McGhosts and Ogoblins

There are a lot of scary things in this world, but one of the scariest is that Halloween and the Presidential election are only five days apart. It's hard to miss the parallel between tricks-and-treats and the promises-and-panderings of politicians masquerading as the most caring, most vital, most sincere candidate. While standing behind their lapel flag buttons, they are quick to dress their opponents in something less patriotic.
OCTOBER 2008
McGhosts>>

America’s Buddy-Buddy
Campaign Press Corps

It’s a little more than a week before the presidential election, and I’m worried about what happens afterwards. I’m not worried about the candidates, the people, or the country. I’m worried about the media.

First, I’m worried about the TV ad salespeople. For more than a year they haven’t had to do much other than sit back and open digital files from the politicians. Now, the salespeople will actually have to go to work to fill airtime.
OCTOBER 2008
Press Corps>>

Going Negative Not a
Positive Way to Get Votes

During the final debate last week, Barack Obama called John McCain on the negative ads, saying that 100 percent of his radio and TV ads were negative. Not true, replied McCain. True, according to the Advertising Project at the University of Wisconsin. Almost every ad in a one-week period before the debate was negative.
OCTOBER 2008
Get Votes>>

Conservative Group Is Right:
Free Speech Is Not a Political Issue

The Sunbird Conservatives, a student group, put out some pro-McCain literature at a recruiting table at Fresno Pacific University a week ago.

Seemed innocent enough. The conservatives weren't harassing anyone, nor were they blocking any sidewalks.  

But, administrators at this Christian-based college didn't like it. A dean told the students to either remove the McCain literature or to agree to what he said was university policy to present both sides. The dean correctly noted that the First Amendment applies only to government intrusion. A private university, unlike a public university, may curtail any free speech it wants.
OCTOBER 2008
Free Speech>>

Sarah Palin Wins Debate—by Darn

The vice-presidential debates proved one thing. At the very least, Sarah Palin can be trained.

For several days, she had camped out in one of John McCain’s Arizona houses, where she underwent Debate Boot camp conducted by drill instructors who make Marine DIs appear to be slaggers.

With a few “darns,” “betchas,” and “ya”s, Palin managed to get all her talking points into the debate, even if she constantly changed the question to suit her note cards.
OCTOBER 2008
Palin Debate>>

Stampeded by Fear, Scammed by Lies:
Why the Bailout Failed

The Republican leaders of the House of Representatives grabbed a half dozen bags of sincerity, looked directly into every TV camera they could find, and lied.

The House had just defeated, 228–205, a bipartisan $700 billion bailout bill. But it was the Democrats who were the subject of vicious rhetoric.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) “poisoned our conference,” screeched Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), the Republican minority leader. He said the House would have voted for the bill “had it not been for the partisan speech the Speaker gave on the floor of the House.”
SEPTEMBER 2008
Bailout>>

Seizing America by Withholding
the Mother’s Milk of Politics

It was Monday evening and the phone rang—again. It was probably the fifth time in two hours. A pleasant voice said she was from the—oh that really doesn’t make any difference. Both presidential candidates have volunteer minions on the phones and Internet day after day, month after month, for what seems like years.
SEPTEMBER 2008
Seizing America>>

Burning the First Amendment

“Got a match?”

I didn't know where he came from, but there he was, right behind me—as usual. “You know I don’t smoke,” I told Marshbaum. “Come to think of it, you don't either. What's up?”

“Not much. Planning to roast some marshmallows and hotdogs. Burn some books.”

“Marshbaum,” I commanded. “You can’t burn books.”

“Sure I can. All I need is a match. See, first you—”

“Burning books is against everything this country stands for.”
SEPTEMBER 2008
Amendment>>

No Wolf Whistles for Sarah Palin's Compassion

Defibrillator usage increased last week after John McCain announced Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential running mate and only a heartbeat from the presidency. But, shortly after most Republicans were shocked back to life they circled the wagons to declare she was the perfect choice. Apparently, the cure also included a dose of psychotropic drugs as well.
SEPTEMBER 2008
Sarah Palin>>

Labor Pains: Unions, the
Mass Media, Economy, and
an Anti-Worker Administration

Once a year, I and a few dozen other reporters and columnists write a Labor Day story. And, like most Americans we don't remember our history.

We don’t remember that the Knights of Labor created the first Labor Day in 1882 and that Congress made it a national holiday in 1894.
AUGUST 2008
Labor unions>>

No News is Bad News

During the time that Bill Clinton was rocking the Democratic convention, ABC, CBS, and Fox were showing re-runs, NBC was showing the second hour of “America’s Got Talent,” and the CW was showing the second season finale of “Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious.”

