Obama: Stand Up and Fight for the Public Option

The last tough Democratic President

OpenLeft: Public Option or Primary!

Any Democrat who does not vote for a "public option" insurance plan in health care reform must be challenged in a primary. And this includes any President who does not go to the mat and fight 100% for a public option.

I'll camp out in front of Howard Dean's door for a year to get him to run for President if Obama abandons the campaign promises he made to us.

No public option, not one red cent to any Democrat who opposed the public option. It's that simple. And that includes one Barack Obama. I hope he realizes that. If he does not fight for us he is just another in the long line of corporate shills who talk a good game to get our votes then go off and vote with the money guys.

He's either with us or against us. Will the real Barack Obama please stand up?

Comings and Goings

Howard Dean is stepping down as chair of the DNC. Howard Dean was the Best Democratic Party Chair Ever, IMHO. Two possibilities to replace Dean have been floated: David Plouffe (Plouffe has already said no); or a pairing of Claire McCaskill and someone else. All I care about is appointing another grass roots/fifty-state strategy Democrat to the position.

Former DNC chair Terry McAuliffe files papers to run for governor of Virginia. Ugh. Besides his corporate trough issues, how will that Syracuse accent play in Virginia?

Barack Obama has put out word that he favors appointing his close adviser Valerie Jarrett to his Senate seat, where she would be the only black woman in the Senate, and only the second black woman ever in the Senate, following Carol Moseley Brown. That would make the total of women senators 17, the highest ever. Good rundown on who Valerie Jarrett is, from Deoliver47 at dailykos.

AP Must Fire Ron Fournier

Fire this Republican cheerleader

Media Matters for America: The AP has a Ron Fournier problem

We wrote about Ron Fournier's inappropriate emails to Karl Rove here. You can read the emails in the House Oversight Committee report (pdf file) here on page 23.

Karl Rove exchanged e-mails about Pat Tillman with Associated Press reporter Ron Fournier, under the subject line "H-E-R-O." In response to Mr. Fournier's e-mail, Mr. Rove asked, "How does our country continue to produce men and women like this," to which Mr. Fournier replied, "The Lord creates men and women like this all over the world. But only the great and free countries allow them to flourish. Keep up the fight."

When confronted with the fact of his cheerleading, Fournier claimed (a) the emails were just "too breezy" in tone, and (b) that he was researching an article on Pat Tillman's death.

Eric Boehlert of Media Matters has discovered that the second claim cannot be true, as Ron Fournier never wrote an article about Pat Tillman:

Yet according to a search of Nexis, Fournier didn't write any bylined articles about Pat Tillman's death in April 2004. Or ever, for that matter. That means Fournier wasn't reaching out as a reporter to Rove for information, quotes, or context about the sad Tillman story. Fournier didn't need Rove to be a "source" for the Tillman story because Fournier wasn't covering the Tillman story.

Instead, Fournier seemed to be using the Tillman story as an opportunity to initiate contact with Rove and let him know that Fournier was on his side, and to urge Rove to "keep up the fight."

Read the entire article at Media Matters to see Fournier and AP's history of Republican cheerleading. Fournier isn't an objective journalist. Here's just one odious example of his bias:

For instance, in the months before Fournier was privately bonding with Rove and urging the White House to "keep up the fight," this was the lead Fournier wrote for a straight-ahead news article about then-Democratic front-runner Howard Dean receiving Al Gore's endorsement:

Dean hopes the coveted endorsement eases concerns among party leaders about his lack of foreign policy experience, testy temperament, policy flip-flops, campaign miscues and edgy anti-war, antiestablishment message.

Gee, not many Rovian talking points embedded in that AP article, eh?

You can let AP know what you think of their Republican plant Ron Fournier here at their contact page. I'm sure if the AP fires him, he could very quickly get a job with the McCain campaign. For writing stuff like this:

The fact is, Fournier's McCain love runs deep and goes back years. In 2004, when McCain wasn't even a candidate, Fournier praised him in print as "a former Vietnam War hero who emerged from his 2000 defeat as one of the nation's most popular politicians, beloved by independent voters and courted by both presidential candidates."

The next year, while reviewing the possible 2008 presidential field, Fournier insisted the Arizona senator was "favored by a majority of Democrats and independents who would vote in a general election."

