[From the diaries by susanhu w slight edit. FROG MARCHERS! Attenchun!] There is no way to know how much of what has happened in the preceding two weeks was planned as diversion from BushCo’s Rove problem, nor if it was, who planned it. There will be more in the next couple of months. Shit happens.
Stay focused on Rove. The only way to end this war and the concomitant terrorism is to cripple BushCo politically.
Frankly, I think that al Qaeda leadership WANTS Bush in the White House. I think that they want the U.S. to continue to show its true corporatist, economically imperialist colors, and they plan on bleeding us to death and/or goading us into a larger war…nuclear or not. They aim to silence and isolate the Great Satan by any means necessary.
Whether the London and Egyptian bombings…and others that will follow…were and will be coordinated attempts ordered by a centralized al Qaeda command, individual cells acting on their own initiative, false flag spook ops or any combination thereof should make no difference regarding our own attempt to stop BushCo from turning America into a fascist system, and the LINCHPIN of that attempt should be attacking Rove. Bring down Rove, and you reach Libby. Bring down Libby and you reach Cheney. Bring down Cheney and they are through, at least for the time being.
POUND this into the public consciousness. We finally have a media opening. Rove is a TOTALLY unsympathetic figure. His very visage is unlikeable. Let us USE this, and not get sidetracked.
Which we are.
I spent a couple of hours in the car today, listening to NYC AM talk and news stations. There was NOTHING on any station except Air America about Rove. Silent City. It was all “Terror terror terror terror terror terror terror terror.” Bombs here, a shooting there, bag checks on the subways, what did people feel about that, should they or should they not use racial profiling, ARE they or are they not using racial profiling, they “got” 4 or 5 suspects in the U. K., how terrible for the “Good Muslims”, Blair blah blah blah blah blah blah, Bush blah blah blah blah blah blah, more money needed for NYC to fight the terrorists blah blah blah, are you scared blah blah blah.
For whatever reasons or for no particular reason at all…it’s working. It blew Rove off of the front page. We cannot let that happen.
Rove 24/7 until someone cracks.
It’s our only chance, right now.
Rove 24/7.
AG
Are still paying attention to Rove, thankfully.
I know you are right. What I can not understand is why the democratic party can’t do two things at one time!! I would like to think they are working on the Roberts confirmation as we speak, and I think they will not let the Rove thing drop! I do hear what you are saying…
You’re right … and I’m about to post a story on an unrelated issue. Well, it’s unrelated except that it reflects, again, the myopic — moreso distorted — views of the Bush administration.
I like this diary’s PASSION!
And I remember the Watergate days. It became a national obsession. The TV networks concentrated heavily on the story. I’d come home from work at night and watch the reruns of the hearings on TV, my jaw dropping. I hope we have a national CLEANSING experience like that again. God knows we need it.
I HOPE s/he does.
Let us pray.
AG
I meant this in terms of the media…which are NOT.
Not enough, anyway.
Front page?
Not since London.
Not since Roberts.
Not since London redux.
Coincidence?
I don’t GIVE a damn.
Job One…Rover.
Take him down, and the house of cards begins to crumble.
AG
I’m uncomfortable with focusing exclusively on Rove. That ball is in motion. I do think it important to recognize that the use of diversion when it comes to issues is well documented. But there’s nothing that says we can’t focus on both.
Frankly (and this is unfortunate) Roberts is a lost cause. Sure, things may come up about him. Sure, his wife is a rabid anti-choice person. But we aren’t going to win this one.
The best way to limit the damage this administration can do is to focus on the real corruption at the White House.
Strangely enough, if the Rove/Plame thing gets big enough… THEN the democrats in the Senate might find enough courage to even oppose Roberts.
Cripple BushCo, and the DemocRatpublicans in power might actually feel bold enough to oppose the administration themselves.
THEY are just front-runners too, after all.
AG
I thought it was supposed to be DSM 24/7. Or “no more torture” 24/7. Or “Impeach Salazar” 24/7. Or “Ohio recount” 24/7.
Average attention span of blogosphere = one week.
Let us change that.
