Alexandar H., age 14, has a simple but effective plan: "1) Have major disasters and wars on your watch and call anyone who questions you unpatriotic or 'Terrist.' 2) Make sure the news media only covers your version of the news. 3) If you have any intelligent opponents, such as Dennis Kucinich, make sure they get no news coverage of any kind. 6) Make sure corporations controlled by your party write voting programs that will guarantee you the victory and that these are installed in voting booths around the country. Make sure the software stays secret so no one can view the lines of rigged code. 7) Make sure there is no paper trail to prove who really wins the next election. 10) Catch Osama Bin Laden, put him in solitary so no one know and wait to report it until late October or November 1. 11) Make sure no one counts the votes."

Atrios writes, "The first appearance of a talking head referring to Dean as 'pessimistic' or discussing his 'pessimism' was Laura Ingraham on Dec. 19 Hardball, followed by Mary Matalin on Dec. 21 Meet the Press. Look for it to be coming out of every Republican's mouth soon, and then it will increasingly creep into 'objective' reporting. The process will go something like this. First, they'll quote Bush campaign sources describing Dean as 'pessimistic.' Next, they'll move onto Democratic campaign sources, often anonymous, describing Dean as 'pessimistic.' Next, they'll stop bothering getting the quote and just write things like, 'Some have criticized Dean for his unappealing pessimism...' And, then, finally, process complete, campaign analysis pieces in print and the 'objective journalists' on the roundtable shows, will just write/say things like 'Dean's pessimistic rhetoric...' By the end no discussion or news story about Dean will see the light of day without the word 'pessimism.'"

NYT reports: "Bush's campaign has settled on a plan to run against Dean that would portray him as reckless, angry and pessimistic, while framing the 2004 election as a referendum on the direction of the nation more than on the president himself, Mr. Bush's aides say... As a Bush strategist put it, Dr. Dean's rivals are 'doing a great job for us' with their increasingly tough attacks on him... As the second part of a two-part strategy, the president will set out upbeat themes and policy ideas, starting with the State of the Union address on Jan. 20... The goal, Mr. Bush's advisers said, is to make the election more about the nation's success in confronting great challenges than about Mr. Bush personally... Told of Mr. Bush's strategy, Dr. Dean's campaign manager, Joe Trippi, said he was skeptical that it would work. 'That's the only shot they have, to depolarize the race,' Mr. Trippi said. 'If the race is a referendum on Bush, that's going to be very polarizing.'"

Harvey Wasserman writes, "Few Americans now remember that George W. Bush's father was elected president in 1988 in one of the most racist campaigns ever staged in the United States. Now W. seems poised to follow in those tainted footsteps. But the 'issue' this time won't be race, it'll be gay marriage... Lee Atwater, the Karl Rove of the day, was a hard-driving, below-the-belt dirty trickster. Atwater seized on Willie Horton, a black prisoner who'd been paroled from the Massachusetts penal system and then committed another crime... For Rove, gay marriage is the new Willie Horton, a wedge issue perfectly suited to fire up the corporate-funded right-wing church network while diverting public attention from an ailing economy and a failing war effort."

"The Bush-Cheney re-election campaign's unprecedented fundraising haul of at least $110 million over the past six months has relied on super-donors -- 351 contributors who have attained elite status with the Bush organization, including 42 new bundlers that were disclosed by the campaign yesterday, according to WhiteHouseForSale.org... The Bush campaign now has 134 Rangers, those fundraisers who bundle at least $200,000 in individual contributions, and 217 Pioneers, who each have brought in at least $100,000. In addition, the campaign has identified three new Mavericks -- the title given to fundraisers under age 40 who bring in at least $50,000... Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook: 'It seems the only people who can get access to the administration anymore are those bearing big bundles of $2,000 checks. In return, Bush is pushing Congress and the agencies to reward his well-connected donors with tax breaks, subsidies and rollbacks in federal regulations.'"

Moonie Times writes, "Frank J. Donatelli, former Reagan White House political director, said, 'It will be necessary for Bush to make Dean unacceptable to independents and a segment of the Democratic Party - to 'McGovernize' him'... Dean's insurgent, anti-establishment campaign has drawn comparisons to the 2000 run for the Republican presidential nomination by Sen. John McCain of Arizona. Newt Gingrich, however, says Republican attempts to portray Mr. Dean as a fire-breathing McGovernite might be difficult. 'Dean clearly is a phenomenon, but not necessarily a Goldwater or a McGovern. Dean is more clever and tougher.' But Republican strategists say the Bush campaign will seek to portray Mr. Dean as a tax-and-spend liberal who cannot be trusted on national-security issues." Dean knew invading Iraq would only WORSEN terrorism and our national security - it's Liar Bush who can't be trusted!!!