Less than two decades ago, the networks gave the conventions gavel-to-gavel coverage. This year, the networks are giving only four hours prime time coverage to each convention.
AUGUST 2008
Bad news>>

Americans Need to
Tear Down This Wall

The “star” of the Olympics may not be multiple medalists but the Great Wall of China. Every TV network covering the Olympics took the world to see the Wall. It seemed as if almost every newspaper and magazine reporter also visited the Great Wall.
AUGUST 2008
Olympics>>

Downsizing the News
And Pretending to
Increase Quality

Executive management at the Allentown Morning Call recently laid off more than two dozen persons from its newsroom, most of them veteran reporters drawing higher salaries. Management plans to cut 35–40 positions, according to a letter sent by publisher Timothy Johnson. The cuts are about one-fourth of the news staff. The remaining reporters are being told to write more stories under the same deadline constraints. Coverage of local meetings has been put into secondary importance; bureaus have been combined. The Morning Call is not alone.
AUGUST 2008
Downsizing>>

'Medaling' With Free Speech at the Olympics

President Bush sounded just like a liberal.

Yes, you read that right. Bush. Liberal. Same sentence.

At the new U.S. embassy in Beijing on the opening day of the Olympics, he said, “All people should have the freedom to say what they think.” Without even blinking, he also told the world, while directing his comments at the Chinese, “We strongly believe societies which allow the free expression of ideas tend to be the most prosperous and the most peaceful.”
AUGUST 2008
Olympics>>

Geo Beach:
A Swamp Yankee in the Last Frontier

When Geo Beach looks you in the eye and says that “Tougher in Alaska,” his 13 week series on the History Channel, isn’t Reality TV, you believe him.

It might be the sincerity seen in his penetrating blue eyes.

It might also be that not many will challenge a bald-headed 6-foot-3, 225 pound man who looks like he could have been a pro football linebacker, but was really a firefighter/medic, logger, and commercial fisherman.

But, it’s probably because, above everything else, Geo Beach, an award-winning journalist, knows the media. And right now, he knows that his series definitely, absolutely, is not Reality TV.
JULY 2008
GeoBeach>>

It’s Still the Economy, Stupid

George W. Bush looked into the TV camera, Tuesday morning [July 15] and tried to assuage the fears of about 300 million Americans who believed they were in the middle of a Recession.

“The economy is growing,” said the President. “Productivity is high,” he told us. “Trade’s up. People are working,” he said. In the Bush White House, the “R Word” is just a myth. Of course, the man who once wanted to be known as the Compassionate Conservative did say he knew “It’s been a difficult time for many American families.”

“Difficult” doesn’t even begin to describe what has happened to Americans the past seven years.
JULY 2008
Economy>>

The Rocket’s Red Glare
May Be Chinese

Wearing a pith helmet and brandishing a blunderbuss, Marshbaum burst into my office and ordered me to the floor. I looked at my faux friend and media foil, about to ask him what his latest scheme was. With Marshbaum, who was fed “Honeymooners” episodes by IV when he was a child, everything is a scheme to make money. But, in the fraction of time I had before he yelled for me to get under my desk and cover my head, I quickly determined he was serious.
JULY 2008
Rocket>>

Squabbling Over the Pigeon Bill:
Pennsylvania Legislature Won’t Be
Able to Soar Like Eagles Until It
Shoots Down Animal Cruelty

Dave Comroe stepped to the firing line, raised his 12-gauge Browning over and under shotgun, aimed and fired. Before him, a pigeon fell, moments after being released from a box less than 20 yards away. About 25 times that day Comroe fired, hitting about three-fourths of the birds. He was 16 at the time.
JUNE 2008
Animal Cruelty>>

The Politics of Humanitarian Aid

President Bush was justifiably upset. A cyclone four days earlier had destroyed a large portion of Myanmar, and the country’s military junta was still refusing humanitarian aid. “Let the United States come to help you, help the people,” Bush pleaded with the junta. “We’re prepared to move U.S. Navy assets to help find those who’ve lost their lives, to help find the missing, to help stabilize the situation,” said the President, “but in order to do so, the military junta must allow our disaster assessment teams into the country.”
MAY 2008
Humanitarian Aid>>

Gays, God, and Government:
Self-righteousness in the State Capitols

The mantra of almost all conservatives—it makes no difference what political party they belong to—is to keep government out of their lives. But, they don’t mind government interference when it plays to their biases and bigotry.
MAY 2008
State Capitols>>

