Voting 2008...

Because it only took Viking-Sensei three years (and the approaching end of Errant Story) to come up with a better name for "General Discussions"
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Boss Out of Town
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Re: Voting 2008...

Post by Boss Out of Town »

Tiamat wrote:In a further rant on the total lunacy that is the news media in the United States, consider this: at this point, the most reliable, unbiased (well, at least politically) sources of any news about political topics are on Comedy Central. The 'fake' news show from 1998 has suddenly become a better source than CNN, the Central NEWS Network. If ever I needed a reason to cry this would be it - and Jon Stewart knows exactly how ridiculous this state of affairs is. To a lesser extent, the Colbert Report is in the same boat, although they tend to focus more on the comedy aspect than The Daily Show.

The fact that Jon Stewart now even looks more respectable on his broadcast than some of the major news anchors is beyond reproach.
Sad but true. As a comedian on a minor channel--"basic cable"--Stewart isn't part of the restricted social circle of the national media elite, politicians, political operatives, and lobbyists. He makes fun of everyone, but actually has an intellect and some moral sense behind his humor.
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Re: Voting 2008...

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Another sad issue with the election is that so few people seem to know how to tell the difference between comedy, reliable news, propaganda, and shock-jockism. I had friends over the weekend, visiting from down by Chicago, who drove past a dozen of the shut-down subdivision projects that litter the countryside around here. We had some casual conversation about the collapsing housing and mortgage markets, mentioning greed, stupidity, etc., and then one of them chipped in to say . . .

"it's all the government's fault."

"What?" I replied.

"The liberals have been forcing the banks to make loans to people who can't afford them."

I could have noted that I've been following the housing bubble sage for five years in a dozen venues and never heard an economist, politician, analyst, commentator, reporter, or anyone else drop that idea, which is the complete opposite of reality. Instead, I waved the comment off politely and changed the topic.

The man's a senior software manager for a high-tech firm. He also believes that the economy is in great shape, Saddam Hussein was involved in 9/11, that our boys in Iraq are fighting terrorists rather than insurgents, that we are winning the war, and that dissent against the war is treasonous.

He's a nice guy, intelligent, but he's a Dittohead. Gets all his news from Rush Limbaugh and only pays attention to similar news sources.

I gave up discussing politics with Dittoheads years ago. They've created their own information universe, quite separate from where most of the rest of us live, and arguing with them is a waste of your time and theirs.
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Re: Voting 2008...

Post by runic »

Viking-Sensei wrote:Really, nobody has a right to be surprised about Congress. I mean, it's in the name... after all, if Pro is the opposite of Con, than the opposite of Progress would be... you know.
jon stewert says more in twenty minutes than cnn does all day

i was hoping ron paul would prevail but alas
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Re: Voting 2008...

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runic wrote:
Viking-Sensei wrote:Really, nobody has a right to be surprised about Congress. I mean, it's in the name... after all, if Pro is the opposite of Con, than the opposite of Progress would be... you know.
jon stewert says more in twenty minutes than cnn does all day

i was hoping ron paul would prevail but alas
I'm hoping for Bob Barr to pull some votes from Libertarians who have voted Republican in recent years. They've been played for suckers like most of the rest of the Republican constituincies. As one conservative intellectual opined, a humiliating defeat at the polls is the only thing that will force the party to clean up its act.

Meanwhile, the poison at the national level is seeping down to the states. Sarah Palin has been told she has the right to ignore an investigation by the Alaskan legislature and refuse to testify. "Executive Privilege" or "Divine Right of Kings," your choice.
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Re: Voting 2008...

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I'm not sure what I can say from here in Norway, except wishing you the best of luck. At least you're getting rid of Bush in any case, but I must say, I certainly hope you can dodge McCain/Palin. This is coming from someone who's voted "Sosialistisk Venstreparti" ("Socialist Left Party") in the last few elections, though. Guess there might be some bias. :P The Norwegian system is a bit different. The past few governments have been 3-party coalitions, and the one we had from 2001-2005 was the first one to actually last for the full 4 years since the sixties. I'd say welcome to Norway if you're serious about emigrating, but it's not unlikely that our next government will be fucked up as well (from my point of view, at least, and many others).

In any case, you have my sympathy. Hopefully Obama can pull through on top, and hopefully he'll be able to do some good, or at least not too much bad. I won't claim to know a lot about the candidates, but I really don't think another republican is what the US and the world needs. Whether Obama will be any better... well, we can hope.

(Somehow I'm reminded of something from a Mad Magazine I read once: "Only a Democrat/Republican..." where one of them was something like "Only a Democrat could think that inept-but-well-meaning is somehow better than devious-but-good-at-it.")
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Re: Voting 2008...

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Immanio wrote:I certainly hope you can dodge McCain/Palin.
At this point I don't even give a shit about McCain. Palin is a monster: I automatically disagree with anyone who wants to overturn Roe v Wade on general principle, but her audacity knows no bounds. The kind of human being who charges women for their rape kits is far and away from the kind you want anywhere near a leadership position. In addition, there's her blatant hypocrisy regarding her daughter. "She made the decision to have the baby" is bullshit. I expect she really did, but if she didn't Palin would have browbeaten her into it to save her own hide. Combining that with the fact that Palin doesn't want there to be any choice, at all, ever, even in cases of rape and imminent death, makes my skin crawl even as I froth at the mouth.

If I weren't applying to law schools in the United States I would seriously consider jumping ship if McCain wins. Hell, I'm seriously considering it anyway.
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Re: Voting 2008...

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Tiamat wrote:If I weren't applying to law schools in the United States I would seriously consider jumping ship if McCain wins. Hell, I'm seriously considering it anyway.
So are we all. New Zealand is looking good, our company could move there with relatively little in the way of consequences.

-_-'
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Re: Voting 2008...

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I always wanted to move to New Zealand. Beautiful country, strong independent television and film production network. Unfortunately, getting NZ to let you move there is a little more complicated.
How could a plan this awesome possibly fail?
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Re: Voting 2008...

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Problem is, if either of those two macho fools (McCain or Palin) gets charge of foreign policy, the chance of an accidental nuclear exchange spikes and even New Zealand is going to catch some of the fallout. A revival of the Cold War is the entire world's problem, not just ours and Russia's.

Not to mention that the last time the United States banking system crashed this catastrophically, the panic and resulting depression was world wide in effect. There isn't any escaping it.

The sane Republicans are either out of power or under the whip. The non-fanatics know their party is going to crash this fall and are not shy about telling this to friends and reporters. The Democrats have revived, finally. The people inside the Beltway are still playing to lose and kissing up to corporate money. However, Obama, Dean, and Clinton, have organzied brilliantly at the state and local levels and their people are talking 57% to 60% majorities in both houses of congress.
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Re: Voting 2008...

Post by Immanio »

Best of luck tomorrow.
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