I’m assuming we’re gonna get distracted later today if the Stu Levine hearing happens as planned, so let’s go for something light today while we wait.

Just a small percentage of you watch the YouTube clips that I post. The same goes for most sites that have the clips.

Reasons?

*** UPDATE *** Speaking of YouTube, our buddy Tim Nieukirk has another new “campaign TV ad” posted.

“Today, it’s Grant’s bathroom. Tomorrow, it’s the state of Illinois.”

       

40 Comments - Niles Township - Friday, Oct 27, 06 @ 8:34 am: Video streaming takes alot of bandwith up at work. Rather not get noticed that way! - John Ruberry - Friday, Oct 27, 06 @ 8:34 am: YouTube, as with most video sites, are blocked by my employer. - Anonymous, too - Friday, Oct 27, 06 @ 8:36 am: Rich, unfortunately, where I live, high-speed internet service isn’t offered by the shining communications star (SBC/ATT-Yahoo). Load times toooooo long. I’m certainly glad that you have the mobile user option on the blog, or I’d still be waiting on yesterday’s news…. - Troy News Guy - Friday, Oct 27, 06 @ 8:39 am: Being a newspaperman at heart I still prefer reading instead of watching. At work I don’t have a sound card (and poor-quality DSL) so video stream is not enjoyable. At home I have cable and I’ve watched a few…the most recent being the “Blago shuffle” on the $1500 check. Honestly living by St. Louis I’m so tired of all the (mostly) negative TV and radio ads (for MO’s Talent/McCaskill race, stem cell, minimum wage and stem cell issues)I’m burned out already. I’m thinking of voting early today so I can put all this behind me! - Justice - Friday, Oct 27, 06 @ 8:41 am: Bandwidth for many home users and inappropriate use of “company” time for downloading video during work hours. Being my own boss makes it easy to get permission, on those days I find myself talking to myself!! Great video clips!!! - Little Egypt - Friday, Oct 27, 06 @ 8:51 am: I can easily load YouTube and sometimes I have. But quite frankly, having my privacy invaded by the crap on TV and radio is quite enough for me. Beginning around 3 p.m., my mute button gets a real workout. Sometimes there are things that are just too funny on YouTube to pass up but I’m trying to pass up as many of those for the major races as I possibly can. Even those for the candidates I favor are really getting on my nerves. I’m ready for this whole thing to be over to the point that it is dulling my senses, what little I have left. Of course, at my age, sometimes I forget what I have seen and the ads appear new. That’s just one of the joys of aging - seeing “new” things and meeting “new” friends all the time. - anonymous99 - Friday, Oct 27, 06 @ 8:53 am: Well, I’m really not supposed to be screwing around on blogs that have nothing to do with my actual job in the first place, so the videos are a definite no-go, just so my time-killing browsing can continue unnoticed. And at home, my computer/connection isn’t quite up to snuff for a lot of video. Given all that, if a clip is really hyped up and truly worth my time, I’ll load it up. So my advice is, be judicious in when to use the video tools. Try to use video only when it’s really remarkable footage/advertisement (i’m thinking Blago trying to explain the $1,500 check). Also, if the story can be told in text, then keep it that way. - Pat Collins - Friday, Oct 27, 06 @ 8:58 am: One thing I find annoying about Ytube is that the video “stops” while it buffers. I do have DSL, and I’d MUCH rather wait while the whole thing loads on my machine, so I can watch it smoothly. Having said that, that hasn’t been a huge problem on the clips I’ve seen here. - NW burbs - Friday, Oct 27, 06 @ 8:59 am: Work… Streaming download time… Not interested in at least half the YouTube posts… - Robbie - Friday, Oct 27, 06 @ 9:02 am: I also mostly view at work and playing videos would be a good way to get in trouble. Though when at home I often check out youtube. I didn’t realize bandwidth was so valuable still. I have cable internet and have more bandwidth than I would ever need. - Yvette - Friday, Oct 27, 06 @ 9:06 am: I much prefer reading instead of watching. And watching political commercials, IMHO, is meaningless. The commercials are meaningless, the rhetoric is meaningless, and seeing unflattering video of