AG
Rove is subject to a criminal investigation. Politically he’s already hated by the left and lionized by the right. No matter what happens, he’s still going to be able to advise.
No blogger effort is going to make a hoot of difference to this criminal investigation.
So why all this clamoring to focus on Rove?
As an aside, it’s not here in this diary, but why do so many (mostly male) bloggers insist on everyone shutting up about Roberts? Why do so many run scared of talking about reproductive rights?
So many women are very very concerned about this Supreme Court nomination, and the anti-choice ties he and his wife have. They can call us marginal. Call us “special interests.” Call us “single issue” voters. Call us whatever they want to marginalize us. But we’re not going to shut up and toe the line just because people hate Rove more.
Rove’s power is influence on the people with real power. That won’t change because a bunch of lefty blogs harp on his lack of character.
But Roberts will have real power, and it won’t go away. They’re already talking about naming him Chief Justice when Rehnquist retires! It seems like this is the opportune time to frame this entire discussion in the context of what the people want. Nobody but women and a very few men talk about reproductive rights. Why?
I don’t ignore Rove. I posted on him last night. At this point it has received little response or attention. Why? Because what are we supposed to do with info about the Rove investigation that isn’t being done already?
What about the people with real power?
great comment media girl and right on target. i agree completely with your words. i also get the sense that many democratic men don’t seem awfully concerned about our reproductive rights. seems to me the party could be using strong opposition to this nomination to advertise its concerns and solidify roughly 1/2 of its base and gain more concerned women voters.
but we get “Rove 24/7. FORGET everything else.”
the rove scandal is one thing, to be sure,
but its NOTHING compared to half of all of us losing our rights.
forget everything else?
I THINK NOT
“Your” reproductive rights are OUR reproductive rights as well. I am tired of being cast as the enemy because I am male.
If I thought that the secret to defeating BushCo lay solely in the abortion issue, I would fight like hell for THAT.
Believe it.
But we are well past that, and into a SURVIVAL issue. If we end up in a nuclear shooting match (and that is EXACTLY where these sons of bitches are taking us) then “reproductive rights” are going to be shall we say…a moot point.
In fact…we are ALL likely to be a moot point.
Which is MY point.
We MUST beat them before they kill us all.
Fetuses and non-fetuses alike.
And Rove is the pivot upon which this fight turns.
I didn’t plan it that way. I would much prefer for it to be Butch or Cheney, and I would be very happy to find evidence that Mrs. Butch had MULTIPLE abortions before producing those two lames known as the Butch twins.
Performed by Dr. Frist.
But the mistake that has come to light…the one that has FINALLY gotten play in the media mostly because Rove is such a repellent character…is this one.
And this is where the current battle most plainly lies.
As far as “maleness” is concerned…I know maybe 1000 men fairly well. (I work in a fairly broad business where I come into repeated contact with many, many people over the course of any few years. Lots of down time…bus and car and airplane travel, hour long breaks at bars [I’m a musician and I do a lot of work in clubs], shared meals. Time to REALLY get to know people.) MOST of them are good fathers; most of them understand full well the vital importance of limiting the size of families in today’s world by whatever means necessary; most of them are in situations where their wives work too, and NONE of them (Well, maybe a few…not more than about 5%, though.) are either anti-abortion or anti-women’s rights.
It’s not about “maleness” at this point.
It’s about survival.
AG
you say
If I thought that the secret to defeating BushCo lay solely in the abortion issue, I would fight like hell for THAT.
to me that sounds very opportunistic and exploitative, ag.
you should care about the reproductive rights issue not because of what you “can get out of it” but rather out of concern for others, concern for the rights of women. the rights of women are not some chess piece on the gameboard of the democratic party. and they should not be spoken of as merely a “tool” to defeat a maladministration. they are much more important than that.
its no wonder to me you’re tired of being cast as the enemy. has it ever occured to you that in using such opportunistic logic, perhaps you possibly are?
I am pro-ALL humans’ rights.
Male, female, or any of the 5 or so OTHER sexes.
All races.
All ages.
All nationalities.
All religions or lack thereof.
EVERYfuckingbody.