But that breathless claim had no factual basis.

Blogtopia* Roundup

The 2006 election was nine days ago and this is what CNN had on their screen today (Digby)

DC media Kool Kidz Klub apply following purple prose to Nancy Pelosi: too reliant on a tight inner circle; 'she shattered party unity', 'fratricide'; a 'liberal idealist' for supporting conservative Jack Murtha for House Whip; Digby says media are applying Clinton Rules Redux, 'cause

For some reason, when Democrats are in power the press corps immediately goes from being merely shallow to insufferable, sophomoric assholes.

See, also, Glenn Greenwald: Beltway attacks on Nancy Pelosi; John Murtha: Let's Get To Work

Bush Administration hires gynecologist opposed to contraception and abortion to family planning position at Health and Human Services; Digby says: Bush Hires Latest Sacha Baron Cohen Character, with picture of said doctor and his cheesy porn-star moustache. Pharyngula critiques his scientific beliefs and finds them wanting: Bad science? It's OK—just put him in charge of women's health

If you've got the stomach for it, go to the News Blog and watch the video of UCLA campus police (part of LAPD, natch) tasering a student in the library 5 times because he won't leave quietly. And after the first tasering, they are tasering him because he can't get up after being tasered. Sick, sick, police state stuff. (Who would Jesus taser? asks Americablog.)

Billmon with an interesting perspective on newly-Democratic, newly-progressive, newly-elected Virginia Senator Jim Webb: Comrade Webb; read Webb's Wall Street Journal op-ed here: Class Struggle.

Today is Democratic Party Chair Howard Dean's 58th birthday: dailykos: Happy Birthday, Howard Dean!. Go to democrats.com and throw the Dems some money for Howard's birthday. I gave $20.58. Thanks, Howard.


*yes! skippy coined that phrase!

James Carville Needs To STFU

James Carville, Clintonista married to a Republican strategist, is running around accusing Howard Dean of doing a terrible job as DNC Chairman. Carville charges that the DNC had $6,000,000 in the bank that they should have spent in Democratic races, and that the party should have taken an additional 15 seats as a result. (He called Dean's performance "Rumsfeldian"; them's fightin' words, Boudreaux.)

I'll put aside the fact that you can't do a straight money-to-victory analysis here. Rahm Emmanual put $3,000,000 into Tammy Duckworth's race, and she lost; he put $0, zero, into Carol Shea-Porter (NH-01), and she won, so there you go.

But why doesn't Carville look at his own Clintonista house? Hillary Clinton spent $29.5 million to win her Senate race in New York, a race that was essentially over before it started; can you even name her opponent? (HINT: he had the same name as a member of the cast of West Wing; I'll leave his name in Comments.) She won 67% to 31%. Wouldn't it have been more useful for her to donate half of her vast stores of money to candidates around the country who were actually in competitive races? Looking at it from that perspective, her actions were Cheneyesque. (Is that stretching it? Like giving no-bid contracts to Halliburton? Well, it works as well as James Carville calling Howard Dean who helped WIN BACK CONGRESS Rumsfeldian. I mean, what has Rumsfeld ever won? The handshake of Saddam Hussein? The trust of Commander Codpiece? I mean, really.)

Mary Matalin Has Sucked James Carville's Brain Out

I have evidence to prove this.

Yesterday, Carville called for Democrats to replace Howard Dean, the man who engineered their House and Senate triumphs, with Harold Ford. Harold, who just lost to a real right wing nutjob in Tennessee. Insane, no?

Here's the icing on the cake. In 2000, Carville proposed that Al Gore should choose as his running mate......Zell Miller.

See, Mary Matalin has clearly sucked his brains out. No question.

Go away, James Carville. Your useful life is over.

Howard Dean Was Right

I am a proud Deaniac. Oh, I swallowed my doubts and supported John Kerry after he got the nomination, but I was on the Dean train before he got cow-catchered off the tracks by the corporate media's playing fast and loose with his speech in Iowa. Because Dean was smart and knew what was really going on. Glenn Greenwald has an excellent post reminding us what Howard Dean had to say about North Korea and Iraq before Bush's ill-fated adventure began.

