Some of you may have noticed an ad on HA for the “Pickens Plan” for energy independence, an initiative by oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens to wean our nation from foreign oil. And so I thought this might be a good time to reiterate HA’s advertising policy.
See, despite the fact that Pickens’ investments in wind energy are probably good thing (I think), that doesn’t erase his long history as a financier of right-wing ideologues, and his role as one of the major backers of the Swift Boat smear campaign that likely sunk John Kerry’s presidential prospects. It also doesn’t detract from his cynical investment of millions of dollars in California’s Prop 10, which would tap CA’s already stressed state coffers to boost his natural gas business.
Pickens is no progressive, and just shouldn’t be trusted. But I’m happy to take his money nonetheless.
See, here at HA we have a very simple advertising policy: we’ll take paid ads from pretty much all comers, Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals alike. We won’t accept ads that amount to blatantly deceptive astroturfing, though I’ve only rejected one thus far. And we won’t accept ads I find pornographic or patently offensively… but as my regular readers know, that’s a pretty low bar. Basically, if you have the money, I’ll take your ad. But if I really don’t like it, don’t be surprised if I go out of my way to trash it. You know, like this post about the highly questionable ad for the Pickens Plan.
See, not only did Pickens finance the Swift Boat ads, Mentzer Media Services, Inc, the company that placed this web ad, also placed most of the Swift Boat ads as well… a service for which they made millions of dollars.
And so, considering HA’s wall between advertising and editorial, the only responsible course of action was to take Pickens money, and then give a free ad to The General to mercilessly mock it. So that’s exactly what I did.
Yup, that’s my advertising policy, and I’m sticking to it.
Goldy wrote: “And we won’t accept ads I find pornographic or patently offensively… but as my regular readers know, that’s a pretty low bar.”
But you gladly allowed Steve, purveyor of goat-smut to happily post his human-animal sex links on HA. So you must have a low bar for that too.
Puddy @1,
I have no idea what you’re talking about. I read very few the comments in my threads. Don’t have the time or inclination once they get much into the double digits.
Just posted on Seattle Times!
Gregoire with 1% across the Board Cut scheme–
Read this article and tell me if you can explain the math??
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....et07m.html
It is all smoke-and-mirrors!!!!!!!!!
There is no way 1% cut exempting huge cost areas like education will reduce the Budget Deficit by the amount Gregoire claims.
Fuzzy Math!!!
Huge questions?
Why didn’t Gregoire do this 6 months or 1 year ago??
Who is auditing these numbers and what “teeth” are in this soft “for-show” desperate smoke-and-mirrors game??
Goldy, ask Steve, purveyor of Steve’s Stupid Solution if he posted human-animal sex links on this blog.
It’s a yes or no answer and No is not an acceptable answer.
Don’t forget that Pickens was a corporate raider and greenmailer in the ’80s. Before that, he was a wildcatter. He’s pretty far removed from being a respectable businessman; he’s of the slimy variety, so anytime he’s peddling something that sounds or looks good, you definitely want to read the fine print.
@1 As long as you goatfuckers post on this blog, we responsible posters feel a sense of responsibility to provide HA readers with goat sex education.
@3 Don’t worry Cynical! McDrool is gonna unveil his miracle economic recovery plan in tonight’s debate that will have the economy booming again a month after he takes office! Not only will the “shortfall” disappear but Gregoire will have billions more to spend! Wait and see!
@4 What of it? Everything you post on this blog is pornographic, in a manner of speaking.
Yes Pelletizer, to a lefty truth is pornographic, you can’t look at truth.
Why?
It’s pornographic.
Pelletizer@6: Thanks for the affirmative confirmation.
I have to give goldy credit for not being ashamed of taking money for ads he doesn’t agree with.
Not may bloggers would do that. Those other bloggers would say no to the ad out of principle.
John Kerry still hasn’t produced the medical records that would prove the Swift Boat guys
were lying. I wonder why? Plus he had a plan
to get us out of Iraq, where is that plan
and why the fuck is he still getting a check?
Where is Al Gore, the smartest man in the world? How could Al lose hundreds of millions
of dollars in carbon credits he had invested in
Lehman Bros? Won’t that make the world climate
warmer?
@4 Why are you so fucked up, Pudz? What’s wrong with your mind?
