October, 2004

Current Events / General / Rants — No Comments
29
Oct 04

Bush’s Handling of 9-11

Ok, so today at a couple minutes past 6:00, The Abrams Report on MSNBC was shortly preempted by Hardball host Chris Matthews with news about the most recent bin Laden video. Chris Matthews mentioned something about how well President Bush handled 9/11, and that opened the floodgates for me to do a mini-rant:

I get so fed up when I hear people, including but not limited to TV personalities, cite “How well President Bush handled 9/11.” Do we as a people have such a low expectation for this current President that we accept what should be a natural reaction from a human being as some sort of heroic attribute?

You have stated several times, and most recently (as of this writing), on a preempt of The Abrams Report regarding the new bin Laden video. Perhaps you can explain exactly what it is that President Bush did immediately following the 9/11 tragedy that you found REMARKABLE enough to comment on so vaguely. And by remarkable, I mean beyond the call of duty. Lest we forget, his duty is to be a Commander and Chief, our President of the United States.

Personally, I don’t believe he transcended any notions I have for a President in his action on that day and following. Most of the time, to the contrary. I’d appreciate any input you have on this matter, and would be honored if you brought it up on your show.

I’ve been a long time and loyal viewer of MSNBC since coverage of the OJ Simpson trial. I’m passionate about having a fair media outlet, that gets facts right, dissipates fact while keeping opinion to an absolute minimum. However, at this juncture, what can arguably be construed as opinion, is general perception. Bush did nothing remarkable after the 9/11 events. Arguably, his intelligence failed him or tailored their message for him and the rest of the world. He put on an impressive display, I concede at ground zero, but I would expect that from any figurehead in todays society. Heck, I know plenty of people from right here in Philadelphia who would have stood up and rallied the nation.

However, the fact and the point I’m trying to convey is that he IS the President. He acted how ANYONE should have acted, and he gets a pass when he screws up (often it seems) because he’s said President. I find that entirely hypocritical in comparison to the criticism made toward John Kerry and the media propagates it with little regard for that hypocrisy.

PS: Please forgive my long winded nature of writing. This was more of a rant, and will probably be included in my personal blog, however, I felt my thoughts would best be expressed without editing.

Vincent Brown, 22 year old college student from Philadelphia, PA – Concerned citizen and viewer.

Also, with that aside, I want to do some plugging:

GreenProbe: My buddy Scott Jarkoff (Jark) from deviantART has a new look for his blog site.
deviantART Prints: Recently, the site where I host printquality versions of my photos has gotten a facelift, give it a look and check out My Prints
TheRegular: A new site from the Slashdot crew that caters to politics and world news.

General — No Comments
13
Oct 04

The Political Machine…

Ok, so, I’ve known this programmer for a couple years from our interaction in an internet community we’re both a part of. His name is Brad and he’s the president of a software development company called Stardock, Inc. For a long time they have created several popular Windows tweaking applications, desktop enhancements and all around goodies for the operating system; the most famous probably being WindowBlinds which re-skins the user interface of Windows with user created graphics.

For some time, they’ve done some work producing games through their Total Gaming network. Well, there’s a relatively new game from that division called “The Political Machine.” I haven’t played it yet, and I don’t currently own it, but I think it’s going to be a hit game. It has great distribution; I’ve seen it in just about every retail store and specialty store in my area. Not at all what I would expect from the software company I have come to love and “hate” so to speak. :)

The Political Machine is a strategy game in which players take on the role of campaign manager for a US Presidential candidate. They must put all their political knowledge to the test as they campaign around the country in an effort to win enough voters to their cause to win on election day.

The game makes heavy use of real world demographic information to provide a realistic playing field and models contemporary issues such as the War on Terror, the economy, the policy in Iraq, and many more (issues can be updated via PoliticalMachine.com to keep them up to date).

Since I apparently don’t have anything better to do, I decided to obtain this game (that has been featured on G4TechTV & Slashdot) and asked to have it signed by the developer, Brad himself as the President of Stardock, and in time, both Presidential candidates; John Kerry and George W. Bush.

I intend to chronicle my adventure here on VincentBrown.com and possibly for Stardock if they accept my proposition. They have already agreed to send me the game, signed and from there I will try my hardest to get both candidates for the U.S. presidency to sign it. I think this will be a valuable object in the future as it will mark a historic point in both technology and political moments for the country. What are your thoughts and ideas on what I want to do?