It's not happening here but it is happening now

This is a cleaver ad campaign by Amnesty International. I particularly like the immediacy of it. And the realism. Here's one that really hits home:

Political Literature

I received a political brochure from a gentleman, presumably a democrat, whose running for some office in my district. Let me just say that it's a poor piece of political campaigning. I won't reveal the guy's name, but please take note of the design flaws I discuss below in case you're working on developing campaign literature for someone.

1) The brochure doesn't say what office they guy is running for. How am I supposed to even start considering the person presented in the brochure for an office when I don't know the office? How can I judge whether his experiences do indeed qualify him for office?

2) The picture on the front looks like it's 20 years old. Don't be cheap on this kind of thing. It's not worth it. Get a professional photographer to take your headshot. Or at least follow you to a campaign event to get an action shot.

3) The front of the brochure says "Welcome to Maryland." I've lived in Md. almost my entire life. I really don't need to be welcomed. I need to see what a candidate will do to improve it. I found this a bit presumptuous and almost condescending.

4) Make sure your literature matches with other campaign collateral. I actually new this guy was running for something, since I had seen a yard sign up a few days ago. Unfortunately, the two pieces of collateral don't match. The brochure I received today is red and white, while the yard sign I saw was blue and yellow (which appears to be a very popular color schemed for political materials). It might sound silly, but it goes a long way to integrate all your campaign materials. Consistency is key. Otherwise, you look unprofessional like this guy does.

ITMFA

Impeach the Mother Fucker Already!

Dan Savage is one of my favorite columnists. Generally, he's not political. But when he is...watch out! Just google "Santorum" (as in the senator from Pennsylvania who will very likely loose come November). We can thank Dan Savage for #1.

Also, visit www.itmfa.com, buy a few buttons. Proceeds are going to select charities. While Dan has given to a few progressive, pro-gay democrats, he's also given to charities such as Planned Parenthood.

If you buy buttons, which you should, encourage him to donate to the GPUS. After all, we're the only political party to unequivocally support gay marriage and all accompanying gay rights (Dan's openly gay), and more to the ITMFA point...we're the only political party to unequivocally oppose the invasion and ocupation of Iraq.

So ITMFA!

Deleware Green Running for Congress

Here's two parts of an interview with Michael Berg.

First Part

Second Part

And here's Michael Bergs website.

And yes, for those of you asking, he's the father of Nick Berg. Nick was the American contractor who was beheaded in in 2004. Critics argue that Michael is being a traitor to what his son was doing in Iraq. I argue that he's standing up for what he knows is the lost cause that is Iraq.

Ironically, Berg was not fighting in the war. And indeed, when you read Michael's bio you'll see that he's been a lifelong war protestor. So, regardless of his son's role, Michael Berg is staying true to himself.

Maryland Green Party Candidate's websites

While I don't have time right now to add these sites in my links, here's a few (just a sampling, really) websites of candidates:

Brian Bittner--Harford County Council

Kevin Zeese--U.S. Senate

Ed Boyd--Governor

As mentioned in my previous post, there's a whole slew of MGP candidates brewing. In fact, we discussed what to call the website for this group of anti-BGE candidates. Here's a few we came up with (none of these are official yet):

www.ScrewBGE.org
www.ProtectMyPower.org
www.TakeOnBGE.org

Got an idea for a website name? post it in the comments section.

Green Party Candidates Coming to a Polling Station Near Year

I just received an email from one of the new Maryland Green Party co-chairs, Patsy Allen. She formally was the convener for the Electoral Committee, and has provided me with a preliminary list of all the Maryland Green Party candidates.

It's really amazing to see how many candidates we have so far, plus there's still more than a month left to file. All together, we have 18 candidates. That's two more than in 2004, for those of you who are counting.

So, without further ado here's the list (website will be added to this site shortly). Please note that some of these candidates have yet to file. Some may also need to obtain the nomination of the Maryland Green Party, or one or more local chapters.

Federal Offices

Steve Warner – Congress, District 5

Gerard – Congress, District 8 (sorry, the list didn't have his last name)

Kevin Zeese Senate

State Offices

Ed Boyd Governor

James Madigan Lt. Governor

Bob Auerbach – Comptroller

Chris Bush – legislative dist. 10

David Kiasi – legislative dist. 25

Brandy Baker – legislative dist. 43

Elsey Marquez - legislative dist. 39

Joseph Sanchez – legislative dist. 36

Dave Goldsmith – legislative dist. 11

Local Offices

Joe Horgan Montgomery County Council

Robb Tufts Anne Arundel County Council

Brian Bittner Harford County Council

Jeff Lambert Baltimore County Council

Judicial

Nick DelPizzo, Baltimore City
Arthur Frank, Baltimore County

BGE Rate Hikes and Baltimore Businesses

It occurred to me yesterday that all we've seen (at least, all I've seen) in local media about the pending BGE rate hikes have to do with the price impact on consumers. Yet, won't businesses be affected by the rate hikes too? And most businesses use more energy than any single household. Why aren't we hearing them complain about rising energy costs? What does it take to light a Wal-Mart anyway?

