In My Little Town

I don't read the local paper or listen to Stoke's radio station, but I do have friends in common with him and hear some very funny things about him. Then I read things like this and this and he sounds a lot more like the description I hear when I'm not listening to one of his friends.

My personal opinion is that he is a publicity seeking opportunist who doesn't think his actions are harmful. It's all a game to drive up the price for the postage-sized lot his radio station is located on. That is my personal opinion about him, his listeners are another story--they really do feel victimized when they don't get to have all the shots.

Incidentally, David Niewart and Wulfgar are both plugging "The Fire Next Time" . I don't get PBS on my decrepit television, so I won't be watching. Would somebody let me know if this show speaks the unspeakable about a significant portion of the burned land belonging to Plum Creek Timber Company?

The environmentalists did not prevent Plum Creek from managing their private land well enough to avoid the fires. Does anybody know who the funders of Montanan's for Multiple Use are anyway?

I'm Amazed But Don't Understand

Why I have a single young wild turkey hen camping out in my yard, or why I have a single male pheasant who stops by almost every day, too.

The President is Depending On You!

How long can these partisan attacks on brother Karl continue? I blame Bush and you should, too!

Our President has led a courageous battle to stand behind his man, but if he does not get some serious grassroots action real soon, somebody is certain to start asking about the big picture, they will start asking about decisions not to tell the Vice President what he didn't want to hear

Some have asked Karl to resign or to be fired, others have started to question Ari, the faggots are going after Scotty,and the hardcore liberals have started digging into The Iraq Survey Group. It is imperative that patriotic christian soldiers send Karl a letter of love and support before Joe and Gennifer six pack start asking why we started this war that burns up a billion dollars a week and has cost the empire 1762 American soldiers.

It is true that our beloved President Bush was born into his position in life, but there are too many questions being asked, we are losing our chokehold an any adversarial decision making and he desperately needs your help today.

Send brother Karl some love right now!

Dateline Is Doing a Hit

The victim's name is Doug Copps (?) .

The question is, did he get sick from exposure to toxins at ground zero? Omigosh, he got some money from the 9-11 victims compensation fund!

I don't know diddly about this, but they are going after him hard.

Could you imaginethe corruption they would find if they wenthalf that hard after this maladministration's lies

about 9-11,

about Iraq,

about torture,

about propoganda,

about rewarding the corrupt and sacking the whistleblowers

about electronic voting

about media consolidation

about how much money NBC/GE makes on the Iraq war

Imagine

Bleeding America to the Point of Bankruptcy

Thomas said

U.S. Gov't busy doing Osama's bidding

He's right, go read why.

Frameshop

Good stuff with spots for every state, Go check out this work!

A Repair Shop for Political Language
Frameshop is not just a clearing house for my opinions. It's a "repairshop." It's a noisy, dirty place. There's grease on our policy coveralls. Broken sound bite pieces are lying around in open bins. Protective eyewear is required at all times.

I begin with the idea that political debate in this country is a highway filled with language long due for repairs. During election time, political debate becomes a racetrack. Even the fasts phrases will crash and burn after a few laps if not properly maintained. In debate like in driving: paint looks pretty, but it's what's under the hood that matters.

Tuning up every phrase in political debate is a big project. It will take time, connections and money. Lots of money. It's not a short term project. It requires more than just a dab of oil and a tightened bolt here and there. Language that lasts must be built a solid underframe of core American values.

Re-articulating all core American values is too big for Frameshop alone. But there are real problems to repair in this country that are just too urgent to wait. Frameshop is one part of the larger effort to rebuild and reframe political debate from the ground up. With each phrase brough into Frameshop for a tune up, political debate becomes a safer place for all drivers. The more terms repaired, the greater the impact will be.

How will it work?
At Frameshop we will:

1. Identify faulty political langauge
2. Explain the problem clearly
3. Estimate the cost of not doing repairs
4. Realign the frame
5. Provide new language for immediate use

Frameshop will identify language that invokes or reinforces Conservative ideas, it will explain how those ideas work, and it will propose new langauge to be used to invoke frames that better serve the future of this country.