Unclaimed Territory: Invading Iraq and the North Korean threat -- a historical reminder

Contrary to the propaganda campaign enabled by the passive, mindless 2003 media, most anti-war advocates (such as Howard Dean) did not oppose the war in Iraq because war itself is wrong or even because preemptive war in response to a truly imminent threat is wrong. They opposed it because the evidence that Iraq posed an imminent threat was so shady and unconvincing and that the case that no other options short of war existed was so unconvincing (anyone with doubts about that should just go read Dean's speech -- "Secretary Powell's recent presentation at the UN showed the extent to which we have Iraq under an audio and visual microscope. Given that, I was impressed not by the vastness of evidence presented by the Secretary, but rather by its sketchiness").

More importantly, Dean pointed out that there were far greater threats to U.S. security than Saddam Hussein -- and he particularly emphasized the threats posed by North Korea and Al Qaeda, which would be neglected -- if not outright ignored and worsened -- by the mammoth, unpredictable and highly dangerous project of invading Iraq and attempting to re-build it into a stable democracy (see e.g. the resurgent Taliban, the uncaptured Osama bin Laden, the takeover of much of Iraq by Al Qaeda and Iran, and yesterday's North Korean nuclear test). The only way to see the Bush movement as "serious, weighty, tough" foreign policy thinkers, and the only way to see Democrats like Dean as "frivolous and weak on defense," is to completely ignore (or distort) history and to operate from the premise that being terribly wrong is a sign of seriousness and wisdom and being completely right is a sign of frivolity and weakness.

Know Your Friends

John is a synonym for toilet
I have no trouble with my enemies. I can take care of my enemies all right. But my damn friends... they're the ones that keep me walking the floor nights!
- Warren Gamaliel Harding

An open foe may prove a curse, but a pretended friend is worse.
- Benjamin Franklin

I've always said that in politics, your enemies can't hurt you, but your friends will kill you.
- Ann Richards

If you want to make enemies, try to change something.
- Woodrow Wilson


So last night, I'm surfing the web, and on AMERICAblog -- a blog I like and have linked to often -- I found the following post:

GOP Senator Pat Roberts is a big girl
by John in DC - 5/19/2006 03:00:00 PM

Of course that title pissed me off. Why oh why do people think it's acceptable to call someone a coward by calling them a girl? So I left this somewhat hysterical post (OK, I was mad, steam coming out of my ears mad).

Oh jesus fucking christ could we STOP thinking calling some[one] FEMALE is an INSULT?

Why don't you just call him, i don't know, testically challenged. insult his manhood. don't insult me. I'm sick of it. Just stop it, now.

quit hitting the tar baby of gender insults.

I'm a girl and i could kick your ass, john aravois, you name the time and the venue.
truth | Homepage | 05.19.06 - 10:34 pm | #

But the whole issue was still on my mind, so I went back and left this somewhat more considered comment:

I can't stop thinking about this. This is the second time in a week I've had to respond to a male blogger trying to insult someone by calling them female. The other one called someone a pussy, and I can't even remember the blog, but it just pisses me off no end. They weren't trying to say the guy was a cat. They were saying he was somehow less than, and therefore calling him female was the appropriate insult.

Female is not a synonym for 'less than'.

Let's say that again.

Female is not a synonym for 'less than'.

Just because male homosexuals commonly use the term 'big girl' in that way does not make it acceptable.

How would it look if I, a straight woman, called people I didn't like homos or queers, because that was common use in my community? Would that then be OK? Hell, no.

And you know what? I'm a true progressive, and I'd NEVER insult anyone by group affiliation like that.

The worst insult I have ever called anyone in my life is Bush Republican. Now that's an insult.

Why piss on your friends, for no reason?

John? John? Plate needs stepping up to, please.
truth | Homepage | 05.19.06 - 11:38 pm | #

Well, this morning I woke up to find that my comments had been deleted. That pissed me off, too, so I found a site that had archived the comment thread and re-posted them. But, you guessed it, they were deleted a second time.

Big year for me -- I've been deleted from the Washington Post blog and from AMERICAblog. (I wonder what blog will delete me next so I can hit the 2006 delete trifecta?)

So the whole kerfuffle got me interested, and I googled John Aravosis, the guy who runs the site & used the term "Big Girl". I love google, even if they are censoring shit in China. And now they own blogspot, so am I getting back at their censoring asses with my free blog? Conundrums.

