Archive Page 2
It’s all we have at work. I honestly will not mock you if you happen to be reading this and enjoy lite FM radio, I just want to know why.
Are you into this?
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Tags: bon jovi, celine dion, faith hill, lite fm, lite radio, richard marx, sarah mclaughlin
The Symbolic Volcano Mistake
Both sides of the aisle today are both praising Obama for his speech, and reprimanding Bobby Jindal (seriously, this guy is the Republican Obama? Then why does no one like him?) for his. One of the more unintentionally comical moments was Jindal’s attempt to mock Obama for appropriating 140 million dollars to a geological survey. Via FiveThirtyEight:
While some of the projects in the [stimulus] bill make sense, their legislation is larded with wasteful spending. It includes … $140 million for something called ‘volcano monitoring.’ Instead of monitoring volcanoes, what Congress should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington, DC.
I don’t know what’s more disturbing, Jindal’s attempt at humor or the prospect of an eruption for which we are unprepared. The humor’s pretty bad, but I’m going to give the edge to the volcano. Via Wikipedia, here’s a very brief description of a Plinian eruption, which is what Mt. St. Helen’s was:
Plinian eruptions are usually the most powerful, and involve the explosive ejection of relatively viscous lava. Large plinian eruptions — such as during 18 May 1980 at Mount St. Helens or, more recently, during 15 June 1991 at Pinatubo in the Philippines — can send ash and volcanic gas tens of kilometres into the atmosphere. The resulting ash fallout can affect large areas hundreds of miles downwind. Fast-moving pyroclastic surges and pyroclastic flows together with “nuées ardentes,” are often associated with plinian eruptions.
Sounds fun. Maybe we should start stocking up on highway dividers. Its funny how Republicans only seem to care about massive amounts of people dying if it’s someone else killing them, rather than our own indifference.
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Tags: bobby jindal, conservative, economy, jindal, jindal speech, obama speech, republican, republicans, stimulus
The Re-Launch
As noted previously, this blog needs to get back on track. I’ve temporarily shelved my idea for that other blog (I think it may be more of a business really), in favor of rebooting Poliology.
First, some honesty. The first reason this blog got so neglected is that I really lost interest after the election to a certain extent. There was just an utter depression of news, most of it centered on the transition or looking back at the Bush years. These weren’t really things I was incredibly interested in, and I guess this is why I haven’t pursued journalism as a profession with more vigor. Although, I could also attribute that to the fact that industry is collapsing. One of the two.
I just had a lack of inspiration at the time, and I think I failed to really understand the blogosphere and what it was about. For a news blog, I made my focus too narrow, and too serious. I found myself posting things to my Facebook account that could have easily gone here, but I thought they weren’t serious enough. In that regard, Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish and the rest of the blogs at the Atlantic really changed my perspective on what a blog could do. The truth is, Poliology is not just a take on political events, its my take on the world, and I just happened to be largely pre-occupied with government and politics. I should have probably realized this when the top story all time on this blog was a comparison Roman Abramovich poor purchases of the services of Andriy Shevchenko and Amy Winehouse.
Another reason this blog was neglected was my employment situation. Things changed rather dramatically when my new manager here started monitoring our computer use even at times when the pace was slow as a turtle. This was not only a morale killer for the office, but as it turns out, a blog killer. I have recently moved to a looser department where at the very least I can probably post something at lunch time, although I will be working 40 hours.
That brings me to my next point. It took me three months to find a job, and while I will be getting valuable experience, this position was not my first choice. If you believe what the Emerson newsletter says about Political Communication graduates, I will be making 18,000 dollars per year less than the average recent grad. And I am lucky to find a job in this economic climate, which is worse than its been since the Great Depression, and some of the projections are showing it will end up being worse. People are talking about a lost decade in America.
As I alluded to in the last post before my disappearance, I’ve taken a view of this crisis that may draw a lot of criticism. It certainly did at the Huffington Post at the time it was published.
What I feel more than anything right now is seething contempt for the Baby Boomers and a decent chunk of Generation X. I don’t own a credit card, and I have found that many of my peers don’t. I don’t because I know it would open myself up to irresponsibility. And that’s what got us into this mess, why I have to settle for a job that I will have to awkwardly defend in future interviews with prospective employers as relevant experience.
I’ve worked my ass off for years now. I’m not one of those to say “where’s my bailout” because in all honesty I at least understand why the bailouts happened enough to stave off populist rage, even if they were executed so poorly and gave money to the same group that fucked the whole thing up. The truth is, I never expected anything from the government, because I’ve grown up in an era where the government hasn’t done anything for the people.
