Bad political optics 101 or level one

[CielOnTap]

You may remember discussion in one of the financial crisis threads about Governor Schwarznegger indicating that California needed money to deal with its finances. The state had run a television commercial to encourage visitors to the state (the Governor and his wife were shown in the ad) and there was a question of how much did that campaign cost. I am continue the search on that query.

Then I find two articles in the L.A. Times that reflect poorly upon the Governor: his nanny got a board appointment and he is raising taxes on certain services or activities in the state. This is an example of bad optics or news that make electors marvel at how their elected officials keep the public funds in use.

Schwarzenegger names his children's nanny to state board
The governor appointed Lindsay Ann Schnaidt to the Board of Guide Dogs for the Blind. The Hermosa Beach Democrat will be paid $100 a day when the board meets.
By Michael Rothfeld
3:10 PM PST, November 6, 2008
Reporting from Sacramento -- California has often been tagged as the "nanny state" for passing laws that some people say interfere with citizens' lives. But now it has earned the label for a whole different reason, thanks to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The Republican governor this week appointed a nanny -- his own children's nanny, in fact -- as a part-time state regulator on the Board of Guide Dogs for the Blind. Lindsay Ann Schnaidt, 32, a Democrat from Hermosa Beach who has worked for the Schwarzenegger family for seven years, will be paid $100 a day when the board meets, about eight times a year.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-nanny7-2008nov07,0,3891839.story

Schwarzenegger calls for sales tax hike, cuts in services

By Evan Halper and Jordan Rau
12:17 PM PST, November 6, 2008
Reporting from Sacramento -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled a plan today for a steep sales tax increase, new levies on alcoholic drinks and the oil industry, and deep cuts in services to wipe out a budget shortfall that is expected to swell to more than $24 billion by the middle of 2010.

The linchpin of the plan is the sales tax increase of 1 1/2 cents on the dollar, which could raise $10.8 billion through fiscal 2009-10. Republicans, who blocked a smaller increase proposed by the governor last summer, immediately vowed to resist the latest proposal.

Schwarzenegger also proposed extending the sales tax to appliance and furniture repair, vehicle repair, golf fees, veterinarian services, amusement parks and sporting events. He proposed a 9.9% tax on the extraction of oil from California ground, the expansion of sales tax to some services, and a 5-cent-per-drink tax on alcohol. His plan also includes a $12 increase in annual vehicle registration fees.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-arnold7-2008nov07,0,4137915.story

Obviously there is money in California. The state does rely on tourism as an important economic contributor.
Update: Television spots for this fall and winter will cost $13.2 million. Source: Slide 27 of this CTTC 08-09 Domestic Brand Work Plan.

[CielOnTap]

Chinese paper says whistleblowers are sent to mental wards
By Andrew Jacobs Published: December 8, 2008

BEIJING: Local officials in Shandong Province have apparently found a cost-effective way to deal with gadflies, whistleblowers and all manner of muckraking citizens who dare to challenge the authorities: dispatch them to the local psychiatric hospital.

According to an investigative report published Monday by a state-owned newspaper, public security officials in Xintai city have been institutionalizing residents who persist in their personal campaigns to expose corruption or to protest the unfair seizure of their property. Some people said they were committed up to two years, and several of those interviewed said they had been forced to consume psychiatric medication.

The article, in The Beijing News, said most inmates had been released after they agreed to give up their causes. http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/12/08/asia/china.php

Seems some things do not change-even though Chinese citizens by law have the right to petition their government on land claims, the government officials actively prevent the citizens from getting heard. Has the melamine incident not inspired change in government action across all ministries, not just the agricultural one?

Bad optics, indeed.

[CielOnTap]

The above cartoons were shown on Courrier International and the second image is telling: so many missiles were launched into Iraq but a pair of shoes got the US President's attention. Such a contrast in power.

As for the first cartoon, a play on the words that were used to support troop movement into Iraq-weapons of mass destruction (wmd).

[smitty]

Darn good cartoon CielOnTap, but wonder if Arnold Schwarzenegger has not missed the tax of the USE of cellular phone in use???? Yes there is talk of it floating around in Canada.

[CielOnTap]

Not enjoying telemarketing calls in the US? Pause a moment before registering your phone number in the National Registry run by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Here's why:

Meanwhile the large telecos and government agencies have the resources to fairly easily implement a standard system for prevention, and filtration, ending the problem... but they don't, because they profit.

"In 2007, a total of 6,242 entities paid fees totaling $21,602,003 for access to the National Registry. According to the FTC, telemarketers and sellers can access registered telephone numbers and pay the appropriate fee for that access, if any, through an Internet website dedicated to that purpose. The only information about consumers that companies receive from the National Registry is the registered telephone number. Since the Registry's inception, a total of 18,197 unique entities have paid fees for access to the National Registry. The total amount of fees paid by all entities since the inception of the National Registry through the end of 2007 is $80,629,778, the report stated."
The FTC is being paid millions of dollars for a solution that doesn't fully work, and allows fellow politicians to be exempt. They have motivation to keep the problem, because they get more money, and a fake solution to showcase for reelection.

http://whocalled.us/about

Do call your federal political representative instead and obtain their stance on the situation (selling phone numbers for money). Computers cost money to operate and to buy and to upgrade after all. Would you rather have public money and the FTC stop the telemarketers?