Anyway, back to google.

Wow, I did not know anything about John Aravosis.

I knew he was a lawyer. I did not know that from 1989 to 1994 he was a staff attorney for .... wait, this is good .... Ted Stevens of Alaska. Mr. Pork himself! And since Stevens is a Republican -- so was Aravosis, until ... well, this is not clear. Not much biographical information about Mr. Aravosis on the 'net.

Here's his SourceWatch bio:

John Aravosis, who operates the AMERICAblog.org web site, is a "Washington DC-based writer and political consultant, specializing in using the Internet for political advocacy. He is the creator of StopDrLaura.com, Matthew Shepard Online Resources, and DearMary.com, among other activist Web sites.

"John has a joint JD and MSFS from Georgetown, where he studied under former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright. He is an avid writer, and in addition to writing THE LIST (http://www.gayadvocacy.com/subscribe.html), he has worked as a stringer for the Economist magazine, and for years was the US Politics Guide at About.com.

"John's policy experience includes stints in the US Senate, the World Bank, and the Children's Defense Fund. John is also an occasional TV pundit, having appeared on The O'Reilly Factor, Hardball with Chris Matthews, ABCNews World News Tonight, CNN, and more. John speaks five languages and has visited or worked in 28 countries." [1]

Speaks five languages, visited 28 countries, sounds very civilized and urbane, no? This afternoon John Aravosis of AMERICAblog posted this:

Guys, anybody who isn't happy, please leave this blog and don't come back. I'm serious. Get out.

Our Constitution is on life support and you freaks, a very vocal minority of the people who visit this site and comment, have spent over 24 hours worrying about two words in a title, and you're still obsessed with it. None of us have the time to deal with your weekly fit of hysterics, whether it's over Katherine Harris' photo, Cynthia McKinney being a wackjob, commenter Miles being upset that I "made a big deal" about a hate crime that almost killed a gay couple, you being upset that I criticized Howard Dean for his insensitivity to gay issues (which I was proved right on a week later), and on and on and on.

It took me a while to realize it, but there are a minority of my readers who are never going to be happy. Rather than fight our common enemy, you'd rather sit here and beat me up because somehow you get off on that. That's fine. You're no longer welcome. Please leave. And spare me the emails about how you used to love the blog. The blog is the same it's always been. You however have become increasingly nasty and shrill. And in any case, the majority of our readers are normal people who are actuall worried about their country and want to make a difference. Please stop bothering them with your weekly crises.

I choose to spend my time fighting the enemy. You choose to spend your time fighting friends. Well, you do that. On someone else's blog. You're no longer welcome here, so get out so the rest of us, the majority of our readers and evoted advocates, can get on with trying to fix this country. JOHN
John Aravosis | 05.20.06 - 3:19 pm | #

So, I can take a hint. I removed AMERICAblog from the blogroll. I'll take his words with a healthy grain of salt from now on -- I'm a big girl, after all. I'll only call Aravosis the worst epithet I know of -- Republican. The guy was a Republican for a significant part of his conscious life. How stupider can you get than that?

In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for; as for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican.
H.L. Mencken

Democrats Must Fight Rigged Elections

From thesmirkingchimp:

'Dear Howard Dean: Why bother?'

Dear Dr. Dean,

Every week I get dozens of solicitations from the Democratic National Committee, from the Democratic Senate and Congressional Campaign Committees, or from various Democratic candidates and office-holders, each of them asking for contributions. "You can help us achieve victory next November," I am told.

If by "victory" is meant a majority vote cast at the polls, then the Democrats achieved "victory" in 2000, 2002 and 2004. And yet, the Republicans remain in control of the Congress and the White House.

Small wonder! Republicans build the voting machines, Republicans write the secret software, Republicans count and compile the totals. The Republican machines allow no auditing of the vote totals they report. So Republicans have the ability to "win" elections, regardless of the will of the voters. There is compelling evidence that they have done just that.

And so, if nothing is done to end the privatization of our elections and to introduce reliable verification, the Republicans will "win" again in November 2006 and then in 2008. Today, eleven months before the mid-term election, the outcome is fore-ordained - as certain as Soviet elections under Stalin, and Iraqi elections under Saddam. For, as Stalin said, "Those who cast the votes decide nothing, those who count the votes decide everything."

