Politics

Don’t forget, this Sunday is Howard Dean’s stop in Seattle!

Nipping at President Bush’s heels during his West Coast trip is former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who will drop into Portland and then Seattle on Sunday for a rally at Westlake Park.

In the midst of a four-day, 10-city trip he’s calling the “Sleepless Summer Tour,” Dean will attend a 5 p.m. fund-raiser at the Westin Hotel and a rally at Westlake Park from 6:30 to 8 p.m. before jetting off to Spokane on Monday morning.

[…]

As part of his campaign’s use of the Internet, Dean has solicited commitments from supporters to attend each of his rallies, and so far more than 2,250 people have signed up to attend the Seattle rally, Means said.

(via Mathew Gross)

I certainly hope that everyone is registered to vote, and is planning on voting when the time comes. However, on the off chance that you’re not registered yet, you can now do so through Howard Dean’s website.

(via Zephyr Teachout)

Will all due respect, someone in the Dean Team needs to get this issue sorted out quickly. There’s a growing hubbub over the apparent fact that the Dean campaign at one point contracted with two e-mail vendors who then started spamming Dean campaign e-mails to people who had not requested them.

While it appears that the Dean campaign has discontinued their contract with the vendors (according to this /. comment), a single comment left in the midst of a /. thread, which I only found because it was linked to from Joy’s post, isn’t going to be seen by many people, and I’ve seen this issue get mentioned on more and more blogs (like this one) each day.

I’d suggest that the Dean campain make an official statement on their weblog. While it may make for momentary run of slightly bad press, it won’t be nearly as bad as if the meme of ‘Howard Dean as spammer’ continues to spread.

[Update]{.underline}

[This C|Net story] on the controversy, dated 8/18/03, leads off with the statement from the Dean campaign admitting their mistake and reiterating that they have cancelled their account with the e-mail vendors in question.

Howard Dean’s presidential campaign acknowledged on Monday that it had spammed an undisclosed number of people with unsolicited political advertisements.

The campaign said Dean, the former Democratic governor of Vermont, remained opposed to unsolicited bulk e-mail and blamed the spamming on two contractors who had promised to contact only people who had specifically requested to receive the advertisements.

“We recently contracted with two vendors who made assurances that their lists were opt-in only,” the campaign said in an e-mail to CNET News.com. “On Tuesday, August 12th, Dean for America received notification from a supporter that spam was being sent. We terminated our relationship with both vendors immediately.”

Hopefully this all settles down soon. In my view, it was definitely a mistake, but mistakes happen.

Update:

Wired also has a story about this, mentioning that there were two waves of spam messages sent out, and the second didn’t seem to actually originate from the Dean campaign.

As for the Dean for America campaign, staffers there are less concerned with where the second message came from than with how to handle the aftermath of the first one.

Bush, you whiny little git. Apparently he’s none to fond of being pushed out of the limelight. This was the exchange after a reporter asked what Bush thought of the California governor’s race, and the reporter had the temerity to call the California race the “biggest political story in the country.”

Bush: “It is the biggest political story in the country? That’s interesting. That says a lot. That speaks volumes.”

Reporter: “Means you don’t agree?”

Bush: “I don’t get to decide the biggest political story. You decide the biggest political story. But I find it interesting that that is the biggest political story in the country, as you just said.”

Pressed on the matter, Bush said, “Oh, I think there’s maybe other political stories. Isn’t there, like, a presidential race coming up?”

Yeah, George, there’s, like, a presidential race, in, like, fifteen months or so. This California thing is, like, right around the corner. Like, really, man. Do you really want us all to, like, spend all our time just, like, bashing you instead? Because we’re certainly capable of it. Especially when your English usage is so, like, impeccable and everything.

Shmuck.

(via Kirsten and Daily Kos)

Roughly every week or so, Daily Kos presents a Cattle Call ranking of the presidential candidates. A quick summary of his opinion of their current position in the Democratic presidential race, usually with a few notes about whether he sees them as heading up or down the chart, and why.

