Post-Debate Hammerin' !

Panhandle Truth Squad has gotten a lot of emails about the debate tonight between Kerry and Bush.

We all know how the local and national media are going to play it. Kerry's tan will look "weird" and Bush will be "unwavering" (or pick your own useless catch phrase)

WE HAVE THE ADVANTAGE HERE ! LET'S USE IT !

Let's pre-empt the talking heads and newspaper stenographers and EMAIL or CALL the media TONIGHT or FIRST THING IN THE MORNING.

(Click Here for Local Media Contacts)

You can CLICK HERE and download ACT's fact sheet.

Or you can use these points:
It was Bush who:

• Totally ignored the Richard Clarke plan to take out al-Qaeda when he took office in January of 2001. That plan was devised by Clarke, on Clinton's orders, to systematically take down al-Qaeda with many action items that would decimate Osama's network. When Bush took office, he threw the plan away.
• Threw away the Hart-Rudman plan in February of 2001 to re-organize homeland security which would have gotten the CIA and FBI to talk to each other. Do you think that if the CIA and the FBI were talking to each other in the spring & summer of 2001, some red flags would've been raised about Middle-Eastern men taking flying lessons but not learning how to take-off and land? Oh yeah... red flags WERE RAISED!!!!
• Originally opposed the creation of the Homeland Security department and then embraced it after publicly pressured.
• Originally opposed the 9/11 commission, and then embraced it after publicly pressured.
• Froze like a deer-in-the-headlights for 7 minutes reading "My Pet Goat" after being informed that the nation was under attack.
• Went on vacation for the entire month of August amid a sea of warnings that Osama was preparing to attack IN the United States.
• Diverted the resources from apprehending Osama bin Laden, to a pre-emptive, discretionary war against a sovereign nation that was NOT a threat to our national security (although he lied repeatedly to make you believe Iraq WAS a threat).
• Isolated the United States from the international community by attacking Iraq against the recommendation of the United Nations and many allies.

AND NOW:

• al-Qaeda has regrouped and is becoming stronger. The war in Iraq has united the radical Islamic community against the United States, and the allies Bush has alienated will not stand behind us.
• The level of world-wide terrorist activity has risen sharply in the past 3 1/2 years since 9/11.
• At a an important time in our history, the White House, the Pentagon, and the CIA are in an all-out war.

Some other points:

Bush's hometown paper endorsed Kerry.

Ambassador John Eisenhower endorsed Kerry.

10 Nobel prize winning economists endorsed Kerry.

12 retired generals and admirals endorsed Kerry.

Lee Iacocca switched from Bush to Kerry.

Conservative columnist Charley Reese endorsed Kerry.

Go get 'em! Kerry/Edwards 2004!

-Prodigal Son

fair and balanced

Here is the front page of today's Amarillo Globe-News. Here is the front page of the Amarillo Globe-News on 18 September 2004, the day after John Kerry's last rally in New Mexico. Hell, here's the archived list of stories for that day.

Okay, I realize that hurricanes were still a big story way back in the heady days of mid-September, but the editors found room on the front page for the Tri-State Fair and the high school football scores. They also found room for a pathos-laden hagiography about an Amarillo-native reservist-- a "Palo Duro High School graduate and former paper carrier"-- that pushes the Bush Administration's story that Iraq is being "rebuilt."

SPACEDARK

America's Last Ally Drifts Away

As Tony Blair fights for his political life, he finally acknowledges what the rest of us knew eighteen blood-filled months ago, tens of thousands of human lives ago:

The evidence about Saddam having actual biological and chemical weapons . . . has turned out to be wrong.

Blair still paid lip service to the world being a "better place without Saddam in power." But that's pretty much it. The rest of the island could dig up only a couple of protestors to try to shout Tony down, and only one was still protesting the war. The other protestor was more concerned with a ban on fox-hunting.

Fox-hunting . . . perhaps Brits, having to the last man turned their backs on America and all things American, will now become militant in their defense of things British. And perhaps they'll take Tony's word for it now, but I imagine that-- come next year's elections-- they'll remember who sold them out to the rudderless superpower across the sea. It's too little, too late for Tony. He boarded the wrong boat a long, long time ago.