He's absolutely right. And if the Democrats don't fight back we will continue to be marginalized.

The #1 voting machine rigger in the country is Diebold. Their CEO just resigned:

Wally O'Dell, Diebold CEO, resigns!

But not because they got nailed for vote rigging. No, Wally committed securities fraud, and some other dyed-in-the-wool Re-thug lover, Thomas Swidarski, has taken the reins at Diebold.

North Carolina required a little bit of transparency and accountability in the electronic voting machines, so Diebold pulled out the state entirely. Tells you that they are crookeder than a barrel of fishhooks.

Howard Dean, a Real Leader

I received the following email from Howard Dean last night (I'm on the national Democratic Party email list, as I am a congenital Democrat. I'm also on the Republican Party email list, just so I can see how the re-thugs address their constituencies.) The Democrats are cancelling all fundraising events, cancelling their fall meeting, released DNC staff to participate in relief operations, and urging people to open their home to flood victims.

As reported here earlier, the Republicans intend to respond to the disaster by eliminating the estate tax and cutting Medicaid.

By giving us the "Dean Scream" (as well as "Swift Boating", and other atrocities) the media also gave us the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Can you imagine Howard Dean staying on vacation during a Category 5 hurricane? I can't even imagine Howard Dean on vacation, to be honest. He's a bulldog, and I say that with great admiration.

The Deaniacs were right. Send Bush back to Crawford. Impeach the incompetent b@st@rd.

Dear [truth],

In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, you mobilized to make sure that the Red Cross had the financial resources it needed to respond swiftly. The response was literally overwhelming -- so many donations poured in that their web site struggled to process them.

Since then Americans have seen another kind of disaster unfold. The irresponsible lack of attention by our federal government has led directly to the devastation of communities and the loss of American lives.

The federal response over these crucial first days has been totally unacceptable. There will be a time for a full accounting of the preventable part of this disaster, and those responsible will be held accountable. It will be soon.

But there are lives to save right now and our focus must be steady. People need help right now. And you can be a direct participant in the relief efforts by providing housing for a victim of the disaster.

The vast number of evacuees has triggered a cascading crisis -- the first group of evacuation centers in the Gulf States has been overwhelmed, and the surrounding states have seen their capacity exceeded as well.

Hundreds of thousands of survivors are being transported in small groups to cities and towns across the country. A coalition of groups has put together a web site to collect offers of housing and provide a place for victims to search for help. You can offer shelter -- whether for a few days or a few weeks -- by signing up here:

http://www.hurricanehousing.org

To support your volunteer housing operation the following steps have been taken:

We are briefing Democratic elected officials on the HurricaneHousing.org program and asking that they treat this as the front-line network of volunteers who are ready and waiting to provide shelter in their jurisdiction.
We have asked outside organizations to direct their members to HurricaneHousing.org to volunteer; those organizations with representatives on the ground have been asked to help victims connect with the housing bank.
We have directed the staff at Democratic Headquarters in Washington to use local volunteers signed up on HurricaneHousing.org as they work with DC emergency response officials to assist hundreds of survivors being transported to the DC Armory, which is located nearby.
In addition to mobilizing our infrastructure to support the housing drive, we have also taken the following steps in the last week:

All DNC fundraising events have been cancelled until further notice and donations are being directed to relief organizations.
The DNC Fall Meeting that had been scheduled to take place this week has been postponed.
All staff have been given leave to participate in relief operations (many are completing Red Cross training this week and will deploy shortly).
The Democratic leadership in Congress has proposed a comprehensive policy package to ensure that victims receive health care, financial assistance and educational and employment opportunities during the crisis (go to www.democrats.org/reliefplan for more). But more than anything our organization has done, the thousands of acts of compassion by ordinary citizens and a renewed sense of common purpose will be the legacy of this effort.

Our American community will emerge stronger from this crisis.

Thank you for doing what you can.

Governor Howard Dean, M.D.

P.S. -- A number of organizations on the ground still need financial support. You can learn about them here:

http://www.democrats.org/reliefgroups

Paid for and authorized by the Democratic National Committee, www.democrats.org. This communication is not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.


