October 26, 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: Please Pass the Kerry Ad Suggestion ON

My idea for Kerry's ad campaign emphasis for the last week is the following commercial:

Mr. President...when are you finally going to accept responsibility for the results generated on your watch...no weapons of mass destruction, no ties to Osama, no welcome with flowers, no need for more troops, Iraq oil will pay for the war, loss of jobs for the first time ever, Abu Ghraib, proliferation of nuclear weapons, the quagmire...yes, the quagmire we are in...etc, etc, etc...

Mr. President...when will you finally become presidential and make us proud by saying...

Fellow Americans...I accept responsibility for what has happened on my watch...I am the President and the buck stops here.

Sincerely,

Rudy Nardelli
Clearwater, FL

Well well well…whadayathink they're thinking ‘bout? "Postponement and Rescheduling of Elections to Federal Office, October 4, 2004" (http://fas.org/sgp/crs/RL32623.pdf)

Federation of American Scientists, Congressional Research Service (CRS)

'course John Dean has written on nearly the same thing at findlaw on Friday 22 Oct. seems like it's in the zeitgeist. maybe that's the "surprise."

Bill Y.

Subject: Another Way for Bush to Stay . . .

BuzzFlash,

The article below on your site regarding investigations of voter fraud . . . started me thinking about a "what if". . . in my mind, if there is any doubt about who won this election, we should keep it in the courts forever until we get a true vote. But, this would not mean that Bush could stay in the White House and use that time for further corruption of our government.

I don't know what the rules are and I realize that rules and laws mean nothing to Bush anyway, and I also realize that things cannot come to a complete standstill, but that would be better than our current government. I just feel that if Bush loses or if the election is held in the courts because of many illegal acts by the Republican Party. . . that Bush would use this time to raise all kinds of hell and commit all kinds of wicked felonious, burglarious, monstrous and even kinky transgressions against our government before being kicked out.

GOP Voter Drive Accused of Tossing Cards (AP/Post Gazette)

Just a thought, :)

Thanks BuzzFlash,

Shirley Smith

Subject: GOP Hires Thugs to Monitor Election

The GOP is hiring thousands of goons to intimidate voters at polling places. If nothing else these thugs will slow down the election process, causing excessively long lines at the polls. Many voters will leave in frustration instead of waiting in line to vote. This is another step in the massive voter suppression tactics used by the GOP party. In Ohio alone the GOP has recruited 3,600 thugs to basically challenge the voting rights of people who show up at the polls. The GOP is paying these brown-shirt goons $100 for this borderline criminal behavior.

Once again Bush pulls the same tactics Hitler did in the 30s and 40s. Bush has created his own army of brown shirt goons to haunt polling places intimidating people. This is pure fascism. This crap should not be happening in the number one democracy in the world. This is stuff Castro would do. This is stuff Saddam would do. Bush is one evil bastard. Bush thinks he creates reality, which basically means he has zero respect for the real reality, so he feels no need to explain himself and he breaks rules with the impunity of a criminal. Read about this in the NY Times, here:

Big G.O.P. Bid to Challenge Voters at Polls in Key State

Michael Reinholz
Seattle, WA

Subject: Careful of polling place confusions

here in Arizona, we are getting notices from the elections board of our official polling stations. I think this is the first time I have actually seen the board of elections actually write a warning on the notice to voters to warn them not to pay any attention to other notices of polling places. The GOP must be sending out notices in swing states, lying (which is what the GOP does best) about the polling stations.

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: Voter fraud

Dear BuzzFlash,

When I was out working today, I ran across a shop owner who started talking about the fraudulent voter registration problems. I thought she was talking about the falsely registered as Republicans students but she exclaimed, no, that it was the Democrats who were falsely registering people. Because I was there representing the breast cancer walk, I couldn't really get into it with her, but I was curious.

