ireadthenewstoday

Even though I'm a lifelong Democrat; I've been pretty discouraged lately with the party and it's invisible leaders. Maybe it's the media fault? They just don't give Democrat's critiques of the Bush administration much air play and they seem to parrot the Republican talking points as the Democrat's views, such as "cut and run" for the Demo's Iraq strategy. I've never heard one Demo ever say they were in favor of cutting and running in Iraq. But if you hear the media repeating this riduculous Republican distortion of the Demo's dissent as the opposition to Bush's "stay the course and victory is around the corner", you assume it is a Demo position.
How do the Republican's get away with this defining of the political debate in their terms? How do they get the mainstream media to go along with them? I guess the two big reasons are the Republican's are in power, and they have accused the mainstream media so long of having a liberal bias, the network news shows and even the New York Times bend over backwards to present Republican political propaganda as if it's the legitimate other side of any issue that supports Democrat's facts.
Never has this strategy of defining the debate been more effective or clear then in the administration's defense of their obvious and factual incompetence in waging this war of choice in Iraq. Billions of tax dollars down the drain, thousands of Americans dead and wounded, thousands of innocent Iraqis blown to shreds, and worst of all ,an increased threat of terrorism and anti -American hatred in the Middle East and around the world. Even the bi-partisan 9/11 committee just relaesed a report summary that we are not any safer at home now !........this is what Bush's "staying the course" in Iraq means. Yet if the Demo's question this reality and seek an alternative, they are accused of not supporting the troops or the Iraqi's. So, it's come down to this in the debate. You are not supporting the soldiers unless you support their right to die for "staying the course". How absurd is this? How does Bush get away with it?

An interesting offshoot of this "stay the course" American policy in Iraq and the anti-American sentiment that it is reinforcing in the world is the turning off of international consumers to buying brand America. A survey of 8,000 international consumers released by Global Market Institute of Seattle stated that one third of international consumers are viewing America's most famous brands in the global market place as negative based on our foreign policy. Brands the survey placed at risk of losing considerable international sales due to Bush's foreign policy are Marlboro, AOL, McDonalds, American and United Airlines, General Motors, Mattel, Chevron and even Starbucks to name a few. And that's not all, the businesses in the travel industry are losing billions as tourists stay away from the US, Jet Blue, Priceline.com, Host Marriot, rental car companies and even restraunt's such as Morton's steakhouses are feeling the effects.
How amazing would this be, if this loss of international business due to Bush's incompetent foreign policy and destruction of America's once great image (probably at an all time high after 9/11), turned out to be his downfall? What if it dawned on these corporate big wigs that the tax breaks and loosening of the environmental rules Bush did for them as payback for campaign finance support wasn't worth the international business they are losing due to his incompetence, and destruction of brand America. Wow, would that be political karma.