Were we not in the current state of emergency, I would be more than willing to spend any amount of time and energy necessary to defeat Roberts. But I really believe that we are in crisis time here, that if Rove is not brought down and this blows over, then BushCo is going to start another front in Iran and Syria; they will be forced to use nuclear weapons to do so (or use their attack dog Israel to at least start the ball rolling), and we are ALL quite likely to die over the course of the consequences of that kind of act.
It’s not about the rights of half the population of the earth here…it’s about ALL of our rights.
And while I’m at it…the forces that people like Roberts represent are anti-MALE rights as well. They wish to enslave us ALL.
For real.
BET on it.
If you insist on casting this as a male-female fight, best of luck to you.
You are wrong here, as far as I am concerned, and my position has NOTHING to do with women OR their rights.
It is strictly a survivalist issue at the moment, and it transcends ANY special circumstances.
Male, female, gay, Black, Hispanic…Senator Conyers (Who has spent about 30 YEARS fighting for minority rights) understands this perfectly.
We should too.
Rove leads to DSM and the lies that brought us into the Blood For Oil War.
Get THAT out, and their game is as good as over.
Leave them IN, and (provided of course that we survive their tender ministrations) I will GUARANTEE that within 4 years there will not be a legal non-medical emergency abortion available from sea to shining sea here in America the Beautiful.
With or WITHOUT John Roberts.
Bet on it.
AG
In case you haven’t noticed, Bush and Cheney are full-blooded chickenhawks in their own, erm, right. Rove may have pushed to exploit 9/11 for a new imperialist agenda, but he’s the political strategist, not the warmongering kingpin. Take Rove out and you still have the Sith Lords in charge. The war-making won’t end by taking out Rove. Especially when most of the Democrats are all for it.
I sincerely doubt that if African Americans were facing a new kind of slavery, the left would be so willing and eager to say, “Shut up and carry our water now. We’ll take care of you later.”
Yet it seems pretty easy for the left to dismiss women out of hand. Pat us on the head and say, “Don’t worry. We’re taking care of the important shit. We’ll get to your stuff tomorrow.” Frankly, I resent it. It reveals to me that the left is not only not hearing us, it’s not interested in hearing us. Frankly I resent it.
It’s one thing to say, “Keep pushing on Rove” — and, just for the record, I have — and another to say don’t do anything else, your priorities are not important, follow my agenda exclusively.
Apparenbtly…as you MUST.
media girl wrtes:
I sincerely doubt that if African Americans were facing a new kind of slavery, the left would be so willing and eager to say, “Shut up and carry our water now. We’ll take care of you later.”.
MY point is that we are ALL “facing a new kind of slavery.” And/OR a new kind of death.
But…fight the battles that most interest you, as will I.
Currently, I think that Rove…leading to Cheney and Bush…is THE key. And I will continue saying that.
Whenever and wherever I can.
To imply that this is in any way “anti-woman” is just another example of how the left continues to shoot itself in the foot.
If you have a better…a practically better…way to discredit these criminals, please lay it out there.
I’m all ears.
AG
I am a human being wanting someone to stand up and truly represent my interests. It’s not happening right now. Not from the right. Not from the left. And I couldn’t give two figs for either if they’re going to push my human rights aside as inconvenient or not important enough for their partisan games of king of the hill.
I’m sorry, but if someone wants my vote, they have to speak to me. And most of the Democrats are not doing that. Neither are the Republicans.
I’m sorry you find my rights inconvenient. I’m truly sorry you think that howling after an appointee with no constitutional power or authority is somehow going to make the sun shine again.
You go ahead and do your 24/7 thing on one subject, like a dog chasing its tail. It plays out as foolish in the media. If you want practicality, then hit on everything. Hit on it all.
In case you haven’t noticed, that’s what the Republicans have been doing for 20 years. They’ve got the Democrats so far back on their heels they don’t know right from left, let alone right from wrong. And the Republicans have been winning.
Meanwhile the blogosheet dutifully goes one issue at a time. Okay everybody, this week it’s Karl Rove. Are you f***g kidding me?
