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freshwest
freshwest's Journal
freshwest's Journal
September 13, 2013
We needed what we had in the past, national awareness of anti-war voices. Many people abroad did not believe any Americans opposed the wars. It was a total media black out when we considered what was happening in real time. And as they used to say, 'If it wasn't on TV, it never happened.'
But I was involved with local actions, which were on street corners and overpasses weekly in many places, plus going to meetings with our representatives.
It was a raucus time, with the VT and WA legislators calling for secession as we didn't want to be involved in the war. We had many town hall meetings like this one where Obama was going over the cost of Bush's wars and the disintegrationn of civil society in America from the cost, which we saw here. He gives examples, and we talked of these details with our people:
This data was available district by district in our state and we saw how schools were closed, social services were stretched to the breaking point and things were being sold off.
Thanks for the pix of where you were. Good going there. And 20 degrees?
No wonder you were ready for Hawaii!
I began networking with people at youtube in 2005 or 2006 when we could not get live coverage on
actions against the war. We knew people were out in the streets in the thousands and messaged back and forth from the people in the streets as some watched the major networks.We needed what we had in the past, national awareness of anti-war voices. Many people abroad did not believe any Americans opposed the wars. It was a total media black out when we considered what was happening in real time. And as they used to say, 'If it wasn't on TV, it never happened.'
But I was involved with local actions, which were on street corners and overpasses weekly in many places, plus going to meetings with our representatives.
It was a raucus time, with the VT and WA legislators calling for secession as we didn't want to be involved in the war. We had many town hall meetings like this one where Obama was going over the cost of Bush's wars and the disintegrationn of civil society in America from the cost, which we saw here. He gives examples, and we talked of these details with our people:
This data was available district by district in our state and we saw how schools were closed, social services were stretched to the breaking point and things were being sold off.
Thanks for the pix of where you were. Good going there. And 20 degrees?
No wonder you were ready for Hawaii!
September 13, 2013
200,000 at Washington Peace march (circa 1971 John Kerry speaks and John Denver sings)
We were only teargassed at the end. My union brethren were ready with canteens of water and bandanas. There were few arrests among our group. We were unable to stay for the May Day protests but some did and 35.000 were arrested in 3 days:
The 1971 May Day Protests were a series of large-scale civil disobedience actions in Washington, D.C., in protest against the Vietnam War. These began on May Day of that year, continued with similar intensity into the morning of the third day, then rapidly diminished through several following days. Most members of the Nixon Administration[who?] would come to view the events as damaging, because the government's response led to mass arrests and were perceived as violating rights.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1971_May_Day_Protests
Here was the day I was there:
200,000 at Washington Peace march (circa 1971 John Kerry speaks and John Denver sings)
We were only teargassed at the end. My union brethren were ready with canteens of water and bandanas. There were few arrests among our group. We were unable to stay for the May Day protests but some did and 35.000 were arrested in 3 days:
The 1971 May Day Protests were a series of large-scale civil disobedience actions in Washington, D.C., in protest against the Vietnam War. These began on May Day of that year, continued with similar intensity into the morning of the third day, then rapidly diminished through several following days. Most members of the Nixon Administration[who?] would come to view the events as damaging, because the government's response led to mass arrests and were perceived as violating rights.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1971_May_Day_Protests
September 12, 2013
But my brain hurts a little looking at the graphic of the Lincoln Memorial blocking the real thing.
And the faux statue of Karl Marx looking like a Founding Father?
And all the weirdness that went with Glenn Beck's March on Washington.
No teabaggers were harmed in the production of this technology. After all, their world is flat.
But my brain hurts a little looking at the graphic of the Lincoln Memorial blocking the real thing.
And the faux statue of Karl Marx looking like a Founding Father?
And all the weirdness that went with Glenn Beck's March on Washington.
September 12, 2013
I can't share this vital truth with people I know that worked at NASA at the time. They were all hypnotized and they might go crazy.
BTW, you also just posted a 'false flag' there!
Sorry, had to use that pun!
Other than that, the Moon landing was my first thought too.
I like the Russians, though...
Fake, fake, all fake! They even made a movie about its faki-ness! For shame!
