Election Ballot

Check the line for the candidate for whom you would like to vote.

_____ Abel, Mark

_____ Coy, Justin

_____ Honeycutt, Chad

_____ Perrin, Kate

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.