They've gone too far, and must be stopped ...
Friends:
- One of the central themes of Lakoff's approach to framing is to take the initiative.
- A key insight from (academic) social construction is that all knowledge claims are made, and not discovered.
- One of the recurring hopes on November 3rd was that the Republicans would over-reach, and learn that pride goeth before a fall.
It's time to pull these strands together, and the White House briefing scandal provides the catalyst.
We don't wait for them to over-reach, we declare that they have already over-reached, and must be opposed.
More -
This Administration has given an unqualified, openly partisan pseudo reporter access to the White House newsroom, and shown unprecedented deference to him by playing along with his assumed name. How were such breaches of security and professional protocol tolerated in the "People's House"? Further allegations that Mr. Guckert/Gannon is a pornmaster who leaked highly sensitive information demand explanation. The dirty tricks and secrecy of this Administration have gone too far, and must be stopped.
This Administration promoted to the post of Secretary of State a woman who, while a Director of Chevron, had an oil tanker named after her. The world might be excused for thinking that American foreign policy now steers overtly toward the benefit of big oil rather than the interests of people intent on democratic self-determination. This Administration's transparent obsession with power has gone too far, and must be stopped.
When this Administration proposed expanding the war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda to include an attack on the dictator Saddam Hussein in Iraq, many succumbed to the martial assurances that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction were a threat that could not be ignored. Other millions around the world objected, urging care, knowing fools rush in where angels fear to tread. Two years on, with tens of thousands of combatants and innocents dead and maimed, with all the big weapons on the battlefield our own, with one election concluded that was plagued by intimidation and "irregularities", with widespread civil war a very real possibility, and with the Secretary of State rattling sabers at Iran, the arrogance and bullying of this Administration have gone too far, and must be stopped.
This Administration has transformed the President's personal lawyer into the nation's chief law enforcement officer, without any evidence that he knows who the new clients are. This man advised using torture methods against our adversaries that violate international law and standards of decency, and contradict the FBI's experience in how to extract effective information in interrogations. Previously, this man was a legal advisor to the Enron corporation, a Texas-size petri dish for scandal and malfeasance. This Administration's hypocrisy, amorality, and disregard for the law have gone too far, and must be stopped.
This Administration proposes to overturn nearly seventy years of Social Security, one of the most successful government programs ever, for the benefit of its friends on Wall Street. It wasn't enough to give the richest Americans trillions of dollars in tax cuts, Republicans now want to take away from retirees, widows, orphans, and the disabled their small guarantee of dignity. The greed and recklessness of this Administration have gone too far, and must be stopped.
This Administration is headed by an aristocratic fourth-generation New England Yalie who cleverly affects a moralistic hay seed populism. Yet his Administration causes serious, thoughtful people to look long and hard at what his policies mean for the country. In the last week alone, New Yorker reporter Seymour Hersh, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, and environmental attorney Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., have all warned of the "fascist" characteristics latent or apparent in the Bush Presidency. This is not a word to bandy about lightly. In their view, the Bush Administration's contempt for the American people has gone too far, and must be stopped.