I can't share this vital truth with people I know that worked at NASA at the time. They were all hypnotized and they might go crazy.
BTW, you also just posted a 'false flag' there!
Sorry, had to use that pun!
Other than that, the Moon landing was my first thought too.
I like the Russians, though...
September 12, 2013
Don Segretti 4.0, A Teabagger Nation
By Driftglass - **June 21, 2010**
'Ratfucking' is a method the GOP began during the Nixon era and consistently after that time. Since they have the money to fund pundits to do this for them, it will continue. Beware.
The practice has won the right many victories for them and very effective in causing Democrats to abandon their candidates and their party. The man who originated the term and method was:
Donald Henry Segretti (born September 17, 1941, in San Marino, California) is a former political operative for the Committee to Re-elect the President (Nixon) during the early 1970s. Segretti was hired by friend Dwight L. Chapin to run a campaign of dirty tricks (which he dubbed "ratfucking"[1]) against the Democrats, with his work being paid for by Herb Kalmbach, Nixon's lawyer, from presidential campaign re-election funds gathered before an April 7, 1972, law required that contributors be identified. His actions were part of the larger Watergate scandal, and were important indicators for the few members of the press actively investigating the Watergate break in in the earliest stages that what became known as the Watergate scandal involved far more than just a simple break in. Segretti's involvement in the "Canuck letter"[2] typifies the tactics Segretti and others working with him used, forging a letter ascribed to Senator Edmund Muskie which maligned the people, language and culture of French Canada and French Canadians, causing the soon to be Democratic presidential candidate Muskie considerable headaches in denying the letter and having to continue dealing with the issue. Many historians have indicated over the years that Muskie's withdrawal from the Presidential primaries, and the disastrous Iowa primary loss to George McGovern that precipitated it, were at least partly the result of Segretti and some of the other "Ratfuckers" creating so much confusion and false accusations that Muskie simply could not respond in any meaningful way.
In 1974, Segretti pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor counts of distributing illegal (in fact, forged) campaign literature and was sentenced to six months in prison, actually serving four months. One notable example of his wrongdoing was a faked letter on Democratic presidential candidate Edmund Muskie's letterhead falsely alleging that U.S. Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson, a fellow Democrat, had had an illegitimate child with a 17-year-old; the Muskie letters accused Senator Hubert H. Humphrey of sexual misconduct as well.[3] After testimony regarding the Muskie letters emerged, Democrats in Florida noted the similarity between these sabotage incidents and others that involved stationery stolen from Humphrey's offices after Muskie dropped out of the race. A false news release on Humphrey's letterhead "accused Rep. Shirley Chisholm (D-N.Y.) of being mentally unbalanced" and a mailing with an unidentified source mischaracterized Humphrey as supporting a controversial environmental measure that he actually opposed.[3]
In the 1976 film about Watergate, All the President's Men, Segretti was played by Robert Walden.
Segretti was a lawyer who served as a prosecutor for the military and later as a civilian. However, his license was suspended for two years following his conviction. In 1995, he ran for a local judgeship in Orange County, California. However, he quickly withdrew from the race when his campaign awakened lingering anger over his involvement in the Watergate scandal. In 2000, Segretti served as co-chair of John McCain's presidential campaign in Orange County.[4]
He holds a B.S. in Finance from the University of Southern California (1963) and a J.D. from UC Berkeley School of Law (1966). While at USC he became associated with Dwight L. Chapin, Tim Elbourne, Ron Ziegler, Herbert Porter and Gordon C. Strachan, they all joined the "Trojans for Representative Government" group.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Segretti
Back in the Nixon era
It would be tempting to label this "The Return of the Ratfuckers", but of course the GOP Ratfuck squad (from Corrente) --
Ratfucking is an American slang term for political sabotage or dirty tricks. It was first brought to public attention during the Watergate scandal investigation that during the 1972 presidential campaign the Nixon campaign committee maintained a "dirty tricks" unit focused on discrediting Nixon's strongest challengers.
