The Campaign Public Financing Noncontroversy

The John McCain campaign continues to bemoan the fact that his opponent, Senator Barack Obama has once again stated that he doe not intend to use public financing for his campaign, and instead is relying on the more than 69,056 mostly smaller donors, many of which have donated $100 or less to his campaign so far. It is sort of strange that John McCain's campaign makes such a big issue of this now considering the fact that Obama first made the announcement way back about February 17, that he would not use public financing and instead rely on a more grassroots efforts of mainly smaller contributions and mostly not take big donations from many corporate or other special interests by some rules that the campaign established. This week the Obama campaign only reaffirmed that this policy will continue, yet immediately the McCain political machine went on the attack and accused Obama of breaking his word from some very early statement from Obama that he accept public financing even before the 2008 presidential campaign really even started.

There are many issues here to look at. One being that the McCain campaign has done very poorly in regards to fundraising compared to the Obama campaign, although many of McCain's fundraising events have been closed door events, sometimes with President Bush at his side, where McCain sought minimum donations of $1,000 to $10,000 dollars at a pop, while the Obama campaign has raised a lot more money through mostly smaller donations and a more grassroots largely Internet based effort. Despite tapping into many larger GOP donors, McCain has only raised a total of just $96.6 million dollars so far this election cycle, and after spending $72.6 million on the primaries and general election so far, only has just $23.9 million dollars left with an additional nearly $1 million in unpaid campaign debts. McCain really needs the public financing money because his campaign is doing so poorly in fundraising efforts compared to Obama's far better organized campaign. Obama's campaign has raised about $265.4 million dollars so far this election cycle, and spent $218.8 in his primary season battle with Senator Clinton as well as some early advertising efforts for the general election. The Obama campaign has $46.5 million dollars left and a little over $2 in yet unpaid debts.

The real truth is that John McCain only became a more recent convert to campaign finance reform any time that he ran into political trouble. In the 1980's when McCain ran into political problems as being one of the leading figures in the Keating Five Scandal, McCain underwent the first political makeover and sought to create a new public image for himself as some sort of "reformer", from the previous reputation he sought as being a "Barry Goldwater Conservative". Then in 2000, after losing the GOP nomination for president to George Bush, heavily due to the influence of soft money paid for negative advertising that destroyed McCain's chances in the South Carolina primary, McCain responded with the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill to somewhat limit the influence of soft money. However, there is still little real limitations on the power of the independent 527 organizations who will certainly mount major TV attacks on both Obama and McCain during the 2008 main election event.

The Obama campaign fully understands that it will need a large war chest to counter some outrageous and false independent 527 ads by some shadowy organizations within the next few months. ExposeObama.com is such a shadowy 527 and is currently raising hundreds of thousands of dollars to air some TV ads meant to set up a false impression in the minds of voters that Obama was somehow once a Muslim as a grade school student while attending elementary school in Indonesia as a child. The fact of the matter was that there wasn't always a Christin or public school available in some parts of Indonesia, so sometimes only Muslim run schools were the only available schools in some areas. Obama's stepfather worked for an oil company and sent the young Obama to both Catholic and public schools when they were available, and young Obama made it known in his book, "DREAMS OF MY FATHER", that his teacher sent home a note that he made faces during the required Koranic studies when he had to attend a Muslim run school for two years, because he found the religious teachings contrary to his own Christian beliefs. Yet ExposeObama.com will spend a great deal of money along with other outrageous 527 groups to try to SWIFTBOAT Obama much like they did to John Kerry in 2004, where sailors who never even served with John Kerry made some outrageous statements and others contradicted themselves from previous public statements about the heroism of Kerry during the rescue of some soldiers under gunfire during the Vietnam War. Even John McCain will be victimized by some outrageous independent 527 ads. One currently airing shows a mother and her baby, and stretches McCain's statement about "one hundred years in Iraq" to absurd levels. First, McCain never meant that the U.S. would be at war in Iraq for 100 years, but that he could imagine peacekeeping efforts similar to that of American soldiers in Germany or South Korea lasting in Iraq for that amount of time. Secondly, there is an all-volunteer army at this point, so no child would be forced into military service unless congress should approve a draft.

