Update on the process of trying to get the script below approved for broadcast on KFYI in Phoenix:
Wish we had better news, but after review from our Legal department, we have been advised not to proceed. The political guidelines are extremely tight and the Federal scrutiny is at an all time high.
Sorry this didn't work out, but if there's something else we can do for you in the future please let us know!
So McCain Feingold et al have ripped the idea of free speech to shreds.
I feel it is time for John McCain to go.
In the interest of furthering this aim I decided to run an internet ad on KFYI a local Phoenix Arizona talk radio station. You might be surprised to find out how sensitive they are about political speech on a political talk station. Either they are not accustomed to nobodies like me wanting to run a political ad or the government / FCC have hit them with the slap stick enough that they do not just let a local editor approve a script. They put it in a briefcase, handcuff it to the couriers wrist and fly it to San Antonio. Certainly I could detect that they did not have a procedure in place for accepting political ads. But I have heard political advocacy ads on KFYI before so I am left thinking this "approval process" does not entirely pass the sniff test. I have to say I am flabergasted. I never imagined it being so difficult to get a private company to accept my money. If I was in charge at KFYI the approval process would be 2 hours or less. Check for swear words, correct grammar and verify no advocacy of illegal activities. DONE!
Why am I doing this? The future of politics is not unlike open source software. Open source software involves volunteers in the process of writing it. It is a force to be reckoned with. We are seeing open source politics develop as a trend before our eyes. This effort on my part is just a normal progression upon that trend. I hope KFYI realizes that they can be a part of something that is likely to be very big. To do that they will need to show some vision. But dollars are what they do so maybe not. If they choose not they will be diminished in my eyes and I think eventually other people will sense them slipping behind the times. Yet maybe that is their job to be enough behind the times to never threaten their FCC license. All the more reason to run the ad. John McCain was co author of the bill restricting political free speech in the form of the McCain Feingold act.
Well never mind if it runs or not. We will not be their serfs and while they aspire to be feudal overlords I think the future is a flat society without political status. Its only a question of how long it takes to realize it.
The first version is below. Had I known it would have to be flown to Clear Channels San Antonio corporate headquarters for approval I would have been much more careful. The second version is what I would have preferred to use but given the circuitous approval process I do not want to complicate the issue.
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