Poll: Obama eight point advantage over Palin in '12 matchup

In this particular article, Poll: Obama eight point advantage over Palin in '12 matchup reminds me of the lesser of two evils debate. Obama may be up by eight points beating Sarah Palin leading up to the 2012 election, but he isn't exactly favored the way it looks. After an Associated Press-GfK survey was processed, results indicated that 54% of the people did not think that Obama deserves to run or become elected in this upcoming election in 2012. The fact that Sarah Palin's character has not proven to be the best in the past, she isn't favored so much either. The fact that she blamed the school for her daughter's action of calling a student a "faggot over Facebook makes her look even worse. Although I have my own opinion of whether Obama or Palin deserve to run for office next term, it seems as though the people who took the surveys have no choice but to vote between "the lesser of two evils."

Sarah Palin: Blaming and avoiding responsibility.

Sarah Palin wastes no time making it on the news once again. Only this time, her daughter Willow is the top story. So what’s the hype? Willow, age 16, called a schoolmate an inappropriate derogative term for a homosexual, “faggot”. I could go on and talk about how the media waste time into politicians lives with senseless stories about name-calling as in this example, however, I’m going to take a different route and join the band wagon by picking on Mrs. Palin mostly because of her response to this situation. What was Mrs. Palin’s response to the immaturity of her 16 year old daughter? By becoming even more immature. Sarah Palin responded to her daughter’s actions by pointing the finger and blaming the schoolmate as well as the media for causing her daughter to cognitively process an inappropriate label on a select group of already targeted individuals for hate crimes and reiterating that in writing through Facebook. It would be one thing to apologize for her daughter’s actions, which would have been in her favor by making her seem mature and responsible for other’s actions, but instead she blamed and denied any responsibility for her daughter’s actions. It should be a given that if you are a politician, with a well-known face at that, you should always take responsibility even in the small things and learn how to say sorry. Ok maybe I am being a little too hard on Mrs. Palin, she does have the media constantly watching her and her families every-move, but, name-calling on a social network and against a controversial group of people and not apologizing, what is she thinking?
Goodnight!
-Damian
http://www.queerty.com/sarah-palin-has-no-problem-with-daughter-willow-calling-facebook-kids-faggots-20101128/

Senate Action on Food Safety Bill Delayed until Tuesday

The article that I chose to blog about this week is titled "Senate Actions on Food Safety Bill Delayed until Tuesday". This article is about Senate leader Harry Reid announcing that two amendments, the Coburn earmark ban and the Coburn subsitute that pays for food safety, as well as the final passage of the food safety legislation will start Tuesday. It states that the two amendments are neither expected to receive enough votes to pass and the food safety legislation is expected to pass without much difficulty. The article then provides some of the regulations that will become law if the bill passes. However at the end of the article it presents some criticism that Senator Tom Coburn states which is that the bill amounts to regulatory overreach. Some other criticism is that the recently-added language exempts small farmers and food facilities with less than $500,000 in annual sales that directly market to consumers within a 275-mile area. I feel that these people critising this legilation are making evaluative claims on whether it is a good idea to pass the bill or not and to possibly influence a shared belief. Although it is not a public vote these views could get House voters thinking of whether to pass it or not and make changes to the regulations. http://politics.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/11/29/senate-action-food-safety-bill-delayed-until-tuesday

Unemployment Benefits Extension Deadline Is Here: Will Congress Act?

In the article, "Unemployment Benefits Extension Deadline is Here: Will Congress Act" by David Knowles, found on AOL.com proposes the question, will Congress pass the law allowing an extension of unemployment benefits for people who have been out of jail for six months or longer. Benefits are going to expire on Tuesday at midnight unless Congress steps in and approves another extension. According to the article, "Blocked in large part by the Republicans, the U.S. House of Representatives failed to muster enough votes on Nov. 18th to pass a three-month extension of benefits. Now, Congress has just one more day to do so before the current extension expires and more than 2 million Americans find themselves without weekly checks for the federal government" (Knowles). This article starts out by immediately telling viewers that the Republican Party is not for the extension and therefore is not looking out for the struggling lower class population of 2 million Americans. The author really stresses that point. To the attentive public, who are in favor of the Democratic Party would probably be pleased to see this. The author also reaches out to the inattentive public by stirring up conflict by making the Republican Party look bad while making the Democratic Party look good. "Democratic Representative Dale Kildee says he expects Congress to pass the new extension Tuesday" showing the public through this article that the Democratic is confident in their fight for the extension for benefits for the struggling unemployed Americans.

http://www.aolnews.com/surge-desk/article/unemployment-benefits-extension-deadline-arrives-will-congress-act/19737197

a plague of bail-outs?

