Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum points to a television showing his campaign stop on live at the Daily Grind coffee shop in Sioux City, Iowa, Sunday
Simply put, policy in Washington is for sale. And those who ignore this reality sacrifice much of the influence they may have on policy debates and the decisions Congress and the president make.
Pat Choate, Dangerous Business
THE MAN WHO ADOPTED RICK SANTORUM
Rupert Murdoch
BBC WORLD SERVICE
- Washington Post / NEW 4 hours ago
… ngjennings : Here's a video demonstrating how the @MentionMachine works http://t.co/GnChh0C1 @ FixAaron : 2012 Iowa caucuses: The 6 counties to…
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… content: Some flaws in Rick Santorum's conservative record First thoughts: Romney vs. Santorum Santorum wins support of TLC's Duggar clan…
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Rupert Murdoch. Justin Sullivan/ Rupert Murdoch opened a Twitter account over the New Year?s holiday, and already had more than 50,000 followers…
BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16409664
- 4 January 2012
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US & Canada / NEW 4 hours ago… at more than 350 campaign events. But money and support could be coming in, and he already has the endorsement of Rupert Murdoch. Prior to the…
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BIOGRAPHY OF THE MAN WHO OWNS THE NEWS
Michael Wolff
Michael Wolff in The Man Who Owns The News: Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch (2008) writes that Rupert Murdoch likes to create the news. Wolff writes that Just before the New York Democratic primary, when I found myself undecided between Clinton and Obama, I said to Murdoch (a little flirtation, like a little gossip softens him): “Rupert, I don’t know who to vote for—so I’m going to give you my vote. You choose.” He paused, considered, nodded slowly, then said, “Obama—he’ll sell more papers.”
Even though his wife had been attending fund-raisers for Obama in Los Angeles—as his daughter, Liz, and her husband, Matthew, had been raising money for him in Notting Hill—this was a leap for Murdoch. Murdoch has traditionally liked politicians to come to him. His historic shift in the 1990s to tony Blair came after Blair made a pilgrimage to Australia.
Wolff writes that there was possibly another motive behind Murdoch’s interest in Obama, [just like there is behind his adoption of Rick Santorum]. It is a power play in order to increase his corporate power—it was just good corporate politics to be the one that the president would feel an obligation owned.
And then there [is] Fox News. Murdoch’s life is now largely spent around people for whom Fox News is vulgarity and a joke. And if he has happily spent much of his career being regarded as a rude vulgarian, the people who feel this way about his most significant news operation has never been so close to him.
It’s life with his wife Wendi versus life with Fox News. The embarrassment can no longer be missed. Murdoch mumbles even more than usual when called on to justify it. He barely pretends to hide the way he feels about Bill O’Reilly. And while it is not that he would give Fox up—because the money is the money; success still trumps all—in the larger sense of who he is, he seems to want to hedge his bets.
And call it restlessness, too. He has done this—done Fox. You can’t do it any more than he’s done it. He needs a new chapter, a new plot twist to keep the story going.
Santorum is that new plot and new chapter.
Murdoch’s purchase of the Journal was in no small way about wanting to trade the illiberal—the belligerent, the vulgar, the loud, the menacing, the unsubtle—for the better-heeled, the more magnanimous, the further nuanced.
And Murdoch sees all of these in Santorum’s remarks.
PLAYING THE RACE CARD--SHAPING AND LIMITING OUR KNOWLEDGE OF OURSELVES
Charles Reich in Opposing the System (1995) helps us to understand politicians like Rick Santorum who represent the System. By shaping and limiting our knowledge and our thinking, the System causes us to fight the wrong enemies and prevents us from seeing or even imaging better alternatives. In order to combat this form of rule, successful opposition must mount a challenge to the System’s version of reality.
Ideas, he writes, are vitally important but a simple battle over ideas will not succeed. The System has been able to transform ideas into something far more powerful—pictures or models of reality. The “free market” is not merely an idea but a picture. The “private sector” is another picture. The “welfare mother,” the “predatory criminal,” and the “big government bureaucrat” [as well as Blacks being the only Americans receiving public welfare in any form] are also ideas transformed into pictures. By this method, an entire ideology can be rendered as a series of pictures making up a comprehensive map of reality.
