Politicking: The New Media Century

Lately we’ve heard about the wrestling match going on between the Senate and the White House Administration about when, how and if we should close Guantanamo Bay. Better known as Gitmo. This battle, or war, is being defined by the PR through the public response to the information being passed to us through the Media. You might ask the question, “is there some other way to understand what’s going on?”.

Lets just look at the campaign without the blinders. First we have the campaign promises of Obama on the road to the White House. The next thing we hear is that a one year commitment Obama made to look into the facts about the prisoners being held there so that a plan for dealing with them can be created. The funny part are the things that begin to happen after this.

Next Obama requests 80 million dollars from Congress in order to properly transfer, try and relocate these prisoners according to their threat levels, the evidence surrounding their suspicions, and whether or not they deserve to be released, not to mention everyone’s desire to keep all the secrets secret. Whatever that means.

Now if we look at the dynamics that are occurring in the media we begin to see an array of complexities that are being introduced by the different measures of PR Politicking that is appearing in the press. This is where TV Media gets most of its sources for our prime time viewing. The front page of the NY Times online, for instance, started with not only the articles regarding the events occurring in Congress and the White House, but suddenly there appears this article about a one year investigation that ended in the arrest of several people that, according to the NY Times, have no Terrorist affiliations. Their plan, according to their sources, was to plant an explosive in a car and detonate it at a Jewish Temple.

The investigation, supposedly, lasted for a full year before any arrests were made, and its got me wondering why so long. The fact is that just because someone is accused of something doesn’t make it real until they are convicted fairly, but in America it has become popular to convict people in the media, especially if it runs concurrent to timely events.

Well, someone at the White House must read the papers pretty early, because the next thing that happens is the White House announces that President Obama will appear before the public on the same day to present his case to the American People and to discredit the actions and legal council of the previous administration. And suddenly, this is the new NY Times Headline! That’s when it hit me that this was all a chess game of PR to form an opinion, in the minds of the people, that will allow the course of future events surrounding the prisoners in Guantanamo, to become the path of least resistance. Like parting the Red Sea, so that events can travel through the path created instead of creating one based on facts and truth.

To me this has all become the reasons why we will never, under these conditions, reach any of the goals that were laid down by Obama when he was running for President. People always talk about “how Washington operates”, and from this brief look at the politics of our media, I can see that it is a combination of Lobbyist powers (private and governmental) coupled with the Media Game, and the numbers in their ingenious poles. This is entirely built on the foundation that people, as a mass response, are dictated by their emotional bond with the story behind why we embrace certain points rather than the truth involved.

The second Iraq invasion is a perfect example of how American’s can be blinded into seeing justification within the perfect lie. Their PR work on the ‘War on Terror’ was so effective that Obama must now confront the existing momentum of those past policies in order to change course. He will have to prove to the American People that the things they were doing, speaking of the past Administration, were quote: “unjust, haphazard, ad hoc approach”. The old PR slant was to push people into thinking that Democrats were NOT tough on Security Issues. Then Cheney appears out of nowhere to refute Obama’s claims against the Bush Administration, and this will go on for a week.

This is slightly off topic, but has a similar relationship to the dynamics I’m seeing. Last night I watched a documentary on Frazetta, an artist whose work became so popular on science fiction novels that publishers wanted to buy his art before they had a novel to put it on. People would buy the books just because he had done the art on the cover, regardless of the content. Our Pop Media has become so caught up in this that the momentum alone has become bigger than any one reporter, or team or paper, or network.

This is what the decline of a culture looks like. When truth becomes someones slant and facts are things we say ending in the phrase, “these are the facts”. And, if you don’t believe me just ask someone for there opinion about something recent in the news and you will get quotes from whatever news agency they preach. Then try to point out any real facts you have uncovered and see where the conversation goes. I’d like to say it’s fun, but it’s not. It’s a bit sad if you ask me.

Last Night on TV

So, last night I’m watching the La Lakers take the first game of the Western Conference Finals (online of course) and I get to watch all the commercials on ESPN. Some of you might think that’s a bit odd, but I don’t have access to commercial television; no cable or satellite dish, just my internet connection.

All through the game I saw a lot of different advertising and this one I couldn’t believe. First of all Toyota is advertising their prius and it’s Green Appeal, and then I see this Cadillac Escalade commercial and it hits me that this whole GM bailout is going to fail, sure as shit. How is this any different?

Toyota and Honda are both selling cars that people need in order to meet with the changes coming, frankly gasoline cannot last for ever and these things can get 50 mpg. What does an Escalade get for mileage. I don’t even care. Like I said I don’t even own cable..

