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Bullish On
America
oil pastel
by Katherine Yurica
Latest Articles
George Lakoff Articles
Frank Luntz Articles
The Wedge Strategy: A Scientific Battle
Conquering
by Stealth
and Deception
Ranked 5
Stars
How the Dominionists
Are Succeeding
in Their Quest for National Control and
World Power
By Katherine Yurica
Americans and the main-stream media have
been very slow in catching on to the fact that
we are in a war—a war that is cultural, religious
and political--a war that uses stealth and
deception and the rules of engagement written
by the enemies of representative democracy.
Unless Americans wake up--we could lose that war.
Latest Articles:
NEW: Rick Warren's Forum:
How to Trick Candidates Into
Giving Themselves
a Religious Test
by Katherine Yurica
On August 16, 2008, Rick Warren,
the affable pastor
of the 83,000 member Saddleback Church in Southern
California made history by setting up a sequential debate
between Barack Obama and John McCain at his church.
In spite of the natural tendency to rank the competing
candidates’ performances, it is Rick Warren’s character
traits that deserve closer scrutiny here, particularly the words
he chose to say to the press, prior to the Saddleback forum.
NEW: Who Really Told McCain to Select
Sarah Palin
or Else?
By David D. Kirkpatrick
Moments after Senator John McCain announced his running mate
— Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, an outspoken abortion opponent
—
his campaign sprang into action to fan flames of enthusiasm among
his
party’s demoralized conservative supporters.
NEW: The Palin Choice and the
Reality of the Political Mind
by George Lakoff
Election campaigns matter because
who gets elected
can change reality. But election campaigns are primarily
about the realities of voters' minds, which depend on how
the candidates and the external realities are cognitively
framed. They can be framed honestly or deceptively,
effectively or clumsily. And they are always framed from
the perspective
of a worldview.
NEW: The Sarah Palin Strategy:
Upon learning the news, Matthew
Staver, Chairman
of Liberty Alliance Action, Chairman of Liberty Counsel
and Dean of Liberty University School of Law said of
the choice, "Absolutely brilliant. . . ."The excitement
was palpable among conservative leaders when they
heard that Gov. Palin was Sen. McCain's choice for
Vice President. There is a high level of optimism among
conservative leaders that the McCain-Palin combination
is a ticket that will connect
with values voters."
Reforming America's Churches:
A Project of the IRD
The Executive Summary of 2001-2004:
Plans to takeover
the mainline churches of America by "conservatives"
The
Institute on Religion & Democracy (IRD). Liberal Theology
failed America's mainline churches in the Twentieth Century...
Striving to become "relevant," they instead lost millions
of
church members. The IRD believes that the next four years
offer a rare opportunity to redirect these churches away
from their reflexive alliance with the political left and back
towards classical Christianity. Conservatives have won
surprising victories on key theological and sexuality
issues at
recent church conventions.
Terrorized by 'War on Terror'
How a Three-Word Mantra Has
Undermined America
By Zbigniew Brzezinski
March 25, 2007
The "war on terror"
has created a culture
of fear in America. The Bush administration's
elevation of these three words into a national
mantra since the horrific events of 9/11 has had
a pernicious impact on American democracy, on
America's psyche and on
U.S. standing in the world.
Evangelical Summer Camp
Shown in Film to End
Organizers of an evangelical
summer
camp for children featured in the documentary
"Jesus Camp" are discontinuing the camp
because of negative reaction sparked by the
film and recent vandalism at the camp site in
Devils Lake, North Dakota.
The Holy Blitz Rolls On
The
Christian right is a "deeply anti-
democratic movement" that gains force
by exploiting Americans' fears, argues
Chris Hedges. Salon talks with the former
New York Times reporter about his fearless
new book, "American Fascists." By
Michelle Goldberg
Consultant Helps Democrats
Embrace Faith,
and Some in Party Are Not Pleased
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
As Democrats turn toward the 2008 presidential
race, a novice evangelical political operative is
emerging as a rising star in the party, drawing both
applause and alarm for her courtship of theological
conservatives in
the midterm elections.
Gingrich v The Separation of
Church and State
Newt Gingrich is launching a
new and ambitious
committee aimed at re-making American society
in the neoconservative image. But just below the
surface lurks an assault on the doctrine of separation
of church and state that has been dear to his
heart
for decades.
Putting Faith Before Politics
By DAVID KUO
November 16, 2006
SINCE 1992, every national Republican
electoral defeat has been accompanied
by an obituary for the religious right. Every
one of these obituaries has been premature —
after these losses, the religious right only
grew
stronger.
Waging Battle, Building Peace:
The Paradox Confronting the
Democrats
By Andrew Bard Schmookler
The goal is no less than to defeat
the evil
that, in recent years, has risen to ascendancy
in America. Finding the optimal strategy for
achieving this
is no small challenge.
