Please read my friend Greg's take on framing, issues vs. values, and branding the democratic party.

Excerpt:

I think the discussion about how Bush won on "values" is missing something: Rove's biggest move, and the one that paid off, was to isolate his opponent's biggest strength and knock it down.    Rather than run from it, they ran right into it and turned it into a liability.  On our side, we should've attacked the resoluteness of GWB on 9/11 itself and gone after it, showing footage of him reading My Pet Goat over and over and over.

By focusing the debate on GWB's policies, we played into their hands.  People who liked GWB didn't like him because he was right, or because they'd thought about the issues and their ramifications--they liked him because he was certain, resolute.  In a time of uncertainty, that was comforting.

Rove knew this.  By hitting the flip-flopper theme, he isolated the key emotional point of the election season: people wanted someone with answers, no matter how wrong.  

So the Republicans want to run on the memory of September 11th?  Fine.  But let's remember what happened before September 11th.  President Bush, while on vacation, received a Presidential Daily Briefing entitled Bin Laden determined to strike in US: I mention this only because it's obvious and because it's easy for it to get lost amidst the fact that Bush lied to get into Iraq.  I'd say that the real mark of a leader is not how he poses for the camera after the damage is done (or sits and reads while people are dying as their loved ones watch on TV), it's steering us clear of problems in the first place.

So the next time you hear about September 11th from the Republicans, just remind yourself and those around you of these simple words: Bin Laden determined to strike in US

Here's an issue that Kerry and Edwards should be shouting from the rooftops.  There are two Americas: one in which people pay taxes, the other where they don't.  The IRS isn't collecting taxes from tax cheats to the tune of almost 300 billion dollars.

Roughly one in five taxpayers "now believes it's acceptable to cheat on their taxes," the board said, based on its own research, while the number of revenue agents and other enforcement workers at the IRS has declined by 36 percent since 1996.

"Most disturbing of all, the amount of money which taxpayers legitimately owe, but won't pay and goes uncollected, is a staggering $300 billion," the report said.

You'd think that at a time when the deficit is 445 billion dollars, you'd want to increase your revenue.  The IRS collects 20 dollars for every dollar it spends on compliance.  Yet Dennis Hastert wants to abolish the IRS.  What's behind all this?  Who's doing the evading?  Most people have their taxes deducted from their paychecks, which makes it almost impossible to cheat.  But you know how the rich is -- they got accountants.

Cracking down on cheaters is fair and it would allow us to cut taxes for the honest or fund needed programs.  This is a can't-lose proposition.  Can we get some heat on this, please?

Courtesy of Just Democracy.  I'm a student at Stanford and we've started setting up our chapter now.  It's crucial to get a head start in terms of publicity, official recognition (faculty advisors, reserving space, etc.), and registering to vote absentee so you can spend your day monitoring without missing the opportunity to vote (or having your vote eaten by a computer).  From the site:

Just Democracy is made up of a network of law students, organized in chapters based at law schools all over the country. On Election Day, November 2, 2004, trained JD volunteers will be present at local polling places to act as resources for voters and poll workers.

Just Democracy's chapters will bring the resources of law schools, students and faculties to bear in their own communities to strengthen American democracy. Along the way, Just Democracy will encourage civic and community engagement among its law student volunteers, and will instill a sense of responsibility in the next generation of law school graduates for stewardship of the democratic process.

We aim to send 2000 or more volunteers to 500 high-risk polling places on November 2nd.

Take the ideas and information you've learned on Kos and do something that could critically affect the election.

I can't seem to remember where I read this, or which RNC operative said it, but yesterday I read something along the lines of "Edwards might not be the son of a millionaire, but he's the father of one" to try to debunk his legit working-class upbringing.  This raises an interesting question: are the Republicans saying that it's only OK to be the father of a millionaire if you were born one?  Or is it that actually working your way out of poverty isn't something they're down with?  Hard to reconcile that with all the welfare queen bashing.  

So which is it: stay poor or get rich?  DB

I thought I had no respect for these people, but apparently I still do--because every time I read a story like this, my opinion of them sinks a little lower.  

In addition to Rumsfeld,

... 13 FBI agents had taken rubble, debris and items such as flags and a Tiffany crystal globe paperweight.

...the now-retired head of the New York FBI office, Barry Mawn, asked and received an American flag and a piece of marble from the debris before his retirement...

Many interviewed regarded the debris as sacred, the report stated, ``and were disgusted by the fact that anyone would want to take items, including pieces of the building which were contaminated with blood and human body parts.''

The report discloses that agents had taken World Trade Center security patches cut from the sleeves of shirt pieces found in the rubble.

I'd like to see this in the next Bush commercial.