fletcher's folly



January 21, 2005 Yesterday was the anti-inauguration. There was a rally in the Civic Center in San Francisco, followed by a march down Market Street to the Embarcadero. I will feature photos of the event for the next several days. *************** Sen. Sheila Kuehl will reintroduce health care plan SACRAMENTO - Armed with a new report showing big savings and backed by the Legislature's two leaders, a Democratic lawmaker announced plans Wednesday to reintroduce her bill to create a universal health care system that would cover all Californians. The study by the Lewin Group, a Virginia consulting firm, predicts the legislation would save California $343.6 billion in health care costs over the next 10 years*, mainly by cutting administration and using bulk purchases of drugs and medical equipment. The study was paid for by Health Care for All - California, a nonprofit group that supports universal coverage more.... You can get a pdf file of the complete report, or a summary, at the Health Care for All - California home page. January 20, 2005 It's deja vu all over again. The multimillion dollar inauguaration is happening today and there are anti-inaugurations happening all over the country. So join thousands of others from many communities and struggles, uniting to Protest Bush's Inauguration ÷ Stop the War, Fight the Right! In San Francisco, gather at 5 p.m. at Civic Center. * In Washington, there are many events scheduled for the anti-inauguration. You can go to www.counter-inaugural.org to see what's being organized locally in your area, as well as the events in D.C. January 19, 2005 It was great to hear Senator Barbara Boxer yesterday questioning Condoleezza Rice and her role in this corrupt administration. You can read a transcript of Barbara Boxer's remarks and Condoleezza Rice's response at Rice's confirmation hearing yesterday as provided by Federal News Service. * It's not too late to sign Sen. Boxer's petition so she can take your voice with her to the committee room and the floor of the Senate in the pursuit of the truth from Condoleezza Rice. "Yes, Barbara, I stand with you in demanding the truth from Condoleezza Rice. The American people deserve honesty and candor from their leaders, especially about the decisions they make to put our servicemen and women in harm's way around the world. I join with you, Senator Boxer, in your effort to hold Condoleezza Rice accountable for her misleading statements leading up to the Iraq war and beyond before voting on her appointment as Secretary of State." January 18, 2005 I could not stand to hear Bush, the great hypocrite praising Martin Luther King yesterday. * Geov Parrish writes in The King we Lost: "If the King of 1955 or 1965 were alive today, he would be accused of treason for his pacifism, as he was reviled for "Communism" then; instead of the FBI trying to bring him down, he, and most of his associates, would be prosecutable under new anti-terrorism statutes. And the moral outrage of Americans that made his work so effective? We don't do that any more. We can torture thousands of mostly innocent Iraqis and Afghans, in plain sight, and nobody is held accountable. It'd take a whole lot more than police dogs to make the news today. more.... January 17, 2005 Americans today are honoring the legacy of Martin Luther King. When King was assasinated he was involved in a struggle for labor. Remember, he was in Memphis, Tennessee, while lending support to a sanitation workers' strike. He stood up for the poor and disenfranchised. He stood for Peace. He would certainly be in the forefront against the war in Iraq, as he was in the protest to the Vietnam war. Keep your eye on the prize. We must fight to overcome the aura of fear and hate that prevails in our land today. January 16, 2005 Robert Scheer: Is Al Qaeda Just a Bush Boogeyman? Is it conceivable that Al Qaeda, as defined by President Bush as the center of a vast and well-organized international terrorist conspiracy, does not exist? To even raise the question amid all the officially inspired hysteria is heretical, especially in the context of the U.S. media's supine acceptance of administration claims relating to national security. Yet a brilliant new BBC film produced by one of Britain's leading documentary filmmakers systematically challenges this and many other accepted articles of faith in the so-called war on terror. Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê"The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear," a three-hour historical film by Adam Curtis recently aired by the British Broadcasting Corp., argues coherently that much of what we have been told about the threat of international terrorism "is a fantasy that has been exaggerated and distorted by politicians. It is a dark illusion that has spread unquestioned through governments around the world, the security services and the international media." more.... * You can see The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear online. January 15, 2005 From The Left Coaster: To Counter White House Campaign On Social Security, Democrats Need Their Own Campaign I have said in the past that Bush will return to campaign mode to sell his Social Security plans. We have proof in todayâs Washington Post that in fact Rove and Ken Mehlman at the RNC will roll out a new campaign nationwide as an extension of the presidential campaign, to go district by district in pressuring House members to go along with his plans. White House allies are launching a market-research project to figure out how to sell the plan in the most comprehensible and appealing way, and Republican marketing and public relations gurus are building teams of consultants to promote it, the strategists said. The campaign will use Bush's campaign-honed techniques of mass repetition, never deviating from the script and using the politics of fear to build support -- contending that a Social Security financial crisis is imminent when even Republican figures show it is decades away. ---snip--- "There are a lot of tools we used in the '04 campaign, from regional media to research to rapid response to having surrogates on television," he said. "That whole effort will be focused on the legislative agenda." So we are going to move to a permanent campaign. Fine. Letâs go toe to toe. Itâs time to operationalize the Truth Squad concept. This time however, the DNC, working closely with the DSCC and DCCC need to ramp up quickly on this. Democrats can go to school on what Rove and Mehlman did in the 2004 campaign in targeting voters, employing rapid response tactics, and using surrogates. more.... **********	(Click on icons to see larger images.) January 21, 2005 January 20, 2005 January 19, 2005 January 18, 2005 January 17, 2005 January 16, 2005 January 15, 2005	Archives August 21, 2004 - August 27, 2004 August 28, 2004 - September 3, 2004 September 4, 2004 - September 10, 2004 September 11, 2004 - September 17, 2004 September 18, 2004 - September 24, 2004 September 24, 2004 - October 1, 2004 September 2, 2004 - October 8, 2004 October 9, 2004 - October 15, 2004 October 16, 2004 - October 22, 2004 October 23, 2004 - October 29, 2004 October 30, 2004 - November 5, 2004 November 6, 2004 - November 12, 2004 November 13, 2004 - November 19, 2004 November 20, 2004 - November 26, 2004 November 27, 2004 - December 3, 2004 December 4, 2004 - December 10, 2004 December 11, 2004 - December 17, 2004 December 18, 2004 - December 24, 2004 December 25, 2004 - December 31, 2004 January 1, 2005 - January 7, 2005 January 8, 2005 - January 14, 2005 No War in Iraq march. 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