Memetics & Marketing™

Brain Drain ? Brain Strain ?

2009-12-30T22:17:00.005-05:00

Politicians have always gamed the system for the advantage of themselves, their districts, their party or their ideology. This is nothing new.

What is new is the intensity and sophistication of the gaming of the system. What we have seen in 2009 exceeds anything that has gone before. Why and how are important. And, the why and the how are frighteningly simple to see.

The folks who brought us the off-balance-sheet entities and securitized mortgages and other toxic financial innovations have come to Washington. That's the why and the how.

New levels of sophistication are required to understand what is happening. Clever columnists write of double-accounting and hidden costs and postponing consequences. This is complicated stuff.

New dimensions of memetics are required to convey this phenomenon to the electorate. This is easy, in a way, because the financial damage done by these people and their mindset is clear and palpable to nearly all Americans. Is the GOP exploiting this opportunity? Not yet.

Now is the time, folks. Now.

The GOP should not be misled by what it does well . . .

2009-12-30T21:51:00.011-05:00

The GOP are excellent in-fighters. They may yet finesse this ObamaCare revolution.

The GOP may also exploit voter fear and anger to great advantage in 2010.

Now is the time for the GOP to cultivate finesse!

We must not permit our strengths to prevent our overcoming of our weaknesses. We must learn to do better at the memes - at the framing of political issues so that voters {especially The Good Folks in the Middle) will understand our positions and support us.

The RNC should be ashamed of their attitude and behavior

2009-12-30T21:36:00.006-05:00

On Thanksgiving Weekend, I received an enthusiastic email from an executive at the Republican National Committee in Washington. "Please let my secretary get me some time with you," is how he wrote to me. I was in Manila, on another job.

I spent a week in discussions with the RNC about who would pay airfare and when we would meet. The 13-hour time difference, the 27-hour 4-airplane trip and the International Date Line were novelties to them, making planning difficult while airplanes were filling up for the holidays. Skype conferences were promised and then postponed due to other meetings in-house at the RNC. Eventually, I flew back at my own expense, eager to pursue this expression of interest before Christmas and New Year intervened to cool the RNC's enthusiasm.

After the 27-hour, 4-airplane, 10,000 mile trip, I called the man at the RNC from Reagan Airport to be put off again. Eventually, a telephone conference time was assigned to me. I could have done this from Manila.

The telephone conference was cordial. I declined to disclose my fundamental ideas without recompense. RNC told me that they had no budget for some of my ideas and were staffed up for other of my ideas. I was offered nothing but the promise of some further leads that have not yet been sent to me.

The RNC abused and attempted to exploit my patriotism They cheerfully led me to expend thousands of dollars only to offer me a telephone conference and no work.

The RNC should be ashamed of their attitude and behavior.

Based on my discussions, my opinion is that the RNC is using The New Media to replicate the work that has been done for the past 30 years by "the old media." Not much new is in the works. The 51/49 world that we have been living in is both cause and effect of these "old media" methods of segmenting the voting public into narrow cells and motivating them by wedge issues.

The New Media permit different tactics. The New Media also permit/require that we work around the liberal bias of television and newsprint. However, vested interests and old habits will not permit us to achieve the dominance that our principles and our times deserve. If old habits and tactics abide, there isn't much chance of a radically different outcome - at least, not in our favor.

My Washington friends have laughed at my naivete, explaining that - inside The Beltway - both parties want everything for nothing and seldom offer work to anyone who isn't already firmly connected. And, everyone outside The Beltway wonders why nothing seems to change.

Meme of the Week - Thursday, December 31

2009-12-30T21:01:00.007-05:00

TARP, ObamaCare, Cap&Trade . . .Democrats . . . Tools of special interests at YOUR expense!

Really, who do you think wrote those bills? Who magically produced 1,000 pages or 2,000 pages on short notice. Did Barry or Nancy or Harry stay up all night? WHO wrote those bills?

Hard-working, conscientious, self-serving LOBBYISTS wrote those bills. The hard-earned money of selfish, vested interests (like labor unions and pharmaceutical companies) wrote those thousands of pages that magically appeared on the House and Senate floors. That's why no one in Congress has read them. Those laws are basically compilations of special favors, drafted by lobbyists working for special interests.
Democrats . . .tools of special interests . . .
Thousands of pages of new laws . . .still unread by anyone who voted for them.

A Good Meme is a Battle Hymn for our Republic

2009-12-30T20:28:00.005-05:00

David Limbaugh had a good column on Tuesday, entitled “It’s Not the Economy, Stupid; It’s National Survival.” I’d call it a good overview of the status of Our Republic. There is not one word or phrase in that article, however, that the voters can hum, whistle or remember for 15 seconds.

That’s how the GOP fails to win by a mile.
That’s how American elections are reduced to 51/49 contests – by the Democratic agility that transmogrifies mendacious boilerplate into boredom.
Voters buy the Democrats lies because buying the lies is far easier than unraveling them to induce the truth.
The purpose of memetics is to eliminate this lies-to-boredom-to-acceptance by providing a simple unit of cognition (not one single unit; not always the same unit; just an appropriate simple unit) to disarm the brazen lies of the other side.

For example, take my Meme of the Week for Oct 21 (yes, way back then!): What Good is Obama?

· Put that phrase (What Good is Obama?) in the headline of David Limbaugh’s article.

· Put that phrase at the beginning or the end of every paragraph of his article.

And then, Mr. Limbaugh, you have a new Battle Hymn for the Republic!

Being right isn’t sufficient, we must be right in a manner that is easily recognizable by The Good Folks in the Middle, where elections are won.

Meme of the Week - Saturday, Dec. 26, 2009

2009-12-26T06:49:00.005-05:00

ObamaCare –
   2,000 pages
   written by lobbyists
   for lobbyists . . .
   Change you can scarcely imagine!

Après eux, le déluge

2009-12-26T06:44:00.004-05:00

The ObamaCare Battle Now Moves to . . .

The Parliamentary Infighting that the

GOP does as well as the Democrats.

That’s the good news.

I hope we win here.

While the front-loading of taxes and the delay of implementation was probably done as a cynical method of distorting the costs of ObamaCare, . . .

. . .there are other effects:

The issues of government control, escalation of costs, higher taxation and loss of freedom – all of these – are very difficult to make real to the people watching the evening news.
The media for reaching the electorate are limited and prejudiced. In order to prevail in anything/everything ever, we must change this.
Campaigning on the issue of ObamaCare in 2010, 2012 and 2014 is made much more difficult because the implementation of the take-over of healthcare is delayed and obscured.
The GOP will be attempting retribution and reform upon Democratic candidates for a dramatic socialization of American society that is almost entirely intangible for five more years - until Obama is re-elected and until current senators and congressmen are re-elected or retired.

The Key is The Good Folks in the Middle! Have I Said It Before?

2009-12-22T15:08:00.003-05:00

The GOP may have lost the battle for the soul of this nation in the form of ObamaCare. Why have the Democrats persisted in ObamaCare in the face of 56% disapproval? Because the Democrats think they can reclaim the middle, the independent voters, in time for the 2010 election. They don't believe they will pay a price. How can they not believe they will pay a price? Because the GOP has been fighting the good fight inside the Beltway. But, both inside and outside the Beltway, the Democrats just see business as usual. WE have failed.

A great deal of recent blogging here has been to coax the GOP to try new means and new modes to reach the The Good Folks in the Middle. Firing up the base doesn't do it, isn't doing it and hasn't done it.

A little confidence in conservative principles and a little testing of new techniques is what is - was - will be required.

Tired,Worn-out and Self-fulfilling Burlesque

2009-12-18T11:51:00.009-05:00

Hey GOP! Why all the fear?
~

Get Some NEW On!

The word of the day is: PARALLEL !!!

If the vested interests are prudent (not to say panicked) by new media possibilities, the answer is to try something(s) in parallel - modest budgets, defined objectives.

Politics-as-usual strikes me as resembling the death throes of Burlesque, as radio and motion pictures were overtaking the medium. And, politicians resemble nothing so much as burlesque acts with worn-out jokes and worn-out props and worn-out costumes. The whole thing is pathetic.

One shouldn't underestimate the efficacy of the disgust factor. Many reasonable people reasonably ignore politics because the same old families and the same old tricks and the same old nonsense are well-neigh impermeable, inured to change and reform.

The GOP's ideas are sound but how does the party overcome habits and vested interests? Politicians, pollsters and pundits are like old burlesque actors - old habits, old acts, tired,worn-out and self-fulfilling

Simply put: If the GOP wants to win - if the GOP wants to win by a mile - then some fresh words, fresh presentation, fresh faces are the order of the day.

Attention politicians, pollsters and pundits! Why all the fear? Your ideas and principles are sound. A little innovation . . .a little trust in your own ideas . . .and you can win by a mile!

The "Old" is getting REALLY OLD !

2009-12-15T19:45:00.005-05:00

WARNING: The Quantum Leap is Still Ahead of Us!

These past six weeks I have been doing corporate consulting. Hop-by-hop, I have flown around the world, west to east. What have I learned?

Consumer marketing is a lot more fun in a booming economy.
Booming markets are very forgiving. Contracting markets are both unforgiving and capricious. You can fail through no error or fault of your own. Life is sometimes very tough.

Back inside the Beltway, again, I am struck by the extent to which "New Media" are being used to replicate "Old Media." It’s human nature to adapt to innovation this way. My point is that, as much as our lives have been changed by the internet and cell phones, the quantum leap is still ahead of us.

