ELECTION UPDATE - Oprah's Boy Toy

Oprah's new boy toy and beneficiary of her overwhelming support, Barack Obama, has survived the last presidential debate with Hillary before the Texas and Ohio primaries next week. While Hillary was way ahead in the polls in the two states her lead has evaporated as her tactics have changed from day-to-day.

We predict Barack will win both states and lock up the nomination just as we predicted he will win the presidency in November. Somehow Obama has avoided the street brawl that Bill and Hillary have tried to induce and remained above the mud slinging.

Note the background of the following picture of the Democratic party poster kids and you will see the world famous revolutionary from South America Che Guevara, the man who helped put Castro in power. The real photo follows.



Now why in the world do you think they allowed Che to be featured with them? I mean he was a leading communist and anti-capitalist, he starred posthumously in The Motorcycle Diaries, and remains one of the most famous revolutionaries in the world.

CPT SPECIAL - WHO CAN YOU TRUST???

We are introducing a new feature of the CPT identifying for you the handful of prominent people in the world we believe you can actually trust. When these people happen to come from the finance sector it is even rarer that they can be trusted. So our first entry into the CPT Trusted Hall of Fame is Mellody Hobson.

Mellody (born April 3, 1969) is the president of Ariel Capital Management, LLC, a Chicago investment firm managing over $14 billion in assets. She is a regular contributor on financial issues to ABC’s Good Morning America. Hobson was born in Chicago, Illinois and graduated from Princeton University in 1991 with a degree in South African Studies. She joined Ariel soon afterward as the firm's senior vice president and director of marketing until ascending to president in 2000.

Hobson serves on the board of many organizations, including the Chicago Public Library, the Field Museum, the Chicago Public Education Fund, and the Sundance Institute. She is also a director of the Starbucks Corporation, The Estee Lauder Companies, Inc. and Dreamworks Animation SKG, Inc.

One of the world's most eligible bachelorettes, Mellody is dating George Lucas of Star Wars fame who also happens to be one of the few nice guys in Hollywood not caught up in the movie industry hysteria. Mellody, way to go girl!

MISSING OSCAR MOMENTS

Gone are the good old days when hosts were hosts and they had a great time at the Oscars. I mentioned Billy Crystal and Ellen DeGeneres should be rotating hosts and Whoopi Goldberg should be one as well. Remember when she hosted the awards and Cate Blanchett, one of our favorite foreign actressses was nominate for Elizabeth in her role as the Virgin Queen?



Then Whoopi showed up on stage in the same period costume.



She made some crack about how no one ever confused her with the Virgin Queen. Whoopi is one of a kind and has the acting credits as well.

THE TARNISHED GOLDEN OSCARS

The 80th Academy Awards seems to have taken the same train as the Grammy Awards and Network Evening News broadcasts when it comes to television viewers, the next great train wreck.

Early Nielsen numbers indicate it will be the worst watched Academy Award show in history, an astonishing 14% lower than the previous worst rated broadcast. That means 21% below last year. Following is the first awards ceremony.

This year the screen writers strike was settled just in time for the Oscars meaning we could count on a lot of stupid jokes again as only the professional Hollywood writers can generate.

The collapse in rating for the Oscars, Grammy Awards and even Network News demonstrates once again how out-of-touch the producers and sponsors have become. I guess they assume they are the experts, so we must like whatever they throw our way.

Wrong. The self-indulgent glamorizing of the gowns and jewelry on the red carpet has nothing to do with the merit of the awards and the creative nature of the performances. The various people involved in hosting related shows have simply worn out the public with Oscar overdose.

Enough of the stupid jokes, idle patter and not-so-subtle attempts to revive careers and TV shows via the Oscar ceremonies. The first flashback of an Oscar winner on the program was of Barbra Streisand. There was a room full of bonafide exceptional movie actors and actresses who had all won Oscars yet they selected Streisand to highlight? What was that all about? No offense Barbra but you are not in the same league as a Helen Mirren, Cate Blanchett and many others in attendance.

