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