I’m half watching Dick Cheney being interviewed by Wolf Blitzer, and you know, I find I can’t believe a word he says.
You should read Matt Taibbi‘s The Great Derangement. I thought the account of his infiltration of John Hagee’s church would be the part I’d relish most, but it’s all really good. How is it related to this blunt assessment of Cheney’s credibility? Taibbi, after meeting with 9/11 truthers, after ridiculing them in print, comes to a conclusion that it’s only natural after being spun so often and so violently that we’re falling-on-the-floor dizzy. We start making up our own truth.
It’s nothing Twitter is not aware of, I’m sure, but here’s a further anecdote.
I’ve been doodling around with a widget that rotates a number of what I think are interesting timely searches, mostly on Twitter search, but including some others.
Early last week the web was abuzz with rumors about a $99 iPhone offered by Wal-Mart, so I make it one of the widget’s searches. Each day there was more spam in the stream. I tried my best to filter it with minus switches, and finally had to give up.
I expect I’ll have to abandon the gas+price search soon for the same reason. I added another three switches today, but I have a feeling it’s just a matter of time before I won’t be able to manage it that way.
Craftier developers will know better ways to filter out certain users based on their tweet patterns and put them in 3rd party apps or in Twitter search itself. On the other hand, not putting the controls in Twitter’s public search might be a way to create value for a corporate product. But that would be scarcity thinking.
I often feel like making something on holidays (you know, like something besides pies). It seemed like a good time to give my Obama countdown widget a new look.
Mommy bloggers, who tend to hang out on Twitter, were offended by the video’s copy, and the tone of the narration, which implies that wearing a baby in a sling or other carrying apparatus amounts to an affectation. It offended me, too, even though I wasn’t a baby wearer as a young mom. (I tried it, and it didn’t suit me, but not for any lifestyle reason—I just never felt I had the proper purchase on my baby; I liked belonging to the constant contact species, and carried my kids around a lot.)
Telling the folks you’re trying to persuade that their preferences are an affectation is the dumbest aspect. Think about it. It’s like trying to sell Visine to iPhone users by helpfully informing them they only bought their phone to look cool, but there’s help for you dumbasses. Visine can save you from yourselves, save you from the eyestrain you were dimwitted, vain and phony enough to inflict on yourselves.
A few commenters—looks like mostly guys and controversy trolls—are eyerolling or belittling the outrage. In which camp are the people at Johnson & Johnson’s agency who cooked this thing up? I do think there are culture camps here, and it’s because babywearing is still seen as a ”hippie thing”—not so much now as it was 20-30 years ago, but the perception lingers.
So, when the voiceover talent seems to curl her lip in derision at women who want to look like good moms, I gotta tell you, coming off the culture wars fought during the election campaign, it feels to me like Sarah Palin or Ann Coulter is talking to me in that video. And she’s saying “I’m so sick of your hippie shit—your latte-drinking, hybrid-driving, baby-slinging ways. Why don’t you go live on a commune and stop influencing normal heartland moms to adopt your godless ways.”
Sound like a stretch? Maybe, but you really can’t argue with perceptions, and that’s how the read struck me. Which is why, as so many bloggers have pointed out, J&J should have tested the tone with the target audience. Who approved that voiceover anyway? That’s who I’d blame, and send the agency’s creative staff to tonedeaf school.
When Barack Obama sent a thank-you text message to supporters—on his way to the victory speech—saying he couldn’t have done it without us, I thought that was nice to address us first. I replied “You’re welcome, buddy. Keep us involved.”
Wired Obama supporters have been thinking a lot about how the power of his online communities might be harnessed to do some good beyond getting him elected.
What would you think about bringing public hearings into the online world? It wouldn’t have to be exactly like Capitol Hill hearings. Hearings have taken to the road for a long time, but they tend to keep to the same formal rules.
A different kind of supplementary input might be put in place so that testimony could be given via one of the live video services, in shorter chunks, and by a different class of witnesses—more ordinary citizens, more front-line experts, fewer heads of agencies and heads of interest groups. (The higher you climb on the title ladder, the less you learn about what’s happening and the more you learn about what the establishment wants you to think is happening.) It would be less formal than hearings held in Washington, but more official than a town hall.
Live commentary on the testimony could be mined not just for reaction to the testimony but also for ideas. It could shape the direction of the hearings in real time.
I don’t believe anybody thinks Joe citizen should vote to decide things like how to fix the economy. But swarms do one thing very well: they ferret out the important, consequential bits of an issue, situation or conversation. When this happens in real time, we’re saying “Yes, more of that, please. Now.” We’re like players in a game of hide the thimble, telling the hunter if she’s hot or cold, closer or further away from the prize, or the essence of a thing.