I most clearly remember the Bush years of course, and there’s no need to pile on any more there. The rest of the blogosphere can take care of that. Maybe its that I just started paying attention to the news closely at the time of Clinton’s impeachment, a matter that seems trivial now, but at the time seemed to be the biggest problem in the political world. Perhaps I was tainted from the get go. But in retrospect, studying the history of the 1990s, the supposedly prosperous Clinton years didn’t seem to do much but hold things together.
But back to my point about worthless government:
There was the passage of NAFTA, which was painful, albeit necessary. Still, the government didn’t do anything to enforce the environmental positions that could have helped save some plants, and they certainly didn’t help the workers that were laid off adjust to the new economy.
Under the current system, I will never receive Social Security or Medicare. Yet I still have to pay for it.
Universal Health Care is constantly pushed back.
Our infrastructure crumbled when we could have made the entire country broadband capable.
We could have pushed for cheaper fuel sources which would have created jobs and gave us real wealth.
The list could go on. The most I’ve ever got from the government was a drop in the bucket to pay for my college education, which apparently may be worthless for the next ten years.
I guess the real reason I decided to come back is that someone, or rather, a lot of people need to speak up for our generation. We gave the country the first black president. That’s right, us; we campaigned for him, we made him a phenomenon. He’s already been somewhat co-opted by those before us. I don’t want that to continue to happen. I want people to know that despite the utter failure and self absorption of the Baby Boomers, there is a generation beneath them that will do their damndest to change the world and the country for the better. My role for the time being will to be to help provide perspective on this disaster and the world around us, allowing room for outrage, reflection, and how it will affect us going forward.
Poliology: Live Blogging the Next Great Depression.
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My Take on Warren
1. If there were another religious leader who gave tons of time and money to the poor, helped people find direction in their lives, was a world wide phenomenon, and believed in the legal segregation (it’s time to start using that word) of the races, he wouldn’t have been invited. I have no problem with gay activists using racial segregation as a leverage point in this continued discussion.
2. I’ve hated a lot of this “that’s not change!” stuff we’ve been hearing on cabinet appointments, but I regret that I have to chime in. Change would be getting people to realize that even the most conservative scientific definition of homosexuality would state that it is an unchangeable psychiatric condition. It would be getting people to recognize that there are many foster children that would benefit being adopted into gay households. It would be pushing us, as Obama said in his speech on race, towards a more perfect union with legal equality for all as our constitution promises.
Change is not, however, reaching out to bigots who have done everything possible to push their religious views on the entire country.
3. Warren also thinks Atheists are mentally un-fit to serve public office. Well, Rick, I’m not the one with the invisible friend in the sky.
4. Warren could hold whatever views he likes, I don’t care; but this is someone who is pushing an agenda for government. There is a legal separation between church and state.
5. The media is writing sentiments like mine off as “anger from the left.” This is not a left or right issue. It’s a civil right issue, it’s a constitutional issue, and it’s a scientific issue. This isn’t about a bailout, welfare, drugs, health care, and it’s not even really about abortion (obviously I disagree with Warren, but I at least accept there are rational people who disagree with me); it’s about right and wrong. We tend to come to the conclusion in this country, though slowly, that bigotry and intolerance is wrong. We came to that conclusion quite profoundly over the course of this election, though we aren’t there yet.
Of course, that conclusion wasn’t reached for everyone on election night, as Prop 8 passed in California, with 68% of the African-American vote in favor. So despite claiming he supports equal rights for gays (he only sorta does), he’s willing to help perpetuate intolerance amongst a lot of people who rightly look up to him.
——
The Warren issue will probably have no impact Obama’s agenda; hopefully, Obama will be smarter than compromise on issues such as the Global GAG rule, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (although who knows on that really), and the Defense of Marriage Act. I have a growing fear (albeit still a small one) that this presidency will turn into a giant safe guard against right wing attacks. And that’s (painful to say) certainly not change for Democrats.
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Tags: abortion, dont ask dont tell, driven, inauguration, life, Obama, President, prop 8, proposition 8, purpose, rick warren, right wing
John Stewart is not a great interviewer because he has a double standard: Hiding behind the excuse that it’s not his job to ask hard-hitting questions when it’s a guest he wants to coddle, lobbing them nothing but softball questions. But swinging away with satire, sarcasm and tough questions for guests he and his audience oppose. He used to be more cloaked, but the Bush years and the corresponding rise in popularity of liberalism seem to have emboldened him to be openly biased.
