Category Archives: Politics & Government

You ain’t seen the last of the GOP!

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It’s pretty easy for me to avoid and ignore most of the die-hard McPalin/Bushie neocons who are non-stop whining about losing the election. They’re like the Japanese soldiers holed up in caves for years, unaware the war was over.

But I have a few friends who fall into this category and I can’t/don’t want to avoid them. I’ve been careful not bring up the subject of politics but they delight in baiting me. They’re Ernest T. Bass to my Barney Fife.

“Ernest T. was an ignorant and obstreperous mountain man with a penchant for rock throwing, who was known to wreak havoc on the otherwise quiet town of Mayberry. A wild, belligerent hillbilly, he had a scruffy appearance, a maniacal laugh, and often spoke in rhyme. When threatened with the law, Ernest T. would generally run off yelling his famous catchphrase, “You ain’t seen the last of Ernest T. Bass!” — Wikipedia

I understand that my friends want/need to complain and vent. But I don’t want to listen. So I’m printing up some little pocket cards to hand out.

This man feels your pain. He agrees with you. He doesn’t want you to be hopeful or happy. He needs your anger.

Please, call/email/write him. Get it off your chest and then we can talk about the weather or hockey or that girl with the cute butt.

Seth: What do do about Detroit

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“What we don’t need are giant companies with limited choice, confused priorities, private jets and a bully’s attitude.

I’d spend a billion dollars to make the creation of a car company turnkey. Make it easy to get all the safety and regulatory approvals… as easy to start a car company as it is to start a web company. Use the bankruptcy to wipe out the hated, legacy marketing portion of the industry: the dealers.

We’d end up with a rational number of “car stores” in every city that sold lots of brands. We’d have super cheap cars and super efficient cars and super weird cars. There’d be an orgy of innovation, and from that, a whole new energy and approach would evolve. Betcha.” Full post

This makes sense to me. So many of our institutions are broken or outdated or corrupt. But the people running them are too invested to ever change. So –painful as it will be– maybe it’s good a lot of stuff is crashing. We won’t get better government or financial markets or car companies until the old ones are gone.

Dave Winer on proposed Big Three Bailout

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“And they have to retire their fleet of corporate jets. And all their execs take pay cuts down to less than $1 million per year. If they choose to quit, so be it and good riddance. And since we’re going to own them, a new rule — no more commuting from Seattle to work in Detroit for the CEOs. We’re bailing them out not because we think they’ve done anything remotely like a good job, we’re doing it so that we don’t have to feed and house their remaining employees and bail out their suppliers when they go bankrupt. We’re doing it to save our country, not to save the auto industry as its currently configured, which is rotten and dangerously short-sighted.”

— Scripting News: 11/20/2008.

Free handguns from smays.com

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“A week after the election of the nation’s first black president, gun buyers across the country are flocking to gun stores to stock up on assault rifles, handguns and ammunition. Some say they are worried that the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama will attempt to re-impose the ban on assault weapons that expired in 2004. Others fear the loss of their right to own handguns. A few say they are preparing to protect themselves in the event of a race war. — L.A. Times

I support the right to own a deer rifle or a shotgun or a handgun, for that matter. No point in talking about race war or assault weapons. That’s moron country.

But here’s a wager I offered today and I’ll extend it to readers who really believe the new administration is going to take away your right to own a handgun.

You buy a new pistola for, say, $500. If the right to buy or own a handgun is limited in any way by the end of Obama’s first term, I’ll pay you $500. If not, you pay me $500. We’ll give the money to an agreed-upon third party to hold.

What do you say? Here’s your chance to get a free Beretta (or whatever). Hit the comment link and we’ll set it up.

Dan Shelley reveals “secrets” of talk radio

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Back in my radio days I co-hosted a daily, hour long talk show. It was mostly the kind of silliness you find on morning shows but we (Tom Colvin did the show with me) had a good time. And we were never angry.

