Got Something to Communicate?

From Liz, a new way to customise your car.

Washington DC

Had "house tequila" margaritas with some lady milbloggers last night and I'm rather excited now about the conference tomorrow.

I'll take my laptop but it took me over an hour to trouble shoot my way onto the web (Jeremy, what am I getting wrong???) so I might just look over the shoulder of the live bloggers and make cracks in my best British accent.

A student friend of mine has asked for some help on a research project, titled "Power to the People: How consumers forced the evolution in the music industry"

"Can you please click on the link and complete the questionnaire. It should not take more than 2 minutes..

http://www.boylans.co.uk/roxy/roxyquestionnaire.aspx

Copy and paste link in the browser if it doesn't automatically link.

Thanks, Roxanne"

PS: OK Jeremy, now I think the BBC license fee is a good idea. See, I can change my mind if presented with a good argument. Cheers.

BBC License Fee Needed To Crack New York

I am not a fan of being taxed to pay for the BBC. It is not public service broadcasting and BBC news is grossly biased.

In the States there are plenty of news channels to cater for every whim, lefties in denial, right wing nuts, that kind of thing. I've come to the conclusion that it's impossible to have clean, honest, objective broadcast news.

So when I read about the BBC hiring a New York advertising agency (and that will cost a pretty penny) to help them launch the BBC news 24 channel I have to laugh. The audience ratings in the UK rarely get above a million during the evening yet the article says:

"...help launch its iconic 24-hour international news channel in the U.S. market. BBC World News, seen in about 280 million homes globally, will be available to Cablevision's digital subscribers in the New York metropolitan area at the end of the month."

There are 40 million homes in the UK, each one taxed to pay for the BBC. Who are the other 240 million already receiving the news channel? Add New York's metro area - what another ten million? Well don't I feel marvellous that I'm paying a tax so New Yorkers can watch something other than ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox or CNN news.

Dinosaur Media

From Ad Age yesterday:

"It's been clear for a couple months that magazines were enduring an appalling start to the year..."

I can give an example of why no one wants to advertise in some magazines:




A magazine by senior citizens for senior citizens, clearly.

Nick Lachey - that cultural icon?
Pearl Jam? Springsteen? has the space time continuum altered in some way?
Bush = Dunce - the wit and wisdom of an unidentified, but take their word for it, "leading" historian - sorry but this cover is full of more rubbish that Weekly World News.

I got the cover from Drudge. I don't need to look at the ads, they'll be pornographic images for clothing and the ubiquitous ipod and up to the minute technology. Yawn.

I'd rather go over to Dr. Sanity, who really is fighting the good fight on this one:

"But what I do expect is some fundamental agreement on what the reality is."

"The left's current concensus view on terrorism, Iraq, Afghanistan, the war on terror and Freedom is flatly wrong and cannot be justified by the facts that are out there. Their rhetoric is designed to obfuscate and deny objective reality --which they don't even believe in to begin with (or, they believe in it until it become threatening then they seek refuge behind postmodern political rhetoric). The motivation for their continual Bush/Republican bashing is simple: Bush is the current symbol of their demise--the fly in their utopian ointment; the light shining in their darkness; or, to be more precise, the symbol of the end of their ideology."

"How do I know this? Since Bush's election at the millennium, things have been going very badly for the left. As the real world presses in on them, their voices have become more shrill and hysterical; their rage is escalating out of control. No longer do most of them even bother to argue their points logically; they simply loudly denounce any idea or person who threatens their worldview; or deliberately and with the ruthless finesse of all tyrants and thugs, simply attempt to supress all dissenting opinions."

"9/11 did not wake them up; rather it forced them to openly move toward what they have supported surreptitiously all along--the elimination of free speech in the name of political correctness and multiculturalism; a dictatorship where the pseudo-intellectual, politically correct priesthood rule; and complete control over the lives of others (for their own good, of course). Since their objectives dovetail nicely with those of the Islamic terrorists, they have made common cause with them and have not lost many opportunities to enable and encourage them, even as they denounce America and the principles of freedom and democracy."

