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Lewis Miller is a founder and board member of Bergen Grassroots, the DFA group in Bergen County, NJ.

Last Wednesday, Bergen Grassroots held a press conference at the site of its second anti-war billboard. The billboard is part of a campaign that initially includes four high-visibility billboards running for four weeks each during April, May, and June, with the message, "Bring Our Troops Home. NOW!".

Photo by Keith Krebs

At the conference, Bergen Grassroots Chairman Paul Eisenman spoke of the importance of framing the campaign's message visually. "We're including the yellow ribbon because we want to reclaim it." Eisenman, a partner in an advertising & public relations firm, noted that the Bush Administration had used the words "Support our troops" to mean "Support our war." Bergen Grassroots board member Keith Krebs, who is also a Republican county committee member, noted that "the administration has left the Republican party... has left the young people who are fighting this war of choice, not necessity." The billboard campaign received coverage the following day in the Bergen Record, the largest newspaper in Northern New Jersey, and generated immediate calls from members of the public interested in joining our meetings.

Photo by Sigal Miller

Members of other organizations have asked, "How did you manage to pull off this public relations coup in one of the most expensive media markets in the country?" Naturally, being part of a DFA coalition includes the responsibility to share tips with our fellow grassroots activists across America. Here, in no particular order, are some elements of a successful advertising campaign:

1. Know what your objective is. Is raising consciousness enough? Or, at the same time, could you increase membership? Generate funds to help pay for even more advertising so that even more people see your message? These considerations led to the inclusion of "Join us" and our website URL at the bottom of our billboards.

2. Framing is very important in getting a message across, both to the public and the media. Using a familiar element (such as the yellow ribbon in our case) draws a viewer's attention. The stark contrast of our message with the symbol we've included leaves those sympathetic with our viewpoint to seek further information. (In our media coverage, there was heavy focus on the design of the billboards: "The message on the billboard couldn't be clearer. 'Bring Our Troops Home. NOW!'' it demands with oversized letters. Next to the words, a yellow ribbon inscribed with 'Support Our Troops.'")

3. Know how to get around the advertising market. For example, if you are looking for billboard advertising, don't waste your time looking for billboards you'd like to purchase and which may be unavailable. Call known ad agencies and obtain a list. The listings for any form of advertising will include the number of people you will reach. (In our case, one of our billboards will reach in excess of 80,000 people per day.) Also be aware of the possibility that there may be special rates for non-profit organizations. Be sure you get the full pricing list, and note any conditions attached to the less-expensive rates.

Of course, it also helps if members of your organization possess skills useful to a successful campaign. Aside from its talented chairman, Bergen Grassroots is lucky enough to have a skilled graphic designer on its board, meaning we were able to produce our billboard artwork in-house. If the information in this article isn't enough to get you started, we'd be happy to help you get your own campaign off the ground. Visit our website at www.bergengrassroots.org for more information.

—Lewis Miller

Following a number of high-profile sex abuse scandals, high schools across the country have begun carefully policing teacher-student relationships. But is this new vigilance keeping the most committed teachers from doing their best?

An NBC/WSJ poll shows that the public’s view of President Bush’s job, the economy and the nation’s direction have continued to decline. But with the midterm elections just six months away, the biggest drop in the survey is in the approval rating of Congress.

It's Thursday morning and Rep. Lynn Woolsey is hosting historic hearings on getting out of Iraq.

Read the liveblog report by Karen at DemocracyCellProject:

Watch it on politicsTV

Photo Album - photos by Marcia Jansen and David Swanson.

Lots going on in D.C. - will post report here on hearing later today or tonight. -- David

From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE...

Normally C&J clutters up the front page of this buh-log with an endless stream of drivel.  Today is an exception.  We cede the floor to Eric at MoveLeft (via Crooks and Liars):

This cartoon "Conspiracy Theory Rock" by Robert Smigel was shown on "Saturday Night Live" during the March 14, 1998 broadcast but edited out of reruns.  "Saturday Night Live" is broadcast on NBC, which is owned by General Electric. GE let them broadcast this cartoon just once.  GE also partly owns MSNBC.

