zoogomza

Bloggers and the Democratic Primary

2007-08-27T10:36:00.000-07:00

It seems that bloggers feel that Hillary has a chance, that she can
win the Democratic primary. However, most people think that her
opinions are too republican, flip-flop back and forth, or just aren’t
strong enough. Bloggers think it’s ridiculous that she doesn’t want
to participate in all debates. The idea that Hillary will kowtow to
special interest groups and corporations came out a couple of times,
and most people thought her comment about a terrorist attack helping
the Republican campaign was very distasteful. One blog called her
“the darling of the right.” Many people write favorably about John
Edwards, in the context of Hillary Clinton. They think he is the most
progressive and liberal cadidate, however, a few people mentioned
that his image, especially his southern accent turns them off. For
some, it reminded them of the Republicans.

"I hate Hillary because her position shifts towards expediency, and
she has very little regard towards personal rights. She supports
censorship (of games, media and Internet traffic in general) when it
helps her get out the concerned-parent vote -- but the actual bills
she proposes are so watered-down as to try to be inoffensive to
anyone except through the outward positions they take. And yes, this
general wishy-washiness has been visible in her position vis-a-vis
Iraq -- but that's a symptom of the problem, rather than its core."
Quote taken from Slashdot.com - - “I guess I didn't realize she was
that slippery... Hmmm, that is a bit worrisome.” - Female, 35 Seattle

“the polls has the ordering (from most to least liberal) as bill
clinton, hillary clinton, al gore, barack obama, john edwards. i'm
not trying to be snide here--i genuinely would rank the exact
opposite: edwards as the most liberal, then obama, gore, hillary, and
finally bill as the most conservative.the republican ordering, by
contrast, strikes me as about right: their order (from most to least
conservative) is george w. bush, newt gingrich, mitt romney, john
mccain, rudy giuliani.why is the democratic field perceived in a
mirror-image to how i view them? i think a great deal of it is that
john edwards is a southern democrat, and thus is kind of assumed to
represent the more moderate wing of the party. i hear his accent, and
even i have difficulty imagining him as a lefty. but of all the
candidates, edwards is the one most likely to be found breathing some
progressive fire. “ Male, 21, Bethesda

The suggestion by Hillary Clinton that a terrorist attack against us
helps the Republican Party is insane. Combined with the post I gave
yesterday referencing Hillary's attack on Obama's sensible stance on
easing the embargo on Cuba, I think we have a clear sign that
Hillary's political instincts suck. She just doesn't get it. Dems
like Hillary really need to internalize how much people hate the
Republicans. This isn't 1994 and the only thing saving the
Republicans now are Dems like Hillary. Male, Austin – Accountant

“After talking briefly to someone who plans on voting for Hillary
Clinton (should she win the democratic nomination), I decided to
visit her official home page to see what she has to say. I will say
straight off that I have no plans to vote for her but I felt it was
important to hear her views and find out what she stands for. I was
immediately drawn to a headline on her home page entitled “Protecting
the American Dream” with the following caption: Learn about Hillary’s
plan to preserve the dream of homeownership by cutting lending abuse,
reducing foreclosures, and expanding affordable housing. These
sounded like reasonable goals, so I clicked on the link. The first
paragraph contained this: Senator Clinton’s plan will curb mortgage
abuses, assist families facing foreclosure, and expand affordable
housing to protect the American dream of home ownership. Assist
families facing foreclosure. This almost seems too obvious to blog
about, but here goes… If you bought a house that was over your head,
is it really the government’s responsibility to bail you out? Well
according to Hillary, it is. Hillary will establish a $1 billion
fund to support state programs that help at-risk borrowers avoid
foreclosure. Now we’re getting to something that really disturbs me.
Hillary plans on using my tax dollars to bail the people out who made
poor purchasing decisions. So if I go out and buy five sports cars on
credit and then can’t keep up with the payments, will Hillary help me
out too? Is that the job of government? I won’t go on. She won’t
get my vote.” Male

“Hillary Clinton: New Darling of the Right? First Rupert Murdoch, now
this. We're seeing another Joe Lieberman in the making and, lucky us,
we live in a generation when we get to witness this terrible beauty.”
– Male, 48, Massachusetts

“According to a poll taken by CBS News ,Hillary Clinton has a better
chance of becoming President , and most people feel that Senator
Clinton is most qualified to be president. Obama on the other hand
was seen as someone most likely to bring change. One interesting
reason that was given by 18% of those who don't like Obama was that
he is black , while 12% that don't like Clinton said that it was
because she was a woman. I just can't believe that there are still
people out there living in the dark ages.” Male, Los Angeles