The fact of the matter is the political system is still broken when shadowy 527 organizations often with only a handful of large donors can perform outrageous hit and run attacks on the reputations of the men running for president. During 2004, one 527 that attacked John Kerry was almost fully funded by just the WalMart heir, Alice Walton, and just two other large donors. The 527s can spend unlimited amounts of money running outrageous ads to smear and destroy the candidates, and Obama knows that he will need to spend millions of dollars to fight off these sort of attacks. It is only pragmatic to have the funds available to combat these 527s.

Despite the fact that so far John McCain has been unable to manage a campaign anywhere near the level of the Obama organization in either ability or management skills, McCain continues to make the case that he should somehow be the manager of the entire country as president. That's a big pill to swallow from someone who never even managed a business or anything any larger than just some political office in Washington. Obama is facing political reality that the current system of financing a run for public office is broken, while McCain is not. The public financing of campaigns is a broken system where the independent 527s still rule the airwaves. Obama has little choice but to oppose public financing and run his campaign under his own set of reforms until congress seriously repairs the political system.

The Worst James Bond Movies Ever Made

There has always been a little grey area and a little difficulty under copyright laws and previous court decisions to fully protect all fictional characters as a work of the original owner since the fictional characters become a part of the culture and the fictional characters often take on a "life of their own" in the minds of the public and in some courts. For example, the detective character Sam Spade from THE MALTESE FALCON was not allowed copyright protection in a classic court decision, only opening the doors a little to allowing some use by others of this fictional character. All of this strange grey area and court decision quirks in copyright laws has allowed a few smaller filmmakers to develop some very bizarre James Bond character movie ripoffs in foreign lands where additional local laws on copyrights for fictional characters have produced some often laughable and sometimes amazing in outrageous concept films. It is simply amazing that these films were ever allowed to even see the light of day.

Of course the better known, NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN from 1983 was the finest nonEON Productions version of any James Bond movie ever made based on the Ian Fleming character, and the 1967 satire comedy version of CASINO ROYALE starring David Niven, Peter Sellers and Woody Allen had a few good moments as well as well a great soundtrack by Herb Alpert as another nonEON Productions film using the Ian Fleming James Bond character, but few know of some far less noble efforts using the famous fictional spy from the classic Ian Fleming novels that sometimes tested the ability of the courts to protect the James Bond character from infringement or damage to the reputation of the official enterprise.

1966 brought on the weird and strange, JAMES BATMAN, from the Philippines in which a thinly disguised James Bondtype character with a slightly changed name teams up with Batman of all people. Amazingly, this mess of a film gets a 5.4 out of 10 rating on one movie review website. 1967 also spurred OPERATION KID BROTHER in which Neil Connery played spy when his older brother, James, just wasn't available for duty at the time for some odd reason.

By 1971, an ultracheap low budget Indian film company produced what had to the Citizen Kane of bad James Bond movies. JAMES BOND 777, featured an Indian actor in a pompadour with a mustache. The film mixed in some of the worst poor quality B&W footage ever filmed passed off as James Bondtype action scenes and even included an Indian song and dance number. Compared to even the very weakest film in the official James Bond franchise series, this is a sheer laughfest and amateur filmmaking at it's very worst. There is even an interesting JAMES BOND 777 theme song included in the movie making for even more curiosity about this strange James Bond character ripoff. Even Ed Wood himself couldn't have done the James Bond character any worst than this simply awful film.

1975 brought on yet another James Bond ripoff, this time called BON BAISERS DE HONG KONG, but also named FROM HONG KONG WITH LOVE. This French film starred among others, Mickey Rooney. M and Moneypenny need to recruit a new spy to replace James Bond after he's killed by gunfire. Yet, it's just hard to imagine Mickey Rooney in a James Bondtype film of any type. This just isn't a real great film effort here.

In 1977, the Indian filmmakers were back at it again with another James Bond ripoff with AGENT VONOD, however this film was far better quality than the nonBollywood JAMES BOND 777 film from 1971. This film involved the kidnapping of a scientist and James Bond, again played by some Indian actor, is involved in the rescue. This film is almost watchable.

