Stay Free! Daily

An Open Letter to Barack Obama

Dear Senator Obama,

Please shut up about Sarah Palin’s experience, particularly foreign policy experience.

Your campaign has spent the better part of the last two years arguing that judgment is more important than experience. This is a good argument because it is true. Voters apparently do not care about foreign policy ‘experience’ and experience appears to have no bearing on whether a candidate will use that experience wisely.

George W. Bush, hick governor, had no foreign policy experience. He beat a two-term VP with over a decade in Congress. Bill Clinton, hick governor, had no foreign policy experience. He beat George H.W. Bush, a sitting president, two-term VP, Congressman and head of the CIA. Bush? He beat Dukakis, proving nothing. Reagan? None. Beat a sitting president who negotiated a peace treaty in the Middle East. Carter? None. He beat a sitting president and veteran of Congress.

Does experience look like it matters?

So, having staked your campaign on your judgment, you chose Biden as VP, sort of admitting that maybe experience counts a little. This was kind of bad, and not only because you were already getting Delaware’s 3 electoral votes. I don’t even hate the Biden pick because I think he should be able to overcome the terrible atmospherics of his selection by being a decent attack dog - but you have to admit that the atmospherics suck.

Then you had the balls to go after Palin’s experience when what you should have been going after was her judgment. When McCain selected Palin as VP he didn’t choose someone who had no foreign policy experience; he chose someone who had apparently never spent a day of her life thinking about anything beyond the border of Alaska. Alaska’s proximity to Canada is, according to the GOP talking heads, supposed to mean something about her foreign policy bona fides.  After 9/11 you needed a passport to get into Canada. She got a passport in 2007. As far as the world knows, Sarah Palin has never thought about the world at large. She has no record on foreign policy and so she is now a blank slate to be filled in however the McCain campaign deems politically expedient. Not only would you be able to attack Palin’s judgment - a mid-40’s governor with no public statements on foreign policy should not be considered a serious candidate for the Vice Presidency - you would be able to attack McCain’s judgment for making such a dimwitted choice.

This is how you should have gone after her selection. It would not only have been consistent with your own talking points, it would have kept the GOP from exploiting ‘experience’ - what most polls show is your biggest vulnerability.

And in doing so you opened up a line of attack on your own judgment.

Sincerely,
Charles Star

P.S. The right answer to “admit that the surge is working” wasn’t It’s working, but who knew it would! when you are running against a candidate that staked his campaign on the surge. The right answer was Working? By what standard? If the U.S. pulled its troops out tomorrow we would be exactly where we were before the surge started. If Iraq can’t survive without the surge troops in place, we have established a permanent occupation. I’d call that a failure.

Rocks is the new Sucks

I have to admit, I don't remember virginity rocking -- and I remember an awful lot of virginity.

Plus, take a look at that picture. Those two kids are so totally fuckin' each other.

Via WNYC

Psychedelic Patriotic Propaganda

Back in 1975, the United States Information Agency (our propaganda agency) funded various film projects to celebrate the country's 200th birthday. I stumbled across one such film - "200" - which stands out as an amazing critique of a country obsessed with mass consumption.

I tracked down the creator of this amazing, trippy look at America - animator Vincent Collins. I asked him about this project. "My grant proposal was real general - 'to animate symbols of USA' - the horn of plenty scene was kind of political, but the way all the other symbols animated was sort of sarcastic, also. (USA is 2% of the population of the planet, but uses 90% of the energy type of thing.)  Whatever! They liked it!"

So did the U.S. Information Agency have any problems with the critical look at the U.S.? Collins responded, "The 'Information Agency' that sponsored those films never complained about anything.  In fact, those days, the government was buying a lot of independent films - they bought 6 copies of a couple of my 3 minute psychedelic-druggy animations and even bought 6 copies of Les Blank's "Always for Pleasure" which was an hour and a half long.  Somewhere in the 70's they stopped buying films - about the time everything sort of stopped for avant-garde underground scene."

Link to MPEG-4 file of the film (You'll need Quicktime or VLC to watch this).

Vincent Collin's web site

Junk Foods Against Obesity

When Armageddon comes, fast food clowns will dress up as fitness instructors and cola companies will write nutrition guidelines for schools... Oh wait, that day is already here, at least judging from this new batch of corporate "health" websites.

Coca-Cola's Step Challenge - "Promoting Health and Fighting Obesity" by marketing Coke-branded pedometers in schools. Coke, of course, continues to fight for its right to sell flavored sugar water in elementary school lunch rooms. Drink up, kids, then walk it off! Don't miss Coke's tips for getting in shape:  #8: "Window-Shop 'Til you Drop: Do a couple of laps around the shopping mall...before you stop in." And (my favorite), #9: "If you and your family are glued to the TV, get up and walk around the room during commercial breaks."

