Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Experts respond to your questions about the State of the Union

Tonight at 9 pm EST, President Obama will deliver his first State of the Union address, which you can watch live at youtube.com/citizentube. One week ago, we asked you to share your own commentary on the State of the Union and what we can do to address the nation's most pressing issues.

You responded in droves, submitting hundreds of ideas for how to improve the country in 2010 and casting thousands of votes on what you felt were the best submissions from the community.

Newsweek convened four experts to respond to your top ideas and provide additional analysis, and we're featuring these four videos on the YouTube homepage today.

General Wesley Clark, the retired Army general and former presidential candidate, addressed your ideas on defense and national security:



Nouriel Roubini, a professor in economics at NYU widely recognized for predicting the real estate market crash, listened to your ideas on jobs and the economy and provided this response:



Jim Hansen, a renowned NASA climatologist and climate change expert, replied to your thoughts on energy and the environment:



And Fareed Zakaria, acclaimed author and international editor of Newsweek, discussed your top voted ideas in education:



Thank you for submitting your ideas. Be sure to tune in tonight to watch President Obama's speech live on CitizenTube (youtube.com/citizentube) at 9 p.m. EST, and submit your questions for the President during and after the speech. He'll answer the top questions in a special YouTube interview from the White House next week.

29 comments:

Lee Doren said...

Dear CitizenTube:

Thank you so much for making this contest. I noticed that I was the #1 rated video in the economics category, and consequently got my video "featured." I really appreciate it, and could not have gotten featured if it wasn't for this great contest idea.

However, I have a few quick suggestions because I believe the final product of the contest did not live up to the spirit of the contest:

1) When the contest was first started, I assumed it meant my actual video submitted would be featured. Not until yesterday did I realize that Newsweek "experts" would be responding to our videos;

2) If this contest is intented to be a bottom-up approach to the State of the Union, why have "experts" responding at all?;

3) Jon Meacham of Newsweek has said that he wanted to move Newsweek to the Left to find a new marketing niche. Consequently, all the "experts" have the same vision on the direction of the Country (Pro-Keynesian Economics, Pro-Gov't Healthcare, Pro-Global Warming is caused by man and will lead to a catastrophe, etc., and Wes Clark was the Dem. nominee for President);

4) I don't fault CitizenTube for offering the contest, however, I think the spirit of YouTube would have been to allow the actual videos submitted by featured. In fact, I only realized my video was featured by accident.

Best,

Lee Doren
HowTheWorldWorks

Anonymous said...

I think you are wrong when you say American secondary schools teach how to think and the rest of the world teach how to take a test. The rest of the world as you call it, teaches how to think and In american secondary school they teach how to take a test I will tell you why:
(a)Many american students (high schoolers) can't hold the materials they learned in their brain up to two months after final school day.
(b)The rest of the world for instance african schools that I know of, a student gets to see a cheat sheet only a few days before the final examination. By the time the exam is due, a student dont even know how to use the cheat sheet.
(c)If a student can't think, how can he/she pass a single exam that covers the materials he/she learned in the past two to four years?

Anonymous said...

Man even when you win Lee you still complain about how youtube is liberal and how you feel robbed by this "contest".

It's called youtube for a reason. You make youtube what it is by what videos you make and what videos you watch. The onus is on you. Unless you want to suggest that Failblog is liberal or RayWilliamJohnson is liberal or Meekakitty is liberal or the vlogbrothers are liberal. How many people on youtube are you going to go out of your way to call them liberal before you realize that there is no actual bias created by youtube and it is nothing more than an open forum for people to create content?

Realize this that you just won but you are still complaining now about how partisan this company is for being liberal even though your question a very conservative extreme opinion was rated number one. Your own claim is contradicted by the result. It was no accident that your video was featured and was answered very seriously by an actual economist.

Which I remind you that you are not an economist. So you can continue your belief that every organization is created by the left always making you the outsider or you can realize that most people here are rationalists and will take the time to listen. Standard internet trolls aside of course.

