Stop Trying to Boycott Oil Companies for God's Sake

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Thursday July 27, 2006 · 11:43 AM PDT

2006/07/27 · 11:43

I'm at work, so I have to keep this short. But I wanted to make a point regarding what, in my view, is a persistent liberal gaffe when it comes to the Big Oil debate.

Everybody saw today's story on Exxon's slammin' new profits. I got an email from a liberal colleague asserting we should be angry about it. Another liberal colleague replied that we should all just shut up unless we were willing to boycott the purchase of gasoline, period.

More on noble idiocy, after the flip. Read More

Brand Wars Episode III: The Return of the Liberal

thechrisjean

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Saturday July 08, 2006 · 4:30 PM PDT

2006/07/08 · 16:30

This is the third and final entry to my three-part diary on political branding.

The first installment explained, at least in my view, how the Wingnuts tore down the liberal brand by marketing the myth of the dangerous ultra-liberal. Left unopposed for so many years, this myth has come to include not only anything un-conservative but also most things rational and thoughtful.

The second installment explained, at least in my view, how the Wingnuts, for all their armor, still have vulnerabilities that can be challenged - chief of which is the fact that their ideas are religious in nature (not practical, as ideas ought to be) and that their primary concern is to continue destroying the liberal brand (not problem solve anything).

After the flip, the third and final installment of Brand Wars, detailing what problem-solving liberals can do to play David to the Wingnut Goliath. Read More

Brand Wars Episode II: A New Hope

thechrisjean

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Monday July 03, 2006 · 11:45 AM PDT

2006/07/03 · 11:45

Yesterday, in Episode I of this diary, I made an argument about brand strategy: that Wingnuts have captured our national discourse by constructing a myth that all progressives are dangerous "Ultra-Liberals."

I argued that this tactic, promulgated by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, took and continues to take advantage of a general progressive stupor when it comes to brand strategy.

And I argued that this Right-Wing Brand Strategy (RBS), despite its overwhelming strength, includes a few critical flaws that progressives can target in order to get themselves off perpetual life-support.

Those flaws explored, after the flip. Read More

Brand Wars Episode I: The Phantom Wingnut

thechrisjean

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Sunday July 02, 2006 · 6:07 PM PDT

2006/07/02 · 18:07

In my profession, creating brands (and maintaining them) is a daily practice. And for a long time, I've been interested in how the Wingnut movement has employed brand strategy in politics in order to take control of our country.

This is the first chapter in a trilogy of diaries on progressive brand strategy. I hope that my insights are of some value, and if so, that somebody who can do something about the Democratic Party's branding crisis happens upon them.

After the flip, Episode I: The Phantom Wingnut. Read More

Hey Hillary, burn THIS flag

thechrisjean

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Sunday June 25, 2006 · 1:45 PM PDT

2006/06/25 · 13:45

In 1989 in was in the 8th grade. In English class, we were debating the flag burning issue, and even back then we were sharply divided between those who wanted to ban flag burning for moral and patriotic reasons (such as myself), and those who wanted to protect it as a form of free speech and right to protest.

At the time, I was all but a card-carrying member of the Young Republicans, feeling strongly that Regean had protected us from nuclear demise and that George H. W. Bush would continue to do the same.

I felt strongly that people who burned the American flag were intruding on sacred territory, crossing a line that figuratively spat in the faces of military veterans like my grandfather (who was a POW in WWII). As a result, I felt that people should not be permitted to burn the American flag, period.

Before the year was out, I changed my mind. Here's how... Read More

The New Liberalism [Kos is right]

thechrisjean

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Saturday June 24, 2006 · 12:43 PM PDT

2006/06/24 · 12:43

I have a lot of friends and family who are Bush partisans. Some are wingnut extremists, others are old-school Teddy Roosevelt conservatives who have lost their way, having been seduced by the terrorist-obsessed Christo-fascist noise machine.

In fact, a LOT of them are Teddy Roosevelt conservatives. And in that context, I don't think "conservative" is something the average American need fear.

What I find striking is how much these people have IN COMMON with my progressive friends and me. But for some reason we can't get on the same page. My frustration with the Democrats has been: why can't they engage these people? Sure, they have many conservative values, but some conservative values are also progressive values.

Kos is right: the Democratic Party needs a facelift, and his theory of the "Libertarian Democrat," I think, is spot on. Read More

Iraqsturbation

thechrisjean

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Friday June 23, 2006 · 2:56 PM PDT

2006/06/23 · 14:56

What is Iraqsturbation?