Frameshop is not an exercise. It is not a think tank. It is a repair shop. Language is towed into Frameshop smoking and sputtering, but drives away purring like a kitten.

Who works here?
Frameshop is manged and staffed by Dr. Jeffrey Feldman, an licensed mechanic specializing in all models of politics and communication.

I will tow individual phrases into Frameshop, hoist them up onto the lift, offer the initial diagnosis and then start immediate repairs. From that point on, everybody is invited to roll up their sleeves and offer suggestions in the comments. I will try my best to synthesize discussion and bring it up into each Frameshop session using [UPDATES].

The comments will also be a place to identify the next political phrase to be brought into Frameshop for repair. While each Frameshop session will be limited to repairing one phrase at a time, suggesting new phrases will be an important part of the work.

Each Frameshop session will be clearly marked: "Frameshop: [phrase to be repaired]." Please feel free to circulate the sessions, making sure not to alter the original posting and to include the proper attributes and links back to this site.

The more people who come to Frameshop the more impact it will have.

The Rules
Like all good auto repair shops, it is expected that most people will choose to sit in the waiting room, drink bad coffee, and flip through old copies of Sports Illustrated. Feel free to stop by Frameshop without participating.

Keep in mind: Frameshop iss a place for production, not destruction. We repair phrases so they can get back out on the road, not for the pure pleasure of maintenance. If you have a political concept on blocks in your front yard, fantastic. Keep working on it in the evenings and on the weekends. Frameshop is not a hobby.

Please use productive langauge in the comments. Everything offered will be considered seriously. We may not know the best way to fix a problem at first, so be patient, be creative and leave bad attitudes in the lobby. It's never safe to operate power tools angry.

Get the Word Out
Once a phrase has been repaired, the real work begins. We have to start sending this repaired language back out onto the media highway. The stakes are high. The more we can repair the language, the more we can reframe the entire debate.

Safety goggles on. Sleeves rolled up. Pot of coffee next to the toolbox.

via Grandpa Eddie

Extinction

Tonight's Nightline was about the mass extinctions that are underway as a result of global warming.

Frogs, butterflies, orchids, birds all dying off, nothing more specific than the destruction of God's creation for the profit of a very few.

Where's our energy race anyway?

Rove v. World

Boo Hoo , poor little baby cannot believe that law or ethics should apply to him.

Does he really believe this government is here to serve him alone?

Wah!

Reason to Impeach Bush

The Number One Reason to Impeach Bush came in at #2 out of about 370,000

Who'se Bombs Were They?

A SINGLE bombmaker using high-grade military explosives is believed to be responsible for building the four devices that killed more than 50 people last week, The Times can reveal.

Similar components from the explosive devices have been found at all four murder sites, leading detectives to believe that each of the 10lb rucksack bombs was the work of one man. They also believe that the materials used were not home made but sophisticated military explosives, possibly smuggled into Britain from the Balkans.


“The nature of the explosives appears to be military, which is very worrying,” said Superintendent Christophe Chaboud, the chief of the French anti-terrorist police, who was in London to help Scotland Yard.


via Americablog

Who'se Bombs Were they

A SINGLE bombmaker using high-grade military explosives is believed to be responsible for building the four devices that killed more than 50 people last week, The Times can reveal.

Similar components from the explosive devices have been found at all four murder sites, leading detectives to believe that each of the 10lb rucksack bombs was the work of one man. They also believe that the materials used were not home made but sophisticated military explosives, possibly smuggled into Britain from the Balkans.

via Americablog

Instinkincredible

Talk about a sense of entitlement!

You would think they owned the place or something.

One of many surprises at Riba Rambles.

Truly Pathetic

Still trying to rationalize Bush's lies about Iraq. This is today, not three months ago!

No WMD

Contact with Al Quaeda is no different than my contacts with Burns or Rehberg

Not involved with 9-11

What will happen to these people when and if they ever have to face the world and their boy king the way it is, not the way they wish it to be?

