Sen. Tom Coburn offers us this Moment of Irony: He frets that negotiations between BP and the White House may not have been fair because, well, BP was in a weaker PR position.

KING: Rush right or is the Republican leadership in the House right?

COBURN: Oh, I don’t know. I think it’s the cynicism of our politics today. Nobody in either party wants to be vulnerable on any issue and where’s the real leadership? You know what we lack is where is the clarity of purpose. Nobody disagrees that BP is going to be held accountable. The question is how and when and that’s a small matter right now in terms of the problem that we have.

(CROSSTALK)

KING: Do you have any problem with the White House negotiating this deal?

COBURN: Well I’m not sure it’s fair negotiations because you’re dealing with one very strong party and one very weak party in terms of public relations. But you know basically holding them accountable is where we want to be and this is one way of doing it.

See? This isn't about fairness, not really. It's about the appearance of fairness from a public relations standpoint. The whole "shakedown" meme begun by Joe Barton last week and continued through the weekend is nothing more than an effort to turn the victimizer into the victimized. Since there's absolutely no foundation for such a flip, there's only how things look.

(h/t Talking Points Memo)

Kerry's Kids First Act Needs Your Support

via Yellow Dog Blog

John Kerry isn't a man who forgets about the issues he said were important while running for president.

The Senator is the author of the Kids First Act (S.114/H.R. 1668), which will ensure that the 11 million uninsured children in America have health coverage and a healthy childhood – and he needs our help.

Check out the television ad that Kerry's organization is running in key Republican states and districts. While no Republican ever got kicked out of their party for being heartless, it is Senator Kerry's hope that running a public relations campaign targeted at the constituents of Bill Frist and Tom DeLay will put pressure on them to at least feign compassion for children. (Though it is interesting to note that, of the legislation's eight cosponsors, none has an 'R' next to their name.)

Please take a look at the ad, give whatever money you can to help run it and sign Senator Kerry's web site to be a cosponsor of the act yourself.

As a parent fortunate enough to be able to provide care for my son, I can't imagine the heartbreak of having to watch a young child be sick and be unable to get them help.

This is important legislation. Please support it. It'll make you feel good.

THE US is losing the war of ideas in the Islamic world, failing to elucidate its policies to Muslims wary of American intentions and "self-serving hypocrisy", a Pentagon advisory panel has found.

The Defence Science Board, in a report made available today, urged the creation of a "strategic communication" apparatus within the White House and an overhaul of public diplomacy, public affairs and information dissemination efforts by the Pentagon and State Department.

"If we really want to see the Muslim world as a whole and the Arabic-speaking world in particular move more toward our understanding of 'moderation' and 'tolerance,' we must reassure Muslims that this does not mean that they must submit to the American way," the report stated.

The toughly worded report said that while America's efforts to explain its policies have failed, improved public relations efforts cannot sell faulty policies.

"Muslims do not hate our freedom, but rather they hate our policies," the panel stated.

This is certainly an effective way to get the American public on your side. Yes, paying off poor people to sign off on their rights is really a thoughtful and generous public relations gesture:

Alabama Attorney General Troy King said tonight that he has told representatives of BP Plc. that they should stop circulating settlement agreements among coastal Alabamians.

The agreements, King said, essentially require that people give up the right to sue in exchange for payment of up to $5,000.

King said BP's efforts were particularly strong in Bayou La Batre.

Close to 30 percent of Bayou La Batre residents (the so-called "Seafood Capital of America" and home to the fictional Bubba Gump shrimp in "Forrest Gump) live below the poverty line. They are people to whom $5000 is indeed a lot of money, and it's of course very kind of BP to offer them a token something for the long-term destruction of their livelihood and environment - especially after the battering they took from Hurricane Katrina. Who knew that BP was a company run by a veritable Mother Theresa?

The attorney general said he is prohibited from giving legal advice to private citizens, but added that "people need to proceed with caution and understand the ramifications before signing something like that.

"They should seek appropriate counsel to make sure their rights are protected," King said.

