Use flash?

But eek ... i dunno if Bush is an idiot, but geez they sure know how to make a fool of ol' Bush!

please keep using Quicktime with the H.264 codec. It looks great and loads faster than anything comparable.

Flash? Well, it's clunky and inelegant... unless you compare it to windows media player...

Not to mention .mov files play in Linux nicely with the mplayer plugin.

Flash would be a disaster, as they don't make it for amd64 machines.

what was thats bit at the end.....what was .blank. upset about?

I think Jon Stewart got to Joe when he was on the Daily Show recently. Gee, and it only took six years of Bush being president for the mainstream media to ask if he's really smart enough for the job. Blue skies are here again!

Fund is arguing in defense of dim-witted Republicans but he says; “There are no Democrats who have this image”. Exactly! All of us share aspirations of living in a world where there is peace and prosperity for all. We should be represented by leaders with the intelligence to lead us toward these goals.

This administration has learned the information age is a scary place. If your trying to cover up mistakes and paper trails; god help you. Should you speak on live TV; god cannot help you.

I think Joe really hit it on the head better than the other two. The burning desire to get it right is just not there. I don't think that Bush's raw mental capacity is that much lower than most past presidents. But the thing that sets him appart from just about every other president in recent history is how easy it came to him. It all fell into a frat boy's lap. The presidency is like a TV show ("Walker Texas Ranger") he watches from time to time in between vacations.

If Bush was really bad at math and English, and below average intelligence, but absolutely determined to be the best president he could be even if it drained him body and soul, we would not have half the screw-ups we have now. He would not be controlled by Cheney et al.

Yes, Norm, your Quicktime policy is good. Using the QT clips on this site is part of what converted me to Macs.

Actually far better quality and smaller. Keep H.264!

Yes, H.264 is my codec of choice, and works really well here. Thanks.

nevermind the fact that anyone running Win 98 or 2000 can't upgrade to QT7...

and actually wmv files using the Windows Media 8 converter were some of the smallest best quality files I've ever done (and as a web developer I've done quite a few)

so I guess the question is, do you want the message to as many as possible, or is this about being a quality snob...

Inarticulate? Linguistic deficit?

Duh.

But mainly lazy.

That said, it worth pointing out that Prescott is a lecherous, pugilistic moron who was given a senior post to try to pretend to the Clause 4 people that 'Labour' hadn't sold them down the river. The fact that he's offered no resistance to Tony on neither on the matter of Bush nor any other is a fair sign that he is a ideal free zone. Two jags - what a wanker.

I'm disturbed by Joe Scarborough - he's been making a lot of sense lately. I never used to like him much.

Not to mention .mov files play in Linux nicely with the mplayer plugin.

Really? I've gotten mplayer-plugin and totem-plugin to work for some sites (like Apple's trailer site), but they always throw out errors on 1gm. Something about the way the movie is embedded, I guess. It's a shame, because I'm using Linux mostly full-time now, so I can't really visit 1gm anymore.

intelligence is culturally constructed.

in america, we value cognitive features such as processing speed, short- and long-term memory, conceptual skills (language and vocabulary), perceptual skills (visual-spatial dexterity, mathematics), ability to plan and concoct problem-solving strategies.

with dubya, there's scarce evidence in the media of any of that. nor does dubya express any curiosity.

these clips are so very awkward to watch!

Those clips really made me embarassed for the guy.

I cringe just watching them.

I thought scarborough was a hannity-style tool(?) This piece was still fluffy but for a talking head piece very balanced and focused on the right question - how much does intellect matter to the presidency?

As much as I dislike this president, I think he will come back to become one of the most manipulative presidents we have ever had, and will be honestly considered one of the most sly ones our nation has had. He's like a man you see in the day that stumbles over every word he says, but at night he could be a brilliant conman. His communication skills are terrible, but he fits in so well with organizations like the NSA that he can get more done than anything. If he were a true idiot, he would have been assaulted for his phone taps, his faulty AIDS policy, his horrible view on the environment, the terrible No Child Left Behind Act, and so on and so forth. He may not have many ideas, but he has an exceedingly exquisite skill of getting you to look where he wants attention drawn when it comes to his policy. We've spent so much time laughing at him and hating his foreign policy that the air time for domestic policy compared to foreign affairs is contemptible. As much as I detest his policies, I think he's very far from stupid.