All four top acting awards went to foreigners. So many foreigners were up for awards that four of the five top actresses were from other countries. A stripper wins the best original screenplay and a couple of Minnesota maniacs win best-adapted screenplay. Diablo Cody was a stripper in Minnesota and the Coen brothers were also from Minnesota so it was a better year for the Golden Gophers than the Hollywood writers. Here is Diablo on strike.



Now the surprise of the evening came from Barbara Waa Waa when her show actually gave us a great look at some of the celebrities up for Oscars or at least associated with the Oscars. I mean Hanna Montana was not nominated but she was giving out an Oscar. Is that surprising since the Hanna Montana show, Miley Cyrus the singer, and her stage show, tour and movie are all owned by Disney? Disney also owns ABC who broadcast the Oscars.

Cut the show back to two hours, get rid of the red carpet nonsense, put Billy Crystal and Ellen DeGeneres as rotating hosts, and let the winners talk and people might start watching again. Of course when you have 28 minutes of commercials every hour even these changes might not be enough.

THE NEW YORK TIMES KISS & KICK COVERAGE

Boy did John McCain get a rude awakening from his recent editorial endorsement by The New York Times.

Hillary Clinton and John McCain endorsed by influential New York Times
By DAVID GARDNER 25th January 2008

Less than a month after bestowing him with their prized endorsement, on Thursday, February 21, 2008 in an article titled The Long Run the following headline was pasted across The Times.

For McCain, Self-Confidence on Ethics Poses Its Own Risk
By JIM RUTENBERG, MARILYN W. THOMPSON, DAVID D, KIRKPATRICK and STEPHEN LABATON
Published: February 21, 2008

(For those of you who missed it, it said the following and more. I guess they changed their mind about the Senator or never wanted him to win in the first place.)

WASHINGTON — Early in Senator John McCain's first run for the White House eight years ago, waves of anxiety swept through his small circle of advisers.

Stephen Boitano/Getty Images
The lobbyist Vicki Iseman, whose relationship with Mr. McCain troubled some of his aides.

A female lobbyist had been turning up with him at fund-raisers, visiting his offices and accompanying him on a client’s corporate jet. Convinced the relationship had become romantic, some of his top advisers intervened to protect the candidate from himself — instructing staff members to block the woman’s access, privately warning her away and repeatedly confronting him, several people involved in the campaign said on the condition of anonymity.

HISTORIC NEW GARBAGE INCINERATION PROCESS A SUCCESS

The US Navy today, Thursday, successfully tested the world's most expensive garbage disposal system when a rocket climbed a couple of hundred miles and obliterated a dead spy satellite as it orbited the earth. The dead spy satellite cost about $1 billion when it was launched and hasn't worked since. Classified documents prevent us from determining if it contained parts made in China like everything else being recalled in America.

The ship, rocket and all the other high tech stuff used to shoot down the hapless satellite cost somewhere between $30 - 70 million. Military accountants are allowed a little leeway in budget estimates and the 200% estimate range is well within targets.



Now the fact the dead ship was doing 17,000 mph, was just the size of a school bus, and was hit by a sliver of a rocket doing another 17,000 mph or so makes this well worth the outrageous cost. So for today the earth is still safe, another 1000 pounds of toxic chemicals have been kept in the upper atmosphere to breathe some time in the future, and the spy agencies can now justify another billion dollars for the replacement satellite.

Oh yes, the conspiracy theorists say the Navy didn't shoot it down at all, it was the following hillbilly.

SECRET DEVELOPMENT IN COLTONS POINT

Undercover work by The Coltons Point Times has discovered secret development plans for a major subdivision in Coltons Point with the code name Hillbilly Heaven. Sinister forces behind the plans have not been identified but a mission statement was found along with elaborate models for the development. Fenced in by barb wire, the secret society intends to employ hoards of vicious dogs to guard the complex.