Don’t tell me to wait until next week. You and I both know that next week isn’t coming. It hasn’t come since the ERA was not ratified. You want to focus on Rove, that’s fine. But don’t try to tell me that my focusing on what’s important to me is shooting the left in the foot. The left manages that quite well on its own. Over and over. And in threads like this.
You may well be right. We shall soon see.
In my view, the runup to this point has been gradual and continuous. Each time, a little more attention has been paid by the mainstream media to the essential criminality of this regime.
Rove is finally NOT the sensation of the week. His story has real legs, and it connects to these other stories that the media did NOT cover deeply or well.
DSM, Gannon/Guckert, the fiction of WMDs as the excuse for this Blood For Oil War, the Cheney “energy conference.”..which is STILL secret…where they undoubtedly cut up the Iraqi pie before even beginning to find a reason to invade, and the attempted politicization of both our military AND our covert services.
And that’s just the first layer.
Pushed further, it connects to the vote frauds of 2000 + 2004, the hounding of Bill Clinton, and possibly right on back through Bush I and Reagan and Nixon to the coup that STARTED this whole system, the placement of LBJ in the office of President by the assassination of JFK. There is no limit to how far this thing could unravel. The stakes are really that large.
Will it?
I doubt it…but it is ALL connected. The further it goes, the better things will be.
You want “your” rights respected?
Well…I want mine and my children’s and my children’s children’s right respected as well.
Regardless of sex.
Rove is the crux point.
We must ALL must help to unravel this tangle of conspiracies. If you reject that idea…then best of luck to you.
Like I said…I am after checkmate, and Roberts is just a pawn.
I will have no more to say on this matter except for one thing…sexism runs two ways, just like every OTHER prejudice, and it runs deep.
I am not your enemy necause I am a man, and my political choices and beliefs are not anti-female.u cannot see that, then you isolate yourself way at the far end of a weak position.
Tell me I am wrong, if you must…but don’t tell me it’s because I am a man.
Thank you…
AG
You put words in my mouth and then attack them.
Then you go on to say how you’re for everyone’s rights. But of course only if you approve.
You consider reproductive rights to be a weak position? Then I feel for you, and for your narrow view of human rights, liberty, due process and equal protection under the law.
You want to call me a sexist for wanting equal protection under the law? Go right ahead. It doesn’t make it true. You are wrong. And it’s not because you’re a man, it’s because you’re shadow boxing with opponents of your own imagination.
It’s not about “maleness” at this point. It’s about survival.
you are exactly right. it’s not about maleness. its about femaleness and it is about survival — the survival of women.
and it’s about those who call themselves liberals, but are suggesting that the best way to protect women’s lives is to not openly fight for them.
But you are wrong, here.
Choose your enemies well. You’ve got plenty from which to make your selection.
I am not one of them.
AG
Media girl wrote:
Okay, so….do what? Rove is subject to a criminal investigation. Politically he’s already hated by the left and lionized by the right. No matter what happens, he’s still going to be able to advise.
First of all, his “advice” is just a sideline. His possible felony conviction or at least his public tarring as a treasonous, slimy snake son of a bitch in image after image, column after column and newscast after newscast progressively diminishes BushCo’s power, with the distinct possibility that some one of these backstabbers is going to break ranks and rat out the rest.
There are enough prosecutable crimes in and around the White House, were the Justice system to actually do its job, to put the entire staff of the President and the Vice President in jail.
INCLUDING the bosses.
Will that happen?
Probably not. “Not in the national interest” would be the centrist watchword, and as usual, there is considerably more power in the middle than at EITHER edge. But a reasonably successful effort made in that direction would completely hamstring this administration, and it could quite conceivably win the ’06 elections for the Democrats.
Just for STARTERS. (Can you spell “impeachment? Can you SMELL it? I can. It’s two years upwind…but the scent is clear and the hunt is on.)
Yes, he’s “hated by the left and lionized by the right.” Change the right’s attitude. Paint him as a weak, treacherous sneak whose usefulness is long past. And wake up the vast, somnolent middle to his true nature while you are at it. The bio that goes “Acted like a political rat since childhood” will do WONDERS in mass media distribution.
“DO what”, you ask?
HOW to do these things?