Please. Scumborough is a Republican tool. Can we try not to get our panties all damp every time one of these right-wing talking heads says something halfway critical of Bush?

Denigration of Bush is a way of releasing the rest of the fascist right from the hook of the Littlest Dictator's plummeting poll numbers. Get ready, because the next two years will be all about these media whores telling us how intelligent, engaged, "adult," and un-Bush the next Republican candidate (McCain, Giuliani, whoever) is.

Chrissie Matthews already has his hard-on primed and ready to go, as the end of this clip clearly shows: http://tinyurl.com/hys6f

Unfortunately Bush's actions ever never done anything to create doubt of his lack of intelligence

I love the codec you use, Norm. Several reasons. But you should really call it h.264/AVC mpeg-4, because although I don't know what that means, it has more letters and is thus better. Much more impressive the more 'techie' you make stuff sound. In fact, everytime I say "I love to recode my videos using the new mpeg-4 format, h.264/AVC" people look at me funny. I think it's because they're so impressed. That must be it.

Joking aside, I appreciate the codec very much, and to not have this site take advantage of this awesome technology would be very sad. The point Norm makes as to why he uses it is two-fold: it's his damn site and he'll do as he pleases / it's an improved viewing experience for those readers who can see it. Oh, probably the reduced bandwidth cost too. And it being easy to do after so much experience. But mostly just cuz he'll do as he pleases because it's his blog. Which should be good enough for the lot of ye.

I think the inarticulate bumbling is because he won't say clearly what he's actually tthinking to the public. I'm sure in private conversation he gets his points across quite well.

Bush is a man who loves power and influence, but hates responsibility. A dangerous combination.

What an interesting comment, observation(?) by John Fund regarding naming any well-known democrat who has the same or similar image as GWB, being assigned dumb.

If a Democrat made even a fraction of the idiocies that Bush makes, his or her political career would be toast. Hell, if the right-wing media decides it wants to destroy a Democrat, it will simply manufacture quotes and clips to do so (see Al Gore and Howard Dean).

The media bends over backwards to protect Bush. For every soundbite you saw in the Scumborough clip, there are dozens that are never shown. Remember how long they kept the "My Pet Goat" video under wraps. If it weren't for "Fahrenheit 9-11," most people still wouldn't be aware of it to this day.

"actually wmv files using the Windows Media 8 converter were some of the smallest best quality files I've ever done (and as a web developer I've done quite a few)"

Then do it prove it! Show that you can do a clip at this length with the same quality. If you can why don't you email Crooks and Liars and tell him how to do it. It would cut his bandwidth in half.

direct me to a high quality source file, and I'm happy to

(a recompressed, compressed file always looks nasty...)

Send me the settings for WM and I'll try it with the same source I used. normjenson@yahoo.com

Is he mentally deficient? Does it matter? I really could care less about the intelligence level of the president, as I know that the office holds little say over official policy changes.

To me, the presidency is almost to the point of the royal family in the UK. The president seems to be more or less just a PR tool and about selling an image or "product" to be broadcast over popular media.

His "intelligence" level or appearace to lack it most likely is about image...to appear "average"(rather than the popular perception of politicians as "educated elites")...Its the people around him, and far more importantly, the congress and large business interests that seem to be making the large scale policy implementations.

Thanks for using QuickTime.

Think Progress suddenly switched to Flash and now I can't use their videos anymore. That is really terrible as they post video that I don't find here or at C&L.

I save the QT videos and make compilations for my family that doesn't have dialup (or is technically challenged by Windows). Now that TP is flash only, their videos are un-useable.

"Maybe overmatched by the english language" - indeed. Bush's intelligence isn't the question so much as his lack of curiosity. The zillion malaprops don't help, and certainly do nothing for international relations. W should be the poster adult for anti-drug campaigns, but not for education. Showing these clips is like shooting fish in a barrel, no?

