Like I told you yesterday:
And Todd won’t ever tell you this, but he and the rest of the bobbleheads and their corporations don’t want the system fixed. They like it as a mess. If we were to hold elections like other civilized nations, we’d have public funding of them and they would last for a finite period. That would mean that billions of fewer dollars spent on advertising on places like NBC, CBS, ABC, and all the other media outlets. That would mean that Todd and others like him, who really add no value to the system, would be looking for legitimate work. Let’s face it, if these guys are terrified of stating the truth out of the fear of being called biased, what purpose do they actually serve at all? None. Not one person in the nation would be less informed than they are right now if you fired the whole lot of political operatives and political analysts. In fact, the opposite is true- they’d probably be more informed.
Your “liberal” media (Heilman and Halperin as liberals makes me want to become a fucking anarchist) demonstrating my point perfectly:
Starting at about 1:50, when Heilman stated “Gingrich is going to get so much free media attention in the next few days, it is going to be wall to wall Gingrich, and I think it is fair to say, that the “liberal media,” as Gingrich would put it, is rooting for Gingrich right now. They want this ra.. they/we, want this race to go on, so he is gonna have, he is gonna get more attention and in some ways more favorable coverage, at least for the next couple days than he would ordinarily from people who would give him tougher scrutiny…”
It’s right fucking there in front of you. They are telling you their priority. It isn’t to inform or deal with facts- it is horse race and page hits.
The joke’s on you, fuckers.
(Mad thanks to the Crooks and Liars crew for responding to my tweet and splicing that vid for me. Many of you have no idea who John Amato and crew are, but they are some of the greatest voices the progressive blogosphere has.)
Yutsano
Speaking of money: Shit you cannot make up. Note the acronym of the name. It’s either so meta it’s blowing my brain or Rih is dumber than I thought.
(h/t ABL)
Omnes Omnibus
@Yutsano: Ha!
Jebediah
And yet I ain’t laffing.
These media assholes should be spat upon every time they go out in public.
Jebediah
@Yutsano:
I just went and looked. That can’t can’t can’t be real. It has to be a spoof. Even he can’t be that stupid.
Villago Delenda Est
In the words of the great William J. Le Petomane, “We have to protect our phoney baloney jobs here, gentlemen!”
That’s what this is all about. Ratings, page hits, careers.
If actually providing information to the public that will help them choose their candidate happens in the process, it’s an unintended byproduct.
Villago Delenda Est
@Jebediah:
This is why you NEVER want to put me into power.
First executive action: call in the 82nd Airborne on the Village, search and destroy mission. Evacuate Greg Sargent, Eugene Robinson, and a few others. No one else comes out alive.
pseudonymous in nc
Embed has a bork.
Coming from another civilized nation, I’d suggest that you’d also have federal and state elections with either a single voting method, or at very least a tightly-constrained set of criteria. None of this county board of elections shit, thank you. And how about a single primary day? Be fucking done with the pretense of retail politics, which is nothing more than an excuse for dozens of journalists to write anthropological bullshit on the Plain People of Peoria. This is the 21st century, and governing a country of 300+ million is, by fucking necessity, done from a lofty height. If you want top-level pols hanging out in your coffee shop, move to Lithuania.
I’m just flabbergasted not simply at the amount of money, but the fundamental transaction — from donors to local network affiliates and cable companies. You had comments over the past week about how the ad managers at SC’s network affiliates would be glad when the primary was over, but when they’re able to bump the usual advertisers and charge $100/second for primo spots, full card, you know they’re lying through their vastly inflated bank accounts.
Ana Marie Cox called gNoot’s impending victory “good news for those of us on the GOP primary journalist full-employment plan”. She’s paid by the Grauniad to offer equal parts pisstake and punditry, so that’s allowed.
DanielX
Some people – not me, you understand – would argue for shat upon as opposed to spat upon. I’m trying to come up with a line involving getting some actual use out of Frothy Mix, but goddamnit my imagination is running short. Or maybe my nightmare ticket of Gingrich/Lieberman has just exhausted my capacity for disgusting ideas for the evening.
Yutsano
I’ll be the first to say it: THIS is why we can’t have nice things.
