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POPSInside The GOP Lie Machine: The Hangman and Health Care Reform
"The insurance industry is up to the same dirty tricks, using the same devious PR practices it has used for many years, to kill reform," says Wendell Potter, who stepped down last year as chief of corporate communications for health insurance giant CIGNA. "I'm certain that people showing up at these town halls feel that they're there on their own — but they don't realize they're being incited, ultimately, by the insurance industry and the other special interests." Armey, however, unabashedly compares FreedomWorks to a lynch mob. "We used to use the old saying in the West, that you got outta town just one step ahead of the hangman," he says, explaining why George Bush's budget-busting policies didn't inspire the same outrage among his 400,000 followers. "That's pretty much what happened with Bush. And poor old President Obama walked into town, y'know, just at high noon." more @ source related http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/0E8658BD-956E-47FE-AD32-CB3C9175F
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POPS'Doom' Rhetoric Seen By Some As 'Not Presidential' "It's not presidential. An American leader needs to be hopeful and optimistic - and truthful. Everything he says is parsed; everything he says is searched for deep meaning. When he goes to 'DefCon 5' on the economy and says that we're on the brink of catastrophe, it's absolutely insane." Last week he said, "A failure to act, and act now, will turn crisis into a catastrophe." But he isn't the only Democrat ramping up the rhetoric while talking down the economy. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said last month that our economy "is dark, darker, darkest." Rep. David R. Obey of Wisconsin said, "This economy is in mortal danger of absolute collapse." And Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri said of the economic-stimulus bill, "If we don't pass this thing, it's Armageddon."
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POPSGOP Pollster: Support for Spending on Infrastructure 'Near Unanimous' This is Bush-connected Frank Luntz we're talking about here. In terms of a tax increase, 87% of Democrats and 74% of Republicans back it. No wonder Obama seems so certain his stimulus package will go through. "The survey's findings were unlike any other issue I have polled in more than a decade," Luntz writes. (h/t Donklephant )
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POPSBig Difference in Post-Debate Spin Does Ifill Have a Conflict of Interest? The internet has been buzzing with charges that tonight's debate moderator, Gwen Ifill, has a conflict of interest because she is writing a book, The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama, that is due to be released on inauguration day in 2009. If nothing else, it creates the appearance of a conflict of interest, much as would a journalist's participation in a political rally or partisan political activity. This is the view taken by the Columbia Journalism Review: Gwen Ifill has done solid, important journalism. She’ll likely be a good, tough, and neutral moderator to the vice-presidential debate. Let’s set that aside, for now. Conflict of interest is often about appearances. There appears, to us, to be a conflict in Ifill moderating tomorrow night’s vice presidential debate. http://volokh.com/posts/chain_1222978481.shtml
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POPS Voters Still Looking For A Candidate “A big chunk of Perot voters are 'unlikely voters.’ That is, they're so alienated from politics as usual that it takes an unusual candidate to get them to vote. If those 'unlikely voters' are going anywhere this cycle, it's to Ron Paul, because he has such a distinct message,” said Micah L. Sifry, who edited the Perot Periodical in the 1990s and is the author of “Spoiling for a Fight: Third-Party Politics in America.” Paul, who has posted surprisingly strong fundraising totals in recent months, has not ruled out a third-party run if he is not the GOP nominee. Dobbs has denied he’s running, and another independent mulling a bid, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, appeals to a different group of independents with his background in international finance and his firmly pro-immigration stance.
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POPSAnother Harper and Republican Connection Many people have become painfully aware that the Harper government has been taking its cues from the Bush Republicans. Harper has introduced many Bush-like attitudes and policies and is trying to emulate the way the Bushies operate in the states. He uses so many of the neo-con catchwords such as "support the troops" every time anyone has the audacity to question or criticize the governments policies in Afghanistan. They bully their way through the press, claiming that when the press asks the hard questions, it is because they are taking sides with the opposition. I could go on, but I am sure you get the old drifteroo.
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POPSOrwellian and Proud of it Nifty review of book by (apparently) scary tool named Dr. Frank Luntz. Thank you, Edmund Blair Bolles. Now I don't have to write my own book, "Why I Got Out of Advertising Before it Ate Me," by Colleen Wainwright.
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POPSRepublican loss of Power The GOP lost the "O" in 1994. At the end of the day the American people don't like too much power to reside in one place. We don't like our government to be powerful. That is good and that is why the Republicans lost, their power (and its commensurate corruption) became too obvious.
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POPSGOP pollster flips on global warming Via John Quiggan at Crooked Timber . Quiggan also reports that libertarian economist Tyler Cowen has also acknowledged the huge threats posed by human-induced global warming.
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