[haus]

I need some help on a project I'm working on.

The goal is this: prepare one or two ranked-choice polls to rate how strongly progressives feel about a number of the Republican antics of the last five years. After the polls are up, we'll circulate the URLS to a few of the bigger lefty sites & mailing lists to see if we can get a couple of thousand responses.

The payoff would be twofold: we'd get information on what already sells (for election strategy, etc...), and what issues need to be pounded on to increase public awareness.

I'm having three problems:

1) Everybody has their blind spots. I'm sure I've missed huge issues,
2) The wording for the individual issues is going to be uneven, and
3) There's a technical limitation of at most 18 choices per poll.

I think the right approach to (3) is to break the issues down into two polls: foreign policy and domestic policy.

Any feedback on (1) and (2) would be much appreciated.

(A couple of good sources are http://www.thousandreasons.org/reasons.php, http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=64326 and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W_Bush )

[haus]

In no particular order, here's my rough draft of the issue list:

1. Failure to Build Real Iraq Coalition
2. Misleading America about Iraq War Rationale
3. Financial Waste/No-bid Haliburton Contracts in Iraq
4. USA-PATRIOT Act
5. Bush Wiretapping U.S. Citizens
6. Election Fraud/Diebold Machines Stealing Votes
7. Appointing Sam Alito to Supreme Court
8. Prisoner Abuse/Secret Prisons/Rendering Prisoners
9. Cheney/Libby Leaking CIA Agent Valerie Plame's Name
10. Jack Abramoff/Tom DeLay Scandals
11. Opposing Creation of Independent 9/11 Commission
12. Hurricane Katrina Preparedness/Response
13. Bush Creates "Office of Global Communications"/Propaganda Mill
14. Medicare Act of 2003: Attack on Seniors
15. Administration Opposition to Stem Cell Research
16. Sustained Attack on Contraceptive Use/Family Planning/Abortion
17. Bush Stance Against Affirmative Action
18. Bush Stance Against Gay Marriage
19. UAE To Run 21 U.S. Ports
20. 3 Million U.S. Jobs Exported Overseas/CAFTA/WTO/NAFTA
21. Overtime Protection removed in 2004 Omnibus Spending Bill
22. Record Trade Defecits
23. Bush Favoring Intelligent Design over Evolution
24. Bush Creation of Office of Faith Based Initiatives
25. Terry Schiavo Affair
26. Underfunding "No Child Left Behind Act"
27. Support for School Vouchers is An Attack on The Poor
28. Tax Cuts for the Wealthy
29. Record Budget Defecits
30. Proposed ANWR Oil Drilling/National Forest Sell-off
31. Global Warming/Refusing the Kyoto Protocol
32. Failure to Act on Peak Oil
33. $40B cuts on 89 Social Programs in 2006 Budget
34. Failure to Act on Bird Flu
35. Failure to Establish a Reasonable Minimum Wage (Living Wage)
36. Corporate Welfare/Multi-Billion Dollar Tax Loopholes for U.S. Companies
37. Obstructing National Single-Payer Health Care Proposals

[scoff0165]

15. Administration Opposition to Stem Cell Research
16. Sustained Attack on Contraceptive Use/Family Planning/Abortion
23. Bush Favoring Intelligent Design over Evolution
25. Terry Schiavo Affair
30. Proposed Opening of ANWR to Oil Drilling/National Forest Sell-off
31. Global Warming/Refusing the Kyoto Protocol
32. Failure to Act on Peak Oil

I would group all these together under the heading of Bush's anti-science agenda and the right's deliberate attack on truth, science and progress. This turning against science represents the greatest threat to our future as a nation, and it is the most pressing issue America faces because of its long-term implications. Two decades of "dumbing down" our country has led to the present crisis of lack of government accountability, increased poverty and corporate corruption. The fraying of the social fabric has weakened us as a nation, allowing the values we cherish as Americans to be subverted and increasing the divisions within our society. America is under assault, not from without by foreign adversaries, but from within by those who would deny the reality of the world.

[Jane of Arc]

2. Misleading America about Iraq War Rationale
4. USA-PATRIOT Act
5. Bush Wiretapping U.S. Citizens
6. Election Fraud/Diebold Machines Stealing Votes
28. Tax Cuts for the Wealthy
29. Record Budget Defecits
31. Global Warming/Refusing the Kyoto Protocol
32. Failure to Act on Peak Oil


Damn that's a scary list, haus! How much more can America endure?