It amazes me we even bothered bailing anything out at all, the banks the insurers and the automakers can fold and I don’t think I would miss them at all. It seems to me that they got themselves into this mess, right!?

But, promising the American Government that it would change directions and then going on like “business as usual”, minus the layoffs, factory closures, and dealer closings. Don’t worry we’ll help you stretch out that failure, while we let our factory workers and and sales people find something else to do.

Personally I believe that all that bailout money would have been far more wisely spent on education, because the people running these companies obviously missed out on economics 101…

My Name is America, and I’m a Power-aholic…

Since the dawn of Power, Nations have sought to control the world through political and military strength. It is quite rare that countries and there power are ever totally honest about their own repercussions unless they are defeated by the next leader of the “Known World”.

For the last two years (one of the longest campaigns in history) we have heard about the “Change” embraced by the Obama Administration, but what does that mean. Well, according to Alex, change means to fix the pipes that are broken. Bronco says that it is an inherent trait of every administration to build new things in order to leave a mark in history, but the problems are underground, in those pipes.

What really needs to change in America lately seems to be the need to change. We live in a two party political system that swings like a rusty pendulum, where nothing ever really seems to change at all. It’s renamed or ignored and the thing that does seems to change is usually the etiquette defining the behavior surrounding it, rather than the thing itself. If you don’t believe me try ending some pork barrel project in the democratic whip’s state.

Seriously, we all just need to get used to it. Franky nothing short of a total overhaul of Washington will accomplish a thing, because no matter what it’s just going to keep pretending to represent the people and will continue to support the special interests of politicians that benefit from their constituents political payoffs, in the form of campaign funding. It’s all about getting and keeping you position, rather than sacrificing any political future to do what is right for the individuals whom you represent.

America needs to go to Rehab, and get off the politico-Crack it’s high on. And the media, which is supposed to be the public watch dog, has way fallen short of it’s duties, suffering the same addictive behaviors that Washington is suffering from, which is the threat of being cut off by the dealers that are swinging the Blonde, Gold the political system is all cracked out on!

“Half measures availed us nothing.. We stood at a turning point” and guess what happens if nothing changes… you got it, “Nothing Changes”!

A Taxing Tea Party

In response to Congress’ new Stimulus Package A site called taxdayteaparty.com/ has become the highly vocal spirit behind the movement to protest the taxation built into the new Congressional Stimulus Package. Fox News, as well, have begun running commentary ringing the theme “Take Back America”. A big position for a National News Service, to say the least.

It has been my opinion that there is a strong and steady building of sides that has cast a shadow on the Obama Administration. Probably not as potent as the separation of ideals that originally led to the breakaway states that ignited the Civil War in the 1800’s, but America has definitely come to a turning point in its History.

As Fox News has pointed out there is almost no coverage from many of the Major News Services in the US or abroad for that matter. It doesn’t seem PC to discuss it.

Michael Steel, RNC Chairman, had to respond publicly to rumors that he was asking to be counted in as a participant of the Tax Day Demonstrations. According to his response he had never considered himself involved in any way, nor had he suggested that to Tax Day Tea Party or its organizers.

In the past few months since Obama has taken office there have been a cacophony of voices cheering on one side of the isle, while another less casual voice from across the way that has begun chanting descent of the Liberal Pull that has swept through Congress.

But, lets not forget that the Republicans got the ball rolling with the TARP program request to Congress which gave $700 bil to financial institutes, who essentially put the US in dyer straights with reckless decisions, while ignoring the systemic risks involved, not to mention the bailout of Bear Stearns and AIG, Instigated by George Bush’s choice for Fed Chief, Ben Bernanke.

Some of America have become quite upset with the bailout and feel that the economy should have followed the natural course it had created for itself, which could have brought a huge number of major banks to ruin. It’s hard to say what’s really helping, but it is well known in economic circles, that the Government isn’t responsible for the health of the economy, or shouldn’t be. Hence the idea of Free Enterprise.

Its very hard to predict where this movement will take us, as it is equally difficult to predict whether or not the now Trillions of dollars being spent on these broken financials will ultimately do what it has been intended to do.

The good news is that people are talking about topics that were once considered taboos in America. Lets just hope it comes to wholesome and constructive ends!

Short Selling out Americans

Last night the Daily Show ran a piece on a Wall Street habit refferred to as Short Selling. Short selling is essentially; borrowing someone elses stock and selling it at the current price, then buying the stock back at a lower price and returning it to the original owner. I’ve written about this in the recent past, but feel I need to bring this up again.

