agitprop version 2.0

Right-Wing Talking Points Uncovered

Thanks to some research by The Kenosha Kid, Operation Yellow Elephant has uncovered exclusive right-wing talking points against the "Chickenhawk" argument. As you may have guessed it, right-wingers consider themselves freedom fighters in the "War Of Ideas", not chickenhawks who voice support for a war in which they refuse to serve. This list comes from Reagan Youth, also known as Young America Foundation:

1. We are engaged in a war of ideas on college campuses that is essential to winning the war on terror. This is also very important since hateful professors are spewing anti-American rhetoric at the students every day and students rarely hear all sides of the argument.

2. The Vietnam war was lost because there weren't enough people on the homefront telling the truth and supporting the war...

3. Where were these leftists when Clinton was sending our troops to Kosovo, Somalia, and Haiti? They weren't signing up then. Also, why aren't they serving in various UN peacekeeping missions worldwide, according to their logic?

4. The troops in our programs tell us it is so important to continue the battle of ideas on campuses and to support the men overseas through programs like what we did with Freedom Alliance to send needed supplies and thank you notes over there during the conference.

5. We are the ones fighting for the right to serve in ROTC on campuses. The same leftists who criticize us for not joining the military are stripping willing and able college students at Yale, Harvard, Emory, Stanford, etc from their rights to serve their country.

6. The majority of Americans do not serve in the military, so the Left is essentially disenfranchising them from contributing their voice to the debate.

7. The logic is flawed that only people who are involved in something can voice an opinion about it. For example – the public voices its opinion about a wide range of government programs even though most people are not in the government, and people speak about welfare but not many are actually on it or administering it.

Or to summarize--Liberals caused the U.S. to lose in Vietnam, critics of the Bush administration are anti-American, and last but not least, it's all Clinton's fault.

Zieg heil, bitches.

Are You Bianca?

President Bush appeared deeply confused and bewildered at his Pentagon press conference yesterday. Take a look at the transcript or watch the video at Crooks and Liars. It gives credence to the rumors about the return of his alcoholism:

THE PRESIDENT: Bianca. Nobody named Bianca? Well, sorry Bianca's not here. I'll be glad to answer her question.

Q I'll follow up.

THE PRESIDENT: No, that's fine. (Laughter.) Thank you though, appreciate it. Just trying to spread around the joy of asking a question.

A few minutes later in the press conference:

Q Mr. President, could we talk more about --

THE PRESIDENT: Are you Bianca?

Q No, I'm not. Anita -- Fox News.

THE PRESIDENT: Okay.

Q Just a quick question --

THE PRESIDENT: Okay. I was looking for Bianca. I'm sorry.

The New York Post reports that Bianca was in fact Bloomberg reporter Bianca Davie who was seated in the back of the briefing room but did not hear Bush calling her name.

Was Bianca a plant? Another Jeff Gannon perhaps? Someone Bush could look to for a softball question? Things are getting stranger and stranger by the minute.

RELATED READING:  [The Heretik]

Die Cindy Die!

There's a battle waging under the hellish sun in Crawford, Texas. It's an ideological battle as well as well as a battle for the truth. In some ways it is a battle for the soul of America. In my opinion I think the Sheehan thing is running out of steam. If people want to end this war then they can't rely on just one mother. Cindy Sheehan can't hold the entire weight of the anti-war movement on her shoulders. She has started something unique but the left must act now and demand that their elected officials act too. That's if they can get past those who would like to see Cindy Sheehan's head on a pole. (Check out Neil Shakespeare's fab work).

Cindy Sheehan and her supporters at Camp Casey have been challenged by a group of pro-war activists calling themselves the "You Don't Speak For Me Cindy Tour". These Bush supporters have established Camp Reality Kool Aid across the road from Camp Casey. The "You Don't Speak For Me Cindy Tour" started in California and made its way via caravan to Crawford to tell Cindy that she doesn't speak for them. So, exactly, who are these people whom Cindy Sheehan does not speak for?