maybe i'm just naive--but before I heard the term "bailout" used for an entire country was when Obama was speaking about the plan he had for the United States of America and our bailout. Then i read about the bailout that is supposed to take place for Ireland. So...I scratch my head in wonder that if this bailout will also be spent on giving rich people better benefit packages and affording them more paid days off than they already have had. The thought of what is supposed to be economically wise choices benefiting only the wealthy makes me absolutely sick to my stomach. Would it be too obvious to divide this bail out somehow among all the Irish residents? Is that too much common sense or "socialism"? In countries where the poor continue to slip into poverty, isn't it important to give them a helping hand in order to help them come out of these financially dark places? Or will it be more important for Ireland to make sure their top government officials are feed well? In the article it speaks of "...protests were organized by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), which has called the four-year plan for spending cuts and tax hikes "savage and regressive."" Which makes me hopefully that the poor will not stand buy idolly so that they are taxed even more, but totally unable to rep any of the benefits of the bailout that appears that it will cost them even more money through raising taxes.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/BUSINESS/11/28/ireland.bailout/index.html?hpt=Sbin

Bush and his book and stuff

Former President George W. Bush is still a big figure in the media these days, and he is very busy. He has a new book coming out called decision points, and his first stop on his tour will be at the Faceboook headquarters in Palo Alto, California. He is also has been on Oprah, the today show and the tonight show. My question that I would like to raise is how he is able to get so much positive attention these days, but when he was in office he was seen as a goofball. Now that he has left office it seems like people like him more, they seem to have forgotten about all the dumb things he did while he was in office for 8 years. Now that he has a book coming out that explains what went down in the white I feel it would be interesting to read and see what he has to say about his time in the White house. I think that he really wants the American people to show him sympathy, we as an audience are very unforgiving.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/social.media/11/29/bush.facebook.live.mashable/index.html

Wikileaks, Facebook, Bush and his Book

More free media for former President Bush today as he promotes his book to a forum at the Facebook headquarters. He is still promoting his memoir “Decision Points” that came out a few weeks ago. The book has been on the top of the New York Best Sellers and has sold quite a few copies. President Bush claims he is trying to stay out of the political spot light and just wants to make money selling his book. This is interesting to me because he appears more interested in getting people to read his book to see why he made the decisions he did, maybe repairing his ethos or credibility, rather than making money which I’m sure he already has a lot of already. At the Facebook forum, President Bush discussed the resent events regarding Wikileak’s release of classified information that Bush said would “hurt foreign relations”. I found it interesting that he would take a minute to comment on recent events in terms of politics even though he has repeatedly said he would not. Although his input into recent events was brief he made it very clear the point of his appearance was to promote and sell his book. Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook was there also and discussion on him and President Bush donating money to help education was discussed.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/11/29/bush.facebook/index.html

2012 Election hasn’t started…yet…

And the 2012 Republican Presidential Nominee is…Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? As I read the article “No rush to jump into the 2012 race for White House” I was reminded of Ben Stein looking for answers that no one had and surprisingly we’ve barely heard a whisper from an actual candidate (outside media hooplah over Sarah Palin) about whether or not they’d be running in 2012. The article offers an interesting point of view as to why that is: The 2010 Midterm elections exhausted the political audience. This particular midterm election has been talked about…well since the 2008 Presidential Election concluded and it has completely eliminated any interest from either the attentive and inattentive audiences because we are just sick and tired of it. There are some front runners in the Republican party but none of them are stepping up in the campaign arena as of yet this is becoming beneficial to the secondary candidates who don’t have as much money. This article targets the attentive audience because most people in the inattentive audience wont or even really care if the article hadn’t come out. Since this next election is proving to be another blockbuster its good that we will have a few months to wait before we are bombarded once again with election talk.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/11/23/no-rush-to-jump-into-the-2012-race-for-white-house/

Obama calls for 2-year freeze on federal pay

Today President Barack Obama proposed a two-year freeze for salaries for over 2 million federal workers. They are doing this in attempt to cut the deficit from Republicans. The freeze however will only make a tiny dent in annual deficits or the nation's $14 trillion debt. The Obama administration said the plan was designed to save more that $5 billion over the first two years. The proposal still must be approved by congress, but it would not apply to the military, but it will affect all others on the Executive Branch payroll. Many  republicans are furious at the decision, Colleen Kelly, head of the 150,000 member treasury employees union, "We're going to do everything we can to make this not happen and to explore all our options". that if passed won't take effect until Jan 1 2011, and as the federal government as the nations leading employer, Obama says we are tightening belts, as the economy and federal spending were top priority. I feel this is a great idea by President Obama, it places the pressure of the economy on the people that have the power to make a difference. With personal ties to the situation, and Republicans unhappy with the decision, they are forced to either deal with it or find an alternative solution.

John Bolton for President?!?!?!?!!! WHATTTT

The article I read was about how former US ambassador John Bolton is seriously considering running for President in the upcoming 2012 elections representing the republican party.  Bolton currently works as a Fox News commentator and is seriously concerned with the national discourse and how it does not include talk of foreign policy.  Recently Obama was on a world tour and was highly criticized by Isreal and other countries on how he conducted himself.  So for John Bolton to bring this up is only fueling the fire of whether or not Obama is a good fit to be the United States president.  Also, with recent polls showing that the independent party has swayed from being mostly supporting democratic party to supporting the republican party.  I think John Bolton is playing the roll of a watchdog just was waiting for something to happen and then pounced all over it to make Obama look even worse.  Boy does it fit that he'd bring himself into the picture as running for picture directly after Obama went overseas and looked bad as a representator of the United States. This makes sense for him to do so because he was formly a US amabassador which makes him a good candidate for being someone who would properly represent the United States. 

