Marketing Idiots

The last Republican president who actually had a brain and a sense of compassion was Dwight D. Eisenhower. It was the very fact that Ike was capable of critical thought that led the corporate masters of the GOP to reconsider the strategy of running candidates with a 3 digit IQ. After eight years of playing golf and pretending to be president, Ike became aware of what the moneyed sponsors of his party had done under his watch and was shocked. His realization that a military-industrial complex (MIC) had grown unencumbered in both wealth and power compelled him to warn American citizens of the dangers posed by the situation.

Their next pick for chief executive was Richard Nixon who, although intelligent, was corrupt to the bone and more than happy to continue making war profits for the MIC. Nixon’s downfall was the result of absolute power corrupting absolutely as he believed he had the right and the power to ignore all laws.

Nixon’s act of desperation to avoid imprisonment was to appoint Gerald Ford as his Vice President who would assume the presidency when Nixon resigned. This insured that he would receive a pardon from his replacement, a man who couldn’t compose a coherent sentence or appear in public without embarrassing himself, but would show his gratitude for being allowed to play president.

Having been stung by Eisenhower’s betrayal followed by Nixon almost destroying the Republican Party and relinquishing power to the court jester, the CEO conservative king makers decided on a new marketing strategy to sell a president to the American people.

Name recognition is a time honored tenet of marketing and the Big Business owners of the GOP had been grooming just such a name in the arena of California politics for several years. Ronald Reagan, a one time Democrat and president of the Screen Actors Guild (God forbid – a union!), had become a Republican to further his political aspirations. His image makers had convinced him that appearing tough on communism would capture for him the elusive John Wayne persona he would require to obtain higher elected office. Reagan was accustomed to following scripts and therefore easily led by his corporate handlers to do their bidding.

After Reagan, Big Business felt secure enough about the government they now owned to allow George H. W. Bush to take a turn at the country’s helm. Yet, they used the opportunity for an experiment in public acceptance by having Bush name as his Vice President an individual whose stupidity would challenge the most loyal wingnut. Danforth Quayle, an Indiana Republican Senator occupying the office his Daddy bought and paid for, would have been better as a poster child for special education. Nevertheless, Americans ignored the fact that an idiot was a mere single step from the Oval office and ultimate power.

Bush the senior disappointed his corporate masters when he allowed reason to interfere with governance and reneged on his promise not to raise taxes. The Republican base, who have been convinced that no one has to pay taxes and government will still work, revolted against him and allowed the Democrats to get their candidate elected.

Four years later Bob Dole became the Republican candidate, but not the president and for all appearances seemed like the sacrificial lamb. The conservative party leaders realized that Clinton was still popular enough to win so they held back their secret weapon for the next election. This gave the Arkansas Project team another four years to invent crimes and other violations with which to tar the incumbent president and weaken the Democrats for the 2000 elections.

George W. Bush, son of the 41st president, was presented to the nation as the Republican candidate for president of the United States and a non stop string of lies and crimes have been perpetrated against the American people since that day. Bush has proven himself to be a total moron, yet he holds degrees from both Yale and Harvard to their never ending shame. He was the incompetent CEO of several failed oil companies and he depended entirely on the largesse of family friends for his livelihood, friends who continually came to his rescue financially (including Osama bin Laden's brother).

The Republican experiment conducted on or against the American people, depending on you point of view, had proven successful if the aim was to determine if it was possible to get the American public (with some minor assistance from the Supreme Court) to elect a complete idiot as president. If the aim was to determine if a complete idiot could lead the American people than the experiment was a miserable failure.

Snow Job

It is being rumored that Scotty McClellan's replacement as Press Secretary will be Tony Snow from Fox News. Following recent revelations about the NSA secret wire tapping of US citizens, misuse of intelligence leading up to the war in Iraq and the ongoing investigation of the outing of an under cover CIA agent, Mr. Snow will be at a decided disadvantage if he accepts the position. He is likely to be met by a hostile press corps frustrated by the evasions and non-answers by his predecessor.

Some administrations require a higher degree of ideological loyalty than others which can severely tax the credibility of the White House's liaison to the news media. Perhaps this is the reason for choosing a journalist with no credibility to begin with. Snow, along with his cohorts at Fox News, surrendered any journalistic integrity they may have once possessed to work for the Rupert Murdock propaganda machine.