The rambling mission statement, in broken English of course, calls for the overthrow of the Coltons Point government by secretly moving sympathizers of the Hillbilly Heaven cause into the new and rather unique homes to be built on the site. We know the mission statement is authentic because only a fool hillbilly would think there is any Coltons Point government in the first place what with their propensity for conspiracies.


Apparently the purpose of the development is to be able to bring in hillbillys to stack the local vote against the locals, come downers, liberals, conservatives, independents, democrats, republicans and all other forms of degenerates currently dominating the area. Plans will be to secede as soon as enough people have been moved in though it is not clear what they intend to secede from and when.


New settlers must pledge allegiance against the New World Order, pledge to work to overturn the surrender of the Confederate Army to the Union Army at Appomattox Court House, work to ban sushi and other exotic foreign delicacies intended to undermine the will of the American public, and promise to always watch the World Wrestling Federation championship matches.


Secret plans for the new dwellings include the following home edition:

Secret underground hq:

High rise edition:


Model homes will certainly make an impression. Unbeknownst to them, we also discovered the members of the secret society can be identified by the following plaque that must be visible in their private compound, sort of the Hillbilly equivalent to the neighborhood watch signs.

CPT READER COMMENTS – IDLE CHATTER

Okay, so maybe we haven’t had daily articles in the CPT. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find anything worth talking about to share? I tune in to morning newscasts and by the time they are done with the traffic, weather and idiotic commercials there is only time for the anchors to give the headlines, we never even hear the stories. The few times a story does slip through it is a rerun of the day before or the day before that. I say the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) should revoke the licenses of every TV and radio station claiming to broadcast the news on the grounds intellectual constipation does not constitute a news broadcast.

Of course I then wait for the reader comments to fill my email box as I write so many controversial and provocative articles some are bound to strike a sensitive chord. But no emails show up. Does everyone in Coltons Point suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome and no longer have the ability to write? I doubt it. More likely than not they simply are in awe of the stupidity of the world or know better than to make a fool of themselves.

So once again for reader contact I have to find people to interview and the only two I can find this time are Mr. Hillbilly Joe and Mr. Ill Legal Alien. I wanted to achieve a degree of balance in the exchange and what better balance than a Red Neck with an Alien. To be fair I posed the same questions to each.

Do you find the CPT influences your opinions?

Hillbilly: I don’t do drugs.
Alien: Is that a stomach disorder?

No it’s The Coltons Point Times newspaper!
Now do you find the CPT influences your opinions?

Hillbilly: No, but it helps me understand why things are so stupid.
Alien: I like the pictures.

Well where do you get your news?

Hillbilly: There is no such thing as news, just a bunch of twisted truth.
Alien: I get mine from National Enquirer, better pictures.

So what do you get from the CPT?

Hillbilly: An excuse for my migraines.
Alien: Stuff for my citizenship test.

Why are you taking a citizenship test?

Hillbilly: I’m not dude. I'm a proud red blooded red neck American!
Alien: Because I can’t find a place to buy a birth certificate.

Do you pay taxes?

Hillbilly: Not unless I have to.
Alien: Sure, income taxes, social security and sales taxes.

Do you have a driver’s license?

Hillbilly: Of course and I drive two trucks.
Alien: Of course and I drive two trucks too.

Hillbilly: Well mine are registered, taxes paid, and insured.
Alien: So are mine.

Hillbilly: Okay dude, my kids go to public school.
Alien: So do mine.

Hillbilly: Mine speak English.
Alien: So do mine, and you can understand their English.

Hillbilly: You insulting my articulation?
Alien: I’m quite certain you are articulating as best as possible.

Hillbilly: Good because I was about to drop kick you to Texas.
Alien: Then I wouldn’t give you any more of my wife’s enchiladas.

Wait a minute you two. I’m doing the interview so don’t get carried away.
Now let’s go back to the questions.

What is your favorite drink?

Hillbilly: A margarita of course, poured like you don’t own it.
Alien: Bud Light.

And what is your favorite snack?

Hillbilly: Nachos and lots of cheese and salsa.
Alien: French fries.