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/11/28/goper-considering-an-obama-challenge/

Hillary freaks out about wikileaks

In this news article, Hillary Clinton expresses her disconnect with the apparently fairly recent phenomena of Wikileaks where government cables are being leaked on the internet. To me, this phenomenon is much needed. I think it is extremely important that our government "secrets" come into the light and that we stop trying to deceive so many nations with trying to play both sides of the table. I believe that these documents coming to the surface are an important part of showing that the American Dream myth is continuing and that all the public sees is that America is trying to "help" but is really planning all of these takeovers and backhanded relationships that they are trying to keep quiet. People like HIllary Clinton are so far into trying to convey America as "the beautiful" that they forget how important it is to be upfront about your politics and honest about your going's on's. I think the irony that Hillary is so opposed to these documents leaking is that Bill had so many secrets that ended up leaking and really harming that family and his legacy as a president. So maybe her few on the Wikileaks is slightly bent and distorted because of that event happening in their life. The fact is though, these dealings have already occurred--regardless if they were leaked or not, and it is not at all fair for the United States of America to have a handful of aces that they are trying to keep from everyone when they try to police the entire world so much and trying to tell so many nations how to live their life. It seems that the people that are going to be affected by the leak are going to attempt to downplay how bad some of those secrets are in order to not damage their relations with other countries. Again though, the fact remains the corruption of power is not anything new to the USA and pretending like it is shows the powerful of the American myth that has transcended the states and clearly has infected other countries views of us too.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/11/29/wikileaks/index.html?hpt=T1

Bad Obama

http://video.foxnews.com/v/4438853/is-obama-losing-israels-respect
Is Obama Losing respect in Israel? is a video that sums up what news critics have been saying about President Obama’s foreign relationship. This particular video has an Israel man talking about how negative Obama is treating Israel people. The man being interviewed talks about how there has been extreme pressure from the white house sense Obama has been president to do and not do certain things. When taking an excerpt of President Obama talking about Israel, President Obama says that Israel government is asking for trouble when building certain buildings in Israel. This clearly is not accepted by the Israel man and really tries to show how bad President Obama’s foreign relationships skills are. This is not the only example of President Obama being in the negative light. After a world tour President Obama was bashed by all forms of media as media was being a watch dog of President Obama. I don’t understand much about foreign relationships but I feel like when the media destroys President Obama in our media it only aids in the anger of foreign policy and lack of support of the United States. I believe the news should be shown accurately however the President should not be criticized from one man from Israel if that opinion is not the general senses of the people of that country.

Obama gets a fat lip

Maybe it is just me, or maybe not, but I think there are more important things to be doing than playing basketball. An article titled Flying elbow leaves president in stitches after basketball game talked about how President Obama was playing basketball with White House aide Reggie Love and others at the Fort McNair military base in Washington. During the game, Obama was elbowed in the mouth by Rey Decerega, “who works for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute” (Henry, cnn.com). One quote that kind of annoyed me was said by Decerega. Rey said, “I enjoyed playing basketball with him (President Obama) this morning. I’m sure he’ll be back out on the court again soon.” That bothers me because there are more important things going on in the United States and other parts of the world that should be at the top of the ‘to do list’. I understand that Barack deserves some down time, but he took the most prestigious, most important, and busiest position in the entire United States. I just wish he would act like it more often. I have heard more about him playing basketball than I have about most NBA players. For some unknown reason, that is a big topic with Obama. I wish people/the media would prioritize what they do and the stories that they run. Not only are we in a war that started many years ago, but we are now faced with the North Korean and South Korean confrontation. We have big problems in the United States, and I just think it was a poor choice for Obama to take time out of his busy schedule to play basketball with other White House officials. I also think it was a dumb story to run on CNN.com. Please give me something a little more serious and meaningful next time. I could care less if Obama got hurt playing basketball. I guess this is yet another example of agenda setting, framing, and priming. CNN definitely let us know what to think about by running this story, they covered it humorously, and they decided this story was more important than many other things simultaneously happening around the world.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/11/26/obama.stitches/index.html

Obama's Role as Head of State in North Korea

The article on FoxNews labled ‘North Korean Attack Comes Amid Regime Succession, Labeled 'Outrageous' Act’ reminded me of the two major roles of Presidency that we discussed earlier in the semester. The first role was the president as head of state which concerned his obligations in international politics and policy making. The second was as head of government and the President’s role in domestic affairs. This article discussed the current government’s displeasure with the North Korean attack on the South. According to the article, “President Obama is expected to speak with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak at some point on Tuesday.” The article also stated that “"The United States strongly condemns this attack and calls on North Korea to halt its belligerent action and to fully abide by the terms of the Armistice Agreement." This article is an example of how our current President, Obama is acting as Head of State and dealing with international policy. Obama was meet with the Korean president and make sure that international law is being upheld and peace is maintained.

