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Dcoffee's Journal

dcoffee
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05/01/2008 11:20 #44207

Political BS
Category: politics
This is in response to (e:jason,44190)

Even I am tired of it. Still reading and up to date, but the showmanship and trivial issues have completely turned me off.

Why does the media spend so much time talking about BS? Does anybody actually give a damn about Rev Wright?! "Is this going to help or hurt the campaign" well seriously, who gives a shit. I want to know "will this help America" you worthless 'pundit' do you have a Twinkie in your head?!?!?

America needs solutions, and the corporate media can't even facilitate the discussion.

My favorite infamous quote from the last ABC debate a few weeks ago, "Does Rev. Wright love America as much as you do?" Oh boy, thank you George, that is definitely the question I was burning to ask Obama. What a great service you are doing for the country.

Somehow I don't think this is what freedom of the press is all about. Let's have 25 people talk about Rev Wright, or Miley Cyrus' bare back, or Clinton visiting a gas pump, wall to wall 2 hour coverage.

They spend more time predicting how the public will react than they do talking about the issue itself. As if any of the TV blowhards mingles with 'the American public' in order to form their 'expert' opinion.

This is a disgrace.


Here's a media rant for you

and for a little more sarcasm and video in your politics go here

New: Kerry tells MSNBC STFU!
jason - 05/01/08 18:08
Telecommunications Act of 1996, anyone?
ajay - 05/01/08 17:59
The media believes in the adage "if it bleeds, it leads".

They are deliberately trying to keep the controversy going. They'd love to see Obama and Clinton fight and gouge each others' eyes out.

I am so sick of the "media". They are nothing but a money-making machine, interested in doing just that with no concern for their responsibility in a civilized society.

This is what you get when you have the media outlets controlled by a handful of companies. Thanks a lot, Republicans! You put so much power into the hands of so few (TCRA 1996), and we're reaping the benefits now. Congratulations on a yet another fuckup.
james - 05/01/08 14:26
The MSM does a crap job of everything. The TV media is good for one thing only, getting us images of breaking stories. The talking heads with a pound of make up on their faces cant talk about an issue with any sort of insight.

The internet is replacing Television as a news source. And so, to adapt TV news has become entertainment. The Situation Room with Wolfy Blitzer more resembles Entertainment Tonight than it does the ed/op page of the NYTimes.

04/17/2008 20:40 #44041

Confused or Furious, Last nights debate
Category: political

This video sums it up. Although the clip is a few years old, ok it's from 1976.

Seriously, 50 minutes before we could talk about anything besides gossip? War, Inflation, outsourcing jobs, the environment, corruption, waste, fraud, fear, gas prices, recession, healthcare, people losing their houses, bridges falling down, and cities destroyed by floods, the things that actually matter in people's lives! Not a Priority.

After the debate I was thinking about the news media, not the candidates. Why the hell would they dwell on gossip for so long? do they think the American people really give a shit? They think Pennsylvania voters would rather talk about gossip than inflation?

The media is so interested in gotcha politics, and I don't think the American people really give a crap right now. Maybe if they weren't so worried about affording food, and healthcare, and gas, and mortgage payments next week. Or preoccupied thinking about what kind of world is going to be left for their children because of this war, the environment, and the national debt. Maybe, just maybe, we'd really want to get to the bottom of what he said and she said, but right now, we have better things to talk about.

The debate was another great reason for why people become cynical, and tune out politics. They aren't talking about anything that matters. This kind of politics is an insult to the nation. We really deserve better, especially now.


Similar Opinions

Washington Post

Obama's Response
dcoffee - 04/18/08 13:34
Ramble on brother.

One of the big problems with our politics is that winning is more important then anything. Even now, when we're stuck in a shithole of disaster, and we need a serious leader to turn things around. This kind of crap doesn't help the country, and I thought that was the president's main job. We really deserve better.
james - 04/18/08 13:09
About a month ago it was said that Hillary was throwing the "kitchen sink" at Obama. A month later they are prattling on about minutia. That whole 'Obama is elitist because he called Pennsylvanians bitter' thing was pathetic. The lapel pin flag thing is pathetic. And HRC says that she can hammer away on non-issues because that is just what McCain will do in the general, it is just a rhetorical device to allow for mud slinging politics.

HRC has a few ads circulating in PA. In one major market, they are all negative. In another they are split. If the mud slinging tactic didn't work in SC, where it is infamous (remember John McCain's black baby?) I don't see how it is going to work in PA. And the polls have only been showing the race tightening these past two weeks. She was ahead 20+ and now she is under ten in almost every poll that has come out in this time.

GHA! I am hijacking your thread with ramblings.

