9 posts tagged “cnn”

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GPS

I wasn't even planning to, but on Sunday nights I often find myself watching this CNN program called GPS, hosted by Fareed Zakaria. It's like more intellectual version of Larry King Live. Not that Larry King is dumb, but you know, sometimes the guests to his program are, well, some supposedly famous people who apparently have tendency to open their mouth before thoughts occur (if at all). True, Larry King Live has to run daily so I guess it can't be helped...

On GPS you get economists, experts on international relations and such as guests, and I find the discussion quite intriguing. 

2 comments Tags: tv, television, cnn, news

Correction

On the comment section of my post about RepCon, I mentioned Sarah Palin believes in Creationism. Although I did hear this on CNN, there doesn't seem to be corroborating evidence to back it up- at least, I couldn't find anything concrete and reliable on the Internet. So I'd like to correct myself; Sarah Palin may or may not believe in Creationism.


... However, it does seem true that she wants the kids in Alaska be taught both "traditional" history and the history according to Creationism, just to give them "alternative view". This is basically the same thing as the Japanese schools starting to teach, aside from "traditional" history, more "old-fashioned" version where Japan the country has been created  2,600 years ago by the first Emperor who was the direct descendant of the sun goddess Amaterasu, but anyway... :-P

5 comments Tags: cnn, usa, news, america, election, presidential election, wrong information …

Piece of me the video of the year !?

I smell conspiracy. I smell corruption. If anything, the video for Britney Spears' "Piece of Me" was, you know, a piece of crap. I mean come on, the video for "Break the Ice" was much better as a music video (partly because there was no Britney in it:-) and there must be more videos out there that deserve the MTV award.

For example, I think the video for Ne-Yo's "Closer" is very creative and very good; I like the way it uses black-and-white contrast, it has kinda old-skool jazz feel to it. Meh. (x_x)

3 comments Tags: music, cnn, news, mtv, britney spears, meh, corruption …

Random thoughts on RepCon

Watching the U.S. Republican National Convention on CNN, some random thoughts went through my head, such as-


*Sarah Palin looks just like how I would imagine Britney Spears would look like at that age.

*And her son's being shipped out to Iraq on September the fecking eleventh?? Can you say "blatant publicity stunt"? Are the Iraq war veterans and 9.11. victims and their families letting them get away with this?

*True, regarding the Iraq occupation, McCain seems to have better understanding; and if the U.S. pulls out troops from Iraq, at least some of them would have to be redeployed to Afghan sooner or later.

*The audience is strikingly dominated by the white- and the old. 

*I know I'm seriously misguided here, but somehow any version of Star Spangled Banner other than the way Jimi Hendrix played at Woodstock sounds weird to me (which, after all, is the only version that I know and have been listening to). No machine-gun sound at the end? Meh.

*From what I have seen in the last couple of occasions, the U.S. presidential election is probably becoming more about demography than about political debate. Being born into what kind of environment seems to be a big deciding factor- such as, your family goes to one of those fundamentalist mega-churches or your family lives in coastal states and so on. I mean, whoever gets picked as candidate, there don't seem to be big swing in support rate; seems to mean that, ultimately, people are already predisposed to either party no matter who's going to represent that party.

*At least, whoever's going to win won't suddenly abandon his office in a year, which is apparently the new trend in the Japanese politics...  (> x <)

6 comments Tags: cnn, random thoughts, republican, america, election, presidential election

Watching DemoCon on CNN

So I was watching the U.S. Democratic National Convention on CNN, it was more entertaining than I first thought. The whole thing's got more of the show-biz vibe than the Japanese politics!


You know, I have this theory on how the American people have been getting subconsciously ready for the prospect of an African American President; movies and dramas. Aside from The West Wing, most memorable Presidents in movies and dramas in recent years have been played by African American actors, don't you think? (I mean, have you watched 24? I thought President Palmer looked -and behaved- more presidential than his real-life counterpart)

And I'm surprised this guy McCain still has the same level of popularity as Obama. Interesting thing about the American politics is that it's personal- as opposed to organizational. The President as the person is the question, not what kind of team s/he can put together. For me, supporting McCain because Obama lacks experience in national security is like refusing a CEO because s/he doesn't have the accounting background and may not do well with keeping the company's books. Who cares as long as s/he can hire someone who's good for the job? Top dog doesn't have to know everything, s/he just needs to pick the right people to do the job. Top dog's real job is to lead, to point where the whole team's effort and hard work should be directed. Obama seems to have that idea.
I suspect that, at least some of the people who say they choose McCain for national security reasons, are saying it because it looks bad to admit they just want to see the white face in Oval Office. I may be wrong or biased, but it would be interesting to see Obama side putting up an ad that basically says "would you still choose McCain if he's black?"

I personally don't like McCain because he's sneering all the time and that, for me, is not inspiring leadership. 