Jebediah
@Villago Delenda Est:
Not to be contrarian, but that is exactly why I, for one, would be happy to put you into power.
DanielX
@Yutsano:
Oh sweet Mary Mother of God…it HURTS to snort Bad Elmer’s Porter through your nose. Any bets on how long that particular web page will remain up?
pseudonymous in nc
I will say this: the bulk of money isn’t being spent on network advertising, but on affiliates like WBFK in Bumfuck (pronounced “Boam-fork”), SC, and on cable, where the card is much lower.
We’re still talking $100/second for slots during the evening local news that are the equivalent of booking a plane flight half an hour before takeoff, and we’re still talking about a massive transfer of funds from donors to broadcasters, but I don’t think Mittens has booked in a slot at the Super Bowl, at $100,000/second.
Down and Out of Sài Gòn
What pseudonymous in nc said. Coming from Australia, I suggest you hold your elections on Saturday. Not only do people not have to juggle voting and work, you allow local clubs to have raffles, bake sales and sausage sizzles at the same time.
Elizabelle
@Yutsano:
Beyond parody.
PDF’d it. Thank you.
sharl
Currently second link over at Think Progress, “Gingrich Agrees To Meet With Rev. Sharpton After Being Confronted By Black Man In SC”.
Newwwwt, don’t do it! Sharpton is the wrong kind of Blah, he’ll never be in your corner. On the other hand, just ignore all those folks who think you should write off The Blahs just because of all that dog-whistlin’ you’ve been doing. You just need the right “ambassador” to reach out to Blah people.
Please consider Rev. Creflo Dollar. He supposedly got his bachelor’s at the very school where you “taught” “history”. You need to get that Las Vegas casino money man of yours to put this guy on the payroll. Just note that this champion of Prosperity Gospel doesn’t come cheap, oh no he doesn’t. From that Wikipedia link:
Now this is a blah man you can do business with!
…
Inspired by some old In Living Color bits about this particular type of creature – here and here.
Some parody preacher wisdom from one of those links:
hamletta
But we can use it.
Gingrich is a repulsive person. Putting him back in the nightly news is a good thing.
sharl
Hah, first time for a comment in moderation; always wondered how folks were informed…
And curse the cas1no wurd.
Villago Delenda Est
@Down and Out of Sài Gòn:
Makes too much sense from a service to the public point of view. We can’t have that sort of shit happening, it’s contrary to the neo-feudal aspirations of the Galtian Overlords of the United Provinces of America.
Sausage sizzles sound really good, too! Reminds me of the parking lot at old County Stadium in Milwaukee…man, was that a great experience. As a total out of towner, wearing a Mariner hat, I was made welcome and enjoyed several fine sausages with the local fans.
pseudonymous in nc
@Down and Out of Sài Gòn: Mandatory voting is one of those things that I’m ambivalent about. Saturday elections — but with liberal postal/early voting — is not. The US has inherited, in all frankness, a system that is built upon the premise that voting should be a challenge. Especially in places where voting evolved in a way that it was explicitly a challenge for Certain People.
Oh, yes: some kind of push-based registration would be nice. Send every household an annual Census-like mailer, saying “you are obliged to list everyone resident who’s eligible to vote, mail this back to us, and they’ll all be registered.” Hard for the feds to do themselves, but feasible if there’s a squeeze placed upon states.
I always wonder what an election observers’ report on the US would say, based upon the reports that come from emerging democracies. (I initially wrote “other emerging democracies”, which is unfair; the US emerged early and got stuck.)
fasteddie9318
Join Rick in the next phase of this campaign, which we’re calling Being, Understanding, and Truth: Thought, Family, Understanding and Christian Knowledge Integrated into National Greatness. We need you!
slag
@Yutsano: Has anyone paged Dan Savage?
Yutsano
@pseudonymous in nc:
Impossible, actually. Voter registration is a long-settled state issue. Which is part of the problem.
slag
@slag: Apparently so.
Yutsano
@fasteddie9318: Oh dude. The sad part is he’d go there.
@slag: Dan reads BJ. I’m hoping this will get his attention so he can act accordingly. There are methods to my madness. :)
Villago Delenda Est
@fasteddie9318:
I see what you did there.