Click Here. I think you'll like it.

Meanwhile, the corporate monolith known as Cheers and Jeers starts in There's Moreville... [Swoosh!!]  RIGHTNOW!  [Gong!!]

The president doesn't care that he is reviled. He is a martyr, and someday all will see his glory. Meanwhile, he's got Karl doing his dirty work.

Presented for your consideration: A bizarre and chilling fantasy in which Bush's Fox-y new press secretary suddenly tells the truth.

On August 2, 1939, Albert Einstein sent a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt which said in part:

{Source] In the course of the last four months it has been made probable -- that it may become possible to set up a nuclear chain reaction in a large mass of uranium, by which vast amounts of power and large quantities of new elements would be generated. Now it appears almost certain that this could be achieved in the immediate future.

Thus, the Manhattan Project was born. And the United States developed the atomic bomb before Germany or the USSR.

On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched a tiny beeping ball into orbit. Again American ingenuity was brought to bear. President John F. Kennedy upped the ante in September 1962 saying:

[Source] Yet the vows of this Nation can only be fulfilled if we in this Nation are first, and, therefore, we intend to be first ... We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard ...

A few years later, the world watched as the mighty Saturn V hurled a tiny capsule called Apollo 11 to the Sea of Tranquility, and one small step for man turned into one giant leap for mankind.

On September 11, 2001, we were no longer Republicans or Democrats, black or white, poor or wealthy. On that day we were Americans. On that day and for months after, we would have done anything our leaders asked of us. What did our President advise? Handed the greatest opportunity for leadership since Pearl Harbor, George Bush alternated between telling us to buy stuff and visit Disney World, while spooking an anxious nation in to a war against people that had nothing to do with the terrorist attacks. How different might it have been, had George Bush followed in the footstep of FDR or John Kennedy? What might have transpired had he chosen to spend that costly endowment of unity differently? We'll never know. And here we are.

[Seattle Times] America's unchecked appetite for oil is seriously jeopardizing U.S. security, despite the billions of dollars the U.S. spends to safeguard steady access to cheap oil. Americans spend $1 billion every weekday on imported oil. Many of those dollars are used to frustrate critical U.S. diplomatic goals, underwrite terrorist organizations and finance jihadist movements in the Middle East and southern Asia.

The energy problem is, at its core, a scientific and engineering problem. And America knows how to solve scientific and engineering problems better than any country in history. We still have the talent, we still have the resources, we still have the spirit, just as we did in WW2 or the space race. If anything, we have more. What we lack is leadership.

Yeah, yeah, another stupid open thread.

Lucky Ducky, the poor little duck who's rich in luck, in: "The High Cost of the Free Market."

It's easier to say what the Tribeca Film Festival isn't than to explain exactly what it is. It isn't the most important festival for independent cinema in the world (that would be Cannes) or in the United States (that's clearly Sundance, even as it is today). It doesn't show more films than any other fest (the Berlinale is significantly larger), although in terms of sheer quantity, it's up there. It isn't primarily an industry-insider trade show, the way Sundance, Cannes and Toronto are. Even in New York, the capital of all things self-referential, you don't sell 250,000 tickets (a number Tribeca may hit this year) without doing what film festivals are supposed to do, meaning appeal to some more-or-less regular folks who want to see good movies they might never catch otherwise.

The standard story line put forward about Tribeca goes like this: It started in 2002 when Robert De Niro and his longtime producing pal Jane Rosenthal decided to "do something" to boost lower Manhattan, which was economically struggling in the wake of the 9/11 attack. It was a plucky venture with some star power, but pretty much held together with Scotch tape and coat hangers. Venues were miscellaneous and marketing was haphazard, but they booked a few splashy premieres and a lot of interesting-looking small movies, and did pretty well. No one was quite sure what the future held, but -- hey! Cut to four years later, and the damn thing has eaten Manhattan.

