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02/28/05 :: By Tom Ball Frank Luntz Republican Playbook -- Searchable Text-Version: PART III "GROWTH, PROSPERITY, & RESTORE ENERGY and ECONOMIC SECURITY"Categories :: Framing 101 :: Reference :: Republicans
In the third installment of the text version of the Luntz Republican playbook, Frank tells us how to, among other things, frame 'lawsuits' (never mentioned without the word frivolous preceding it) as a primary driver for the horrific loss of jobs over the course of Bush's reign in the White House.
02/26/05 :: By Tom Ball Frank Luntz Republican Playbook -- Searchable Text-Version: PART II "SETTING THE CONTEXT AND TONE"Categories :: Framing 101 :: Reference :: Republicans
In the second installment of the text version of the Luntz Republican playbook, Frank tells us how to establish the ever-important context and tone for our messages.
02/25/05 :: By Tom Ball Introducing a Searchable, Easily Accessed, Text-Version of the Frank Luntz Republican PlaybookCategories :: Framing 101 :: Reference :: Republicans
So the Frank Luntz Republican Playbook is in our hands and everybody wants to peel through the pages to discover the inner workings of the right-wing propaganda machine.
Unfortunately, you currently have to battle debilitating file downloads and software requirements to read it.
Fortunately, we are here to help make your life easier -- to access, to search, to read and to excerpt the GOP’s strategic tome. As a part of our 'Framing Project', over the following days, we are creating a text version of the currently available image document. It will be completely searchable -- and browser accessible in a handful of posts organized and permanently referenced on our main 'Framing Project' page.
02/25/05 :: By William Hare Death Squads are not Necessarily Bad, as Long as Neocon Corporate Interests are ServedCategories :: Books
It is truly pathetic to see neoconservatives donning the clothes of freedom fighters and current Cheney-Baker-Kissinger Associates spokesperson George W. Bush cajoling Russia’s Vladimir Putin to step up his democracy campaign more briskly. Yes, neocon democracy is bursting forth throughout the world, or is it?
02/24/05 :: By Stu Finkel Bush and Pooty-PootCategories :: Bush Administration :: Foreign Policy
Bush is paying lip service to democracy in Russia, but it's doubtful he'll press his old friend Pooty Poot too hard about it at their meeting.
02/24/05 :: By Drew Johnston The Second Descent, or the DU Hate Mail Bag ReturnsCategories :: Humor
"A Day Trip Through the Conservative Abyss"; a poem in four movements.
02/23/05 :: By Tom Ball Luntz Must Be Livid: Holy Grail of Republican Frames DiscoveredCategories :: Framing 101
The GOP 'Framing' Bible has been found! Download it and read it for yourself. Analysis will be forthcoming.
02/23/05 :: By Tom Ball Framing: How Bush Has Stuck a Wedge in the Heart of Europe to Spark Internal Conflict and Debase Franco-German PowerCategories :: Foreign Policy :: Framing - Foreign Policy
FRAME: If a European is asked whether he opposes or supports the United States over Iraq, the vast majority will say they are opposed. However, if you ask them: "Do you prefer to live in an integrated Europe dominated by France and Germany, or would you prefer to maintain a degree of independence by aligning with the United States on security issues?" then you would most likely receive a very different answer.
02/22/05 :: By Stu Finkel Beat Santorum Site UpCategories :: Election 2006
A effort to defeat man-on-dog Rick Santorum in 2006 has begun; Thersites has launched a website to discuss how to coordinate the efforts of the liberal blogosphere.
02/21/05 :: By Bob Kendall Bush -- The Great Divider, at Home and Abroad!Categories :: Bush Administration
After complaining in such drastic terms about Europe’s refusal to go along with the unproven “fear theory” of the “weapons of mass destruction” high voltage propaganda campaign, George Bush and the robot-like Administration he led to perhaps the largest lie for going to war against a nation in American history, he now speaks of mending fences abroad!
02/20/05 :: By Stu Finkel An Interesting QuestionCategories :: Propaganda/Spin
An interesting question: what does Bobby Eberle mean when he says that Guckert was a volunteer? That he wasn't paying him this entire time? Then who was?
02/20/05 :: By Stu Finkel PropaGannon in the Sunday Papers -- Not So MuchCategories :: Propaganda/Spin
A look at some of the coverage of Guckert/Gannon. The NY Times talks to Eberle and Guckert, but there's not much information in the piece.
