Baron Dave Romm
Campaign 2010
By Baron Dave Romm
Friend
me on Facebook
Mention Bartcop-E in the Friend
Request
Watch short and idiosyncratic videos on Baron Dave's You Tube Channel
Leftover ranting
Last week, I said that I would talk about the reason to vote for the Democratic candidate rather than just vote against Republicans, but the Benedict Arnold Express has got me even madder. I hope that the center/left base is getting passionate too. This is an important election.
Karl Rove technique: Attack their strengths
Bush key advisor Karl Rove had a deceptively simple technique: Attack their strengths. He had it easy: The gullible right wing just ate up all the lies; the Big Lies repeated ad nauseum in the conservative news media. You, representing the Sane Faction, have a harder job: You have to tell the truth, which is politically incorrect. Here are a few truths to rebut the cherished yet incorrect firm beliefs of the right, with some sound-bite-sized responses.
Republicans are bad for the economy and always expand government. When they talk about "smaller government" or "spending less" they're simply lying. Your response to being called a "tax and spend liberals" is "responsible government" and "you're a spend and red ink conservative". From last week: Paying People Not To Work a DKos Diary from deaniac83; analysis of the Dem and GOP tax plans.
The teabaggers are the worst branch of the extremists. Maybe they're not evil manipulative evil billionaires. Maybe they're just gullible morons. In any event, they're lying. Bill Clinton points out that the teabaggers are beholden to special interests. Even Jesse Ventura dares to point out that the tea baggers are not anything that could be considered a grass roots movement and gets cut off.
Don't say "Republicans", say "Tea Party Republicans"
The conservative news media likes to trumpet how poorly the Democratic Party is doing in polls. What they rarely mention is that Republicans are doing as bad or worse. Basically, the Republican strategy of The Party of No has worked and no one likes them or the Democrats who didn't use their large majority to get things done. Your response: "To get things accomplished, we need larger Democratic majorities."
One clue as to how conservative the polling is: They avoid polls that favor Dems (good summary at DKos diary by kos, GOP agenda remains unloved, unwanted and Is the Dems' Bush strategy finally gaining traction?) and don't ask questions of the secessionist and birthers, such as How wrong was Galileo? or Were you kidnapped and probed by aliens? I'd be willing to bet that the people who insist Elvis is alive are far more inclined to be teabaggers than those who don't. But no one asks.
Rush Limbaugh is not just a lying liar, he's a sexual perv: Limbaugh Condones Sexual Harassment Of Sports Reporter: She Has 'Bootylicious' 'ASS-ets'
Republicans are always soft on crime... when it's theirs. Eg Bush-era War Crimes
Republicans aren't just mean spirited, they're mean. Conservatives have no moral compass. Without a grounding in morality, they can't understand the world around them. They will say and do anything to get elected, regardless of veracity or sanity. This is the legacy of Roger Ailes and Lee Atwater and Karl Rove, who cynically played on the worst fears and encouraged ignorance.
Tell the truth about their god Ronald Reagan.
Reagan was a terrible president (and not a nice person). He started the era of Big Government, far more than LBJ, with obscene budget deficits. The Soviet Union reacted to Jimmy Carter's military buildup, but didn't increase their military budget after the early 80s. Reagan didn't outspend the Soviets, he just put you into debt and lied about it. He funded terrorists, leading to 9/11. He had the most corrupt administration yet. (This is why the radical right wants to control the judiciary: They want to jail anyone with small amounts of illegal drugs but ripping off taxpayers for millions is okay.)
Reagan was soft on terrorism: He ran away from the bombings in Lebanon, and hostages taken in his watch were killed and kept for a long time. (All of the hostages taken under Carter were released safely.)
The Confederacy was mostly about slavery, and not popular with many southerners at the time.
The Confederacy was not all that popular in the South, and the "heritage" of the Southern states should include real patriots not just racists. During the slavery period and the Civil War, not all of the South was in favor of slavery or the Confederacy. Most Confederate states sent troops to the Union side (all but South Carolina, iirc, though that's not specifically mentioned in the article), and western Virginia, which would later become a state because of its overwhelming anti-confederate sentiment during the Civil War in 1983. Nevada was admitted to the United States in 1864 and immediate joined the Union side, sending their state constitution via e-mail (the longest telegraph message ever sent up to then).
