Le Rove est mort, vive le Rove Nouveau!

Thanks to our buddy JJ at unrepentant old hippie, we got a bug in our ear about marketing wiz-kid and wordmeister Frank Luntz.

Luntz discussed his use of the term, "energy exploration" (oil drilling). His research on the matter involved showing people a picture of current oil drilling and asking if in the picture it "looks like exploration or drilling." He said that 90 percent of the people he spoke to said it looked like exploring. "Therefore I'd argue that it is a more appropriate way to communicate." He went on to say "if the public says after looking at the pictures, that doesn't look like my definition of drilling—it looks like my definition of exploring—then don't you think we should be calling it what people see it to be, rather than adding a political aspect to it all?" Terry Gross responded: "Should we be calling it what it actually is, as opposed to what somebody thinks it might be? The difference between exploration and actually getting out the oil—they're two different things, aren't they?"

It makes us wonder if Ezra Levant's well-funded *ethical oil* gig was an attempt to use Luntz' template for language re-engineering.

About 18 months ago, we suggested Karl Rove might be approached by Stevie's Contempt Party to provide them with a little war room coaching. As luck would have it, Rove's been quite busy putting out fires and preventing, at times not so successfully, Republican candidates' meltdowns. So ...

In April this year, Emily Dee at Voices for Democracy posted this. So the accountability (and accessibility + transparence) thing was a fucking smoke screen - suggested by Luntz. Very meta, that.

Rove is old school. Grow bigger and bigger lies: even when their fraud is unmasked, voters will be too embarassed to admit even to themselves they were taken in by the con job.

Luntz uses distraction. Locate voters' buttons then push those to shift focus on to the chosen distraction.

Though Frank Luntz may have the support of the 1% his marketing sleight-of-word is not exactly *scientific-y* foolproof.

And as Canadian Cynic would gleefully point out: Ladies! He's available AND unattached!

Oh. Wait. Like Jason Kenney?

When we updated this post about ConJobs dirty tricks to unseat Liberal MP Irwin Cotler, we added links that are worth re-posting.

Susan Delacourt tracks how the reformaTory media control unfolded, here and here.

And Alison at Creekside gives credit to other bloggers keeping track of the Harper Government™© obfuscations.

Something Different

Matt Taibbi wises up.

I have a confession to make. At first, I misunderstood Occupy Wall Street.

. . .

But I'm beginning to see another angle. Occupy Wall Street was always about something much bigger than a movement against big banks and modern finance. It's about providing a forum for people to show how tired they are not just of Wall Street, but everything. This is a visceral, impassioned, deep-seated rejection of the entire direction of our society, a refusal to take even one more step forward into the shallow commercial abyss of phoniness, short-term calculation, withered idealism and intellectual bankruptcy that American mass society has become. If there is such a thing as going on strike from one's own culture, this is it. And by being so broad in scope and so elemental in its motivation, it's flown over the heads of many on both the right and the left.

. . .

What both sides missed is that OWS is tired of all of this. They don't care what we think they're about, or should be about. They just want something different.

. . .

People want out of this fiendish system, rigged to inexorably circumvent every hope we have for a more balanced world. They want major changes. I think I understand now that this is what the Occupy movement is all about. It's about dropping out, if only for a moment, and trying something new, the same way that the civil rights movement of the 1960s strived to create a "beloved community" free of racial segregation. Eventually the Occupy movement will need to be specific about how it wants to change the world. But for right now, it just needs to grow. And if it wants to sleep on the streets for a while and not structure itself into a traditional campaign of grassroots organizing, it should. It doesn't need to tell the world what it wants. It is succeeding, for now, just by being something different.

Something different. Like this maybe.

Tea Hatriot vs Elizabeth Warren

fern hill posted an earlier clip of Elizabeth Warren as she concisely and passionately debunked the claim from the RightWing NutJobs aka extreme neo-conservatives, that increasing taxes on the wealthy is akin to "class warfare."

This is a recent clip of an exchange Warren had with a man who crashed a meeting with her campaign volunteers to harangue her.

[...] the man, who said that he has been unemployed for more than a year, voiced his frustrations with the anti-Wall Street demonstrations and took issue with Warren over her recent comments suggesting she had laid the "intellectual foundation" for the movement.

The pro-Warren crowd quickly moved to shout the man down, but Warren quieted the room so she could respond. "No, no, it's all right. Let me say two things," she said. "I'm very sorry that you've been out of work. I'm also very sorry that the recent jobs bill that would've brought 22,000 jobs to Massachusetts did not pass in the Senate."

Warren went on to address his question about her association with Occupy Wall Street. "I've been protesting what's been going on on Wall Street for a very long time," she said, but added that the movement has its own independent agenda and will proceed along its own course.

"Yeah, so has the Tea Party," the man said, before losing his cool. "Well, if you're the intellectual creator of that so-called party," he said, "you're a socialist whore. I don't want anything to do with you."

From here. Warren handled the man's questions with grace and respect. Compare and contrast her perspectives with the lunatic views of the darlings of the Tea Party, Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann.

I am not moving.

From The Galloping Beaver.

Watch it.

Suits for Bay Street

Clever idea.

On October 15, our crack team of well dressed artists, designers, and wardrobers will deliver racks and racks of business attire, free of charge to anyone at Liberty Square. We'll be joined by progressive tailors, radical barbers, and folks who want everyone to look great.

The way you say it matters as much as what you say. So say it in style. Say it in a suit.

What We Need and What You Get

You can help us realize this vision with your donations. Twenty dollars will put a protester in a crisp thrift store suit.

Or mail us a nice suit you're not using anymore. It’s free if you mail it from work. Here's our address:

Proper Business Attire Working Group
C/O The House of Yes
342 Maujer Street
Brooklyn, NY
11206

Extra suits and late deliveries will be donated to Threads for Success, an innovative New York City program that dresses young people in the justice system for court appearances and job interviews.

Let's get organized.

Look sharp. The whole world is watching.

Other Ways You Can Help

Post our campaign to anyone who needs to see it.

And straighten your tie.

Somebody should set something like this up for #occupytoronto.

Name that Protest!

Who would have predicted that, from Tunisia to Wisconsin, Tahrir Square to Wall Street, 2011 would be the Year of the Big Protest?

From here. The Occupy Wall Street protesters have perspectives that are quite different from the ultra-conservative Tea Party movement on the nature of US problems - though at times their complaints sound remarkably similar. Call you tell the Tea Hatriots from the Occupiers?

Try the BBC quiz. Pay close attention to the substance of what is said and how it is expressed. Hint - one of the quotes is attributed to Sarah Palin.