This Ad Says and Depicts It, Sweetly And Succinctly! (4.00 / 3)

The ACLU Rocked Tha Barnyard, on this one!

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by: leonard @ Fri Aug 17, 2007 at 02:40:43 AM UTC

I like it (4.00 / 3)

It's tough, fair, accurate, tells the reader the important facts, and isn't over the top. Very good ad.

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by: Semblance @ Fri Aug 17, 2007 at 02:49:07 AM UTC

I am SOOOOOOO.... (4.00 / 1)

...going to send the ACLU some money!

"More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly." -Woody Allen, My Speech to the Graduates

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by: Emocrat @ Fri Aug 17, 2007 at 03:07:24 AM UTC

I am SOOOOOOO.... (0.00 / 0)

...going to send the ACLU some money!

"More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly." -Woody Allen, My Speech to the Graduates

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by: Emocrat @ Fri Aug 17, 2007 at 03:08:40 AM UTC

Nicely done (4.00 / 2)

I really like this. They say Pick your battles, this
is a great one to pick & you can fit that with the
Off the table impeachment...

http://flprogressive...

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by: DrJ @ Fri Aug 17, 2007 at 03:55:54 AM UTC

I'd rather see (4.00 / 2)

Ads placed in newspapers of Dems who voted for the Bill, rather than the leaders.

With everybody home, it might wake some people up and cause them to ask questions of their local reps.

If ads aimed at Lipinski (who's getting primaried) and Bean appeared in the Daily Herald, Chi Trib, Sun-Times and Daily Southtown, it might make Lipinski and Bean a tad...uncomfortable with their votes.

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by: Jerry 101 @ Fri Aug 17, 2007 at 04:05:06 AM UTC

On the floor (4.00 / 1)

The leaders are the ones who let it get to the floor for a vote.

Those who have had a chance for four years and could not produce peace should not be given another chance. --Richard Nixon, 9 October 1968

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by: darrelplant @ Fri Aug 17, 2007 at 08:31:02 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

There was no reason (4.00 / 1)

that that bill had to be voted on so quickly and with so little warning or opportunity for a vote.  It's as if Reid and Pelosi knew that there was going to be opposition to this, and didn't want to give it enough time to organize.

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by: Valatan @ Fri Aug 17, 2007 at 13:44:27 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Smart and Effective (0.00 / 0)

This ad, I think, is a smart way to really encourage the Democratic leadership to be more forceful in opposing policies that erode our civil liberties. Sometimes progressives are too focused on beating up the leadership whereas I believe that our focus should be on helping them to get better.

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by: Bloggernista @ Fri Aug 17, 2007 at 04:05:41 AM UTC

See, that's endearingly silly- (0.00 / 0)

unlike their "Find Habeus" stuff, which was just gratingly silly. Too bad it's too late!

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by: sb @ Fri Aug 17, 2007 at 04:20:06 AM UTC

Excellent (0.00 / 0)

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by: Kronos Blue @ Fri Aug 17, 2007 at 04:43:56 AM UTC

The more the merrier! (4.00 / 2)

And I am ready to pile on myself.

Peace, Health and Prosperity for Everyone.

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by: ACitizen @ Fri Aug 17, 2007 at 04:52:46 AM UTC

Not a good ad (4.00 / 1)

The sheep idea, in itself, is fine. The graphic OK, too -  you could have tried to do more than just plonk sheep in front of the Capitol, but simple is better. (The analogy really needs a sheepdog and shepherd, see...)

The 14 word headline is OK - but is crammed with backstory. And for (I suspect) a very good reason: they think most readers are hazy at best on the issue.

The text is ghastly. A single indigestible paragraph of long words and convoluted syntax. Looks like it was torn from page 89 of a GAO report. 

The first sentence has 34 words, for Christ's sake, and starts with a temporal clause. It uses Congressional after Congress - as if it's afraid readers might think it was referring to the Podunk Kiwanis leadership.

The third spells FISA out in full - I said GAO report! - and puts the bull point in a phrase appositional to a relative clause!

And meaningful court or Congressional oversight is as Sixpack-unfriendly an expression as you'd (not) want to see in an ad.

Even what is surely the strapline doesn't get a separate graf. (And lions? Surely even guard-dogs would be stretching it for an institution with 20% favs?!)

And then - we get a redundant, vague, weaker strapline in bold.

Horrible.

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by: skeptic06 @ Fri Aug 17, 2007 at 10:48:14 AM UTC

I wondered if you were being unfair, (0.00 / 0)

so spend almost four minutes (timed myself) to rewrite:

When Democratic Leaders Allow the Bush Administration to Eavesdrop on Americans, It's BAAAAAAAAAD.

When Americans elected a new Congress last year, we expected the leadership to stand up to George Bush. To restore our civil liberties. Instead, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi caved to yet another Bush assault on our freedoms.
  They allowed this administration to give new powers to Attorney General Gonzales--new powers to eavesdrop on American citizens without any meaningful court or Congressional oversight.
  We don't need sheep protecting the Bill of Rights.
  We need lions.

(I'm no copywriter--was just interested. And once I editing the thing, I had to post it, of course ...)

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by: Joel @ Fri Aug 17, 2007 at 12:27:09 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

How many in the general public .. (0.00 / 0)

Are gonna know the back story?  It's not a five second sound bite issue.

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by: Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle @ Fri Aug 17, 2007 at 15:22:38 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

ACLU TARGETS... NOT A GOOD AD (0.00 / 0)

Your comments on an important critique of congressional performance by a respected institution are not productive and speak more to your own arrogance and need for attention.

"... torn from page 89 of a GAO report" ... "... starts with a temporal clause" ... "... puts the bull point in a phrase appositional to a relative clause!"

Really.

Invoking grammatical and advertising copy terminology (no doubt impressive to some -- witness the popularity of "Jeopardy") in your comments only serves to diminish the impact and importance of the stand the ACLU takes in the ad, which rightly takes Congressional "leaders" to task in a national medium and keeps up pressure on them to undo the incredibly misguided FISA authorization, which LEGALIZES that which had much of the country aghast at its disclosure in the national media not even a year ago.

Do you really want things to change, or is your intent merely to draw attention to your knowledge of the esoteric?

"Even what is surely the strapline doesn't get a separate graf ..." "... we get a redundant, vague, weaker strapline in bold..."  "Horrible."

No wonder the right calls us effete.  I hope you're proud of yourself.

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by: ceebee7 @ Sat Aug 18, 2007 at 18:50:53 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

ACLU ads should run (0.00 / 0)

in the districts of those Dems that voted for FISA.  If they hadn't voted for it, it wouldn't have passed.  I think Pelosi and Reid screwed up, but it's the Dems that voted for this that should have some heat in their own back yards.

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by: Sally in SF @ Fri Aug 17, 2007 at 19:34:26 PM UTC