This counter-protest is organized by the friendly folks at the Orwellian-named Move America Forward, a self-proclaimed "non-partisan" organization. But Move America Forward is in fact a right-wing political advocacy group founded and headed by California Republicans and staff members of the public relations firm Russo Marsh and Rogers, which has strong ties to the Republican Party. Well of course Cindy doesn't speak for these fascist warmongers. Anti-Sheehan protest leader and conservative talk radio host Melanie Morgan doesn't have children in Iraq so why would she care about Peace Mom Cindy?

Morgan might be a somewhat attractive bubble-headed bleached blonde that resembles Stifler's Mom from American Pie, but she's really a wingnut psycho hose beast who chooses to sublimate her repressed gambling addiction by yelling anti-Sheehan outbursts from Camp Kool Aid. Yes, I said gambling addiction. Her penchant for dice and poker chips was so heinous back in the 1990's that she had her very own made-for-TV movie called High Stakes: The Melanie Morgan Story! When the Lifetime Network makes a movie about you then you know you have serious problems. I looked far and wide but was unable to find any pictures from this 1997 movie so I made my own poster seen to the right.

Truth Out has some great reports and video clips from Camp Casey vs. Camp Kool Aid. My favorite one is the war supporter who says he won't join the military to fight in Iraq because he can "better serve here in America". Make sure to check out the gal with the "Kick Their Ass and Take Their Gas" sign. If Toby Keith is smart he'll snatch that catchy phrase for his next hit single "Stealin' Oil For Jesuz".

Surprise! You've Just Been Swift-Boated!

Frank Rich describes the attempted right-wing Swift-Boating of Cindy Sheehan:

True to form, the attack on Cindy Sheehan surfaced early on Fox News, where she was immediately labeled a "crackpot" by Fred Barnes. The right-wing blogosphere quickly spread tales of her divorce, her angry Republican in-laws, her supposed political flip-flops, her incendiary sloganeering and her association with known ticket-stub-carrying attendees of "Fahrenheit 9/11." Rush Limbaugh went so far as to declare that Ms. Sheehan's "story is nothing more than forged documents - there's nothing about it that's real." But this time the Swift Boating failed, utterly, and that failure is yet another revealing historical marker in this summer's collapse of political support for the Iraq war.

He continues by identifying the anatomy of a smear:

When the Bush mob attacks critics like Ms. Sheehan, its highest priority is to change the subject. If we talk about Richard Clarke's character, then we stop talking about the administration's pre-9/11 inattentiveness to terrorism. If Thomas Wilson is trashed as an insubordinate plant of the "liberal media," we forget the Pentagon's abysmal failure to give our troops adequate armor (a failure that persists today, eight months after he spoke up). If we focus on Joseph Wilson's wife, we lose the big picture of how the administration twisted intelligence to gin up the threat of Saddam's nonexistent W.M.D.'s.

The hope this time was that we'd change the subject to Cindy Sheehan's "wacko" rhetoric and the opportunistic left-wing groups that have attached themselves to her like barnacles. That way we would forget about her dead son. But if much of the 24/7 media has taken the bait, much of the public has not.    

                        

Cindy Sheehan has galvanized the anti-war movement like no one has done before. At this crucial moment when public support for the president and his war are waning, she has arrived like a clear voice in the night, speaking simply and clearly, standing strong against the tide of war, injustice and imperial brutality. Her brave actions have spawned a faithful group of followers at Camp Casey.

These heroic actions have hit a nerve deep within the right-wing leviathan. They must truly feel threatened by this peace mom if they cast her as a traitor and spew their wicked slime across her noble name. These chickenhawk pundits appear to be in the last throes of a desperate insurgency. Why else would they denounce her so vehemently?

Perhaps America is slowly waking up from its long slumber . . .

