Southern Expressions

NEVER CAN SAY GOODBYE

2004-12-06T14:23:00.000-05:00

Well, this is the end of the semester and finals are today. I hope that everyone does well and can take things that they learned in this course and it to better their grades elsewhere. I enjoyed the laughs and discussions in class and I hope that my English II course will be just as interesting. Dr. Tryon: keep up the good work! There are a lot of things that I could have blogged about, but I feel that at the close of the semester, I should write a goodbye blog. It has been a blog-filled semester and I wouldn’t trade it for another class. Thank you to my classmates for having engaging discussions and for making Chuck’s job a bit less difficult!!!! Goodbye English 1101 and Hello 1102, please entertain and keep me as your pre-requisite course has done.

FIRST DEBATE

2004-12-06T14:19:00.000-05:00

I don’t really have much to say about this debate. It was a very important debate because it was not only the first presidential debate, but it is said that usually the winner of the first debate will win the election. During the debate, questions about the nation were asked and while Bush stumbled over his responses, he would attempt to elude the subject and instead take a stab at his opponent. Kerry seemed to piggy-back off of Bush’s responses and talk about how bad a job Bush has done. Bush didn’t really have much substance to his responses and he was very dramatic during the response. I felt like there should be a “poker face” exhibited during the presidential debates and President Bush did not exhibit one. DEBATE ONE WINNER (due to self control): John Kerry!!!We shall see how this alters the outcome of the election on November 2, 2004. It was fun watching the debate in with the other English classes and getting a chance to discuss the debates afterward. I enjoyed myself and I felt like it wasn’t a waste of time watching the debates.

CLASS/SEMESTER WRAP-UP

2004-12-06T09:45:00.000-05:00

This semester in English 1101-D4, I learned a lot about politics and the government. Before the beginning of this class, I was not very concerned with the election. I only listened to a few of the issues and hadn’t planned on looking at any of the debates. I feel like this class has made me a better political viewer. I can now look at both sides of a campaign and decide on which candidate’s values are most like mine. I had never posted or even written a web log before this semester. I barely knew what they were. I feel that my participation in this class was a very good experience and I was able to learn how to analyze arguments and essays. I have successfully written two essays on election issues that I would care to know nothing about, had it been before this semester. I enjoyed working in groups to create blogs and to consult other people for help when we have “writer’s block” or just need some good ol’ fashioned peer editing. I am glad that I was able to take a class with Professor Tryon this semester and it is a shame that I could not get into his English 1102 class

NADER RECOUNT

2004-12-06T09:30:00.010-05:00

It seems that Ralph Nader wants a recount. Sources say that Ralph Nader would like to have a voter recount…not on his behalf. He feels that the voting results and the polls had too many discrepancies and conflicts. About three quarters of the discrepancies came in precincts using optical ballot-scanning machines, and more than 60 percent of those precincts used AccuVote ballots, Briggs said. The state uses optical scanners for AccuVote and Optech ballots. The AccuVote ballots require voters to fill in ovals, while the Optech ballots use arrows. The results led Nader's campaign to check the ballot scanners' accuracy through the recount. The effort included Litchfield, Sandown, Newton, Danville, Salem, Pelham, one ward in Somersworth and four wards in Manchester. Salem was the final precinct counted Tuesday. The outcome of this recount moved G.W. Bush’s numbers from 50% to 49% and Kerry had 50% of the votes himself, while Nader took home near 1% of the votes.
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/nader/articles/2004/12/01/nader_requested_recount_ends/

VOTING DAY

2004-12-06T09:30:00.009-05:00

Well, since last Friday didn’t work out, my mother and I decided to get to the polls before they opened to avoid the morning rush. The polling place was right across the street so my mom decided to go and save a spot in line for me. After she called me about four times to wake me up and didn’t get an answer, she asked someone to save her place while she ran over to get me. When I got there, I saw all my neighbors and they were joking with me about not getting up to vote. The voting was very easy and didn’t take log at all. I like the electronic voting booths because they are very neat and look very technologically advanced. When I first walked in, there was a line to show identification and then another line to get a key card for the voting booth. The booths were spread out and very private, and in the end, you just take out your yellow key card and turn in your ballot. It didn’t take me long at all to finish and for the most part, I don’t see all the hype about voting. It isn’t fun, but I guess in the end, you could make a difference.

DISEASE STRIKES AGAIN

2004-12-06T09:30:00.008-05:00

Yet another wave of sickness and disease has surfaced to take lives and cause pain to humans. In the Philippines, meningococcemia, a deadly disease, has surfaced and done nothing but hurt the beautiful country. It does not need to be explained that the health care around the world is not as advanced in other parts of the world as it is in the United States. The days of this disease causes citizens to wear face masks and fear contamination daily. With the medical advances being made in the United States, wouldn’t it be fitted for us to lend a helping hand? Research teams and healthcare professionals should be assisting the Philippines during this time of deadly disease. If the problem were to arise in the United States, needless to say, an immediate study would be conducted in order to find a cure for this disease before it turned into an epidemic. There should not have to be an outbreak in our homeland in order for action to be taken against fighting a disease and helping another country. Simply because we are separated by miles and miles of water, this does not mean we live in another world. We all live on the same planet and there should be no reason why the “World’s Police” cannot lend a helping hand.