Constantly repeated without rebuttal or dissent, these pictures and the map they form set the parameters of debate and imagination. Even dedicated liberals and reformers fall into the trap of seeing reality in the way the System portrays it. If we are menaced by predators, or paranoids, then it follows that we must defend ourselves by abandoning constitutional safeguards and building still more prisons. On the other hand, if we were shown instead a picture of damaged and desperate people a very different remedy would be called for. (154)
But to the voters Santorum is appealing to, the remedies the System offers are sufficient.
TALK OF IOWA
http://iowapublicradio.org/news/talk-of-iowa/
Tuesday January 3, 2012
- Caucus 2012 Special
On caucus day, we listen to a special event recorded Monday night at the Iowa State Historical Building in Des Moines co-hosted by Iowa Public Radio's Jonathan Ahl and Minnesota Public Radio's Kerri Miller. The discussion will feature complete caucus analysis from political scientists Tim Hagle from the University of Iowa and Donna Hoffman from the University of Northern Iowa.
WORDS & IGNORANCE TURN INTO PICTURE~PROPAGANDA
Thurman Wesley Arnold (June 2, 1891 – November 7, 1969) was an iconoclastic Washington, D.C. lawyer. He was best known for his trust-busting campaign as Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Antitrust Division in Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Department of Justice from 1938 to 1943.[1] Before coming to Washington in 1938, Arnold was the mayor of Laramie, Wyoming, and then a professor at Yale Law School, where he took part in the legal realism movement, and published two books: The Symbols of Government (1935) and The Folklore of Capitalism (1937). A few years later, he published The Bottlenecks of Business (1940).
The power of ideology turned into pictures was recognized [over] 60 years ago by Thurman Arnold in The Symbols of Government: http://www.law.ufl.edu/faculty/pdf/arnart.pdf. Arnold described the new science of “image projection”: “The thinking man/woman with principles of the past generation has gone out the window; principles have no place in the science of image projection.” Arnold’s insights were carried further by Daniel J. Boorstin in The Image.
Daniel Joseph Boorstin (October 1, 1914 – February 28, 2004) was an American historian, professor, attorney, and writer. He was appointed twelfth Librarian of the United States Congress from 1975 until 1987.
Within the discipline of social theory, Boorstin’s 1961 book The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-events in America is an early description of aspects of American life that were later termed hyperreality and postmodernity. In The Image, Boorstin describes shifts in American culture — mainly due to advertising — where the reproduction or simulation of an event becomes more important or "real" than the event itself. He goes on to coin the term pseudo-event which describes events or activities that serve little to no purpose other than to be reproduced through advertisements or other forms of publicity. The idea of pseudo-events closely mirrors work later done by Jean Baudrillard and Guy Debord. The work is still often used as a text in American sociology courses.
In his Introduction, Boorstin says: “In this book I describe the world of our making, how we have used our wealth, our literacy, our technology, and our progress, to crate the thicket of unreality which stands between us and the facts of life.”
The Exchange - Iowa Public Radio
http://iowapublicradio.org/news/news_story.php?story=3320
Last-Minute Caucus Push
1/02/2012 filed by The Exchange
In the final hours before the caucuses, we touch base with Iowa Public Radio reporters across the state covering the candidates. Political Science professors Dennis Goldford of Drake University and Bruce Nesmith of Coe College join the discussion to examine last-minute polling prior to Tuesday's first-in-the-nation votes.
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Boorstin summarizes his conclusions: “Nowadays everybody tells us that what we need is more belief, a stronger and deeper and more encompassing faith. A faith in America and in what we are doing. That may be true in the long run. What we need first and now is a disillusion ourselves. What ails us most is not what we have done with America, but what we have substituted for America.”
Religion Front And Center On 2012 Campaign Trail
Guests
Barbara Bradley Hagerty, religion correspondent, NPR
John Green, senior research advisor, Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life
From stump speeches to political ads, religion is a hot-button topic in the presidential campaign. Many of the GOP candidates have emphasized their faith while campaigning, and others have come under fire from opponents and religious leaders for their beliefs. http://www.npr.org/2012/01/02/144583973/religion-front-and-center-on-2012-campaign-trail
SUPPORTING A FALSE PICTURE
Since the time of Arnold and Boorstin, the creation of false pictures of reality has been undertaken with ever-greater success by corporate-sponsored think tanks and talk shows.
And billionaire media magnates like Rupert Murdock and his News Corporation as well as his Fox News.
