Day 1164: Election Day Whereabouts
November 3, 2008 - Filed Under computing & internet, government
Where am I going to be on Election Day? Well, I’ve got to go to bed soon, because D and I are under the batty impression that we’re going to wake up before 6AM tomorrow and shlep our sweats-clad behinds down a block to be one of the first voters in our ward.
After that, off to work it is, where I will monitor results at fivethirtyeight and at the new AP live election continuous stream. InformationWeek refers to the AP as the place to be since it is “the most reliable source for election results, which it has delivered every four years since Zachary Taylor won the presidential election in 1848.” Twitter also promises a lot of election-related action.
Come evening, I plan to shuttle between the First Draft extended crack van and my comfy couch, where I will chew on a pillow while watching the results come in on TV and, in the unbearable anticipation, lie down and moo like a cow in the middle of breach birth. With twin calves. Hey, you dismiss, but it was very cathartic in 2000 and 2004, especially in 2000 when I was in the fetal position on that same couch for days during the Bush-Gore-No Wait It’s Bush-Just Kidding It’s Gore-Electoral College-Florida-CHAD-WTF-Supreme Court-Bush boondoggle, which promptly ushered me into serious blogging.
Our alternative weekly, the Gambit, has teamed up with WWL-TV to live-blog the election results. Rest assured William Jefferson and Steve Scalise winning their respective races will induce extra, local-flavored, bovine-style madness.
Given the media hubbub surrounding the election and the new James Bond movie out right now, I can’t get Barry Adamson’s A Phantasy Bond Theme out of my head. “In case there’s trouble or we’re under attack, have no fear because Bond is black!”
Yesterday, somewhere in the ether, Ashley Morris turned 45. As I sat on an airplane headed back to New Orleans, I scanned the world from above and wondered what happens to the much-theorized-about non-corporeal aspect of the body or, in other words, the soul of the dead. Is it everywhere at once? Is it beyond the constraints of space and time? Does it split into many billions of particles that do as they please? Or, are we nothing after death but in the minds of the living? On getting home, I made myself a peanut butter sandwich, with extra peanut butter, and enjoyed the hell out of it. 7 comments #
Day 1139: Honey, I’m Lost In The Internets
October 9, 2008 - Filed Under computing & internet, government, media
$29 million. That’s what the presidential campaigns are spending per week to advance themselves, according to this post by Stump Connolly. Good Christ, do you know how many people you can feed … never mind.
The presidential campaigns are now spending nearly $29 million a week on television commercials, according to the Wisconsin Advertising Project. Nearly 100 percent of McCain’s and one out of every three of Obama’s are negative attacks on their opponent -– and some are egregious distortions bordering on flat out lies.
I’ve got to check on this $29 million figure. (At least the research was done in Wisconsin, where people know math. Ohhhh, I went there.)
Then, a description of the majority of mainstream media, with a bow to those who will not engage in campaign “sewage”:
Their strategy is simple: you throw crap against a wall and then giggle as the media try to analyze the putrescence in a way that conveys a sense of balance: “Well, it is bull-pucky, but the splatter pattern is interesting…” [Joe Klein of TIME] wrote. “I really don’t want to be a part of that.”
Finally, all of this is connected back to how the Internet Killed Mainstream Media, minus the realization that the internet is where a good chunk of sewage is filtered and the truth, slowly and ultimately, rises to the top.
Once again, the technology of Internet is racing ahead of the political system’s ability to digest it, so forces we don’t yet understand are helping shape that composite view.
… For better or worse, the mainstream media in the past was constrained by space (and editors) to tightly packaged synopses of daily campaign events. No more. If you want to know what reporters at the New York Times, Washington Post or Time think of the race, you won’t wait for the Sunday think piece. You’ll tune into The Caucus, Trailings or Swampland – several times a day – for their online updates.
They are, in effect, reduced to the status of just another voice; and this is a shame because there are more good reporters covering this race than any campaign I can remember. The fact checking they provide, transcripts, and background on candidates and their finances is more extensive than ever (now that they have the tools and space afforded by the Internet.) But their authority is diminished – in no small way by the ability of the campaigns to use that same Internet to go over their heads directly to the people.
I don’t know what online news sources, including blogs, audio and video, Mr. Connolly visits. Perhaps not even his own from the sounds of it. No authoity is diminished unless you want it to be. As D often states, using the internet for useful and factual information is not difficult. Don’t swallow everything that comes your way, frame the question with intuitive search phrases like you would use in the index of an encyclopedia and go in with an open mind. Without common sense and some leg finger work (judging the source, doing the math, cross-checking, etc.) and a strong desire for the truth, no human, paper, online or insert-future-medium news source will help you generate an intelligent and informed opinion. None. Blaming the internet as a haystack in which the golden needle is lost defeats the purpose.
(Thanks, Mike, for bringing this post to my attention.)
Day 1133: Allman’s Gambit
October 3, 2008 - Filed Under blogistas, media, new orleans
Congratulations to Kevin Allman, all-around great writer, blogger and good friend of the NOLA blogosphere, on being named the editor of our alternative newsweekly, The Gambit! As far as New Orleans news goes these days, let’s just say I needed to hear this. More Conga-rats to Noah Bonaparte Pais, who (thankfully) has no politeness filter when writing on politics, and David Winkler-Schmit on their respective promotions. Good move, Clancy DuBos et al.!
Now that Kevin has moved on up to the deluxe office in the sky (can you see the cranes from up there?), I wonder if he will remember us little people and the fact that I still owe him a blogging stint.
Day 1093: Rising Tide 3 - Dénouement
August 24, 2008 - Filed Under blogistas, citizen journalism, new orleans, rising tide conference
Robert Cerasoli attended our pre-party, Lee Zurik was there, we made the Times-Picayune and Clancy DuBos is one of us, one of us.
Follow up posts coming on:
* interconnectedness - why New Orleans and Louisiana are important to the rest of the nation, just as the Dakotas, California and the East Coast should be important to us.
* parallels and dissimilarities with India
* education as a lowered national priority and how that is already coming home to roost
Again, thanks to all of you who made Rising Tide 3 happen. We need to meet more often before next year. Geek dinners, anyone? I’ll bring the Indian food!
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