Gone To The Dogs (a poem)
Gone To The Dogs
(If the Democratic Party were a lovable mutt)

by

trotcop


As his moderate tail,
Moves to the right,
The lovable mutt,
Gives chase with great delight.

The years roll by,
He makes no gain,
Then one day he feels,
A sharp searing pain.

He realizes too late,
All the time he's let pass.
The only thing that he accomplished,
Is he bit his own ass.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1346790

  
New reality
        


I submit we are now "studying" such a new post election manufactured reality: "It was the values all along"
The quote:
''That's not the way the world really works anymore,'' he continued. ''We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.''
and this is what we now study:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/11/05/opinion/meyer/main653931.shtml
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Moral Values Malarkey
WASHINGTON, Nov. 5, 2004
This Against the Grain commentary was written by CBSNews.com's Dick Meyer.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Let’s try to snuff this election’s new Big Theory before it becomes Conventional Wisdom, although it’s probably too late.
snip
While the nexus of issues boiled into the words "moral values" certainly were a big factor in this election, it’s being exaggerated partly because of the oddities of the poll itself and partly because the Big Theory conforms with what Republican strategists want you to believe.
First, the poll: If the poll had been worded or constructed only slightly differently, moral values would not have been the top issue. We’re building a worldview out of a small, odd vista.

To those who hope in "behind the curtains action"

31. From the reality vased community - if interested:
"Kerry forces planned for a
battle that never was" (by Patrick Healy, Boston Globe, Thursday Nov.
4, The Nation section, p. A340.)
It was Cahill who
shared the (not good) news..to the nominee who was working off of five
hours of sleep...And while a team of lawyers pressed to go to court on
Ohio at 8 am to challenge the state's vote-counting procedures, Cahill
said, KERRY DID NOT SEE THE POINT.
'He immediately just decided that in order to go forward in a time of
war, an election lawsuit was not something that he wanted to put the
country through' Cahill said."
Mike Papantonio - lawyer on the campaign was on Ring on Fire (Air America) with Reno (black comedienne).(he usually co-hosts with Bobby Kennedy) She asked him why was he turned around from the tarmac - en route for Ohio - election night. After repeated questioning, he admitted that "certain elements in the party thought it would make us look like cry babies"
he proceeded to tell her "get over it" about 10 times to which I am happy to say she yelled: "No way I am"

PeteNYC
Kerry will soldier on - the battle is just beginning
I unintentionally offended some DUers by saying "Kerry isn't about to "pull a Gore." I admire and respect Al Gore, and my reference was specifically to his decision to lay low for a relatively long period of time after SCOTUS robbed him of the presidency.
I don't know what's going to happen about voting problems/theft/anomalies, but I DO know - as I said in the previous thread - that Kerry's voice will be loud and clear in the coming days, weeks, and months. He's got the support of millions of Americans. He won't let go of the issues he fought for.
Take heart. The next four years are going to see an unprecedented movement on the part of Dems, liberals, progressives to hold * accountable for EVERY fuck up.
America is going to have a major case of buyer's remorse when all is said and done.

Patrick
Sat Nov-06-04 02:29 PM
Response to Reply #8
15. Can't he add the consequences?
Never mind the vote count. The country has been tested and sifted. The shit is immobilized at the top and I include democrats who have deceived us for four long years by not stopping but increasing fraud then marching us into the guns and then like Bonnie Prince Charlie, fleeing to their mansions.
The worst part is not that flight, but that pretension they are "still in the game". Hello, the game is no longer there. They are the Great Auk preening the last feathers, basking in the twilight of their demise.
The carrier pigeon never asked us to join it. All hail the graciousness of the carrier pigeon.
There is nothing but tyranny and anarchy in fact with the spotty official remnants in their Montaigne Towers pretending, pretending, they are the last parts of America.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2619234

I came full circle


I left Ceausescu's Romania for freedom. The stupid think is that for 20 years I never gave it a second thought. Then, just as I became a trekkie when it was over - from watching reruns - I started to get the taste of democracy years after it disappeared. I got engaged in 2000 when I felt personally robbed and thought - at every step that I was empowered. Turned out it was all a lie.
The ruling party just got rulinger"
said Mark Crispin Miller
So, I am back to enjoying my family, my garden, my city, my friends - for as long as they let us - then contemplate flight.
Still, I will have to figure out a way of continuing the fight to bring back democracy - eventhough I doubt I will live to see it (Ceausescu ruled for 35 years). But someone has to keep it going. So, without illusions, unicorns, raibows and rah, rah, rah - I am still in it.
It was stolen, damn it - and we need to bring back elections. Some day.