If our representatives in government take the trouble to listen, and if they are canny about it, they’ll use that power to navigate the issue terrain.
Later: Brian Solis pens a good roundup of Obama’s use of social media during the campaign and and floats ideas for using it for governing. The stat that popped out at me:
YouTube also swayed towards Obama with a network of 358,000 to 191,000, with the Obama camp posting over 1,800 videos compared to McCain’s 330. These videos accounted for 110 million views.
While the ratio of Obama-to-McCain subscribers was about 2:1, the video posting ratio was more like 5:1. So, it’s not just that the McCain campaign was stuck in the 20th century in terms of thinking of the electorate as an audience; McCain supporters thought of themselves as the audience.
I’ve been thinking for a long time that TV shows should do this when there’s still an audience, but maybe not a big enough audience to justify Hollywood production. I don’t know if comic books would be my medium of choice, but I think I’d consume more of some stories in just about any form.
It’s especially cruel to fans, don’t you think, to lop off a series in mid-story like both of David Milch’s HBO series—Deadwood and John From Cincinnati. Give me a podcast or an animated movie, a novelization, shoot, a blog. Just tell me what you had in mind to wind the thing up. You know? And, OK, because I pay for HBO, I think I feel a little more used when I don’t get my conclusion.
I can’t wait to dig into Newsweek’s special, deliciously long election project, Secrets of the 2008 Campaign. Three of the seven chapters have been posted to the Newsweek website so far.
They’ve saved up all the gossipy behind-the-scenes stories they had promised not to reveal until after the election. NewsGang Live junkies should savor this tidbit about discussions around choosing Hillary as VP. @stevegillmor was always convinced that Obama’s staff bore a grudge, that it colored their advice, but that Obama himself might not have been so set against the pick. I always agreed.
Obama was never inclined to choose Sen. Hillary Clinton as his running mate, not so much because she had been his sometime bitter rival on the campaign trail, but because of her husband. Still, as Hillary’s name came up in veep discussions, and Obama’s advisers gave all the reasons why she should be kept off the ticket, Obama would stop and ask, “Are we sure?” He needed to be convinced one more time that the Clintons would do more harm than good. McCain, on the other hand, was relieved to face Sen. Joe Biden as the veep choice, and not Hillary Clinton, whom the McCain camp had truly feared.
This is one of those once-every-several-weeks occasions when I’m moved to print out a long article so I can cuddle up with it and relish it. I keep thinking I should play around with an alternate CSS stylesheet that makes the presentation of things like this more book-like.
Separately from the Newsweek roundup, it comes out that Sarah Palin didn’t know Africa was a continent. She thought it was a country. I don’t know about you, but I’m not done with her. I say pile on the ridicule if it helps keep that horrid woman off the national stage. I’m totally in Steve’s camp on that score, too.
Newsweek’s piece is supposed to cover the uptick in threats against Obama in September and early October when she was busiest “energizing” her base with the associations game. That person, for all her Christian professions, has an ugly ugly soul. I’ve never seen any other politician bask in boos the way others soak up cheers.
You can make your own predictions on the NPR site. It would have been nice if you could save your map, and if they somehow could have integrated the predictions with the reality.
After thinking about heading downtown, I’ve decided to stay in for the evening and watch TV and the swarm—trading being there for knowing what’s happening, and watching the finale in the same way I’ve watched the whole process.
All day I kept trying to remind myself that I might regret not going, that being in Grant Park might give me a memory like being at the band shell in Central Park in December 1980 for John Lennon’s memorial. I’ve always been glad I didn’t give into the urge to blow off attending it because the crowd would be a hassle. I suppose it might boil down to getting old.
Howard Fineman of Newsweek tells about participating in both campaigns’ conference calls today. He said his head was spinning by the end of the second one. I’ve been there, in business. It’s exhausting to take it all in on the phone when you’re missing key sensory input, hard to think quickly for hours on end, trying to be smart and persuasive and spontaneous, but all the while keeping your guard up.
This observation reminded me of business marketing, too:
By contrast, the McCainanites are talking less about the Electoral College map or voter groups than they are about the total number of calls and contacts they have made, and the historical trends that would suggest that they are not as out of the ballgame as it might seem.
Isn’t that funny? It’s exactly the kind of thing business unit managers or sales managers say when they’re not making their numbers, so to compensate in review meetings they very! enthusiastically! relate how many great! meetings they’re having and how much interest! they’re seeing out there in the marketplace.
Doesn’t it look suspenseful? Just like the rest of this crazy election season. It’s going to make a great movie some day.
