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Rock the Vote Partners With Xbox Live
Gamepolitics notes that starting next Monday, Xbox Live users will be able to register to vote using their game console. They'll also be able to participate in polls and "voice their opinions to the presidential candidates." Quoting the press release:
"This is the first time that Rock the Vote has joined forces with an entertainment partner such as Xbox to reach voters under 30. Xbox LIVE is the largest online social network connected to the television, with membership totaling 12 million -- if Xbox LIVE were a state, it would rank as the country's seventh largest, giving it approximately 20 electoral votes. Xbox also will have a presence at both the Democratic and Republican conventions, promoting the Rock the Vote partnership and educating delegates about creating a safer entertainment environment on Xbox 360 and Xbox LIVE using the built-in parental controls known as Family Settings."
See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65I0HNvTDH4
Ok, let's try registering.
The screen says, "Tap 'X' to Register to vote"...whoops: "Windows has encountered a fatal error and will be shut down." :-)
on the voting page they'll make some money using ads banners?!#$$$
Rock the Vote was a stupid idea when it first started, I can't believe they're still around. IIf rock starz!!!! vote, then hey, voting is cool. And everyone wants to be cool, right?
Very few people are too stupid to see the ruse for what it is, and they certainly aren't the ones that should be deciding our country's future. Youth voting is up because our country is so fucked up that even young people realize the importance of voting. We don't need silly corporate-sponsored pap like Rock the Vote to tell us what to do.
i'm 25 and my peers (in age) are more concerned with silly things than what really matters to the bigger picture. is there a way to get these people to see past the end of their noses? is there a way to break through the pragmatic shell of "me me me, mine mine mine, i want i want i want"? i understand that many of us are intelligent enough to see the problems, but what do we do when there aren't any good choices? choose the lesser of two evils? we tried that (or did we?), and look what it got us.
i don't think the statement "the will of the masses is not the will of the people" has ever been more accurate.
is there any way to bring change to this disgusting oligarchic system? how do "we the people" unite? can we? instead of narrowing my perspective to target principles and/or policies, i'm more concerned with a meta-answer to help guide the finer points.
Is having a lot of people who couldn't otherwise be bothered to register or go to the polls, suddenly going and voting based on a month or two's worth of half-baked assertions gleaned from campaign ads and easily swayable by media "personalities" and pop stars, really such a good thing for us?
(Not to mention, they can't actually really register through Live, they will be sent a packet to fill out.)
Xbox 360 helps to "rock the vote," while Diebold's machines suffer from the Red Ring of Death.
We tried chosing the lesser of two evils?
Reagen, Hollywood master of spooky economic voodoo and "there you go again Jimmy" beats Carter. Fail.
Reagen then beat Mondale, largely accredited to Mondale saying "By the end of my first term, I will reduce the Reagan budget deficit by two-thirds. Let's tell the truth. It must be done, it must be done. Mr. Reagan will raise taxes, and so will I. He won't tell you. I just did." People picked the greater of two evils because they didn't want a tax hike. Fail.
George H. W. Bush beats Dukakis. Fail.
Clinton beats Bush and Dole, double win. So here we picked the lesser of two evils twice. Now seeing as this is the first Democrat we elected since Carter I want to be clear: Clinton was plenty evil too, he was just less evil than his opponents. What do we get next cycle though?
W. Bush, the guy who history is going to remember as the worst president EVER, the guy who bankrupted multiple businesses before being elected, the guy who dodged service in Vietnam by getting transferred to another state, and then didn't even show up, this guy... beat Al Gore, 'creator' of the Internet (not 'inventor' if you're confused look this up), a man with an excellent grasp on economic policy. Why? Because people figured W. Bush was more the kind of guy they'd like to drink a beer with. Epic fail.
W. Bush back for round two beat another candidate... With one of the lowest approval ratings that a president can get. People knew he had lied to them at this point and waged a war that the American public no longer supported and what did we do? Put him back in. Fail.
So, no choosing the lesser of two evils isn't a 'freebie', it hasn't been happening. It's up to people to make sure it does happen, because truth be told, it isn't happening right now. We reelected a president who lied to the country about a war and got caught (before getting reelected).
Right now we have a guy who is a member of the Keating five running for office. He's pledging to run an honest campaign while slinging mud from the get go and then crying like he's the victim because the other guy is throwing mud too. The guy has a serious chance of winning too because he's come up with the slogan of "We have to drill here and drill now" despite the fact that we won't be drilling for a few years even if the ban gets lifted and we might get some 18 billion barrels of oil, less than Saudi Arabia pumps in TWO DAYS. This is not a meaningful amount of oil we're talking about.
If you decide to shill this comment, make sure you remember to switch accounts first, twitter.
So... if they are 'hoping to connect/register' 2 million young voters, and that 'the LIVE community would be the 7th laargest state' if it were a state - then why even make statement in the above quote?
It's like they didn't even read their own press release.
When those around you are loosing their heads while you are keeping yours, maybe you've misunderstood the situatiuation.