Month: June 2009

Why Did Rockstar Energy Drink Boycotters Wear ‘Vendetta’ Masks in the LA Gay Pride Parade?

Jon Ponder

Rockstar boycotters appeared at the 2009 Los Angeles Gay Pride Parade dressed in “V” masks

As if events* around the boycott against Rockstar Energy Drink weren’t surreal enough, a protest group’s appearance in the Los Angeles Gay Pride Parade yesterday took the oddness of the campaign up a notch.

Dressed in black and masked as “V,” the anarchist in the 2005 film, “V for Vendetta,” the protesters handed out stickers that bowdlerized Rockstar’s logo as “Hatestar.”

The boycott has been called because the CEO and founder of Rockstar is Russell Weiner, the son of radio hatemonger, Michael Savage. Weiner also shares his father’s extreme right-wing political views. And Savage’s wife, Janet Weiner, is the corporate secretary-treasurer for Rockstar — the same position she holds for Savage’s production company.

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Joan Walsh Demonstrates How Liberals Should Deal With Nutcases Like O’Reilly

Jon Ponder

After the interview, Joan Walsh, who is the editor of Salon.com, filed an after-action report on her site:

I think the high or low point was when he shrieked at me, “You have blood on your hands!” At one point he also either told me to “Shut up” or “Be quiet,” I can’t remember. (If I’m wrong about that, when I see the clip, I’ll correct it. UPDATE: Actually, he shouted “Stop talking!”) He called me “vile.” I think I said he was vile, too. There were a couple of “I know you are but what am I?” moments that I’m not totally proud of. It was a kaleidoscopic nightmare, a TV acid trip, and I don’t do acid. It almost seems like O’Reilly does, but I don’t think so. The man is driven by demons. God bless him and save him.

Quote du Jour

Buck Banks

I think he smells some blood in the water on the national-security issue. It’s almost, a little bit, gallows politics. When you read behind it, it’s almost as if he’s wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point. I think that’s dangerous politics.

— CIA Director Leon Panetta, in an interview with the New Yorker, on former Vice President Dick Cheney’s criticisms of the Obama administration.

Former Exec Says GM Is a “PowerPoint Culture”

Trish

They say good could come from this recession: many of us will learn to focus on value instead of mindless vanity, the financial industry could be reformed, and health care might begin to work. One of the best possible scenarios is that some of the companies who most need to “get it” will.

After reading what the former vice president marketing for General Motors, Mike Jackson, says about the car maker, it’s easy to see why America is choking in a sea of SUVs even though the world is running out of oil. Apparently, the entire company’s decision-making system is deeply flawed.

He dubbed GM as a “PowerPoint culture” and a “bureaucracy of meetings culture.”

He dubbed GM as a “PowerPoint culture” and a “bureaucracy of meetings culture.” During his tenure at the automaker, Mr. Jackson said that “there were no meetings where people just sat down, had a discussion and made a decision.”

Mr. Jackson also was critical of GM for putting engineers and finance people with no marketing training in key marketing positions. That means the agency teams often presented their work to executives with less experience and often no experience outside the auto industry, though he added that his former employer has lots of company in this arena across the auto industry.

…If an [ad] agency doesn’t fall in line with the marketer’s demands, the client threatens to move the business…The agencies present work they know will get approved, not cool, risky creative, he said. As a result, ho-hum work is perpetuated.

One of the “five Ps” of marketing is the product itself. It’s no wonder that bad processes were leading to bad products at GM. Let’s hope GM 2.0 wises up.

Rockstar Lawyers Up but Boycott over Michael Savage Connection Won’t Go Away

Jon Ponder

Efforts by the makers of Rockstar Energy Drink to suppress the association between their company and the father of its CEO and founder, right-wing extremist radio talker Michael Savage, appear to be backfiring. Rather than stifling the company’s family connection with Savage, publicity generated by Rockstar’s aggressive legal strategy is helping to spread news that a boycott of Rockstar is underway.

Michael Savage’s real name is Michael Weiner. His son, Russell Weiner, is Rockstar’s CEO.

In the past few weeks, Rockstar’s lawyers have caused a stir by contacting online outlets that promote or report on the Rockstar boycott. They forced Facebook to shutter a boycott-oriented group and threatened to sue news sites, including Alternet, Gaywired, So Cal Voice, Change.org, Gaysocialites.com, Wiqaable.com and the gay news site, the Bilerico Project.

Charles Tsai, a would-be boycott organizer on Facebook, claims on his blog, dontdrinkhate.wordpress.com, that Rockstar lawyers forced Facebook to shut down his group, which was called “Don’t Drink Hate. BOYCOTT ROCKSTAR.” Facebook allegedly replaced the boycott group with a group called “ROCKSTAR ENERGY DRINK FANCLUB!”

