| Rayne Today Searching for dharma, in spite of the weather...
Build-A-Meme Project: Winning Ugly or Winning on Truth? I know there’s some merit to “winning ugly” at this point; we’re getting a trifle exasperated with no hero on the horizon. And I know that some of us are also not wanting to stoop to the level of bashing because it’s a lesser standard of ethics. I received the following today in my e-mail, and I want to know how much of it is true, or if there’s an original published source to credit. If this is all true or even substantially true, there is plenty of reason to keep this in our arsenal – the truth is often ugly, and “winning on truth” isn’t exactly “winning ugly”. Resume of George W. Bush Past work experience: Ran for Congress and lost. Produced a Bought an oil company, but couldn't find any oil in Bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal that took land using taxpayer money. Biggest move: Traded Sammy Sosa to the Chicago White Sox. With father's help (and his name) was elected Governor of Texas. As Governor of Texas, I changed pollution laws for power and oil companies and made Cut taxes and bankrupted the Set record for most executions by any Governor in American history. Became president after losing the popular vote by over 500,000 votes, with the help of my father's appointments to the Supreme Court. As president of the Attacked and took over two countries. Unilaterally attacked a sovereign nation against the will of the United Nations and the world community. Entered office with the strongest economy in Spent the surplus budget (scheduled to save Social Security and improve education) I inherited from my predecessor and then shattered the record for biggest annual deficit in history. Set economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12-month period. Set all-time record for biggest drop in the history of the stock market. Am the first president in decades to execute a federal prisoner. Am the first president in Set the all-time record for most days on vacation by any president in After taking the entire month of August off for vacation, presided over the worst security failure in US history. Set the record for most campaign fundraising trips of any other president in Cut unemployment benefits for more out-of-work Americans than any president in Set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12-month period. Appointed more convicted criminals to administration positions than any president in Had fewer press conferences for than any president since the advent of television. Signed more laws and executive orders amending the Constitution than any president in Presided over the highest gasoline prices in US history when my foreign policy in the Cut healthcare benefits for war veterans. Set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously take to the streets to protest me (15 million people). Dissolved more International treaties than any president in Have set new standards for the Appointed the richest cabinet of any administration in Am likely to oversee the greatest fiscal collapse of state governments in the history of the Created from scratch, the largest government department bureaucracy in the history of the Succeeded in setting human rights and foreign policy so onerous that it resulted in the United Nation electing Removed more checks and balances, and have the least amount of Congressional oversight of any presidential administration in Withdrew from the World Court of Law to protect myself and all other Americans from having to face charges of war crimes. Failed to abide by the Geneva Conventions when I refused to allow inspectors access to US prisoners of war. I hold the Took the With a policy of 'disengagement' created the most hostile Israeli-Palestine relations in at least 30 years. First Changed Allowed my administrations appointees to violate Failed to fulfill my pledge to get Osama Bin Laden 'dead or alive.' Failed to capture the anthrax killer who tried to murder the leaders of our country at the United States Capitol. After 18 months I have no leads and zero suspects. In the 18 months following the 9/11 attacks I have successfully prevented any public investigation into the biggest security failure in the history of the Removed more freedoms and civil liberties for Americans than any other president in Have created the most divided country in decades (possibly the most divided since the Civil War) in only a little over two years Records and References: At least one conviction for drunk driving in AWOL from National Guard during a time of war. Refuse to take drug test or even answer any questions about drug use. All records of my tenure as governor of All records of any SEC investigations into my insider trading or bankrupt companies are sealed and unavailable for public view. All minutes of meetings for any public corporation I served on the board are sealed and unavailable for public view. Any records or minutes from meetings I (or my VP) attended regarding public energy policy are sealed and unavailable for public review. There’s one hell of a lot of material here if the majority of this is accurate. We’re not worthy of better government if we can’t whup THIS candidate convincingly.
UPDATE -- 12:03 am EST --
Reposted "Resume" above to fix word wrap error. Thanks for your patience.  comment []
WARNING: I.D.10.T. at the keyboard -- YET AGAIN...
You've probably noticed all my categories got published to the Recently Changed list. Yup.
And there's nothing visibly new in any of them, either. Yup, you bet.