How about your favorite actress?

Hillbilly: Hmmmm, Selma Hayek
Alien: Jodie Foster.

Well what is your favorite TV Show or movie?

Hillbilly: Hee, hee, hee, the Alamo.
Alien: Beverly Hillbillies, hee, hee.

Your favorite military hero?

Hillbilly: General Robert E. Lee.
Alien: General Antonio Santa Anna.

Okay we are getting nowhere with this interview. We could almost exchange the answers from the two of you and have results more like we should get.

So can either of you vote?

Hillbilly: I refuse to register for such an abominable exercise when the election is already rigged.
Alien: I prefer the candidate who changes their mind the least on immigration before the election.

Do you trust politicians?

Hillbilly: I will double-cross that bridge when I get to it.
Alien: In God we trust in politicians we rust.

Do you have anything in common?

Hillbilly: We lost a war to the Union Army.
Alien: We lost a war to the Union Army.

Amazing guys, united in war and divided in peace. I guess that is a very American thing. Of course America usually isn’t the target but you can’t have everything.

So what do you think about the immigration issue?

Hillbilly: Close the borders to America and stop the millions of Mexicans from coming.
Alien: Close the borders to Mexico and stop the millions of Americans from coming.

What do you think about the language differences?

Hillbilly: If you live here you speak English.
Alien: If only the Americans already here could speak English.

Maybe we should trade the millions of Mexicans in America for the millions of Americans in Mexico? Then seal the border.

Hillbilly: That won’t stop the flow of tequila will it?
Alien: Take back your unsafe, polluting and low paying plants while you are at it.

That’s it, I’m outta here.

WORDS, WORDS, WORDS!!!

Ever since I declared the campaign over and Obama the winner the Clinton camp has been trying to make a big deal out of the words being used by Barack as if english grammer and usage has any place in politics. With our colleges cranking out graduates functionally illiterate when it comes to english grammer and usage does anyone really care?

All you have to do to witness the massacre of the english language is watch the evening news or read your favorite newspaper. Still the Hillary mouthpieces did have a little point. Obama quoted famous people and then quoted his friend the governor of Massachusetts but forgot to credit the sources of all his quotes. Seems there is little room for a bibliography in TV sound bytes.

But to accuse him of plagiarism? Come on Hillary, pull your pants suit up and take it like a man. He managed to turn your words around and you got miffed so you accused him of taking someone else's words and passing them off as his own. We all know who said "I had a dream" and it wasn't Obama. The only thing Obama did wrong was to trust his speech writers too much but that is always a problem for politicians.

No, there are far worse things a politician can do than forget to identify a source of inspirational words. They might just forget to quote the truth. Remember this quote?

"I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time - never. These allegations are false." January 1998

And then there was this follow up quote.

"I did have a relationship with Ms Lewinsky that was not appropriate. In fact, it was wrong. It constituted a critical lapse in judgment and a personal failure on my part for which I am solely and completely responsible." August 1998

Perhaps there are times when the public interest can be best served by not mentioning the source of the quotes. This is presidential politics, America's alternative entertainment when the World Wrestling Federation is not slamming bodies on the mat on TV. Remember the words Lewis Carroll wrote in the wonderful Alice in Wonderland.

"But I don't want to go among mad people," said Alice. "Oh you can't help that," said the cat. "We're all mad here."

IT'S OVER - OBAMA 44TH PRESIDENT OF USA

Startling evidence undercovered by The Coltons Point Times and confirmed through a network of proven psychics and intuitives far more accurate than political pollsters and weathermen has verified that Barack Obama will be elected the 44th President of the United States of America, making history as the first African American president of the nation.

Try as she might, Hillary and Bill just could not stop the Harvard graduate from bringing the string of 20 straight years of Yale control of the presidency to an abrupt and stunning end. In the end the political arm-twisting, special interest dollars, and wheeling and dealing could not stop Barack and neither could the Republican candidate, John McCain, who could not convince the public he was the new candidate for change.

