Uh oh. Kevin Drum might be on to something with his observation of the British Labour Party’s pledge card:
I have some advice for the Democratic party: go talk to Tony Blair to see how things are done.
Over on the right is the unveiling of the Labor Party’s 2005 “pledge card,” a cheap and cheerful list of six things the Laborites say they stand for. Beneath it is a short amount of text expanding (slightly) on each of the six points.
Now, the wording of the points is worth looking at, but it’s the marketing itself that’s more noteworthy: six simple points, none of them longer than six words. This is accompanied by six explanations, none of them longer than 30 words.
Three words:
– FIRST, require all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply equally to the Congress;
– SECOND, select a major, independent auditing firm to conduct a comprehensive audit of Congress for waste, fraud or abuse;
– THIRD, cut the number of House committees, and cut committee staff by one-third;
– FOURTH, limit the terms of all committee chairs;
– FIFTH, ban the casting of proxy votes in committee;
– SIXTH, require committee meetings to be open to the public;
– SEVENTH, require a three-fifths majority vote to pass a tax increase;
– EIGHTH, guarantee an honest accounting of our Federal Budget by implementing zero base-line budgeting.
Up next, the Washington Monthly discovers direct mail.
Seriously, though- what is it about the Democratic party? They look at a Porsche and decide they need to re-invent the wheel. After geting their clocks cleaned since 1994, you would think they would have thought about this BEFORE seeing it being utilized by a FOREIGN party in a FOREIGN ELECTION.
BTW, I shouldn’t do this, but, I am going to offer the Democrats some advice anyway. When you create your list of six or so promises, re-read it, and if it looks like this, start over:
1.) Bush Lied, People Died!
2.) Blame America First!
3.) Abortions on Demand!
4.) Jesse Jackson- He’s no Uncle Tom!
5.) God- Its nothing more than Dog spelled backwards!
You get the point.
BLG
Love your site and your commentary, but would a bit of proofreading do any harm?
RightViews.com
Please do not send them to Europe!!!
The Dems are socialists.
Look at the comparison…
http://www.rightviews.com/article.php?id=281
None
1) Is certainly true. For a little Republican mendacity It is certainly brave for someone to denounce torturem in this day and age.
2) What, are you going to drag out some tired publicity seeking whore and call him emblematic of the left? Query yourself this: You’re always seeking out the extreme to apposite yourself. At the same time, the entire rightward punduacracy gets to intimate that the left is in bed with he terrorists. How many news shows has Michael Moore been on? Anne Coulter? (By the way I couldn’t recomend “Bowling for Columbine” higher. It basically convinced me to give up on gun control. Yes, it’s conclusion is that guns aren’t really the problem)
3. Wrong again. Legal abortions, that are rare. talk to your Christian Fundamentalist friends about why preventing pregenancies is undesirable. You know, abstinence education and all that.
4. OK, I seem to remember a flap about Hesiod refering to Powell with similar racial language. I expect your humble apology by tomorrow, or else the entire left blogosphere will denounce you as a heretic.
Oh, wait, you’re blogfather to nicedoggie.net. One of the most viruntly racist sites on the web without any affiliation to a Christian Identity group. So, this will be largly ignored.
Never mind.
But you must ask youself why it is that Jesse Jackson(DON”T FORGET AL SHARPTON!) is a primary focus for you. If you answer that Sharpton ran, answer for Buchanan.
5) Most Democrats are Christian. In fact the actual Atheists only result in 10% of the actual electorate. And believe it or not, some of them vote Republican.
So, you know, Cheney might be good on the advise here.
John Cole
1.) For the record, I have pretty clear views on the use of torture.
2.) Like Pete Stark? Cynthia McKinney? Eleanor Holmes Norton? Barbara Lee? Do you want me to continue this list?
3.) I guess this stings because your activist constituency freaks out whenever reasonable guidelines- like parental consent- are asked for… Go ahead- try to deny it.
4.) Now you are just talking out your ass. Try here, here, here, or here. Personally, I think my favorite is this piece from Black Commentator titled “Condoleeza Rice: The Devil’s Handmaiden,” in which Condi the following was stated:
“Condoleezza Rice is the purest expression of the race traitor. No polite description is possible.”
