Bloggers are glued to YouTube over the anonymous video portraying an Orwellian Hillary Clinton in a mashup of an iconic Apple commercial. They also suspect New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin of less-than-robust mental health for his conspiracy theory about New Orleans’ slow recovery and get paranoid over the Bong Hits 4 Jesus free-speech case before the Supreme Court.
Big Sister: A viral attack video that casts New York Sen. Hillary Clinton as the Big Giant Head in a mashup of Apple’s 1984 ad has bloggers wondering about the nature of campaign ads in the YouTube era. The Obama camp denies any involvement.
The Red Tape Chronicles’ Bob Sullivan zeroes in on the key question: “Enduring images from political campaigns are sometimes credited with changing the course of an election. Some political consultants believe each campaign produces such a video moment. But this time around, what if the image isn’t produced by either campaign?”
Writer Nordette Adams at NJ Spoken Word is suspicious about the source: “[T]he ‘1984’ anti-Hillary video smacks of past conservative efforts to paint Hillary Clinton as an Orwellian Big Brother figure. There’s nothing new about portraying Hillary as ‘Big Sister,’ and the educated know this.” And no matter who created it, Speechwriter-Ghostwriter Jane Genova is sure the video is the next big thing. “What is obvious is that Obama has support among visionaries who understand the shock of using a new medium in a new way.”
Scott Olin Schmidt, a Republican blogger at BoiFromTroy, loves the video but isn’t sure what it means. “I have no idea how this would make a better case for Barack Obama than for, say Giuliani, who actually can credibly argue a consistent message of promoting freedom.”
Jay Andrew Allen, self-described “non-lunatic libertarian” at The Zero Boss, is equal parts dismissive and complimentary: “[I]t’s an anti-dictatorship ad that uses a chief tool of all dictators: propaganda. It makes no arguments. It offers no original ideas. It just cherry-picks quotes to make Sen. Clinton sound like she’s declaring war on Oceania. And yet it captures, in artistic form, why many social and economic liberals can’t bring themselves to vote forHillary.”
Read more about the video.
A flood of ideas: In a recent speech, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin called the glacial pace of rebuilding in his city a conspiracy. “They are studying this model of natural disasters, dispersing the community and changing the electoral process in that community,” he said.
The Atlanta student behind No More Spin suspects it’s all about publicity. “Can you say unhinged? Who exactly are ‘they’, Mr. Mayor? Care to back up your conspiracy theory with any evidence? Of course not, it’s just another way for Nagin to get the attention he so craves.” But DavidL at Bitsblog says it’s really all about geography. “The stupid city is under water. What happened in New Orleans could not happen just anywhere. It could only happen in city built below sea level. The former residents likely have decided that they like living above sea level, like normal folks do.”
The owner of Have Skunk is siding with the mayor. “No duh, dude. Welcome to the Cheney-Boosh reality of unthinkable truths where anything is doable, including the destruction of entire American cities, and nobody even thinks twice about it.”
Artist Kimberly Marshall at Dangerblond is on the ground in New Orleans and isn’t buying what the mayor’s selling. “Sugar Ray Nagin is saying that he is the only thing stopping a Vast Conspiracy between the weather and the Landrieu family to keep black people from returning to New Orleans. Thank god the white Republicans came to our rescue and got him re-elected.”
Read more about the response to Nagin’s comments.
Bogarting SCOTUS: The Supreme Court is hearing arguments today in the Bong Hits 4 Jesus case over a high-school student’s right to free speech. In a ploy to get on television, Alaska student Joseph Frederick hoisted a banner with the aforementioned message. The school’s principal tore it down and suspended him. Bloggers just try to keep a straight face while typing “Bong Hits 4 Jesus.”
Jack Cluth at The People’s Republic of Seabrook sums it up quite nicely: “You know it’s going to be an interesting news day when this phrase is all over the morning news BONG HITS 4 JESUS”.
At the Infidel Free-Press, Michael Ghostwolf knows just how to draw the line: “Whatever side Ken Starr is on, I’m going to be safe and do the exact opposite.” Celeste Fremon, fellow at the USC Annenberg Institute for Justice and Journalism and creator of WitnessLA, attacks the former Clinton prosecutor’s legal approach: “Imagine for a minute how the First Amendment might read with Starr’s line of reasoning appended: ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances—unless such speech, religion or right to assemble is inconsistent with the basic mission of….’ Of what??? A school? A political party? A government’s preferred views? There is no acceptable way to finish that sentence.”
Read more about the Supreme Court case.
