Lou Dobbs interviews Ralph Nader and Bob Barr
This seems to be the week for minor party and independent candidates and Lou Dobb's Independent Convention is probably a big part of that. Yesterday he interviewed independent candidate Ralph Nader and Libertarian Party candidate Bob Barr. ...
First, Ralph Nader (I):
Second, Bob Barr (L):
Plus la musique française / More French Music
For my valentine's day post this year I posted a youTube video of Francis Cabrel, who I heard about from FrenchPodClass.com ( 72, 73 ). Recently I purchased L'Essentiel 1997-2007 so that I could listen to his music more frequently. It is a great collection of music. Now that I have one collection of music I thought I'd look into another group I heard from FrenchPodClass.com ( 71, 72 ) and liked - Niagara. ...
Niagara was a mid to late 80's band that created pop music of the day. Since I grew up listening to late 80's music, it is no suprise I like ( what for me amounts to ) new 80's music. The song I most enjoyed from the podcasts was Pendant Que Les Champ Brûlent. Muriel Moreno's sultry singing style in that song reminded me of some great alternative bands of the early 90's while at the same time making me think of Billy Holiday's almost lazy singing style.
Since I wanted to hear more of the band to see if I liked them, I took a look at the track list for their album Flammes and made a youTube playlist of as much of the album as I could. The music was fun and the videos were definately indicative of their time. One song and video that really caught my eye was Les Flammes de L'Enfer. Between the circus theme and the colors it is quite spectacle. Here it is, enjoy.
On a personal note, I appreciate how the Daniel Chenevez had his conducting in time with the music.
Ron Paul, Minor Party Candidates and the 2008 Election
Yesterday I posted a video from CNN that had Ron Paul and Ralph Nader talking about the 4 points agreement made by the candidates of the Green, Libertarian and Constitution parties as well as Ralph Nader. Well C-Span has a video of the press conference available for viewing online. Unfortunately, I could not figure out a way to embed it in my blog.
An interesting news story about this press conference is that Bob Barr didn't show up. Evidently there are two reasons why. One, he didn't want to dilute his personal message by being on the same stage as Cynthia McKinney. The other being that he thinks Ron Paul should choose to support just one candidate, not four. More specifically he wants Dr. Paul to endorse him. He has also requested Ron Paul to be his running mate even though he doesn't expect Dr. Paul to accept.
Of course, the purpose of this press conference was to change the system. Get minor party candidates with varying beliefs to agree on something ( 4 major points ), that the major parties are not talking about and don't agree with.
This announcement of agreement was made just in time for the Lou Dobbs Independent Convention that will be happening today. I'm not sure if all of the 4 candidates will be on the show but I know that Ralph Nader will be on and I'm fairly certain Ron Paul will be there as well.
Ron Paul and Ralph Nader on CNN
Earlier today on CNN, Ron Paul and Ralph Nader showed up together to answer questions from Wolf Blitzer. Why were they both on? It seems there is a minor party agreement on four issues affecting our country. These 4 points have been agreed upon by 4 minor party candidates with the hope that it will either force the issues to be taken up by major party candidates or get a minor party candidate elected President. ...
Details of the 4 points of agreement between the 4 candidates can be found on the voteNader.org website, but they include foreign policy, national debt, privacy and the federal reserve. While I'm not a Ron Paul revolutionary like many, I think what he is doing speaks volumes. He is not supporting the party he is a member of he is supporting his values. No wonder so many people stand behind him as a political messiah. Thank you Dr. Paul, you have my gratitude.
The audio from the 4 candidate press conference led by Dr. Paul is available online. I hope to link to the C-Span coverage in a forthcoming post.
Too Good To Not Post
As I was watching some of last weeks episodes of "The Daily Show" that I had missed. I could not help but laugh out loud at a couple of bits. Here is a great one on the differences of opinion around the same issue when people are talking about someone they don't want to support and someone they do.
...
However, nothing made me laugh harder than the bit at about 4:20 in this section that compared John McCain's acceptance speech to George W. Bush's 2000 acceptance speech.
I just love how this shows speaking to what people want to hear more than anything of substance. I would love to see how Democratic candidate acceptance speeches are similar, if they are.
