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The second government agency involved in the immigration process is the National Visa Center (NVC). The purpose of this agency seems to be to collect money as inefficiently as possible.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service sent our paperwork to the NVC in August 2004, it arrived in October 2004. By pony express obviously!

At this point we started the actual process of getting the visa. A call to the NVC gathered the information that everything should take from two weeks to 45 days. Unfortunately, things didn’t work out that way.

Here’s what the process is really like. First, the NVC sent us a letter for my wife to sign making me her agent. This took from October to December. She signed the form and we sent it back.

Several weeks later we received a request for $65.00. This was the fee for the I-864 Statement of Support. We sent the required amount of money via money order. Approximately six weeks later we received the I-864.

After receiving the I-864 we filled it out and returned it to the NVC.

About six weeks or so later we received a request for $335.00. This fee was required to process the actual visa application. At this time we were informed that my wife would need a Mexican passport with at least eight months remaining.

By now we’d figured these people out and ordered a five year passport from the Mexican government.

After sending in this latest fee bill, we waited almost eight weeks before the DS-230 arrived. We filled out this form and sent part one back. You have to keep part two for later.

Finally after over seven months, our paperwork was sent to the US consulate in Ciudad Juarez.

Not everything at the NVC is bad. They were much more responsive than the Immigration and Naturalization people. In fact, they have a number you can call and get the status of your paperwork. That number is: (603 334-0700).

You can visit their website at http://www.state.gov

Now that our paperwork was at the US Consulate the waiting was over, or was it…

***
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Visit our site to get an immigration assistance kit designed to smooth your imigration journey ==>http://www.securepublications.com/immigration

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“Ouvea is everything you’d expect in a South Pacific island. Twenty kilometers of unbroken white sands border the lagoon on the west side of the island and extend far out from shore to give the water a turquoise hue. The wide western lagoon, protected by a string of coral islands and a barrier reef, is the only of its kind in the Loyalties. On the ocean side are rocky cliffs, pounded by surf, but fine beaches may be found even here. At one point on this narrow atoll only 450 meters separates the two coasts. Traditional circular houses with pointed thatched roofs are still common in the villages.”

Those words appeared in the 1985 edition of my South Pacific Handbook after a visit in 1983. Just over 20 years later I returned to Ouvea to discover that little had changed in this large French colony east of Australia.

Most Ouveans still live in traditional thatched case (houses) and the beach is as dazzling as ever. On my first evening there, as I watched the red fireball set slowly across the lagoon, I felt a strong affinity with my previous visit.

Yet something terrible had happened in my absence. On May 5, 1988, 300 French elite troops stormed a cave near Gossanah in northern Ouvea to rescue 16 gendarmes captured two weeks earlier by Melanesian freedom fighters.

Nineteen Kanaks (the collective name used by the indigenous peoples of New Caledonia) died in the assault, including several who suffered extrajudicial execution at the hands of the French police after being wounded and taken prisoner.

None of the hostages had been harmed. Thus began one of the final chapters of what is now known as the evenements (events) of the 1980s. Three years earlier independence leader Eloi Machoro had been murdered in cold blood by police snipers as he stood outside a rural farmhouse near La Foa, on New Caledonia’s main island, Grand Terre.

By 1987 France had 14,000 troops stationed in its mineral-rich Melanesian colony, one for every five Kanaks. The independence movement was to be crushed one way or another.

When I tried to visit the cave at Gossanah on my recent trip, I was told that the area was taboo to allow the spirits time to rest.

Instead I was permitted to visit the grave of Djoubelly Wea in Gossanah and allowed to take pictures of his home. My host on Ouvea told me the story. Evidently, the hostages had been taken by young Kanak activists from other parts of the island, and the captive gendarmes were brought to Gossanah only because the cave was considered remote.

Residents of the area weren’t involved. Yet when the French police arrived in search of their comrades, they rounded up the people of Gossanah and assembled them on a football field in front of the village church.

There they were tortured for information, and Wea’s father was among those who died of shock. Later 33 Ouveans were sent to prison in France, Djoubelly Wea among them.