Where does she get such info? And is it true both sides are falsely registering people? Does BuzzFlash selectively run only stories on The Republicans (while wherever she gets her info, Fox News, no doubt, runs only the other side?). I think not, but just in case, I'd like to know if BuzzFlash runs into these stories, and if they are bunk, maybe BuzzFlash could consider linking to sites which prove they are bunk, so we are armed with more info. Thanks!

robyn su

[BuzzFlash Note: dkospedia.com offers the "Voter Registration Fraud Clearinghouse" and Black Box Voting reports on fraud incidents.]

Subject: official declaration of war?

Did Bush actually send through diplomatic channels an official declaration of war to the Iraqi government prior to the invasion?

A BuzzFlash Reader

[BuzzFlash Note: At fact-index.com, the Iraq invasion is described as one "...of the major undeclared wars of the United States..."]

Subject: AOL Message Boards

The Freepers are having a field day on the AOL election related message boards....spreading free copies of anti-Kerry propaganda films etc. (go to aol.com and use "key word" message boards.) Counter with some truth if you have the time.

Suzanne
San Francisco

Subject: mental health

What do you think about this one Buzz?

Bush's Brave New World

President Bush's little-publicized New Freedom Commission on Mental Health has proposed comprehensive mental-illness screening for all Americans. If this proposal is carried out, which is Bush's intention, no adult or child will be safe from intrusive probing by "experts," backed by drug companies, who believe that mental illness is woefully underdiagnosed and therefore that many millions of people ought to be taking powerful and expensive psychiatric drugs. Schools and doctors' offices will become quasi-psychiatric monitoring stations.

Read the rest: http://www.fff.org/comment/com0410b.asp (Future of Freedom Foundation)

Sherry

[BuzzFlash Note: If true, the staff of BuzzFlash will be happy to undergo mental screening just as soon as Bush and Cheney undergo lie detector tests about their knowledge of pre-9/11 warnings and WMD in Iraq.]

Subject: As sent to the Plain Dealer: Publisher overrules editorial board on Bush

To the editor,

Word is out on the internet that the publisher of the Cleveland Plain Dealer overruled
the editorial board of the paper, and MADE them endorse Bush.

To that publisher, I would ask the question, as Joseph Welch, the venerable and honorable attorney asked Joseph McCarthy ( in 1954), one of the greatest demagogues in U. S. history,
"HAVE YOU NO SENSE OF DECENCY SIR? AT LONG LAST, HAVE YOU LEFT NO SENSE OF DECENCY?"

Some things bear repeating.

I hope the editorial board somehow gets the last word on this....

Sincerely,

Working hard for democracy in Florida, as well,

D. Balkan
Miami Beach, Florida

Subject: a small matter

Dear BuzzFlash:

This may sound like a small matter -- at least it is being treated as such by the middle school my 12-year-old daughter attends. It's not a small matter to me, though. Below is a copy of a 10/23/04 letter to the Texas Democratic Party which will explain it all.

Dear Texas Democratic Party:

As you may have heard, the political party posters created by pro-Kerry students for Murchison Middle Schoo's upcoming, mock presidential election were vandalized and destroyed last week. Just prior to the incident, a group of football players (wearing team t-shirts) and cheerleaders passed by, heckling and shouting foul language at the 12-13 year-old girls who were making and putting the posters on display. Most of the posters were later discovered stuffed in the garbage. They were beyond repair. These kids spent a great deal of thought and effort on this project. Unfortunately they won't have time to prepare replacement posters because of school-imposed deadlines.

There were other politically motivated problems leading up to this incident. They involved pro-Bush students using foul language in an attempt to intimidate some of these same girls, including my daughter.

I have notified both the state and national offices of the Republican Party regarding this matter. I am awaiting their response. I am also waiting for Murchison school officials to do more than issue a simple, general warning to the student body. If they do not resolve this issue very quickly, I will be filing an inquiry with Klanwatch to determine if the pack aspects of these incidents fall under their definition of organized oppression.

You are welcome to involve yourself with this matter as you see fit. Otherwise, we can take care of ourselves. In fact, these problems have served as an inspiration for my daughter's Halloween costume: a prison uniform and George Bush mask. She will be wearing it to school on costume day next week. Look for her and her friends at your front door on Halloween night. They're swell kids.