GOOD REASONS GROUP PROJECT

2004-12-06T09:30:00.007-05:00

Our group project was on a chapter in Good Reasons about rebuttal arguments. It was a great group presentation and we were able to keep the class entertained and engaged. Staying in the time limit was not a problem for our group as we presented worksheets, games, powerpoint presentations, and movie clips to enhance the lesson that we taught. My part of the presentation was to create a worksheet on rebuttal arguments and to run the game during class. Our game, “my butt is better:” was a game in which one person could try to guess which argument is better based on the information provided and leane during the group presentation. I really enjoyed this group project and I hope that one day, we will have another opportunity to work in a group together in order to produce another fine project.

GROUP BLOG TURN-OUT

2004-12-06T09:30:00.006-05:00

We had been assigned a group blog project. My group members are Janie, Billy, and Luciana. Together, we decided to talk and write about issues that were going on around the world and discuss how they relate to the United States. We decided to call our group blog “world popo” because of the issues that are discussed on the website. At the beginning of the group blog, the biggest problem that presented itself was finding articles for the blog. A lot of the articles were concerning Africa and the major civil issues that were prominent there. With Africa being the Heart of the Earth, it pains me to see so many civil issues tearing the continent apart. It seems as though since the United States tries so hard to control or at least take part in many of the activities that other countries partake in. I feel like if the U.S. can snoop around in their private and public activities, then we can lend a helping hand in times of need and times of rebuilding, or peace-keeping.

THIRD DEBATE

2004-12-06T09:30:00.005-05:00

The third debate was much better than the first one for Bush. He had better responses prepared and his “poker face” was awesome! He was quick on his feet and he made sure that he answered each question quickly and fully. Bush stepped it up this time and surprised America. He showed more acceptance of his opponent instead of always down talking him and attempting to make him look bad constantly. The reactions from John Kerry were the same as usual. They were smooth and calm, but they were continuously attacking President Bush and his administration. I think that this may have hurt John Kerry because of the simple fact that it made him appeal very negative to viewers and listeners of the debate alike. Kerry’s attitude toward Bush in the second debate turned me off a little bit, but I think that he might have won the second debate as well. This one is a lot harder to call. But the election is quickly approaching and I cant wait to vote, now that I’ll be legal.

JOURNEYS WITH GEORGE

2004-12-06T09:30:00.004-05:00

Journeys with George is a documentary that follows President George W. Bush as he campaigns for the 2000 Presidential election. This documentary of President Bush is very entertaining, informing, and well done. It gives the viewer an up-close, personal view of our president. Had Bush have not won the primaries, the documentary would not be very popular at all today. During the course of this documentary, I was able to notice the change in President Bush’s attitude, demeanor, and his behavior around the reporters. At first, Bush was very happy-go-lucky and he didn’t seem to care much about what or who was video taping. He would just talk and give the reporters a run for their money. Toward the end if the movie, you can tell that George W. Bush has calmed down and become aware of his surroundings. Bush begins to watch his words and finds that he must be professional at all times because his actions can be used against him. Without his victory in 2000, there would be no movies and celebrations.

FIVE CRISES IN AMERICA

2004-12-06T09:30:00.003-05:00

In a seminar on Monday, October 18, 2004, I had the pleasure of listening to another guest speaker. His topic of discussion was “Five Crises Problems Facing America Today.” The five areas that this preacher-turned motivational speaker talked about were: Crisis in Leadership, Crisis in Family, Crisis in Education, Crisis in Economy, and Crisis in Government. The crisis in family was weakening the home and therefore making the family system and its values weak. The crisis in leadership was and is still affecting the way this country is run. With a weak leader, the followers will too become weak. The crisis in education is hurting the children and the value of education everywhere. The crisis in economy is lowering the value of the American dollar and killing jobs that were available a few years ago. The crisis in government devastates the political system. American is last in industrialized nations and Georgia, where we live, is number 49 in the United States and the bar is continuously being lowered to “compensate” for the weak education system.

ELECTION TURN-OUT

2004-12-06T09:30:00.002-05:00

After a long and drawn out race, the election of 2004 is finally over. Both candidates put up a great fight and continued to campaign until the very end. The Democratic Party’s candidate was John Kerry and his running mate was John Edwards. The Republican Party’s candidate was the current president George W. Bush and his running mate was Dick Cheaney. Both candidates had views on several issues. At times, their views were similar, and at other times, they were very different. For example, the candidates both wanted to strengthen Homeland Security. It was a very long night when the votes were waiting to be counted. In the end, Ralph Nader won about 1% of the popular vote, and the results for Bush and Kerry were 51.1% and 48% respectively. There was a record turnout at the polls this year and the number of young voters was increased because of specific promotional campaigns including the famous “Rock the Vote”, “Vote or Die” and “Choose or Lose” programs. Due to the controversial results of the last election, many states chose to change their method of voting. In addition, many more absentee votes and early votes were casts. At the end of what seemed like an eternity, a night passed and there had been no winner declared. Around 1pm the next afternoon, Kerry conceded the election to George W. Bush.

