Pete's Bungum's BLOG - Day # 26,039 in my journey through life.

Today is April 7, 2012. I did my yoga breathing and stretching exercises and walked for 45 minutes = 2.5 miles for an April total of 15 miles.

And I'm grateful that I have another day in which I'm HIV. (It means that I'm Healthy and I'm Vertical.)

MY THOUGHTS TODAY:

I read an article in the paper this morning entitled "Keeping an eye on political ads, lies." So my mind today is thinking about the campaign of 2012.

2012 is a presidential election year. Thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court decision called CITIZENS UNITED we are going to see one of the dirtiest, nastiest and most untruthful campaigns in our 221 year history. CITIZENS UNITED allows corporations, businesses, and unions to pour millions and billions of dollars into the campaigns for the candidates they support. These campaign organizations are called Super Pacs. They are allowed to run political ads without the consent of the actual candidate. They are usually nastier and more untruthful than the ads run by the candidate himself/herself.

In my opinion the Supreme Court decision is the worst thing that can happen to our political system and to our democracy. The corporations already own most of our politicians and now they will have even more influence on and ownership of these politicians. What it means is that future laws passed by Congress will be pretty much what the corporation want in order for them to make more money and get more favors from the government. The middle class and the poor are the ones who are going to suffer the most as we see a bigger and bigger gap between the haves and have-nots. Corporate profits will soar while salaries/wages for the middle class and the poor will stagnate or even go down.

So, what should we do about the political ads we will be bombarded with for the next seven months?

My first suggestion is be smart enough to know many of the ads will play on the ignorance of the average American. Most all of the ads tell only half the story or they are outright lies.

My second suggestion is to get acquainted with SNOPES and FACTCHECK on your computer - these two do a good job of researching the ads and determining what is truth and what is fiction.

My third suggestion is be sure you know how to use the "mute" button on your remote.

The lady who wrote the article was Jennifer Hemmingsen. Jennifer had talked to a lady at FACTCHECK named Kathleen Hall Jamieson who offered these hopeful words. She hopes that FACTCHECK.org and FLACKCHECK.org can bring some reality back to political discourse by calling on candidates to stand by their claims and they intend to pressure broadcast stations to turn down false SUPER-PAC ads.