(Sad) Human Events - twisting the Tribal Coushatta story right down to Tribal council 's steak!

Let's twist the story in the NY Times Magazine, shall we?

And, how!

Coushetta Indian Secrets Can Be Bought With 8oz Filet (make mine porterhouse!)
by Amanda B. Carpenter, HUMAN RIGHT WING EVENTS ON LINE

Posted 02/27/0610:48 AM -->
By: Amanda B. Carpenter by way of the NY Times ---Posted 02/27/0610:48 AM SHE CAN'T SPELL COUSHATTA...

respond to this article CAUTION RIGHT WING BLOG HERE

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Deboroh Soloman of New York Times Magazine interviewed Council member Brent Humphreys (Ms. Carpenter, get your facts straight, girl -- it was David Sickey of Tribal Council -- tsk tsk tsk -- such an editor!)* of the Coushatta Trive of Louisiana to see how his tribe has handled the the relationship with Jack Abramoff.

In the interview, Humphreys--Tribal Council Member Sickey was reluctant to tell Soloman how much gambling money was redirected to members of the tribe. He told her, "You'd have be buy my an eight ounce fillet for me to give up that information" and if he did, "members of the tribe would probably hang me from the nearest tree." (((because Indians can get away with saying that sort of thing, and YOU CAN'T--ahahahahahahaha!!!)))

Here's the interview reprinted below. You can also access it here.

NYT: You are one of the four council members of the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, which was stripped of more than $30 million by the lobbyist Jack Abramoff when it tried to buy influence in Washington. Can you tell us about the repercussions for your tribe?

Sickey: Here I am, embroiled in the biggest controversy to hit the Indians since Columbus arrived. It's not exactly what we would want, national exposure over lobbying scams. We're getting checks coming back every week from groups that Abramoff requested the tribe donate to.

NYT: You mean no politician or political group wants to be associated with you?

Sickey: The Republican Party wants to frame this as an Indian issue to detract attention away from the dirty antics of the operatives in their party. They're blaming the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.

NYT: You're referring to the law passed by Congress in 1988. As a result, your tribe opened the Coushatta Casino Resort in Kinder, La., which is said to bring in some $300 million a year.

Sickey: The Coushattas and the Indians in general achieved it in a fair way using the white system.

NYT: No one doubts that, but what were your tribal councilmen thinking when they wrote so many checks to Jack Abramoff and the publicist Michael Scanlon?

Sickey: We wanted access into senior levels of the government, whether it be the Department of the Interior or — Jack said he could reach into the Bush administration and had access to Karl Rove.

NYT: In his plea agreement in January, Abramoff claimed that your tribe gave him the money to keep rival tribes from building casinos in Texas. Whose idea was that?

Sickey: That was his (CASINO Jack's) idea. Personally, I'd never thought about it before. My feeling was that any kind of gaming legislation in Texas was out of our hands. We're in Louisiana, so I thought there was only so much we could do to affect Texas legislation.

NYT: Aren't other tribes furious at you for trying to thwart their own efforts?

Sickey: When you have any kind of business enterprise, there is going to be competition, and Indians are no exception.

NYT: Still, so many people want a casino-free America.

Sickey: We like to call it an enterprise; casino has a stigma attached to it. We are a major economic engine in this region. At the casino, we employ close to 3,000 people, and the majority of them are non-Indians.

NYT: I hear the casino profits are evenly distributed among all 847 members of your tribe, including children. Can you tell us how much you each received last year?

Sickey: No, ma'am, I cannot. You would have to buy me an eight-ounce fillet for me to give up that information.

NYT: Is it under $50,000 a year?

Sickey: Yes, significantly less. The members of the tribe would probably hang me in the nearest tree if I disclosed that figure.

NYT: That sounds to me like a Native American slur.

Sickey: Well, I can get away with it. You can't.

NYT: You're only 27 and weren't elected to the tribal council until May 2003, so how many times did you actually meet Abramoff?

Sickey: Only once, and I was already looking into his billings and his work — or lack thereof. So he was more comfortable with Poncho than with me. Right when he stepped into the conference room, he immediately gave Poncho a big hug.

NYT: I assume Poncho was the tribe's chief at the time?

Sickey: For media purposes, we prefer the word chairman. We've adopted a little bit of Anglo stuff here. There's this stigma attached to chief; it sounds like an old relic from the past.

NYT: Since you are so forward-looking, what do you envision for the future of the Coushatta tribe?
Just to sum it up in a nutshell, Indian country is looking forward to the day when Jack Abramoff will become Jack Afterthought.

===========================

Miss Carpenter is Assistant Editor for HUMAN EVENTS ON LINE

* (((Ms. Amanda needs a fact checker - maybe we shoudl lend her HighVizPR - www.highvizpr.com/what_we_do_ )))

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AP: Governors urge change in (our) eating culture - with Huckabee leading the way

Enough about "Team Abramoff and the Teepee Casinos" for now. This is a much more important political issue.

THINK! This is worse than being an alcoholic or drug abuse -- if food, in it's abundance, is the DRUG of choice, it is DRUG abuse, it is akin to ALCOHOL DEPENDENCY. Trust me on this.

Dear Governor Huckabee,

I am ready to sign on for the cause. Please allow me to work for you, for prevention.

