In a time where both parties, post presidential election (or birth-certificate-verification-failure, as some describe it), are failing to appeal to the sane among us, the Democrats and Republicans alike should be concentrating on grass roots efforts to get in touch with real people – as opposed to fake people, AKA polls – on an individual basis, and not just so-called “movements” and “collectives.” Both have been trying. Neither have had much success.

Republicans, seeking to combat their lack of relevance on substantive issues, have released a new onslaught of attack ads, boldly calling upon their newest playbook (from 2004) and recruiting the aid of whatever MTV music video director happened upon the unemployment office this month, backed up by the Fox News Christmas Party Band. Huckabee wasn’t invited to play bass this year. Pesky commuted sentences.

At first look, the ad doesn’t serve them well. At second, it becomes a bit laughable. Anything after that requires whiskey consumed from a beer bong. Upside down and preferably in a hot tub. They seem to have shoved their fingers down their ear canals to prevent themselves from being confronted by the truth; that the efficacy of any message is lost when honest appeals to constituents – or even would be constituents – are replaced with carbon copies of retired ideas. How are ditto machine companies doing these days?

If your aim is to broach to the topic of Health Care Reform, then for God’s sake, talk about health care reform. There’s plenty to talk about: obstructionism, deceit, corporate funded opposition and support, cuts to medicare, abortion, wasteful spending, triggers, opt in or outs… There’s a catalog of legitimate pros and cons, which play to the both parties’ respective bases -  in a senate bill that is as fluid as the lines of money fueling the efforts to promote it or kill it.

But, once again, that is not the alley the GOP has chosen to go down. Here’s the approach chosen to be the focal point on the Alaska Republican Party’s page.

OH MY GOD MARK BEGICH IS JOHN KERRY!!! AND THE PRESIDENT IS THE LITTLE GIRL FROM THE RING!!! GET BACK IN THE TV!!!

Oh, wait, never mind. They’re just being “original”. This must be part of Michael Steele’s master plan.

We are strong because we are diverse.  And it’s through our diversity and commitment to these shared principles that we will reach out and welcome more communities into our Party.  The focus of my chairmanship will be to take this message to neighborhoods and communities across the country.

-Michael Steele, on his blog, previously entitled “What up”, briefly “Change the Game”, now simply “Steele’s Blog“

Well, if these other… Similar ads, paid for by the RNC, are any indication of this diversity and individual outreach… The name of the blog might be changing again sometime soon. To a different name. Check them out for yourself, and ask, is the GOP really concerned about your state? About Alaska? On a person by person level? Is this the message Republicans seek to take to communities? Because they just tried to cut and paste my state into a generic template that evidently constitutes their “big tent.” They’re not bothering to go door to door to learn your name. They just expect that you’ll drive by the one giant marquee that they leased for the month.

I’m sorry, but it rings of “integrity” about as much as George W. Bush having his signature stamped onto letters to fallen soldiers’ families. And I’m not okay with that.

Wow.

Attention RNC: I don’t want a one party system. I’m also not too worried about that, considering the unquenchable need of the Democratic party to trip over each other and fall down many, many flights of stairs, usually headfirst. But, more importantly, I want a healthy Republican party. I love discussion, crave debate, and embrace disagreements, so long as all are productive, respectful, and honest. Last I checked, good ideas didn’t generally register party affiliation. We could argue what camp they generally fall within, but that’s another matter entirely. The best solutions arrive when everyone is working towards the common good of the people they represent, and especially when they work to understand the plight of the everyday worker and family. I don’t see that happening right now to any extent that would satisfy me, on either side – but in fairness it seems to be a lot more prevalent with the Republicans. It should also be said that this is somewhat ubiquitous as the role of the party “out of power.”

But, come on folks, pretend you’ve got thick skin until you’ve evolved accordingly. This is a new breed of shameful. One quick trip to your youtube page reveals just how uninspired you are. Why would we trust you with local issues if you don’t offer us the courtesy of taking note of each location, apart from the next? You’ve essentially branded the GOP as a band on tour opening every concert with “Hello Cleveland!”

This is offensive. These ads are as out of touch as they are devoid of passion; of true commitment to the people.

You want successful outreach? Reach out. We’re right here.

The question is, do you even know where that is?

Wow! He’s not messing around.  That’s for sure.  I guess this primary is becoming a bit tougher.

Think Yes goes negative!?!

The Shock! The Horror!

But to be fair, attack-ads are ads too! And what would a political campaign be without them??

