A Short History of Political Ads

Back in 52 things looked simpler.

In 60 Richard Nixon said increased government expenditures meant raising taxes or increasing the national debt.

In 84 people wanted something simpler than raising taxes or increasing the national debt so they re-elected an actor as president.

In 92 Ross Perot told us Reagan's (and later Bush, and if people are stupid enough McCain's) "trickle down" economics, combined with an increasing national debt, don't work - unless you happen to be one of the wealthy few who benefit from corporate welfare and bailouts.

At the end of Bill Clinton's term, in 2000 the Congressional Budget Budget office projected a 2.2 trillion dollar surplus in the years 2001-2010. Republicans were worried that Democrats would spend it on things like healthcare, education, veterans benefits, and alternative energy research.

On September 15th 2008 with 9,800 home foreclosures a day, 605,000 jobs lost this year and markets in turmoil John McCain says "the fundamentals of our economy are strong."

This morning on ABC, George Will, speaking of the current economic crisis, said -

"The question is who in this crisis looked more presidential, calm and unflustered. It wasn't John McCain, who, as usual, substituting vehemence for coherence said let's fire somebody and picked one of the most experienced and conservative people in the administration."

and finished it off with -

"John McCain showed his personality this week and made some of us fearful."

Is John McCain Sabotaging His Own Campaign?

I have a theory that John McCain secretly wants Barack Obama to be president.

He has come to realize he is not the right person in the right place at the right time - maybe 8 years ago - but not now. He can't just bow out of the election and upset the apple cart so he's staying in and running against himself.

As a patriot who wants what's best for our country - he's sabotaging any chance he may have had to be elected with flips, flops, flaps, missteps, backtracks, silly lies and by accepting a running mate who will help guarantee his loss.

The alternative is to imagine that anyone could be so out of touch as to think that what he's been saying, combined with his at times bizarre behaviour, would appeal to a majority of the American people.

I'll give him the benefit of the doubt - that cagey old politician has everybody fooled.

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Leaked: McCain's Voicemail to the New York Times (Listen) - 236.com - The Room

McCain's Voicemail to Palin Leaked to Press (Listen) - 236 - The Room

First Americans For Obama

First Americans for Obama

What a Wonderful World - Louis Armstrong

One World One Future

"One World, One Future

We live in One World, we have Many Voices
We live in One World, we have Many Dreams
We live in One World, we have One Future
Together"

Louise , Grade 6

Source: Tolerance.org: One World Mural

What Is the War on Terror?

We say we fight a "war on drugs" or a "war on poverty" and it's easy to understand that we are not talking about a war between two armed forces.

When we say we are fighting a "war on terror" it's not clear what that means. Who are we fighting, how do we fight this war and how do we know when we "win"?

Some people talk about the war on terror as if it's equivalent to a traditional war where two armies fight as directed by a centralized command and control structure. If we can destroy the other side's army and their command and control structure - then we win. Of course this can never happen in the war on terror where there is no single army and no centralized command and control.

We should be fighting a "war on hate". Terrorists are motivated by what they have been taught to hate. They (whoever they are) don't just hate Americans, they have been taught to hate anyone who is not part of their group/tribe/religion. A successful war on hate will be based on education, primarily from parents, teaching children that all people deserve to be treated with dignity and compassion.

That sounds simple - why hasn't it happened?

The major reason why war is never ending is that we divide humanity by identifying with a group. We may be part of a group, by accident of birth or by choice - which causes, or actively promotes - mistrust of those outside the group, feelings of superiority, learning to hate the "other" and eventually dehumanizing them to the point of convincing ourselves that killing is justified.

If we want to live in a peaceful world we also must recognize that the existence of the military/industrial complex depends on the world being, or perceived as being, a dangerous place where vast sums of money must be spent on the latest weaponry to "keep us safe". We want peace - we need to promote peace, they want to build weapons - they need to promote war.

When we are dealing with individuals who are willing to strap on a bomb and detonate it in a crowded marketplace it's easy to see how misguided the notion of a war on terror is. We aren't going to stop suicide bombers with more bombs or by putting more American soldiers in harms way.

We would be much better off promoting what we want (peace) than fighting against what we don't want (war). We can do that by spending our money and efforts on a campaign using television, radio and the internet to educate children (and some adults) that all people deserve to be treated with dignity and compassion, and then showing the courage of our convictions by helping them build schools and hospitals and get started in small businesses. This has to be a global effort that transcends religion and borders.

B tells me I need to read the book Three Cups of Tea.