I am 107 days sugar and flour free
I have 55 pounds off
I am waiting for my knee replacement. I must/will lose another 40 more to have my knee replacement.
These are the consequences of obesity. Obesity cripples and kills.

Abbe Buck, APR

Governors urge change in (our) eating culture
Robert Tanner, AP National Writer February 25, 2006

AP: WASHINGTON --Greasy food. Sugary drinks. And exercise? [why did the AP writer write the greasy foods and surgary drinks -- that's tripe in itself - cut that, too!] The tolls from today's temptations, from sweet soft drinks popular with school kids to drive-through lunches eaten behind the wheel, are well-known: obesity, diabetes, heart attacks. Governors say states can guide people to healthier choices -- and that they must to cut rising health care costs.

Mike Huckabee of Arkansas is leading the way among the dozens of governors gathered here Saturday for their annual meeting, with a zeal that comes from knowing the costs up close, both personal and financial. Four years ago, his doctor diagnosed him with type 2 diabetes and said he was sure to die an early death. The then 290-pound Huckabee said: "Can we rewrite the last chapter of this book?"

He went on to do just that, changing his eating habits -- "anything fried" --[sugar and flour to boot!)] starting an exercise regimen, and dropping 110 pounds. Next week, the Republican who jokes about running for the presidency runs another marathon, his third, back in Little Rock.

On a personal level, it means he's rewritten his future. But for Huckabee, along with many governors who've joined with his initiative, the aim is much broader -- to change the nation's focus from treating disease to preventing it, and so doing to save lives and get control of soaring health care costs. That in turn would free state governments, workers and private business to spend their money on other demands.

"Every single one of our states is being confronted with an extraordinary crisis, as well as an epidemic ... of overeating, underexercising and smoking," Huckabee told a crowd of governors, health officials and experts, and lobbyists. "The fact is 2,000 Americans will die today, and tomorrow, and the day after that. They'll die not because of some calamity. They'll die because of cultural and lifestyle choices that we can really work on."

The toll is 700,000 a year from chronic diseases. And the cost is $117 billion a year to the economy.

It's time to change the nation's culture, Huckabee said, in the same way that the nation changed its thinking on littering, drinking and driving, smoking and driving without a seatbelt. [The same way that they have done in Great Britian, banning joint surgery for the morbid obese without a weight loss plan of action]

States can be key movers, governors said. Among some of the programs already operating:

-- Enroll overweight recipients of Medicaid, the government health care program for the poor, into Weight Watchers at a discounted rate, as Tennessee has done.

-- Provide fresh, local produce at discounted costs to thousands of rural residents, as a Hawaiian health clinic in Oahu has done with federal and state support.

-- Boost physical education programs at public schools with specific guidelines and policy changes, as encouraged by a Michigan program.

"Health care has to be about keeping people healthy. Not just helping them after they've become sick," said Michael Leavitt, secretary of the federal Department of Health and Human Services.

Dr. David Katz, director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University's School of Medicine, drew the timeline that's seen the rise in obesity in adults and children, and the rise of type 2 diabetes among children and youths -- a disease that almost never used to appear among children.

"What was a disease of overweight, sedentary adults has migrated down the age curve and is now routine in kids under the age of 10. This has happened on your watch, this has happened on my watch. We must share in the shame," Katz said.

The cause is simple -- humans adapated and evolved to do hard physical exercise with relatively few calories, but modern life offers the exact opposite, with every convenience from cars to escalators, and all-you-can-eat buffets.

Katz likened modern American man to polar bears living in a desert, with all the health damage that would bring.

He dismissed the occasional study that questioned the rise in obesity, and said the evidence is overwhelming. "This is not a crisis of cosmetics. This is a bonafide health crisis," he said.

The first two days of the governors' gathering -- before they begin policy discussions with President Bush and Cabinet officials on Monday -- focuses on different programs in place, ways to get the public engaged and how states can go further. On the last day, governors will hear from former President Bill Clinton, who has joined Huckabee in his effort to focus on improving health.

"This more than a call to action, it's a call to innovation," Huckabee said. The impact will affect much more than state government, but private business, too. "There isn't a CEO in America who doesn't get it. ... You don't shift a culture immediately. But we have to turn this battleship around."
------
National Governors Association: http://www.nga.org

© Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

HighVizPR backtrack - http://highvizpr.blogspot.com/2006/02/sky-news-in-great-britian-doctors.html

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Louisiana Coushatta Council Member David Sickey speaks out to the NY Times

Questions for David Sickey* ~ Lobbying Reservations, NY Times Magazine

Interview by DEBORAH SOLOMON
Published: February 26, 2006

Q: You are one of the four council members of the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, which was stripped of more than $30 million by the lobbyist Jack Abramoff when it tried to buy influence in Washington. Can you tell us about the repercussions for your tribe?

A:[ David Sickey] Here I am, embroiled in the biggest controversy to hit the Indians since Columbus arrived. It's not exactly what we would want, national exposure over lobbying scams. We're getting checks coming back every week from groups that Abramoff requested the tribe donate to.

You mean no politician or political group wants to be associated with you?

The Republican Party wants to frame this as an Indian issue to detract attention away from the dirty antics of the operatives in their party. They're blaming the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.