During Sherman's march to the sea, barely a remnant of a rebel army in the path of all of Georgia and General Sherman was quick to take full advantage of this departure which led to increase desertions among Confederate soldiers in the field. Continuing their racial hatred, Jefferson C. Davis removed the pontoon bridge before the slaves crossed. Frightened men, women, and children plunged into the deep water, and many drowned in an attempt to reach safety (though Sherman defended this as a military tactic, it was clearly designed to kill freed slaves). Meanwhile, many Southerners supported Sherman: Sherman's personal escort on the march was the 1st Alabama Cavalry Regiment, a unit made up entirely of Southerners who remained loyal to the Union.
Clinton, Gore and the Democrats warned Bush about terror attacks before 9/11 and Bush screwed up.
After 9/11: Bush administration bungling allowed Bin Laden to get away dKos Diary from Laurence Lewis with lots of links, 9/19/10. Whenever you bring up the Bush administration being asleep at the wheel before 9/11, they immediately get all huffy and rail against those who accuse Bush of causing 9/11. For example, Armed pilots banned2 months before 9-11 from a right wing site blames the airlines but doesn't mention that the Hart/Rudman report predicted a 9/11-style attack in January 2001.
Don't let them change the subject. Bush was a major screw up, and if the Supreme Court hadn't stolen the election then the World Trade Center towers would still be standing. Then go on the offensive: the far right yearns for terrorist attacks. Tea Party Republicans want to win elections, they don't want to keep America safe. (other terrorist attacks under Bush)
Dealing with The Big Lie
In almost any discussion, we know what the Republicans will do: They will lie. Eg, Bachmann Decries Rumors, Then Spreads Them Factcheck.org 9/18/10.
The counter to a blowhard is from Moynihan (or Bernard Baruch): "You may have your own opinions, but you can't have your own facts." Let's face it: Conservatives don't live in the world G_d made.
When they defend their lies, or insist that they believe their view of reality despite the evidence, say: "Jesus was a liberal, why aren't you? Bearing False Witness breaks one of the ten commandments. Which other Commandments are you breaking?"
Alternately (or in addition), when you encounter a bald-faced lie (the picayune ones aren't worth fighting over... yet) say. "You need to apologize. You don't have any credibility until you admit you were wrong." Say this over and over until they either apologize or leave. Don't be distracted by any attempts to change the subject. You caught them in a lie. Hold their feet to the fire. When they leave, say, "It takes a real man to admit he's wrong. You're just a coward." Tough love, baby, tough love.
When called a liberal: "Thank you."
(from last week) Taxes are your money, but the deficit is your deficit. Just to pay for Conservative spending and red-ink accounting, you owe a lot of money. You owe (as of this writing) $43,535.22. Time to pay up.
Dealing with Birthers (from last week) Anyone who can't tell an American from a non-citizen is too stupid to own a gun. This isn't about rights, it's about personal responsibility.
For secessionists (from last week) Being a patriot means loving America even if you lose an election. All those who want to secede from the US are traitors. They claim to be patriots, but they're lying. Here's a deal: Real Americans will trade anyone who wants to leave the US with a foreigner who wants to live in America and work and pay taxes.
When they say something about "the liberal media" or "liberals in Congress" respond, "if only there were!"
The right can dish it out, but they can't take it
The Benedict Arnold Express has been doing nothing but spewing hate and lies, then gets all girly when you have the cojones to repeat a fraction of their zeal back at them. Tough love, baby, rough love. They may have started out thinking they were patriots, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions and it doesn't help that they're racist morons. They're traitors, pure and simple. Republicans were too stupid to ditch their hatemongers and now they're stuck with them. We, as Americans, can't let the bastards win.
"Social Conservative" = "hatemonger". Don't enable their hate. Tough love, baby, tough love.
"I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends.... That if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them." -- Adlai E. Stevenson
Baron Dave Romm is a conceptual artist and a noble of Ladonia who produces Shockwave Radio Theater, writes in a Live Journal demi-blog maintains a Facebook Page, plays with a very weird CD collection and an ever growing list of political links. Dave Romm reviews things at random for obscure web sites. You can read all his music recommendations from Bartcop-E. Podcasts of Shockwave Radio Theater. Permanent archive. A nascent collection of videos are on Baron Dave's YouTube channel. More radio programs, interviews and science fiction humor plays can be accessed on the Shockwave Radio audio page.