Norm, I signed into type key, but identity came up. Don't know what's going on. I am using a new computer, but different computers have never posed a problem before. Any suggestions? thanks-

I run a few websites, and have always preferred QuickTime, but the file size often ended up being huge. I want to thank Norm for helping me understand how to make them so much smaller, yet still be good quality, as he did about a week ago.

It's not about being a snob, it's a preferred format with good quality and small size.

Thanks again!

"Please. Scumborough is a Republican tool. Can we try not to get our panties all damp every time one of these right-wing talking heads says something halfway critical of Bush?"

I'm thinking primarily of the last four (or so) Scarborough clips on here and on Crooks and Liars. In fact, I actually thought about saying that I was surprised by the amount of sense he'd been making LAST clip. Yes; he's a republican. But surely we can accept others might have different political views than we do. The main thing is that the points he was making seemed to be 1) rational, 2) balanced with appropriate modifiers and 3) an intelligent contribution to the discussion. I admit I only see the American TV that is clipped on these blogs, but I'd never been very impressed with the quality of punditry in America and then suddenly three of them seem to stop talking bollocks at once (Olberman, Matthews and Scarborough). I'm hoping this is symptomatic of mainstream political discussion media starting to be about... er... political discussion, as opposed to just emoting about this or that 'item'.

Hey Norm, the quality and load times of your vids are amazing - much better than many other sites that use wm or flash... thanks for putting the effort in to making them look so good.

Things we know about Mr. Malaprop: he suffered school poorly with a C average and football players knew a class was OK when he was in it; he is an offical malpropist; he has some intellegent people in his staff.

Things we don't know: his IQ.

I doubt he's completely unintellegent. I remember the satrist Harry Shearer connected a study, done on language function and rampant alcholism, with Bush's wit, or lack of. The study showed those who drank for an extended period suffered a certain brain damage in which the speech center was dysfunctional. But, then again, it ruins in the family--his papa was a bit of a malpropian speaker too.

For those of you who have machines that won't run QT7, VLC is an open-source video player for just about every OS on the planet that can play MPEG-4/H.264 video: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

--Quentin

its funny that you mention his college career, i was just thinking the same thing.

you guys all know the guy in your classes. loud, obnoxious, grossly stupid but somehow everyone enjoys his company. and there you sit, wondering at how he actually made it through the fourth grade. bush is that guy.

Scarboroush is ok actually. He's generally consistant is his views such as fierecely opposing the Bush Administration Big Brother tactics such as wire tapping and reading through bank records. He is consistent in demanding that they get a warrant first.

Unlike many other conservative pundits, he is not trying to defend Mel Gibson's anti-semite comments as the right loves Gobson's portrayal of Jesus in the Passion.

====

Btw, this just in.

British Labour thinks Bush is Crap too...

Labour agrees: Bush is crap

The Independent asked a group of Labour MPs what they though of John Prescott's outburst

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article1220089.ece

using windows media encoder 8 (NOT 9) set it to 320x240 and

you can choose : WM8 Video for DSL/Cable Delivery (250Kbps, 320x240, 29fps) from the options menu

then click on the edit button

select Windows Media MPEG 4 Video V3

adjust audio settings to taste (somewhere between 20 kbps 32kHz and 44kHz is normally best, but it really depends on the audio, if it's just talking you can drop it way down before the quality loss is noticed even as low as 10kbps and 11kHz)

and there you have it, a nice compact video that plays on just about anything and will result in 5 mins of good video at about 8MB

There wasn't any overt evidence for Reagan? What? Hello? Trying to construct a new myth are you? And the book of letters? It clearly showed him to be an intellectual middle-weight at best.

When it comes to criticizing Republicans more than Democrats for a lack of intelligence, all I can say is, "Stupid is as stupid does". The long list of GOP policy failures translate into a general lack of intelligence. The non-wavering support from the "base" (30% or so of those surveyed) is also indicative of a greater education problem here at home.