It’s the image in the Obama campaign’s e-mail urging previous donors to make another contribution before Sunday. Five contributors will be flown to Chicago for election night in Chicago, complete with front row seats, backstage pass, and hotel.
Hey, Senator McCain: I’ve given less than $200. There’s nothing sinister about me. Honest, officer. I’m one of your shadowy ”secret donors” but I don’t think you need to be afraid of me.
Waited about 50 minutes at my early polling place, the Naperville Municipal Center.
It’s one of 15 early polling sites in my county, Dupage in Illinois, a part of suburban Chicago. County population is about 900,000. A poll worker said they’ve seen about 10,000 early voters at just that location since Oct. 13.
The county is using Diebold machines. Each operates independently—not hooked up to any server. Storage cards will be removed on Nov. 4 at poll closing time for the state, and added to the election day totals. (I asked a lot of questions.)
I was worried about minor identity mismatches. I filled out an “application to vote,” a half sheet of paper required so there was something to sign since they don’t have the big rolls available during early voting. Not sure if my voter registration included my middle name, I asterisked the space where I printed my name and mentioned in a footnote that sometimes I omit the middle initial. Turns out I had registered to vote without including the initial, and it didn’t matter; they allowed me to scribble it out on the form, since the signature, photo and birthdate all checked out.
I don’t remember having to show ID when I’ve voted before. It must be something new. Also don’t recall ever seeing a “No cell phones” sign before.
I saw a lot of happy faces in line. It seemed odd for a public place full of strangers. I don’t think I’m projecting but their mood seemed to reflect my own—kind of an excited anticipatory feeling, the way you feel when you’re keeping a birthday surprise. Of course, there were some resentful faces in the crowd, and they were attached to bodies that tended to be older, sleeker and better-dressed. Draw your own conclusions.
The economy’s meltdown has been a ghastly godsend for Barack Obama’s campaign, and it doesn’t seem like a very good idea to change a subject that seems to be working. In the final days of the campaign, though, sometimes I wish we would hear a few more reminders about our occupation of Iraq, and about the kind of shoot-first commander-in-chief that John McCain would become.
Think Progress points to a Der Spiegel interview with Robert Kagan, the neocon McCain advisor who was a signatory to the 1998 letter (.pdf file) to Bill Clinton urging regime change in Iraq.
Matt Duss, the Think Progress writer, picks out the astonishing part of the interview with the German newspaper. In response to a question about the Bush administration’s dishonest rationalization for invading Iraq, Kagan says characterizing it in that way is “a silly conversation” and “absurd conspiracy theories.”
SPIEGEL: Isn’t it true that Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld took advantage of the outrage over the 9/11 terrorist attacks to strike Iraq? Is it even possible anymore to deny that the war was based on manipulation, exaggeration and flat-out lies?
Kagan: That’s absurd.
SPIEGEL: It’s a commonly held view…
Kagan: The Bush administration’s intelligence on Iraq was the same as the Clinton administration’s, the German government’s and the French government’s before the war. We now know that Saddam wanted the world to believe he had weapons of mass destruction—and the world did.
SPIEGEL: But, unlike Washington, both Paris and Berlin did not want to go to war without UN approval. And the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna asked the United States—unsuccessfully—for a few more months to complete its investigation in Iraq. But the US wanted this war for strategic reasons.
Kagan: In retrospect, we have to admit that Washington could have waited a while longer. That’s a different question. But I think it’s about time we moved beyond this silly conversation and these absurd conspiracy theories. There is a real debate as to whether we should have gone to war in Iraq. And now we should have an intelligent discussion about the new challenges we face in Iraq and elsewhere.
It’s so crazy and disrespectful to hear these guys continuing to pretend they didn’t have a clear aim in mind from day one and concocted a case to fit the aim. Most Americans and most of the world know that much of the justification for invasion was a fiction, and still they try to con us. They must think we’re idiots. When I see the word “neocon” it’s the con part that rankles.
Also check out ThinkProgress’s McCain war cabinet. You want more neocon foreign policy? McCain’s your guy.
Obama talks mostly about more of the same George Bush economic policy. I can’t think I’m alone in being even more frightened by more of the same George Bush foreign policy.
“I cannot in good conscience support a tax cut in which so many of the benefits go to the most fortunate among us, at the expense of middle class Americans who most need tax relief.”
— John McCain‘s May 26, 2001 statement on the Senate floor.
The St. Petersburg Times/Congressional Quarterly’s Politifact.com site gives the position modification a “full flop.” I wonder if he regrets selling out. I think he must by this time.