04/10/2008 11:05 #43970

Online Payment Suggestions?
Category: web
Hey, I need help on a web development / geek question.

What service would you recommend for online credit card transactions?

Anybody set up online payment accounts? Were you satisfied with the service, reasonable fees? Also doesn't take hours of coding to implement?

I'm working with a non-profit group that wanted to switch to Authorize.net, but their subscription is expiring this month. I'm just finishing up their new website, and I don't like the looks of Authorize.net. The instillation guides and sample codes are mostly from 2004, and they require a bunch of coding and configuring to start up. And all of the sample code says "use at your own risk" which doesn't make me feel good.

Considering "Network for Good", and "Paypal", but my knowledge of this area is slim.

Suggestions are very much appreciated,
dcoffee - 04/10/08 22:58
Thanks everyone, very helpful stuff.
tinypliny - 04/10/08 21:35
I have been happy with google check-out as well as paypal, as a customer. I haven't received any fake spamming/phishing with Google Check-Out as I have with paypal. It could be because the Google service is relatively newer compared to paypal.
jenks - 04/10/08 19:15
fwiw, as a customer, I like paypal...
jason - 04/10/08 11:30
Do you have experience with XML and Web Services? A friend of mine did a PayPal implementation for JetBlue, and I myself have done something similar from a technical standpoint.

Here is the API, if you haven't seen it already:

:::link:::

The way it worked for us, you generate a request through a secure connection, and receive a response back, which you can parse to find the information you are looking for, etc...

04/07/2008 22:43 #43946

one of those days
Category: life
Spring, you know what I'm talking about.

image

I worked outside with the laptop today. Looking forward to many more days of that.

yea, she's soft and fuzzy... I think I just heard Paul sneeze. Sorry Paul.

carolinian - 04/08/08 09:01
She looks very much like the cat I had growing up--long orange fur, bushy tail, slightly persian-esque features. Brings back memories.
theecarey - 04/08/08 00:02
I was just telling a friend today that I know its spring when the cats have relocated to bask in the 'sun spots' they haven't seen in 5 months or so.

yes, spring is in the air!

03/28/2008 09:52 #43812

Iraq Going Badly
Category: war
This has not turned into huge news yet for some reason. So in case you hadn't heard.

The Green Zone in Baghdad has been under rocket attack for the past 4 days. That's where the government and the US offices and Embassies are. It's a fortified city. US personnel have been advised to avoid traveling outside and sleep in reinforced structures.



The southern port city of Basra is basically occupied by Shi'ite militias. The government ordered them to hand over their weapons by today, I'm guessing that's not going to happen.


Bush thinks everything is swell, Sounds more like 1984 doublethink propaganda to me.


Chuck Hagel (R) Talks about Bush being Alice in Wonderland.


This doesn't sound good,
"Military: Troop Strains Putting US at Risk"




The Point, we can't solve other people's problems. If they can't work it out, we can't fix it for them. The Iraq war is now a completely political problem. We can't fix it, but we don't want embarrass ourselves. The Republicans in particular, have a lot riding on this flaming turd, especially with the election coming up.

The Surge brought a temporary lull in violence, but in the meantime we didn't get any progress in the government. All this time, and we haven't built anything that will last. 4,000 deaths, 40,000 wounded us soldiers and 5 years, and 500,000 billion so far.

dcoffee - 03/29/08 00:26
Great points Peter, I like hearing different perspectives like that. You're right on a lot of points like having three separate countries, and the screwed up boundaries. You know Americans have gone through periods where we kill each other too, nobody worked it out for us. Imagine Britain comming over here and trying to break up the civil war, or solve slavery.
Thanks for the updates James, you rock.
metalpeter - 03/28/08 18:09
So I never watch the News but today I did catch some of this story before I went to work. The problem is that when you have people who hate each other and want to fight there is only one way to stop them and that is with a powerful leader like Sadam. You can't really have a country run by the people when certain groups want to kill each other. But yet we are the ones who took out the army and Sadam and now we have no way to fix the problem, oh and the one person who could maybe put things back together was hung. I know the Europeans fucked it up with how they have cut up countries and made the lines wrong. But I think that is really the only thing to do in Iraq and make it 3 seperate states with different laws and leaders that fit that areas view.
james - 03/28/08 13:51
I don't know what this isn't huge news.

Our boy al-Maliki gave the Mahdi army a deadline to disarm. They ignored it. Then the government created a gun-buy-back program, in essence bribing the al-Sadr. Now they have pushed the deadline to April, 8th. Now members of the Iraqi army and police are flocking to al-Sadr.

Our president is handling this like he is the economy. Our goals in Iraq are in deep shit but we are getting a glowing report from president Bush despite all indications the opposite is true.

Excellent post. Thank you.