This must be the site that has upset Pudz so much.
http://www.newshounds.us/2005/.....htwing.php
That’s no porn site. That’s a news site, Pudz. The news is of yet another Republican who fucks farm animals. Why do you find such news to be so threatening? Are you losing it, Pudz? Are you all fucked up in the head? Geez, I sure hope I didn’t cause that to happen to you.
@6 “As long as you goatfuckers post on this blog, we responsible posters feel a sense of responsibility to provide HA readers with goat sex education”
Baaa means no, you Republican shits.
http://buttons.cafepress.com/i...../209341556
Steve, proprietor of Steve’s Stupid Solution.
Nope you dope, that’s not the link.
Try again. Hint Pelletizer used it for another link to make one of his stupid points.
@9 Pudz sez: “truth is pornographic”
Well, in that case, this truth just might well be pornographic…
http://www.republicanoffenders.com/Pedophiles.html
…for you, anyway.
@9 The wingnut concept of “truth” is so bizarre it’s pornographic.
@10 Just being helpful, puddy. If you insist on fucking goats, we don’t want you to stick it in the wrong hole and get it bit off.
@15 In that case, just link to the post, Pudz. If you can’t, then you’re a liar. Wait, you’re already a known liar. OK, if you can’t, then you’re a bigger liar than usual.
@15 “Try again. Hint Pelletizer used it for another link to make one of his stupid points.”
Well that must have been a long time ago because I can’t post links under Goldy’s new format.
But then, it’s not surprised that Wingnut Pudwhacker is living in the past. His economic ideas are from the 19th century and he’s worried about what some guy that Obama served on a committee with 12 years ago was doing in the 1960s when Obama was 8 years old.
Big trouble coming down the path..
http://www.suntimes.com/news/m.....08.article
@20 I have no idea what Pudz is talking about either. He seems very fucked up of late. I figure he’s lost his mind. It already happened to Marvin. No surprise, really, if Pudz is next.
Why does John McCain hate our troops??
http://www.veteranreportcard.org/
Notice the recent anti-Gregoire adds, which try to appear like they aren’t financed by Rossi’s camp? The ones which try to portray her as a cruel villian for not giving more funding to foster care?
But the ads end with Rossi’s tag line, “for a change”.
So Rossi’s trying to have the best of both worlds. He’s trying to hit Gregoire for spending too much money, and then have others attack her for not spending enough – while pretending to not have anything to do with the ad.
Pretty slimy, even for Rossi.
Want to know where your bailout money is going?
Just days after the massive bailout of AIG, it’s executive attended a “retreat” at a swanky resort in California for which the firm paid $442,115.50. The bill included, inter alia, $6,939.09 for golf expenses. You can see the bill here:
Rock Out With Your Bailout
In fairness, I should point out that most of the bill was covered by a deposit, and there is no indication when that deposit was paid. So it could have been one of those things where the firm would have lost the deposit if they cancelled on such short notice, so they might as well have taken the benefit of the arrangements.
But from a PR perspective, they REALLY should have cancelled, and maybe instructed the hotel/caterers to give the food to the homeless or something like that. Perhaps they didn’t really think it was that big a deal, because they were so accostomed to spending such money on a regular basis they didn’t think anyone would raise an eyebrow about it?
TBTL Reruns, Top of the Top Ten Off-Topic Reasons for a Re-Up of Weekend Goldy Radio …
Luke Burbank: These deep-fried s’mores are just so, like, so totally awesome …
Jen Andrews: heh heh heh heh
Luke Burbank: … in a hip edgy totally transgressive sort of way …
Jen Andrews: heh heh heh heh
Luke Burbank: … or not …
Jen Andrews: heh heh heh heh
(From the Luke & Jen Go to the Recessive Gen-Y Prom episode, number 69 in the collectors’ series)
Couldn’t spell en-gin-eer, and now I are one: Used to be one of those whiners who said the only trouble with America is that we spawn too many lawyers and not enough engineers.
I was wrong. Lee the engineer demonstrates that we have at least one excess, superfluous engineer.
Speaking of Lee, where’s Piper?
@20
Hey Roger, why is whatever Ayers was up to in the 60’s is not relevant today, yet Bush’s actions back then, are?
re 12: “John Kerry still hasn’t produced the medical records that would prove the Swift Boat guys.”
