I always wondered why politicians can't seem to remember the first rule of marketing: Never give free advertising to your competitor.

There was just a piece on the US election race on the BBC news: McCain really looks like a doddering old man. Does he really have much of a chance?

Glasgowsfinest: There was just a piece on the US election race on the BBC news: McCain really looks like a doddering old man. Does he really have much of a chance?

Well, they did elect Bush TWICE, and then there's things like this (new window).

slackist Well, they did elect Bush TWICE, and then there's things like this (new window).

What a great "article" that is. Sad.

hey ben - if you're going to put something in quotes in the text of your blog, make sure it's actually what the person said - don't leave out phrases, no matter how inconsequential. you're part of the problem with the media these days when you do crap like that

"But he's really helped our campaign, because so many of you have contributed in the last week. Our field offices across the country had people pouring into them yesterday."

ftfy douchebag

Megain: hey ben - you're part of the douchebag

The quote you highlighted in no way changes the meaning or context of the entry.

floor9: Megain: hey ben - you're part of the douchebag

The quote you highlighted in no way changes the meaning or context of the entry.

true, hence my saying 'no matter how inconsequential'. the point is that quotation marks should be used to indicate exactly what someone says, not an edited version. or do you disagree with that?

Glasgowsfinest: There was just a piece on the US election race on the BBC news: McCain really looks like a doddering old man. Does he really have much of a chance?

I heard a piece on NPR yesterday focusing on how each candidate uses technology in their daily lives.

Not surprisingly, someone who worked with Obama said at one point he had two cell phones and a Blackberry he wore on his belt (one phone was for Senate work, Blackberry for email/internet and the other phone for personal calls).

Then they focused on McCain. They said he relies on his staff to "show him web pages" and only has a cell phone he uses to call people for information. Then they played a quote from McCain, "I'm learning to go online."

What?!?!? LEARNING to GO ONLINE? It sounds like he's still trying to figure out how to just CONNECT to the internet, much less how to use it.

He went on to say that he is sure he won't be starting a blog anytime soon but will be able to get information. That made me wonder, how would a person who is on the internet for the first time going to be able to discern between the different types of information (rumor, opinion, reporting)?

I giggled at the thought of his PC getting completely clogged with viruses after the first 24 hours.

Popup: Who is the real Obama? CLICK HERE
McCain: Hmmm. This is relevant to my interests.
*CLICK*
Torrent of Popups: NAKED SLUT PIG farkERS LIVE! 2 GIRLS 1 CUP REMIX! REFINANCE YOUR MORTGAGE! ARE YOU INFECTED? CLICK HERE!

By the end of the piece, I got the feeling that McCain still looks at the internet as some passing fad. Not a vital medium for sharing information, more as something irrelevant to him that he is supposed to talk about because he hears other people talking about it.

Scary.

Megain: quotation marks should be used to indicate exactly what someone says, not an edited version.

Unless, of course, one uses ellipses to denote excised language.

Megain: true, hence my saying 'no matter how inconsequential'. the point is that quotation marks should be used to indicate exactly what someone says, not an edited version. or do you disagree with that?

In this case, I disagree.

kronicfeld: Megain: quotation marks should be used to indicate exactly what someone says, not an edited version.

Unless, of course, one uses ellipses to denote excised language.

true enough, ellipses at least let the reader know that something is missing. ben's 'quote' seems to lack them though

floor9: Megain: true, hence my saying 'no matter how inconsequential'. the point is that quotation marks should be used to indicate exactly what someone says, not an edited version. or do you disagree with that?

In this case, I disagree.

fair enough. i can agree to disagree. for me i guess it's just a matter of principle - be consistent in the usage so as not to even appear to try to mislead the reader. yes, the three words he omitted are irrelevant. but i'd like to think that when i see something in quotes, it's the exact words spoken by that person, not a truncated or modified version (unless specified). i really don't want to have to start wondering about it on a case-by-case basis, as you apparently don't mind doing

Megain:

Who shiat in your Activia this morning?

Bemoaning how someone uses quotes while not capitalizing or using punctuation deflates any point you are trying to make.

