Ivan Kowalenko's Less-Serious Blog

Anyone else find it interesting that all the political debates thus far have been exclusively on Cable?

So far, all of the Republican debates have been aired live, but only on cable networks. Fox News, CNN, Fox News, now MSNBC. I find it curious that in the department of politics, a topic that will eventually have an effect on every American living in the country (and probably a few living outside of the country, to say nothing of legal/illegal aliens in the country and anyone else who has any interest in the United States) isn't being broadcast in a medium that is accessible to all Americans for free?

Yes, it's early in the political season, and it makes some sense that only political junkies are interested in this, thus I doubt it would pull the ratings of The X Factor, or Parks and Rec, but we live in 2011. There is no reason that such a thing couldn't be made available on a digital sub-channel (the local NBC affiliate, KARE, runs 24/7 weather on their sub-channel, though I do know that some NBC affiliates carry Universal Sports, so that could potentially be a problem).

The issue only gets worse if you aren't near a TV. To the best of my knowledge, there will be no terrestrial radio broadcast of the debate either, meaning that the only way to listen if you're not near a TV with cable is a satellite radio.

If you own neither of those, there's the option to live-stream the video via Politico, but that still requires you to have a computer (or a Flash-enabled smartphone), and an Internet connection.

The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission Report is out. PDF is free, but...

The thing that caught my eye about the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission Report is that you can buy it as a printed book (much like the The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States Report, A.K.A. the 9/11 Commission Report), and as a free PDF (again, like the 9/11 Commission Report), but not in any other format. So why use PDFs and no other format, or use an open format to start with?

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Congrats, America: You stayed classy in 2010

So, let's just briefly recap here. We:

• Passed controversial legislation and the government didn't fall apart.
• We had some contested elections, but there weren't massive riots.
• When the elections were finally decided, and some people were voted out, they left without performing any extralegal actions to hold onto their jobs.
• Some people didn't like where something was being built, but no one comitted arson.
• Journalists spoke their opinions, but there weren't conspicuous murders of them
• There was a huge industrial accident, but the whole industry wasn't nationalized as a result
• Private companies the government saved are starting to get back on their feet and we're getting some of our money back

All in all, I'd say that was a good year. Maybe things didn't turn out exactly the way eveyone wanted, but we lived to fight another day. Our systems of laws worked, and while many insults were exchanged, we pulled through. These things may be changed in the future, but for almost all Americans, life goes on. They aren't living in fear for their lives, martial law isn't about to be declared, and we aren't reeling in riotous genocide.

You know what? That's good. Keep it up, America. I have no doubt we'll make it through this next year too.