quote: Another classic is "please." Here, Palin thinks that as long as she admits to being bad at answering questions, this will somehow be dismissed as irrelevant to running the most powerful nation on the face of the earth...
though I've been all like 'lol palin!' for a while now I am actually legitimately surprised at how much of a farce she turned the republican ticket into.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
Having noticed that CNN had the "Palin Rogue" as its top story today, I thought I'd take a peak over at foxnews.com to see what they have.
Oh my goodness. Each of the top stories highlighted are:
1) 2001 interview of Obama discussing Supreme Court's failure to rule on redistributing wealth gives GOP fresh ammo. 2) A picture of a Palin mannequin being hung in a Halloween display. (the outrage!) 3) A report on how Biden is complaining that reporter comparing Obama to Marx isn't valid. (way to bring up the comparison in the guise of Biden's reaction to it.) 4) U.S.: Strike Killed Al Qaeda Leader (rah rah, go troops)
It really is the Republican news network.
Posts: 5656 | Registered: Oct 1999
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NPR 1) Campaigns Ratchet Up Ground Game In Ohio 2) For Some, Housing Crisis Stress Is Unbearable 3) South Dakotans Again Consider An Abortion Ban
PBS 1) Increased Decay Strains Budget-strapped New Orleans Port 2) Attempts to Ease Credit Crunch Reveal Mixed Results 3) Headed Toward Election Day, Candidates Hammer Messages Home in Battlegrounds
Yeah, Fox News is so blatantly biased it's not even funny. But I'd go further than calling them the Republican News Network. They're not really traditionally conservative. They're much closer to the NeoCon News Network.
Posts: 3295 | Registered: Jun 2004
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posted
MSNBC leans pretty heavily Democratic. CNN is fairly down the middle, but they tilt Democratic maybe a little bit. Fox News is above and beyond. But I don't think it's the stories they choose to highlight, it's their commentary on those stories.
This is the network who coined the "terrorist fist jab" phrase. It's one thing to show somewhat biased news coverage. It's another to actively pursue an agenda.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Lyrhawn: MSNBC leans pretty heavily Democratic. CNN is fairly down the middle, but they tilt Democratic maybe a little bit. Fox News is above and beyond. But I don't think it's the stories they choose to highlight, it's their commentary on those stories.
Fox seems to think that commentary is news, and that opinion is just as good as truth.
2 + 2 = 4 ...but let's be Fair and Balanced and give just as much time to the people who say 2 and 2 is 5.
Posts: 3852 | Registered: Feb 2002
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quote:Originally posted by Lyrhawn: MSNBC leans pretty heavily Democratic. CNN is fairly down the middle, but they tilt Democratic maybe a little bit. Fox News is above and beyond. But I don't think it's the stories they choose to highlight, it's their commentary on those stories.
Fox seems to think that commentary is news, and that opinion is just as good as truth.
2 + 2 = 4 ...but let's be Fair and Balanced and give just as much time to the people who say 2 and 2 is 5.
I think Fox news understands exactly where it is on the political spectrum and it's there to maximize profits hence it being the most watched news network.
I don't however think everyone who does and will work for that network cares about profits.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
Court records were just released regarding the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms & Tobacco's foiling of a "skinhead plot" to kill >100 African Americans, focusing on a high school and moving up to Barack Obama, if possible. From what I'm reading, it was two men behind this, and I am not sure how significant the threat was.
Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000
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posted
Yeah, sometimes they do. Sometimes they even do on a massive scale.
But I still try to believe they don't intrinsically suck. And I've been blessed to have a few people in my life who were so good they gave me hope for the rest of us.
People suck, but they also rule. Posts: 3826 | Registered: May 2005
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This really sucks. The last thing America needs right now is another disputed election. We need a democratic process we can trust.
I really dislike the fact that these voting machines are closed source and haven't been vetted by an independent group. Tthat isn't because I think they are necessarily flawed or even rigged, but because I think many many people don't trust them. I really wish America would have independent verification by outside observers for our elections. Until we do, fears that our elections aren't fair will continue to erode our democratic society.
