Why I Accepted The Pickens Ad

If you look over at the right sidebar, you may be surprised to see an ad from noted scumbag and Swift-Boater, T. Boone Pickens. The ad pimps his energy initiative for which I'm sure you've now seen no less than 1,283,645 television commercials.

When I got the e-mail saying I had this ad waiting, I was all set to reject it and Pickens' money faster than John McCain can call Barack Obama a terrorist. After all, Pickens donated $3 million to the Swift Boat Liars in 2004 and was instrumental in the smear campaign against John Kerry that contributed to Americans suffering through four more years of George W. Bush.

In other words, this guy is a slimy as they get and if I were driving down the road and saw him standing on the center line, I would end up with pieces of Boone all over the front of my car.

I think you get the point.

So I got the opinions of many other bloggers and the vast majority of them were accepting the ad. Some said we might as well take the jerk's money because if we don’t someone else will. Others said to take it and then write scathing blog posts ripping him to shreds for his low-rent history and for his "energy plan" that clearly has nothing to do with patriotism and a lot to do with how to make him richer -- in other words, making us less dependent on foreign oil, but more dependent on people like him.

Some gave an argument that I simply don't buy: That we as bloggers should not reject ads based on content or the sponsor because that implies that we agree with all ads we do run.

As my 11-year-old son might say, "Duh!"

We are in the business of strong opinions, editorializing and being partisan as hell and our sites are platforms intended to inform and, yes, give our world view. The ads we run clearly also reflect that view and accepting or rejecting ads is as much a legitimate editorial function as what side we take on a given issue.

But Jesus General finally came up with the solution that worked for me -- and you see it above the Pickens ad on the right. So some of us are taking his money while also letting people know the score about this guy, as they scroll down, and before they even see his ad.

I'll take this schmuck's money but also let people know what I really think of who he is.

And proceeds from the ad will indeed go to stock the bar on election night so that as we drink (probably way too much) on the night President Obama is elected, we can know that a right-wing piece of dirt is sponsoring the festivities.