There’s an article in Backstage (via Yahoo) on Penny Arcade‘s run for the state assembly. It starts out talking about antiwar sentiments among performers, but ends up as an article about her and politics.

I would vote for her if she were in my district!

From the Washington Post:

For Bush, Facts Are Malleable

Other times, the president’s assertions simply outpace the facts. In New Hampshire earlier this month, he said his education legislation made “the biggest increase in education spending in a long, long time.”

In fact, the 15.8 percent increase in Department of Education discretionary spending for fiscal year 2002 (the figures the White House supplied when asked about Bush’s statement) was below the 18.5 percent increase under Clinton the previous year — and Bush had wanted a much smaller increase than Congress approved. Earlier this month, Republican moderates complained to Bush’s budget director, Mitchell E. Daniels Jr., that the administration was not spending the full amount for education that Congress approved. Daniels said it was “nothing uncommon” and decried the “explosively larger education bill.”

Why does the reporter use euphemisms like “the president’s assertions simply outpace the facts” rather than say he chooses to lie to the American people?

Arianna says, if we’re going to run those stupid “drug users fuel terrorism” ads, why not run ones that really say who pays for terrorism — gas guzzling American cars. I would donate money to run these ads:

So how about using the same shock-value tactics the administration uses in the drug war to confront the public with the ultimate — and much more linearly linked — consequences of their energy wastefulness? Imagine a soccer mom in a Ford Excursion (11 mpg city, 15 mpg highway) saying, “I’m building a nuclear bomb for Saddam Hussein.” Or a mob of solo drivers toodling down the freeway at 75 mph shouting in unison, “We’re buying weapons that will kill American soldiers, marines, and sailors! Yahoo!”

It’s not just a fantasy. Last week, talking to my friend Scott Burns, co-creator of the “Got Milk?” campaign, I was delighted to hear that he already had two ad scripts ready to go. The first one feels like an old Slim Fast commercial. Instead of “I lost 50 pounds in two weeks” the ad cuts to different people in their SUVs: “I gassed 40,000 Kurds,” “I helped hijack an airplane,” “I helped blow up a nightclub,” and then in unison: “We did it all by driving to work in our SUVs.”

The second, which opens on a man at a gas station, features a cute kid’s voice-over throughout: “This is George.” Then we see a close up of a gas pump. “This is the gas George buys for his car.” Next we see a guy in a suit. “This is the oil company executive who makes money on the gas George buys.” Close up on Al-Qaeda training film footage: “This is the terrorist organization supported by money from the country where the oil company does business. ” It’s followed by footage of 9/11: “We all know what this is.” And it closes on a wide shot of bumper to bumper traffic: “The biggest weapon of mass destruction is parked in your driveway.” Pretty effective.

Remember that the Bush administration found time in its busy schedule this month to weigh in on the side of Detroit in a lawsuit against California’s stricter automobile mileage regulations.

I should get one.