"Advisers to Bush once relished a race against Howard Dean, but they say they have become increasingly wary of him, worried that his unconventional and intense appeal poses a threat they had once underestimated... Among the factors that most worry them... is Dean's ability to attract young voters and others who have not voted before. Some of the officials said they also are given pause by Dean's similarities to their boss: a polarizing figure who has a temper and deep appeal to his core supporters. 'We believe this is going to be an election about our two bases, and therefore Dean's ability to excite his base means that he's a formidable candidate,' a Republican said... [Rove] plans to paint the nominee, whoever it is, as a liberal, tax-raising peacenik who wants to bash Bush instead of offering positive solutions... [Joe] Trippi said, 'Their whole theory has been to excite their base and depress the Democratic base. They haven't planned for a Democratic base that is so energized.'"

NY Times front page reports Karl Rove is "now all but certain that Howard Dean will be the Democratic presidential nominee and they are planning a campaign that takes account of what they see as Dr. Dean's strengths and weaknesses. 'We're ready to go,' said [Rove]. 'The broad thematics and the whole approach to him, those things have been well thought out. As for the tactical stuff, it's still out there. The timing is a big decision'... [But] Dr. Dean's ability to energize Democrats and potentially attract new voters, while raising large sums of money without the benefit of an established national reputation, has generated some concern within the Bush campaign, where much of the early betting had been on Dick Gephardt.. RNC and the Bush campaign are intensively reviewing their opposition research on Dr. Dean", using taxpayer dollars to look for liars and bimbos they can bribe or coerce to invent vicious smears. Defeat ALL Republicans!

Cheryl Seal writes, "All credibility was lost to start when his handlers claimed that the Bush visit somehow 'proved' there's more support in Balmer for the pRez than one is led to believe. (pause while Baltimoreans pick themselves up off the floor after an uncontrollable fit of laughter). Yep, in a city of 700,000 or so, where 9 out of 10 registered voters are Democrats, where 70% of the city population is black, and where most residents earn an average to lower income, Bush has 'proved' Balmer loves him by showing up at the Hyatt Regency Hotel on the city's Inner Harbor tourist strip and speaking to 550 mostly white, all rich Republicans, about 2/3 of whom were shipped in from Baltimore County (or so rumor has it) and beyond. Sounds like Bush logic to me!"

"Bush's reelection team, anticipating another close election, has begun to assemble one of the largest grass-roots organizations of any modern presidential campaign, using enormous financial resources and lack of primary opposition to seize an early advantage over the Democrats in the battle to mobilize voters in 2004. Bush's campaign has an e-mail list totaling 6 million people, 10 times the number that Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean has, and the Bush operation is in the middle of an unprecedented drive to register 3 million new Republican voters. The campaign has set county vote targets in some states and has begun training thousands of volunteers who will recruit an army of door-to-door canvassers for the final days of the election next November. The entire project, which includes complementary efforts by the RNC and state Republican parties, is designed to tip the balance in a dozen-and-a-half states that both sides believe will determine the winner in 2004."

Wayne Madsen writes, "We are now all bit players in a real-life version of the movie 'Wag the Dog.' Bush and his GOP advisers are ecstatic that the resident made a secret trip to Baghdad to be with U.S. troops for a 'traditional' Thanksgiving dinner. His polling numbers -- which I contend are as fixed as a Florida election -- will undoubtedly receive a huge boost. I may be a bit naive, and it has been a while since I served on active duty, but I can't recall ever sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner at 6:00 AM... And the abysmal and sycophantic Washington and New York press corps seems to have completely missed the Thanksgiving 'breakfast dinner.' Chalk that up to the fact that most people in the media never saw a military chow line or experienced reveille in their lives. So it would certainly go over their heads that troops would be ordered out of bed to eat turkey and stuffing before the crack of dawn. "