These events chastened Kanaks and French alike, and the heads of the main political parties, the Kanak leader Jean-Marie Tjibaou and the representative of the French settlers Jacques Lafleur, were called to Paris by Prime Minister Michel Rocard to negotiate and eventually sign a peace treaty known as the Matignon Accords.

A referendum on independence was promised in 1998, and massive economic aid was to be channeled into the Kanak regions. An amnesty was granted to all those arrested during the troubles, and no investigation into the Ouvea massacre or the murders of several dozen other Kanaks by French settlers or troops would be required.

Fast forward to May 1989, as the top Kanak leaders Jean-Marie Tjibaou and Yeiwene Yeiwene arrive on Ouvea for a commemorative ceremony exactly one year after the massacre.

As the leaders are being received at the chefferie (chiefly house) of Wadrilla near the center of the island, Djoubelly Wea steps forward and shoots the pair dead at point blank range. Wea was reflecting a feeling still palpable in New Caledonia that Tjibaou had sold out to the French and derailed the struggle of independence.

Tjibaou’s bodyguard killed Wea, the final shot of the evenements. Today the chefferie of Wadrilla is much the same as it was in 1989, a large thatched case surrounded by a palisade of driftwood logs.

Across the coastal highway, a large monument has been erected to the 19 Kanak martyrs of 1988. Designed with two curving white walls to resemble a cave, the monument bears the photo, name, and date of birth of each victim.

Their traditional war clubs have been placed on the back side of the monument and their remains are interred below.

No memorial to Jean-Marie Tjibaou exists on Ouvea but the French have constructed a massive cultural center to his memory in their stronghold Noumea.

In fairness, it must be said that Tjibaou only considered the Matignon Accords a temporary stop on the road to independence. His assassination froze the agreement into a sort of permanent solution which the French have used to justify continuing colonial rule ever since.

The promised 1998 referendum was never held. Instead an updated treaty called the Noumea Accord was signed. This postponed the referendum for another 15 or 20 years and promised many things the French government has yet to deliver.

For example, a key provision creating a special New Caledonian citizenship status intended to control immigration from France was declared unconstitutional by a French court in 1999.

Metros (metropolitan French) continue to flood into the territory (in violation of United nations resolutions on the norms of conduct for colonial powers in non-self-governing areas) and Europeans may soon from a clear majority of the population.

Toward the end of my stay I visited the Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Center in the Tina Peninsula, 12 kilometers northeast of New Caledonia’s capital Noumea. Designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, it was built by French contractors between 1994 and 1998 at a cost of over US$50 million. The center opened on May 4, 1998, 10th anniversary of the assassination of Jean-Marie Tjibaou.

No visitor can help but be impressed by the spectacular botanical garden interwoven with references to Kanak legends which encircles the center’s three villages.

A contemporary art gallery, temporary and permanent exhibitions of Kanak and other Pacific art, a library, an audiovisual room, indoor and outdoor theaters, and a large ceremonial area are only some of the center’s outstanding features.

Yet the Tjibaou Cultural Center presents Kanak culture as a regional folklore rather than a national tradition.

Events such as the Ouvea Massacre and the other murders of the 1980s are barely mentioned. A room in Village Three provides photos and texts on the life of Jean-Marie Tjibaou, but there’s no explanation as to why he was assassinated or the background of his assassin.

The 19th century land seizures and the muscle flexing and maneuvering that have prevented independence are carefully avoided. The highlight for me was an amazing three-meter-high bronze statue of Tjibaou himself, clad in a Roman toga, on a hill overlooking the center.

Tjibaou was the last real Kanak leader, and in a land where the spirits of the dead have an important role in the lives of the living, his soul must be suffering.

About the Author

David Stanley is the author of Moon Handbooks South Pacific http://www.southpacific.org/pacific.html which has a chapter on New Caledonia. His online guide to New Caledonia may be perused at http://www.southpacific.org/text/new_caledonia.html

Though its present image does not draw great impression from the regional and international audiences, Cambodia, to me, is one of the world’s states that many other states can learn from.

Its journeys across almost every stage of political regimes, prosperous history and stigmatized present day and other political spiral that won over the forecasting power of Henry Kissinger, Advisor to the American President Richard Nixon, has made the current politics of Cambodia a trauma one, or I would call a “leprosy subject” in the universities.