Appointing Tony Snow as the White house Press Secretary will effectively remove any remaining expectation of credibility from the position. Snow’s credentials couldn’t get him a job as a security guard at Wal-Mart, which makes him the perfect selection for Press Secretary in George Bush’s White House. True, he may have neither honor nor integrity as a journalist but, to this administration that makes him even more attractive.

Serious journalists should be offended, not only that Tony Snow might be the next Press Secretary but, that this administration considers Fox News in the same league of journalism with the traditional news media. Selecting someone from Fox News for a serious political position is an attempt by this administration to acknowledge Fox as a legitimate news agency, which it is not.

If you haven't already done so, go to Media Matters.org for a well researched list of lies, spin and misleading comments by Tony Snow that should convince anyone of this man's shameless partisanship and hatred of all things liberal. By the way, the web site, Media Matters for America, is an important resource for progressives and deserves your support. The site was developed by David Brock, a reformed conservative journalist who intimately understands the power of the news media and the importance of holding people accountable when they attempt to misuse it.

Outrageous

The latest technology and corporate despotism are combining again to screw the average people who, by the way, are their life's blood for revenue. Philips Electronics in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, has divulged their new patent which will FORCE the entire television watching audience around the world to watch the commercials by preventing anyone from changing channels when an advertisement is being broadcast.

Please take a second to completely wrap your mind around that concept. Philips Electronics intends to enable the gluttony obsessed corporate sponsors to shove their advertising down our collective throats. Channel surfing, a truly American patriotic past time, will forever be inhibited thanks to Philips Electronics.

This should please the army of sports fans who check the scores of other games during breaks. It is also sure to bring joy to the millions of TV watchers who enjoy clicking back and forth between several programs. But, most assuredly, it will elate every individual who attempts to change their channel for any reason what so ever and realize they are being held prisoner by the commercial they are being forced to endure.

It has always been acknowledged that advertising was a cost of doing business and therefore smart businesses have always tried to get the most for their advertising dollars. In the past, responsible governments have stepped in when businesses overstepped boundaries, whether legal, moral or just common sense.

• Lawmakers passed legislation preventing movie theaters from showing films that contained subliminal advertisements. This was determined to be a form of brain washing that manipulated audiences to purchase products they didn’t really want.
• Many state highway departments had to step in and limit the number and size of billboards along the roads, in some cases also regulating their distance from the traffic and use of lighting because it was having an adverse effect on the flow of traffic and safety of passengers.
• The “Truth in Advertising” law was necessary due to the abuse many companies were guilty of in promoting their products. Unsupported claims about products are reminiscent of snake oil salesmen of old, yet even with regulations banning the practice there are still many willing to employ this method.
• False advertising is flat out lying about products or services being advertised.
  

As evidenced by the long sad history of companies and their willingness to step outside the law, it must be acknowledged that most companies will do anything to sell their products. It should also be evident that governments must do more to protect consumers from the predatory tactics some companies are willing to employ. In the case of forcing TV audiences to watch commercials, Philips electronics should be prevented from introducing this device into the commercial television market. This device will have global impact and the international community needs to unite to ban this aberration from entering the market.

Yet, there is still one effrontery by Philips Electronics I have not mentioned. Take a look at their concern for customers who may be upset by their new invasion of privacy device:

Philips' patent acknowledges that this may be "greatly resented by viewers" who could initially think their equipment has gone wrong. So it suggests the new system could throw up a warning on screen when it is enforcing advert viewing. The patent also suggests that the system could offer viewers the chance to pay a fee interactively to go back to skipping adverts.

Perhaps it would be best to fight fire with fire. Corporations understand one thing better than anything else, Money! Notice how easily they justify adding yet another service charge to retain a feature we already have. Charging viewers who may be upset by being held prisoner by their televisions seems simply natural to the mentality of corporate gluttony. So why shouldn’t we, the viewers who pay their salaries through our purchases, demand payment for the time we are forced to view unwanted advertisements. If enough people write the representatives to demand we receive the same monetary consideration for our time that corporations want for sponsoring programs we could shut this idiocy down quickly.