According to Woodward and Bernstein, Nixon aide Dwight Chapin hired fellow USC alumnus Donald Segretti to run a campaign of dirty tricks (which Segretti dubbed "ratfucking"
against the Democrats in 1972. The purpose of the operation was to create as much bitterness and disunity within the Democrat primary as possible. One notable example of Segretti's wrong-doing was a faked letter on Democratic presidential candidate Edmund Muskie's letterhead falsely alleging that U.S. Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson, a fellow Democrat, had had an illegitimate child with a 17-year-old...
-- has never left us.
Much more worth reading at:
http://driftglass.blogspot.com/2010/06/don-segretti-40-teabagger-nation.html
This is why we see one thing after another against Obama, Kerry, Pelosi and other Democrats to gin up outrage. While some things we hear about are based on difference of opinion, tearing up Democrats and our leaders is not productive. Many of the issues have been manufactured about the things guaranteed break the hearts of liberal, progressive Democrats, but usually by Libertarians who do not want the same things. But they want to destroy Democrats because they are the force that robs their coporatist masters.
So what happens is Democrats feel betrayed and then they react accordingly, but are not given opposing information.
As soon as one issue has been debunked, they move immediately to another. It is exhausting to rebutt all of these, and after a while by repetition they are established as a truth by the inability to not rebut them at the speed they are being sent out.
Ratfucking relies upon the learned perception that the well of political discourse has been turned into a cesspool, and counts on the discouraged to lose the will to get into the government to clean the mess up which fulfills its purpose.
Instead, in their place are the Tea Party grifters who become the voices of power, instead of the compassionate who stay out of political life. Thus the RW mission is accomplished.
Another major reason some smears are not rebutted is we don't have Koch billions to fund these smears, so they outvote us with their media dollars and paid pundits. We musr be smart and patient with our movement to not allow them to divide us.
I FYI'd this for the members of the BOG as I read a post was hidden for using the term 'ratfucking' to describe the method. The claim was made it was a homophobic slur, but it clearly is not. Either the alerter and/or the jury was unware of the origin of the term and its political meaning which applies to what is being done to attack Obama and Democrats now.
Anyone who followed the political scene for many years would recognize the approach being used with or without using the word 'ratfucking.'
But the term is shorthand for a complicatd process. Its purpose is to destroy the reputation or credibility of the Democratic Party and Obama among those who should be rightly proud of our accomplishments. The media is owned by rich right wingers and they do not show our side in a credible fashion.
Make no mistake, it is not just the personality or the actions of our party or our president being attacked, it is the progressive ideas we represent. Those ideas are the enemy the RWers and Koch organizations are fighting by going after our leaders. They will use Citizens United and every other weapon in their hands to defeat us and our hopes for a better America and a better world.
In more recent events, think of the method employed to ruin the Kennedys, ACORN and so many others. We must not be taken in.
**Yes, some of us realized what was happening as the media and pundits formerly trusted did this in the summer of 2010, and it worked very well. We tried to warn others, but they stayed away from the polls and many states now live under the boot of the Tea Party.
Will they succeed in 2014?
NOTICE: This is the BOG, or Barack Obama Group for the supporters of the President. You know the drill. TIA.
The term 'Ratfucking' and how it applies to Obama and Democrats
Don Segretti 4.0, A Teabagger Nation
By Driftglass - **June 21, 2010**
'Ratfucking' is a method the GOP began during the Nixon era and consistently after that time. Since they have the money to fund pundits to do this for them, it will continue. Beware.
The practice has won the right many victories for them and very effective in causing Democrats to abandon their candidates and their party. The man who originated the term and method was:
Donald Henry Segretti (born September 17, 1941, in San Marino, California) is a former political operative for the Committee to Re-elect the President (Nixon) during the early 1970s. Segretti was hired by friend Dwight L. Chapin to run a campaign of dirty tricks (which he dubbed "ratfucking"[1]) against the Democrats, with his work being paid for by Herb Kalmbach, Nixon's lawyer, from presidential campaign re-election funds gathered before an April 7, 1972, law required that contributors be identified. His actions were part of the larger Watergate scandal, and were important indicators for the few members of the press actively investigating the Watergate break in in the earliest stages that what became known as the Watergate scandal involved far more than just a simple break in. Segretti's involvement in the "Canuck letter"[2] typifies the tactics Segretti and others working with him used, forging a letter ascribed to Senator Edmund Muskie which maligned the people, language and culture of French Canada and French Canadians, causing the soon to be Democratic presidential candidate Muskie considerable headaches in denying the letter and having to continue dealing with the issue. Many historians have indicated over the years that Muskie's withdrawal from the Presidential primaries, and the disastrous Iowa primary loss to George McGovern that precipitated it, were at least partly the result of Segretti and some of the other "Ratfuckers" creating so much confusion and false accusations that Muskie simply could not respond in any meaningful way.