Richard John Neuhaus's
Deputy
Turns on Him.
by Philocrites
What a startling New Republic
cover story! Damon
Linker, the former editor of the influential neoconservative
religious magazine First Things, turns against the political
theology of his former boss, Roman Catholic intellectual
and Bush adviser Richard John Neuhaus, the magazine's
prime mover.
Discover the Secret
Right-Wing
Network Behind ABC's 9/11 Deception
Less than 72 hours before ABC's
"The Path to 9/11"
is scheduled to air, the network is suddenly under siege.
On Tuesday, ABC was forced to concede that "The Path
to 9/11" is "a dramatization, not a documentary."
The film
deceptively invents scenes to depict former President Bill
Clinton's handling of
the Al Qaeda threat.
All About Youth With A Mission (YWAM) and the Making of a Film
Starting in July, along with
our 'normal' discipleship
efforts in YWAM, we will officially join The Film Institute -
a new auxiliary branch of Youth With A Mission focused
on tranforming film and television from the inside out.
TFI's first project is a doozy: simply being referred to as:
The Untitled History Project, it is already being called
the television event of the decade and not one second has
been put to film yet. Talk
about great expectations!
He Who Cast the First
Stone Probably Didn’t
July 24, 2006
By DANIEL GILBERT
In a study conducted by William
Swann and colleagues at the University
of Texas, pairs of volunteers played the
roles of world leaders who were trying to
decide whether to initiate
a nuclear strike.
The Growing Threat of
Right-Wing Christians
By Onnesha Roychoudhuri,
AlterNet.
Posted July 19, 2006.
"I don't want to be alarmist,
but this is actually
quite alarming," Michelle Goldberg said. She was
referring to the subject of her new book, "Kingdom
Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism," which
chronicles the steady rise of the neocons of
Christianity. Whether she's attending a Ten
Commandments conference or joining Tony Perkins'
conference calls to listen in on what D.C. agenda
will be passed on to congregations, Goldberg's
reporting offers insight into a movement that has
reshaped the nation's political and cultural landscape.
Goldberg did not go undercover, nor wear any
disguise. Rather, she simply showed up, listened
and learned. And what she has learned is
definitely
alarming.
Ann Coulter's New Book:
Godless: The Church of Liberalism
"If a martian landed in
America and set out
to determine the nation's official state religion,
he would have to conclude it is liberalism,
while Christianity and Judaism are
prohibited by law."
Church Militant: Ann
Coulter on God,
Faith, and Liberals
The conservative pundit explains
why liberals are 'godless' and why she
considers herself
a good Christian.
Ann Coulter
by Rod Dreher
Cruncy Con
What especially gets to me about
Ann Coulter
is that she identifies herself as a Christian
("a mean one"). National Review dropped her
column when she said, in response to 9/11, that
"We should invade their countries, kill their leaders
and convert them
to Christianity."
Coulter Plagiarism
In New Book
By Philip Recchia
July 2, 2006 -- Conservative
scribe Ann Coulter
cribbed liberally in her latest book, "Godless,"
according to
a plagiarism expert.
Paper Confirms Coulter
Plagiarism Reported Online First
07/02/2006 @ 7:05 pm
"Conservative scribe Ann Coulter
cribbed
liberally in her latest book, Godless, according
to a plagiarism expert," reports The
New York
Post today.
Is There a Legal Tie-in
Between Abortion and
Corporate Power in the U.S.?
By Katherine Yurica.
November
11, 2005
Excommunication Is Sought
for
Stem Cell Researchers
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
Scientists who engage in stem
cell research
using human embryos should be subject to
excommunication from the Roman Catholic
Church, according to
a senior Vatican official.
Bush New Rules Force
States to
Curb Welfare Rolls
By ROBERT PEAR
WASHINGTON, June 27 — The Bush administration
plans to issue sweeping new rules on Wednesday
that will require states to move much larger numbers
of poor people from welfare to work. The rules, drafted
in response to a budget signed into law by President
Bush in February, represent the biggest changes in
welfare policy since 1996, when Congress abolished
the federal guarantee of cash assistance for the nation's
poorest children.
The Wedge Strategy
The Battle Waged Over
"Intelligent Design"
Design for Confusion
By PAUL KRUGMAN
New York Times
Back in 1978 Mr. Kristol urged corporations
to make “philanthropic contributions to scholars
and institutions who are likely to advocate
preservation of a strong private sector.” That was
delicately worded, but the clear implication was
that corporations that didn't like the results of
academic research, however valid, should support
people willing to say something
more to their liking.
The Wedge Strategy
This
is a copy of the insiders
document that lays out the strategy that was
used to get Intelligent Design into America's
schools.
