The straw man.
By on Mar 18th, 2006 at 3:21 pm
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Straw is 78.6% liberal.
March 18th, 2006 at 3:26 pmThe flip-flop is also a Bush speciality. For the details, see:
March 18th, 2006 at 3:28 pm“The Top 10 Bush Flip-Flop List.”
Wow, I hope more people are catching on to Bush’s rhetoric like this guy is.
The MSM is starting to wake up to what we have been saying for years.
March 18th, 2006 at 3:30 pmThat is a joke right?
March 18th, 2006 at 3:31 pmStraw hates America
March 18th, 2006 at 3:33 pmi heard that straw also murders babies, and doesn’t support the troops… damn straw! If straw doesn’t like America, straw should just leave! We’ll find other things to make scarecrows out of!
Strength Through Unity
Unity Through Faith
…faith through Straw
March 18th, 2006 at 3:35 pmhahaha, k, I’m done now… Go check out V for Vendetta everyone, it freak’n rocks! I knew it was political, but I had no idea how hard hitting it would be until I saw it. I was blown away.
March 18th, 2006 at 3:36 pmI’m looking forward to V for Vendetta.
March 18th, 2006 at 3:37 pmStrawman – Scarecrow – If Bush only had a brain.
March 18th, 2006 at 3:40 pmhttp://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e294/cloakandswaggeronlineimages2/bushshirt.jpg
Ask any farmer; straw is very useful in the barn – for covering horseshit!
March 18th, 2006 at 3:47 pmsome say, or SUM say, he never tells what the SUM amount is. 66% disapproval = ’sum say’. Be a man mr. bush and resign now, and save you and us the mess of impeaching you. You can move out of the country,you have plenty of money, and spend the rest of you life trying to forget how you raped a whole list of countries.
March 18th, 2006 at 3:51 pmOur Texas brush cutter does produce a lot of straw. Hmm. Fodder for the sheep. Baa. Baa.
March 18th, 2006 at 3:52 pmActually, Bush is correctly showing the reality of the left’s views.
It’s just that he’s too polite to name names against the extreme left.
March 18th, 2006 at 3:53 pm“I am a urine stained cultist, whose fawning adoration for the town idiot has even caused my children to disown me.”
And I’m “correctly showing the reality of the right’s views.”
March 18th, 2006 at 4:11 pmIt’s just that I’m too polite to name names of the thuggish brownshirted swine – but look in the mirror, and you’ll see who I mean.
Gary Ruppert-
According to most polls, most people believe that this country is on the wrong track. Does this mean that most people in this country belong to, as you put it, to the “extreme left”? A major poll revealed that a majority of people believe that if Bush broke the law by illegally spying on Americans, then that should be grounds for impeachment. Are those people also part of the “extreme left”? Another poll discovered that more Americans [50 percent] trust the Democrats on the issue of terrorism than the Bush administration. Are these people also part of the “extreme left”? It sounds like these views are now becoming part of mainstream thinking.
March 18th, 2006 at 4:12 pmGary Rupert hates America. So does straw.
March 18th, 2006 at 4:28 pmGary Ruppert must be a very lonely man. A very lonely, overweight – too fat to get out of his bedroom- woman repellant, loser who has nothing better to do than visit political opposing websites with his/its inanitites.
Gary, just how fat are you anyway?
March 18th, 2006 at 4:33 pmgary thinks anyone who disagrees with bush, is a ‘lefty extremest’.
March 18th, 2006 at 4:35 pmThanks for the link. I had heard the term “straw man”, but wasn’t sure what it meant. The Associated Press article, written by Jennifer Loven, defined it nicely, complete with examples.
It brings to mind a similarity between public political discourse (as practiced by the President and countless others) and the legal proceedings of a courtroom:
In a court trial, either one of the sides in the matter is likely to say or do anything they please, however unfair or improper or outrageous; they’ll interrupt witnesses before they’ve completed their thoughts; they’ll otherwise badger or shout at and intimidate the witness; they’ll make dramatic pronouncements of evidence or testimony, without producing that evidence (sound familiar?) or producing those witnesses who have supposedly said those dramatic things (like setting up a strawnman I guess); and not only will either side twist words, bend the truth, and lie even, but they would deny the very words that had said the day before, were it not for the court reporter who can at any time faithfully read those words back, verbatim.
