Wednesday, December 05, 2012

The World is NOT Coming to an End

TODAY'S HEADLINE:  Fiscal Cliff Talks Frozen

Two thoughts.  First and, by far, most important: If Congress fails to act the world will not come to an end.  Far from it. In fact I believe the complete failure of talks is the optimal outcome.  We need to aggressively deal with the national debt. This is the only approach that does that.

I am confident the economy will not go into recession.  In fact, I predict with confidence, it will improve.  After all Nancy Pelosi's $800 million dollar stimulus had no effect on the economy.  Neither will this tax increase coupled with the minor spending reduction.

This is much ado about nothing.

Second, in spite of my bold suggestion we allow the tax cuts to expire and the spending cuts to take effect, neither will happen.  Compromise will be reached.

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Green Chri$tma$

File this one under "speaking truth to power."

Stan Freberg created his comedic mini-opera "
Green Chri$tma$" all the way back in 1958. Logging in at a whopping 6 minutes and 52 seconds it was too long for most radio station's formats.  But that isn't what kept it from being played on AM and FM stations back in the late 50's.

Freberg was an advertising powerhouse in the 1950's sought after by major clients worldwide. He was also a major comedy recording artist for Capitol Records.  Virtually his entire catalog is still available for purchase or download. 


Popular history says that Stan Freberg was inspired to write "Green Chri$tma$ when he happened upon a magazine advertisement showing a family, on Christmas morning, thrilled with receiving four new whitewall tires for Christmas. For the son and grandson of ministers, it was just too much, and he had the first draft written that afternoon.

"Green Chri$tma$" performed by Stan Freberg and the folks from his advertising group. Some of the greatest advertising and musical geniuses of the day worked with Mr Freberg in creating this masterpiece.  Musical arrangement was written by Billy May, who directed the Capitol Records house orchestra. Other vocal performances are by Daws Butler, Marvin Miller, Will Wright and the Jud Conlon Chorale.






While the creation of "Green Chri$tma$" was truly inspired, getting it released and on the air turned out to be a nightmare. At first, Capitol Records refused to release the record. Capitol told Freberg the record was offensive to everybody in advertising, and predicted confidently that Freberg would never work in advertising again. 

Freberg doubled down and  threatened to cancel his entire recording contract with Capitol if they didn't release his masterpiece.  He went so far as to talk to a competitor,  Verve Records, and Verve jumped at the chance to sign Freberg. They offered to release the record without even hearing it. Rather than lose Freberg, Capitol released Green Chri$tma$ quietly, with no promotion or publicity.

In spite of Capitol's efforts to "fly under the radar" Freberg's record was attacked immediately in advertising trade magazines. And advertisers flexed their muscles and forced radio stations to censor the song and keep it off the air. It was played only twice in New York by one disc jockey, and the station's sales department threatened to have him fired if he played it again. The story was repeated station after radio station. In spite of overwhelming listener requests, stations bowed to advertisers and refused to air the song.

And it got worse!  An editorial in the Los Angeles Times condemned it, but the author later admitted he had never listened to it.   The head of CBS refused to even listen to the song because he "already knew what it was all about."

However, the mail Freberg received from the public, including Christian clergy and rabbis, was overwhelmingly positive.
However, Freberg did get both the first and last laugh.  The song became an underground hit is an age when copies had to be made on home tape recorders.  Even more importantly Coca-Cola and Marlboro, both recognizably satirized in the record without being named, asked Freberg for advertising campaigns. On principle he turned down cigarette company Marlboro, but he created a very successful campaign for Coca-Cola.

Today Green Chri$tma$ is considered a work of art by an advertising genius who had the courage to see exactly what his profession was doing and to call them on it.  Freberg was willing to speak truth to power and win.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Ding Dong Death Watch

There are genuinely serious issues facing us today.  Hamas is retaliating for Israels massive missile strike with new, long range missiles hitting the suburbs of Tel Aviv.  We may on the verge of outright war in the Middle East which could easily escalate into a world wide conflict.

Europe has fallen back into a real recession.  Strikes are occurring in many countries and Spain and Greece are on the verge of default once again.  The economic implications for the United States are immense.

General David Petreas has been forced to resign as the head of the C.I.A. in a sex scandal that seems to grow daily.

And the events in Benghazi, Libya are just now beginning to emerge.  Susan Rice, our United Nation's Ambassador has been tarnished by her role in making a series of misleading statements (or attempted cover-up) of events surrounding the murder of Ambassador Stevens. Unfortunately this mess gets uglier by the day at a time when we need President Obama and his entire national security team to focus on world events.



But I today I must spend a few comments about the potential death of a great American Institution, Hostess Bakeries and their flagship confections, the Twinkie and Dong Dong dessert snacks.  If striking bakers don't return to work by the close of business today, the CEO of the bankrupt Hostess Brands, the parent of Hostess, has promised to close the business and liquidate all assets.

