If we can change the mind of one in a hundred voters over the next four years, we can win in 2008. They did not win in a blowout! It feels bad. It is bad. However, we only need to learn a few lessons to win next time.

We need better target marketing and more variety of marketing mechanisms. We need some more universally appealing themes. I have some specific ideas on the marketing techniques but think it would be wise to not share them with the world (which includes Republicans) at this point.

On the message issue, I advocate a mix of class warfare with economic nationalism. We need to define our policies as supporting the middle class, the somewhat affluent and the poor against the super wealthy. I advocate creating a higher tax rate for incomes over $1 million annually and middle class income tax breaks. I believe we should eliminate the ceiling on payroll taxes and make everyone pay on all their income but at a lower rate than currently. The super wealthy should pay the same percentage on their total incomes as all Americans!

We need to oppose economic globalization policies that are not in the interest of middle class Americans. Outsourced jobs should mean no access to the American market for that company and group of companies if that applies. Free trade with third world countries that lower the general standard of living for American workers should cease. Immigration rates should be tied to unemployment rates. We should stop accepting the idea that globalization is the result of market forces. Globalization is more the result of policy decisions as market forces. We need to tie the Bush Republicans to globalization.

Democrats should say that they are being un-patriotic in not protecting American jobs and the American standard of living. We should say they support global money more than they support American values! We should state that it is immoral to vote in the interest of the large international corporations instead of America's poor and working people.

We should drive home the point that Republican health care policies put American companies at a big disadvantage in competing with foreign companies and outsourcing in the marketplace. Republican policies put the health care cost on individual American companies instead of the government. All our foreign trading partners have the government pick up the cost of health care.

We should point out that the Republicans are stating their policy CHOICES in favor of international corporations are inevitable. We should respond that globalization is only inevitable if you vote in Republicans that make it so with their policy choices.

We need to re-define the public debate like http://www.democratictalkradio.com/cgi-bin/UltraBoard/UltraBoard.cgi?action=Read&BID=1&TID=8493&SID=338

And Stolen Election thread at DTR (Democratic Talk Radio) message board http://66.39.111.188/cgi-bin/UltraBoard/UltraBoard.cgi?action=Read&BID=1&TID=8500&SID=338 

August 2, 2004
Democratic Talk Radio
7A Planville Drive
Fayetteville, Tennessee 37334

Dear Supporter,

We need your financial help to keep the Democratic Talk Radio project going. Our efforts for almost 4 years have largely been paid for out of my personal funds. I am out of funds and need your help.

My financial contributions and the ever-growing time demands of our effort have forced me to put my house on the market.

We need you to either mail us a check for whatever you can afford or to go to the Donation Center button at http://www.DemocraticTalkRadio.com/store.html and make a Pay Pal donation. Anyone wishing to hold fundraising events for Democratic Talk Radio should email either Al Lawrence or myself (Stephen Crockett) via our website http://www.DemocraticTalkRadio.com.

Your help will help us keep going. We need to buy more radio broadcast time. We want to continue writing and distributing our Democratic Voices opinion column. We have some overdue advertising and printing bills to pay.

Can we count on your help?

Sincerely,
Stephen Crockett
Co-host, Democratic Talk Radio
http://www.DemocraticTalkRadio.com

With the Corporate Media focused on the PR event of the Republican National Convention in New York City, voters would be better served by looking at the actions and policies of the Wal-Mart Corporation to see Republican values at work in the American economy and how voters are impacted as workers, consumers and taxpayers. Republican policies are the same as those of the Wal-Mart Corporation’s when it comes to economics issues.

Few Americans realize how closely aligned the economics interests of the Wal-Mart top management and the Bush Republicans truly are when it comes to government policy. Wal-Mart is probably the largest single economic engine driving manufacturing jobs out of the United States to third world nations like China, India and Mexico. (China’s legal minimum hourly wage is 31 cents and many Wal-Mart suppliers pay less.) They long ago abandoned their “Buy American” slogan in their drive to lower prices regardless of the economic impact on the American nation. It is the belief of these writers that the politically costly embrace of the Bush White House to the outsourcing of American manufacturing jobs can be traced in part to Wal-Mart’s activities in the political arena.

Wal-Mart operates the largest company PAC (Political Action Committee) in the nation. In the past 2 years, they donated $1.3 million in political donations. A total of 81 percent went to Republicans. This percentage was the strongest Republican tilt of any of the top 25 Corporate PAC’s! Additionally, there were huge donations of campaign cash by top Wal-Mart executives, stockholders and suppliers to Republicans.

Wal-Mart pays some of the lowest wages in the retail sector. Kerry wants to raise the minimum wage to $7 from the current $5.15. The increase would require Wal-Mart to move towards paying their employees a more reasonable wage. We do not find the Bush Republicans to be strong supporters of increasing the minimum wage. Wages and household income have actually been declining under this Bush Administration for huge numbers of Americans. The minimum wage has not been keeping up with inflation for decades! Outsourcing and low wages are both Republican and Wal-Mart policies.

Health care policies are another example of their mutually distorted priorities that are hurting the American nation. Wal-Mart covers less than half the company’s workers in their health care program. The program is not very comprehensive and is very expensive to the individual employee. Taxpayers are often picking up the bill for these uninsured or underinsured Wal-Mart workers because the show up in emergency rooms without the ability to pay the emergency care bills. This health care issue contributes to rising health care costs for all consumers and other employers who do provide good employee health care benefits! A recent PBS program on Wal-Mart had an elected official in California revealing that Wal-Mart workers use 40 percent more in taxpayer provided government services than employees of other similar businesses.

Kerry believes in using the private sector with governmental assistance to help solve the uninsured American health care crisis. Kerry’s health care proposal would encourage employers to provide comprehensive health care coverage with government financial help in providing funding for catastrophic health care costs. The current Wal-Mart health care coverage is so poor that it is unlikely that the government catastrophic assistance would kick in unless Wal-Mart upgraded their program. Wal-Mart seems to like the Bush Administration approach to the uninsured American health care crisis, which is to ignore it. Letting the working poor suffer and die is not a workable policy for these writers or most Americans. (See http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/182915_costco21.html for many of the details above.)