I mean come on, McCain will be 72 this year, 25 years older than Obama. Between the US Navy and US House and Senate McCain will have served the US government 49 years, Obama just 4 years. In other words, McCain has worked for the US government longer than Obama has been alive.

Is there any doubt about who represents the new generation? Besides, isn't it about time the old timers, and there are many old timers in politics, step aside and give the new people a chance? Haven't the old boys done about enough (to) for us? So come next January this will be the new president with his kids.

Now what does turn the election in the end. Well the Democratic Underground seemed to have discovered that Obama is holding back on an endorsement certain to turn the tide of the election when released and eliminate all questions about whether the new kid in town (Obama) has the confidence of those that count.

It seems JC has agreed to come back early to endorse Obama and he is quick to assure the public this return has nothing to do with the End Times. Preacher Huckabee lobbied hard for the JC endorsement but JC happens to like the the sound of a harp more than a bass guitar. Some think Oprah might have arranged the endorsement what with her connections.


So now that we know the outcome of the election next November what does it mean? For one no more obnoxious political ads on TV for the next 8 months. Over $100 million in campaign costs will be saved because no more spending is necessary. It will bring an end to the mudslinging and dirty tricks threatening to make this campaign just like all the others before it. The news media will have to manufacture sensational news about something else besides the election. The rest of the world will breathe a sight of relief that gun slingers no longer control the White House.

As the 44th president Obama will have a lot of mysticism behind him as well. For example take the number 44, 4 + 4 = 8. Obama was born in 1961. 1 + 9 + 6 + 1 = 17, 1 + 7 = 8. He was from Illinois which has 8 letters. John Kennedy was 35th president, also equal to 8. The number 8 is a Fibonacci number.

The Jewish religious rite of brit milah is held on a baby boy's eighth day of life. Hanukkah is an eight-day Jewish holiday that starts on the 25th day of Kislev. Shemini Atzeret (Hebrew: "Eighth Day of Assembly") is a one-day Jewish holiday immediately following the seven-day holiday of Sukkot.

The Noble Eightfold Path in the Buddhist faith has eight steps. The Eight Immortals are Chinese deities. Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints believe that humans are responsible for their actions by the age of 8. The Dharmachakra, a Buddhist symbol, has eight spokes. The Buddha's principal teaching -- the Four Noble Truths -- ramifies as the Eightfold Noble Path. Buddha's birthday falls on the 8th day of the 4th month of the Chinese calendar.

In Christianity it is allegoric to: what is beyond time (because the number 7 refers to the days of the week which repeat themselves), and is the number of Beatitudes. In Islam it is the number of Angels carrying The Holy Throne of Allah in heavens. In Neopaganism there are eight Sabbats, festivals, seasons, or spokes in the Wheel of the Year. In Hinduism its the number of wealth and abundance. The Goddess Lakshmi has eightfold forms. There are eight nidhis - seats of wealth.

And now for a word from our special interest sponsor...

1876 THE AMERICAN CENTENNIAL

It is 1876 and the United States is 100 years old. Who cares? Well a lot of interesting things happened that year. Mark Twain released his novel Tom Sawyer. It was the first year Major League Baseball existed. Alexander Graham Bell got his patent and made the first phone call.


It was also the year all indigenous peoples in the US were ordered to reservations. This was not a popular policy among the original Americans. Thus it was also the year Colonel George Armstrong Custer and his Army was wiped out in the Battle of Little Bighorn by the Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians. Custer before and after the battle can be seen in the following pictures.



Yet there was another event that year whose reverberations are still being felt today. It was the year the stuffy old Westminister Kennel Club decided to hold the first national championship for dogs and select the best pure bred dog in America.

For the next 132 years the canine aristrocrats dominated the Westminister Championship just as their blue blood owners expected. Then along came 2008, the year of the oddballs and year of the breakthroughs like Obama for President, Clinton for President, even McCain for President, none who ever had a chance in the past.


