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Picture of StopSlaughtergate
Posted
Frank Luntz strategy report
by kos
Wed Feb 23rd, 2005 at 00:02:44 PST

This zipped file contains two PDF files -- scans of a 160-page briefing book by Frank Luntz on the lessons learned from 2004 as the GOP seeks to extend its winning streak in 2006.
Haven't read and processed it all yet. I thought I'd give you guys an early look at it. It's a virtual smogasboard for fans of language framing, and a great "preview of coming attractions".

Warning, it's an 8MB file, so it may take a while to download.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////


Frank Luntz Republican Playbook -- Searchable Text-Version

PART I "Introduction"

PART II "Setting the Context and Tone"

PART III "Growth, Prosperity, & Restore Energy and Economic Security"

PART IV "International Trade: Promoting America's Competitiveness"

PART V "The Budget: Ending Wasteful Washington Spending"

PART VI "Tax Relief & Simplification"

PART VII (Part A) "SOCIAL SECURITY = RETIREMENT SECURITY"

PART VII (Part B) "SOCIAL SECURITY = RETIREMENT SECURITY"

PART VIII "LAWSUIT ABUSE REFORM: A COMMONSENSE APPROACH"




" See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda." � G.W. BU$H <br />***********************************<br /> HartmannWatchWatch
 
Posts: 641 | Location: The Stork :-)~ | Registered: 07 November 2004Report This Post
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Thanks for the heads up.
Although, I won't be able to download it.
I can imagine what some of the highlights are - the big lie, diversion/deflection, red-herrings, character assassination, manufacture crises, ignore authentic crises, carcicature any group or any people who threaten the prerogatives of Big Business, and so on and so forth.

I'm listening to one of the practitioners of it all right now, Mike Rosen, who is a Denver host filling in for Rush Limbaugh.
 
Posts: 633 | Location: Denver | Registered: 12 April 2003Report This Post
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Give Preston a liberal radio station to listen to and he listens to Rosen.... ??

I doupt that this a Rove plant since it makes fools out of them all,
 
Posts: 11 | Location: Colorado | Registered: 25 November 2004Report This Post
Picture of No election, No Peace
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I'm running out of patience getting this unzipped too, but here's somebody else's comments on it:
quote:

Luntz's playbook is full of things people should never say if they don't want to undermine the right-wing agenda. Here's how you can be Frank Luntz's worst nightmare:

Economy

# Talk about the economy using "facts and figures."

# Talk about the overall size of Bush's proposed tax cut.

# Describe how repealing the estate tax protects America's wealthiest families.

# Talk about the economy without bringing up 9/11.

# Recall how Bill Clinton produced balanced budgets in the late 1990s.

Budget

# Remind people that conservatives want to make painful cuts in vital government services.

# Talk about the deficit without bringing up 9/11.

Social Security

# Remind people that the financial services industry has been embroiled in scandal and corruption.

# Note that money contributed to private accounts will "go into the hands of greedy Wall Street fat cats."

# Point out that proponents of Social Security privatization "lack factual discipline."

# Tell people that the push to privatize Social Security is about partisan politics.

Energy

# Tell people what ANWR stands for.

# Say, "We should rely on American ingenuity and not the Saudi Royal Family."

# Talk about how drilling for oil harms the environment.

# Always say "Drilling for oil"; Never say "Exploring for energy."

# Give specific examples of safety and security problems at nuclear power plants.

Patients' Rights

# When talking about trial lawyers don't use words like "creeps, bottom-feeds, overpaid and evil."

# Say, "When innocent people who are injured seek compensation from those who cause their injuries it's anything but frivolous. When a preventable careless medical error forces a child into a wheelchair for the rest of his life, it's anything but frivolous. And when someone close to you suffers due to doctor negligence, their right to a day in court is anything but frivolous."
It really is hilarious, if f*****g outrageous, that Luntz is telling Republicans to stay away from "facts and figures" like the plague. Notihng like stating flat out "stay away from reality" when selling the GOP agenda.
Sounds like this leak is going to make attacking the GOP easy.


"No one ever went broke underestimating the American people."

PT Barnum
 
Posts: 1148 | Location: Repentant States of America | Registered: 28 November 2003Report This Post
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It says that the main ingredient that Bush had that Kerry didn't was credibility. Bush "Says what he means and means what he says."

My interpretation of that is, Karl Rove stepped over the boundary of polite interpolitician respect for each other's lying stinking ways, as usual for him -- that is what all these idiots are now calling genius -- and accused the opposition of what is common to all of their kind, flip flopping with the political wind.

Never mind the obvious insanity that "stay the course" with Bush is "over the cliff," so "means what he says" is obviously "lets all get killed," the reality is Bush has flip flopped as much as any other politician. Just quantitatively if you haven't been there as long its going to look like less. Everyone knows politicians do that. So some slimeball comes out and says the other guy does it, and I guess everybody must think, wow, Kerry must be really bad, not just normal bad. So it worked.

