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plunkybugA while back, a friend of ours, Shaun, who runs a Doctor Who convention in LA (the one we are going to in a few weeks) as well as an excellent companion website called Outpost Gallifrey, put a small Howard Dean for America "sticker" on the bottom of the website's homepage. Good for him! However, he has gotten some flack for it by some people. One of those people is one of our mutual friends. He says it has no place there, especially in relations to the BBC or something silly like that. Chas explained that it is Shaun's personal website and he can put whatever he likes there. They debated about this for a while and I don't know if he is any better about it now than he was back then, but he sent Chas an email with a little humor about it all. Chas forwarded it to me, plus his answer back to our friend.
Date: Fri Jan 23, 2004 04:55:45 AM EST
Subject: Re: So I go on the Dean website and I see this as the headline...
> "A Doctor Who's Delivered"
>
> Oy... No wonder why Shaun has a link on the OG site.
> I'm not sure what that's supposed to mean.
I'll tell you why *I'M* supporting Dean ... it's really pretty simple.
1. Dean has balanced budgets, and has delivered healthcare to the
children, working poor and seniors of his state. These are two of the
most important issues concerning Heather and I, and I regret to say
that he's the ONLY candidate in the Democratic field who can claim to
have actually DONE these things. This is the main thing that stops me
supporting people like Kerry, Gephardt, Kucinich and Lieberman ...
they've been in Washington for YEARS and we've got BUPKIS to show for
it. They've "fought" for all these things ... what they forget to
mention is that they've LOST, and ROLLED OVER to the Republicans when
the wind blew their way. Dean may not be perfect, but he's VERY
unlikely to roll over to ANYBODY.
2. Dean has funded his campaign ... the most successful Democratic
fundraising campaign ever, btw ... almost entirely through SMALL
donations (averaging around $70/person). So far he has raised at least
$40 million that way. This is the way it SHOULD be done, and has been
the BIG PROBLEM hobbling the Democratic Party for YEARS now ... a slow
corruption brought on by the "need" to take corporate bribery in an
attempt to keep up with the ethics-free RNC. Dean has PROVEN that they
don't need to do that. If he leaves nothing else as a legacy, I support
his effort to reform the DNC.
3. He has, as Douglas Adams would have put it, an annoying tendency to
be RIGHT. Look at his actual positions on things (not the broad
generalities like "I support children," the REAL POSITION PAPERS) on
the issues. His pre-candidacy positions have all turned out to be
RIGHT, often WELL ahead of other Democrats coming around to his
conclusions. That's what we used to call a LEADER WITH VISION.
4. He's doesn't REPEATEDLY LIE TO THE AMERICAN PUBLIC and PISS OFF OUR
ALLIES. He doesn't promote a program one day (getting the positive news
coverage) and then CUT IT THE NEXT DAY. He's not BLOODTHIRSTY and he's
not BOUGHT AND PAID FOR. If he wins the election, he will have done so
by BEING ELECTED. All of these things make him morally, ethically and
politically superior to the man he will be replacing.
There are qualities I see in ALL the other Democratic candidates that I
wish Dean had. And ANY of them (yes, even Sharpton!) would be better
than Bush. It APPALLS me that there is ANYBODY in this country DUMB
enough not to see that the Bush administration is, at *best*, awash in
bullshit. I *have* to believe that a lot of Bush's "base" are really
just putting on a front because they've been Republicans a long time
and are proud of some of the things some Republicans have accomplished
and can't stand to admit that the lib-ruls were actually RIGHT about
something -- or MANY things.
Bottom line: Dean has actually DONE things the other Dems have only
TALKED about doing (for THIRTY YEARS) and actually says things real
people say. I watched the so-called "embarrassing" post-Iowa rally
speech and saw NOTHING wrong or embarrassing about it. He was firing up
the troops after a surprisingly poor showing and over-shouted himself
(and he was probably in poor voice to start with). I didn't hear him
SAY anything odd or out of character, I didn't hear him change position
on an issue, I didn't see ANYTHING in the performance that should be
embarrassing *in context.* You could take a cheerleader doing cheers,
Photoshop her into a funeral, and it would look bad. Taking Dean's
"manic" performance out of context makes him look a little overexcited
(at best), but hardly "nuts" like Ross Perot or as silly as Bush
"dancing" with Ricky Martin. I'd much rather have a PASSIONATE
President than a TREASONOUS one, which is what we've got now.
That's why I continue to support Dean, and will support his agenda and
ideas (particularly about reforming the Democratic Party) even if he
doesn't win the nomination. American NEEDS people like him, and as he
often says himself: it's not about him, it's about US taking back our
country. These neocon fuckers have warped the very IDEA of America into
some horrible imperialistic overfed retarded cowboy bully that the
world fears and which I barely recognise as the country I *chose* to be
a part of 30 years ago. They are to real Americans as Hitler's
brownshirts were to real Germans.