But since Huckabee and others know the game and still do the show, who can blame him for continuing the bit?
It’s a critical point in understanding the world in the post-MSM era. Stewart may have less material in the next four years, but he will still have plenty of Republicans trying to build a youth following, and a lot of Democrats who will want to claim to be foot soldiers in the Obama movement. Cable news is going to try to construct a narrative as it always does, so we won’t get a lot of analysis and discussion on actual issues.
The state of the media makes Stewart’s refusal to be considered a journalist all the more frustrating. In the past two weeks, we’ve seen Stewart effectively take apart two guests on either side of the political spectrum (the reader doesn’t agree with me on this point, btw). Perhaps it is Stewart’s rogue status as a political comedian that allows him to have a simple debate with guests or to ask them blunt questions without the histrionic pretensions of a Bill O’Reilly, Keith Olbermann, or Campbell Brown (Olbermann less so because he doesn’t bring on anyone he disagrees with). Stewart doesn’t even attempt to filter his work (entertainment just like every real anchor) through any lens of journalistic ethics. The result: Stewart produces genuine exposition rather than the faux outrage of cable news. It’s not that we need to see arguments destroyed, it’s just that an honest discussion needs to take place so we can come to more honest positions.
This may sound strange to say on a blog, but Stewart’s discussion with Huffington effectively debunked a lot of the non-sense aura that people (primarily liberals) associate with the blogosphere. He then proceded to completely debunk the “traditional marriage” and populist arguments Huckabee supplied for banning gay marriage. So if what Stewart does is getting to the truth of public affairs, how is that not journalism?
I’ve never heard Stewart give a sufficient answer to that question, instead he prefers to excuse the Daily Show as a mere comedy show. The problem with that, is that there really isn’t anyone in the journalism business who does what Stewart does as well as he does. Stewart claims his show is a “fake news” program; which begs the question, what is a real news show, because surely the clowns on cable that he has been mocking cannot be “real news.” Stewart is issuing a blanket cop-out; he essentially is saying that his show cannot count for much because it happens to be on Comedy Central and is also hilarious; isn’t this similar (on an obviously much, much smaller scale) to saying the president can break the law during war-time if it helps the country?
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Tags: andrew sullivan, bush, comedy central, George W. Bush, jon stewart, the daily dish, the daily show
Hey all,
I’m sure most of you who know me or read me had forgotten about this blog, but as mentioned in the last post, Poliology is getting back on track. First a brief explanation to why it went away:
1. Post-Election blues–Networks have even been fighting to find stories after the biggest Presidential election in a long time. Yours truly can’t take what little spare time he has to go a’searchin’
2. Tell you later
3. I’m out for out of the apartment for no less than 14 hours some days. Crazy scheduling.
——
But enough my own backstory/excuse. Your favorite media minnow is back to chomp on some shark!
Boy (bad word choice!), this one was a hoot. Campbell Brown attacking Governor Ed Rendell for stating that Janet Napolitano is perfect for the job of Homeland Security Chair because she “has no family, no life.” Brown decries what Rendell said (off the record, mind you) as sexist. Bullshit, Campbell! (Are you jealous I can actually say “shit”?)
People who don’t have lives, all people, tend to be great at their job. What the hell else are they going to worry about? If you have aspirations as high as a major government position, chances are, your family life will often take a back seat. I’ve had many professors and mentors of both sexes who have forgone having kids, because, quite frankly, they would have interfered with their career ambitions. Kids do that; they cost money, rich people often don’t let kids get in the way if they have them. It’s called “a nanny,” “neglect” or “both.” In fact I remember Adam Carolla stating his (actually kinda sexist) view that ugly fat men are paid more than women because they have nothing else to live for, and thus they work harder.
Even more depressing was watching Jack Cafferty call Ed Rendell “sub-human” the next day following Brown’s made-up rant. CNN are trying to make a star out of someone again. Major government travesty in New Orleans? Send the good-looking guy to stand in the water and yell at a public servant who probably had little to do with the recovery effort. McCain campaign constantly lies? Let’s send the pretty girl to try to make the hapless spokesperson back it up.
Jesus, at least David Gregory has tried to ask the White House tough questions. More on that later.
