McCain Brand Slippage on "Straight Talk Express"

A good friend of my bragged about how the ties he bought were all silk but he only paid 2 dollars a piece for them. They looked 100% polyester to me and I wondered how they could be all silk at that low price. He flipped the tie over and showed me the brand name label on the tie.
"All Silk"®

Of course the tie was made out of polyester, but the large brand name label said "All Silk"®

I think about that story and the John McCain Straight Talk Express.®

How do you know that he's giving you the straight talk? Well, you are ON the Straight Talk Express®, so you must be getting straight talk!

Media Matters shows ABC's Tapper gushing about McCain as a straight talker because he's back on the Straight Talk Express® Bus.

And as worrierking from the Media Matters comments section points out:

Straight Talk My Ass.

[link to thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com]

Just because you name your bus the Straight Talk Express"® doesn't mean anything, except to people who are easily lead by apperances. You need to ask "Is the outside appearance consistent with inside?" If it isn't, stop referring to the outside as if it reflects the inside, unless you are being sarcastic.

If you call your self a Pro-Troop group but you really are the, "Get Cindy Sheehan, Stalking Tour" then the media should ask you, "Why the anger at Cindy Sheehan. Did she kill your son? Why the promoting of potential conflict with Code Pink? Are you really more concerned with supporting the troops or making Cindy Sheehan and Code Pink look like criminals?" I hope the media asks THESE questions of the Move America Forward "pro-troop" rally on Saturday.

And if they don't ask those questions maybe they should check their ties, they are probably "All Silk"®

Fox cancels Democratic Presidental Debate!

The Fox News sponsored Democratic presidential debate in Nevada has been cancelled.

Some say that this is actually GOOD for Fox (The Sean Hannity Network) because it will show real American's just how UN-American the Democrats are and that they are cowards who are afraid of the very professional news anchors who have always been more fair and balanced than the liberal media. (HAHAHAHAAH! I learned that "Some say, bs debating trick from the great movie Outfoxed." It's a wonderful propaganda gambit to make your point without owning up to your partisan hackery.

Here's the letter from Robert Greenwald.

Dear activists, colleagues and friends,

We have a terrific victory to enjoy today. The Fox News sponsored Democratic presidential debate in Nevada has been cancelled. Activists all over the country came together -- from the netroots to grassroots to MoveOn to bloggers to the film we at Brave New Films created -- in a stunning and powerful rejection of the myth that Fox is a news station.

For those of you who have helped spread the word by spreading our Fox Atacks: Obama video far and wide. Thanks for amazing work. If you missed it, check it out here:
Watch Fox Attacks Obama


We want to continue the work of calling attention to the distortions, lies and propaganda that is Fox News. Please help support our continuing efforts:
1. Donate to Fox Attacks.
2. Watch Fox News and identify local advertisers.
3. Subscribe to the News Hounds weekly newsletter. They watch Fox so you don't have to!

Enjoy this important step in making very clear we will not accept propaganda as news any more.

Robert Greenwald
and the Brave New Films team

Melanie Morgan of ABC Disney Radio Uses Parent's Grief to Sell Mattresses

Yesterday Melanie Morgan and ABC Disney Radio station cynically used the anger and grief of a dead soldier's parent to sell more Sleep Train mattresses, mortgages, carpet from Home Depot, cars from Mercedes Benz, pick-ups from Dodge, and fast food from Burger King and McDonald's (all current KSFO advertisers).

How? By using the TV media's need for visual conflict narratives about the war and the personal cost to people and twisting it to show anger at peace activists who created a memorial in Lafayette to the dead soldiers in Iraq. I have to hand it to them, it was perfect for TV. ( If only that burly activist had smacked down that gray haired senior citizen! BTW, I wonder what Yellow Elephant unit he serves with?)

The TV media lapped it up. Link to ABC coverage of the "Cindy Sheehan Stalking Posse"
Kind of sick eh?

You can really hear the smugness in the KSFO ABC/Disney employee's voices over their media "coup" this morning.

They are SO PROUD of themselves. You see folks, when the right uses the anger and grief of parents over the death of a son to attractive media attention they MAKE MONEY ON IT! They really showed Cindy Sheehan how it was done! Way to go ABC/Disney!

NOTE: ABC/Disney is neck deep in this stunt, the rally was at the ABC studios, it's all over KSFO's website and Morgan promoted it in her dual role as ABC Disney radio employee "talent" as well as Move America Forward's Chairwoman.

• I wonder if Morgan's constant begging for donations for MAF during the show counts as a trade-out? Did the "charity" MAF pay for that air time? Or since this is clearly sponsored by ABC/Disney and Morgan is both the MAF chairwoman and an ABC employee, is the promise that revenue will be realized after the promotion results in media coverage which will supposedly lead to hirer ratings? I'm sure the financial wizards will figure it out.