While the names Twinkie and Ding Dong will no doubt be sold in the liquidation, it's unlikely the snacks will ever be the same.  

The bakers are fighting a rather small reduction in wages ordered by the bankruptcy court.  The strike is illegal and the court has ordered the strikers to return to work.  If they don't, and the company liquidates, 18,000 employees will all lose their jobs.  

And all America will lose their Twinkies and Ding Dongs, perhaps forever.

There is no doubt in my mind that Hostess has been mismanaged.  They had just clawed their way out of bankruptcy two short years ago.  Now they're already back.  That's not the Baker's Union fault, that's management.

On the other hand Hostess cannot compete with the brilliantly run McKee Foods, maker of Little Debbie Snacks, who operate non-unionized plants with significantly lower costs.  Saddled with huge union costs, high medical benefit costs and gigantic pensions (which the Bankruptcy Court is now proposing to reduce), Hostess simply cannot compete profitably in the cost conscious American marketplace.

Let's hope that calmer minds prevail in each of the crisis we face today, even the Twinkie Crisis.  
___________________________________

ADDENDUM November 23, 2012:  Everyone tried to save Hostess, the Teamsters Union, Management and even the Bankruptcy Judge, but the Baker's Union was determined to close the company and place it into liquidation.  I've read dozens of articles and cannot find one word of explanation from the Baker's Union as to why they refused every effort to resolve this crisis. 18,500 people will now all lose their jobs.  No one believes the 6,500 Baker's Union members will ever get their jobs back, even with new owners.

Why did the union work so aggressively against the interests of their members?  Why do we have 6,500 Baker's Union members suffering this Christmas?  I'd welcome input, especially from any member of the Union, especially the Union Leaders.

Red State has an in depth analysis of this failure and the union's mysterious failure to help thier members: Let Them Eat Cake

Thursday, November 08, 2012

Why Romney Lost


There is no point in writing a post telling you why Romney lost because I've already spent an entire year telling you why Romney would lose.  And he lost for the exact reasons I already have posted.

November 18, 2011 - Why Mitt Can't Win

February 19, 2012 - Mitt Romney Can't Win

July 18, 2012 - Dear Mr Romney

September 18, 2012 - NOT BREAKING NEWS: Mitt Romney Can't Win

September 28, 2012 - Why Mitt Romney Must Win and Why Mitt Romney Will Lose

November 1, 2012 - Obama is a Lock for an Eight Year failed Presidency

But there are a couple of new points I can add.

My first point is that President Obama waged a brilliant campaign.  Many now say his 2012 campaign will be studied for years to come. He had everything working against him from high unemployment to exploding national debt to a Watergate caliber scandal (Benghazi) that would have easily sunk any other President.

But he ran a text book campaign including the key act of defining the opponent in May and June before the opponent has a chance to define himself.  Romney was quickly defined as an elitist, out of touch, business CEO, a multi-millionaire who genuinely had no regard at all for the lower classes.

Meanwhile Romney also ran a textbook campaign: but his was the textbook about how to lose!  Romney never responded to a single attack in a timely manner.  After playing four quarters of defense, he then tried to run out the clock.

My second point comes from a genuinely great analysis of voter turnout in Real Clear Politics today: The Case of the Missing White Voters by Sean Trende.  Trende points out that minority turnout equaled Obama's first election in 2008.  It had been expected minority turnout would drop.  What did drop and drop dramatically was white middle class turnout.  Had Mitt Romney simply got the votes John McCain and Sarah Palin got in 2008, he would have won.

Obama's ground game was superb.  He got his vote out. And by successfully turning off the middle class voters with his negative defining of Mitt Romney, potential Romney voters stayed home.  

Romney's ground game was, well, pathetic.  He counted on "enthusiasm" instead of a real get-out-the-vote effort.  The Republican Party is also largely to blame.  There are real lessons to be learned here.

But there is also a lesson about enthusiasm.  Romney never got people excited.  And he failed to use the single most powerful weapon in his (potential) arsenal, Sarah Palin, until it was too late.

Palin should have been the keynote speaker at the convention.  Certainly not the traitor Chris Christie, who gave a lackluster speech that was all about Chris Christie.  And Palin should have been on the road.  

To her credit Sarah Palin was on Romney's side to the very end and, when finally asked, recorded robo-calls for Romney.  It was way too little, way too late.

But that's not Romney's style. In fact, Romney has no style. Therein lies the entire problem.

Thursday, November 01, 2012

Obama is a Lock for an Eight Year Failed Presidency


For over a year I've predicted a dozen times in this blog alone that Romney cannot win the election and that President Obama is assured of certain victory. I predicted Romney would repeatedly stumble, miss opportunities and fail. Romney is that tone deaf. 