And while of course what keeps the proceedings from degenerating into something of a shouting and insulting POLITICAL RALLY FOR GETTING YOUR OWN WAY (instead of an inquiry into Truth, and an attempt at Justice) are the Rules of the courtroom, and a Judge to enforce them.
But in there also is the OBJECTION, on the part of the other side, or other party.
And so seeing this similarity between public political discourse and the proceedings of a courtroom, and the dissimilarity of the public political discourse having few if any established rules, and too many judges who can agree on nothing, we’re left with the OBJECTION to right the proceedings, and to inquire as to Truth, and attempt Justice; and if getting nothing in the place of either of those ideals, then to OBJECT nevertheless, stating so.
Why don’t Democrats step up more often and OBJECT to the things the President says (or more often implies) about them?
It’s the first thing one does in a courtroom proceeding when they hear lies and evasions and mistatements and abuses of the Rules and the Law; it’s the first thing one does if they see a proceeding whose purpose is to discover Truth and achieve Justice descending into a political rally of sorts.
It’s as easy as rising to one’s feet and OBJECTING, in the court of Public opinion.
March 18th, 2006 at 4:49 pmThat reminds me of the part of Outfoxed where they show Hannity and his other Fox tools doing the same thing. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that the most rabid Bush supporters have to resort to intellectually dishonest means to argue their points.
March 18th, 2006 at 5:02 pmCheck out the real DUHbya scarecrow! Just click on Clyde.
March 18th, 2006 at 5:09 pmDem02020-
You raise a good point. The Democrats have a golden opportunity to raise an objection by supporting Senator Feingold’s motion to censure. Instead, with very few exceptions, the Democrats, to use Feingold’s word, are cowering in fear and wringing their hands because what they propose to do will mightily displease the Republicans. The bizarre thing about all this is that Feingold is on firm ground, with Bush practically boasting that he broke the law by illegally wiretapping Americans. Bush has been negligent concerning 9/11, Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, yet the Democrats still persist in yielding the high ground to the Republicans.
March 18th, 2006 at 5:14 pm#23 Wouldn’t that make Condi the “small and meek”? :)
March 18th, 2006 at 6:10 pm[...] via ThinkProgress. [...]
March 18th, 2006 at 6:20 pmanother smoke screen…..
March 18th, 2006 at 6:32 pmThanks for posting a link to this AP story. The article makes a key point that the core purpose of the tactic is to make Dubya seem like the voice of common sense — which is exactly the image that Democrats should be turning around … and pointing out that he has “arguments with nonexistent people” is a helpful part of that argument.
March 18th, 2006 at 7:43 pmGary:
March 18th, 2006 at 8:14 pm“too polite to name names”? Don’t be stupid. In a real debate names should be named so that the facts can be checked. So the “names” can be asked if they were quoted correctly, and asked if they have a counter arguement.
Body language is everything with Georgie. Next time he has a “major speech,” press the mute button and watch. It’s truly amazing. Its like talking to my ex…if he touches his forehead at any point while he’s speaking, whatever he’s saying is total bullsh*t. Try it!
March 18th, 2006 at 8:19 pmBREAKING NEWS: This just in… “Some people say” that their sources can place Gary Rupert and Straw having lunch together in Prague discussing various ways to attack America. Just who is Gary Rupert and his Straw contact in Prague, and why does he hate America?
Strength Through Unity
Unity Through Faith
…Faith Through Straw
March 18th, 2006 at 8:23 pmErroll-
Agreed, and in the specific example of the Censure Resolution: You refer to the firm ground upon which this Resolution rests (the Senator who proposed it being both a qualified and conscientious member of the Judiciary Committee; he knows the FISA law, and he knows it’s been broken), and the apparent reluctance of the Senate to get behind this Resolution (or at least not as yet)…
If what it is those Senators think, is that there are more important irons in the fire right now (Iraq chiefly, and ethics too), and that by focusing on the Censure Resolution they allow those other important issues to go undiscussed in the coming months leading into the falls election; if that is what they think, then maybe they’re right. Because it makes sense enough, to fight the Devil on his $450 billion dollar Operation of Death (supported by uninvestigated lies), and the rest of the Death for Dollars Republican Congressional agenda that has Republican Randall ‘Duke” Cunningham behind bars (when he should have been shot); and when he’s not the only one for sure.