Wishing you and all people - Peace

How Bacon and Eggs Became The All American Breakfast

In 1928, Edward Bernays, the father of public relations, wrote in his book Propaganda -

"If we understand mechanisms of the group we can control and manipulate the will of the masses without their knowing it"

You can learn a little bit more about Bernays in this NPR piece "Freud's Nephew and the Origins of Public Relations." which tells the story of Bernays being hired by the Beechnut packaging company in the mid 1920's to improve sales of bacon, it's primary product.

Bernays asked Doctors if they favored a "light" breakfast or a "hearty" one. Doctors favored a hearty breakfast. Bernays then equated bacon with a hearty breakfast and created an ad campaign which promoted bacon and eggs as a breakfast recommended by Doctors and therefore associated with a feeling of well being and good health. He also sold the American people on Ivory Soap, Lucky Strike Cigarettes and oddly enough ballet and dance.

The enlightenment way of looking at the world recognizes there is a reality and we need to understand it through reason and rational thought. It was believed that people are rational beings and if you present a well orchestrated case you can persuade them.

Freud believed that people aren't rational at all but were rather driven by unconscious desires and visceral impulse - sex, agression, security, self preservation. Edward Bernays took Freud's ideas and created the new field of public relations in the 1920's....the world of advertising and what we now call spin in the political arena was changed forever.

Truth and Hope

Two videos from truth and hope

Barack Obama and Joe Biden - A Clear Choice

I'm afraid that over the last two weeks I've lost the main point of why Barack Obama's campaign has energized so many people, given them hope for a better future, and why we believe he is going to make such a great President.

I became fixated on the cable TV news and talk radio chatter about the Republican parties candidates.

Now that the excitement is starting to wear off and I've found ten or a hundred reasons why they aren't the right choice - I want to say, "who cares?"...but of course all members of a Democracy have an obligation to remain informed. The challenge is that since the Friday after the DNC ended all eyes have been focused on the Republican parties newest candidate - taking people's attention away from the real issues and forcing them to do their best to figure out who this new person on the stage is.

Naming an unknown person as the VP candidate was a skillful diversion perfectly timed to occur on the Friday when we should have been talking about Barack Obama's historic speech in Denver on Thursday given 45 years to the day after Dr. Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech. We should have been talking about those dreams, Barack Obama's plans, and the future - and maybe now we can.

There are honorable good people on both sides and anyone with access to the internet, a relatively open mind and the ability to analyze facts can figure out for themselves who to support.

Barack Obama has given hope to a very diverse group of people which is a great thing and will prove very beneficial after he is elected. I believe his liberal message of hope and change will lead us into the future that allows all people an opportunity to realize their potential and the potential of this great country.

Hillary Clinton talking to voters in Tampa -

Barack Obama talking about real change and being a President who will bring people together -

We have a unique opportunity to elect a President who has the intelligence, speaking skills and personality to not only bring people in the U.S. together, but improve our relations with countries around the globe.

Very exciting and hope-filled times...

Republicans Running Against Themselves - Garrison Keillor

Garrison Keillor writes in a piece in The Irish Times,

"SO THE Republicans have decided to run against themselves. The bums have tiptoed out the back door and circled around to the front and started yelling: "Throw the bums out!"

Yeah, throw em out. An 8 year hiatus will give them time to come up with some fresh plans.

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VP candidate Sarah Palin gets an F for her first ever national interview with Charlie Gibson. I don't know what was more frightening - the fact that she doesn't have a clue what the Bush Doctrine as defined in the U.S. Government document The National Security Strategy 2002 is (it says among other things that "we will not hesitate to act alone, if necessary, to exercise our right of self-defense by acting preemptively"), the fact that she will lie about her stance on Global-warming (we've had 8 years of an anti-science administration, we can't stand more), or saying she recently contacted Georgia's President Mikheil Saakashvili and told him, "we will be committed to Georgia. And we've got to keep an eye on Russia. For Russia to have exerted such pressure in terms of invading a smaller democratic country, unprovoked, is unacceptable...".

That's great - we have a woman who hadn't been out of the U.S. until last year, has never met a head of state, and who says she knows about Russia because, "they're our next-door neighbors, and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska ... from an island in Alaska."....talking to the President of Georgia? I can see a hospital when I look out my back door, using her logic I guess that means I'd be a good candidate if they need a surgeon in the operating room.

Combine that with Cheney's saber rattling, the fact that one of the many lobbyists on McCain's campaign team is a lobbyist for Georgia, who's been paid more than $730,000 by the Republic of Georgia since 2001, and the idea that a military/industrial complex needs a war...makes the conspiracy theorist in me wonder what the hell might be on the horizon.