PepsiCo says its "wide spectrum of products can be part of a balanced diet."

PepsiCo, Health Is Power - This site encourages schools to sell as many Pepsi products as possible so they can earn "prizes" like Pepsi-branded pedometers. Pepsi: Where a "balanced diet" is washing your Baked Lays and granola bars down with Tropicana.

McDonald's Go Active - Man, Ronald is looking skinny these days. No doubt it's the McDonald's-branded pedometer.But someone obviously got confused when writing this site. Ronald's Online Coloring Book is "For those days when you can’t go outside to play" but notice the doozy of a disclaimer at the bottom of the page:  "This site is intended for adults only and is not intended for use by children of any age. This site does not provide medical or any other health care advice. " Oh, really?

General Mills' Choose Breakfast - Unlike competitor Kraft, General Mills doesn't shy away from touting the nutritional value of its cereals (Trix, Lucky Charms, Cocoa Puffs) and plans to promote them in its new campaign. "We think kids should be eating cereal, including presweetened cereal," a spokesman told the Wall Street Journal. Naturally the food industry's PR wing applauds the campaign. As one tool put it, "Most kids breakfast cereals are better than no breakfast at all."  Yeah, and most kids breakfast cereals are better than getting punched in the head or devoured by robots, but why set the standard so low?

The Beverage Institute for Health and Wellness - Another Coke site, but this one's devoted specifically to "Helping people all over the world live healthier lives through beverages." Because human evolution really sped up after fluids were introduced to our diet. Thanks, Coke.

There are more but you get the idea. The one thing I want to point out about these campaigns is that, while most adults know fast food and soda isn't good for you, that fact is largely beside the point. For one thing, most of this stuff is targeting kids but, more importantly, marketers' goal isn't to persuade. They know that when people stop to think about nutrition, they'll realize whole wheat and salad is better than fried chicken and sugar pops. Their goal is, rather, to make sure that the first image that comes to mind when somebody says McDonald's is a seductive one. When you think of McDonald's, do you think "tasty convenience" or "greasy liposuction"?

Beer and babies

This recent story in Smithsonian Magazine about attempts to sell "medical beer" during Prohibition reminded me of another another curious alcohol story during the Prohibition era. Circa 1929, Scientist Charles R. Stockard conducted a study measuring the effect of alcohol fumes on pregnant rats and concluded that alcohol increased "prenatal mortality." Prohibitionists, who tended to be eugenicists, had a field day with the study and used it to promote their agenda: Alcohol kills!  In response, their opponents (aka "Wets"), including Stockard, argued that the fumes of alcohol were a good thing, because they weeded out inferior individuals while they were still eggs.

...alcohol is highly beneficial as a selective agent tending to eliminate weak and defective individuals from the stock. It also may be noted that this elimination of defective individuals is performed in the gentlest manner by pushing the death moment back into the prenatal life-time, which in popular opinion is before the individual's existence has begun.

So, as fanatical as both groups of people were, they found a form of fanaticism they could agree on: eugenics. (I found this bit in a book by one T. Swann Harding called The Joy of Ignorance, 1932).

The sounds of propaganda

Years ago, Ken Freedman at WFMU put together a compilation of propaganda recordings. Weeks ago, he posted the audio on his blog. Days ago, I got around to downloading. And today I'm suggesting that you do the same. 

The Happy Listener's Guide to Mind Control runs the gamut, from terrifying WW II-era knocks at the Japanese to the classic 1981 Quincy episode attacking punk rock. Some highlights:

The Exxon Singers - "Efficiency"
An anthem for the free-market.

Hank Levine and George Atkins - "The Trumpet"
From Sing Along with JFK, in 1962. Records like this were a fad for a while. Someone recently made a modern version about Bush (check "Commiserate Not Commiserate" from Songs in the Key of W), though it's not nearly as good. Maybe some day I'll post my sing along with Nixon a LP....

Byron MacGregor - "Americans"
Based on a 1973 radio speech by Canadian newscaster Gordon Sinclair. If this sounds familiar, it's because the text of this speech was widely circulated on the Internet after September 11 in an attempt to preach the selflessness of American foriegn policy. (Cough)

Victor Lundberg - "Open Letter to My Teenage Son"
It's okay to be a hippie, son, as long as you're willing to kill for it. (Be sure to stick with this one through the end.)