You're referring to the law passed by Congress in 1988. As a result, your tribe opened the Coushatta Casino Resort in Kinder, La., which is said to bring in some $300 million a year.
The Coushattas and the Indians in general achieved it in a fair way using the white system.

No one doubts that, but what were your tribal councilmen thinking when they wrote so many checks to Jack Abramoff and the publicist Michael Scanlon?

We wanted access into senior levels of the government, whether it be the Department of the Interior or — Jack said he could reach into the Bush administration and had access to Karl Rove.

In his plea agreement in January, Abramoff claimed that your tribe gave him the money to keep rival tribes from building casinos in Texas. Whose idea was that?

That was his idea. Personally, I'd never thought about it before. My feeling was that any kind of gaming legislation in Texas was out of our hands. We're in Louisiana, so I thought there was only so much we could do to affect Texas legislation.

Aren't other tribes furious at you for trying to thwart their own efforts?

When you have any kind of business enterprise, there is going to be competition, and Indians are no exception.

Still, so many people want a casino-free America.

We like to call it an enterprise; casino has a stigma attached to it. We are a major economic engine in this region. At the casino, we employ close to 3,000 people, and the majority of them are non-Indians.

I hear the casino profits are evenly distributed among all 847 members of your tribe, including children. Can you tell us how much you each received last year?

No, ma'am, I cannot. You would have to buy me an eight-ounce fillet for me to give up that information.

Is it under $50,000 a year?

Yes, significantly less. The members of the tribe would probably hang me in the nearest tree if I disclosed that figure.

That sounds to me like a Native American slur.

Well, I can get away with it. You can't.

You're only 27 and weren't elected to the tribal council until May 2003, so how many times did you actually meet Abramoff?

Only once, and I was already looking into his billings and his work — or lack thereof. So he was more comfortable with Poncho than with me. Right when he stepped into the conference room, he immediately gave Poncho a big hug.

I assume Poncho was the tribe's chief at the time?

For media purposes, we prefer the word chairman. We've adopted a little bit of Anglo stuff here. There's this stigma attached to chief; it sounds like an old relic from the past.

Since you are so forward-looking, what do you envision for the future of the Coushatta tribe?

Just to sum it up in a nutshell, Indian country is looking forward to the day when Jack Abramoff will become Jack Afterthought.

Abramoff, Jack
Lobbying and Lobbyists
Indians, American

###

Tom DeLay is an honest guy--honest! Ways that he must resussitate a DEAD political career

First he disagrees with President Bush about the Dubai Port buy - good for Mr. DeLay! H e needs to disagree.

Then this come out of THINK! Progress' blog -- oy veys mere!--But Jack Abramoff knows for sure.

###

"Great Caesar's Ghost!" -- Press slams King-(Prez) GeorgeBush again--exposes 'secret + arab + deal'

"GREAT CAESAR'S GHOST! KENT----SUPERMAN, CAN'T WE GET ANYONE TO CONTROL THE MEDIA-- THIS IS WAY BEYOND DREW PEARSON-- IT IS OUT OF CONTROL! DAMNIT! STOP! THIS IS THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND IF HE WANTS TO MAKE A SECRET DEAL WITH THE ARAB ERIMUTUSSSSS REPUBLIC (((United Arab Emirates))) DAMN IT, THAT IS HIS PEROGATIVE. WE VOTED THE MAN IN!"--Perry White, Publisher, Daily Planet

ABC News/AP: Arab Company, White House had secret deal - Arab Company Had to Agree to Cooperate With Future U.S. Investigations As Condition to Win Sale

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=1652515&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

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PREZ VOWS TO VETO - WANTS ARAB - DUBAI TO RUN 6 PORTS --Dear Mr. Chertoff, Senators, does this make sense to you?

DRUDGE headline--

BUSH ISSUES VETO THREAT; VOWS TO KEEP PORT DEAL

AP: Bush Shrugs Off Objections to Port Deal - although he found out about it at the last minute!

(((--this is from "mr. anti-terrorism"? pulleaz! -- so much for "Buy American" -- so much for keeping the terrorism out, eh? So much for our "addiction to oil". Now we have this President, this man who is the King of the United States, King George, ready to let a deal go through that will let the ARAB-terror-friendly-Dubai run our ports? That is stupid and a shocker to many, FROM BOTH SIDE OF THE AISLE )))

Please read the following from a colleague of mine, Barb H. Many happen to agree, in a most bi-partisan fashion. Also--good article cited by Barbara: Port Insecurity.

I am outraged to learn that the US GOVT awarded a contract to the UAE to provide security at 6 vital US ports. It is unthinkable.

How can the president talk about national security and safeguards to protect our shores and stamp out terrorism in one breadth and yet provide ready access to
potential anti-American sympathizers? How can HLS even think about awarding
this sensitive contract and access point to a non-US company (or non-US employees?) It is unthinkable to me. Stupid.

This leaves us very vulnerable because it is not like procedures or maps or infrastructure could/would change overnight if there was a breach or one bad apple! I can't imagine what the Feds are thinking.

Surely this is a job for a revered US Company, not even one from UK. Which begs the question, how many contracts are let to foreign nationals when the first criteria should be going to US companies and citizens? The only exception in my mind might be USAID contracts in foreign countries.