Keeping with the national mood for change, lo and behold the blueblood dominance of the dog world came to an end as well with the stunning, astonishing, and heart warming selection of Uno, a 2 year old Beagle, as the Best in the Show, the new grand champion of Westminister.


Now don't take this lightly. In 132 years this working class breed of dog never won. This is like a rank and file union member being named CEO of GM. So along with Snoopy we celebrate this win and pay honor to Uno, the Grand Champion of the Westminister Dog Show for 2008.

ANOTHER WHAMMY FOR THE GRAMMY

Is it me or do you also think the 50th celebration of the Grammy Awards show was about as over-hyped and under-delivered as the London performance by Amy Winehouse. Poor Amy, fresh out of rehab performed her Best Song Grammy winner Rehab, of course. With the song finishing last among the nominees in sales it seems odd that Amy won over the number 1 & 2 sellers by Rihanna and Beyonce.


The English lass also won for Best New artist, a Grammy according to the Recording Academy “for a new artist who releases during the Eligibility Year the first recording which establishes the public identity of that artist. Albums only.” Fair enough, except Amy released her first album in 2004 and won many international awards between 2004-2007. She has performed professionally since she was 16.

Maybe the bending of the rules for her award was because Simon Cowell of American Idol fame has owned her contract since the 2004 album. At any rate it seems normal the Grammy for this years new artist would go to a new artist from 4 years ago just as the Song of the Year should go to the one finishing last in sales among the nominees.



At least a couple of performances during the over three-hour telecast were worth watching including the sophisticated Alicia Keys, Herbie Hancock and Lang Lang from China in a grand piano duet of Rhapsody in Blue, and Andre Bocelli and Josh Groban singing The Prayer, a song little known to the gun toting gangstas of rap infamy. There was even an interesting Beatles tribute by Cirque du Soleil and stars from the movie Across the Universe but the LA crowd got really restless watching such tasteful performances.


The Grammy Awards have been known for their blunders over time but of more concern is the fact the telecast has been dropping in ratings since 1984 when Michael Jackson and Thriller captured the public imagination and over 52 million people tuned in. This year (18.2 million) was the fourth straight year the ratings were 20 million or less, which is just 35% of the Michael Jackson era.


Once rap and hip-hop began to dominate the telecast in the late 1980’s the ratings have fallen in direct proportion to the increased focus on the urban music. This year the winning Rock and Roll song was by Bruce Springsteen and he wasn’t even allowed to perform it during the telecast. No wonder 34 million people stopped watching.

The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences runs the Grammy show and 12,000 industry professionals are allowed to vote for different awards. Of course the vast majority of members are from the recording industry whose bread and butter comes from the record labels. This industry ego trip was first created in 1958.


The top-selling artist of all time with over one billion sales, Elvis, won just three Grammy Awards his entire career, all in gospel. Astonishingly the King of Rock and Roll never won a rock and roll Grammy. The Beatles only won four Grammy Awards. Yet Amy Winer wins five in one year? Are you kidding me? Of course there is also Buddy Holly, Diana Ross, Led Zeppelin, Queen, Bob Marley, Neil Young, Janis Joplin, Grateful Dead, The Doors, Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Who and Jewel, none of whom ever won a single Grammy, while the other winning winer of 2008 was Kanye West with four Grammy Awards.

THE END OR A NEW BEGINNING

Today, Thursday, Mitt Romney withdrew from the GOP presidential race. Was this the end of a campaign or the beginning of a new effort to get free of the media manipulation, the GOP disharmony and the failure of Bush to lay the groundwork for Republican succession? It was just 32 years ago that another candidate for president withdrew from the campaign to prevent the party from self-destructing only to soon establish himself as one of the most popular presidents in our history four years later. His name, Ronald Reagan.

NEWS IN AMERICA – ALREADY CENSORED

The defenders of the Bill of Rights in America, those who argue and defend the freedom of the press from any government censorship, have already missed the greatest form of censorship ever achieved. The censorship of the news is not threatened by Big Brother but by the very media itself that owns and operates the news outlets.