In 1978, there was a Bruce Lee inspired martial arts fantasy film named, THE DRAGON LIVES AGAIN, in which Bruce Lee(played by a Hong Kong actor since Bruce Lee was dead by this time) wakes up in the underworld and meets up with James Bond among others. Truly real strange stuff here.

The Italians decided to get into the act and produce a James Bond ripoff in 1981 in TAIS TOI QUAND TU PARLES in which an Italian man, Giacomo(James)imagines that he is James Bond and lives out the action and romances of this spy in his mental fantasies.

Very strangely, 1984's MAD MISSION 3: Our MAN FROM BOND STREET included many realistic James Bond series elements including Richard Kiel who played Jaws in the actual EON Production series as well as a character much like Oddjob. Even the actor who played James Bond in the movie looked quite similiar to Sean Connery in many ways. And even more strangely, one scene was so similiar to a scene from the official EON Productions A VIEW TO A KILL that you cannot help but be convinced that this strange movie helped to inspire some parts of an official James Bond film.

In 1986, Indian filmmakers brought the world yet another terrible James Bond ripoff film, BOND 303, in which a much less than good looking James Bond doesn't give audiences any "license to thrill" at all. This Indian James Bond certainly doesn't meet up with your expectations of the handsome leading man of action and romance on any level.

In 1992, yet another Indian James Bond ripoff reared it's ugly head as MR. BOND, in which India's greatest detective combats the evil villain, Dragon, who is out kidnapping children. One reviewer claims that this film involves more musical song and dance numbers, and judging from many Indian films, that sounds like it may real be reasonable to assume.

In 1994, the last well known James Bond ripoff film was produced in Hong Kong named FROM BEIJING WITH LOVE, which involved some aspects of comedy and satire along with a keen sense of martial arts cinema. A retired James Bond comes out of retirement and battles a villain, Golden Gun, while another character very similiar to Jaws also stars in this strange premised bit of Hong Kong shlock cinema. This film actually grossed a huge $37 million dollars in Hong Kong box office receipts, and would have probably made a lot more money if it had not been banned in mainland China because it featured a plotline involving corruption of some police officials.

It is a strange quirk of copyright laws involving characters that so many ripoffs of the highly successful James Bond franchise have been produced so far. News of this sort probably keeps lawyers employed by the official HARRY POTTER enterprise and other large fictional character franchises awake at night concerned about protection of their characters from possible infringement. In fact, a legal effort to quash an independently produced HARRY POTTER reference book was recently challenged in court by the official HARRY POTTER Enterprise. Yet all of this brings up the question of how much are fictional characters part of the public culture and how much are they property of the creator. Fictional character copyright law is indeed far more complicated than meets the eye and less clearly drawn than other copyright law. It is not completely out of the question that some simply awful book or movie sequels without the quality of the original works may actually be legal in a few cases. But the question for the consuming public is whether this ruins the reputation of the original works of the original producers or whether these must be laughably viewed as paying some great respect to the original works. Strange stuff this legal world.

Motor Scooter Sales Surge By 24% Due To Fuel Price Crisis

Sales of high mileage motor scooters have been surging by at least 24% nationally over last year, with some dealers reporting 60% or more sales increases over last year. And even the number of drivers over 50 who are turning to scooters has surged as well. Traditionally, many who rode mopeds and motor scooters have been younger counter culture members in their 20's or early 30's. Now many older drivers seek out the high mileage two-wheelers which can usually range from 70miles per gallon on the lower side up to 141mpg in some extreme high mileage mopeds.

And the cost of scooters varies greatly. There are a number of low cost Chinese imports of varying quality available in the $800 price range online all the way up to awesome models like the nearly $9000 three wheeled Piaggo MP3 at quality dealerships which has a huge 500cc engine and looks much like the sort of bike that Batman would be driving. In between the ultra cheap and very expensive scooters are some very good quality models like the CPI Oliver Sport series at $1799 or the Euro designed Benelli scooters at about $2500 on up. Sym has gained a solid reputation for quality as well, challenging longtime durable favorites such as Vespa in terms of both more modern design as well as quality worksmanship.

