Free Republic

Perhaps you've seen the mysterious (and maddening) advertising blitz popping up on cable TV, elevator-TV screens and the internet this week. It features a smiling and winking electrical outlet that end up being the zero in the number 230, which itself appears above the numbers "8-11." Some virtual detective work by Advertising Age -- and rounds of phone calls -- reveal the marketer behind the effort is General Motors Co. But neither the company nor its agencies would say exactly what the campaign is for. "I'm glad it's getting out there," but no one wants to talk about it until...

Photographic duo Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott icily vamp up Austrian model Iris Strubegger with “The Hunger� for the Valentino Fall/Winter 09-10 ad campaign. Dark Goth, modern romantic, a coldness to her long-legged heat…why do I get the feeling that she wants to drain the blood of the innocents?

Put a fork in it. That’s what two Texas politicians recently said about the controversial Trans-Texas Corridor. “Everybody in Austin knows it’s dead. Everybody across the state knows it’s dead. It’s just something to be talking about,” House Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, said at a debate in Midland on Oct. 19, according to a published report. But folks fighting the corridor here in Central Texas call it election season bluster. “Yes, they are still planning to do it,” said Mae Smith, Holland mayor. “That’s nothing but political talk. I don’t believe anything Mr. Craddick says, or any politician says prior...

It's Italian model Mariacarla Boscono versus the yak in the snowy alpine climes of ?

Julia Restoin-Roitfeld is adding a new item to her modeling resume. The daughter of French Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld, was chosen as the fall face of Accessorize, the British fashion accessories chain.

Model: Natasha Poly Photographer: Craig McDean

Executives from the state highway department are again defending themselves at the Capitol against people who say they are using taxpayer money to advance an agenda in favor of toll roads in Texas. At the heart of the issue are claims that TxDOT has hired lobbyists, using taxpayer dollars, to push in favor of projects like the Trans-Texas Corridor. Part of that is the "Keep Texas Moving" website. "Marketing is undertaken to inform drivers in the Austin area about the opening of new toll roads, toll road locations and incentive periods, and about the benefits of paying with an electronic...

The Texas Transportation Commission sounded the right notes last month in its first meeting under new leadership. Deirdre Delisi, recently appointed by Gov. Rick Perry to chair the commission, and her fellow commissioners finally seem to have gotten the message — the Texas Department of Transportation has lost the public's trust. For those with short memories, here are a few highlights that explain how that happened: •TxDOT fought to keep details of Perry's proposed Trans-Texas Corridor secret. It denied repeated requests from the media and landowners to let the public view a plan that calls for hundreds of miles of...

On Wednesday, Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced he had appointed Deirdre Delisi, his former chief of staff, chairwoman of the Texas Transportation Commission, which oversees the Texas Department of Transportation. As of today, I will not vote to confirm her appointment in the next legislative session. Ask almost any Texan, especially those who have the need to travel frequently on Interstate 35, about our Texas transportation system and they will tell you that many of our roads have extreme congestion, while other construction projects have experienced significant cost overruns. Last year, TxDOT notified the public that it had experienced a...

The Texas Department of Transportation's request for a 30-day extension of the public comment period for the Interstate-69/Trans-Texas Corridor Tier One Draft Environmental Impact Statement has been granted. The request was approved by the Federal Highway Administration which oversees the environmental review process for transportation projects. TxDOT has held over 500 meetings on the Trans-Texas Corridor including 254 county meetings, 95 environmental meetings and hearings on I-69/TTC, 171 environmental meetings and hearings on TTC-35, and 12 town hall meetings. The public comment period opened in December, and an extension through April 18th allows more citizens the opportunity to express their...

TEXARKANA, Texas — The biggest construction project ever attempted in Texas comes under public debate beginning Tuesday in the first of a series of town hall meetings about a proposed 4,000-mile network of superhighway toll roads. The Trans-Texas Corridor, or TTC, as it's become known, was initiated six years ago by Gov. Rick Perry. It's rankled opponents who characterize it as the largest government grab of private property in the state's history and an unneeded and improper expansion of toll roads. Texas Department of Transportation officials, and Perry, have defended the project as necessary to address future traffic concerns in...

It’s looking like a tough year for toll roads in Texas, and no one could be happier about that than Terri Hall, the San Antonio woman whose group is leading the grassroots fight against the controversial pay-to-drive roads that Gov. Rick Perry and others want to see crisscrossing the state. In September, Hall and her group, Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom (TURF), filed suit in the state district court in Austin against the Texas Department of Transportation, alleging that TxDOT has broken the law by using public funds to lobby legislators for laws favoring toll roads. TURF and Hall...

AUSTIN -- House Speaker Tom Craddick has asked lawmakers to review the Texas Department of Transportation's multimillion-dollar ad campaign promoting toll roads and the Trans-Texas Corridor. Craddick, R-Midland, included a review of the Keep Texas Moving campaign on a list of topics that the House State Affairs Committee will study leading up to the 2009 legislative session. Craddick also asked the Appropriations Committee to review transportation spending over the past five years and study alternatives for funding future transportation needs. The transportation matters were among the "interim charges" that Craddick assigned last week. Other matters to be reviewed in advance...