From the FTC's website:

For Your Information: April 10, 2008
Do Not Call Registrations Permanent and Fees Telemarketers Pay to Access Registry Set
Telephone numbers placed on the National Do Not Call Registry will remain on it permanently due to the Do-Not-Call Improvement Act of 2007, which became law in February 2008. More than 157 million phone numbers are on the National Do Not Call Registry.

and also:

The Do-Not-Call Fee Extension Act of 2007 also was enacted, setting the annual fees telemarketers will pay to access the registry in fiscal year 2009 at $54 for each area code of data accessed or $14,850 for access to every area code in the registry, whichever is less. Telemarketers may access the first 5 area codes of data at no charge, and certain exempt organizations will continue to access all data at no charge.

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2008/04/dncfyi.shtm

Oh, this post was prompted by a telemarketing call from the US to my Canadian number. The recording loop caught on voice mail had about 4-5 repetitions of the "cardholder services" spiel. When I looked up the number online (this time, an actual phone number not a fake one), I came across the websites where other recipients of calls from the number had posted comments from this month and last month.

[CielOnTap]

Seeking justice, Chinese land in secret jails
By Andrew Jacobs
Published: March 9, 2009

BEIJING: They are often tucked away in the rough-and-tumble sections of the city's south side, hidden beneath dingy hotels and guarded by men in dark coats. Known as "black houses," they are unofficial jails for the pesky hordes of petitioners who flock to the capital seeking justice.

This month, Wang Shixiang, a 48-year-old businessman from Heilongjong Province, came to Beijing to agitate for the prosecution of corrupt policemen. Instead, he was seized and confined to a dank room underneath the Juyuan Hotel with 40 other abducted petitioners.

During his two days in captivity, Wang said, he was beaten and deprived of food, and then bundled onto an overnight train. Guards who were paid with government money, he said, made sure he arrived at his front door.

As Beijing hosts 10 days of political pageantry known as the National People's Congress, tens of thousands of desperate citizens are trying to seek redress by lodging formal complaints at petition offices. A few, when hope is lost, go to extremes, as a couple from the Xinjiang region did last week: they set their car afire on the city's best-known shopping street, injuring themselves critically. http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/09/asia/09jails.php

In his annual report to the legislature on Thursday, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao said China should use its petition system to head off social unrest in the face of a worsening economy. "We should improve the mechanism to resolve social conflicts, and guide the public to express their requests and interests through legal channels," he said.

The Prime Minister seems removed from the fact that his government is beating people up, hindering access to the legal channels that his citizens know to use. Now, in the cases of illegally taking land and houses without adequate compensation to the individuals, the government should be the first defendant to be tried in court for its actions.

Bad optics worldwide!

[CielOnTap]

Translation: Two shoes thrown, three years in jail.

The sentence given to the Iraqi journalist who dared to toss shoes at former US President Bush.

[pysanky]

Journalist is news for his country around world. Three years to think if shoes worth outcome. Big risk he took.

[CielOnTap]

An Indian journalist used his shoe toss at a politician to express his feelings.

Shoe hurled at Chidambaram at Cong PC
PTITuesday, April 7, 2009 14:17 IST
New Delhi: A Sikh journalist on Tuesday hurled a shoe at Home minister P Chidambaram protesting against CBI's clean chit to senior Congress leader Jagdish Tytler accused in 1984 anti-Sikh riots case, but it missed the target.

Chidambaram, who was addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters, was surprised when suddenly Jarnail Singh, journalist from a Hindi daily, flung the shoe and an alert Home minister made a quick movement to see it pass by him.

"Please take him away," said Chidambaram who later added "gently, gently" as the journalist was escorted out of the press conference hall. Later, he was taken away by police but it was not clear whether any case has been registered against him against the backdrop of Chidambaram saying "I forgive him".

As the action caused a flutter in the hall, a composed Chidambaram appealed to the reporters, "let not the action of one emotional person hijack the entire press conference. I have answered his questions to the best of my ability." http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1245992

[CielOnTap]

The US military wanted a photo opportunity with two of its fighter jets and a 747 near the office towers of New York. People in the towers headed outside upon noticing the planes. The city authorities were informed of the exercise but could not let the populace know. The tower workers must be having debates about whose brainchild that exercise was, as memories remain from September 2001.

Air Force photo op panics Ground Zero workers

AP Photo/Jason McLane
April 27, 2009
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — A low-flying Boeing 747 escorted by two fighter jets as part of a federal government photo opportunity over lower Manhattan caused a brief panic among workers near ground zero on Monday.

John Leitner, a floor trader at the New York Mercantile Exchange Building, said workers received no official prior announcement about the exercise. He said everyone panicked when they saw the low-flying planes and began running out of the building, mere blocks from the former World Trade Center site, around 10 a.m. Photo op