Omnes Omnibus
@Villago Delenda Est: I an a Wisconsinite who had a Mariners’ single A team in my hometown for years. If you are polite, you can support the wrong team and be treated reasonably well in Wisconsin. We understand weird loyalties. The Packers had many, many bad years. The Brewers went from ’82 until 2008 without making the playoffs. People stayed fans.
David Koch
Actually, it’s more personal.
Yes, at the corporate level, they want it to go on for ratings and advertising sales.
But for people like Heilman and Tweety, they want it to go on so they can travel 1st class, run up fat expense tabs, and get laid by the locals.
As Mark Knoffler said, “money for nothing, and the chicks for free.”
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@Jebediah: Yes, yes speaking as a resident of South PA, he can be that stupid. Although I had to look twice to see what you guys were talking about, so maybe it’s not stupidity so much as thickheadedness or cluelessness.
pseudonymous in nc
Actually, now that I’m on a roll: if you watch the election episode of Blackadder The Third (“Dish and Dishonesty”), which recalls the days of the “rotten boroughs” of England — districts with a handful of voters that elected MPs while large industrial cities remained unrepresented — then you get a sense of how the American electoral system is basically that of the early nineteenth century, just with 21st century technology.
The system that elected, say, Andrew Jackson, was probably the most advanced form of popular electoral democracy in the world at the time. (Though I’ll be happy to hear other suggestions.) It hasn’t changed a fuck of a load since.
Yutsano
@slag: I should never doubt the speed of the Internet. :)
hamletta
@Down and Out of Sài Gòn: I hate this idea.
People have to work on holidays and Saturdays: cops, nurses, waitrons. It’s an elitist fantasy that making Election Day a national holiday would increase participation.
Early voting is the key to allowing everyone their crack at the franchise, and sadly, it’s prohibited by some state constitutions, like my dear Maryland.
pseudonymous in nc
@Yutsano:
Quite so. I was thinking along the lines of the drinking age, which is also a long-settled state issue, where the federal government had a pretty heavy cudgel to deal with any state that didn’t raise it to 21.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@fasteddie9318: LOL! FTMFW!
Even I got that one on the first try!
slag
@Yutsano: I know. Sometimes I feel silly for even asking. The answer is almost invariably Yes.
I, for one, welcome our cyberian overlords.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@pseudonymous in nc: @pseudonymous in nc: The cudgel the Feds used on the drinking age was transportation funding, which at least has a tenuous link, based on fatalities from drunk drivers.
Anne Laurie
@Villago Delenda Est: Don’t forget Harold Meyerson, Gail Collins, John Cooke & Jim Newell from Gawker, Steve Benen (if you include the Washington Monthly as part of the Village)…
Villago Delenda Est
@Anne Laurie:
Yeah, a full list of actual fucking journalists needs to be compiled before the final opord is issued to send in the troops.
There is no way in hell that Chuck Toad gets on that list, though.
fasteddie9318
I’m sorry, apparently I’ve been given outdated information by the campaign’s communications office. The next phase of Rick’s campaign will be called Incorruptable and Laudable Outcomes in Values and Ethics–Happily Obtainable Through Creative Organization and Christian Knowledge. Please forgive any confusion caused by my previous posting.
Villago Delenda Est
Fortunately, the list of those to be evacuated won’t be long, which is a damning statement about how bad the Village has become.
Kevin Drum is on the bubble at this time. Big Media Matt is sliding off it into oblivion.
Elizabelle
Who is Big Media Matt?
PS: just read the Chuck Todd thread. Classic.
And great news within that geg6’s Henry rallied, was eating, and staved off the Rainbow Bridge.
Any further news on Henry?
Elizabelle
Also: save Kevin Drum! Not a Villager.
Yutsano
@fasteddie9318: You are on a serious roll dude. Please feel free to continue!
Omnes Omnibus
@fasteddie9318: Wow.
barath
If Romney really wants to take down Gingrich, he should just run Newt’s climate change ad with Nancy Pelosi on loop…
http://grist.org/election-2012/old-dog-newt-tricks-gingrichs-views-on-climate-epa-and-green-conservatism/
befuggled
@Elizabelle: Matt Yglesias.