someone is essentially meaningless. The other thing that irks me with video is the lack of *transcripts*. Apart from my reasons above — I have no *time* to watch video. I much prefer reading a transcript. (Sort of like going to conference where they force you to sit through hour-long powerpoint sessions. Cripes, give me the powerpoint, and I will get through the session in 2 minutes on my own.) I notice that CNN has mostly video now — and hardly any transcripts of the videos. That makes what was once a valuable resource — useless to me. Mostly, though, the lack of transcripts just boggles me. Why in the world a place like CNN would put video on the web without a transcript confuses me. - Shelbyville - Friday, Oct 27, 06 @ 9:26 am: I have watched a few and my iMac has no problem handling the video, but they just don’t interest me. - independent - Friday, Oct 27, 06 @ 9:43 am: The reason many of us don’t watch the videos is we live in rural areas with really slow internet connections and to view the videos can take more than 5 minutes. - Cornelius - Friday, Oct 27, 06 @ 9:50 am: Blocked, Rich. - Fan of the Game - Friday, Oct 27, 06 @ 9:52 am: Love Tim Nieukirk! Love the video! - Johnny USA - Friday, Oct 27, 06 @ 9:53 am: Reason: If I want to watch political propaganda, I’ll turn on the TV. - leigh - Friday, Oct 27, 06 @ 10:03 am: I love them. Please keep posting them. They are wonderful for the daily chuckle! - Fan of the Game - Friday, Oct 27, 06 @ 10:05 am: We live in the country and do not have access to local channels through our satellite; therefore, I do not see any local or state political ads (I have had my fill of the New York ads, however). Rich, your YouTube clips are the only exposure I have to political ads. In addition, I can watch them as many or as few times as I please. I like that, too. - Squideshi - Friday, Oct 27, 06 @ 10:12 am: I watch ‘em. - Slash - Friday, Oct 27, 06 @ 10:15 am: Hey Squid - how come we never see any You Tube commercials for Green Party candidae Rich Whitney? - In the Land of Silos and Cows - Friday, Oct 27, 06 @ 10:21 am: Rich, Keep posting the YouTube bits on here, and on your space on YouTube. Although timing (work or location) restricts the viewing at the initial time of your posts, we all find SOME time to catch them when bandwith, or work restrictions, or just plain hardware issues, do not make it possible right away. Do not stop this addition to your arsenal! - Jaded - Friday, Oct 27, 06 @ 10:23 am: What is it about short fat white guys that just makes you want to laugh? John Belushi, Chris Farley, Tim Nieukirk (well OK maybe he is not in that league yet, but I do laugh just looking at him). I’ll bet this kid winds up on Lenno or another late night show soon. As far as the QOTD, I watch the ones I think are interesting. I’m not banned or blocked and for whatever reason, my sound and video is much better when you link something to this site, than when I go to YouTube on my own. Not sure why, but they don’t seem to buffer (again whatever the hell that is) as much (probably a bandwith issue or some other technical mumbo jumbo that I could care less about). Keep posting them, I like it. Plus, what really ticks me off about going to other video sites msn cnn abc and others, is that they want me to watch a stupid commercial before I get the video I want. I don’t think I need to watch a 30 second listerine or lexus commercial before I get the video I want. Finally, I just went to YouTube and watched the GWB impersonation on Chris Ferguson. Hilarious! - Anon - Friday, Oct 27, 06 @ 10:24 am: I am in the sticks and with no high speed hook ups near. It is not worth the wait. Would love to watch but just don’t have the time. - ChuckAmok - Friday, Oct 27, 06 @ 10:43 am: I watch them all. Keep them coming. - The Horse - Friday, Oct 27, 06 @ 10:55 am: yikes.. what a loser I am….. high speed at my rural home and I watch them at work… Nieukirk is kinda fun.. but have you seen that beer can gun. - Judy, Judy, Judy - Friday, Oct 27, 06 @ 11:40 am: Like many of the others, I don’t download them at work because of the space it takes to download them. At home, highspeed not available in my area and we don’t have satellite service. - Tessa - Friday, Oct 27, 06 @ 11:54 am: I watch them because where I’m at, I