There is a lot to be written about this, but I’ll note now that, in the trenches of political warfare, “New Media” is being utilized to do what “Old Media” did for the past 50 years.

When the grey-beards finally let go, the world will be a different place.

· 51/49 elections are both the result of and the cause of the “Old Media” method of targeting isolated segments of voters – not just “soccer moms” but suburban Asian households with two cars and . . . (you get the point). This process of narrow segmentation both exploited and caused single-issue voters. It expended absurd amounts of money to move small segments back and forth.
· “New Media” is being adapted to the same system of targeted segmentation by means of compiled email lists and "cookies."
· Eventually, there will be new applications of “New Media” that will either thoroughly insulate voters within their comfort zone or permit more people to be exposed to a broader swath of fact and opinion. My guess is that the trend will be first to narrow and then to broaden most people’s exposure. I can’t offer an example or proof, at this moment, but I think that is how these media tend to work.

The result will be:

Ø 60/40 elections – broader swings.
Ø The pace of elections will change.
Ø The Feiler Faster Thesis is that voters process information faster – making the last three weeks of an election the determining factor. The election expenditures in that three-week period will soar from already surreal levels. And that three-week period will contract.
Ø The beginning and base/background level of a campaign will change, making a sustained background-level of campaigning almost constant. This campaigning will be (or can be) relatively inexpensive - utilizing volunteers, less expensive media and targets of opportunity. National campaigns will be pervasive and constant.
Ø The party that first realizes that the 2012 election has already begun will gain a huge advantage. The Democrats have put themselves on the defensive for 2010 and, probably, for 2012. It remains for the GOP to either smarten up now or have the Democrats seize this high-ground later and teach the GOP what they couldn’t learn autonomously.

New Traffic Stats for M&M . . .

2009-12-08T10:00:00.004-05:00

New traffic statistics show that Memetics & Marketing is read by interested and discriminating individuals in 53 countries. Thank you for your interest!

One reader asks:

2009-12-03T04:30:00.002-05:00

I trust that no one finds offense in this photograph.

It is the funniest example of one beast trying to be another.

source: www.dockera.com

Can the GOP be changed?

I don’t think that the GOP needs to change anything more than its methods of communication – how it conceptualizes and conveys its policies.

Politics will never be nice. Politicians will never be perfect. Power corrupts. America is exceptional – a beacon to the world. The GOP is the proprietor of the best system of government for America.

The GOP doesn’t need to change more than its memes. There is more magic in the GOP than the GOP even imagines.

Flip! Me, flip?

2009-12-03T01:47:00.004-05:00

One attentive reader emailed to call me flip.

I think that the terms of American political discourse can be changed, so that a large portion of the middle can be won over. I don't think a lot of tinkering, fine-tuning, pandering and pussy-footing is necessary if the memes are established in advance.

I think that US elections can become 60/40 affairs, rather than 51/49.

But, I’ll work on my fliphardiness and flippitude.

Meme of the Week - Thursday, December 3

2009-12-02T23:45:00.004-05:00

This meme is courtesy of Sarah Palin:

Cheap & Plentiful Energy

That’s our goal. Sarah is credited with “Drill, Baby, Drill!” but, in her Wall St. Journal op-ed of July 14 on the subject, she created an eloquent and eminently useable meme in Cheap & Plentiful Energy.

The Democrats and the One-Worlders and the Greenies seek government control or high taxes or impoverished citizens. Cap&Trade or carbon-taxing is a pre-text for bureaucratic control.

Freedom and innovation can provide solutions. Democrats think that government control is the answer; it isn’t. Government control makes problems worse by creating distortions and vested interests.

Unfettered markets can provide guidance by means of real prices, as opposed to government-mandated distortions

The goal is cheap and plentiful energy. That means more ease and happiness and wealth and health. That means new oil refineries (most recent oil refinery built in the US was in 1976, in Garyville LA), new nuclear power plants, new ideas.

Recently, Texas refused to join the unified US electric power-grid for a surprising reason: the unified power-grid is grid-locked by regulatory conflicts. Gov. Rick Perry declined to tie his state to red-tape (source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/industry/4333893.html). Government control makes every innovation slower and more difficult.

Freedom and innovation can provide solutions!

M&M introduces the World’s First ANTI-MEME

2009-12-02T23:43:00.003-05:00

Never before seen on this planet: the concept of the Anti-Meme.

If a meme is a unit of knowledge, then an anti-meme is an unit of ignorance – perhaps a substitute for knowledge, perhaps an agent of active ignorance. This is going to be fun!

Here it is for your delectation and delight!

The World’s First Anti-Meme . . .

GOTCHA !

How did a pathological behavior –

previously associated exclusively with doomed marriages –

become the paradigm for American Politics and American Political Reportage ?

How does putative indictment from a list of offenses to political correctness replace:

v facts,

v issues and

v balanced judgment

My usual digression to the DSM . . .paranoid transference. 301.0 Paranoid Personality Disorder 301.7 Antisocial Personality Disorder; treatment for this disorder is very rarely sought.

ABC News provides a particularly pathetic example of GOTCHA with this soul-stirring headline:

Sarah Palin Uses Private Jet Between Stops on Cross-Country Bus Tour to Promote Book

What can one say about such a thing, except, “Oh, my! Get a life."

Catching Up . . .

2009-11-23T18:37:00.004-05:00

Blogging has been light while I’ve been doing non- political consulting in Geneva, Istanbul and Manila. What I’m posting today is from notes made during my trip.

I have decided to cease all commentary on ObamaCare. Whatever disaster or miracle will ensue will ensue in accordance with rules and perceptions concerning which I have written sufficiently.

Planning for 2012

2009-11-23T18:35:00.002-05:00

A coherent plan for 2010 and 2012 would be wise. As I write these words, I feel like the parent of a teen-age child – self-conscientiously understating a fact that seems overwhelmingly self-evident although the child cannot or will not see my point.

The GOP tends to be uncomfortable with political principles, focusing on “issues.” “Issues” and “values” tend to be synonyms for single-issue and special-interest constituencies.

If the GOP holds to this pattern, the 2010 campaign will be built on justifiable voter outrage . . . and 2012 will be (barring foreign crisis or another recessionary dip) a Democratic resurgence.

A far better plan would be to cultivate some principled affinity among the angry 2010 voters. This is unlikely to happen because the GOP is quite comfortable with outrage and quite uncomfortable with principles.

Most of my campaign plans are for-sale only.

Here are a few that I’m willing to give away . . .that I’ve already given away. Look down this blog page for these entries.

Take a look at “The Importance of Defining Failure Before the 2012 Election” – my post of July 14. It is the most important posting I have made here.
Meme of the Week, Oct 28: “Reality, reason, experience and empathy.” The GOP can win consistently if it uses these four factors in its appeals.
Values Voters Vex Validity, Verity & Verisimilitude. Nothing is wrong with the values or the voters. Their approach to the good folks in the middle is severely, severely flawed.
The Magic Words about Bush/Cheney – five little words that will cost the GOP ½ of 1% of what it will save them in campaign expenditures (and may save them the election in toto!).

Among the items that are for-sale behind my magic curtain:

Two little tricks for Sarah Palin that will calm the resistance she finds with the good folks in the middle. The resistance on the left is irremediable and irrelevant.
Of course, the Magic Words About Bush/Cheney.
Budget and battle-plans for 2012 – rethinking what hasn’t been thought of, yet. It’s almost too late to use them for 2010.

A Fine Mess You've Got Us In !

2009-11-14T10:58:00.021-05:00

Just Because a Meme Sounds Terrific (jobs, growth, stimulus)

That Doesn't Mean It's True !

One month ago, I published a post entitled "Near-zero Interest Rates are The Won's Drug of Choice," which was an off-hand, micro-economic look at the fine mess he's got us in. The conclusion was that near-zero interest rates are the economic equivalent of crack-cocaine.

Here we look at the macro-economic mess, at the ingredients of the economic hash being dished out in DC:

Gotta have jobs
Gotta keep interest rates low to stimulate business
Gotta remain competitive
Gotta have free trade

I hate suspense . . .here's the punch-line:

Multi-national corporations are borrowing money in the US at near-zero
interest and using those funds in other countries.
(This out-flow of funds is one source of the downward pressure on the dollar)

That money is going where it is most productive . .
. to the borrower – to low-wage, low-tax, low-regulation,
low-uncertainty environments and growing markets.

Low-wage, low-tax, low-regulation, low-uncertainty
are not words that aptly describe the U.S.under leadership of The Won -
the country that is financing this economic activity.

Put it all together:

The government of the Obamessiah is creating the high-cost,
high-uncertainty environment and then . . .
financing the job loss to better corporate environments
and to growing markets

What remains to be said?

How dumb is that?

This is a bi-partisan dumbness, but The Won is making policy now. The fact that he has support on both sides of the aisle does not absolve him of his failure to lead wisely.

A little metaphorical whimsy for a Friday

2009-11-13T14:05:00.002-05:00

The bottle-opener on the right contains a flash-drive. (And, the hat on the left contains a bottle-opener.)

Having noted that, let me offer these two examples of how the GOP must adapt to overcome.

You figure it out.

photographs courtesy of www.dockera.com

Memes for Monday Morning . . .