Thanks to everyone who has sent me music to play on the air.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
James Rainey: Fake news flourishes under the feds' noses (latimes.com)
An old actor I know would watch a plodding drama and growl, "If you watch closely, it almost moves. That's the feeling I'm getting, taking a look at the federal government's flimsy and fitful crackdown on news outlets and experts that fob off public relations drivel as news.
What I'm really thinking: The recent graduate (guardian.co.uk)
"It's hard at the moment," everybody keeps saying. But it was hard last year, too. Some of my university friends (many with postgraduate degrees) have been out of work since graduating in 2009. What I'm really thinking? I'm terrified.
Sandy Banks: A retired L.A. teacher ponders her rating (latimes.com)
Faye Ireland is being followed into retirement with the painful 'least effective' rating. But 45 years' worth of heartfelt thank-yous attest otherwise and offer comfort.
Stephen Moss: "Benares tragedy: 'All I can remember were the screams and cries for help'" (guardian.co.uk)
On 17 September 1940 a German U-boat sank the City of Benares. Eighty-one child evacuees died. On the eve of the 70th anniversary, some of the survivors talk about this forgotten tragedy.
Jim Hightower: A GROSS INSULT TO UNEMPLOYED AMERICANS
At last, Obama is getting serious about America's jobs crisis, proposing a $50-billion effort to put Americans to work repairing our national infrastructure. Of course, congressional Republicans have responded as they always do: petulantly shouting "no" and plopping their fat butts down in the middle of the legislative path to block progress.
Lucy Mangan: A slice of life (guardian.co.uk)
My new toaster is causing me all sorts of problems. It's a bit like a metaphor for everyday existence, really.
Garry Wills: Bernard Knox (1914-2010) (nybooks.com)
The psychological and psychiatric tests the Jeds were subjected to had one basic objective: to select men psychologically incapable of remaining quiet-troublemakers, in fact; people who could be relied on to upset applecarts. I have no great admiration for psychology as taught and practiced in the United States, still less for psychiatry, but I have to admit that the men in charge of selecting the Jedburghs delivered the goods. I have never known such a bunch of troublemakers in my life.
George Varga: "Jimi Hendrix: Paying Tribute"
In his short yet meteoric career, the late Jimi Hendrix almost single-handedly redefined the role of the electric guitar in rock 'n' roll and rock 'n' roll itself. An aural innovator, cosmic bluesman, young soul rebel and musical and sexual shaman all rolled into one, this Seattle-born virtuoso created a hugely influential artistic legacy. Hendrix, who died in London on Sept. 18, 1970, achieved such an enduring impact that he is now embraced by several generations of musicians and fans around the world.
Gina McIntyre: Bruce Campbell Is Far from 'Dead' (Los Angeles Times)
Bruce Campbell speaks about what it was like to revisit his past and to speculate about whether he's likely to pick up that boomstick once more.
DAVE ITZKOFF: Woody Allen on Faith, Fortune Tellers and New York (nytimes.com)
Asked on Tuesday morning if it was appropriate to wish him a happy Jewish New Year, Woody Allen made it clear that such formalities were not necessary. "No, no, no," he said with a chuckle, seated in an office suite at the Loews Regency hotel. "That's for your people," he told this reporter. "I don't follow it. I wish I could get with it. It would be a big help on those dark nights."
John C Reilly: Confessions of a scene-stealer (guardian.co.uk)
He's the character actor who has played everything from porn stars to vampires. But now John C Reilly is finally landing juicy lead roles. Ryan Gilbey meets him.
roger ebert's journal: A seance with Errol Morris (Toronto Report #5)
It's little wonder Errol Morris and Werner Herzog are good friends. They have this in common: They make strange, brilliant films, and they have strange, brilliant minds.
The Weekly Poll
Current Question
The 'Cleaning House' Edition
Flint (MI) public housing authority, in an effort to fight crime in the projects, is considering a requirement for all current and prospective residents to take a drug test to keep their federally subsidized apartments.... Housing Commission Executive Rodney Slaughter said he wants a drug-testing program modeled after the city of Indianapolis, where public housing residents are required to take annual drug tests. If a resident tests positive, they would have 30 days to test negative or seek help...
Flint eyes drug tests for public housing | detnews.com | The Detroit News
Would you support such a policy in your community?
Send your response to
wrote:
responded:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Link from RJ
The Tomorrow Men
Hi there
Thought you might like this...