If anyone out there has seen any articles to this effect, please leave a link in the comments field!

Bush Meets with Aides; Stresses Iraq Commitment

I like the title that NPR currently has on it homepage for this article more than the title given when you click on it (Bush Huddles with Aides on Iraq Strategy).

Obviously, it's a great play on words, with "stresses" having a slang meaning.

Yeah, he's sweatin'.

Something that's also interesting is the photo they used, or rather the two photos:

Photo 1



Photo 2



There's always something very disturbing the way the Bush folks lay themselves out for photo ops. In the first photo, you've got the typical Bush cock of the head and arms and hands outstreached. You can almost see him pushing down his own hot air with his hands, as though he's trying to calm a situation.

As we all know, of course, they've been trying to fix their mess for several years now, and no arm waving is going to help.

What I like most about the second photo is how most of the people in the front line, including Cheney and the two men flanking the front row. You can't even see Don Rumsfeld's hands...which suggests to me that he's hiding something.

Google Ads

I'm doing something some Greens might frown upon: I've added Google Ads to this blog.

I'm not sure why some Greens might frown upon this. Although Google is a HUGE company, they have a very Green outlook. Take their motto for example: "Don't Be Evil."

Now, I am certain that a lot of wealth and power concentrated in a private, somewhat centralized entity is a dangerous thing. That said, I'd rather be Google than Bill Gates. At least for the time being.

Iran in the World Cup

I've been a soccer fan ever since I lived in Brazil over 10 years ago. And now that it's World Cup again, I'm trying to watch as much as I can (which isn't a lot since I don't have cable).

Today was the Mexico-Iran game. If there's one thing I learned from watching this game, it's that American sports commentators suck when it comes to the world's most popular sport. Not only do they know nothing about soccer, they kept making political statements about Iran.

For instance, the commentator at one point said something to the effect that Iran's team is not paying attention to the controversy (their word, not mine) caused by Iran's president Ahmadinejad's desire to watch the game. The commentator went on to say that the Iranian team is only there to play.

Well, DUH! What team isn't there to play?

What truly struck me as controversial about Iran participating in the world cup is the fact that they recently stopped allowing women to attend soccer games. Of course, the commentators said nothing about this inequality.

Another New Look

Yet again, I've refreshed the Green Imagination look. Yes, it's still a canned template from blogger. I was just tired of seeing so many GREEN BLOGS with the same template!

Enjoy!

Republican Strategy

With the Bush administration flailing for support for its policies, it's little surprise that congressional Republicans are trying to regain some of the power they've given up since 9-11. That said, its ironic that they feel they're on such shakey ground.

If you'll take a quick trip with me back to the 2004 elections, you might remember that Bush called his victory a "mandate" for conservative policies. Now, less than 2 years later and due to a large amount of bumbling policies, that mandate has proven to be nonexistent. Of course, much of this is political positioning for mid-term elections, now less than six months off.

One of the things Congressional Republicans are squaring off with Bush about is the raid on Rep. William J. Jefferson's office. He's a Democrat from Louisiana, and by all accounts, appears to be very guilty of the bribery charges being brought against him. And this couldn't be a better time or a better issue for Republicans, as their own Tom Delay heads into the thick of a major corruption court battle.

What makes this case particularly dangerous in the hands of Republicans is that, despite their own ethical failures, they can point to Jefferson and keep the media spotlight off their own corruption. And they can keep the corruption issue alive, possibly without endangering themselves.

It's really no secret that the two major parties are completely corrupt, and the two-party system is structure to keep it that way. It is, however, always surprising how voters will regularly forget this fact and keep the two parties in power.

Zarqawi Conspiracy Theory

I'm usually not much of a conspiracy theorist, but this seems too obvious. There's some fishy business going on with the latest news of Zarqawi's death.

For example, how do you drop two 500 lbs bombs on someone and then later identify him "by fingerprints, 'facial recognition' and 'known scars.'" How does someone's body survive two huge bombs dropped on one small building? This seems highly dubious.

Now they've release a picture with his face--apparently they cleaned it up a bit before publishing it.

The NYT also mentions some facts that don't seem to square away. There seems to be a discrepancy as to whether US forces were on the ground prior to the attack and exchanged gunfire. The article also states something about a timeline not matching up, but it doesn't seem to elaborate on that point.

And as is typical of maintstream news, neither article mentions anything about the deaths of nearby innocents. They're not important apparently, and it doesn't matter to them if the main target is dead (however dubious that might be). Again, you drop two 500-lbs bombs and only a handful of people die?

I'm not a bomb or arms expert, but that seems like a stretch.

Spam

I was about to post a little something about a Zarqawi-related conspiracy theory. Then I saw all the comments on the previous posts. "That's odd," I said to myself, knowing that I don't get a lot of traffic on this site.

As it turns out, the comments are all spam. I may need to purge this blog and start over :(