“Okay, I can actually help Hillary Clinton and John Edwards out here.
They want to avoid 'trivializing debates' then the answer's really
clear: Stop participating. Just let America see that you allegedly
want to be president but aren't willing to debate your fellow
Democrats. That should really help you sky rocket on the polls. Or
maybe just crash and burn.” Female

“I read today that John McCain said Hillary Clinton “flip-flops on
Iraq”. Okay, it appears he didn’t actually use that term, as far as I
can tell. But he did use the argument. Doesn’t he know that
accusations of doing a Flip-Flop are so 2000 ??” Male, blogs about
being a dad

“i'm pretty cynical about politicians, but the more i see of obama,
the more i think he would make an amazing president. he has a
combination of intelligence, life experience and education that is
infused with a moral center that seems lacking in so many candidates.
oh, he has an ego and the amount of pride and ambition you expect to
see in a guy with presidential aspirations, but he has a wife who
makes it clear she will kick his skinny ass across the room if he
steps out of line, or forgets the public service part of being the
president. i really like the combo. this guy is as close to jed
bartlett as we are going to get in real life.it surprises and saddens
me a bit to realize that the more i see and hear of hillary clinton
the more i become convinced that i can't trust her. hey, i voted for
bill twice just because he was married to her. that's how much she
impressed me then, so i am more than a little saddened by my current
gut level sensation that she can't be trusted to put the people of
this country, the little people, before her own personal ambitions.
this scares me because as much as i like obama and edwards, i'm
afraid hillary is going to be the democratic candidate. i'd like to
feel better about her. i really would. actually i'd like not to have
a prejudice against edwards because of his southern accent. i'm
ashamed that i have that prejudice, but i need to be honest that i
cringe a bit every time i hear his voice. the accent aside, he says
the right things. i like his words. all the words are right, but
there is something about the way he presents himself that doesn't
work. at the afl-cio debate in chicago he came off as pandering,
desperately trying to ingratiate himself with the working class
people of this country. throughout the entire debate he seemed to be
pushing himself forward in a way that, frankly, made me feel
embarrassed for him. on the positive side, his two americas theme is
right on target. his comments about corporate interests, the effects
of the k street lobby crowd, and the revolving door between congress
and k street is right on target. he also has an amazing wife who will
be a tremendous asset to him.so really, of the top tier candidates,
my first choice is obama, second is edwards and hillary is coming in
last.” Male, California

“The Clinton's come out of the DLC, and like many DLCers view
business as a partner and not a competitor or adversary. Admittedly,
in some cases this is true, business can be a valuable ally. In
others however, business is an adversary, and many times the
interests of business are not analogous with the interests of the
American people. There is no indication that Hillary Clinton is not
pandering to corporate interests, and there is no evidence to suggest
that Hillary Clinton is nothing more than another inside the beltway,
corporate insider whose campaign is stacked with similar people.”
Male, 20, Virgina

“In a new low of political promoting, Senator Hillary Clinton says
that a new terror attack would help Republicans. The New York senator
is reported by the New York Post online edition as saying, - ‘It's a
horrible prospect to ask yourself, 'What if? What if?’ But if certain
things happen between now and the election, particularly with respect
to terrorism, that will automatically give the Republicans an
advantage again, no matter how badly they have mishandled it, no
matter how much more dangerous they have made the world,’ - This
brings up two points. Firstly, how low has political campaigning sunk
that any candidate for the Presidency would even consider saying
something like this as part of a campaign. Whether a terror attack
would or would not help a single political party should be
irrelevant- all Americans should be working together to prevent a
terror attack and to defeat our enemies. Unfortunately, that message
apparently hasn't reached most of the Democratic Party. Secondly,
how can any media outlet, especially one from a city that has
first-hand experience of being attacked by Islamic terror, treat this
statement as being a normal, straightforward campaign sound bite? The
Post should be ashamed of itself for not highlighting this statement
as the partisan and unpatriotic statement that it is. But the Post
can only bring itself to call the statement 'surprising'. This is
yet another indication that where Democrats and especially Hillary
are concerned, the national media has only one standard for their
comments- help them win at any cost.” Male, San Francisco

Black Google Screen Saves Energy? I don't understand how...

