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Streaming Election Night Broadcast TV?
Posted by
timothy
on Wed Oct 29, 2008 03:32 PM
from the wailing-and-gnashing-of-teeth dept.
from the wailing-and-gnashing-of-teeth dept.
kakapo writes "A couple of years ago, we dumped our cable TV, and don't have much luck getting old-fashioned broadcast where we live. That's fine — we can download or netflix almost anything we want to see, and it is great not to pay the Comcast tax every month. Problem is, now I want to watch the election live, complete with talking heads, pundits, glitzy graphics and all the rest, rather than reading about it on a website. So, is there any way to download network TV / CNN / MSNBC in real time — I don't mind paying. And yes, we could visit friends, but ideally our kids would watch the first part and then go to bed — and a sitter would be expensive if we have to wait until late for the result."
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Yes (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Yes (Score:4, Funny)
Dave Byrd [premierelections.com], is that you?
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I'll spoil the election for you: McCain wins.
I think we lose regardless of whichever of the two wins. (It would take a miracle for any of the 3rd party ones to win.)
Re:Yes (Score:5, Interesting)
No, only winning move is not to play....
I was really excited to vote in this election (as I missed bing born early enough for the the last one by a few weeks), but both the canidates seem like incompetent panderers. I cast my vote hoping that my canidate will return to how he was before the primaries, and not pander to his party so much.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I'd be in your boat if Hillary had won and Palin weren't on the ticket. I can't stand either of them. It's amazing how similar they are, while holding diametrically opposed sociopolitical beliefs. I do agree with you that, in the event McCain wins, he goes back the man he was in 2000 and kicks some serious congressional butt and fixes the deficit and debt before he starts handing money back.
Re:Yes (Score:5, Insightful)
They don't both support the war(at least not identically, yes both support afghanistan, but Obama wants out of Iraq).
Redistribution of wealth depends an awful lot on how they do it. McCain will continue the usual republican model where they "create wealth" so that rich people can be richer making everyone else comparatively poorer. I'm not entirely sure what Obama will do in the end, a hand out to everyone doesn't work, but providing people with health care, protections at work, free education, and general assistance to ensure that rather than working hard to make someone else rich some of their hard work is rewarded by making them a little bit wealthier is a redistribution of wealth I can get behind.
The current system of wealth distribution is flawed. The folks who do the work get barely enough to get by, the folks who run the companies(even if they didn't build them and don't contribute to them) get paid bucketloads, and the scum sucking stock trading weasels make even more playing the market game at the expense of everyone else(including the companies that the stock market is supposed to provide investment captal for).
Parent
We are on the same channel. (Score:3, Interesting)
Here is what I would do:
(1) Pass law (and, I hope, amend the Constitution), to the effect that no campaign contributions, gifts, or other compensation shall be given to current or campaigning politicians, other than from individual citizens who are eligible to vote. No entity that does not actually vote (i.e., anybody but individua
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Have my head hacked off by some religious lunatic versus an infinitesimal chance[...]
You seem to be under the impression that having your head hacked off is guaranteed, in reality (you should visit some time) it's much less likely than someone in government looking at your private information.
(yes, yes, I know, you have nothing to hide... send me your passwords then, so I can watch your email)
Better Election Live Coverage Links (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Yes (Score:5, Informative)
The magic incantation is...
mplayer -playlist http://www.cnn.com/video/live/cnnlive_1.asx [cnn.com]
*WITHOUT* the "[cnn.com]" in brackets at the end (damn you Slashdot). I'm running it on linux, and watching CNN right now.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Hulu.com? (Score:5, Informative)
Check the Cable feed (Score:5, Informative)
Have you tried plugging a TV into the cable feed? A lot of times, the cable company won't bother implementing a cancellation, figuring that reclaiming the box is good enough and saving the cost of a truck roll. It's possible that you'll still have analog basic cable on that "disconnected" cable line. Alternately, you could sign up for one month of limited Analog Cable for $15.
