Here we have a fairly standard attack ad. You have a concerned sounding voiceover and stock footage of the politicians you’re demonizing. I think we’ve all seen a million of these especially if you’re one of those to live in a battleground state. Being in solidly Democratic California, I don’t see them all that often.

Even though this ad is so ordinary, CBS refuses to air it because the appearance of Nancy Pelosi would confuse viewers. I can’t even fathom the logic there. Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer are in it but I guess there’s nothing confusing about them. Is CBS sneaking in a hidden dig at Pelosi by saying her very appearance would addle the brains of viewers? Or perhaps CBS is playing catch up with MSNBC in toadying to the Democratic Party.

Or at least knew how to set up a shot.

You’ve probably seen this video. If you haven’t, then enjoy. You don’t even need sound for this. Just watch the guy in the background.

The guy is priceless. It’s like silent movie comedy. “Whoa, are you filming? Ummm… Should I stop? Go ahead? You sure you want to film there? Well, oookay.”

And I would have dismissed this as unintentional humor until I read the faux outrage. SLAUGHTERED the Huffington Post cries! Wonkette, the blog that invented snark, refers to it as “bloodporn“. Please. With that sort of hype I expected to hear a chainsaw buzzing and see blood splattered everywhere. That was a let down. The turkey shakes a bit and that’s it. What a petty, manufactured controversy.

Amazingly MSNBC tops all the blogs by actually inserting their own smartass commentary into the chyron running over the video. Watch the whole video again. You have to read the graphics.

That was so unprofessional. Plus I don’t think it counts as “breaking news”. Isn’t that reserved for urgent news?

• “Pardoned Turkey Is Too Filthy For Governor Palin To Hold”
• “Gov. Palin Picks Worst Possible Backdrop For TV News Interview”
• “Turkeys Die As Governor Palin Takes Questions From Media”
• “Turkey-killing Fowls Palin News Conference”
• “Gov. Palin Apparently Oblivious To Turkey Carnage Over Her Shoulder”

Oh and wasn’t David Shuster’s tut-tuting just fantastic? He’s been practicing his gravitas.

But turning to reality, since when are interviewees in charge of setting up their camera angles? The camera guy should have said something right at the beginning. He could have taken one big step to the right and cut out the turkey slaughter. He could have zoomed in on Palin’s face and kept the slaughter out of frame. He did none of that. Did you happen to notice that Palin isn’t centered in the shot? She’s standing a little left of center, leaving just enough room so the turkey slaughter is kept entirely within frame. I suspect this was set up intentionally. There’s just too much incompetence there for me to comfortably dismiss it as coincidence. Asking Palin if she’s bothered by the location after the interview is over is a little pointless.

And why go through the trouble of setting up an embarrassing video? Oh it’s not some grand conspiracy. I think this was done for shits-n-giggles. Either the reporter thought it up or the camera guy, and suggested it to the other probably with the intro, “Hey, let’s make Palin look real stupid.” Way to go douchebags.

Yes I should be studying. I should also be working. Somehow though I am completely unfocused. I know I have work to do, but I’m just not doing it. So at the very least I might as well enjoy my wasted time and pound out a few words.

Let’s start with prop 8! i would have been a trendsetter rather than a bandwagoner if I shared my opinion just after the election rather than today. I’ll share it anyway.

To all the prop 8 opponents… The many protests against Mormons and the handful of protests against Catholics are pointless and obnoxious. No matter how many millions those churches donated for pro-prop 8 ads, they aren’t the ones who voted. You have to contend with the 52% of voting Californians who decided to support the initiative. I know you don’t want to. It’s too hard to do that. For all you know your neighbor voted for it. Or maybe your dry cleaner did, or the guy who bags your groceries, or your Muni bus driver today. You have no idea so you can’t demonize them. That weird church in Salt Lake City is another story. They’re the perfect focus for your anger. Mormons lack your acerbic wit and jaded disposition. Such freaks! They wear holy underwear too. How weird is that! If only we could crush that church, nay, cult, gay marriage would flourish and everyone would love it. 

Except that’s not the case. Those 52% of people didn’t vote yes because they take their marching orders from Utah, and there isn’t a mind control ray hidden in the Salt Lake Temple. Those made their own choice to oppose gay marriage, and it’s up to you to change their minds. Being dismissive like Keith Olbermann isn’t going to convince anyone.

“What is it to you?” That is just the wrong question to ask, Keith. The Yes on 8 folks have their concerns. You aren’t going to change anyone’s mind by scolding them and telling them they shouldn’t care about this.

*** By the way, every time I watch Olbermann’s special comment all I can think of is that part from Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure when Bill and Ted hug, then quickly step away from each other and yell “Fag!“ It just seems such an appropriate counterbalance to Olbermann’s earnestness. ***

Screaming and yelling like shrill morons isn’t going to get the job done either. I bet it feels good though. You’re filled with righteous indignation that you want to get out. But let me ask you. When you see some super religious holy roller holding up a sign that says, “God Hates Fags,” does that make you re-examine your opinion on homosexuality, or do you just get angry? That right there is what you’re doing to a lot of wishy-washy prop 8 supporters. You’re taking the chunk of 8 supporters who are only weakly opposed to gay marriage and hardening them against you. The louder and more disruptive protests get, the less the public at large will want to be associated with your cause.