What are the motives of Cambodia’s sluggish development? Are Cambodian leaders thinking independently and in sovereignty? Are current leaders really caring about people’s interests? Are those leaders boasting the genuine leadership faculty? These are the questions that make the selection of the political leader a very hard subject in the Cambodian society.

Selections of the political leader in Cambodia, to those who have informative mind, prove a very difficult one. So what are the reasons behind their hard selection? Its sometimes-vertical and sometimes-horizontal political atmospheres and its unstable spiral in economy have been the eminent homework that makes us difficulty in fulfilling our job of selecting our leader. However, there are much more factors that are contributing to our head age.

With all the above evils, selecting the political leader in Cambodia is not to opt out “from the best of the best”, but pick the one who has committed the lest crimes; nationally and internationally, publicly and individually.

Lay Vicheka is the translator, freelance writer for a newspaper and a former legal and political assistant to a Cambodian member of parliament. Contract: 855 11 286 445, Email: vichekalay@yahoo.com. Mailing address: 221H Street 93, Tuol Sangke quarter, Russey Keo district, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

The recent announcement of the Critical Infrastructure Bill by the Government was met with the usual Irish pessimism and sense of wrongdoing. There were cries of protestation against what was seen to be an erosion of local democracy. The BANANA’s (build absolutely nothing anywhere near anything) and NIMBY’s (not in my back yard) of this world were inconsolable over the fact that they would no longer be able to single-handedly halt the construction of major motorways and would have to concentrate their time on making opposition to party walls and garage conversions. Rumours of a widespread attack on ‘front of house satellite dishes’ may well be exaggerated, but then again, these people seem to have an incredible amount of time on their hands.

The Irish planning system has often been praised for being transparent and inclusive. Any member of the community has the right to make an objection or observation on any planning application that they wish, albeit with a small fee (20 euro). Inclusive and transparent it may be, but slow and drawn-out it definitely is. It would become clear to any rationally thinking individual that when a snail has the ability to stop the construction of a motorway that there is something drastically wrong with the system. Not alone did the now extinct Whorl snail (or Pollardstown snail, as it is affectionately known to locals and objectors alike) add 6.5 million euro to the cost of the M7, it brought about huge delays to the completion of the project. The sound of veins’ bursting and knuckles cracking in the Government was audible. Other large infrastructure projects such as the Ringsend incinerator and the M50 have been similarly delayed.

It is hard to argue against the principle of speeding up this section of the system. The Critical Infrastructure Bill was first mentioned in 2003 but had to be temporarily shelved. This was for a number of reasons including objections from Minister Michael McDowell which were linked to an application for a waste incinerator in his constituency. When the Bill was finally published in mid-February of this year, it included the condition that major infrastructure projects that had already entered the planning system, including the incinerator in Minister McDowells’ constituency, would be processed through the old planning system. The Bill was met with widespread praise from the Irish Planning Institute, The Institute of Engineers of Ireland and the Chamber of Commerce of Ireland. It was met with derision from local interest groups, opposition parties in the Government and An Taisce.

The legislation effectively removes the right of the individual to make objections or observations on a proposed development that involves a major infrastructure project. In other words, it completely removes the Local Authority from the process and allows the application for planning permission to be made directly to a new branch of An Bord Pleanala. An Bord Pleanala, which has up until now only acted as a planning authority in the second instance (i.e. it made decisions on appeals), is now required to make decisions in the first instance. When carrying out this function, the Bord will listen to objections and observations from registered bodies (e.g. An Taisce, Waterways Ireland, etc) and from elected representatives. The only route that the individual has into this process is by making his / her feelings known to the elected representative.

The Government has been actively trying to speed up the passage of major infrastructure projects through the planning system for a number of years. The Planning and Development Act 2000 attempted to address this by allowing court appeals against planning decisions to be made only on points of law. This means, effectively, that planning decisions are completely independent from the courts and appeals may only be made in relation to administration matters, such as time limits not being obeyed and appropriate bodies not being notified. One of the major criticisms of this new Bill is that it makes no provisions to speed up cases that are appealed to court.

