Wow, once again, we have to remind ourselves that our opponents are evil, immoral, and want to destroy our way of life.  Which is why we have to defeat them, at the ballot box, on November 7th.

After that, then we can stop the terrorism by focusing on the underlying causes and by destroying the terrorist network, not bystander states.

"We were not descended from fearful men."

We sure weren't, but we may have become them anyway.

It's interesting the right wingers are talking about not falsifying history, etc.  

We can be sure this is not because they care about lying, or because they want to do the right thing, or any other noble reason.  

No.  This is evidence of the cumulative efficacy of our many attacks on their character and lying natures.  They don't want to take that hit again, not on this movie.

The reason people like Bill Bennet are bashing the movie is because they fear us and understand that we have been able to do real damage to them that is sticking.

Tipping points only look like tipping points because they make apparent in dramatic fashion what has already been ongoing for sometime, below the surface.  The weakness of the right wing is becoming much more apparent this week, not only to us, but to the wider culture.  

If Rick Perlstein or whomever writes the history of the contemporary progressive movement, this week could very well deserve close scrutiny, because this has indeed been a horrific week for the right wing.  But it's been under lots of sustained pressure from us and from the fruits of their own failures for some time.

how the right-wing was utterly destroyed this week.  

If I were seeking to make a wider point, I might suggest that this is typical of the shortsightedness that has bedevilled Dem politics for the last forty or more years; that has, since 1994, had the Dems in Congress more or less vamping till ready until the time when a grateful public filled with buyer's remorse begs them to take up their rightful place as majority again; that has allowed the party's organization at county and precinct level in many places to decay to its current woeful level.

But that seems altogether too grand a point for a little comment like this.

Ever so 'umble...

These are all delays today and not defeats yet. All of these seem more the case of DC Democrats in power finally loudly saying NO and Rove not getting the full support from all the GOP he used to get.

Question - If this thing airs Sunday and Monday, does the controversy raise interest or decrease interest?  I wasn't going to watch it regardless because I hate all this commercial crap that is coming out about 9/11 but I am curious.

Regardless, I think all the pressure is great and it sends a message to Disney et al to get the facts right and not to pull this crap in the future.  We are showing you can no longer push progressives around.

I've only seen ABC news which says "some" are questioning the accuracy, followed by Tom Kean attesting to (or seeming to) the accuracy. i.e."It could have happened like that"  What about NBC and CBS?

Randi Rhodes of course has a blood pressure of about 1000/500, but she is preaching to the choir.

I fear this Swift Boating will succeed with thos who only watch network news (or Faux) and certainly those who only or primarily watch ABC.

I've thought for some time, now, that the Republicans had lost control of three key frames that have kept them succeeding on a political level:  security, leadership, and spending.

But this week seems to bring things to a new low for them.  The Disney meltdown suggests that whatever was holding in place the co-ordinated machine of Rove and Big Media is no longer running on all cylinders.  I think this is a hugely important metric for the 2008 election, where we may just see--for the first time--a GOP that can no longer manage its message perfectly in the media.

Meanwhile, the non-partisan media (e.g., MSNBC) looked decidedly partisan this week, which was a very interesting change that could have huge consequences.

So, I would add the phrase 'tipping point in big media' to the discussion.

Very significant week, indeed...

At this point, I don't think it even matters if they run this piece of crap. First, only the true winger nutjobs will watch and put any faith in it. The program now as zero cred. Second, the political and PR fallout of this is and will continue to be terrible. Third, the producers/directors will never get a real gig again. They'll still make money doing propaganda films for Heir Dobson et al, but they have shot their wad with legit TV/Hollywood outlets.

In the end, and in a very perverse sort of way that only now seems to be possible because the toxic political and cultural environment in which we are all now forced to exist, this debacle may be a good thing for progressives.

On the larger point of the impotent right, that is dead on. Democrats/progressives need to build on this and keep the ball rolling. The cliche is oh so true: the best defense is a good offense. Stay on the offensive through November and great things will happen.

...is the anti-gay bias against Disney that bad?

It is important to contrast the response to the Disney movie with the response to the Swift-Boat liars.

Despite the fact that bullshit peddled by the Swifties was every bit as transparent as the Disney movie, the mainstream media basically accepted their crap on "balance" and the Democratic leadership didn't make a sizeable stink.

Here, the blog response was basically echoed by the "Clintonistas" and the mainstream press once they sensed that the CW was not buying the "truthiness" excuses proffered by ABC.

The difference is not in the level of anger found on the blogs. The difference is that people are less afraid to challenge the GOP spin machine.

How come only Republican ads say "Death to America" in them?

"What's also new is how Disney got no backup at all from the right-wing."

Matt this is a very critical observation. I was expecting the right-wing to ramp up support as soon as the liberal blogs began banging the drums and getting all the airplay in the corporate media. Typcially they have made the Dems look weak and as whiners. What is astounding, and a first in recent memory, is that one, the Dems DC establishment got on the ball right away from Clinton to the Senate leadership, second, they had good reps get on TV to make the case, third, there was immediate organization to get the grassroots provide the numbers. And the tide was so strong that even right-wing hacks like Bennet got on the bash Disney theme.

Disney execs blew this big time! They were left to hang by the right-wing. This will not go un-noticed.

Ok, so I hate to come out of the closet as an occasional viewer of the tv shlock known as "Cheaters", but I just had to point out that that salacious exemplar of non family values viewing shares the same narrator as this PFA ad.

http://www.cheaters.com/

  The Democrats, up to this point, have always seemed to me to be in denial about just how bad our media has become. I think that this denial had something to do with John Kerry's weak response to the Swift Boat slanders -- he probably thought that our "liberal" media would step in and set the record straight. And we know the rest of the story.

 But this Disney hit piece is just SO outrageous, SO blatantly partisan, and SO over-the-top -- in its content, in its marketing, in its pre-screening -- that it seems to have FINALLY blown the blinders off the Democratic leadership. The Dem response has been strong and coordinated, and whether or not this hit piece runs, its credibility has been pretty much destroyed, and its impact will likely be far less than what Disney and the Republicans anticipated.

 The bitterest irony, of course, is that it was Bill Clinton who signed the telecom bill in 1996 that paved the ground for these kinds of abuses by the media. Will the Democrats FINALLY learn that caving to right-wing interests for the appearance of "bipartisanship" does NO favors to either the country or the party?

 I hope that the grim reality has finally penetrated the thick skulls of our leadership -- THE MEDIA IS NOT OUR FRIEND. And the Republicans are SERIOUS about destroying every American institution they can get their hands upon.

 To paraphrase Jack Murtha, the netroots and the grassroots have been way ahead of the Dem establishment when it comes to understanding what's happening to our country. Let's hope that the Disney fiasco finally means our leaders start catching up to us.

And if Dem grassroots and Dem leaders get on the same page and work together, we WILL get our country back.

maybe I'm naive, but i find it comforting that sometimes, just sometimes, the right and left can agree on something.  

So, how many of you think the money behind this is Richard Scaife?? And how does it play when it comes out?

Regardless of how successful we are getting this thing pulled, the next thing to do is start talking about whose fault 9/11 really was.

This was a fight they did not want to pick; let's make them pay.

"Death cultist"? Clicking the link provided no obvious clarification. Forgive me for being obtuse, but WTF?