President Bush’s Week-Long Adventure

President Bush is in Egypt today to meet with President Hosni Mubarak. It is Bush’s last day of a week-long adventure into the Middle East, where he also met with the leaders of Israel, Saudi Arabia, the Palestinian Authority, and Afghanistan. It is probably Bush’s last formal chance to pretend that he’s going to broker a peace between Israel and the rest of the Arab world and secure a legacy that leads to the Nobel Prize. He must be thinking that if Jimmy Carter could do it between Israel and Egypt, it must be time for a neo-con war-mongering Republican to get a few accolades.
MAY 2008
Bush Adventure>>

People. People Who Don’t Need People

From a pool of about seven billion, those hard-working geniuses at People magazine have managed to find the hundred most beautiful people in the whole wide world. And—get ready for the surprise—almost every one of those beautiful people are rich American celebrities.
MAY 2008
People>>

John McCain Won’t Be Looking
for the Union Label

Don’t expect any labor union to endorse John McCain for president in the general election. The wounds from the Bush–Cheney Administration are just too deep. But, their reasons aren’t because of social justice issues that once pervaded the labor movement, but on bread-and-butter issues that have dominated unions the past five decades.
APRIL 2008
Union Label>>

Coming to Your Town—but only until Tuesday—a Clinton

The Clintons are patrolling Pennsylvania as if they’re border collies herding all the stray sheep into the flock.           

Political Log Rolling in Clinton Country

It was just an old-fashioned case of political log rolling. In this case, the Clinton campaign approached a Democratic county commissioner and held up a political carrot—if the commissioner, the only Democrat of the three commissioners, would endorse Sen. Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, they would do their best to provide President Bill Clinton as a speaker in the commissioner’s county.
APRIL 2008
Political Log Rolling>>

Murder in an Alaskan Forest

No one—at least no human—knows his name, or even if he had a name.

We don’t know where or when he was born. We know nothing about his life.

But we know a lot about his death. A politician/trapper from northeast Pennsylvania went to Alaska and killed him. We know this because the local newspaper opened almost a full page to tell us about the glorious hunt.

APRIL 2008
Murder in Alaska>>

The Surrogate Votergate

“Vote for Marshbaum! Get your vote recorded early!”
 
On Main Street, shouting and scaring away dogs, Marshbaum was campaigning furiously, stopping almost every carbon form within 30 feet of him. In one hand was a sign, “Change With Obama.” In his other hand was “3 a.m. Hillary.”
 
“You are running for President?” I asked somewhat skeptically.
 
“Didn’t you read the signs?” asked an incredulous Marshbaum, upset that even a journalist could miss props that large. “I’m accepting votes for Obama or Hillary.”

MARCH 2008
Votergate>>

The Flocked-Up Campaign Press Gaggle

Shortly before the primary votes this past week, Newsweek called Barack Obama’s surge to the Democratic nomination “inevitable.” It also called for Hillary Clinton to “start campaign for Sen. majority leader.” Newsweek was one of only dozens of national media that made that “analysis.” But the voters had their own ideas.

MARCH 2008
Presidental Campaign>>

Flying a Chinese-Made American Flag to Stimulate the Economy

With almost no opposition, Congress had agreed to the President’s massive rebate program. Violating almost every principle of conservative politics, except the one for self-preservation of their jobs, the Republicans willingly tossed around money in a naive belief it would slow down the recession. The plan was to mint almost $120 billion for the people, mostly to make them think they should be grateful to Big Government for its concern for the “Little Guy,” even ones making up to $250,000 a year. That $600 individual rebate was also a lame disguise to make the people overlook the $50 billion that was being distributed in the form of tax rebates for American business, a Republican pet project. Only at the last minute—and only because the Democrats demanded it and agreed not to fight the Republicans who refused to allow heating assistance for the impoverished and extra money for the unemployed—did the final proposal include $300 for each of the 250,000 disabled veterans, and $600 for each of 20 million senior citizens who didn’t qualify.

FEBRUARY 2008
Economy>>

Spouting Change to Stay the Same

All of the presidential candidates are spouting “CHANGE” as their “catch-word of the day.” Change the health care system. Change the economy. Change the corporate hold on middle-class Americans. The only thing they’re not relying upon to get votes is spare change. A multi-million dollar campaign needs corporate investment—the kind the candidates say they oppose, but most are taking, nevertheless.

JANUARY 2008
Primary Promises>>

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