4 comments Tags: cnn, politics, news, america, election, obama

Takes forever

CNN's starting to bore me; I do realize each country's political system has historical roots and everything to have become what it is, and I do respect that, but in my opinion this presidential election in the U.S. is taking too much time. This in the eyes of the American people must be the most important (therefore the most, how can I put it, examplary?) election in the "free world" as they call it, but it does not seem to be the most efficient and the most fair election on the entire planet. Not that Japanese election is all clean and everything though (it's anything but)...


Since it takes forever and each candidate has to do something to be better or to harm the others, there's plenty of time for things entirely irrelevant to politics come into focus (hair style, whether she ever smoked pot in college, etc). There seems to be this discrepancy between the system that probably goes way back, and the modern technology with which candidates can spread the word now. (Funny thing is, Japanese election system has the opposite problem; it's still not allowed to use the Internet to promote yourself during the election period, and blogs and mailing lists always come up as hot legal topic. Also, ballots are more than 99% paper and takes like all night to count them up)

So I'm curious; is there anyone in the U.S. saying that probably this system should be updated? I mean, come on- everyone on the planet now knows that, with all that time, trouble and money, when the race gets too close the winning ticket could be bought just by which guy happened to have had some fecking judge in his pocket (and could round up those pesky Africans to keep them from voting). Kind of hard to convince the other countries that the U.S. way is the ideal form of democracy, don't you think?

14 comments Tags: cnn, politics, election

Death Squads on the loose

According to an article on Sankei newspaper (which contributes articles to MSN Japan), there have been several U.S. covert sniper teams deployed in Iraqi cities, undertaking a secret operation to rig up (sorry, I meant 'further enhance') the "results" of the U.S. military. The article said this has come to light from a testimony made by some military personnel in the U.S. congress (or some comittee, I forgot which).

They would put a bullet,  an electronic cable or any other component used to make a bomb or an IED on the street, and watch it from their positions. When an Iraqi person picks it up and walks away, they'd take him/her down. The theory behind this 'operation' is, according to the article, "whoever is interested in such item must be a terrorist".

First thing I want to know is if this 'theory' applies to little Iraqi kids and teenagers. I can't think of a better way to turn their parents/ family members against the U.S. and what it represents than having their child sniped down for picking up some junk from the street.

It reminds me of two things- the first is an old Yakuza scam, in which they'd drop a 10,000 Yen bill on the street and waits for someone to pick it up, then some thug and his buddies show up and say I just dropped this money, what the feck you doing trying to steal money. And try to hustle money from the victim.

Another is what I've read about the Soviet troops in Afghanistan in the latter half of their presence there; Soldiers were so tired and demoralized that, when they move out on a chopper, they just fly over some village and mow down whoever's happened to be there with the heavy machine gun and report the body count as "insurgents killed today". Seems to be pretty close, don't you think?

... Come to think of it, I seem to recall watching someone important in the U.S. military say on CNN some time ago that the body count will not be the measure of success in their effort in Iraq. What happened? Have they finally run out of any other measures with which they can benchmark their 'success' (such as, you know, finding WMD, or building up a secular, united, peaceful- and U.S. loving- democratic nation, stuff like that)??


1 comment Tags: war, cnn, news, iraq, current events, death squad

So who was who again?

I'm no specialist of American politics, but watching CNN I've been having real trouble telling difference of most Republican hopefuls for the next election (aside from the Really Famous Guys, of course). 

They are all chubby, white male with more love handle than charisma under their belt.
My guess is that the really smart ones are not running this time, as even non-American like myself can tell they will have an uphill battle this time.

...But then again, come to think of it conservative Japanese politicians are a bunch of chubby, Japanese male with more love handle (and tight connection with construction industry) than charisma under their belt (^o^)/

4 comments Tags: cnn, politics, japan, chubby white dudes

Traumatized 変なダンス(><)キター

Oh dear... Guess what I just saw on CNN? I saw Karl Rove dancing to Hip Hop in a party!!! No, I'm not making this up, though I wish I were... Head over to YouTube where I'm sure you will be able to find a clip. And his way of dancing is... well, traumatizing, to say the least (no link to any of the aforementioned clips provided herein to protect minors and mentally healthy persons from PTSD and other serious health problems).

At least, now I know I'm not the worst dancer on this planet (^o^)v

今CNNを見てたら、カール・ローブがパーティの席で踊ってる映像が流れました！しかも音楽はヒップホップだよ！すげーアホみたい(^^;　きっとYouTubeに映像が速攻アップロードされてると思うから、そっちをチェックしてみてください。恥ずかしいので、僕のブログにはとてもリンクをのせられませーん。
少なくとも、僕よりダンスが下手な奴がいることは明らかになったけど。。。

Post a comment Tags: cnn, hiphop, politics, dance, rove, ダンス, 政治, カール・ローブ …