There are many scooter manufacturers from both Taiwan and mainland China that have had many years experience building some very good quality scooters. Surprisingly enough, even some lower priced Chinese scooter actually use the Honda styled very dependable GY6 engine, which is a high mileage four stroke design that burns very clean and runs very quiet. However some brands like CPI use the two stroke design in their 50cc models because it puts out very good power, and there are automatic oil feeding systems in them that avoids the user having to mix gas and oil on their own. The biggest drawback to two stroke engines is that they nearly always put out more noise and pollution than the four stroke designs do, and the two stroke engines may require more repairs in the long run than some four stroke engine designs. However, under modification, some like the 50cc two stroke CPI GTR, which looks far more like a sport motorcycle than any scooter have been able to boost the top speed to as high as 70mph from the more usual 29-45mph range of many 50cc machines. The larger engined 150cc model scooters can often top out at around 65mph, but require the added expense and hassle of a gaining a motorcycle endorsement. And the bigger 250cc units can sometimes go as fast as 85-95mph, and still offer gas mileage in the 50-60mpg range in many cases.

While motor scooters seem like real gas savers as well as being fun transportation, there are still some serious safety concerns for riders to think about. No two-wheeler is as safe or as stable as an automobile. Full face helmets as well as body armor are extremely wise if you intend to drive in heavy 30mph city traffic. And the smaller 10-13inch tires on many scooters are far more prone to potholes on city streets that could throw a rider off. Any bike takes a longer distance to brake than cars as a whole, so the rider needs to pay real attention to conditions ahead of them and absolutely avoid panic braking as much as possible. And wet or poor weather presents some real traction dangers. I'm personally still recovering from some injuries sustained when I got caught in a sudden hailstorm in late April far from my home and skidded when I attempted to brake for a yellow light at a busy intersection when the street suddenly became like a sheet of glass. You want to wear good safety equipment always on a scooter because they can almost be more prone to accidents than the heavier and bigger motorcycles which have safer and more superior tires and tread designs, brakes and frames. Some cheaper scooters are offering controversial cheap "ABS braking systems", which are nothing like the expensive ABS systems found to top quality motorcycles or on automobiles. Often the cheap version of "ABS" is little more than some sort of brake fuild pressure diverter valve that at least one Vespa dealer website claims can be extremely dangerous and actually result in wheel lockup in a hard emergency braking circumstance. So you might want to be careful about this and use wise braking skills if you own such a scooter. Due to their lighter weight, many scooters are much more of dry road vehicle and less safe during any type of rainfall than a more stable form of transportation like a car or truck. But with some real care, as well as a responsible driver, most scooters can be a fun sort of economical transportation and reasonably safe.

Most scooters under 50cc can be registered as a moped in many states, and driven only with just a driver's license. However, the larger and faster machines generally require the more expensive and time consuming route for a rider to get a motorcyle endorsement. Generally most 50cc units are great for little neighborhood commutes, but the larger 150cc on up units are great for cross town commutes to school or work or shopping. The 250cc units are fine for extended freeway commutes. Compared to the cost of a new car, motor scooters are a real bargain. But they have more limited use in less than perfect weather since there is no heater for Winter driving, or rain protection. Whether a motor scooter is right for you depends on many questions that you need to ask yourself.

High Gas Prices Fuel New Crimes

As many Americans try to cope with the reality of gasoline remaining at over $4 a gallon, more and more persons opt for public transportation. At the same time, crime at or near public transportation sites is on the increase as criminals seek out new victims. Assaults, shootings, fights, stabbings, robbery and other violence is now becoming more common both at bus stops and even on public transportation itself.

Robberies of gas staions are becoming more common, as are new forms of gasoline theft. In a small Oregon town, there was even a recent case of a home invasion robbery where an elderly man was forced at gunpoint to give some gas in a cans in his garage to his attackers. Gasoline was the item that was stolen by the thieves. No money or other valuables were targeted. 300 gallons of gas owned by the City Of Portland at a golf course were stolen this week in a daring burglary by thieves.