Most of the talk show stars with which I’m familiar are a) pissed off and b) really, really conservative. Before I stopped listening (many years ago), I often wondered why they were so angry.

My old pal Dan Shelley offers something of a behind-the-scenes look at talk radio as practiced at WTMJ in Milwaukee, where he was news director and program director before taking a job in New York.

“To begin with, talk show hosts such as Charlie Sykes – one of the best in the business – are popular and powerful because they appeal to a segment of the population that feels disenfranchised and even victimized by the media. These people believe the media are predominantly staffed by and consistently reflect the views of social liberals. This view is by now so long-held and deep-rooted, it has evolved into part of virtually every conservative’s DNA.”

“To succeed, a talk show host must perpetuate the notion that his or her listeners are victims, and the host is the vehicle by which they can become empowered. The host frames virtually every issue in us-versus-them terms. There has to be a bad guy against whom the host will emphatically defend those loyal listeners.

“This enemy can be a politician – either a Democratic officeholder or, in rare cases where no Democrat is convenient to blame, it can be a “RINO” (a “Republican In Name Only,” who is deemed not conservative enough). It can be the cold, cruel government bureaucracy. More often than not, however, the enemy is the “mainstream media” – local or national, print or broadcast.”

“Forget any notion, however, that radio talk shows are supposed to be fair, evenhanded discussions featuring a diversity of opinions. The Fairness Doctrine, which required this, was repealed 20 years ago. So talk shows can be, and are, all about the host’s opinions, analyses and general worldview. Programmers learned long ago that benign conversations led by hosts who present all sides of an issue don’t attract large audiences.”

While reading Dan’s article I found myself thinking of talk radio hosts as “professional” wrestlers who get really mad once in the ring. They forget it’s not real and they are entertainers, not athletes or warriors. Of course that wouldn’t work in the WWF. Somebody would get hurt.

If anyone knows of a soft-spoken, optimistic, not-mad-at-anybody, conservative talk show host, gimme a shout. I’d love to hear what that sounds like. And if there are any WTMJ listeners out there, I’d love to know Charlie Sykes’ on-air response –if any– to Dan’s article.

President’s weekly “radio” address on YouTube

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US president-elect Barack Obama is to make the first YouTube address to the nation on Saturday, recording a talk not just on radio but also on video. The weekly radio address will be posted to Change.gov. First time a president/president-elect goes multi-media (or knows what that is?). AP

Not likely, but wouldn’t it be great if O just recorded the video on his MacBook Pro and uploaded himself? Sure, not a good use of his time but talk about going directly to the people.

UPDATE: It’s now Saturday morning, the video is up, and I’ve been thinking some more about this…

I don’t recall which president started the weekly radio address (or when), but I’m pretty sure we aired it occasionally on KBOA back in the 70’s. Strictly filler for a slow Saturday morning.

I always assumed this was a radio address because none of the TV networks were going to air a 15 or 20 minute speech by the president, and radio stations might. Ironically, I don’t ever recall hearing it on the radio (except at KBOA). And the network newscasts frequently feature a few seconds of the audio, usually with a graphic of an ancient microphone or VU meter.

This week’s Democratic response to President Bush’s weekly radio message will –as noted above– be YouTube’d. I have to wonder for how much longer this will be described as the president’s weekly "radio" address.

One final footnote… Back in August of 2005, the White House began podcasting the president’s weekly radio address. YouTube was created in February of that year but was still too new for anyone to think about using for the weekly address.

The first Web President

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I’m working my way through a stack stories and columns examining how the Obama campaign used the web, social networks, email and other online tools. They went so far beyond just “click here to send us some money.” Somebody on the team (some bodies) really understands this space where so many of us choose to live and work.

