I had always suspected that the extremist branch of the Republican herd carried out intentional word abuse in the media channels they own. Yesterday I saw a copy of a memo confirming this theory. It was promulgated by Newt Gingrich's GOPAC.
   It seems the GOP have learnt the marketing 101 lesson that meaning can be distorted by context. "I want your welfare, sweetie, just a little compassion. Oooo yes, unionize me! That is so good for my environment. You know you want to give me civil rights. Wow, you really are into global policies!" 
   The memo directs the greed-mongers on how to dress up their corrupt policies with focus-group-tested zingers. But it does something far more sinister: In a tacit acceptance that most people will not knowingly support handouts of their tax money to ultra-rich Republican donors, they list foul labels to apply to an opponent. These lists are unhinged from policies, the words are unhinged from their meanings and the sleaze ball who wrote the list is unhinged from ethics. 
   In spite of their efforts, Liberal is not a dirty word. It comes from the Latin word for a freeman and has a dictionary definition of "...to support civil liberties, democratic reforms and the promotion of social progress." The Irrational Right has exposed itself yet again. Their ugly campaign of wordplay is trickery of the lowest kind. Welfare is a safety net, not a feather bed. Unions protect low paid workers from becoming indentured servants. Oil addiction is not cured by more drilling. Government policy should not be for sale to the highest bidder and yes, a world outside our borders does exist. 
   How would they like a dose of their own medicine? 
   Might does not make right and the Bush posse have brought nothing but decay with their sick, and pathetic policies. The vibrant economy of Clinton has been replaced by stagnation due to the corrupt rule of this "divine right president". Bush and his minions have wasted the surplus that could have reduced the trillions of dollars of debt that Reagan and Bush senior created. They have wasted the chance to develop alternatives for the foreign oil to which we are addicted as a nation. They have squanderd OUR social security funds by giving kick backs to their billionaire bed mates who bought them the leadership of our country. 
   Anyone who believes that Bush was duly elected has been made a fool by the media allies of the GOP, those talking heads who are as much traitors to our United States as are the usurpers who seized power by a method bordering on a coup barely twelve months ago. 
   My fellow Americans, I wish you a happy new year under the former governor of Texas, or whatever you want to call him. However, I refuse to play the Republican operative's game and accept "president" as including, "a person appointed by daddy's friends in the Supreme court."