2009-11-09T02:08:00.017-05:00

(after losing the vote on ObamaCare in the House by 220-215; that’s a swing of only 3 votes out of 435)

Really and truly, now – more than ever –

we need LEADERSHIP from the GOP leadership.

The GOP must show confidence that 1)the GOP represents the Good Folks in the Middle, 2)the Pelosi Majority has sealed its own fate and 3)the GOP will give comfort and cover to the conservative "Blue-Dog" Democrats who voted "no." Now is the time to project strength and confidence.

The GOP can and should now pander to every legislator's top priority: re-election.

Memes for inside the Beltway (directed at the House and Senate):

Now, more than ever,

we need LEADERSHIP from the GOP Leadership !!!

~ ~ ~

The electorate will see it is the GOP
who has the “big tent”

because we’ll welcome the Blue-Dog Democrats

who voted “no” to nationalizing health care.

~ ~ ~

Memes for Outside the Beltway (directed at the electorate):

Can the Senate save us from ObamaCare?

~ ~ ~

Pelosi will be gone as speaker in less than a year. We're gonna win by a mile !!!

~ ~ ~

After taking over banking, cars

and healthcare,

will Obama take over energy, too?

~ ~ ~

New rules and new taxes do not create new jobs and new wealth!

Both inside and outside the beltway:

Planning for the 112^th Congress --

We’re Gonna Win 2010 By a Mile !!!

More about The Magic Words about Bush/Cheney

2009-11-08T20:24:00.025-05:00

An earlier blog (Sept. 15) explained why these magic words are not free. However, I failed to explain their importance, thinking their importance was obvious.

The importance of The Magic Words about Bush/Cheney is that the GOP will be fighting uphill in 2010 and 2012 without them.

The Good Folks In The Middle are still angry and confused by Bush/Cheney - by the muddle of the events, policies and consequences of those years.

The Won uses Bush/Cheney as an excuse for everything.

They know that.

But the good folks in the middle are still angry and confused.

The GOP has the choice to take my magic words or fight a fight much more difficult and much more expensive and much more risky than it has to be.

And, without those magic words, Liz Cheney, her very-own-self with her very-own ambitions, will be fighting uphill wearing an 80 lb. knapsack.

Five little words - a little magic spell –

and everything becomes

much simpler and much easier and much cheaper *

~ ~ ~

* just as Turkish-Armenian relations were re-opened, after three generations, by another simple phrase from memetics k marketing™!

Governor Barbour gave the wrong speech on Saturday morning

2009-11-08T06:00:00.001-05:00

November 8, 2009

The Honorable Haley Barbour

P.O. Box 139

Jackson MS 39205

Dear Governor:

Your Saturday GOP radio speech was pretty good yesterday – apart from that funny mixed metaphor at the end.

But it didn’t do the trick in Congress . . .because it was the wrong speech.

Telling people that you are right doesn’t change anything in that situation. It was a “going down with my ship” speech.

At that point, you should have threatened. A little Winston Churchill “We will fight them on the beachheads . . .” might have given a few more vulnerable Democratic Congressmen enough to worry about that the world would have been a better place, come Sunday morning.

On September 29, I sent two proposals to your attention (via both e-mail and snail-mail via Paul Hurst) in Jackson and to Mike Schrimpf at RGA. It is a great, great loss that I received no response.

Spend a little money and send your communications to me for editing. It’s a matter of winning . . .or losing.

Respectfully,

Pelosi maneuvers while the GOP huffs & puffs:

2009-11-05T17:19:00.003-05:00

Saturday's planned ObamaCare vote in the House

= The Battle of Gettysburg

check it out at: http://sayingnicedoggie.blogspot.com

The GOP is railing that the Democrats are losing support. That's an argument that carries no weight inside or outside of the Beltway. The GOP should be pounding what John Boehner and I pounded out over the weekend:

“Medical care is your medical care. The issue is to lower health care costs and make it easier to obtain high quality, affordable coverage without imposing a massive burden on individual families or impossible debt on all of us together.”

Be careful. Go slow.

It’s your healthcare.

And, it can’t be free.

Fox News has a good headline today . . .but, not good enough . . .

2009-11-03T02:06:00.011-05:00

House Republicans Find 111 New 'Bureaucracies' in Health Care Bill

"111 new boards and commissions" looks good as a battle cry. "111" is a big number and a good number to use.

111

But . . .the good folks in the middle will look at "111" and then they'll realize that their medical bills are even bigger numbers. "111" won't do the trick.

Less coverage. Higher taxes.

Death Panels. Longer Waits.

All of that is true. None of it is sexy enough.

You gotta give 'em a hook:

Just Say "NO"

Nancy Reagan nailed it a long time ago.

Just say "NO" and then go on to sell what John Boehner put into his radio address on Saturday and what I rewrote for him (see below, Nov. 1 entry):

Be careful. Go slow.

It’s your healthcare.

And, it can’t be free.

Ultimately, this isn’t about healthcare. That’s why today’s election is so very important.

It’s about power.

The GOP leadership hasn’t done a very good job of recognizing that. And, I’m surprised that Newt failed to recognize the importance of this situation.

Those folks who backed Doug Hoffman were fighting this battle against ObamaCare, too.

Don’t call it PelosiCare because general voter outrage is only a vague threat to Nancy Pelosi, where it is an enormous threat to The Won.

Is 2009 the new 2008 ? I don't think so.

2009-11-03T00:46:00.009-05:00

Whatever happens today in the odd-year election, it is important to note that the Democratic efforts in NY-23, against the Conservative Doug Hoffman have culminated in this door-hanger straight out of 2008.

It would seem that the Democratic Party, which regards this election as a very important referendum on Obama, could come up with nothing more compelling than this recycling of ideas that have become . . .

in Washington bureaucratese: O.B.E.

Overtaken By Events

Today we'll see how deep they are in.

We've seen the fraud and corruption . . .

2009-11-01T07:03:00.027-05:00

Now introducing the concept we have all been waiting for . .

The QUANGO !

The QUANGO - per Wikipedia: The term has its origin in a humorous shortening of quasi-NGO, an ostensibly non-governmental organisation performing governmental functions, often in receipt of funding or other support from government.

The QUANGO - No, it is not a new dance, in the traditional sense. This is a long-needed term to describe how government evades responsibility, hides public aid and conceals financial liabilities. It is the public equivalent of the investment banks' off-balance-sheet entities that brought so much kaka into the financial storm a year ago.

Al Franken's very close election as senator was accomplished by ACORN voter registrations; hooray.

The QUANGO - like ACORN, below the radar, funded by the government and destroying The Republic . . .like FANNY MAE and FREDDIE MAC spreading financial destruction with a federal government guarantee.

The QUANGO - much more sophisticated and more specific a word than BOONDOGGLE, don’t you think? A bi-partisan cross between a mango and a quagmire, with a hint of rhythm and romance . . .and fattening!

Today’s admittedly silly meme on this essential issue is:

Tango, Yes!

Quango, No!

Why is the GOP playing Pelosi's silly game ???

2009-11-01T01:49:00.008-04:00

2,000 pages -

JUST SAY IT !

Say that the ObamaCare bill is two-thousand-pages long. Say it. Rounding is perfectly respectable. Why are you being shy? (1,990? Really!)

If you say "two thousand" and Speaker Pelosi objects, who do you think wins in the ensuing playground-quarrel over "Yes, it is." versus "No, it isn't."?

Congressman John Boehner's GOP weekly radio address - re-written by Memetics & Marketing™

2009-11-01T01:36:00.005-04:00

Steven Bassion -- memetics k marketing™

publisher@agoodbook.com – Oct 31 GOP radio address re-write

I’m House Republican Leader John Boehner. At the beginning of this year, I told President Obama and Speaker Nancy Pelosi that Republicans would be ready to work with them whenever possible to address the nation’s biggest challenges. I also said that, where there are differences, it was our obligation as a party to explain to the American people how we would do things better. And on the "stimulus," the budget, the energy bill, and health care, we have done exactly that.

Instead of using Republican ideas, President Obama and Speaker Pelosi have made each of the problems facing the United States worse.

They have passed thousand-page bills to spend enormous amounts of money to make the economic statistics look better but they haven’t fixed the economy. Americans continue to lose jobs in record numbers.

They have proposed dozens of conflicting ideas for taxes and rule-changes, making it impossible for businesses and employers to plan for recovery.

They have bowed to union pressure and union campaign contributions to make it impossible for industries to make meaningful changes (including the American auto industry).

But President Obama and Speaker Pelosi claim that the Republican Party is being obstructive because we refuse to help them make things worse.

As a matter of fact, only Republicans have offered real solutions to each of the problems facing the United States. But, today I want to talk about just medical care.

Medical care is your medical care. The issue is to lower health care costs and make it easier to obtain high quality, affordable coverage without imposing a massive burden on individual families or impossible debt on all of us together.

We first released our health care plan in June, and over the last six months, we have introduced at least eight bills that, taken together, would implement this blueprint.

There is no need to fix everything at once. A massive law and a massive change create pointless confusion. This is your medical care. We should be careful with it.

We have proposed ~~four~~ three major changes:

Number one: let families and businesses and insurance companies compete nationally, instead of only within a single state. This increases competition and lowers costs.

Number two: Lower insurance costs by allowing individuals, small businesses, and trade associations to pool together for better health insurance at lower prices, the same way large corporations and labor unions do today;

Number three: end junk lawsuits that may constitute one third of your current medical bills (in unnecessary procedures and sky-high doctors’ premiums). Replace it with a fair compensation system for the small number of patients who are actually harmed by medical care. This is resisted by President Obama and Speaker Pelosi because the Trial Lawyers Association – like the labor unions – is among the Democrats largest financial supporters.