Iraqsturbation is the term we may use to describe a Bush Administration tactic: the consistent regurgitation of utter and absolute nonsense, with blatant disregard for human life, suffering, honor or reason, in order to justify the invasion and continued occupation of Iraq by the United States of America.

Iraqsturbation goes something like this:

*Liberals are cut-and-run softies on national defense
*Liberals sympathize with the terrorists
*Liberals can't protect you

Iraqsturbation infects, engages and confuses into submission much of the public psyche simply by repeating itself, over and over again, at the loudest volume possible... but there isn't any evidence to support it. In fact, Iraqsturbation itself is the REAL cut-and-run strategy.

Iraqsturbation makes me mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore. Here's my, plan... I'm hoping you will join me. Read More

Dear Mr. Specter

thechrisjean

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Thursday May 18, 2006 · 12:22 PM PDT

2006/05/18 · 12:22

Dear Mr. Specter,

I just read a story on CNN.com which made me feel shame to be a Pennsylvanian. The story, which caused me to tumble in shock from the bench on which I sat, detailed your stunt today with regards to a committe vote banning gay marriage, and your subsequent lack of respect for a fellow servant of the United States constitution, Russ Feingold. "Good riddance," I believe, was the language you used when Feingold called you on your pandering and removed himself from your sad, sycophantic presence.

In case you're wondering, I am a white, heterosexual, thirty year old anglo-saxon, raised in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, confirmed in the downtown Moravian church (where I received my spiritual upbringing, and which pre-dates the American Republic) and, as of today, am ashamed that you continue to represent the great state of Pennsylvania in the United States senate.
Read More

Please Relaunch Democrats.org

thechrisjean

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Thursday April 13, 2006 · 10:00 AM PDT

2006/04/13 · 10:00

Have you guys been to www.democrats.org lately? This site is a mess, and it isn't helping us effectively market the Democratic Party. Dean and the DNC need to re-launch this puppy, ASAP.

Ten ways to make democrats.org a killer website, after the jump. Read More

An Independent's Plea

thechrisjean

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Friday March 17, 2006 · 2:14 PM PST

2006/03/17 · 14:14

I am an Independent and a progressive. And I'm mad as hell at the Democratic party (well, most of it).

I'm writing to you today in the hope that you can find the time to call your Democratic senators and tell them to shake off their political stupor and start showing some support for Russ Feingold. I live in California, called both Boxer and Feinstein and said, basically, "if you don't support Russ on the censure, then you lose my vote next time around." That may not be what the Dems want to hear, but it's how I feel. It doesn't mean I'm going to vote conservative, but it means I'm going to stay home... and DRINK :)

Here's why... Read More

Are YOU a Christ_ian?

thechrisjean

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Tuesday March 14, 2006 · 10:11 AM PST

2006/03/14 · 10:11

"Are YOU a Christian?"

This was asked of me, of all places, in a job interview! But before you get too angry on my behalf, I should mention that I was the employer, interviewing somebody else for a job [right after the 2004 election] and it was she that asked the question of me, not the other way around. I declined to answer, and simply replied "at my company, that sort of thing doesn't matter."

She proceeded to, in that crafty Wingnut fashion, sort of poke fun at my "inferior secular values." Needless to say, I don't think she really wanted the job, and it made me wonder... do the so-called "Conservative Christians" deploy people on purpose to pull these kinds of stunts? This is CALIFORNIA, for God's sake!

I don't know about you, but I'm so fucking tired of blowhard Conservative "Christians" making dubious assertions about my secular personal beliefs that I'm ready to EXPLODE. So here's what I have to say to all of them: if this is the way you're going to behave, then you aren't Christians at all.... and I'm calling your bluff, fools. Read More

Why I Do Not Respect George W. Bush

thechrisjean

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Monday March 06, 2006 · 9:45 AM PST

2006/03/06 · 09:45

Every day of my life, I find myself struggling to understand why people want George W. Bush to be their leader.

In order to get to the bottom of this, I spend a great deal of time talking to and debating issues with folks who adore him. But instead of building a greater understanding of the man's appeal, I'm usually left with a hallow, empty feeling in my stomach, the result of nearly every debate or discussion ending with somebody telling me that there's something "wrong with my values" and that I just "don't get it."

My personal values aside (perhaps a discussion for a future diary), as a small business owner there is something I DO get: effective administration is the result of quality leadership and quality management. It's not about whether or not people like you, it's about whether or not they respect you. I do not respect George W. Bush, and here's why:

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