CNN: It's official - No difference between Bush, Kerry

[Atman]

Yup, complete with charts and graphs. Kerry is no longer a crazy medal throwing commie pinko liberal who'd kowtow to the UN, raise everyone's taxes and put Saddam back in power...now, he's exactly like Bush! The tactic that worked so well against Gore is back. Bush and Kerry are both "Centrists," according to CNN's AIE Spokesman, Bill Schneider, apparently finding a new label for Bush's brand of radicial right wing extremism.

On taxes, Kerry would keep almost all of Bush's tax cuts -- he is only looking to raise taxes on 2% of tax payers (barely mentioning which 2%, the very top tier, who control most of the wealth...but hey, minor detail, right?). Point by point, Schneider made the case that Kerry agrees with Bush on most things, and Bush is changing his mind and adopting Kerry's positions on others. For instance, Kerry vote for NCLB but lately has been trash-talking Bush's funding of it. Of course, President Perfect, according to Schneider, is seeing the light and proposing some increases in NCLB funding.

This is disgusting. But it's what we're in for, kids. Have your talking points ready!

[displacedtexan]

1. Schneider would've made an exemplary Nazi.

Not very smart, willing to do or say anything to advance the cause, and would rationalize taking over the home of any prominent 'missing' Jewish academic.

Just my opinion.

[tom_paine]

11. Agreed. Utterly and totally.

He wouldn't think twice about it. But he would probably prefer to say it was a missing LIBERAL academic bvecause he would recoild from seeing his True Master's Face.

"Bush is a Centrist." What an OBNOXIOUS INTELLIGENCE INSULTING LIE!

For Bill Schneider, Lying Nazi Propagandist...

[Bread and Circus]

2. Radical Right Wing Extremism=Bush Agenda.

Shneider is a dumbass.

[Must_B_Free]

3. Nickelodean just ran a vote ad saying the same thing

[0007]

4. Anyone who'd listen to Bill Schneider and take him serious is nuts

[workforpower]

5. no cable here.

I am glad i don't have to watch it and pay too. There's more people in Cleveland than cable "news" watchers.

[chelsea0011]

6. Dumbest graph of the day

Kerry OPPOSES "No Child Left Behind" now because Bush left it unfunded. Kerry wants to fully fund it. But they are alike because Bush is THINKING ABOUT funding it. Kerry has been calling for international cooperation in Iraq. Bush IS THINKING ABOUT going in the same direction. That sounds like they are on the same page as CNN says they are.......bullsh*t. Kerry wants to kill the tax cuts for the rich. Bush wants to keep them. But CNN thinks this shows they both support tax cuts. CNN can't even make a graph to show how they are alike because they are NOT ALIKE. Bush is the WORST PRESIDENT EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Hubert Flottz]

7. Now is the time for Kerry to define the differences!

Al Gore waited till the last two weeks to fight back!

[Redleg]

10. I agree but how does Kerry make his message heard above the din

and clamour of 24-7 discussion about Iraq?

[tom_paine]

12. Not to mention the din and glamour of the Party-Loyal Bushevik Sub-Media

A bigger, more cacophonous cicus of lies has not been seen on the Earth since 1933 Germany.

Even the Russians paled before the much more advanced Goebbels v1.0 (Nazi Ver.) and Goebbels v2.0 (Bushevik Ver.)

[troublemaker]

8. Geez, people!

Saying Kerry and Bush are the same on the issues is flaking for KERRY, not Bush.

The dynamic of this election is that people want a change, but they need to be reassured that Kerry is a moderate guy, not a loon. All a challenger to an unpopular incumbent needs is to be non-controversial.

(BTW, Schneider knows all of this)

[Redleg]

9. The problem is a lot of Kerry detractors here at DU would agree.

Of course for them, Karl Marx wouldn't be liberal enough.

[Beam Me Up]

14. I didn't know Karl Marx was a liberal.

[Monte Carlo]

15. Well, he was in the technical sense of the word.

An academic, intellectual kind of guy who spent a lot of time philosophizing and writing down his thoughts.

I don't know how savage he was, personally, but he had died well before his writings had precipitated a few Revolutions.

[Solidarity]

19. Red Baiting On DU?

Did I just detect a bit of red-baiting?