Tom Engelhardt writes, "Previously on his imperial peregrinations, [Bush] had imposed his 'bubble' world on whole cities - from Manila to Sydney to London - shutting them down and buttoning them up, emptying them of anything like normal life as he passed through their streets and institutions untouched. Yesterday, on his two-hour turn-about at Baghdad International, he shut himself down, slipping out of his house in an unmarked car... He then rode a blacked-out Air Force One into Baghdad International, shut down the airport till he left, and was gone in the twinkling of an eye. Phil Reeves of the British Independent commented in an aptly titled piece, 'The Turkey has Landed': 'The administration will be hoping that the video images will help erase memories of a not dissimilar staged event on 1 May in which the President landed on an American aircraft carrier to announce that the war in Iraq had been won. As the violence has worsened, that day has come to haunt the White House."

Maureen Dowd writes, "Before the resident even knows his opponent, his first political ad is blanketing Iowa today. 'It would take one vial, one canister, one crate slipped into this country to bring a day of horror like none we have ever known,' Mr. Bush says, in a State of the Union clip... With this ad, Republicans have announced their intention: to scare us stupid, hoping we won't remember that this was the same SOTU in which Mr. Bush [LIED!!!] about the Iraq-Niger uranium connection... [Bush] is trying to make the campaign about guts: he has the guts to persevere in the war on terror. But the real issue is trust: should we trust leaders who cynically manipulated intelligence, diverted 9/11 anger and lost focus on Osama so they could pursue an old cause near to neocon hearts: sacking Saddam? The Bush war left our chief villains operating, revved up the terrorist threat, ravaged our international alliances and sparked the resentment of a world that ached for us after 9/11."

Why does Bush want a royal visit with the Queen? "A clue can be found in the text studied more closely than any other by the political operatives in the Bush White House: the campaign to re-elect Ronald Reagan in 1984. That made heavy use of TV footage which cast Reagan as a statesman, at home across the globe. A favourite sequence showed the president and the Queen on horseback in Windsor Great Park during his 1982 visit. The Bush team want some royal shots like that of their own. They were particularly keen on an open-carriage procession down the Mall, and are said to be disheartened by London's suggestion that that might not be possible due to 'security'. One Republican source [said], 'Look, Americans don't know sh-t. They're not going to recognise the prime minister of the Philippines. The only foreign leaders they could pick out are the Queen of England and the Pope - and we've already got [his] pictures.' With the Pontiff in the can, the Queen is the co-star the president needs."

MIT professor "Noam Chomsky said that Bush will have to 'manufacture' another threat to American security to win reelection in 2004 after U.S failure in occupying Iraq. Chomsky, attending a Latin American social sciences conference in Cuba, said that since the Sept. 11 attacks on the US, the Bush administration had redefined U.S. national security policy to include the use of force abroad, with or without U.N. approval. 'It is a frightened country and it is easy to conjure up an imminent threat,' Chomsky said... when asked how Bush could get reelected. 'They have a card that they can play ... terrify the population with some invented threat, and that is not very hard to do,' he said. After the 'disaster' of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Bush could turn his sights on Communist-run Cuba, which his administration officials have charged with developing a biological weapons research program."

Fred Barnes writes: "Senator Zell Miller of Georgia, the nation's most prominent conservative Democrat [sic], said today he will endorse Resident Bush for re-election in 2004 and campaign for him if Bush wishes him to. Miller said Bush is 'the right man at the right time' to govern the country [pay no attention to those strings pulling on him]. The next five years 'will determine the kind of world my children and grandchildren will live in [I hope it's a feudalistic banana republic],' Miller said in an interview. And he wouldn't 'trust' any of the nine Democratic presidential candidates with governing during 'that crucial period,' he said [yes, you have such integrity Zell...NOT!]. 'This Democrat [sic] will vote for Resident Bush in 2004.' Miller, who is retiring from the Senate next year, has often expressed his admiration for Bush. He was a co-sponsor of the resident's tax cuts in 2001 and 2003. The two got to know each other in the 1990s when both were governors."

From WhiteHouseForSale.org: "The Associated Press reports that the Saudi government has spent $17.6 million on public relations, advertising and lobbying since Sept. 11, 2001, hoping to convince Americans that it is committed to fighting terrorism. The Saudis are spending some of their petro-dollars for the services of a [Bush campaign fundraising] Ranger whose connection with Resident Bush is longstanding and well known. Tom Loeffler is a partner in Loeffler Jonas & Tuggey, a Texas lobbying firm that the Saudis have paid $420,000 so far this year. Loeffler was a 2000 Pioneer and has achieved Ranger status for 2004. A classic 'revolving door' lobbyist, he is a former congressman who has been around for more than his share of scandals, both inside and outside Bush administrations."