NEW DIRTY WORD


"Are too!"..."Am not"!..."Are too!"..."Am not!""
Author daldem    

1811 posts
Date Fri Nov-05-04 10:25 AM

  

        


My conversation with my republican stepson this morning.
Daldem: "Congratulations, you evangelicals pulled it off"
Stepson: "I'm NOT an evangelical".
Daldem: "Yes you are"
Stepson: "I am not, I'm a Methodist"
Daldem: "Maybe so, but deep down you're an evangelical".
Stepson: "I am not !"
Daldem: "That is okay if you are, I still love you"
Stepson: "I am NOT an evangelical"
Kids, I think we have a new dirty word. It is even better
than Liberal. From this day forwad every republican that
I know will be addressed as an evangelical. After many
"are toos and am nots" I ended the conversation saying that
apparently he needs to find out more about his own party's
base.

DU sez CNN: Edwards likely to be named DNC chair
my entry:
robbedvoter  (1000+ posts)         Fri Nov-05-04 12:37 PM
Response to Original message
24. Perfect. Dead meat for a dead party.Edited on Fri Nov-05-04 12:41 PM by robbedvoter
The guy who co-sponsored IWR and got praise for ONE SPEECH is the perfect figurehead for the party that ignores voter fraud, can't really oppose a war and tries to snooker people that it's on their side.
Way to celebrate ineffectiveness!
I am all for it - but then again, I left the party when this patsy was put on the ticket.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=203&topic_id=23 594#

Le mot juste

"I think a large part of the public likes the conservatives' theme music. Now they will be tested on whether they like the lyrics." -- Barney Frank

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6407226/site/newsweek /
The "Outlandish" McCain Offer. Kerry's courtship of
Senator John McCain to be his running mate was
longer-standing and more intense than previously
reported. As far back as August 2003, Kerry had taken
McCain to breakfast to sound him out to run on a unity
ticket. McCain batted away the idea as not serious,
but Kerry, after he wrapped up the nomination in
March, went back after McCain a half-dozen more times.
"To show just how sincere he was, he made an
outlandish offer," Newsweek's Thomas reports. "If
McCain said yes he would expand the role of vice
president to include secretary of Defense and the
overall control of foreign policy. McCain exclaimed,
'You're out of your mind. I don't even know if it's
constitutional, and it certainly wouldn't sell.'"
Kerry was thwarted and furious. "Why the f--- didn't
he take it? After what the Bush people did to him...'"


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6407226/site/newsweek /
Edwards Campaigns for Veep. Hours after bowing out of
the presidential nomination race on March 3, the
senator from North Carolina convened a small circle of
his closest advisers at his house on P Street in
Georgetown. He wanted the veep nomination, Edwards
told his aides, he wanted it badly, and from that
moment was going to wage "a full-fledged campaign" to
ensure that he got it.

Mark Crispin Miller


First of all, this election was definitely rigged. I have no doubt
about it. It's a statistical impossibility that Bush got 8 million more
votes than he got last time. In 2000, he got 15 million votes from
right-wing Christians, and there are approximately 19 million of them
in the country. They were eager to get the other 4 million. That was
pretty much Karl Rove's strategy to get Bush elected.

But given Bush's low popularity ratings and the enormous number of new
voters -- who skewed Democratic -- there is no way in the world that
Bush got 8 million more votes this time
I actually got invited to a Kerry fundraiser so I could talk to him
about it.(Diebold) I raised the issue directly with him and with Teresa. Teresa
was really indignant and really concerned, but Kerry just looked down
at me -- he's about 9 feet tall -- and I could tell it just didn't
register. It set off all his conspiracy-theory alarms and he just
wasn't listening.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2004/11/04/election_reactions/
index1.html

What battleground demographics did W lock?

