Waking up at 7 a.m. for yet another day of intense manual labor in the thick humidity and hot sun of Mississippi or Alabama; nights spent in small towns where I hardly knew anyone and had no way of getting around. Nearly every waking hour spent with a randomly assigned team of people who were my co-workers and social network for 10 months straight -- and all for what worked out to about $3 an hour.

But there have been many more times when I consider AmeriCorps the best thing I ever did, a time when I played a small role in improving a park and an abused children's shelter and the last few days of some terminally ill teenagers' lives; when I learned to appreciate days spent in small Southern towns with a group of young people from all around the country who became my new family for a year; and when I saw that small groups of citizens dedicated to improving their communities with the support, but not the direction, of the government really can make a difference.

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That's how Republicans caricatured Al Gore in 2000 -- a line the media dutifully parroted. And as the 2004 presidential campaign gets underway, it's happening again. This time the victim is Sen. John Kerry.

Like Gore, the Massachusetts Democrat has been characterized, with some justice, as being aloof and cold. On Saturday, when asked about his haughty image during the first debate among the Democratic candidates, he tried to laugh it off (in much the same way Gore unsuccessfully joked about being stiff in 2000) by suggesting he "ought to just disappear and contemplate that by myself."

But the press has pushed its pseudo-analysis of Kerry far beyond the innocuous observation that he lacks charisma. And in so doing, it is following the same irresponsible course it did with Gore.

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CNN, MSNBC and Fox News duked it out for the attention of a concerned public that, by and large, could get the same press conferences, attack footage and falling statues from every outlet. The competitive credo all three networks seem to have followed from the very beginning -- when in doubt, wave a flag -- was largely a reaction to Fox, which vaulted past CNN in the past year by embracing a conservative coloring of all news. CNN rallied with some shameless patriotism of its own, as did the major networks. But before long it was the struggling MSNBC that may have wrested from Fox the mantle of most blatant, schmaltzily jingoistic network in the land. MSNBC is still a distant third in the ratings race, but it tightened the slack between it and second-place CNN.

Ah, but why give MSNBC all the glory? All the networks have had their moments in the past month. It's time for the highlight reel. So pin that flag on your lapel, and let's survey the top 10 moments in jingoistic war coverage.

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Criticizing the rhetoric on Savage's radio show, which has about 5 million listeners and airs on over 300 stations, is a relatively easy task, as evidenced last week when MSNBC announced Savage's new show. The liberal media watchdog group FAIR, for instance, immediately responded with a press release pointing out that Savage often refers to Third World nations as "turd world nations." In addition, Savage has said the U.S. "is being taken over by the freaks, the cripples, the perverts and the mental defectives," and said of poor immigrants, "You open the door to them, and the next thing you know, they are defecating on your country and breeding out of control."

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But some Bush supporters also have been hurling a loaded term at their critics: appeasement. Although the word can sometimes mean to calm or to bring peace, many war supporters have clearly been using it in a specific, and historical, sense: "to buy off (an aggressor) by concessions usually at the sacrifice of principles" (as defined by Merriam-Webster Online). This, of course, brings up memories of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who is generally considered to have made a disastrous decision in allowing Hitler to take possession of the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia, in the hope that it would somehow appease the Führer. Instead, it was the first in a chain of events that led to World War II.

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(MP3 download: To listen to the ad, click here.)

The radio ad, which ran several times over the past few weeks on a Kansas City radio station with primarily black listeners, not only distorts how Social Security benefits work and the program's impact on African-Americans, but also incorrectly says it was paid for by GOPAC, chaired by former Oklahoma governor Frank Keating.

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Eventually, Hannity will "be bigger than Limbaugh," Michael Harrison, the publisher of the radio industry's Talkers magazine, predicted to People magazine earlier this year. It's not difficult to see why. While no less partisan, Hannity's scrappy, boy-next-door delivery would seem to have a broader appeal than that of the more dour Limbaugh.

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This is how a number of Republicans and conservatives are trying to sell private savings accounts in Social Security, framing them as the fiscally responsible alternative to the politically unpopular options of raising taxes or cutting benefits.

It's an increasingly common tactic to gain advantage in the long-running debate over Social Security reform. According to a summary of Social Security's finances written by the system's trustees, expenditures will exceed revenues beginning in 2017. This shortfall is expected to be met with Treasury bonds from the Social Security Trust Fund -- which are paid with general taxes -- until those bonds are exhausted in 2041. Most politicians agree some changes should be made in the system soon to avoid potentially major problems in the future, and many Republicans see private savings accounts as the solution.

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Both are guilty of overreaching.

According to an article in Roll Call, Gephardt recently "told senior Democrats that the party could pick up as many as 40 House seats if the continuously unfolding corporate scandals can be kept on the political radar screen until November." One attendee characterized his remarks as follows: "He said if this thing plays out right, we could pick up 30 to 40 seats." Gephardt has since disputed the report, calling it a "misunderstanding."

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Despite their blatantly ideological agendas, both organizations claim to engage in impartial analysis. In practice, however, these groups often treat reporting that reflects the other side's perspective as de facto evidence of bias, with facts supporting their own views ignored or dismissed as an aberration. With MRC and FAIR, it seems, there's often no such thing as a balanced report.

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So is the GOP sticking to its resolve? On the substance of the issue, it largely is. When it comes to style, though, Republicans are running from the term "privatization" as fast as they can.