Wal-Mart’s purchasing policies contribute to our exploding trade deficit. These deficits undermine our long-term national security and economic health. The Bush Administration has no policy for addressing these deficits any more than they have for addressing the national debt.

The Bush Administration has cut the overtime pay for working supervisors and many other Americans. These policies have financially benefited Wal-Mart and hurt already poorly paid Wal-Mart workers. Wal-Mart has been repeatedly sued for not paying overtime pay when required by law. The financial loss to workers has been estimated in the hundreds of millions or more.

The Bush Administration has made it increasingly difficult for workers to unionize. Wal-Mart is rabidly anti-union. Most labor leaders in America would cite Wal-Mart as the most anti-labor union large company in America. Kerry would make it easier for Wal-Mart workers to seek union protection.

Here are a few more Wal-Mart numbers of interest. The current CEO Lee Scott has received an average pay of $23 million between 2000 and 2003. This was up from the previous CEO David Glass average pay of $4.5 million between 1995 and 2000. Under Bush, the rich get much richer while household incomes have declined 3 years in a row.

The average annual cost of a 200 worker Wal-Mart store to taxpayers has been estimated by Stan Cox in “Wal-Mart By The Numbers” at $420,750 in school lunches, food stamps, health care, housing, etc. (See http://news.notonthebox.com/anmviewer.asp?a=516&z=27 for more on the details above and more)

Voters need to ignore PR spin, smears and 30 second emotional TV ads. We need to look at economic policies and their impact. We need to vote on facts and numbers. Look at Wal-Mart to see the Bush policies in action before you select your candidate. If you want Wal-Mart top management priorities as government policy, Bush is your man. If not, Kerry is your best alternative in November!

Written by Stephen Crockett and Al Lawrence (hosts of Democratic Talk Radio http://www.DemocraticTalkRadio.com), 7A Planville Dr, Fayetteville, TN 37334.Phone 443-421-0287. Run as Guest Editorial, Letter to Editor or Democratic voices column.

I have been thinking about writing an editorial on Wal-Mart for several months. Rarely does a personal experience as a consumer get me to write so much as a complaint letter. This commentary is the exception. I just tried to exchange a defective pair of black leather tennis shoes to my local Wal-Mart and had the store manager (Mr. Patel at the Fayetteville, Tennessee store) try to blame the defect on me. He refused to make the exchange after telling me that they personally inspect every shoe. Somebody obviously missed the pair I bought. I got angry over his implication that I was conning Wal-Mart for a pair of shoes and the time I wasted. It was not the lost money.

I am only out about $30, tax and all, which is certainly no big deal. It was the first time I had ever tried to exchange anything I ever bought. Like most men, I have a garage full of purchases that should have been exchanged. However, for most men, admitting to a store clerk that we made a bad-purchasing decision is sort of like asking for directions when lost driving. It just almost never happens. If the shoes had not been blatantly defective, I would still own them. I bought 20 pairs of the same type of shoe from Wal-Mart over the past 6 or 7 years. Men are creatures of habit.

While wasting around an hour at the customer service counter, I started thinking about all those abused customers of Corporate chain stores all over America that are stuck with bad purchases of largely imported, low quality merchandise in dollar amount to low to take to court. Most do not have talk radio shows or widely published newspaper columns to vent their frustrations. All they can do is boycott the store like I am doing to Wal-Mart from this day forward.

It takes the collective action of hundreds of thousands of consumers to really hurt Corporate giants like Wal-Mart. I never liked Wal-Mart’s anti-union attitudes clear back to the good ole days of Sam Walton. Sam was nice to his customers but really hated unions. I limited my purchases somewhat as a result but still bought some things because of convenience.

I, also, limited my purchases there because Wal-Mart hurts many local businesses when it moves into a community. You can almost see the slow death of small town commercial centers, as one family-owned store after another goes out of business once Wal-Mart moves into town. The boarded up stores in small towns all over the South are testimony to the commercial power of Wal-Mart. This experience is spreading nationally as Wal-Mart expands geographically and into the grocery business.

In the Sam Walton days, the damage of this retailing giant’s expansion was lessened by some company policies. Wal-Mart hired many local people and that partially offset the loss of jobs by local family-owned retailers. The jobs did not pay well and did not have the best of benefits, but they were still jobs. Now, Wal-Mart has started installing self-checkout counters instead of hiring enough employees to provide quick service. They are not alone in taking this approach to cost cutting.

I urge everyone to stop by the customer service of any giant Corporate retailer from Wal-Mart to Home Depot to file complaints about them using self-checkout counters instead of hiring enough workers. Threaten to take your business elsewhere. Ask the employees for complaint forms.

We have lost far to many jobs to Corporate purchasing decisions to stock cheap, poor quality imported merchandise instead of buying American made goods! Just in the less than 4 years of the George W. Bush’s Administration, we have lost existing jobs and failed to create new jobs (in order to keep up with natural population growth) to the tune of a 7 million job shortfall! While the rich get richer, the rest of us struggle trying to get by. Millions of Americans have been forced out of the job market entirely (living on family or welfare). Millions of Americans are living at the very edges of our society and the number is growing. This is the result of Corporate decisions and government policy influenced or controlled by Corporate political and economic power.

The advertising hook that first made me become a Wal-Mart customer was their highly promoted “BUY AMERICAN” commitment. Finding American made merchandise in Wal-Mart and other Corporate retail chains has become a real challenge for customers.

I remember when Wal-Mart had a policy of opening more checkout counters when a certain specific number of customers were waiting in line. They do not seem to care how long the customer waits now if they can hire fewer workers based on my personal experience. Wal-Mart was once known for treating their customers well (if not exactly doing the same with their employees despite their advertising claims.)

