Weapons of Mass Instruction

Michelle Glazier writes "We at the Peace Pretzel have been discussing how we could put together a series of fact sheets about Bush, essentially giving the voters his record on various issues, compiled from credible, unbiased sources and complete with footnotes/references.

A lot of people still think that Bush has done a pretty good job, which we suspect is because a lot of people are too busy with their personal day to day lives to take an interest in politics. Most people are only familiar with Bush's carefully crafted, photo-op shaped public image. For those of us who have followed this administration closely, we may not even know where to begin in explaining why it would be dangerous to allow Bush 4 more years.

We have decided to create this weblog as a way to make information available as we receive it. If we find that someone has already created certain informative handouts, we will post the links here so that they are immediately available to anyone who wishes to print and distribute them.

As people send us thoughts, suggestions, and links, we will post them here (without identifying information) so that our readers can see what we have so far. That might inspire you to offer new suggestions, or maybe you will see some erroneous data posted here and you can let us know so that we can keep these fact sheets as credible as possible.

Some thoughts we have about fact sheets we would like to do:

Since the women who were once called "Soccer Moms" are now known as "Security Moms", and security is generally an issue that people associate with Bush (and we do mean associate in the Pavlovian sense) there should be a fact sheet addressing all the ways that Bush has failed in the area of security after September 11. (I think there is information out there that he denied funding to "first responders" and generally didn't provide the necessary resources for increased security.)

The war in Iraq needs its own fact sheet. So much deception was involved there, and polls indicate that a lot of people don't think it even matters if the WMD are found. We'd like to come up with a page that has the "highlights" of the buildup to war, what arguments were made, and how they changed over time.

Something about what Bush has promised, versus what he delievered--maybe a longer, informative version of this: http://protest.bmgbiz.net/bushvsbush.html

Also, since Bush purports to be a Christian, and at least some of his popularity is due to the fact that many Americans consider themselves religious, and they at least like the idea of Bush as being a "godly" man. Many Christians will be the first to tell you that he talks the talk, but he certainly doesn't walk the walk. So, there will be a fact sheet along the lines of "What Would Jesus Do?" versus "What Does Bush Do?"

For each of these handouts, we would like to have quotes from people who are seen as credible, unbiased, and knowledgeable in their fields: military strategists who questioned Bush's war plans. Economists who have pointed out the problems with the Bush economic plan. And so forth. One thing that would really help would be any speeches or essays from fellow conservatives or Republicans who have spoken out against something the Bush administration has done.

This is in the very early stages. Eventually, there will be various fact sheets that people can print out and have as resources. They can be handed out, left at libraries and other places that will let you put out informational handouts. And the will also serve as useful resources for people who know that Bush is a terrible president, but can't easily come up with specifics when on the spot.

Bush just gives us so much material to work with. Too much. We need to distill it down to a manageable amount of vital information, but then provide resources where people can read more on their own. We would appreciate any input you have to offer in our creation of these "Weapons of Mass Instruction".

The Peace Pretzel: Counter-propaganda for the people http://protest.bmgbiz.net

There is a link to the Weapons of Mass Instruction blog at the bottom of the main page. Click that link to see the resources we already have. If you know of a good resource that we don't have already, please pass it along. Thanks!"

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