The Sarah Palin strategy

I read this article last week as I was deciding on the last blog assignment and it had me laughing, so I decided I'd save this for the final bang. The article I choose is called "From Surprise, to saturation the Sarah Palin Strategy" by Jonathon Mann. The article talks about Palin's idea of creating her campaign through essentially Image advertising which is focused on the type of candidate vs. Issue advertising which is focused on the positions the candidate holds. In the article Mann states "American is watching her climb glaciers on TV, court controversy on the internet and back political candidates nationwide, adjusting to the increasingly obvious idea Sarah Palin really does have her eyes on the U.S presidency". Sarah Palin's whole technique has been to create the perfect American Female Republic President. This can be seen in her show "Sarah Palin's Alaska as Mann argues "featuring the 46-year-old mother of five rafting, climbing and shooting her way through her pictueresque home state". The idea of being an outdoorsy woman this day in age who lives surrounded by family and lives so actively in nature shows the true American Spirit. In recent polls 80 percent of Republicans have a favorable impression of her while among all Americans 52 percent have an unfavorable impression. I'm a firm believer that a woman can be president but for our countries sake I hope her image advertising doesn't make her the first female president.

Sarah Palin's book

With elections for the next president of the United States coming up in like a year, Sarah Palin is coming out with a book. Her book is called America by Heart and it supposedly about the years during and before the last presidential election and how she received so much love. I think that it is not coincidence that she is releasing it right now. She knows that people will pay attention to her even more now because the book is being released. Even though many people may not feel that she is suitable to run the nation, attention is so very important these days. I for one hope she does not become a serious candidate in the race because I think she’s an idiot, but you never know in our nation. Being a celebrity obviously very important, just like what we saw with Jesse Ventura and Terminator.

Trump under 'pressure' for 2012 run

The fact that Donald Trump is mentioned in running for 2012 president of the U.S is intriguing. The sight of this happening makes me think of when Jesse "The Body" Ventura running for president. He used his character and wild campaign strategies to win a campaign. Similar, if Donald Trump did run for President he would have to use his past established rapport to gain favor during a campaign run. He's known for his show "The Apprentice" and this would definitely help him win, not to mention that he is one of the wealthiest people in the world. This article also makes me think of when Presidents would show up on television shows, demonstarting that they are normal people. Because Donald Trump has already showed up on television shows and various commercials, this would be another way that would help Donald Trump succeed if he would run for President. If he were to run, a great campaign strategy might involve his success in gaining money through investments, real estate, and generally working well with people.

Burning of a Gay Pride Flag

This article talks about the burning of a Gay Pride flag at Albion College. A student by the name of Salaina Catalano apologized for taking apart of the burning of the flag on October 18th. Catalano turned herself in to Campus Safety where she signed a written statement about the incident. College President Donna Randall responded to the situation by issuing a statement that said, “The college has taken the situation very seriously and followed its established policies and procedures in investigating the situation and determining what should be done. As of November 10th none of the students had been issued any punishments. Randall went on to say “Privacy laws prohibit me from providing information about the actions taken against those individuals, I want to make it very clear that the college condemns harassment of any member of our college and I feel confident that those involved will not participate in such acts in the future.” There has been some backlash for the lack of response from the college, including an online petition which encourages people to refrain from donating to the college.

I have mixed feeling about this. I truly believe in gay rights. But I also believe in freedom of speech. However, burning a Gay Pride flag can be seen as harassment and something used to intimidate a group of people. It can make homosexuals feel not welcome. I think burning a Gay Pride flag is a disgusting act and is juvenile. Then again, burning it may be protected under the first amendment, just as the book says, “If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment , it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable. We have not recognized an exception to this principle even where our flag has been involved” (310). The United States flag represents a country while the Gay Pride flag represents a smaller group of people who have been oppressed. In the end, I think the actions of the college students were disrespectful and radical.

http://www.mlive.com/news/jackson/index.ssf/2010/11/albion_college_releases_statem.html

The article I have chosen this week is called "Women who told Obama she was 'exhausted' loses job". Velma Hart, the chief financial officer for Am Vets, a veteran services organization based in Maryland, was fired from her job after telling the President that she was exhausted in a televised town-hall meeting in September. Hart told Obama "Quite frankly, I'm exhausted. Exhausted of defending you, defending your administration, defending the man for change I voted for, and deeply disappointed with where we are right now." Obama goes on to say that the economy is very poor right now and that everyone is struggling and he understood her frustration. This article made me think of scapegoating. The book says "the scapegoat becomes responsible for all that's wrong, and the rhetor and the audience unite against this scapegoat and achieve a kind of redemption by purging the scapegoat from their midst" (Bell 109). I remember watching this on television and the audience was supportive and happy when Hart said this to our president which makes me think she was making Obama the scapegoat for all her problems. This is obviously ridiculous because Obama can not be directly to blame for not only one woman's problems but for the entire audiences as well. The book goes on to say that "the person or group chosen is not as responsible for what's wrong as the rhetor claims" (Bell 110). The article goes on to say that Hart still supports Obama and is trying to look at the positives right now. She may not have meant to blame Obama or make him a scapegoat but she certainly did during that meeting and maybe now the tables are being turned.

