Spinning out of control

The Associated Press reported today that the Democratic and Republican candidates spent $94,000,000 dollars in August. That’s $94 MILLION dollars in one month. What did they spend over half of this money on? Advertising. Here’s a quote from that AP report:
“Their campaign finance reports, filed before Saturday's midnight deadline, shows that more than half of their $3-million-a-day spending rate was devoted to advertising that became increasingly negative during the month.”

Once again the American political process devolves to a mud-slinging process. The winner is the one with the best spin and the most convincing lies. I sometimes wonder how the rest of the world views us. I’d wager they are having a good laugh at us.

Considering the shape our economy is in I suppose that I should be glad that there is all this money flowing around. They are keeping advertising agencies, television stations, radio stations, and print media employees from loosing their jobs. They even have their own well-paid staffers. Obama has a monthly payroll of $2.8 million and McCain has a $1.2 million payroll. Glad to know that there are still some people with jobs. Maybe I should have gone to work for one of them.

What really worries me thought is that when it comes time to vote the average American won’t have a clue who they are really voting for. Instead they will vote for the one with the best advertising and the candidate with the best spin doctors that money can buy. This country is facing some very serious and potentially catastrophic problems. We should be asking the candidates hard questions about what they will do to fix these problems. Instead it’s all sound-bytes and spin.

For those who might be curious about the truth and lies in what our candidates are saying I recommend the following sites:

• The Annenberg Political Fact Check, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania
• National Public Radio, Election 2008
• Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan guide to money’s influence on U.S. elections and public policy
• CNN Political Fact Check, located towards the bottom of the page

Beware though, many sites that profess to provide nothing but the facts are in truth just putting their own spin out on the Internet. Which is, unfortunately, why I am not able to recommend more sites.

Lastly, if you would like to try your own hand – and maybe land a good job with a political candidate – at spin, check out this how-to site at eHow.

Getting by with less

I think we can all agree that it has been a tough year. Incomes are either flat or down while costs of stuff is up. Personally, I don't see things getting any better for quite a while. This is an election year, but the people we elect in November won't be able to begin doing anything until next year. Who knows how much time it will take for what they do to actually take affect. Optimistic is not a term I use to describe myself anymore.

Regardless of what else happenes or may happen, I have learned some valuable lessons this year. Perhaps many other Americans have learned this one as well: how to get by with less. I've had to drastically cut my spending just so I could pay my bills. If it's not an absolute essential, I'm not buying it any more. Sure, there are things I miss, but I've discovered that I can get by without them - that I really didn't need them. This is a lesson we all need to learn: how to separate what we need from what we want.

America has been a society of consumers for a long time. A billboard for one of the local "factory outlet" malls near where I live has the slogan: "Shop till you drop". Advertisers show us all the things we need to look good in, smell good wearing, all the stuff we've 'got to have' so that we'll be enticed to go out and buy it. While the money lasted, it was good. But did we really need all that junk?

Did you know that America is the largest consumer of a majority of the natural resources of this planet while not having the largest population? The American Association for the Advancement of Science has this to say: "For many resources, the United States of America is the world's largest consumer in absolute terms. For a list of 20 major traded commodities, it takes the greatest share of 11 of them: corn, coffee, copper, lead, zinc, tin, aluminum, rubber, oil seeds, oil and natural gas. For many more it is the largest per-capita consumer." When it comes to energy consumption we again are the biggest consumers. And when it comes to oil consumption, no one else is even close.

So it might not be such a bad idea for us all to try and get by with less. Sure, some jobs will go away because of this. However, if we were to start doing/building some of the things that we as a nation really need then new jobs will be created. Some ideas: research and develop alternative forms of energy, rebuild our highway infrastructure (remember that bridge that fell in Minneapolis?), and clean up the environment.

I'll end with a link to a post by Frances Ellen on 6 ways to beat the cost of groceries. She's got some excellent suggestions.

Avarice and Envy, addendum

I’ve been thinking about my recent post and realize that I sound like doom and gloom. That’s not how I really want to be, nor is that the tone that I want for this Blog.

With that in mind I want to post my ideas for how to resolve the election/government mess:

• We have certification tests for all kinds of professions: everything from selling real estate to practicing law, medicine, and even working on computers. Let’s create a certification test for anyone who wants to run for elected office. We could create different tests depending upon the level of office, everything from local, to state, up to the national level.
• One of the big problems now is that, for the most part, the only people who can get elected are those with big pots of money (or those who have access to people who can give them big pots of money). We need to get money out of the process. There are lots of no cost and low cost ways that they can campaign:

• Blogs – there are lots of sites that don’t even charge you to post one.
• Web sites – again, there are lots of hosting companies that charge less than $5 a month to host your site.
• Sports stadiums and other large arenas could host debates or “meet and greet” events. The hosting location could hand out advertising for whatever they normally have there, vendors could make money selling beverages (no alcoholic stuff!) and food items, so it would still make money, or potential money, for the location.
• Public television and radio stations could interview the candidates and offer call-in question opportunities for the public. The public TV or radio station could even hold the event around one of their fund raising times to try and raise more money for themselves.

• We need to hold our elected officials accountable for their actions. If they are on the public dole and get caught doing some crime, then they should be punished for their crime just like any other criminal. Really punished! Especially at the national level; no more lifetime pension and health care. For that matter, why should any of them get lifetime pension and health care? Check out this letter.
• Lastly, let’s get rid of all the consultants, PACs (Political Action Committees), lobbyists, and other large organizations that use their influence and money to mold government. We make it a law that the only people who can express their opinion are the citizens themselves. Sure, many of them will be owners of, or high-ranking employees of large organizations; however, their influence would be limited to a letter, fax, or e-mail message that they send as an individual citizen ONLY.

So, there you have a few simple suggestions. Let me know what you think.

As always, thanks for listening,
Lee