As for WMD, it now appears that there's only a handful of folks left in all the world who'll even mouth the old, tired lies. And of that diminishing group, only one very foolish man still believes.

SPACEDARK

HA! Take that Shrub!

Chimpy cannot even get the endorsement of his hometown paper.

Crawford, TX paper endorsed Kerry. CLICK HERE

(The AGN and Lubbock papers in prime knee jerk fashion went for the Bush Crime Family)

-PS

EDIT: Watch MSGOP interview the editor of Crawford's paper! CLICK HERE

a ray of sunshine amidst the rain

Crawford, Tx (Bush's putative hometown) newspaper endorses . . . John Kerry.

Editors of papers that have already endorsed Bush hang their heads in shame.

I love the smell of napalm in the morning . . .

SPACEDARK

You are the difference

Ghandi said, "Become the change you wish to see."

Folks, that is you! How do I know?

Tens of thousands of new voters are being registered. CLICK HERE

. . . "In Oregon, where new registrations grew by 4 percent from January through Sept. 1, Democrats outregistered Republicans two-to-one. " . . .

Also read this great piece in the NY times about Ohio. CLICK HERE

. . ." an examination of county registration records shows that the groups have added thousands of new Democrats to the rolls and have far outnumbered new registrations in Republican areas."

These folks are not being counted in the polls, so blow off the polls, which have been oversampling Repubs anyway. YOU MUST CLICK HERE AND READ ABOUT THIS CRAP!

IMPORTANT: In 2000 there were a heck of a lot more apathetic voters than now, AND WE STILL BEAT SHRUB BY 500, 000 VOTES!!!!!! Stay energized.
__________________________________________
I am also printing out a few handy things to read and keep handy to throw in the rethugs' face.
______________________________________________
Security under Shrub? What security ! CLICK HERE
Jobs under Shrub? What jobs! CLICK HERE
Health Care? Went up 11.2% JUST THIS YEAR! CLICK HERE

Make your own list! Have it handy! Don't back down from the liars on the right!

PS: From now until the election, join me and TURN THE CABLE NEWS OFF

-Prodigal Son

We're Not Purple

I just got scolded by David Van Os.

It was at a fundraiser at the River Briggs Ranch for the Democratic nominee for the Texas Supreme Court. Mr. Van Os was making the rounds through the chili line, and when he got to us, I mentioned the crowd, which was larger than anyone could remember at a Democratic event in Amarillo, Texas. "We're going to turn Texas purple," I foolishly babbled. That's when David Van Os scolded me.

He pointed at me repeatedly with his index finger, while pointing out that Republican turnout has been twice that of Democratic turnout in the past several elections. "They have to get twice their people to vote to beat us," he said.

Don't sell us short, don't buy into the notion that maybe if we work hard we can come close to beating Republicans in a few elections. Texas, like everywhere else populated by normal human beings, is a blue state, David Van Os proudly shouted.

And you better believe we gave him his hell-yeahs.

And, yeah, that crowd was fantastic. Democrats are coming out like no one ever believed we could. Even Will Rogers would have to admit that we're lining up together this year, when it matters most.

Yep.

A huge crowd for a state Supreme Court nominee at an isolated ranch we had to drove over miles of dirt road to get to? Even Texas a blue state? George Bush was the best thing that ever happened to our party.

SPACEDARK

Rather vs. Bush

(via dKos)

Dan Rather, CBS News Anchor
*given documents he thought were true
*failed to thoroughly investigate the facts
*reported documents to the American people as true to make his case
*when confronted with the facts, apologized and launched an investigation
*number of Americans dead: 0
*should be fired as CBS News Anchor

George W. Bush, President of the United States
*given documents he thought were true
*failed to thoroughly investigate the facts
*reported documents to the American people as true to make his case
*when confronted with the facts, continued to report untruth and stonewalled an investigation *number of Americans dead: 1100
*should be given four more years as President of the United States

GOP will say/do anything PART: 2

Folks, Repubs lie, cheat, steal, and misrepresent multiple times a day. Here are just three examples of why we MUST keep writing letters to the editor, KEEP fighting, and STAY angry!
____________________________________________
Republican National Committe sends mailers to West Virginians saying that the bible will be prohibited if Kerry wins election. CLICK HERE
____________________________________________
GOP wingnut Phil Parlock says he was accosted by demos at a rally. EXCEPT his son posed as the accoster, and he has been quoted by newspapers THREE TIMES now as being mistreated. CLICK HERE FOR THE TRUTH
_________________________________________
JIM CROW IS ALIVE AND WELL. Florida law enforcement is being investigated for intimidating elderly black voters over their absentee ballots.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO NPR's REPORT
_________________________________________
UPDATE: Yet More Boolsheet:
Sheethead Speaker of the house Dennis Hastert told the Chicago Tribune that Al Qaeda wants Kerry to win. CLICK HERE (requires log-in)
____________________________________________

This is what we are up against people!!

