Election Season

Clearly we are coming up to an election. I hadn't really noticed. Political rhetoric being what it is, all over talk radio and on TV, and everything always being so partisan the advertisements for candidates hadn't so much caught my eye. We have signs on lawns here all the time it seems. Maybe they never get struck after the elections are over. I don't so much read local news or watch the local TV news, so that wasn't it either.

Still, I have options. I have a blog, I must have opinions. I've told people before how I hope and pray that Rick Santorum will not continue to be my Senator. I've also been peripherally aware of the race for PA governor. 70's Steeler super hero Lynn Swann is running for that post. Pretty much I have thought this was a joke. Sort of the ultimate crafted candidate. Someone black for Philly and a Steeler for Pittsburgh - how could you go wrong?

Yes, its a little crass, even for me.

But for someone with no political or management experience at all to be running for Governor, and what with all of the African American candidates that normally come from the big tent of the Republican party you could hardly blame me, yes?

Interestingly, because of these completely unfounded beliefs about Swann's candidacy I had not for even one second even entertained the thought of possibly voting for him. Until today. What happened today, you ask? Today I got a call, on my phone, from a concerned mother who wanted to tell me all about why she loves the current Governor. Except it wasn't a concerned mother. It was a recording of a concerned mother.

Now I am just fine with not-profits and political campaigns being exempt from "do not call" but I think whoever it is that is doing the calling should have to actually do the calling. I really ought to be illegal for anyone to cause you to have to pick up the phone to only find a recording on the other end. So for just a second I thought, gee maybe the current governor isn't any better. If Swann wanted a shot at my vote he would have an actual person call me and tell me how disrespectful he thought it was for the Governor to have a recording making calls on his behalf.

I still wouldn't vote for him, but I might think about it.

And as long as I am ranting about unfortunate intrusion of policy advertising in questionable format, I am real tired of the issue add running on cable right now complaining about how Verizon isn't going to offer their video service in all neighborhoods. Could it be any more transparent that the ads warning of Verizon's "Sweetheart Deals" are coming from Comcast? There ought to be an equal time thing in effect here. And no, that doesn't mean I want Verizon to call me on the phone to tell me what kind of jerk Comcast is. One paper doesn't run ads about how crappy the other papers are, or the TV or the Radio. The person that owns the wire that goes into your house should not have carte blanche to run whatever political drek they want to on it. If they want to send me an email, fine; include an expensive and wasteful insert with my bill, great; produce an editorial that runs on their crappy little Comcast news, ok. But they shouldn't be running issue ads on their own service that so blatantly advocate for them - even if they aren't the money behind them.

Maybe the unibomber was right.