From what I have read there are plenty of vulnerabilities in our ports because not all shipments are inspected, etc. There are still many problems securing the ports and communications between law enforcement, fire, and mayors across the country.

Do something to abort this contract (and others). DO something to prevent such short-sighted decisions from happening, across the board.

Even with security clearances, I would not trust any individual or company. This is akin to the incompetent INS agents who let the terrorists into this country in the
first place, and allowed them to stay unchecked, and the continued laissez-faire
on student visas and immigrants.

Surely the US is the laughing stock, and it won't be funny when we get caught in yet another disaster, left saying coulda/shoulda...

Within days of Sept. 11th, I recall hearing about the forewarning telegram of air strikes, and was amazed that officials didn't/couldn't put the puzzle pieces together.

And, disillusioned that it took Congress another 6 months to figure out that there
was an egregious disconnect when it was so blatantly obvious to me. The faulty decision making does not instill confidence in our policies, elected officials or civil servants, who are charged with the good and welfare of US citizens.

How much more incompetence and double-speak are the American people going to have to endure, and at what cost? The Iraq war is a mistake and a sham, when are we going to stand up and impeach this president and usurp his power?

###

Alec Baldwin sez it ALL: "Dr Strangelove at it again, folks! Embraces violence - he RUNS this country! - shows true colors, the color of buckshot!"

Alec Baldwin: 'Cheney is a Terrorist'

(سیاست درگلستان( اولین مرکز خبری- تحلیلی استان گلس )

Alec Baldwin HUFFFFINGTON POST --Fri. Feb 17, 2006 5:26 PM ET

.

So, I suppose the question is...what kind of civil trial will we see, or not see, [or will not see, we already know Whittington publicly appologized to the Vice-Prez for getting in his way! Big chunk of Haliburton is coming in Whittington's mailbix for pain and suffering, no dount about it!] between Cheney and Whittington? Whittington is certainly no stranger to a court room and to civil litigation. Will Cheney pay him off, preemptively? Will they go to court? I would imagine if a guy with a few beers in him shoots you in the face on a hunting trip, how could you turn down that opportunity?

What would Cheney do about the whole secrecy thing then? I mean, this is the guy that sicced Enron on Gray Davis and the state of California to embarrass Davis, trigger the recall and then watched Arnold Schwarzenegger' become governor of California. (To this day, perhaps, still the low point in American political life.) Then Cheney covered it up.

.

Cheney's the guy who told Libby to out Valerie Plame. The rumor I heard is that someone yelled, "Look out! Shooter!" and Cheney thought he said Scooter and fired in that general direction.

.

Cheney is a terrorist. He terrorizes our enemies abroad and innocent citizens here at home indiscriminately. Who ever thought Harry Whittington would be the answer to America's prayers(?) Finally, someone who might get that lying, thieving Cheney into a courtroom to answer some direct questions.

=======================================================

HighVizPR note: I saw Alec Baldwin, a history buff an a very astute man, on Bill O'Reilly's show a couple of years ago (yes, I am married to MR. REPUBLICAN aka "Mr Potato Head") It was the first time that Alexander Baldwin, whose dad was a history teacher, called Veep Cheney "Dr. Strangelove" and said that Cheney was really running the country. Ah, so! Cheney is Prez, Rove is really Veep and Bush is FIGURINE -- figurehead. That makes sense. And there is a resemblance (pictured)!

Who is "Dr. Strangelove"? If you are a youngster, and have no idea what or who "Dr Strangelove, or how I stopped worrying and started to love the BOMB" (1964) is, I suggest you run to the nearest video store and pop in a DVD. GO RIGHT NOW!

###

VeeP headline of the month - only Michael Moore write a double-headline with such elan!

'Fahrenheit 9/11' Meets 'Bowling for Columbine'- Bad Aim, Good Target !!!

Good God! What if the man who was shot died? Would it be murder? Would it have been covered up like in a Nelson DeMille potboiler?

Am I just another paranoid blogger?

###

Kilroy--Jack-- wuz here! --AP: White House acknowledges Abramoff Photo but claiming they weren't friends

White House Acknowledges Abramoff Photo --WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House on Sunday acknowledged the authenticity of the first photograph made public that shows President Bush and embattled lobbyist Jack Abramoff, while stressing it does not mean the two had a personal relationship.The photo, published by The New York Times and Time magazine, shows Bush shaking hands with an Abramoff client, chairman Raul Garza of the Kickapoo Indian tribe in Texas. Abramoff's bearded face appears in the background, small and slightly blurry.

Spin---weave-- me a blanket, baby! (so un-politically-correct, but who cares?)

###

The Bush-Abramoff-Makateonenodua-Kickapoo Tribal PHOTO OP

Photo and article courtesy of TIME, Inc. SEE: TIME.com First Photo of Bush and Abramoff -- ((((( --watch for the picture of Jack A. in the background ; you can liken it to "Kilroy wuz here on OMAHA Beach"!))))) and by Chief Garza himself, on his website (((( Great TRIBAL PR, Chief! ---Say, I wonder if Saginaw Chippewa's Sub-Chief Bernie Sprauge or Missippi Choctaw's Chief Philip Martin have any jpegs or gifs lying around for posting on this blog >grin< )))))

RELATED: SEE: http://www.makateonenodua.com/ and more tribal PR surrounding the Kickapoo: http://www.makateonenodua.com/id13.html

###

Go, Brownie, Go! Tell them EVERYTHING you know! DEMS in 2008, doncha-know! GO GO GO!

