Product placement in political advertising, what a stroke of genius!

The formula: Celebrity spokesman + political clout + political favor seekers + free enterprise = Arnold’s new campaign commercial

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Mark Williams is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists, and Investigative Reporters and Editors Inc. His work appears in this publication, on Fox News Channel and nightly on Sacramento’s 1530 AM KFBK radio. For more on Mark and his background visit his web site.

Too funny! This is circulating around the Capitol today.....


RALLY PLANNING 101:

ALLIANCE GIVES SCHWARZENEGGER
A LESSON IN HOW TO HOST A RALLY

A Comparison of “Thank You Arnold” Rally to
May 25th Alliance “Action Day”

Notes:

1. Have people at your rally.

“Crowd” should not be entirely made up of Republican staffers wearing staff badges and ties.

More than 30 people would be good. (20,000 is also a good number to have.)

2. Have a rally about something people really care about.

According to the most recent polls, apparently, “Thanking Arnold” isn’t at the top of people’s agendas. Providing the best education possible for California’s kids seems to have a little more draw.

It appears people also want good health care and prescription drugs they can actually afford.

3. Have a good line-up of speakers.

Probably best not to get your “crowd” excited by chanting the Governor’s name to get him to speak at said “thank you” rally, when he’s already decided to dodge the rally by heading across town.

Would recommend having compelling speaker with interesting stories. Crowds tend to respond to a firefighter who actually rescues people or a teacher who spends time in a public school classroom.

Hollywood stunt-doubles and unknown radio ranters not recommended.

4. Keep rally attendees hydrated and fed. OK – you might have this one down, the BBQ and sodas were first-rate, but you need people to actually come to your rally to eat and drink them (refer to rally tip #1)
All we had was water and protein bars, but the 20,000 people in attendance didn’t seem to mind...


There is also a #5 that the author of the above left out....

5. Have shills pretend to be interested parties and call legislators....

Here is part of an email I received from a Capitol staffer today:

"The CTA hacks were calling our offices all day yesterday claiming to be teachers from all over the district saying they support the big rallies in LA and Sacramento and opposing the Governor. Late in the day Tom in our district Office got a call from someone saying "I'm Jane Smith from such and such a school in -------." Tom stopped for a minute and then said, "Wait a minute, I know Jane Smith . You don't sound like her." and the phone just went dead. So the next call that came in he decided to try that again and pretend to know the teacher named, and sure enough "click." It happened to me once up here in the Sacramento office, but by then it was the end of the day so I didn't have any more chances to call them on it. They simply had a boiler room of callers going down lists of teachers name claiming to be them."

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Mark Williams is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists, and Investigative Reporters and Editors Inc. His work appears in this publication, on Fox News Channel and nightly on Sacramento’s 1530 AM KFBK radio. For more on Mark and his background visit his web site.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom laments the fact that the number of families with children residing in the city by the bay are dramatically declining.

According to the Associated Press:

San Francisco has the smallest share of small-fry of any major U.S. city. Just 14.5 percent of the city's population is 18 and under.

It is no mystery why U.S. cities are losing children. The promise of safer streets, better schools and more space has drawn young families away from cities for as long as America has had suburbs.

But kids are even more scarce in San Francisco than in expensive New York (24 percent) or in retirement havens such as Palm Beach, Fla., (19 percent), according to census estimates.

Of Course the liberal media and politicians believe it has little to do the lifestyle choices of San Franciscans.

San Francisco's large gay population - estimated at 20 percent by the city Public Health Department - is thought to be one factor, though gays and lesbians in the city are increasingly raising families.

And many of those families who are left are considering leaving.

A recent survey by the city controller found 40 percent of parents said they were considering pulling up stakes within the next year.

And so to help preserve families in San Francisco, America’s favorite pro-family advocate, Gavin Newsom comes to the rescue.

Determined to change things, Mayor Gavin Newsom has put the kid crisis near the top of his agenda, appointing a 27-member policy council to develop plans for keeping families in the city.