Besides if you feel so disenfranchised. Sue! You're a lawyer and if you feel they broke the actual terms of service of the contest then sue. Don't complain because you a lawyer didn't take the time to read the fine print, something I would assume a lawyer would be an "expert" at. After all you hate experts, right Lee Doren?

Lee Doren said...

Anonymous:

Actually, most of what you said isn't true.

I happend to get the most votes because I provided a link to my video so my own subscribers could rate it.

The contest to submit "your state of the Union address" was a great idea. However, it certainly wasn't implied that my video would be placed 4 minutes in to a video bashing Republicans and then so my video could be attacked. I don't have a problem with debate, but my video was just served up to a Keynsian economist who blamed this economic crisis on greed, which is like blaming a plane crash on gravity.

Lasty, I like Vlogbrothers, RWJ, etc. However, RWJ used to talk politics and admitted to being liberal (he has since stopped), Vlogbrothers (hank) runs ecogeek and John advocated the Dems healthcare bill.

I could go on and on. My point was very simple: The spirit of the contest was to have YouTube users submit their own State of the Union, which pretty much is defeated once Newsweek "experts" simply make their own recommendations and attack the videos submitted.

Anonymous said...

Lee you are missing the point.

First, I didn't even mention anything about "how" you won the contest. So brining that up as a point is irrelevant. No one here complained about "how" you won. It was that you decided to complain about the result of the contest despite you winning which demonstrates pettiness.

Second, you did not read the fine print and what take the time to understand how the "state of the union" videos would be handled. So the onus would be on you to understand the contest fully before submitting a video.

Also the video done by newsweek didn't bash republicans. I am a republican and it was an economist taking your question and only your question not a political stance and answering the question very seriously. So don't be a partisan hack when you don't get to hear what you like from an actual economist.

Third, you also miss the point on my statement on how youtube is about you. I've been a republican since I could vote and I've also been a computer nerd since I used a Tandy and I can say that youtube as a corporation is not liberal, it doesn't even have a political bias. There is no lines boxing any "libertarian" videos or "republican" videos from getting out. You go out of your way to promote your videos and make it on the news section of youtube. Peter Schiff and InflationUS also make it on the news section and they are very libertarian points of view. To claim that youtube as a corporation is liberal is contradictory because of the results you, PJTV, and InflationUS have been able to be noticed.

However I mention the community because you are competing with other users like Meekakitty or RWJ or the Vlogbrothers and I didn't know their political status. However just because a good majority of the youtube community doesn't want to watch your videos doesn't mean that youtube is liberal or the youtube community is liberal. They just have better content that people would prefer to watch.

For example I'd rather watch the Vlogbrothers on the health care debate compared to your videos because the hard truth is that you treat youtube like a game which it isn't. Your behavior on youtube is unacceptable and childlike. You go out of your way to be condescending to your own viewers calling them "drones" or be sarcastic and call them "genius", or even worse make remarks like "Stop wasting my tax dollars on your education" and even your video titles are horrible "The young turks are clueless".

Your videos themselves are very degrading by ripping off other people's video content and just narrating dissent in a condescending manner. "The story of stuff the critique" demonstrates that you won't even take the time to design your own video but instead ripoff the video and dissent the video by being spiteful. Your "fisking of liberal viewer" series is also condescending because you go our of your way to call him an idiot, or moron.

Finally the "T.J. Needs a hug" video is the ultimate form of disrespect. It makes me think you really have never felt real pain or loss. Do you even remember how sad it was when you were a kid and your first pet died? If you do now change that to the person that raised you and cared for you. Wouldn't you be pissed off if someone made a video like that about your father, or mother, or sister and being so smug about it? I know I would be.

CONT.

Anonymous said...