SCOOBY SAYS -- ruh-oh!

AP: "I find it a little disingenuous," Brown, who at the time headed the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told a Senate oversight committee. "For them to claim that we didn't have awareness of it is just baloney."

Brown also told senators that decisions and policies by the parent Homeland Security Department doomed FEMA to "a path to failure" that led to the government's slow response to the storm. He said that because of a focus on terrorism, natural disasters "had become the stepchild of the Department of Homeland Security."

Ex-Fema Head Says White House Knew About Levees
By Edwin Chen, Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON -- The Bush Administration's bungled response to Hurricane Katrina came under fresh scrutiny today amid revelations during a Senate hearing that senior White House officials had learned of the disastrous flooding in New Orleans a day earlier than they have previously indicated.The testimony of Michael D. Brown, the ousted director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, raised questions about whether top White House aides had kept President Bush fully abreast of the fast-breaking catastrophe after a levee breached on Aug. 29, allowing the waters of the Gulf of Mexico to cover huge portions of New Orleans.

AND from DRUDGE OF SLUDGE:

--RETRACT-RETRACT-RETRACT

What say you, WHO Press Secretary McLellan??????? Mmmmm, busy man, that Scotty!
http://www.drudgereport.com/flash3wh.htm White House seeking a retraction from NYT: Bush was 'on vacation in Texas'Fri Feb 10 2006 09:46:25 ET--NEW YORK TIMES’ Eric Lipton today writes that President Bush was “on vacation in Texas” on August 30th but their own reporter filed a pool report that day from San Diego where POTUS giving a speech on the War on Terror and was visiting soldiers and families of the fallen. --Sources tell DRUDGE that the original story filed by Lipton did not contain the sentence about Bush being on vacation and that it was added by an editor. ---The White House is seeking a retraction. ---Developing...Pool Report #2 (from August 30, 2005) ---Chaos briefly reigned. After conducting an interview with the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service at a cargo plane hangar near the previous event, President Bush arrived at the Naval Medical Center San Diego on schedule, and proceded to the first event, a meeting with health care providers that was supposed to last a half hour and include a photo op at the bottom. Instead, moments after arrival, the pool was rushed to the door and told the photo op would take place immediately. Then, just as suddenly, it was canceled without explanation. Minutes later – about an hour ahead of schedule, and equally suddenly – the pool was rounded up and rushed back to the motorcade for departure. It is now 11:21 AM local time and we are heading toward the airport. More to come. Anne Kornblut END

Coretta Scott King funeral photo op for next Commander - in - Chief (you know who!)

Call my pretzel-twisted - logic really twisted, if you get my meaning. Okay, try this:

***The West Wing (television show) will soon be no more (in first runs), and all we will have is Commander in Chief about the first woman prez. While the show's creator Rod Lurie never did get the brittle Joan Allen, ("The Contender") , if he could only mold Geena Davis more like Joan, ah, more like....Madame Clinton in the next season, the show would be a hit, and Hillary could hit the campaign trail running with Bubba-the-hubby close behind!

***SEE: ABC News runs this piece, "President Clinton No. 2", which no doubt should/will/ tie into "Commander in Chief's"PR

(((((((Oh, I love this crazy political-show biz world, don't you? I should be repping Madame President! Yes, I am deluded, but I do so love my lexapro!)))))))

###

Tasteless blogging on the Coretta Scott King funeral

[Look at Laura's face when the Rev. Lowery (co-founder of SNCC) mentions that the WMD's are in the room, not in Iraq(!) Coretta was anti-war. She and Martin would have been proud.]

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Swift Boat DC negative PR still rules the day! - Eric Dezenhall tells us so!

[Well, I buy into it -- Eric Dezenhall ("Nail 'Em") is quoted extensively and I read it in VARIETY, so there! -- hmmmm, will the orig. swift boat p.r. smear folks hire lil' ol' me when I need my next gig?? I can work with a 527 -- hell, I worked for 'you~ know~ who'----]

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117937405?categoryid=18&cs=1&s=h&p=0

Variety 02-05-06
'Swift-boat' pros in demand in D.C. Spinmeisters go negative
By WILLIAM TRIPLETT

And soooooooooo------------------

If you can construct believable stories with enough truth in them to smear somebody royally, boy, is there a pot of gold waiting for you in D.C.

Spin doctors are nothing new in politics, but a certain type -- equal parts scriptwriter, opposition researcher and ruthless street fighter -- is increasingly in demand, and for good reason.

Just ask John Kerry, the former Democratic presidential candidate who became the target object of a new verb: "swift-boating."

The term comes from a 2004 television ad that undermined Kerry's status as a decorated Vietnam War hero, making less stark the contrast between him and George Bush, a self-proclaimed "wartime leader" who'd never heard a shot fired in anger.

White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove denied multiple reports of involvement with the Swift Boat campaign. But the hardball Republican operative Chris LaCivita was linked to it, along with multiple communications firms.

Records show that media consulting firm Stevens Reed Curcio & Potholm was paid $276,000 for the Swift Boat campaign, and Creative [Response] Concepts, a Virginia firm, was paid $165,000 for repping both the Swift vets and the conservative book company Regnery Publishing, which issued a tome about Kerry's military service, "Unfit for Command."

Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), another Vietnam combat veteran with medals for valor, recently denounced the war in Iraq and found himself promptly swift-boated as a coward.
"The fact is," says John Stauber, exec director of the Center for Media and Democracy, "going negative works."

Democrats and liberals have tried similar PR offensives, most recently against Supreme Court nominees John Roberts and Samuel Alito, but with far less success. Why? Because blue-state spinmeisters haven't yet mastered what their red-state counterparts obviously have.

"Modern communication isn't about truth, it's about a resonant narrative," says Eric Dezenhall, a former Reagan administration aide and now president of his own crisis management firm.

"The myth of PR is that you will educate and inform people. No. The public wants to be told in a story who to like and who to hate."

Already suspected by blue-collar America as an elite and effete New Englander, Kerry -- one of the handful of Ivy Leaguers who volunteered to go to Vietnam -- was red meat for the "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" ad that cast him as a Yale snot who'd come back from Vietnam to trash his largely working-class troops.

If that sounds audacious, it's because, as Dezenhall says, "We're living in an age of audacity," another fact GOP spinmeisters understand and exploit superbly.

"George Bush communicates in terms of audacity," Dezenhall says. Bush's response to questions about the wiretapping was to say that he's just trying to catch terrorists. Bold motivation, easily understood.

"Democrats communicate in terms of complexity," Dezenhall says, referring to their windy explications of a need to pursue enemies within the rule of law as spelled out in various court ... (snorrrrrrrrrrre).

Hence the lack of public outrage against a possible blatant violation of the Constitution, and the reason why Democrats, yet again, look like feckless pedants on national security.

There's no way to measure the money that's spent on political PR attacks, but Dezenhall estimates the market is at least "in the hundreds of millions."

Stauber adds, "There's a limitless amount of money to be made, because this kind of PR is a very significant tool in the modern political arsenal."

Many political strategists double as PR advisers primarily for advocacy outfits known as 527 groups, named after a section of Internal Revenue Service code defining them.

Prominent during the 2004 election were whizzes like Larry McCarthy (whose first big smear-score was the Willie Horton ad in 1988 against Dem candidate Michael Dukakis), Benjamin Ginsberg (a Bush attorney who resigned after being linked to anti-Kerry groups), Stanley Greenberg (Dem pollster who advised Kerry) and Bill Knapp (admeister for an advocacy group who also advised Kerry).

As a result, the lines between PR expert and political strategist have become blurred, says Mary Boyle, spokeswoman for the political reform group Common Cause.

Don't expect the lines to clear up anytime soon. According to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks campaign and lobbying spending, 527 groups alone spent more than $160 million on advertising and PR during the 2004 election year.

But as CRP spokesman Massie Ritsch notes, 527s also transfer millions of untracked dollars to related committees and groups that also fund political ads and PR.

Media analyst MAGNA Global predicts that total political ad spending for the 2006 national elections will hit a record high of just under $3 billion. Spinmeisters possessing modern PR's most important and essential skill -- "the capacity to tell a story," as Dezenhall says -- will rake in most of those bucks as the mud flies.

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SIDEBAR: from Presto Vivace, Alice Marshall's web log
Sunday, February 05, 2006

When blogs are a crucial part of Public Relations
When news organizations don’t let the facts get in the way of a good story. Crikey, trust me, issue a proper correction without delay. For complete information see Deborah Howell
2/05/2006 07:31:00 PM

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Sky News: In Great Britian, Doctors losing patience with fatties - banning joint surgery on morbidly obese - why not try the GOV Huckabee way?

HighViz PR's Abbe Buck: This is highly personal, folks. Right now I am sitting here, typing this blog, and when I stand up, I am on crutches. You see, I need a complete knee replacement of my left knee, with my right knee to follow soon after - but must lose another 30 lbs before I earn my first new body part! And I agree with my orthopedic surgeon on the need for weight loss. The surgery will not be effective on a fat person. I kicked all sugar and all flour --anything refined -- last November and have lost 54 lbs in 99 days sans exercise and diet pills (LOL!- exercise will follow with knees) --but am certainly not out of the woods yet. This will be a lifetime process, trust me on that- sugar and flour are AS ADDICTIVE if not more so as tobacco, alcohol or meth, period. I can never have them again.

As I also await surgery, I truly believe that this ban SHOULD also happen in the US - I think that the AMA should recommend it, hands-down. Most --(possibly ALL of us) fat people are ADDICTED to certain foods, and have to put them down in order to STAY ALIVE.

SEE: Obese Face Treatment Ban - (story below)

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The Governor Huckabee Way - how the US can model off of "Healthy Arkansas"
One prominent person who agrees with me, and who did not go the gastric surgery or "pill = hoodia" route is Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas. He believes, as I do, that sugar + flour are as combustible as gasoline mixed with water. He was a ticking time bomb, but sought help. Two years and a best-selling ("Quit digging your grave with a knife and fork") book later, he seeks to get the word out through the "Healthy Arkansas" initiative.

(((Hey, I am a publicist. I have already called the Gov's press secretary Alice Stewart*-- I think I can help Mike Huckabee right here in Washington, DC -- say, why not?)))