Regardless of its subject matter, The Wedge
Strategy is an eye-opening example of strategic
planning and tactics needed to win the culture
wars. And it reveals why the Democrats are
losing--they do not have think tanks that produce
this kind of practical, cohesive, reproducible insights:
How to Win the Scientific
War Against Evolution
Intelligent Design and
that Vast Right-
Wing Conspiracy by Dr. Gross
Dr. Paul R. Gross, writing in
Science Insights
conclusively demonstrates why Intelligent
Design is not science and cannot be
taught as science in America's schools.
PDF file.
Dr. Paul Gross Answers His Critics
Science Insight published 14
responses to
Dr. Gross' article plus Dr. Gross' reply to his
critics. This is fascinating and witty reading!
The Contributors were:
Those Against Dr. Gross:
David Berlinski
Phillip E. Johnson
Jonathan Wells
Michael J. Behe
John G. West
James Downard
Robert C. Koons
Roland F. Hirsch
Jason Rosenhouse
Those Supporting Dr. Gross
Plus Dr. Gross' Reply to
His Critics:
Jeffrey Shallit
Matt Young
Andrea Bottaro
Pete Dunkelberg
Paul R. Gross
Click Here to Read the 45 Page
PDF File.
Politicized Scholars
Put
Evolution on the Defensive
By JODI WILGOREN
When President Bush plunged into the
debate over the teaching of evolution, saying, "both
sides ought to be properly taught," he seemed to
be reading from the playbook of the Discovery Institute,
the conservative think tank that is at the helm of this
newly volatile frontier in the nation's culture wars.
Senate Emphasis on Ideology
Has
Some in G.O.P. Anxious
By CARL HULSE
WASHINGTON, June 6 — Though some
Republican candidates may relish the Senate's
current concentration on same-sex marriage
and other ideologically charged topics, Senator
Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island is not among them.
"It may stir up my primary voters a little bit against
me," said Mr. Chafee, a centrist Republican up for re-
election. He opposes the push for a constitutional
amendment to prohibit same-sex marriage and is
under intense pressure to back a proposed amendment
that would
forbid flag burning.
How Domination Is Sold
to Christians
By Dutch Sheets
Excerpts from a book:
One of Scripture's primary themes is governmental
authority. The primary biblical struggle is over the
questions "Who will rule humankind?" and "Who
will rule the world?" [I]n many ways the war is about
you and me and who we listen to--we are going to
help answer the question of who is in charge of the
earth. In this earthly war over who is going to rule it,
you and your double-billed cap are caught
right
in the middle!
Paul Weyrich's Teaching
Manual?
Excerpts
Ranked 5
Stars
"Two years ago,
ur-conservative Paul Weyrich stunned
the religious right by calling for a retreat from temporal
concerns. "Conservatives have learned to succeed in
politics," he wrote in an open letter that's still available
on the Web site www.freecongress.org. "But that did
not result in the adoption
of our agenda.
The Strategies of Conservatives:
The Integration of Theory and
Practice: A Program for the New
Traditionalist Movement
by Eric Heubeck
Ranked 4 Stars
This essay is based on
the belief that the truth of
an idea is not the primary reason for its acceptance.
Far more important is the energy and dedication of
the idea's promoters--in other words, the individuals
composing a social or political movement. The cultural
conservative movement in particular has paid next to
no attention to the qualities of the people working in
the movement, and the relation of such qualities to the
achievement of
our goals.
An Introduction to Conservativism
By Robert
C. Koons
This is a right-wing
primer with a twist: It shows
how religion and conservatism blend together. It
incorporates "Dominionist" political philosophy and
neo-conservatism. Conservatism, according to Prof.
Koons, an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the
University of Texas, "encompasses the accumulation of
experience and wisdom over many generations,
enlightened and guided by Divine Revelation."
Human beings have been chosen by God to act
as God's stewards over the earth. Therefore
"conservatives" reject Atheism and materialism,
collectivism, secular humanism "deep ecology"
and "animal rights." This is in a PDF file.
The Texas Republican
Party's
2002 Platform
Ranked 4
Stars
You Should Know what
Tom
DeLay plans for America and you can
read the Texas Republican Party's
incredible hatefilled document
here at the 2002
Platform.
And
the 2004 Platform
Club of the Most Powerful
Gathers in
Strictest Privacy
By David D. Kirkpatrick
Ranked 5 Stars
Three times a year for 23 years, a little-known
club of a few hundred of the most powerful conservatives
in the country have met behind closed doors at
undisclosed locations for a confidential conference,
the Council for National Policy, to strategize about
how to turn the country to the right. Details are closely
guarded.
Everything You Need
to Know
About Michael Ledeen
Ranked 4
Stars
By Katherine Yurica
He wrote, “Paradoxically, preserving liberty may
require the rule of a single leader—a dictator—
willing to use those dreaded ‘extraordinary measures,
which few know how, or are willing, to employ.’” To
find out a little about Michael Ledeen, the man who
may have forged the documents, click here.
What Did Mr. Bush’s
2nd Inaugural
Address Really Mean?