"It goes to the heart and soul of what I think a city is about -- it's about generations, it's about renewal and it's about aspirations," said Newsom, 37. "To me, that's what children represent and that's what families represent and we just can't sit back idly and let it go away."

Memo to Mayor Newsom:

Before you start concocting your formula for promoting families, please consider the following equations:

1 man + 1 man = no children
1 woman + 1 woman = no children
marriage= 1 man + 1 woman
marriage= families with children

Craig DeLuz

(Comments)

Visit The Home of Uncommon Sense…
www.craigdeluz.com

I don't know if you guys caught this story, but it is a perfect example of waste in government.

New York NewsDay is reporting:

A recent review of Medicaid recipients with claims paid for prescriptions for the erectile dysfunction drug found they included 198 Level 3 sex offenders between January, 2000 and March, Hevesi said in a letter sent Friday to Michael Leavitt, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Calling this Ironic doesn't quite do this story justice.


Craig DeLuz

(Comments)

Visit The Home of Uncommon Sense…
www.craigdeluz.com

The California Highway Patrol has officially dissolved their Chaplain program.

This action was announced in on April 25th in the following memo:

To: All Employees

DISSOLLUTION OF CHAPLAIN PROGRAM AND CESSATION OF INVOCATIONS AT OFFICIAL DEPARTMENTAL FUNCTIONS

The purpose of this Management Memorandum is to notify all employees that the departmental Chaplain Program is being dissolved, effective immediately. This dissolution is in response to a recent court case, Michael Cole, et al., v. Andrea Tuttle. Ms. Tuttle was sued in her capacity as the director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention (CDFFP). In this case, six firefighters went to the federal court seeking an end to the CDFFP Chaplain Program, contenting that it illegally commingled church and state. Under the terms of the settlement agreement, the CDFFP Chaplain Program was disbanded and employees of the CDFFP were restricted to providing Chaplain services on a voluntarily basis only.

With the dissolution of the California Highway Patrol’s (CHP) Chaplain Program, CHP personnel will no longer act in the official capacities of either departmental Chaplain or Associate Chaplain and the official wearing of religious insignia will not be allowed. However, religious support/counseling services will continue to be available to departmental employees and their families through the CHP’s Pear Support Program, but only upon request and only through the use of internal and external volunteers. CHP employees, who acted as or would have otherwise qualified as departmental Chaplain/Associate Chaplains, can choose to now be included on a volunteer list of chaplains.

For outside volunteer resources, commanders are encouraged to identify a listing of religious local employee support resources within their communities, which could be mad available upon request. Guidelines for identifying community-based volunteer religious resources are being developed and once completed, will be provided to commanders to assist in their selection process.

Counseling and employee support services continue to be available through other programs such as the Employee Assistance Program, Employee Substance Abuse Program, Cancer Survivor Support Group, and Critical Incident Stress Debriefings.

Effective immediately, the Department will also cease the practice of providing invocations at official CHP functions. As an alternative, if appropriate, a moment of silence may be observed at such events.

This information will be incorporated as policy in the next revision to HMP 10.5, Employee Assistance Manual and HPH 10.13, Guide to Employee Death.

Questions regarding this Management Memorandum should be directed to Mr. Carl Lord, Commander, Hiring and Special Projects Section, at (916)375-2160

OFFICE OF THE COMMISSIONER

OPI: 033
DISTRIBUTION: ALLL EMPLOYEES

I find it sad that the both the CHP and the CDF would let this program go with out a fight. Keep in mind the dissolution of the CDF program was conducted “Under the terms of the settlement agreement…”. This means that they did not even go to court.

And to make matters even worse, the CHP program (as far as we know) is not even being challenged. Why are they in such a hurry to get rid of it?

I, for one, find this shameful and plan to call Mr. Lord(916)375-2160 with the CHP and let him know as much. I hope that I am not the only one!

Craig DeLuz

(Comments)

Visit The Home of Uncommon Sense…
www.craigdeluz.com