I also really dislike the fact that, at least in many states, elections are certified by partisan elected officials who at times have even acted as campaign chairs for one candidate. If you are trying to build a system people can trust, that is exactly the wrong way to do it.
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
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Check CT's link. The skinheads in question were plotting to kill 102 Black Americans, ending with Obama.
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
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posted
CNN is either pro-Obama or anti-Palin. I still to go to it out of convenience or because the layout is clean, but I think they like taking shots at Palin and McCain too much, while giving Obama a pass.
Posts: 5600 | Registered: Jul 2001
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Well, practically I have to imagine this gives the seat to Democrat Mark Begich.
Either that or Alaska will elect a convicted felon. That's assuming the judge gives him zero jail time, which frankly I imagine is likely.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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Well, practically I have to imagine this gives the seat to Democrat Mark Begich.
Either that or Alaska will elect a convicted felon. That's assuming the judge gives him zero jail time, which frankly I imagine is likely.
Oh, how I wish I could count on Alaskans being that sane. Heck, if they were, I might still live there.
(Er, nah. My wife really didn't want to live without seeing sunlight for five months of the year.)
There are actually people who will say with a straight face that Stevens has done great things for the State, that his convictions are a partisan witch hunt, and people aren't respecting others' right to do things the way they want to.
Bless that "frontier mentality" lunacy.
Begich is a good guy; I wish him luck.
Posts: 3826 | Registered: May 2005
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posted
In the electoral college, just about half of the votes in this country want McCain to win this election. If CNN or the New York Times are to be believed, all of those people are deluded about McCain's chances or stupid. This media group think reminds me of the run-up to the Iraq war, and to be honest, if McCain wins this election-- or even makes it close, or Nader gets higher than 2 percent-- I hope a lot of the editorial staff of CNN and MSNBC get canned for poor coverage.
Edit: It looks like the would be assassins are just kids, 18 and 20. I hope they get counseling instead of hard time. People like that usually come out worse than they went in.
quote:In the electoral college, just about half of the votes in this country want McCain to win this election
In the electoral college, that's 350+ vs. about 188.
that's not just about half for mccain.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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Blayne Bradley
unregistered
posted
oh my god, Daily Show 20th, anyone see the interview with the current mayor of wassila? She doesn't do ANYTHING, dear god. Has a staff meeting and signs checks? Oooooh that is so much more responsible then helping poor people in run down areas of Chicago.
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posted
They do edit those segments for maximum lulz, but I think they still got the essense of things.
Posts: 3275 | Registered: May 2007
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posted
Every time Irami posts in this thread, I become more convinced that he is somehow accessing our internet from an alternate dimension that bears only a passing resemblance to our own.
posted
They were just kids who were planning on shooting up a high school and killing 101 kids before trying for Obama. They knew they probably wouldn't successfully kill him, they hadn't even bothered researching his schedule. If it was just the threat against him, I'd agree it was pretty pathetic and they had no chance of success. But they planned on going into a high school first and shooting or decapitating 100 people who weren't surrounded by secret service agents. Don't forget that part.
Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Enigmatic: Every time Irami posts in this thread, I become more convinced that he is somehow accessing our internet from an alternate dimension that bears only a passing resemblance to our own.
--Enigmatic
I'm sure Irami is quite serious about the opinions he expresses, as much so as you or I. There's no evidence that he just trolls for a response.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:Originally posted by fugu13: That's consistent with what Enigmatic said.
Though Irami has said that he often exaggerates for rhetorical effect.
Suggesting that somebody is so consistently wrong about the world that the only explanation is that they live in an alternate version of reality is just a more subtle way of saying they are crazy.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
Which is different from saying that they aren't serious. Crfazy people are often quite earnest.
Posts: 11187 | Registered: Sep 2005
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posted
One very intelligent, friendly, helpful man I knew was also completely certain the government was out to spy on him by planting devices in his brain.