Sincerely,

Dean Glaze
Austin, TX

Subject: Is it a secret ????????

Hi Buzz,

I read in our local paper this morning, in the Associated Press article by Robert Burns, that "...843 ready reserves, failed to comply with Army Orders to get back into Uniform and report for deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan." The article also stated that the Army was going out of its way to resolve these cases as quietly as possible. I listened to numerous News stations today and none even mentioned this Incident. Why not check it out?

More than 800 ordered to duty failed to report Army: Third of former soldiers refused (AP/Concord Monitor)

KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK.

Robert T.

Subject: pResidential visit

Dear Buzz,

Well we've heard stories about people being turned away from rallies for Bush, but can you imagine being turned away before the rally even starts??

Bush is coming to the Mid America center in Council Bluffs, Ia. and over the wknd people were lining up at the Republican office here in Omaha, and over in Iowa. Tonight on the news, because one student had a Kerry/Edwards sticker on her car, Bush's people took away her ticket, and tickets of other students who didn't completely give their 'loyalty' to Bush. What a crock of shit!!!! The Repugs are saying that there must have been a mistake and all are welcome. What a crock of shit!!!!!!

You know, this only makes me wish I had gone to get a ticket, and waited to see if they would have taken MY ticket away....you would have heard a lot of screaming, and a lawsuit if any of Bush's handlers would have slapped cuffs on me! I should have gotten tickets just for spite! This is not the America I knew, and I only pray that Kerry & Edwards win, so we can kick Bush's ass back to Crawford! God help us all!!!!

A Loyal Buzz Fan Forever!

Sharon Carlton
Bellevue, Nebraska

Subject: Taking On the GOP And Doing So Right In Front of Them

During this campaign season, I have been speaking out on behalf of our candidates with many voters. I take our campaign literature and approach anyone on the street or shopping center while wearing our candidate's buttons.

As I do in many campaign seasons, I pass out literature at my favorite shopping center in Miller Place, NY where I shop at the Waldbaums there. I had plans on doing so today, but first food shopping needed to be done and along the way, I put up our Re-elect Tim Bishop for Congress signs along many busy road ways. It was then, I saw a group of signs for the Republican candidates, so being the brazen one, I put our Tim Bishop sign in amongst their signs. It was then I saw at this shopping center a Republican campaign office where they took over a bank that went out of business. There has to be a sign there somewhere and a story as well. The GOP takes over a closed bank or something like that. But, the feeling that hit me was, they took my territory and I was not going to stand for this. I even walked up to some people standing outside where they could see my Kerry and Bishop buttons and said, "My sign will still be there later on, since this is my country too. Right?" and yes, they laughed and I touted back Kerry for President and Bishop for Congress.

Well, I hurried the shopping and got home, dropped the packages for my family to put away and I hurried in grabbing as many palm cards for Tim Bishop as I could. I even had my daughter place a Bishop and Kerry bumper sticker on the back of my jacket and was on my way to lay claim to my shopping center. I walked the parking lot speaking to the voters. Some were coming out of their GOP headquarters and almost leering at me. They saw me and I definitely saw them. Did I leer back, no I waved back to them with the biggest smile on my face. One thing I found very positive was that many voters I did speak with today, were already voting for Tim, some were undecided and when I stated what Tim's record has been, they made up their mind on behalf of our candidate. I targeted the many seniors who shop there and stated that Tim was on their side as far as getting low cost prescription drugs from Canada that Bush blocked and they loved that. Okay, there were some who stated, I am a Republican and where I felt like saying, "Oh I am so sorry to hear that." One gent even said it was Liberals like me who were destroying this country, and I said back to him, "Nope your good ole friend George is doing a bang up job at doing that right now."

The lesson here is we take our message wherever we need to go, even in the face of those who oppose us. And yes, it felt oh so good to campaign right in front of a GOP headquarters. By the way, my sign was taken down. But, we all knew that was going to happen.

Democratically Yours,

Mary!