No style points either - Her poise was lacking, she was not able to reflect and articulate independent thoughts in an acceptable manner and if you look at her face you can see she was afraid (as she and we should be).

Having a clown for a VP running mate isn't necessarily a show stopper but having an under-informed, dogmatic, fundamentalist, will be.

I think we all can have faith that the future will be bright with Barack Obama as the leader of a revitalized America creating real change, economic growth, helping those least able to help themselves and ending the divisive "fight fight fight" attitude of the last 8 years.

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James Fallows writing in the Atlantic does a great job explaining why that blank stare Sarah Palin gave Charlie Gibson when he asked her about the "Bush Doctrine" is not acceptable for someone being put before the American people as a Vice Presidential candidate.

No Lie Too Big for John McCain

Here's an outrageous lie from John McCain that will air on Fox News, and in select markets in Pennsylvania, Iowa, Missouri, Ohio, Minnesota and Wisconsin (apparently targeting people the Republican party leaders, and John McCain, think are fools) -

Barack Obama is an honorable man and the father of two young children. The bill in question was intended to provide age-appropriate information to young children about "good touch" / "bad touch" to help them avoid becoming victims of sexual predators.

Besides the big lie there's some glaring half truths about Barack Obama's real policies on education and no mention that the articles cited in the ad are actually much more critical of John McCain's record, and late-coming fuzzy policy plans, on education.

Here's a summary of John McCain's (and the Republican party's) philosophy on post-secondary education) from TG: Legislative Report: February 20, 2008 -

"The likely Republican nominee, Arizona Senator John McCain, has no stated position on the federal role in providing, or even promoting, access to post-secondary education. Aside from (but also including to a significant degree) the high profile issues of health insurance, Medicare, and Social Security, the traditional and historical position of the Republican Party is that the federal role in providing support for domestic education, health and human service, and job programs should be as limited as possible. And entitlement programs should be as limiting as politically possible. It is likely that the cost of the two major student loan programs would be a major consideration, with performance another factor. This is borne out by the results of the annual program evaluations of the current Office of Management and Budget Program Assessment and Rating Tool (PART) of the FFELP and FDLP."

It's amazing that, "the traditional and historical position of the Republican Party is that the federal role in providing support for domestic education, health and human service, and job programs should be as limited as possible. And entitlement programs should be as limiting as politically possible" and yet apparently unlimited "entitlements" go to the connected inner circle like Halliburton.

That may or may not be your cup of tea but holding out the position of a limited government while giving huge sums of middle class American's tax dollars to the richest people in America was not the original Republican ideal. At some point I think the Mom and Pop Republicans will realize that the party has been taken over by a small group of extremely wealthy people who mostly don't want anyone upsetting their gravy train and could care less whether government serves the needs of average Americans - Democrat or Republican.

The Savings and loan crisis brought to us by Republicans in the 1980's, cost the American taxpayer $124.6 billion dollars. The Republicans have replayed that 1980's tune with the Subprime mortgage crisis that is impacting innocent home owners, probably not so innocent banks like Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers...WaMu, and will eventually cost working American's billions of dollars to bail out the very wealthy. So...the Republican philosophy starting with Reagan is that the taxes we pay are redistributed to the very wealthy.

Just for the record "TG" is a nonprofit organization created by the Texas State Legislature. TG's vision is "to be the premier source of information, financing, and assistance to help all families and students realize their educational and career dreams." They are governed by an 11 member board of directors 10 of whom are appointed by the Governor of Texas.

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Barack Obama will be on David Letterman tonight talking about among other things the Republican's - and their national network Fox News, crying that now that Sarah Palin is in the race - Obama shouldn't use the old saw "lipstick on a pig" when referring to John McCain/Bush/Reagan/Republican's economic policies...or something like that.

RNC In a Minute

In case you missed the Republican National Convention 23/6 - Some of the News, Most of the Time has condensed it into this one minute video -

Haiku For 2008 Election

Fall comes, old toad jumps shark!
New guy wins landslide.
People sing happy song

Do The Wealthiest 1% of Americans Really Need a $126,902 Tax Cut?

"The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center found that McCain proposals would cut taxes for the wealthiest 1% in 2012 by an average of $126,902 when compared to current law."

Source: Wall Street Journal "Real Time Economics : Obama Economic Advisor Goes on Offense Against McCain"

Contrast this fact with the small town, heartland, regular Joe, country music, image the Republican Party puts forward and it shows you how successful the rich and powerful are in creating a "narrative" that appeals to some working class Americans when in fact their policies have little or nothing to offer those same people.