Birthmark  (1000+ posts) Thu Nov-04-04 01:59 PM
Response to Original message
1. He had the imaginary vote locked up.
That's one of his advantages. Those of us in the reality based community can never hope to pick up that increasingly important demographic.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=203&topic_id=20716#20771

Original message
Interesting Times.Edited on Thu Nov-04-04 10:35 AM by library_max
It's probably neither ancient nor Chinese, but the "ancient Chinese curse" of "May you live in interesting times" makes its point. It's often no fun to be there when history is made.
It's certainly no fun to look back and realize that the last free and fair Presidential election was in 1996. In 2000, the Republicans were surprised that it was so close, and they had to improvise a steal in Florida. This time, they had all their ducks in a row before the primaries. In retrospect, we never had a chance. Between electronic voting and gerrymandering and purges of the voting rolls and intimidating new and infrequent voters (read: Kerry voters), they had us coming and going. All the careful Democrats who voted absentee or provisional ballot to make sure that their votes got counted got to see the election called and conceded before the envelopes containing their votes were even opened.
And protest isn't going to change anything. Did it change anything in 2000? The votes were eventually counted in Florida in 2000, too, and Gore won. But Bush was already President. Same song, second verse.
The Republicans are now the PRI. They control all three branches at the federal and state levels. They can stay in power as long as they want. They are the government now. We need to give up the illusions that we matter politically, that there is any kind of partnership or cooperative role for Democrats. On the national level at least, we need to repudiate the government and all its works, because the government is the Republicans, pure and simple.
We are a true opposition party now. They are the establishment. We need to stand back and pick at their every misstep and failure and blunder, with mockery and cheap shots. We need everyone to understand that they, and not we, are running things and are responsible for the results. We need to ignore elections, at least on the federal level, for the foreseeable future. We need to prevent them from making us the fall guy for their failures, which is the only role they'll allow us politically. Like the PRI, eventually they'll become so ossified and institutional that they'll be vulnerable, but that point is decades away now.
For years, the Republicans have claimed that government is the enemy, that government can't and won't do anything to help anybody except the rich and powerful. Now they'll make it true. Watch education and every piece of the social safety net get "privatized" out of existence, at least on the federal level. "I'm from the government and I'm here to help you" really will become the bitter joke they've always claimed it is.
If there's anything we can accomplish politically, it'll be on the state level. We need to concentrate on state legislatures and governors' mansions. Because the federal government is going to concentrate on military adventurism and tax cutting, more and more functions will devolve to the states. If there's to be any decency and humane social institutions, they'll have to be on the state level. Imagine how little joy it gives me, a Texan, to write this.
We might as well face the facts. Republicans control all three branches at all levels. They control the news media. They control the process. A year ago, I'd have been the first to say that jeering and finger-pointing and demonizing the government are beneath us, no way to behave if we want the electorate to trust us with power. But they're the only way to behave now that the doors of power are sealed shut against us.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=203&topic_id=19905#20607
Thu Nov-04-04 01:23 PM
Response to Original message
10. Absolutely - well said.
I invite everyone to measure the owning of the process in Florida 2000 vs Florida 2004. One week of 4-8h lines in Miami Dade produced less votes than Gore got - yet not even Palast is bothering to go in the bowels of that one. Ohio will be just as clean next time.