That was because he was schizophrenic. He was never able to convince himself it wasn't true, but he was able to structure his life so he felt the government wasn't likely to be interested in it, which let him function.
I don't think Irami is schizophrenic, but I do think he builds fantasies about how the world works that he likes to argue as if they were true. Furthermore, I know that he exaggerates for effect, as he has said, meaning that he frequently utters statements which are utterly ridiculous that might be at least debatable if qualified.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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posted
BlackBlade, first you say that I'm calling Irami a troll, then you say I'm calling him crazy. Which is it?
In fact I'm doing neither. To put in less colorful terms than my original summary: Irami's logic is sound based on his initial premises, as are his conclusions, but I have absolutely no idea were he gets the information that forms his initial premises, because it rarely matches up with my observed reality. (Case in point: McCain has nearly half of the electoral college? Really?)
Now, admittingly, if he was crazy that would be one possible explanation. So would his being completely accurate in his observations of the world and me being delusional. But I think my explanation is far more interesting.
quote:Originally posted by Enigmatic: BlackBlade, first you say that I'm calling Irami a troll, then you say I'm calling him crazy. Which is it?
In fact I'm doing neither. To put in less colorful terms than my original summary: Irami's logic is sound based on his initial premises, as are his conclusions, but I have absolutely no idea were he gets the information that forms his initial premises, because it rarely matches up with my observed reality. (Case in point: McCain has nearly half of the electoral college? Really?)
Now, admittingly, if he was crazy that would be one possible explanation. So would his being completely accurate in his observations of the world and me being delusional. But I think my explanation is far more interesting.
--Enigmatic
I'm saying Irami does not fit any of these traditional labels folks use to demean other posters. I've read myriad comments like yours and said nothing, but I've decided to start discouraging disparaging remarks directed at just about everyone who comes here.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Well, practically I have to imagine this gives the seat to Democrat Mark Begich.
Either that or Alaska will elect a convicted felon. That's assuming the judge gives him zero jail time, which frankly I imagine is likely.
Oh, how I wish I could count on Alaskans being that sane. Heck, if they were, I might still live there.
(Er, nah. My wife really didn't want to live without seeing sunlight for five months of the year.)
There are actually people who will say with a straight face that Stevens has done great things for the State, that his convictions are a partisan witch hunt, and people aren't respecting others' right to do things the way they want to.
Bless that "frontier mentality" lunacy.
Begich is a good guy; I wish him luck.
Begich is ahead by like a point, which is pretty much a tie. If this thing gives him a 2-3 point bump, that might be all he needs. He doesn't need a huge 10 point swing.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
That's a noble goal, and I applaud you for it. However, I never said that he does fit any of these "traditional labels folks use to demean other posters" so I find your approach somewhat mystifying. I never said he wasn't serious. I never said he was a troll. I never said he was crazy.
If you'd just said something along the lines of "I find that comment disparaging" that'd be different. As it stands, your first response to me reads as a non-sequitor, in my opinion. I also have a minor quibble with the "only" in your second post because that is also not what I said.
So I guess what I'm saying now is that in your quest to improve the level of discourse at hatrack, I'd appreciate it if you'd stop putting words in my mouth.
quote:Originally posted by Irami Osei-Frimpong: CNN is either pro-Obama or anti-Palin. I still to go to it out of convenience or because the layout is clean, but I think they like taking shots at Palin and McCain too much, while giving Obama a pass.
I would argue that, as has been said, reality is pro-Obama, and Anti-Palin.
Just think, aside from the current players: if the democrats had nominated an eminently qualified and intelligent choice as their candidate for president, and the republicans had nominated a bumbling idiot with no redeaming qualities as theirs, what would the responsibility of a news organizations be at that point?
We see that Fox news thinks that "fair and balanced" means that the people who say 2+2=5 should be given screen time with the people who suggest that 2+2=4, but what of any possible "responsible" news network? At what point can they be trusted or expected to reflect reality to their viewers, in light of such a vital subject?
