E-mails to SMS: Dueling Word Clouds (Obama v. Cheney)

Friday, May 22, 2009

Dueling Word Clouds (Obama v. Cheney)

Yesterday the President spoke and shortly afterwards the Ex-Vice President Cheney droned on and on and on... Their speeches supposedly addressed the same topic (National Security vis-a-vis Guantanamo). No surprises here, Obama supported his initial plan to close Guantanamo with clarity and reason, while the Big Dick (Cheney) threatened all the terrors that await the American people should the detention center at Guantanamo be closed. Here's where my world and the world of Washington DC collide, in the form of Word Clouds which clearly illustrate the difference between the perspectives of the President and the leader of the flailing opposition in the form of an unpopular former shadow president.

Check them out and if these pictures aren't worth the thousand words they display, then I am not a radical militant librarian:

Word Cloud of Obama's Speech (May 21, 2009)

Word Cloud of Cheney's Speech (May 21, 2009)

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Quote of Week (05/10/09)

"In some way, the quiet terror of severe depression never entirely passes once you’ve experienced it. It hovers behind the scenes, placated temporarily by medication and renewed energy, waiting to slither back in, unnoticed by others. It sits in the space behind your eyes, making its presence felt even in those moments when other, lighter matters are at the forefront of your mind. It tugs at you, keeping you from ever being fully at ease. Worst of all, it honors no season and respects no calendar; it arrives precisely when it feels like it."
Daphne Merkin, NYTimes Magazine, May 6, 2009

Quote of the Week (04/26/09)

"Five years after the Abu Ghraib revelations, we must acknowledge that our government methodically authorized torture and lied about it. But we also must contemplate the possibility that it did so not just out of a sincere, if criminally misguided, desire to “protect” us but also to promote an unnecessary and catastrophic war. Instead of saving us from 'another 9/11,' torture was a tool in the campaign to falsify and exploit 9/11 so that fearful Americans would be bamboozled into a mission that had nothing to do with Al Qaeda. The lying about Iraq remains the original sin from which flows much of the Bush White House’s illegality."
Frank Rich, NYTimes, April 26, 2009

Quote of Week (02/27/09)

"Throughout America’s history, there have been some years that appeared to roll into the next without much notice or fanfare. Budgets are proposed that offer some new programs or eliminate an initiative, but by and large continuity reigns.
Then there are the years that come along once in a generation, when we look at where the country has been and recognize that we need a break from a troubled past, that the problems we face demand that we begin charting a new path. This is one of those years."
President Barack Obama, The White House, February 26, 2009

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Another Good Quote (10/23/08)

"I look at these people and can't quite believe that they exist. Are they professional actors? I wonder. Or are they simply laymen who want alot of attention? To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. 'Can I interest you in the chicken?' she asks. 'Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?' To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked."
David Sedaris, on undecided voters
The New Yorker, October 27, 2008

Quote of the Week (04/18/08)

"Senator Obama, in my view, is head and shoulders above the rest. He has the depth, the reflectiveness, and the resilience to be our next President. He speaks to the America I've envisioned in my music for the past 35 years, a generous nation with a citizenry willing to tackle nuanced and complex problems, a country that's interested in its collective destiny and in the potential of its gathered spirit. A place where '...nobody crowds you, and nobody goes it alone.'"
Bruce Springsteen, April 16, 2008