Original message
Interesting Times.Edited on Thu Nov-04-04 10:35 AM by library_max
It's probably neither ancient nor Chinese, but the "ancient Chinese curse" of "May you live in interesting times" makes its point. It's often no fun to be there when history is made.
It's certainly no fun to look back and realize that the last free and fair Presidential election was in 1996. In 2000, the Republicans were surprised that it was so close, and they had to improvise a steal in Florida. This time, they had all their ducks in a row before the primaries. In retrospect, we never had a chance. Between electronic voting and gerrymandering and purges of the voting rolls and intimidating new and infrequent voters (read: Kerry voters), they had us coming and going. All the careful Democrats who voted absentee or provisional ballot to make sure that their votes got counted got to see the election called and conceded before the envelopes containing their votes were even opened.
And protest isn't going to change anything. Did it change anything in 2000? The votes were eventually counted in Florida in 2000, too, and Gore won. But Bush was already President. Same song, second verse.
The Republicans are now the PRI. They control all three branches at the federal and state levels. They can stay in power as long as they want. They are the government now. We need to give up the illusions that we matter politically, that there is any kind of partnership or cooperative role for Democrats. On the national level at least, we need to repudiate the government and all its works, because the government is the Republicans, pure and simple.
We are a true opposition party now. They are the establishment. We need to stand back and pick at their every misstep and failure and blunder, with mockery and cheap shots. We need everyone to understand that they, and not we, are running things and are responsible for the results. We need to ignore elections, at least on the federal level, for the foreseeable future. We need to prevent them from making us the fall guy for their failures, which is the only role they'll allow us politically. Like the PRI, eventually they'll become so ossified and institutional that they'll be vulnerable, but that point is decades away now.
For years, the Republicans have claimed that government is the enemy, that government can't and won't do anything to help anybody except the rich and powerful. Now they'll make it true. Watch education and every piece of the social safety net get "privatized" out of existence, at least on the federal level. "I'm from the government and I'm here to help you" really will become the bitter joke they've always claimed it is.
If there's anything we can accomplish politically, it'll be on the state level. We need to concentrate on state legislatures and governors' mansions. Because the federal government is going to concentrate on military adventurism and tax cutting, more and more functions will devolve to the states. If there's to be any decency and humane social institutions, they'll have to be on the state level. Imagine how little joy it gives me, a Texan, to write this.
We might as well face the facts. Republicans control all three branches at all levels. They control the news media. They control the process. A year ago, I'd have been the first to say that jeering and finger-pointing and demonizing the government are beneath us, no way to behave if we want the electorate to trust us with power. But they're the only way to behave now that the doors of power are sealed shut against us.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=203&topic_id=19905#20607

Famous last words:
I have no time for those crying in their teacups for stolen elections
John kerry - campaign trail 2003
And the picture
and link
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=11874&mesg_id=17986&page=

Reaction to Kerry's concession:


Sugarbleus (1000+ posts) Wed Nov-03-04 12:17 PM
Response to Reply #117
128. I asked for my money back too....
I'm a poor disabled woman but I pitched in each month for the first time in my life. I COULDN'T AFFORD that money. I feel like I've been ripped of by a televangelist!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=1301011#

Sean Hannity begging people to vote W,

7. Sniffling, voice choking up ...
whining (well he always does that).
Saying if you don't vote you get:
Ted Kennedy winning
Hillary Clinton winning
Michael Moore winning
Al Franken winning (athough he did call Michael and Al idiots).
This is great!

Freepers melt down:

Hey Fellow Freepers -- I thought we were made of sterner stuff. This race is far from over.
Before you decide to post an "AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGHHHHH!" or a "Nooooooooooo!!!" or some other girlie-man type howl of despair every time an exit poll doesn't go our way, just imagine how much fun the DUmmies are going to have picking up your comment and posting it over at DU.
So if you don't have anything constructive to say, howsabout you go cry in the bathroom until you get control of yourself, and spare us all your useless whining.
If Bush loses this, it's going to be tough enough around here without your adding to the DUmmies' schadenfreude.
Of course, if Bush wins, I'll see you all over there when I go to add to their misery.
But please, in the meantime, I expect better of you guys. Jeez, I'd hate to be in a foxhole with some of you spineless crybabies

First result:
Just in from Paris:
"Comme a chaque élection présidentielle , le Harris ' Bar a organisé un
vote pour les Américains a Paris .. Kerry l'emporte avec une très forte
majorité ! Et le vote au Harris s'est toujours révèlé exact depuis les
années 1920 !!
Pour ma part je pense que c'est gagné et que vous allez pouvoir fêter
votre victoire . Merci de m'avoir alimenté en informations durant cette
campagne . Jamais une élection présidentielle n'avait suscité un tel
intérêt ici , aussi loin que porte ma mémoire . Je vous embrasse . Michel"