The MAD MAX science fiction movie series dealt with a futuristic society in which gasoline was such a valuable commodity that it helped to spur violent gangs and other violence. While American society hasn't slipped anywhere this far into violence and mayhem so far, the fact of the matter is that the high gasoline prices are starting to spur some serious crimes and violence that is only expected to worsen as prices rise.

A paraphrase of a famous quote by a criminal of why he robbed banks was because, "That's where the money is". Now, today it might be said that crime is following the fuel price crisis because of the high prices that have made it a valuable commodity, which is something that would have been unthinkable back in the 1960's and early 70's with cheap 33cents a gallon gas.

Why Obama Will Likely Win In 2008

Right after wrapping up the Democratic nomination, Senator Barack Obama started running with both feet on the ground his November effort with hardly a moment's rest. So far all signs are that Obama will manage a campaign far superior to that of John McCain, that should prove successful and win the presidency in 2008.

Obama certainly had to prove to be one of the greatest surprises of this year as this young senator was able to manage such a smoothly and effectively run campaign that he was able to topple the odds on favorite to capture the nomination, Senator Clinton. Despite only a short political career, Obama has well proven himself to be a very formidable political force, one part a young fast rising star political phenomenon, and another part, an effective manager who delegates responsibility to the right experts to achieve results. This ability to well manage and effectively delegate responsibility speaks very well for Obama to run an effective White House able to achieve real results as well.

Yesterday, even right wing writer, Ann Coulter, lamented how the Obama campaign is now collecting massive political donations from figures familiar to Wall Street compared to the cash strapped McCain effort. Despite a long history in congress, McCain is simply viewed as too eratic by some corporate leaders, with too few answers or little knowledge of economics by others, unable to offer sound enough solutions to inspire many on Wall Street to want to throw good money after bad and waste donations on what is likely to be a losing effort by McCain. Holding some clout with Obama, or banking on him to both win the election, as well as to improve the economy, seems like a more pragmatic move. Most on Wall Street got where they are by good instincts, and the instinct to bank on a winner like Obama certainly seems like a far better bet at this point.

McCain's campaign has far less cash to spend, and the Obama campaign is taking full advantage of this challenging McCain in vulnerable "red states" such as Colorado, where McCain may not even be able to hold onto the base of "red states" that elected George Bush twice. If Obama holds onto all the states that both Gore and Kerry won, besides winning in some vulnerable "red states", the McCain campaign will face an impossible task to win enough electoral votes in November.

Right after capturing the majority of Democratic delegates, Obama began a two-week campaign to address economic issues and to shore up support with voters by offering some real constructive solutions to some of current problems facing millions of Americans as energy prices undergo hyberinflation, food prices go up, homes are foreclosed and jobs are outsourced to labor cheap nations. Labor unions are quickly moving to educate their members that Obama is far and away the very best bet for working people to better themselves and hold onto their jobs and middle class lifestyle and not watch the American dream slip through their fingers.

John McCain has a deep well of public respect due to his story of heroism during the Vietnam War. However, with the American public hurting so badly with worsening energy prices, a sluggish economy, home foreclosures and other problems, voters are far more likely to elect a president concerned with solutions to the here and now problems, and not treat the presidency as some sort of lifetime achievement prize. John McCain has had an amazing history, but it is the future of the voters that really matters most. This election isn't all about John McCain's history. It's all about the voters. And so far the Barack Obama campaign is doing everything right to convince the voters that he is the better of the two candodates. That should be more than enough to elect him in November.

The Dangerous Bush-McCain October Surprise

Republican strategists are certainly expecting a very tough political environment to retain the White House in 2008, and the Bush Administration is gearing up for a huge new military effort staged from Afghanistan to capture Osama Bin Laden and announce his capture right before the election in an effort to boost John McCain. The hope is create a public euphoria in which many voters will ignore the meterioric rise in gas and oil prices, the bad economy, home foreclosures, joblessness, poor consumer protection leading to an unending series of contaminated food scares, defective imports, and many other problems. It is almost as if the Bush White House has been asleep at the switch for the last 8 years, and now plans to use the U.S. military in a blatantly political way to stage some grand last ditch event to ecilpse all the bad memory of everything else that has gone wrong since Bush accidently became President due to the electoral college glitch of 2000.