Re:Check the Cable feed (Score:5, Funny)
No no no, when you let someone smoke your weed, you're smoking them out. "Smoking up" just means you gave them a smoke cured ham. But don't worry, lots of people get confused on those two (especially with the memory loss that comes from all that ham).
Parent
Really? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Really? (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Anything for non americans? (Score:4, Informative)
This election is pretty much sealing the fate of the western world as we know it; we are quite a lot of people very very interested in the results.
Re:Anything for non americans? (Score:5, Informative)
No it isn't
Let me fill you in.
If McCain wins odds are that we will have a Democratic majority on congress.
The end result is that it should keep things somewhat in the center. Or very little will get done that doesn't have a universal support.
If Obama wins we will have a Democratic congress. Truth is that I would bet that it will also go more towards the center but if they start really messing up then in two years congress will shift back towards the Republicans and we will again have balance.
If Obama or McCain really mess up we fire them in four years and get a new president.
In the end it will not be the end of the world.
Geez I don't like Obama's energy policy since it is not as pro nuclear as I would like. I am not all that fond of McCain's tax plan. Or Obama's "Guess what folks. You can not give a tax cut to someone that already pays zero or gets more back than they pay in. That is called charity."
Truth is I doubt it matter much one way or the other. I don't think their is a great man running for president this year but I also don't think their is a monster running.
Chill out and relax.
Parent
Re:Anything for non americans? (Score:5, Insightful)
If Obama or McCain really mess up we fire them in four years and get a new president.
Like we did with George W Bush?
Parent
Re:Anything for non americans? (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Anything for non americans? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd agree with most of what you say were it not for Sarah Palin. That woman puts the fear of God in me, and I'm an atheist! Can you imagine someone in the President's seat who doesn't even know what the Bush Doctrine is without having to phone a friend? We had a retard in the oval office for 8 years and it has been an unmitigated disaster. Lord help us if the American voters once again show disdain for educated people as 'elitists.'
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
You don't go to Yale if you are retard
You do if your daddy is one of the most influential people in the country and he wants you to.
Re:Anything for non americans? (Score:5, Interesting)
Not really.
The president can only do what Congress allows. That is what I find so funny about people freaking out over the president.
There are checks and balances in the system one person can not mess it up that bad in just four years.
Parent
Re:Anything for non americans? (Score:4, Informative)
Yes I have. And yes most Americans have faith in checks and balances.
The invasion of Iraq passed with huge support from both Democrats and Republicans.
Also with a lot of support of other countries at the time.
The Economy? Not just Bush's fault. Take a look at all the other countries that have had the same thing happen to them at this time. We have been going from bubble to bubble since Clinton. No one was willing to deflate the bubble but bubbles don't last for ever.
If you think one person has that much power for good or evil you are just clueless.
Bush is just easy to blame since he is the president. The number of people involved is huge and isn't even limited to a single country.
Parent
Get cable temporarily (Score:2)
Sign up for cable today, and cancel after the election. Most cable companies in the US don't have contracts, and you can cancel service at any time. You might end up paying for a month of service and an installation fee, but it could be cheaper than a baby sitter.
Listen instead (Score:5, Informative)
Any decent AM radio station will have full-time election coverage, and radio news is generally 1000% better than the swill that you see on TV.
Re:Listen instead (Score:5, Informative)
AM or your local FM NPR station if you can pull it in. I've found NPR's live election coverage to be quite good.
Parent
Re:Listen instead (Score:5, Insightful)
I totally agree and plan on finding out what Americans do on Election Day via shortwave radio from BBC or Radio Sierra-Leon or some other non partisan source on my antique Halicrafters. I am by the way IN the US and a US citizen. Ever consider some other country could run a propaganda station? they might call it..oh I don't know... " Voice of America"...or something....
Parent
Re:Listen instead (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Slingbox (Score:5, Interesting)
Why watch at home? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
And as for the baby sitter... Virginia's polls close at 7pm, and if/when Obama takes that state, the election is basically over, so you probably won't have to pay her/him much overtime this year.