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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Well that's Ohio and Georgia. Looks like the courts are smoothing some of this out. And everyone says that lawyers just cause problems in elections Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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Ten-year-old Malia's reaction to her father's plans to air a 30-minute paid advertisement on national TV Wednesday night? "'You're going to be on all the TV? Are you going to interrupt my TV?'" her mother said Malia asked.
She said Barack Obama reassured his daughter that he hadn't purchased time on the Disney Channel.
posted
Maybe the DNC should create a show on the Disney Channel starring some young teenie boppper Democrat, and all the mean teachers are Republicans out to stifle them.
Can't start working on brand loyalty too early. Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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Seriously, between the war in Iraq, abortion, gay rights, taxes, Pakistan, Iran, Israel, public schools, health care, and gun control, you woul think people would have enough information to figure out which candidate they wanted to vote for without having to justify their decision by making the other guy out to be stupid, evil, or both.
Posts: 1894 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
I saw a snippet on CNN today that said more than a million of Georgians had voted already in the presidential election, and that's almost a fifth of the registered electorate there. Furthermore, 85% had done so at early voting places in person, which I thought was neat. I think "no excuse" early voting rules are a fantastic idea.
Anyway, I decided to take a deeper look, and because numbers are fun, I'll share it all with you. Some of these numbers are rounded off, so it's not precise, but it's pretty damned close, and considering the amount of time I spent (or didn't) looking some of this up, I think it's credibly accurate:
Georgia
To look at the basics:
In 2004, there were approximately 4.75 million registered voters in Georgia. Since then, registration has swelled by aprx. 850,000 to a current total of 5.6 million registered voters. Of those, like I said, more than a million have already voted, or almost a fifth of the total that are eligible. In 2004, blacks made up 27.7% of the electorate, and now that number is 29.2%. 406,000 new voters have been registered this year alone, and that number may rise as the last day tallys are figured for the final frenzied moments of the voter registration drives in both parties.
About 3.3 million votes were cast in the election in 2004. If that number were to stay the same, then nearly a third of the total votes would already have been cast, and Obama has been a substantial leader thus far in early voting. But everyone is saying this year will see record turnout.
If anyone is curious, Kerry lost Georgia by 548,000 votes (only 18,000 were cast for the Libertarian candidate). That might give you some idea as to what Obama has to overcome this time around. But with new voter registrations, unprecedented black turnout, early voting in such large numbers and favorable Obama numbers, and general excitement in the Democratic party might be anough to cover the half million vote deficit from four years ago. More people by far have registered to vote since 2004 than exist in that gap, so the opportunity is there.
Georgia could make for a fun election night stakeout.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
I wasn't planning to vote this year--I'm not sure I want that responsibility on my shoulders. And since I live in Georgia, I didn't think my vote would make a difference. You're definitely making me rethink my decision, Lyrhawn.
Are you in Georgia, too, since you often post about the state's electoral votes?
Posts: 2880 | Registered: Jun 2004
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Well that's Ohio and Georgia. Looks like the courts are smoothing some of this out. And everyone says that lawyers just cause problems in elections
Only part, I'm afraid. My bigger concerns cannot be accounted for by lawyers or judges. I have serious issues with electronic voting which, as it stands, leaves no paper trail and is closed to public scrutiny. Whether or not this has led to actual voter fraud, through manipulation or errors, is unclear, but the possibility is very real. I refuse to trust blindly because failure to do so would mean a little more peace and security. We know that voter fraud, often intentional, is a real phenomenon in this country and, at least on small scales, has been since the beginning. These voter machines are simply making that fraud easier and allowing the possibility of widespread vote tampering. I'm not a conspiracy theorist by nature, but these voting machines are insane. If they have nothing to hide, then make them open source and print out a piece of paper!
Posts: 2392 | Registered: Sep 2005
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You have to be careful with how you describe electronic voting. In Michigan we use optical scan ballots, where you fill in a little bubble to say who you want to vote for and then you feed your ballot into a scanning machine and it records your vote, and the paper ballot is still around to be easily counted. It seems simple enough to me, I don't know why everyone doesn't do it. But it's still technically electronic voting since the votes are counted electronically.