Related: [Interracial Falafel Sex on the Factor]  [Rush Limbaugh in his Last Throes]

cindy sheehan politics war

Rush Limbaugh Hates Freedom

Quote of the week from the three-hour hatemongering pilonidal cyst-infested Rush Limbaugh. [MediaMatters]:

We just had Stephen Breyer saying, oh, yeah, totally appropriate, we must import what they're doing around the world in other democracies, it will help buttress their attempt to establish the rule of law, and we might learn something, too. Well, here's something I'd like to import. I'd like to import the ability that the Brits are doing to export and deport a bunch of hate-rhetoric filled mullahs and imams that are stoking anti-American sentiment. Wouldn't it be great if anybody who speaks out against this country, to kick them out of the country? Anybody that threatens this country, kick 'em out. We'd get rid of Michael Moore, we'd get rid of half the Democratic Party if we would just import that law. That would be fabulous. The Supreme Court ought to look into this. Absolutely brilliant idea out there.

Last time I checked it was still kosher to speak out against one's government. Then again, I wouldn't mind moving to a beach house in La Libertad, El Salvador, as long as the DEA puts Rush in jail and then pays me his salary.

rush limbaugh politics war freedom

Deconstructing O'Reilly

Hannah Selinger at Raw Story on Bill O'Reilly:

What Bill O’Reilly says is irrelevant. He also likened downtown Portland, OR to Greenwich Village, stating that, like New York’s coolest neighborhood, Portland was home to countless street junkies. Clearly the man has issues. Disturbingly, though, people listen and subscribe to O’Reilly’s fallacies, choosing to believe that liberals have fostered a climate of Anti-Americanism. His callousness is, admittedly, somewhat attractive, because he’s confident in his points and because he refuses to back down, even when publicly embarrassed (see: loofa). And for whatever reason, these are the qualities that make him an important public figure.

Point being? Presentation of information is everything. If he had time and one semi-factual tidbit to contribute, Bill O’Reilly could probably convince people that the world is flat. His arguments may be half-baked, but his technique works, and there is nothing scarier than acknowledging that people are actually listening and adhering to what he says.

She makes some good points, although a left-wing version of O'Reilly wouldn't necessarily sell. Substance no longer matters and image is everything. The medium is the message. The Fox News Channel knows this technique very well. We can expect this technique to spread into local Fox stations since Roger Ailes has been appointed Chairman of all Fox television stations.

The right is highly skilled in the tactics of propaganda and misinformation to spread their message. The left needs to get their act together. I guess I need to read up Goebbels and how to fight misinformation. Here are two recent interesting posts which tackle this subject:

• 3 Old Men: Syllabus for Logic 101: The Ad Hominem Fallacy
• Liberal Revolt: 25 Ways to Suppress The Truth

I honestly can't believe O'Reilly wrote a book for kids. In one of the chapters he warns teenagers not to keep records of their sexual experiences while he was getting his horny phone calls tape recorded. Check out Jesus' General's version of O'Reilly's book. Here's my version:    

                   

When Reality Intrudes...

See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.

—President Bush, Greece, N.Y., May 24, 2005

Wow. I don't think that was in the script. Bushism of the year indeed.

Update: Crooks & Liars has the mp3 and the Whitehouse website has the transcript from the phony town hall meeting at Greece Athena Middle and High School. Onegoodmove has a video clip (quicktime) of Bush's Freudian slip.

PROPAGANNON!

The latest scandal brewing in the Bush administration would have Joseph Goebbels jealous. Earlier this year we learned that "independent" commentators were paid thousands of taxpayer dollars to sell Bush administration programs on national TV (Armstrong Williams). Now we've learned that several federal government agencies have produced video news releases for TV stations. Many stations ran these spots on their newscasts which contains actors pretending to be actual reporters with no mention that the spots were produced by the government. The White House defended these videos saying the practice was appropriate as long as the videos presented factual information about government programs. However, the Government Accountability Office (GAO)--the investigative arm of Congress--says that these videos amount to illegal "covert propaganda" when they fail to make plain that the government is behind the releases. This media manipulation story goes way deeper than just Jeff Gannon, the GOP insider/member of White House Press Corps/gay prostitute who lobbed softball questions to Scott McClellan and Dubya for two years before being outed as a hack reporter.