A re-assessment of the situation presented above would seem to indicate that the real issues lie not in the quality or nature of the legislation but in the general reaction to the Bill. While conceding that public participation in the planning system is an integral part of the decision-making process, a line in the sand must be drawn. Without sounding unreasonably sceptical, I would present the opinion that most third party objections to planning applications are made to further the interest of the person objecting to the application. Examples are numerous, a house-owner objecting to a factory being built in close vicinity to his / her property, a local community group objecting to development on open space, etc.

Whereas I am not suggesting that these objections are unjustified, there needs to be an element of trust put in the planners. These professionals not only carry out their work according to a set of guidelines (Local Development Plans, Planning Acts and Regulations, etc) but they also perform their job with a view to sustainable development. With every decision in the planning field, there are going to be winners and losers. The losers in this latest case are the individuals but they are sacrificed for the betterment of the community.

Allegations that the Critical Infrastructure Bill will see an exponential rise in the number of incinerators, landfills, motorways and nuclear power stations being constructed in the country are quite outrageous. Presumably, all applications to the new section of An Bord Pleanala, because they are for major infrastructure projects, will still be subject to Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). The EIA will ensure that the projects will have no adverse effects on the environment.

The new legislation must be considered to be bold and progressive. Ireland is already a number of years behind other leading European countries in development terms, especially in relation to transportation networks and waste infrastructure. If the new Bill means that waste incinerators and major transportation projects, such as the proposed metro to the airport and the underground rail interconnector, go through the planning system at a reasonable speed, then the legislation may even be hailed as revolutionary. They say hindsight is 20 / 20 but we must look forward in order to be able to look back.

I am not an African-American. Don’t call me an African –American. I’m an American plain and simple. I was born here as were my parents and grandparents and you would have to search many a generation back before you found anyone in my family who originated from the continent of Africa. It’s time black people in this country stop trying to identify with a land whose culture is not their own. It’s time we stand up and say “This land is our land” and let everyone know we have a right to this country as much as anyone.

I understand the need for black people in America to find an identity all their own. We are as displaced as a people can be. Brought here in the early seventeenth century, first as indentured servants then as slaves the richness of culture these individuals brought from their various tribes was systematically ripped away from them. Maybe in calling ourselves African-American we feel we can retrieve some of that richness that is lost to us and was stolen from our people so long ago. However the atrocities of the past are just that, the past and trying to identify with lost cultures isn’t going to help us achieve the respect and prosperity that has alluded us for so long in a country that is still hostile to those of African descent.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m in no way suggesting we forget about the past. It’s important to study and learn from your forefathers’ triumphs, mistakes and pain. Continuously changing our identification however, is not the best way to use that knowledge. We’ve had several “identities:” from Colored to Negro, Black and now African-American. How can we expect anyone else to know who we are if we’re not sure of our own identity? How can we expect to come together as a people if we can’t agree on something as simple as to what to call ourselves? Hell the government is not even sure who we are if the census form was any indication with their Black, Negro, African-American non-hispanic category.

I say dispense with all of the confusion. We’re American. The sweat of our brow helped build this country. Benjamin Banneker a black man, helped design the white house. Something as simple as the traffic light and as life saving as the blood transfusion were created by black people. Americans. From music, to dance, to literature we have given much more to this country then it has have ever given to us. We can be proud in simply calling ourselves Americans because we have more then earned that right. It’s time we make use of it.

I was once asked if I viewed myself as an American first and black second. The answer is as long as America views me as black first then I’ll always be American second. But I’ll never be anything other then American, plain and simple.

Tamika Johnson is a freelance writer and editor and chief of Prologue, the best arts and entertainment online community the web has to offer. To read more articles by Tamika and to receive FREE tips on how to be a successful writer visit http://www.prologuezine.com