Reader Suggestions
Michelle in AZ
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still sunny, still cooler than seasonal.
Visits Brazil
Benicio del Toro
Actor Benicio del Toro lent a touch of Hollywood glamour Saturday to the campaign of Brazil's ruling party candidate in presidential elections, Dilma Rousseff.
The two had a brief discussion over breakfast in a hotel in the northern of Sao Paulo suburb of Campinas.
Rousseff, the candidate of Presidente Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's leftwing Workers Party, told reporters the two spoke about "cinema, the importance of Latin America."
Del Toro, whose leftist sympathies led him to play Che Guevara in an acclaimed role, declined to speak to the media about his show of support to Rousseff.
Benicio del Toro
War Flag Returned
Paris
On the day Paris was liberated from the Nazis in 1944, a young American soldier nabbed a souvenir of epic proportions: He took home the French flag that hung from the Arc de Triomphe, a symbol of the end of four years of struggle and shame.
Six and a half decades later, the aging veteran has given the flag back to the city of Paris.
Officials from Paris City Hall took possession of the 12-meter (13-yard) tricolor flag Saturday in a ceremony in southern France, a step in its unusual journey from New York state back home to Paris. The American veteran remains anonymous, too ashamed to come forward.
French officials have no intention of scolding him: They have only thanks and kind words for him, pointing out that he once risked his life for France.
Paris
New Exhibit
Georgia O'Keeffe
Beneath layers of paint, wrapped in bundles of brushes, hidden in sketch books and packed away among boxes of paints and pencils are clues that shed light on how Georgia O'Keeffe went about creating her colorful landscapes and iconic flower paintings.
Like forensic investigators, curators at the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe have spent months combing through their collection and now they're ready to share the many bits of evidence they have collected as part of the exhibition "O'Keeffiana: Art and Art Materials," which opens Friday and runs through next May.
The collection of O'Keeffe's never-before-displayed art materials, preparatory drawings, Polaroids and a pair of unfinished paintings is designed to give visitors a better understanding of how the late American modernist transferred her ideas about the world around her onto canvas.
The O'Keeffe Museum has a wealth of materials from the artist's estate. At the time of her death in 1986, O'Keeffe's two homes in northern New Mexico and most everything in them were set aside for preservation. That included her brushes, paint chips with notes jotted on the back, sketch books, canvases and hundreds of rocks and bleached animal bones she gathered over decades of exploring the high desert.
Georgia O'Keeffe
Key To Fashion Riddle
"Master of the Blue Jeans"
Workaday staple and fashion favourite, blue jeans have conquered the planet. But were they born in the textile mills of New Hampshire, on France's southern coast or the looms of north Italy?
Art historians believe they have found a piece of the centuries-old puzzle in the work of a newly discovered 17th-century north Italian artist, dubbed the "Master of the Blue Jeans", whose paintings went on show in Paris this week.
"The works are very attached to the detail of clothing -- it was very rare for a painter to characterise the poor with such detail," said curator Gerlinde Gruber, who helped to identify the anonymous artist's works.
Other details in his work, such as a knotted white kerchief in a painting entitled "Mother Sewing", enabled curators to locate the scenes in northern Italy, in the region of Venice.
Historians have long traced jeans' ancestry to two sources outside the United States: a sturdy fabric from the French city of Nimes -- "de Nimes", hence "denim" -- on the one hand, and a cotton fustian from Genoa in Italy -- "Genes" in French, becoming "Jeans" in English -- on the other.
"Master of the Blue Jeans"
Makes Light Of Witchcraft Comment
Christine O'Donnell
Republican Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell is making light of comments she made more than a decade ago about having dabbled in witchcraft.
During an appearance Sunday at a GOP picnic in southern Delaware, O'Donnell said she was in high school when she dabbled in witchcraft. She asked the audience: "How many of you didn't hang out with questionable folks in high school?"
O'Donnell, a conservative Christian activist, won the GOP Senate primary last week with the help of tea party supporters. Her comments about witchcraft were made during an episode of comedian Bill Maher's "Politically Incorrect" show.
A clip hit the Internet as O'Donnell canceled Sunday appearances on two national news shows. Her campaign said she had to back out because the news shows conflicted with her Delaware schedule.
Christine O'Donnell
Squatters
Randy Quaid
Actor Randy Quaid and his wife are facing burglary charges in California after the owner of the couple's old house reported they had been living there without permission.