[Redleg]

32. Not at all. There is a lot to like with Marx's writings.

EOM

[debsianben]

22. Eh?

Did I just get that right? You think that those on DU who object to Kerry's votes for the Patriot Act, the war in Iraq, etc., his support for "staying the course" (continuing the brutal war of occupation), etc., are just crazy people who wouldn't be satisfied with Karl Marx? Maybe it could be that they are depressed by the thought of marching against the war only to have a duty to cast a vote for some one who voted for in the first place and wants to continue it now, maybe even sending 40,000 new troops? Or perhaps after years of telling their friends that Bush is a "fascist" because of the Patriot Act and Homeland Security Bill and the concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay, they feel depressed about having to vote for a man who voted for the Patriot Act, voted for the Homeland Security Bill and supports the continued operation of the concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay. Or after years of being indignant about Bush's attempts to unseat the elected leadership of Venezuela, they feel depressed about having to vote for some one who is indistinguishable from Bush in his attacks on Chavez. And no, I'm not claiming there are no important differences, just pointing out the obvious and disturbing similarities.

Nah. Better not to just think about any of these issues and tell yourself that any one who points out Kerry's terrifyingly right-wing positions on Iraq, civil liberties, Latin America, etc., is just a crazy person who wouldn't be satisfied with Karl Marx. (Personally, I am fond of K.M., but that's a separate issue.) The fact is that a lot of fairly tepid moderate liberal types are horrified by Kerry's positions on these matters. There are a lot of things that have happened since the end of the Clinton years that make the god old US of A a more frightening place (the Patriot Act, etc.), and Kerry has supported a lot of them.

[Redleg]

33. I think you missed my point.

I apologize for not being more clear.

[Vladimir]

28. Or maybe he would be too liberal?

us evil commie traitor scum tend to be the kind of assholes who salivate over gulags and purges, so for the majority of us I expect Karl Marx would be considered a soft-as-shit liberal. Now uncle Joe on the other hand...

</sarcasm>

[Monte Carlo]

13. Aren't we just talking about disguises, here?

Bush tried to assimilate as many of Gore's campaign points as he could during the last election. He said he was for campaign finance and tort reform, for Social Security security, and for increased environmental protection. Of course, he just SAID that.

Right after the election, he did a complete 180 and committed himself to a neo-conservative wet-dream agenda.

Don't be thrown by the march to the center around election time. Candidates do it to be competitive, but everything changes once the results are official.

[ACK]

16. What a load of crap -- Differences between Kerry and Bush a list

Kerry is not as liberal as Kuicinch or Nader that I will give you.

However, Kerry is more liberal than Clinton, Lieberbush, or the way the DLC ran Gore the last time.

After all, the idea of changing NAFTA has entered from the fringe of political discussion into the national debate. He has said he will not back the FTAA.

The idea of National Healthcare has entered back into the National debate in a way Gore would not approach last time.

We are now talking about a program of National Service where kids can get money for college WITHOUT having to carry a gun.

Kerry will not take a unilateral piss on our allies in his approach to foreign relations.

He will protect a woman's right to choose.

He has pledged to lift the gag order Bush enacted on family clinics.

He will fight for real environmental legislation instead of Orwellian giveaways to the corporate powers that be.

He has pledged to let the Patriot Act lapse.

He will take away the tax benefits for corporations that ship jobs overseas.

He has pledged to close corporate tax loopholes.

He wants to get rid of the tax cuts for the wealthy and stop the deficit leak.

He wants to fight for strong enforcement of Civil Rights Laws listing the ADA and reversing Buckhannon which makes enforcement of all Civil Rights laws difficult.

He will fully fund Head Start. (really important never been funded right)

He wants a College Opportunity Tax Credit to help people to be able to afford college.

He is the first national candidate to not only talk about cleaner fuels and reducing our dependence on foreign oil but to actually talk about loosing ourselves from the "demon oil."

He has a 90% lifetime record of voting with the AFL/CIO and stands beside the base of organized labor. He does not demonize workers and their unions.

This is a man who can change his mind and makes an informed decision.

_

[Commendatori]

17. Complete load of shit, and the Washington Post tried this too (n/t)

[ParanoidPat]

18. CNN = PSY-OPS!

Read this thread from the archives.....