02/18/05 :: By Bob Kendall Why The Silence About Condoleezza's Accountability for the Iraq Disaster?Categories :: Bush Administration
When President George Bush was recently asked by the European press about “accountability” for what happened and is continuing to occur in Iraq, he had a simple answer, “Well they voted for me for a second term, didn’t they?”
02/18/05 :: By Tom Ball Why Do Conservatives Hate Their Children?Categories :: Conservatives :: Environment
We all know that at least some conservatives aren't idiots. They know full well that global warming is a reality. Yet that does absolutely nothing to prevent them from renouncing it as some left-wing fairy tale.
They only care about their right to pump as much pollution as possible into the atmosphere without the constraints of regulation... cause God forbid we spend one Goddamn penny from the GOP coffers to prevent the ultimate destruction of our planet.
02/18/05 :: By Bonnie Yarbrough Friday's Funnies: The Shrub ZoneCategories :: Satire
Let me see if I’ve got this right. TeamBush, happily ensconced in their renovated Lincoln Bedroom are widely (mis)quoting FDR, Bill Clinton, and Harry Reid on privatization. When RepubliCons stoop to using popular and populist Democrats as their sources, you know you’re in The Shrub Zone.
Here are this week’s oxymoronic observations from deep within . . . The Shrub Zone (eerily lilting background music):
02/17/05 :: By Tom Ball “Enemy Combatant” Negroponte will be the Nation’s First Intelligence Chief.Categories :: Bush Administration :: Iran Contra
Most people remember Negroponte as the facilitator of Reagan-approved atrocities in Honduras and proud Iran-Contra criminal. I know, it's hard to believe, but one of Bush's appointments might not actually meet the high standards we would like to believe the US Government sets for its officials. In fact, he and his buddies, Caspar Weinberger, Elliot Abrams, Robert McFarlane, John Poindexter, Otto Reich, George Bush Sr., Ronald Reagan, and Oliver North committed acts that, outside conservative circles, spur outrage and disbelief.
02/17/05 :: By Stu Finkel Your PropaGannon UpdateCategories :: Bush Administration :: Media Snake Oil :: Propaganda/Spin
the real importance of the Gannon story had nothing to do with sex or prostitution but about our growing knowledge of the elaborate Soviet-style White House propaganda network, and, potentially, about how a paid propaganda agent may have been involved in the outing of an undercover CIA agent.
02/16/05 :: By Tom Ball Framing Tactic: Respond with 'Value-Based' AnswersCategories :: Framing 101
Regardless of the framing of a question, give your answer as a statement of your position -- one that you want everyone to hear. Do not play into the questioner's traps by dignifying their heavily spun questions. By directly addressing the question, you will lose and a framing opportunity will be lost.
02/16/05 :: By Tom Ball Iran and Syria in 'Common Front' Makes it Easier for Administration to Attack Both NationsCategories :: Foreign Policy
Iran and Syria are working to ease the work of the Administration and their neoconservative brethren by offering themselves as a 2-for-1 package. Invade one and the other comes as a bonus at only twice the price -- quite a bargain in the administration’s efforts to 'reshape' the Middle East.
02/16/05 :: By Tom Ball BREAKING NEWS: Iran Blast Thought to be Fired from Unknown AircraftCategories :: Breaking News
An unknown aircraft fired a missile on Wednesday in a deserted area near the southern city of Dailam in the province of Bushehr where Iran has a nuclear power plant, Iranian state television said.
02/15/05 :: By Tom Ball America Loves Traditional Progressive ValuesCategories :: Propaganda/Spin
Let's see, Hillary performs significantly better than Kerry, handily stowing her victim in the electoral trunk -- and yet, Hillary is perceived as being nontrivially more liberal than Kerry. How does that synch with the assertion that liberalism is 'out of touch with mainstream America'?
02/14/05 :: By Tom Ball They Fear Dean -- and So They ShouldCategories :: Dean, Howard
To me it sounds like they are afraid of him. And I don’t mean that they are afraid because of his media-induced status as a ‘loose cannon’ or a ‘polarizing figure’. I think they’re afraid because they know deep down inside that a paradigm shift has just occurred in the Democratic Party.
Let the Republicans mock. That’s the best they can do. Let them replay the ‘scream’. That’s all they have. Let them tag him a (gasp!) Libruuuul. Who cares.
