Unless you haven’t heard, that guy on the left? Barack Obama? He’s my President.
Somewhere out there, the luckiest puppy in the world awaits a trip to the Oval Office.
Cool.
And, P.S., was glad to see the Palin as President Web site got a lovely makeover.
Spinspotter’s “very beta” site allows Web surfers to spot, circle and thus work to de-spin election articles as they’re published. You can circle words and phrases like “hammered” or “sophisticated” or “You betcha” and subsequently up an article’s spin rating, which should in theory scare people away from unbiased reporting. In my experience, though, people are drawn to spin like moths to a flame, Obama to a baby, Palin to a Saks Fifth Avenue …
Anyway, I don’t know how many people know about it, because a Fox News story on Obama’s Marxist days came up spot-free. You’d think a good pair of Spinoculars would crash the whole damn FN site, wouldn’t you?
Anyway, download the app here if you want to start spotting spin.
With Tina Fey’s ‘SNL’ portrayals of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin — and Palin-herself’s subsequent cameos — I’m kind of convinced this election has turned into a total circus. But I’m not really here to talk about primetime TV. I want to talk about how (forgive me) The Average Joe’s ability to self-publish has impacted the way we’ve paid attention to this election. After all, I did get the screenshot at left from a pop culture blog.
Maybe I shouldn’t call this phenomenon "pop culture politics," but it just sounds better to me than "cyber culture politics" does. Let me explain: Anyone, anywhere is available to set up a blog for free at sites like WordPress, Blogger or Livejournal. Then comes the Twitter account. And let’s not go into the ways anyone, anywhere can express his or her opinions on Facebook (the "status" option has become the bane of my existence, both during the occasional election season and, unfortunately, annual baseball season due to overzealous Cubs fans). Anyway, the list of ways we can express ourselves on the Internet goes on and on. And this makes available a literal countless number of avenues for the rest of us to consume news.
In gathering research for a print story, no one I spoke to saw limitless access to the Internet/virtual soapbox (same thing) as a bad development. As someone who learned from an early age the joys of self-publishing, I can’t say I feel it’s a bad thing, either. Hopefully the nasty stuff gets weeded out with the quality, creatively-driven blogs and projects out there on the Web.
While you’re waiting for a print story, check out these fun election links:
Sarah Palin as president. Alright, this one exhibits a bit too much of the macabre for my taste, but I included the link because the animation is awesome. Looks like Flash animators have a lot of time on their hands, what with the current recession and all …
Help Josh decide. Eek! There’s an undecided voter living in Ohio! Quick, convince him to come over to your side — he’ll let you know if your input was helpful or not.
Presidential pumpkin carving. Templates. One unique way to stick it to the man (or woman) of your choice.
Yes we can hold babies. A blog featuring pictures of Sen. Barack Obama cuddling babies on the campaign trail. Kinda precious.
Presidential bingo. Perhaps a great way to pass the following 8 days, sure to be chock-full of sound bytes from both camps.
And a local option: Haley speaks Youtube series. More on this young lady later.
That’s all I’ve got for now. And since I don’t have the option to hibernate until after the election is over, I’m off to plunge the depths of cyberspace for more quality election coverage from Joe Six Pack/Plumber/Laid Off Flash Animator.
I caught a screening of “W.” this past weekend.
And in my opinion, it was kinda boring, but still significant.
I’m glad I saw the movie, especially because it humanizes a person/politician/president so many people just don’t understand. And, to point out the obvious, the release of “W.” certainly came at an interesting time, not only because it’s a few weeks before a huge election, but because it’s about a president still in office — bold move, Oliver Stone.
My least favorite part of the movie was the confusing then-and-now flashback order and the abundance of dialogue (yawn).
But beyond all that …
Stone has historically been viewed as a hit-or-miss filmmaker. And he’s been known to stretch the truth: While wildly popular, Stone’s 1991 effort, “The Doors,” just made Yahoo’s list of 10 Most Biographically Inaccurate Movies. Factually, I don’t know how accurate Stone’s portrayal of Bush is. Surely, Josh Brolin’s character is a composite of what we the people know about our president, which certainly isn’t much, and almost none of it positive.
Still, the movie isn’t an attack on Bush (at least if you ask me) — which wouldn’t help any of us at this point, anyway. It basically portrays Bush as an eternal kid with an inferiority complex going along with the interests of his handlers — be those interests selfish or not — in launching a war on Iraq. Brolin’s Bush is a middle-aged teenager with a chip on his shoulder, just trying to prove a point to his dad.
My favorite part of the movie, by far, was Elizabeth Banks, who plays Laura Bush. She brings life to a woman who says little and seems to do less. Following in a close second were Richard Dreyfuss (Dick Cheney) and Thandie Newton (Condoleeza Rice), who were both just incredibly creepy, cronie-like and — for better or worse — dead on.
Is any of this factually accurate? I have no idea. But it’s certainly believable.
You can watch the trailer here.
It’s been interesting for me to report on our community experiencing fear, confusion and apprehension about the present and future, mainly because I’m scared out of my mind, too.
But it’s quite another to read about Elkhart in The New York Times.
We are the “white-hot” epicenter of an imploding American economy with a jobless rate surpassing that of any other metropolitan area in the country, wrote NYT reporter Jennifer Steinhauer in an Oct. 11 story.
Steinhauer is contributing to the Times’ “Road to November” series, which is presumably about taking snapshots of communities around the country before the presidential campaign.
Are you from Elkhart? Did you read the article? What do you think of all this national attention on us lately (Time mag sent a videographer here last week, and an AP writer passed through)?
Is Elkhart a victim of bad circumstances with the key ingredients for crisis, or are we even really that bad off?
Paging Stewart or Colbert: You’d have a field day here.
Watch The Elkhart Truth’s DebateWatch 2008 live blog HERE. It opens in a popup window.
The fun begins at 8:30 OM EST, Thursday, Oct. 2 … tonight.
Behold, the newest way Facebook can make your life easier.
Statedemocracy.org just launched VoterTools, an application Facebook users can stick on their page to help themselves (and their friends) locate Voter Registration Info and Absentee Ballot Info. It even has a Poll Locater according to zip code.
If you want to know the possible scope of an application like this to reach young voters, consider this little FYI: Fbook is one of the most popular social networking websites, with nearly 30 million young users. Those 30 million young users represent some 60% of the 50 million Americans ages 18 to 30, or 60% of our nation’s young voters.
I just added VoterTools to my profile, because who knows? It really might be that simple to make it easier for my friends to vote. Sign up for yours here.
