This is Dan Burton's campaign on drugs

by: BrianK

Tue May 11, 2010 at 21:37:14 PM EDT

Just after Dan Burton's campaign decided to run an ad featuring Ohioan actors posing as real Hoosiers, his campaign got a little more help from out of state.

The Iowa-based American Future Fund - who has made a lot of noise over the past few months - popped in to drop this bizarre ad on the Hoosier state:

As primary challenger John McGoff's campaign put it, "The AAF [sic] is known for their salacious and knee-breaking advertising campaigns." That's stating the case a bit mildly. According to the Iowa Independent, AFF's legal counsel is Ben Ginsberg - the same Ben Ginsberg who was forced to resign from the Bush-Cheney campaign in 2004 when it came out he was serving as the legal advisor to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. And AFF's media strategist is Larry McCarthy, who produced the infamous "Willie Horton" ad in 1988.

You may remember that AFF targeted Rep. Baron Hill with a TV ad last fall, then targeted Hill along with fellow Congressman Brad Ellsworth in print ads over health insurance reform. While I couldn't find a good fact check of the ad they ran against Hill, the nonpartisan Factcheck.org wrote that AFF's last ad against the Affordable Care Act "mixes bits of recycled images and false claims with new falsehoods".

AFF apparently broke a lot of golden eggs to make and air this commercial. Burton primary challenger Luke Messer repeatedly complained the amount was "over $100,000", and the Star reported that AFF spent more than $200,000 supporting Burton, including $171,500 on television. And as the Star reported, "It's unclear why the group is getting involved in the primary." AFF is no stranger to large expenditures - they dropped over $600,000 into Scott Brown's Senate race in Massachusetts. (They are also uncovered as the organizers of a massive online attack on Martha Coakley in a new study by two Wellesley University professors.) As a 501c(4), AFF does not have to disclose their donors. But their 2008 form 990 (amended) showed they took in almost $7.5 million and spent more than $4.5 million on advertising, despite having no paid staff. (PDF link)

Despite this kind of advertising, Burton went on to defeat Messer and McGoff in the 5th District's GOP primary. Meanwhile, actual Democrat Dr. Nasser Hanna lost to "Conservative American Democrat" Tim Crawford in the Democratic primary (a result puzzled over by both Michael Wallack and Chris Worden). And so my old neighborhood in the 5th District is lost for another term, unless a strong independent candidate emerges.

Now, if only I had the budget to remake that 80s "This is your brain on drugs" PSA with exploding watermelons.

Lobbyist targets Hoosiers with misleading healthcare ads

by: BrianK

Thu Nov 19, 2009 at 16:03:31 PM EST

Earlier today, I caught a horrendous anti-healthcare reform ad, targeted at Hoosiers, on the radio. Everything in the ad was either factually wrong or dangerously misleading, so I listened closely for the supplier of this misinformation campaign. As it turns out, it was the Employment Policies Institute, one of many front groups set up by the pro-drunk driving, pro-mercury in fish, pro-smoking lobbyist Rick Berman. (You may recall seeing him recently on The Rachel Maddow Show or a couple of years ago on The Colbert Report.)

This radio spot is part of a new push by the Employment Policies Institute to support their "Rethink Reform" website - while there's no mention of these radio ads in their releases, they are promoting their Fox News commercial and print ads. Mr. Berman has recently published several guest columns in papers around the country, including this one in the Times of Northwest Indiana:

But calls to force all employers to pay for health insurance are misguided: not every company has a profit margin that can afford to pay those costs. A payment mandate would often cause more unemployment (increasing the number of uninsured).

The radio ad specifically claims that the healthcare reforms being considered would raise rates on Hoosier families, encourage businesses to dump their employees' health coverage, and slash Medicare benefits. Each of these is just blatantly wrong.

In fact:

• The non-partisan CBO studies have shown that the House-passed plan would significantly lower premiums from their projected rates by 2016.
• The award-winning FactCheck.org says that there's little (if any) evidence to support the idea that employers will drop insurance, or the claim about increased unemployment that Mr. Berman makes in his NWI Times column.
• FactCheck.org says that there would be no cuts to Medicare benefits. And despite the conservative spin, the recent CMS report shows that the House bill actually extends Medicare's solvency period by 5 years.

Media Matters has a great takedown of what the coordinated TV spot gets wrong - but I think the fact that they're only running the ad on Fox News says all you need to know about its credibility.

Circus Maximus Politicus And That Urpy Feeling, A Rant

by: bobhiggins

Mon Jun 11, 2007 at 10:56:08 AM EDT

Eight faces that I'm thoroughly sick of.

Ten faces that make me vomit, projectile style.

Now, the man on the stand he wants my vote,
He's a-runnin' for office on the ballot note.
He's out there preachin' in front of the steeple,
Tellin' me he loves all kinds-a people.
He's eatin' bagels
He's eatin' pizza
He's eatin' chitlins
He's eatin' bullshit!

Bob Dylan "I Shall Be Free"

I knew this would happen when they started campaigning for the 2008 election five minutes after the 2006 mid terms. I felt it coming, like the feeling I get when I eat a giant sausage sandwich with peppers and onions at midnight, I know that indigestion is in my immediate future.

I'm sick of politics, thoroughly, fed up, to the gills.... Urp!

I know, I know, being sick of politics is like being tired of living, OK so what what what do you do about it? Shut up? Quit bitching? Take up residence in the nearest hermitage? Find a cuckoo's nest and commit to it?