They know that Dean brings two things to the Democrats that the right has feared for decades:
02/14/05 :: By Stu Finkel How to be an Opposition PartyCategories :: Democrats
James Wolcott (via Kos) gets it perfectly: I wonder if Dems are learning the wisdom imparted by Bull Moose, that there's mischievous and useful fun to be had in being the opposition party, particularly when the party in power is...
02/14/05 :: By Stu Finkel Shape of the Earth: Flat?Categories :: Media
Brad DeLong reminds us that the Social Security debate is hardly a debate at all, but rather a set of economists on one side pointing out easy facts, and a set of unattributed quotes from unnamed Bush administration officials on the other.
02/13/05 :: By Bonnie Yarbrough Lost in the FunhouseCategories :: Bush Administration
Here’s a Valentine for American progressives, Democrats, Independents, and other concerned citizens who think the challenge to protect democracy in America may very well depend on deconstructing the Bush budget. Instead of flowers, candy, or lingerie, why not spend a little time and energy on a collective call to action?
02/12/05 :: By Tom Ball New 9/11 Commission Findings and the Top 19 Ways Bush and the Republicans Benefited from the AttackCategories :: Bush Administration :: Republicans
From here, I will take the baton and run with the question of 'who benefits?' The question has been posed, pondered and answered many times before, but never quite so completely as this. And I present this so that everyone can see just how many ways Bush and his cabal have benefited from the ultimate devastation in New York, Pennsylvania and DC...
02/11/05 :: By Drew Johnston Social Engineering and Social SecurityCategories :: Outrages
Meet Stanley Kurtz - Wanker supreme and advocate of earth-shaking social re-engineering.
02/11/05 :: By Tom Ball Gallup Overweights Poll with Republicans -- AGAINCategories :: Polling
Here we go again.
The other day, Gallup released a poll showing a spike in Bush's approval ratings to 57%, up 6 points from 51% three weeks ago. Gallup speculated that the Iraqi elections were the impetus for the spike, but our friend, Steve Soto over at The Left Coaster was quick to spot the true source of the spike.
Apparently, the Gallup organization is fond of Republicans -- after all, they found it appropriate to overload them (by 9%) in their latest Bush poll.
02/10/05 :: By Tom Ball Is the Democratic Leadership Strong-Arming Democrats into Submission?Categories :: Democrats
Now I believe in tolerance and encourage a diversity of opinions. However, there is a time for cooperation and there is a time to stand firm as an opposition party. Under the current conditions, I fully encourage the Democratic leadership to take one out of the Republican playbook and stand firm as the progressive opposition to a radical, right-wing administration and legislature.
02/10/05 :: By Tom Ball Gannon Scandal Breaks Wide OpenCategories :: Media
The most interesting thing about this, is that the effort to expose Gannon as a no-talent, non-credentialed, family-value-hypocrite, pseudo-propagandist, GOP insert with access to the highest levels of the White House -- even while using a fake name, was perpetuated, not only by the progressive bloggers, but also by the commenters and diarists. It was a testament to the successes that can be achieved and the justice that can be wrought when the political left works together intelligently and aggressively.
02/09/05 :: By William Hare Bush Speaks With a Forked Tongue -- Preaches Democracy and Rules by DespotismCategories :: Bush Administration
George Bush made repeated references to “freedom” in his State of the Union Message and even invoked that name that has been missing for so long in the Republican lexicon, that of the Republican Party’s founder, Abraham Lincoln. While Bush delivered repeated lip service to democracy, practicing it is a totally different matter, as the record clearly reflects.
02/09/05 :: By Tom Ball Lessons From War GamesCategories :: Philosophy
General Van Riper, in summing up the lesson learned from this quarter-billion dollar fiasco, also encapsulated, either by purpose or coincidence, the world in which we live under the oppressive ignorance of a Bush regime:
"Nothing was learned from this... A culture not willing to think hard and test itself does not augur well for the future."
02/08/05 :: By Tom Ball Top 20 Indications that Bush Invades Iran -- Soon!Categories :: Bush Administration :: Foreign Policy
Number 1) Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that U.S. Attack on Iran are 'simply not on the agenda at this point'.
And by that, she of course meant that Iran IS on the agenda and it always has been -- right along with Iraq.
Check out the 0ther 19 events that point to an imminent Bush invasion of Iran.
02/07/05 :: By Tom Ball Was Bush Prophesized in the Book of Revelations?Categories :: Religion
People have been speculating on the emergence of an antichrist ever since there was a Christ. In similar fashion, people have been speculating the end of the world ever since people began to comprehend what 'the world' was.