Revisiting the Declaration of Independance

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776 (April 13, 2006)

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain (President of the United States) is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world:

He has refuted his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
NSA illegal wire tapping of American citizens, lying to Congress and manipulating intelligence to initiate war with Iraq

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
Medical marijuana, The Patriot Act

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
The Patriot Act

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
Hasstert & DeLay holding vote open until they got the prescription drug bill passed

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
The Patriot Act, the House Ethics Committee

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
The House Ethics Committee

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
Immigration Reform, Guest Worker Program

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
Refusal to comply with FOIA requests. Appointing Radicals to the SCOTUS, SCOTUS overruling Florida Supreme court to appoint Bush President

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
Attempt by Ashcroft to abolish judicial discretion and impose max sentencing

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
Massive new Department of Homeland Security, Privatization of government positions

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
Proposed use of military for domestic emergencies including weather

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
Proposed use of military for domestic emergencies including weather,
Pentagon Disinformation Program and Spying on Anti-war and Gay Protesters

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
The Marriage Protection Act, Immigration Reform and Promotion of Racism

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
Proposed use of military for domestic emergencies including weather,
Excessive Police Presence at Anti-war and other Liberal Protests and rallies

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
Proposed use of military for domestic emergencies including weather

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
Outsourcing of Jobs to Foreign Nations, No Bid Contracts to Political Contributors for Jobs Better Performed by Government Agencies

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
Unfair tax Relief for the Affluent, Irresponsible Budgeting Resulting in Unprecedented National Debt

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
Guantanamo, Enemy Combatant Law

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
Illegal Rendition, Officially Sanctioned Torture of Prisoners

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
Illegal re-districting of Texas by DeLay and the Republican Party

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
Tort Reform, Corporatism

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
Intrusive government e.g. abortion ban, Anti Gay Agenda

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
You are either with us or you are with the terrorists

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
Deregulation of polluters, deforestation and selling off our national resources

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
Iraq, Afghanistan and, coming soon, Iran

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
The Patriot Act Provision encouraging spying on Neighbors and Clients
Lowered qualifications to increase military enlistment

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
Truly an unfortunate statement however, Our Uniter not Divider has caused the greatest discord in this country since the Civil War

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our British (Republican) brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred. To disavow these usurpations would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the (Democratic) Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies (this country), solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies (States) are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown (the Bush administration), and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain (the Bush administration), is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Grow a Pair

Why have the politically correct police emerged from the Democratic woodwork and jumped all over advocates of accountability? Seems crazy to me that from within our own party is an apparently growing force of do-gooders who see it as their responsibility to ensure opinions are not too strong or objectionable. That certainly seems to be the case where Senator Feingold and his censure proposal are concerned. I have heard so many Democrats deny or apologize for the censure proposal, doing all they could to assure their Republican, conservative detractors that they have nothing to worry about. Of course the Democrats are not going to attempt to censure the president.

If I may be so direct, BULLSHIT! Of course we ARE going to censure the president and only because the government is skewed so badly against the Democrats that any attempt to impeach the bastard will fail.

The degree of acquiescence from Democrats is nothing less than vomit inducing. The obvious treason against his own party committed by Joe Lieberman can not be allowed to become the rule rather than the exception. Democrats need to grow a pair and then have them bronzed. When Republicans spew their talking points of disinformation, every Democrat should reach between their legs to get a feel of the metallic testicular orbs and, thus fortified, challenge the facts, the context and the reasoning of every disingenuous utterance from the Right.

The other thing that has caused the gag reflex to kick in is the perceived need by prospective candidates to be as committed to carrying on the war on Terrorism as the nutcases now prosecuting this failed and illegal occupation. Biden and Clinton have both attacked Bush for how he has handled the war and both pledge to continue to do the same thing.

I think that a Democrat needs to come to the fore of this party if we are to have any hope of taking back 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. or the institutions at either end of the street. The party needs an individual unafraid to speak truth to power, which is what we are not getting now. For instance, people of this country concerned that our democratic system of government is in jeopardy would most likely listen to a candidate willing to accuse the Bush administration of crimes we all know they have committed. Those who realize the current Republican leaders are willing to watch democracy destroyed rather than risk the wrath of the White House, would be happy to hear from anyone who will enunciate the offenses and transgressions of those whose job it is to oversee Executive authority.

Frankly, it wouldn’t surprise me if the Democratic candidate with the best chance of being elected is the one with bronzed balls of such immense scale that they campaign on a platform of restoring democracy to the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches and by imprisoning those government officials suspected of having failed to uphold, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. If that means calling for the new Attorney General to take the entire outgoing administration into custody during the inauguration, so be it.