In 1974, Segretti pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor counts of distributing illegal (in fact, forged) campaign literature and was sentenced to six months in prison, actually serving four months. One notable example of his wrongdoing was a faked letter on Democratic presidential candidate Edmund Muskie's letterhead falsely alleging that U.S. Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson, a fellow Democrat, had had an illegitimate child with a 17-year-old; the Muskie letters accused Senator Hubert H. Humphrey of sexual misconduct as well.[3] After testimony regarding the Muskie letters emerged, Democrats in Florida noted the similarity between these sabotage incidents and others that involved stationery stolen from Humphrey's offices after Muskie dropped out of the race. A false news release on Humphrey's letterhead "accused Rep. Shirley Chisholm (D-N.Y.) of being mentally unbalanced" and a mailing with an unidentified source mischaracterized Humphrey as supporting a controversial environmental measure that he actually opposed.[3]
In the 1976 film about Watergate, All the President's Men, Segretti was played by Robert Walden.
Segretti was a lawyer who served as a prosecutor for the military and later as a civilian. However, his license was suspended for two years following his conviction. In 1995, he ran for a local judgeship in Orange County, California. However, he quickly withdrew from the race when his campaign awakened lingering anger over his involvement in the Watergate scandal. In 2000, Segretti served as co-chair of John McCain's presidential campaign in Orange County.[4]
He holds a B.S. in Finance from the University of Southern California (1963) and a J.D. from UC Berkeley School of Law (1966). While at USC he became associated with Dwight L. Chapin, Tim Elbourne, Ron Ziegler, Herbert Porter and Gordon C. Strachan, they all joined the "Trojans for Representative Government" group.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Segretti
Back in the Nixon era
It would be tempting to label this "The Return of the Ratfuckers", but of course the GOP Ratfuck squad (from Corrente) --
Ratfucking is an American slang term for political sabotage or dirty tricks. It was first brought to public attention during the Watergate scandal investigation that during the 1972 presidential campaign the Nixon campaign committee maintained a "dirty tricks" unit focused on discrediting Nixon's strongest challengers.
According to Woodward and Bernstein, Nixon aide Dwight Chapin hired fellow USC alumnus Donald Segretti to run a campaign of dirty tricks (which Segretti dubbed "ratfucking"
against the Democrats in 1972. The purpose of the operation was to create as much bitterness and disunity within the Democrat primary as possible. One notable example of Segretti's wrong-doing was a faked letter on Democratic presidential candidate Edmund Muskie's letterhead falsely alleging that U.S. Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson, a fellow Democrat, had had an illegitimate child with a 17-year-old...
-- has never left us.
Much more worth reading at:
http://driftglass.blogspot.com/2010/06/don-segretti-40-teabagger-nation.html
This is why we see one thing after another against Obama, Kerry, Pelosi and other Democrats to gin up outrage. While some things we hear about are based on difference of opinion, tearing up Democrats and our leaders is not productive. Many of the issues have been manufactured about the things guaranteed break the hearts of liberal, progressive Democrats, but usually by Libertarians who do not want the same things. But they want to destroy Democrats because they are the force that robs their coporatist masters.
So what happens is Democrats feel betrayed and then they react accordingly, but are not given opposing information.
As soon as one issue has been debunked, they move immediately to another. It is exhausting to rebutt all of these, and after a while by repetition they are established as a truth by the inability to not rebut them at the speed they are being sent out.
Ratfucking relies upon the learned perception that the well of political discourse has been turned into a cesspool, and counts on the discouraged to lose the will to get into the government to clean the mess up which fulfills its purpose.