2. Oh my God, the Newspaper industry is about to dissappear.
Tribune files bankruptcy, NY Times asking for a 225 million dollar loan (I thought there was no credit market these days?). LA Times is about to be sold (maybe to someone whose other notable business market is also dying). What the hell will we even read anymore, if not blogs? But Wait…
3. Arianna Huffington fucks up blogging for the rest of us.
In an appearance that didn’t appear on her own Huffington Post until a couple of days after, Arianna spoke Palinese in her interview with Jon Stewart on the Daily Show. The interview was more uncomfortable than a Brookstone chair with a dead battery. Huff clearly thought this was going to be a patsy interview with so called liberal Stewart, but as in turns out Stewart will tear anyone a new one. Stewart’s questions, repeated several times, several ways, were simple: What is blogging and why does blogging matter? Huff’s attempt at answering looked like Tracy Ullman’s parody of her. Arianna tried to describe it as some sort of visceral connection with the world (it’s not), some sort of rough draft of history (which she stole from Robert Meacham when he went on TDS talking about the off the record Palin interviews) and then there was some irrationality about cheese.
Stewart’s point was rather simple: blogging is $#%#$^ing writing. It’s just writing. It’s just people writing together online. Some is good (please?) , some is bad, some is weird. But what neither really got around to stating was that blogging is flat out replacing traditional media. People realize they no longer have to pay. Is the NY Times online opinion page any different than an in-depth blog? Would an informed cheese blog (humoring Arianna here) be any different than a magazine on cheese? The answer is, not really, except you don’t have to pay for the blog, and you get access to all of its archives.
Of course in this economy, is it really a good thing to replace a whole bunch of stuff that people pay for, with a whole bunch more stuff that people don’t? Hasn’t millions of dollars been taken out of the economy by blogging and online media? Probably, yes. Let’s face it, PoliOlogy here doesn’t even advertise. I still think I did one of the best projections on the VP candidates on the internet, and certainly did a lot better than traditional media dinosaurs. Shouldn’t I be paid?
But then there is the whole conundrum that is online advertising. Even with narrowcasting (thanks communication infomatics!), do people even click on banner ads? Probably not. People don’t even watch commercials anymore thanks to DVR.
People better wake up to what’s going on. This is no less than revolutionary, and not in the way Blu-Ray is a revolution. This is a complete change in the way we get media. This is the online printing press, simple as that. At a certain point nepotism (ie Kristols, Buckleys) will be killed by a simple lack of talent. Pretty faces may still work, but not for people really looking for news, where on the internet, you’re physical identity is almost trivial when it comes to blogging. One wonders how media will even be marketed anymore, whether it be through cumbersome social bookmarking (as it stands now online, this seems to be the primary method) or some other fashion. One must really wonder how to make money off of all of this if ads are easily ignored, and sources for ads are more dispersed than they’ve ever been.
That’s not my job though, thinking about how to save commercial media. Thank God. Yours truly is just one of those tearing it down.
4. And Finally, who does Meet the Press, grandaddy of traditional commercial media, pick as their new host?
Its another boring White guy who has no analytical capabilities. Sweet NBC.
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Tags: ny times, NBC, bill kristol, Huffington Post, Cnn, david gregory, campbell brown, jack cafferty, meet the press, arianna huffington, ed rendell, janet napolitano, la times, david geffen
and it will. Unfortunately, the last couple posts I have attempted have been foiled by my manager, time constraints, the economy (indirectly), and relevance. All of those issues will soon be addressed
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Election Day Playlist
As some of you know, I’m a pretty die hard music fan. That hasn’t really been mentioned on this blog largely because politics and music have been a rather one-sided, unthrilling combination for years. Whether it be espousing some liberal cause, saying some liberal cause is stupid, or just telling people to go out and vote, musicians rarely make a lot of news worthy political statements. That being said, content in music can be key, and while it may not always be “on message” or straightforward, I do find some music (important to distinguish music from the musicians that make it) politicall inspiring. I’ve been working on an election day playlist; won’t you join me?
1. Brain of J. — Pearl Jam
Might as well kick off with where it started for me. The first lines of the song are basically what this election is all about.
Who’s got the brain of JFK, what’s it mean to us now?
