I mean in history, Patty, before they changed the water.

[Junkdrawer]

During the dark days of the first Bush term, when we all came to understand the conventional ways we conceived of government and politics were no longer operative, a dark thought first started to form. It continued to form as I explored the logical implications of a corrupt system of counting votes dominated by two (now one) private, secretive firms. The thought is this:

It is no longer necessary to convince people to vote one way or another. It is now only necessary to convince you that your neighbors were persuaded to vote one way or another.

That thought resurfaced yesterday as I watched the extravagantly financed Beckathon. Because it seemed to me that the event was far less about selling Tea Party ideas than providing “proof” that the Tea Party was a force to be reckoned with. And that kind of effort emphasizes to me just how phony the Tea Party really is.

BTW: My thread title is from Firesign Theatre.



Like all really good humor, it seems to be less dated with age.

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. Georgie Tyrebiter!!

Thanks for the trip down memory lane!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_MEpww2MHA

[Tesha]

5. That's George LEROY Tyrebiter and don't you forget it! (NT)

[Junkdrawer]

6. People's Commissioner Tyrebiter (and nobody's sweetheart) n/t

[Sal Minella]

2. " ... and whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt

the Universe is laughing behind your back . . ."

Shades of the 'seventies. Ye Gods.

[kentauros]

3. "And there's hamburger all OVER the highway, in Mystic, Connecticut.

Now, for the rumors behind the news."

Firesign Theater is always appropriate and seemingly so prescient :D

[eridani]

7. And there's a whole dead cat in every bar of Dead Cat Soap!

I think we're all bozos on this bus.

[unblock]

4. once upon a time, polling was somthing done very infrequently

then it became something done infrequently in public, but more frequently, eventually daily, by campaigns. the public used them mostly as a curiosity; the campaigns used them to shift their high-level strategies (no way we're winng texas, let's shift our resources elsewhere) and eventually their low-level tactics (this word increases blood pressure more than that word).

now it's used by the public to see who's trendy and who's not. you're a freakazoid for listening to kucinich because he's polling below freezing, he's never going to win, so why waste your time on policies you agree with and pay attention to the guy who's clearly ahead in the horserace.

frequent polling introduces the rather bizarre concept of "momentum" in elections. if, at some point in time, candidate a is mildly preferred to candidate b, what the hell difference does it make if a few days earlier they had the same preference, only more so? one would expect that a big factor, if not the biggest factor, in being able to extrapolate that eventually the preference might shift to candidate b is the polling itself, particularly when displayed as a chart over time, simply begging for the line to be continued in the same direction, even if there's no basis in reality to think that people would continue changing their minds in increasing favor to candidate b.

it's amazing and pathetic that we have 24-hour "news" channels that relentlessly surf the surface of news, covering the political horserace and opinions about issues and opinions about opinions about issues and so, so rarely discuss the issues themselves.

policy is pathetically absent from our political discourse.