In my opinion, the customers and employees both need to stage a little public revolt against the top Corporate management. The workers need to unionize. The customers need to complain loudly and vote with their wallets. There are other stores (especially locally owned, family businesses) where you can get quality goods and personal service. I intend on spending my money in those places.

If getting burnt on a $30 pair of shoes finally gets me to do the right thing as a customer and a writer, it was worth it. As I drop them in the trash, I am smiling. See ya later, Wal-Mart!!!!

Here is some good numbers on the cost to taxpayers of a Wal-Mart store: "Wal-Mart By The Numbers," http://news.notonthebox.com/anmviewer.asp?a=516&z=27. This link shows Wal-Mart Republican bias and the wage differences between Wal-Mart and Costco: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/182915_costco21.html.

Written by Stephen Crockett (co-host of Democratic Talk Radio http://www.DemocraticTalkRadio.com). Mail: 7A Planville Drive, Fayetteville, Tennessee 37334. Phone: 931-438-1500 or 443-421-0287. Feel free to run as Letter to Editor, Op Ed, Guest Editorial- or to post on your website or blog.

The Republican Congressional candidate in Tennessee’s 8th Congressional District, James L. Hart is likely the most blatantly racist Republican political figure since David Duke. Tennessee Republicans are even inclined to denounce his “favored races” view of civilization. His views are very close to those of Hitler in the opinion of most Americans.

His candidacy is showing publicly what Southern Democrats have always known about racial politics in the South. The rise of Bush Republicanism in the South is largely based on white racism. Racism is the key to getting poor, working class and middle class white voters to vote for a Republican Party that advances a political agenda that directly goes against their own economic interests. The Republicans gained power in the South by white racists leaving the Democratic Party in droves to join the Republicans. They are still there!

The brilliant Chairman of the Tennessee Democratic Party Randy Button has called on the Republican Party leaders at all levels to condemn and renounce the candidacy of James L. Hart (see http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_53820.asp), “State Democrats Call On GOP To Denounce Racist Candidate”). The Republican grassroots organization Team GOP General Chairman Jeff Ward used Button’s statement as a excuse to attack Chairman Button instead of following his good advice. The attack shows just how dangerous the Hart candidacy is for the Republicans in the key swing state of Tennessee this year.

Republicans need the racist vote to carry Tennessee. His views are not that uncommon among the local Republican leadership in many counties in the state. They have to at least mildly condemn Hart to keep their moderate voters. They cannot condemn Hart with the vigor his view require without losing their white racist base. The voters of Tennessee will not let the Republicans have it both ways.

These writers think every member of every Republican County Executive Committee should be required to sign a letter to be printed in their county newspaper denouncing Hart, his views and his candidacy. The Tennessee Republican Party should do the same. Any Republican Party leader at any level who refuses to sign these letters should be expelled from their Party office. If the Republican Party is unwilling to take these actions, the voters of Tennessee should vote out of office every Republican officeholder in the state.

Written by Stephen Crockett and Al Lawrence (hosts of Democratic Talk Radio http://www.DemocraticTalkRadio.com). Mail: 7A Planville Drive, Fayetteville, Tennessee 37334. Phone: 931-438-1500 or 443-421-0287. Feel free to publish as Letter To The Editor, Op Ed, Guest Editorial or Democratic Voices column. Feel free to post on your website or blog.

Recently, the Associated Press ran a story that was widely published in newspapers and on the Internet titled, “Bush Leads Kerry In Electoral Votes” that could have been written by the Bush campaign. The assignment of states to candidates, the headline and the conclusions were all simply wrong. The Associated Press should print a retraction and work to see that it is widely published.

In the story, they stated that 14 states and DC were either solidly behind Kerry or leaning to Kerry. These states give Kerry 193 electoral votes. The leaning states were Maine, Minnesota and Washington with a total of 25 electoral votes.

They assigned 25 states to Bush with a total of 217 electoral votes. These states included 7 that leaned Bush. These were Missouri, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, Colorado, Louisiana and Arizona for a total of 73 electoral votes.

This AP story listed 11 states as toss-ups. These states were Florida, Ohio, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Wisconsin, Michigan, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Oregon with 128 electoral votes.

The story basically posed the question, “can Kerry catch up with the Bush lead?” Actually, there is no Bush lead. Here is why these writers make this statement.

Tennessee has been assigned as a solid Bush state in the AP story. The most recent polls in Tennessee have the state tied. Zogby has the race at 48 percent for both candidates. The most recent Mason-Dixon poll had Bush ahead by only a single percentage point. Tennessee should be added to the toss-up states. No state is as closely contested as Tennessee. The trend is Democratic! These electoral votes must be removed from the Bush total.

The latest Pennsylvania polls have Kerry up by 5 to10 percentage points. The Kerry lead does not indicate a toss-up state. It is likely a solid Kerry state and definitely at least leans Kerry. Using the AP methodology, Pennsylvania’s electoral votes should definitely be added to the Kerry total. The article suggested that might soon happen but should have reassigned the state in the story since this change alone drastically changes the analysis, the headline and conclusion!

Oregon and Ohio are actually leaning Kerry and are not toss-ups unless you are a Republican campaign strategist. Almost every recent poll gives Kerry leads in these states.

Using their numbers, the solid Bush states (even including the faulty assignment of Tennessee) have only 144 electoral votes. The solid Kerry states (even without adding Pennsylvania) give Kerry 168 electoral votes.

The Associated Press owes the American people an apology for this sloppy story that gives a distorted view of the current Presidential race. Kerry has a definite advantage at this point in the campaign in terms of the Electoral College!

Written by Stephen Crockett and Al Lawrence (hosts of Democratic Talk Radio http://www.DemocraticTalkRadio.com. Mail: 7A Planville Drive, Fayetteville, TN 37334. Phone: 931-438-1500 or 443-421-0287. Feel free to run as Democratic Voices column, Letter to Editor, OpEd or guest editorial.

