Oh, what a gift to John McCain. We've all seen commercials/infomercials like this before. If you just fork up $1,000, you can learn how to realize all of your dreams by learning how to get rich by applying for government grants. The hawkers claim you can send your kids to the best schools, live in that big house you always wanted, and live your dreams for the low, low price of $1,000 to attend the only conference on the planet designed for YOU.

"In less than 30 days, one student had his first grant for $110,000.00"

Hayworth quite shamelessly claims that it's totally all right to do this, because the grant money isn't really the government's anyway, it's YOURS.

Hayworth: "The money is out there. The opportunities are out there. And it's not really the government's money, it's YOUR money...The government can invest in YOU."

On its face, Hayworth's participation is just a cynical money grab. But it points out just how hypocritical this faux-conservatism is. Hayworth has no problem quoting President Reagan, the New Jesus of the Right, even as he argues that it's perfectly okay to bilk the government because that money is YOURS. His argument is predicated on the idea that government just hands out money to anyone who asks for it, with no expectation that these grants would actually be used for the purpose they are intended.

If their sales claims were taken on their face, it would look, smell, and be something like fraud. However, rest easy. What this group does is get people to shell out $1000 to sit in a day-long seminar intended to convince the audience it's too complicated for ordinary people. Then they spend some time pitching their services.

Free enterprise at its best. Make a market where none exists on the back of taxpayer funds, then charge the greedy and the gullible for the privilege of telling them they're too stupid to actually learn how to do it, then rescue them by making them pay more.

Would Arizona actually elect this guy? I know AB1070 gives them cover for the crazies, but really? We need this kind of soulless shill in the Senate?

(h/t David Weigel, Washington Post)

A jingle we're not likely to see, from the fabulous Paul and Storm. And yes, they're the guys who also came up with that "pay-per-view nun fight" song.

Open Thread below....

Via The New York Observer:

On Feb. 3, a k a Super Bowl Sunday, in an original News Corp. smorgasbord, reporters from FOX News will be teaming up with reporters from FOX owned and operated stations from around the country for a three hour broadcast event, focusing on—USA! USA!—presidential politics and professional football.

As the anchors toggle back and forth between discussion of the Super Bowl and Super Tuesday, they will chew over political dispatches from FOX Broadcasting reporters from around the country.

FOX Super Sunday will also include a behind-the-scenes look as the action gets underway for the Superbowl. Meanwhile, FOX Business Network's Alexis Glick will offer a peek at the best commercials and the economics behind the biggest sporting event of the year while FOX News correspondents Carl Cameron and Major Garrett will provide live updates from the campaign trail alongside correspondent Bret Baier in Washington, D.C. Read on...

FOXNews hates the fact that Keith Olbermann's popularity has skyrocketed and that he appeared on NBC's Sunday Night Football this season, so I suppose this shouldn't come as much of a surprise. It will be interesting to see just how partisan things get, as of now it doesn't appear as though BillO or Hannity will be involved. Sports fans, what do you think about this mixture of FOXNews and the Super Bowl?

A friend writes..."As a guy who has sung commercials for Dodge, Coors, Bud, Busch, Wrigley's, Coke, Pepsi, Toyota, Insurance companies, cereal, and on and on...this isn't really exaggerated. The stuff coming out of the control booth is just like this." The Santa Sessions:

One of the things that frustrates me so much about having such a right wing echo chamber for a MSM is how they have turned liberal and progressive labels into epithets. When I saw this campaign from the Center for American Progress taking back the term "progressive" I had to highlight it here:

The Center for American Progress, in conjunction with the Glaser Progress Foundation, recently launched a multi-year effort to increase public understanding of what it means to be a progressive given our nation's history and the challenges we face today.
The first part of the campaign involves a pilot experiment to begin defining progressivism in the public's mind through a series of distinct advertisements that explain the progressive movement's core values and policy ideas, its historical accomplishments, and its philosophical differences with conservatives.

There are two other commercials available at ThinkProgress.

I'm joining in to the music discussion that started over the weekend. The music world has changed incredibly in a short period of time, (technology, copyright laws, the Internet, etc...) so what's the big deal if bands let commercials use their music for a hefty fee? Back in "the day," it was the cool thing for a band to not "sell out" to the man, but as Amanda says: "That is so 20th Century." I still cringe a bit when I hear a Hendrix song on a commercial, but the times are a changin' and it has always been a struggle to make it in the music world.