In terms of broadcast journalism, so much censorship has already been imposed by the very news organizations producing the news that any other censorship will most likely go unnoticed. The selection of stories to cover, editing the stories and using the stories to advance their own agendas has become institutionalized in the media.

National network and cable news has been reduced to a series of spectacular photo ops and sound bytes thanks to the ever encroaching lust for more advertising by the owners while the local network affiliates have become a cesspool for senseless blabber in their selection of viable news. The result is the most bizarre news coverage imaginable.

Fortunately, the American public has not been fooled. Way back in 1969 network TV news peaked with 56.4 million households watching the news. By 1980 52.1 million watched the news and by 2008 26.3 million watched the news. If you add all those people who abandoned the networks for cable including CNN. Fox News and MSNBC, a total of 9.26 million more, then 35.5 million people now watch the news.

To put things a different way, in roughly the past 40 years the American population has increased about 100 million while TV news watching has lost 21 million viewers. Maybe the average American voter has noticed that the evening news shifted from information to entertainment sandwiched between about 14 minutes of advertisements. In 1969 a 30-minute newscast was 30 minutes of news. Now it has been reduced to about 16 minutes of sound bytes.



And then there are the local affiliates of the news stations, the NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox stations in your market. Most of them have added news programs and now run from 60-90 minutes of local news before the network addition. Again we must compare what has happened. Back in the old days local news had reporters, wire services, and a desire to educate and inform the viewer. Today the focus of local news is “light features and sensational crimes” according to the news consultants for the stations.

It is not uncommon to see the exact same criminal report aired on the evening news, morning news and noon news with no changes or updates. Worse yet, in the morning news it may repeat every hour or more. In our nation’s capitol where you might expect to at least be kept abreast of world affairs finding a story on world news is almost impossible. Who decided what happens in the world is of no interest to Americans?

If networks are continuing their decades long loss of viewers, it is because they are continuing to censor stories of interest to the public for more sensational fare they think might appeal. A rape, murder or mugging in our nation’s capitol gets far more play than millions of people dying in Africa, the unease of the world stock markets, or the fining of a pharmaceutical company (Merck) $671 million dollars for stealing money from Medicaid and paying millions of dollars in bribes to our nation’s doctors.

EMPTY PROMISES – CAMPAIGN 2008

The following quotes are from the official websites of the respective leading candidates for president. They appear in their Issues section under ethics.

John McCain
“The American people have been alienated from the process of self-government by the overwhelming appearance of their elected leaders having sold-out to the big-moneyed special interests who help finance political campaigns.”

Barack Obama - Plan to Change Washington
“I am in this race to tell the corporate lobbyists that their days of setting the agenda in Washington are over. I have done more than any other candidate in this race to take on lobbyists — and won. They have not funded my campaign, they will not get a job in my White House, and they will not drown out the voices of the American people when I am president.”
Barack Obama, Speech in Des Moines, IA, November 10, 2007

Sounds great doesn’t it? They seem to have a handle on the dangers of special interest funding, lobbyist influence and all the evils of money in campaigns. Both often use the issue when speaking on the campaign trail. But are their warnings about the evil influence of special interest money real? Let’s see.

By the end of 2007 candidates had raised the following money for their campaigns:

Hillary Clinton $115,652,361
Barack Obama $102,170,668
John McCain $41,102,178
Mitt Romney $88,499,686

A lot happened since January 1 and to give you the highlights Barack Obama raised $32 million in January, then another $6 million after Super Tuesday. Clinton raised $13.5 million in January including $5 of her own money loaned to her campaign. No figures are available for the Republicans though reports are that McCain contributions have been heavy since his Super Tuesday wins.

So Barack is now the kingpin of all money raising and McCain is now the leading GOP fundraiser for the moment. Where do these two pillars of ethics stand when it comes to special interest money, the evil influence according to them?



Information collected by The Center for Responsive Politics shows that through the end of 2007 the following money had been raised by the campaigns.

