I watched the first Democratic debate way back whenever that was, but haven't watched any of them since.
if the media wasn't reporting on it, it didn't really matter
Sadly, this is true. Just tell her you're keeping abreast of coverage of the debates, but not the debates themselves.
I've watched a couple (I think 3?) of the debates, but only while drinking/reading blogs/doing other stuff. Watching the Republicans is amusing.
What is the sound of one Democrat yapping?
Does she get political news from blogs?
It hurts me to side with you over against your mother, but I do. I'm not sure what the purpose of watching the debates is if it won't change your mind.
One of these days it'll actually be worth my time to vote on a presidential candidate. Someone let me know when we finally manage to kill the electoral college.
8 - Oops! I misread your comment. Of course you don't. All is right with the world.
Bulletin: Traffic on a street near my house was being diverted this morning because of A SUSPECT BARRICADED IN A GUN SHOP. God bless Texas.
I don't listen to much of what they say because their speeches are allowed to be theater-- rather than having an informed press point out that candidate X supported some rider to a bill inconsistent with the claim they just made, their speeches are assessed sui generis, or rather, assessed for consistency with the candidates clothing and persona. The bastards have real power now, and the job of a functioning press would be to assess how they use that power, not to optimize their surface. Not listening to what they say is lazy-- better to listen, as Becks' mom does.
Not listening to what they say is lazy
I'm okay with being lazy.
Some fun details:
Police were called to the store at 4:30 Tuesday morning when a silent alarm was triggered.
They arrived to find the back door had been forced open, and guns were strewn everywhere.
Police backed off when someone turned off electricity inside the building.
The alarm company's motion detectors picked up movement inside the shop. That's when the SWAT team was put into position.
So far, no contact has been established with anyone inside the building. Officers aren't sure anyone is inside at all...But with an almost unlimited supply of firepower available at McBride's, APD is taking no chances.
Don't want to threadjack this into a gun control discussion. (I say well-regulated militia, you say potahto.) Please return to our regularly scheduled discussion of the idiotic format of American political "debates."
The only reason I can think of for watching a debate at this point is to personally see windbags like Tim Russert, Chris Matthews and Brian Williams in action so that our hatred will become truly visceral and we will never forget and never forgive. We may not be able to keep them from effing up the present - but we can own their legacy. I want children cringing at the mention of Tim Russert's name 100 years from now. Let not those fatuous fatheads go gentle to the grave, let not the new generations sing their praises. Our children and grandchildren this we owe.
There's a certain good-citizenship value to keeping up with what the candidates are talking about. I'm not convinced that watching debates is a good way to do this, though.
Don't want to threadjack this into a gun control discussion.
You'll have to pry them from my cold dead fingers motherfuckers!
I kid.
Robbing gun stores is like robbing banks. A sure sign you're dealing with someone poor at calculating a risk to reward ratio.
17: What sort of robbery works best for you?
I donno Becks, your closing sentence sounds like a little bit of a cop-out to me. One could make a similar argument about casting your vote on election day.
The other thing to keep in mind is that your powers of observation are more precise and refined than those of the mass media. Yes, the paper will probably be able to convey to you that Dennis Kucinich is a weenie, but exactly what sort of weenie? This is a question that every voter must answer for his or herself.
Debates don't really tell you much besides who has the better coaches. Sure, if one issue could be picked and pursued at length to really tease out the relative strengths of each position then that would be useful. But that's not happening any time soon.
Of course for that to work there has to be some agreement on what the issue even is. If, for instance, one candidate is trying to navigate the immigration minefield, having the other one bark "Amnesty!" at every turn doesn't help.
I like #15's rationale. That works.
Apart from that, I find no reason to watch the debates in the expectation that I'll learn anything about what a candidate would actually do if given the power to do stuff.
I can't bear to watch the debates. I can't bear to watch coverage of the debates. This election started way the hell too early and will drag on forever. I refuse to participate in the eternal election cycle.
16 is totally right, except that watching the debates is actualy a terrible and useless way to find out anything meaningful at all about the candidates. Which is a real damn shame, but there you have it.
Another good reason to watch: listening to Republican audiences' confused cheering is hilarious, particularly when the nth-tier candidates are speaking. "Woooo HE SAID REAGAN! wooooo!... wait... he's using Reagan's name to attack the Iraq War?! No! No no no this has all gone horribly wrong! BOO! BOOOOOOOOO!!!"
21: Debates also focus on quantity of questions and responses (I daren't call them "answers") rather than quality. Two minutes, at the outside, to respond on an issue? No thanks. I'd rather watch one extended interview with a candidate than a potpourri of soundbites.
What sort of robbery works best for you?
Seriously, guns are bulky and mostly not worth very much. And IIRC the average take in a bank robbery is only a few thousand. Screw that. Sell weed or something.
18: white collar works best for everyone. Why bother risking getting stealing a few thousand from a clerk, when you can risk a stern talking to stealing millions from naive pensioners, or other gullible investors, etc.?
if the media wasn't reporting on it, it didn't really matter
Surely you jest. The most important things that go on are precisely those that go unreported.
First, isn't the next national election in Nov 2008? The presidential candidacy has taken over national media - which to me indicates that Americans have given up trying to understand/contend with what the current regime is up to.
Bush could very well be the dude boarded up inside McBride's as we speak, and no one would know it because at this point, any and all action that he takes is moot. People have stopped holding his ass to the fire, and are in fact more worried about choosing better candidates for the next election than they are about being involved in current domestic and foreign policy. Why? because they realize that under Bush, resistence is futile. Sorry state of affairs this is.
18: white collar works best for everyone.
While soup biscuit recommends the crime equivalent of "let them eat cake", I, as a man of The People, offer solutions accessible to the common man.
Stormcrow in 15 highlights the reason I find debates so hard to watch. I end up feeling so betrayed and upset with the moderators that I've pretty much decided I'd rather skim transcripts or read analysis on the blogs.
I'm sure I'll wind up watching a couple of actual debates when the time gets closer.
29: If you really cared about the common man, you'd agitate for programs to let any petty armed robber willing to work progress to finance/energy sector/politics etc.
I was just talking about the risk/reward benefits, not accessability.
I'm sure I'll wind up watching a couple of actual debates when the time gets closer.
I'll be surprised if there is a single actual debate in this cycle.
I also note that white collar crime is a soulless enterprise, while growing weed moulds the kind of individuals that can form the bedrock of a great nation. Take it away Thomas Jefferson.
Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God, if ever He had a chosen people, whose breasts He has made His peculiar deposit for substantial and genuine virtue.
white collar works best for everyone.
Sometimes.
Ok! Ok! I must have, I must have put a decimal point in the wrong place or something. Shit. I always do that. I always mess up some mundane detail.
Don't want to threadjack this into a gun control discussion. (I say well-regulated militia, you say potahto.)
The Supreme Court may decide on the proper pronunciation in the near future. Or it might not:
http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/
I wonder if video-on-demand has altered the stakes in debate performances?
Debates are for people who haven't figured out you can grab the candidate's statements from their website just as well.
It won't tell you anything about how well a candidate will do as president either, or if they're going to be a right bastard or not.
Warehouse burglaries of electronics equipment.
well, 33 does have a point. But that ship left decades ago, and collectively it seems we've decided to go the soulless route. Even farmers are heading there, these days. Those who grow weed are better off than their legal brethren, I suppose.