mass emails to its members informing them of this and to contact Fox News by phone, email and letter? Something to make such a big stink about this that hopefully some real media news outlet will cover it? Fox News has been printing misperceptions, taken liberty with facts and have lied by omission for years now. But this is just out and out lies and defamation of character. Something really needs to be done this time.
Sincerely,
Robert J. Hoitela
P.S. If Fox News wants to move into the area of news parody then they should take lessons from The Onion on how to be funny in print and from The Daily Show on how to do it on television.
Subject: Push Back!!
Starting today you have to PUSH BACK! Every time you have an opportunity to speak truth to power YOU MUST SPEAK IT. Democrats, the nation and the world have been BULLIED by this administration FOR TOO LONG.
They will try every dirty trick there is, and will get away with it...If you don't PUSH BACK, NOW!! Call them on their tricks, use every means at your disposal to get our argument heard.
Write the news shows, newspapers, talk show hosts, and news networks and make your points heard. Do it over and over, FORCE THEM to recognize you. If enough of us do it, we just might do enough to counter the other side. THEY ARE ORGANIZED AND ARE DOING IT. There is an online source that they all can go to (I will not dignify its web address)...so every time a celebrity speaks ill of this president...they bombard advertisers and the fcc and the media with emails. We need to do the same. We need to PUSH BACK. There is too much at stake this November.
They will try every dirty trick, and we need to get as dirty as they are. It's ironic, but this election is like the game SURVIVOR...when you are playing against a ruthless foe, the only way to win is to be more ruthless and more cunning.
This administration is like a snake. It's a very predictable animal. Feed it what it likes (to hear), and it will come to you. A predictable animal is easily trapped. Even an animal with a venomous bite that you KNOW will eventually bite you (if you don't get him first, and have a couple of back-up plans).
Prepare for the republicans to attack John Kerry's wife. Prepare for them to take up the SWIFT BOAT VETERANS argument, to drive up his negatives and put John Kerry on the defensive. Because they can't talk about the issues. What are we going to do when this starts? We need to be ready to reply to the coverage and state our dislike of the issue. Why do republicans attack their opponents' wives all the time? Is that manly? Is that christian?
How can we let them get away with attacking Kerry's courage before AND after he served in Vietnam? We can't, let's show them how we'll protect the country by showing how we protect our candidate. John Kerry MUST be our new leader.
A vote for George W. Bush is a vote for Halliburton and a vote for freedom...of Ken Lay.
PUSH BACK!!
Yours truly,
A Voter
Subject: You're Wrong About Ralph, Benedict Arnold
Dear BuzzFlash,
I am shocked that you would say that Ralph Nader is like Benedict Arnold and I must disagree. Clearly Newt Gingrich is most like Benedict Arnold. Newt mastered Lenin and Goebbels agitprop methods, and then added US-style assembly-line techniques. Thus the blitzkrieg against truth that takes place in the media every single day. We are always discussing the Nutcase Agenda, and serious adults are never allowed to publicly discuss real issues. Newt has succeeded in knee-capping the basic pillar of self-government--an informed citizenry. He has worked to overthrow the US government, and is like Arnold. For Ralph, the right comparison actually is with Franz von Papen, the German politician who calculated that if Hitler took power, he'd screw up big-time, so in the long run that would work out to von Papen's benefit. Apparently, Ralph imagines that third parties will be possible after another 4 years of Bush, when really you have to wonder if there will be even two.
Jim P.
Subject: Swift Boat Vet: John Kerry Will Make Us Stronger
Our country needs a president who will do what is best for the country, not only what is best for his supporters -- those who have bought and paid for the whole Republican Party. Those who support him because he gives them what they want, not what is right for America. We need a president who will not jump into a war without a plan to win the peace. A president that has striven all his life to be the best that he can be, not someone who did not always even do what he should do. A president that has the ability to pull the country out of the mess we are now in. That is the kind of president I believe John Kerry will be.
I was there also in the Mekong Delta, in the Air Force. But I was not a hero like John Kerry. He deserves our support a thousand times more than George Bush. I just feel sorry for him to have to straighten our the mess the country is in. It will take a lot of hard decisions and sacrifice. As Bush would say, "A lot of hard work." And John Kerry will need the support of a Democratic majority in Congress. That is why I will vote a straight Democratic ticket.
James Wasser: Kerry Is True Commander in Chief (AFL-CIO)
RB
Subject: Kerry Must Do One Thing To Win: Answer The Question
Buzz:
Living in Ohio, I see more political ads than most Americans. After Kerry's resounding win in the first debate, the flip-flopping issue on Iraq should have been put to rest. Kerry's clear understanding of the situation left a simpering President Bush covered in flip-flop sweat. So why is my football Sunday still besieged by ads illustrating Kerry's supposed flip-flop on the war?
For the love of God, John, just answer the question! "Why did you first support the war then vote against funding it?"
Informed citizens know this question is based on a faulty premise. The first vote was not to authorize war in Iraq, but a U.N. resolution to force Hussein to comply with inspections. Bush asked Congress to help him "enforce the peace." Even in Bush-speak, that is hardly a declaration of war. When the vote to authorize the 87 billion came before Congress, Republicans refused to roll back tax cuts for the top 1% to pay for it. Kerry, knowing the measure was sure to pass, voted against the President in protest.
Is there any hope Kerry can explain this in 30 seconds?
Yes.
"Why did you first support the war then vote against funding it?"
"When my President told me Saddam Hussein was stockpiling Weapons of Mass Destruction, I authorized the threat of force to get U.N. inspectors back in Iraq. The President abused this authority, rushing into a poorly conceived war. When the President came to Congress for money, Republicans refused to ask the super-wealthy to pay for the war. I voted against the $87 billion dollar appropriation for one reason: The working class is paying for this war with the blood of their sons and daughters; the least the President's wealthy friends can do is pick up the check."