Monkey See - Parkour Training Videos
I have mentioned parkour in the past because it is a great way to have fun while getting in shape. It is a good way to train through mental blocks. While there are many resources out on the net, not many of them come from a respectable source. When I was perusing americanparkour.com today I noticed a video series that some of the guys from the website put together to help people learn the basics. Combined with the tutorials on the site, these videos can be a great place to start your training. ...
These parkour videos are available at monkeysee.com, an interesting video how-to site that is currently in beta. To help the tutorial videos without requiring extra close-ups and slow motion shots, their video player has those functions built in. Just click on the tools icon in the lower right hand corner.
Ralph Nader at the RNC Rally
Ralph Nader hosted another Open The Debates rally during the week of the Republican National Convention. While I did get a chance to watch it live via the intertubes, the sound was awful. The whole time I was trying to fix their audio problem as an armchair engineer and it made most of the speeches, especially from the more boisterous talkers ( I'm talking to you with love Rosa Clemente ), tough to swallow. Luckily the live audio was much better and the Nader campaign has released a video with some of the highlights of the night ( plus 98° which I don't consider a highlight :) ). ...
Some of my favorite parts of this video, other than Ralph, are Matt Gonzalez for bringing the point of minor party candidates to the forefront and Jesse Ventura. I like Jesse, not just for being a professional wrestler turned politician but, for giving a concrete example of the fact that minor party candidates can matter.
Ralph Nader DNC Rally
With the upcoming Open the Debates rally in Minnesota, I thought I'd get a chance to watch Nader at the Open the debates rally during the DNC. ...
[blip.tv http://blip.tv/play/AcqudoXIdA]
The Press, Politics and Police
The Democratic and Republican National Conventions are the perfect place for protesters to voice their opinions to the people that can affect policy. They are also the perfect place to see a concentration of what is going on in politics and on the street. The first amendment grants the freedom to assemble and the freedom of the press but if anything, these conventions have proved that both major parties don't seem to care much about the Bill of Rights when it is inconvenient for them. ...
First up is an excerpt from Democracy Now!. Though biased, because its reporters were arrested, I feel that they did a good job of presenting the fact and minimizing the amount of story they added. However, some of that experience does come through fairly loud in their telling of it.
Second up is for those thinking this has everything to do with the Republicans and that the Democrats will be our salvation. If there is anything WTO protests in Seattle taught us is that the Democratic leaders hate protesters as much as the Republicans. I seem to remember a Clinton leading that charge. It's so inconvenient when people are so upset they uproot their lives to organize and be part of a protest. It also seems the Democrats don't like reporters nosing in on public streets outside their lobbyist dinners.
Anyone who loves freedom needs to be aware that our freedoms are corroding quickly and neither of the major parties are doing much about it. We need to force them to stand up and listen, we want our freedom. However, if the word freedom makes you say,"meh, it's not for me." Then by all means keep quiet.
UPDATE: Just looking around and I found out this. Sheriff Lott in Richland County, South Carolina is ready for the next convention.
Google's Browser - Chrome - goes live today
In Google's quest to take over the universe :lol: they have finally released their very own browser. They have named the browser Chrome. ...
I've only been test driving it for a short while but so far it seems pretty quick, even from an Opera user's point of view. Some of this might be because of features such as compiling page javascript or each tab having its own process. Either way, I like quick.
Another nice feature, which really comes from the reason they created Chrome, is application URLs. Since many things people use the internet for are actually applications that stay open all day, they've decided to allow you to create links on your desktop, start menu and quick nav bar that will open up a chrome-less ( pardon the pun ) version of the browser.
As an Opera user, the first thing I did was run it through the acid 3 test. Unfortunately it failed fairly miserably. I find it somewhat suprising, considering it was built off of webkit. Also, there are no mouse gestures and many of my keyboard shortcuts aren't applicable. I've grown too used to those to give them up. Oh well, they are google and as with all their apps it is in beta :)
UPDATE 9/4/08: I tried the acid 3 test again and chrome recieved a 79/100. Perhaps the acidtests.org website was experiencing difficulties on Tuesday.