Friday, October 1, 2004

Politics, Sleaze & Karl Rove FEATURED ARTICLES - It Was a Rout, by William Rivers Pitt,  t r u t h o u t  Perspective - Carter Fears Florida Vote Trouble, BBC - Politics and Sleaze Envelope Orlando, lndependent/UK - Bush Adviser Rove Has Ties to Swift Boat Donor Perry, Bloomberg - BOTTOM LINE - Karl Rove In A Corner, The Atlantic Monthly QUOTE OF THE DAY "Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day." - - Theodore Roosevelt  (April 1906) KNOW YOUR HISTORY - October 1st 1997 -- Kosovo: 100,000 demonstrate in Pristina, the capital (occupied by Serbia), for civil rights for the majority ethnic Albanian population. MOVIE TIP: On Friday, an exciting new movie hits theaters. Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry is a beautiful and inspiring portrait of John Kerry & Vietnam, but it's bigger than that: it's a gripping, powerful film about how our country wrestles with war. It's vivid without being confrontational -- a political movie you can bring your Republican uncle to -- and it's received great reviews from some of the nation's top film critics. Check out the trailer online at:  http://www.goingupriver.com/trailer_main.html If you live near a theater where the film opens this weekend, bring your friends & family Friday night. Find out where the film is playing in your state at: http://www.goingupriver.com/john_kerry_theater_list.html RHINO HERE: John Kerry stood firm last night in the 1st of 3 debates, making The Rhino feel like he really wants to vote FOR the Senator, not just against the shrub.  He was in every way, Presidential, while dubya  kept complaining how hard the work of a president is. Bush was on the defensive  most of the time & well he should be. As Senator Kerry reminded viewers,  "This president has made, I regret to say, a colossal error of judgment. And judgment is what we look for in the president of the United States of America." It Was a Rout By William Rivers Pitt, t r u t h o u t  Perspective, 01 October 2004 This was supposed to be the debate that played to the strengths of Bush and his administration. Foreign policy in general and the protection of the United States from terrorism in particular, according to all the polls and every talking head within earshot, are the areas where George supposedly commands the high ground. That illusion came crashing down on the stage in Coral Gables.  How else can one describe the demeanor and behavior of Bush, as seen by 40,000,000 television viewers... MORE AT: http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/100204Z.shtml John Kerry's excellent performance last night will no doubt be met in coming days by fierce spin from team dubya & the tri-letter airwave renters. Let them say what they will. Rhino sez, "Senator John Kerry kicked some Texas carpetbagger ass." While we can take some comfort that  our man in this race has weathered well, the mud slung at him thus far, we must also be vigilant, remembering who we're dealing with. Today's RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE, as well as the entire blog entry, looks at  the dirty dealings of the shrub's chief political strategist, Karl Rove.  From the unethical & unpatriotic trashing of war veterans John McCain, Max Cleland & John Kerry, to the 2000 coup like theft of the Florida & therefore U.S., Presidential election,  Karl Rove has manipulated the thoughts of American voters with unapologetic lies &  innuendo. Like the Wizard working from behind the curtain, it amazes The Rhino how many die hard Republicans in the American heartland have never even heard of the man who's been so influential in sending thousands of American boys & girls round the world to kill & die for democracy (read oil & power). Yes Karl Rove is the ultimate Chicken Hawk, a man who never served in the military, yet will cause others to do so for the profits of his campaign donors. Rhino sez, "Read it, weep, then go out & convince a Republican that this time round, voting Republican is not voting for Republican ideals." Lest anyone forget who the Chicken Hawks are, none of the following pro-war shrub supporters ever served in the military: Karl Rove, Dennis Hastert, Tom Delay, House Whip Roy Blunt, Bill Frist, Rudy Giuliani, George Pataki, Mitch McConnell, Rick Santorum, Trent Lott, Dick Cheney, John Ashcroft, Jeb Bush, Saxby Chambliss, Paul Wolfowitz, Vin Weber, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, Eliot Abrams, Richard Shelby, Jon Kyl, Tim Hutchison, Christopher Cox, Newt Gingrich, Phil Gramm, JC Watts, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Michael Savage, George Will, Paul Gigot, Bill Bennett, Pat Buchanan, Bill Kristol, Kenneth Star, Michael Medved, Ann Coulter. Carter Fears Florida Vote Trouble BBC, September 27, 2004 Voting arrangements in Florida do not meet "basic international requirements" and could undermine the US election, former US President Jimmy Carter says.  He said a repeat of the irregularities of the much-disputed 2000 election - which gave President George W Bush the narrowest of wins - "seems likely".  Mr Carter, a veteran observer of polls worldwide, also accused Florida's top election official of "bias"... MORE:  http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0927-03.htm Politics and Sleaze Envelope Orlando As the presidential campaign approaches its showdown, the Republicans in the state run by George Bush's brother are up to their tricks again. by Andrew Gumbel, lndependent/UK , September 27, 2004 In Orlando, the Florida home of Disneyworld and a vital political battleground, the campaign for the November presidential election is getting sly, nasty and very, very personal. Normally, at this stage of the proceedings, Ezzie Thomas, a well-known character on the predominantly African-American west side of town, would be out chatting to the people, registering them to vote before the 4 October deadline and helping them with absentee ballots if they do not think they will have time to make it to the polls on election day. But the 73-year-old Mr Thomas, an affable ladies' man, is staying out of public view for fear of exacerbating what is already a highly controversial - and highly political - criminal investigation of his election-related activities.  A similarly low profile is being taken by Steve Clelland, the head of the local firefighters' union. Last week, he did not even dare attend a local appearance by John Kerry, the candidate he is supporting for President, in case it added to the legal troubles facing his own organization. The firefighters are also subject to a criminal investigation, the chief allegation - for which no evidence has been produced - being that they colluded with City Hall to set up an illegal slush fund for political campaigning. What makes the troubles facing the two men particularly sinister is that they are declared Kerry supporters, with the power to bring in hundreds if not thousands of votes for the Democratic Party. The investigations are being conducted by the state police, known as the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), which reports directly to Governor Jeb Bush, brother of President George Bush. The Republicans, naturally, deny the investigations are politically motivated. But even they acknowledge that a chill has spread through Orlando's overwhelmingly Democratic black voting community after a flurry of unannounced visits by armed state police to at least 52 homes whose mostly elderly residents had signed up for an absentee ballot with Mr Thomas's help... MORE: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0927-01.htm   Bush Adviser Rove Has Ties to Swift Boat Donor Perry Bloomberg, Sept. 24 , 2004 In 1994, when George W. Bush first ran for governor of Texas, Karl Rove was one of his chief strategists. Rove's friend, Houston homebuilder Bob Perry, contributed $26,100, campaign records show. Perry, 71, has been the largest single donor to Republicans in Texas since 1998, contributing $5.4 million, records show.  Rove and Perry have worked together -- Rove as a strategist, Perry as a moneyman -- for 26 years on more than 15 Republican campaigns, starting with Bill Clements's successful bid in 1978 to become the first Republican governor of Texas since the Reconstruction era after the U.S. Civil War.  Today, Perry and Rove are working to get Bush elected to a second term as president.  Rove, 53, is a senior adviser to Bush, who has raised $260.6 million as of Aug. 31 for his re-election campaign against U.S. Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts. Federal filings show Perry gave $200,000 to help start Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group that says it has no ties to Bush, while paying for advertisements attacking Kerry, 60.  Under U.S. law, independent groups that buy advertising to affect federal elections can't coordinate with official campaigns... MORE: Rove 7:52:11 AM    comment

RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE - Karl Rove In A Corner "SEND THIS ARTICLE TO A REPUBLICAN!" Karl Rove In A Corner by Joshua Green, The Atlantic Monthly, November 2004 It is the close races that establish the reputations of great political strategists, and few have ever been closer than the 2000 presidential election. From the tumult of the lengthy recount, the absentee-ballot dispute, the charges of voter fraud, and, ultimately, the Supreme Court decision, George W. Bush emerged victorious by a margin of 537 votes in Florida-enough to elevate him to the presidency, and his chief strategist, Karl Rove, to the status of legend. But the 2000 election was not Rove's closest race. That had come earlier, and serves as a greater testament to his skill. In 1994 a group called the Business Council of Alabama appealed to Rove to help run a slate of Republican candidates for the state supreme court. This would not have seemed a plum assignment to most consultants. No Republican had been elected to that court in more than a century. But the council was hopeful, in large part because Rove had faced precisely this scenario in Texas several years before, and had managed to get elected, in rapid succession, a Republican chief justice and a number of associate justices, and was well on his way to turning an all-Democratic court all Republican. Rove took the job... MORE: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200411/green?ca=DjP2fGCLpDGl/QIGq7m2KU6Dpd6agYkNqGvROmVfl48= Rhino's Blog is the responsibility of Gary Rhine. Feedback & requests to be added or deleted from the list are encouraged. (rhino@kifaru.com) Search the Rhino's Blog Archives, The Daily Rhino Photo, and lots of links at  (http://www.rhinosblog.info) Rhino's Other Web Sites: http://www.dreamcatchers.org  (Indigenous Assistance & Intercultural Dialog) http://www.kifaru.com  (Native American Relations Video Documentaries) Articles are reprinted under Fair Use Doctrine of international copyright law. http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html All copyrights belong to original publisher. Tell a friend about Rhino's Blog 6:30:19 AM    comment

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