The biggest problem with Short Selling, short of selling someone elses 401k for your own profit, is that it is counterproductive to the goals of seemingly everyone else who has anything to lose in the business and financial world. I guess that would be the rest of us! While we (The US Treasury Dept. and the Fed) are pumping Trillions of dollars into the financial industry heavy investment is out there leading us further into a depressed state of the economy. I’m sorry, but WTF!

I don’t understand why this ISN’T illegal. Everything about it seems shady, if not dead wrong. If I want to bet on a stock going down, why shouldn’t I be required to use my own money and stocks to do so, say buying a “Put” rather than stealing someone elses profits from there stock portfolio. It’s funny and ironic that soon it will be too late to put an end to this illicit deceptive act of STEALING from the American Trust, and we the People are going to need a scape goat to hang in time square for letting our money be used to make us poor!

I think we should start with “The Banker Friends” to begin with. It was Bernenke that signed the agreement with AIG about paying the bonus to their various departments, which we all know meant paying the villains in this movie! It is and was the SEC that allowed all these horrible business practices that got us to here…

So, here we are looking back down the hallway of choices that brought us to where we are and nothing will ever change that. It has happened and is happening, and no one can see past their thin vail of politics or their wigs of financial wealth to reason with the need to do things honestly. What a shame!

So Proud We all are!

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This is the kind of thing that really frustrates me about our country… This is meant to be a Representative Government! We place individuals in positions of trust in the hope they will do their jobs and keep the public interests at the forefront of their doings, and no matter how much we would like to think it, these individuals are influenced by money and power and finally turn on their handlers, namely the Public Trust!

I can write all I want about it, but nothing I say will ever give back the Trillions of Dollars stolen or lost by the very people we Trust to be the Good Stewards of our Faith in our ethics as a Nation; as an Ideal!

Another Waste of Breath

It only took Congress 5 years to finally complete phase 2 of an investigation to the pre-war intelligence over the invasion of Iraq, and the build up by the White House to go to war on stretched information and sometimes blatant lies. I mean we all saw Colon Powell deliver that hopeless bull to the UN about the aluminum tubes. It was on every channel and no one questioned it at the dinner table, or thought about how many lives would be destroyed by sitting there listening and not voicing there objections.

We all saw the President stand up in front of Congress and tell us about the Nigeria paper that had already been disproved by Valerie Plame’s husband, as a fraudulent forgery, that Saddam was trying to get yellow cake (enriched uranium), and this was part of his “WMD” program, but the Republicans in Congress were trying to protect their buddies and had no intentions of protecting the sovereign citizens they supposedly represent.

It amazes me that we have come to this point as a “democracy”. What do people expect when there is nothing remotely close to a reaction over something that has killed literally hundreds of thousands of people while the mentality of complacency rings in with banners and bumper stickers to support our troops. What a joke. And if the pre-war intelligence for Iraq was theater for our entertainment then so must be everything else this administration has claimed and Congress has rolled over for.

Maybe if we hadn’t allowed Congress to lock the number of House Representatives at 450 something in the early teens, we might still have a voice in our political process. The story isn’t even important anymore. No one really cares about it. All we care about is our life-style obsessions.

America is as broken as it can get and Congress is so blinded by soft money and lobbyists that it can’t even end farm subsidies in the wake of a world food shortage. Of course they’re not going to impeach the President for one of the lies that took us to war. That would be doing something.

I find it amazing that there may not be enough solid evidence to convict Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and yet we as a nation have gone to war twice because we were so sure we were right about 9/11, that we were willing to kill for it. So where’s the WMD’s?

The bottom line is that the President swore an oath to protect the Constitution. It clearly states that the President must annually inform the Congress of the “State of the Union”. When He stepped behind that podium and told Congress and the American people that the Nigeria paper was solid evidence that Saddam had Nuclear ambitions he knowingly committed perjury under oath. The CIA had informed him after reading his speech, previous to the State of the Union address, that the intelligence might not be accurate.

The investigation into the leaking of Valerie Plame’s identity to the media, and the conviction of I. Lewis Libby’s perjury, reveals foreknowledge of the Presidents actions before Congress, that the White House Administration was attempting to hide the indiscretion, by discrediting an OpED article by Joseph C. Wilson (Plame’s husband), which revealed the Nigeria Paper to be a forgery. It reveals the motive behind misleading Congress, the UN and the American People, that the White House was intent on attacking Iraq, even if they had to lie to achieve this end.

Senate Panel Finds Iraq Intelligence Exaggerations