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Wednesday, September 22
Top Economists Endorse Art Small for U.S. Senate
by
Linda Thieman
on Wed 22 Sep 2004 04:39 PM CDT
 Top Economists Endorse Art Small for U.S. Senate
Des Moines Register
In an unprecedented move, top economists take sides in U.S. Senate race
Washington, D.C.
- Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa has done "serious harm" to
the nation's economic future during his tenure as chairman of the
Senate Finance Committee, a group of economists said Monday in
endorsing Grassley's political opponent, Art Small.
The
economists - including the University of Iowa economics department
chairwoman and three Nobel prize winners - said that it is unusual for
leading economists to take a position in a race for the U.S. Senate,
but that they were compelled by the rising deficit and a half-trillion
in new U.S. debt.
"Iowans
may be only dimly aware of the pivotal role that their senior senator,
Charles Grassley, played in these events," said the economists in a
printed statement. They said they blamed deep tax cuts advocated by
Grassley, enacted by Congress and signed into law by Bush for boosting
the deficit. Those cuts also benefited the wealthy too much, the group
said.
The economists said Iowans should back Iowa City Democrat Art Small, a former state lawmaker running an uphill battle against Grassley. Small has a "genuine" commitment to fiscal responsibility, they said.
(Click here to read the complete article.)
Dont' forget to vote for Art Small right now over at Democracy for America.
This week Democracy for America is hosting an online vote to see which US Senate candidates have generated the most people-powered appeal.
The prize: Howard Dean will
send a special message to the Democracy for America grassroots about
the winner, raising awareness (and badly-needed funds) for that candidate and his or her race.
Show your support for Art Small now by
hopping over to DFA and giving him your vote.
http://www.democracyforamerica.com/senatevote
MoveOn Calls on Bush to Release Intelligence Report
by
Linda Thieman
on Wed 22 Sep 2004 01:41 PM CDT
 MoveOn Calls on Bush to Release Intelligence Report
Bush Should Release Intelligence Report on Iraq, So Americans Learn the Truth Before they Vote in November
WASHINGTON
- MoveOn PAC Friday called on the Bush Administration to release the
full text of the National Intelligence Estimate, which Bush has had
since July, so that Americans can better understand how he and his top
officials have consistently misled them about developments in Iraq.
The
demand came as MoveOn PAC's latest TV ad, "Quagmire," is running in
Iowa, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Ohio and nationally on CNN. The ad
claims "George Bush misled us into war with Iraq, sending poorly
equipped soldiers into battle."
Bush
surrogates, including campaign chairman Marc Racicot and former Sen.
Bob Dole, sought to distract attention from news reports yesterday that
the consensus of the US intelligence community, contained in the
classified intelligence report, directly contradicts recent Bush,
Cheney and Rumsfeld public statements about prospects for US success in
Iraq. Both Bush spokespeople attacked MoveOn PAC's ad without noting
the obvious conflict between the Administration's rosy scenarios and
the intelligence community's dire warnings that corroborated the
central message of the ad.
As it
began running, new evidence emerged of Bush's failure to tell the truth
about Iraq. On August 5, Bush told us, "(Iraq is) on the path to
lasting democracy and liberty," at the White House as he signed the
Defense bill.
Then on Aug 24, Vice President Cheney told voters in Iowa: "We're moving in the right direction (in Iraq)."
"So we
have a pResident who has misled the American people on Weapons of Mass
Destruction and the likelihood of nuclear weapons development in Iraq -
claims that were refuted again in a draft report written by the top
American weapons inspector in Iraq, made public in the media today,"
said Eli Pariser, executive director of MoveOn PAC.
"They
told us our troops would be welcomed as liberators; now over 1,000 are
dead. They told us the war would pay for itself, and now we've spent
$150 billion. Americans deserve to see the N.I.E. in its entirety, so
they can judge for themselves how truthful this pResident has been
about the adequacy of his leadership on Iraq," Pariser said
View the new ad at http://www.moveonpac.org
Framing The Issues: How Conservatives Use Language to Dominate Politics
by
Linda Thieman
on Wed 22 Sep 2004 08:52 AM CDT
 Framing The Issues: How Conservatives Use Language to Dominate Politics
An Interview with UC Berkeley professor George Lakoff, UC Berkeley News
But first, a brief note from Linda: I
wanted to take this opportunity to let you know that I have added a new
component to the left sidebar of Blog for Iowa. It's called Fight Media Bias, and it's divided into three sections: Iowa, National, and Tools.
Here you will find practical suggestions and information on how you can
join the fight against the GOP-controlled media, from organized letter
writing - courtesy of Rapid Response Network - Iowa - to a daily rebuttal of Sinclair Broadcasting's nightly op/ed hogwash, thanks to Iowa's Ted Remington over at The Counterpoint.