Instead of ~~four~~ three simple and fundamental modifications to health care in the United States, President Obama and Speaker Pelosi propose a complete takeover of healthcare – your healthcare - by means of a 2,000-page law that they haven’t read, more bureaucracy, more rules, more limits, more taxes, unelected boards, bureaus and commissions ruling on what drug and what treatment you get when.

The estimated costs of this takeover of healthcare are enormous and no one believes that the published estimates are high enough. Who will pay for it – when and how? New jobs will be killed by costs and regulations. Senior citizens’ Medicare will be cut.

The answer to the takeover of medical care by President Obama and Speaker Pelosi is “NO.”

This coming week, Republicans will continue to stand on principle, defend freedom, and fight for our better solutions to make health care more affordable and accessible for American families.

Thanks for listening.

~ ~ ~

#3 in the original address was vague to the point of meaninglessness; moreover, in number one you want a national market and here you want to give tools to the states without a simple explanation.

ObamaCare - The Biggest, Fattest Target for Memetics & Marketing™ Since Forever

2009-10-29T20:26:00.027-04:00

Today's Wall St. Journal has a perceptive article by David Henninger, called "Obama and the Old Hat People."

"In a world defined by nearly 100,000 iPhone apps, a world of seemingly limitless, self-defined choice, the Democrats are pushing the biggest, fattest, one-size-fits all legislation since 1965. And they brag this will complete the dream Franklin D. Roosevelt had in 1939."

If the GOP cannot frame opposition to ObamaCare for this electorate in a manner that is compelling, then the GOP will lose The Republic and will deserve to lose it - not that The Republic deserves to be lost, as it has been the best hope for mankind since its inception.

In this AP photo, we have Schumer, Reid and Leahy bravely striding forward into our bright tomorrow.

The alarm bells should be going off in everyone's head when they look at these two photographs. How can such a thing be such a serious menace in a nation with universal education and mass communications? Something is fundamentally askew.

Meme of the Week

2009-10-28T21:31:00.003-04:00

This week's "Meme of the Week" is directed at GOP management, rather than the general electorate. Folks, this is how you will prevail. It isn't difficult; it's just different than how you are accustomed to doing business:

reality, reason, experience and empathy

Those good folks in the middle can be convinced by reality, reason, experience and empathy.

Rigidity and righteousness are not what is called for.

The road to reclaim the government from The Won is wide open.

Now let us discourse upon SUB-OPTIMIZATION * . . .

2009-10-28T12:24:00.001-04:00

The measure of dismay and disappointment

with The Won

is the measure of the GOP's failure.

Blah . . .blah . . .blah. No excuses are acceptable. The GOP – from McCain to the precinct captain – failed in 2008 – failed to win and failed to protect the Republic.

Headlines like USA Today’s – ONE YEAR LATER, PUBLIC'S VIEW OF OBAMA HAS CHANGED – are a measure of that failure.

What the past year has demonstrated is precisely

what the GOP failed to make real during the election.

It doesn’t matter that everybody tried. Everybody failed and has come perilously close to losing The Republic. How could everybody be so dumb? Yes, dumb. Dumb.

Sub-optimization* is a concept of systems analysis where parts of the system may be running optimally but the over-all system could be running better. In plain language, each department is doing its best but the entire organization could be doing better if each department did things differently.

That’s a best-case characterization. In the real world, each department is probably screwing up in its own special way without recognizing how detrimental their efforts are to overall success.

For example, McCain honoring his word to use public campaign financing after Obama broke his word to do the same, outspending McCain 2:1.

For example, McCain racing back to the Senate to deal with the financial meltdown, proving to the electorate that he was a tired, old fire-horse who couldn’t learn new tricks.

For example, ACORN doing systematic destruction to the electoral process while a)local folks were screaming and b)nobody in charge took the charges seriously. Why does the Titanic come to mind? Why do flight-students not interested in take-offs and landings come to mind?

For example, the “Bob Dole/John McCain Selection Process” that guarantees that the senior old fart in Washington has a clear shot at losing the Presidency.

Next time we have to do better.

How do we do better?

We focus on over-all maximization.

For example, GOP hacks in Upstate New York put up an Arlen-Specter-wannabe for next week’s special election for Congress in the 23^rd District . . .and everyone from the rank-and-file to 2012 Presidential hopefuls cries “NO!” Very well done!

And Newt Gingrich threw his lot in with the hacks.

Bye, Newt!

How do we do it? Here are a few ideas:

Stop using XIX^th century communication techniques. Don’t think that adding a Facebook and a Twitter button makes you cool. Things aren’t that easy.
All politics are local. Give local GOP politics a combination of education and support. Al Franken was elected by ACORN.
Forget the folks you are never going to convince. Don’t listen to them and don’t try to convince them.
The 2012 campaign has already begun. What have you done and what has the GOP done for it? Next week’s election is a skirmish. The 2010 election is a battle. The war has already begun. No excuses for coming late to the war.

Not Swine Flu.

Not “busy with the current election.”

Not “the dog ate my homework.”

Details are very difficult for many voters to grasp. Think memetics k marketing™. Think The Witch-Doctor. Think me.

*This concept from systems theory refers to the extent to which attempts to improve the performance of a sub-system by its own criteria may act to the detriment of the total system which includes that sub-system, and even to the defeat of its objectives.

Meme of the Week – Wednesday, October 21, 2009

2009-10-21T01:47:00.008-04:00

What Good is Obama?

“A government with the policy to rob Peter to pay Paul can be assured of the support of Paul.” — George Bernard Shaw (quoted by Jeffrey Ellis at http://jeffreyellis.org/blog/?p=1905 )

Apart from the Pauls of this world, who can say what Obama has been good for? There's no there there, apart from fluff and smoke and mirrors.

We can't convince Paul. We just have to help the other folks see another way. Arguing the details isn't the only way to succeed.

Meme of the Week – Friday, October 16, 2009

2009-10-16T04:26:00.009-04:00

If you want economic recovery,

Stop changing the rules.

This is a new feature of Memetics&Marketing™ –

a special, extra benefit for those who relish brevity as a salubrious alternative to cerebration.

Abandoning the Dollar is another aspect of The Won’s assault on American Exceptionalism.

2009-10-16T04:24:00.003-04:00

The Dollar is a sacrifice
to The Won!

The easiest, fastest and cheapest defense of the Dollar is talk. The Won will not even talk in defense of the dollar. Talk is what The Won does best. He won’t even do that.

The next easiest and fastest defense is raising interest rates. The Won will not do that because it will raise the projected costs of his massive deficits – increasing the price of his massive re-do of America – thus increasing opposition to his proposals. Never mind that this is real life arguing against The Won’s fantasy; anything (including reality) that stands in His way is to be denied and otherwise resisted.

The near-zero interest rates are not increasing credit or promoting general economic recovery. The near-zero interest rates are accomplishing only two things

Reducing the projected costs of The Won’s absurd make-over of the U.S.
Temporarily inflating profits (and bonuses) in the financial sector.

Let's see what a small increase in interest rates does for the value of the dollar and the forecast profligacy of The Won!

In the most powerful, most wonderful, most exceptional country on earth, . . .

2009-10-16T04:11:00.019-04:00

Primitive, Protozoan Survival =
XXI^st Century Politics

The November 2009 elections are critical to the fate of American Liberty because each Republican victory causes every Democrat to fear for his/her own re-election in 2010 or later. That primitive protozoan survival mechanism should not be misinterpreted as cleverness or wisdom or statesmanship.

Each victory is potentially critical in discouraging Democrats and Olympia Snowe (?-ME) from supporting The Won’s agenda. In the Senate, the change of a single vote may mean success or failure in preventing Obama from overturning the American Republic.

From where I sit (literally, very far removed), GOP campaign techniques seem likely to succeed. After all, the facts and the first ten months of The Won give pause to many of the good folks in the middle. The GOP may well pull off victory in the 2009 elections with traditional arguments and techniques.

However, GOP victory and success in 2009 are likely to be measured in inches. And, a victory of inches is not likely to prompt a systematic re-think of GOP political/electoral strategy.

That’s human nature – if you get what you want, you are not apt to think about how you could have accomplished your goal better or more easily. Very few people are going to think, “We should have won by a mile, instead of inches. What are we doing wrong?”

A GOP failure would prompt a colossal rethink . . .while enabling The Won to wreak all manner of havoc before the 2010 elections - assuming that the GOP could get smart that quickly. GOP re-thinks tend to produce the resolve to do the same thing louder and longer.

The GOP needs a leader who says,

“We should win by a mile. How do we do it?”

The GOP needs the confidence to expect to win by a mile.

How and from where does that expectation come?

Ask the Witch-Doctor (me) !!!

Near-Zero interest-rates are The Won’s drug of choice . . .

2009-10-16T04:01:00.011-04:00

For the Benefit of Those Too Young to Know . . .

Normal people, in normal times, used to live on the interest from their savings. No one can live on zero or near-zero interest rates. Grandmothers and grandfathers used to live on interest, then they lived on reverse-mortgages and now they live on principle.

You may think of that as your parents

consuming your inheritance.

The foreign exchange rates for the dollar are – in normal times - largely a reaction to the interest rate paid on dollar deposits. As interest rates go up, foreign investors buy dollars to earn the higher interest.