If you want to help, a good way is Act Now's online letter writing tool that lets you write letters to folks in battle ground states. CLICK HERE TO GET ACTIVE

45 Days to go before we throw Bush out of Al Gore's house !!!

-Panhandle Truth Squad

What's At Stake (A Fair & Balanced Quotation from Somewhere in the Blogosphere)

From Josh Marshall:

"But as yesterday's piece in the Times made clear, that's exactly the opposite of what the government -- or rather the people in the government paid to analyze these things --- actually believes. A new and still highly classified [report] says that the best case scenario for the country over the next eighteen months is drift, along more or less the lines that it's at right now. The worst case scenario is all-out civil war. The middle ground is spiralling extremism and fragmentation -- basically a continuation of the evolution, or rather devolution, we've seen over the last year."

All right, all right, the name of the report I edited out is "National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq." But still . . .

SPACEDARK

Righteous Anger

This post is a bit late, but I wanted to comment on an item Josh Marshall recently posted. After the non-starter about Bush fans booing President Clinton when they heard he was in the hospital, Marshall posted this about the garish and nightmarish Karen Hughes' reaction to the original AP story (quoting a reporter on the scene):

Karen Hughes went totally apesh-t at the AP when that dispatch hit the wire.

She stormed up the bleachers and starting screaming at the AP writer (who took it in stride). "They didn't boo! Were you and I in the same rally! What is this crap?" or something along those lines (it was loud in there).

I gotta tell you, this (over)reaction reminded me of something I'd seen before, many times. I'm a teacher, and before I found that calling, I worked in the state welfare system. And, in both those positions, I witnessed a particular phenomenon. It works like this: when you accuse someone who is usually guilty as hell-- and they are, in this isolated instance, competely innocent-- they will go off on you with a righteous anger the likes of which you have never seen before: How dare you accuse me of that! Who do you think you are?! You are so so so so so wrong, and I am going to 1) sue you, 2) have your job, or 3) fight you in a duel (the Zell Miller solution).

That's what that AP reporter witnessed out of Karen. Like a high school thug, or a cheating welfare client, the Bushies have been so guilty for so long. Their unaccustomed innocence unleashed a righteous fury on some poor AP reporter with bad ears.

SPACEDARK

LATEST POLL PREDICTS KERRY LANDSLIDE!!! MUST CREDIT PTS!!!

Spacedark, Jr. reports that Ms. Black's fifth-grade social studies class at Bivins Elementary in Amarillo currently polls 16 votes for John Kerry and only 5 for George W. Bush. Comments by likely voters (in 2012) include the following:

"George Bush lies." (from a Kerry supporter)
"My parents said I had to vote for George Bush." (from a reluctant Bush supporter)

So there you have it. The facts and character battles are won by Kerry. Bush only wins voters through intimidation and threats to withhold allowances.

SPACEDARK

2004 or 1984 . . . .

A couple 'o' quickies here.

A woman in Alabama was fired for having the gall to put a Kerry sticker on her car. CLICK HERE
Oh, and her employer includes Bush propaganda in his employees paychecks.
Nice.
"Thoughtcrime does not entail death: thoughtcrime is death."-1984, George Orwell

UPDATE: In Philly, the Rethugs in charge of the parking authority told employees making $25k or less to contribute $275/year to the GOP or else. CLICK HERE

The latest investors biz daily poll has Kerry ahead among registered voters. CLICK HERE

Great letters today in the AGN! GO READ 'EM

-Prodigal Son

AGN = RNC Prostitute

PTS was in Austin, so sorry for the light posting.

We did return in time to see the Amarillo Republican News endorse Shrub in an unsigned (sigh) editorial.

