Gould,
What was Kerry doing when he said "W stands for wrong", in reference to
Bush? Is it possible he was relying on a sound bite to swing the undecided
voters?
When Kerry said "He's cut the VA (Veterans Administration) budget and not
kept faith with veterans across this country. And one of the first
definitions of patriotism is keeping faith with those who wore the uniform
of our country." The truth is Bush voted for a 25% increase in those who
are eligible for veterans health care and in the first three years of his
presidency, funding for the Veterans Administration increased 27%. When you
include Bush's 2005 recommended budget, funding for his full four-year term
will amount to an increase of 37.6%. Kerry came up with the "sound bite"
because Bush did not vote for as large of an increase and the democrats
proposed. So is it possible that Kerry is guilty of the exact same thing
that gets your panties in a wad? Is Kerry using slogan, rumor, insult, and
easily
remembered but out-of-context sound bytes to attract that portion of the
electorate that is more numerous, but less mentally adept."
When Kerry's supporters said that "George Bush wants to eliminate overtime
pay for 8 million workers," referring to new overtime rules that the
Department of Labor has proposed. The 8-million figure comes from a study by
the labor-funded Economic Policy Institute. The same EPI concedes that many
low-income workers would be gaining the right to overtime pay. Under the
proposed rules any employee making less than $425 per week would be eligible
for overtime benefits, up from the present level of $155, a figure that
hasn't been changed since 1975. In its study , published in June 2003, EPI
said that change "is sorely needed."
The ad misquotes the study, however. What the study actually says is that an
estimated 8 million would lose the legal right to premium overtime rates
should they work more than 40 hours per week. It does not say they would
actually lose pay as the ad says. In fact, the 8-million figure is inflated
by many part-time workers who never get overtime work, or overtime pay, even
though they now have the right to it.
The proposal would change the rules for determining when white-collar
workers can be classified by their employers as exempt from overtime pay for
extra hours. The proposed rule changes are extensive, covering executive
employees who can hire and fire others, administrative employees in a
"position of responsibility", so-called "Learned Professional Employees" who
have "knowledge of an advanced type," creative professionals, outside sales
workers and certain computer workers such as systems analysts or software
engineers. (None of these groups look very much like the blue-collar factory
hand in the Moveon.org ad, by the way.)
Is it possible that the Kerry supporters used the ad of a blue collar worker
punching a time card to appeal to an unfounded fear of blue collar workers,
who are too lazy to look up the facts?
Is it possible that this ad below "...relies on slogan, rumor, insult, and
easily
remembered but out-of-context sound bytes to attract that portion of the
electorate that is more numerous, but less mentally adept."
http://www.bushin30seconds.org/view/2472_large.shtml
Is it possible that you are blinded when Kerry supporters are doing the
exact same thing you accuse Bush supporters of doing? Or are you distorting
the truth and relying on slogans, rumors insults and easily remembers sound
bytes to attract that portion of the electorate that are less mentally
adept?
"Gould 0738" wrote in message
...
Gould,
Your memory must be fading. This conversation started when you said:
" Kerry's supporters publish well documented, thoroughly researched items
like the one
you posted-" "Meanwhile, the right wing relies on slogan, rumor, insult,
and easily
remembered but out-of-context sound bytes to attract that portion of the
electorate that is more numerous, but less mentally adept."
And that's true.
The Republicans are trolling for votes among the least educated, most
easily
confused, least circumspect portions of the population. I don't see where
I
said these mental midgets were Republicans, only that the Republican
campaign
attempts to appeal to that element.
Example:
Take the claim that Kerry voted to increase taxes 350 times, or whatever.
You
will hear
the sheeple repeating that as if it had a shred of truth. In fact, the
republican spin machine counted a large number of Kerry's
votes to *decrease* taxes in the "voted to increase" category! The pseudo
logic
was that although Kerry was voting to decrease taxes, some Republican
introduced a bill to decrease them even more- so if the bill Kerry voted
for
had passed the tax bill wouldn't be lowered as much as it was when the
more
aggressive tax cut passed- therefore "increasing" (?!) taxes.
Maybe that's how college graduates think in your neck of the woods. We
hold
them to a higher standard out west.
A campaign tactic such as that outlined above won't appeal to people
unless
those folks are inclined to rely on slogan, rumor, insult, and easily
remembered out-of-context sound bytes.