Even a super successful capitalist like Warren Buffett knows that things are not right, as he says in this interview,

"Corporations are doing better in the total tax picture than the people I'm going to walk by on the street when I leave here."

"Yeah. The rich people are doing so well in this country. I mean, we never had it so good."

"It's class warfare, my class is winning, but they shouldn't be."

and finally being the smart Nebraska man he is...

"I think it's a terrific country...You never want to go short on America...this country -- our children and our grandchildren are going to live better than we do in this country. No question about it in my mind."

Getting to Know Sarah Palin - Quickly

Interesting article in the Los Angeles Times by Rosa Brooks (read her biography if you wonder what her credentials are and if she would be a reliable source of information).

Here's the gist of the article that should be played as an endless loop to drill baby drill something into the heads of true believers who would vote for John McCain no matter what his policies are or who he selected as a VP running mate -

Alaskan Independence Party (AIP) founder, Joe Vogler, told an interviewer in 1991: "The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government. ... And I won't be buried under their damn flag."

Sarah Palin's husband, Todd, was a registered AIP member from 1995 to 2002.

Video footage shows AIP Vice Chairman Dexter Clark describing Sarah Palin at the 2007 North American Secessionist Convention as an "AIP member before she got the job as a mayor of a small town..."

The New York Times has corrected part of an earlier article where Lynette Clark, the AIP party’s chairwoman, stated that Ms. Palin was a registered member of the AIP. Ms. Clark now says she relied on information from another AIP member and cannot find a record of Sarah Palin being a registered member. Ms. Clark went on to say, "Ms. Palin attended the AIP 1994 and 2006 conventions and provided a video-taped address as governor to the 2008 convention."

Forcing voters to get to know the Republican VP candidate at this late date is a distraction when the discussion should be about Barack Obama and John McCain's policies. It is politically expedient for John McCain to keep people's minds off the last eight years and what has happened to the economy, taxes, education, national security, health care, social security, jobs, and energy.

We can't ignore Sarah Palin's political and personal points of view though. We can't afford to have someone a heartbeat away from being president, who when asked about teaching creationism alongside evolution in schools said, "Healthy debate is so important, and it's so valuable in our schools. I am a proponent of teaching both."

Both?

If we are going to revisit the Scopes Trial and discuss whether it's appropriate that the government dictate that creationism be taught in public schools, where would you draw the line - surely not at the Christion view of creation? We'd have to cover many Native American creation stories, Hindu, Buddhist...etc. etc. etc.

This whole discussion, including her position opposing a woman's right to choose even in cases involving incest or rape, would be irrelevent except for the fact that Sarah Palin has been thrust into a position where she could potentially have a great impact on our laws and the Supreme Court.

Who knows what else we may find out about Sarah Palin, either in the next 57 days or in the unfortunate event that she and John McCain are elected after it's too late?

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There's the chilling report that mayor Sarah Palin asked the city's librarian a "rhetorical" question about banning books -

"In December 1996, Mary Ellen Emmons (the librarian) told her hometown newspaper, the Frontiersman, that Palin three times asked her -- starting before she was sworn in -- about possibly removing objectionable books from the library if the need arose."

"According to news coverage at the time, the librarian said she would definitely not be all right with it. A few months later, the librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, got a letter from Palin telling her she was going to be fired. The censorship issue was not mentioned as a reason for the firing. The letter just said the new mayor felt Emmons didn't fully support her and had to go.Emmons had been city librarian for seven years and was well liked. After a wave of public support for her, Palin relented and let Emmons keep her job."

Source: Anchorage Daily News

Ronald Reagan's Legacy

It's amazing how quickly people forget, or maybe they never knew to begin with, or maybe they just want to rewrite history - but Ronald Reagan was not the golden president that some would like to believe.

Reagan's policies dramatically increased homelessness, created record deficits, reduced taxes for the very wealthy, and weakened organized labor. His economic policies resulted in the 1980's having the slowest growth of any post World War II decade with no increase in the median real wage.

Do a Google search for "Reagan homelessness", "Reagan deficit", "Trickle Down Economics", "Reagan and organized labor" and read some of the articles (pro and con) and make up your own mind.

One of the wonderful things about the internet is that no one can say it's a creation of a media elite, and if you do a little bit of analytical thinking you can synthesize a pretty fair point of view from what you find.

One of the most famous quotes about Ronald Reagon's economic redistribution policy of making the wealthiest individuals more wealthy and hoping it trickles down to the poor, came from his Director of the Office of Management and Budget David Stockman in a candid interview years after the fact,

"Do you realize the greed that came to the forefront? The hogs were really feeding. The greed level, the level of opportunism, just got out of control. [The Administration's] basic strategy was to match or exceed the Democrats, and we did."