"They pretend their actions are motivated from love and peace and patriotism; but this is only how they rationalize it to themselves. Their self-deception and denial is simply stunning in its sweeping grandiosity and self-righteousness betrayal of the good."

Everything she blogs about is stunning and in some ways kind of heartbreaking.

Blogs are changing the way we learn about the world. It's a slow process, drip, drip, drip. I'm proud to be a part of this new community of writers.

Of course there are stupid people in the world, and evil people. But they do not get to have power over me, or not in the way they did in the past.

A Drink or Two is Good for You

Articles like this one from Saturday's Times always intrigue me:

"Boozing boosts women’s brain power"

"...a new study reports that one or two drinks a day can improve female brain power."

"The research, in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association, says that women who have a couple of daily glasses score about 20 per cent higher in intelligence tests than women who don’t drink, or drink very little."

"The researcher, Clinton Wright, an assistant professor of neurology at Columbia University, New York, is unsure why moderate drinking might have this effect on women. Nor did his study of 2,215 people find any such link between men’s boozing and boosted brains."

My theory? Drinking slows down the whizzing, fizzing thoughts and we really need that.

NY Times and LA Times' Profits Decline Again

"NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Newspapers made a bit of a grim display this week when they reported their first-quarter earnings, revealing profit declines at The New York Times Co., Tribune Co., McClatchy Co. and powerhouse Gannett Co., but displayed at every turn the rising importance of the Web to their businesses."

I am an ex-NY Times reader. We had it delivered every Sunday and I was certainly reading the front news section and Arts and Leisure from the time I was twelve. It didn't shape my political thinking as much as listening to my father on the ride to school. He was a smart, cool ex marine and small business owner who had turned his back on most forms of elitism and pretension. That's a bit of a tall order in a suburb like Grosse Pointe, where most of the families lived in a fog of gormless midwest entitlement.

When my sister had her first baby I moved from London into a flat on Hollywood Boulevard. It was a fifteen minute walk to her house - straight uphill in desert heat with no pavement and boy racers at every turn. Driving was the wisest course.

She got the LA Times delivered every day and I would read the news and Calendar avidly, having developed a newspaper addiction from my time in London. My special treat in those days was to go to the big newsagent on Fairfax at Melrose on Monday, buy the London Sunday Times and a box of Silk Cut and spend Monday evening working my way through both.

The reason I smoked is I really enjoyed it. Nicotine patches saved me from that addiction.

The reason I don't read the NY Times, LA Times, and papers of that ilk anymore is that I don't enjoy it. September 11th changed my mental processes and saved me from that addition.

I don't know why the business men running those papers are so out of tune with me, don't care either. It's nice to see the figures though, and realise just how many Americans are literally and figuratively not buying the biased news stories they spin.

Poetry

Crazy - Gnarls Barkley 2006

I remember when, I remember, I remember when I lost my mind
There was something so pleasant about that place.
Even your emotions had an echo
In so much space
And when you're out there Without care,
Yeah, I was out of touch
But it wasn't because I didn't know enough
I just knew too much
Does that make me crazy Does that make me crazy Does that make me crazy
possibly
And I hope that you are having the time of your life
But think twice, that's my only advice
Come on now, who do you, who do you, who do you, who do you think you are,
Ha ha ha bless your soul
You really think you're in control
Well, I think you're crazy I think you're crazy I think you're crazy
Just like me
My heroes had the heart to lose their lives out on a limb
And all I remember is thinking, I want to be like them
Ever since I was little, ever since I was little it looked like fun
And it's no coincidence I've come And I can die when I'm done
Maybe I'm crazy Maybe you're crazy Maybe we're crazy
Probably

Daybreak John Donne 1609

Stay, O sweet, and do not rise
The light that shines comes from thine eyes;
The day breaks not: it is my heart,
Because that you and I must part.
Stay! or else my joys will die
And perish in their infancy.