It's July 12

Do you know where the President's progress report is?

Wounded Warrior Project

``Money is desperately needed."

24 yeard old Heath Calhoun is nearing the end of a 4,200 mile bike ride to raise awareness for the Wounded Warrior Project, something that helped him get up and going again after he lost (such a passive term for something so violent) both of his legs in Iraq.

Calhoun is only one of thousands who bear the burden of keeping their word to a President and a government that did not and does not reciprocate.



It is a pretty safe bet that none of these injured quys and gals, or any of the 1756 who have already died in Iraq forged the phony Niger papers. None of this is their fault, yet they are being shorted a second time by the military and the Chamber of Commerce is trying to make them pay a third time and a fourth time

Somebody should show our troops some support, why not us?

Mr. President, Fire Karl Rove

Sign the petion.

Ask for an audit of the missing 8.8 billion dollars while you are there.

Coincidence

Echo

Screamer

This one slipped under our stream of consciousness, but I don't think it is dead although I do think it will bite us in the most tender parts of ourselves if we don't take a look at it and figure out how to get around it.

Our government recruited doctors and psychologists to use the medical and psychological conditions of detainees against them. What would stop them from doing it to us?

Sing It Again Uncle Sam

Support the troops!

Don't pay them

Support the troops!

Don't fund the VA

Please Remain Terrified

At least through Monday.

Do not attempt to be calm.

All exits can be closed anytime we wish.

Anxiety levels must remain high.

The world is out of control.

Please remain Terrified.

I proudly plagarized Buzzflash's most excellent headline here.

Meanwhile In Iraq

Pfc. Eric Paul Woods , 26 , of Omaha reportedly died while assisting another soldier somewhere in Iraq.

His wife Jamie will have to raise their three year old son without him.

They are the 1753rd family to be stuck holding the body bag simply because their loved one kept their word to a country that was all too willing to participate in the conspiracy and the cover up of that conspiracy.

Where's The Pony?

Maybe it's an elephant that is buried under this humongous pile of crap.

All I can say is that with the exception of his artificial reputation, Donald Rumsfeld never has and never will put anything of his on the line so he can get away with saying anthing he damn well wants to.

Who's On Tom DeLay?

With all the noise about Duke Cunningham's cash and carry for personal gain governance clamoring for our attention, who has been keeping track of Tom DeLay's legal and extralegal wrangling to skip out of the spotlight?

Selling seats at the policy making table, threats and bribery as well as appropriating Federal property and services for political power might seem like pilfering penny candy in the shadow of Duke's activities, but those things are still worth hundreds of billions of our dollars to industries that are slipping our democratic process out the back door.

That reminds me, weren't there some votes to sucker us out of our Social Security scheduled for this week?

The Great Fake Out

Family farms are very rarely affected by estate taxes, they give way to suburban sprawl, and the combination of competition and legislation in favor of agribusiness, as well as the loss of places to store their crops or transport them to market (see competition and legislation).

Repeat after me, There is No Death Tax. That is just a gut wretching phrase developed for the ultrajazillionaires who might have to donate twenty dollars to charity to avoid paying a nickel in taxes of wealth that other people worked for.

This Looks Like a Job For eRob!

The little pretty boy's self-serving sanctimonious hipocracy is too much for granny, let's see what eRob does with it.

Lawyered Up and Wagons Circled

Does Karl Rove still have his security clearance, and why does this Administration put his protection above ours?

Frogmarch Vigil

The White House press corps is still nevel gazing, but David Corn has some news about Karl Rove's impending frog march.

Can They Do It?

Universal health care in California.

Conservatives I talk to hate the idea. They say it robs you of your choices, but none of them have health insurance now-they cannot afford it so their choices are already pretty limited.

It doesn't make sense to me that my liberal friends and family members buy insurance while my conservative ones don't. So what if they leave a medical condition untreated long enough that they become disabled, does that make economic sense?

I Love the Brits

Deriding the depravity with doggy style.

Thank Thomas Leavitt for digging this one up!