...

We four daughters have stayed close, but our parents have drifted away.

George W. Bush would like to sell you the idea that pesky environmental regulations are keeping gas prices high.

Although U.S.-financed war in Nicaragua is now two decades in the past, vestiges remain.

It's time to abandon the failed model of industrial agriculture and join the Good Food movement: embrace healthy, delicious food that makes the entire country stronger.

No matter how much Bush pushes for guest worker programs, his administration intends to beef up border patrols, detention and deportation, and build a 700-mile fence on our southern border.

Was it oil? Empire? Human rights? The Israel Lobby? Three years later, there's no clear reason why we invaded Iraq, much less any idea how we'll get out.

Interview: Former U.N. weapons inspector and critic of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East talks about Iraq, Iran and the prospects for the return of a draft.

Anger over gas prices is gaining traction in many midterm races around the nation as Democrats attack Republicans for being too close to oil companies.

I wonder if the Right will call this a sting operation too:

The CIA has conducted more than 1,000 clandestine flights in Europe since 2001, and some of them secretly took away terror suspects to countries where they could face torture, European Union lawmakers said Wednesday.

Legislators selected to look into allegations of questionable CIA activities in Europe said flight data showed a pattern of hidden operations by American agents, and they accused some European governments of knowing about it but remaining silent.

Cases of terror suspects being secretly handed over to U.S. agents did not appear to be isolated, the lawmakers said in a preliminary report on their inquiry. . . "The committee deplores the fact that, as established during the committee's investigation, the CIA has used aircraft registered under fictitious company names or with private companies to secretly transfer terror suspects to other countries including Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Afghanistan . . ."

(Emphasis supplied.) When Mary McCarthy was fired for allegedly leaking classified information, the Right blogs went into fabulist mode and concocted the most ridiculous "government sting delusion" in recent memory, and were asserting there were no human rights violations by the United States in Europe. They even cited, due to some shoddy editing by the New York Times, that the EU and the Council of Europe had CLEARED the CIA of human rights violations. No doubt the New York Times is capable of altering this story as well, but facts are stubborn things. For example, the Secretary of State has consistently misled on the subject of extraordinary renditions in Europe:

[In December 2005], Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice was charged with the task of lying about extraordinary rendition and torture:

In remarks at the start of a five-day trip to Europe, the U.S. Secretary of State mischaracterized the U.S. government's "rendition" of terrorist suspects to make it appear lawful, Human Rights Watch said today.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the U.S. government had not transported detainees to other countries "for the purpose" of interrogation using torture, but she failed to mention that the United States has transported detainees to countries such as Egypt and Syria where it knows torture is commonplace. The Convention Against Torture, to which the United States is a party, outlaws such a practice.

(Emphasis supplied.) Liar:

The report said that on a number of occasions the CIA was clearly responsible for detaining terror suspects on European territory and transferring them to countries where they could face torture.

. . . U.S. officials previously said that as of late December, some 100 to 150 people had been seized in ''rendition'' operations involving detaining terror suspects in one country and flying them to their home country or another where they were wanted for a crime or questioning.

. . . Fava cited as one example of ''extraordinary rendition'' the case of an Egyptian cleric, Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, who allegedly was abducted by U.S. agents on a street in Milan, Italy, in 2003 and returned to his homeland, where he says he was tortured.

Another case involved German citizen Khalid al-Masri. Documents provided by Eurocontrol indicated he was taken to Afghanistan in 2004 by a plane that originated in Algeria and flew via Palma de Mallorca, Spain; Skopje, Macedonia; and Baghdad, Iraq.

(Emphasis supplied.) A pack of liars. Torturers. They have brought disgrace on our country. Story also discussed here.