DU Must read: Molly Ivins: "It's Time To Get Serious"

[flpoljunkie]

http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=16053

Molly Ivins lays it out for us about the politcal payoffs to the GOP for these two unbelievably bad bills--energy and Medicare.
You will want to bookmark it.

[LSparkle]

1. I'm sitting here in Santa Monica raising a cup of tea

probably made from HTBE-contaminated water to those spineless fools on our side who helped pass that energy giveaway. It's enough to make you go Green ... Thank God for Molly Ivins!

[onecitizen]

8. I always thought I would............

love Santa Monica but you've made me re-think that! I guess I could drink bottled beer instead. Tea, beer, it'a gotta be better in Santa Monica!

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

2. Ivins is one of the best

I missed an opportunity to see her here in NYC by ten minutes! Still regret it!

[LSparkle]

3. just remembered energy isn't a done deal after all

thank God! Let's hope Dems stick together when it's brought back up in the new year (maybe under new leadership?).

[NewJeffCT]

4. great article

Keep it up Molly - we need to quote things like this in our election advertisements next year.

[frank frankly]

5. I love Molly Ivins

I've seen her speak and I was...enchanted.

Oh, Molly, you are so wonderful!

:hi:

[ulysses]

6. jesus.

The environmental groups are still going through it, finding new horrors hidden away. Greenwire reports, "Section 349 would remove the discretion of the Interior Department to deny applications to drill amid onshore and offshore lands -- upon receiving an application to drill in a leased area, the department would have 10 days to determine whether additional information is required to grant a permit. Once the information is provided, the department must approve the application regardless of whether drilling would damage the environment."

(emphasis added)

:argh:

[Lorien]

7. kick

It will require action on our behalf. Who here has called or written their reps on these issues? (Raises hand).

[calimary]

9. hand raised here, too. 1 (800) 839 - 5276 - TOLL FREE to Cap. Hill.

This is the number where they'll transfer you, free, to the office of anybody in the House and/or Senate.

And may I humbly submit the following (again)? As long as you're at it...

Folks, we need to start creating and spreading some new MEMES. Like Republi-CONS and Republi-CONMEN and Republi-CON-ARTISTS and Republic-CON-JOBS and Cheap-Labor Conservatives and Red-Ink-Republi-CONS and Charge-and-Spend-Republicans.

We need stuff like this to roll off the tongue as easily and frequently and automatically as those schmucks derisively say "the Democrat Party."

They're having a great time because nobody and I mean NOBODY is hitting back. It's BEYOND high time that changed.

We need to slither stuff like this into the national mind-set. REPETITION WORKS!!! Soon, it will spread on its own, but WE have to get it jump-started.

So here are some suggestions:

1) WHEN (not IF, WHEN) you write or email some columnist or reporter or editorial board or whoever, slip one or two of them in. Make this a habit - EVERY TIME. I wrote to one Canadian reporter about an excellent article she'd produced. I made reference to "The Silenced Majority" to describe the many many legions of us critics of this "So-Called Administration" (there's another one) who've been forcibly silenced and marginalized. She picked up on that in her response and said that it was a good one. AHA! Perhaps she'll be likely to use it, herself, then.

2) If ever you get through on somebody's talk show, MAKE DAMNED SURE you repeat one or more of those several times. Further planting seeds and then giving them water and nutrients. Same is true if you email some TV show, on the chance it might get used on the air.

3) Use that terminology with friends and "watercooler" pals at the office. Just casually, BUT RELENTLESSLY!

4) WHEN (not if) you call your congresscritter (TOLL FREE TO CAPITOL HILL: 1 800 839 - 5276 - you KNEW I was gonna sneak that one in again, too, 'eh?), use these when you speak to Democratic office staffers. Encourage them to spread it, too. I started using "when bush lied, people died" or "bush lied and soldiers died" and a couple of 'em remarked specifically on that and said they liked it. WHILE YOU'RE AT IT, encourage them to start using this, too. Encourage them to suggest it to their bosses. Tell them it's the new rage where you live (keep it up enough and it's very likely to be!).

The objective is to plant these as seeds as far and wide as though you were Johnny Appleseed. Do it repeatedly yet casually in conversation and in writing. If enough of us do it, and spread the word, and maybe drop hints to Democrats.com and Buzzflash and some other friendly folk, perhaps takebackthemedia.com and such, it'll start spreading. Folks like Guy James and Randi Rhodes and Mike Malloy should be doing this, too. Suggestion needs to get to them as well. The objective here is to influence the national dialogue and the national consciousness and implant - or let's use the lexicon - "embed" this stuff in people's minds so it just starts automatically popping into their heads. Soon enough, the average Joe will start hearing this, and subconsciously connecting the concept of "Charge and Spend" or "republi-CONS" whether he/she wants to or not. It'll just pop in there, the same as the shamelessly-pounded-into-the-ground memes about liberals being so bad.

FOLKS, YOU CAN BET THERE ARE WRITTEN AND EMAILED MARCHING ORDERS AND TALKING POINTS ISSUED FAR AND WIDE BY THE LIKES OF KKKARL ROVE AND RALPH REED AND ROGER AILES AT THE FAUX NETWORK EXHORTING PEOPLE TO DO JUST THAT. YOU CAN BET THAT EVERY TALKING HEAD, EVERY REPUBLI-CON OFFICE STAFFER EVERYWHERE, EVERY RIGHT-WING THINK-TANKER, EVERYBODY EVERYWHERE IN THE BAD-GUY CAMP IS GETTING THESE ADVISORIES. NEWT GINGRICH YEARS AGO ACTUALLY DID IT, ISSUING LISTS OF WORDS TO USE WHEN DESCRIBING DEMS AND REPUBLI-CONS. WE NEED TO DO LIKEWISE, ONLY BETTER AND MORE HONEST.

Don't mean to shout, but then again, actually, YES I DO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Guys, my dad was very successful as a salesman. He was a specialist in stuff like this, and it worked-worked-worked. I grew up watching this and seeing it work, repeatedly, with my own eyes. PLEASE DO IT!!!!!!

[Ilsa]

10. Kick

:kick:

[Cleita]

11. So Molly is thinking what I am thinking.

Tin foil hat time here. Is a Congressional fix in?

So I am beginning to wonder why these bills we don’t agree with are getting rammed through Congress. It seems like a number of turncoat Democrats conveniently cross the aisle each time. I’m getting suspicious that the deals were made before the votes. Some of the principals involved change, but the votes are just enough to ram the bills through at the last minute.

Anyone else beginning to smell something amiss here?