U.N. requested a cease-fire, without making the distinction between attackers and defenders. Palestine was partitioned in an Israeli State, a Palestinian State and Jerusalem was internationalized . In the end, the aggressors were rewarded.
- In October 1962, with the news of the confirmed photographic evidence of Soviet missile bases in Cuba, President Kennedy started the naval quarantine around Cuba without the potentially time-consuming appeal to the United Nations.
- In the 1970’s, Pol Pot, Khmer Rouge leader, killed over 1.7 million of civilians. U.N. secretary General Perez de Quelliar insisted on protecting the Khmer Rouge. Pot was not summond before the tribunal of The Heaghe. The aggression stopped when Vietnam invaded Cambodia, also ignoring the U.N.
The war against Israel:
- In November 1975, the U.N. ruled that Zionism was a form of racism. The U.N. voted 152/1, to call on Israel to rescind a resolution declaring Jerusalem its capital.
- In 1991, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir commissioned an analysis of U.N. voting towards Israel. From 1967 to 1988, the Security Council passed 88 resolutions directly against Israel, zero resolutions criticized or opposed the actions or perceived interests of an Arab state or body, including the PLO. Israel was condemned 49 times, Arab countries however, not once. In the General Assembly, 429 anti-Israel resolutions were passed in that span. Israel was condemned 321 times; Arab nations not once. The term terrorism was never mentionned.
- The U.N. Human Rights Commission now includes Zimbabwe, China, Ukraine, Algeria, Bahrain, Congo, Libya, Sudan, Russia, Syria, Uganda and Vietnam; not exactly good examples of civil liberty. In April 2002, the commission passed a (pro-terrorist) resolution condoning “armed struggle” to establish a Palestinian state.
- “To the Israelis I say: You must end the illegal occupation,” Annan said, following a long-standing U.N. agenda. “More urgently, you must stop the bombing of civilian areas, the assassinations, and the unnecessary use of lethal force, the demolitions, and the daily humiliations of ordinary Palestinians.” No word was however said about the humiliation of Israelis who hide in their homes in fear of suicide bombers. Annan ignored the action of gunmen that murder five-year old girls in cold blood, and of teenage bombers programmed to indiscriminately kill Jews. The word terrorism or suicide bomber was not even mentioned.
- In Somalia 1993, the U.N. failed to successfully deliver food to starving people in Somalia. Local warlords instead usually seized the food. A US/U.N. attempt to apprehend the warlords seizing these shipments resulted in the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu. On October 3, 1993 Somali men, women and children armed with automatic weapons and rocket propelled grenades ambushed elite units of the U.S. Army. Approximately 1000 Somali militiamen and civilians lost their lives in the battle, with injuries to another 3000-4000. More definitely, 18 American soldiers died, and 73 were wounded.
- Srebrenica massacre 1993. Dutch U.N. troops stood by when Serbians under General Ratko Mladic slaughtered more than 7000 Muslims Bosnians in Srebrenica. The Dutch troops pulled out and let it happen after refusal of air support by a U.N. General. The enclave was a “safe area” under U.N. protection. The Dutch Government fell about the matter, but at the U.N. there were no resignations.
The conflict escalated and fights in Kosovo and Macedonia followed. President Clinton together with Nato defended the Kosovars against the Serbian army, this time without a U.N. Security Council resolution.
- The U.N. Failed to prevent the 1994 Rwandan genocide, which resulted in the killings of nearly a million people, due to the refusal of the security council members to approve any necessary military action. The violence and its memory continued to affect the countries in the region. Both the First Congo War and Second Congo Wars trace their origins to the genocide, and it continued to be a reference point for the Burundian Civil War.
- Clinton 1996 urged for action on the Iraqi problem, but France, China and Russia blocked decisive action. Richard Butler chief U.N. weapon’s inspector, warned several times against Sadam Hussein’s ambitions, he was however fired by coffee Anan. Butler was replaced by a weaker figure that showed more respect to the Sadam-regime.
- Concerning the war between Iran and Iraq, the U.N. just made a resolution refraining both countries immediately from any use of force, without ordering Iraq to withdraw his army out of Iran. Although Iraq was undoubtedly the aggressor, U.N.’s moral equivalence made no difference between aggressor and defender.
- Against Saddam’s genocide attempt, with Chemical weapons, against the Kurds, The U.N. did nothing; it was the U.S. and the U.K. who defended the Kurds ignoring the U.N.
- 1996, the United Nations Oil-for-Food program, originally conceived as a means of providing humanitarian aid to the Iraqi people, was subverted by Saddam Hussein’s regime and manipulated to help prop up the Iraqi dictator. Saddam’s dictatorship was able to siphon off an estimated $10 billion from the Oil-for-Food program through oil smuggling and systematic thievery, by demanding illegal payments from companies buying Iraqi oil, and through kickbacks from those selling goods to Iraq, all under the noses of U.N.. The members of the U.N. staff administering the program have been accused of gross incompetence, mismanagement, and complicity with the Iraqi regime in perpetrating the biggest scandal in U.N. history. The former director, Benon Sevan had accepted bribes from the Iraqi regime. Also implicated in the scandal is Kofi Annan’s son Kojo Annan, alleged to have illegally procured U.N. Oil-for-Food contracts on behalf of the Swiss company Coctecna.
- U.N. International criminal Court: the Court came into being on April 11, 2002. The first to come under investigation for possible war crimes charges was not Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Ladin or Robert Mugabe, no, unbelievable but true, it was Tony Blair!
- 2001, A few days before Arab terrorists attacked the U.S. on September 11, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan was in Durban, South Africa, to attend a U.N. world conference on racism. An event that showed an undisguised anti-Americanism. Delegates from Arab and Third World dictatorships as well as terrorist states vilified the United States and the West and demanded “reparations” for slavery. Among the nations, demanding slave reparations was Sudan, a nation where slavery is still practiced. The Durban conference was hosted by South African President Thabo Mbeki, a former leader of the African National Congress (ANC), a communist-dominated terrorist group. During the 1980s the ANC slaughtered thousands of black South Africans. Yet, Annan described the ANC’s South Africa as “a beacon of enlightenment for the entire world”. The only conclusion of the conference was branding Israel a “racist apartheid state guilty of systematic war crimes, acts of genocide, and ethnic cleansing.”
Conclusion:
The United Nations, an alliance where Syria, one of the main state-sponsors of terrorist organizations is elected to the U.N. security council for a two-year term. Soon resolutions will be approved saying that military aggression only can happen between uniformed opponents, in this way excluding terrorism from the competence of the Council. Systematically, the rules are changed in a way that genocide will be considered as internal affairs of the respective states.
As I already indicated in my previous articles and on my website, I am an advocate of a strong “Western Alliance”. The best the West can do is step out of the United Nations and found a new Council, e.g. “The Western Democratic Allied Nations” and actions should be taken independent of the decisions of the U.N. Actions according the principles of the new Council, Democratic decisions, morally well considered, with distinction between aggressor and defender and considering Human Rights. The “war on terror” must be continued resolutely.
Shortly after the Israeli raid on Entebbe, the American President Ford made a wise declaration: “Freedom is a value which must be fought for in every generation”.
http://www.westernfreedom.com