Today I repeat that assertion. President Obama wlll be re-elected Tuesday and by a comfortable margin. 

Curiously Mitt Romney had a chance. Even more curiously, he decided to forgo almost certain election and pursue a genuinely bizarre last minute campaign strategy, ignoring the huge issue of the Obama Administration's cover-up of Libyan Ambassador Steven's torture and murder in Benghazi and opting instead to double down on a deceptive ad about Jeep moving production to China. 

Instead of exposing the truth of the biggest cover-up of this century, Romney decides to repeat a lie about automobile production. Missteps don't get much bigger than this. 

Someday, someone will write a book about this election (they always do) and will reveal why Romney made the gigantic mistake. 

In the meantime, after his comfortable re-election , President Obama will face a massive Congressional and media investigations that could actually bring down his Presidency. Shades of Nixon and Watergate. 

The nation is the loser next Tuesday. We could have had a competent disciplined President who would have turned around our economy and stabilized world relations. Instead will will get four genuinely horrific years of gridlock, investigations, bitterness, divisiveness and an utterly failed Presidency.

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Why I'm Disappointed in the News Media

I listened to National Public Radio's Morning Edition this morning as I do every morning.  What a superb news organization!  The news stories presented are in depth, thoughtful and thorough.  I'm convinced there isn't a finer news organization working today.

However.......

Today and all this week there hasn't been a single story about the most important new event since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.  I'm referring, of course, to the 9/11 Anniversary attack on the  Consulate in Benghazi, Libya including the rape, torture and murder of our Libyan Ambassador AND the subsequent bizarre cover-up of events by a White House in the middle of an Election Year Crisis. 

This is a news worthy story. In fact there isn't a single story that even approaches this in terms of importance.  Yet there is no coverage.  No one on NPR is asking the important questions. No one is asking any questions.

This isn't a news blackout.  The New York Post ran the story on their front page.  There have been stories on CBS and ABC News.  And FOX NEWS has it properly positioned as the single most important story of this decade.

FOX NEWS ratings are going through the roof.  The public recognizes the importance of this story.  When the story is completely ignored by MSNBC and only minimally covered by CNN, the audience goes where they must to learn the facts.

Of course FOX NEWS is presenting this story with a distinctly Republican spin.  That makes the FAILURE of NPR and other major news organizations even more disturbing.  The public needs an objective, dispassionate and in depth look at the facts and the White House Spin.  NPR could do that.  But someone, somewhere high up in their news organization is blockading the story.  WHY?

The cheerleader news groups (MSNBC and FOX) do their loyal viewers no good by eliminating news unfavorable to their candidates.  Better they should face the bad news head on and over it properly.  But the other news outlets who claim to be unbiased really betray us all by covering up a story that they will eventually be forced to cover.  All they do is lose credibility by being late to the scene.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Why Did Obama Lie? Why Did Others Lie?


Slowly buy surely the actual facts in the Islamic radical assault on our Consulate in Benghazi, Libya are coming to light. 

We now know that Ambassador Stevens asked for increased security many times before the attack.  We know the State Department turned him down in a dismissive and arrogant manner.  It appears no one at the State Department will pay the price for this gross error in judgment.

We now know that drones overhead witnessed the attack and that officials in the CIA, the State Department and even President Obama himself knew this was a terrorist attack.

We now know that there was no protest of demonstration preceding or during the assault on the Consulate.

And today we know that President Obama was fully aware that the radical group Ansar al-Sharia had asserted responsibility for the attacks.  The White House had emails from this al Qaeda allied group within two hours of the attack.

What we will never know is why President Obama lied continuously and consistently for two solid weeks about the attack.  We will never know why he forced Jay Carney, the White House Press Secretary to lie, when Carney knew the truth.

We will never know why the President ordered Susan Rice, the United Nations Secretary to outright lie on four Sunday Morning News Interviews, destroying her credibility forever.

We will never know why in the world Vice President Biden told such an involved fictional account of the information known to the administration, even recounting totally false dates, during the Vice Presidential Debate.  Biden knew from day one.  Why did he destroy any chance he might have had of becoming President? 

Certainly the administration will never explain these lies and the bizarre and unnecessary cover-up of the facts.  It's a mini-Watergate with no logical explanation. 

We can only guess that the President was trying to place the blame elsewhere, on an obscure video maker, to avoid any direct blame that would harm his re-election chances.  It just all seems so odd.

If President Obama wins re-election the Main Stream Media will then investigate and ask these same questions.  If he loses it will fall upon a disgruntled staffer to reveal the truth.  But either way, Mr. PResident, the truth will come out.

Friday, October 19, 2012

The Video Game President

There is a world wide uproar over President Barack Obama's appearance on Comedy Central last night.  President Obama stated that the rape, torture and murder of Ambassador Stevens and three others was "not very optimal."