2007-08-07T12:58:00.000-07:00

Outsourcing pregnancy to India

2007-08-07T12:55:00.000-07:00

BLOG QUOTE OF THE DAY: Everything I Need in a Pill

2007-07-26T14:09:00.000-07:00

Male, Blogger Blog:

"i don't know about you, but i'd like to see a combination product that included viagra and listerine (a pfizer otc product) -- good wood and clean breath in one spray! i call it viagrine(tm)!"

Barbie World surpases Second Life numbers

2007-07-24T20:23:00.000-07:00

Phillipino Prisners Practicing Thriller!!!

2007-07-24T10:53:00.000-07:00

Adopt A Piece of the Sky for Clean Air

2007-07-24T10:50:00.000-07:00

The View From Here

2007-05-17T09:21:00.000-07:00

The View From Here - Musings and Memories from a Country Woman

Dial A Human

2007-05-06T16:14:00.000-07:00

New Evolution

2007-05-06T16:10:00.000-07:00

Five Minute Friend

2007-05-05T16:38:00.000-07:00

Fake Caller

2007-05-05T16:35:00.000-07:00

Crayola Art Studio

2007-05-05T16:33:00.000-07:00

Metaefficient

2007-05-05T16:19:00.000-07:00

ball tossers

2007-05-05T16:09:00.000-07:00

GODTUBE

2007-05-04T13:49:00.000-07:00

It was bound to happen.

wee people

2007-05-03T14:26:00.000-07:00

who are these people?

The White Chappelle

2007-03-25T12:34:00.000-07:00

This MySpacer, claiming to be 99, calls himself 'the white chappelle'

UplayMe.com

2006-09-14T07:20:00.000-07:00

Every new beta web program is obviously about sharing, and sharing everything you can. Mostly pictures and videos, but the creators think, the more options the more members. Which is not neccessarily true. The more options, the more intimidating. Cause not everyone blogs, makes videos and takes pictures. And, we already have sites that let us share videos, blogs, and at least one track - our trusty existing online communities. And these communities have the added benefit of housing all of our friends. So why would we care to join another online group giving us the same options. We want to specialize. We want an online space where, if we are going to branch away from our friend networks and share with strangers, we can share with those we know care.

Surprisingly, few of the numerous sharing beta's poping up concentrate on music sharing. Well, not surprisingly, everyone is scared of the big bad music industry. A few counter culture content sharing sites, Bolt.com and Buzznet.com have chosen to give their members the option of music sharing, but the music tabs are hidden and used only by die-hard fans (which these sites have few) and the music is all record label sponsored big name bands. HypeMachine gives us the music of our peers, but not the access to them or the community aspect.

Along comes - uplayme.com. You log on, and your Itunes list is shared. (sounds suspiciously like our old dear friend Napster) but the added benefit is that the program links you to other people listening to the same music - shows you their myspace pages, and lets you chat. So it gets to that focused sharing idea, hitting a cord with kids who think they're experts.

How much people want to talk to strangers on online communities anymore remains to be seen. But music is a good sharing topic between strangers. There are also some privacy issues- Do I want everyone else listening to Justin Timberlake to see my MySpace profile? Maybe not. And then there is an interesting little unexplained tidbit on the site. Says that when you talk - you can share music. How exactly does this happen? Are they letting us in on a new illegal method? Just talk to people, email mp3's and it's not file sharing - it's sharing among friends? If your 'friends' then everything is ok? Online communities have totally shattered our idea of what a 'friend' is anyway. So if you connect us through our music, get us to have conversations, and then share, it's more about buzz marketing than just stealing? It's an interesting idea. As long as there's a marketing benefit - then stealing is sharing. and we've decided that sharing online is good because it leads to groups - who can, of course, be target markets.

http://brandoniam.blogspot.com/

2006-06-14T13:19:00.000-07:00

Christian Blogs. They get so heated.
An excerpt from the life of Brandon Iam below.
His blog is an amazing example of Christianity immersed in daily life.
Brandon is also taking time off from college to concentrate on his marriage. Not something you hear often these days. The below quote from his blog is about an anonymous commenter who challenged his claim that his life goals are to 1. raise kids with their own minds. 2. raise kids who love the lord. The anonymous poster thinks this is not possible. Brandon disagrees.

"So... I get this anonymous comment the other day to my post of "life goals." Here it is, word-for-word

Brandon,

Topics 8 & 9 totally contradict each other. You cannot possible have both.

A fellow Christian

-----

...

