Wow. Those are all top notch, but Brian Clem's is the best. Nothing beats a sense of humor.

Agreed, straight honest talk from the candidate to the camera is the best ad there is.

Well, considerin' what's at stake and considerin' the genius's who put them together, I figured the commercials would be a little meatier. Sad to see not so much ('sept the ads from Cowan and Galizio, solid stuff).

What we are not. Shoot, might as well tell folks we're not Republicans, like we did in '00, '02, & '04.

Job exports? Ain't that a federal issue? What about education? Health care? Folks' concerned 'bout their future? How 'bout a little closer to home next time?

We keeps askin' for solid issues. All our party wonks preach is fluff. God help us all.

Kari,

You want me to do yer job fer ya? Or are ya linin' up yer excuses for why you'd fail in November? Fine.

Somethin' dealin' with money comes to mind. Or children. Or 'bout how much it costs most folks to go see a doctor? Or 'bout any of a dozen or so things folks talk 'bout over a beer after work.

How 'bout hard answers? How 'bout how we pay to get our kids on health insurance? How 'bout more than tok'n lip service on cuttin' tax giveaways for rich folk? how 'bout what it'll take to fix our schools? Our roads? Our tax collectin'? What are we going' to do to take care of our folk? Our safety? Our future?

Need more? How 'bout what us Dems' are goin' to do to fix those problems? Not what we want to do, but what we need to do now! What'll we do that's diff'rent than them elephants are doin'? Where do we find the money? Where is the waste? Where are the hard answers? Where is the spine?

Give us meat and 'taters, not the bland crappy rice cakes y'all pass off as a roadmap. That things as clear as mud. Give folks a reason to vote Dem, not some lame excuse.

How do Oregon voters term Oregon Democratic political stances? Even with targeted cable TV campaign advertising, candidates still have definition problems.

When FDR, LBJ or JFK were out there, voters new what was a Democrat stance. Now with spin doctoring of Karl Rowe and company, the question becomes...

"Talking Right" asks, "Are the Democrats simply tone deaf?" (See review below signature)

Since political terms are very important, I’m trying to get a feel for terms in which voters view Democratic candidates.

These questions are triggered by the NPR radio broadcast today (Sept 27, 2006). (See below signature)

Consider these questions...

• WHY PARTY ELECTORAL FAILURES? Explain recent Democratic Party electoral failures locally, statewide, and nationally.

• WHAT TERMS MUST PARTY USE? Define terms Democrats must use to win back American electorate.

• WHAT TERMS SUPPORT PARTY? Define terms to create a powerful, yet simple, clear, concise and complete narrative that weaves together pro-Democratic issues to support the party.

DEMOCRATIC NARRATIVE NEEDS TO BE YELLED OUT LOUD This narrative needs to be yelled from the top of a hill. It needs to be... • Strong Democratic narrative, • Defined in Democratic terms and • Yelled out again and again.

Not just attacks on Bush or Republican positions.

WHAT TERMS MUST BE CLEARLY AND SIMPLY DEFINED BY DEMOCRATS? Consider what are the most important half dozen descriptive terms (or similar terms), listed below.

WHAT'S THE CLEAR, SIMPLE DEFINITION? What’s a simple, clear, concise, complete definition of descriptive terms used? (25-75 words or less)

DESCRIPTIVE POLITICAL TERMS • All people having same rights • Anti-constructionist • Business supporter • Capitalist • Charity-Christian • Conservationist • Conservative • Constitutionalist • Democrat • Elitist • Environmentalist • Faithist • Gay rights supporter • Government supporting people • Independent • Leftist • Left-wing • Less taxes • Liberal • Measure 37 supporter • Moralist • Neo-conservtive • Neo-rightist • Patriot • Pro-active • Pro-choice • Progressive • Radical conservative • Rightist • Right-wing • Taxist • Tree-hugger

Thanks Chris Christopherson PEGGY’S ALASKAN CABBAGE PATCH B&B 194 S. Second St., Lebanon, OR 97355 B&B-Fax 541 258-1774 http://www.Cabbage-Patch-B-and-B.com

<hr/> <h2>NPR RADIO BROADCAST</h2>

“POLITICAL GLOSSARY FOR THE MID TERM ELECTIONS”

Talk of the Nation, September 27, 2006 · Defeaticrat, culture of corruption, and security mom are all part of the election-year war of words. Guests explain the strategy behind the slogans.