Having watched this for a while, I started to wonder just how the various candidates have fared over the months. So, with a little browsing through the Daily Kos archives and some tinkering in Excel, I can present a (fairly ugly) little graph of each candidate’s potential to grab the Democratic nomination, as ranked by Kos.

It’s actually fairly interesting to see. To me, the three most interesting lines are those of Richard Gephardt (light blue), Joseph Lieberman (medium blue), and Howard Dean (bright pink). Seeing Gephardt start fairly slow, then bounce around towards the top of the chart; Lieberman start strong, stumble for a couple months, then regain a top spot; and Dean’s fairly steady upward climb is a lot easier this way. I’m fairly sure that Kos will continue with the Cattle Call posts up until the Democratic nomination — I’ll keep updating my spreadsheet to see how all this turns out in the end.

There’s a good interview with Tom Tomorrow in Salon today. Usual disclaimers (subscription or sit through an ad for a day pass) apply. He’s been one of my favorite political cartoonists for quite a while, and I get a lot of good links from his weblog, so I definitely thought it was worth sitting through the ad for.

This is great — an eBay auction for the Texas ANG George W Bush Action Figure! I’ve taken the liberty of posting a screenshot, as it wouldn’t surprise me at all to see the auction pulled before too long.

This figure probably stands 14\” in height, and is exactly as the future Leader of the Western World(tm) appeared during his service defending our Nation’s borders from Mexicans and Bahamians.

Comes with detailed uniform (as imagined by base commander), sealed discharge papers, Coors Light keg, and “licensed to chug” bumper sticker.

[…]

The winning bidder will also receive TWO bonus gifts: the George W. Bush “Afternoon of September 11th 2001” tennis ensemble, and a genuine “First Lady Laura Bush Serving Sandwiches at a VA Hospital” action figure!

(via natasha)

Consider, for example, the remarks that public relations consultant John Rendon — who, during the past decade, has worked extensively on Iraq for the Pentagon and the CIA — made on February 29, 1996, before an audience of cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy.

“I am not a national security strategist or a military tactician,” Rendon said. “I am a politician, and a person who uses communication to meet public policy or corporate policy objectives. In fact, I am an information warrior and a perception manager.” He reminded the Air Force cadets that when victorious troops rolled into Kuwait City at the end of the first war in the Persian Gulf, they were greeted by hundreds of Kuwaitis waving small American flags. The scene, flashed around the world on television screens, sent the message that U.S. Marines were being welcomed in Kuwait as liberating heroes.

“Did you ever stop to wonder,” Rendon asked, “how the people of Kuwait City, after being held hostage for seven long and painful months, were able to get hand-held American, and for that matter, the flags of other coalition countries?” He paused for effect. “Well, you now know the answer. That was one of my jobs then.”

Propaganda is all-encompassing when it comes to war, of course. The trick is to try to recognize when you’re being fed facts, and when you’re being fed propaganda. The above article is excerpted and adapted from Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush’s War on Iraq, which looks to be very interesting, and worth picking up.

(via Tom Tomorrow)

When weighing the benefits and the drawbacks of the PATRIOT Act, it is clear to most Americans that preventing future acts of terrorism is much more important than trying not to offend Muslims in this country. American Muslims should see it as their patriotic duty to undergo more intense scrutiny than the average American. It only makes sense to do so if we are serious about combating terrorism. Turning away from the fact that an organization made up entirely of Muslims seeks our destruction is a fatal error in judgement.

Americans should not deny jobs or services to American Muslims, but we should not pretend that there are not hundreds in this country that are plotting to destroy us. Let’s not let our feelings get in the way of doing what is right for our protection. Following the course advocated by liberals like Ms. Isensee will only make us more susceptible to attack.

I don’t care how you justify or rationalize your racism, it’s still racism. It’s still ugly, small-minded, and disgusting, and it has no place in a country filled with people who would like to be able to say the words “land of the free, home of the brave” without bitter irony.

(via Atrios)