So look for more on the credibility strategy, I would guess.

P.S. I still don't like Kerry. Of all the piss poor choices, Nader's my guy.
 
Posts: 3997 | Location: Road Prison 36 | Registered: 05 February 2004Report This Post
<ebbakraarking>
Posted
i can't open pdf files...but i did read the frontline interview. i have worked on a few luntz polls and they appeared to be unbiased until i looked at the language. the last two were on energy; 1 on nuclear and one on anwr. the proconservate questions were couched in newspeak. one was subsituting energy production for drilling. Cool
oh and there was the caribou population explosion, too. in any case, i would love to see more of the playbook. can some of you chunk best bits over here?
 
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Ebba, What operating system are you using?
 
Posts: 3997 | Location: Road Prison 36 | Registered: 05 February 2004Report This Post
Administrator
Picture of Sue N
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Ebba,

quote:
i can't open pdf files
Do you have a copy of the Acrobat Adobe reader? You can download it for free from many sites.


Sue N.
 
Posts: 4624 | Location: UK | Registered: 16 November 2004Report This Post
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Yes, Sue, I'm going to try to walk her through it once I find out her operating system.
 
Posts: 3997 | Location: Road Prison 36 | Registered: 05 February 2004Report This Post
<ebbakraarking>
Posted
i returned from another riveting episode of the apprentice to find your generous offers of help. i have windows 98 and an old acrobat. whenever i have downloaded pdf files i get a series of little boxes.
my sense of humor is a bit strange re:apprentice. i liked beverly hillbillies and married with children, in their day.
as for luntz... googled his name for information and it seems his major jobs heretofore were with gingrich and contract for america and most recently for admiinistration energy policy. i guess the playbook covers a wider range of areas.
 
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Ebba, here's how you can get an updated copy of Adobe Reader 6.01 that should read these pdf files:

Software Library

The first line is United States, pick a state (Florida, I imagine) and if necessary click 'go'

You'll get two mirror sites in Florida, either should work for you. They will be under "MIRROR NAME" (Ignore the large box with "Recommended Download" below the mirror sites)

Hope this works. If not let me know, I'll try harder.
 
Posts: 3997 | Location: Road Prison 36 | Registered: 05 February 2004Report This Post
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After yesterday's (Feb. 24) ironic Maureen Dowd version of the recent Swifties Slime Again attack on the AARP and its opposition to privatization of Social Security, today we get a more sober Paul Krugman version, where Krugman brings out some of the tactics I've been reading in these PDF files that the Bush Consciousness Control Team is employing now against Social Security. In it he alludes to Tomas Frank's "What's the Matter With Kansas?" in which Frank also seems to have a handle on this playbook in his analysis of why this particular version of the Right is taking elections: Kansas on My Mind -- "What's the Matter With Kansas - The Cartoon Version."

quote:
The right wants to dismantle Social Security, a successful program that is a pillar of stability for working Americans. AARP stands in the way. So without a moment's hesitation, the usual suspects declared that this organization of staid seniors is actually an anti-soldier, pro-gay-marriage leftist front.

It's tempting to dismiss this as an exceptional case in which right-wingers, unable to come up with a real cultural grievance to exploit, fabricated one out of thin air. But such fabrications are the rule, not the exception.

For example, for much of December viewers of Fox News were treated to a series of ominous warnings about "Christmas under siege" - the plot by secular humanists to take Christ out of America's favorite holiday. The evidence for such a plot consisted largely of occasions when someone in an official capacity said, "Happy holidays," instead of, "Merry Christmas."

So it doesn't matter that Social Security is a pro-family program that was created by and for America's greatest generation - and that it is especially crucial in poor but conservative states like Alabama and Arkansas, where it's the only thing keeping a majority of seniors above the poverty line. Right-wingers will still find ways to claim that anyone who opposes privatization supports terrorists and hates family values.

Their first attack may have missed the mark, but it's the shape of smears to come.

So as we get into their play book, it's worth watching the cases where they put it in play -- when we can spot those instances, as perhaps here -- and watch how it plays itself out in detail. Who knows how that can change the ontological force of what they seem to have discovered is the key to directing the somnambulant American mind, but certainly it can't be bad to be conscious of it in all its insidious detail as a first toddling step. Anticipating moves comes next.
 
Posts: 3997 | Location: Road Prison 36 | Registered: 05 February 2004Report This Post
<ebbakraarking>
Posted
Big Grin hi ren! it took a few tries and three hours, but i finally downloaded adobe. thanks i'looking for a short pdf file so i can test my labors -- well not really mine but microsoft's.
 