South Park's Tenth Season

Great article in Rolling Stone:

"...as it turned out, the protests had nothing to do with the South Park episode in which the prophet Mohammed plays a superhero; they were about political cartoons in a Danish newspaper. Stone was disappointed. "I was like, 'Danish cartoons? That's our competition? The fucking Danish?'" "

" "People say, 'You rip on both sides and don't take a stand!' But that is our stance!" says Parker. "To me, comedy is a point of view. It's OK to take the middle ground." "

I did like Team America. (Thanks Liz)

How to Make Me Happy

Jokes work, so do drinks. Noticing my hair. Fabulous texts...ok, I won't go there.

I've just come back from my local convenience store. They know me so well in there, bouncing in pissed to get full fat milk, Red Bull and white wine. The lady behind the counter leaned forward and said "you've lost weight" and I would have kissed her if she wasn't 3 feet away, separated by every confectionery product on the planet.

Is it just me, or is everyone blogging these days rather more mellow than usual?

There's a new post up at Iowahawk. Here's the first paragraph:

"Once upon a time in the postwar, before the advent of EPA and OSHA and the Consumer Products Safety Commission and weenies in bike helmets and multilingual warning stickers on stepladders, crazy people walked this earth. Good, fun-loving Americans who knew that "instructions" were something you threw in the trash along with the empty Falstaff bottles. A halcyon era filled with manly men who savored the wholesome virtues of a rugged game of un-seatbelted automotive chicken."

Read the whole thing, it's bonkers but fab.

Scottish Joke

I found the link at It Comes in Pints? I followed it through to Physics Geek. This is the best Scottish joke I've heard in years:

"A young Scottish lad and lass were sitting on a low stone wall,holding hands, gazing out over the loch. For several minutes they sat silently.
Then finally the girl looked at the boy and said, "A penny for your thoughts, Angus."
"Well, uh, I was thinkin'...perhaps it's aboot time for a wee kiss."
The girl blushed, then leaned over and kissed him lightly on the cheek.
Then he blushed. The two turned once again to gaze out over the loch.

Minutes passed and the girl spoke again. "Another penny for your thoughts, Angus."
"Well, uh, I was thinkin' perhaps it's noo time aboot time for a wee cuddle."
The girl blushed, then leaned over and cuddled him for a few seconds.
Then he blushed. Then the two turned once again to gaze out over the loch.

After a while, she again said, "Another penny for your thoughts, Angus."
"Well, uh, I was thinkin' perhaps it's aboot time you let me put my hand on your leg."
The girl blushed, then took his hand and put it on her knee. Then he blushed.
The the two turned once again to gaze out over the lock before the girl spoke again.

"Another penny for your thoughts, Angus."
The young man glanced down with a furled brow. "Well,noo," he said, "my thoughts are a wee bit more serious this time."
"Really?" said the lass in a whisper, filled with anticipation.
"Aye," said the lad, nodding.
The girl looked away in shyness, began to blush, and bit her lip in anticipation of the ultimate request.
Then he said,

"Dae ye nae think it's aboot time ye paid me the first three pennies?"

Fire Bad Tree Pretty

Sometimes I boggle at the thinking of others.

If things are black and white - then there's a purity of condemnation, all torture is bad, say.

Norm puts it beautifully:

"...the prohibition on torture and inhuman and degrading treatment should not be up for discussion; it is not something that should have been problematized. As I have said before on this blog, torture is an abomination. The right protecting people against it must be treated as absolute."

So if that's clear, then all terrorism is an abomination too, right?

Aw oh:

"...why Gearty, lavish with his criticisms of the Bush administration about this ('moves away from... the rule of law and human dignity', 'the challenge to human rights is manifest'), and a stout defender of human rights ('the human rights idea needs to stand firmly against this kind of distortion of its essence'), should

(a) have no interest in whether the bad policies of the Bush administration might themselves be thought to have 'grown out of' anything, and

(b) fail to notice (or at any rate to speak about) the way in which acts of terrorism also challenge human rights, violating the rights of the maimed and the murdered; they also distort the essence of the human rights idea."

Hey, I know why! Americans bad, Palestinians/terrorists good.

Feel free to smash your planes into skyscrapers, the intellectual zen masters running my country will contemplate it all calmly.

See how easy life is when you know every line from Buffy the Vampire Slayer by heart?

Well hey there!