Tsai writes that the new Rockstar fanclub page included sniping at the Weiners and their lawyers:

“Yes, this is a cave-in. It was decided it was not worth any legal repercussions to [sic] we now FULLY endorse Rockstar Energy Drink in every way! GO ROCKSTAR! YAY!”…

“Please let’s all focus on the AWESOMENESS that is ROCKSTAR ENERGY DRINK (as ordered by lawyers). Any past negative comments concerning ROCKSTAR ENERGY DRINK originatin [sic] from this group were WRONG, LIES and SLANDER! GO ROCKSTAR!”…

“Once again, we APOLOGIZE publically for any slander towards ROCKSTAR ENERGY DRINK and salute them as the world’s most powerful energy drink! Go Rockstar!”

According to Bil Browning, an editor at the Bilerico Project, Rockstar’s lawyers demanded that he retract statements written by guest blogger Michael Jones, an editor at Change.org, that contained mischaracterizations of Savage’s role in Rockstar:

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NOW Sanctions Letterman Over Palin Jokes

Trish
Statement: ‘NOW hopes that all the conservatives who are fired up about sexism in the media lately will join us in calling out sexism when it is directed at women who aren’t professed conservatives’

Poor David Letterman. He’s finding out the hard way that going up against Sarah Palin can be a very, very unpleasant experience. And now, even, um NOW (the National Organization for Women) is against him.

It all started when Alaska’s governor came to New York to participate in a tribute to William Seward in Auburn, N.Y. on the 50th anniversary of Alaska statehood. After that, she and the fam, who as we know from the 2008 campaign, like to soak up all the freebies they can, attended a Yankees game before heading to Washington for a Republican fund raising dinner. Palin’s 14-year-old daughter, Willow, was at the game. Her more notorious daughter, the 18-year-old Bristol, who recently bore a son without benefit of marriage, was not.

So began Letterman’s troubles.

And if that wasn’t bad enough…

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H1N1 Influenza: It’s Officially a Pandemic

Buck Banks

Remarks of Dr. Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization delivered June 11, 2009
– ————————————–

Ladies and gentlemen,

In late April, WHO announced the emergence of a novel influenza A virus.

This particular H1N1 strain has not circulated previously in humans. The virus is entirely new.

The virus is contagious, spreading easily from one person to another, and from one country to another. As of today [11 Jun 2009], nearly 30,000 confirmed cases have been reported in 74 countries.

This is only part of the picture. With few exceptions, countries with large numbers of cases are those with good surveillance and testing procedures in place.

Spread in several countries can no longer be traced to clearly-defined chains of human-to-human transmission. Further spread is considered inevitable.

I have conferred with leading influenza experts, virologists, and public health officials. In line with procedures set out in the International Health Regulations, I have sought guidance and advice from an Emergency Committee established for this purpose.

On the basis of available evidence, and these expert assessments of the evidence, the scientific criteria for an influenza pandemic have been met.

I have, therefore, decided to raise the level of influenza pandemic alert from phase 5 to phase 6.

The world is now at the start of the 2009 influenza pandemic.

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The Latest Idiocy from Florida Republicans

Buck Banks

It would be laughable … oh hell, it is laughable. Here’s the latest quote-marked blurt from Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer, (edited for length, not content):

Back in the USSR

Tallahassee — Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer today released the following statement regarding President Obama’s most recent appointment of yet another czar to his administration which, in 5 short months, has now surpassed the number of czars appointed during the 300 years of Russia’s Romanov Dynasty:

“It is absolutely ridiculous that President Obama has appointed, and will most likely continue to appoint, countless czars which are nothing more than symbolic figureheads to demonstrate to the American people that he is concerned about the buzz word of the day — border czar, regulation czar, infotech czar, urban czar, the list goes on and even includes a “compensation czar,” responsible for deciding the salaries of the top 100 employees of publicly traded companies!”

In over 300 years, the Romanov Dynasty ruled Russia with only 18 czars, yet in only five short months, the United States now has an excess of over 20 czars. What happened to cutting back and doing more with less?”

“These absurd positions do nothing but take away from the transparency that President Obama promised the American people. Who do the czars report to? The President? Members of the Cabinet? Congress? Certainly not the American people? These czars allow for an unacceptable sense of unaccountability in our government. What happened to the checks and balances between the branches of government that our forefathers carefully built into our Constitution? To me it looks like those values are being side stepped in favor of an army of presidentially appointed mini-dictators. Enough is enough.”

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