Subject: What to say to any undecided or Bush supporter

When I get into talking points with undecided or bush supporters, I state my simple case like this. "My number one reason for voting for John Kerry is, There are no WMD's. I was lied to about WMD's, and so was Congress. Our boys and girls are dying in Iraq for a lie. That sucks and that is not right." That statement gets people to think.

Remember this true talking point and tell people the truth before they go to vote. I've got not only my vote to count but at least seven or eight others also. Do the same, so on November 2 or soon afterwards, We can call the man "President Kerry."

Mark Baillie
Denver, Colorado

Subject: endorsement

The Morning Call of Allentown, Pa. has endorsed Senator John Kerry. In 2000, the Morning Call endorsed Bush. The Morning Call is the dominant newspaper in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern central Pennsylvania. The Lehigh Valley is the third largest metropolitan area in the state, after Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

Donald P. Russo

Subject: Fruit Loop, Tucker Carlson (as sent to "Oklahoma Observer")

I just caught a tiny glimpse of "Crossfire" with Paul Begala and Tucker Carlson. You heard it here first, but I am sure every late night comic will pick up on this one.

I can't recall the name of the Democrat lawyer they have on who is debating Bob Barr, the former prosecutor and adulterer, about how they should prosecute the latest "American Taliban" as they choose to call them.

She thinks they should be given the same rights to representation as any other American. She mentions that she thinks the detainees in Cuba are being treated like animals to some extent. Tucker Carlson waded into the fray with, "What do you mean treated like animals? They get Fruit Loops everyday, for God's sake."

Fruit Loops must be a favorite of Tucker's, but it certainly isn't one of mine. Remember when the GOP decided that ketchup should be counted as a vegetable on school lunches? The Bush Administration probably counts Fruit Loops as a serving of fruit.

Tucker said it like it was the same as flying in Wolfgang Puck. All I can say is Paul has much more self-control than I do. I would have said, "Tucker, you twit, Fruit Loops is not considered part of any food group, in any society, and may even be cruel and unusual punishment."

Tucker should do commercials for Kelloggs. "Mom is your son overbearing? Does your son treat girls like they are refuse? Give that boy Fruit Loops, the cereal that rehabilitated the Taliban."

Karen Webb
Moore, Ok.

Subject: We Have One Week and Two Days - Give Me Back My Country!

Hi Gang!

If you haven't registered to vote but can still do so, even up to the very moment you vote, please do it!

If you're still sitting on the fence and can't decide who to vote for, you need to get off of it right now and spend the next week carefully looking at the candidates. This election is a referendum on Bush's record and if you really and honestly think he is leading us in the wrong direction across the entire governing spectrum.

A lot of promises were made four years ago, and even with the Republicans in control of the White House, the Senate, and Congress, very, very, very few of them have been kept.

• We have been put at a greater risk of another 9-11.

• Brave men and women are sacrificing their lives because of lies and mistakes.

• The international respect we had for so long has vanished and has been replaced by distrust and disgust.

• Our Muslim brethren are becoming increasing angry and violent towards us and until we begin to address the underlying problems that cause terrorism in the first place, the policy of "democracy at the end of a gun barrel" will fail every time.

• Republican leadership completely lacks the power of introspection and cannot bear to look at itself in the mirror long enough to see what is really there.

• The projected surplus that was targeted to shore up social security has been squandered, leaving a gaping hole of deficit.

• The rich are getting richer and middle and lower class are struggling.

• Millions are without jobs with millions more not counted because they are off the jobless claims list or have given up.

• Millions are without good, affordable healthcare.

• Education is floundering because of underfunded mandates forced upon the system.

• State and local taxes are on the rise due to the decrease in entitlements from the federal government.

• Hourly wages are not matching the rising cost of living.

• Too many jobs have been lost and no economic conditions are being created to stimulate the creation of new ones.

• Too many companies are shutting down and being shipped to other companies.

• The mass-media, having exposed the fact they lack the balls to truly report on real news and exposing injustice, have failed Americans.

It took just four short years to make it so horribly wrong.

What the hell has happened to the country I was born and raised in? What the hell happened to the country I was willing to die for as a member of the U.S. Military for nearly 10 years? What happened to the peace? What happened to the prosperity? What happened to the respect we once had from our global neighbors and the respect we once had for one another?