Robert Maegh is a Belgian engineer, born in Germany in 1945. He spent several years in Africa and the Middle East. “A Holy Terror” is his first novel and a sequel can soon be expected. www.westernfreedom.com

Copyright 2006 Al Arnold

Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.
Alexander Graham Bell.

I have read opinion polls that find most people fear public
speaking more than they fear death. This fear obviously plays
into the fact that few people appear to speak before their local
government boards, commissions and committees.

So, what is a person to do when they believe they have something
important to say to their local government? You prepare, if you
wish to be successful. That can be done in one of two ways.

1) You can avoid public speaking all together by writing a
letter. Not an email. A letter. You know, those things that now
cost thirty nine cents. A courteous letter. You remember those.
They can still be used to influence your local government
officials.

Send the letter to each of the members of the board or committee
you wish to convey your message. Send this letter if possible,
at least a week before the meeting.

Include you name and contact information so they may be able to
get in touch with you for more information. Do not send an
anonymous letter. An anonymous letter will mean nothing and
probably be thrown away.

You want this letter to arrive early so that they have time to
think about what you have to say. You want your message to stand
the test of time. If the letter arrives the same day as the
meeting, the member does not have much time to digest your
opinion.

Letters sent in advance of a meeting give the members time to
think about your message. By doing this, your message can
sometimes be much more effective than waiting to speak until the
last minute at the meeting.

2) If you are going to speak, make sure you are prepared to
speak. Plan on a 3-5 minute speech at most. If you have more to
say than that, you should be writing a letter anyway.

