Politics
Douche Bag
Is “douche bag” one word or two? Either way, Paul Ryan fits the bill.
Ryan had stopped by the soup kitchen for about 15 minutes on his way to the airport after his Saturday morning town hall in Youngstown. By the time he arrived, the food had already been served, the patrons had left, and the hall had been cleaned.
Can't We Talk About It?
After a rambling, but accurate and interesting, list of quotes by Beck, O’Reilly, Limbaugh, Levin, and more, David Frum says:
This talk did not cause this crime. But this crime should summon us to some reflection on this talk.
I have to agree. As I said yesterday, there is no known connection between the Tucson shooter and the Palin poster, but that doesn’t mean we can’t talk about the Palin poster, or the hate speech that may incite this type of violence. As of late, it has been mostly from the extreme right wing. Roger Ebert tweeted:
These “incidents” aren’t “isolated.” They’re “clustered” around the American Right Wing.
He’s right. Historically, though, inciteful language has been used by the extremes on both sides of the political spectrum. Even Barack Obama, in a campaign speech, said
If they bring a knife to the fight, I’ll bring a gun.
Bottom line, there is no excuse for violent imagery or language in political discourse. The new House of Representatives just read the Constitution when opening for business this year. Politicians don’t speak like this anymore. I know times have changed, and Americans don’t speak like that anymore either. But here’s the thing: I want my politicians to be better than me. I don’t want “regular folks” running this country. It’s far too complicated a machine. I expect my political leaders to be more educated, better trained, and more selective in their language.
While I’m on a little rant, let’s not forget the cable news media machine that all fed off of each other’s misinformation. NPR “confirmed” that Giffords had died. Then Fox News “confirmed” it, then MSNBC and CNN followed. What exactly did they use to “confirm” it? That Sprint Store employee who happened to be working across the parking lot? He was on every news channel, admitting that he didn’t even see anything, he just heard it. I’m sure they didn’t get confirmation from a law enforcement or hospital official. Is this the fact-checking we’re settling for as an audience? What’s next? Speeding tickets based on information from the pizza guy?
Political Ads Gone Bad, or Coincidence?
If you haven’t heard, Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot this morning at a political event. It is not yet known if she will survive the surgery. This poster from the Sara Palin political action committee puts Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in the crosshairs. I’m not at all implying that it is a direct result, but some people tend to take things literally.
Sometimes hyperbole becomes reality. Images matter. Words matter.
Palin removed the poster from her site hours after the shooting.
Why C-SPAN Does It Soooo Right
C-SPAN, or the Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network has always been cool by me. I like loosely following politics, and admittedly get most of my politics from MSNBC and Fox News. I watch them both because both MSNBC and Fox News are entirely biased in their prime time lineups. But they are entertaining.
But C-SPAN does it right. It's just a camera in the House and Senate chambers. No opinion, and barely any anchors at all. Just plain old Mr.-Jones-Goes-To-Washington politics. And it's fun to watch.
Today, I had to drive to work during this whole health care debate, which was an incredible piece of American history to witness. I didn't want to miss a thing, so I went to my trusty iPhone. Searching the There's-An-App-For-That store for CSPAN, I come across the C-Span app [iTunes Link]. It's a simple thing, just streams the audio from C-SPAN.
But there's a little button on the bottom that caught my eye. It says "Background Play". "Wait!" you say… "The iPhone doesn't allow background processes at all, except a few Apple apps!"
Those apps include Clock, Phone, iPod, Safari, the iTunes and App stores, and Messages. This is where C-Span beats Pandora, LastFM, and all the other streaming apps.
C-SPAN spits out a proprietary audio stream to the app, but has a concurrent stream in simple unencrypted MP3 that Safari (and all mobile browsers) can stream. If you click "Background Play", it'll switch to Safari and continue playing the audio. You can then move on and do other things with your phone because Safari is an approved background app.
Since the iPhone and the upcoming Windows Mobile 7 Phone Series software both prevent backgrounding of third party apps, more streaming sites should take notice of C-SPAN, and offer a web-based stream for phones that don't entirely multi-task.
ecoWeb Friday: Energized Elections
There’s a lot I like to talk about on this site. Admittedly, most is not even carpentry-related. I’m OK with that, if you are. This week on ecoWeb Friday, I’m going to do something a little different. I’m just dropping a couple links, and letting you decide.
Why? Well, I don't want to get politics involved here at the Lounge, because people get mean and I get all worked into a tizzy. Leaving politics out of it, I want you to check out both candidates energy proposals. Notice I call them proposals… the candidates call them "policies", but it ain't a policy until someone is president. They both need to hold their respective horses.