| WIKI | FAQ | Tech FAQ | |
 http://csua.com/feed/ | |
| ||||||
| 7/11 |
| 2005/3/10 [Politics/Domestic/California, Politics/Domestic/SocialSecurity] UID:36612 Activity:very high |
3/9 Sun Tzu's Art of Winning Election, Liberal Edition:
- If you want to protest on the streets WEAR NICER CLOTHES for
heaven's sake. Door-to-door salesmen and businessmen don't wear
tie-dye shirts and jeans to persuade people. Neither should you.
- Don't show conservatives how pissed off you are. Sun Tzu in The
Art of War says to never show your emotions.
\_ Perhaps Republicans are just more polite.
http://www.slate.com/id/2108561
\_ Very well. In that case, if you're a rude liberal, FAKE IT
- Listen to Sun Tzu. Trick your enemies by feigning incompetence
when you're strong. If you want to exterminate your enemies, you
don't announce how you're gonna do it. You agree with them, party
with them, drink with them, and when they're drunk and asleep in
victory, kill them and their families when they least suspect it.
\_ I'd keep their hot daughters.
\_ Is their a site with "republicans we'd fuck"? I mean beyond
the Bush twins and Coulter, both of which, well, yuck.
\_ http://www.rilf.com
- Attack conservative views aggressively, but with sensitivity.
The more nasty names you call your foes, the more likely they'll
disagree with your views (examples: idiots, Red necks, hicks).
- Get a clear, simple & maybe stupid message this time, just make
sure to stick to it. To some [sad] extent, it's not what you say,
but how you say it.
- Support liberal views early. Not 1 year before the election,
not 1 month. NOW.
- Talk about tolerance and the history of Civil Liberty EXCEPT
in predominantly white/Red states because they hate "Nigers"
\_ I disagree with this. Even in the South, most people are
in favor of equal rights these days. Don't make this
the focus when talking to uneducated whites, obviously.
\_ In Mississippi and Tennesee, blacks and whites still don't hang
out together.
\_ You're an idiot.
\_ Have you been there? I have.
\_ Not only have I been, but my gf is from
Mississippi. You're an idiot. Yes, they are more
backward than, say, NYC but your comments are
insulting.
\_ If your gf from a different race? Why did she
leave Mississippi?
- Tie in liberal views with family values. Just because you
support gays and lesbians doesn't mean you must support drugs,
rave parties, and swingers.
- Do what your enemies do, and do it better. For example, work less,
try to enjoy life more, and for heaven's sake PRODUCE MORE KIDS.
You're more than welcome to add to the list, and God Bless Liberals.
\_ Improve visual presentations better. The power of persistence and
suggestion is great. Fox pioneered the flashing Red/White/Blue logo,
so should liberal media. For example when you talk about gays &
lesbians, flash those colors around.
\_ Stop buying at Walmart and Dell! They write big checks to RNC.
Check http://buyblue.org.
\_ Low prices at Walmart are good for low-income consumers which
are more likely liberals.
\_ I agree but look at long term implications.