Nato official clarifies Kabul child safety comment

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11807382

In the article from the BBC entitled “NATO official clarifies Kabul child safety comment”, the author discusses a senior NATO official, Mark Sedwell, and his response to articles that came out about him stating that the Afghan capitol of Kabul was a safer city than places such as “London, New York or Glasgow or many other cities”. Sedwell, who is the Senior Civilian Representative in NATO, made these comments to a group of children when discussing their safety in combination with what was going on in Afghanistan, however he holds firm that is words were taken out of context. Sedwell claims he meant it in a manner of explaining how the violence in Afghanistan was changing, and that some of the major cities, such as Kabul, were much safer than other places in the country because of the security within them. However, his words are proven to be false later in the article by first hand accounts from children who say there are bombs going off all the time within the city.

This is something I would classify as being a form of free media. Free media is the idea that no matter what the media, in this case the BBC, is doing, they are giving free promotional coverage. This goes along the lines with the belief that no publicity is bad publicity. Although this article at first makes Sedwell seem apologetic and lets him explain himself, at the end it goes into details about why he is wrong, and simply makes him look like an idiot. However, his name is now out there, and some people who have never heard of him, like myself, now know who Mark Sedwell is, the Senior Civilian Representative in NATO.

Clinton Says She Isn't Planning on Running...Yet

“I am not running for President of the United States” …where have we heard that before? When asked whether or not she was planning to run for President in 2010 against the incumbent Barack Obama Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated that she has no interest in doing so. This is a pseudo-event because of who is involved if it were any other Democratic politician who wasn’t Clinton it wouldn’t be an issue and definitely not something that would have come up on cnn.com. This is a pseudo-event because it doesn’t matter we all know that no Democrat is going to announce that they are going to run against President Obama until 2011 is half-over and the election run is going to be in full force before anyone rises to oppose him and the only reason Hillary is asked is because she’s viewed as Obama’s greatest threat. She’s the Secretary of State she’s the only challenger he has that could win and for that reason this is an event this isn’t important and it is vaguely speculation. Personally I hope she does run because it would make me happy to see someone challenge Obama because it appears Sarah Palin is going to be the Republican’s #1 Contender as it were…good lord.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/11/21/clinton-im-not-running-for-president/

Palin Releases Excerpts of 'America by Heart'

While reading several of the top articles on CNN.com I noticed, as always, Sarah Palin is in the public eye. As several people may already know, Palin just launched a new reality show series, "Sarah Palin's Alaska". This has sparked several viewers attentive and inattentive attention. While some are supporters and think it is a positive move toward the next Presidential election, others feel that it makes her look like a joke and feel that they can't take her seriously anymore. However, the article that I decided to blog about is not about the Palin's new reality show, but her new upcoming book, 'America by Heart'. According to the article, Palin describes the book as "my view of America and what has made her great. And says much of her inspiration has come from conservative icon Ronald Reagan". The excerpts recently released state, "President Reagan's call for us to fight for, protect, and pass on to future generations the sources and meaning of our freedom is both a political and a personal call; it's a challenge, both for our country and for us individually. I take this challenge seriously. Passing on peace, prosperity, and liberty". I think that this quote relates to both agenda setting as well as priming. This was just a 'sneak peek' at her upcoming book. I think it is setting up an agenda for what Palin wants the public to see from her. She is stating that she plans on taking on these challenges, and she's serious about it. She is priming the public to think that she is uplifting and politically minded while portraying Americans in an inspirational way.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/11/22/palin-releases-excerpts-of-america-by-heart-3/

Chandra Levy Case/Politics and Media

After looking at news stories, this one caught my eye because I remember watching this case closely while I was in middle school and wondering what ever happened. In this article titled, “Chandra Levy: The Story that Gripped Comes to a Close” it really reflects on the political impact this case had and the effects media had in the whole case now that a suspect has been found guilty. I remember watching many news segments about this in the summer of 2001 and remember thinking even as a seventh grader, “how big of “scum bags” are politicians?” because in this case Representative Gary Condit not only had an affair with his intern, but was suspected of killing her. While I was young and didn’t read into how much the media was finding Condit guilty before adequate information, but the story seemed to line up and it seemed like it was all but agreed upon by the jury. Condit’s reputation quickly was tarnished, as he not only was immoral as a husband but was made out to be a murderer. While I agree that this was the most controversial story until the tragedy of 9/11, I believe it is a perfect example of how the media always throws a quick “guilty” suspect to the public in order to for a scapegoat and to tie together a better story. In this case I think it came at a time where there was slow news, and while a cheating politician wouldn’t be anything new, after Clinton and many others, a politician murderer would be a huge story and plot line to cover. In this case it was a great plotline to create, and now they must cover themselves with articles such as this one. I think it’s ironic that in today’s media a suspected politician murdering can ruin one’s career, wheras Ted Kennedy ran his car off a bridge killing someone and his political career remained is revered.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20023618-503544.html

Facebook-banning NJ pastor acknowledges threesome

http://www.middletownjournal.com/news/nation-world-news/facebook-banning-nj-pastor-acknowledges-threesome-1008998.html