Wienie-in-residence here at this end of the keyboard is trying to make a new theme with graphics for the Build-A-Meme category and accidentally re-published everything in doing so.
My apologies; I'll try again first thing in the morning, like 6:00 EST. 8:30:14 PM comment []
Build-A-Meme Project: Project Status Report As a former project manager, I’m ashamed to say I’m still defining scope, identifying the deliverables. How does one do a status update on a project of fuzzy scope?? Oh well, not the first time it’s happened in project management. We know it’s bigger than a breadbox and smaller than a mini-van. Maybe. Did we have a project kick-off meeting? Yeah, I guess we could say the first couple of posts here constititute getting the team members engaged and psyched about the tasks at hand. Have we started looking at required resources? Hmm, I think so – we know we need folks from all walks to hammer this out since this must have broad appeal and equally broad effectiveness. We have a wide spectrum of opinions already (thank you much!). Have we looked at a time line? Well…sort of. We know we’re all shooting for an October/November 2004 date for final roll-out of the last product/deliverables, with numerous betas to be run through trials between now and then. Perhaps we need to talk about staged deliverables; we’ll need something for the Democratic Convention, for the Primaries, for the long periods between major events, for the candidate once that person has risen above the rest of the elves in the running. Wow, actually stepping back, writing this out and taking a look helps me with scope definition and deliverables! Take a look at this and tell me what you think: DELIVERABLES & TIMELINE
SLOGANS
STORIES
Once you’ve looked this over and thought about it, please provide feedback on: 1) Timeline – are there any events/dates for which we would need separate deliverables besides those already listed? Or should we look at one each week? 2) Of the Slogans we already have compiled, are there some which are suitable for a) external/broad public use, 2) media/press use, 3) party faithful only? 3) Have any more slogans come to mind? 4) Have any more stories come to mind? We’re a bit thin in this area; taglines would be nice, too. 5) Once we amass all the deliverables, do you have suggestions on delivery methods? Okay, that’s enough to chew on for now. I’m looking forward to seeing your responses! comment []
Build-A-Meme Project: Democrats frustrating; Tax Cuts a joke; On Fairness Decent commentary at CSMonitor on the Democratic candidates’ lack of clear differentiation so far, save for Bush Bashing. Bush Bashing may get attention, but it doesn’t sway voters to choose a candidate for employment to the highest government office. Being able to differentiate one’s position will be more effective. This will be critical to building an effective meme. --- Paul Hinrich’s points out a FABULOUS WaPo article on the idiocy of the dividend tax cuts, written by no less an authority than Warren “Freaking Wealthy” Buffet. If a rich guy says, Hey, I expect to pay my share, we should be listening. Paul suggests drafting Buffet for candidacy, but I think he’d decline. Where’s the thrill in it for Buffet? Rather, I would ask the man if has any suggestions for the Democratic Party to get its sh*t together. That might do a lot more good right now. --- Christopher Key, our Barbaric Yawp, is tied up with work, damnitall. But he’ll be here to work with us as soon as he can. He’s dropped a few small explosives here and there in the mean time, to keep us busy. For instance, he doesn’t give a rat’s butt about “fairness” (which Steve Raker believes differentiates liberals from conservatives). Christopher says “Life isn’t fair. Get over it.” Point taken; maybe fairness isn’t an issue to the hardcore faithful. Somewhere between these two points of view is the right appeal. Hmm. Which does make me think of the only profound thing a hard-core Republican lawyer-boss taught me while in his employ:
So…how does this help build the meme? comment []
Movies: The Transporter (Mike -- Thanks for the recommendation!) Okay, finished the next movie in my queue last nite, much too late again *y a w n*. Not the fault of the movie; for some reason I’ve been trying to watch movies after It's an amusing flick, but flawed. Example: the Would I recommend it for light entertainment? Yeah. Would I buy it for my collection. Nah. Hubby Movie Meter: He fell asleep in the middle of viewing both nights and had no comments other than “Yeah, right…” when the leading man has a sudden and unanticipated romantic opportunity. (He’s sensitive to “hokey” stuff in movies – but he could be a little out of sorts at the moment. He’s in mourning for “The Man Show”.) comment []
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