Biblical Code Unraveled
Ranked 4 Stars
By Katherine Yurica
Mr. Bush’s second inaugural address has
puzzled observers around the world. Mr. Bush
admits he copied one line from Natan Sharansky.
Few realize he copied several lines from another
source. Journalists have pointed out he used the
words, “free, freedom or liberty” forty-nine times.
Not many observers, however, have questioned
why, nor have they asked, “What did Mr. Bush
mean by these words?” The answer to this
question is important for Americans and the
world to understand. Katherine Yurica gives a
startling analysis of Mr. Bush’s true meaning
in this essay.
George W. Bush's Second
Inaugural
Address:
Radical Son
Bush may not have read Dostoyevsky—
but his speechwriters have.
February 28, 2005 Issue
by Justin Raimondo
In a world aflame with war and terrorism, George
W. Bush’s second inaugural address was a
match flung onto an oil slick. By the time his
17-minute peroration reached midpoint, it was
clear that
was his intention:
Infiltrating the U.S.
Military
Gen. Boykin’s “Kingdom
Warriors” On the
Road to Abu Ghraib and Beyond
By Katherine Yurica
Ranked 4 Stars
Since GOP leaders have tasted the heady stuff of
unlimited power and watched the success of their
bullying tactics, they seem to take pride in the fact
that intimidation and coercion silences
all opposition.
Neocon Architect Says:
'Pull it Down'
ALEX MASSIE
NEOCONSERVATISM has failed the United
States and needs to be replaced by a more
realistic foreign policy agenda, according to
one of its prime architects. Francis Fukuyam
who wrote the best-selling book The End of
History and was a member of the neoconservative
project, now says that, both as a political symbol
and a body of thought, it has "evolved into something
I can no longer support". He says it should be
discarded on to history's pile
of discredited ideologies.
Call for Censure Is
Rallying
Cry to Bush's Base
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
March 15 — Republicans, worried that their
conservative base lacks motivation to turn out
for the fall elections, have found a new rallying
cry in the dreams of liberals about censuring
or impeaching President Bush. The proposal
this week by Senator Russell D. Feingold,
Democrat of Wisconsin, to censure Mr. Bush
over his domestic eavesdropping program cheered
the left. But it also dovetailed with conservatives'
plans to harness such attacks to
their own ends.
Born Again?
Looking to regain its base,
the Democratic
Party is restating its liberal program in
religion-friendly terms | Lynn Vincent
In Georgia, state Sen.
Kasim Reed in
January introduced a bill authorizing school
districts to teach courses derived from The Bible
and Its Influence, a textbook released last year by
the Bible Literacy Project. All that would be
business as usual for the GOP. But these Bible-
thumping, faith-stumping pols are all Democrats—
and part of their party's emerging effort to reconnect
with religious voters.
Restoring the Public
Trust
By Bill Moyers
TomPaine.com
Friday 24 February 2006
Two years ago, in a report entitled Democracy
in an Age of Rising Inequality, the American Political
Science Association concluded that progress toward
realizing American ideals of democracy "may have
stalled, and even, in some areas, reversed." Privileged
Americans "roar with a clarity and consistency that public
officials readily hear and routinely follow" while citizens
"with lower or moderate incomes are speaking with
a whisper." The following year, on the eve of President
George W. Bush's second inauguration, the editors of
The Economist, reporting on inequality in America,
concluded that the United States "risks calcifying into
a European-style, class-based
society."
How the Conservatives
Conquered America:Their Plan
Outlined Here
What did the foundation do? After
becoming its
president in 1977, Mr. Simon called for the
creation of a "counterintelligentsia" to balance
what he saw as the liberal dominance of the
universities, the news media, nonprofit organizations
and government bureaucracies. New rules: some of
them simply mechanical: restrict the number of trustees
to avoid the creation of factions (there will be only six
at tomorrow's Olin meeting); hire a staff of smart
generalists with diverse backgrounds from outside
the foundation world; Mr.
Bloom, a political theorist
at the University of Chicago, was a genuine talent who
deserved financial backing. The idea was simply to
provide a steady source of assistance to conservative
thinkers, who could devote themselves to writing
books and articles rather than to raising cash for
next year's budget.
Propaganda
Military's
Information War Is Vast and
Often Secretive
By JEFF GERTH
The media center in Fayetteville, N.C.,
would be the envy of any global communications
company. In state of the art studios, producers
prepare the daily mix of music and news for the
group's radio stations or spots for friendly television
outlets. Writers putting out newspapers and
magazines in Baghdad and Kabul converse via
teleconferences. Mobile trailers with high-tech
gear are parked outside, ready for the
next crisis.