You'll also find tips on how to reframe the language used by
conservative factions to control perspective, and contact information
for almost every Iowa newspaper.
While
reading one of the articles I posted to the sidebar, I came upon this fascinating
excerpt from an interview with linguistics professor George Lakoff. It reminded me a
lot of the distinction made in the book "The Cultural Creatives" that Alta Price wrote up for Blog for Iowa some time ago.
Conservatives
have spent decades defining their ideas, carefully choosing the
language with which to present them, and building an infrastructure to
communicate them, says Lakoff.
The work has paid off: by dictating the terms of national debate, conservatives have put progressives firmly on the defensive.
Why do conservatives appear to be so much better at framing?
Because
they've put billions of dollars into it. Over the last 30 years, their
think tanks have made a heavy investment in ideas and in language. In
1970, [Supreme Court Justice] Lewis Powell wrote a fateful memo to the
National Chamber of Commerce saying that all of our best students are
becoming anti-business because of the Vietnam War, and that we needed
to do something about it. Powell's agenda included getting wealthy
conservatives to set up professorships, setting up institutes on and
off campus where intellectuals would write books from a conservative
business perspective, and setting up think tanks. He outlined the whole
thing in 1970. They set up the Heritage Foundation in 1973, and the
Manhattan Institute after that. (There are many others, including the
American Enterprise Institute and the Hoover Institute at Stanford,
which date from the 1940s.)
And now,
as the New York Times Magazine quoted Paul Weyrich, who started the
Heritage Foundation, they have 1,500 conservative radio talk show
hosts. They have a huge, very good operation, and they understand their
own moral system. They understand what unites conservatives, and they
understand how to talk about it, and they are constantly updating their
research on how best to express their ideas.
Why haven't progressives done the same thing?
There's
a systematic reason for that. You can see it in the way that
conservative foundations and progressive foundations work. Conservative
foundations give large block grants year after year to their think
tanks. They say, 'Here's several million dollars, do what you need to
do.' And basically, they build infrastructure, they build TV studios,
hire intellectuals, set aside money to buy a lot of books to get them
on the best-seller lists, hire research assistants for their
intellectuals so they do well on TV, and hire agents to put them on TV.
They do all of that. Why? Because the conservative moral system, which
I analyzed in "Moral Politics," has as its highest value preserving and
defending the "strict father" system itself. And that means building
infrastructure. As businessmen, they know how to do this very well.
Meanwhile,
liberals' conceptual system of the "nurturant parent" has as its
highest value helping individuals who need help. The progressive
foundations and donors give their money to a variety of grassroots
organizations. They say, 'We're giving you $25,000, but don't waste a
penny of it. Make sure it all goes to the cause, don't use it for
administration, communication, infrastructure, or career development.'
So there's actually a structural reason built into the worldviews that
explains why conservatives have done better.
(Click here to read the entire interview.)
Vote for Art Small - I mean, RIGHT NOW!
by
Linda Thieman
on Wed 22 Sep 2004 04:00 AM CDT
Vote for Art Small - I mean, RIGHT NOW!
This week Democracy for America is hosting an online vote to see which US Senate candidates have generated the most people-powered appeal.
The prize: Howard Dean will
send a special message to the Democracy for America grassroots about
the winner, raising awareness (and badly-needed funds) for that candidate and his or her race.
The
incumbent and the challenger with the most votes at the end of
balloting will win this national email appeal. This is an easy way for
a campaign to gain national exposure, recruit on-line activists and
raise much needed resources for the final weeks of the campaign.
http://www.democracyforamerica.com/senatevote
The
voting will take place online, will last for three more days and is open to
all visitors to DemocracyforAmerica.com. Safeguards will be in place to
assure one person-one vote. Governor Dean's email appeal will be sent
to supporters on behalf of the top incumbent and challenger during the
week of September 27th.
Vote for Art Small
Iowa is lucky to have a man the caliber of Art Small
going up against what the Des Moines Register the other day called "the
formerly-conservative Grassley." Whereas Grassley's chairmanship
of the Senate Finance Committee has wreaked havoc with the US economy,
Art Small is a common-sense progressive with real, hands-on small business
experience and years of dedication to PUBLIC service, not self interest.
Here, we have the chance to not only help oust from power a very
dangerous man, but to replace him with a man who is a shining example
of integrity and acting in the public interest.
Show your support for Art Small now by
hopping over to DFA and giving him your vote.
http://www.democracyforamerica.com/senatevote
Do Blog for Iowa proud and please take a moment to vote for Art Small, Iowa's Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate.
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