Wed - January 21, 2004

Kerry Campaign Smears Local Dean Supporter


The Kerry campaign stoops to a new low by smearing
a local Dean supporter.

Below is a quote from the Chicago Tribune, which stood out for me today.

I know the woman in question, Fran. And I can hear Fran saying exactly what she is quoted as saying. What I can't believe is that the Kerry campaign would have the chutzpah to claim that Fran is lying.

Fran would do many things. Stop a moving train if it endangered her family tops the list. But lie about a negative Kerry call in order to bolster Dean's campaign? Nope. Not a Fran thing. This is not what Fran is all about.

I blog this here only because I happen to know the woman in question and feel I need to come to her defense in public. And bring the question:

Why would the Kerry campaign do this, other than to hide something they really did do? To make Fran, who supports Dean, look bad?

Fran is an open supporter of Dean. She gives interviews, she ran as a delegate -- she's good people, and she's on the front lines as a local volunteer.

By making a very visible local supporter look bad, are they trying to make Dean's locals all appear questionable? Take the wind out of anything a local supporter would say in the future? Dean has a hell of a lot of local supporters, a lot of volunteers. I would be scared by the numbers if I were Kerry.

I don't think this is a coincidence.

________________________________________________

From the Chicago Tribune today:
"We've witnessed tactics here that I think are going to make it really challenging to come together behind the eventual nominee," said one senior campaign official in the state.
Fran Gehling, a real estate investor in Londonderry, said she received a phone call Friday night from a woman who identified herself as a supporter of Sen. John Kerry.
"She said, `Aren't you disturbed by Dean's hypocrisy by saying he's going to learn to talk about Jesus when he's in the South?"' said Gehling, a Dean supporter who is Jewish.
When Gehling asked the woman what she meant, the caller replied: "I think it's hypocritical for someone who's married to a Jewish woman and raising their children Jewish to talk about Christian values."
Gehling said the woman quickly ended the conversation after Gehling accused her of anti-Semitism.
Kerry spokesman Mark Kornblau said there was "no way" the call came from his campaign, and suggested that the Dean campaign made up the incident to hurt Kerry.

Posted at 10:48 PM     Read More    

ABC World News Nightly


Interviews, angles, and the cutting room floor.

ABC News interviewed me, at length, for ABC World News Nightly, after the Dean speech in Manchester, NH, this morning. A good half-hour's worth of tape. And was pushing me, in no unclear fashion, to say that Dean was "too passionate" or "too emotional" or "out of control."

When I gave them good soundbites about Dean versus standard sock-puppet politicians (my term), they looked interested, but kept on the "passionate" or even "angry" angle. Funny thing, I still don't see how people (other than through a weird lens) interpret Dean as "angry" other than angry at what's been happening in Washington under Bush. As well we all should be.

Despite the fact that the ABC cameraman sent along was a friend of an old friend in D.C. (I suffer from small world syndrome), I found tonight that ABC cut the entire interview.

Why? Because I wouldn't give them the angle they wanted. Because I report what's said, not what they wanted Dean to say.

I have little value for reporters, and networks, who stress their own angle and fail to report the news. I've been a journalist. I see very little journalism going on on the networks these days (with some exceptions, of course).

(P.S. I'm the big red sweater, sitting at a computer terminal [due to the cameraman from CNN shouting "down!" to me when I stood from respect] shaking Dean's hand in the tape they did run.)

Posted at 10:07 PM     Read More    


Tue - January 13, 2004

Nader in Dean Country


Ralph Nader visits the Howard Dean NH headquarters.

Seen in the Manchester, New Hampshire, Howard Dean offices two days ago: Ralph Nader, getting the fifty-cent tour by the campaign's state director, Karen Hicks, talking campaign strategies for the primary here soon.

Yes, Ralph Nader.

When asked if this was a "secret" visit, the answer was no. It was, however, an under-the-radar visit by Nader, and not reported by the media, though plainly witnessed by more than a dozen interns and volunteers that evening, who watched him and his security retinue walk through the offices and get the low-down from Hicks.

Indeed, Nader's been going around to the Democrats running and doing the equivalent of asking "how's it going?", with differing results among the Dems offices, I may add (Kerry and Clark, it's been rumored, were not as open about their strategies and maps as Dean's people).

But, is this perhaps also a sign that Nader is softening on his stance that Dean isn't tough enough? Is this perhaps a sign that Nader is going to officially endorse Dean rather than run as an independent, himself?

Posted at 08:08 PM     Read More    


Sun - December 28, 2003

I Thought We All Agreed, "Never Again" ?


Patriot II is signed into legislation --
by stealth.

READ THIS: With a Whisper, Not a Bang.

Did you know that parts of the much-ballyhooed (and boo'ed) Patriot Act II has been signed into legislation by George W. Bush? That it was slipped into the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal 2004, and therefore was not subject to public debate, floor debate, or committee? That it allows the FBI to not only search and seize financial records of U.S. citizens, but they can now do it without any reference or suspicion of said citizens' connection to "terrorism" -- and puts a gag order on the financial institution to prevent them from even saying the records were ever turned over?

Oh, and did I mention that the term "financial institution" now includes any organization that uses cash transactions? Yes, boys and girls, that means car dealerships, jewelers, stockbrokers, casinos -- the works. Anything that could be construed as having "a high degree of usefulness in criminal, tax, or regulatory matters." (WTF? That's damn near everything, especially when one realizes that the FBI doesn't need "probable cause.") But you don't have to use a cash transaction to have your records seized by the FBI -- they can do it to anyone, for any reason whatsoever, for any transaction whatsoever. Oops -- so much for using that supermarket card that tracks everything you buy. Not a good idea, kids, unless you really want the FBI to know how much pasta you bought last month.

Best part of it all? Congress will no longer have the right to see what and when the FBI has used its powers to exercise this sort of search and seizure. Up until now, when the FBI wrote a letter demanding records from, say, a library, under the Patriot Act, it had to report to Congress that it was doing so and who was searched. But in these pieces of Patriot II, those records no longer are reported to Congress. NO ONE IS WATCHING THE WATCHMEN .

You didn't read about this? Not suprising. The Act was signed by Bush, on a rare Saturday, the day that Saddam Hussein was captured. Kind of overshadowed this legislative elephant, didn't it? "No, no, you didn't see this in the news, boys and girls; look over here! Yes, here! Look, we got Saddam! Aren't we a good executive branch of government? No, no, don't look at these pieces of legislation that take away your right to have courts and judges oversee any search and seizure, watched by all sorts of safeguards. No need for probable cause; no need for the target to be a suspected criminal or terrorist or even Andy Rooney; no need for a judge to be involved. That's not what we want you to notice. That's why we sat on it and waited to sign it until the United States citizenry was looking the other way."

What the hell kind of a country does this and still says it's a democracy? Okay, any of us with any wits about us know it's a republic, not a democracy, but, dammit to hell, we are not supposed to be living in a police state run by the government .

Am I the only person scared shitless by all of this?

ADDENDUM: To be fair, I direct you to follow the thread of discussion about this issue at Dav Farber's Interesting People mailing list. There are some cool, and informed, heads talking about the legislation and its possible repercussions.

Posted at 07:59 PM     Read More    
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