A representative of the property owner called Santa Barbara County sheriff's deputies Saturday afternoon to report that squatters had been staying in the guest house illegally. When deputies arrived at the house that evening, they found Randy and Evi Quaid, who said they had owned the property since the 1990s.
The property owner's representative provided documents that showed his client had bought the home in 2007 from a man who had purchased it from the Quaids several years earlier. A contractor showed police more than $5,000 in damages to the guest house that he believed was caused by the Quaids.
Police arrested the Quaids on charges of felony residential burglary and entering a noncommercial building without consent, a misdemeanor. Police also charged Evi Quaid, 47, with resisting arrest.
Randy Quaid
Fire Destroys Home
Ricki Lake
Authorities say Ricki Lake's beachfront rental home in Malibu has burned down.
Los Angeles County sheriff's officials say deputies answering a 911 call Saturday found the 41-year-old actress and talk show host, her two sons and their dog standing safely outside.
Firefighters put out the blaze in 20 minutes, but the home was destroyed.
Sheriff's Lt. Rich Erickson tells the Los Angeles Times that a couch caught fire when Lake was refuelling a portable heater.
Ricki Lake
Squeeze Out Sin
Moral Search Engines
Seek and ye shall find. A number of new Internet search engines created by Christian, Jewish or Muslim entities aim to filter out queries from Web users in a way that is more relevant to those users and keeps them from temptation, alcohol and pornography.
If one types the world alcohol into imhalal.com, the search engine produces results that explain the Muslim viewpoint on drinking. Type in "pornography," and the search engine produces... nothing.
For Christians, SeekFind offers "a research tool for people who are looking for biblical and theological content from an evangelical Christian prospective," says founder Shea Houdmann, who operates from Colorado Springs, Colorado.
According to the seekfind.org website, the search engine functions by "only indexing websites that are Biblically-based, theologically-sound, and in agreement with our statement of faith.
For the Jewish community, the niche is filled by another engine called Jewogle, which bears a passing resemblance to Google.
Moral Search Engines
Far-Right Surge
Sweden
A far-right party entered the Swedish Parliament for the first time in elections Sunday, spoiling the center-right government's victory and majority, and plunging the country into political disarray, preliminary results showed.
Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt was seeking to become the first center-right leader to win re-election after serving a full term in a Scandinavian welfare nation dominated for decades by the left-wing Social Democrats.
But the Islam-bashing Sweden Democrats held the balance of power after winning 5.7 percent of the votes for 20 seats in the 349-seat legislature, according to results.
Reinfeldt's four-party coalition won 172 seats, three short of a majority, while the left-wing opposition got 157 seats.
Sweden
High School Dress Code
Nose Ring
A soft-spoken 14-year-old's nose piercing has landed her a suspension from school and forced her into the middle of a fight over her First Amendment right to exercise her religion.
Ariana Iacono says she just wants to be a normal teenager at Clayton High School, about 15 miles southeast of Raleigh. She has been suspended since last week because her nose ring violates the Johnston County school system's dress code.
Iacono and her mother, Nikki, belong to the Church of Body Modification, a small group unfamiliar to rural North Carolina, but one with a clergy, a statement of beliefs and a formal process for accepting new members.
It's enough to draw the interest of the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which has contacted school officials with concerns that the rights of the Iaconos are being violated by the suspension.
Nose Ring
Weekend Box Office
'The Town'
"The Town" is the talk of the box office, opening with $23.8 million to take the No. 1 spot.
The intense Warner Bros. drama about bank robbers in an insular section of Boston earned rave reviews. This is the second movie directed by Ben Affleck, who stars alongside Jeremy Renner, Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm and Chris Cooper.
The high-school comedy "Easy A" from Columbia Pictures came in second place with $18.2 million, according to Sunday estimates. And the Universal Pictures thriller "Devil" from producer M. Night Shyamalan, about strangers trapped in an elevator, landed in third with $12.6 million.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "The Town," $23.8 million.
2. "Easy A," 18.2 million.
3. "Devil," $12.6 million.
4. "Resident Evil: Afterlife," $10.1 million.
5. "Alpha and Omega," $9.2 million.
6. "Takers," $9 million.
7. "The American," $2.8 million.
8. "Inception," $2 million.
9. "The Other Guys," $2 million.
10. "Machete," $1.7 million.
'The Town'
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