I look to the White House...I look to the Congress...I look to the Senate...I watch the cable news...I listen to the radio...and I know where it went.

This is my country...your country...everyones' country!

It doesn't belong to dangerous ideologues or to those who employ the dialogue of division, derision, and divisiveness.

If you haven't sought out your local Democratic Party Headquarters office, please do it! They can provide you with yard signs for all the local, state, and Kerry/Edwards bumperstickers, buttons, and yard signs you want. If they ask for a donation to get the items, please do it!

Don't sit on your ass November 2 thinking that your vote simply doesn't matter.

As one citizen with one vote to give to affect change, I am begging all of you: For your sake, for your childrens' sakes, for your neighbors, for your city, your state, and for your country - get off your ass and vote!

One week and two days left.

Do something about it.

Jerry Peurala

Westfield, IN

Subject: Bush's Base

Just a thought on all the rich folks that Dubya calls his "base." If you translate "al Qaeda," "the base" is what it means. Hmmmmm! So that would make Bush equal to Osama. Just my own personal observation.

Keep up the good work.

Kim Hillstrom
Cleveland, Ohio

Subject: this election

what is your take on this election? does kerry have a chance with young voters? and since the administration is slowly bringing back the staff of draft boards and can pass the draft in a matter of hours without a vote, do young men in this country realize their fate?

tom curry

Subject: Bizarro Reverse Robin Hood Bush

President Bush is the bizarro reverse Robin Hood, robbing from the poor to pay the rich.

The top 1% of earners in the US got a Bush tax cut of $78,000 this year. The bottom 60% got less than $1,000, with the bottom 20% getting $250 Bush tax cuts for the year. $250 is about $20 per month, which is not even the cost of telephone service, let alone even close to keeping up with increased health care costs. So basically the bottom 60% are sliding backward, especially with the proliferation of Wal-Mart McJobs.

And of this measly $1,000, don't you think the high gasoline cost is tearing a hole in the middle class budget? Don't you think the spiraling cost of health care, which is padding the wallet of the top 1%, is tearing a big huge hole in this $1,000? So don't kid yourself, thinking, "at least I got $1,000." You didn't because other parts of the economy, including taxes besides income tax, are tearing a hole in the budget of working class people (and besides, only people making $57,000 per year got $1,000. The total drops fast below this earning level.)

Given the fact that Bush has financed these massive tax cuts for the super wealthy, by raiding the Social Security trust fund, which is predominantly paid by lower workers, Bush is the ultimate reverse-Robin Hood, robbing the poor to pay the rich.

What he does is distract you with non-issues, like school prayer, gay marriage, or he puts out another terror alert. All the while him and his cronies have their hand in you pants reaching for you wallet. Next time you get all worked up about two gay people getting married in San Francisco, ask yourself whether this is really affecting your every day life, or whether the terrible state of the economy for working people is more of a problem? Ask yourself whether the situation in San Francisco is more important than the fact you can't even afford to buy insurance through your employer, which is the fundamental truth if you work at Wal-Mart.

Start thinking people!! You are being hoodwinked by the GOP spin machine.

Tax burden shifts to the middle (MSNBC/Washington Post)

Here are some choice comments about these tax cuts from Krugman in the NY Times.

The Bush tax cuts have, of course, heavily favored the very, very well off. But they have also, more specifically, favored unearned income over earned income - or, if you prefer, investment returns over wages. Last year Daniel Altman pointed out in The New York Times that Mr. Bush's proposals, if fully adopted, "could eliminate almost all taxes on investment income and wealth for almost all Americans." Mr. Bush hasn't yet gotten all he wants, but he has taken a large step toward a system in which only labor income is taxed. The political problem with a policy favoring investment returns over wages is that a vast majority of Americans derive their income primarily from wages, and that the bulk of investment income goes to a small elite.

Mike R.

CLICK HERE FOR PART 2 OF THE OCTOBER 26, 2004 BUZZFLASH MAILBAG.