For some more homegrown racism, check one of your favorite websites- the Daily Kos, in which your activist buddies state “Uncle Tom Powell Stumps for Massah Bush.”
Had enough?
5.) Tell the voters.
The funny thing is that I was teasing when I made that list- but there is more than a grain of truth each one. And that is your problem, none. Not mine.
M. Scott Eiland
That last quote from the Black Commentator proves what I’ve said all along–when liberals start throwing around language like “oreo,” they might as well come out and call whatever minority they’re insulting a race traitor, because that’s what they’re really saying. It’s the moral equivalent of calling a white man a “[email protected]@@er lover,” and should be denounced just as thoroughly.
Bob
Part of the Contract With America was a balanced budget bill. You know, balanced budget, the thing that the Republicans haven’t been able to do since Bush took over the White House. If they had really believed in the balanced budget, there wouldn’t have been the huge tax cuts for the elite of this country as a BushCo thank you gift.
The Republicans want to look for waste and fraud in the government? How about finding out what happened to the 9 billion bucks sent to the provisional government in Iraq that just disappeared. Anyone check Bremmer’s pockets? That’s not counting the enormous frauds and losses and sweetheart deals otherwise going on over there. And isn’t there a problem with the money coming from Iraqi oil money since the US occupation?
I know that some of the right-wingers wet their pants over the UN oil-for-food program and the money skimmed by Hussein from oil revenues. Forget that the skimming took place under the Bush-Clinton-Bush administrations (making it a bipartisan failure), and that a lot of it occurred precisely because the US wanted Iraqi oil to flow to its friends Jordan and Turkey. Forget that all sorts of oil companies were involved in this. Just remember that none of it was US taxpayer money.
All of the theft in Iraq since we invaded was theft of taxpayer dollars, with the exception of the Iraqi oil money, which was supposed to be reimbursed to the US to pay for the occupation, said Wolfowitz.
Hmm, back to the Contract With America. A lot of it has to do with rule changes in Congress. All I’ve heard from the Republicans lately is the juggling of the rules so that Tom DeLay can serve from his jail cell in Austin.
Oh, the Contract With America is a rich vein to mine. At the time of the 1994 election, more people knew about the OJ Simpson trial than the Contract With America. There was more news coverage. My guess is that a lot of conservatives were voting against famous black men killing their white wives than anything Newt and Company cooked up. As can be seen by some of the posts here, race and hate and fear are still a source of stimulation around here.
John Cole
I was going to write a big response to Bob, but decided this really spoke for itself:
“My guess is that a lot of conservatives were voting against famous black men killing their white wives than anything Newt and Company cooked up. As can be seen by some of the posts here, race and hate and fear are still a source of stimulation around here.”
How do you get so much stupid in two sentences?
Bob
There’s a great little book, Mister Cole, by Christopher Simpson. THE SCIENCE OF COERCION. It explains how propaganda works. You may not have any idea how the Simpson trial played into the hands of the right-wing ideologues in 1994. The Economist reported that network television ran more stories about the Simpson trial than the Congressional races. In fact, the Secretary of State of California at the time, I think his name was Tony Miller, wrote to the judge of the Simpson trial asking that they delay hearings on election day so as not to decrease the number of voters glued to their tvs.
The Democratic Party has been known for its defense of civil rights, the rights of defendents, the protection of minorities, etc. Democrats have been demogogued for any and all crap that comes out of Hollywood. So whatever Simpson’s personal politics (my guess is like 90% of all NFL players, he’s probably Republican), Simpson was an icon, a totem for the Democratic Party. Until the murders he had been the most beloved black man in white America. His fall from grace represented a failure of liberalism, and that fall was repeated for hours and hours nightly on cable tv, not unlike Fox’s current model of demogoguery.
Curiously, the chief of police of LA in 1994 later wrote a book, “Taking Back The Streets,” which was the name of the law and order part of the Contract With America.
I won’t go on here, the Simpson case as it affected American politics in the 1990s deserves a full-blown book. The comment stands on its own. People here on the internet can google the Contract With America, but if you asked someone on the street in the fall of 1994, it was all OJ all the time.
Mister Cole, stupid is as stupid doesn’t understand. Do you understand, Mister Cole?