The Pew Research Center has published the results of their July "Political News IQ" quiz. Hit the link to take the test.
If you get 'em all right, then you know more about the political news than 95% of all Americans. I got them all, despite working 7 days a week for the last 3 months.
There is one question on the quiz about "Twitter", known to our high-tech totally-wired president as a company called "Twitters".
Please post your results below. Those living outside the borders of Obamastan, go ahead and add two points to your score.
One related point....Look at the demographic breakdowns of right and wrong answers. 48% of us should not be allowed to drive, or even order our own Happy Meals, much less vote. Depressing.
If you get your news from the mainstream media, you might not be aware that Saint Albert, The Goracle of Music City, Tennessee, has finally been accused of sexually assaulting someone who is not in the manufacturing or transportation industry.
The story the alleged victim told the police goes something like this:
Saint Albert calls a massage service to send someone to his hotel room.
The masseuse arrives, starts doing her thing, but she fails to properly massage Saint Albert's ego or other assets.
Saint Albert forces the masseuse onto a bed. She calls him a "crazed sex poodle".
Who knows what happens next. But the masseuse claims that Al Gore left some of his carbon footprint on her black jeans, much like Bill Clinton left a trail on Monica Lewinsky's blue dress from The Gap.
She puts the black jeans into a ziplock bag, preserving the evidence for possible peer review by trained scientists.
The masseuse tells a friend about the incident. The friend argues against making the story public, since without Saint Albert, the world will surely perish from Global Warming Climate Change.
She takes the story to the police.
Later on, Saint Albert announces his divorce.
If you didn't quite follow all that, here's a visualization from a Taiwanese news agency. Keep an eye out for the poodle.
A fresh coat of Whitening to Jim Treacher for the video.
Warning: Adult language alert.
Another Warning: It's 100% accurate.
Final Warning: Finish your coffee and step away from the computer. This thing is funny.
Remember the concern about who is going to do reporting if the traditional print media goes under? Remember when people cared if CNN's coverage of an event was any good or not? People are writing letters to the New York Times about how crappy CNN's coverage of the Iranian protests has been. That was then, this is now.
If you haven't heard, there's a revolt going on in Iran. I've had ample opportunity today to listen to the radio. I didn't hear a peep about the revolt in Iran on KERA, our National Socialist Radio affiliate. None of the right wing AM stations - KSKY, KLIF, or WBAP were talking about it. KMNY, the lefty station (1360 on your AM dial) spent the day damning Rush Limbaugh. AS OF 8:09 P.M., THE FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM'S WEBSITE DOESN'T MENTION IRAN ON THE FRONT PAGE ! ! !
Well....like the old men said when Ebeneezer Scrooge died, I'll go to their funerals if refreshments are served.
This revolution is being broadcast all over the world, as it happens, but without the CNN/FOX/ABC/NBC content filter, or Voice Of God network anchorman.
It's amazing. Check this out from Little Green Footballs, especially at the .30 mark where the woman gets knocked down by police, hops up like she's got Allah on her side, and goes back for more:
I'd like to meet that lady.
When you get a chance, look at the Tehran Twitter Feed. Amazing, depressing, and exhilarating. There are thousands of voices out there, Tweeting away, many of them doing it in English for YOUR benefit. Be grateful.
Andrew Sullivan has been going at it for four days straight, posting a fraction of the tons of material sent to him. Talk about your "first draft of history".... Eat your heart out, Newsweek. Here's a sample of what Andrew's been posting. Warning: neither of these videos is for the squeamish.
Here's where things started getting out of hand....
When Iranian "students" took Americans hostages during the Jimmy Carter Era Of Darkness, the clerics who led the Iranian revolution claimed that the students were acting on their own. Years later, six of the former hostages now claim that one of their student captors was.... Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, now semi-legitimate president of Iran.
It's funny how those revolutions will turn on a guy. Trotsky, Che, Danton, and now Ahmadinejad. But, I digress.
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. It will be Tweeted, Texted, Blogged, Emailed,and YouTubed. Coming straight to that little screen in front of you.
Ben Affleck essentially plays Congressman Gary Condit, (corrected on 4/21/09) Maria Thayer is Chandra Levy, an evil military contractor called Point Corp stands in for Blackwater, Russell Crowe is the entrepid reporter, and Helen Mirren is his editor, whose job it is to sound so British that Russell Crowe sounds like an American.
The movie is great until the last 15 minutes. Then the screenwriters become afflicted with what Roger Ebert has called Keyser Soze Syndrome, in which everything logical about the film is sacrificed for a plot twist at the end. The clue that tips off the Russell Crowe character doesn't make a lick of sense. This info doesn't even deserve a spoiler alert. It makes no sense. But then, a lot of people like the stimulus package, and I didn't understand that either.
But enough about the plot. One of the subtexts of the movie is the competition between newspapers and the internet. Russell Crowe's character is paid to run around gathering information. Until he prints his stories, bloggers have nothing to write about, nothing to disagree with, and little or no basis for blaming the lamestream media. This guy is vital.
Have we ever needed dedicated, objective reporters more than now?
When's the last time you can remember a TV journalist breaking a major story?
I spent a lot of time during this movie thinking about our beloved Fort Worth Star-Telegram, which has fallen on hard times since being bought out by the McClatchy organization.
Without the Star-Telegram, I wouldn't have known about the Department of Homeland Security spending a jillion dollars and seals and logos. I wouldn't have known about Jackie Chan wanting to bring back the good old days of Chairman Mao.
I have friends who believe the Star-Telegram has gotten too cozy with City Hall, and has gone too easy on Chesapeake. In all honesty, we need to thank the Startlegram for what little we do know about City Hall and Chesapeake, don't we?
Craigslist and Ebay have taken away the classifieds, Fandango has taken away the need for movie ads, bloggers have decimated the editorial page, and that's what has happened after the televised teleprompter readers did their damage.
After years of encouragement from the media, after two years of Mommy Party (D) candidates talking about "the failed economic policies of the past eight years", and after at least a year and a half of false predictions.....
We've finally had our first long-awaited quarter of negative economic growth.
But we can't relax yet! It takes two quarters of negative growth to make a recession! So get out there and get busy! Talk some more about "the failed economic policies of the past eight years." Lay off some employees, and make that recession happen so we can....
Oh, wait a minute.
We're about to have a different president. A new script is called for.
Hide and watch. The media's coverage of the economy is about to change dramatically.