This ad is Toronto-specific, so my apologies if you’re not in the centre of the universe… 

I envision this ad being run similar to an attack-ad in a political campaign, but in this case coming from the people rather than from a political party. Why can’t a group of citizens get together to push out a political figure??

To give you a bit of background, our transit system is called the TTC (Toronto Transit Commission), and it is run by a young man by the name of Adam Giambrone.

Adam is a nice enough guy and seems to have his heart in the right place, but as far as I can tell has absolutely no relevant experience to be running the largest public transit system in Canada.

They’re looking at 60-something-million-dollar deficit this year and have decided that a double-digit percent fare increase is the way to go. Without boring you with all the details, let’s just say I disagree. And nothing personal against Adam, I just think his talents would be better suited to a different profession.

To help with that, I present GiamBrownie…

Oh, in case you missed it a few years back, Mike Brown was the head of FEMA when Katrina hit New Orleans. He was appointed to that position by then President Bush Jr. and the only experience anyone could find in his background was his top-notch work as a judge with the International Arabian Horse Association.

Well, we all know how that ended…

New McCain Ad Slams Obama on Ayers, Economy
Article
The New York Times – The Caucus Blog
October 10, 2008
Jim Rutenberg

Republicans blaming Democrats for deregulation?
Classy.

McCain-Palin’s hot rhetoric risks GOP backlash
Article
San Francisco Chronicle
October 11, Saturday 2008
Carla Marinucci, Chronicle Political Writer

“Republican Sen. John McCain had long promised American voters that he would be the ultimate maverick presidential candidate and run “a respectful campaign.”"

It’s almost too perfect. This is why no President/Presidential candidate/anyone running for elected office will dare tell the entire American public that they’re going to need to pay more in taxes. 

And in case you were wondering — no, Reaganomics did not cut the deficit. This cartoon about sums it up.

The national debt nearly tripled under Ronald Reagan.

These extremists on the far right of the political spectrum (so far away from the mainstream they would need to take a plane flight to get to the rest of us) are at it again with a nasty attack ad (from the Committee for Justice, a far-right organization) against Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama’s nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court. And, the far-right nuts bring back the name Bill Ayers and of course mix in President Obama to round out the dumb attack. It just shows the hatred coming from the far right and the fear that some try to spark in others.

Think Progress:
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/14/sotomayor-cfj/

A new political website of rather limited content is proclaiming to be an American site run by Republican supporters who believe that Michael Ignatieff is a great American. But who is behind it, and why it is surfacing now remains a mystery. The prime candidate to run such a website would be the Conservative Party, but they deny any involvement.

The site uses video and audio of Mr.Ignatieff’s past statements which pose him in a, depending on your point of view, rather negative light that would seem to belie the sincerity of the website. If you do a domain search on the registrant, all you will learn is that it’s been registered by an anonymous person in the state of Florida. It’s unclear whether the email service actually works, and the telephone number listed is false.

Truthfully, I believe that the site is either the work of a clandestine operative from the Conservative Party, or else someone who clearly wants it to look that way. To begin with, the main page goes into great detail on Michael Ignatieff’s previous positions on torture and counter-terrorism, something that would certainly serve as negative information to the kinds of people who vote Liberal. And the first clue that the website is a spoof, is in the very first sentence, by emphasizing that Mr.Ignatieff once referred to himself as an American in the collective “we”. Termed a “landmark television interview”, it was actually nothing more than a clip from CSPAN.

The main page emphasizes his close ties to America, whilst simultaneously cherrypicking items sure to irritate Liberals:

He stood with us on Iraq.
He defended torture, including coercive interrogation.
He didn’t lose any sleep when Lebanon was bombed by Israeli forces in 2006.
He loves the tar sands.

The quotes and hot links are mainly Canadian news sites, and the tone of the text is often mocking and even contradictory to someone who may genuinely admire Michael Ignatieff. The point, then, is obvious. In the summary about Mr.Ignatieff, it even suggests that he “returned to Canada to seek the job of Prime Minister.” All of the Conservative talking points are there, neatly, concisely, and even bolded and hotlinked for your convenience. They even have a page on how you “can help”, by suggesting you contact Canadian newspapers and explain to the editors why Michael Ignatieff is the “right choice for Americans.”

So while we can’t say for sure that this is a Conservative attack ad of some nature, it’s certainly an attack of varying degrees. The question is only how effective it will be in convincing decided Liberal voters to change their minds.

Related

Kady O’Malley received an email from one of the alleged “Republicans for Ignatieff” on Sunday. She has some interesting thoughts on the entire thing. David Akin received the same form letter. Whatever the purpose for this website, it has elevated to a new level of weird.

Howdy.

I received an interesting piece of junk mail today.  This must be phase two of the Conservative party’s media-blitz attack ad campaign.  You’ve seen the commercial, now read the letter.  The argument contained in the letter is so bad, that it actually offends me.

First, I’ll give you a look at the letter for yourself, then I’ll give you my take on it.  Here is most of the letter:

“Pop Quiz:  How long was Michael Ignatieff away from Canada?
Answer: 34 years.

Michael Ignatieff:
1.  Spent 34 years living in America and Europe
2.  Returned to Canada to run for Prime Minister
3.  Will go back to the US if not elected

That’s not leadership.  That’s just visiting.”

In case you missed it, the letter argues that Michael Ignatieff is unfit to be a leader because he has lived outside of Canada for 34 years and plans to leave the country again if he is not elected as Prime Minister.

Premise #1  Spent 34 years living in America and Europe

It is true, Michael Ignatieff has spent about half of his life in countries other than Canada, but he certainly wasn’t on vacation.  The list of academic acheivements and life experiences Michael Ignatieff has accumulated outside of Canada are impressive.  Considering the “global community” that Canada is a part of, such experience should be looked at as an asset, not a fault like the Tories would have you believe.  Besides, no matter how much time he spent in other countries, Michael Ignatieff has always been a Canadian citizen.

Questioning someone’s abilities based solely on where they live, at the worst comes close to bigotry, and at best is a an ad hominem fallacy.

Premise #2 Returned to Canada to run for Prime Minister

Michael Ignatieff has never run for Prime Minister of Canada, lets get that straight.

He appears to be willing to work with the Conservatives as long as they stay focused.  However, when the conservatives behave opportunisitically, Michael Ignatieff often implies an election could be in the cards.  Yet it is the conservatives trying to label Michael Ignatieff as an oppurtunist through premises #2 and #3.

Premise #3  Will go back to the US if not elected.

Premise #3 is a direct appeal to our sense of nationalist pride.  A large number of people might fall for it too, because Canadians are definitely a proud group of people who are sometimes prone to anti-american behaviour.  It is shameful that the Harper government would encourage this type of thinking.

If we put aside our emotions and look at this logically, it is obvious that a candidate’s post-election plans are unrelated to a candidate’s potential.  The question, “What will you do if we don’t hire you?”, never comes up in a job interview because it is irrelvant.  Just as it is irrelevant in the context of the attack ad we are discussing.

The argument that the attack ad tries to make is deeply flawed.  It’s premises do not lead to it’s conclusion, and there multiple fallacies thrown in for good measure.  Imagine to yourself that all three of the premises and their unspoken assumptions are true; they still do not support the conclusion that Michael Ignatieff is unfit to take on a leadership role.

Thank you for reading, but before you go please answer my pop quiz:  Why is Stephen Harper wasting time and money on attack ads during a serious economic crisis?

I’ll let you answer that one.

Boehner… what a prick.

He left out the nude shower scene with Barack and Chavez.

The DNC shamelessly reveals both its desperation and its brazenness in recruiting private citizens to join them in attacking… a private citizen. NICE.

I find it interesting that a company says they are in the Real Estate Tech field on their about us page on their company website. A new Business model, to say the least. What am I talking about, you may be wondering? I am just wondering about  going with negative articles that they have been posting about the largest real estate compaines

C-21,ERA,Coldwell bankers  parent company Realogy. How that will work for them?

see article below and my previous post.

About WAV Group

Despite the snow today saw the launch of a new education initiative by the Conservatives with the assistance of Carol Vorderman who is to lead a maths review. David Cameron started the day off with his speech on education, which is a subject the party should capitalise on because there is so much that could be done. Michael Gove is doing an excellent job but DC has only briefly touched upon the subject in the past so this was a much welcomed speech in my view. Here is some of what he said:

• We envisage academy status – with all the freedoms it brings to generate success freedoms which have been used brilliantly here will become the norm for state schools. These big structural changes are crucial if we’re to have the sort of revolutionary change I think is necessary to make our schools the best in the world. 

• From day one, a Conservative Government will launch the most far-reaching, thorough and zealous commitment to improving standards in all our schools. That means a commitment to discipline. So when a head teacher says a disruptive pupil has got to go – we’ll make sure they’ll go.