Would you find this behavior acceptable if these people were physically around you? I know I wouldn't want to be around you if that is how you decide to act on youtube daily. Even in the videos you try to be nice demonstrates how much of a game you think youtube is. In you vlog message to John green of the vlogbrothers you actually said "This is not an owning video". Now that says something about your view on youtube. That you truly believe that it is your job to "win" at youtube by having your views be seen as the correct ones while all other youtube users like the Vlogbrothers, The young turks, Potholer54, dprjones, sxephil are wrong and shouldn't be watched by the youtube community. This is a forum of ideas and it is up to you to make youtube what it is for you and only you. Only you can decide what to watch and what videos to make. Deciding to make videos heckling and insulting other youtube users is petty and doesn't really help advance the dialog or cultivate the youtube community.

Finally, your idea on Citizentube's SOTU contest doesn't matter because it was Citizentube's contest and it was their idea on how it would be run. Just because you feel disenfranchised on the way the contest was run was a failure on your part to read and understand what the prize was. It is that fine print that lawyers like yourself are so good at reading. Even the video Citizentube made didn't advertise the exact prize. They just said that your question would be promoted on youtube. Did you really think your question would be posted without an actual response by someone? It was clear that Citzentube was looking for questions from the community and those questions don't really mean much if they are not answered by someone. And since you aren't involved in choosing who answers them don't complain because the person answering your question is a person you don't like.

Lee Doren said...

Anonymous:

He flat out attacked Republicans. This is not up for debate: He said Republicans were stalling, and didn't care about the economic destruction of the Country because they would win in November.

I don't believe for even one second you're a Republican. Not one second.

Moreover, I was referring to the general YouTube audience....not YouTube itself, since I even mentioned that my submission would be in the minority.

Lastly, since you are anonymous, may I ask if you work for CitizenTube or will you care to share your username so I can prove that you're not telling the truth.

Lee Doren said...

BTW: You do realize that I'm friends with TJ....but, by that statement, which only one person has made before on YT. I'm pretty sure you just gave yourself away who you are.

Again, provide me with your username....I don't believe one word you just said.

Anonymous said...

Congrats Lee. You just entered into paranoia by thinking someone is out to get you instead of trying to help you become more successful on youtube.

Since you like playing these games and "owning people" let's play. Why don't you take a guess who I actually am. So you keep guessing and when you get the right answer I'll let ya know. You might actually understand that just like the many types of democrats there are different types of republicans. Personally I prefer to conserve policies that work like net neutrality which is what has made you thrive on the internet and youtube. That's the only clue you get.

You can choose to believe me but at least I'm giving you the hard truth on your negative behavior on youtube and it shows in your own videos.

Lee Doren said...

Anonymous:

I'm stating facts:

You're not telling the truth about your beliefs. Just say what you want to say without lying and proclaiming your a Republican.

You flat-out lied about the contents of the video.

Your statement about TJ is false, considering we're friends, and yes, you were the only person on YouTube to make that statement.

Lastly, the proof is simply that you won't reveal your username.

Lee Doren said...

you're*

Unknown said...

I think that's his way of surrender?

Anonymous said...

Yeah, when they resort to name calling you know you've got 'em...

Anonymous said...

Just because you and TJ are now friends doesn't mean that the video you made about him needing an e-hug isn't extremely disrespectful. So get that fact straight and no amount of friendship will erase the action in your video. Imagine if a person saw that video as their first impression of you, would be a positive or negative impression?

Also you don't have any proof that says I'm not a republican. So I don't think you can state that as a fact either. You are simply stating your belief and opinion as fact which is your main problem about your negative behavior online and on youtube. Besides you don't have my registration form to actually prove which party I am registered under compared to the video examples I have given.

Also suggesting that I'm not putting up my username isn't a form of proof to what I'm saying is not good criticism.

Of course you always ignore the questions like.

Do you find your behavior acceptable on youtube in your videos and comments?

Would you truly act like you do in your videos and comments in front of an actual group of people?

Do you realize that I actually give context and examples to support my claims of your negative behavior on youtube and how you treat youtube as a game?

Do you realize that your own success contradicts your claim that youtube as a company is not liberal and neither is the community? That people like you thanks to net neutrality allow you to be successful and that there are no borders boxing republicans in.

