I downloaded the transcripts of all of Obama and McCain’s speeches from their respective official websites from March 25th, 2008 to the present and then put them each into Wordle.
Wordle gives greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text.
I used 51 speeches by McCain and 61 by Obama.
McCain’s site only had transcripts from March 25th to the present and I figured that was plenty of data for my purposes.
Matt Damon condemns John McCain’s choice of hockey-mom Sarah Palin for Vice President. He compares the situation to a “really bad Disney movie” and says it’s crazy that this woman could become President.
Hit play or watch Damon Condemns Palin at YouTube.
It’s one of those situations that is funny because it’s true (albeit also frightening). The geniuses at CollegeHumor have taken the idea and run with it. Here is the fictional trailer to her, unbelievable, real life story:
[Sarah Palin Disney Trailer on YouTube]
I went to the Naomi Klien speech at the U of L last Monday and was entertained and enraged (both at the same time) as she talked about the situations and events unfolding in the world right now and the influence that free market ideology has on the world at large. She also emphasized that new policy applied after a crisis has often been waiting for the opportunity, for people too shocked by the event to stand up against bad laws.
Here she is on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher (September 19):
[Naomi Klien on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher – YouTube]
She wrote an article for the Guardian last week which contained many of the points she made in her speech.
Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, wondered why someone wasn’t doing something that would give American voters useful and unbiased information about which candidate has the best plans for the economy.
Then he realized that he was someone.
He commissioned a survey of over 500 economists, drawn from members of the American Economic Association, a nonpolitical group, that had previously agreed to be surveyed on economic questions.
The economists were asked to rank the most important economic issues and pick which candidate they thought would do the best job on those issues.
Here are the results:
| Rank | Issues | Obama | McCain | No Diff. |
| 1 | Education | 59% | 14% | 27% |
| 2 | Health care | 65% | 20% | 15% |
| 3 | International trade | 26% | 51% | 23% |
| 4 | Energy | 61% | 22% | 17% |
| 5 | Encouraging Technology/innovation | 43% | 23% | 34% |
| 6 | Wars and homeland security | 58% | 30% | 11% |
| 7 | Mortgage/housing crisis | 41% | 18% | 41% |
| 8 | Social Security | 40% | 24% | 35% |
| 9 | Environmental policy | 72% | 9% | 19% |
| 10 | Reducing the deficit | 37% | 29% | 33% |
| 11 | Immigration | 33% | 29% | 38% |
| 12 | Increasing taxes on wealthy | 79% | 14% | 7% |
| 13 | Reducing waste in government | 16% | 38% | 46% |
Adams is quick to point out that even though economists favour Obama in 11 of 13 of the most important issues (as decided by the survey) 48% of economists are Democrats and only 17% are Republicans.
It makes you wonder, are liberals more likely to go into economics, or are economists more likely to become liberals? Or is it just the simple fact that educated folks tend to be more progressive?
You can check out the full report (in Power Point format).
When John McCain met Sarah Palin for the first time, you have to wonder, did he think Hey, you remind me of someone.
Here’s a little SNL clip from the weekend of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler doing Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton.
In a couple of weeks Naomi Klein (author of The Shock Doctrine, and No Logo) is coming to the University of Lethbridge to discuss themes from The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. The book is the gripping story of how America’s “free market” policies have come to dominate the world—through the exploitation of disaster-shocked people and countries.
Around the world in Britain, the United States, Asia and the Middle East, there are people with power who are cashing in on chaos; exploiting bloodshed and catastrophe to brutally remake our world in their image. They are the shock doctors. Thrilling and revelatory, The Shock Doctrine cracks open the secret history of our era. Exposing these global profiteers, Naomi Klein discovered information and connections that shocked even her about how comprehensively the shock doctors’ beliefs now dominate our world—and how this domination has been achieved. Raking in billions out of the tsunami, plundering Russia, exploiting Iraq—this is the chilling tale of how a few are making a killing while more are getting killed.
The following is the Shock Doctrine short film, it neatly summarizes how the Shock Doctrine works.
June 13th, 2008
To: Mr. Rick Casson
House of Commons
Parliament Buildings
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6
CC: The Honourable Jim Prentice P.C, M.P.
