Lone Star Democracy Builders Association

Liberals Against Terrorism jumped all over Amnesty International's CEO for using the word "gulag" in discussing this year's human rights report, claiming:

See, Irene Khan's overreach has allowed Bush to wave his hands and distract the press...

I think this is a bit silly, but I've seen a similar claim in a couple of other blogs. But President Bush is going to wave his hands, and many people in the press is going to help him, no matter what words are chosen.

The people you're losing, though, are people like my mother. She is a self-described Republican and serious Christian who voted for Kerry in the 2004 election. She is why I felt mixed about Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism. Too many half-truths, one too many unsupported attacks ("Such and such year, Rupert Murdoch buys his first politician" in the timeline.)

My mother will vote with you, but she needs you to be professional. My mother will help us - you just have to give her someone to respect. "Gulag" is an unnecessary bit of hyperbole from an organization such as Amnesty that is supposed to be a subject matter expert. She is allergic to "the 60's," but she's very concerned about cuts to CHIP. Be a grownup, and she'll listen.

As an aside, my mother is also one of the reasons why the Enron movie didn't need to have several minutes of half-naked strippers gyrating into the camera just to make the point that one of the executives was sleazy. She would have stopped watching the film at that point. Also, it was exploitive and really f*&king annoying.