Yes he has. Pickens failed to produce the $10 million he promised upon delivery of the proof. Like you, Mark, he is a Republican, a liar, and a WELCHER.
re 29: Because Bush’s actions are those of a man who does not have the courage of his convictions. Just another thing that qualifies Bush to be a Republican.
Bush is weak….
@31
I’m not exactly a fan of GWB myself, but your comment makes no sense. What convictions would those be?
And how does that relate to my question? If it isn’t important now that Obama has at least a tenuous association with someone who was making bombs back in the day, then why is it important to Dems that Bush may or may not have executed his entire NG term?
Straw Dogs: Yes, Kerry did eventually come through. We now await entire tranches of Obama documentation, including medical records. What’s he hiding?
And suppose that Geritol John McCain had, at any time in his long life, a fleeting association of any kind with Eric Robert Rudolph … Is it remotely possible that Goldstein or any of his Big Media BM cronies would think the association was too tenuous for comment or derision or discussion?
re 32: Bush’s belief in the Vietnam war and his avoidance of actually fighting in it and his desertion of the military (which is potentially an offense punishable by death).
Only an idiot would be confused by my response.
re 33: So, what you are saying is that Kerry is a genuine war hero and Pickens is a liar, a WELCHER, and a Republican. Right?
29 Ayers is not relevant today. No one but wingnuts cares about him. He is a has been.
Georgie is, um, president. Goes to character.
@ 29
Hey Roger, why is whatever Ayers was up to in the 60’s is not relevant today, yet Bush’s actions back then, are?
Whatever possessed you to ask such an incredibly idiotic question? I ask this in all sincerity, because you’re generally not that stupid.
@34
Desertion? I’d say making outrageous pronouncements of which you have absolutely no evidence, makes you a rather an idiot yourself.
re 33: And John McCain, based on the number of enemy that he killed ‘mano a mano’, in Vietnam, is a whining survivor of a prison camp and not a hero.
Kerry is the hero — and I wish you had been the Viet Cong guerilla he was after that day — because you would not be here to poison our country with your presence.
Your very existence is an affront to decent people everywhere.
re 38: He’s a DESERTER. Make no mistake about that. Anyone who leaves his unit years before he’s released from the military and does not return when he’s been ORDERED to be there, is a deserter.
You disparage a real war hero (Kerry) and turn a blind eye to a DESERTER (Bush). Bush ran out on his buddies. You can’t trust that weasel with so much as a nickel.
You make me sick.
@40
I haven’t said a word about Kerry. I think you need to be a bit more careful about tossing around gratuitous insults, and making unwarranted assumptions.
@41 Regarding that thing between you and BBG, it looks like you’re the last man standing. Good for you. We may disagree on this or that, but I’ve learned to respect you.
@35: Just sayin’ that Kerry, according to the usual unreliable sources, did eventually come through with his DD214 and (some) medical records. You want to call him a hero for his paper-cut Purple Heart? Do it.
Dear PMS Barbie @39: Your estrogen replacement therapy is working way to well. Better cut down.
(And are you talking about the scrawny Cong kid that Kerry shot in the back? Or was it some other Winter Soldier flashback fantasy?)
Back on topic, Pickens is truly a bizarre character. An 80+ year old billionaire who wants more money. He’s a flim-flam man to boot.
The wind turbines are nice but they’re a cover for a scheme to ship Ogallala aquifer water south to thirsty Dallas. As if it wasn’t being depleted enough. He’s mining subsidies of 1.8 cents per kw-hr and shilling like crazy for more gas-drilling business.
He’s doing some gutsy marketing here. Clever but utterly dishonest. His true business is drilling: for water and gas. If any oil is found, hell, he’ll take that too.
@44:
way TOO well
stoner Winter Soldier bad acid flashback fantasy
re 44: Why won’t you admit that McCain covered up the fact that POW/MIA’s were left behind in Vietnam?
He did nothing to help them — just like with his vote against the modern GI Bill. He hates the combat soldiers because they know he’s a wothless, abusive bastard who never would have gone anywhere in life were it not for his family connections.
Why do you kow-tow to monied elites? They have no respect for the likes of you.