D5E:destruction, degradation, denial, disruption, deceit, and exploitation

Before you believe another word on CNN, read this! :evilgrin:

CONCEPT PAPER


Working Group on Preventive and Preemptive Military Intervention


William W. Keller and Gordon R. Mitchell1
Project Coordinators

<Snip>

U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), the ranking Democrat on the Senate
Intelligence Committee, called for an FBI investigation into the forgery of documents cited by President Bush and Secretary Powell as proof of Iraq’s nuclear transactions with Niger. As Rockefeller explained in a letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller: “There is a
possibility that the fabrication of these documents may be part of a larger deception campaign aimed at manipulating public opinion and foreign policy regarding Iraq.”26

The timeliness of Rockefeller’s proposed inquiry was underscored by the
appearance of official documents that lay out official American deception plans: "In a document last autumn, the joint chiefs of staff stressed the need for strategic deception and influence operations as tools of war. The army, navy and air force have been directed to devise plans for information warfare."27 According to defense analyst William Arkin, the Bush strategy lays out goals for information warfare that pursue D5E: "destruction, degradation, denial, disruption, deceit, and exploitation." Arkin notes that the wide array of sites and ractices of information control brought into the range of this policy "blurs or even erases the boundaries between factual information and news, on the one hand, and public relations, propaganda and psychological warfare on the other."28

This fusion of military deception programs with media propaganda efforts enabled the Office of Strategic Influence to commission officers from the U.S. Army's Psychological Operations Command to work as interns in the news division of CNN.29

Eventually, the Bush Administration was burned by the political heat generated when the Office of Strategic Influence was leaked to the media. The ensuing firestorm of controversy prompted Secretary Rumsfeld to close the propaganda unit. Yet less than a year later, Rumsfeld stipulated that his action had only been symbolic, and that
information warfare missions were still underway at other Pentagon offices: And then there was the Office of Strategic Influence. You may recall that. And “oh my goodness gracious isn't that terrible, Henny Penny the sky is going to fall.” I went down that next day and said fine, if you want to savage this thing, fine, I'll give you the corpse. There's the name. You can have the name, but I'm gonna keep doing every single thing that needs to be done and I have.30

The political implications of blurring military strategic deception and public sphere propaganda are worth exploring, given Arkin's concerns about military deception that "while the policy ostensibly targets foreign enemies, its most likely victim will be the American electorate."31

<More>

[Flubadubya]

20. Kerry's PR people better step up to the plate...

They need to take this load of crap and debunk it point by point. Otherwise, the purulent propagandists win! :puke: :grr:

[SoCalDem]

27. The BIG PROBLEM is this...

Kerry has limited access to the "plate"..Every time George opens his pie-hole, microphones and TV cameras appear.. Kerry events are parsed and sound-byted to bits..

Gore had the same problem. The "mainstream media" will cover what suits THEM.. If it suits them to say Kerry is just like Bush, they will continue to just show the bits that "prove their assertion"..

Until there is a venue on television that is truly fair (will never hapen until our rich folks start buying stations), it will always be this way..

Dems are "usually" known to favor media regulation..Guess who hates that idea???

[blm]

21. Some of us WARNED that meme was being spread by GOP operatives.

Now that CNN has gone from "Kerry's a liberal" to "there's no difference" MAYBE those of you who pushed that meme can admit you've been had and worse...you've been USED to make Bush seem more moderate.

Focking Republicans do it every election.

[debsianben]

23. The Plot Thickens

Actually, those damned GOP operatives paid Kerry off to vote for USA-PATRIOT, NCLB, the IWR, etc., as well as to help spread Bush's lies about WMDs last year, to say that we must "stay the course" in Iraq now, to speculate that he might need to send even more troops to Iraq as President, etc., in order to feed into the impression that the guy was basically Bush-lite. They are more dastardly and effective than I ever would have suspected.

Just a shame the DLC couldn't have annointed a nominee for whom it would have been a bit harder for those sinister ominipresent GOP operatives to paint that way.

[blm]

26. Erase Kerry's 35 years of liberal and progressive actions to validate your

opinion.

You find it easier than researching the actual records?

[debsianben]

24. /

[primavera]

25. Well, I was kind of hoping for Dean for this reason

..who actually was already something of a compromise from Kucinich. But I guess one has to be realistic in this country, either that or move to a democratic country.

[blm]

30. Kerry is a liberal, Dean is a centrist.

Kerry's lifetime liberal rating is even higher than Kucinich's.

[John_H]

29. The new GOP spin--also picked up by whores at WP and MSNBC

All shilling, all the time for the weasely eighth graders some call political corespondents.

[bolokshi]

31. Mein Korf Schneider.

Who does he remind you off during the Nazi days. They really have it made, with someone like that in the media, they have a chance from hell.