AH HA!!! Therein lies the real question.
What’s a committed blogger to do?
Got any free time?
USE it.
Write letters to the editor.
Go fight on other blogs. Spread the word on the so-called lefty blogs that we must not lose sight of Rove in the hailstorm of counter-info. Go fight on the RIGHT wing blogs.
Call radio talk shows. Lie. Say you are a Ratpublican just like them, and then steer the conversation around to what a drag Rove is on the Grand Old Party, how ashamed you have become of the moral sleaze that seems to be infecting it.
Ask whatever happened to Honest Abe?
Upright Ike?
YOU know the drill…DO it.
THEY do…
Before I was unceremoniously ushered off of The Daily Kos…I believe I was among the first, perhaps even THE first. On Independence Day, three days before the mass purge. And if any of you think that purge was about “conspiracy theories”, y’all ought to go right on over to your kitchen cupboard, fashion a nice dunce cap out of aluminum foil and start wearing it wherever you go…. I wrote a diary suggesting that there is a HUGE centrist or slightly right wing audience out there on the AM radio sports talk shows.
Call THEM!!!
“How ABOUT those Mets!!! WOW!!! And Oscar Minaya is the FIRST Hispanic GM EVER!!! He’s formed a latin DREAM TEAM!!! By the way…did you hear about Tom Tancredo? You know, he’s a Republican Congressman from Colorado who opposes immigration. And he’s SPANISH!!! Wants to nuke Mecca. And his boss hires FELONS to work in the White House!!!”
Etcetera.
By the time these guys figure out what you are about…boom! You’ve reached thousands or even millions.
“Duh…what did he say?? FELONS!!!!??? Like STEINBRENNER!!!???”
Talk to your friends, your relatives, your fellow workers.
Leave posters around the office. Tack `em up on trees; tape them to lampposts; leave them in restaurants. You’ve got a computer and a printer…DO it.
Shy?
Short of ideas?
Afraid of being ostracized by your family and acquaintances?
Go here…to The Whispering Campaign…and get some pre-loaded ammo..
From their website:
—
The Whispering Campaign gives you tools to help educate your neighbors, without drawing attention to yourself.
Our mission: Find the best real journalism on the net and provide samples of it here, formatted for easy printing and distribution.
Your mission: Visit our site, click on some links, and Print the pages you like best. Copy your printouts and Distribute the copies by leaving them where others will find them. Repeat this sequence as often as possible.
—
This is ALL doable.
DO it.
As far as your Roberts take…you are right. BUT…he and his fellow right wing, corporatist assholes are front runners. They are NOT ideologues. Cripple their bosses and they will sit there and collect their fat paychecks until they rot like Rehnquist. Cripple their bosses, and things will not GO to the Supreme Court. Cripple their bosses, take them out of power, change the way Americans think about the right, and it is dead.
It’s really not ABOUT the Supreme Court. It’s about how the myth-making media mold the American mind. And that is both why Rove is so important…he is a VERY powerful bishop in this chess game…and why Roberts is relatively less so. Just a pawn in a good position.
Butch is the almost useless King, Cheney the all-powerful Queen, and Rove is the Queen’s most effective Bishop. Take down the Queen…game’s over. Take down the Queen’s Bishop and you are well on your way to Cheney.
That’s my take on it, anyway…
And…
Have fun.
It’s OUR turn.
There are lots of us…and we are SMARTER.
Go get `em.
AG
…and I agree with all your calls to action.
But I strongly disagree with your call to basically write off Roberts as a lost cause.
The point is not winning this battle, it’s framing it for the next one, which frames it for the one after that, and so on, in each and every fight!
We give a pass on Roberts, and what we’re really saying is that reproductive rights, civil rights, restraint of authoritarian governmental powers, stopping of torture are all not important.
And it’s especially true about reproductive rights. In case you haven’t noticed, the Democrats are in retreat on this issue. While Dean attacks the frame of the debate, elected Democrats attack the position, and back away.