Rather light blogging these last few days. I keep seeing things I want to put on the blog so the stack of articles and internet links is considerable. These aren't in any particular order:

Liz sent me a link to an article by Theodore Dalrymple about how bad mannered everyone is these days and now I'm sensitive to it. It's not just British people though, an American girl in the Kensington High Street Gap pushed me out of her way yesterday and it was gob smacking. She looked like a normal 20-something city girl but after slamming into me went "excuse me" in that mid west accent I know so well. Maybe she was partially sighted, I should cut her some slack, right?

From the article:

"What better way to prove your egalitarian credentials than by adopting the supposedly free and easy, utterly informal manners of those at the bottom of the social scale? The freer and easier the better, for such informality demonstrates another quality beloved of, and praised by, intellectuals: a superiority to the dictates of convention. Thus you can never be quite informal or unconventional enough."

He points out all the people who put their feet on the seat - of buses and trains and so on. I was at the V & A yesterday and this guy had his feet on the seat of the cushioned bench in the cinema, so nowhere is safe. I have, in the past, got out my lint brush and used it on the seat after going "sorry" to the person who's put their feet where I want to sit. I do it to be annoying back, plus I have a beautiful black velvet coat I want to take care of. Plus I have zero tolerance for lint as some of you know.

Here in beautiful downtown Kensington, there's a bit of a rumpus going on over the site of an old people's home. The original building was condemned and the nursing home closed down. I've heard they moved the old people to somewhere in Chiswick. Argggghhhh. So all the old dears still living in the borough are up in arms, holding enormous mass demonstrations and meetings in the town hall. Planning permission has been refused yet again, but the property developer and their financial backers Arcapita Bank are going to the High Court to appeal the decision. My favourite part in all of this saga? Arcapita Bank's decision, a few years ago, to change their name from First Islamic Investment Bank! How funny is that! We all know it's against their religion to charge interest so wtf are they doing, pushing to build millionaire penthouses on the site of a building providing a valuable public service. The report in The Cherry Tree newsletter covers the situation in much greater detail.

Campaign Magazine, 7 April 2006, should die from shame with their latest strangest publicity stunt - a review of the week's past advertising by Gorgeous George Gallowey, "MP and talkSPORT presenter". Here's what he has to say about the most recent Amnesty International press and poster campaign:

"The Amnesty International artwork is magnificent but, really, this is not about attempting to influence foreign leaders and dictators, it is about raising money for Amnesty. I have been on the receiving end of these campaigns and they do not work on me because when you have weighed up an issue and made your decision, you would have to be a fairly feeble politician to be swayed by a letter-writing blizzard. George Bush is not going to withdraw his troops from Iraq and stop torturing uncharged prisoners, and Robert Mugabe will not be scratching his chin and musing "maybe they are right" because their mailbags are full. I hope the cheques roll in, but it is not going to put a check on abuses."

George Galloway accepted money from Sodhim Hussein in the oil-for-food scandal that brutalised the Iraqi people and kept Sodhim safely in place to inflict his cruelties for years. That my trade paper would think what he had to say about anything was of value speaks volumes for the advertising industry as a whole. Sordid and misogynist - and I'm not just referring to Gerry Moira's pathetic contribution.

By the way, when he says letters don't work you know that means they really work very well, right? That's psychology 101, okay?

This past weekend redefined the word happiness for me, the glorious weather - and company - couldn't have been more delightful. I've got to finish this and focus on some other things, but I'm glad you dropped by and I'll try and make it worth your while.

Those Clever Bods at P & G

If you read my blog you know I have certain, ahem, passions. Something that drives me crazy is anti-America bashing dressed up as social conscience. Pull the other one!

Here's a story about doing good that links into sound business practice and excellent public relations. I subscribe to a free newsletter from www.springwise.com and there's always something that catches my imagination - Japanese ear cleaning clinics, anyone?

The Springwise report:

"In Kenya, Procter & Gamble has just launched a two-year programme that will supply over 600,000 underprivileged girls with sanitary towels to ensure they remain in class during menstruation. A large number of girls in rural Kenya skip school during their monthly period, because their families are too poor to buy sanitary towels. It's estimated that this causes an average girl to miss more than a month of school each year."