In searching for an article for the blog assignment, I ran across a very interesting article that I found to be very amuzing. The Rev. Cedric Miller confirmed the information reported was true of a testimony he gave in a criminal case in 2003 dealing with his ex-wife. In his testimony he said his wife had an "extramarital affair with the church assistant" and Miller participated in many of the sexual encounters, and sometimes the assistant's wife was present that took place at Miller's home place during Thursday Bible study meetings and Sundays after church."The minister said the encounters "came to a crashing halt" when several women in the church accused the assistant of having sex with them.Miller since then has been preeching that "Facebook was a "portal to infidelity" and told married church leaders to delete their accounts or resign as the church leaders. Miller ends the article by saying , "My life as a minister, husband, father and friend has led me to the conviction that I must do all that I can to help as many people strengthen, preserve and repair the often times fragile cords of marriage" This article automatically made be thing of Bitzers, Rhetorical Situation theory. The exigence of the situation is the affair that the Minister and his wife had together. The audience in this situation was the congergation of his church or anyone he recieves his words of wisdom, The constraints of the situation was that he was having orgies with members of the church and was preeching a different message. And the fitting response was "My life as a minister, husband, father and friend has led me to the conviction that I must do all that I can to help as many people strengthen, preserve and repair the often times fragile cords of marriage", he since then has been trying to seploy people off of Facebook.

2012 Election Polls- Obama over Palin ;)

For this weeks blog entry I read an article on cnn.com about how the 2012 elections could happen.  The article states that President Obama currently leads Sarah Palin by 8 percentage points in a hypothetical 2012 general election.  Of the people polled 49 percent felt that Obama should not be re-elected while 43 percent felt that Obama should be re-elected and given the chance to take on another term and prove that he can change out nation for the better.  In the poll 9 percent we're undecided on whether or not he should be given the chance.  According to the associated press-GFK survey that was released 11 days ago stated that over 54 percent of people believed that Obama should be voted out of office while only 39 percent belived that he should be given another chance at taking on a second term, while once again 9 percent we're unsure of whether he should be given a chance or not.  According to the Quinnipiac poll Republican's chose by a 92 to 4 margin believe that Obama should not be re-elected while Independents believe that a 51 to 35 margin that Obama should not be re-elected.  Peter A. Brown, who is an assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute said this is respose to the recent polling, "The Democratic base remains squarely behind President Barack Obama when it comes to his re-election, but his weakness among independent voters at this point makes his 2012 election prospects uncertain,." I believe that this is a very fitting response given the information that everyone has received in the past week about how polls are heading. It covers that democrats are still backing them, however, unlike when he got elected and had the landslide from Independent party, now he is not supported at all like that.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/11/22/poll-obama-eight-point-advantage-over-palin-in-12-matchup/

Pres Carter Attacks Fox and Glenn Beck

In the article Jimmy Carter Takes A Stand Against Glenn Beck and Fox News, President Carter is given “free media” and possibly “earned media” on CNN. President Carter took aim at Glenn Beck, Fox news, and MSNBC news, saying they “deliberately distorted” the news. When asked about his recent book and the criticism of the media in it, President Carter said how he believes the three news stations (Fox, MSNBC, and CNN) are all biased. He claims Fox is heavily biased towards the right, CNN is biased in the middle playing both sides but also being the most fair, and MSNBC biased towards the left and liberals. I tend to agree with President Carter’s assessment of the big three news stations and where their biases lie. President Carter’s main point in the interview was that these media stations have stopped reporting the news as what has actually happened, and have started reporting credit or blame for what has happened. It is hard to explain but he basically says both sides of the political spectrum in terms of news outlets, have distorted the news and facts to reinforce their partisan biases, whether they are on the right or left. It was an interesting article and President Carter had several good viewpoints.

http://www.politicususa.com/en/carter-beck

Another day, another Sarah Palin article. This time, it's about Palin's new book, "America by Heart." The conflict arose last week when Gawker, a website, posted exerpts of her book without consent. Her book, which is scheduled to be released tomorrow, is expected to be a hit based on her popularity after the elections. She also released a sneak peek on her Facebook this week to help promote the book. While the book is mostly about her new fame, it doesn't steer away from her political views.

"But maybe I can think of a sadder prospect: Tripp and our other grandchildren spending their whole lives working to pay off the irresponsible debt we have accumulated and are about to leave to them."

That's just one excerpt, which clearly has political sentiments in it. Since then, she released a few more, less political excerpts as well as some more uplifting ones. I think that this article is an example of free media, but also shows how social media can help to promote ones cause. Palin has the right idea by using Facebook, which has more than 500 million viewers, and he fan page has almost 2.5 million viewers. That's 2.5 million viewers who she is promoting to, to ultimately receive more free media.


http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/11/22/palin-releases-excerpts-of-america-by-heart-3/

The Carnival of Politics

Our Country, also known as the land of the free, where we can say what we like and practice what we want as long as it does not hurt another(s) is one of the few countries in the world where its citizens can make fun of its own government and political leaders on a daily basis if they so choose. For example, if a politician or executive leader in our country does something to alert attention or is controversial, the media will be there to cover it and along with the media are the skeptics who make fun and ridicule current political situations such as what happens on Saturday Night Live (SNL). This article talks about SNL and the tactics it does to make fun of political leaders and organizations. This article specifically talked about the Transportation Security Administration or TSA. The TSA has added extra security precautions for traveling with airlines such as screening pat-downs to ensure safety for every passenger. Politicians such as Incoming House Speaker John Boehner however, were able to go right around the metal detectors and scanners as well as avoiding the pat-downs, during one of his most recent flight trips. Of Course, this triggered SNL to make a skit over the actions of the TSA in adding these extra procedures. SNL made a skit where cops were patting down attractive women and the narrator saying "spending time with a TSA agent couldn't be easier. Simply book a flight departing from any American airport." And "The TSA: It's our business to touch yours." SNL does a great job at the carnivalesque.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/11/22/political.circus/index.html

