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That seems to be the theme of the media tonight. If I read one more idiot journalist gushing over the "historic election" and the "record turnouts" today, I think I'm going to toss my laptop across the room. These people are really college-educated? Every election is historic, and we've had record turnouts every election for as long as I can remember! Seriously, if the talking heads in the media can't come up with anything better to write about, they really ought to look for another line of work.
~Cephas
THE FREE RADICAL
This from the Columbus Dispatch:
"Nearly half of Montgomery County voters were expected to use paper ballots Tuesday, Nov. 4, which could delay the count, the board of elections director told the Dayton Daily News this morning.
"Nearly half of Montgomery County voters were expected to use paper ballots Tuesday, Nov. 4, which could delay the count, the board of elections director told the Dayton Daily News this morning.
He said paper ballots will take longer to count and "we expect the count to continue into Wednesday afternoon," said Steve Harsman, director of the Montgomery County Board of Elections."
Like I said earlier, if you're too dumb to use the voting machines in Ohio, maybe you shouldn't be voting...
~Cephas
THE FREE RADICAL
Do me a favor, and go type "The worst economic crisis since the Great Depression" into Google. If you include the quotes, you get about 65 thousand results. This phrase was brought back to my attention during the presidential debates this year, as it was dutifully trotted out by Obama as a means of depicting a bleak economic picture of our country. Leaving aside for a moment that our current economic woes don't even begin to approach the level of the Great Depression, and that every metric I've seen has its equal in far more recent times, I'd like to focus on the effect of the words in that phrase.
I recall first hearing those words being tossed about during the 2004 presidential election cycle, when FrankenKerry first started droning on about how Bush was heading us all straight for the dustbowl. The assertion was even more absurd then than it is now, but that didn't stop Kerry, and others on the left and in the media (wait, did I just repeat myself?) from repeating it ad nauseum.
Even after Kerry lost, the phrase really didn't go dormant. Leftist pundits and politicians continued to bemoan the ailing state of our economy, exaggerating, misinterpreting and sometimes inventing various figures to support their doom and gloom prophesies about our finanical future as a nation. It became something of a litany. Each day, from the major newspapers, networks and websites, more horrible news about the economy would break. The media played on the public's misunderstanding that any decline in a market is a bad thing, and started capitalizing on what was originally only a correction in the housing market. Unemployment rates, though still low, rose slightly, and talking heads across America tore their robes and smeared ash on their faces.
All of this negative press, I believe, was not without purpose. Continuing to assert how horrible the economy was eventually convinced the American people. This effectively scuttled confidence among consumer and investor alike, both of whom pulled back the reins on their spending and investing. These actions further depressed markets and provided more fodder for the Chicken Little media. It was a snowball effect of the worst degree, and was having the effect of a viral infection on the economy.
It would be easy to explain all of this away as simply another instance of the media only reporting the bad news, because that's what sells, but in this case I don't think that's the explanation. Markets rise and fall all the time, and the various statistics go up and down along with them, but I don't recall ever seeing such coverage and analysis of each inane report that comes out regarding the economy. Why all this focus, all this effort to try and spin the economy in a negative direction? Why are they trying to actually make this "The worst economy since the Great Depression?"
Simple. Because it's nearly impossible for a political party to retain control after they've been blamed for economic downturn. This "throw the bums out" mentality has been a documented presence in electoral politics for well over a century, and the Democrats desparately needed it to win this year's election. With conditions in Iraq improving, they had to have something to point at and say they could do it better, so it was time to use the power of suggestion, through the media, to manufacture a financial crisis.
I will not disagree that we were facing something of a slow-down even without the media's influence. But I believe that, in order to ensure the success of their chosen candidate, the mainstream media did everything in their power to escalate and accelerate that slowdown into the "crisis" we face today.
The irony is that if Obama is elected tonight, and is able to enact many of the things he's talked about on the campaign trail, that crisis is very likely to worsen severely.
~Cephas
THE FREE RADICAL
I recall first hearing those words being tossed about during the 2004 presidential election cycle, when FrankenKerry first started droning on about how Bush was heading us all straight for the dustbowl. The assertion was even more absurd then than it is now, but that didn't stop Kerry, and others on the left and in the media (wait, did I just repeat myself?) from repeating it ad nauseum.
Even after Kerry lost, the phrase really didn't go dormant. Leftist pundits and politicians continued to bemoan the ailing state of our economy, exaggerating, misinterpreting and sometimes inventing various figures to support their doom and gloom prophesies about our finanical future as a nation. It became something of a litany. Each day, from the major newspapers, networks and websites, more horrible news about the economy would break. The media played on the public's misunderstanding that any decline in a market is a bad thing, and started capitalizing on what was originally only a correction in the housing market. Unemployment rates, though still low, rose slightly, and talking heads across America tore their robes and smeared ash on their faces.
All of this negative press, I believe, was not without purpose. Continuing to assert how horrible the economy was eventually convinced the American people. This effectively scuttled confidence among consumer and investor alike, both of whom pulled back the reins on their spending and investing. These actions further depressed markets and provided more fodder for the Chicken Little media. It was a snowball effect of the worst degree, and was having the effect of a viral infection on the economy.
It would be easy to explain all of this away as simply another instance of the media only reporting the bad news, because that's what sells, but in this case I don't think that's the explanation. Markets rise and fall all the time, and the various statistics go up and down along with them, but I don't recall ever seeing such coverage and analysis of each inane report that comes out regarding the economy. Why all this focus, all this effort to try and spin the economy in a negative direction? Why are they trying to actually make this "The worst economy since the Great Depression?"
