# Republicans don't (or don't want to) "get" the internet **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 2, 2007, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-dont-or-dont-want-to-get-the-internet/414175 "2007-08-02T19:50:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-dont-or-dont-want-to-get-the-internet/414175/41 "2007-08-03T20:40:34Z")
**Marley23** , you know you owe me a drink for giving you a straight line like that, right? [QUOTE=Left Hand of Dorkness] What I would _love_ to see would be some variant of a “town hall” format debate in which the questioners said, “At the end of your answer to my question, I will give you a thumbs up or a thumbs down based on whether you actually addressed my question or not.” Not that I especially trust the average schmoe to be a master of rhetorical theory, but I think that knowing the camera would return to the average schmoe after the question might put the fear of god back into the candidates. Also, do the [factcheck.org](http://factcheck.org) people have a pundit gig on any network post-debates? That would be awesome. [/QUOTE] I think it takes some time to check out the statments politicians make. I wouldn’t expect them to be able to thoroughly analyze all the claims in time for the post-debate roundtable. Of course, even if they had all the facts checked by the next day, the news cycle has moved on. I remember catching an error once. I think it was Bush the Elder in '88. There was talk at the time of reducing the military budget, and someone asked him which specific programs he would cancel. A minefield question, to be sure. Bush mentioned 3 or 4 programs that had already been cancelled. I remember he called one of them the DIVAD, instead of the Sgt. York, as it was popularly known. Utterly brilliant! He looks tough on the budget, cutting Pentagon waste, and nobody will think that their own job is in peril. I watched the talking-heads afterward; nobody called him on it. I once thought of doing a website similar to [factcheck.org](http://factcheck.org), but something like [answer-the-fucking-question.org](http://answer-the-fucking-question.org). I’d grade all politicians on how well they answer the questions that are put to them. Do you think anybody notices, or cares? ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-dont-or-dont-want-to-get-the-internet/414175/42 "2007-08-03T20:43:01Z")
[QUOTE=Richard Parker] That’s exactly what they did for a couple of questions (i.e. asked immediately if the question was answered, not after the debate). [/QUOTE] Ah, cool–I didn’t realize that. That gives me some more respect for the format, then! Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-dont-or-dont-want-to-get-the-internet/414175/43 "2007-08-03T21:22:08Z")
Well, the Republican Party has labeled itself the “family values” party. If you’re really into a public presentation of pure family values, how can you reconcile yourself to the fact that the [Internet is for Porn](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtiGd58J0bY). ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-dont-or-dont-want-to-get-the-internet/414175/44 "2007-08-03T23:36:57Z")
[QUOTE=xtisme] Yeah, that was pretty bad. It sort of underscores the thread I’d say… [/QUOTE] The penchant of Republican governors for blocking access to blogs from state buildings also evidences a profound lack of understanding. [First Kentucky](http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001401.php) > [@](#): > > Great Kentucky Blog Ban Rumbles into Court > By Paul Kiel - August 23, 2006, 2:19 PM When is a reporter not a reporter? The answer: when he/she writes for a blog, according to Kentucky officials. Back in June, Kentucky’s administration abruptly banned state employees from reading blogs. They claimed that it wasn’t censorship – but the proprietor of the blog [BluegrassReport.org](http://BluegrassReport.org), Mark Nickolas, sued (pdf) in July, claiming that the government censored Nickolas and other blogs because they were critical of Gov. Ernie Fletcher’s (R) administration [Now Michigan](http://bloggingformichigan.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=254) > [@](#): > > Yesterday afternoon I received a few inquiries from the Michigan Senate as to whether BFM was offline. > > It was an understandable question … we’ve had some problems here. But this time, the error was a little different … “server timed out” … hmm … the kind of error you get when your site is blocked. > > So we did a little digging, and it turns out that Mike Bishop’s chief of Staff, Matt Miner, directed the Secretary of the Senate, Carol Viventi, to block all Michigan Senate computers from accessing [bloggingformichigan.com](http://bloggingformichigan.com). > > (Actually they blocked us by IP, so there are several sites that are blocked. Pesky details) > > So I checked on some other sites, to see if all blogs were blocked, or if we were just special. > > Michigan Liberal is accessible. > Right Michigan is accessible. > Lunchbucket Conservative is accessible. > > But Blogging For Michigan is not. > > The office of the Secretary has advised me that they would be revisiting this decision soon, and may make the decision to block all blogs from Senate computers. > > (one would hope the House Republicans would block the pornography too, but I digress) All this does is piss people off, _especially_ when they block based on political alignment of of the sites. It doesn’t prevent people from finding embarassing information. The furor over blocking itself ensures that whatever tawdry story the governors want to cover up gets noticed by the dead-tree press, plus the governor gets slammed for his authoritarian approach to the media. ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2007, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-dont-or-dont-want-to-get-the-internet/414175/45 "2007-08-04T19:03:51Z")
[Christopher Dodd takes on Bill O’Reilly over his Daily Kos ridiculousness.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ApOkZJN7-c) (YouTube video) The nerve of Christopher Dodd, claiming that O’Reilly said on his TV show that al Qaeda should attack in San Francisco! That’s preposterous and slanderous! He said that on his _radio_ show! O’Reilly mentions one of his other favorite Web targets as well, [Media Matters for America](http://www.mediamatters.org). MMFA makes no bones about their mission–they are out to counteract conservative misinformation in the media. They don’t purport to be “balanced”. But they counteract that misinformation by posting long, in-context clips and quotes and presenting the facts. O’Reilly and Mike Savage (among others) consistently accuse MMFA of taking their statements “out of context”, but I don’t think that term means what they think it means. (Savage also routinely calls them “homosexuals”, presumably because he is in the sixth grade.) ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2007, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-dont-or-dont-want-to-get-the-internet/414175/46 "2007-08-04T19:20:27Z")
[QUOTE=DoctorJ] (Savage also routinely calls them “homosexuals”, presumably because he is in the sixth grade.) [/QUOTE] That’s pretty funny coming from a guy who used a photo of himself swimming naked with Allen Ginsberg as a calling card. ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2007, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-dont-or-dont-want-to-get-the-internet/414175/47 "2007-08-04T21:42:13Z")
[QUOTE=Left Hand of Dorkness] I’d like it to happen **immediately** after the question, while the debate is still going on. On the one hand, it’ll put the questioner on the spot; on the other, if the questioner gives a thumbs down, it’ll look pretty bad for the candidate, and a thumbs-up will likewise look pretty good. When the questioner is interviewed after the debate, it’s going to be much less important to the candidate’s perceived performance in the debate. Daniel [/QUOTE] Of course, there’d be some potential for abuse of the system, along the same lines as ebay’s feedback system (which it seems similar to.) “If he gives me the answer I want to hear, I’ll do thumbs-up, otherwise not.” Of course, if the audience is watching critically, they’ll be able to make their own judgements about that stuff… if they think that the answer is relevant, and the questioner goes thumbs-down, then it looks better for the candidate and worse for the questioner. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2007, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-dont-or-dont-want-to-get-the-internet/414175/48 "2007-08-05T14:45:05Z")
[QUOTE=Bryan Ekers] We’ll never progress until every single Baby Boomer is dead. [/QUOTE] [You’re thinking way too small.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=8851614&postcount=1) ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2007, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-dont-or-dont-want-to-get-the-internet/414175/49 "2007-08-07T03:52:58Z")
I personally believe that the YouTube debate was a step in the right direction, but true democracy can’t exist until the people have a chance to pelt the candidates with raw eggs. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-dont-or-dont-want-to-get-the-internet/414175.md?page=2)