• The argument for the importance of maths is often made in terms of what it means to a person’s intellectual development. The fact that basic numeracy is not a nice-to-have, it’s a must have. From checking your bank balance, to doing the weekly shop or making the most of the sales being able to add, subtract, times and divide is something we rely on often without thinking about it.

• I am delighted to announce that Carol Vorderman has agreed to lead a new Conservative Party Maths Taskforce. Carol is the perfect choice. She’s a well-respected public figure who not only knows maths inside out, but also how to extend that knowledge to a wider audience in an interesting and inspirational way.

To coincide with Cameron’s speech the party has launched this rather good attack ad entitled: Labour’s Sums Don’t Add Up.

President-elect Barack Obama benefited greatly from the Internet during his campaign

Republican nominee John McCain for the 2008 presidential race

Politics have existed in America since the moment that we became a free nation and the founding fathers began putting works together that would keep everything in tact. From that time, politics have evolved immensely from an individual running without most people even knowing what he they look like, to a modern complete media outburst. From television and radio, to newspapers and the new found Internet boom, the media has more of an effect on politics in America then ever before. The movement that it has produced is much larger then people realize when they are surveying the world of political campaigning. The Internet in particular has become a huge part of the campaigning that takes place during large and small elections countrywide.

The Internet is the new and improved source for the public to retain everything that they need to know about anybody running for positions in office.  While one is searching on the Internet, they can go wherever they please and do their own research instead of someone else telling them what they should watch.  With new trinkets such as Youtube videos, money bombs, and personal websites, underdogs running in campaigns can build a following and have a legitimate shot at winning elections. The Internet is a whole new world for politics, involving both the candidates and the voters.  It has opened up so many new opportunities to create more efficient promotion and easy access. It has become more of a tool in the recent presidential campaigns of 2000, 2004, and 2008.  For the 2008 elections, the Internet reached all new heights of importance, as candidates like Barack Obama, and Ron Paul made their mark on the people with online grass roots campaigning.

The 2004 election in particular marked a transition phase where the Internet took over most of the polling and surveys that were conducted. The addition of chat rooms talk and online surveying added new and cheaper dimensions. Also, the human factor added into live interview is taken out all together. The Internet is very popular among people now as a source that they use to go looking for information, as they can chose what they want to read, see, or hear as opposed to it being force fed. They can choose whichever site they wish to be at and find whatever they want to read about, including separate and less known candidates. In 1995 only 2% of people were reading any type of online news each week. In 2000 the number had jumped to 39%, most of which were using the Internet just to read political news each week. In the 2004 presidential campaign, 61% of Americans used the Internet as a source to find information on candidates, a total that reaches 75 millions Americans.

It is clear that with the increasing number of Americans that are using the Internet as news, it is becoming a cornerstone for political advertising and news distribution. The Internet is now often identified as the new source with the largest amount of content to browse. This is very true in the domain of news, as almost any TV, print, or radio outlet has an online version of the news story that they are broadcasting. It is easier then ever to find these stories with search engines such as Google and Yahoo!. On top of that, there is also Internet only news websites such as the famous Drudge Report or Slate, which carry general and specialized news content. Therefore, over a quarter of people surveyed that go online to find news said that they do so primarily because there is more information to find then from traditional news sources.

The importance of the Internet in political campaigning is not limited to huge elections like a seat in the senate of the President. It can also be huge for local election and small offices, as information can be passed through email and sites to reach friends and the local community. However, I want to focus more on what candidates in the recent presidential did to maximize the Internet as a campaigning tool.

First, any candidate that was serious at making a run has to have a user friendly and captivating website.  I gave two example above of Barack Obama and Ron Paul. I gave those two particular examples because of the importance that the Internet had on those two in particular.  You can see that they have very organized and “nice to look at” websites.  They also have easy to find information about what they stand for for any policy that a voter might be interested in.  The Internet in this way has made it very easy for people to research every candidate in an election.  Neither Obama nor Paul were too well known to begin, but Obama’s popularity spread though the country as people saw videos of him online and looked up what he stood for, and Paul set huge numbers in raising money.

Which leads me to my next point: new opportunities for fund raising.  Now, Ron Paul never did receive a huge following, but the people that did like him were extremely devoted.

A shot of Ron Paul's fund raising totals during his campaign after his money bomb raised 4.3 million in one day

His money bomb for one day set made for record breaking fund raising. T he Paul campaign raised 4.3 million dollars over 24 hours, breaking the old record of 3.1 by Mitt Romney.  Even as one of the smallest candidates in the race, Paul was able to raise more then anyone at one point to give himself.  So the Internet has open up opportunities to the little guy, as it does not always have to be completely loaded politicians that make deep runs at the office.