"Working with Nakumatt, a Kenyan supermarket chain, and The Girl Child Network, P&G is matching the number of sanitary towels donated by Nakumatt shoppers to help girls stay in school throughout the month. And yes, of course this is a clever way to introduce consumers to one’s brand, and of course companies like P&G are in it for the profits, but that's what businesses do. Hey, as long as all involved win! What is your brand doing to help out those who need it most?"

I don't care about id cards - my passport gets "read" at least one a week and I'm still having a happy life. I don't care that spy planes may or may not have touched down at Shannon airport, or Luton or Stansted. I've seen and read about evil men, they exist, they have corporeal form, they should be squashed like bugs for the horror they inflict on innocent civilians. Fly 'em around? Whatever.

In Dublin's Fair City

Heartstoppingly beautiful today with the sun pouring down and glinting on the rooftops. The distant mountains are hazy in the sunshine, patches of Irish green run up their side with a dark brown ridge running the full horizon.

Can't get the wi-fi to work properly just a quick note to you all.

Four Days to Hitchhike from Saginaw

Madonna, Eminem, Motown (Diana!), Suzi Quatro, Commander Cody, Bob Seger, White Stripes, my sister...

From Norm, here's a poll asking "Which US State has made the greatest contribution to contemporary music?"

Heart Attack Advice

You know those round robin emails you get, highlighting something quite interesting and then you're supposed to pass it on? This one is rather important and I can do better than that. I can post it on my blog!

Subject: Is It A Stroke? Is It A Heart Attack?

Is It A Stroke?

Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster for the stroke victim. A stroke victim may suffer brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke. Now doctors say any bystander can recognize a stroke by asking four simple questions:

1. Ask the individual to smile.
2. Ask him or her to raise both arms.
3. Ask the person to speak a simple sentence.
4. Ask the person to stick out his tongue. -- If it goes to one side, it may be a stroke.

Note: I think it's easier to remember this:

1. "Smile"
2. "Raise both your arms"
3. "Quick - say a sentence"
4. "Stick out your tongue"

--I don't know about you, but if I was a bit ill and frightened, I could get completely caught up in trying to figure out what a simple sentence was, "the cat sat on the hat" as opposed to "I feel very strange and think I'm going to faint" - and that's not the time to get distracted. So I've changed the instruction - let them choose what kind of sentence they want to say.--

If he or she has trouble with any of these tasks, call 911 (999 in the UK) immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.

After discovering that a group of non-medical volunteers could identify facial weakness, arm weakness and speech problems, researchers urged the general public to learn the three (it's four) questions.

They presented their conclusions at the American Stroke Association's annual meeting last February. Widespread use of this test could result in prompt diagnosis and treatment of the stroke and prevent brain damage.

Is It A Heart Attack?

A cardiologist says if everyone who gets this e-mail sends it to 10 people, you can bet that at least one life will be saved.

Let's say it's 6:15 PM. and you're driving home (alone of course), after an unusually hard day on the job. You're really tired, upset, and frustrated. Suddenly you start experiencing severe pain in your chest that starts to radiate out into your arm and up into your jaw. You are only about five miles from the hospital nearest your home. Unfortunately you don't know if you'll be able to make it that far. You have been trained in CPR, but the guy that taught the course did not tell you how to perform it on yourself.

HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK WHEN ALONE

Since many people are alone when they suffer a heart attack, without help, the person whose heart is beating improperly and who begins to feel faint, has only about 10 seconds left before losing consciousness.

However, these victims can help themselves by coughing repeatedly and very vigorously.

A deep breath should be taken before each cough, and the cough must be deep and prolonged, as when producing spitum from deep inside the chest.

A breath and a cough must be repeated about every two seconds without let-up until help arrives, or until the heart is felt to be beating normally again.

Deep breaths get oxygen into the lungs and coughing movements squeeze the heart and keep the blood circulating. The squeezing pressure on the heart also helps it regain normal rhythm. In this way, heart attack victims can get to a hospital.

Smile-raise both arms-sentence-tongue out.

Thanks Liz.

