Democrat Barack Obama’s plan to bring the debate over gas prices straight to the pumps hit a roadblock Wednesday.
What sounded like a great way to reach a captive audience as they pumped $4-a-gallon gas into their car crashed and burned quickly when the company that sells spots on small, gas pump televisions rejected the idea.
Drivers upset by high fuel costs would have seen an ad saying Republican John McCain voted against alternative energy and higher mileage standards as gas prices soared. As the dollars continued adding up on the pump, drivers would have then heard that Obama would give them a $1,000 energy rebate and make energy independence a priority.
But just as the campaign announced the ads were ready to roll in Tampa, Orlando and Miami, Gas Station TV decided to reject them.
The Michigan-based company’s CEO, David Leider, said the company was considering running campaign ads on the mini-televisions, but decided Wednesday that wouldn’t be such a good idea. That’s the same day he saw Obama’s ad, which says the candidate will seek policies that lower gas consumption.
Leider, though, said the decision had nothing to do with the ad’s message.
“We avoid politics in general,” he said.
But the Obama campaign said the company gave a different reason for rejecting the ad: It was too damaging to the oil industry.
“It looks like Gas Station TV doesn’t want the American people to know about Senator Obama’s plan to offer working families a $1,000 energy rebate that would be funded by a tax on oil company profits” said Mark Bubriski, Obama’s Florida spokesman.
Netflix Series “The Leopard” Spots Classic Italian Novel, Remakes It As A Sumptuous Period Drama
"The Leopard," a new Netflix series, takes the classic Italian novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and transforms it into a sumptuous period piece showing the struggles of the aristocracy in 19th-century Sicily, during tumultuous social upheavals as their way of life is crumbling around them.
Tom Shankland, who directs four of the eight episodes, had the courage to attempt his own version of what is one of the most popular films in Italian history. The 1963 movie "The Leopard," directed by Luchino Visconti, starring Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale, won the Palme d'Or in Cannes.
One Italian critic said that it would be the equivalent of a director in the United States taking "Gone with the Wind" and turning it into a series, but Shankland wasn't the least bit intimidated.
He said that he didn't think of anything other than his own passion for the project, which grew out of his love of the book. His father was a university professor of Italian literature in England, and as a child, he loved the book and traveling to Sicily with his family.
The book tells the story of Don Fabrizio Corbera, the Prince of Salina, a tall, handsome, wealthy aristocrat who owns palaces and land across Sicily.
His comfortable world is shaken with the invasion of Sicily in 1860 by Giuseppe Garibaldi, who was to overthrow the Bourbon king in Naples and bring about the Unification of Italy.
The prince's family leads an opulent life in their magnificent palaces with servants and peasants kowtowing to their every need. They spend their time at opulent banquets and lavish balls with their fellow aristocrats.
Shankland has made the series into a visual feast with tables heaped with food, elaborate gardens and sensuous costumes.... Read More