The details and media reaction to missing government record concerning former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger and Resident George W. Bush is very important. Sandy Berger made some notes on the efforts of the Clinton Administration and accidentally removed COPIES of some documents on the subject. No original documents are missing and no facts are being hidden from public view by Berger’s actions. Berger screwed-up but there is no cover-up! Bush’s military records have been found to be conveniently and permanently destroyed.

Right Wing Talk Radio, Fox News and Republican politicians have been spinning the Berger incident as some kind of Clinton cover-up. The facts make their arguments bad jokes on the voting public. Taking copies of documents and leaving the originals are not cover-up behavior. The timing of the leak about the Justice Department investigation certainly looks fishy. The 9-11 Investigative Commission report is due to be released this week. Creating a non-issue controversy to distract voters from the failures of the Bush Administration seems to be a standard operating practice for the Bush Republicans.

Leaking information about this Justice Department investigation looks likely to be a violation of US law as well as a dirty political tactic. Congress should be investigating the leak along with the FBI and Justice Department. The White House might be involved in this leak like they appear to be concerning the Novak-Traitorgate scandal where Ambassador Wilson’s active CIA agent wife had her identity illegally revealed. The Novak-Traitorgate scandal did involve serious national security damage unlike the current Berger non-scandal.

The missing Bush military records that disappeared are all originals. Destroying these records did prevent the American public from knowing the facts surrounding Bush’s military service. The missing documents seem to be only those surrounding the years when Bush may or may not have been serving in the National Guard. Anyone interested in those missing documents should read this article in the Lahontan Valley News, “Lies Deception, Cover-up; The Bush Legacy” by Glen McAdoo http://www.lahontanvalleynews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040719/Opinion/107190007.

The missing Bush Military records should have been a bigger story than the Berger documents story. The Corporate Media has not given this scandal the attention it deserves. These documents have been destroyed and facts remain hidden.

Written by Stephen Crockett and Al Lawrence (hosts of Democratic Talk Radio http://www.DemocraticTalkRadio.com). Please run as a Letter to the Editor, guest editorial or Democratic Voices column. Phone: 931-438-1500 or 443-421-0287. Mail: 7A Planville Drive, Fayetteville, TN 37334.

Cheney’s use of the nasty F-word (see http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/062604J.shtml) reflects some very deep problems in the values systems of many national leaders in the Republican Party. This value system problems was demonstrated this week regarding the sex scandal swirling around Illinois Republican Senate candidate Jack Ryan before his resignation.

Cheney used an obscenity toward Senator Patrick Leahy publicly in the U.S. Senate. Leahy has been very critical toward Halliburton's war profiteering in Iraq and the White House role in steering “no-bid” contracts to this company that Cheney headed just before assuming the Vice Presidency.

Cheney’s tenure as head of Halliburton was marred by many serious allegations including accounting irregularities similar to Enron’s, foreign Halliburton entities trading with Saddam Hussein in violation of the UN embargo and paying hundreds of millions in bribes to Nigerian officials to secure contracts in violation of US law. Despite this litany of wrong-doing, Halliburton has been growing very fat on our tax dollars under the Bush Administration. Largely based on “no-bid” Iraqi War contracts awarded by the Bush Administration (often with the close coordination of the Vice President’s Office), Halliburton has risen rapidly among the ranks of defense contractors. Before Bush, they were reported to rank 37th in receiving US tax dollars spent on defense. Now, they rank 7th!

For Cheney to use the F-word publicly in the Senate over Leahy’s criticisms regarding Halliburton, he should have been asked to resign as Vice President. Instead, the Associated Press reported in two different stories that George W. Bush thinks it is not an issue and the Republican Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee is refusing to criticize Cheney for his obscene language. Cheney has refused to even apologize. In fact, he has publicly stated that he “felt better” after using the obscene word. Right wing talk radio has been militant in defending this obscene language. If Al Gore had used such language while Clinton was in office, they would have been trying to impeach him!

The Republicans claim to support “family values” and Christian ideas look insincere based on this case and that of Jack Ryan in Illinois. Ryan, based on court papers arising from his divorce, pressured his former wife to publicly have sex with him in sex clubs. He was running for office as a “family values” Bush Republican when these incidents became public (see http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-ryan22.html).

Republican leaders like Senator Rick Santorium of Pennsylvania strongly defended Ryan even after all the scandalous details were publicly reported. Santorium has based his entire political career on being a “family values” Bush Republican. He has been scathing in his attacks on former President Clinton regarding Clinton’s private sexual misconduct.

These are not isolated incidents. Anyone searching the Internet and visiting sites like Oped News.com, Buzzflash.com, Truthout.org, Democrats.com or any of the hundreds of non-Corporate Media news sources available there can find hundreds of other examples of Republican leaders making a mockery of “family values” or Christian beliefs. Examples of these behaviors being criticized or condemned by Bush Republican leaders are extremely rare to non-existent. How sincere can the public expressions of these Republican leaders be if they do not match private behaviors and are not condemned when Republicans engage in them?

Written by Stephen Crockett and Al Lawrence (hosts of Democratic Talk Radio http://www.DemocraticTalkRadio.com) . Phone: 443-421-0287. Mail: 7A Planville Drive, Fayetteville, TN 37334. Feel free to publish as Letter to the Editor, Guest Editorial or Democratic Voices Column. Feel free to post on your websites.

“In meetings with top aides and administration officials, the President goes from quoting the Bible in one breath to obscene tantrums against the media, Democrats and others that he classifies as enemies of the state”.

If you thought the above quotation was a reference to the darkest days of Richard Nixon when he was facing impeachment over the crimes of Watergate, you would be wrong. This quotation is the second paragraph of a brilliant but frightening story by Doug Thompson (publisher of Capitol Hill Blue) titled Bush’s Erratic Behavior Worries White House Aides. The full story can be read online at http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_4636.shtml.