Here’s a couple of snippets to get started and I’ll update as we go under the category: Obama Online

Washington Post: “The nucleus of that (campaign) effort is an e-mail database of more than 10 million supporters. The list is considered so valuable that the Obama camp briefly offered it as collateral during a cash-flow crunch late in the campaign, though it wound up never needing the loan, senior aides said. At least 3.1 million people on the list donated money to Obama.”

New York Times: “The juxtaposition of a networked, open-source campaign and a historically imperial office will have profound implications and raise significant questions. Special-interest groups and lobbyists will now contend with an environment of transparency and a president who owes them nothing. The news media will now contend with an administration that can take its case directly to its base without even booking time on the networks.

More profoundly, while many people think that President-elect Obama is a gift to the Democratic Party, he could actually hasten its demise. Political parties supply brand, ground troops, money and relationships, all things that Mr. Obama already owns.”

I’ve felt since I first got hooked on Obama’s campaign that my affinity is to this particular man (and his ideas), not the Democratic Party.

An excellent source for this kind of info is techPresident.

NYT/Bits: “Mr. Obama’s campaign took advantage of YouTube for free advertising. (Joe) Trippi argued that those videos were more effective than television ads because viewers chose to watch them or received them from a friend instead of having their television shows interrupted.

“The campaign’s official stuff they created for YouTube was watched for 14.5 million hours,” Mr. Trippi said. “To buy 14.5 million hours on broadcast TV is $47 million.”

There has also been a sea change in fact-checking, with citizens using the Internet to find past speeches that prove a politician wrong and then using the Web to alert their fellow citizens.”

National Socialist Movement (Nazis)

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A  rag-tag group calling themselves the National Socialist Movement were in town last weekend. Missourinet reporter Steve Walsh covered the brief march and rally on the steps of the State Capitol. This is my favorite photo from those he snapped.

Are the two young girls at the lectern singing? Perhaps America the Beautiful? Or some German beer hall song? Could they be making a speech? ("What the Neo-Nazi movement means to my junior high class")

How fucked up will the little boy (seated) be as he gets older. Mom thinks she’s doing him a favor, teaching him to hate.

Some are holding their hands over their hearts, others giving the old Heil Hitler stiff arm. But, shit, there was no time to rehearse and it was cold and… fuck it, we’ll just look tough in our SWAT gear.

I Told You So!

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Strange/muted tension at work today. I am one of a handful (five? six?) of out-of-the-closet Obama supporters in our office. Two years ago, Bush supporters roamed the hallways like Senior jocks, administering titty-twisters to freshmen Liberals. As Bush devolved into the pariah he has become, they shed their Neocon uniforms and melted back into the crowd.

Today, the morning after the majority of Americans said they’d had enough of W and his ilk, I gave the gop’er’s lots of room and resisted the Snoopy Dance. And they found other things to talk about as we passed each other in the parking lot.

A few have dropped a little chum in the water to see if I’d bite (“Boy, the country is in trouble NOW”). But it’s hard to lay this shit-storm at O’s feet after only a few hours.

But it’s coming. A few of my pals are already looking forward to playing “I Told You So,” but I’m ready.

I’m encouraging them to chronicle every misstep of our new president. If they don’t have a blog, I’ll help them set one up. They can share their anger and despair with the world. And me.

For those that insist on sharing their political angst with me in person, I’m introducing a new feature on my politix blog:

Itoldyouso“I Told You So.”I’m keeping an audio recorder with me at all times. When the subject turns to President Obama’s latest terrorist/socialist/liberal sin, I whip out the recorder and let them have their say. Which I’ll post to the politix blog. Unedited and unfiltered. A bully digital pulpit.

Don’t want to go on the record, no problem (“Did you see 30 Rock last night?”).

Seriously,  hope it doesn’t come up. I HATE talking about politics. Or religion. Or my sexual fantasies. I’ve posted on this before.

So, if you love me… if you enjoy my company, but hate my politics… don’t read my blogs. And I won’t read yours. But we can both have our say and spend our time together talking about movies or books or that smokin’ hot intern.