Just saying.

Reported.

Ed Finnerty: Megain:

Who shiat in your Activia this morning?

Bemoaning how someone uses quotes while not capitalizing or using punctuation deflates any point you are trying to make.

Just saying.

well, it's been awhile, so i guess i'll do this again for the newer farkers. i don't use caps for one reason and one reason only - i have farked up hands. even after numerous surgeries, i currently have very little use of either my left or right pinkie fingers. worse yet, they're constantly in my way. so i frequently cross them across my ring fingers just to get them out of the way. needless to say, this makes typing a little awkward, especially hitting the shift key. so for an informal forum like fark, i simply don't bother trying. i assure you, this is the only place i don't make the effort. as to punctuation, i intentionally punctuate exactly like fark does on the headlines - it's fine in the middle but verboten on the end

wow, it really has been awhile since i had to explain that. maybe i should put it back in my profile

/shrug

floor9: Reported.

lmao

slackist: Glasgowsfinest: There was just a piece on the US election race on the BBC news: McCain really looks like a doddering old man. Does he really have much of a chance?

Well, they did elect Bush TWICE, and then there's things like this (new window).

I'll get this out of the way first so everyone knows what side of this soon to be flame war I'm on... His contributions might have gone up but his poll numbers went down; it did have an effect.


Regarding that article, I really didn't get past the whole "Muslim Controlled UN" line (Though I laughed at the Muslim enclave in Detroit - it's Dearborn and it's hardly a training center for future terrorists and America haters). I knew that the UN was inept, corrupt and basically impotent when it comes to actually doing what it was meant to, but Muslim controlled is just too damn wacky and tells me that The Free Republic isn't something I want to read, even as a right leaning individual.

CanisNoir: I'll get this out of the way first so everyone knows what side of this soon to be flame war I'm on... His contributions might have gone up but his poll numbers went down; it did have an effect.

I'm largely ignoring poll numbers until post-conventions when the debates fire up, IE when they'll actually start to count. Regardless, FiveThirtyEight disagrees.

CanisNoir: Regarding that article, I really didn't get past the whole "Muslim Controlled UN" line (Though I laughed at the Muslim enclave in Detroit - it's Dearborn and it's hardly a training center for future terrorists and America haters). I knew that the UN was inept, corrupt and basically impotent when it comes to actually doing what it was meant to, but Muslim controlled is just too damn wacky and tells me that The Free Republic isn't something I want to read, even as a right leaning individual.

You're just now finding out about freepers? You've got a lot to learn, son. They're the hillaryis44 cheesecake brigade of the right, with a healthy dose of bigotry thrown in.

Ed Finnerty:
By the end of the piece, I got the feeling that McCain still looks at the internet as some passing fad. Not a vital medium for sharing information, more as something irrelevant to him that he is supposed to talk about because he hears other people talking about it.

Scary.

Not scary at all, in fact it's quite true that it is irrelevant to him. It's not like he needs to surf blogs and internet sites, that's precicly what his staff is for. I want his old wrinkled ass in the Senate doing his damn job, not setting up a myspace page. Hence, if he gets elected President, I REALLY don't want him surfing the net because damnit, he's got too much other important shiat to be doing. (Though I wouldn't begrudge him a Fark visit or two ;) )

All this concentration on how McCain views the internet or how much "technology" he uses is just another form of Negative Attack attempting to "Paint" him as a doddering old fool as oposed to someone who actually priortizes his time and pays attention to the shiat he should.

Occam's Chainsaw: You're just now finding out about freepers? You've got a lot to learn, son. They're the hillaryis44 cheesecake brigade of the right, with a healthy dose of bigotry thrown in.

