We Buy Manipulation!

Recently I had the chance to watch a documentary on the 2002 Bolivian election process called “We Manage Crisis.” It’s a film about James Carville’s political consulting firm and how they used American resources and tactics to direct that country’s future.

In the film they are upfront about planting stories about rival candidates in order to sully their names, using focus groups to find key issues that the politician can claim even if they don’t care about it and basically, the art of lying to the citizens in order to win. As I watched the strategy sessions and consulting meetings unfold I kept thinking about our process and how people like this are manipulating us daily. They want us to get angry about the price of oil, race, old age or crime and magically—that’s what we are debating. If one guy creates his message to get us to go north, the other one crafts one headed south.

The Bolivian experiment ended in anarchy and death in the streets—here, it just ends in our electing a person whose image is carefully crafted and his words are exactly what we tell him we want to hear. So, as we lose more and more of our rights—are they just doing what we’ve told them we expect?

August 4, 2008

Today on Ankarlo Mornings: More and more European men are wearing tights and wearing make up. Honestly, it freaks Ankarlo out a little bit.

Tyson Foods in Tennessee employees 700 Muslims. They wanted the final day of Ramadan off. So the company granted them that day and will have employees work on Labor Day.

In the final hour, Val has been wanting to debate Ankarlo about his book, Another Man’s Sombrero. Val got his chance, but it wasn’t much of a debate. Ankarlo also mentions Barack Obama’ s new ad in which he pledges to impose a windfall profits tax on the big oil companies.

A Full Block of Foreclosures

Obama: Windfall Profits Ad

Daily Links

 

An Al Qaeda explosives expert was killed in Pakistan by an air strike.  The U.S. has not taken responsibility yet, but come on, who else could carry out the attack?

Talk the Vote:  McCain’s attack ads on Obama are paying dividends as a new Gallup poll has the candidates tied at 44%.  Obama has rejected McCain’s 10 townhall debate idea.  Instead, Obama will push for only three debates after the conventions.

Remember the anthrax attacks shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001?  The main suspect killed himself over the weekend.

A new study says the music industry should embrace illegal downloading sites instead of shunning them.

Brett Favre is back to the Packers.

A man suspected of breaking into a woman’s home and raping her was arrested in Mexico.  He was living out of a knapsack and only had $1.

A 12 year old Douglas kid is being held in connection with the murder of his mother.

European men are starting to wear tights again.  Apparently, German men love them.   I wish I was kidding about that one.  More and more men are wearing makeup too.  I hear the ladies love it.

If you overfill your trash bin across the pond, you could face a hefty fine.  We are getting crazy about trash.

Immigrants are facing deportation in hospitals.   It happens right here in the Valley too.