The story paints a picture of a paranoid and intolerant leader that cannot cope with any disagreements or opposing viewpoints. It paints a picture of a powerful man who does not trust the public he is suppose to serve. It gives an insiders view of how George Tenet was really fired for disagreeing with Bush. The Stalinist term “enemies of the state” for simple domestic political opponents is revealing.

The article speaks of an ever-growing enemies list. Bush’s vulgar language makes a mockery of his supposed Christian politics that would shame the true Christians among his supporters. Bush seems dangerously unstable based on this article. Indeed, Bush sounds like Nixon in the darkest days of Watergate when Congress was moving to impeach him.

We are not talking the partisan frame-up of the Clinton impeachment era. We are talking about serious crimes and possible violations of the US Constitution that threaten the way the nation conducts our national business. These writers have been hearing behind the scenes rumbling about ticking time bombs that could bring down Bush before or (like Nixon) just after the Presidential elections.

The spending of 700 million dollars of federal tax dollars on an Iraqi invasion before Congress authorized it and supposedly before the decision was made by Bush is impeachable. There are credible reports that Bush knew about the plans to out the CIA agent wife of Ambassador Wilson and that Bush did nothing to stop it. This is certainly impeachable if true and likely criminal. Jail time for Bush would certainly not be unreasonable. We are at WAR!

Enron’s involvement in the California Energy Crisis has just been confirmed. Enron’s ties to Bush are beyond doubt. The actions of the Bush Administration during this crisis should be investigated by a Special Prosecutor. Billions of dollars were stolen from taxpayers, consumers and businesses in California. Enron is the single largest supplier of campaign cash for the Bush Republican Political Machine ever!

These writers believe that the Cheney Energy Taskforce may have engaged in criminal collusion with big oil and energy companies in the very first year of the Bush Administration. We believe this is why the Bush Administration is hiding the details from the American public! Could the plans for the invasion of Iraq have begun in this Taskforce? Were American oil companies marking up maps of Iraq and dividing the spoils of the then future war long before the 9-11 attacks?

What dark secrets are being hidden from the American public? Republicans label any questioning of their actions or motives as “conspiracy theories” today just like Nixon did in the 1970’s. It worked then, briefly- and Nixon won re-election. After the election, we found that the charges were all true… and much worse was happening! There were hidden facts about Nixon motivating his paranoia. Is it the same with Bush?

These writers believe that Bush and his people will be revealed in time to be far more sinister than Nixon. We believe this is the most corrupt Administration in the history of the nation. And Nixon did not have the police-state tools of the falsely named Patriot Act to use against his political enemies list.

We have joined along with other talk show hosts (Andy Johnson, Jerry Pippin, Guy James, Meria Heller, Peter Werbe and Radio Left) and others (Dems Online.net, ChewintheFat.com, Buzzflash.com and folksinger Yikes McGee) in endorsing the Democrats.com impeachment petition at http://democrats.com/impeach . Linda Ronstadt has called for Bush’s impeachment. Among others calling for impeachment are John Dean and Ramsey Clark both of which directly experienced the Nixon era.

Republicans would be wise to distance themselves from Bush and his policies as quickly as possible. Bush has begun a political meltdown that will make the Nixon collapse look mild in comparison. Both destroyed themselves for much the same reasons.

Written by Stephen Crockett and Al Lawrence (hosts of Democratic Talk Radio http://www.DemocraticTalkRadio.com ). Mail: 7A Planville Drive, Fayetteville, TN 37334. Phone: 931-438-1500 or 443-907-2367. Feel free to run as Democratic Voices column, guest editorial or letter to the editor.

The Bush Republicans are serving the interests of Big Oil and foreign oil producing nations to the detriment of our nation’s future and the American people. Bush’s publicly stated reasons for not using the Strategic Oil Reserve to lower the price of gasoline, diesel fuel and home heating oil sounds good until you apply a little logic and history to the issue. Bush claims that opening the Reserve would make the United States weaker in dealing with supply disruptions resulting from a terrorist attack on oil refineries or key pipelines domestically.

The Oil Reserve is held in unrefined crude oil. It is not held in refined products like gasoline, diesel fuel or home heating oil. It is stored underground in our nation to help the United States deal with disruptions in the world market. The current tight supplies are a form of disruption that threatens the economic strength of the American nation. The excessively high prices are the result of OPEC and the Big Oil companies acting collectively to restrict supplies in order to drive up the prices for petroleum products. OPEC is keeping crude oil prices up by pumping less. The oil companies have been closing refineries and not expanding refining facilities to meet rising demand. The Bush Republicans in Congress and the White House have blocked government assistance to promoting alternative energy while crippling government restrictions on price gouging by Big Oil for over 30 years.

Every oil crisis since OPEC was formed in the early 1970’s have seen record profits by the oil industry quickly followed by floods of campaign donations to Republicans. As anti-monopoly laws have been gutted, Big Oil has moved to capture control of all other types of energy suppliers. Privatization and de-regulation have given Big Oil a dangerously level of control over the entire economic health of the American nation. They have used this excessive market power to gain nearly complete control of the Republican Party and thru them in the Bush era the federal government. At this time in our history, Big Oil runs our government instead of the American people.

For example, the California Energy Crisis was the result of the illegal use of market power by Enron and others under the protective cover of Republican politicians. The Bush Administration stopped federal agencies from investigating the abuses until the damage was done. The current Republican Governor of California let the abusive companies keep most of these illegal profits. No wonder their campaigns received huge donations from Big Oil related donors! Taxpayers and consumers were the losers.

Big Oil has always acted in their self-interest regardless of the consequences for the America nation and our citizens. They helped create our problems with terrorism and many nations around the world by exercising undue influence on the foreign policies of the American government. They helped create OPEC by acting collectively to set the price of crude oil and oil royalties in the OPEC nations. The governments in the OPEC nations nationalized their domestic production and started acting collectively to keep from getting ripped off by Big Oil.