When he was in office, Ronald Reagan was called the "teflon president" by some people because no matter how misguided and destructive his policies may have been his acting background and grandfatherly personality made people feel all warm and fuzzy. Twenty years later recollections are even a little fuzzier, but the next time someone tells us that a return to Reagan era policies would be good for America - I'd recommend doing a little research.

It's a good idea to keep informed and not be a victim of "groupthink" if we can help it. On the other hand - we want to be fooled sometimes and yelling out "drill baby drill" or "USA USA USA" at the RNC is a probably a lot more fun than getting your eyes and brain all tired out by reading and thinking.

She Can Read a Teleprompter

Sarah Palin's speech at the RNC last night was written by Matthew Scully, a former George W. Bush speechwriter.

As Abraham Lincoln said, "People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like."

The Obama campaign put this out this morning, and it speaks to one of the key points better than I can -

"Both Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin specifically mocked Barack's experience as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago more than two decades ago, where he worked with people who had lost jobs and been left behind when the local steel plants closed.

Let's clarify something for them right now.

Community organizing is how ordinary people respond to out-of-touch politicians and their failed policies.

And it's no surprise that, after eight years of George Bush, millions of people have found that by coming together in their local communities they can change the course of history. That promise is what our campaign has been about from the beginning.

Throughout our history, ordinary people have made good on America's promise by organizing for change from the bottom up. Community organizing is the foundation of the civil rights movement, the women's suffrage movement, labor rights, and the 40-hour workweek. And it's happening today in church basements and community centers and living rooms across America."

Oh My - It Can't Really Be Over Already

Conservative columnist Peggy Noonan and former McCain campaign manager Mike Murphy having a little chat with NBC's Mike Todd about what impact Sarah Palin will have on John McCain's presidential bid - after the camera's, but not the microphones, were turned off.

Peggy Noonan says, "it's over."

Hot Mic Picks Up Noonan and Murphy Dishing on Palin | The Trail | washingtonpost.com


Here's a video that I thought was pretty funny. There's more jokes here and videos here

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If you want to read the strange but apparently true story about Sarah Palin's last childbirth experience, it's in this April 22, 2008 Anchorage Daily News article. If you aren't familiar with the story, she was in Dallas when her water broke, but instead of going to the hospital she gave a speech, got on a plane to Anchorage that stopped in Seattle, and once in Anchorage drove an hour to a small hospital in Wasilla.

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In some other exciting campaign news Barack Obama is going to be on Bill O'Reilly's show on Fox tomorrow night at 8 pm EDT. That's one hour before John McCain addresses the RNC.

I hope it goes better for Bill than the last time he tried to get Barack Obama's attention and ended up shoving a staffer and shouting some obscenities (part of his self-proclaimed efforts to uphold his constitutional rights to shove a guy trying to do his job and then call him a "son of a bitch"). If an ordinary citizen would have done that it would have been a  "don't taz me bro" situation.

It's funny to watch the calm reaction of the Obama staffer to O'Reilly's antics.

John McCain - Maverick Reformer to Reformed Maverick

I was a bit disappointed to learn there are only four official debates before we vote on November 4th. The single vice presidential debate is scheduled for Thursday October 2nd and the presidential debates are scheduled for Friday September 26, Tuesday October 7 and Wednesday October 15th.

Actually John McCain doesn't need another person to debate with, we can just watch him change his positions to fit the "narrative" that seems most likely to get him elected. The last minute of this 4 minute clip from the Daily Show is a concise look at some of his double talk and there's all kinds of other examples on the internet which show him saying one thing one day and something completely fundamentally different later. So what we end up with is at best a confused, and worst case lying and confused, 72 year old president with a vice-president who will be in one debate prior to the election. We deserve better.

Buy Eyeglasses Online

I was reading the article how to get an unbelievable, thrilling deal on new glasses  by Farhad Manjoo - Slate Magazine and popped over to Glassy Eyes which contains links to a variety of online eyeglass sellers.

It sounds like it might not be that bad an idea, since almost all lenses/frames come from China anyway, to go ahead and cut out some of the middlemen and buy direct, provided the glasses are the right prescription, fit you and look the way you expect.

EyeBuyDirect has a program that allows you to upload your picture and then put a pair of glasses on your face. I had some trouble getting the right size picture of myself. You can see other user's attempts to virtually fit eyeglasses to their heads at the Wall of Frame.