UNREALITY AND ITS REWARDS
Ian Mitroff and Warren Bennis
Ian Mitroff and Warren Bennis write: “Unreality is big business. It involves the expenditure of billions of dollars annually. It is deliberately manufactured and sold on gigantic scale. The end result is a society less and less able to face its true problems directly, honestly, and intelligently.” (155)
THE DANGEROUS BUSSINESS OF GOVERNANCE
Patrick Choate (born April 27, 1941) is an American economist who is perhaps most known for being the 1996 Reform Party Vice President candidate, the running-mate of H. Ross Perot. Following the 1996 election, the Federal Election Commission certified the Reform Party as a national political party eligible for federal campaign matching funds, a historic first.
Pat Choate in Dangerous Business: The Risks of Globalization for America (2008) writes that the root of today’s collapse of ethics in the House of Representatives can be traced to the tactics that ignited the so-called Gingrich Revolution, the Republican takeover of that body in 1995. When the leaders of this “revolution,” Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), Tom Delay (R-Tex.) and Richard Armey (R-Tex.), entered congress two decades earlier, a relative state of political comity existed between Democrats and Republicans. These three members, however, rejected interparty cooperation and adopted the politics of personal attack, similar to what George H.W. Bush and his political adviser Lee Atwater had inflicted o their Democratic opponent in the 1988 presidential election, with tactics such as the infamous “Willie Horton” advertisement that portrayed Democrats as soft on crime.
By 1987, Gingrich’s strategy to gain political power, both in his own party and in the House of Representatives, centered on impeaching Speaker of the House Jim Wright (D-Tex.) for supposed ethics violations, including sales of a vanity book. Charges were brought. A proud man, Wright resigned in June 1989, becoming the first Speaker to quit because of ethics violations. In fairness to Gingrich and his allies, the Democrats had greatly abused their power in the pre-1995 era before the Republicans took control.
Setting aside the merits of either party’s leadership, Gingrich’s take-down of Wright ignited an ethic war in the House that raged for seven years. Democrats filed eighty-four separate ethics charges against Gingrich; ironically, one claimed that a $4 million book deal was nothing less than bribery from the media baron Rupert Murdoch. By the end of 1996, the House Ethics war had scarred so many members in both parties that legislative work had slowed to a virtual halt. (87)
This is a too familiar scenario since the Tea Party Republicans were elected to the House in 2010 and Minority Whip Mitch McConnell vowed that Barack Obama would be a “one term President.”
REPUBLICAN HUFF AND PUFF
To listen to the talking heads and political pundits, you would swear that the Republican Party is the dominant political party in the United States, but the Black brothers say otherwise.
Earl Black and his twin brother Merle Black give some salient political advice in Divided America: The Ferocious Power Struggle In American Politics (2007) when they wrote that at the opening of a new century, American’s two parties have less in common in their composition, values, and objectives than was the case after World War II. Because they are minority parties in the electorate, neither Democrats nor Republicans can secure national majorities simply by appealing to their most committed supporters.
Hence it is essential to recognize—indeed, it is necessary to emphasize—the importance to each party of winning as many votes as possible from groups they ordinarily lose. Republicans manifestly need more support from minorities and non-Christian whites, and Democrats need to improve their performance among white Christians.
America’s power struggle is rooted in the very different values and priorities advocated by the leading groups in each party’s distinctive regional strongholds.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p002vsxs
Its the economy, stupid.
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Last broadcast today, 08:32 on BBC World Service.
Synopsis
The Iowa caucuses have become part of America's democratic ritual. Iowa is where the potential presidential candidates begin to be winnowed away.
This year Mitt Romney has scraped through but one issue above all was central in determining the voters choice - the economy.
Of course, by the standards of what is happening in Europe, America is doing okay. Growing, albeit modestly. But, say many economists, that's only because, unlike Europe, the US choose not to embrace austerity. So was that decision right and has the time come to begin to cut spending?
To discuss this Justin Rowlatt interviews is joined by two senior figures in American economics. Doug Holtz-Eakin has been director of the Congressional Budget Office and is the former chief economic policy adviser to US Senator John and Troy Dafig is the senior US economist at Barclays Capital.
One of the big trends of last year was the growth of the global protest movement. Across the world demonstrators took place against politicians and financial institutions.