From Lawyers
Clinton $11,756,493
Obama $9,521,441
McCain $2,508,185
Romney $2,433,054

From Securities & Investment Firms
Clinton $5,829,999
Obama $5,295,884
Romney $4,141,812
McCain $2,134,033

From Goldman Sachs
Obama $421,763
Clinton $407,561
Romney $223,925
McCain $85,252

From Lehman Brothers
Obama $250,630
Clinton $237,270
Romney $137,450

From Health Professionals
Clinton $2,313,527
Obama $1,720,252
Romney $1,182,401
McCain $713,952

From TV, Movies & Music
Clinton $2,641,724
Obama $2,526,326
McCain $442,366
Romney $227,495

From Banks
Clinton $1,119,982
Obama $1,017,200
Romney $716,601
McCain $620,673

From Pharmaceutical & Health
Clinton $349,270
Obama $337,525
Romney $318,226
McCain $97,597

From Oil & Gas
Romney $375,263
Clinton $268,562
McCain $229,958
Obama $132,115

Well perhaps you now get the idea and can see which candidates were the special interest favorites through the end of 2007. Many of these groups held back money for this year and you can bet as the number of candidates dropped the concentration of money will increase.

As for the populist attacks by Obama and McCain on special interests and lobbyists, which most people consider one and the same, they certainly rank high on the list of special interest favorites for such forceful critics. The truth is no politician should make a big deal out of this ethical issue as no one can win the election without the special interest money. Catch 22 in the world of politics.

One of my favorite Democrat orators said it best.

THE SUPER TUESDAY SCOOP

About the only thing one needs to scoop after Super Tuesday is all the BS thrown at us by the media and their political analysts. Only the candidates seemed to have any grasp of the truth because they were so busy running from coast to coast they had little time to tell tall stories.

But the media, they are desperate to get this election over with as soon as possible. They want McCain in and Romney out. They want Obama and Clinton to become one so they don’t have to decide who should be president between them. They need Huckabee to stay in the race to siphon votes off Romney so McCain can win and they want Rush Limbaugh to shut up because he is raising the curtain on a lot of nasty backroom politics.

Make no mistake; the smoke filled back room political deals are already on the table. For all we know the election could already be over. The media is hell bent on declaring a winner of the primaries before half the country has even had a chance to vote. Do any of you wonder why?

Super Tuesday was supposed to deliver the knockout blow to Romney and maybe Hillary but Romney won 7 states while only getting 6 stolen from him while Hillary, well Hillary has no intention of letting the media decide the election. Once again she beat back the avalanche of support for Barack that is steamrolling across the nation, at least according to the media.

Every time Obama does well at least in the eyes of the media the stock market seems to go down. Do you think there is any connection? As for McCain, the darling of the media because they think he will be the easiest for a Democrat to beat in the fall and the media is intent on getting a Democrat elected, where is his base coming from?

Within the Republican party when it comes to who people want to be president Conservatives don’t like him, Evangelicals don’t like him, Wall Street and the business community don’t like him, talk show hosts don’t like him, so who besides the media does like him? Don’t get me wrong, McCain is an honest and likeable war hero but he was a has been in the presidential sweepstakes just a few months ago so why is he the media favorite now?

I am very happy no one is running away with the primary because in a Democracy the people are supposed to pick the candidates not the media. Besides, if the media gets to choose who wins by tilting news coverage their way then what is the purpose of having the Democratic and Republican national nominating conventions in August to pick the candidates?

When the media stops analyzing the election and starts reporting the news like they should then people will get objective information on the campaign. Until then people need to understand not to listen to the experts, just listen to your own heart. No one knows who is the best president for you and no one knows who will do a great job if they are elected. You decide and the world will be a much safer place.

In the meantime when candidates are promising you they will stop the war, bring home the troops and fix the economy, it sounds wonderful, but the following images remind us that the candidates have no control over what other people in the world are doing to us. Don’t forget what happened on 9-11. Freedom was never free.