Write your speech. The complete speech. Word for word, how you
want to say, whatever you want to say. Then practice reading the
speech. Word for word. You will only have a 3-5 minute speech so
you can read and practice your speech many times. As you read
and reread the speech you will automatically learn which words
and phrases are most important and where the emphasis goes in
the speech.

Don’t be bashful about reading your speech. Believe me, the
members of the governing body would much rather have you read
your speech than have you “wing it.”

Over the years I have seen many citizens appear without a
written speech or even notes. They ramble on from point to point
with no coherent message. They stumble and stammer not knowing
or remembering what exactly they thought they wanted to say.
Their message is ignored, because nobody could figure out what
their message was.

Don’t let that happen to you! Prepare for success!

Each morning most Americans who are likely to vote in this election will listen to a radio station. It may be for a moment as the radio alarm signals it is time to rise. It may be on the drive to work, it may be in the shower, but realize a radio is involved in the daily life of the voting population.

Would you purchase yard signs and place them in the back yards of your supporters?

I often wonder why candidates would purchase ten commercials the day before Election Day and allow them to air in such a manner, that few hear the message. Having spent over twenty years in the radio and political industry, I have seen it all. I am often asked how much radio should be budgeted in a campaign. Here is the short answer.

Purchase enough commercial units to make an impact. A few radio commercials here and there are a total waste of money. You would better serve yourself buying a bigger cake for the victory party. Radio is not a vehicle to use as an after thought. Radio is very effective. Ask your likely voters when they last listened to radio. I will be surprised if the answer is anything other than “Today”.

A big misnomer is that overnight commercials are not effective. In most areas, over twenty-five percent of the population is at work on the third shift. Radio stations will often sell these midnight to 6:00 AM time periods for a few dollars. You want to purchase the entire day when you make your radio buy. Another reason for purchasing overnight commercials is insomnia. In most markets that offer talk radio, you will want to purchase this station. Many insomniacs listen to talk radio. The Arbitron© surveys do not adequately calculate these hours of the day. You want the third shift to hear your commercials. Buy one station properly, rather than a few stations inadequately.

To succeed in motivating voters to find time to visit the polls on Election Day and importantly vote for your candidate, you need to purchase an adequate schedule. I suggest thirty- second commercials, as they cost less and accomplish more. If your station offers the same price for thirty or sixty second commercials, do request the sixty second commercials. If you can only afford limited radio advertising, place a commercial each hour, preferably twice an hour on the day before Election Day.

Scott R Perreault (CEO, http://www.scottradio.com) is the author of the new book “Effective Political Radio Messages and Robo Calling - 2006 Guide for Candidates and Special Interest Groups”. A must have guide for campaign managers, candidates, special interest groups and educators who live in the U.S. political world. Designed for the 2006 campaign, this book offers a detailed outline on writing an effective political campaign commercial, the inside tips for obtaining the best radio station rates and robo calling script writing tools. After reading this short book delivered in Adobe Acrobat or Microsoft Word format instantly upon purchase, you will be armed with the required information to remain competitive in your local, State or National Election. Scott Perreault is a twenty-year political radio copywriter and professional voice that serves as media consultant with the 2006 Texas Democratic US Senate Candidate. The Ebook, Paperback or Audio Book is found at http://www.scottradio.com/campaignmanager.html

Recently a number of you have been offended by the noxiousness of my Bush-bashing attitudes. Hey! After all, you say, isn’t it enough being saddled with this beleaguered, lame-duck presidency? Do we need to be subjected to more character assassination by liberal pinkos like you? Well… To these accusations I tender an adamant reply. Yes, we do!

We are not finished making fun of our cartoon president. I swear I have seen his likes before on Adult Swim. Sometimes I even get confused between the SNL sketches and the real man. Perhaps we can all agree that Bush is a genuine man, but he is also a genuine Pudd’nhead. He is the frontman distracting us from the neocon machinations of “Darth” Cheney, “Baron von” Rove and “Admiral” Rumsfeld. There simply aren’t enough nasty epithets we can give these fellows.

It is only now we’re beginning to realize the extent of corruption in our nation’s executive office. Ideology has been the consistent driving force of our federal government for the last eight years. From the “War” on terror to the lack of response during Katrina to the motivations behind our Iraqi war; it is clear, democracy is not being served.