Goals Reached, Donor
on Right Closes
Up Shop
By JASON DePARLE
WASHINGTON, May 28 - Without it, the Federalist
Society might not exist, nor its network of 35,000
conservative lawyers. Economic analysis might hold
less sway in American courts. The premier idea factories
of the right, from the Hoover Institution to the Heritage
Foundation, would have lost millions of dollars in core
support. And some classics of the conservative canon
would have lost their financier, including Allan Bloom's
lament of academic decline and Charles Murray's
attacks
on welfare.
Tired of Being Lied
To?
Modern History
You Can't Afford to Ignore
by Maureen Farrell
A couple years ago, historian
Chalmers Johnson
predicted that thanks to the "entrenched interests"
of the military-industrial complex, the United States
can look forward to a future of perpetual war, increased
propaganda, fewer Constitutional rights, and a bloated
executive branch. America, he warned, "will cease to
resemble the country outlined in the Constitution of 1787"
unless there is a "revolutionary rehabilitation of American
democracy."
For GOP, 2006 Now Looms
Much Larger
But there
are lessons in Tuesday’s results
for Democrats, too
By Dan Balz
In a season of discontent for the White House,
Tuesday's election results intensified Republican
anxiety that next year's midterm contests could
bring serious losses unless George W. Bush finds
a way to turn around his presidency and shore up
support among disaffected, moderate swing voters.
Stations Of The Cross
How evangelical Christians
are
creating an alternative universe of
faith-based news
By Mariah Blake
CBN’s flagship program,
the 700 Club with
Pat Robertson, is familiar to many Americans.
But few outside the evangelical community
know how large the network is — it employs
more than 1,000 people and has facilities in
three U.S. cities as well as Ukraine, the
Philippines, India, and Israel — or how
diverse its programming. And CBN, or
Christian Broadcasting Network, is just
one star in a vast and growing Christian
media universe, which has sprung up largely
under the mainstream’s radar. Conservative
evangelicals control at least six national
television networks, each reaching tens of
millions of homes, and virtually all of the
nation’s more than
2,000 religious radio
stations.
Gingrich on any given
Sunday
By P. M. Carpenter
Last week at a Capitol Hill gathering of GOP
staffers, Newt Gingrich lectured that liberals
have the advantage in “speed, cleverness and
shallowness.” If you’re a conservative, odds
are you won’t admit what Newt just admitted.
If you’re a liberal, you’ll smile at what Newt just
admitted, which is that conservatives cannot
successfully debate liberals because the details
that underlie most debates tend to support the
liberal position, not the conservative. It’s not the
“Big Difference” that Mr. Gingrich stresses as the
advisable course
of action. It’s the “Big Lie.”
Why 'Leaker- in-chief'
Charge Harms the President
By Linda Feldmann
April 10, 2006 edition -
WASHINGTON - President Bush has long railed
against leaks of classified information as a threat
to national security; his administration is vigorously
investigating unauthorized revelations of classified
material to the press about secret overseas
prisons and warrantless wiretapping. Now, a
revelation of grand jury testimony establishes
Bush himself as a player in White House
efforts to discredit an Iraq war critic through
the use
of classified information.
Web Changes Politics
By ADAM NAGOURNEY
WASHINGTON, March 31 — The transformation
of American politics by the Internet is accelerating
with the approach of the 2006 Congressional
and 2008 White House elections, prompting
the rewriting of rules on advertising, fund-raising,
mobilizing supporters and even the spreading
of negative information.
Republicans Run the
Political Risk
of Becoming Too Self-Reliant
Ronald Brownstein
August 8, 2005
Reward your
friends. Punish your enemies.
Unify the party. Marginalize the opposition.
These are the old-fashioned
tools Republicans
are using to entrench their control of 21st century
Washington. Around these principles the White
House and congressional Republicans this year
have demonstrated focus, discipline and an ability
to coalesce around difficult legislative goals rare
or any political coalition in American
history.
The Ship of State Is
Sinking,
Who is on the Lord’s Side?
A discussion on what kind
and size
of buckets to use to bail out the boat
Katherine Yurica responds to Jim Wallis'
and Susan Jacoby's articles
The Yurica Report had just begun to post
two articles from the American Prospect,
one written by Jim Wallis, the publisher of
the evangelical Sojourner’s and the other
from Susan Jacoby, called “an aggressive
secularist” by her publisher, when the
questions began about whether a real
conflict exists between progressives with
faith and those without.
A must read essay.
Strategies of the GOP
in
Discrediting Democrats
An Illustration
August 6, 2005
Brad Friedman of Brad's Blog has done extensive
research on the American Center for Voting Rights
(ACVR), which is the subject of the article below.
We therefore find the techniques being used by
this organization are worth scrutiny. The techniques
appear to be honed strategies and propaganda
that should be studied by all Americans interested
in maintaining our democracy
and free elections.