I can get behind that kind of thinking.
But if they’re recoiling in any way from the media, or from the Congressional Republican leadership, or from the Administration; if they listened to the Republican Noise Machine on this matter, which immediately went into a rant of “you’ll cut your own throats with this one”, and “it’s a gift to us, we want you to attack the President, bring it on!”, or “there’s a backlash to Public Opinion, and if you’re not careful, you’ll feel it”…
And if in listening to such noise, they lost the voice of their own conscience, and lost the wisdom of their own meditations, and lost their Resolve to Act…
And if in doing so, they agreed that it were smarter to say and do nothing on this matter right now, for fear of stoking the Noisy Media and the Republican Congressional leadership and the Administration…
Well, I guess I would much prefer to think that it were a strategic move to keep the focus on those more Deadly Sins of the Devil, than to think the other (although it was my immediate reaction, that it was that other unseemly thing behind this lack of immediate support for the Resolution, or why else was the word “cowering” said by one on the inside of the matter; “strategic” is a better excuse).
Anyway, so we stick to the more Deadly Sins of the Devil (2,317 in Iraq, as of this post), and we save his illegal spying for another time.
And if I may add, it burns me something awful to even consider for a moment, that either of my Senators, or any Senator whatsoever, would lose either the sounds of the voices of the American People, or the sound of their own meditations on their own consiences…
Lose these most important counsels, by listening to the Paid Media Hacks and the Republican Noise they (are Paid) to make.
March 18th, 2006 at 8:28 pmThose assholes at the pro-corporate DLC believe that if they just sit back and wait the radical right’s coalition will just fall apart out of disgust with Bush. Ain’t gonna happen! If the Democrats don’t stand up and fight now while they can, the Rethugs are gonna get themselves oriented for another attack on America. Russ Feingold is the only man in the Senate who is standing up for the rights tens of millions of Americans. Russell Feingold is the new Paul Wellstone. He is a Progressive Liberal Democrat from one of the most Republican states in America and yet he has an approval rating of 97%. I say we nominate Russ Feingold in 2008.
March 19th, 2006 at 6:51 amI say it is time to contact the few Democrats that have stood up for us and the constitution and form a new party..Dump all the spinless along with the Republicans. Get Finegold, Murtha , Kuchenech and the few that represent us and do massive write in’s, marches and rallies…We are way past time to get this evil bunch out. There may be some good people in other groups as well, like the greens…Blessings
March 19th, 2006 at 9:50 amThe shrub has a NEW speech writer. So my dear folks, you are hearing the NEW BUSH.
This new tactic is the tactic of the new speech writer, not of Bush. The man never had an original thought in his life, and if he did, he would not know how to get it across.
A new speech writer was hired because of the plunging poll numbers of the shrub, and a realization that he was not getting anywhere with his speeches. So, what do you do, or rather was does Rove do. He cans the speech writer, and gets a new one, they discuss the problem and come up with this new tactic.
The shrub has no idea what he is talking about when he delivers his speeches. He is completely lost. Most of the time he is seeing the words on the teleprompter for the first time.
Are the ideas his? Certainly not, he has no original thought process and is completely devoid of any original ideas. Does he have an idea of what he wants to convey? Possibly does, but has no idea how to do it.
The new speech writer helps.
March 19th, 2006 at 10:37 amCripes, the technique isn’t new; the neocons have been doing it for years. It’s a handy device to manipulate the brain-dead conservative base.
Considering the Main Steam Media’s craven spinelessness toward the Right and unforgivable abdication of its social responsibility, the real story here is that the MSM finally feels bold enough to generate and print the story.
It’s pathetic that it took months of record-low approval ratings for the MSM’s testicles to descend, but I guess at the management level they now feel safe enough to print the stories they’ve been holding back on. People now WANT to hear and read the truth, and corporate-controlled media will go where the profits are.
March 19th, 2006 at 10:41 amIdiots must rely on strawmen. They have trouble with deduction and this tactic seems to be used frequently by those who don’t buy their own bull and can’t stand a real debate with real people.
Reality isn’t a republican trait, it’s a republican fear.
March 20th, 2006 at 10:00 am