C-SPAN streams live (Score:4, Informative)
Site is flakey. Here are direct links. (Score:3, Informative)
The C-SPAN site uses a flakey AJAX framework to try to sniff your stream reader. Unfortunately it's broken for some browsers. That seems to include firefox - including the version on my Ubuntu Feisty install which I keep up-to-the-minute with the upgrade tool.
So I've reverse-engineered it enough to find URLs for the underlying streams.
Here are direct links to the realplayer streams for C-SPAN [rbn.com], C-SPAN2 [rbn.com], and C-SPAN3 [rbn.com].
= = =
PS: I haven't been able to figure out how to construct similar links for archived sho
Screw that... (Score:4, Insightful)
I think I'm going to take a sleeping pill right after work and try to sleep through the whole thing. There's no point in watching it "unfold" - the next day my guy will either be President Elect or not, and my watching breathless talking heads constantly reanalyzing the same data isn't going to change it one way or another.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Comcast Tax? (Score:3, Insightful)
I mean seriously. If you were to go to McDonalds and buy a Big Mac would you be paying an Big Mac tax?
It's a price.
Re:Comcast Tax? (Score:4, Insightful)
If I went to McDonald's and the only way to get a Big Mac was with Fries, a Coke, and a Sundae (with wonderful "extra" options like salad, milk, and coffee available only if I purchase a "base" value meal), you sure as hell can bet I'd see it as a "tax".
Of course, the solution is to not go to McDonald's. Right up until I realize that McDonald's has been granted a monopoly in my area. Going to Burger King requires that I MOVE 30 miles away because they can only serve local residents. Worse yet, nice restaurants have all been driven out of business by a government-sponsored monopoly. So my options are currently go to McDonald's and pay the McTax, or don't go out to eat.
THAT is how Comcast is a tax.
Parent
this is some sort of archetype (Score:5, Funny)
the "i don't own a tv and i have to tell everyone about it" guy
in answer to your question: who cares? why do you feel the need to tell everyone you don't own a tv? that's the real subtext of your question
and if you think that's a smarmy answer, well then i have a real answer for you: GO BUY A TV. GET CABLE OR SATELLITE. END OF STORY. your brain will not melt, you will not be contributing to the downfall of western civilization. really. or, go ahead and listen to the various unnecessary technical gymanstics you must perform offered in this thead. instead of simply going and getting yourself a simple, harmless television
the onion was prescient: Area Man Constantly Mentioning He Doesn't Own A Television [theonion.com]
this is some sort of genuine subculture. and if not owning a television turns one into a vainglorious buffoon, then please, everyone should own a television, for the sake of a healthy sense of humility. sheesh
FOX (Score:5, Funny)
i believe Fox has the best coverage - i hear it's pretty balanced, and covers all the policy issues; I'm sure they'll have a stream with not too many adverts
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Direct tv will have 8 feeds on one channel in HD (Score:3, Informative)
Direct tv will have 8 feeds on one channel in HD
C-SPAN (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Same thing with the World Series (Score:5, Informative)
I am wondering the same thing about tonight's World Series game on Fox. Anyone answer that question?
Baseball/Football/Basketball jealously guard their broadcast rights.
The only way to stream those things live is off the official website or through a premium membership (aol/msn/real networks/i'm not sure who anymore) after paying for it.
CNN is a lot easier. It's on their website for free.
Parent
Re:Same thing with the World Series (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Why should they? He's different from the idiot who's now in power and the senile fool who's the alternative. That's all anybody cares about.
Exactly. As a Brit, viewing from overseas, McCain looks pretty much the same as Bush. Old, rich, right-wing guy. So the election looks like: Vote for McCain, because you think Bush did OK. Or vote Obama, and hope that that guy has some intelligence, a more worldly view, and morals. Mind you, I thought in 2004 that the US population couldn't be *that* silly to re-elect Bush. Mind you - fool me once, shame on -- shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again.
Re:Sigh. Only 6 more days of this BS (Score:5, Funny)
I couldn't even pretend to know something Gordon Brown has ever said
I could take a stab at it... "C'mon, bloody hell! When will Blair retire?"
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Nada?