Friday, June 23, 2006

Mary Heartless, Mary Heartless

I was doing a bit of web research on the apparent failure of Mary Cheney to successfully parade her status as 'token GOP lesbian daughter' and found the telling observation at PageOneQ:

"Purchasers of Cheney's book, according to Amazon..., also purchased the books by authors recognized by many on the gay community as non-supportive of lesbian and gay equal rights. Other books purchased by buyers of Cheney's book include Godless: Church of Liberalism by Ann Coulter and Can She Be stopped: Hillary Clinton will be the next President of the United States unless... by John Podhoretz.

"In another section of the same page, Amazon offers a discount for buyer's of Cheney's book. For $35.52 customers may purchase Cheney's and Coulter's books as a pair, a discount of almost 40%"

That book, of course, is "Now, It's My Turn," a memoir which reportedly netted Cheney a 1 million dollar advance from Simon & Schuster. By the way, that price for the pair has just dipped down to $32.52.

Cheney and Coulter...strange bedfellows? Not really. Actually, Coulter is far more honest about who she is.

The PageOneQ article notes, "Sales numbers from Neilsen Bookscan, as reported by the Advocate, indicate that during the week of June 3, the books sold 574 nationwide. This number, the Advocate reported, is 77% less sales than the number sold during the book's first week on the shelves, 2,445."

So why didn't the public buy a book from the GOP poster girl for self-interest?

The Mary Cheney who thought it was horrendous to be outted by John Edwards (as if she never served as a gay liaison flak for a beleaguered Coors Brewing Company), doesn't seem to have minded George W. Bush pronouncing her bond with her partner to be a threat to our nation's moral fibre.

The Mary Cheney who now seeks to capitalize on who she chooses to love (thank goodness for big advances from S&S), doesn't seem to mind that her father is campaigning for an outright homophobe, Minnesota's Michele Bachmann.

I really enjoyed Gene Stone's take on the hypocrisy. Stone writes, "the openly gay Ms. Cheney seems to support gay rights only to the extent she can get money from it. Otherwise, she supports those who oppose it."

As Stone also notes, in discussing the relative failure of the book, "When an author's only interest seems to be herself, it doesn't really matter what her background is, conservative, liberal, middle of the road, gay, or straight. No one other than the author cares."

Touché.

Thursday, June 22, 2006

No Plan..No End

As I watched the news readers at MSNBC spew out the "cut-and-run" charge in their coverage of the Senate debate on Iraq, it registered that the Democrats need a simple, yet concise way to counter the charge.

My idea, when holding the GOP accountable on Iraq, is this:

NO PLAN..NO END

It spells it out. The GOP has no plan for Iraq (they never had one) and the result is that the occupation will never end. It also puts the GOP on the defensive.

I am in the media and I am fully aware of the short attention span that exists, both by broadcasters and our audience.

Maybe we can lobby our politicians and spokespeople to start using the term, to turn the tables on the GOP.

Rove knows how to strategize to manipulate public opinion. Dems could stand to be a bit more Rovian ourselves.

NO PLAN..NO END

Friday, June 02, 2006

The Stolen '04 Election

I will be the first to admit, I feel that the biggest problem America faces is safeguarding the electoral process. If we cannot guarantee fair and tamper-free elections, our entire way of life will eventually be in shambles.

In the past, I have touted Mark Crispin Miller's excellent book on the stealing of the 2004 election, "Fooled Again." In fact, I have endorsed it enough on other blogs to wonder if folks might think I am a PR man for the book. I am not.

At any rate, I find it rather frustrating that so few have been clamoring about this. When Karl Rove recently mentioned his fear of the Democrats committing election fraud, I felt a chill go up my spine. As Miller writes in his book, this is a tactic that the GOP uses so when they actually go ahead and commit voter fraud, the media will not realistically investigate because it is allegedly being done by both parties. It is a way for Rove to toss out a red herring and confuse the issue.

So, imagine my surprise, and relief, to see other voices emerge. Major voices.

In an article for Rolling Stone, Robert Kennedy Jr., comes right out and says the '04 election was stolen. Thank goodness, this problem is finally getting to see the light of day.

Check out this very important article here.