"Not very optimal."

Sean Smith was one of the diplomats slain in an attack Obama has been trying to cover up for weeks.  He mother feels sorry that the event just wasn't "optimal" for the President.  She told a reporter for the UK Daily Mail, "My son is not very optimal - he is very dead."

As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, Whoopi Goldberg asked Ann Romney how her husband could possibly speak to parents of fallen soldiers since he himself had never served in Viet Nam.  I can answer that question right now for you, Whoopi, "One Hell of a lot better than Barack Obama did last night!"

This get back to the point I raised a few days ago in the blog entry, The Paint By Numbers President, where I discussed Obama's use of sterile form letters to parents of fallen servicemen and women.  President has no feel for the office of President. He has no sense of gravity.  He avoids all aspects of the job of being President except for the Television appearances and perks of the job.




He is exactly like a child playing the popular video game "Call of Duty."  None of it is real to him.  It's all just a video game.  

That's all the raid on Osama bin Laden was to him.  A big video game, an opportuninty to brag (and release government secrets to the press).  Likewise, the drone attacks that kill terrorists along with innocent Pakistanis.  It's one big video game.  And Obama gets to play the President.

This time I hope America elects a real President.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Mary at FREEDOM EDEN Takes on The View

Working in retail and heading into the Holiday selling season, I've just not had the time to prepare and write the blog posts I want to write.  I'd like to write an entire blog post about the amount of shear "hatred" I read in many posts, especially on the left.  And Twitter? OMG!!!

I will devote a few short paragraphs to Candy Crowley's role as Moderator of the Presidential Debate this past week.  President Obama won the debate, exactly as I predicted and expected.  No surprise there.  But why and how did Candy Crowley suddenly jump into the debate to defend President Obama with an obscure single word, out of context, factoid from a Rose Garden Speech?  It revolves around one word, "terrorism." 

In fact, why did President Obama, after weeks and weeks of absolute denial of ANY KNOWLEDGE THIS WAS A PLANNED, ORGANIZED, TERRORIST ATTACK during that first ten day period following the torture and murder of Ambassador Stevens (including a lengthy and tortured denial by Vice President Biden last week), suddenly remember he actually DID call it terrorism before any of the "facts" were known?  

More importantly why did the otherwise objective Candy Crowley have that Rose Garden speech literally memorized?  How was she suddenly able to verify Obama's obscure single use of the word "terrorism" in the middle of the Wednesday night debate?  

And why did she need to "fact check" Mitt Romney instantly?  

This smells bad.  I have no proof, of course, but I genuinely believe there was some sort of collusion between Crowley and the President's Election Committee. I don't believe in accidents.  And this was no accident.  This doesn't feel right.  

And it wasn't necessary. President Obama was winning on style and substance.  Worse yet we now know that Candy Crowley was essentially wrong.  She herself has personally "walked back" the interruption saying that Romney essentially correct.



Finally I'm bothered by the vicious attack on Ann Romney on The View today.  Mitt Romney wasn't there (and he should have been).  But, after the sickeningly sweet cotton candy interview of President and Michele Obama, how is it that Barbara Walters let the Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar dogs loose on Ann?

I'm going to let superb blogger Mary from FREEDOM EDEN take it from here. Read her entire post:   ANN ROMNEY: THE VIEW

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

The Paint By Numbers President

I have three thoughts tonight that need little or no expansion.

1.)  I remember the "Bush Haters" really well from just four years ago.  It seems like a century ago, doesn't it?  President Bush could do nothing right.  McCain lost, at least in part, because he was unable to distance himself from the reviled President Bush.

2.)  Four short years later we have the mirror image of the "Bush Haters" in the "Obama Haters." For these critics Presidnet Obama can do nothing right.  Every tiny move is subject to review and criticism.  

The newest cause celeb in the "Obama Haters" click is the growing critcism of President Obama's use of one single standard and terribly impersonal form letter being sent to the families of every soldier killed in Afghanistan, Iraq or on any duty.  One cold letter, printed and signed again and again and again.  They point out that President Bush, for all his flaws, usually wrote personal notes,often by hand.

The Gateway Pundit has covered the controversy here: Confirmed: Obama Sent Same Form Letter to Parents of All Fallen Soldiers, Marines, SEALs

3.) I will refuse to ever become an "Obama Hater."  He is not a bad man.  He doesn't deserve the vilification thrown his way. 

I'm voting for Mitt Romney for a variety of rational reasons outlined elsewhere in this blog.  I think this "letter" controversy is overblown.  But, it does reflect Obama's approach to his entire Presidency.  He has no feel for the job or its gravity.  It's all paint by the numbers, sign the form letters, then on to The View.

He's not a bad man.  He's just not the man we need in the Oval Office.