…progressives learn from political strategist George Lakoff and unite behind a permanent publicity drive to reframe the language of US politics.

…American politics will only be healed when sane people take back the Republican Party:

“In a very real sense, the health of our democracy may hinge on the conscience of Republican moderates. Only they can keep their party from being hijacked by crony capitalists and gay-and-feminist-bashing evangelicals. If they stand by and let Cheney reinterpret the free market as a playground for corporations who need not worry about competitive bidding or honest accounting, if they let the fiscal conservatism that was once the hallmark of their party be drowned in red ink, if they stand by and watch the Patriot Act be used to squelch dissent, if they let neoconservative advisers hand our foreign policy over to a militarized corporate elite, then there will be no stopping the continued descent of American politics into the slough of megalomania.”

…Sojourners, is running an ad in big papers with the headline “God is Not a Republican. Or a Democrat.”

…has posited another possible Oct. Surprise. He thinks there just might be a pre-election strike on Iran.

…that the Bushies “want no debate. They want no facts, no analysis. They want to denounce and to demonize the enemies that the Hannitys, Limbaughs, and Savages of talk radio assure them are everywhere at work destroying their great and noble country.”

…six months ago that the politicos’ attempt to instill “the image of Decisive, Steadfast Bushâ„¢ as the nation’s last line of defense against untameable chaos” was already in trouble:

“…Instead of being saved for the closing kick of the election campaign, the War on Terrorâ„¢ theme and Decisive, Steadfast Bushâ„¢ persona have had to be trotted out one time after another — to the point where they begin to be no longer comforting, but stale. In fact, as they have metamorphosed through Dubya’s personal neuroses into repeated claims of being a ‘war president,’ he seems increasingly less like Winston Churchill and more like Captain Queeg.”

If anything, this process has accelerated.

…to believe ex-KVI scandalmonger Mike Siegel is, or ever had been, a “liberal radio talk-show host.”

…a handy briefing on “voter fraud for dummies.”

…it’s about time, no matter what happens on 11/2, for a “new confession of Christ” in the U.S. His proposed affirmations include:

“1. Christ knows no national boundaries nor national preferences. The body of Christ in an international one, and the allegiance of Christians to the church must always supercede their national identities. Christianity has always been uneasy with empire, and American empire is no exception.2. Christ pronounces, at least, a presumption against war. The words of Jesus stand as a virtual roadblock to any nation’s pretension to easily rationalize and religiously sanctify the preference for war. Jesus’ instruction to be ‘peacemakers’ leads either to nonviolent alternatives to war or, at least, a rigorous application of the church principles of ‘just war.’ The threat of terrorism does not overturn Christian ethics.

3. Christ commands us to not only see the splinter in our adversary’s eye but also the beams in our own. To name the face of evil in the brutality of terrorist attacks is good theology, but to say ‘they are evil and we are good’ is bad theology which can lead to dangerous foreign policy. Self-reflection should provide no excuses for terrorist violence, but it is crucial to defeating the terrorists’ agenda.

4. Christ instructs us to love our enemies, which does not mean a submission to their hostile agendas or domination, but does mean treating them as human beings also created in the image of God and respecting their human rights as adversaries and even as prisoners.

5. Christ calls us to confession and humility, which does not allow us to say that if persons and nations are not in support of all of our policies, they must be ‘with the evil-doers.’

The words of Jesus are either authoritative for us, or they are not. They are not set aside by the very real threats of terrorism. They do not easily lend themselves to the missions of nation states that would usurp the prerogatives of God.”

…in the LA Times (free registration required) against “Bush’s Empty Rhetoric on Democracy”:

“Bush and his supporters act as if anti-Americanism is simply the necessary and worthwhile price we pay for our principled advocacy of freedom everywhere. The truth is that anti-Americanism has prevented us from consistently advocating democracy throughout the world. And the inconstancy of our belief in democracy — which the citizens of pro-American dictatorships everywhere have noticed and exploited — makes anti-Americanism all the worse. There may be a way out of this dilemma, but preaching the universality of democracy and practicing otherwise is surely not it.”

Of course, this is hardly the first administration to play power-politics under the guise of “promoting democracy.” The story of the Cold War era is awash with the names of brutal despots and murderous regimes who invoked the sacred mantle of anti-Communism, and received oodles of US support in return.

It’s probably not “our freedom” that anti-American troublemakers loathe, but something else.

…the Republicans might be due for a reckoning and rebuilding era similar to that of the post-Carter Democrats.

…a list of Republicans endorsing Kerry and a somewhat shorter list of Democrats for Bush.

…to have been the trainer of the wolfpack used in the latest anti-Kerry smear ad. He also claims he was deceitfully hired, by guys who claimed to be from Greenpeace. Read a ltitle about it at WolfpacksforTruth.org.

…The World According to Bush, which aired last week on CBC, is now viewable online.

…”The Republicans are out to steal the 2004 election — before, during, and after Election Day.”