meltdown in BFEE - from DU
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x94
Barett808
Sent: Saturday, October 30, 2004 9:51 PM
To: Class of 1976 discussion group.; Class of 1976 discussion group.
Subject: RE: Notes from a friend on what Kerry's team is saying
ok, got a call on my cell phone this am while taking my son to hockey. my friend in the kerry campaign spoke late last night with mark mehlman of the bush team. mehlman was a roomate of my friend when they were both at the harvard law school. they are at opposite ends of the politcal spectrum, but are very good friends. mehlman says the bush team is in "major melt down" because their polling has them losing in ohio and florida, so they are in a mad dash to pull something out in the upper midwest. michigan isn't really in play. he called it a "head fake". wisconsin is slipping away, bush spoke in green bay today to less than 5,000 people (kerry drew 80,000 in madison on thursday). iowa has the numbers potentially but they've focused on it way too late, after the dems had a massive absentee push, so iowa is unlikely. they can't win with minnesota alone and even that state doesn't look good.
mehlman says that there is incredible discord at the top. cheney is absolutley livid with rove on the overall strategy ("we peaked too soon you bastard") and with karen hughes for not adequately preparing bush for the debates ("he looked like a g** d***** mental patient"). cheney is apparently a "real monster". the rnc doesn't know what to do because they can't get any clear direction from the top.
mehlman says that bush's slide in their polls began about three weeks before the debates when kerry when into attack mode with major foreign policy speeches at nyu and at a national guard convention, the day after bush spoke. the slide accelerated big time after the debates, "everyone was as bad as the first with no let-up in free fall" according to mehlman. cheney freaked during the first debate, convinced that bush "'lost the f****** election in front of 65 million people". Now they simply don't have the numbers to win in Florida, have not got their ducks in a row to "deflect" the massive number of early voters and are having real trouble maintaining the base in Florida and elsewhere ("our people are just turning away"). in ohio they've been simply overwhelmed with the new voter registrations and have been unsuccessful in court challenges. bush's number actually go now when he visits ohio after Treasury Secretary Snow's comments in the state that job losses were a "myth". Additionally many repubs are pissed about the financial proligacy of Bush and Cheney and their incompetence in Iraq, so a lot are simply going to "take a pass", read not vote. bush apparently has been totally "out of it" believing Rove and Hughes that everything was fine and that victory was assured, but is finally and slowing catching on that he might lose this thing. yesterday morning when made aware of the bin laden tape in nh, simply said. "It's over."
maybe all this can be chalked up to mehlman having a tough week.

Voting story from Texas - Red Sox unamerican?

Tue Nov-02-04 08:39 AM
Wellstone Democrat
I got challenged! Here's why!
7:05 I got to my voting place in snow and wind attired in warm clothing and....my Red Sox cap. I thought I'd get a few looks but was actually surprised at how many and how *angry*---though they'd look over my head, see the husband in his RS cap and turn away
I got up to the table, the elderly woman looked at me, took my registration card and looked around sort of frantically. Up comes an officious little man who asked to see my card and I asked who he was. "We need to see if you are registered" Oh, I said, why? I have a *new* registration card and here's my license. Who are you? "A volunteer" he says (I'm still holding the license). For the city, county or state? I asked. "Just a volunteer" he answered. Can I have your name since you are getting mine I asked? No he said. I then told the worker that I wanted either the supervisor of that poll or the police. Because a strange man was asking to see identification and refused to say who he was: he could steal my identity! ( )
That panicked them (and got me a poke in the back from my entertained husband) and they muttered and mumbled and then the elderly woman said: "well that hat" which got her a dirty look from the "volunteer." OH? Said I. A problem with the World Champion Red Sox? No, no, no, they both said. "Never mind, have a nice day." OK, said I, I'm going to call the board of elections and ask why they didn't tell me I could not wear a Red Sox hat and be an American. The "volunteer's" parting shot? "Don't make trouble."
Whoo boy, wrong thing to say to a woman in Texas. Two men in the next line said a version of of "apologize to the lady" instantly. The little turd said "I have to make sure there is no fraud." He then looks at my husband and his RS cap and says simply: "give your registration card to the clerk" My husband, my dear sweet quiet husband looked *down* at the little man and said: "Any problems with *my* hat?" No, no, no said the "volunteer" and the people around actually *hooted* as he walked away. As I squeezed between the lines to get to the booths a very old man in the next line grabbed my arm and said: "Honey, you vote for who you want. Its America and I'll probably cancel you out anyway!" Then, he looked at the "B" on the hat, looked at me and said (smiling): "Or maybe not..."
Made MY day. And, so I'm sitting at Dem HQ with my laptop, waiting to report this "incident" and to go out to the retirement apts near me to drive people to the polls in this driving sleet we have today. We called to see if people changed their minds for a.m. voting because of the weather. The manager said: "no, we have more down here than signed up already." As soon as the vans arrive, I'm off to do my bit---now that I have my avatar: I VOTED.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=1269395&mesg_id=1269395