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Ted Cruz

7 (6.5%)

Rick Santorum

16 (14.8%)

Michelle Bachmann

13 (12%)

Chris Christie

23 (21.3%)

Rand Paul

49 (45.4%)

Total Members Voted: 107

[Dutchling]

"The CIA created shortages somehow and is to blame. Damn Americans!"

It's South America, so the CIA is by definition directly responsible for at least part of the problem

[GlyphGryph]

Tomcost, you've got the logic backwards.

You can be innocent even if someone who isn't is responsible for your existing. Otherwise we'd all be guilty at birth and that's just silly.

There is no logic to the statement

Blames people, says goverment is innocent. Goverment is elected from and by people, thus goverment can't be innocent.

whatsoever.

And yeah, the CIA really has gone out of its way to make it look like they are responsible for anything that ever gets fucked up in South America...

[PTTG??]

We're looking at a new kind of propoganda. In all of these recent conflicts, both sides have been well aware that the winner will probably be the one who has the western world (and the US in particular) on their side. Therefore, there is a drive to target not just one's own population, but the population of the world at large, through propoganda.

We need a better, verifiable source of news.

[LeoLeonardoIII]

We need Robojournalist.

[Frumple]

Ubiquitous privacy-invading drones recording everything and uploading it all to youtube, you say.

Rather not.

[SalmonGod]

Social media.  You can get plenty of news from people directly involved in events, usually before professional journalists (or anyone else practiced at spin) have even begun to get involved, and often with raw footage.  I don't think we'll ever have access to any better source of news than that.  If I really want to know what's going on, that's the stuff I look for.  If news media notifies me of an event before social media does, I'll usually respond by digging for social media or footage posted prior to any major news coverage.

[LeoLeonardoIII]

Ubiquitous privacy-invading drones recording everything and uploading it all to youtube, you say.

Rather not.

No I meant like Robocop. He's a journalist with robot parts but he's heartwarmingly, triumphantly human.

[Lord Shonus]

That doesn't help much. Of the famous "Five Ws" (Who, What, When, Where, and Why), What and Where are probably the least important, unless you're dealing with something super simple such as "can I go down this road on my way to work" or "is this fire in the same neighborhood as that old acquaintance of mine". This is critical, because social media can rarely tell you anything besides Where, and sometimes What, and the latter isn't guaranteed due to the effects of shock and confusion. Who and Why, the most important matters for any major incident, can only be addressed through analysis.

[mainiac]

Ubiquitous privacy-invading drones recording everything and uploading it all to youtube, you say.

Rather not.

No I meant like Robocop. He's a journalist with robot parts but he's heartwarmingly, triumphantly human.

I'd watch that movie.

[SalmonGod]

Depends on the type of event and just what kind of information you're wanting, I guess.  I don't think there are many cases where you can't also determine the Who and When of an event by social media.  And the Why will always be a matter of dispute between people with agendas, but at least social media isn't build completely by people who are professionally trained and funded for information control to push their version of Why.

[LeoLeonardoIII]

I know what I always wanted out of 60 Minutes was a shorter, 140-character version.

[XXSockXX]

Social media are not that great with complex or divisive events. Just look at what's happening in Ukraine, depending where you get your social media news from you might get really contradictory information. That's still much better covered by real journalism (which you also have to look out for, no US cable news stuff).

[SalmonGod]

I remember watching Twitter during the 2009 election protests in Iran as people from all over the world chipped in to help the protesters organize and even dodge pro-government militia and police as they were running for their lives minute by minute.  I knew about the shooting of Neda Agha-Soltan before major news media did, and I didn't learn anything new from their later coverage.

During the encampment phase of Occupy in 2011, I followed live updates from protesters all across the country, mostly on Google+.  Watched and chatted on livestreams of crackdowns that the news wouldn't or wasn't allowed to cover, or would blatantly lie about when they did.

I saw the videos of police shooting Oscar Grant in the back before the news began reporting it, and was able to call bullshit on their deceptive cuts of the footage, along with claims that he wouldn't stop struggling or that the officer involved looked shocked and remorseful after he was shot.

I agree about complex or divisive events, but those will always be the same thing either way.  You have to get information from both perspectives and draw your own conclusions.  But I've already covered that.

Why will always be a matter of dispute between people with agendas, but at least social media isn't build completely by people who are professionally trained and funded for information control to push their version of Why.

Yeah, there are professionals hired to work social media, but they can't control the story as it's happening.  And the great thing about the internet is you can go back after the fact and to the earliest timestamps possible, and then watch how people try to change the details from what was plainly recorded after the fact.  You can learn a lot just from that.

[XXSockXX]

Right. But you have to remember that you're mostly getting information from people whose language you understand and/or who might have similar views to your own. In complex situations that's not always the full picture.

[LeoLeonardoIII]

I'm consistently amazed at the bigoted, criminal antics of the Seattle police department. These guys never seem to go to jail. I tell you, if you want to kill brown people, just sign up for police academy. If you go into the military you get sand in your boots and it's possible they might shoot back.

Seattle PD really does not help the negative police stereotypes that are out there.