Now, Big Oil has found a way to profit excessively from higher crude prices by further reducing domestic supply. The United States needs to follow the OPEC approach and nationalize the Oil Industry. We should then work with other major oil-consuming nations to set reasonable prices with OPEC. Nations not willing to cooperate should lose all access to the America market for all products. The American market in general is the key engine for the so-called new global economy. If Japan, China or Europe does not work with the United States to control runaway oil prices, they should not be able to sell products here. We need to equalize the market power of the consumers and suppliers. The economic strength of the American nation depends on moving in this direction rapidly.

In the short term, the Strategic Oil Reserve is the key. We need to at least stop the drain on the world crude supply by continuing to fill the Reserve during the current crisis. If this proves less than successful in controlling prices, we should start releasing the Reserve. It would help greatly in the event of a terrorist attack to have this unrefined crude refined into gasoline, diesel oil and especially home heating oil. Closing refineries for unnecessary maintenance under current circumstance hurts to American nation but profits Big Oil. If we lose refineries to terrorism, supplies of crude oil stored underground will be worthless in meeting the needs for refined products. The Bush argument for not using the Oil Reserve simply is bogus.

We need to move aggressively towards lessening our dependence on oil for meeting our energy needs. We need to tighten our laws and regulations against price gouging. We need to vote out of office every Bush Republican at every level so Big Oil cannot dictate our energy policy and foreign policy. Our national energy policy and our foreign policies should be designed to promote our national strength and improving the standard of living of the vast majority of American citizens. We would not have gotten into the current Iraqi mess without the Big Oil influence on the Bush Administration. These writers believe that the Bush Administration will not release the Cheney Energy Taskforce information because it would likely prove that Bush and Cheney were planning on invading Iraq to profit Big Oil long before the 9-11 attacks. The Iraqi misadventure has weakened The American nation greatly.

The interests of United States is more threatened by the greedy traitors of Big Oil and their allies among the Bush Republicans than even the crazed Islamic terrorists they helped indirectly to create and finance! Our only remaining defense is our vote in November.

Written by Stephen Crockett and Al Lawrence (hosts of Democratic Talk Radio http://www.DemocraticTalkRadio.com ). Mail: 7A Planville Drive, Fayetteville, TN 37334. Phone: 931-438-1500 or 443-907-2367.

It appears that the Corporate Media giants have decided to cripple the efforts of the most effective critics of Bush Republicanism going into the 2004 Presidential elections. This started becoming apparent when Move On.org was stopped from running relatively mild ads during the Super Bowl criticizing the Bush Administration for creating a huge national debt problem for our children to solve in the future. This was done by Viacom while the Bush Republicans did not face similar restrictions. The Bush Republicans have no problem running their highly negative ads.

The outdoor advertising division of Viacom has stopped the Missouri Democratic Party from placing billboards in that state which read, “The Republicans have a plan. You are not part of it!” These ads definitely comply with the published political advertising guidelines used by Viacom. Unfortunately, the Missouri Democratic Party made the mistake of designing ads that are effective in pointing out that the Bush Republicans are advancing an agenda that promotes only Big Business. Big Business is using their market power to hide this fact from the average voter.

This behavior seems to runs rampant among the Corporate Media giants. The Disney Corporation which controls a huge number of movie screens has instructed these theaters not to show Michael Moore’s new movie Fahrenheit 911 which is very critical of the Bush Administration. It has been reported that Disney may believe that showing this movie will threaten tax breaks given them by the Bush Republicans.

The Baltimore based Sinclair television broadcasting company instructed their ABC affiliates not to show the Nightline program which honored the war dead from the Iraq War by reading their names. The ratings on the program were huge despite the blackout in the markets controlled by Sinclair. Sinclair executives and major stockholders have given tens of thousands of dollars in campaign donations to the Bush Republicans. They realize that the Iraq War has been totally botched by the Bush Administration despite the heroism of our soldiers. The cost in American lives would defeat Bush if the American voter truly becomes aware of it! This is the same reason the Bush Administration will not permit filming of the coffins of our fallen heroes returning home to grieving families. Sinclair is engaging in blatant censorship and misusing the public airwaves to advance their political bias.

The most shocking act of blatant political censorship has been on the Internet by Yahoo. Yahoo has canceled the email account and Yahoo discussion groups of Florida Democratic radio talk show host Andy Johnson. This was done without good reason or advance notice. The action keeps him from having access to all his emails or addresses. It cripples his radio show. All his contact information has essentially been seized by Yahoo! Andy Johnson was the victim of this action within days after these writers asked him to join in endorsing the Bush Impeachment effort of Democrats.com, http://democrats.com/impeach . His Impeachment discussion groups were shutdown when Yahoo typically keeps them going even when the founders accounts are cancelled.

Democratic activists all over this nation are demanding and planning responses to Corporate Media political censorship. Measures from challenging broadcast licenses, to pushing for legal requires for equal time and fairness in broadcasting, to lawsuits, to consumer boycotts and even passing anti-monopoly laws that break the market power of these Corporate Media giants are actively being discussed. These writers will attempt to keep you informed of developments in future commentaries.

Written By Stephen Crockett and Al Lawrence (hosts of DemocraticTalkRadio.com ).
Mail: 7A Planville Drive, Fayetteville, TN 37334.
Phone: 931-438-1500 or 443-421-0287.
Feel free to run as a Democratic Voices column, guest Editorial or Letter To The Editor.

The effort of the Bush White House and their allies to control the political reality perceived by American voters has reached new lows. Hiding facts from the public are standard operating procedures for the Bush Republican political machine as demonstrated by the Cheney Energy Taskforce cover-up and their manipulation of the 9-11 Investigative Commission. They have no problem with using their powerful allies in the federal courts (like Supreme Court Justice Scalia) to hide their failures and questionable actions from the voters. They have misused the media to gain power and now have their allies in the media to keep needed information from the voting public.

Democrats have been aware of the manipulation skills of the Bush Republican political machine since the 2000 Election Florida Recount. They twisted press images to get illegal votes counted from supposedly military ballots. Some Bush voters admitted to voting twice, some votes seem to be cast after Election Day and hundreds were of so doubtful that they may not have been cast by military personnel.