The obvious reason that the Internet has effected politics among the general public is the videos that ran on sites such as Youtube. There were bashing videos, fun videos, supportive videos, endorsing videos, and promotional videos. Each candidate had their own way of using videos to reach out to the public that would hopefully choosing to vote for them come November 4th. Here is a fun ad from Mike Huckabee that used comedy to make people feel that he was a down low easy going guy:

Who doesn’t love Chuck Norris? This was Huckabee’s approach to reaching out to people using user generated content. When the videos were finally whittled down to Obama and McCain, the videos became mostly more serious and attacking. Here are example from both sides of attack ads used:

As you can see, the second ad is not even an ad directly against Obama, but it Hart is leveraging problems of Obama to run against her opponent. With all of the video content online now, anyone can see both sides of the attacking and both sides supporting, so it creates an place where people can intake media and be their own judge of how they want to break it down. Sometimes, regular people even post their own videos to show their side of the story. There are countless opinion citizen made political videos that show support of one side or another. Heck, even Paris Hilton threw her voice in the mix…….

….Ummm, yeah thanks Paris. So you can see how the video content has effected the political landscape in so many ways.

Whether it is a well constructed web site, an online grass roots team, omney bomb and fund raising, or video content, the Internet has changed American politics. It will continue to develop and I am sure that as time goes, the importance of online campaigning will continue to increase. More and more people are in tune with what is happening in the world solely from being online, and candidates, large and small, will keep using this  open exciting source as a way to reach the American public.

Kind of late for this guy to post this video on Youtube… but here it is…

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was working on getting my own 527 group together to take on Obama before the election.  The Windy Apple PAC is made up of myself and like minded conservatives from New York and Chicago who know our vote won’t matter for much, but we believe we can use our money to help influence the election.  We have a great Obama attack ad, but we can’t get the networks too touch it.  They are so in Obama’s pocket.  With time running out we decided our only chance was to do this virally.  There isn’t much time until the election.  If you do not want Obama and his anti-American friends in power, please spread this video to everyone you know.   It could make a huge difference.  For those of you who think Obama might not be such a bad President, please watch the video.

Hi all,

Today is the last day to early vote in Colorado, so if you can’t make it on Tuesday, VOTE TODAY!!!! For those of you who may have forgotten, Sarah Palin is not completely stupid. She’s also extremely conservative and a little bit backward. Let’s take a listen shall we?
Counsel women who have been raped to have their rapist’s child. WOW!!! What an asshole.

And now, a thoughtful young man, asks an old fart a question…

I also thought it was particularly interesting that in the last few days leading up to the election that the McCain campaign has very subtly dropped Sarah Palin’s name out of their ads.

It must have just been an oversight. Oh, wait! Maybe the oversight actually occurred when you picked a VP candidate with no experience, and no brains!  

Happy voting everyone!!!

XOXO

The Susan B. Anthony List, a conservative anti-abortion group, has started sending out mailings to voters in certain battleground states. Again, those of you in Non-battleground states, your up a creek. The ad is pretty simple in what it is trying to imply to the reader. A defenseless baby, left abandoned on some railroad tracks, would be left there to die by Barack Obama and I suppose, by all of us who support him. He is a baby killer! All democrats and liberals are baby killers!

I am a Democrat and a Christian. I personally do not believe in abortion, BUT, I also believe that it is not my place or the place of my Government to tell someone else what they must do to their own bodies. While I don’t personally advocate abortion, I’ll be honest with you. If a group of thugs broke into my house and raped my teenage daughter, I seriously don’t know how I would view my beliefs if something terrible like that happened. My view might totally change. Each person has a difficult decision to make in terrible situations like that. But, I firmly believe, it is THAT PERSON’S choice and no one else’s. Well anyway, this ad being sent out is just another example of how low our political differences have sunk. How sad.

Barack Obama would not leave that carriage in the middle of the tracks. He has stated publicly that he personally does not support abortion but that he supports a woman’s right to choose for herself. If it is your carriage, he wants YOU to decide whether or not you get the carriage off the tracks.

A friend of mine lives in North Carolina and as a result ive been following the NC Senate race closer than I would otherwise.

As a sort of Republican (registered Libertarian but usually forced to vote for the GOP out of fear of the dems crazy plans), I was initially hoping that Dole would win to prevent the dems from getting the super majority in the Senate.  This despite Dole’s record of well being incompetent, overly moderate and generally useless.