GUEST SPEAKER

2004-12-06T09:30:00.001-05:00

Shortly before the election, on the day of the first presidential debates, we had a guest speaker come in and talk to us about problems and reasons why young people don’t get out and vote. We began throwing out ideas furiously. Some of the ideas and reasons included lack of concern, no real difference is made if the person you voted for doesn’t win. Another reason was the laziness of students and the lack of attentiveness to election issues. As a young crowd, we stated that we would like to hear more about collegiate issues like tuition, and other things that would affect us now and in the future. In the end, the conclusion was made that this generation was lazy and selfish. We didn’t care about anything unless it would directly alter or change our lifestyles and customs. The discussion we had was very engaging and entertaining. I even had some good suggestions!! I was proud of myself because I don’t normally talk in class discussion, but I really felt strongly about many of the problems that were presented.

early voting

2004-12-06T09:30:00.000-05:00

On the Friday before Election Day, September 29, 2004, I left school to go vote at a DeKalb County early voting precinct. The precinct that I went to was on Memorial drive in Decatur. I was very excited about being able to vote and also have the opportunity to vote early. When I first arrived at the precinct, it was around 2:00pm and it was raining. The parking lot was fairly empty so my mother and I assumed that it would not be crowded at all. Even though I had heard a few horror stories about the advanced voting that took place earlier in the week, I didn’t expect it to be very crowded at all. As we walked into the building, a young guy greeted us and gave us papers to fill out. While we grabbed the papers from him, he kindly warned us of the three hour wait. Well, I was prepared, but as we continued to find the end of the line that snaked all the way around to the backdoor of the building and alongside the street, I began to think that this line could not possibly be three hours. I asked a family how long they had been waiting…Simply put….They had been standing in line from the time they had gotten there (7:00am) and were only halfway through the line!!! Needless to say, we waited until Tuesday morning instead.

David's Blog Entry #15

2004-12-05T11:24:00.000-05:00

As promised, here's my sappy final blog entry:

Until recently, English courses have long been the bane of my existence. Since middle school, a succession of uninspiring teachers managed to suck every bit of life from the subject: they over-emphasized grammar, over-analyzed texts, foolishly rewarded the use of "big words," and reduced writing to the monotonous application of formulas. As a result, I developed a stilted and pretentious writing style and perpetually despised the act of writing. The day I submitted my last paper, I believed, would be the happiest day of my life.

Thus, to be honest, I chose to take Dr. Tryon's course because I hated English and wanted to get my English 1101 credit as easily and as painlessly as possible (see here). I had hoped that this course would allow me to put English on the back burner and still score an 'A'. In retrospect, Dr. Tryon's course was easy. It never required too much of my time (except, of course, when papers were due) and it certainly did not interfere with my other courses. I did not expect, however, to gain as much from the experience as I have.

My writing, especially, has improved immeasurably thanks to blogging. I write with much more freedom and fluidity and a lot less pretense and self-consciousness than before. By removing the barrier of formality from writing assignments, it has allowed me to explain myself more openly and with much more clarity. Now, I no longer view writing assignments with the same degree of dread or anxiety as I did before: I simply view them as extended blog entries.

So, Dr. Tryon, thanks. I enjoyed the semester and gained a lot from your course.

David's Blog Entry #14

2004-12-05T01:51:00.000-05:00

Alright, I've had enough with blogging about "political issues." In the course of a week, I've researched and written the equivalent of four papers covering Kiev, the Russian media, the U.S. media, and America's energy situation. That's over 20 hours worth of work! It's 2:22 in the morning, I got 4 hours of sleep last night, I still haven't started studying for finals, and I'm strung out on Starbuck's Frappuccinos. So, instead of writing some half-assed blog entry about P. Bush's economic policies, damn the torpedoes, I'm gonna write a blog entry about nothing, dammit.

Then, I'll get all sappy and start sucking up in my next and final entry. ..

So...
Um....
...

Here's a joke:
Q: How do you fit four gay guys on a single bar stool?
...
Don't know? Click here for the answer

In honor of our beloved text "Good Reasons," here are some song lyrics:
so here's what's striking me/that some punk could argue some moral abc's/when people are catching what bombers release/i'm on a mission to never agree/here comes the argument/here comes the argument/here comes the argument/here it comes

Do you know who I am?

Hint: I am gonzo.

A couple ways Georgia Tech could be improved:

Grade the sidewalks so that water will run off to the side when it rains
Relocate the campus to Vancouver, B.C.
Trade the football team for a stronger liberal arts program
Give Dr. Tryon tenure

Blah blah

Blah blah blah blah

Blah

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Word Count: 250

Luciana's Blog Entry #15

2004-12-04T23:38:00.000-05:00

This semester of English has been a very good, productive, and unique experience for me. In the beginning, I would have to admit that I was a bit disappointed that all we talked about was politics. However, as I went to more classes and as I was doing my blog entries and reading my articles, I got more and more interested in politics, which was something that I totally disliked before having this class. I really liked the way that Dr. Tryon gave our assignments. By posting blog entries, it made me be more interested in doing my assignment than I would be if I just had to write a random paper. It was also very good because I had the freedom to express my own opinions about each editorial and article and I could as critical as I wanted to. It was because of this freedom that I had that I got more interested in this class and in politics. It helped me get a lot more involved with this year's election, too. Also, watching the presidential debates as a class helped me be a lot more attentive to it. If I watched it in my dorm, I would probably be doing something else at the same time and not really pay attention. I would be lying if I said that I participated in the class discussions, however, I listened to everyone's arguments and tried to understand their point of view. My shy and non-talkative personality impeded me to be part of these discussions, but it does not mean that I did not participate in the class. I really liked this class, and I would definitely recommend it to others.

David's Blog Entry #12/13

2004-12-04T21:25:00.000-05:00

The Media and Money

In my sixth blog entry, entitled The Media and Democracy, I stated that “the U.S. media, by all worldly standards, is free.” Indeed, compared to countries such as Russia and China, the U.S. media is relatively free from government control. Since the advent of adversarial journalism in the early 20th century—when, with the development of commercial advertising, newspapers broke free from patronage and became financially independent—the media has often served as a watchdog of government activity. In monitoring Congressional proceedings, scrutinizing policy decisions, uncovering scandals, and investigating pork barrel spending, the media systematically positions itself in opposition to the government. By these indications, in addition to the strict code of ethics and the independent mindset cultivated in American journalism, one would think that the U.S. media is free from external influences.

This, however, is not the case. Though the U.S. media may be free from government influence, it is not free from economic influence. In its switch from patronage to advertising revenue, the media effectively exchanged subordination to benefactors for subordination to the bottom line. As a result, the landscape of the mass media has changed from a plurality of small news organizations to an oligopoly of large corporations.

The effects of this are ubiquitous: corporate control of the media is manifest in the marketing of television shows towards large swaths of the American demographic, the temperance and uniformity of mainstream news, and ultimately, in the norms and taboos of popular culture. What purpose, for example, do the unwarranted coverage of the Laci Peterson case and shows such as Temptation Island and Fear Factor serve besides padding the pockets of major networks? If Americans are fed mindless drivel, what becomes of their minds? By nature, a commercial media serves it owns interests, not the interests of its consumers.

In their book "Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media," noted scholars Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman explored this subject in great detail. Through their "Propaganda Model," Chomsky and Herman defined five "filters" in society which determine what "news" are presented in the mass media. Collectively, they suggested, multinational conglomerates which own much of the media, advertisers, the reliance of the media on information from entities about which they report, dissent from powerful interest groups, and the "fixing" of popular ideologies, all serve to set the media's agenda—or rather, to determine what is newsworthy. The resulting effect is that the interests of the conglomerates and the corporations which advertise in the media are pushed upon the general public, and that dissenting or critical viewpoints are effectively ignored. They cited, for example, (1) Chrysler's letter to hundreds of news outlets stating that all editorial content which may be harmful or damaging to the company be submitted for review, (2) the consistency of such popular notions as "free trade is good," "globalization is beneficial to the economy," and "American foreign policy is benign" with the interests of the government and of corporations, and (3) the dearth of true dissent in the media (i.e. not Democrats vs. Republicans, pro-choice vs. pro-life, etc., but dissent challenging existing social structures and norms). Moreover, they noted that the current structure of commercially supported news will not end in the near future: instead, the nature of the beast ensures that the status quo will be maintained.

So, we are stuck in a dilemma. With either a state-controlled media or a commercially-driven media, the people are subject to opinions and ideas (propaganda, essentially) not of their own nor in their interest. The answer, I believe, may ultimately lie in news organizations set up as a public trust, to serve the public interest. Such existing organizations—including National Public Radio (NPR), the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)—have remained faithful to their respective charters by serving as the foremost purveyors of quality, objective journalism—the only worthwhile form of journalism. This, along with a return to a plurality of independent, grassroots organizations, is the way of the future.

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Word Count: 672

Jena’s Blog Entry#15: Class Wrap Up Discussion

2004-12-04T19:27:00.000-05:00

This semester of English has been extremely interesting because I had a government class that ran parallel to it. I could compare what I learned in government to the topics and class discussion in English. I also liked how it was unique and unlike any other English class that I have taken. This was the first time that I have ever used a blog, and I think that it is an extremely useful tool to help with class discussion. It also helped me be even more prepared for class, and it is nice to review all of my old blogs and see what we discussed and spoke of, especially the ones leading up to the election now that we know the outcome of it. The class as a whole helped me become that much more involved in the election and understand the party platforms as well as what each candidate had to say about each aspect of the political arena. I also really liked watching the presidential debates as a class because I was more attentive to the debates, and I could have fun watching them with my friends from the class. It was also funny to see the entire room react to some of the issues and speeches in the debate. After watching this debate I went on to watch the other two as well as to pay more attention to the news and media. I also liked being provided with interesting articles to speak about because many of them were interesting. I really liked speaking of issues that pertained either to our class or to me personally because issues such as school pertain to me and for that reason are more interesting. Overall, I learned a lot in this class and I would recommend it to anyone who asked me about it.