You may think of this as interest rates going up

and the price of BMW’s going down.

The Won’s stated reason for near-zero interest rates is to accelerate business expansion by making borrowing less expensive.

But banks aren’t eager to lend at all in this business environment.

But businesses aren’t eager to borrow when changes to tax and employment policies are discussed without assurances or time-tables.

But banks are making a fortune borrowing at near-zero interest rates and charging the moon on credit card and other debt. Yes, I know that their back rooms are stacked to ceiling with bad debts on credit card, residential and commercial mortgages. How that will shake out is anyone’s guess since the banks have special relations with Washington.

You may think of that as your classmates in banking pocketing bonuses through the meltdown

and having no idea when the party will end

. . .but probably very soon

unless Washington bails them out again

. . .and that’s a not a bad bet.

Interest rates are the cost of money. Just like the cost of oil or BMW’s or bloomers, interest rates – the cost of money - determines what is worth buying or not . . .or, in the case of money, worthy of investment or not . . .or, whether consumption is worth deferring for the sake of the interest earned. When interest rates are near-zero, there is no point in deferring expenditures.
You may think of this as the Federal Reserve
(contradicting your parents’ advice)
encouraging you to spend
as though there were no tomorrow.

For business, near-zero interest rates (a figment of Washington speechifying, at the moment, since banks aren’t giving low-interest loans) make investment less expensive. But investments must generate the income to pay back the borrowed funds. The economy is now being controlled by imperial edict, rather than by market forces; in this environment, near-zero interest (almost-free money) does not fix anything. At the moment,

No one knows how long interest rates will remain low;

No one knows when the economy will improve;

No one knows what tax rates will be;

No one knows what the dollar exchange-rate will be.

This all rolls into a ball where the risks are cannot be measured. In this environment, businesses avoid risk. Near-Zero interest rates accomplish nothing but give banks a temporary boost in earnings (and bonuses) until the bad loans become impossible to ignore.

You may think of this as

the economic equivalent of crack cocaine.

You will find a concise and compelling restatement of this thesis in geek-speak here: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9a5b3216-c70b-11de-bb6f-00144feab49a.html

Adjusting Expectations . . .

2009-10-14T06:56:00.025-04:00

From a campaign that can fairly ("This will be remembered as the moment when the seas stopped rising") be characterized as

Messianic,

cries are now heard in many quarters (foresight.org, Camille Paglia, inter al.) for a leader who is simply . . .

Competent

and now, competently orchestrated, the loyal conservative opposition of this country should already be popularizing the next, (hopeful and hopefully) inevitable, meme:

Over & Out.

I'll say the same thing now, to the GOP, that I said to the good folks who are "Values Voters" (below, Sept. 23):

Your arguments just won't convince the good folks in the middle.

They just won't.

If you want to win,

you must find/embrace another point of view from which to espouse your convictions.

That's it. That's all.

Tell your tale from a different perspective.

It's So Nice to be Appreciated !

2009-10-14T05:03:00.019-04:00

  Somebody Loves Me . . . !

40 countries read Memetics & Marketing

but . . .strange as it may seem . . .

Total hits from
   Jackson MS
+ St. Paul MN
+ Anchorage AK < total hits from Moscow.
Does Putti-Poo see more than Haley Barbour + Tim Pawlenty + Sarah Palin combined?

Most US hits from CA, NY and TX.

Biggest surprise fans are from Brazil, Ukraine, India and Singapore.

Outside the Beltway, that's us !
MEMETICS & MARKETING™
Thanks for your interest. Stay tuned, folks! There's more to come!

My efforts bear tangible fruit

2009-10-12T06:04:00.006-04:00

Please see The Magic Words about Bush/Cheney, below (9/15/09), to understand this reference.

Armenian foreign minister Edouard Nalbandian (2nd L) and Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu (2nd R) shake hands during the signing ceremony of the protocols and statements between Armenia and Turkey in Zurich, Oct. 10, 2009.

Photograph by: PATRICK B. KRAEMER/AFP/Getty Images

A Little Leadership, Please . . .

2009-10-09T04:14:00.004-04:00

My blog-post of Sept 8 received a lot of hits. My point was that economic recovery requires stability more than anything else . . .and the Obama government is providing chaos, instead.

On the daily level of ordinary mortals, the ability to plan underlies any economic decision beyond the purchase of food.

The private sector, large and small, must have some idea of tax and wage-rates before undertaking the risks inherent in expansion and growth.

The Lords of the Universe want some assurance that their financial empires are jeopardized by nothing but their own greed and imagination. They want some assurance that the Obama government isn't going to destroy the value of its currency with spending and debt and weak will.

As I posted yesterday,

a little memetics and

a little leadership can save the universe.

GOP Brain-Death Threatens to Destroy the Universe !!!

2009-10-08T01:24:00.014-04:00

Another Gift for the GOP Management that just doesn't get it!

Someone will have to pay to learn what I know . . .however, GOP brain-death threatens to destroy the universe!!!

This is the message that the GOP should be papering all over the known world. The GOP could be saving the dollar and creating economic recovery by the bold and simple act of beginning the 2010 campaign yesterday.

THE OBAMA 2-YEAR PRESIDENCY.

THE NIGHTMARE WILL BE OVER SOON.

Obama doesn't know how to govern.

He just looks good and turns loose the left-wing-nuts to run the government.

Turning loose the left-wing-nuts is not governing.

There will be GOP legislative take-back in 2012.

Obama's 2-year nightmare presidency will be controlled

and then, in 2012, over . . over . . .over!

That's what a meme is.

You get it out there - everywhere - all the time . . .now!!!

Dear Gov. Pawlenty - When Things Don't Click - when they go clack, sputter, sputter - It's Time for The Witch-Doctor (me)

2009-10-02T11:14:00.014-04:00

Tim Pawlenty Launches

2012 GOP Presidential Bid

There was a "new" item on Drudge(from Politico) that

read like his press release >link<

and

His new website, www.timpawlenty.com>link<

I don't know the gentleman. I wish him well.

I am certainly impressed by his press reach and his high-dollar team.
I'm sure that he'll learn as he goes.
He seems to understand that the 2012 election is a long march that began yesterday.
However, this high-dollar effort is a failure. The high-dollar team is missing something.
Do Gov. Pawlenty and his team know it? Do they know what they're missing?
Will Tim Pawlenty call The Witch-Doctor (me)? . . .

Values Voters Vex Validity, Verity & Verisimilitude !

2009-09-23T05:34:00.032-04:00

Attention Values Voters !

With the very best of intentions, you are often highly detrimental to your own causes. I don't like to say it. I wish it weren't true. But, it is true.

You don't have to read to the bottom to find my punch line. Here it is:

Your arguments will not convince

the voters in the middle

who determine the outcome of elections.

That doesn't mean you're wrong. Your arguments just won't convince the good folks in the middle; they just won't. If you want to win, you must find/embrace another point of view from which to espouse your convictions. That's it. That's all. Tell your tale from a different perspective.

Gatherings like the recent "Voters Value Summit 2009" are "feel good" events for attendees. They are profit-making events for promoters and participants. Everybody gets a chance to preach to the choir and everybody feels great.

None of this helps.

From the outside, it's scary.

That's right; it's frightening to see gatherings of people who are so sure they are right and where the speakers are so clearly tailoring their messages to tell people what they want to hear. It's scares me. It scares the conscientious, well-meaning people in the middle who will decide whether your side wins or loses. They begin to worry that the vats of drugged kool-aid are just behind the curtain. This behavior will not win the middle-ground.

George Will noted in 2006 how "this phrase {values voters} diminishes our understanding of politics. It also is arrogant on the part of social conservatives and insulting to everyone else because it implies that only social conservatives vote to advance their values and everyone else votes to . . . well, it is unclear what they supposedly think they are doing with their ballots.">link<

I'm not giving the answer to this conundrum away for free, as I did the Nancy Reagan campaign yesterday. Someone will have to pay for this one. However, permit me to summarize:

You look like a bunch of rubes being swindled by itinerant preachers. You should know better. You should get smarter, fast.
The "leaders" who pander to you should become better and get smarter fast, too.
Ask yourselves if you think Bob Dole can beat Barack Obama in 2012? Neither can Mitt Romney; no matter how handsome and rich and smart he is, he can't win with his current point of view. Can't you see that something, someone, more is needed?

Nancy Reagan - a woman before her time !

2009-09-23T04:05:00.007-04:00

I really, really try not to give this stuff away for free.

Sometimes, it just screams at me and, sometimes, I let it go:

Just say NO to ObamaCare !

NO to compulsory insurance.

NO to tax on uninsured, under-insured or over-insured.

NO to tax on medical innnovation.

NO to compulsory unionization of all American health-care.

NO to bureaucrats denying or approving treatment.

Come on! Grab the issue! Have the courage of your convictions and perceptions!

and then . . . NO to "Card Check"

and then . . . NO to Cap & Trade

and then . . . NO to the next power grab

Is American Politics REALLY Worse Than Ever ??? -- Part II

2009-09-22T11:02:00.016-04:00

Part I is here.

. . . and, if so,

SO WHAT?

Things are different than they have ever been and some things are worse than ever. These times are not the times of Eisenhower, Daddy Bush or even Bill.