Do you realize that despite winning your own comments are essentially complaints that are of your own fault because you didn't do the research to fully understand the contest? That you have no merit to complain and be partisan that someone you don't like answered your question.



So you can either believe what I type has merit and that I want you to be better on youtube by looking at your videos from a neutral or unexposed viewer or you can believe what I type has no merit and you can continue guessing my identity.

By the way I'm still waiting for your guess.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, when they resort to name calling you know you've got 'em...
January 28, 2010 4:48 PM

Nah. My posts actually have content and no need for insults. Insults don't help the dialog from being clean and clear. Of course those of paranoia will easily claim that other people's posts are my own.

Anonymous said...

I take it in the butt also.

Lee Doren said...

Anonymous:

TJ and I were responding back and forth since our first video. Again, you're hopelessly uninformed. You were the only person on YouTube who was offended.

I proclaim with absolute certainty that you're lying because your core beliefs differ with absolutely everything about the GOP.

I'm not going to justify a response to nonsensical points made by an anonymous liar.

Chuck said...

Anonymity is an useful tool for cowards.

Anonymous said...

I greatly enjoy that you, Lee haven't answered any of my questions, yet I've answered yours. Why don't ya get out of the ivory tower and take the time to address my questions and understand my criticism instead of repeating the same point over and over again about your friendship with TJ which isn't relevant to the the content of your video if you were a first time watcher of that video.

Talk to your fellow man as if you were sitting right next to me. You might find it quite liberating.

Anonymous said...

also, I love dick.

Lee Doren said...

Anonymous:

Because I see what you're doing.

You start by lying about the context of the video.

You continue by lying about your Party affiliation.

Then, hoping that I'll think you are a GOP, you give Far-Left talking points on issue after issue.

Worse, you're an anonymous lying troll with only one purpose: To get a rise out of me by lying and trolling.

None of your points are worth addressing.

Mike Tolen said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mike Tolen said...

Anonymous:

You are way off base. Lee's videos are opinion-based and backed up by research and facts, documented verbally during the videos and via links in the sidebar. The fisking videos are critiques. He is not ripping off content! Stealing content would be to take something and represent it as your own.

So what if he calls someone a moron? That's his opinion (remember, we have free speech here in America.) If you don't like it, exercise your rights to free speech and put the effort into debating Lee with a rebuttal video. Maybe you'll use your real name and find a way to avoid wearing a mask. I dare you.

Anonymous said...

I hate you.

Anonymous said...

I just found this page and read thorugh the comments a few times. Anonymous, I believe you are wrong here. Lee's logic is sound and what he says holds up quite well. One thing that you should consider for the future: beginning with your first post, there is a clear presence of an emotional background in what you say and how you say it. The problem is that is all too easy for your emotional involvment to affect your thought process and the final product of your ideas. This will get you destroyed in a debate as your positions crumble under an unstable foundation. Find a way to check your position on issues solely with documented facts as Lee has done. Also, it is best in debate not to make assumptions about what your opponent is thinking. You will develope your argument on something that may or may not be true - and even if it is, you will have a hard time proving it. The best thing to do is to point out (with documentation) where your opponent is wrong or has lied, as Lee did with your statement.

Anonymous said...

from the post with the 3 sentences that start off do you...?
do you...?
do you...?
i swear i could hear liberalviewer's slow voice. that's my guess, too bad we'll probably never know

Anonymous said...

I am anonymous and hear me roar...

Anonymous said...

I just want to say that I posted 2 comments here yesterday. Well, the part where I said, "Rich people legally don't have to pay taxes...," Yeah, I feel really dumb about saying that, lol. Just scratch that part. But the rest of what I said, I still hold to. Thanks.

bellevent said...

Anonymous, no one is going to take you seriously if you resort to name calling. Why are you anonymous anyway? Mr. Doren is open to the world about his opinion. You can disagree and be respectful.

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