So I have CNN on for background noise, and I just heard Judy Woodruff interviewing Donna Brazile & Bay Buchanan about Howard Dean & the chairmanship of the DNC--In the first two minutes Bay uses the term extreme left  or left wing of the Democratic party about a half a dozen times in explaining why Dean is not the best choice for the job (interesting that a Repub should be giving this kind of advice).  No surprise here, we knew what the Repubs are gonna do-- trot out the old- there he is, just another extremist left winger--But here is what shocked me--Donna did not once counter that line with a robust- HE REPRESENTS THE DEMOCRATIC WING OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY-- It was a wonderful slogan when he used it in his primary bid--and it would be wonderful phrase today!  Donna was so weak compared with Bay, it looked to me to be a replay of the ineffectiveness that we are all too familiar with from the run up to the election--We need to start the drum beat now that Dean is heading the way to where the party belongs--not left, not right, just straight into the future--This will be the most effective way to undermine the RNC's inevitable claims of left-leaning party policy; and if we start in a united voice now, then their old saws will be rendered impotent in the coming elections

    Jon Corzine announced his bid to run in the Dem primary for NJ governor on Thursday, and the Republican slime machine has already started a bull dog campaign against him. According to Tom Moran's column in last Friday's Star Ledger, newly elected NJ Repub state chair Tom Wilson has decided to paint Corzine as a corrupt and power hungry ultra liberal who wants to raise taxes. Let's see if we can figure out the specifics of their game plan:

I hope that many of us took diarist Looter Scibby's advise to visit Dr. Lakoff's Think Tank at www.rockridgeinstitute.org before venturing into the political gobbling with friends and family this Thanksgiving.  I can only add my voice to others who emphasize the imperative for us to become both 1). adroit at recognizing the sometimes insidious/sometimes blatant, but always pervasive, framing of issues by Conservatives and 2). prolific in reframing the issues to facilitate a progressive agenda.  The cognitive linguistic methodology of strategically framing issues (see Lakoff's website for full explanation) according to a certain perspective is a very, very powerful tool that the Conservatives (obviously) have mastered, but one which is equally at our disposal, if only we expend our energies in a collective disciplined manner. I know, that sounds like a tall order for we intellectually elite cats who refuse to be corralled into a specific mind set.  But we'd best do so to the extent that is necessary to formulate a systematic effort to defeat the enemy. Here's a plan:

    One of the many issues which frightens me the most about out our current political climate is the (apparent) Orwellian doublespeak that the Right uses so pervasively and persuasively.  I can identify it every time I hear it, (e.g., Clear Skies Act which enables rather than prevents pollution, Health Forrest Act, which rapes the land rather than protects it), but I had no idea how they get away with it or why it is so effective.  Philip Agre`s What is Conservatism and What is Wrong with It? is a cogently written explanation. He not only provides the historical context of Conservatism, that is the why of it, but he also dissects the methodological underpinnings, that is the operational how of it.  I was able to apply the methodology outlined in his essay to the Republican House Caucus's recent hubristic maneuvering in changing their ethics rules. Their actions as well as the language they used to defend those actions, was a study in classic conservative machinations. Using the Agre blue print for understanding their deceptive tactics, one can deconstruct the Conservative Modus Operandi: