youtube debate?

Watched it - mostly. Mostly ok. Mostly the questions were like real questions - good and bad and lame. Biden got best line - "If that is that guys's baby, he's got a problem".

Cooper stayed out of the way mostly.

How do they pick what videos to show? Can't wait for more "production values" to seep into the format.

Man our Republic is a mess. We have the most democratic video medium in history in a presidential debate and it is mediated by what? A corpora-cratic news medium. The worst part is I don't know if that is progress or not. I sorta feel like it is 20 minutes later but I don't know for sure.

Iv'e been thinking about where we are in our political moment. Wondering mostly. As I see the wanton lawlessness of the Bush syndicate I think back on the earlier crises in my political awareness. OK yes, Nixon. But really before that. I am thinking of the days of Rampart Magazine. A wild-eyed national - imagine that! - leftie rag. They as I recall anyway called the lie on the Viet Nam War long before the establishment - now called the MainStreamMedia - caught on.

Maybe my pattern craving mind is too facile but I see our moment as about 5 years from a major correction. Meaning the W walks. The prick. The next president does something stupid - like takes advantage of what W has wrought - and gets nailed.

This isn't predicting a Republican victory in 2008. What it is predicting is that it doesn't matter. Power begets power - you got it you use until you can't. In 2008 the dems will get a veto proof Congress and a bunch of Chairmen who are now Chairmen who are not "movement" certainly not like the RICO wing of the GOP and will not owe anything to whoever occupies the white house and who will want some of that mojo back that the 106th-109th Congresses gave away to Bush like sex for crack.

So I figure 2011 - 2012 we will start to see the re-emergence of the Republic. Serious Congressional hearings, a president in disgrace - who might even be aware that he is... Will it require "the young people" to take to the streets? I dunno.

History is an accurate mirror but never a perfect one.