- Stress your patriotism. Talk about your military service, if you
have it, support the troops even if you don't. Sing along with the
national anthem at football games. Let everyone know that you
love your country, even if it is flawed. Dissent is not unpatriotic. |
| 7/11 |
|
| www.slate.com/id/2108561 Political Poseur Pretending to be a Republican in Blue California. As a political and journalistic experiment, I decided to see how people w ho live in primarily one-party areas would react when faced with a livin g, breathing member of the opposition. I appointed myself an ambassador to bridge the Red-Blue divide and ventured into each side's territory dr essed in the T-shirt, campaign button, and tote bag of the other. I treated each foray as a run-of-the-mill busy dayvisiting malls, stores, restaurants, coffee shops, and parks. I simply lived an active consumer's life while dres sed in a great big Bush or Kerry T-shirt. I avoided any specifically pol itical place, such as campaign headquarters, and any venue where politic s would likely be discussed, such as churches or bookstores. The idea wa s not to see how people would deal with overt opposition but how the mer e existence of a political opponent would be tolerated. And so, campaign logo on my chest, and no small amount of mortal terror in my heart, I s allied forth to see if political freedom would pass the T-shirt test in our two Americas, Red and Blue. I first visit Newport Beach, Orange County's last bastion of weal thy white country-club Republicans (population, 70,032; I then travel to Bakersfield, the heart of California's agricultural Ce ntral Valley two hours northeast of Los Angeles (population 247,057; To give you a sense of the lion's den I was entering: In 2000, Bakersfield voted 608 percent Republican versus 41 percent statewide. In my Kerry-Edwards shirt, I enter Red America certain that I am on the v erge of inciting to rage a gang of angry yachtsmen who would soon be str apping me and my lefty leisurewear to their mizzenmast. Instead, I encou nter only shades of indifferencehead shaking, "crazy idiot" expressions from older, very wealthy, very white folks in Newport Beach; terse nods from the middle- to working-class citizens of Bakersfield, which seem t o indicate that people here have much bigger things to worry about than whatever is on my stupid T-shirt. In Bakersfield, surprisingly, there's little indication that we are near the eve of an election: I see a total of two campaign bumper stickers, one for Bush and one Kerry, and one el derly lady with a huge Bush button pinned to the jacket of her pantsuit. Despite a recent visit from Dick Cheney, presidential politics seems to have bypassed Bakersfield, and the locals are not about to let a mere T -shirt drag them into the muck. Toward the end of the day, I find one person on whom the election has a d eep hold. Strolling past a sunglasses booth in the mall, I am spotted by a tall and exceedingly thin man in his early 20s, with a buzz cut that makes him look ominously like a shock-therapy patient. As I walk by, he fixates on my shirt and begins to follow me, seemingly mesmerized by the power of my Kerry-Edwards logo. I look back and see him trailing behind me, mouth agape, his eyes glued to my back. Whether the shirt identifie s me as his leader or whether it is his Manchurian Candidate-like signal to kill, I can't tell. I duck into the mall's Starbucks and the spell s eems to break; In Bush-Cheney garb In Bush-Cheney garb Blue In Los Angeles' gentrifying-as-fast-as-we-can Hipstervillaka the Silverl ake/Los Feliz area on the city's eastsidethere are more coffeehouses an d alternative bookstores than churches. Here, aging, unemployed bohemian s with long, matted hair, tinted sunglasses, and affectedly dour express ions skulk along the midafternoon streets as though they have just rolle d out of bed. button, I first stop at Silverlake's ber-cafe, the Coffee Table. "The Table," a s it is known, is the daytime HQ for the area's writing communitythe be d-headed brigades of aspiring indie auteurs who hunch over their laptops , whispering pitches back and forth like state secrets. my T-shirt first makes contact with the locals as the server , a rather prim-looking Asian-American man, double-takes at my unabashed ly partisan display, his smile freezing into a look I can only describe as bracing for me to pull out an assault weapon and open fire. I order, pay, and walk with my Diet Coke through the restaurant, taking a seat on the patio that puts me and my garb on prominent display for the 20 or s o patrons. A wave of distressed glances ripples in my direction, but I r emain unmolested. On e of them, untucked shirt hanging over his jeans, gapes at my shirt and mutters, "Asshole," only slightly under his breath. Next up: Caf Tropical, the gritty Cuban coffee house in old Silverlake. I park my Bush-Cheney festooned car behind a Volvo station wagon decorat ed with a bumper sticker that reads, "Ban war without end. I order an iced espresso and sit beneath a collage of Che Guevara p hotos. Customers accessorize their coffees at the condiment station in f ront of me. Suddenly