Cheney's exploitation of Vice-Presidential power and prerogatives was a first - the product of a smart man with a life-time of experience in the web of bureaucracy (rather than - or in addition to - the jungle of politics). He played the administrative system as a virtuoso - placing his own team in 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th echelon positions to accomplish both public and private objectives, beyond nearly all scrutiny and as he - personally - saw fit. >This link is just one example of many, many, many>link<.
Obama isn't respecting/using/playing the system. He doesn't even know the system. He never learned it and never acquired significant experience in it. He's just the outsider/foreigner/amateur doing what he thinks is best or what he wants without understanding or respect for the existence of any precedent, rule or system. He doesn't seem to know (or doesn't acknowledge) that systems, rules or precedents exist.
Obama's first year has seen a series of new laws of more than a thousand pages each suddenly appear - written by unknown/unaccountable outsiders and unread by the Congress that passed them. This is dereliction of duty by the Executive and Legislative branches of government.
First, Baby Bush and then - on a much larger scale - Obama have encouraged and enabled (through guarantees) debt on an unprecedented scale (as measured per capita or percent of GDP).
American Presidents' posturing in foreign affairs is nothing new. The Cold War constrained such posturing. Bill Clinton blew a massive once-in-a-millennium opportunity to make-over the Russian system in the chaos there after the Soviet system disintegrated. In the post-Soviet era, US hegemony has been used for little good and little evil. Now a new world order is upon us with a new nuclear proliferation and with extremely odd urgency (collapsing birthrates in Russian and Iran make power-plays a now-or-never proposition); it won't be fun and it won't be familiar {a separate post on this will be forthcoming}.

but . . .but . . .SO WHAT?

Most voters under 40 don't care.

They don't care whether American politics is worse than ever. They never knew politics, or media any other way. Politics is just the way it is.
They don't care about foreign affairs, except as they affect soldiers' families or prices.
They don't care about ObamaCare, except as a tax.
They don't care about government indebtedness or spending, except as a tax.
They do care about the economy - their own ability/security to earn/spend money for themselves and their families. If there is a "new normal," they don't understand/believe/trust/like it. As my dark-side hero once said, "It's the economy, stupid."

Observations on Tea-Party Tax Protests of Sept. 12

2009-09-15T08:47:00.007-04:00

Somewhere there are aerial photographs of the crowds on Saturday. They will surface. Of course, normal people assumed that there would be news coverage and will not make the same mistake again.

Meanwhile, rest assured that, just as the most sensitive nerve in the human body is the pocketbook nerve >link<, the only other sentient part of a politician's body is the re-election sensor. These often-vile persons may say nothing but they know how many people were there and they were impressed.

The damage done by denial of the dimensions of the demonstration devolve upon the demos - the rest of the voting public who may well devalue the protest because they are denied information about the size of the discontent.

But it was impressive and it made an impression, be assured.

You Won't Read Them Here ! ! !

2009-09-15T07:45:00.015-04:00

The Magic Words about Bush/Cheney!

To explain why you won't read them here, permit me to use an illustration.

In 2002, I emailed Colin Powell. He was scheduled to address the State Legislature of Maryland on the subject of a proposed resolution on the Armenian “Genocide.”

I put “genocide” in quotation marks because these events took place in the 1920’s during the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire, formation of the modern Turkish Republic and wars fought by both the old Ottoman government and the new Turkish Republic to defend the borders of Turkey. Today, those of Armenian descent claim that 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman soldiers. The modern Turkish government, which was not in existence at the time, claims that this number is exaggerated and that an equal number of Turks were killed in the fighting. This is a very, very tender issue for both sides.

I suggested to Colin Powell that he say, “In a democracy, history is written by historians. History is not legislated.” Colin Powell used those words. The legislature tabled the resolution.

My suggested was never acknowledged and no thanks were offered.

Still full of hope and the milk of human kindness, I passed the same words on to Abdullah Gul, then Foreign Minister (now President) of Turkey. Mr. Gul has used those words frequently. With those words, he has made a diplomatic breakthrough with neighboring Armenia. Borders that have been closed and diplomatic relations that have been severed for generations have been opened with his efforts and those words – my words. >Link is here<

My suggestion has yet to be acknowledged and thanks are yet to be offered.

That’s all, folks.

My wisdom on matters of current import is no longer free; it is for sale. You may email me for further information.

ObamaWorld is Already Here: Tax on Medical Technology

2009-09-14T09:10:00.004-04:00

TigerHawk reports: Senate Democrats are proposing to do so directly, by levying a "value added tax" on medical device companies according to their proportion of U.S. sales. This tax would be without regard to profitability, so it would amount to a capital tax on start-ups and a massive income tax surcharge on profitable companies, varying as net margins do. In the case of my own mid-sized company, the tax would be the equivalent of a roughly 20% surcharge on our net income (in all likelihood raising our economic tax rate well above 50%) or 50% of our research and development budget, depending on how you want to look at it.

Increase risk and decrease return on medical innovation. That's ObamaCare. It's straight out of Atlas Shrugged. Their nominal logic is that these innovations are the proximate cause of the increase in treatment costs, so taxing the innovations to pay for the treatments seems like putting the burden where it should be. Only in the minds of politicians could this be entertained as logical . . .and that is one good reason to keep these decisions out of the hands of politicians.

Who benefits from this sort of policy? Only the people in power benefit!

Get well soon.

Same Old Game

2009-09-14T06:35:00.008-04:00

The Obama Friday Afternoon News Dump included tariffs on tires, as if the Chinese wouldn't notice. So now we have a trade-war. Does anyone remember Baby Bush's steel tariffs of 2002? He was forced to rescind them by the World Trade Organization.

Update (Oct. 29. 2009) here is an industry appraisal of the counter-productive results of Obama's union payoff, courtesy of www.thetruthaboutcars.com.

Baby Bush's loyalties were a combination of the obscure and the blatant - oil, Daddy's Carlisle Investment Group, Cheney's Halliburton.

The Anointed Won's loyalties seem to be more consistently blatant - unions (teachers and SEIU (Service Employees International Union) and Teamsters) and trial lawyers. ObamaCare, for example, mandates that all work performed under the new law be performed by union labor; I'm certain that this provision will reduce expenditures. The pro-ObamaCare demonstrators have been SEIU members. Here's a link to teachers' unions contributing more than $1.3 million to ACORN, everybody's favorite neighborhood organizers. If ObamaCare passes in almost any form, the political center of gravity in the United States will be shifted on a seismic scale.

Just because these tricks take place in plain sight does not mean that they are ethical.

Just because Bush did it, too, does not mean that it ought to be done.

This is the open corruption of American government. It isn't a new phenomenon, either. What is new and significant is that the expansion of government makes the expansion of this corruption more pervasive and more destructive than it has ever been. This alone is a sufficient argument for limited government.

The manner in which The Anointed Won has focused appropriations from

TARP and other emergency programs upon constituencies which have supported him is exceptional, both because the amount of these appropriations is extraordinary and because the limited focus constitutes punitive action against future democratic elections. Absent a clear and obvious surge of support for the Republican candidate in the 2012 election to give cover to Republicans, overt opposition to The Anointed Won will require an act of courage. Many individuals and organizations will fear to express opposition to this, The Chicago Way.

More of Journalism's Shining Fulfillment

2009-09-11T07:12:00.018-04:00

Tucker Carlson has written more eloquently than I might have, "Never has a president been warped by Washington quicker. At times tonight, Obama sounded like an embattled second-termer with a 35 percent approval rating. What percentage of his speech was spent lashing out at his enemies, real and imagined? Radio and cable-television pundits, George W. Bush, former Congresses, unnamed ghouls employing “scare tactics,” whose “only agenda is to stop reform at any cost”—they’re all against him, Obama said. And they’re lying.This isn’t how confident leaders speak. These are the complaints of a man on his way to bitterness. So soon?"

I constantly remind myself of The Anointed Won rushing TARP through Congress in two days and then letting it sit on his desk for three days, while he took a long week-end off.

This is a guy who gets his way and

gets cocky . . .or he gets ugly.

Ed Morissey observes, "Obama, on the other hand, has never held executive office in politics. He has spent his short political life as a legislator, and not even a particularly bold legislator. Obama was much more of a bandwagon man as a legislator, offering rhetorical instead of political leadership, and for the most part receiving nothing but warm praise bordering on tongue-baths from the media."

To bring this back to Memetics, I regard

The Anointed Won

as someone who takes the world in big chunks -

- as "Mine!"

I'll leave others to pick names out of the DSM (American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual), but this is an individual who gives Nancy Pelosi and unseen lobbyists the job of drafting laws; he has no interest in details. The Won likes winning. I'll bet he loses interest in something before he loses, so the conclusion of the ObamaCare ObamaShow may offer some humor and surprises.

I'll bet he characteristically loses interest in anything

where he perceives he is likely to lose.

Protests in Iran,

Democracy in Honduras,

War in Afghanistan.

Domestic economic recovery.

This is not the leader we need.

I will also wager than he compensates. His show in the Security Council next week will be interesting, even if disturbing.

Journalism's Fulfillment and its Future

2009-09-09T03:30:00.021-04:00

It is facile and fruitless to view the media's coverage of the 2008/2009 Obamanation as a failure of journalism. A profession doesn't fail in the manner of a bridge failing.

A profession fails in the manner of Alec Guinness' character, Colonel Nicholson, in The Bridge on the River Kwai - building a bridge out of pride th at undermined greater ideals.

