Monday, February 23, 2004

Cassandra Ponders The Truth Isnt Just Hard To Take, It's Hard To Comprehend That Double Dealing Kerry Roger L Simon shares with us a point which "strikes a chord" with him (plunkit) : since Kerry was always anti-war, even before he went to Vietnam, and he went anyway (as opposed to fleeing to Canada or whatever) and even shot people, he is a hypocrite and, if that isn't bad enough, B.G. Burkett and Glenna Whitley tell us in Stolen Valor, (plunkit)  John Kerry was never really anti-war. He just latched on to the position as a hook for launching his political career Not only was Kerry not really anti-war, he was, at the very same time, anti-war. How duplicitous can you get? Cassandra is brought to you by eXcilliva , America's largest all fiber optic network. 10:06:10 PM    comment []

Cassandra Whines Idiocy In Office Education Sect. Rod Paige Unfair To Rumor Mongerers! How Can We Ever Make Up Things More Moronic Than Quotes Like This? In a demonstration of his subtle sense of humor, Rod Paige, supposedly the Secretary of Education, called the nation's largest teachers' union a "terrorist organization." Too nauseated to reprint the story, we send you to that paragon of journalism, Fox (plunkit -with gloves on) .  Cassandra is brought to you by eXcilliva , for erectile dysfunction. 4:48:29 PM    comment []

Cassandra Lies The Truth Is Out For Repairs Stop Old Rumors! We feel that public discourse is being coarsened by old, baseless rumors. In order to counter this trend Cassandra will attempt to inject new, baseless rumors into the conversation. To assure that these are fresh, new rumors we will invent them ourselves We will only feel that we have helped reinvigorate our societal dialogue when we have heard Rush Limbaugh treat one of our rumors as verifiable fact and listened to Sean Hannity discuss it with Susan Estrich. Yes, we have set a high bar for ourselves, but one must greatly dare in order to greatly fail.   Cassandra is brought to you by eXcilliva .   We meet all your financial needs. 1:48:59 PM    comment []

Cassandra Lies The Truth Is Out Back Russert Reclaims Ground Tim Russert (plunkit) , who embarrassed himself before the world two weeks ago when, during his interview with George Bush, he forgot the concept of the follow-up question ("It just slipped my mind somehow," he is imagined to have explained) reclaimed some tiny portion of his professionalism this Sunday. Russert asked Ralph Nader (plunkit) if Al Gore would would have invaded Iraq.  Whan Nader answered "He would have," Russert didn't giggle or anything. Cassandra is brought to you by eXcilliva,  the feminine hygiene alternative. 3:24:12 AM    comment []

Cassandra Counts Attack Track 3 and counting One of the fun things about running against George W Bush is that suddenly people you've never heard of start attacking you. We are certainly not claiming that the Bush people are behind all these attacks. We're merely suggesting it very, very strongly. OK, here are the ones we've counted so far: One Ted Sampley, that wonderful fellow who called John McCain the "Manchurian Candidate," has formed Vietnam Vets Against Kerry.  Is Sampley against any decorated Vietnam Vet who runs for President?  Or only those who run against George Bush?    We don't know.   If you do, let us know. Two Here's how the Rube Goldbergesque Rumor Machine works.    Matt Drudge prints a rumor about Kerry and ascribes it to "off-the-record-comments" by Wesley Clark.    Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Susan Estrich get to talk about it for hours, pausing every thirty minutes to remind the listeners "we're not discussing the rumor, we're discussing the Democrats discussing the rumor."    Rupurt Murdoch's papers get to play too with the U.S. papers doing oblique references while the British ones get to lie in front page headlines. The fact that a) the rumor is false, b) Clark never said any such thing and c) Democrats weren't discussing it (at least not prior to the national radio smear campaign, and after that they were discussing challenging radio licenses more than anything) really doesn't enter into it. Was Bush behind this? Nope. Only his supporters. Three Here's one that's more a mystery. It's so close to being subtle that it's hard to believe the thugs who have Karl Rove's home phone number could pull it off, but... The wife of "a Service Connected Disabled Vietnam Vet" shows up on a few different vet related chat boards. In simple language, with poor grammar and worse spelling, she tells a compelling story of a lifetime of disrespect from those poisoned against Vietnam vets by John Kerry. A lifelong Democrat she is switching parties to vote for George Bush.  A very moving post (or two or more). Interestingly she includes Kerry's Headquarter's fax number as if inviting her readers to spam the machine into coma. Then an odd thing happens when she is challenged on her facts about Kerry by one of the vets. In response, this plain spoken and authentic sounding voice of the people posts a follow-up. And so moved is she by this task that where, earlier, she had trouble forming a sentence and was totally at a loss when spelling "discusted," "outragious," and "embarrashing," she now presents a first person account of researching the facts against Kerry. And a beautiful document it is, beginning : "I understand how a campaign works. I have also completely researched both parties and their voting records and their speeches. I also went back and read the promises President Bush made when he was running for President...." It goes on like a well researched term paper, including a page and a half of bullet points. Her use of rhetorical questions and subordinate clauses is most impressive: "Does America realize how dangerously our military was cut by Clinton Administration? How unprotected America really was?" So, are we being overly suspicious? Or is doubt justified? As the Saturday Evening Post used to say: "You be the judge." Now it's time for the home version of the game. What fun is "the dirtiest campaign in modern presidential politics" (to use Ed Gillespie's phrase) if we can't all play along. See how much synchronized mud-slinging you can spot and send your faves to us at ppp@frontiernet.net. Winners will receive something or other. 1:20:17 AM    comment []