*Healthy Arkansas Restaurant Award Winners: http://www.arkansas.gov/governor/media/releases/press/02162006-1.html

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Obese Face Treatment Ban
Sky News - Updated: Friday February 03, 2006
http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,70131-13501964,00.html?f=rss

Almost 40% of doctors believe the obese, smokers and those who drink too much should be excluded from certain clinical treatments.

A poll found that 39% agreed that action taken by primary care trusts in Suffolk to bar obese people from joint surgery was justified.

The same proportion said such a policy should be widened to exclude smokers and excessive drinkers from certain clinical procedures.

The vast majority - 96% - said they would welcome an open debate on rationing in the NHS in order to clear up confusion about the subject.

The survey was carried out for the British Medical Association News.

Last year the Government's treatment watchdog said that patients could be denied treatment in some cases if lifestyle factors such as smoking or being obese made it ineffective.

Smokers could be hit, too

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) said doctors should avoid discriminating against patients with conditions that are, or may be, self-inflicted.

But their report said that if self-inflicted factors meant that drugs or treatment would be less clinically and cost-effective, this may need to be considered when producing advice for the NHS.
Around half of respondents in the BMA poll did not believe that treatment should be rationed for the obese, smokers or heavy drinkers.

Many of the doctors were aware of the difficult questions that rationing raised and the objections and concerns from the public.

Timothy Knight, a Warwickshire locum GP, said that rationing was a political matter.

"We can try to act as gatekeepers and point out what patients can realistically expect.

"But ultimately the person who says 'no' should be clearly representing the rationing authority - that is not the GP."

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Sky News

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Yeah, right, sure. The White House e-mail has no back-up. And the dog ate my son's homework -- again. Tell me more.

So, did the labarador get into the hard drive? WOOF WOOF! Could our precious pup be named KarlRover?

Fitzgerald Hints White House Records Lost

By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer Wed Feb 1, 9:28 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald is raising the possibility that records sought in the CIA leak investigation could be missing because of an e-mail archiving problem at the White House.

The prosecutor in the criminal case against Vice President Dick Cheney' s former chief of staff said in a Jan. 23 letter that not all e-mail was archived in 2003, the year the Bush administration exposed the identity of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame.

Lawyers for defendant I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby this week accused prosecutors of withholding evidence the Libby camp says it needs to mount a defense.

"We are aware of no evidence pertinent to the charges against defendant Libby which has been destroyed," Fitzgerald wrote in a letter to the defense team.

But the prosecutor added: "In an abundance of caution, we advise you that we have learned that not all e-mail of the Office of Vice President and the Executive Office of the President for certain time periods in 2003 was preserved through the normal archiving process on the White House computer system." His letter was an exhibit attached to Libby's demand for more information from the prosecution.

Lea Anne McBride, a spokeswoman for Cheney, said the vice president's office is cooperating fully with the investigation, and referred questions to Fitzgerald's office.

Libby is charged with five counts of perjury, obstruction and lying to the regarding how he learned of Plame's identity and what he did with the information.

The Presidential Records Act, passed by Congress in 1978, made it clear that records generated in the conduct of official duties did not belong to the president or vice president, but were the property of the government.

The National Archives takes custody of the records when the president leaves office.

"Bottom line: Accidents happen and there could be a benign explanation, but this is highly irregular and invites suspicion," said Steve Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists government secrecy project.

"A particular subset of records sought in a controversial prosecution have gone missing," Aftergood said. "I think what is needed is for the national archivist to ascertain what went wrong and how to ensure it won't happen again."

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E & P: Defense Joint Chiefs are correct - cartoon is tasteless drek

Joint Chiefs Send Rare Protest Letter to 'Wash Post' Over 'Reprehensible' Toles Cartoon

From Editor and Publisher:

The Toles cartoon shows a soldier, a quadruple amputee, in a hospital, being visited by a Dr. Rumsfeld who is scribbling on a form. Rumsfeld says, "I am listing your condition as battle hardened." At the bottom a smaller figure of the doctor adds, "I'm prescribing that you be stretched thin. We don't define that as torture."

The letter, signed by Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Admiral Edmund P. Giambastini, Jr., the vice-chairman, and the four other military branch leaders -- and addressed to the Post's managing editor, Philip Bennett -- reveals that they were "extremely disappointed" in the Toles cartoon. "Using the likeness of a service member who has lost his arms and legs in war as the central theme of a cartoon is beyond tasteless," they wrote. They observed that the paper is "obviously free to address any topic," even use exaggeration.

But they added: "While you or some of your readers may not agree with the war or its conduct, we believe you owe the men and women and their families who so selflessly serve our country the decency to not make light of their tremendous physical sacrifices."

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HERE WE GO AGAIN: leave it to Ann Coulter - she sardonically calls for the death of a Chief Justice

CNN/AP: Poison Justice Stevens, Coulter jokes

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (AP) -- Conservative commentator Ann Coulter, speaking at a traditionally black college, joked that Justice John Paul Stevens should be poisoned.

Coulter had told the Philander Smith College audience Thursday that more conservative justices were needed on the Supreme Court to change the current law on abortion.

Stevens is one of the court's most liberal members.

"We need somebody to put rat poisoning in Justice Stevens' creme brulee," Coulter said. "That's just a joke, for you in the media."