I look up to see Latino man, who appears to be in h is early 40s, rushing toward me, an enormous grin on his face. Peopl e standing nearby watch our summit with anguished there-goes-the-neighbo rhood expressions. As my new friend leaves, he stands at the front door and, raising his fist, yells, "Viva Bush!" Spasms of horror seize the st ore and pulse out to the community beyond. a two-block stretch of Sunset Blv d filled with boutiques peddling vintage 1970s lunch boxes, summer-camp T-shirts, and baby-doll dresses for grown women. So steeped are its den izens in the culture of irony that almost everyone thinks my shirt is a hilarious joke. As I browse through the Vice magazine store, a pair of g irls giggles at me. One of them comments, "I've never seen that one befo re." A 40ish man dressed in cargo shorts, flamboyant sunglasses, and a L ance Armstrong bracelet sees my shirt and bursts out laughing. Then, as I walk into a wacky gi ft shop, I hear a shriek. The woman behind the counter throws up her han ds in mock horror, "Oh no! she cackles, fei gning horror at my hilarious costume, as if humoring a child on Hallowee n On Vermont Avenue, irony fades into gentrification. A fashionably dressed woman seated at a sidewalk table makes a disgusted face at the sight of me. On line at Psychobabble coffee house, another woman in a blue velou r tracksuit rolls her eyes and grimaces at me with undisguised hatred. R ealizing there are no seats but the one next to me, she stares intently into her cup, avoiding my polluting glance, until another table opens an d she quickly relocates. Out on the avenue once again, I am gifted with my second "Asshole" of the day, this time muttered by a young man with b right dyed raspberry hair. The next day, I head to Brentwood, the lush epicenter of modern limousine liberalism and the hillside home of left-leaning Hollywood. This is whe re activists like Norman Lear and Laurie David live; a few months in res idence here and Arianna Huffington dropped Newt Gingrich like a hot tama le to become a paragon of "progressive" politics. I enter the faux-rustic Brentwood Country Mart, a collection of shops int ended to look like an olde-time barnyard. On the central patio, I pass a woman who looks up from her gaggle of children to see me passing and ex claims, "Ick! A group of teen skater boys waiting on line to buy t he Mart's famed "Chicken Basket" discuss whether Bush will be removed fr om office by the time they turn 18, thus saving them from the draft. Dining nearby is a young girl who looks to be about 6-ye ars-old; she gazes at my shirt with a look so forlorn, I expect to learn that Dick Cheney just stole her crayons. The girl starts to talk, but I can only make ou t "Bush shirt," which she says to her mother as she points my way. I start to wonder what s ort of person I am to inflict this on a poor child. Up in the San Vicente shopping area, things go even less smoothly. At the Coral Tree Organic Caf, a willowy, bookish woman seated a lone glares at me from across the room. When I smile and wave to her, sh e puts on her sunglasses. Driving home, I rip off my Bush-Cheney shirt so I can walk the streets of my neighborhood unjeered at and without terrifying little children. Ref lecting on the sting of being called "asshole" during m... |
| www.rilf.com This page requires frames. |
| buyblue.org You may have voted blue, but every day you unknowingly help dump millions of dollars into the conservative war chest. By purchasing products and services from companies that donate heavily to conservatives, we have be en compromising our own interests as liberals and progressives. org is a concerted effort to lift the veil of corporate patronage , so consumers can make informed buying decisions that coincide with the ir principles. Currently, we are developing an extensive and interactive website where u sers will be able to monitor corporate activity in real time. we need an army of Blue buyers to be the eyes and ears of this movement. All we have to do is put our money where our mouth is to make it profitable to be ethical. Our collective buying power WILL make a difference, and we WILL be heard. Weekly News Updates So, it is that time again - here is my weekly installment of what is new and what's news. There are some new companies which have recently been p osted that I wanted to make everyone aware of. This is mentioned in the FAQ section but it deserves to be mentioned agai n -Buying Blue is more than a political statement. I realize that because so far, the only research compiled is political contributions, many people feel that buying blue is about supp orting democrats. The reality is that buying blue is about supporting pr ogressive, ethical business practices that enhances the quality of life -including living wages and responsible environmental standards. When al l the research comes in, we'll have a better idea of who is really blue and who will fall futher in a deep... Comments Wall Street Is On the Make for Social Security Funds In 1953 Congress adopted a policy of ending Federal social services to In dian tribes, terminating the Bureau of Indian Affairs