slamboard

Even though I am not an American, I followed the Democratic primary quite closely. I was intrigued by the character and the behavior of the front runners. I was especially interested in observing how they both utilized new media like YouTube. If the contest had been about YouTube popularity, Obama would have won much sooner and with a huge margin. That difference didn’t interest me that much because it was a simple matter of demographics.

I was fascinated by the evolution of comment moderation. I feel that Team Obama had a edge with that. Both sides moderated comments on the majority of videos, with a few exceptions.

Figuring out a comment moderation policy based on the ones that get approved is quite an exercise in conjecture. Based on my observations, the moderators at HillaryClintondotcom generally only allowed positive commentary while their counterparts at BarrackObamadotcom tended to approve comments that created the appearance of an open discussion. At first, I thought they should allow comments to appear without prior approval, but I changed my mind when I looked at the level of discussion elsewhere on YouTube. I am still frustrated because it seems like the approval process on an individual video is abandoned once it is a few days old.

Hillary Clinton at this point only has six videos that have more than 100 comments. A dozen Obama videos have more than 1000 comments each. ‘A More Perfect Union’ has nearly 10,000 comments.

Now that Obama has shifted focus to the general election, it appears that there has also been a slight shift in comment moderation policy. The folks with their fingers on the approval buttons seem to be more willing to approve moronic and vicious comments because now they come predominantly from Republicans and they are just making themselves look bad.

To save my readers some time, here is an example of an critical comment that was approved by Barack Obama’s official YouTube channel:

Shame on you, Barack Obama! You just destroyed the only hope of restraining already obscene Presidential campaign costs. You’ve made it clear that you’d rather bludgeoning McCain with TV ads rather than engage him in debates or other free mediums. How can you refuse millions in public money to ask for MORE from the very supporters you acknowledge are hurting so badly??? You call that “change?” I gave money to you in the primary, but you won’t see a dime from me again.

Here is one for Hillary on her channel

Long Live Hillary Clinton! The true president of the people. I hope to be able to vote for you soon as candidate for the democratic party in 2016! I campaign all i could all i went overboard for this campaign. So Hillary I thank you for running I am sadden for you not being president in 2008. Hillary we all supporters did these for you campaign and we pledge our vote to you and we did not see the candidate we wanted but Hillary we love you!

The Obama video that drew the sample comment currently has about 580 comments, while the Hillary video has 7.

With fuel costs breaking new records everyday, lots of people are considering curtailing their driving. For some people, this may involve putting a car into storage for months or longer. I was considering it and I realized that there are probably a few things that I should do to the car if I want it to stay in the condition that it is in. Here are a few links with helpful information:

Mothballing your car

AAA has advice that seems to cater to people with really nice cars.

After moving in 2005, we went carless for a whole year. It can be done. I consider my 1990 Skoda to be a time saving device. It is not a necessity and it is not a part of my identity.

The headline in the Washington Post says Clinton Sorry. The report says that she apologized for her recent reference to the RFK assassination.

I don’t know if the quote at the end of the piece is complete, but I read it for context and I do not see the word sorry. An apology from Hillary Clinton is a lot like Heidi Diaz coming clean.

I wrote the first part of this entry without watching the video of Hillary’s comment (the one for for which she ‘apologized’). I have to admit that it doesn’t sound as bad as it looks in print.

You will not find too many Presidential candidates vowing to carry on the torch for Bush and Cheney. I think at last count, it stood at Zero. Since the present administration is not in a position to help with any campaigns, they have more time to do what they have been doing all along… hand out favors and alienate the rest of the World.

The general public has enough to worry about with the really big issues, like the war (which Bush and Cheney can take full credit for) and the economy (for which they deserve at least partial credit). The administration has walked behind this giant pile of lemons and opened up a little lemonade stand where they are giving away judicial appointments and other sweet stuff to the little people that have helped make it all possible.

Gustavus Adolphus Puryear IV was on loan to team Cheney to prepare him for debates in 2000 and 2004. He has made millions as the general counsel for CCA the private company that houses many of America’s federal prison inmates. Putting a man who has made obscene profits from imprisonment on the bench as a trial judge seems counterintuitive, but so does installing a man who made obscene profits as an executive for a defense contractor as Vice President.

One of the most contentious issues in American politics is military spending.

Around twenty years ago, General Electric was the first and possibly the biggest corporation to face fines and lawsuits stemming from a crackdown on fraud related to contracts with the Pentagon. Maybe it’s time for another crackdown. It could provide a needed boost of revenue for the military.

A little over ten years ago, GE was caught cheating the Military by not adequately testing aircraft components. A GE engineer approached the FBI after the concerns that he expressed within the company failed to result in changes that he felt were necessary. The approximately $7 million awarded in a subsequent lawsuit mostly went to the government, with some going to the whistle-blower and his lawyers as well.

If this is a pattern, it would seem that a payment is overdue. There were also some criminal convictions against GE in 1990 and 1992.

This year, they sold their plastics division to the Saudis.

I am really curious about where this patriotic genuine Toby Keith hat is made. If they are made in China, I would worry about the possible effect of lead paint on the brain function of those who wear it.

