President Bush is now on his way out – but still the world is not save. There still could be a final act of stupidity that will cause the world or the American people some serious trouble?
And what about all the turkeys we haven’t heard of? I am pretty sure that after January the 20th a great many people will come forward and tell us nasty things that have happened under the rule of Mad King George and Dart Cheney.
And poor President Obama. He and his time will have to start the biggest cleanup in history.
You can shot it, you can ride it and you can eat it. With some technology you can even use it’s antlers for TV and WiFi reception. Try that with a bald eagle!
*This one is dedicated to Shitao - you deserve it!*
Political debates are hardly a modern invention - I think it started already with Caveman arguing who will lead the clan.
In Athens all males could simply join the political debate themselves, by simply turning up and speaking.
With ever bigger Kingdoms and Nation States being there personally didn’t work anymore. Sure you could visit your national parliment and maybe listen to the talks.
With the invention of the newspaper and journals political speeches were once again accessible to the masses. If you read some of Abraham Lincoln oral masterpieces you would be surprised who eloquent, deep and highly educated these speeches were. Simply amazing - I bet most modern journalists are hardly able to write the way Lincoln could simply speak to his voters.
But most importantly: speeches were reduced to words. What the candidates said was more important than their looks, gestures and personality.
Even with the advent of radio this didn’t change much - apart that you could ‘read’ more the personality of each candidate by listening closely.
Today the debates are no longer debates anyway - because the format has devolved into a simple phrase exchange.
But the candidate himself is the message today - not what he / she is saying. It’s all about image, not about content.
Today’s elections are fought in real life as well as in cyberspace. Campaign websites and special applications are as important as old school posters and TV ads for the candidates.
But the Obama iPhone Application really takes the cake.
First you have to own an overpriced gadget from a really snobby company called Apple.
Second you have to be computer literate and well educated to handle the bloody thing.
And third you need to willingly seek out and download that application via the Intranets.
Hardly something for your average red neck or these small town value Americans?
The United States of America is tightly in the grip of Mediocrity. The so called “normal” people distrust anyone who is smarter or different from them. Especially all kind of elites are suspicious.
Sure: American politicians are as corrupt and incompetent as in any other country, but still that anti-intellectualism is scary.
It way too much reminds me of the anti-intellectual tendencies and hate rallies in the Third Reich and in George Orwell’s 1984.
Today’s world is highly complex and complicated. You need to be very smart to quickly adapt and understand all the related complex situations of our global society.
It’s not about bringing up five kids and going to Washington to bring “small town values” to the rotten city. It’s about being as shrewd and smart as Putin, Mugabe and Osama bin Laden.
Sarah Palin ain’t good enough. John McCain has the experience, but lacks the quickness and eloquence. Obama has not the experience, but he is smart and quick.
It is a shame: Obama should have wiped the floor with Grandpa McCain. Instead Obama was to stiff to get an advantage. Isn’t he supposed to such a brilliant speaker? Where was the passion? Where was his gut?!
A big chance missed to take the lead after McCain had such a bad week. He failed all week to show he is on top of current events like the banking crises.
Why doesn’t the US media keep repeating that McCain’s health record has not been completely disclosed to the public? If his cancer come back he will be so sick that Sarah Palin has to take over.
But McCain hardly represents his whole party in this. He certainly formed his ties with many European Leaders in the past. But not many Americans have been in Europe as often as McCain.
Wow, the Huckabee moment just demonstrates perfectly WHY European think many Americans are rather ignorant and stupid.
Huckabee demonizes those “European ideas” which are just waiting to take over America and make Americans poor slave of these “ideas”.
We talk here about old European Communism and Socialism - and we also talk about modern “old” Europe.
Europeans overall enjoy better social systems, better health, better justice system (we don’t kill criminals here and our prisons are far more humane) and actually more civil liberties than Americans - and not just since Darth Cheney and his Chimp killed the last bits of the progressive side of America.
Europe also offers a higher social mobility and better pay. Most people here can afford a good life without working two or three jobs. Europe is certainly NOT perfect, but overall the middle class and the poor are better off here than in the US of A.
We have “the gays” serving in several European armies and we also allow them to marry like everybody else also in almost all European nations. So far God hasn’t killed or punished Europe with a Hurricane.
Now to the ignorant part: especially poor and uneducated Americans have been voting against those evil ideas like a universal health care system by letting the Republicans run the country. Indeed they have often voted in a rather dumb patriotic spirit against their own interests and better lifes.
After WWII we Europeans looked at progressive America to replace the old imperialistic and nationalistic Europe with a more united and progressive version. We learnt a lot from our American friends.
But it is extremely frustrating how a country holds itself back or perverts the very ideas we all admired: liberty, justice, democracy and compassion.
It’s time for America to renew itself - and maybe learn from others …
Not very inspired, but I am not an US voter anyway. The complete speech is pretty solid and routine. The Republicans constant “U-S-A!!!” screaming is pretty hysterical.
I am a huge fan of Bill Maher. His and Jon Stewards wits helped us bloody foreigners to believe that the progressive and intellectual heart of America hasn’t died.
Being progressive means making progress - moving forward. But already during the last season the jokes were stale and predictable, the outrage had turned into professional satire.
Most of all: many funny guests were rather “unhelpful” by being totally disconnected or adding stupidity instead of sharp and witty remarks.
The new seasons started last weekend - and it seems more of the same. So I expect many old faces from last season as well as the same lame comments and jokes.
Like Keith Olbermann Bill Maher seems to have founds his audience and is raking in the praise he deserves. But please don’t fall asleep …
(the first five minutes are just applause and ass kissing)
It has momentum, it has spirit and it has character. Great speech for the troops and the media. Let’s see if the Americans are willing to elect this guy and change their great nation.
I am a big fan of the American liberal TPM media, because they look at the details of American politics and media interaction. Today the media is so self obsessed that it creates it’s own politics around politics. So called experts and pundits are framing the issues where there are none - and create a storm of media attention where it is wasted. Big issues like the war in Afghanistan get under-reported.
The clip above perfectly illustrates how one false citation can keep the cable network news happy and busy for a whole day. The pundits simply create work for themselves. This is not journalism, but simply a propaganda business that has nothing to do with the real needs of people and essential political issues.
The crew of Jibjab.com have been producing great stuff for years, but for some odd reason this video is currently all over the intrawebs. But it’s brilliant!
This is not about terrorist propaganda, this is not about free speech, this is not about radicalizing the public - it’s about the truth.
American politicians, American media and most parts of the so called American public simply "sanitize" reality to they don’t have to face the ugly truth: their own soldiers and mostly innocent people die in this stupid war on terror.
Don’t look away! This is your war. You decided to invade Afghanistan and Iraq - now stand up to it and face the blood.
This is the 21st century - you won’t be able to hide such videos and censor images - like the return of your own dead soldiers.
But America has learned from the Vietnam experience - and all side are making HUGE efforts to keep the TV screens clean. Because shocking images can make people change their minds - but cool 3D animations with heroic videos - but no blood or gut hanging out - do not offend …
So she has left the stage - for now. I still think that her failure to capture the Democratic nomination is mostly homemade.
But overall I applaud here for her hard work and dedication.
But there is one more thing that puzzles me: are Americans afraid of strong and tough woman? Compared to Maggie Thatcher Hillary is very charming. But it seems that there is still a lot of Hillary Hate going around.
Yeah, I know it’s an American thing to do this. Yeah, I know it’s awkward for a president to do this. Yeah, I know that he still hasn’t visited a single funeral of a fallen American Soldier - but hey - at least he gave up Golf to show solidarity with the families who lost someone in the war …