Palin's Reality

Sarah Palin has done it again, she has successfully ruined yet another aspect of Americans’ lives; television. Although my personal feelings for the woman (she makes me want to eat glass) present some bias, I have to admit it is a very smart political move. Sarah Palin is now using the realm of reality t.v. to push her political agenda, which is not surprisingly conservative (you can watch her fishing in bear country in the first episode). This is a smart move by Palin because our country is so bound to the tie between celebrity and politician. During Obama’s campaign, he became more of a superstar than a boring old senator, and I think people really connected with that. In Palin’s case, this show will most likely humanize the conservative robot who talks like she is giving a throwback to Fargo. Only ratings and time will tell if her success on television is linked to her success in the polls, but I find it hard it to believe that there won’t be some correlation. Watching some of the latest polls, it shows Palin viewed almost as exactly as before, so watching those numbers shift just may open up a new avenue for politicians to plug themselves, television. Given polls have their fair share of flaws, as we talked about in class, demographics, age groups, gender, etc. are huge factors in the sample, and do not always reflects the nation’s actual view of Palin. Save, I think I can be a little more creative, how do you feel about Snooki giving John McCain a lap dance, or maybe the Flavor Flav picking Jan Brewer to be his life partner?

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6AE41020101115

Obama and Chamber of Commerce

The article I have chosen is from cnn.com. This article is titled “Obama mulls big speech to Chamber of Commerce.” The article is all about how when Obama took office his speech was almost bashing the Chamber of Commerce because of his beliefs that the Chamber was using illegal foreign money to influence the midterms, a charge the Chamber passionately denied. This has caused a gap between President Obama and the Chamber of Commerce especially with the president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Tom Donohue. This article also states that there is talk about an invitation to President Obama to come into the Chamber of Commerce. This has struck up the idea that possibly after the New Year President Obama could give his speech when the new Congress convenes. It would be predominantly good timing for President Obama to try to get everyone ready and prepared for his State of the Union address which will be held later in the month of January. Additionally with this timing there is hope to “hit the reset button on his fractured relationship with the business community” in the Chamber of Commerce, but mostly with Tom Donohue. This to me would be a speech to the Chamber as an apology for accusing and attacking them when he first took the office.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/11/19/obama.chamber.commerce/index.html

Weed

So we’ve all been there, you’re sitting at your house and you want to smoke a little weed but you can’t, You can’t because you don’t know anyone else that smokes pot or could supply you with marijuana. Tony’s law wants to change that. Entitled 'Tony's Law' Would Require Marijuana Users To Inform Interested Neighbors an article in The Onion is about this proposed law. Tony’s law wants illegal drug users to post a sign in there yard informing neighbors that they smoke pot. Legalizing marijuana is a hot subject right now and again we see an extreme opinion on ways on how to change hot topic laws. Tonys law got its name after Tony DiCenzo who went nine months without getting high due to the lack of supply. Tony doesn’t want this problem for any other Americans and presented to congress recently. The tagline for this law is “Millions of Americans love to get high.” The Onion not the most valuable news source outlines why so many Americans feel congressmen are a waste of time and money. An idea supported often in the media. This free media by The Onion will heighten the issue about legalizing marijuana and inform the audience about Tony’s law.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/tonys-law-would-require-marijuana-users-to-inform,1298/

Who is the better dancer?

I was reading an article from CNN.com titles ‘Political Circus: Bush a better dancer than Obama?’ The picture that accompanied the story was of former President Bush dancing with members of a West African troupe during a White House event. The article started by talking about George Bush’s appearance on ‘The Tonight Show with Jay Leno’, and this was Bush’s first appearance in 10 years. On the show, Leno played a clip of Obama dancing with kids in India and then played a video of Bush dancing at the White House event with the West African troupe. Leno then proceeded to ask Bush who he thought the better dancer was between him and President Obama. Bush’s verdict: President Obama. The article continued by jabbing at other politicians and their slip ups and most memorable moments. There was a segment called ‘Notable Quotable’, and this mocked Dick Cheney. Next, the ‘Underwear Summit’ that made fun of a quote by U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman. The article hilariously ended with some ‘Late-night Laughs’. Conan made fun on Donald Trump running for President in 2012, Letterman made fun of both Palin and Trump running, and George Lopez made fun of Bristol Palin and Mike ‘the situation’. Not only does this article fit the criteria for carnivalesque with the tables turning on the politicians (or want to be politicians), but the media is also making these certain, highly unimportant issues more salient and accessible than other more pertinent issues. Although the article is funny, I feel there are more important topics that should be at the forefront of our news media.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/11/19/political.circus/index.html

I really wish Sarah Palin would go away!

