Voices of dissent in a Red State. Rove's media tricks not playing here.

[havocmom]

From an AP wire story carried in the Billings Gazette about a man in the reserves. A Great Falls cop for five years, Michael Badgley Jr, is probably a witness to be taken as credible with the hometown folks. Add his eyewitness accounts about how things are going in Iraq to the growing list of info flowing into Montana about the war and you get a very unhappy population. The fact that his tour (and many others') has been extended twice, small towns across Montana seeing their reserves and guard called up, leaving police, fire and ambulance protection very shorthanded, and the Chichen Hawk in Chief's PR stunt being seen for what it was, dissent is getting more obvious in this conservative area.

Now, I know we are a tiny population, but if the media myths are being busted here (where radio is pretty right wing and cable/satilite is the only TV) by reality, you can bet the truth is seeping into the collective uncouscious.

link

<snip> HAVRE - Neither the Pentagon nor the news media are giving the American public an accurate picture of the situation in Iraq, which is "a nightmare," says a soldier who is about to go back.

"It's nothing like what the people back home have been hearing," Army Sgt. Michael Badgley Jr. said. "They're saying the war's over. The war's not over. Now, it's more of a guerrilla war."


At work yesterday, I heard grumbling about the PR stunt Rove sent bush* on. Only one woman said she thought it was "nice". Her son is over there and she deals through the use of denial. Others said it was a stunt to take pictures and wondered how many tax $$ were spent for "this campagne trip". There were musings about and how many perscriptions it could have filled for needy seniors, how many bottles of water it could have sent to the troops, how many potholes on America's interstates it could have filled.

Folks, do not write off rural America in the fight to save the nation from the Corporate Coup-sters. The hard working people here abouts are not happy with the course America is on. They do not approve of the maladministration's policies, foreign and domestic. They do not like having the frat boy drag America through the dirt. And our senators have some 'splainin to do when they get home!

edit: typo queen is short caffine

[impeach the gop]

1. Thanks for sharing this

n/t

[xchrom]

2. being from central illinois originally

i don't write them off.
but i don't think i'm ready to believe they can relate to a liberal, rational point of view.
it's comforting to know however that they maybe becoming uncomfortable with the seeds they havve sown.

[rucky]

7. Maybe they won't vote dem....but maybe they won't vote at all

n/t

[havocmom]

16. Voter turnout in small towns is probably higher than in cities.

Your neighbors know if they saw you going to the poll or not and you would have a lot of irrate questions coming your way if you didn't go vote! Folks im my tiny town take it seriously. To not vote would be to thumb your nose at the sacrifices the all veterns made. It would be like burning a flag after wiping your feet on it.

And in many small towns, we still use pencils!.

On the downside in smaller communities in Montana:
There is a move afoot to get at least one machine in each county 'to assure that blind citizens can vote unassisted'. Nice thought but it is just a way for GOP bag men selling machines to sell more of their one armed vote bandits.

[maddezmom]

3. thanks for the post

little by little I think the US is waking up to the Rove machine. Question is: will it be in time? Hopefully, this soldier won't face a court marshall for speaking against the war.

[JNelson6563]

4. Excellent post

thanks for sharing it.

I am in rural northern Micihigan and the folks are waking up here too. Today in the gas station I bought a paper. Headline: Iraq trip: Coup or Stunt?

I asked the guy at the counter, who I see regularly, how do you like ouur over-paid stuntman? He said "I don't like 'im." I inquired, "won't it be great to have a real President again?" He said "yeah, I just don't like him". All the help was around by then. I told them not to worry Bush was a one-termer.

Pointed to my Dean button and told them we'd "soon be on the mend" and winked on the way out as they all smiled.

Rural America is done with the Indiana Jones PR stunts. They don't like being broke and burying their dead youth who served in Halliburton's war. And they do not appreciate being lied to.

The spell is breaking.

Julie

[Eric J in MN]

5. speaking as a Minnesotan

As someone in a rural, midwestern state which has chosen the Democrat in
Presidential races for decades, I don't like it when conservatives talk of "the Heartland" as a place where Republicans are universally adored.

[paulk]

6. What I really see Bush doing

is deepening the divide between the left and the right. He has made it a chasm that can't be crossed.

Some ARE waking up, thank god - hopefully enough to throw his ass out of office.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

8. My Dad is seeing the same sort of undercurrent in West Virginia...

...and I'm seeing the same thing here in northern Alabama. People are growing increasingly more unhappy about the lies we're being told, and they're starting to ask quite a few pointed questions.

The local news media in both states continue to spout the party line, but more and more people are starting to ignore that crap.

By the way, good post!

[intheozone]

9. Many thanks for the info

It brightens my day and feeds my hope for the future. I'm glad to hear Montana is waking up to the truth. That is a very good sign.

[Squeech]

10. It's gonna be an ugly campaign

Sure, the American people don't like having a liar as president.

So obviously what the Rove machine will do is paint the Democratic nominee, whoever it may be, as something worse. Traitor will do-- unless it's Clark, in which case they'll dredge up the Waco story and make up some lies about his Vietnam days and call him a baby killer.

And they control the Mighty Wurlitzer.

[loudnclear]

11. Never could figure out how rural America thinks Bush identifies with them

They have absolutely nothing in common except a white skin. He is a fake Texas rancher who plays a role like Reagan did.

[Hamlette]

12. thanks for the wake up call

I was so depressed after watching Now last night but you brightened my day.

We also need to remember the impeachment. Clinton wasn't all I want in a president but he was better than what we have now and America got it. He had a 70% approval rating during the impeachment mess and he would have easily been re-elected. I remember a man-on-the-street interview of a guy in Missouri after we all watched the tape of Clinton's deposition in the Paula Jones case. The guy said he was republican but he didn't think Clinton was being treated fairly by the GOP or Starr. They guy was mad and sad. Said something about this isn't how things are supposed to be in America. The cable news was all trash dems and talk about Monica all the time back then too.

Each party has about 30% of the country that will stick with it right or wrong. The other 40% is really more independent than we give them credit for. After all, with the press calling Gore a liar every day, he still won the election.

I think our candidate next time should draw Clinton close. Maybe even talk about appointing him ambassador or Sec'y of State.

[BlueCollar]

13. more and more Texans

seem to be expressing their horror to me. It won't be enough to take back the State but hopefully it will spread...

[calimary]

14. I hope this is for real, but I can't forget the polls that keep showing

that EVEN WHILE more and more of America bristles at bush's policies, they still like him and will probably vote for him again. What do we do about this disconnect?

Somebody on another post suggested "The Body-Bag President" as a nickname for bush. How 'bout we make THAT a new meme?

[havocmom]

15. Can't rely on polls. The questions are usually very slanted and worded

to assure the majority will go the way the poll wants them to. The choices for answers generally leave one choosing "close enough" as opposed to how one really feels. Very easy to get the approval rating you want when you frame both questions and all possible answers. Then you go public with your numbers and try to get others to go along and think inside the box you designed.

Polls are not a good way to really hear what people are thinking. They are a good way to try and keep the masses in line. If polls discourage you, they are doing their job.

Me? I like kicking the daylights outta propaganda devices which are designed to get me to move with the preceived herd. If I believed most polls were actually indicative of what the majority believed, I wouldn't get outta bed in the morning, or ever again. Not gonna let some statisticians and psy-ops jockies demoralize me!