Tripod
If you think you can do better, GE will happily trade you NBC for a six pack and a couple of old Playboys.
sharl
@Tripod:
On the basis of direct profit-&-loss of the NBC subsidiary alone? That’s plausible. But I never assumed that GE bought NBC for that reason. I think GE took a lesson from what convicted felon and Christianity-hating multimillionaire Sun Myung Moon could do with the (reportedly) money-hemorrhaging DC conservarag Washington Times, and realized the huge (though indirect) benefits of having such an outlet – connections with and influence over powerful Washington politicians, the ability to partially guide national discourse, etc.
Thinking more about it, you might be right on all counts. Even that indirect influence might be waning now – Fox has the key “old media-influenced” demographic pretty much sewn up, as far as I can tell, and perhaps, like a parasite occupying a dying host, NBC has no further purpose for GE at this point. But it sure did for quite a stretch there.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Tripod: Comcast control NBC now, actually.
Joseph Nobles
And the next Rih Santorum initiative: organizing his followers into Social Conservative Action Teams.
Down and Out of Sài Gòn
hamletta: in Australia, it’s easy for people to get their pre-poll and postal votes in early if they’re busy on Saturday. However, Saturday is the main day for everyone else, because that night is when the count the ballots. So another benefit of Saturday voting is that people can get absolutely shit-faced at an election party if they choose, and not worry about going into work the next morning.
As a personal example, I cite Saturday, 24 November, 2007. That was a fun evening. I wasn’t the only person who celebrated John Winston Howard losing his own bloody seat with copious amounts of whatever.
pseudonymous in nc:
The nearest I can think of that comes to your description is The Economist’s Democracy Index. The US is still a “Full Democracy”, but is a few points of slipping into “Flawed Democracy”.
superdestroyer
@pseudonymous in nc:
Public financing of elections (with a generally low level of funding) along with a single primary would mean that the U.s. would function like a one party state where the establishment Democrats would pick the nationally known, establishment candidate that would win.
Demographics is doing to make the U.S. a one-party-state soon enough. Public financing would just make it happen faster.
Palli
@Villago Delenda Est: You missed money. Campaign ads make money for all the market affiliates. Money buys visibility and a loyalty that moves into the newsroom.
Palli
@pseudonymous in nc: But there could be one national ballot, two offices that the entire electorate votes for.
gene108
@Villago Delenda Est:
Holding elections on Saturdays is anti-Semitic.
Australia has a small Jewish population.
The U.S. has the world’s second largest Jewish population, with 475,000 few Jews than Israel, and orthodox Jews don’t drive between sunset on Fridays and sunrise on Sundays.
I think there’s other stuff they’re prohibited from doing, but I’m not too sure on the details.
In a nutshell, voting on Saturday would discriminate against Jews.
I’m sure, if it became law someone else would’ve pointed this out.
On the other hand holding elections for a week would solve everyone’s problem of getting to the polls and juggling work/life issues with voting.
First week in November is voting week.
May cost a few more bucks, but I think it’d be worth it.
Donut
@superdestroyer:
I’m not sure I understand why you think public financing will create a one-party state. Yeah, the GOP is floundering and in its death throes now, but that doesn’t mean a new or different kind of conservative party won’t emerge.
In fact, I think public financing could possibly help a re-vamped conservative party gain its footing. If Democrats could not outspend and squash their opposition with money, it would possibly have a chance to actually get a foothold.
Of course, that requires both ideology and ideas that can mesh with what’s going on in the larger culture, true, but just because the current GOP coalition as-is has begun to unravel, doesn’t mean conservatism as an ideology is dead. Far from it. Someone on the right will figure it out eventually and they will come back and be a factor. It may take awhile, but it will happen. Always does.
gene108
@gene108:
I really wanted to edit my third sentence, but couldn’t find the edit button. FYWP.
Anyway, the U.S. has 5.25 million Jews and Israel has 5.7 million Jews. There are 14 million Jews in the world.
Lojasmo
@Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason:
I would say “a tenuous link, at MOST.”
Boudica
@Villago Delenda Est:
I just had a vision of the scene of the last helicopter out of Vietnam with Chuck Todd at the front of the crowd with his hand outstretched as the chopper rises into the air…..
Boudica
And….block quote fail…..
