Tag Archives: Libya

Cubs Patriarch Ricketts Wants to Dig Up Rev. Wright, Bury Obama

Joe Ricketts, the very, very wealthy patriarch of the family that owns the Chicago Cubs, is apparently considering dropping $10 million on the creation and mass distribution of a five-minute, cinema-quality attack ad that highlights Barack Obama’s relationship with Jeremiah Wright.

The New York Times reported today that the billionaire founder of TD Ameritrade submitted a proposal titled “The Defeat of Barack Hussein Obama: The Ricketts Plan to End His Spending for Good” to the Ending Spending Action Fund Super PAC.

The proposal is a quick, entertaining read. Here it is.

It was the first time anyone truly captured the essence of 2008 Barack Obama: he was the “metrosexual black Abe Lincoln.”

The plan goes on and on about the need to finish the job that John McCain wouldn’t do and destroy Obama by bringing to light his relationship with Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Oddly, though, the five-minute campaign ad only features two clips of Wright speaking (according to the script provided in the proposal).

They’re the clips we’ve seen before. Both are easily found on YouTube, and were featured on many an evening news broadcast four years ago.

There’s the classic “God bless America? No, God damn America!” and the reverend’s unforgettable post 9/11 “America’s chickens are coming home to roost.” Unfortunate for the president, sure, but it’s nothing particularly groundbreaking. (Both of the videos are worth a watch, by the way.)

It might be inadvisable for the GOP to dig up Reverend Wright and get into a Super PAC mud-slinging contest that focuses on religion, considering that their own nominee comes from a church that is highly suspect in the minds of many of its own voters (and occasionally allows polygamy and denied priesthood to black men until 1978).

Anyway, the point is that this ad sounds like a spectacular waste of money. Ricketts should use his $10 million to buy something more useful!

Like another year of service from Carlos Marmol and Kerry Wood, for example.

Today in the New York Times, Russian Propaganda!

I picked up a copy of the New York Times (it’s free for college students, which makes it less pretentious?) and guess what I found inside!

It was a special section called Russia Beyond the Headlines, with a teeny tiny little disclaimer that reads “A special advertising supplement to The New York Times“. I was perplexed.

On first glance, it’s pretty easy to recognize that you’re looking at propaganda. The eight page pull-out, designed to look exactly like a newspaper, featured sunny articles on Russian business, politics, entertainment, and even had some human-interest stories.

Here’s a sampling of the headlines that are tailored carefully to an American audience:

New Russian Government to Back Privatization Effort (Keep in mind that the “new government” is led by a young upstart named Vladimir Putin.)
Moscow Welcomes Foreign Business
Russia Anticipates E-Commerce Boom
Creating a Leaner and Meaner Fighting Force
Reforms to Promote Transparency and Bolster Medvedev’s Legacy
Winning Hearts and Minds, One Cake at a Time

The front page news blurb about the May 7 inauguration of Putin easily refuted allegations of election fraud.

Despite accusations of fraud in in the elections, observers generally agreed that a majority of Russians did indeed vote for Putin.

So there you have it. The good people at Russia Behind the Headlines has spoken, Russia’s awesome!

RTBH is a branch of Russia’s state owned newspaper, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, responsible for the creation and distribution of what they call “original, on-the-ground coverage of Russia from professional, independent journalists who are passionate and knowledgeable about the country, and opinion pieces from commentators who hold a wide range of views about Russia’s leadership and direction.”‘

The section runs in 19 papers around the world, including the Washington Post, under the name Russia Now.

I know that the newspaper industry is hurting and everything, and I’m sure the Russians pay handily to run these ads, but isn’t a fake pullout section about Russia (put together by a state-owned paper) a bridge too far?

Given the obvious pandering to American ideals in RTBH, isn’t it clear that it might be just a touch subversive?

We only have room for one quasi-state run propaganda machine in this country to tell us about the outside world, we don’t need the Russians muddying the waters.

Pew Finds Little Support for al Qaeda

A year to the day after the death of Osama bin Laden, Pew Research finds that support for al Qaeda in the Muslim world has dwindled dramatically.

Only 13% of Pakistani Muslims have a favorable opinion of the group today, indicating that al Qaeda’s battle for the hearts and minds of the Middle Eastern world has been lost. Similar downward trends can be seen throughout the region with regards to confidence in Osama bin Laden.

It’s clear that bin Laden was losing his hold on the region as the years wore on, but it is not clear that the decreasing favorability of bin Laden and al Qaeda are linked to an increased affinity for the United States or the Western world.