Sarah Palin has done it again. She has managed to make something ‘not political’ into something very political. And, she is strategically using free media to promote herself…once again. As most people probably know by now, Sarah Palin is now the star of her own reality show. This show features her and her family in their natural habitat in the great outdoors of Alaska. As if we all didn’t know, there is speculation that Palin will be running for President in 2012, and this show is sure to help. According to Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, “Everything Palin is doing is ambiguous. These things are helpful if she runs for President. But they don’t necessarily commit her to doing so.” Sarah is using her power and popularity to use free media, just as she did on ‘Dancing with the Stars”. The cameras are always on her and following her every move. Whether she is supporting her daughter on ‘Dancing with the Stars’ or fishing with her kids on her new reality show; all eyes are on Sarah Palin. “A recent Gallup poll found 52 percent of Americans have an unfavorable view of the former governor. Another poll conducted by AO-GfK found 49 percent of Americans view Palin unfavorably. But, among Republicans, it’s a dramatically different story. That same AP-GfK poll discovered 79 percent of GOP voters like Palin” (Acosta, CNN.com). It’ll be interesting to see if her tactics are successful or not. I guess we will all have to stay tuned to see.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/11/15/palin.alaska/index.html

Obama Apologizes?

A recent interview with President Obama related to our class discussion on genres and more specifically apologia. On November 4th Obama took part in an interview with Steve Croft from 60 minutes on CBS. The interview took place two days after the midterm defeat and was the only interview President Obama sat for. The discourse between Obama and Croft was reminiscent of an apologia speech. In this interview Obama seemed to be reaching out to the public apologizing that he had not lived up to America’s expectations and providing reasons as to why he was defeated in the midterm elections. He admits to not living up to people’s expectations when he says, “people I think expect that we would have made more progress than we have on the economic front. And I think that was uppermost on people's minds.” Further into the interview Obama works towards rehabilitating his ethos through bolstering and providing specific examples that focus on positive things his government has done. Obama provides an examples of how his government has produced jobs and is working towards lowering the unemployment rate e.g. “Absolutely it's produced jobs. And I'll give you a specific example…five years we went from two percent of the world mark potentially to 40 percent of the world market. And those jobs are in places like Michigan and Ohio that had been really hard hit.” His speech is reminiscent of an apologia as there appears to be an admittance of failure, rehabilitation, and bolstering but he does not officially say he is sorry or regrets what he did just the circumstance at which he came into office.

Today, President Obama's children's book "Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters" was released. In the CNN article "Obama's new childrens book hits shelves"President Obama was inspired to write this book by his daughters Sasha and Malia. The book is a tribute to thirteen amazing men and women who have shaped our nation and created the ideals for which it stands for today. "The book celebrates the characteristics that unite all Americans-- the potential to pursue our dreams and forge our own paths, Said Chip Gibson, head of the publisher's children's book division". Obama also wrote this prior to becoming The President of The United States of America, which is a strong point that I feel needed to be made so that people do not criticize him. Although I think this book will be a powerful one with a lot of great meaning behind it, I also believe that this is once again the press creating free media for the President. His status got him a headline spot and a news story to cover his book and he didn't even have to lift a finger. The implications of this news story suggests that Obama still believes in this country and understands how it developed but he and his campaign can also use this as a free exposure to show the world that they are still dedicated and fighting for what is right. Another important part of this article that I enjoyed and I am sure people will be pleased with is the fact that all the proceeds from the books will be donated to a scholarship fund for children of fallen and disabled soldiers. So this also helps to show his dedication to the troops and to the US military. I also think this will help his image a little bit after the midterm elections. Since the Midterm elections proved to be over reported and made into a bigger deal then they were Obama's popularity seemed to be on the decline. When I first read the headline, I was kind of disgusted because it seemed like CNN was framing this as a negative thing, like Obama has been writing books in all of his spare time. The media never seems to amaze me with the way they can twist a story and highlight things exactly the way they want to, but in my opinion of this case President Obama got a little bit of free image repair out of it.

Rangel walks out of ethics trial

For this weeks entry I found an article/video titled “Rangel walks out on ethics trial” on CNN.com. This article talks about how Democratic Representative Charlie Rangel walked out of his ethics trial Monday afternoon. It speaks of how his request to delay the hearing because he was not given enough time to assemble a new defensive team was rejected by the ethics subcommittee was the reason for his behavior. Rangel faces 13 allegations which include failing to pay taxes on a home in the Dominican Republic, misuse of a rent-controlled apartment for political purposes and improper use of government mail service and letterhead. Although Rangel’s defense team left him in September, one would think that if knew that he was expecting to go to trial that he would assemble a new defense team immediately. However it does say a lot about the trial and Rangel that even his defense team left him. Him leaving the trial affects his ethos, or the persuasive appeal he makes based on who the audience believes he is, negatively because leaving a formal event such as a hearing does not reflect well upon Rangel. It does not look good for him and it does not look good to the committee and the rest of society. Being a U.S. Representative for New York, it also questions his credibility. You would think that someone with his power and status to show some confidence in himself with or without a defense team. Having ethics issues and walking out of a trial does not make the people of New York feel comfortable with him being their representative. He should probably resign as other House Republicans and Democrats have told him to do so. He should of planned ahead of time. http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/11/15/rangel.ethics.hearing/