I guess the alternative would be to have everything done on paper and counted by hand, which I guess would lead to smaller populations to be covered by each voting district and each precinct, but even then you still have to count on the honestly of the little old ladies running hte precinct and counting the votes. There is ALWAYS going to be opportunity for fraud. Optical scan ballots seem like the best way to go for me. Paper trail, easily understood, easily recounted, and few mistakes.
Katarain -
No, I'm in Michigan, but as much as we're ballyhooed as a swing state, we really aren't in contention this time around. McCain pulled out a couple weeks ago and was never really in contention in the polls. Georgia however has shifting dynamics, a down to the wire Senate race with Saxby Chambliss and Jim Martin that could have serious long lasting impacts on the final composition of the Senate as far as cloture motion votes go for fillibusters. I love all the factors involved with the election in Georgia. Explosive upticks in registration, huge turnout for early voting, a large but generally apathetic black population that is expected to vote in unprecedented numbers and as much as 95% of that for Obama.
It's just fascinating, and frankly I think it isn't talked about enough in relation to the more well known battleground states that get all the attention. Maybe it's the History major in me, or the fact that I get geeked out and excited by elections. I was thinking about doing a mini-profile of some other non-traditional battleground states, but Georgia has I think 15 electoral votes (10? 15? I don't remember) that never get talked about. McCain is counting on states like Georgia to stay firmly in his camp so he can defend other territory he's losing and even then try and steal Pennsylvania. I just hate to see Georgia get the shaft. Every state is important.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
The problem with electronic balloting is that it allows a single person to alter the counts in voting and tabulating machines from a remote location: a feature that makes the machines very amenable to vote rigging.
Plus most of the electronic voting machines are made by a company owned by a person who publicly guaranteed a Republican victory in 2004, and most of the tabulating machines are made by a company owned by his brother-in-law.
posted
I read something like this from the NY Times today:
quote:Obama promised better days ''if we're willing to reach deep down inside us, when times are tough, when it's cold, when it's raining, when it's hard -- that's when we when stand up.''
then start thinking about how easily he folded on campaign finance reform and think he is a phony.
Posts: 5600 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
Personally, I thought this was pretty cool for reasons ranging from Chinese-black racial issues and the fact that random Chinese people can even be polled about a US candidate of all things.
quote: BEIJING–It ran – without a hint of irony – across the top of page A11 in the government-run, English language China Daily newspaper last week.
The report said an online China Daily poll showed 75 per cent of Chinese prefer Barack Obama to John McCain for U.S. president.
How many Chinese actually prefer their own president?
Well, that poll hasn't been done yet, nor is it expected any time soon.
But the notion of polling Chinese people on their preferences for U.S. president, when they have no say in electing their own, was novel to say the least.
Nevertheless, while China can't be said to be in the grip of "Obamamania," there is fascination here about the U.S. race.
How extensive it is in a nation of 1.3 billion people, where 700 million are still peasants, is difficult to gauge – despite China Daily's enthusiastic online poll.
But when expressed in official media, it centres on Obama's colour.
"Senator Barack Obama's skin colour is the greatest focal point of this year's U.S. presidential election," the Communist Party's People's Daily said in a front-page editorial this summer.
The report claimed Western media have "lavished" praise on Obama because he's black and because he promises change.
"His success," the paper said in June after Obama clinched the Democratic presidential nomination, "is because he does not emphasize his racial features and has even drawn a clear line with radical blacks."
But if elected, the paper said, Obama would be "the best and most ideal footnote to the `American dream.'"
...
So news from afar that the world's only superpower is on the verge of electing its first black president can't help but fascinate.
"I didn't care much about the U.S. election before," 23-year-old Xu Kai, who works for a real estate company in Wuxi, told China Daily. She's been following the race more closely this year because "an African-American," is leading, she said.
"I want to see if a black American could become the president," said Xu.
If America elects Obama it would prove the U.S. is not just a white people's country, she said.
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