Curio: Herman Cain, Ally Bank & Other Things In The News Edition

1. How much do I love the new Herman Cain ad? So so so so much. It’s brilliant in that Mike-Huckabee-teaming-up-with-Chuck-Norris-in-2008 kind of way (and everyone knows I loved me some Mike Huckabee in 2008). Because if you’re going to run for president as sort of an ill-prepared hack, at least have some fun with it, right? And it genuinely seems like Herman Cain (unlike any of his presidential competitors) is having fun.

Chuck Norris doesn’t endorse, he tells America how its gonna be. —Mike Huckabee, 2008 ad

Here is the guy in the video, Cain chief of staff Mark Block, responding: “I’m standing outside smoking a cigarette. What else was I supposed to do?”

What, me intentionally try to bait the press? Well played. 

2. It has become so ingrained in me from professional blogging to bold keywords in posts that now I want to do it all the time, anywhere I write. Like, emails even. And certainly here. I find it kind of aesthetically pleasing, really. Do you find it annoying? Check yes or no, please.

3. You know what else is kind of badass? The Obama administration’s new f**k-you to Congress plan. They are actually calling it the “We Can’t Wait” campaign, and Obama’s all, hey, you do what you can in spite of an “increasingly dysfunctional Congress.” I don’t mean this as endorsement of either executive power or any of the administration’s particular economy-boosting plans, but—damn. I like the cut of their jib right now, you know?

4. I am one of the people news outlets keep writing about, switching from my terrible, giant banks (Chase and Bank of America) to an internet-only affair (Ally). I highly recommend it. So far, Ally has been great—easy to navigate, sensible. They give you 1 percent interest on your checking account, reimburse you for any ATM fees you incur and their customer service line is open 24-hours (says the website, I have not checked). I had to call once and I got through to a person really easily.

I just wanted to tell you that.

5. I was reading about the Obama administration’s support of giant agribusinesses the other day—”If You Eat, You Better Occupy Wall Street“—and now whenever I see things about Michelle Obama promoting home gardens or fighting food deserts, I think of someone planting a really pretty tree in the foreground with smoke stacks and bulldozers in the back, or something cartoonish like that. That is probably unfair to Michelle, but  … Dave Murphy, founder of Food Democracy Now!, writes:

Occupy Wall Street was born out of a legitimate frustration with the collusion between Big Business and elected officials of the U.S. government. And nowhere is that collusion so great as in food and agricultural production where four firms control 84 percent of beef packing, 66 percent of pork production and one company, Monsanto, controls patents on more than 93 percent of soybeans and 80 percent of corn grown in the U.S.

I’ll tell you one thing: I moved to Indiana in July, and I have never heard so many ads for farm products and, particularly, soybeans. They’re soybean-ad crazy on the radio around here. It’s strange to hear about these things this in the non-abstract (the ads are generally not for the Roundup-Ready seeds by themselves, but for different places selling them).