With 4 soldiers dying each week in Iraq, how will Bush campaign in 2004? "I'll say that the world is more peaceful and more free under my leadership, and America is more secure," Mr. Bush said. More peaceful??? Not a single soldier that Bill Clinton deployed died in combat. Bush has sent 358 soldiers to their deaths, and there is no end in sight. More free??? Bush's USA Patriot Act shredded the Bill of Rights through warrantless searches and wiretaps, detentions without charges or lawyers, and revocation of American citizenship. Anti-Bush protesters are imprisoned in "free speech zones" far from Bush's view, and if they go any closer they are thrown in jail. More secure??? Clinton prevented the Millennium attacks, but Bush ignored dozens of warnings and allowed the 9-11 attack to succeed. Thanks to Bush's semi-official "War Against Islam" (see Gen. Boykin), Al Qaeda is getting stronger every day. If this is Bush's campaign message, we say - "Bring Him On!"

"Democrats who voted against the resident's request for $87 billion to build a viable economy and political system in Iraq are the ones who will be put on the defensive, [RNC chair Ed] Gillespie said in a meeting with political reporters in his office. 'I think that those who voted against the $87 billion are going to be the ones who are in a position of having to explain that vote next year,' Mr. Gillespie said. In a draft memo to Republican leaders, Mr. Gillespie said: 'Last week a significant minority, including leading Democrats, moved to the left of Syria and France by opposing funding for troops and reconstruction in Iraq. Some Democrats seem to think we would be better off had an international coalition not removed Saddam Hussein from power.' The memo does not mention that some Republicans voted against the $87 billion. The memo also makes clear Mr. Bush will not back away from his policy of pre-emptive war, even though some in his own party have registered discomfort."

"Operatives of the Bush/Cheney campaign identifying themselves only as 'supporters of the Resident' approached several local workmen to ask if they had done any work at the Kerry/Heinz home. In one case the Bush operative said,' I understand they party a lot there'... Asked what a lot of partying meant the Bush operative mentioned drugs... 'I have long believed that if the Bush crowd could not get the Resident reelected on his merits of which there are none, they would fall back on character assignation. This isn't new. One of the Right's tactics if their candidates are in trouble is to get what they call '5-10% dirt votes' to win. It's not just presidential races. If a GOP Senator or House member can't get enough votes to win outright the 'dirt squad' provides the margin with often made up dirt on the opponent,' said bb.c editor Bob Beckel. We at bb.c urge all progressive candidates to contact us if they have any evidence that the GOP dirt squad is at work in the campaign. "

Writes the Pentapost: "[The Bush campaign's] record receipts -- more than triple the top Democrat's fundraising FOR THE QUARTER -- were driven in large part by just 285 men and women, who collected $38.5 million or more, which was at least 45% of Bush's total." What blatant spindoctoring: $38.5 - donated just this quarter by the 285 piggies - is roughly 77% of $49.5, which of course is a WHOLE LOT MORE than "at least 45%". Note how the article fails to mention how much of Bush's grand total of $83.9 million the piggies kicked in. Top Pigs: the rightwing Christian Coalition, the oil, electrical, and nuke power industries, the Wholesalers lobby, developers, and assorted Washington lobbyists. The most Bush piggies came from FL (what a surprise), followed by TX and CA (where the same piggies recently bought an entire recall election). Dems should be PROUD they raised less $ because most of it came from everyday Americans, not pigs with their snouts buried deep in the trough.

From WhiteHouseForSale.org: "The New York Daily News publishes Lloyd Grove's Lowdown column. In it, Grove shares part of a message that the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign sent to its New York fundraisers. The memo helps confused Bush supporters wrestle with such messy questions as: 'Can I use my personal aircraft for campaign business? Can I have a fundraising cocktail party for my friends at a private club or hotel and pay for the party? Can I use my executive assistant to help with my fund-raising activities?' Inquiring minds want to know."