I can't even describe the sheer awesomeness of this site where pieces of coal are singing Christmas carols about clean coal! And you get to put hats on them, and scarves - you'll love it, too. (Thanks to Dr. S. from Redsoxville.)

Bloggers routinely rely on traditional news outlets for breaking news, but it's good to know that traditional news outlets are also turning to bloggers.

According to the Arketi Group 2007 Web Watch Survey, 84 percent of journalists say they would or already have used blogs as a primary or secondary source for articles. 100% of those (journalists) surveyed say they rely on the Internet to help get their job done. One-quarter of journalists say blogs make their job easier, while 18 percent say instant messaging makes their job easier. [...]

Dr. Kaye Sweetser, APR, assistant professor of public relations at the University of Georgia's Grady College, said "...this survey shows that business journalists are embracing user-generated content like blogs, webinars and podcasts... in their day-to-day reporting..."

I'm glad to know we're helping.

Via Kos, it appears the Kansas Republican Party, deeply divided between moderates and far-right activists, is pushing party loyalty to the extreme.

The state Republican Party is forming a loyalty committee so that it can punish officers who endorse or contribute to Democrats. [...]

Bob Beatty, a Washburn University political scientist, suggested the loyalty committee could prove a "public relations disaster."

"Ironically, it smacks most of the Communist Party," Beatty said Monday. "That's the kind of public irony that most parties try to avoid -- the party of freedom telling people they have no freedom."

As TBogg said many years ago, “Nothing quite says ‘freedom’ like being compelled to recite a loyalty oath.”

Wonkette:

Iraq veteran and honorably discharged Marine Sgt. Adam Kokesh has been the Pentagon's biggest public relations nightmare this year, because he's some kind of magical Cindy Sheehan - people actually like him! [..]

Kokesh and his anti-war veteran buddies have pulled several picture-perfect stunts in Washington, including a mock military funeral at the Hart Senate building and keeping score of how many times Alberto Gonzales said "I don't recall" during his Senate grilling last month.

The funeral stunt earned the protesters a coveted "political protest" arrest - apparently it's now illegal to protest anything for political reasons - and your favorite Marine was also charged with "Unlawful Assembly - Loud and Boisterous," despite the fact that he was silent during the performance.

For this, the Marine Corps is now "investigating" Kokesh, even though he's officially out of the Corps and banished from reenlistment due to bringing home an Iraqi pistol for his war souvenir - that's against the rules if you get caught!
On Monday, Kokesh has to show up at a hearing so the Corps can re-discharge him, this time dishonorably.

It's unbelievable how churlish this adminstration is.

Oh please oh please oh please, let Sean Hannity invite Adam Kokesh to his show to ask him why he hates America.

...and it's a doozy. Gen. Wes Clark will be pushing this ad along with VoteVets in the home states of the six Republicans on Foreign Relations Committee that voted against the Levin/Biden/Hagel resolution.

WaPo :

Senate Republicans, scrambling to head off GOP defections to a resolution opposing President Bush's war policy, are considering their own resolution demanding benchmarks to measure progress in Iraq and possibly a new diplomatic effort to end the war, senators said yesterday.

[..]While the lawmakers negotiate, antiwar groups are launching a public relations blitz to sway Congress. A march on Washington is planned for the weekend. And a coalition of labor unions, liberal activists and Iraq war veterans, called Americans Against Escalation in Iraq, will barnstorm through Minnesota, Indiana, Ohio, Maine, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Virginia next week to pressure wavering Republican senators.

Federal auditors said today that the Bush administration had violated the law by purchasing favorable news coverage of President Bush's education policies, by making payments to the conservative commentator Armstrong Williams and by hiring a public relations company to analyze media perceptions of the Republican Party. In a blistering report, the investigators, from the Government Accountability Office, said the administration had disseminated "covert propaganda" inside the United States, in violation of a longstanding, explicit statutory ban....read on"

Couple that with Kos: The Republican Culture of Corruption, and you have to wonder what President Bush was thinking when he said:

"We will not be paying commentators to advance our agenda. Our agenda ought to be able to stand on its own two feet."

Obviously he does have to pay for his agenda or else these illegalities would never have been necessary.