Anger can be power

Arianna Huffington is right:

It is Frank [Luntz]'s contention that the reason Democrats keep losing presidential races they should win is that they are too critical, too negative, and too angry. Really? Anyone remember the '04 Democratic convention where the Kerry campaign had put the kibosh on all expressions of anger and Bush-bashing?

But is it surprising that watching your country led into a disastrous war with all the attendant damage to national security provokes anger in sentient beings?

When liberals are angry about the insane and destructive actions of conservatives, they are painted as "shrill" and "uncivil". Anyone else remember the Clinton years, when Republicans used anger to garner a majority in Congress?

I watched the episode of "Real Time" that this exchange took place on, and Arianna and guest Paula Poundstone tore Luntz a new one. He tried to turn it back around on them, but the audience, admittedly more progressive than some might have been, wasn't having any of it.

As Arianna continues:

Since the political use -- and abuse -- of language was the recurring theme of our whole Real Time discussion, I had to bring up my favorite linguistic moment of the week: After Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius' claimed that the response to the Greensburg tornado was hampered because so many National Guardsmen and their equipment are in Iraq, Tony Snow took umbrage, saying: "There's a lot of stuff available."

Stuff? Was he suggesting his brother-in-law had a tractor he was willing to loan the governor? Or maybe Snow got two power saws last Christmas, so Kansas could have one that had never been used and was still in the box.

The truth is that no matter how often the White House attempts to spin the domestic collateral damage from the war by attacking the messengers (remember how they did the same thing to Louisiana's governor after Katrina?), the facts don't lie: the Kansas National Guard is operating with only 40 to 50 percent of its equipment. And there are similar problems all over the country.

We have been painted into a corner by the Right Wing cabal that runs this country right now. If you point out this fact, you become a nay sayer and anti-American. Let's say it loud: The emperor has no clothes! And pointing that out is just facing reality. Or Real Time, if you will.