GUESTS: • Geoffrey Nunberg author most recently of the book, “Talking Right: How Conservatives Turned Liberalism into a Tax-Raising, Latte-Drinking, Sushi-Eating, Volvo-Driving, New York Times-Reading, Body-Piercing, Hollywood-Loving, Left-Wing Freak Show”; linguist at the School of Information at Berkeley

• Frank Luntz, Republican pollster

<hr/> <h2>REVIEW OF BOOK “TALKING RIGHT…”</h2>

"Talking Right" review in BUZZFLASH

“Talking Right: How Conservatives Turned Liberalism into a Tax-Raising, Latte-Drinking, Sushi-Eating, Volvo-Driving, New York Times-Reading, Body-Piercing, Hollywood-Loving, Left-Wing Freak Show” Author: Geoffrey Nunberg. Published July 3, 2006.

<hr/>

If you like George Lakoff's writings on framing, you'll love "Talking Right." It's Lakoff with Tabasco sauce and wry analysis.

How can you not love a book with the line: "It's hard to think of any leading right-wing broadcaster whom even his most devoted fans would welcome having as a brother-in-law." We would add the individual horror one would experience of having Ann Coulter as a sister-in-law!

Like Lakoff, Geoffrey Nunberg, the author of "Talking Right," is a Bay Area professor who specializes in linguistics. While Lakoff provides the brilliant theoretical context and foundation for how the right wing has "framed" the political language used to control public debates, Nunberg fills in the historical details. And he does it with an ironic eye and keen appreciation for the hypocrisy that is the backside of how the right wing has manipulated the connotations of words, phrases and slogans to their advantage.

"As it happens, the majority of brie consumers are Republicans," Nunberg writes. "But whoever actually buys the stuff, it stands for the Right's stereotype of liberals – soft, pale, runny, and French." Remember Rove's successful effort to "Frenchify" John Kerry?

Nunberg's analysis of how the right wing has shifted our entire political discourse is thought provoking throughout. His dissection of how the Republicans have stifled the Democrats from discussing class issues while it is the Republicans who are conducting class warfare is essential reading.

Of course, the Democrats could fight back, but that would take stamina and the ability to stay on message for a very long period of time. It would be helpful if the Dems could get everyone who has an income below $100,000 a year to realize that "when it comes to the crunch, the 'freedom' that conservatives champion for working Americans amounts to no more than the right to take a job and shove it." That is if they can find a job that hasn't been sent overseas.

Indeed, as most BuzzFlash readers know, the very "gravity" of our political language has shifted so far right that a centrist now is what a conservative was in the '60s. The Republican Party leadership now isn't conservative; it's radical, in the truest sense of the word.

"Talking Right" begins by asking, "Are the Democrats simply tone deaf?"

Nunberg hopes that they will awaken with a sense of language that embraces progressive ideals. But they will need a narrative, not just words. They will need a coherent domestic vision and world view.

But Nunberg cautions, "Whatever they [the Democrats] come up with in the way of new and compelling ideas and a new sense of political purpose, they'll have a hard time packaging them so long as the right has its name all over the wrapping paper."

Geoffrey Nunberg is an adjunct full professor at UC Berkeley's School of Information, a researcher at the Center for the Study of Language and Information at Stanford University, and a consulting professor in the Stanford Department of Linguistics. He is also chair of the Usage Panel of the American Heritage Dictionary. Since 1989, he has done a language feature on NPR's "Fresh Air," and his commentaries on language and politics are regularly seen in the Sunday New York Times and other publications. A winner of the Linguistic Society of America's Language and the Public Interest Award, he is also the author of The Way We Talk Now and Going Nucular. Nunberg lives in San Francisco.

BUZZFLASH REVIEWS

Kari and all you other fellers who keeps askin' fer sum'pn better.

"Ask, and ye shall be rewarded!"

<h2>Much abliged Chris Christopherson and all the Oregon folk who figgr'd out a long time a-go why God bless'd us with two ears but only one mouth!</h2>