Bush is pulling out all the stops for his final grand effort to capture Osama bin Laden before he leaves office. Both his legacy as well as party position for the elections are at stake. Bush would desperately love to capture Bin Laden before he leaves office.

Today, public television aired a press statement from both Bush and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown who has promised more British troops for Afghanistan. And the president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, laid out new grounds for justification of military missions into neighboring Pakistan, by declaring that Afghanistan is being attacked by Taliban and Al Qaeda radicals operating in cross border missions. Karzai's statement sets up an important standard that allows American forces to operate in military missions in Pakistan, and puts the government of Pakistan in a very difficult position. On one hand, the government of Pakistan has done a very poor job controlling extremists operating in the mountainous areas and villages near the border of Afghanistan. On the other hand, the government in Pakistan operates with little real public support, and has even made a truce with some radicals that they could not control. But allowing cross border missions by American military forces into Pakistan could also create public anger in Pakistan and destablize and collapse that government. There is some real risk in all of this, and the Bush Administration's instincts about Iraq, the MidEast, and other regional issues has certainly not been very good so far.

There is certainly great potential danger that the government of Pakistan could possiby become very unstable with too much American military involvement there, creating angry mob protests and other dangers. During the Vietnam War, American efforts to attack Communist bases in Laos and Cambodia only served to destabilize and collapse both governments. This last big push for some pre-election political theatre by the Bush Administration could be setting up a major crisis for the next president of the U.S. who could be facing a nuclear weapons armed Pakistan controlled by radicals friendly to Al Qaeda. This would certainly be a real crisis for the U.S.

Capturing Osama Bin Laden right after the 9/11 attacks would have been the very best thing. However, any current new drive to capture Osama Bin Laden, must involve the full cooperation of the government of Pakistan, and that government also needs to be able to stay in full control of the country as well. For the most part, Bin Laden is largely an irrelevant figure within Al Qaeda right now, and his capture would only be largely symbolic for American domestic political consumption. Other less known Al Qaeda leadership is more likely far more dangerous as they are the ones actually responsible for violence in Iraq and elsewhere. This new 11th hour drive to capture Bin Laden years after 9/11 is hardly much more than political theatre for the most part, however virtually every American would certainly be more than happy to see him brought to justice and captured. But it certainly will cast a huge new shadow over the election if it becomes a late October surprise. Even in the worst of times, the White House still holds certain advantages to manipulate events to boost their party right before the election. Such is the nature of October surprises.

Sock Obama Doll Short Lived

A small Utah based toy company today quickly pulled the controversial Sock Obama doll from production after a tidal wave of public anger that the doll was racist in nature and a terrible blow-back to the old days of "Jim Crow" racism. There was however absolutely nothing posted on the company's website that indicated that the Sock Obama doll was intended to be racist or even antiObama in nature. In fact, if anything, the site seemed to view their toy as merely an affectionate and new variation on the classic sock monkey toys. It was merely bad judgement on the part of the company that created the entire controversy it seems.

Bad taste aside, I'm a avid toy collector, and this terrible idea for a political novelty toy will no doubt make it a highly sought out collectible for whatever few actually exist before the product was pulled from production, and any existing models will certainly be highly sought after by toy collectors. Most other political toys are far less controversial. A GI JOE type action figure of John McCain has been on the market for a while, and some new bobble head and soft knit McCain figures also exist. On the Web, a far more respectful Barack Obama 6inch tall PVC action figure doll is taking orders at ClarkToys.com for Mid-July shipment.

Not all political toys are entirely affectionate. A talking figure of a pandering bear in a suit with a Bill Clinton-style Southern voice was once marketed for a short while during the Clinton years. The item was certainly antiClinton in nature, yet sort of funny and lovable in other ways, and not really intended for children, but more as a adult collectable.

2008 will certainly see far more political toys and collectibles to marketed before the year is out. Not all of them will be a good idea either. But to political junkies, some of these items will become highly sought out collectibles that will almost certainly pick up value over the years, especially toys or collectibles of the winning 2008 presidential candidate.