We sat quietly as the Bush cartel literally stole our votes in 2000. Perhaps you’d forgotten, but he won the election by 527 votes in the state run by his brother! That isn’t a statistical anomaly folks, it’s fraud.

We snored obliviously while statesmen from third world nations mocked our democratic institutions as the laughingstock of the globe. As citizens we have completely dropped the ball. The point is it’s not enough to vote. More people need to be angry about this stuff or it will happen again.

The neocons currently in office are the robber barons of the 21st century. It may be a sick, trendy cliché to throw sticks and stones at our country’s top executive. Yet until we curb the illegitimate power this administration has wielded, we must keep attacking.

As citizens we are supposed to be the voices of democracy. We have to go beyond the corporate media and reach out to people in our communities. It is our purpose now to be loud and angry, until finally rule of law is reestablished. If we remain quiet, then democracy is truly dead in the U.S.A.

Freedommedium.com supports “Democracy in 2008!”

We often hear from the “other side” of the isle how it is
Republicans and Conservatives that are grinches and that they
are mean and insensitive lying bastards without a care for
civility. Ok, I admit I am blunt at times, but at least that
bluntness is truthful! Well, here is what the Democratic
Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has put up to mock
Christmas (source WND) with my translation and comments added in
bold italics after each verse:

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the House, The
Republicans were stirring, especially The Louse.

President Bush is a liar about Iraq even though our
leadership said the SAME things years before President Bush was
elected

There were gifts to be taken and given to Special Interest
Friends No worry about your future, on their Cronies They Spend.

We LOVE socialism! And elect us and we’ll make sure you
have lots of it! Don’t tell anyone that when WE were in power we
never once succeeded in reigning in government spending or
balancing the budget

Americans were all nestled all snug in their beds, While visions
of brighter days danced in their heads.

The economy SUCKS! Why wont you believe us - WHA
WHAAAAA!

A girl dreamt of college, a boy a good meal With Democrats in
charge it would be a better deal!

We want to spend on OUR cronies! Vote for us and we’ll
increase socialist and unconstitutional federal spending even
FASTER than the Republicans! TAX THE RICH! TAX THE RICH!

But back in the House there arose such a clatter, The Rubber
Stamp Gang was busy with blather.

Don’t you know that Republicans are all stupid sheep that
fall in line lock step behind the President! Which doesn’t
explain why President Bush has such a hard time getting
legislation passed despite Republican control of both houses but
hey, what’s a little inconsistency right?

Stealing the gift of a bright, better day DeLay and his pals
make middle-America pay.

TAX THE RICH! TAX THE EVIL “RICH”

“Tax Cuts for Millionaires! But no Social Security for you!
Humungous Subsidies for Big Oil And higher gas prices too!”

TAX THE EVIL PRICE GOUGING RICH! INSTITUTE SOCIALIST PRICE
CONTROLS! CONTROL THE PEOPLE’S RETIREMENT!
RAAAAAHHHHRRRRRR!

But before they left they wrapped gifts JUST FOR YOU They
personally signed them “With Love — from Tom, George, and Crew.”

Don’t tell anyone that we get just as much money (if not
more) from the “rich” as they do! The American People are too
stupid to figure that out!

They gave to the rich and took from the poor Until finally they
grew weary when there was nothing more.

TAX THE EVIL VILE RICH WHICH CREATE JOBS! INSTITUTE
GOVERNMENT CONTROL OF THE LAND NOW! VIVA LA SOCIALISM! GIVE MORE
MONEY TO THOSE THAT DON’T EARN IT!

So they gassed up their limos and drove off to town And filled
up their bellies and really chowed down.

Not a single Democrat in Congress is Rich or rides in a
limo (not even Teddy Kennedy or Nancy Pelosi or John Kerry) It
is all a lie by the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy! WE ARE JUST LIKE
YOU! WE HATE … err WE LOVE AMERICA!

And, I heard them exclaim as they drove out of sight … .
NOOOOO!!!

Oh wait that was us as we realized we are going to lose in
2006 and 2008 on a platform this STUPID!
Nooooooooooooooooooo!

Merry Christmas all!