Coulter has made a career of writing and lecturing on her strongly conservative views.

At one point during her address, which was part of a lecture series, some audience members booed when she cut off two questioners. "I'm not going to be lectured to," Coulter told one man in a raised voice.

She drew more boos when she said the crack cocaine problem "has pretty much gone away."

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press.

======================

Now, THINK! If this were a liberal (Harry Belafonte) calling for change (Bush OUT -- Bush a DEMOGAGUE! DHS is the new GESTAPO! Springtime for Rumsfeld!) what would the crazed 24 x 7 truth-shredding-soap-opera-reeking media-ever do?

Not this -- only americabloggers and "tin foil-hatters" do this, am I right?

That woman is mentally ill. Yet groups still have her as speaker.Anon 01.27.06 - 3:28 pm #

What kind of college brings her in as a speaker? And a black college, to boot???WTF were they thinking?lisa 01.27.06 - 3:28 pm #

http://www.dailycampus.com/ media...dailycampus.com My mistake, her usual fee is 30k...bumpkis 01.27.06 - 3:29 pm #

Perhaps someone should ask the FBI about this death threat.I think threatening a Federal Judge is a crime. If they won't investigate, it might be nice to know why not.infraredman 01.27.06 - 3:29 pm #

900 lb Gorilla, Could you please hold off with the negativity until next Wednesday?mo2 01.27.06 - 3:30 pm #

She's just jealous of all the air time Pumpkinhead and Exeter are getting. "Me! Me! Look at me!! I'm a bigoted, crazy, scum-sucker too!"Diogenes 01.27.06 - 3:30 pm #

Can't help noticing that the CNN story characterized Coulter's comments as a "joke." Now, naturally Coulter will say this, but why should CNN? What, pray tell, about her comment was funny?Jason 01.27.06 - 3:30 pm #

The college campus here refused to admin Coulter to speak on the grounds that she is bigoted and racist....woot Wisconsin.DKarma Homepage 01.27.06
- 3:30 pm #

The fact that she is a living, breathing human being demonstrates that not enough abortions have been performed.Anonymous 01.27.06
- 3:31 pm #

S/he also posted the address and phone number of (forget her name now) an actress that wrote a critical blog about her. It was on Bradblog. Ann's retaliation was to expose this actress' personal residence and phone number on the internet. That poor gal was harrassed too. Ann is vindictive. She's mean. She's spiteful. She's all things hateful and evil. Shaking_the_Tree 01.27.06 - 3:32 pm #

I think the law is one of those "airplane" laws where a joke isn't a defense.I'd like to see her before a magistrate and explain how funny it is. Pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Section 115, anyone who "threatens to assault, kidnap, or murder . . . a United States judge . . . with intent to impede, intimidate, or interfere with" that judge's duties is guilty of a felony. Future Fed Homepage 01.27.06 - 3:32 pm #

From CNN article:"Coulter has made a career of writing and lecturing on her strongly conservative views."Uh, this BITCH does NOT represent conservative views. This SEXLESS THING is a SICK ------!! In fact, I can't remember a time in America where this ---- would be tolerated, oh,oh,oh wait, we're there right now:

If you consider yourself a true conservative, please email Ann here anncoulter@aol.com (this is HER personal email) along with CNN's staff and ask them if they think a suggestion of poisoning someone (yes, that means killing someone (you) Christian and violates your 10 Commandments) is a strong conservative view?

CNN/Cable News Network Vice President Kim Bondy
(404) 827-1500 - (404) 827-1099
kim.bondy@turner.com

====

and 44 members of CNN management-------[deleted]

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K Street Blues: The Chinaman is not the issue!

K Street Blues: The Chinaman is not the issue!

Prez Bush [hates] Helen Thomas, SEZ DRUDGEREPORT

"Pick me, Mr. President, Pick me!"

BUSH SNUBS HELEN THOMAS [AGAIN]Thu Jan 26 2006 15:42:32 2006 President Bush today again avoided taking a question from White House doyenne Helen Thomas during his 45-minute press conference, even though he took questions from every reporter around her front-row, center seat." He's a coward," Thomas said afterward. "He's supposed to be this macho guy. He'll take on Osama bin Laden, but he won't take me on." Thomas, who worked as the UPI White House reporter for 57 years and is now a columnist, raised her hand every time the president was concluding an answer to a reporter's question, but he never called on her. Thomas, who worked as the UPI White House reporter for 57 years and is now a columnist, raised her hand every time the president was concluding an answer to a reporter's question, but he never called on her. She had a few questions in mind, though. "I wanted to ask about Iraq: 'You said you didn't go in for oil or for Israel or for WMDs. so why did you go in?' " She also had another question at the ready, just in case, this one about the president's contention that a 28-year-old wiretapping law known as FISA is out of date, which prompted him to order the National Security Agency to conduct a secret electronic surveillance program that Democrats contend is illegal. "You keep saying it's a 1978 law, but the Constitution 200 years old. Is that out of date, too?" Afterward, Thomas sat sullenly in her chair in the White House press work area, huddled in her leopard-print winter coat. But as she left, she made a prediction: "He came on to my turf. I'll bet the next press conference will be in Room 450 of the EEOB," a theater-style room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, where she would not be in the front row.Developing...

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