Google Sidewiki entry by Dean

Nice, concise list of tools & techniques to slim down that signal-to-noise ratio.

in reference to: Screening The News (view on Google Sidewiki)

Pushing the Limits

The government, restrained by the 1st Amendment, may not restrain citizen speech, with certain exceptions. You can't slander anyone, you can't lie under oath, you can't commit fraud against others, and you can't threaten the President.

This may be legal - it is certainly reprehensible.

Polls on Facebook The obama Poll.png by deanbarnett on Aviary

We Need a New Noun - Twitterbation?

Watching Colorado state Senator Dave "If You're a Slut Your Baby Should Die of AIDS" Schultheis' Twitter stream is a revolting amusement; revolting because of his insanely limited intelligence but amusing because of the apparently  sincere followers he allows. (For the record, I have been officially blocked from this elected official's Twitter stream, a prior restraint activity that begs an ACLU intervention.)

Typically, Schultheis' stream consists of retweets, so much so that original contributions by the Senator are so rare as to provoke questions of his ability to compose a sentence. But on occasion a couple of his acolytes produce  bewildering repetitious tweets, like these:
Twitter - Search - Sen_Schultheis.png by deanbarnett on Aviary

So I wonder - should we coin a noun to describe the endless, self-satisfying  repetition of tweets between followers in a Twitter stream? I'm thinking "Twitterbation" might be appropriate (and I DO NOT want to expand this to describe Twitterbation between members of the same gender, as seen above).

Suggestions?

This Could be Entertaining

Linda McMahon, of World Wrestling Entertainment fame, is seeking the Senate seat in Conneticutt currently held by Chris Dodd. The comedy potential is enormous.

Batshit Crazy in 140 Characters

My favorite local wackaloon, Colorado state Senator Dave Schultheis, is now concerned over a dubious Fox News report that Massachusetts is considering legislation to address a potential H1N1 epidemic by such means as mandatory immunizations and quarantines. Some of his fellow travelers are concerned about "marshall law" while the Senator has asked the cash-strapped Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment to "comment".

Really, Senator? An official expenditure of Colorado state funds to address a report on Fox News? Sure looks like an irresponsible fiscal act on your part.

Twitter - Search - Sen_Schultheis.png by deanbarnett on Aviary

Nate Silver on the Tea Baggers Rally

FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right: Size Matters; So Do Lies

Nate dispassionately examines the attendance at and meaning of the "9/12" rally in DC, and how the truth of genuine grievances can be overshadowed by lies and poor judgment. Money quote:

The way this false estimate came into being is relatively simple: Matt Kibbe, the president of FreedomWorks, lied, claiming that ABC News had reported numbers of between 1.0 and 1.5 million when they never did anything of the sort. A few tweets later, the numbers had been exaggerated still further to 2 million. Kibbe wasn't "in error", as Malkin gently puts it. He lied. He did the equivalent of telling people that his penis is 53 inches long.

Tea Baggers vs. Pot Heads

The Cluster Fox crowd, particularly Dick "I Used to Have Power" Armey's FreedomWorks corporation, really really want to show their "9/12" crowd in DC deserves to be taken seriously, even if they are forced by actual turnout numbers to lie through their dentures about attendance.

Was it 1.5 million, as FW's Matt Kibbe claimed ABC reported? Well, no. ABC, referring to DC Fire Department estimates, pegged the crowd at 60 to 70,000.

Tell ya what - when the Tea Baggers clearly outnumber the beer-swilling pot smokers at Bonnaroo, I'll consider taking this Cluster Fox movement seriously.

ABC contradicts Kibbe: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/protest-crowd-size-estimate-falsely-attributed-abc-news/story?id=8558055

Bonnaroo Attndance: http://www.bonnaroo.com/rolling-stone-july-9-23-2009.aspx?preview=true