The question is whether
soon the whole world will be different, soon the whole world will be believin’
2. Won’t Get Fooled Again — The Who
Pretty self explanatory by the title, right? I also think there’s a line that prophetic in regards to Lieberman
Who was marching on the left, is now marching on the right
3. Fake Tales of San Francisco — Arctic Monkeys.
This one works on two levels. One, if only Mayhill Fowler’s were. The other, anything Sarah Palin says about San Francisco basically fall into the category of “fake tales”
4. Change Clothes — Jay-Z
Hey, if you had $150,000 worth, you’d have to, too
5. Arizona — Kings of Leon
It’s John McCain’s state (and Obama’s within 1 point according to one poll). Could be the state to watch
6. Panama — Van Halen
Whether you’re using it as a tribute to John McCain’s birthplace or imagining what Cindy used to hit the clubs to dance to, it probably warrants a place on your playlist
7. Butterflies and Hurricanes — Muse
One of my staples through the primary. This one could definitely be an inspirational Obama song…if only they weren’t so damn artsy!
8. B.O.B — Outkast
What was arguably the deciding factor in Obama’s rise? His opposition to bombs over Baghdad
9. Siberia — Charlotte Hatherley
Because if Sarah Palin doesn’t have her eye on it, some other woman should
10. 10 Days Late — Third Eye Blind
For the Levi Johnston in all of us
11. The Rising — Bruce Springsteen
No doubt many could say I’m carrying the Obama campaign’s water with this one. But I think it really is a brilliant choice for the campaign. Written in the aftermath of 9/11, the song spoke of the optimism that rose from that tragedy, and the strength of the American people to deal with such a challenge. Our hope turned to misplaced devotion to an incompetent and evil administration, and our country is weaker than its been in years. Here’s hoping that regardless of who wins (we are not officially at a 3% chance for McCain), can help us out of this dark time
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Source: Chicago Tribune:
“I’ll tell you this,” Emanuel shouted out to his staff. “The Republicans may have the 72-hour program. But they have not seen the 22-month program!
“Since my kids are gone, I can say it: They can go —- themselves!”
This was after the 2006 Democratic landslide. So whatever you may be hearing about McCain roaring back into this thing, I wouldn’t fully buy it. We are dealing with newer, smarter, more vicious Democrats (no matter how people may mock “hope and change” as naivety as slogans) that have an upper hand in the ground game right now. Essentially, McCain can be ready to “go fuck himself.”
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Poliology- Thanks for those comments, and passing along something…
- AIG Frustration
- Weird
- Essential Reading to Understanding the Political Future
- Can’t Spell Twitter without Twit
- Glenn Beck is Clearly Baked
- Dear GOP, Thank You for Michael Steele
- Sullivan’s Conservative Fantasyland
- Breaking: McCain Supports Obama Iraq Plan
- Louis CK Puts it Into Perspective
Huffington Post Comment on Dean Baker
My comment on Dean Baker’s story (original link found here) . Here’s what I had to say:
Mr. Baker,
I graduated last week from a prestigious college (a semester early) with a degree in one of their most difficult programs. I have worked 20+ hours per week for the last two years during school, and full time during the summer. I took an unpaid, uncredited internship. I spent my last summer working 3 jobs, one of which as a journalist for the top college radio station in the country on their news show.
Don’t tell me if the Washington Post would have written about the housing bubble, we would have all been fine. Don’t tell me it’s the Washington Post’s fault that universal health care was never enacted. Don’t whine about the corporate media.
You see, in your defense of your own generation, you incriminate your generation. The people not enacting universal health care were your friends. The people buying houses and trying to flip them were adults who thought they could make a cheap buck. This nonsensical system of Credit Default Swaps, hedge funds, sub-prime mortgages, and other Wall St. malfeasance came from people your age. Your generation elected a movie star president who was controlled by the same people who controlled George W. Bush. Your generation was impatient with Carter’s programs, which would have made us energy independent and fiscally stronger.
But you and your friends (even the liberals) didn’t do anything about it. Some of you blew up buildings (later a liability for our generation’s leader). Some of you just laid around, going into academics or starting meaningless non-profits. A lot of you wanted to work on Wall St. and be part of the Reagan revolution. Your generation took credit limits to absurd levels. Your corporations took over the media. Your generation made corporations more powerful than even they could have dreamed.
I seem to be hopelessly looking for a job, having done everything and more that is expected of me. Having worked hard to make a future for myself and my country, it seems, in vain. Yet you and your generation want to whine that media failed us?
No. Your generation failed us, and you flippantly try to deny this. Disgusting.
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Tags: baby boomers, comments, corporate media, corporations, dean baker, economic crisis, elections, housing crisis, Huffington Post, presidential election, unemployment, Washington Post