Now, the accusation is tossed around that anyone arguing for reproductive rights is a “single issue voter.” What I say is that the Democrats are so wishy washy on reproductive rights, they do not draw in voters on this issue. People are voting on other crap, because that’s all there is to vote on. All the elected officials in the center and left are ignoring this major schism that threatens to throw this country back into a Second Civil War.
That is why the debate must be engaged NOW, not when women start dying and getting tossed in prison and wearing GPS trackers on their ankles.
I’ll put it this way: If grassroots leaders don’t speak up and make it very clear that we are all concerned about the future of Roe given this nominee’s questionable background and Bush’s agenda to stack the courts, then they are not worth a bucket of spit. If they do not speak up, they are saying that reproductive rights are not important to them. If only NARAL and other advocacy organizations are the only ones speaking out for reproductive rights, then that reveals one thing very clearly: WE HAVE NO ALLIES ON THE LEFT.
Nick Kiddie writes today:
Slavery is slavery. Either take a stand or get out of the way. You think we have a culture war now. You ain’t seen nothing yet. When Roe falls, you’re going to see a complete realignment politically, and the Democrats are going to lose unless they stand for something instead of sit for everything.
you are so right media girl!
forcing me to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term for 9 months, making me permit the fetus to feed off my blood, to use my kidneys, to suck the iron and minerals out of my body…
forcing me by law to do that relegates me to nothing more than livestock
Natch.
But SHORT term…until Rove is front page news and every time he drops OFF of the front pages…then I still say Rove 24/7.
Strategy,,,get these sons of bitches out of power.
Tactic…attack them through Rove.
Rove goes down…THEY go down.
Roberts goes down…they nominate ANOTHER asshole until it’s no longer news anymore and people grow bored. THEN they fill the seat with the same sort of person.
You don’t think that there is any SHORTAGE of right wing lawyers, do you? Or that once Roberts was defeated they would relent and nominate some contemporary Bella Abzug? FUGGEDABOUDIT!!! Ain’t gonna happen. It will be Roberts or some other corprorate tool FOREVER as long as BushCo is in power.
So…let’s take BushCo OUT of power.
How?
Rove is by FAR the best bet, right now.
The hands down loser.
Rove 24/7 until they are finished.
Had attention been successfully diverted from Watergate, do you think Noxon would have had to resign?
No way.
AND…I wasn’t so much talking about Roberts as I was about the “terrorism” news at the moment. It’s ALL diversionary, and it is ALL detracting from the Rove news.
Rove 24/7 until…let us pray…it becomes Cheney 24/7.
THEN reproductive rights will be safe.
Until then…until we get an administration that does not want to keep us ALL…men and women (They are equal opportunity fuckers. Believe it.)…barefoot and pregnant, then NO one is safe.
Later…
AG
Rove is in the hot seat already. He might be indicted. That’s not up to us.
We have maybe 5-6 weeks to frame the Supreme Court debate. Sorry, but I don’t think ignoring that gains anything.
–especially when Democrats are backing away from reproductive rights.
I don’t see the gain of choosing one scandal and harping just on that. There’s also Cheney’s orders to the Pentagon to plan a nuclear war on Iran, and Bush’s quashing of incriminating photos of torture, and Halliburton’s massive cost overruns on a blank check contract, and so on. You can’t just let everything go and think you’re going to get anywhere on just one thing. That plays right into the right-wing frame: first they tried to push torture, then they tried to push Downing Street memos, then they tried to get Rove, then….
In other words, I don’t get the 24/7 argument. And I certainly don’t get that women should shut up about impending slavery because some ethereal knights in shining armor are going to make everything better.
So I respectfully and strenuously disagree.
Well, the print media is paying attention. The Denver Post has this online. Great editorial that it is not just about Rove and we need to look at the Big Picture. Please read this piece.
http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_2880476
You found this. Why don’t you diary about it? I haven’t clicked the link yet, but it sounds like a great find.
Ok…I’ll try.
Ok Susan diary up and please feel free to edit.
KEWL … heading right over there now. Then I really need to take my shower because we’re going to see my mom/brother.
Have a great visit with your family girl!