Paul Krugman writes, "Everything suggests that there are major scandals - involving energy policy, environmental policy, Iraq contracts and cooked intelligence - that would burst into the light of day if the current management lost its grip on power. So these people must win, at any cost. The result, clearly, will be an ugly, bitter campaign - probably the nastiest of modern American history... It's likely to be pictures of Howard Dean or Wesley Clark that morph into Saddam Hussein. And Donald Rumsfeld has already rolled out the stab-in-the-back argument: if you criticize the administration, you're lending aid and comfort to the enemy. This political ugliness will take its toll on policy, too. The administration's infallibility complex - its inability to admit ever making a mistake - will get even worse... In other words, if you thought the last two years were bad, just wait: it's about to get worse. A lot worse."

Time.com reports: "But the backroom brigadier of Bush's financial blitz was quietly working the velvet rope at the ballroom's VIP section. Jack Oliver, a little-known 34-year-old from Missouri, is the man largely responsible for what is being heralded as the most formidable money machine in modern political history... Oliver has fine-tuned the structure he inherited from the 2000 campaign, and built on a core group of fund raisers called Pioneers who each brought in $100,000. Instead of disbanding the group after Bush won, Oliver nurtured it... He kept in touch with fund raisers by conference call and e-mail and rallied them for the midterm election, writing gracious thank-you notes in his trademark blue felt-tip pen. After Congress doubled the gift limit to $2,000 a pop, Oliver helped institute a higher tier of fund raiser: the Rangers, who each raise $200,000 or more."

The Wall Street Journal reports: "In the 2004 race for the White House, Resident George W. Bush is counting on Mercer Reynolds to be the man with the golden touch. So far he isn't disappointing. After six weeks as the top fund-raiser for the president's re-election team, Mr. Reynolds has the campaign on course to collect $27 million to $30 million by the end of June, with Mr. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney on the road Monday making money-raising appeals. The fast start makes Bush insiders more confident that they can collect more than $150 million total, which would be more than a 50% increase over Mr. Bush's record-breaking $100 million four years ago. The Bush campaign is able to raise such enormous sums by using a structure that is somewhat similar to the Amway business model. Top fund-raisers sign up medium-size ones, who sign up smaller ones. At the peak of the pyramid is Mr. Reynolds, who is putting together a web of money men across the country."

Geov Parrish writes, "What it adds up to is corruption on a scale that dwarfs that of any third rate third world kleptocrat in terms of the looting of the public treasury. Military contractors alone will probably be buying thousands of those gold- plated rubber chickens in gratitude. Bush is raising money equal to some small countries' GDPs, but it still pales next to the short- and long-term profits his policies are guaranteeing to every conceivable transnational corporation and conglomerate that does business in the U.S. For a company that might net billions of dollars in additional monies from single acts of corporate welfare -- like either of Bush's massive tax cut plans, for example -- plowing a million or so back into a second term is an outstanding business investment. Think of it as public financing for incumbents: the elected official gives a company a billion or so, the company then gives the official a bit of our money back so that he can serve another term."

"Bush formally kicked off his re-[s]election campaign Friday... at a time when his advisers are increasingly wary of the stubborn economy. Bush's campaign, which will be based in suburban Virginia, had long been a question of when, not if. He filed papers Friday with the Federal Election Commission so his supporters can begin executing their plan to raise a record-setting $170 million or more. 'The American people will decide whether or not I deserve a second term [which I will steal again, if they don't want me],' Bush said as he left the White House for Camp David. 'In the meantime, I am focusing my attention today on helping [my serfs] find work [that includes uncompensated overtime]. And that's where I'm going to be for a while. I want this economy to be robust and strong so that [y]our fellow [peons] who are looking for a job can find a [crappy, humiliating] job'... The younger Bush, in seeking re-election, also is embarking on a campaign to vindicate his father's loss."

If you harbored the slightest fantasy that George Bush and Karl Rove would run a "positive" re-election campaign, then check out this vicious pre-emptive attack on Senator John Edwards (D-NC). "WHO IS JOHN EDWARDS? An Unaccomplished Liberal In Moderate Clothing And A Friend To His Fellow Personal Injury Trial Lawyers." This assault is not on some obscure right-wing Web site - it's the OFFICIAL site of the Republican National Committee, whose chair, Marc Racicot, was appointed by Bush and Rove. Call the media and demand full coverage of this unprecedented and outrageous attack - including an apology from George Bush!