You knew this was coming, but even we at PTS were astonished at the absolute whoredom involved complete with up to date GOP talking points (Lies).
From the AGN:
-Kerry is a flip-flopper
-America's military has conquered the Taliban.
-Saddam was a threat, and so Dear Leader was right.
-The Economy is rebounding under Dear Leader.
-Under Bush, Americans will keep more of their money.

Yadda, yadda, yadda, BOOLSHEEET! One at a time here.

-Wanna see flip flops? CLICK HERE
-The Taliban never left and they are just as bad as ever. CLICK AND GET ANGRY
-Iraq was never a threat to America and never, ever linked to 9-11. CLICK HERE.
-Not even close here. THE NUMBERS DON'T LIE.
-Americans will keep more money. Really? Your taxes WERE RAISED under Shrub. CLICK HERE AND WEEP.

Brothers and sisters, this is not business as usual. This is not just politics. John Kerry is running against a political criminal enterprise.

If that statement shocks you, than you don't understand the dire straits that we are in. This is a fight for our democracy and we cannot count on our local "Media" to get to the truth.

Please join PTS in emailing the the AGN and speak out against this endorsement based on lies.

CLICK HERE TO EMAIL

-Panhandle Truth Squad

Yep, he really said it Part 314

Latest from Shrub:

"Too many good docs are getting out of the business," Bush said, "Too many OB-GYN's aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country."

YIKES!

-Prodigal Son

PTS is back !

. . . and boy are we pi**ed!

Back from a little R & R and immediately this piece of awful sludge came to the surface in the
AGN yesterday. CLICK HERE

In reviewing the RNC convention, a cross-dressing of moderation, the AGN says that the 'good' was Texas' delegation behaved, the 'bad' was that Kerry dared to be fed up with Bush's friend's, the swift boat liars (It's Kerry's fault, a fav repub talking point), and the 'ugly' was interrupting protestors (drat that first amendment!).

Get it folks?  All is sweet golden light with the R's. 

Delegates didn't wear purple heart bandages mocking Kerry's war wounds.
Zell didn't froth at those calling American forces in Iraq "Occupiers"
(Even though Bush has routinely described the situation in Iraq as an "occupation").

Cheney didn't use the sensitive laugh line after he himself detailed the need for
"sensitivity" in chechnya-esque Iraq, and Bush didn't rehash EVERY ONE of his
2000 campaign promises even after being in office 3 years and having control of
congress and the supreme court.

In fact, the RNC con job was a litany of easily proven falsehoods. Starting with
Bush's disgusting minions denying they were standing on the dead bodies of OUR
brothers and sisters who died for politics. Bush wouldn't use national tragedy
for political reason. Except for the pictures of Bush on Airforce one on 9-11,
yours for just a $100 donation. Other than that, no sirree.

Why the continuous lying from the right? Because they know they can. Because
they know papers like the AGN no longer do "fact checking." Only Repubs live in
the panhandle anyway, don't ya know.?

This election is between the hate, fear, war, and greed crowd vs. the hope, security,
freedom, and prosperity crowd.

UPDATE:
What happens when you call the Bushistas a bunch of liars?
Well, nanny nanny, you are a liar too.
This is what passes for debate in our paper.

-Prodigal Son

Don't Ask Ben Stein About Economics

Ben Stein has been all the rage in the Panhandle since his appearance a week ago at West Texas A&M University. And by all accounts the former Nixon advisor-- whose accomplishments in public life were thoroughly eclipsed by his turn as Ferris Bueller's economic teacher-- presented an interesting and entertaining speech. Panhandlians should not, however, be so star-struck as to forget that the guy is still a partisan Republican hack.

Media Matters catches Stein making the clearly-ridiculous claim that:

"Really, to be fair to Mr. [George W.] Bush, all the data about the economy is stronger than it was in 1996."

But wait! Stein can prove this insane-sounding claim! Because, he enlightens us, far more people are employed today than in 1996. Of course, as Media Matters explains, this would, due to normal population and economic growth, be true of any eight-year period, unless it were the eight years between, say, 1925 and 1933. Stein doesn't explain that.

Jeez. With teachers like this, Ferris Bueller was probably better off skipping school.

SPACEDARK