So toss these two happy thoughts together and you get an uplifting prophecy from the book of Revelations that says the 'Antichrist' will appear, and he will mark the end of time.
Fortunately for us, the bible has a prophecy-hit-percentage of exactly ZERO .
02/06/05 :: By William Hare How Insiders Make BillionsCategories :: Books
Sean Hewitt is an experienced New York trader who knows the ropes and shares much of his knowledge in this fascinating work that brings a touch of John Le Carre to the hectic current high stakes financial scene in “Crude Bedfellows,” a book from Author House. This is a work of fiction weaving elements common in real life and frequently engaged in by top professionals. Hewitt shows that there is much more to achieving wealth than the “virtue and hard work” superficial answers supplied by a series of guests on the famous television program “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous”.
02/04/05 :: By Drew Johnston Welcome, FReepers!Categories :: Blowhards :: Humor
Prepare the anti-troll weapons, the FReepers are on the march!
02/04/05 :: By Bonnie Yarbrough Suitable for Framing: Republicans on SSCategories :: Framing 101
It's been a bad week for the Bush Administration, in spite of aides eagerly chanting "Road Trip!" after the SOTU. Things aren't going well on the phase-out campaign trail.
02/04/05 :: By Bob Kendall Another Day That Will Definitely Live in Infamy!Categories :: Bush Administration
Democratic senators voting to confirm Condoleezza Rice as Secretary of State marked a day I believe will live in infamy. When F.D.R. spoke of the Japanese attack against Pearl Harbor as “a day that will live in infamy” that assault came from without. This attack came from within.
02/04/05 :: By Tom Ball Google Bomb 'Social Security'Categories :: Activism
Put this link in your posts, on your blogs, everywhere you can. Plaster the internet with it. We want every person Googling for information on Social Security to be directed to www.thereisnocrisis.com: Social Security Go here for more on the...
02/04/05 :: By Tom Ball Tactic: Describe your Opponent with 'Words of Weakness'Categories :: Tactics
Use words to describe the opponent (regardless of their true behavior) that exude WEAKNESS.
Do not use words that could be construed as strong in the 'Strict Father' model of morality. This refers specifically to many words that progressives perceive as 100% negative: Mean, heartless, insensitive, dictatorial, hateful, angry, evil, stubborn, ogre, egotistical, harsh.
02/03/05 :: By Tom Ball Framing: Primer for a Progressive Revolution -- Part IV: Strategic and Slippery Slope InititiativesCategories :: Framing 101
Think strategically! Think long-term!
In the final chapter of our basic framing primer, we'll take a look at the techniques used to bring it all together -- multiple-issue strategic initiatives and slippery slope initiatives.
02/02/05 :: By Tom Ball Punditocracy Annoints Dean as DNC ChairCategories :: Democrats
Although the vote for DNC chair is still days away, the pundits have already called the race for Dean -- and they're never wrong. Right?
02/02/05 :: By Tom Ball Framing: Primer for a Progressive Revolution -- Part II: The Nurturant Parent Vs. the Strict FatherCategories :: Framing 101
To effectively frame the issues and the world around us, we must first understand how conservatives and progressives are different. To truly understand these differences, it's important that we digest them on a deeply intuitive, emotional and intellectual level. George Lakoff’s metaphor of the 'Nation as Family' will provide such insight.
Introducing the 'Nurturant Parent' and 'Strict Father': Lakoff simplifies the contrast between progressive and conservative world views by presenting each as a style of parenting. This flows within a much broader metaphor that equates the nation to family -- suggesting that 'progressive thought' is that of the 'Nurturant Parent' while conservative thought is that of the 'Strict Father'. Where each has the following characteristics:
02/01/05 :: By Tom Ball Framing: Primer for a Progressive Revolution -- Part I Philosophy and Rational for FramingCategories :: Framing 101
It will bring those unfamiliar with the concept of framing into the loop. It will also serve as a kick-off to the "The Political Strategy Framing Project" -- a project that will, over time, present framing suggestions and tutorials on every issue covered in contemporary politics.
02/01/05 :: By Tom Ball The Framing ProjectCategories :: Framing 101
Announcing the launch of the PoliticalStrategy.org "Framing Project".
The project will be an ongoing effort to provide a 'handbook' of framing suggestions. It will bring those unfamiliar with the concept of framing into the loop. It will also provide framing rationales and talking points on every issue covered in contemporary politics.
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