Crowdsourcing Analysis of the Palin Email Trove 284
itwbennett writes "Surely you've got better things to do this weekend than read 24,000 pages of Sarah Palin's email. But just in case you don't, the NY Times is looking for volunteers to help 'identify interesting and newsworthy e-mails, people and events that we may want to highlight.' And, for your easy reference, MSNBC has posted the complete collection online."
volunteers? (Score:5, Insightful)
So wait, we're supposed to do analysis for free for the NYT, which will then hide said work behind their paywall? Yeah, suuuure.
Re:volunteers? (Score:5, Insightful)
My thoughts exactly.
Why would I want to do this, only to lose access to my own work.
If they made the articles generated by this work under some sort of copyleft I might be interested.
Re:volunteers? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:WTF? (Score:4, Insightful)
Someone reads too much World Nut Daily.
Probably not (Score:5, Insightful)
since the National Archives will do it for them.
Press needs to examine its life (Score:2, Insightful)
So we have an illegal war in Libya (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:WTF? (Score:1, Insightful)
> Paranoid troll much?
Ok since you obviously know these things that nobody else does, perhaps you know Mr. Obama's GPA, his SAT score or have access to his thesis? We know these things about other Presidents. We have even seen Mrs. Obama's senior thesis. For example we know W's GPA was actually comparable to Gore or Kerry's. Yet somehow Gore and Kerry are considered so super smart while W is universally ridiculed as an idiot. So where does Obama fit in? Everyone in DC says he is the smartest guy who ever sat in the comfy chair. Is he? I haven't seen the slightest evidence of it in his (not his speechwriters) words or in his deeds. So put us all some knowledge on dude.
Or maybe there is a reason his records are sealed. Because they would make it plain he is a below average shlub who was admitted and honored more for his biography and 'diversity' than his ability.
All I'm sayin' is if the media still have the energy and resources to root around in Mrs. Palin's old emails, air drop into Alaska back in the campaign to root around in her trash cans, etc. perhaps a little attention to the guy who actually IS president and appears to want to run for reelection might be worthy of the basic scrutiny the media would give a candidate for governor or senate. Or we might want to face the reality that the media already know Obama's story and are intent on the voters never learning it.
Re:volunteers? (Score:3, Insightful)
It's a pointless exercise (Score:5, Insightful)
The reason it took them 3 years to release the emails is it took that long to screen out all the damaging material. Palin switched to her private email accounts for all the juicy stuff and she was pretty disciplined about it on top of that. We've got some indications of conversations since emails to those accounts both from and to official aides have been released. I heard on the news last night from the Mother Jones reporter who initiated the email request that stuff like conversations with Cheney and "Same Sex" thread have been completely redacted.
You think they'd wait 3 years, dump the emails ONLY to printed paper, redact the hell out of the content, and charge people if they *really* wanted to give you access?
Re:Press needs to examine its life (Score:5, Insightful)
In point as fact, as Bush was most certainly a felon, he has no more business being in the white house than Obama. Like Obama there was a conspiracy to make sure that none of the felony charges ever went to court or stick. As mentioned he is most certainly guilty of rape, felony drug charges, felony manslaughter due to recklessness. Beyond that the fact that his daddy bribed government official to get him into the national guard, and then bribed government officials agains so he did not have to serve, meant he never went to jail for draft dodges and never received the court martial he deserved for being AWOL.
But the worst error was not impeaching him for 9/11. Do you think Bush and to less extent Cheney were not owned by the Saudis? Do you not think that as soon as Bush was elected the Saudis knew they have carte blanche to murder US civilians without any fear of repercussions? We saw the photos when Bush got the news of the attacks? Did he look surprised? Why was he out of Washington for a very infrequent business trip instead of on vacation? Do you not think that Bush knew exactly where Osama Bin Laden was, but did not choose to kill him because that would be like killing family. So he created these conflict to increase oil prices so the Saudies would get richer. He passed policies guaranteed to raise the public debt so the US would be vunerable to future attacks and other hostile action. He probably had the CIA build the housing for bin laden, and probably talked about the caves knowing that the American people could never know the truth, that his brother Bin Laden was safe in a palace.set up with a new young wife to keep him company, while the average american were having their homes repossessed.
