Several of the major news outlets are reporting that Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler Magazine and Joe Francis, CEO of Girls Gone Wild, are officially asking Congress for a bailout of their Industry. Anyone that knows me, knows that I have been strongly against all of these bailouts from the beginning.

Here are a couple of quotes from Flynt and Francis:

Flynt: “With all this economic misery and people losing all that money, sex is the farthest thing from their mind. It’s time for Congress to rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America.”

Francis: “Congress seems willing to help shore up our nation’s most important businesses; we feel we deserve the same consideration.”

Francis: “The US government should actively support the adult industry’s survival and growth, just as it feels the need to support any other industry cherished by the American people.”

While this bailout will be the one that the Democrats finally turn down – the question now should be asked where there line is? What criterea do they use when determining who gets bailed out? Or do the bailouts just go to Companies and Labor Unions who made huge political contributions to you?

While a bailout should be out of the question, even with the Spending Fever in Washington, I have to admit that it is a home run on the publicity scale for Flynt and Francis. And who knows, maybe they do need a bailout. Getting girls to go wild isn’t cheap! [Not spoken from personal experience. Unfortunately, I have been unable to get any girls to ever go "wild".]

More at….
CNN: Porn Industry Seeks Bailout
MSNBC: Flynt, Francis Want $5 Billion Porn Bailout

I just read a great post on the Trump Blog by Brett Carman on how the media is exploiting everything into a Crisis and always reporting the negative about everything – thus making the Crisis worse and driving the economy into the ground.

What once was a real estate downturn that was really only a crisis in a few select markets around the country, the media hyped it until it was a national epidemic. The same with the mortgage crisis, the jobs crisis, the health care crisis, the energy crisis, global warming crisis, the Y2K crisis (remember that one!), or the movie popcorn is too fatening crisis.

The people who remain positive,do not panic and who continue to make smart business decisions based on the facts of the situation – not on media hype – will be the businesses on top when this “crisis” is over. Of course, according to the media, it may never be over.

I always get a kick out of the droves of TV reporters that go out to the malls on the Friday after Thanksgiving and report that the malls are busy – as if they are surprised.

Even with the down economy, this year was no exception. I have been noticing full parking lots at area malls for weeks. I couldn’t find any parking anywhere near Macy’s at Carolina Place Mall. I had to park all the way down by Dillard’s (at the other end of the mall). For some reason, there is always ample parking at Dillards.

The Yahoo! Search Marketing blog had a positive post about how busy the stores were on what has become known as Black Friday. Some interesting facts about the article:

According to the National Retail Federation’s 2008 Black Friday Weekend survey, shoppers were headed to both the stores and to websites in droves. An estimated 172 million shoppers visited stores and websites on Black Friday weekend (Friday through Sunday), up from just 147 million last year. Shoppers are also spending more, an average of $373 this year – up from $348 last year.

E-commerce spending on Cyber Monday totaled $846 million – up 15% over a year ago. Overall, for the 4 day period from Black Friday through Cyber Monday, spending jumped 13 percent.

While overall holiday sales may (or may not) end up down as compared to last year, this is certainly a sign that times are not as hard as the media likes us to think.