This morning Lee, Mel and OV were simply GIDDY over how they pulled one over on the TV media coverage of the "Cindy Sheehan Stalking Posse". Of course two seconds later they showed their contempt for TV media. (Note to TV news directors: they only say they will respect you in the next day, but they DON'T. Remember this the next time they call to use you. Have some self respect. )

Why so GIDDY at ABC/Disney station KSFO? Well in January they were finally called on their YEARS of violent rhetoric and anti-Muslim talk in a way that DIDN'T lead to positive PR or ratings. For once they paid a financial price for their extremist, violent views. They were revealed as unsafe for decent advertisers and sponsors. And this made them angry. ("You wouldn't like me when I'm angry"- Bruce Banner)

How DARE anyone challenge their control of the nation's media! With this story they wanted to show those nasty bloggers how to do it, OLD SCHOOL!

They sure showed us!

How did they do it? That's a good question for ABC7 KGO News Director Kevin Keeshan. I'm a only half human, so maybe I'm missing something, but I'll provide brief guide for the kids in school who are joining us:

1) Get yourself an AM radio station license. Use resources of your corporate parent (Disney) to promote your violent rhetoric and fool advertisers into thinking you are family friendly radio.

2) Create a "non-profit, non-partisan" group for quick cash to pay your PR firm. IMPORTANT TIP, call it a charity so the suckers members can get a tax deduction (don't tell them it won't be used just for cookies for soldiers but also for endorsing an independent Kurdistan, endorsing Republican candidates and attacking their critics) If necessary, do trade out ads with tax attorneys to make sure it's legal.

3) Create a conflict. The more visual the better. Use lots of ACTUAL emotional words like "conflict" and "desecration" so that listeners will get angry and be ready to rumble.

4) Get help from the right-wing bloggers. Go to the ALWAYS reliable hater, Michelle Malkin, for unconfirmed rumors of upcoming potential desecration to justify your OUTRAGE. Malkin is the preferred inciter these days since Ann Coulter is out of favor.

5) Get your "charity" PR firm to promise the TV media, "There's going to be trouble! There will be lots of flags and parents of dead soldiers to interview." Promise a couple of parents who are in FAVOR of the war, to "balance" the hundreds who are against it who WON'T be available for interviews.) Get the NRA involved, hint about violence. Be sure to remind the ONE TV station that accurately covered your suppression of a blogger critic, over a bogus copyright claim, that "YOU OWE US! YOU have to be BALANCED!" Use their feelings of guilt to get them to cover the story. Play on their desire to watch a peace activist get beat up by an angry grieving parent.

6) Place flags in hands of parents of dead soldiers. (Kudos to MAF for use of Mom, kid and flag!)

7) Invite media to the spot on slow news mid-morning, provide "in your face" action you promised/threatened

8) Media covers "event" positions it as pro-troop not as "Cindy Sheehan Stalking Posse"

9) Sell mattresses! Sell Hamburgers!

10) Profit!

Rinse and repeat in 25 cities! WHEEEE!

Comedy Break: Spocko Laughs WITH Wil Weaton

I just read a hilarious review of an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. The title was, The Battle. It's was the one with Picard getting the Stargazer back from the Ferengi as a trick.

Wil Weaton wrote the piece and it is laugh-out-loud funny. I've been a fan of Wil's writing (both serious and funny stuff) for years. With this piece he approaches Dave Barry territory. (I'm not making this up!) Here are a couple of 'graphs from the review, but read the whole thing. It really is fun. Oh and warning he uses a DIRTY word here so I hope the Catholic League doesn't bust him.(link)

Back on the Bridge, Riker takes possession of the Stargazer from the Ferengi, and Picard continues to complain about his headache. He gives control of the Bridge to Riker and leaves. Riker looks at Troi and very seriously asks what's wrong with his captain. Oh! Cool! We're finally going to get to see Troi use her Betazoid abilities to tell us something more intriguing than "Pain! Pain!" This will be the moment when Troi transitions from useless one dimensional plot device into a real character! What's she going to say?!

The camera dramatically pushes in on her, as she looks at Riker and quietly says . . . "I wish I could say."

WHAT?! ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?! Why doesn't she just say "Be sure to drink your Ovaltine!" Can someone please tell me why the creators would give Troi the power to divine emotions and help guide people through situations exactly like this one, only to have her do nothing when the situation arises? Honestly. This is like signing a .380 pinch hitter, putting him into game 5 of the playoffs with the bases loaded, down by two, and refusing to let him swing the bat. (If you're keeping score in this episode, the Writers are 0-2, and the Actors are 3-3. I'd also like to point to this moment as an example of why Trekkies should have trained their phasers on the writing staff, and not on us actors.)

In his quarters, Picard grabs a little sack time and climbs Jacob's Ladder as he remembers the Battle of Maxia. Meanwhile, in the Ready Room, Data tells Riker that Picard's personal account of the battle differs greatly from the official version, and it doesn't look pretty for Picard: according to his personal logs, the ship he destroyed was flying a flag of truce, the fire on the Stargazer was an accident, there were no WMDs, new Coke was his idea, it was a load-bearing flask, they're going to need a new boat, Soylent Green is people, and the Frogurt was also cursed.

h/t to alert eviloverlord Nevin