Qualitative Research Recruitment

Just received a copy of a letter sent to the Market Research Society on Friday. I have the author's permission to post it on my blog.

The letter:

I would like to write in response to the article concerning Qualitative Research Recruitment as I believe the industry knows exactly what is happening but wont face the fact that it is a lot worse than this article indicates.

I have been involved in the Industry for 30 years in many different roles. As I have daily contact with all aspects of the Industry I am in a very unique position to fully expose the extent of the problem. I have a catalogue of data and knowledge of cheating recruiters, greedy field agency bosses, badly trained and ignorant field executives, moderators who consider themselves are trained but either don’t pick up the rogue respondents or just don’t care, the cheating public and clients who expect too much.

The one thing we all know is that the methods of recruitment of respondents for the Qual industry is not TRANSPARENT monitored or checked. There are no guide lines or open discussions on how respondent data is collected - absolutely nothing. It is all shrouded in secrecy by the freelance Recruiters and Field companies. It functions without any legal guidelines or framework – eg, is it fraud or a criminal offence to attend a group falsely and if so what should/could be done about it?
How many employees of a Qual Field Agency have actually visited a recruiter to see how their subcontractors work? How many recruiters would actually let a Qual Field Manager around their office and look at their storage/databases and how they record attendees to a group? How in 2006 can an industry be so closed and secretive, with no legal obligation , no rules, and allow large multinationals to pay huge amounts of money for access to respondents who nobody properly monitors for the most part.

We have an industry largely based on old ladies who have been operating for 20 years plus, with little books and cards, who supply and recycle people for Qualitative projects and don’t give a **** about the industry. Even though they are producing the SERIAL ATTENDEE they don’t even see that they are cheating because the industry as a whole has condoned it for years.

Most recruiters in London and some of the larger cities who do Consumer Recruitment only have a database of 2000. Most of them earn more than 20K per year (which is recruiting 22 people per week =1000 people per year at £20 per head), The vast majority, earn way more than that but how can they with a database of only 2000? – statistically impossible. They constantly recycle, in some cases for 30 years, so why has nobody picked this up.

Within these recruiters – there are those that downright cheat – where the respondent is asked to lie about the criteria by the recruiter because they don’t fit exactly and it becomes a very unhealthy relationship where over a period of many years the recruiter knows that if she phones “x” they will go along and lie. There are also recruiters who send ladies as their maiden name so that they can attend more groups. Some recruiters only have this type of respondent. These particular types of recruiters are more likely to constantly produce perfect respondents because the respondents have been fully briefed by website/email/word as to what they should be and therefore unless they make a slip up – the moderator thinks everything is perfect. We spoke to a respondent last week who had attended in excess of 200 groups – what a lot of money they both have made over the years!! These recruiters produce the serial attendees.

Then there are those that stick to the recruitment spec, but ignore the past participation rule. Again the respondent is asked to lie in order to attend more groups but they are actually correct in terms of recruitment. They work for lots of companies and manage their respondents so that even with a database of 2000 people they can still do 4 groups a week. (4 groups x 8 people x 45 weeks per year = 1440 people). I would also point out that there are very few who only recruit 32 people per week, some are doing 100. Some are VAT registered and have to be using 2500+ people a year. Some are driving Mercs on the back of a card box full of respondents!!!! These recruiters produce the serial attendees.

The whole situation is getting worse since the onset of the internet, as the general public has realized that attending focus groups is a good source of income. Now we have the FAKE RESPONDENT with different names and email addresses. I know of 2 people that I could put you in touch with who attend focus groups as a JOB. As a company we DAILY pick up respondents who are working the system. We must have a central register where we can all register these people. At the moment we circulate emails to other interested parties notifying them of the rogue respondents and those that have got onto multiple databases – but – legally are we allowed to? Is this OK with Data Protection, Human Rights?

The way forward

If all recruiters were licensed, had to sign legal and binding documents (Trading standards has been mentioned) and had to register with the Data Protection Act then I suspect that the seriously cheating recruiters who lie about criteria and past participation might all retire. You could of course ask for voluntary registrations and see who registers, saying that this is the first step towards full registration /licensing and vetting (possibly by the Data Protection people) and see who actually comes forward. A lot of them are nearly 60 and have made an enormous amount of money using the same person over 20/30 years and life would become too difficult for them if the industry was properly regulated and someone came to vet them before they could get a license and operate. This would remove a large number of the serial cheating recruiters and the serial cheaters/attendees for ever.