haven’t seen many of the ads on tv (thankfully) and here I can see them once and never look again. Unless I want to get Nieuked and then show my son those which I will then see again. Couldn’t watch at work, don’t have ‘net access. Stuck at home for a while though, so have lots of time to spend here. I, too, have sattelite, so I get lots of NY and CA ads which I’m very tired of. - Chicagograssroots - Friday, Oct 27, 06 @ 11:54 am: I love ‘em — keep em coming - Levois - Friday, Oct 27, 06 @ 12:12 pm: Nieukirk looks like a shorty. LOL - HoosierDaddy - Friday, Oct 27, 06 @ 12:44 pm: Is Nieukirk really registered as a write in candidate? He’s looking like a better option every day. At least he doesn’t EXPECT us to take him seriously. - LakeILGOP - Friday, Oct 27, 06 @ 12:57 pm: I’m voting for JBT, but if anyone did want to vote for this guy, his name is kinda hard to spell- wonder if you have to write it in and spell it exactly right to be counted. I will be really interested to see how he does. Does anyone know if write-in results are posted under individual names or are results posted in a batch as “write-in”? - HoosierDaddy - Friday, Oct 27, 06 @ 1:00 pm: By the way, as a 5′7″ 200 lb white guy, I’m offended by the racist, heightist, sexist, weightist (did I leave anything out?) comments on this board! LOL! - Truthful James - Friday, Oct 27, 06 @ 1:46 pm: Looks like Tim is spending more money on Ads than Judy B. - Because - Friday, Oct 27, 06 @ 1:52 pm: By boss does not see the value to the blog viewing or partispation - I try to limit my time on here during the work day. It would be nice if you could find a way to change your internet name to something more work tolerable - Lovie's Leather - Friday, Oct 27, 06 @ 3:05 pm: Hilarious ads… But is his honorary campaign chairman Andy Martin? - The Federalist - Friday, Oct 27, 06 @ 4:11 pm: Real Player and others slow down my computer. I would rather read everyone’s arguments. - CrunchyCon - Friday, Oct 27, 06 @ 4:52 pm: Keep the ads coming, Rich. They are great teaching tools for the little crunchy cons. First we discuss logic and reasoning and then we watch these futile attempts at persuasion and rip them apart. - Beowulf - Friday, Oct 27, 06 @ 7:16 pm: I wish I could watch them, Rich. I live in Will County near Joliet, Illinois. AT&T/SBC does not offer DSL in my area around Joliet. Nor does ANYONE at AT&T have any idea of when they might offer DSL to us. Actually,I believe AT&T feels that we should be grateful to them that they switched us over from two tin cans and a long string to dial up. It takes forever with dial up from AT&T to get anything downloaded onto my computer. When we listen to even an audio recording over dial up, there is a 15 second pause after every 2-3 words. It drives me nuts. Nobody at AT&T has ANY idea when they will be able to offer DSL in my area even though it is one of the fastest growing areas in the country. However, they are always anxious to offer some other “extra cost service” that they say they can offer. I suggest selling any AT&T/SBC stock that you might own if my level of service from AT&T is indicative of what the rest of their customer base experiences. I am keeping my two tin cans and ball of string for a “backup” if this turns out to be a bad winter and our phone lines go down again. - OH MY - Friday, Oct 27, 06 @ 9:17 pm: I love them! I have sent the emails to many people - I think everyone in my office is voting for him - OAD - Saturday, Oct 28, 06 @ 2:33 am: We’ve all been burned by something that we thought would be good, but turns out was a really lame waste of our time. I’m reluctant to move over to YouTube from a blog or other site because of the risk of ‘there’s 324 seconds I’ll never get back’ clicker’s remorse. Case in point - last week or so, you had the Topinka stick figure mock ad with the foul language that you described as ‘brilliant’. I’m no prude, it wasn’t offensive to me, just nowhere approaching ‘brilliant’. THis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXnO_FxmHes is brilliant to me. (W cut to U2’s Sunday Bloody Sunday) And for the real political ads - why have Tivo so I can skip over political ads on my big TV just to watch them in YouTube low-res jittervision(tm)? Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.