Ensuring Rove stays on the front page of every progressive blog seems a smart idea. But forgetting everything else does not seem so brilliant. The story brewing about the Abu Ghraib photos and Bush’s threat to veto any bill that would hold American soldiers to some degree of humanitarian treatment toward prisoners seems potentially as big as the Rove thing. If our goal is effectively to counter this administration and all it stands for, then getting Rove is simply a strategy.
Perhaps more importantly, the torture story cuts to the most basic notions of humanity, ethics and values of each of us, and must not be set aside for partisanship, however passionate our political leanings. We oppose the current administration because we believe in principles such as humanitarian treatment of prisoners. Let’s keep our eyes on the prize.
Remember…there are VERY powerful and quite expert forces working against BushCo at the moment.
BET on it.
They are leaking all KINDS of info…even worse Abu Ghraib images being just one facet of their ongoing effort..
But still…
Tell me true…have you EVER seen anything more obscene than this picture?
Not me…
AG
I don’t write many diaries but was encouraged to do so by Susan. It is very much related to my post upthread. I don’t normally “pimp” diaries but think you will find it interesting. mydiary
Well, I messed up the link again but its in the recent list but rapidly disappearing…oh well.
I don’t know about you, but I can walk, chew gum, listen to a cd, whistle, smile at passing strangers and remember where my bus stop is ALL AT THE SAME TIME.
Wars are not fought on single fronts.
No, that is true.
But when the enemy ramps up all KINDS of unprecedented diversionary actions over a two week period…maybe you are getting unconfortably close to headquarters.
Ya think?
AG
I do.
sure, but that doesn’t mean you abandon an important and vital fort to respond.
And one of the reasons for that is that it’s not impossible that a case involving Rove might some day come before the Supreme Court.
If we abandon the “important and vital fort” of the Supreme Court in order to solely fight Rove, we may be supplying the new Justice who ultimately lets Rove off. (See: Own Foot, Shooting Off.)
Personally, I think Rove and Roberts are, or may turn out to be, related issues and we have to summon the energy for both of them.
exactly right.
And as an instructive example of how blogworld skews itself around issues.
In my original diary there is no mention whatsoever of Roberts. It was inspired by the loud woofing over terrorism, at least in the NYC market. Now you might say that this just proves the point that men don’t give a shit about reproductive rights. But the reality of the situation is that if the wolf tickets had been being sold about Roberts as loudly as they were being sold about terorism, then THAT would have been the main thrust of the diary.
Hell…if all the news had been about Michael Jackson’s suicide (Didn’t happen…except maybe in a progressive, day-by-day sense.) or Barry Bonds becoming a born-again holistic healer, then the prominence given THOSE issues would have been paramount.
It is about media-fired WMDs.
Weapons of Mass Diversion.
Nothing else.
And the weapons are being fired as never before.
Why?
Because we finally have some traction.
Let us USE that traction with every ounce of our ability.
Later…
AG
I don’t think it’s necessary—and more to the point, realistically possible—for everyone to concentrate “24/7” on one issue. For one thing it’s apparent from the exchanges here that people have made very strong priorities for themselves.
Those priorities should be honored, and choosing one does not diminish others. I think it’s true that there is a constellation of events happening that are combining to establish a rabid rightwing imperialist-corporatist police state. But there’s not necessarily a single way to fight it.
There is an urgency in for example the Cheney-inspired plan to apparently use nukes in Iran. But it doesn’t quite rise to a clear and present danger trumping other dire threats such as criminalizing abortion or–to take an issue that I believe isn’t viewed seriously and urgently enough, the climate crisis. In any case, there’s no consensus on this now. I agree however that pursuing the Rove affair must have as its aim to get the neocons away from the button, to not stop until Cheney and his cohorts are neutralized.
Some people lead certain fights, others support them. There’s danger in dividing energies and attention, and there are dangers in becoming obsessive.
The point I want to make mostly though is that if the media is currently obsessed with terrorism, then it is the perfect opportunity to relate the Rove affair to crippling our ability to find terrorists and defeat their efforts. That was made clear in the Plame affair hearings yesterday. That’s a task for dealing with media and getting the message across today.
When the Roberts hearings start, the media will turn at least some attention to that. Preparations for that can made made now as well.