5th floor, West Tower
C.D. Howe Building
235 Queen St.
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0H5
CC: The Honourable Josée Verner, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Canadian Heritage
25 Eddy Street
Gatineau, Quebec K1A 0M5
Subject: Please Stand Against the New Copyright Bill
Dear Sir,
I am a constituent who has been following recent developments in Canadian copyright law. I’m concerned that the Copyright bill presented by the government on June 12th goes too far in outlawing the lawful use of copyrighted material, and does not take into account the needs of consumers and Canada’s creative community who are exploiting the potential of digital technology. I’m disappointed that this bill adopts an American approach to digital copyright laws, instead of crafting a Canadian approach.
Canada’s copyright laws need to advance Canada’s interests. This means copyright laws that respect ordinary consumer practises, such as unlocking cell phones and copying the contents of purchased CDs and DVDs for use in iPods (or other digital music players). The current bill outlaws these practises. This means copyright that facilitates the work of Canadian creators, such as documentary filmmakers, who instead find that this bill outlaws the use DVDs as source materials for their films. This means we find made-in-Canada solutions to the challenges of file-sharing, such as consideration of the Peer-to-Peer proposal of the Songwriters Association of Canada. Instead, this bill paves the road to importing the consumer file-sharing lawsuit strategy that has failed so spectacularly in the United States. Canada deserves better. WE DESERVE BETTER, and you can make a difference.
Please ensure that this bill really is made for Canadians by allowing all Canadian stakeholders a say in its final contents. That means meaningful consultation in the coming months, and opening up Canada’s copyright policy to more than just the special interests that lobbied behind the scenes for this law. As my MP, I urge you to represent my interests in the copyright debate.
Sincerely,
Jeff Milner
Check out Online Rights Canada’s new action alert, “Tell MPs What’s Wrong with the Prentice Bill” and use the site to send a message to your own Member of Parliament.
Here’s what their website says about it:
“After months of hesitation, Industry Minister Jim Prentice has finally revealed his re-write of Canada’s rules of copyright. Tell your MP just what you think of it.”
10113 people have used the copyrightforcanadians.ca website to take action. Add your voice today!
“In case you haven’t been paying attention…” here is Slate’s pleasant recap of the Democratic Primary in a mere 8 and 1/2 minutes 7 minutes.
I find it hard enough paying close attention to my own country’s politics, but this recap is nice because it succinctly summarizes the highlights of the race so far.
I recently attended a forum for local candidates in the provincial election that is taking place tomorrow. I felt a little overwhelmed by my lack of knowledge of current events in the province and also by my confusion over what should make a candidate deserving of my vote.
I have decided not to be apathetic though; I’ve decided to vote for Tom Moffatt of the NDP. I haven’t jumped to this conclusion lightly. Among other reasons, I’m voting for him because the NDP is a party that DOES NOT TAKE corporate donations—EVER. It’s a party for the people, one that has proven it can be trusted.
The other thing I wanted to bring up, is voter apathy. It’s become a big problem here, as in many western countries. My friend Andy wrote an article on the subject, Voting: part of a healthy democratic diet, that has been published in this weeks issue of The Meliorist (the student run paper at the University of Lethbridge). Seriously go read the article, it’s short and it very nicely sums up why people don’t vote, and why it’s important to take part in the selection of our government.
He states that one of the biggest causes of voter apathy is the lack of proportional representation. According to Andy’s article, I can see why the current party (the Progressive Conservatives) have nothing to gain and everything to lose from proportional representation.
The differences based on the last elections results would be as follows:
- PC – would have 39 seats instead of 61
- Liberals – would have 24 seats instead of 17
- NDP – would have 8 seats instead of 4
- Wildrose Alliance – would have 7 seats instead of 1
- Green – would have 2 seats instead of 0
- Social Credit – would have 1 seat instead of 0
Albertans are ready for a new government and if we had a more democratic way of getting the people we want into power, more voters would vote with their hearts and we’d see an even bigger shift away from the PC party.
Here’s hoping more people will vote for the party they believe in, despite a lack of proportional government, in the hope of moving our leadership in the direction the people want.
There are a myriad of reasons to NOT vote for the Progressive Conservative party in the upcoming provincial election but this one in particular makes me chuckle:
Remember that on March 3rd, Alberta needs a new government.