Toby didn’t impress me much with his post September 11th song Angry American (Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue). Unlike the hats he sells, I didn’t feel the the sentiments expressed were genuine.

Here is a stanza from his battle cry:

Ohhh Justice will be served
And the battle will rage
This big dog will fight
When you rattle his cage
And you’ll be sorry that you messed with
The U.S. of A.
‘Cause we’ll put a boot in your ass
It’s the American way

Maybe this boot was stitched together in Pakistan?

I’m sorry for being a bit over the top with this. I find it a bit upsetting that big business in America quietly abandoned the ‘Made in America’ ideal and consumers happily followed them. Now that several problems have been discovered, the poor country that produces the goods is being vilified. I certainly don’t want to defend the uncaring manufacturers in China, but they were meeting a demand for crap. They didn’t wake up one morning and think to themselves “I think I will build a factory that produces crappy unsafe toys and then send them to America in the hopes that someone will buy them.”

In a less imperfect World, Americans would have built their own toys and let China know that they have join the game after they make good with some democratic and social reforms.

I wish American Apparel wasn’t headed up by such a freak. I would love to wholeheartedly promote his business but he is just a bit too odd.

People often make the assertion that government and big business are in bed together. I was thinking about that expression and thinking about environmental issues this morning. It dawned on me that everyone on the planet is also in a proverbial bed with the politicians and the multinational corporations.

When I was a young child, I slept at night in a king-sized bed with my older brother and my younger brother. It was inevitable that my younger brother would pee the bed, at least occasionally. My big brother defensively pushed his two younger brothers over to an area that was less than half the bed. There’s a metaphor in there somewhere.

Please note: The sites that I have linked to in this post have not been thoroughly examined and may not be objectively critical or entirely accurate.

If you like making slick, short promotional videos, then Black Turtle Media wants your work!.

If you type ‘So Much Plastic’ in the search box on YouTube, you will see one of the short films that I made. As you can see, my work is not quite as slick and polished as it could be. Animation is supposed to have at least 16 frames per second to fool the eye and I think I was at about 5 for the middle part of this video. I also have trouble getting the sound levels just right on my videos.

The premise of Black Turtle Media is that they allow open submission of amateur promotional video. Many people are very tired of the advertisements that are produced by mainstream advertisers. I myself agree that they often lack imagination. More accurately, if one imaginative ad works, the industry spends about two years replicating the same idea to try and sell everything from beer to pregnancy tests.

If you want to make an iPhone video, go for it and send it to blackturtlemedia.com. They are even running a contest and the best video stands to win $5,000. For the contest, you can choose from these topics…the Apple iPhone, Halo3 or Decision 2008.

The contest is determined by voting from viewers. I watched a couple of videos on BlackTurtleMedia.com this morning. There is a real range as far as quality and creativity. I think a latecomer with a catchy video would have a good chance of walking away with the money.

I am curious as to whether the company and individuals that are being promoted are aware of this promotion. I am sure Apple and the Makers of Halo3 at least know about Black Turtle. I suspect that some of the Presidential candidates are not aware of this grassroots campaigning. Bear in mind that if a candidate does not officially approve of a message, they should not be held responsible for its content. That is, unless there is evidence of unofficial approval.

There was so much enthusiastic promotion of the iPhone in the lead up to its release and some of the videos on blackturtlemedia.com are prime examples of that atmosphere. Now that the products are in hand, user ads are taking a different tone. They are pretty cool gadgets and if I had one, I would use it for more than finding good calamari.

Brazil, Libya, Thailand and Uruguay are countries that are interested in obtaining units from One Laptop Per Child.

Cost overruns have been a recurring theme with this project, the ideal of $100 is now a longterm goal. The initial production units will cost buyers $176. I think Shakira should buy units for every child attending the schools that she helped to build in Colombia. I think there should be an option with the iPhone rebates to help fund this project as well.

Here is a link to a page that lists Democratic Schools.

Here is a link to a page that lists Democratic Countries.

Freedom House is an NGO that monitors the legitimacy of democracies. If countries could be listed as democratic simply by describing themselves as such, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the Lao People’s Democratic Republic would be on the list.

I am aware of some Democratic schools that are about as democratic as the afore mentioned countries.

Democracy stops at home. In a typical democratic school, all important decisions are ostensibly put to a vote in which all students and all staff have one vote each. If too many of the staff members are also parents of attending students there is an almost irresistable temptation to subvert democracy. You would think that parents who want to take part in a democratic school would hold the institution of democracy with higher regard. To my mind, even exerting pressure for children to attend meetings and vote freely is a subversion of democracy.

Many schools that are democratic also subscribe to the notion of academic freedom. In principle these schools allow children to use any resources allowable by the laws of the land for their chosen endeavors. This is the issue that is the catalyst for the subversion of democracy. Parents wish to envoke censorship and the only way for them to do so is through the democratic process.

I have observed the degradation of democracy first hand, and in some ways, I am grateful for the experience. On the off chance that some kids at a free school happen upon this post I would urge them to be responsible and vigilant with regards to their democracy. The same goes for everyone who lives in a democratic country, even moreso.