Tens of thousands of legal Democratic voters were illegally kicked off the voting rolls by Katherine Harris’ and Jeb Bush’s state organization BEFORE the recount. The Bush machine kept that fact from the public during the recount. Republican operatives from Congressmen King (NY) and Delay (TX) staff played key roles in the Dade County Courthouse riot that intimidated the election board from completely their recount. The Bush machine managed to keep that fact from the public during the recount.

Supreme Court Justices Scalia and Thomas had close family connections to the Bush campaign. Thomas’ wife even ran a recruiting website for Bush out of their house during the recount. They should have excused themselves from the Recount cases. They did not or all votes in Florida would have been recounted! Gore would have been in the White House today. We would not have been in the Iraq mess today! The Bush machine covered-up these connections until after Bush occupied the White House.

We have investigative reporter Greg Palast to thank for finally revealing these facts and more. For the full details, read Best Democracy Money Can Buy by Greg Palast.

The way Bush gained power has carried over to the exercise of that power. The distortion of facts by Bush Republicans concerning terrorism and weapons of mass destruction has pushed us into an unwise War In Iraq. The manipulation machine is fully committed to keeping the depth and consequences of this unwise War from the voters.

They are dishonoring our fallen soldiers from this conflict in order to keep from paying a political price in the elections this Fall. Their private sector backers at Sinclair have shamefully refused to carry a “Nightline” TV broadcast that will read the names of each soldier killed in Iraq. Sinclair has given thousands of dollars to the Bush campaign. Sinclair owns 8 TV stations that normally broadcast every “Nightline” broadcast.

Democrats need to challenge the Sinclair broadcast licenses with the FCC over this media manipulation. The airwaves belong to the public. Sinclair uses them for private profit by law under clear guidelines. They should not be able to use them to undermine our Democracy. They are obligated to inform the public instead of politically manipulating the voters. News broadcasting being politicized by the Bush White House is not in the public interest.

The White House is doing the same by stopping journalists from taking photos of coffins returning from the War In Iraq. They are engaging in similar behavior concerning the 9-11 hearings. Beside the outrageous secretive restriction concerning their unprecedented joint testimony before the committee, they are trying to deny testimony by government translators of documents that show that the Bush Administration should have known the 9-11 attacks were coming on “national security” grounds. The information and testimony is essential to the workings of the 9-11 Commission. This cover-up attempt is political and not a real national security issue.

Do we really need these people running our government? Voters need honest, open government. Voters need full information to make an informed vote. We need to see reality the way it is instead of just the illusions being sold by the Bush Republicans as fact.

Written by Stephen Crockett and Al Lawrence (hosts of Democratic Talk Radio http://www.DemocraticTalkRadio.com ). Mail: 7A Planville Drive, Fayetteville, TN 37334. Phone: 931-438-1500 or 443-421-0287. Feel free to run as Democratic Voices column, guest editorial or Letter to the Editor.

We all need to squeeze in some quality time with a few good books and/or websites before venturing to the voting booth this November. Our sources of political information should not be primarily short, shallow campaign ads designed to elicit emotional responses instead of informing the voter. We cannot solely rely on cable and broadcast TV news programs. The time devoted to hard, in-depth analysis of public issues by most Corporate Media sources has been declining year after year. Much of the remaining hard news content seems to be delivered with a strong pro-Corporate, Republican bias. Two sources of really reading content are becoming increasingly available and are not totally controlled by a pro-Corporate, Republican bias. These simple alternative sources are the Internet and a growing list of political books.

Internet political news sources not controlled by the prevailing Corporate mindset include Buzzfash http://www.buzzflash.com, Truthout http://www.truthout.org, OpEd News http://www.opednews.com, Smirking Chimp http://www.smirkingchimp.com, Air America Radio http://www.airamericaradio.com, Democratic Talk Radio http://www.DemocraticTalkRadio.com and hundreds of other Progressive, labor union and Democratic websites. A search of the Internet, when possible, on political subjects should become a routine in every citizen’s life. There are thousands of political websites of all flavors.

The bookshelves at bookstores and libraries are full of excellent books to help inform voters and provide some balance from the Corporate Media. We certainly recommend reading Against All Enemies by Richard Clarke for a better understanding of the Islamic terrorist threat and the 9-11 attacks. Plan Of Attack by Bob Woodward is the first stop on understanding how Bush pushed America to War in Iraq. Worse than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush by John Dean is a must read in understanding how style and policy are developed behind the closed doors of the Bush Administration. American Dynasty by Kevin Phillips gives a historical perspective on the rise of the Bush political machine over generations and their corruption of modern Republicanism from the viewpoint of a noted former Republican theorist. The Bush drove this writer from the Republican ranks. He had written the Republican 70’s political “Bible”, The Emerging Republican Majority before the Bushes captured modern Republicanism.

LIES And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by our fellow talk show host Al Franken is a humorous and educational read covering many current political issues and personalities. It is a fun read. Other good political reads are The Buying of the President 2004 by Charles Lewis, the fictional Capital Offense by Hill Kemp, Quiet Passion: A Biography of Senator Bob Graham by S. V. Date, The Awakening of an American: How My Country Broke My Heart by fellow talk show host Meria Heller, FRAUD: The Strategy Behind Bush Lies And Why The Media Didn’t Tell You by Paul Waldman and Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush’s War on Iraq by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber.

As always, we recommend The Best Democracy Money Could Buy by Greg Palast. We urge reading anything written by Molly Ivins, Williams River Pitt, Jim Hightower, Michael Moore, Paul Krugman, Joe Conason and many others. Our highest recommendation is just this, “read before you vote”. Help make our Democracy work!

Written By Stephen Crockett and Al Lawrence (hosts of Democratic Talk Radio http://www.DemocraticTalkRadio.com). Mail: 7A Planville Drive, Fayetteville, TN 37334. Phone: 931-438-1500 or 443-421-0287. Feel free to run as a Democratic Voices column, guest Editorial or Letter To The Editor.