TruthOfAngels
@“https://balloon-juice.com/2012/01/22/money-money-chips-coming-in/#comment-2999842”>hamletta: To be fair, it would increase but would still exclude some.
And early voting combined with Saturday voting is the best of all possible worlds, as long as it includes warm pie for TruthOfAngels.
TruthOfAngels
Great, no preview function, no edit function. Fuck WordPress, man. I hope its wife runs off with Newt Gingrich.
Down and Out of Sài Gòn
gene108:
Saturday is the Sabbath, but as the following submission from the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council states:
Take for example, Sir John Monash, of Jewish-Prussian descent, who in my humble opinion was the best general of WWI bar none. But that’s an aside.
Down and Out of Sài Gòn
Blockquote fail. Four paragraphs were intended to be blockquoted, not just one.
Catpause
Does anyone know the percentage of PAC money that converts to local TV spending?
rikyrah
I was actually watching this as he said it, and I was like, finally, honesty from these clowns.
superdestroyer
@Donut:
The problem is that conseravtives have jobs and are organized in small groups. Liberals have their natural allies like unions, public sector workers, blacks, and Hispanics who will vote for them even if the Democrats do not spend any money.
Public financing gives the natural groups on the left a huge advantage on top of their current demographic advantage.
Public financing is just meant to eliminate the right and to give elite progressives an advantage into electing their own.
pseudonymous in nc
@superdestroyer:
Your Fear of a Non-Lilywhite America is well-known, poops, and entirely your own delusion.
On the subject of stuff that structurally sucks about American elections: the “reporting by precinct” and early calls. The press can’t be made to shut its trap and make speculations based upon partial returns, but it would be nice if states were willing to compel county boards to keep their returns secret until they’re all in. The US has a long transition period between election day and the change of power: Americans can wait a day for results.
pseudonymous in nc
@superdestroyer:
Your Fear of a Non-Lilywhite America is well-known, poops, and entirely your own delusion.
On the subject of stuff that structurally sucks about American elections: the “reporting by precinct” and early calls. The press can’t be made to shut its trap and make speculations based upon partial returns, but it would be nice if states were willing to compel county boards to keep their returns secret until they’re all in. The US has a long transition period between election day and the change of power: Americans can wait a day for results.
Emperor of Ice Cream
Superdestroyer: “demographic advantage” — do you mean “more people”? Lol … Yes, in a democracy more people supporting you is an advantage, or at least should be unless it is legislated away like the right is always trying to do. And, errr, “small groups” –you mean like the vast network of right wing churches and business groups. You are very funny.
5thKolumnisto
@Yutsano: I clicked on that link, and the acronym that jumped out at me was for “Conservatives Unite Now Till Saturday”. Did you mean “Conservatives Unite Moneybomb”?
superdestroyer
@Emperor of Ice Cream:
Demographics means that when Reagan was elected president the population was approximately 80% white. Now the population is only 65% white. When all non-white demographic groups vote for the Democrats are over a 65% rate (with blacks being at the highest at 95%), the Democratic Party benefits from open borders, unlimited immigration, and Hispanics having twice the brithrate of whites.
The planners in the Democratic Party know that all of the demographic changes in the U.S. are to their advantage. That is why the Democratic Party does not bother to appeal to white males any more. The Democratic Party can maintain a majority without those white males.
Emperor of Ice Cream
@superdestroyer: I think you mean that the Dems don’t try to exclusively appeal to white males. That’s the province of the GOP – and why Dems have the demographic advantage. Again, democracy sucks if all you want to do is protect the advantaged.
bjacques
@5thKolumnisto:
If you combine the two that’s gotta be worth at least 20 points in Scrabble.
superdestroyer
@Emperor of Ice Cream:
Look at the Democratic Party is states with large numbers of blacks or Hispanics. The Democratic Party is those states does not even bother to appeal to middle class, private sector employed whites. There is no reason for the Democrats to appeal to those groups since the Democrats can win without them.
What holds virtually all groups together in the Democratic Party is government benefits and governed money: blacks, Hispanics, public sector employees, academics, lawyers all get their share and stick others with the tax bill.
pseudonymous in nc
Once again, pooperdestroyer’s white sheets are showing.