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Reflections on the Election

I am beginning to recuperate from my post-election malaise. Here are some of the things that have been rolling around in my head:

-- John Kerry has been my senator for years. Including his candidacy for lieutenant governor, I have voted for him 5 times. I've always liked his stands on the issues. But I never felt passionate about him. That's why I supported Howard Dean. He spoke clearly and persuasively about the issues I care about, including his clear stand against the war in Iraq. Once Kerry was the candidate, of course I supported him. But he wasn't my first choice, & I've voted for him 5 times in the past.

-- Why do we let Iowa & New Hampshire pick our Democratic candidates? Both of them are 50/50 states. Why aren't our first primaries in California, New York & Illinois? States filled with Democratic voters.

-- Will Rogers once said, famously, I don't belong to an organized political party. I'm a Democrat. Boy, it felt that way a lot this summer. Waiting for Kerry to respond to the Swift Boat Liars. K/E trotted out all Kerry's boatmates at the convention & weren't prepared to put 'em on TV to counteract all the BS from guys who didn't even know Kerry in Vietnam? Even when they did respond, it wasn't very effective.

-- What was with the duck hunting expedition? First off, one of the late-to-the-party Clintonistas, Lockhart or McCurry, said flat-out to the press, This is a photo-op. Gee, thanks for all the expert help, guys.
Then, there's the ridiculousness of it. I don't own a gun & never have. But I grew up in the mountains where we got the first day of hunting season off every year. A girl in my class shot a deer when she was 12. I watched my neighbor up the street butcher his deer every year. It never bothered me, because in the mountains people hunt for food. That deer fed a family for the winter. I don't mind hunting for food. Hey, I'm a carnivore, I buy my meat in the grocery store, I'm no different from that deer hunter. But was Kerry really going to eat that Canada goose? Was anyone? Hunting for sport, I just don't get. When those pictures of Kerry were on TV my friend's 13-year old asked me, Why is Kerry killing a duck? What did that duck ever do to him? What's that have to do with being President? Good questions.

-- Where was the famous Kerry close? Where were the tough last-minute ads? Remember, Kerry went "dark" in August to save money for his all-out blitz before Election Day. Where was it? Just those boring "Stronger at Home, Respected in the World" ads.

-- And couldn't they come up with a better tag line than that? Where's the power in those words?

-- Why did Kerry concede so quickly? After telling us he would fight for every vote, why didn't he? He couldn't just wait until all the votes were counted? Both campaigns encouraged all their voters to vote early or to vote by absentee ballot. As this becomes more common, folks are going to have to get used to the fact that WE WON'T KNOW WHO WON ON ELECTION NIGHT. It's important. It's worth getting it right. Kerry should have hung in there until all the votes were counted.

Did everything really change, or was it all a dream?

Some days the "news" just gets to me.  This morning I was flipping through the morning shows.  There was Katie Couric, sitting on a high chair, interviewing three people about Martha Stewart.  (Am I the only person who can't look at Katie any more without thinking, "Navy Seals ROCK!")  Robin Roberts on ABC is directing a man through making and demonstrating homemade cleaners.
 
Remember after September 11th, when people were saying everything had changed forever?  When the media had a hiccup of regret over spending the summer covering Gary Condit and Chandra Levy?  That's when we got constant tickers crawling beneath the announcers on every news station.  Those tickers told us how many people were thought to be dead, the rumors of life in the pile, stories that made us feel and care.  But now our tickers are telling us about the Scott Peterson trial, and Martha Stewart's sentencing, and Kobe Bryant.  And they never tell us anything about the Americans or the Iraqis who died in Iraq today, other than counting them like the score of a sick baseball game.  What are their names?  How old were they?  How did they die?  Tell us.  Their deaths matter. 
 
Frank Rich says it is the fault of happy talk news.  I don't know why journalism has sunk this low, but it makes me sad.
 
Why hasn't one of the networks shown the video of Bush sitting in that Florida classroom for 7 minutes after learning the 2nd World Trade Center Tower had been hit?  Why don't I have that video burned into my brain, instead of poor Howard Dean shouting over the crowd in Iowa?
 
Show me the My Pet Goat video.  The country will not fall apart if we see Prances in Flightsuit as he really is.  Give him his seven minutes of fame.  Show some courage.  Show some guts.   Be journalists, not parrots.  Do your job.