The Big Lie GOP Combatants
Tell About
Democrats And How to Respond
June 25, 2005
By Katherine Yurica
The reason Republican Combatants have to lie about
Democrats is this: if they told the truth—everyone,
including all true Christians would either leave the
militant Republican Party and join the Democrats
(or other parties), or would actively seek to change
the Republican Party back to the party of Abraham
Lincoln. So my point is this: GOP Combatants have
to slander and stigmatize democrats as
a fundamental
matter of tactics.
Call to Renewal
Let's Get Jesus Back!
Speech at Pentecost 2004
by Bill Moyers
I reminded her that there are more than two dozen
varieties of Baptist in this country. Pat Robertson
is a Baptist. So is Bill Clinton. Al Gore is a Baptist.
So is Trent Lott. Jesse Jackson is a Baptist. So is
Jesse Helms. Richard Gephardt is a Baptist. So is
Newt Gingrich. Small wonder Baptists have been
compared to jalapeno peppers: one or two makes for
a tasty dish, but a whole bunch of them together in
one place brings
tears to your eyes.
Apocalyptic President
Even some Republicans are
now
horrified by the influence Bush
has given to the evangelical right
Sidney Blumenthal
Thursday March 23, 2006
In his latest PR offensive President
Bush came
to Cleveland, Ohio, on Monday to answer the
paramount question on Iraq that he said was
on people's minds: "They wonder what I see
that they don't." After mentioning "terror" 54
times and "victory" five, dismissing "civil war"
twice and asserting that he is "optimistic", he
called on a citizen in the audience, who homed
in on the invisible meaning of recent events
in the light of two books, American Theocracy,
by Kevin Phillips, and the book of Revelation.
Phillips, the questioner explained, "makes the point
that members of your administration have reached
out to prophetic Christians who see the war in
Iraq and the rise of terrorism as signs of the
apocalypse. Do you believe this? And
if not,
why not?"
Chronology of Government Use of Propaganda Prepared by Rep. Henry Waxman
Government Use of Propaganda,
Social Security
SSA Altered Communications
to
Undermine Public Confidence
Prepared for Rep. Henry Waxman
We cannot stress the
importance of this
documentation. It clearly reveals the Bush
Administration's attempt to corrupt good
and honest government
in the United States.
Administration Oversight:
The Politicization of Inspectors
General
A litany
of corruption
Prepared for Rep.
Henry Waxman
How the GOP Messes
up the House
By Erica Rosenberg
The fate of the Endangered Species
Act
under Pombo's leadership typifies House
Republicans' demolition approach to the
nation's legislative process. Measures affecting
long-standing energy policy, mining law and
oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
were similarly railroaded through committee
with little opportunity for debate, amendment
or media coverage. Often, the public record
on what occurred during these bills' travels
through committee was thin, at
best.
How to Respond to Conservatives
by George
Lakoff
An excerpt from the book Don't Think
of an Elephant!: Know Your Values and
Frame the Debate.
Progressives are constantly
put in positions
where they are expected to respond to
conservative arguments. It may be over
Thanksgiving dinner, around the water cooler,
or in front of an audience. But because
conservatives have commandeered so
much of the language, progressives are
often put on the defensive with little or
nothing to
say in response.
Framing the issues:
UC Berkeley professor
George Lakoff
tells how
conservatives use language to dominate
politics
By Bonnie Azab Powell,
NewsCenter
27 October 2003
With Republicans controlling the Senate, the House,
and the White House and enjoying a large margin of
victory for California Governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger,
it's clear that the Democratic Party is in crisis. George
Lakoff, a UC Berkeley professor of linguistics and cognitive
science, thinks he knows why. 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.
Linguistics professor
George Lakoff
dissects the "war
on terror"
and other conservative
catchphrases
By Bonnie Azab Powell,
Berkeley NewsCenter
26 August 2004
Well, for that reason I wrote a chapter on what
unites progressives — a moral system, certain
political principles, and what I call policy directions
as opposed to policies. A policy direction is something
like "Let's have a sustainable environment" and "Working
people shouldn't be living in poverty" and "Everybody
should have health care."
Framing the Dems
How conservatives control
political
debate and how progressives
can
take it back
George Lakoff
September 1, 2003
The term tax relief evokes all of this and more. It
presupposes a conceptual metaphor: Taxes are
an affliction, proponents of taxes are the causes
of affliction (the villains), the taxpayer is the afflicted
(the victim) and the proponents of tax relief are the
heroes who deserve the taxpayers' gratitude. Those
who oppose tax relief are bad guys who want to keep
relief from the victim of
the affliction, the taxpayer.
The Framing Wars
By MATT BAI
The New York Times Magazine
published an important analysis on "framing."
"After last November's defeat, Democrats were
like aviation investigators sifting through twisted
metal in a cornfield, struggling to posit theories
about the disaster all around them. Some put the
onus on John Kerry, saying he had never found
an easily discernable message." So what really
happened? And how do we correct
it?