The film is based on an actual event, where the Japanese army enslaved soldiers and civilians to build a railway. Historians later reckoned that one soldier died for every railway tie laid- 13,000 British soldiers dead and more than 50,000 enslaved in contravention of the Geneva Convention. An appalling 80,000-100,000 civilians also died in forced labor on the railway line.

I prefer to think of The Anointed Won as occasioning The Fulfillment of American Journalism.

What did American Journalism think it was doing in 2008/2009? What was it thinking from 9/11/2001 onward? What sent that thrill up Chris Matthew's leg?

crass amateurism, ignorance and provincialism
self-importance
ideological adherence to predetermined narrative rather than fact
prophesies of left-leaning educations
ease, simplicity and laziness
panic - not knowing what to do, so they follow the pack
supporting the presumed interests of advertisers

The method of modern journalism is: Simplify . . .then exaggerate! Anything that happens in the world - and all of the above factors - are reported through the filter of Simplify . . .then exaggerate!

The above list contains nothing new. Obama - The Anointed Won - represents the fulfillment of modern American journalism. With Obama the failures of a generation of journalists have become ineluctable. Moreover, the internet and radio have eroded the monopoly of American print and network journalism. The profession of journalism will not have the ability or the opportunity to redeem itself.

What has happened to Post-Obamessianic journalism?

Factory Journalism - There has been immense growth in government and corporate media relations, i.e. force-feeding the paid news media. The Obama White House spends $500,000/week creating and focusing the news for the paid news media. Just like Perdue chickens, we now have Perdue journalism.
Corruption of journalists "switching sides," to government and corporate media relations.
The Obama Administration has tried to focus recipients of arts and other federal programs to support administration objectives. The is a peacetime first in the United States.
Accelerating loss of relevance and credibility by print and broadcast journalism.

What comes next?

The Won will try to keep winning - attempting to resurrect the Fairness Doctrine or use other means to maintain power and deny communications to "the enemy." There's a strange bill proposed to giving Obama power to close down the internet in a national emergency; surely, that will go nowhere.
Journalism may attempt to clean up its act, to protect its own interests - power, advertising, income.
Information fractionating - different groups getting their information from different sources and, very nearly, living in parallel universes. The Van Jones confrontation is an early example. This is the old Fox News controversy, now writ much larger.

So what?

Newspaper and print journalism will not recover their social and political dominance, no matter how professional or extraordinary they become. Internet and radio will continue to gain dominance.
Journalists, publishers and networks will do what they can to protect their empires and incomes. They cannot do much to retain audience and market-share, except to become more crass and outrageous.
Crass and outrageous is the only road left to government and corporate media to attempt to control internet and radio. The electorate on all sides - but especially the right - must be vigilant against attempt to limit news media.

A little thought experiment: How Would You - YOU, really, YOU - Reassure Investors, Businessmen and Consumers?

2009-09-08T04:44:00.010-04:00

My belief is that the most important factor in the 2009-2010 recovery of the US and world economies is a sense of stability. If the Anointed Won would just stop talking about regulatory changes and new taxes for the next three years, the world would be magically transformed.

But . . .but . . .but . . .that would make the 2012 election a referendum on new taxes and new regulations. Sh-t! No one can sell that!

But, wasn't the 2008 election about new taxes and regulations? No! Last year's election was about Change. It was about magical thinking.

So, the 2008-2012 presidency is about the transition from magical thinking to reality.

Who gains from such a transition? How do they gain?
Who loses from such a transition? How do they endeavor to prevent those losses?

Now you have the scenario for the next three years.

No one on the Left will change his/her mind about the rightness of The Won.
No one on the Right will change his/her mind about the folly of The Won.
The game is in the middle for those whose reality is conflicted by The Won.

Those in the middle can be convinced by reality, reason, experience and empathy. Rigidity and righteousness are not what is called for. The road to reclaim the government from The Won is wide open.

Meet the Mob Who Manage the Message for Barack Obama - No, seriously!

2009-09-02T10:08:00.020-04:00

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Total White House Staff: 6,550 + 500 volunteers + 100 interns ===> 7,150

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Total White House Staff working directly on communications/media ===> 129

{traditional press, internet management, new media, supermarket media}

Office of Communications: 50 staff

Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs: 29 staff

Press Secretary: 20 staff

Presidential Speechwriter and assistants: 15 staff

Office of Political Affairs: 10 staff

David Axelrod: 4 staff

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

There was a published article within the last few weeks (I can't find it now) that put White House media expenditures at $500,000/week (= $26 million/year) .

It isn't normal to have this kind of effort expended on pre-digesting the news for the press. It has always been the job of the press to do this work for itself. In fact, this is very undemocratic and "Brave New World."

Please, realize that this isn't what the television and newspapers spend on salaries and expenses. This is what O's White House is spending to manage O's message to journalism professionals who are paid to "cover" the White House.

That's a lot of money being spent:

on a lot of people
to tell us that what they want to tell us
and pretend that it is what we want to hear.

Under these circumstances, no one should have uncritical confidence in what is reported - not what, not how, not when.

It should also be noted that our post-racial President has a Director of African-American media and a Director of Hispanic Media.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

source: http://whitehousetransitionproject.org/resources/briefing/SixMonth/Patterson%20-%20OBAMA%20WHITE%20HOUSE%20STAFF.pdf

This Post Began as Just For Fun, But Colin Powell Just Rankles

2009-09-02T07:54:00.016-04:00

Initially, I thought about making a caption contest.

I searched for photographs of Colin Powell with similar gestures and could not find any.

And, then, the more I thought about Colin Powell . . .well, I have a very special opinion of Colin Powell. {link here} At least since he was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, he pursued his own agenda. Why it was tolerated by Daddy Bush and by Baby Bush, I have no idea. That Colin Powell waited until the last minute and then endorsed Barrack Obama is no surprise at all. The question is how he was tolerated at the upper reaches of power for so long. Even his promotion to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs was peculiar, as he was #273 (out of 300) in seniority for the position of Army Chief when he was chosen and then, very shortly afterward, was made Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. He was National Security Advisor for Reagan and promoted by H.W. from Lieutenant General to General to Chairman. There's a long, strange story here that has yet to be told.

Blogging's been light

2009-09-02T07:48:00.007-04:00

because I've put a great deal of time into proposals that are sitting on desks all around the world.

Only one person (Karl Rove) has been courteous enough to send a reply. From the rest there has been non-resonant silence, as though the world had lost the capacity to harmonize or even echo.

If the people in politics have any remnant capacity for shame, they have lost the sense of when to use it.

Good Examples of Stealing Thunder

2009-08-18T23:55:00.002-04:00

Bill Whittle, on PJTV, has some interesting things to say about Obama, his megalomaniacal symbolism and how those symbols may be used to haunt him and taunt him. His eight-minute segment is at : http://www.pjtv.com/v/2317

Obama Blinked/Winced/Dodged . . . Two words: TORT REFORM

2009-08-16T13:21:00.011-04:00

Now that Obama has pulled his "public option," at least publicly and at least for the moment. The photo shows not a wink, not a blink . . . but a wince. That's Obama wincing. Yeah!

He'll try to do it another way, but . . .

NOW is the moment for the Conservatives to yodel: TORT REFORM.

Make tort reform a condition for anything done to health care.

Tort Reform would put a cap on claims for malpractice. It would be fair to suffering patients but remove the risk of run-away jury awards. It would also remove most of the incentive for lawyers to create causes and cases, like the source of John Edwards' wealth.

Say it loudly and say it now, when the public's attention is available.

Make it a test of Obama being able to do something simple, logical and right to reduce medical costs. The Trial Lawyers Association is one of the largest contributors to Obama and the Democratic Party. This won't be easy for Obama. Make it impossible for Obama to say "no." Embarrass and blackmail him into Tort Reform by making it the first step, a trial step, a first proof, a demonstration.

It would be nice if doctors put a notice in their waiting rooms:

"Malpractice insurance costs each patient $ x,xxx; please support reform of the legal system called Tort Reform. Tort Reform will reduce the cost of an office visit by $xxx."

Dr. Krauthammer explained it much better than I could: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/06/AR2009080602933.html .

Now.

Tort Reform.

Sarah BLINKED . . .not winked.

2009-08-16T13:17:00.005-04:00

I think that Sarah Palin is great but she wasted a great opportunity on Aug 14.

When whathisname agreed to remove the Death Panel Provision, Sarah said thanks.

She should have said, "Now drop the rest of it! There's no crisis! The whole idea of government health control is flawed. And, what's the rush?"

When she had the whole country focused, she could have used the opportunity to question the entire premise behind ObamaCare.

Banana-Peel Humor from Amused Cynic - Why is it Funny?

2009-08-10T05:35:00.012-04:00

If It's Sunday, Maureen Dowd Must Be Writing About Sarah Palin, Again . . .

The columnist who no longer matters writes yet again about the ex-Alaskan governor who allegedly no longer matters, and she can’t even figure out why. For good measure, she opens with a riff about the Harvard African-American Studies professor who no longer matters. And people wonder why the NYT no longer matters.

http://www.amusedcynic.com/

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

As a columnist, analyst or politician, there are basically two roads to travel:

analyze facts and draw conclusions
draw the conclusions that you are paid or have chosen to draw and then work backward.

When one appraises news, politics and opinion in the U.S., it is shocking to what extent they fall into that second category. The New York Times is the extreme case of reporting news to support the opinions of its designated readers.