I feel confident you could swing 3% of the voters fairly easily. Put out some respectable gay couples in front of the cameras; some that would elicit some sympathy. Have them tell sob stories about a loving marriage being a lifelong dream. All you need to do is push a few fence sitters over to your side. Tugging on some heartstrings is not that hard. The most difficult part would be rebutting that commercial where the little girl says to her mom she can marry a princess. 

When I saw that ad I knew instantly prop 8 would win. Putting that school superintendent in the rebuttal commercial was a mistake. The little girl ad pulled on parents’ fears and emotions. The superintendent appealed to logic. Fear trumps logic. Now I wish I could give you an easy answer to this charge, but I can’t. It’s a powerful ad. All I can say is that mailing fake anthrax to Mormon churches is not the answer.

And by the way, it’s ridiculous you’re ignoring the black elephant in the room. Gay marriage would still be legal in California if black voters were comfortable with it. Seventy percent of black voters chose yes on 8. Yet you’re completely focusing your rage on Mormons and Catholics. Ridiculous. How about some confrontations at black churches? No? Your white liberal guilt makes you fear being labeled racist? Okay then, I understand. Keep doing what you’re doing then. You’ll get the gay marriage ban overturned in 2025 I’m sure.

I know I’ve disappeared from this blog again. No, it’s not from some post-election depression or Obama-induced rage. My marketing class is just eating up so much of my time. Right now I should be reading five chapters for my midterm this Saturday. I would be reading too but my head is killing me; it has all afternoon so today has been a wasted day.

It’s such a shame too because I’ve been bubbling with ideas and commentary. I’ve completely skipped the prop 8 controversy, not out of lack of interest, but lack of time to write. I missed my usual California ballot proposition round up. I stopped in the middle of a whole long screed about the Fed and interest rates because I’ve been too busy to finish. I was even looking at switching the US dollar to a form of the gold standard! Yet all these ideas continue to bounce around my head because I have no time to think them through.

I can’t wait until this class is finished. Next week will be busy, but that’s all leading up to the 24th. I have a big presentation to do on that day. Once it’s finished, it’s mostly smooth sailing. I’ll have to turn in a paper on December 1st, but writing is far easier than presenting for me. I think I’ll actually have time to get some posts up on here. Shame though that by the time I do, it will hardly be topical anymore. Ah well, it’s not like anyone reads this anyway.

The election is today. I voted weeks ago but I didn’t want to let the day go by without saying something. If you’ve read my past posts you can put 2 and 2 together and figure out who I voted for president.

To mark the day I wanted to discuss the one piece of news that actually made me feel a physical twinge of pain when I read it. I was so shocked by this proposal, I couldn’t think for a good ten seconds. Congressional Democrats are discussing an end to the preferential tax breaks that make 401(k) plans worth having. But to put that in more alarmist tones – Democrats are plotting to steal your 401(k)!!!

401(k) plans exist because Congress decided the money saved in there would not be taxed until you withdrew it. It encourages people to save for retirement because they can invest the money that would have gone to taxes for several decades. By removing this favorable tax treatment, there’s no reason to contribute to a 401(k). It becomes like any other investment account. You’ll have to pay taxes on your gains each year.

This isn’t even the end. Besides killing 401(k) plans, Congress will require you to contribute to a new “Guaranteed Retirement Account” run by the government. Each worker will have 5% automatically deducted from their paycheck and deposited in the GRA. Our generous and benevolent government would provide matching funds of up to $600 a year. But you don’t even get to decide how your GRA money is invested. Every penny of your GRA will be used to buy government bonds that return 3%; three fucking percent, when holding the S&P 500 index would get you 7.6% during the 1950 to 2007 period. So the best you can look forward to each year is less than half of what you would get if you just bought a simple index fund. Thanks to compound interest if you closed your eyes for the next couple of decades you will have lost more than ten times your retirement money by using a GRA. Don’t worry though. You don’t have a choice.

The Democrats will trot out this plan as protecting workers and saving the middle class, but that’s not the real reason. What this plan does is confiscate 5% of wages for Congress to use to finance debt. That’s what government bonds are! I guess I can’t say exactly what this spending will be for, but I am willing to bet my GRA it will be a massive expansion of social welfare.

This is the sort of news that makes me pound my desk and rage at my LCD. Reading this is when I went from guarded about an Obama presidency to absolute fear. You know if Obama does get elected, this plan is a lock. There will be nothing to stop Democrats from radically altering the economy, and this idea will be a huge step in financing Obama’s spending plans. That national health insurance plan won’t pay for itself.

How much debt can the government finance? I’m glad you asked. I’m getting these figures from 2007 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics: $695 in median weekly earnings, multiplied by 52 weeks a year, multiplied by 107,339,000 workers multiplied by the 5% deduction.

$695 x 52 x 107,339,000 x 0.05 = $193,961,573,000

That’s a cool $194 billion in captive finance each year. Don’t think of it as some abstract, meaningless concept. Remember that’s your money. If Obama and Pelosi and Frank were traveling around the country campaigning on a “I’ll take 5% of your money” platform, what would you tell them? That’s exactly what this plan will do. Five percent will be taken away and spent however they like.

I wish this news came out a month ago because then I really would have been screaming from the hilltops. I definitely would have been phonebanking for McCain had I known about this plan. It should have been in commercials on TV freaking out the rest of the country just like it freaked me out.

I’ll be watching the election coverage like everyone else. I’ll just be hoping McCain wins so my retirement savings doesn’t get blown away by the winds of change.