and all of the pro grams that went with it. Ter minations stated purpose was to encourage self-sufficiency. The polic y divided tribal property among the tribes members, thereby subjecting them to taxation. Approximately 2,500,000 acres of trust lands were remo ved from protected status and the lands were sold to non-Indians. Termin ation, of course, was transparently self-interested theft. And with that historical perspective, its clear that Wall Street is on the make for Social Security funds. The simple fact is that t he GOP agenda caters to corporations and the richest people in the count ry. It will take a little time before we warm the hearts of our fellow A mericans who are wealthy enough to be in that top tax bracket, but we ca n win over the corporations. Let's prove that our business is more valuable than cheap labor and lo ose environmental restrictions and tax cuts. RNC Holds 6 Times More Cash Than Dems Republican National Committee Has ... Comments Corporate-Political Cronyism at its Worst I wanted to bring to everyone's attention two little news items that may or may not have escaped your attention during the past week or two. One of the things that becomes crystal clear after digging in and doing the kind of research we do is just how intertwined government and corporatio ns are. The ar ticle cites "The state is paying an estimated $43 million annually for h ealth care insurance to cover workers at the top 25 major employers, led by Wal-Mart, officials said Thursday." Comments (22) Updates and Additions I don't have much I want to cover in this post other than to let everyone know about some of the new companies which have recently been posted. W e have about 600 companies/brands posted right now and we are shooting f or 1000 by April. So that is all for me for the moment, what's on your mind? Comments An Open Discussion: The Other Ratings A large part of our mission here at BuyBlue is to paint a comprehensive p icture of corporate activity and to do that we have to move past politic al donations. We started with political donations because they make for a good barometer (there are of course exceptions) and the methodology is simple and straightforward. Internally we have been discussing the othe r ratings, but I wanted to open up the discussion to everyone. Car Insurance is one of the necessities in life and it is also something vitally important for those unfortunate times when you might actually ne ed it. Progressive Insurance may not be right for everyone, but wed str ongly encourage you to check them out and see if they meet your needs. I f they do meet your needs we invite you to participate in this campaign with us. Comments Buy Blue Testimonials Every day we get many emails from people thanking us for the service we a re providing and explaining what they have personally done to change the ir buying habits. I personally think that reading testimonials really he lps you to stand fast and drive on because you know that you aren't alon e We are looking at ways to do this for the next version of our web sit e, but for the time being I wanted to share one of the letters (with per mission of course) that one of our readers sent. I'd encourage you to re ad it and post your own stories about how you have changed your buying h abits. The more that people see they aren't alone, the easier this becom es. Comments (33) Pressure on Chocolate Manufacturers The chocolate boycott that Sen. Tom Harkin proposed for Valentines Day, was a huge favor to ask from our ultra-chocoholic society. LaborBlog: The business lobby always says the minimum wage hurts its bottom-line, and Outback Steakhouse set out to pr ove this maxim by spending hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying aga inst benefits for low-income workers. we re lower than comparable periods a year earlier, at least partly because the corporation spent $870,000 fighting a minimum wage increase in Flor ida and health care benefits for low-wage workers in California. Comments Server Migration Complete If you are reading this then that means you are viewing the website on ou r new server. As of this evening we have officially changed hosting prov iders and we are now on a dedicated server which is more capable of hand ling our traffic and allowing us to grow. Comments Our Next Campaign Valentine's Day has come and gone so it is time to move on to new and dif ferent things. We'll keep the Valentine's Day campaign online for people to view at their leisure but for the next month or so we'll be focusing on something new. This isn't an announcement of the new campaign, I'm writing today primari ly to pique everyone's curiosity and interest. The campaign will be incr edibly easy to act upon, powerful and we'll make the announcement next w eek. According to Labor Blog, they have settled with the Labor Department for an absurdly small amount of money some problems they had with child labor in a few states. Oh, and t hat was after the Labor Dept gave them 15 days notice that inspections w ould be forthcoming. This just after Walmart has spent a few million buc ks on an ad campaign with the message, "We're not evil! |