Does 'Re-Framing' Give
Dems
Political Leverage?
by Ruy Teixeira
The debate over the importance of "framing" gets
re-energized in Matt Bai's "The Framing Wars" in
the Sunday New York Times Magazine. Bai argues,
among other points, that the Democrats used creative
framing to stop the GOP 'nuclear option' and he tells
an interesting
story.
NEW: I Could Kiss The
New York Times
by RenaRF
This morning my boss brought me her copy of the
Sunday New York Times Magazine. The front cover
is the lead into their featured story on framing. Hence
my desire to kiss The
New York Times.
Questions for Matt Bai
Published: July 19, 2005
The contributing writer for The Times Magazine
answered readers' questions on how the Democratic
Party can use language to take better control of the
political debate.
The Message Thing
By Jim Wallis
SINCE the 2004 election, there has been
much soul-searching and hand-wringing,
especially among Democrats, about how to
"frame" political messages. The loss to George
W. Bush was painful enough, but the Republicans'
post-election claims of mandate, and their triumphal
promises to relegate the Democrats to permanent
minority status, left political liberals in a state of panic.
So the minority party has been
searching, some
would say desperately, for the right "narrative":
the best story line, metaphors, even magic words
to bring back electoral success. The operative term
among Democratic politicians and strategists has
become "framing." How to tell the story has become
more important than the story itself. And that could
be a bigger mistake for the Democrats than the
ones they made
during the election.
Let Them Eat War
Arlie Hochschild
October 2, 2003
Conveying the truth in a misleading
manner is, of
course, another way of manipulating people. As the
linguist George Lakoff astutely observes, the term
"tax relief" slyly invites us to imagine taxes as an
affliction and those who propose them as villains...
Republican rhetoric may appeal to the blue-collar
man, Lakoff suggests, because we tend to match
our view of good politics with our image of a good
family. The appeal of any political leader, he believes,
lies in the way he matches our images of the father
in
the ideal family.
We'll Grant This to
the Republicans:
They Know How to Frame
Issues and
Keep the Democrats
on the Defensive.
A BuzzFlash Interview with
"Framing" Expert, UC
Berkeley Professor George Lakoff
"So if you go on Fox News
-- 'fair and balanced' -- two
liberals, two conservatives, and one commentator
who is asking the questions, and the question is,
'Are you in favor of the President’s tax relief program
or are you against it?' -- it doesn’t matter what you
say. If you say, 'I’m against tax relief,' you’re still
evoking that framing. You’re still in their frame, and
all that it automatically brings with it: what kinds of
policies are good, who is bad, and so on. That’s ho
Fox News works. It frames the issues from a
conservative perspective. Once the issue is framed,
if you accept the framing, if you accept the language,
it’s all over."
George Lakoff
Masterful Machiavellianism
Southern Style
by Rebecca Knight
January 20, 2004
Machiavellianism: The political doctrine of
Machiavelli, which denies the relevance of morality
in political affairs and holds that craft and deceit
are justified in pursuing and maintaining political
power...A very informative article regarding the use
of language by conservatives provides some helpful
insight.(1) The article's premise, based upon the
studies of George Lakoff, a UC Berkeley
professor
of linguistics and cognitive science, is that conservatives
have mastered the art of "framing" the issues.
Conservatives have spent decades defining their
ideas, carefully choosing the language with which
to present them, and building an infrastructure to
communicate them
through think tanks.
Frank Luntz and GOP Propaganda
Meet the Man Who is
Responsible
For Turning Radical Religious Right
Wingers Into Jolly Santas:
Frank Luntz,
the Propagandist
of the Century
by Katherine
Yurica
Ranked 4 Stars
Luntz is proud to point out that the football he used
in focus groups during the historic Contract with
America campaign is now on display at the
Smithsonian Institution! He's a pollster with a
difference. His real strength is that he polls
people to test the effect of words on them! He's
a guru to politicians. He's been helping GOP
candidates win their elections since 1994.
Who is this man? He's the
man who has
written the Playbook for Winning the Elections
in 2006 for the GOP! Click here. To go to the
essay and to download the Playbook.
The Luntz Playbook for
Winning the
Elections in 2006:
How to Scare the
American Public into
Voting Republican
Ranked 4 Stars
Can be downloaded in a newly typed
and nicely set out PDF file of 1,583 kb
When Writing an Irate
Letter to the
Editor Is Just Not Enough
By SARA IVRY
Convention dictates that when newspaper readers
question the accuracy of an article, they ask for
a correction or write a letter to the editor. But when
the conservative pollster and political consultant
Frank Luntz had a complaint with The Forward,
the venerable New York newspaper of Jewish
culture, he took a different
approach.
Highlights of the GOP’s
Strategy
to Convince America
to End Social Security
By Katherine Yurica
February 24, 2005
Ranked 4 Stars
It’s called, “A Guide to Social Security Reform,”
and its title is “Saving Social Security.” It was
written “courtesy of the White House Office of
Communications.” House Republican Conference
Chairman, Deborah Pryce and Senate Republican
Conference Chairman, Rick Santorum signed off
on it. It’s purpose? To teach the GOP senators
and representatives how to sell a program that
is designed to be the first step in destroying
Social Security.