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Picture of PlacitasRoy
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From the appendix of the briefing book from hell read the Frank Luntz�s �Fourteen Words Never To Use� http://watchingthewatchers.org/index.php?p=364
And as one of the bloggers said: �It goes without saying NEVER SAY fascist, totalitarian, right-wing, religious right, Big Brother, evil, demented, sick, global-dominating, corruption or doomed. INSTEAD SAY: America or American.

Also

Check out the Dec, 2003 Frontline Interviews with Luntz www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/persuaders/interviews/luntz.html


People in a religious war project attributes of the human ego into their concept of what God is so they can rationalize killing each other. It’s like two people arguing over who has the best imaginary friend.- Steve Andres
Educate - Agitate - Motivate!
 
Posts: 622 | Location: Rio Rancho, NM | Registered: 26 August 2003Report This Post
Picture of StopSlaughtergate
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Keep in mind he is teaching people to talk to the Sheeple that haven't a full set of frontal lobes


" See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda." � G.W. BU$H <br />***********************************<br /> HartmannWatchWatch
 
Posts: 641 | Location: The Stork :-)~ | Registered: 07 November 2004Report This Post
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Hey Ebba

quote:
googled his name for information and it seems his major jobs heretofore were with gingrich and contract for america
Please don't use Newts "Contract with America"

remember to say what it REALLY was - a "CONTRACT ON AMERICA" Wink

Aaron
 
Posts: 38 | Location: Jerusalem ISRAEL | Registered: 01 March 2004Report This Post
Picture of Gnarlodious
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Reads like your standard operational Republican Rhetoric... AKA "Lies".

BTW, the PDFs are not "Text Searchable", they aren't even text. They are scans (pictures) of looseleaf bound pages. I wonder if it would be possible to convert those pics to text with OCR software?


-- The only time we see the middle of the road is as we run from side to side. R.O.Clark
 
Posts: 3959 | Location: Santa Fe | Registered: 11 June 2003Report This Post
Picture of StopSlaughtergate
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Both versions are now in the updated post at the top.

The links under " Frank Luntz Republican Playbook -- Searchable Text-Version " are searchable

--------------------------
sample searchable PDF file
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw4.pdf
hit text select button in Adobe then use CTRL+F for find feature


" See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda." � G.W. BU$H <br />***********************************<br /> HartmannWatchWatch
 
Posts: 641 | Location: The Stork :-)~ | Registered: 07 November 2004Report This Post
Picture of PlacitasRoy
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There are several good language related articles posted on: www.perrspectives.com

From their intro: �Perrspectives offers a range of essays, analyses and reports, in addition to a fully-indexed blog, satirical features and an extensive resource center. Many of the leading articles and the blog archives by topic and month are highlighted below. (You can access all of the full-length articles using the menu on the left of this page.) You can also search all Perrspectives articles, features and blog posts using the Search function in the blog.�

This was the one I linked to, which then refers to many more: Framed: Lakoff's Dubious Speech Therapy for Democrats In the wake of November�s disaster for Democrats, liberals and progressives of all stripes have been seeking guidance and comfort in the work of cognitive scientist and linguist George Lakoff. All the rage among Democrats, his book Don�t Think of An Elephant has introduced the term �framing� into their daily lexicon. For devastated Democrats trying to plot their return from the wilderness, Lakoff has taken on almost mythic status. And that�s not a good thing...read the rest: www.perrspectives.com/blog/archives/000123.htm


People in a religious war project attributes of the human ego into their concept of what God is so they can rationalize killing each other. It’s like two people arguing over who has the best imaginary friend.- Steve Andres
Educate - Agitate - Motivate!
 
Posts: 622 | Location: Rio Rancho, NM | Registered: 26 August 2003Report This Post
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Here is a clean, searchable .pdf copy of the Frank Luntz Republican Playbook:

http://www.wetdogdesign.net/realitique/luntz/Luntz.pdf

Other formats and info on the people who helped to get this out to the public here:

http://realitique.blogspot.com/2005/03/luntzing-toward-bethlehem.html
 
Posts: 329 | Location: Bend, OR | Registered: 22 April 2005Report This Post
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I was able to successfully download Ray's version of Luntz'piece. Thanks, Ray....now to read it. Looks umm, enlightening. First glance reveals lots of by now very familiar language. To paraphrase Bush....gotta keep repeatin' things, you know, get the propaganda out there, to th' people.


ziggy
 
Posts: 45 | Location: Bend,Oregon | Registered: 13 December 2004Report This Post
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Posts: 329 | Location: Bend, OR | Registered: 22 April 2005Report This Post
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A while back, Bill Moyers interviewed Frank Luntz for the TV program NOW. Luntz had an amazing way of evading Moyers' questions by sounding as if he were responding but actually bypassing any logical connection to the questions, refusing to give straight answers. He did it almost gleefully, a little grin on his face, as though it were great sport to play with another person's mind. He's mild-mannered, quite smooth, and as the interview progressed I began to feel like my brain was being fried and also that there was something intrinsically evil about this man.