I've heard of Free Republic but just never tied it in to "Freepers" I just thought that was some kind of denigrating term used for Righties such as meself. I'd never even read the site before, and won't be going back either :P

CanisNoir: Not scary at all, in fact it's quite true that it is irrelevant to him. It's not like he needs to surf blogs and internet sites, that's precicly what his staff is for. I want his old wrinkled ass in the Senate doing his damn job, not setting up a myspace page. Hence, if he gets elected President, I REALLY don't want him surfing the net because damnit, he's got too much other important shiat to be doing. (Though I wouldn't begrudge him a Fark visit or two ;) )

The internet and internet-related technology form the backbone of modern civilization, modern society and the modern economy. I am already scared shiatless that there is a Congress full of dimwits who don't understand what the internet is, how it works, and how vital it is to continued intellectual and economic prosperity of this country and this planet. Having someone in the White House, on the bully pulpit, with ever-increasing powers - both codified and "institutional" - over ever-increasing areas of day to day life, who does not understand nor appreciate those same things...well, that should terrify everyone. This would be like Roosevelt not understanding electricity, Truman not understanding motorized vehicles, or JFK not understanding the telephone.

Megain:

Fair enough and thanks for the explanation.

Not knowing what I do now, it struck me as odd to criticize one rule while breaking another.

CanisNoir: Not scary at all, in fact it's quite true that it is irrelevant to him. It's not like he needs to surf blogs and internet sites, that's precicly what his staff is for. I want his old wrinkled ass in the Senate doing his damn job, not setting up a myspace page. Hence, if he gets elected President, I REALLY don't want him surfing the net because damnit, he's got too much other important shiat to be doing. (Though I wouldn't begrudge him a Fark visit or two ;) )

All this concentration on how McCain views the internet or how much "technology" he uses is just another form of Negative Attack attempting to "Paint" him as a doddering old fool as oposed to someone who actually priortizes his time and pays attention to the shiat he should.

Compare and contrast these two statements:

I don't eat spaghetti.
-vs-
I don't use forks.

It's not about him not spending his time on the 'net. McCain has stated that he doesn't know how to use a computer. The single most important tool in the last 50 years, ubiquitous for the last 25, and he doesn't know how to use it. That's a level of willful ignorance for someone who will help define when, where, and how we use this tool, and doubly chilling when net neutrality is a hot battleground.

Ed Finnerty: Megain:

Fair enough and thanks for the explanation.

Not knowing what I do now, it struck me as odd to criticize one rule while breaking another.

i understand that completely, which is why i explained. you're welcome

Occam's Chainsaw:

The single most important tool in the last 50 years

*ahem* Third most important.

CanisNoir: Not scary at all, in fact it's quite true that it is irrelevant to him. It's not like he needs to surf blogs and internet sites, that's precicly what his staff is for. I want his old wrinkled ass in the Senate doing his damn job, not setting up a myspace page. Hence, if he gets elected President, I REALLY don't want him surfing the net because damnit, he's got too much other important shiat to be doing. (Though I wouldn't begrudge him a Fark visit or two ;) )

All this concentration on how McCain views the internet or how much "technology" he uses is just another form of Negative Attack attempting to "Paint" him as a doddering old fool as oposed to someone who actually priortizes his time and pays attention to the shiat he should.

You make a good point. As I am trying to avoid the Politics page until November due to the waterfalls of BS and name calling, I should clarify my point.

I was saying that I, who have worked in IT for over a decade, am still amazed that there are so many people that have zero knowledge about something that has a growing impact on the world around them.

I'm not necesarily faulting McCain for being ignorant of the internet. It does concern me a little, I'll be honest. I'm certainly not trying to paint him as a doddering old man.

I'm not saying that Obama is a better candidate because he's familiar with technology. It simply played a larger part in the world he grew up in and I can relate to that.

Whereas I have my political beliefs and opinions, I was listening to the piece as someone who has been steeped in technology for years.

So. Is this when one calls the other a libtard, commie, worshipper, communist hippie and the other replies with an image of a dog drinking from a sprinkler?

Ed Finnerty: So. Is this when one calls the other a libtard, commie, worshipper, communist hippie and the other replies with an image of a dog drinking from a sprinkler?

I'll do my part!

A fool and his money are soon parted.

soy_bomb: A fool and his money are soon partedsome party.

FTFY.

Ed Finnerty: So. Is this when one calls the other a libtard, commie, worshipper, communist hippie and the other replies with an image of a dog drinking from a sprinkler?