The so-called “War On Terror” is a dangerous myth that is undermining American national security. This myth is a deliberate creation of the Bush Administration and their political allies. It has been very useful in promoting the Corporate Agenda of the Bush Republicans. Their fellow travelers in the Corporate Media have helped promote this intellectually dishonest way of looking at the threat posed to America by the Bin Laden terrorist organization.

First of all, “terror” is an emotion and should not be confused with an actual organization of terrorists. This “terror” theme is useful if you want to promote unrelated goals but ineffective in actually responding to the real threat posed by the Bin Laden organization. The term first used by Bush operatives was the “War on Terrorism.” This was equally dishonest because terrorism is a tactic used by terrorist. It is as absurd to have a war against a “tactic” as it is to have a war against an “emotion”.

The deliberate distortion of language helped the Bush Administration take us to War in Iraq. These writers believe it was one of the main reasons the term was chosen by the Bush Administration. The climate of fear created by the 9-11 attacks was continued and heightened by the language chosen by the Bush Administration. Unrelated policies from tax breaks for the wealthy to the Invasion of Iraq have been promoted by the Bush Republicans under the guise of fighting the “War ON Terror.” American citizens were manipulated into supporting the Right-Wing Corporate political agenda of this White House although this agenda was in no way related to the 9-11 attacks.

The Bush-Cheney team spread the lesser myths about Iraq by falsely linking Saddam Hussein to the 9-11 attacks. We now know that Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden were mortal enemies. Both were anti-American but only the Bin Laden organization posed a threat to the American Homeland. We have diverted huge military and financial resources away from the threat posed by the Bin Laden organization by invading and occupying Iraq. The Bush Administration was not paying enough attention to this threat before 9-11 and is still not truly focused on the Bin Laden organization. Before 9-11, they were largely focused on missile defense, tax cuts for the wealthy and packing the courts with Right Wing judges. Currently, they are focusing too much attention on Iraq, tax cuts for the wealthy and packing the courts with Right Wing judges.

The first focus of the Bush Administration should be the threat posed by the Bin Laden organization. Those were the persons responsible for killing 3,000 Americans in the 9-11 attacks. We should continue to aggressively wage the military campaign in Afghanistan. The next greatest threat to America is the exporting of jobs by large American corporations because this trend undermines our long-term ability to fund the fight against the Bin Laden terrorist organization. We need to stop using the term “War On Terror” because it is worse than useless. It is clouding our judgment when we need to clearly see the reality of the threats we face. It is time for the Bush Republicans and their fellow travelers in the Corporate Media to stop playing politics with the language of national security!

Written by Stephen Crockett and Al Lawrence (hosts of Democratic Talk Radio http://www.DemocraticTalkRadio.com ). Mailing address: 7A Planville Drive, Tennessee 37334. Phone: 931-438-1500 or 443-421-0287.

While staying the course in Iraq is an effective campaign slogan for the Bush Republicans, it is unwise and ineffective as a foreign policy. The current approach in Iraq runs counter to history and American interests. Staying the course would make sense if we were on the right course to begin with but not under the current policy of the Bush Administration.

Critics before the invasion of Iraq predicted exactly the current situation. The nation was launched on the current course without a unified nation or world opinion behind the invasion. The Bush Administration lied repeatedly to the American people to get us into this unwise War. The Iraq War was sold to the America people based on several untruths.

The Bush Republicans claimed that Saddam Hussein was involved in the 9-11 attacks. They claimed that Iraq was soon to be a nuclear threat to the United States. They claimed that the Iraq people would welcome us warmly. They claimed that Iraqi Oil would pay for the costs of the War. They claimed that Americans would benefit from cheaper gasoline and home heating oil prices soon after an Iraq Invasion. They claimed that not many American soldiers would be needed and for only a very short time. They claimed that a pro-American Iraqi democracy would soon take root. They claimed that American lives would be saved by this War. They claimed that Saddam Hussein was planning to attack East Coast cities with biological or chemical weapons in the immediate future. They claimed we had to act quickly without UN support to prevent another 9-11 style attack. These were all untrue and some were outright lies.

The current bad situation in Iraq was the inevitable result of the policy being pursued by the Bush Administration. Nobody with any knowledge about Iraqi history, Arab history or the history of Islam would have predicted that Bush was going to be successful in imposing his wishes on the Iraqi nation using American troops. The seeds of failure were already part of the policy of the Bush Administration. No account for the historical Iraqi resistance against Western Christian occupying armies was taken by the Bush Administration in designing our Iraq policies. The Bush White House seems bent on following their pre-conceived notions and ideological biases even when reality points to failure.

American sons and daughters are dying because Bush Republicans are not flexible in their views. They seek only their short-term political advantage instead of the long-term benefit of the American people. This War has only been profitable to the large oil companies and defense contractors that fund the Bush political machine. The American soldiers, the American taxpayers and the occupied Iraqi people have born all the costs. The sons and daughters of the wealthiest Americans are not dying in this War. They are instead getting huge tax cuts and “no-bid” lucrative defense contracts. For example, Halliburton has risen from 37th in terms of defense dollars received from the American taxpayers to 7th based largely on Iraq War contracts. This company was once headed by Dick Cheney and has been strongly tied to the Bush Republicans.

We need to bring our soldiers home. The costs of this War are huge and rising rapidly. There is no real likelihood of a better outcome for the American nation with a longer occupation. Bush has turned Iraq into a training ground and recruiting bonanza for the Bin Laden organization and like-minded groups. The policy is unfortunately a failure. We need to declare victory and go home. Let the Iraqis determine their own future. Saddam is out of power permanently. We will only create a growing anti-American public opinion in Arab nations by staying in Iraq. The costs of this failed policy are rising while the benefits are decreasing. It is time to bring our sons and daughters home to their families.