Jena’s Blog #14: Faith, Morality, and Politics

2004-12-04T19:15:00.000-05:00

A couple of times this semester I have thought of and discussed the influence of faith in politics. The first time was in my second paper and the second time was a class discussion over an article entitled “The Faith Factor”. In my paper, I discussed the question of whether or not it is essential for a presidential candidate to be Christian or just religion. My answer to the question was yes because of our current culture as well as the fact that historically we have never had a non-Christian president. This does not mean that we can never have a non-Christian president, but there is so much emphasis put on the issue of morality that most Americans cannot distinguish between the differences between religion and morality. The fact that John Kerry was not open about his religion may have cost him a good portion of the votes. The article I read discusses the fact that Christianity plays a major role in the election of the president. It also discusses how many Democrats are attempting to show how religious they are to America because they understand that faith does play a big role in elections. In a previous blog I spoke of the fact that most rural Americans voted Republican. Most of these “down home” rural areas stress religion even more than in urban areas. The Democrats would like to gain these votes by showing how they too can be religious, but I am not sure if that is the only reason that these Americans vote Republican. However, I do think that more Americans would rather vote for a Christian candidate than a Muslim or Jewish candidate. It is sad that Americans cannot just vote according to characters and morality, not just religion because religion and morality are two different things. The article somewhat mocks the whole issue of faith, and I agree that it is a little bit ridiculous. However, since Americans do not understand the differences between religion and morality, the two new presidential candidates in 2008 should probably profess their Christian faith and profess it loudly.

link to article: http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20041129&s=ehrenreich

Jena’s Blog Entry#13: Article Response: “Do College Students Work Hard Enough?”

2004-12-04T17:02:00.000-05:00

After reading the article “Undergraduates Study Much Less Than Professors Expect, Survey of Student 'Engagement' Says” by Eric Hoover, I agree with some of the things that he says, and disagree with some of the others. At Tech, I do not think that this article applies because most students have to work ridiculously hard in most of their classes to get an A. In any case, I have been struggling to pass Biology 1510 as well as a giant portion of the class. My roommate said today, “I hate the grading at GA Tech because you never known what you have in the class until after the gigantic curves that some of the professors have to put on the grades.” I have a brother who attends West GA and I do not think that he studies half as much as I do, and he has no problem getting A’s and B’s in class. However, I do think that studying for 25 hours a week seems a little ridiculous. I have to admit that I have studied for more than that on several occasions; however it all depends on what week it is. Some weeks I have more things to do than the others, and it seems like I always have to do everything all at once. I have to say that one thing I’ve noticed is that I’ve never been bored here at Tech. One night I had no homework to do, and I walked around trying to figure out what to do. Another part of the article that says that most college students get their information from TV is wrong at Tech. However, we are mostly nerds here so we get our info from the internet. We “facebook” for our entertainment and read the Slivers out of the Technique. I am not sure why the author included the fact that 90 percent of students are happy with their college experience because almost everyone should be happy at college, no matter how much work they have. It is great to get a new found freedom and meet new people. I have volunteered a few times this semester, and I think that a lot of Tech students get involved in such activities. The difference between Tech and those other schools is that we are almost all overachievers or at least extremely smart, so we know how to study, or we just understand things better the first time. However, I have learned and agree with the fact that the more you study, the better and more in-depth you can be over certain subjects.

link: http://chronicle.com/temp/reprint.php?id=9s9c2pnhni7yfcnc0b6015u2n3gm78v

Jena’s Blog Entry#12: Mapping Votes Response

2004-12-04T16:25:00.000-05:00

I thought that the in class discussion over the two different maps of the United States over republican versus democrats was extremely interesting. It seems that most of the democratic voting populations are in the big cities, whereas the majority of the country is red or Republican by geography. However, as most everyone knows, the major populations are packed into big cities. Therefore, when the purple colored map was made, you can see that the majority of the states are fairly close in the race of Republican versus Democrat. Some states are a more blue color, meaning that they are more democratic, and some are more Republican and reddish. I think that this map is important to see because although Bush won the election with the majority of electoral votes, the actual race may have been closer due to the very close ratio of Republicans to Democrats. The ironic part of this election is that once again the Electoral Votes could have been the deciding factor, even if President Bush won the popular vote; only this time the Electoral College would have worked against the president. If Kerry would have won Ohio, then the race may have been a lot closer. However, he stepped down, which I think helped the country out a lot because in 2000 the uncertainty of whom the next president would be had the country in a political chaos. I think that these maps show a much better and unbiased view of America as a whole after the election than any of the media channels have shown.

Links: http://www.boingboing.net/images/Purple-USA.jpg
and http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/vote2004/countymap.htm

link

2004-12-04T16:08:00.000-05:00

the link for my blog 11 that is posted on Dr. Tryon's Blog is also listed below:
http://www.thenation.com/thebeat/index.mhtml?bid=1&pid=2006

Jena’s Blog Entry#11: Frist Whines; I say “Get over it”

2004-12-04T15:50:00.000-05:00

I am discussing one of the articles posted by Professor Tryon on his blog entitled, “Frist’s Fury over Filibusters”. In this article the author, John Nicols, speaks of how the Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is frustrated over the Democrats filibustering the judicial nominations. He claims that a filibuster is a tyranny of the minority, but I think that he is wrong because in order to prevent the tyranny of the majority, the minority has certain rights to keep in order to be heard. The founding fathers wanted to make sure that the majority party did not become too powerful because then America would become like more of a monarchy than a democracy. I agree with the author of this piece because he speaks of how Frist is completely overreacting to the filibusters. There can always be a cloture vote to stop a filibuster if it is unnecessary, but some of the judicial nominations for appointment are extremely conservative, and if the judges cannot be balanced and fair, then the country will swing even more to the right. However, in some cases there can be an overuse of the filibuster, which the author would probably disagree with me in this case. I think that if all of the Senate’s time is taken over by filibusters, then the senate will get no work done and there will be serious congestion in congress. The efficiency and fairness in congress have to balance, and that is a difficult task to accomplish. However, as for the Majority Leader’s rating and ravings, I say get over it.