Actually I think I violated the Fark-Snark rules by not imediatly dropping the "Hippy-Libtard" combo move on you from the get go, so technically the Sprinkler-Dog should have already been used to counter me; but it's still early on a Saturday so I blame a long midnight shift followed by some quick "I'm home" alchohol ;)

Occam's Chainsaw and kronicfeld

That's what his advisors are for. I'm sure he's not steeped in knowledge about how Cattle Futures work or the process needed to accelerate grain growth, but he's got people who advise him of what's needed.
As Ed pointed out, he's not of the same generation that grew up using these, or hell, even of mine that had the apple II in grade school and saw programs when they were just holes punched into thousands of cards. (Yea, get the fark off my lawn) He's been a Senator for how long now? He married a rich woman so it's not like he's hitting the ATM on a regular basis, I mean the guy literally has no need of computer skills or knowledge there of. Internet Bills come up and his staff does research on it, writes it up and hands it to him to read up on and study, those are the ones that need to know how this shiat works, not him.

I'm sorry I just dont see this as that much of a negative, I mean I know the guy is old, hell the world knows he's old, the problem is, that doesn't nessecarily bother me that much - in fact it means he's got less incentive to line his own pockets once he gets the seat of power. (It's not like he's going to live another fifty years after his term\terms you know)

Maybe I'm just reacting to the obvious "agism" displayed and it could be because I'm nearing the 40 mark meself (Still a few years away) who knows.

Glasgowsfinest: slackist Well, they did elect Bush TWICE, and then there's things like this (new window).

What a great "article" that is. Sad.

The hilarious part was that the Freepers were calling *McCain* the Manchurian Candidate in 2000, because he was a BRAINWASHED SECRET COMMIE!!111

FreeRepublic: getting their talking points from The Manchurian Candidate, 24, and The Dark Knight and then complaining about the influence of Liberal Hollywood in the same breath.

slackist: Glasgowsfinest: There was just a piece on the US election race on the BBC news: McCain really looks like a doddering old man. Does he really have much of a chance?

Well, they did elect Bush TWICE, and then there's things like this (new window).

That's the first time I've actually been to that site. That's funny stuff.

I'm sure it has nothing at all to do with emails like this from his campaign manager, David Plouffe....

"With the election less than 100 days away, media pundits and Washington insiders will be watching our fundraising numbers more closely than ever.

In the face of these new attacks, you can help demonstrate that a movement funded by grassroots supporters giving only what they can afford is ready to take on the Republican fundraising machine and its onslaught of negativity.

Your support will also give this campaign a crucial boost in momentum as we build our organization to compete in all 50 states.

There are only hours left to make an impact in July."

I get two or three of these a day, begging for cash near the end of every month.

Interesting outcome I must say.

The Moses/Chosen One ad was not an attack ad. It was publicity for Obama, paid by McCain. The Hilton ad was nearly the same. This guy doesn't know how to win.

Ed Finnerty: Megain:

Fair enough and thanks for the explanation.

Not knowing what I do now, it struck me as odd to criticize one rule while breaking another.

The difference is that one is a rule of grammar and one is a rule of reporting. If I quote someone without using proper capitalization, it's not going to hurt the meaning too much. If I quote someone without using brackets or ellipses, I'm doing it wrong.

You can insert and excise what you please to make a quote fit into a sentence, or paraphrase, but quotes in my opinion are sacred, because that's exactly what that person said. When you see ellipses you know that something is missing, and that something may be vital or not vital, depending on the reporter and the quoted person. When you leave that ellipsis out, you're withholding information from the reader, and that's entirely the opposite point of honest reporting.

Glasgowsfinest: There was just a piece on the US election race on the BBC news: McCain really looks like a doddering old man. Does he really have much of a chance?

Don't overestimate the intelligence of the American electorate.

McCain is a grumpy old man. He is a psychpath who will get us involved in a war with Iran. At 5'7", he has somewhat of a Napolean complex.

He is a corporate shill, who is in the pockets of lobbyists.