“It is key to teach your constituents that Social
Security is hurting, but the way in which you go
about communicating the problem and the
need
for reform is critical.”
The Secret GOP Social
Security Play Book.
Ranked 5
Stars
The Yurica
Report obtained a copy
of the actual GOP Congressional
guide to Senators and Representatives
on how to sell "Reforming America's
Social Security System for Future
Generations." It reveals what words
they must use: "Personalization" not
"privatization." Appeal to youth, quote
Dietrich Bonhoeffoer, offer an
alternate reality! This is a large PDF
File. Don't miss it.
Don't Believe the Type
From the U.K.
“News is what someone
does not want you
to print - the rest is advertising,”
- Randolph Hearst, publisher
Frank Luntz is a happy man. He’s staring at
two lines on a computer generated graph: red
for Republicans and green for Democrats and
they’re starting to merge. He dashes excitedly
into a room full of people hooked up to his
computer system. They are told to turn a dial to
indicate when they feel good or bad about what
a water company executive has
to say about
privatisation.
Against the House
Only Chumps
and Compulsive Gamblers Keep
On Playing in a Rigged Game
By James
Heddle
Making Howard Dean head of the DNC and commissioning
George Lakoff to "reframe" the party's "message"
and PR
material would be a necessary, but
hardly sufficient
response.
Special Investigations
Secrecy in the Bush Administration
Ranked 4 Stars
Rep. Henry A. Waxman
has released a comprehensive
examination of secrecy in the Bush Administration.
The report analyzes how the Administration has
implemented each of our nation’s major open
government laws.
The Greatest TV Ad Ever
Made:
Whosoever Will May Come
Yurica Report Editor's
Note: the United
Church of Christ has produced and run
one of the most effective ads ever created
in our opinion, demonstrating what the
true witness of Jesus Christ and Christianity
is. We invite our readers to see this ad.
Click on this picture: 
and wait for the
video to load.
How To Detect Evil
by Katherine Yurica
Ranked
4 Stars
Evil is far more common than most of us
realize. In fact it is commonplace both in
individuals and in groups. The Yurica Report
revisits a great classic published in 1983: Scott
Peck's The People of the Lie, The Hope
For Healing Human Evil. It's worth rereading
today. Peck analyzes the MyLai massacre
allowing the reader to compare events in Viet
Nam with events in Iraq. Consider that a U.S.
Commander, Lieut. Colonel Bryan McCoy
described the killing of Iraqi soldiers to Time
Magazine reporters, “Lets quit pussyfooting
and call it what it is. Its murder, its slaughter,
its clubbing baby harp seals.” Peck gives us
a profile of evil people. They have certain
characteristics in common. Read on:
Coulterism, the New
Face of the Republican
Party?
Ranked 4
Stars
Not only is McCarthyism
back, it's
back with a vengence: libel and
slander are liberally applied to help
create a one party nation. Mark
Zaid's
review reveals the ugly side
of the GOP.
Pointing out the different
planks in party
platforms
Phyllis Schlafly
September 13, 2004
Even funnier is the Democratic platform's false allegations
that the Democratic Party supports tax cuts, more secure
borders, and protecting our Second Amendment right to
own guns. Such Platform lies are cushioned with soft
platitudes such as "the challenges of our times are profound"
and "the stakes are
immeasurably high."
Scary Stuff
There’s a real venom on the Left against
conservative Christians.
[ Yurica Report Editor's
Note: This article by Stanley Kurtz
shows how effectively the GOP propagandists paint themselves--
through misinformation and dissembling-- as innocent victims
of the defeated Democrats.] By Stanley Kurtz
"Harpers Magazine May cover stories about “The Christian
Right’s War On America,” frightened me, although not
the
way Harper’s meant them to. I fear these stories could
mark the beginning of a systematic campaign of hatred
directed at traditional Christians. Whether this is what
Harper’s intends, I cannot say. But regardless of the
intention, the
effect seems clear."
Psychological Factors
In the American Bunker
by David Michael Green
What is it that compels people,
by the
millions, to doggedly follow those often
shallowest and neediest of humans who
don the mantle of leadership and take them
over the cliffs of hatred and militarism, crashing
into great piles of mass carnage on the beach
below? In my studies of this topic, the most
compelling answer I've found is that nationalism
addresses a profound existential fear that many
people seem to feel in the face of the seemingly
meaningless and insignificant lives they lead
within a vast and indifferent universe.
A Compendium of all the Articles Written on The 2005 New York City CUNY/Open Center Conference on the Religious Right Agenda
Copyright © 2005 Yurica Report. All rights reserved.