April 25th MISCELLANY!

[maxomai]

• Israeli military chief Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz says that Iran is NOT going to attempt to build nuclear weapons, and that he's confident that a diplomatic solution will be reached. Tell your friends about this; it's important to lay the groundwork for the antiwar now.


• In today's tracking polls, Rasmussen has Obama down five, and Gallup has Obama up six. Gallup also has high consumer confidence and polls Obama's approval at 50%, while Ras has him at a fifteen point deficit for strong approval minus strong disapproval. In short, Gallup shows Obama doing pretty well, and Rasmussen shows Obama doing pretty badly.
  
  My interpretation of this is that they're both wrong.


• Who owns your data when you store it on Google Drive? The answer is: you do. At least, you own the intellectual property rights and the licenses thereto. It's who can access it that's murky - and in fact, it might come to pass that you can't access your own stuff in the future. So yeah, go ahead and put all your music and books in the cloud. Just make sure you have other ways to get to them if Google's cloud should malfunction. Or if they think you didn't give them your real name.


• Newt is suspending his campaign on May 1st, which makes me wonder how delusional he must have been to think he was still in the running.


• I could have told you this in 1993.


• Congratulations to ednoled on his ם birthday! Allow me to mock you for being old (while simultaneously putting out of my own mind that I'm a little more than a year behind you....)

Comments

[arkham4269.livejournal.com]

Again, not to sound like a broken record, but barring some odd stuff, I have a hard time seeing Romney as a threat. I say this mostly because the GOP really has one message: Obama is a threat to America in some vague way.

However after years of the RWEC harping on him, the facts remain that while things suck all over, we are not in that state of suckitude we had back at the end of the Bush Years. Anyone who can read a chart cans see the economies doing better.

Plus I think people are, for the most part, realizing that the GOP is doing everything they can to keep the government from doing anything that will help the economy because that ruins their main political platform against Obama.

Frankly I think a good chunk of the country is tired of the obstruction and paralysis we see in our government. That the GOP is actively trying to destroy safety nets in these bad economic times and give the rich even more gravy is just not a winning strategy. I really think that 2012 may be the last rattling gasp of the sort of GOP tactics which have worked so well.

I personally think this will mean the GOP will have to invent a new way to push their message but right now when we're seeing them pulling out things like "I have a list of Commie's in the government right here!" sort of rhetoric, well it shows me they have run out of things in their toolbox and they don't know how to adapt. I mean to me it really looks like they are doubling-down on what didn't work in 2008.

Plus I think DailyKos hit it on the head recently when they said that the GOP seems to think that since they did so good in the States that the same thing can work on a Federal level. Well considering how Wisconsin is playing out, and Arizona, Texas, Tennessee and Florida being in the headlines over and over in a bad, third world country sort of way, just means that Romney is guilty by association.

[arkham4269.livejournal.com]

Personally I think this is going to be the FaceBook election. With the polarization of the electorate, we tend to get our news from sources similar to our own world views. So we have a big group of people who are mostly going to vote GOP or Dem regardless.

HOWEVER, with social media, we are seeing a lot more instant reaction to things. Certain comments or things which used to be buried in the news or tricks like taking votes late Friday night so "no one notices" just doesn't work anymore.

I think the magical "independents" are being bombarded with more info than ever and right now I think the facts (such as they are) show that the 1% is out to screw us and are practically bragging about it while the 99% people are gearing up for the counter-offensive. This will trigger more reprisals like seen in Oakland and New York which just really helps show the businessmen behind the curtain.

Even just little meme's like one I saw today with a pic of Romney & Obama showing who their top 5 donors are help push certain "truths" which I think will have shape who wins this election and in previous elections.

Considering how much GOP types seem to invest in suppressing the vote, social media is about spreading info which I think will counter that and help keep voter enthusiasm higher than it normally would be.