Instead, in their place are the Tea Party grifters who become the voices of power, instead of the compassionate who stay out of political life. Thus the RW mission is accomplished.
Another major reason some smears are not rebutted is we don't have Koch billions to fund these smears, so they outvote us with their media dollars and paid pundits. We musr be smart and patient with our movement to not allow them to divide us.
I FYI'd this for the members of the BOG as I read a post was hidden for using the term 'ratfucking' to describe the method. The claim was made it was a homophobic slur, but it clearly is not. Either the alerter and/or the jury was unware of the origin of the term and its political meaning which applies to what is being done to attack Obama and Democrats now.
Anyone who followed the political scene for many years would recognize the approach being used with or without using the word 'ratfucking.'
But the term is shorthand for a complicatd process. Its purpose is to destroy the reputation or credibility of the Democratic Party and Obama among those who should be rightly proud of our accomplishments. The media is owned by rich right wingers and they do not show our side in a credible fashion.
Make no mistake, it is not just the personality or the actions of our party or our president being attacked, it is the progressive ideas we represent. Those ideas are the enemy the RWers and Koch organizations are fighting by going after our leaders. They will use Citizens United and every other weapon in their hands to defeat us and our hopes for a better America and a better world.
In more recent events, think of the method employed to ruin the Kennedys, ACORN and so many others. We must not be taken in.
**Yes, some of us realized what was happening as the media and pundits formerly trusted did this in the summer of 2010, and it worked very well. We tried to warn others, but they stayed away from the polls and many states now live under the boot of the Tea Party.
Will they succeed in 2014?
NOTICE: This is the BOG, or Barack Obama Group for the supporters of the President. You know the drill. TIA.
September 12, 2013
Freedumb!!!!
Aw, now, they're not racist! (sarcasm) Here's who would be welcome beside the luminaries you posted:
Freedumb!!!!
September 12, 2013
Only problem will be a version of the ENRON shredding team. If they accidentally recorded the words.
It's getting harder to nail the crooks down in the digital age. They just keep revising the data. Paper trails are best, in ballots and other things, and so are video and audio recordings. But there may not be one.
I've seen some groups refuse to make any kind of record of any type, insisting nothing be recorded or not writing it down. The want to escape being held accountable.
All the better for them to say whatever was done, said or agreed to, never happened. Then comes the 'Who, us? you're crazy, we'd never do or say that' goatrope.
It's maddening trying to nail crooks down. Investigations are getting harder to do.
September 12, 2013
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023645566
Nailed it! As Jon Stewart just said:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023645566
September 11, 2013
By Matt Sledge - 05/23/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/23/obama-aumf-repeal_n_3328667.html
Obama Calls for Repeal of "Perpetual War" Law
Published on May 24, 2013
An interesting part of Obama's speech that many seem to be looking over is that he called for the repeal of the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), the "Perpetual War" law...
Mention of this at DU only produced the sound of crickets. Obama asked Congress to take AUMF war making powers away for himself and future presidents.
To learn what the man is about requires actually listening to the man. The bills didn't make it far because of the GOP.
Obama can't push them to do anything as some may think. The view on him here goes from being omnipotent to helpless dumbass. Usually from the same posters.
Where was the push at DU to press Congress when Democrats had introduced these bills?
PBO asked Congress in May. Guess what the focus was at DU then?
Obama Call To Repeal 'Perpetual War' Law Contradicts PentagonBy Matt Sledge - 05/23/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/23/obama-aumf-repeal_n_3328667.html
Obama Calls for Repeal of "Perpetual War" Law
Published on May 24, 2013
An interesting part of Obama's speech that many seem to be looking over is that he called for the repeal of the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), the "Perpetual War" law...
Mention of this at DU only produced the sound of crickets. Obama asked Congress to take AUMF war making powers away for himself and future presidents.
To learn what the man is about requires actually listening to the man. The bills didn't make it far because of the GOP.
Obama can't push them to do anything as some may think. The view on him here goes from being omnipotent to helpless dumbass. Usually from the same posters.
Where was the push at DU to press Congress when Democrats had introduced these bills?
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