To refresh your memory, "goals" eight and nine read as such:

8. Raise kids with their own minds
9. Raise kids who love the Lord

Hah!

Anonymous:

I apologize in advance, but I cannot take your word for your being a Christian.

Firstly, if you WERE a Christian, YOU would purport to having your own mind, even THOUGH you loved your savior Jesus. I certainly have MY own mind, and I think you realize that. Do you enjoy reading the blog of someone who is brainwashed, or do you actually see original ideas on here from time to time? Thus, I was insulted by your comment. But no matter.

Do you love your savior, anonymous? Or were you just claiming to be a Christian because you thought I would respect you more, give you more "clout" or something, upon your claim? It's not hard to be a Christian. But BELIEF is the cornerstone of that decision. Rather, it is the whole foundation. I am copying a portion of this text here."

I left the scripture out, but you can read it on the blog. After this post, is a post of his grocery list.

http://cinnamonthoughts.blogspot.com/

2006-06-14T11:19:00.000-07:00

Feeling Voyeristic? This woman is the happiest blogger I have ever come across. Ever. Envy her life and her love.

http://stevelknievel.blogspot.com/

2006-05-25T12:56:00.000-07:00

Stevelknievel.blogspot.com is amazing:) he aggregates news sources from various blog media sources - gawker, la weekly, boing boing - the works and reports on what he considers to be "a directory of news stories about crazy stunts people perform for fame and fortune." what is amazing about stevelknievel - is that I searched for "wes anderson amex commercial" on blogger and his site came up. Later in the day, he posted that I had been the 1,234 visitor to his site in 2.5 months - which is really a great audience stevelknievel! He knew I had been the 1,234 visitor because he knew that the 1,234 visitor had searched for "wes anderson amex commercial" what what. I left a comment to his post. I'm posting this in hopes that he'll leave a comment for me. This is so meta it's killing me! Leave a comment Stevelknievel, leave a comment!!!

www.wefeelfine.org

2006-05-19T11:57:00.000-07:00

We feel fine constantly gathers sentences from blogs with word "feel" in them. it groups them by happy, sad, lonely, etc. It sorts them by gender and location. It sorts pictures by their captions and users can pick their favorite pictures to put in a gallery. It's a beautiful aggregator of the emotions expressed on blogs. Beautiful because it is so heartwrenchingly emotional, but also because the design and user interaction is so beautiful it's calming and mind blowing at the same time.

http://studpug.blogspot.com/

2006-05-15T09:29:00.000-07:00

This blog is created by a woman in asheville, north carolina. The entire blog is the told from the viewpoint of her pug! She has posted regularly for the past five months, in great detail about the pugs life - in his voice. She is very dedicated. "He" being the pu refers to her as "The Woman." Most recent post - he has joined a blue sock gang. Hilarious.

www.exactitudes.com

2006-05-11T12:33:00.000-07:00

Exactitudes is a brilliant photo project featuring squares of three by four images of different people with similar style. Gabberbitches is classic. Gives whole new meaning to the idea of "type"

www.zefrank.com

2006-04-27T10:08:00.004-07:00

The ultimate place to find mind- bending games. Create spinning maps to music and watch creation in real time. Check out the "participate" section.

http://www.flipflopflyin.com/whatif/

2006-04-05T13:57:00.000-07:00

This man has mapped out his life - figuring in all the "what ifs" - which invariably end in death. The course of his true life follows a maze like pattern across the screen. Amazing.

www.answerology.com

2006-03-01T16:31:00.000-08:00

Anonymous from friends?
I was unsure about how to proceed with a social engagement while sick, and I asked answerology.com. With in two hours, six people had replied with solutions to my dilemma. Real people had emailed back to my inquiry on the site! Real people, I don’t know where, probably at their desks somewhere…looking for something to do. Brilliant.
While my question was about dating, most other peoples aren’t. The woman featured this morning was asking what the average cost of dry cleaning a comforter should be. This site is amazing. Extremely responsive anonymous advice. Who needs friends anyway?

The Futurist Valentine

2006-02-26T13:55:00.000-08:00

The card said, "Even when you push my buttons, you always flip my switch"

SecondLife - The Ultimate Valentine

2006-02-04T22:41:00.000-08:00

An email received by all Second Life members stated, "Sure, flowers and chocolate are great tokens of affection at Valentine's Day, but nothing says "I Love You" like a premium Second Life account." - Wow. Nothing like another virtual world to say I love you the way you are.