Simple. Because it's nearly impossible for a political party to retain control after they've been blamed for economic downturn. This "throw the bums out" mentality has been a documented presence in electoral politics for well over a century, and the Democrats desparately needed it to win this year's election. With conditions in Iraq improving, they had to have something to point at and say they could do it better, so it was time to use the power of suggestion, through the media, to manufacture a financial crisis.
I will not disagree that we were facing something of a slow-down even without the media's influence. But I believe that, in order to ensure the success of their chosen candidate, the mainstream media did everything in their power to escalate and accelerate that slowdown into the "crisis" we face today.
The irony is that if Obama is elected tonight, and is able to enact many of the things he's talked about on the campaign trail, that crisis is very likely to worsen severely.
~Cephas
THE FREE RADICAL
In the whirlwind of rhetoric and talking points leading up to any election, it is not uncommon to find one side trying to turn around a point often raised by the other side. This election year is no different. We've seen the McCain campaign try mightily to steal the moniker of "change" from the Obama campaign and portray McCain and Palin as the true agents of government reform.
But one rather unnoticed turn has come from the Obama campaign, which has, for some time now, been criticizing McCain for attacking Obama on style, rather than substance. Indeed, this charge has been repeated throughout the left, especially in the liberal media. And yet, whenever the topic of a possible Obama defeat comes up, the only possible reason liberals can come up with is racism. It couldn't possibly be that the American people would look at Obama, disagree with what he says and what he stands for, and vote against him. No, the only reason anyone would ever vote against the Most Merciful Lord Barack Hussein Obama (praise be upon him... er, wait, what?) is that they're evil, backwards racists.
Nevermind that he's half white. Or that the other half is very likely of Arab descent, not African.
But the larger point is that the Obama campaign has, since its inception, been run primarily on style, not substance. The first year or so of his campaign featured nothing but empty speeches and soaring rhetoric, completely devoid of any substantive content. And largely, that theme of campaigning continues today. To be fair, I've been somewhat disappointed that the McCain campaign has not put forth more specific answers to the issues in this election, but how can you criticize someone for attacking Obama's style, when that's basically all he's made of?
Further, almost all of the attacks I've seen from the Obama campaign against McCain have been stylistic in nature. McCain's being too negative, or too personal, or bringing up things too far in the past, or making too big a deal out of Obama's voting record... All of these are stylistic rebuttals, and yet Obama's charge is that McCain attacks only on style?
~Cephas
THE FREE RADICAL
One of my vivid memories of the electoral process as a kid was when my mom would take me with her to vote. I remember it because she always would get two of the "I voted today" stickers, one for me, and one for her. Looking back, it was as if she was demonstrating to me, even at an early age, the importance she placed on voting. So every time I go vote today, I still look forward to getting that sticker, and I faithfully put it on my t-shirt, just like I did when I was four.
Voting today was somewhat less of an ordeal than voting in the primary. My polling location is at an elementary school on the not-so-nice side of town. Let's just say I am deeply in the ethnic minority there. In the last presidential election, I made it to the polls after work, about a half an hour before the polls closed, and was stupefied when a DNC campaigner held the door open for me to go in! During this years' primaries, it was clear that the polling personnel had no clue what they were doing, as they struggled to find me on their lists, then tried to make me vote on a Democratic ballot, then tried to tell me that if I voted in the Republican primary, that I could only vote for Republicans in November. Insert face into palm and sigh deeply...
Today wasn't so bad. I didn't endure any of the lines that are being reported nationally, and the poll worker found my registration without incident. My voting machine worked as advertised, and I appreciated the slight upgrades in the software they appear to have made since the last election. If anyone claims that these machines are confusing now, they don't need to be voting (or driving, or dressing themselves) in the first place. The Obama supporters were an adequate distance from the polling center, handing out stickers on the street in front of the school. The worst distraction I experienced was when the school children came in from recess while I was voting, and started singing the Barney song. I hate hearing about all that love and harmony while I'm voting against a school levy...
Stay tuned throughout the day to this blog and Worldview for live blogging throughout the day (and well into the night, I'd guess).
~Cephas
THE FREE RADICAL
Voting today was somewhat less of an ordeal than voting in the primary. My polling location is at an elementary school on the not-so-nice side of town. Let's just say I am deeply in the ethnic minority there. In the last presidential election, I made it to the polls after work, about a half an hour before the polls closed, and was stupefied when a DNC campaigner held the door open for me to go in! During this years' primaries, it was clear that the polling personnel had no clue what they were doing, as they struggled to find me on their lists, then tried to make me vote on a Democratic ballot, then tried to tell me that if I voted in the Republican primary, that I could only vote for Republicans in November. Insert face into palm and sigh deeply...
Today wasn't so bad. I didn't endure any of the lines that are being reported nationally, and the poll worker found my registration without incident. My voting machine worked as advertised, and I appreciated the slight upgrades in the software they appear to have made since the last election. If anyone claims that these machines are confusing now, they don't need to be voting (or driving, or dressing themselves) in the first place. The Obama supporters were an adequate distance from the polling center, handing out stickers on the street in front of the school. The worst distraction I experienced was when the school children came in from recess while I was voting, and started singing the Barney song. I hate hearing about all that love and harmony while I'm voting against a school levy...
Stay tuned throughout the day to this blog and Worldview for live blogging throughout the day (and well into the night, I'd guess).
~Cephas
THE FREE RADICAL
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