What's sad is that the music industry knew that the dynamic was changing because of technology; file sharing in part was developed by them, but they sat on their hands because they DID NOT WANT to set a precedent. I'll have more on this later...

TOWER records went out of business and as expensive as a CD was, I still enjoyed browsing the store. Bands have huge costs to consider. A major tour takes a load of cash to pull off---now figure how hard it is for a lesser known band to do the same. When I toured with John Taylor (mostly for the House of Blues chain around the country) in the late 90's, Sixpence None the Richer opened for us. They were a great bunch of people and soon after they had a few hit songs, but they were just getting by...Duncan talks about supporting bands you like.

I find a lot of new music on TV these days. It seems like many more shows since Buffy are putting out compilation discs and featuring either new artists or old classics in their episodes...HOUSE, MD highlights some great music at the end of each episode most of the time..

Matt Yglesisas put together his: Ultimate Nineties Alt-Rock Playlist

I know C&L is blocked from a bunch of sites, but this is beyond the pale.

An internal ABC Radio Networks memo obtained by Media Matters for America, originally from a listener to The Peter B. Collins Show, indicates that nearly 100 ABC advertisers insist that their commercials be blacked out on Air America Radio affiliates. According to the memo, the adverstisers insist that "NONE of their commercials air during AIR AMERICA programming." Among the advertisers listed are Bank of America, Exxon Mobil, Federal Express, General Electric, McDonald's, Microsoft, Wal-Mart, and the U.S. Navy...read on

Dewine just sealed his fate against Sherrod Brown even though the GOP has already given up on him.

The Plain Dealer: The Republican Party last night refused to cancel commercials that claim Sherrod Brown was a longtime tax scofflaw - even though the state of Ohio says the ad's claim is untrue.

Download | play -WMP Download | play -QT

Dewine: The ad Sherrod is true. Read my lips. The ad is true.

Ummm, no it's not. The lying liars at the RNC can't help themselves.

Raw Story:

Early indications are that the "miniseries event" actually tied a rerun of a documentary on the same subject, and barely edged out the eighteenth season premiere of The Simpsons.

The New York vs. Indianapolis game earned rival NBC a 15.1/23 rating, according to overnight returns.

Part one of ABC's "Path to 9/11," in comparison, earned a rating of 8.2/12--about half as many viewers. This tied a CBS repeat of a documentary, also about the September 11, 2001 attacks on America. The CBS repeat was somewhat handicapped by a half hour delay caused by an overrun of a U.S. Open Tennis match. Read on....

That's not a whole lot of ratings share for something so widely promoted through conservative channels, is it? Twice as many people watched football and the same number watched a re-run of a factual documentary. Does that $40M production aired without commercials still seem like a good investment, ABC/Disney?

CBS, NBC Refuse To Air Church's TV Ad World Faith Network

United Church of Christ ad highlighting Jesus' extravagant welcome called
'too controversial'

CLEVELAND -- The CBS and NBC television networks are refusing to run a 30-second television ad from the United Church of Christ because its all-inclusive welcome has been deemed "too controversial."
The ad, part of the denomination's new, broad identity campaign set to begin airing nationwide on Dec. 1, states that -- like Jesus -- the United Church of Christ (UCC) seeks to welcome all people, regardless of ability, age, race, economic circumstance or sexual orientation.
According to a written explanation from CBS, the United Church of Christ is being denied network access because its ad implies acceptance of gay and lesbian couples -- among other minority constituencies -- and is, therefore, too "controversial."
"Because this commercial touches on the exclusion of gay couples and other minority groups by other individuals and organizations," reads an explanation from CBS, "and the fact the Executive Branch has recently proposed a Constitutional Amendment to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, this spot is unacceptable for broadcast on the [CBS and UPN] networks."

Similarly, a rejection by NBC declared the spot "too controversial."

"It's ironic that after a political season awash in commercials based on fear and deception by both parties seen on all the major networks, an ad with a message of welcome and inclusion would be deemed too controversial," says the Rev. John H. Thomas, the UCC's general minister and president. "What's going on here?"

Negotiations between network officials and the church's representatives broke down today (Nov. 30), the day before the ad campaign begins airing nationwide on a combination of broadcast and cable networks. The ad has been accepted and will air on a number of networks, including ABC Family, AMC, BET, Discovery, Fox, Hallmark, History, Nick@Nite, TBS, TNT, Travel and TV Land, among others. More