You see how easy it is to manipulate available facts into a narrative. No rational person could possible believe that Bush was not a murderer and Bush/Cheney did not welome the 9/11 attacks. That is no rational person who watches fox news. Everyone else knows the difference a good story and reality.
Re:WTF? (Score:5, Insightful)
All I'm sayin' is if the media still have the energy and resources to root around in Mrs. Palin's old emails, air drop into Alaska back in the campaign to root around in her trash cans, etc. perhaps a little attention to the guy who actually IS president and appears to want to run for reelection might be worthy of the basic scrutiny the media would give a candidate for governor or senate. Or we might want to face the reality that the media already know Obama's story and are intent on the voters never learning it.
Well, go for it dude. Certainly there have to be a couple of more folks with your bent to get together and sort this out. Certainly the Fox News folks and persons of similar persuasion have the means and the motive to go look for dirt in his past. Perhaps they have done that and found he was a B+ student who wrote boring things, didn't do drugs and didn't get arrested -- basically a meh story. Who knows? Obama is your typical bog-standard Politician, no more no less. Not nearly as entertaining as an attractive batshit insane ex cheerleader with dubious command of history, geography and language.
What's not to like?
Obama - top 10% of his class, magna cum laude (Score:0, Insightful)
So Obama got into Harvard for the sake of diversity (affirmative action), and then graduated at the top 10% of his class, magna cum luade.
Barack Obama must have somehow used his black powers to graduate at the top of his class.
Luckily your racist idiot powers remind us that he's just another affirmative action nigger.
What do you call a nigger who graduates magna cum laude and is elected president of the United States? A "diversity" admission.
Well... that's what racists call him anyway.
Re:WTF? (Score:5, Insightful)
For example we know W's GPA was actually comparable to Gore or Kerry's. Yet somehow Gore and Kerry are considered so super smart while W is universally ridiculed as an idiot.
GPA wasn't why Bush was and is considered pretty stupid. The reason he's considered stupid is that he's not really accomplished all that much - his military record was mediocre at best, most of his business ventures (which wouldn't have started without money from his dad's friends) flopped, and his political campaigns were also basically inheriting his dad's political apparatus. That and a speaking style which provoked unfavorable comparisons to Dan Quayle gave him a reputation of being rather stupid, deservedly or no. Basically, there's good reason to think that if he had started out in the same environment as Ronald Reagan did, he would have been a nobody.
Re:So we have an illegal war in Libya (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem with Palin is a lot of people take her very seriously despite an absurd number of warning signs to the contrary. And if the media didn't keep jumping on her scandals and missteps in the past she very well could still be considered a contender for the Republican nomination. Sometimes these media scandals are just a distraction from important issues, but other times they're a chance to say "hey, that person you've been praising as the second coming? Well here's yet another piece of evidence that they're complete nutjob, now go back and think about why you were such an idiot before".
Sure, most of her followers won't get the message, but a few will, and the world will be that much wiser for it.
Re:volunteers? (Score:5, Insightful)
Information wants to be free. Services do not.
They will never focus on Obama (Score:2, Insightful)
Get over it.
This is why this whole Palin frenzy is so damn distressing. She isn't even declared as a candidate for the next election yet it seems as if the line to be part of the character assassination just continues to grow. This is like taking the worst aspects of Reality TV and having the press and politicians play the parts.
If they even tried this with Obama there would be lines of people screaming racism. That alone allows Libya to continue and Yemen to be next. I wonder how many years after Obama leaves office before someone will have the courage/be allowed to investigate him. We can destroy women; Hillary really didn't get good treatment from the press either once they crowned Obama their pick, but guys seem to get a free pass in politics, doubly so if they can hide behind an army of sycophants.
Re:Press needs to examine its life (Score:5, Insightful)
Slashdot was much more reasonable when Elementary school was in session.