This focuses the issue on Bush's bugaboo, corporate cronyism. Saying the poor go to war and die while the rich get richer cleaning up the mess is a common-sense appeal. It also makes a subconscious link to the Bush chicken hawks, who used influence and money to avoid combat. It will also complement the Edwards-Cheney debate, where Halliburton is sure to be mentioned frequently.
Kerry must insist the burden of war be shouldered not only by the underprivileged majority comprising the military ranks, but the financial elite, as well. This message is common-sensical, compassionate, and consistent. Three things Bush is not.
J.R. Kinnard
Subject: Forward from liberaltimes.com -- Bush's Criminal Neglect
Ben Stein on WSJD, "It's not right that the rich is partying it up, while the families of soldiers are living in terror."
Bush at the debates, "We'll give you all the equipment you need."
After September 11th Bush approached Richard Clarke, the Administration's man on Terrorism, and told him to find a link between the attack on the WTC and Saddam in Iraq. There wasn't a connection to September 11th that could be found. The Bush administration wanted to attack Iraq so badly that they decided to lie about ties to Al Qaeda, about weapons of mass destruction, and about Iraq's threat to America. These lies, in the form of false intelligence reports, were delivered to the Senate and Congress which approved the usage of the military as one of many options for stopping a fictional threat to America.
Iraq War Timeline (American Friends Service Committee)
On March 19th, 2003 American bombs began to fall in Baghdad, and American soldiers began to cross the Iraq border in the initial phases of the attack. The soldiers met little resistance in this third world country, but what resistance they did meet left many American soldiers wounded or dead. Just 43 days later the third world nation of Iraq's leadership was in hiding, and American soldiers had taken the capital of Iraq. On May 1st Bush declared the "Mission Accomplished," what he neglected to mention was that 217 American soldiers had been killed, and over a thousand severely wounded. Since Bush declared the "mission accomplished" over 840 American soldiers have died, totally 1059 as of October 1st, 2004.
During the debates John Kerry promised that he wouldn't give tax cuts to the rich while our soldiers are dying from a lack of equipment. Bush countered "We'll give [the soldiers] all the equipment you need," admitting that the troops did not yet have the equipment they needed to stay safe. Over a year has passed since our troops originally invaded Iraq, and they are now facing an enemy which is becoming increasingly organized, and increasingly dangerous. Meanwhile Bush, by his own admission, has not managed to obtain the best equipment available for our soldiers. Bush has criminally neglected our troops so that he could pass tax cuts for the rich. While middle class children can't get a decent education, while Police in America see their numbers cut despite terrorists threats, and while American soldiers die in the streets of Iraqi cities; Bush placed his priority on cutting the taxes of people making more than two million dollars a year. This neglect of America's real priorities is typical of the lazy Bush administration whose leader whines about how defending America is "hard work." Tell that to the soldiers who don't have the best equipment and risk dying for an unjustified war: they know what hard work really is.
CitizenRob
http://www.liberaltimes.com/
Subject: US worst debtor nation in history of world under Bush
President Bush has turned the US into the worst debtor nation in the history of the world.
Bush has driven the economy right into a ditch. And why, you ask, would our fearless president do this? He did it so he could give 30% of his tax cuts to millionaires making 1.2 million per year*, or $576 per hour. Of the current $422+ billion dollar deficit, $270 billion is specifically because of Bush tax cuts**. 30%, or $81 Billion of this went to millionaires.
So we are in essence borrowing money -- that our grandchildren will have to pay back -- to finance tax kickbacks to millionaires! Thurston Howell the 3rd would have been so proud Sir Smirks-a-lot George W Bush.
So while high energy and health care costs are killing lower and middle class Americans, Bush chose to borrow $81 billion dollars to give to millionaires making $576 per hour.
Can you imagine making that kind of money? You could work four hours and your mortgage and car payment would be taken care of! Work for 52 hours and you could make $30,000, which is enough to pay your kid's entire college expense for one year. Boy I'm really glad Bush chose to borrow money to help these people.
These millionaires were hurting big time!
Bush and Cheney are practicing bait and switch on a massive scale. They give poor and middle class one penny in tax cuts, then they turn around and help energy and health care industries take ten pennies back. President Bush is the ultimate bizarro reverse Robin Hood.
...a new report from the Congressional Budget Office projects a $422-billion deficit this year and $2.3 trillion over the next decade, even if the current tax cuts, technically set to expire over the next few years, are not extended. If they are, it projects a tab of $4.5 trillion. The $2.3 trillion is already higher than the office's previous estimate in March because of increased spending by Congress, which is stuck with paying for, among other things, prolonged wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In other words, this deficit, unlike previous ones, is not a blip, but a..
.http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes...
...Even the CBO's $4.5-trillion deficit over 10 years is almost surely too optimistic - it's based on the assumption that funding for domestic programs will not rise faster than inflation and not keep pace with population growth.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5689001/
Prof. KRUGMAN: Can we do a number here? I mean, we've got a deficit now which is probably going to be about $440 billion, $450 billion for this year; of that, $270 billion is Bush tax cuts. So when people talk spending, spending, spending, yeah, spending is an issue, but it's--the dominant force in this deficit is, in fact, tax cuts.
http://pkarchive.org/economy/TimRussert080704.html
Fully one-third of President Bush's tax cuts in the last three years have gone to people with the top 1 percent of income, who have earned an average of $1.2 million annually, according to a report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office to be published Friday.
Mike R.