Jena’s Blog#10: Journeys With George

2004-12-04T15:17:00.000-05:00

here's the other of my two deleted blogs:

This blog discusses the in class video over the documentary Journeys with George. I thought that the film was excellent, and I laughed through a lot of it. The narration and ability of an “up close and personal” interview with the future President was not just funny, it also showed an in depth look at the campaign trail. I have decided after watching this that I really like George Bush as a person because he is hilarious, and he knows how to be both serious as well as a comedian at times. Another interesting thing that occurs in the video is the fact that Pelosi is a strongly liberal woman, while Bush is a strongly conservative male. Therefore, their conflicting viewpoints made for an excellent movie. There was a lot of satire in this film especially when she spoke of the food, traveling, or any other aspect of being a part of the media. Another interesting thing to observe was the fact that she was not just making the film for nothing, but she needed it for her job. If Bush had lost the primaries, then the documentary would not have been as popular as it is today. Therefore, I thought it was even funnier when she did not even vote for Bush on her ballot. Yet another great thing about this film is that it not only showed how the presidential primaries work, but it also showed how the media followed them around and just how much the entire group traveled. Overall, I was greatly entertained by the film, and I would have liked to have requested a Journeys with George II for the past election.

Jena’s Blog Entry #9: Voting

2004-12-04T15:10:00.000-05:00

ok, so the blog messed up... AGAIN and two of my blogs weren't posted. Luckily I save them all so here is my ninth blog:

This year was the first year that I was able to participate in a presidential election. I have been paying attention to the presidential elections ever since I can remember, and this year I am excited to finally be able to vote. I think that it is sad that not very many young Americans are willing to participate in the election. Some people feel as if their vote does not count, but I feel that my vote, even if it is for an electorate from the Electoral College, does mean something. A great example of this would be the 2000 presidential election because there were only a few votes in Florida that barely determined the presidential election. I also do not think that it is fair for Americans who have the opportunity to vote and then do not to criticize the president. I feel that as long as I put my vote in, that I have the right to say whether or not the President that I did or did not vote for is doing a good job. If I did not vote, then I would not feel right about complaining about the government and what it does. Also, the government is a representation of the American pubic, so if the American public does not speak out, then the representation will not be adequate to its constituents. I actually voted by absentee ballot this time because I felt that I could see the ballot and have a longer time to decide my vote. I thought that it was a great process and I cannot wait until the next election when I get to do it again!

Blog 15: The Full Stop

2004-12-04T03:09:00.000-05:00

This class has been a great learning experience for me. I got to learn a lot about the US election system. Being an international student the whole system is very different for me. I come from India, the largest democracy in the world and most of the election procedures are different in both the countries. India has a multiple party system in which any number of parties can contest the elections unlike US where the Republican and the Democratic parties are the two main parties in the elections. The part that is similar for both the countries is the election campaigning of the candidates. The campaigning is a huge event in US and India. The republican convention in New York was an extremely popular event. I wrote my first paper on the convention and it was the first time I was following an event like that and it was a very interesting experience for me. A very positive effect of this class was that I was keeping up with the news and this gave me a feeling of being completely involved in the elections. Although I couldn’t vote in the elections I was very excited at the election time and was eagerly awaiting the results, since I had followed the election procedures so closely over the semester I understood each candidates stand and had a favorite in mind. The part I enjoyed the most was the movie, Journeys with George because the movie showed the humorous side of the President.

Pray for DeLay

2004-12-04T01:11:00.000-05:00

Here's a bonus: an "Urgent Prayer Alert" for Tom DeLay.

I found it quite amusing.

David's Blog Entry #9/10/11

2004-12-03T13:56:00.000-05:00

Something Stinks in Congress...

Tom DeLay, the majority leader of the House of Representatives, has recently come under fire for his "creative" fundraising. In particular, he is under investigation for his role in the fleecing of Indian casinos and for using corporate money in Texas state elections--along with countless other charges.

Here are two examples of Mr. DeLay's fundraising tactics:

The National Leadership Awards
Approximately two years ago, numerous people around the country, including writers, businessmen, an Air Force chaplain, and a convicted sex offender, received congratulatory phone calls stating that they had been nominated by Mr. DeLay for a national leadership award. They were told that upon accepting the award, they would be invited to private dinners with Congressmen and "quarterly startegy sessions in Washington." In addition, they were promised an exclusive black-tie dinner with the Vice President and the publication of their names in a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal. In return, all they had to do was contribute a small gift of $300 to $500 to secure their place in the WSJ ad.

As it turned out, the "national leadership award" was a fundraising scam perpetrated by Mr. DeLay and his staff. In addition to lending his name to the awards, Mr. DeLay recorded a generic congratulatory message to all the award's nominees.