AUSTIN — Two state lawmakers are requesting formal inquiries into whether the Texas Department of Transportation is improperly spending money on advertising. Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, and Rep. Ken Paxton, R-McKinney, question whether an estimated $7 million to $9 million TxDOT is spending on its "Keep Texas Moving" campaign is a proper use of resources. The lawmakers have asked Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Tom Craddick look into the matter. Paxton said he is concerned that the transportation department is spending the money to argue its case before the public in response to lawmakers' questions about projects such...

Some readers have asked me to re-visit a few of my concerns regarding the Trans-Texas Corridor or TTC, because I have mentioned the project in my last two columns. Recently, I introduced what I like to call Nosygate. I think that is an appropriate name for the advertising campaign and subsequent information gathering effort, by a private company, on behalf of the Texas Department of Transportation or TxDOT. A brief re-cap is probably in order. Unsuspecting motorists had their license tag numbers photographed while traveling and minding their own business. Their tag numbers were then traced to their home address.Their...

TexDOT: No Money to Build New Hghways Agency blames diversion of state gas tax money, curbs on privately funded toll roads By Jim Forsyth Friday, September 28, 2007 At a time the Texas Department of Transportation is defending spending thousands of dollars on a public relations campaign designed to convince you to support toll roads, the department says it has no money to pay for highway construction, 1200 WOAI's Robert Wood reports. "The bottom line is, we're running out of money very quickly," TexDOT's Chris Lippincott says. Lippincott blames decisions by state lawmakers to spend more than $1.5 billion in...

Monitoring the court fight between activist Terri Hall and the Texas Department of Transportation is a lot like staring at a buffet line full of warmed over hospital cafeteria food. On the one hand, you're hungry and interested in eating. But on the other, you really can't get excited about the choices before you. It's tempting but unpalatable to root for Hall, who has adopted the noble cause of trying to stop TxDOT from spending millions of dollars on a PR blitz to build support for toll roads. Despite Hall's impressive gifts of organizing, public speaking and rabble-rousing, she is...

AUSTIN — A judge has refused a toll road opponent's request to block the Texas Department of Transportation from spending money on a campaign that promotes toll roads and the Trans-Texas Corridor. Terri Hall of the San Antonio Toll Party and Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom argued the "Keep Texas Moving" campaign violates a prohibition on state officials using their authority for political purposes. On Monday, State District Judge Orlinda Naranjo denied Hall's request for a temporary restraining order. The judge noted another law cited by state lawyers that allows the department to promote the development and use of...

AUSTIN — An activist outraged over state transportation officials' multimillion-dollar campaign to promote toll roads and the Trans-Texas Corridor is taking her fight to court. Terri Hall of the San Antonio Toll Party and Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom wants a state court order to halt spending on the "Keep Texas Moving" campaign because, she contends, it violates a state prohibition on state officers or employees using their authority for political purposes. "Unlike purely educational public relations efforts such as the 'Don't Mess with Texas' campaign, the KTM campaign is a one-sided attempt to advocate one political point of...

After conducting business as though it were a private entity rather than a public trust, the Texas Department of Transportation is now trying to turn the tide of public opinion in its favor. The Keep Texas Moving campaign is a $7 million to $9 million effort designed to promote various transportation projects in the state. According to the campaign site, www.keeptexasmoving.com, Texans can learn more about such projects as the vast Trans-Texas Corridor and "its promise for Texas." Unfortunately, TxDOT has a history of not being entirely forthcoming about transportation plans. Last year, agency officials and the road-building consortium Cintra-Zachry...

With all the madness in the world, I meditated Tuesday on two matters of great gratitude. One is that through vigilance and good fortune we have, so far, gone six years without another major attack on U.S. soil. The other is that I wasn't one of the Texas officials who was forced to attend a workshop in Austin in which PR flacks would try (under a $20,000 contract) to teach me techniques for selling Gov. Perry's massive toll road boondoggle. It was a small part of a $7 million to $9 million campaign that will include feel-good ads pushing Perry's...

The Texas Department of Transportation is pushing Congress to pass a federal law allowing the state to "buy back" parts of existing interstate highways and turn them into toll roads. The 24-page plan, outlined in a "Forward Momentum" report that escaped widespread attention when published in February, drew prompt objections Thursday from state lawmakers and activists fighting the spread of privately run toll roads. "I think it's a dreadful recommendation on the part of the transportation commissioners here in Texas," said Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee Chairman John Carona, R-Dallas. "I feel confident that legislators in Austin would overwhelmingly...

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) says it needs to spend $9 million in taxpayer money to sell its vision of transportation policy to the public. Maybe if TxDOT pursued rational transportation policies, the public support would follow, and it could spend that $9 million building and maintaining roads. Here’s why Texans ought to be concerned. Borrowing carries a price tag. The Texas Constitution has traditionally eschewed deficit spending and required existing revenue to pay for existing spending. Now, the state wants to build most of its roads by borrowing, either publicly or by getting a private firm to agree...