His tax plan calls for giving the highest tax breaks to those making +$250,000/yr, while raising taxes on social security.

kuhns_m: McCain is a grumpy old man. He is a psychpath who will get us involved in a war with Iran. At 5'7", he has somewhat of a Napolean complex.

He is a corporate shill, who is in the pockets of lobbyists.

His tax plan calls for giving the highest tax breaks to those making +$250,000/yr, while raising taxes on social security.

I just don't like him because he's mean to Obamessiah

I will be very surprised if McCain wins, but then again Bush was re-elected. Hopefully people will put their forks down and stop eating slices of the stupid pie.
Don't be fooled again people.

Am I wrong, or would this actually have been an appropriate time for the IRONIC tag?

This is like the part in every episode of Blackadder where Baldrick says he has a cunning plan. Only McCain actually went with his idea.

CanisNoir: Not scary at all, in fact it's quite true that it is irrelevant to him. It's not like he needs to surf blogs and internet sites, that's precicly what his staff is for.

I dunno, I think I'd going to side with Ed on this one. Understanding, at least on a basic level, what the Internet is and how it affects our culture and more importantly our economy is something the Prez should be well aware of IMO.

On that point, I haven't been impressed with McCain's choices of advisors either - frankly it's probably what worries me most about him. On the other hand Obama's people seem pretty on the ball for the most part.

If the debacle of the Bush administration has taught us anything, it's that the ability of the Prez and his staff to choose the right people for a job is of PARAMOUNT importance. I might even go so far as to say it the most important facet of the job.

/would like to see every elected official blog every day - I want to know what these guys are up to
//www.livejournal.gov ?

Don't campaign accounting rules sort of force an uptick in reported donations at the end of the month, particularly the last day? I seem to remember picking that information out of the wharrgarbl here last month.

Maybe it did go up more than that effect would indicate, and I don't mind a campaign attaching a message to reporting it's income. My initial sense of this is that it's like claiming the sun is now rising in the east to show support for Obama.

Darth Otter: /would like to see every elected official blog every day - I want to know what these guys are up to
//www.livejournal.gov ?

Obama has a twitter feed.

Ed Finnerty: I heard a piece on NPR yesterday focusing on how each candidate uses technology in their daily lives.

Not surprisingly, someone who worked with Obama said at one point he had two cell phones and a Blackberry he wore on his belt (one phone was for Senate work, Blackberry for email/internet and the other phone for personal calls).

Then they focused on McCain. They said he relies on his staff to "show him web pages" and only has a cell phone he uses to call people for information. Then they played a quote from McCain, "I'm learning to go online."

What?!?!? LEARNING to GO ONLINE? It sounds like he's still trying to figure out how to just CONNECT to the internet, much less how to use it.

He went on to say that he is sure he won't be starting a blog anytime soon but will be able to get information. That made me wonder, how would a person who is on the internet for the first time going to be able to discern between the different types of information (rumor, opinion, reporting)?

I giggled at the thought of his PC getting completely clogged with viruses after the first 24 hours.

Popup: Who is the real Obama? CLICK HERE
McCain: Hmmm. This is relevant to my interests.
*CLICK*
Torrent of Popups: NAKED SLUT PIG farkERS LIVE! 2 GIRLS 1 CUP REMIX! REFINANCE YOUR MORTGAGE! ARE YOU INFECTED? CLICK HERE!



By the end of the piece, I got the feeling that McCain still looks at the internet as some passing fad. Not a vital medium for sharing information, more as something irrelevant to him that he is supposed to talk about because he hears other people talking about it.

Scary.

I'd pay good money to see John McCain's two girls one cup reaction video.

it's true. I just bumped him another 50 bucks.

Sum Dum Gai: I'd pay good money to see John McCain's two girls one cup reaction video.

Master of the Flying Guillotine: Sum Dum Gai: I'd pay good money to see John McCain's two girls one cup reaction video.

*golf clap*

Trap-Door Spider: subby: Contributions to Obama's campaign have skyrocketed in the past week


Doesn't seem to be making any difference, does it?

Jeez - give him time to spend some of it.