ID has to be produced to attend a focus Group. No ID = No attending of a group = no payment for Recruiter and Respondent. With the full backing of the Industry this could be stopped very quickly.

If no one believes me lets get some facts together – number of recruiters, database sizes, number of groups recruited per year, number of groups taking place in the UK each year. Some of the bigger Field Agencies are turning over £4+m per year.

BUT who in the Industry is actually going to deal with the issue and move us all into a Qual Industry that we can be proud to be part of.

Name withheld as requested
Member of MRS, AQR, ICG,

End of letter.

I don't know how you get strangers to show up at a central location, on time and sit in a room with a one way mirror, while unknown watchers listen and observe and judge.

April Fool?

The girl who first got me reading blogs - August 2004 it was - said in passing the other day "I'm reading Kos and Wonkette these days, just to see what the other side is saying".

Here it is, a rainy Saturday morning and I've finally decided to check them out.

Daily Kos isn't instantly recognisable as the work of one person, which is what appealled to me when I first started reading Michelle and Glenn and Charles and Hugh. They were people with writing styles and ways of thinking I appreciated. I went through a Christopher Hitchens phase and had a huge passion for Michael Yon, still do but he's not writing from the battlefields of Iraq these days so my stomach isn't turning over everytime I hear about IEDs and terrorists blowing themselves up in that neck of the woods - well, not so much.

I was instantly on guard with the report of a "focus group". I always hear alarm bells when people talk aboout "focus groups". The term has become so devalued and any collection of people giving an opinion becomes a "focus group" - whether there's been an attempt to apply scientific principles to the composition of the group or not. Fine, conduct your "focus groups" but don't expect labelling them that way to obfuscate that they're a bunch of your mates agreeing with you over a bottle or three.

Ah oh, April Fool joke? Some of the findings made sense:

Edited Highlights from "TEN COMMANDMENTS FOR 2008 DEMOCRATS"

1. ...Democrats don't want to be told what's wrong with America. They want to be told what you plan to do about it...
2. ...Leave Bush out of it. We know why we don't like him. Tell us why we should like you instead.
3...The time for a conversation about faith and spirituality is in the general election, not the primaries...
4. Don't tell me what's wrong with America unless you can tell me what you're going to do to make it right.
5. Tell me something new. Tell me something I don't already know.
6. Be a Deficit Democrat. Every time a Democratic candidate talked about ending wasteful spending and tackling the deficit, the dials spiked up, as did the approval. In the arena of deficit spending, there really isn't much difference between Democrats and Republicans.
Note: there are no "dials" in qualitative research, no idea why the writer used that terminology)
7. The 2008 Agenda: education, healthcare, prescription drugs, energy independence. The war in Iraq may grab the headlines and the attention, but Democrats are much more focused on concerns right here at home.
8. The 2008 Attributes: intelligence, competence, accountability, getting things done, passion, honesty and being ethical.
9. You are the message. Watch the negativity. Democrats want hope. Beating up on Republicans will generate applause, but it doesn't generate votes. The candidates focused on the future will have a significant advantage. The candidate that generates the most hope in a better future will win the nomination.
10. Winning is everything. And the only thing. As in 2004, Democrats want to win. Unlike 2004, they REALLY want to win. No candidate will secure the nomination whom they fear will lose to the Republican nominee. Electability is going to play a major role in 2008.

What, picking John Kerry meant Democrats didn't REALLY want to win?

But seriously folks, if this is the blog democrats are reading there is SOME hope that America will finally get a DECENT opposition party, which is what is needed right now. The beauty of having a responsible, intelligent opposition party is it provides a VALID alternative to the party in power. The threat that the opposition will take on considerable political power is a wonderful way to focus the attention, which has not been required of the republican party to the detriment of all.

Sorry about all the words in caps, I was just copying the style.

No time to check out Wonkette.