In amongst the protestors you have probably spotted people wearing a eerie mask with a thin moustache, a pointy beard and a sinister smirk. It has become a international symbol of protest.
So where does this mask come from and what does mean? Christmas Justin Rowlatt visited the Occupy London protest outside St Paul's with the man behind the mask, illustrator David Lloyd.
And finally all those online accounts we have....but have you ever tried to close one?
Our technology commentator Jeremy Wagstaff has and he's decided that it's time for a New Year's clear-out.
US Election 2012
The latest news, features and analysis on the 2012 US presidential election
What will the new year bring for the US economy?
The US economy was growing at around 2% a year and creating some new jobs, but at a very sluggish pace. So will there be any improvement in 2012, and what will it mean for President Obama's bid for re-election in November?
V for Vendetta masks: Who's behind them?
The sinister Guy Fawkes mask made famous by the film V for Vendetta has become an emblem for anti-establishment protest groups. Who's behind them?
Read more on the BBC News website
The Black brothers write that the national and international problems facing American leaders transcend partisan imperatives, but the new regionalism encourages continuous battles between ideologically driven partisans—conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats—who represent minorities of the entire electorate. Under such conditions, governing the United States will remain an extraordinarily difficult challenge.
Santorum's Support Builds Ahead Of Iowa Caucuses
by Ted Robbins
January 2, 2012
After concentrating on Iowa more than any other Republican presidential candidate, Rick Santorum is gaining on front-runners Mitt Romney and Ron Paul, a new Des Moines Register poll shows. Santorum is hoping to consolidate Iowa's Christian conservative vote — the strategy that won the state for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee four years ago.
"Having that strong foundation of the faith and family allows America to be in a position where we can be more free," Santorum says. "We can be free because we are good decent moral people."
For Santorum that means cutting government regulation. Making Americans less dependent on government aid. Fewer people getting food stamps, Medicaid and other forms of federal assistance — especially one group.
"I don't want to make black people's lives better by giving them somebody else's money," Santorum begins. "I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money and provide for themselves and their families."
Santorum did not elaborate on why he singled out blacks who rely on federal assistance. The voters here didn't seem to care. http://www.npr.org/2012/01/02/144569143/rick-santorum-may-be-peaking-at-the-right-time
WHY NO ONE NOTICED SANTORUM'S RACIST REMARK ~ RACISM IS SECOND NATURE TO HIS AUDIENCE
ON POINT RADIO
Mitt Romney wins a squeaker in Iowa. Rick Santorum and Ron Paul right behind. The meaning of Iowa and the GOP’s road ahead.
In a Dec. 31, 2011 file photo Republican presidential candidate, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, left, speaks during a campaign appearance in Knoxville, Iowa. In a Jan. 2, 2012 file photo Republican presidential candidate former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks during a campaign stop in Clive, Iowa. Santorum and Romney took near opposite paths to twin victories in Iowa's presidential caucuses. (AP)
An Iowa squeaker! Romney, Santorum, Ron Paul – neck and neck… and neck. An eight vote win. It’s never been seen before. Last night Iowans did their quadrennial caucus duties, and painted quite a picture of the GOP.
A skin-of-the-teeth winner who’s miles from winner-take-all. A come-from-last-place virtual tie challenger in Rick Santorum, touting God on his side. Iconoclast hero Ron Paul right in the front rank. Newt Gingrich shouting “liar” from fourth place. Wow.
This hour, On Point: Iowa speaks and it’s not over. We look at the vote and the GOP road ahead.
-Tom Ashbrook
Guests
Kathie Obradovich, political columnist for the Des Moines Register.
Kim Alfano, Republican media consultant. President and CEO of Alfano Communications.
Neil King, Jr., political reporter for the Wall Street Journal.
From Tom’s Reading List
Des Moines Register “The invisible man of the 2012 Republican presidential campaign, Ron Paul, is now facing the same scrutiny and attacks that have humbled or derailed many of his rivals’ campaigns.”
Wall Street Journal “For the past four years, Ohio’s Hamilton County has had a front seat on America’s political roller coaster.”
USA Today “For more than three decades, the opening contest here in Iowa has narrowed the Republican field and sharpened a race that was then decided by a handful of early contests, well before most states had voted. This time, though, a revised primary calendar and changed party rules have set the stage for what could be a longer and less predictable slog.”
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