The Washington Post reported last month that Stephen Schmidt, director of communications for the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), was preparing to e-mail candidates that "It is extremely important that Democrats not be allowed to characterize GOP support of personal savings accounts as privatization. It is an imprecise and misleading description ... Do not be complicit in Democratic demagoguery." The New York Times reported last week that another Republican memo making the rounds on Capitol Hill claimed that "Democrat attempts to label the G.O.P. position on Social Security as favoring 'privatization' presents a serious threat ... G.O.P. members and candidates must fight back against this label."

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Remember that formula from Statistics 101? If not, you may need a remedial class with Republican National Committee chairman Marc Racicot, who uses it in a recent press release to evaluate the job performance of Tom Daschle on his first anniversary as Senate majority leader. The conclusion, not too surprisingly, is an "underperforming" 23.8 percent.

That statistic comes in the context of a nasty yearlong attack on Daschle's performance since becoming majority leader. Republicans have a right, of course, to criticize Daschle for not supporting their priorities. But quantifying a bogus "job performance rating" is an especially deceptive and cheap attempt to lend a veil of objectivity to a purely partisan attack.

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First, consider what leading Democrats had to say about this revelation. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle stated, "Clearly, there is a lot more to be learned before we can come to any final conclusion about all of the facts, but it clearly raises some very important questions that have to be asked and have to be answered. Why did it take eight months for us to receive this information? And secondly, what specific actions were taken by the White House in response?"

House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt offered a very similar evaluation, saying, "I think what we have to do now is to find out what the president, what the White House, knew about the events leading up to 9/11, when they knew it and, most importantly, what was done about it at that time."

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Howard Wolfson, executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, made this plan explicit when he told Knight Ridder, "This election will determine the future of Social Security. We're willing to stake the outcome of the election on that."

Consider this statement made two weeks ago by House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt. Discussing Republican efforts to make last year's tax cuts permanent, he managed to bring up Social Security three times in one sentence. "We intend to raise this vote as the vote on whether or not you want to keep Social Security strong or whether you don't care about Social Security and you want to keep spending into the Social Security trust fund."

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But a San Francisco activist says she came up with the list, and she's not too happy about the way Moore is using it.

Kirsten Selberg contacted Spinsanity following a piece detailing the numerous errors and factual distortions in "Stupid White Men" to say she compiled that list for a wall that was displayed at the "Voters March West" that took place nearly a year ago in San Francisco, on May 19.

Still posted on the Voters March Web site, Selberg's list contains 47 of the 48 facts about Bush mentioned in Moore's book -- in the exactly the same order and with very similar wording. The only difference is that, unlike Moore, Selberg provides sources for almost all of her facts.

Representatives for Moore did not respond to requests for comment.

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And at a time when some Republican leaders are using Bush's popularity to equate any criticism of U.S. policy with treason, Moore's success should be a reason for any democracy-loving American to cheer.

It should be, but it isn't.

"Stupid White Men" is full of the biting satire Moore has honed on a large scale ever since the release of his 1989 documentary of General Motors' mistreatment of its workers in Flint, Mich., "Roger and Me," became a hit. He followed that up with a mid-'90s TV series, "TV Nation," the bestselling book "Downsize This!" and the 1998 documentary "The Big One," all of which employ his trademark defense of the little guy against the unchecked callousness of corporate America. [Disclosure: My co-editor Brendan Nyhan and I helped bring Moore to speak at Swarthmore College while we were students there. Moore was paid an honorarium by the college for his speech.]

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So it is with the myth that the Bush administration gave $43 million to Afghanistan's Taliban government last year to reward it for banning opium production. That money actually paid for food aid and security programs run by nongovernmental organizations and agencies of the United Nations to help relieve a famine in Afghanistan. While the Taliban reportedly stole some of the aid, none of it was given directly to the oppressive regime. At the time, Secretary of State Colin Powell hinted that the aid was connected to recent moves by the Taliban to crack down on opium production, but made clear no money would be going to the government.

Working off a poorly phrased New York Times story, however, Robert Scheer repeatedly spread this falsehood in his syndicated column. It was later repeated in numerous other publications, including the Nation, the New Yorker and Salon (which later corrected its mistake).

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Instead, it's about which side can best take advantage of the country's troubled racial history. Which side has played the race card to the greatest effect? You be the judge.

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Two versions of the bill -- The Social Security Benefits Guarantee Act of 2001 and The Social Security Guarantee Act of 2001 -- are before the House, sponsored by Reps. James DeMint, R-S.D., and Walter Jones, R-N.C., respectively. Both propose the same thing: that senior citizens shall, as soon as they become eligible for Social Security, receive certificates from the secretary of the treasury guaranteeing that they will receive the Social Security benefits promised under the law and that those benefits will be indexed for inflation.

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Hollings' most appalling dissembling came in a Feb. 4 press conference, when he falsely claimed that a number of Bush advisors had been "on the payroll" of Enron, including Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and Office of Management and Budget Director Mitch Daniels. As Rush Limbaugh pointed out on his show Monday, Hollings said, "Mitch Daniels [has been] on the payroll of Enron ... An Enron advisor ... He was on the payroll prior to coming here as secretary of the treasury: Mr. Paul O'Neill." Neither man, however, has even been an employee or paid consultant to Enron. This allegation is totally false.

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