Let the fracas continue over Texas transportation policy. It's important to keep people alert to the Legislature's failure to address the state's glaring highway needs, and a new dustup is one way to accomplish that. The latest is over the Department of Transportation's developing "outreach" campaign to advocate for the controversial Trans-Texas Corridor and other proposed toll projects. The price tag could reach $9 million, and some lawmakers have badmouthed the idea. Good. Along with their complaints, maybe we'll see a rare thing come out of the Capitol – realistic solutions for meeting demand for new roadways in the face...

The World Without America 18 Doughty Street has today announced the theme of its next campaign video - "The World Without America". The campaign is being run in conjunction with BritainAndAmerica.com. Your input will be integral to how the video turns out. Click here to comment on what you would like to see the video feature. Three judges will champion one idea each, you will vote on which shortlisted idea is your favourite, and a professional video will be produced within a week. Perhaps the video could focus on what the world would be like with China being the sole...

These ideas have been simmering for awhile. Just thought I’d throw them into the pot in time for election jib-jabbing. Ideas for commercial / political campaign. Call it “The campaign for sustainable government”… Advertisement I: Endangered species. Computer programmer--loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs, to foreign-born workers overseas. In Connecticut, there are 20,000 unemployed programmers, with 70,000 H-1B Indian programmers on visas. Sand borer-fly: Halted construction on facility; for 8 lousy flies. Even the agency doing the work wasn't sure if they counted the same fly 8 times. (Show a flyswatter striking a table in slow motion). Voiceover: Isn't...

Ad Campaign Begins Tomorrow, NRA Reacts to Hurricanes Katrina, Rita: The National Rifle Association is fired up. ABC News has learned that the powerful gun group will launch a new campaign on Thursday when it convenes its annual convention in Milwaukee and demand that police chiefs and mayors pledge to never confiscate weapons from law-abiding citizens in the wake of disasters such as hurricanes or terrorist attacks. "We are going to ask every mayor and every police chief in America to take a pledge that they will never go door-to-door confiscating firearms from law-abiding citizens," Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president...

SAN FRANCISCO - Amid sagging poll numbers and relentless criticism from Democrat-leaning interest groups, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sought to reclaim the high ground with a television ad campaign aimed at restoring public confidence in the governor and his reform proposals. The new ad, produced by media strategist Don Sipple and set to be broadcast statewide, attempts to restore the governor's image as a populist reformer. After months of pounding by teachers, nurses and other unions caused his popularity to plummet, the new ad allows Schwarzenegger to shift away from his criticism of so-called "special interests" and focus on the Democratic-controlled...

The Central Intelligence Agency has implemented a new plan to destroy the al-Qaeda terror network by convincing the terrorists to start taking hazardous prescription drugs, the agency confirmed today. Within the intelligence community, hopes are high that evildoers will begin taking the medications and will soon afterwards suffer from a broad range of serious side effects, including heart attacks and death. According to one CIA source, agency analysts developed the prescription drug strategy after they viewed a video of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden walking in mountainous terrain and noticed that he seemed to be experiencing "a certain degree of...

CNN, BBC and Eurosport refuse to air Arad campaign Turn down requests to air adds on missing navigator, after state and a foundation last week issued a $10 million reward for new information on his fate.Eitan Rabin MIA IAF navigator Ron Arad. Three major international networks – The BBC, CNN and Eurosport – are refusing to air adds of the “Born to be Free” foundation for the release of missing IAF navigator Ron Arad. Last week, the state and the foundation formally issued a 10 million dollar reward leading to either the return of Arad, or confirmation as to his...

... The funniest ad isn't on TV. Comic actor Ferrell, who parodied Bush for years on "Saturday Night Live," reprised the role for a loopy Internet-only spot. Seen at whitehousewest.com, a site hosted by the liberal group America Coming Together, the Ferrell spoof shows "Bush" attempting to film a political ad while posing on a ranch with various increasingly silly farm implements. "Stick with Bushie," Ferrell says. "Don't read the news or watch the news - except for Fox. Thank you and God bless." The Web-only ad was directed by Adam McKay, who also directed Ferrell in his current hit...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush's reelection campaign, in a tacit acknowledgment it is having trouble getting its message through, said on Sunday it would step up efforts to convince voters the economy and handover plans for Iraq are on track. The two-week drive will be spearheaded by Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and first lady Laura Bush, and will include an expanded television advertising campaign focused on the economy in 19 battleground states. The campaign's goal is to shift voters' attention from grim news about prisoner abuses and targeted assassinations in Iraq that have overshadowed the formation of a new...

<p>March 4, 2004 -- THE presidential race is on. For the first time in three months, George W. Bush is no longer playing political second fiddle to the Democratic primary. Impatient Republicans have been waiting for him to start fighting back, and they fear the Bush campaign's current plans for lots of positive TV ads won't do the trick.</p>

SUVs are in a peculiar position in the American psyche these days. They are at once very popular and also despised; popular for their room, power and safety, despised for their gas-guzzling, more-power-than-is-necessary appetite. Now a familiar political and social commentator has decided the best way to attack SUV drivers is to accuse them of aiding terrorism. It that fair? Click on the link and watch the video report.

http://www.democrats.org/social_insecurity/sequel.html