In response to a reporter's inquiry into the matter, Mr. DeLay and the National Republican Congressional Committee stated that the awards were entirely proper and that there were "thousands of happy recipients around the country."

Link to MSNBC article
Personal account from an award recipient
A Liberian journalist (!) receives the award (This one is both sad and funny at the same time. The press release writer had no idea what the national leadership awards were really about)

The Indian Casino Fiasco
If you thought that the National Leadership Awards were sleazy, read on: the stakes are higher, the people involved will surprise you, and the scam is much more sinister.

The story begins with Jack Abramoff, a top Republican lobbyist with close ties to Tom DeLay, and Michael Scanlon, Mr. DeLay's former spokesman. In an effort to raise funds for Congressman DeLay, the Republican Party, and themselves, the pair hatched and executed a plan to fleece Indian casinos out of millions of dollars. Here's how:

In the state of Louisiana, two Indian tribes were competing for gambling revenue. The Coushatta tribe wanted to prevent the Jena tribe from building a casino in the vicinity of their own existing casino, for obvious financial reasons. That's when our two perpetrators stepped in: they approached the Coushatta tribe and offered to help shut down the Jena tribe's casino.

Once they were hired, Mr. Abramoff and Mr. Scanlon began by contacting Ralph Reed--the chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, former head of the Christian Coalition, and Mr. Abramoff's protege--and asking him to perform a favor: they wanted Mr. Reed to use his connections with preachers and ministers across the country to create a holy coalition against gambling and, in particular, the Jena tribe's casino. The favor cost them approximately $2.5 million dollars.

Dutifully, Mr. Reed created the Committee Against Gambling Expansion (CAGE)--comprised largely of people within the Louisiana Christian community and funded, ironically, by gambling money--which ultimately stopped the Jena tribe from building their casino.

For their help in shutting down the Jena tribe's casino, Jack Abramoff and Michael Scanlon raked in over $32 million in lobbying fees from the Coushatta tribe. The story, however, is not over. In a brazen act of duplicity, the pair also approached and received payments from five other Indian tribes in return for help in battling the anti-gambling organization (i.e. CAGE) that they created! These payments, along with the $32 million they had previously received, came to a total of more than 66 million dollars.

Here are several links for further reading:
The plot thickens - a good summary of the scam
The scam in depth
Jack Abramoff bio
Ralph Reed's misdeeds
Michael Scanlon is hiding from the law

In addition to the two aforementioned scams, House Majority leader Tom DeLay has also been involved in the following: (1) the misuse of public funds, (2) redirecting money to the Texas GOP, and (3) creating a children’s charity, Celebrations for Children, Inc., to cover his illicit fundraising activities. The litany of abuses and scams just. doesn't. stop.

Here's another:

A month ago, three top associates of Mr. DeLay were indicted by a grand jury for illegal activities tied to Texans for a Republican Majority PAC (TRMPAC), a political action committee founded by Tom DeLay. (Links 1, 2)

And another:

Republicans in Congress, anticipating an onslaught of indictments against their beloved Majority Leader, have recently voted to change their internal rules so that indicted Republican congressmen are able to keep their leadership positions. This has since been dubbed "The DeLay Rule." (Link)

And finally, to cap it all off, here's a picture of Mr. DeLay:

I'm gonna go puke now...

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Word Count: 834

Jena’s Blog Entry #8: The Second Presidential Debate

2004-12-03T03:16:00.000-05:00

I watched a lot of the second presidential debate in my room, and it was very interesting. I think that this debate was a lot more intense than the first because there is a lot more pressure compiling as the election draws nearer. There is much confusion over who won the debate because depending on which television station you look at, you will see a different result. The major consensus, however, is that the debate was a close one. This debate interested me greatly because it was in a town-hall forum fashion, where the audience asked their questions directly to the candidates. I thought that it gave a more personal aspect to the debates because the questions came from domestic every-day Americans and not a newscaster. John Kerry impressed me when he looked into the camera and promised not to raise taxes for the poor. I think that Bush may have taken somewhat of a beating because there were some questions that he tried to avoid. He spoke a lot over the subject of the No Child Left Behind Act, even when the question asked was not very relevant to that. However, Bush’s presence was felt, and I think that he did much better in this debate than in the last one. There were also some interesting moments when you could see the tension, which I thought made the debates more interesting. Overall, I thought that Kerry may have won the debate because he has superior debating skills, but I also thought that the debate was close and Kerry barely won.

David's Blog Entry #7/8

2004-12-02T22:33:00.000-05:00

FAQ: America's Energy Situation

On October 10th, I posted the article "Pump Dreams"--which examined America's current energy situation in great detail--with the intention of writing a blog entry on it. Well, almost two months later, here it is --in an easy-to-digest FAQ format.

The article may be found here: link

What is America's current energy situation?
Americans consume approximately 20 million barrels of oil per day, which is over a quarter of the world's oil supply. More than half of this (60%) is imported from foreign sources such as Saudi Arabia, Canada, and Venezuela. Estimates indicate that in as little as forty years, the U.S. may exhaust its supply of oil. This, combined with increasing rates of consumption at home and abroad and shrinking oil supplies worldwide, means that Americans may face an oil crisis--serious supply shortages and sky-rocketing prices--within a few decades or even years.