This ad however has changed my mind.

Im sorry but this is the most repulsive ad of a pretty ugly year.  It tries to tie a rival to an unpopular religious view and get the majority religious view to reject the rival on that basis.  Its ugly and wrong, I think it would be the equivalent of this mock ad:

John McCain has taken money from Zionist groups.

And met secretly with their leaders.

(background) Jews deny Jesus.

What did McCain promise the Jews?

This is far over the line and I hope Dole goes down to defeat for it.  So for whatever its worth I endorse Kay Hagan for North Carolina Senate.  Shes a blue dog democrat,  will probably be functionally more Conservative than Dole as she will have to prove her cred in a conservative state, will be a more effective voice for North Carolina as the Senate will be controlled by the dems and she has as far as I know ran an honorable campaign.  Vote Hagan!

And btw Hagan has a counter ad:

By Patrick Payne

This columm, in a slightly altered and shorter form, first appeared in the Palos Verdes Peninsula News. The edit you are looking at now is the product of edits made by me after the original publishing. 

          There are days, in my more morose states, that I almost believe this country deserves a short spell of dictatorship. We Americans have never seriously lived under a tyranny. Not even when one trots out their pet “evil president” (such as on Bush or Nixon on the left or Roosevelt or Clinton on the right), can we compare our excesses to North Korea or “Fortress Europe.”  We’ve, blessedly, no experience with such totalitarianism. In some ways, that’s a blessing, and a curse. I’ve no love of tyranny, but those who have had to fight for their liberty tend to cherish it more by the dint of having had to sacrifice to earn it.

           Today, we hold our freedoms so cheaply — take them for granted so blatently - that only our own personal free speech is worth protection, not our fellow countrymen’s. We are choking the tree of liberty off by mangling the very essense of the word to mean “I’ll defend free speech for me, but not for thee.”

            Our forefathers risked their very lives to establish the freedoms we enjoy. The words “we pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honour” were not mere fripperies or rhetorical flourishes by a Congress desirous of sounding erudite. By signing the Declaration of Independence, the Founders had collectively signed their own death warrant. Had the Revolution failed, all we’d remember of them – of Jefferson and Adams, of Franklin and Livingstone, of Hancock and Sherman — is their hanging outside London for treason. 25,000 men died to win those freedoms. And yet we abuse their sacrifice, repeatedly spitting on the liberty they purchased, and crowing self-righteously as we do it.

            We abuse them when journalists, reporting on potential political corruption, are arrested when they are doing lawful work on a public sidewalk.

            We abuse them by challenging and, in some instances, burning books that may go against political or religious mainstreams.

We abuse them through corporations in this country who, paying lip service to the First Amendment, are all too happy to kowtow to more repressive governments by restricting information – Google’s censoring out Tibet, Tiananmen Square and the Falun Gong to Chinese Internet users, and YouTube’s removal of videos critical of the King of Thailand are mere examples.

            We abuse them during campaigns by destroying the yard signs and posters of candidates with whom we disagree.

            We abuse them through attempting to shout down speakers, by disrupting and dissolving speeches by those we disagree with – sometimes even through violence– and then when arrested, claiming our own free speech rights are being infringed.

            We abuse them when, under the pretext of a peaceful demonstration, rioters instigate violence to silence and intimidate opponents. 

            We abuse them by an endless stream of attack-laden ads, ones that do little to advance the cause of the American political process or American liberty, but bog us down in the minutia of “unrepentant terrorists” and “by the way, did I mention he’s black?”

And, we abuse them when once-respected journals, established newspapers and TV news organizations, fall so nakedly into advocacy for a political candidate that all their reportage becomes suspect.

            Listen – your forefathers cry out. “How could you do this?” they ask. “Was the tree of Liberty watered with our blood, sweat and tears so that it could be chopped down for your political and economic expediency? Was our sacrifice all in vain?” They call to you to disagree, even vehemently, but to always remember those who fell at Lexington, Gettsyburg, Chateau-Thierry, Normandy, Inchon, Hue, and Fallujah. Remember why they fell – the ideals that propelled them to give their lives for this country – for freedom. Honor their sacrifice by treating free speech with the respect it deserves.

I’m preaching on Matthew 22:15-22 this week.  As I wrote the manuscript I found myself thinking, “You know, the tension of the text would be perfectly illustrated by some faux attack ads.”  Here’s the first one.  Perhaps I’ll add some ominus music later.