Banana-peel humor is funny (to the extent that it is funny, but banana-peel humor has been a staple of theater since at least Roman times) because someone thinks he know what's happening and then is surprised by something the audience can see but he can't or doesn't. The audience is in on the joke.

Amused Cynic's paragraph is funny because the audience (the reader) is in on the joke. Maureen Dowd thinks she's being clever about Sarah Palin (but Sarah Palin isn't going away, no matter how catty Maureen Dowd is). Professor Gates thinks that the world still buys his racial posturing (but no one does after his behavior with the police). The New York Times thinks it can survive with the same old attitude (while it losses readers, advertising and money).

In politics, I suspect that the general pattern is the politicians laughing (up their sleeves and in private) while the mob slips on the banana peels. The Republic's Congressmen and Senators are spending this August recess encountering a revolution. The mob has begun to see the banana peels - in bank rescue, in general economic policy, in transparency, in strong-arm Chicago politics, in energy policy (cap & trade), in medical reform, in Congressional and Presidential perquisites.

What happens next, I wonder.

As an example of the first road - analyzing facts and drawing conclusions - I recommend Charles Krauthammer's Washington Post column of August 7 on Medical Care Reform.

"Politicians lie to reporters and then believe what they read in the newspapers."

2009-08-08T03:04:00.012-04:00

The quotation in the headline is variously ascribed to Winston Churchill and Benjamin Disraeli, hypothesizing how governments are constantly surprised by world events.

In the present economic upheaval, I believe that President Obama sincerely believes the untruths that he tells.

President Obama, his senior advisers and senior bureaucrats do not live with the uncertainties of normal Americans. Their salaries and pensions are guaranteed. The perquisites of their job - cars, airplanes, security, entertainment - are virtually unquestioned. They get and keep their jobs by a process of risk-aversion and risk-management that would guarantee failure anywhere but in a government bureaucracy.

Normal people are an abstract curiosity to them. Moreover, Barack Obama has an unusual personal history that removes him even further from the experience of 99.999% of Americans.

So, Obama and his staff do what educated people are trained to do: they do studies and analyze data. Then, Obama and his staff do what politicians have always done, they manipulate the data.

The economic policies put in place by Barack Obama have not been focused on improving the living conditions of his constituents.

They have been narrowly focused on improving the economic indicators.

Why? Because improving the economic indicators is easier, more measurable and less messy. And because it is easy, in the government environment, to forget that the indices are not reality.

Is Barry lying when he says things are better? I don't think so. I think that he honestly believes that the map is the territory, that people live by the economic indicators - that things are better.

What he "knows" and how he "knows" it are the issue/opportunity/problem here. The only reality check is an election. And elections do not give reality checks to the 98% of the bureaucratic iceberg that is unelected.

How knowledge is recognized, used and transmitted - meet the many-headed hydra of Memetics!

UPDATE: A few days after this posting, the Washington Post picked up on it: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/11/AR2009081100988.html?hpid=topnews

The Pocketbook Nerve - the most sensitive nerve in the human body

2009-08-08T02:52:00.007-04:00

People learn from pain.

The most sensitive nerve in the human body is the pocketbook nerve. Jab a person there and that person will learn and remember.

The Bush Administration's parting messages were that the economy wasn't that bad. The Obama Administration's theme song is that everything is getting better. At least, Obama believes it - see another post here as to why.

The general population is experiencing very little to confirm that the economy is getting better. yet the federal government repeats that conditions are improving.

People's own economic conditions bear no resemblance to statements by President Obama. State and local governments are confirming what people are experiencing in their own lives: that everything is awful and there's no improvement to be seen. Obama is out there all alone describing a reality that only he can see.

What people are learning is that their federal government and Obama's Promised Change are either lying to them or have no idea what they are talking about. That lesson is being reinforced by terrible pain; it will not be forgotten.

This is a turning point in American politics analogous to the public repudiation of the Viet Nam War. It will cross political lines and generational lines and racial lines. It's coming.

Icky Old Stuff - How Younger Voters Tune Out ObamaCare

2009-08-07T07:02:00.011-04:00

What do voters under 40 make of the fracas over ObamaCare?

Does anyone over-40 remember what they thought of Social Security when they were younger? No, they don't. They never thought about it. Never. Social Security and Old Age were things that would never happen to them. Young folks still think that Old Age will never happen to them.

It's easy to see how Obama wants to spare younger people any details on what ObamaCare will look like in 20 years. It is almost impossible to understand why the Republicans have not put forth more effort to show (not say, show) what a train-wreck is coming. Of all the organizations and marketers that target the Youth Market, why is there such silence concerning the welfare of their constituency?

Younger voters have more to lose. Younger voters can be swayed by this issue, if they understand it. In a 50.1% electoral world, one would be wise to remain mindful of younger voters:

Old age will happen to them.
The younger they are, the more broken will be the system that they inherit.
Young voters have more to lose, not less - financially and politically.
Freedom and liberty issues will fall more heavily upon the young - required this and forbidden that. They will not be spared the life-style mandates that are embodied in the 1,300 pages of law.

But . . .nobody is driving the run-away bus that is the Republican Party. And, Chicago-style politics have muffled everyone else who could possible have an interest in getting involved.

The Necessity to Define Failure Before the Next Election

2009-07-31T01:05:00.019-04:00

Republicans and Conservatives are realizing immense and unpleasant truths: even when the Obama Presidency is patently wrong and patently failing, the critical issues and critical failures do not and will not sell themselves.

The media available to move opinion are biased and shifting.

The decisive votes cast in 2008 - and those that will be cast in 2010 and 2012 - were cast by Gen-X'ers and Gen-Y'ers whose educations were purged of context - civics, ethics, history and geography. Jon Stewart's television show is "teaching" these folks what they didn't get in school - unless someone provides a countervailing point of view in acceptable and comprehensible terms.

Gen-X and Gen-Y do not know what failure looks like.

They know only what a loser looks like.

What the Right should do is establish "The Of-Course Task Force" to promulgate the certainty that Obama will be a one-term failure. A cottage network must be built to describe endless reasons, rationales, scenarios and speculation to prepare people to believe it.

The Of-Course Task Force should be writing ubiquitously not just about how Obama will fail but also about what Hillary will do and how the Dixie Chicks will feel. In order to prepare Gen-X and Gen-Y, the strengths and weaknesses of those demographics must be accepted and utilized - the obsession with entertainment and celebrity, as well as the confusion and hunger for something that makes sense.

There are only two scenarios for the preservation of the American Republic - swing voters are prepared or panicked. Unless our republic is going to be wagered on the likelihood of panicking swing voters with war or terror or economic disaster, the task of the Right now is to define (but not illustrate) failure. The present reality is that internet propaganda, counter-intelligence and counter-propaganda have been and are handled much more deftly by the Democrats.

The face of failure must be presented in a hundred ways, so that voters will expect to see it, will know to look for it and will recognize that failure when they see it. Issues and events must be made obvious (the "of course!"). The preaching of a campaign (even an extended campaign like 2008) will not affect those not already prepared to change their minds.

A long, patient and focused program is called for to alter the context of the coming campaigns - by making what is now unthinkable into what is expected and, thereby, self-evident and obvious. Somewhere in-between unthinkable and obvious is the point where things become "edgy" where late-night comedians and pundits think they are clever. Jon Stewart suggesting that Democratic appointees might pay their taxes is an illustrative and constructive step.

Three years is enough time to accomplish these changes; one year is probably not. The 2010 election will turn on panic or it will not turn.

UPDATE: Michael Barone supplies opinion and statistics from the Nov. 3, 2009, election on the peculiar patterns of younger voters.

This post is just for fun.

2009-07-27T04:28:00.011-04:00

These are just photographs I picked of people laughing or smiling.

As an exercise, 1)list three thoughts about each of the photographs and then 2)estimate what percentage of the population of the United States would have radically dissimilar thoughts upon seeing these same photographs. Who recognizes the Dalai Lama as a religious figure or a political figure or at all? Age and sex will produce varying observations about Denise Milani. What proportion of Americans under 50 know anything about Albert Einstein? Now that the election of 2008 is over, what do most Americans think of Hilary Clinton? The world we live in is far more fractured than we often have time to consider.

Aesthetics . . .Memetics . . .& . . .Mammon

2009-07-26T11:39:00.009-04:00

The card above is a typical business card. Perhaps the name is overly large, but this is a sole proprietorship and the proprietor has both the right and the role to play.

How, then, does the card on the right differ? It gets in your face, as they say. Your eye remains on the card, rather than falling off the bottom as one's eye does with the card above (and with most cards, because of how the white space dominates).

The typeface on the card on the right is called Broadway and it conveys the legendary energy of the theater and of New York. It fills the space - all of the space. The placement of the symbols in the corners (just outside of the vertical line of the name) keeps your eye on the card. The contrasts of black, grey and bright colors imply a variety of activity and information.

At the top, the typeface is sans-serif - modern and cool, understated, sophisticated, if you know the code. If you don't, it's just another card.

Here, on a 7 sq.in. piece of paper, you have an example of how information can be communicated . . .or not.

Scale these insights to the United States' 300 million people, whose differences emanate from age, education and culture, and the fracturing of "mass communications media" to the point where what remains "in common" demands attention.

Consider the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on advertising and politics - most of which pass by most people completely unnoticed. Consider what that people "know" and act upon without ever realizing where the "information" originated.

Introducing . . .ta! da! . . Memetics & Marketing!