Critique of Bush's speech needed an injection of reality

[SoCalDem]

Note to MODs..

This is listed in the NEWS section of today's Star Tribune..not the editorials.. If you must move this, could I request that it move to GD?? Thanks.............. SCD :)


Freeper's take on it

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This article is BEYOND THE PALE.. Please read it.. and write to the Star Tribune..please!!!

also watch your own papers for this new tactic.. Converting an uncomplimentary "editorial" into NEWS, by having the congressional slugs use Newspaper space for a FREE political AD...

Make them PAY RNC cash for the publishing of their talking points...

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Norm Coleman, Jim Ramstad, Gil Gutknecht, Mark Kennedy And John Kline: Critique of Bush's speech needed an injection of reality
Norm Coleman, Jim Ramstad, Gil Gutknecht, Mark Kennedy And John Kline

Published January 27, 2004 GOP.EC0127
http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/4340566.html

The views expressed in last week's editorial on the president's State of the Union speech are so far from the mainstream of what most Minnesotans and Americans believe that they clearly fit under the late Sen. Pat Moynihan's observation: Never has the opposite of the truth been so precisely stated. Because of the nature of your inaccurate attack on the president, we have taken the unprecedented step of replying with one voice.

...snip.....

This newspaper hit rock bottom right out of the chute by blaming the administration for "failing to grasp and act ... prior to 9/11" and that "mounting evidence suggest ... the attacks might have been thwarted." We've been in briefings, classified and otherwise, for more than two years. Unless this newspaper has some incredible sources, you're now spinning the same bizarre and discredited conspiracy theories that even Iowa Democrats rejected last week.

...snip....

President Bush has ably managed a host of serious problems and foreign crises. ...snip....The war on terrorism is going well. Afghanistan and Iraq are no longer ruled by maniacal dictators who train and fund terrorists and seek to export violence and instability. Libya has run up the white flag on its weapons of mass destruction program without a shot being fired.

....snip....

Your analysis of Bush's domestic record was perhaps even less forthright. Contrary to your assertion, the president was again exactly right: Every person who pays income taxes received a tax cut. It's difficult for people who pay no income taxes to receive income tax relief.It's well documented that Bush inherited a mild recession and a host of corporate scandals that had been brewing throughout the mid- to late 1990s.

....snip......

Bush has reached out time and again only to be rebuffed. Still, despite the increasing partisanship and bitterness of the minority party and its outside allies, he has demonstrated true compassionate conservatism with his initiatives to help the uninsured, ex-prisoners hoping for a new life, and faith-based organizations working to provide comfort and support to the needy.

...snip....

Sen. Norm Coleman and Reps. Mark Kennedy, John Kline, Gil Gutknecht and Jim Ramstad are the Republicans in Minnesota's congressional delegation.

[NJCher]

1. they're unbelievable, aren't they?

Attack attack attack counterattack attack attack.


Cher

[UpInArms]

2. here's a link that will give you state by state

breakdowns on how much the Bush Tax Cuts are costing the people -

http://www.bushtax.com/

The Bush Tax: How Much Is It Costing You?

Rather than take responsibility for our common future, Bush has shifted costs to states and communities, who then pass them on to you. Across the country, people are seeing their property taxes skyrocket. State college tuition at 4-year schools has increased this year by an average of $579 nationwide. Half a million children have been deprived of health coverage. States and local government have cut vital services, and we’re all having to pay more for less. That’s the Bush Tax.

Bush is largely to blame for the fiscal crisis that has forced states and communities to raise taxes and slash services. According to the non-partisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), “A conservative estimate suggests that federal policies are costing states and localities about $185 billion over the four- year course of the state fiscal crisis.” Bush has shifted health costs to states and forced states to pay for unfunded mandates for homeland security, election reform, and No Child Left Behind. As a result, states and communities have had no choice but to raise taxes and cut services. That’s the Bush Tax. (For details, see the link below to the CBPP report.)

...more with links...

[GoBlue]

3. Read and then emailed Star Tribune

their e-address is

http://www.startribune.com/feedback/form.php?category=News%20News%20Content

[arcane1]

4. done

bastards....

[SoCalDem]

5. Thanks.. This technique smells like the "astroturf" letters

that popped up all over the place.. I think the newspaper people are still a bit naive, and may not recognize what's happening, or they might get tired of feeling obligated to print these, and just eliminate the anti-bush editorials.. That's what I fear :(

[Voltaire99]

8. "the newspaper people are still a bit naive"

No quarrel with that reading, but I think the newspaper people are also quite a bit cynical. The Strib is a business; controversy sells. They'd just as soon push product by running this right-wing outburst in the most prominent way. Out in Wayzata, Edina and Minnetonka -- the tonier suburbs -- the message will be very well received indeed.

[dflprincess]

6. Consider the source

Coleman, Kline, Ramstad, Gutknecht and Kennedy. Interesting that the Strib ran this as news instead of an editorial. Rather than email the paper, email these clowns and tell them what you think of their opinion. Let them know who is really in the mainstream.

What really irks me is Ramstad, he has always tried to portray himself as a moderate and most his constituents (including Dems) think he is. Anyone paying attention to his voting record the last 3 years would know differently.

[Voltaire99]

7. Red-baiting, 2004-style: "...the minority party and its outside allies"

Shhh. Don't let them find out about the checks we get from Paris and Bonn. ;-)

[Voltaire99]

9. Key word in this piece: "mainstream"

Culturally, the GOP is doing its best to transform the so-called unity of post-911 America into a monolithic "mainstream."

These appeals to the mass (or the volk, as hinted at in the ultimate congealment: "homeland") are working wonderfully. From public fondness for invading Iraq to the consumption of endless war and law-and-order themed entertainment, America is responding. Scared, traumatized, and/or just simply too naive to realize what is being done to it, the nation is dining out on this Big Brother stuff.

Do we really want to spend the next decade or two or three living in a society where mass conformity and obedience are the norm?

If not, we'd best run and elect a Democratic candidate whose dynamism and love of pluralism will help to break this spell. Otherwise, 1950s America is going to rise from the grave, and we'll have Night of the Living White Bread all over again.

[SoCalDem]

10. What irritates me is the TIMIDITY of the currently elected dems

I know that they see stuff like this, but they do not respond in kind..

They are content to have a few brave souls venture out onto that spindly limb, and they just cover their eyes and pretend that they do not see or hear them calling for help..

We can elect Dems until the cows come home, and unless they are brave enough to stand up for what's right, we are no closer to parity..

[dflprincess]

11. I just got around to reading my print copy of today's paper

In that, this article was on the editorial page.

[SoCalDem]

12. That's weird.. The online version had it under the news tab

It's not so bad then..Editorials bashing each other I can live with..
nevermind </emily litella>

[dflprincess]

13. You are correct!

I was checking out DU during lunch and clicked on your link then. It was on the news page there. I'd left my paper at home so I couldn't check it out until I got home. I had fantasies about reading the paper's copy of it carefully and writing a brilliant email to the 5 horsemen of the Apocalypse that would make them realize what lying idiots they are, but I deteriorated into a ranting maniac as I read it.