Analysing it later in a cooler frame of mind, I realized that deliberately scrambling logic so that your audience cannot think clearly is in fact an assault on the mind of your fellow human being, a deliberate effort to destroy rationality. I believe this is what the Luntz/Rove/Limbaugh crowd have done to a large portion of the country, and this could partly explain why Republicans are so sure of themselves, yet so illogical, and why dittoheads are incapable of reason.

Buzzflash currently has a link to Luntz playbook, many months after the start of this thread. So it may be an updated playbook, or this may be the first time Buzzflash has heard of it.

Here's the link: http://www.yuricareport.com/BushSecondTerm/Luntz.pdf
 
Posts: 12 | Location: California | Registered: 19 June 2005Report This Post
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This is great!

Another thing that I dredged out of the Luntz book is:

He wants Repugs totalk about jobs or better yet careers rather than "the economy".

We need to respond the a good economy doesn't necessarily mean good careers for real people, but means big profits for the wealthy elite! Smiler
 
Posts: 15 | Location: Easton, PA | Registered: 19 October 2005Report This Post
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Lets get one thing straight the democrats have not lost an election since Bush 1 and who knows that might have been stolen. Frank Luntz is not making a difference and it is a waste of time to talk about his words. We need to make sure the elections are done in a fair manner. The people of the US have a good BS meter and we need to make sure the votes of every American count. All you need is the truth and the methods of Luntz and Lakoff will become useless. How to spin ideas no matter who does it cheats the American people.Truth, truth, truth
 
Posts: 15 | Location: Pittsburgh | Registered: 28 October 2005Report This Post
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Frank Luntz�s work can be summed up as �a brilliant career spraying perfume on dog turds.�
http://tinyurl.com/78fmt

***
serenity now,

I think you make a very good point about our current predicament as a nation. There is abundant evidence that elections in the U.S. are fraudulent, yet there seems to be astonishingly little that the academic community and progressive activists can do in the face of outright hostility to fair elections by the GOP and seemingly counter-intuitive acquiescence by the leadership of the Democratic Party.

I wished I had an answer as to how to alert the American people to the fraud. Then again I wished I had an answer as to why the American public seems to be sleep-walking into a very perilous future without much concern about their political system's shortfalls.

That said, Frank Luntz has been commenting on the recent brouhaha the GOP is facing, and finds that not just the Republicans, but the Democrats are also coming up short in the effort to persuade the public of their righteousness:

http://tinyurl.com/7dj4m

What is a country to do when both parties in a so-called two party system exclusively service elite corporate interests and intend to do harm to the people?
 
Posts: 329 | Location: Bend, OR | Registered: 22 April 2005Report This Post
<ebbakraarking>
Posted
as a telephone pollster, i have had occasion to work on luntz polls, both market and political. the polls are not push polls as we generally know them with questions like "if x stopped beating his wife, would you vote for him?" the questions are worded and organized so that the respondent is guided into favorable answers. one poll last year was on the environment and particularly on anwr...event people who described themselves as environmentalist were persuaded not to vote against drilling in alaska.

this is man/organization we should not ignore. he has the pulse of america at his fingertips. and just i find in my work, for many polling firms, he is right on about the issue that is on many american minds, not just texas and california. all the border states those adjacent to border states like colorado are genuinely angry over the harm they perceive that immigrants are causing i their neighborhoods. it more than equals the number of people in the east and midwest who complain about aid to"welfare queens."
quote:
Voters have not been galvanized by scandals in Washington, but they are alarmed about illegal immigration, Luntz said. The president's insistence on creating a "guest worker" program to employ illegals puts him "on the wrong side of the solution." When he raises illegal immigration in focus groups of 30 people, Luntz said, "you can't shut people up."

 
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ebbakraarking,

You bring up an interesting topic, i.e. illegal immigration. This is a huge problem, and one that defies all rational solutions. Unfortunately, as I see it, corporate GOP fraudsters love illegal immigration because it is a tool to destroy unions. And Democrats love illegal immigration because it eventually helps to swell the voter roles for Dems.

Which party is standing up for a sane and sustainable immigration policy? Neither one, from what I can tell.

I think I'd be in agreement with the Minutemen on this one. If Latin America has a problem with excessive breeding, they should not become allowed to solve their problem by using the U.S. as a dumping ground for pointless and useless excess human beings.

Enough is enough, and we are well past that point with our outrageously blind attitudes toward unrestrained population growth. Mexican authorities had the insane idea in the 60s and 70s to increase birth rates, because "all great nations have great populations". Ahem, slums also have great populations, and there is nothing great about turning the entire planet into a slum. Yet that seems to be exactly the course we are on.
 
Posts: 329 | Location: Bend, OR | Registered: 22 April 2005Report This Post