I want my country BACK.
_Chas_
Mnemonic of the Year: ABBA -- Anybody But Bush Again.
http://www.abbaparty.com
Date: Fri Jan 23, 2004 04:55:45 AM EST
Subject: Re: So I go on the Dean website and I see this as the headline...
> "A Doctor Who's Delivered"
>
> Oy... No wonder why Shaun has a link on the OG site.
> I'm not sure what that's supposed to mean.
I'll tell you why *I'M* supporting Dean ... it's really pretty simple.
1. Dean has balanced budgets, and has delivered healthcare to the
children, working poor and seniors of his state. These are two of the
most important issues concerning Heather and I, and I regret to say
that he's the ONLY candidate in the Democratic field who can claim to
have actually DONE these things. This is the main thing that stops me
supporting people like Kerry, Gephardt, Kucinich and Lieberman ...
they've been in Washington for YEARS and we've got BUPKIS to show for
it. They've "fought" for all these things ... what they forget to
mention is that they've LOST, and ROLLED OVER to the Republicans when
the wind blew their way. Dean may not be perfect, but he's VERY
unlikely to roll over to ANYBODY.
2. Dean has funded his campaign ... the most successful Democratic
fundraising campaign ever, btw ... almost entirely through SMALL
donations (averaging around $70/person). So far he has raised at least
$40 million that way. This is the way it SHOULD be done, and has been
the BIG PROBLEM hobbling the Democratic Party for YEARS now ... a slow
corruption brought on by the "need" to take corporate bribery in an
attempt to keep up with the ethics-free RNC. Dean has PROVEN that they
don't need to do that. If he leaves nothing else as a legacy, I support
his effort to reform the DNC.
3. He has, as Douglas Adams would have put it, an annoying tendency to
be RIGHT. Look at his actual positions on things (not the broad
generalities like "I support children," the REAL POSITION PAPERS) on
the issues. His pre-candidacy positions have all turned out to be
RIGHT, often WELL ahead of other Democrats coming around to his
conclusions. That's what we used to call a LEADER WITH VISION.
4. He's doesn't REPEATEDLY LIE TO THE AMERICAN PUBLIC and PISS OFF OUR
ALLIES. He doesn't promote a program one day (getting the positive news
coverage) and then CUT IT THE NEXT DAY. He's not BLOODTHIRSTY and he's
not BOUGHT AND PAID FOR. If he wins the election, he will have done so
by BEING ELECTED. All of these things make him morally, ethically and
politically superior to the man he will be replacing.
There are qualities I see in ALL the other Democratic candidates that I
wish Dean had. And ANY of them (yes, even Sharpton!) would be better
than Bush. It APPALLS me that there is ANYBODY in this country DUMB
enough not to see that the Bush administration is, at *best*, awash in
bullshit. I *have* to believe that a lot of Bush's "base" are really
just putting on a front because they've been Republicans a long time
and are proud of some of the things some Republicans have accomplished
and can't stand to admit that the lib-ruls were actually RIGHT about
something -- or MANY things.
Bottom line: Dean has actually DONE things the other Dems have only
TALKED about doing (for THIRTY YEARS) and actually says things real
people say. I watched the so-called "embarrassing" post-Iowa rally
speech and saw NOTHING wrong or embarrassing about it. He was firing up
the troops after a surprisingly poor showing and over-shouted himself
(and he was probably in poor voice to start with). I didn't hear him
SAY anything odd or out of character, I didn't hear him change position
on an issue, I didn't see ANYTHING in the performance that should be
embarrassing *in context.* You could take a cheerleader doing cheers,
Photoshop her into a funeral, and it would look bad. Taking Dean's
"manic" performance out of context makes him look a little overexcited
(at best), but hardly "nuts" like Ross Perot or as silly as Bush
"dancing" with Ricky Martin. I'd much rather have a PASSIONATE
President than a TREASONOUS one, which is what we've got now.
That's why I continue to support Dean, and will support his agenda and
ideas (particularly about reforming the Democratic Party) even if he
doesn't win the nomination. American NEEDS people like him, and as he
often says himself: it's not about him, it's about US taking back our
country. These neocon fuckers have warped the very IDEA of America into
some horrible imperialistic overfed retarded cowboy bully that the
world fears and which I barely recognise as the country I *chose* to be
a part of 30 years ago. They are to real Americans as Hitler's
brownshirts were to real Germans.
I want my country BACK.
_Chas_
Mnemonic of the Year: ABBA -- Anybody But Bush Again.
http://www.abbaparty.com