What can we do to prevent a future oil crisis?
Because crude oil is a nonrenewable resource, oil supplies will continue to decline. Nevertheless, we may soften the blow of the impending crisis by (1) conserving oil and (2) weaning ourselves from oil consumption. Conservation measures may include raising the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards--the level of fuel economy automobile manufacturers are required to meet--and establishing a gasoline tax. Weaning ourselves off of oil, however, is a much harder task. Although the U.S. possesses abundant supplies of coal and natural gas, the nation's infrastructure is oriented towards oil consumption--think, for example, of the thousands of filling stations in use across the country. Switching to an alternate fuel source would entail years of research and billions (possibly trillions) of dollars. Ultimately, a sensible plan for avoiding a future crisis must include an aggressive dose of both measures--conservation and a switch to alternate fuel sources--endorsed by a realistic and proactive government.

What is the government currently doing about this?

During the latest presidential campaign, President Bush dangled the promise of energy independence in front of millions of Americans. In particular, he presented a plan to free America from foreign oil by increasing domestic oil production--by allowing drilling in ANWR and elsewhere--and decreasing oil consumption through such means as conservation awareness programs and the use of hybrid vehicles. Many analysts, however, agree that President Bush's plan amounts to little more than an empty campaign promise. Half-hearted conservation measures and increased domestic drilling would not appreciably decrease our dependence on foreign oil. Drilling in ANWR, for example, would displace only 5% of our oil importations. In addition, the immense political influence of the oil industry, combined with President Bush's proven energy industry friendly track record, indicate that no serious conservation measure that threatens the energy industry's bottom line would slip through Congress. The current administration, however, temporarily skirted the problem through alternate means: by invading Iraq and securing its oil fields, which represent the world's second largest oil reserves. Nevertheless, the world oil supply will inevitably continue to shrink, and the impending oil crisis will be only be delayed for a future generation of Americans.

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On the whole, America's energy future looks pretty bleak. Because an impending energy crisis is still decades or years down the road, energy policy is a low political priority. Unless the government addresses the nation's dependence on oil directly and immediately, millions of Americans will be inevitably hit with a sharp spike in oil prices and major supply shortages. Americans must be willing to recognize that cheap oil is not a birthright, accept short term increases in energy costs--from a gasoline tax, for example, and invest seriously in alternate sources of energy.

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Word Count: 614

Luciana's Blog Entry #14

2004-12-02T22:15:00.000-05:00

An editorial reviewing and analyzing the results from this year's election was published by the Miami Herald newspaper. The author wrote how he thought that the election results were great considering the fact that there were no hanging chads. I agree with the fact that because the state of Georgia made stupid mistakes and begun the conspiracy that the Jeb gave his brother a very nice Christmas present, we had some troubles with the election. After all, we can not become a perfect state, and there are many other worse ones, such as Texas, who tried to succeed from the union. The author goes on describing a solution for a better voting system, which is through uniform voting standards, due to the availability of many possibilities depending on each polling place. I was an absentee, and I heard on the Atlanta news that they were checking signatures on absentee ballots in Georgia, and if the signatures did not match, they did not count it as a vote. I do not think this should be acceptable. Signatures can be very unique, and you don't know how accurate the machine or the person measuring the sameness of the signatures can be. And just because they do not match, it should not be a reason for these votes to be thrown away. It is not fair for us, who are citizens of the United States.

Luciana's Blog Entry #13

2004-12-02T21:51:00.000-05:00

The results of this year's elections turned out to be just how I predicted. I could see coming that Bush was going to get four more years of being America's president. I was glad to see Kerry conceding to Bush. He lost by a pretty big number of votes, with most of the country favoring Bush except for the Northeast. I noticed that all the major cities had a democratic view point. I thought the media did a better job at covering the campaign than how they covered Bush's first campaigns. Even after going through all the SBV and its terrible campaign ads and having the Libertarians look like your annoying little brother, the campaign turned out to be pretty just. The rest of the world may think that it was very stupid for the Americans to vote for Bush once again after all the trouble with the Middle East, but there were a lot more other factors that made us favor Bush instead of Kerry. After all, voters are not stupid; they don't just choose a random candidate just because his name sounds cooler, for example. Also, foreign countries can not do anything about our election, nor change our opinions. Perhaps we needed a smoother coverage against our own public out cries. I think the country will move towards not changing the Electoral College. However, I think they should do so, because I would like to have my vote counted as a regular vote. There may be many conflicts dealing with moneys that people have lost and gained through the election, but people should just accept the decisions because elections in America are way too ample and complicated.

Gun Control

2004-12-02T17:23:00.000-05:00

Key Antigun Program Loses Direct Financing

On December first Congress eliminated all funds for the Project Safe Neighborhoods. This organization is a key part in the Presidents plan to remove illegally purchased guns from the streets. Congress instead used the money that was previously allotted to the Safe Neighborhoods organization to fund other programs that focus on all law enforcement not just on gun enforcement. Although the President pet organization did not receive any funding from Congress, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives received an additional twenty million dollars million to finance its programs. There is still two hundred million dollars in funding available to other anti-gun programs related to Safe Neighborhoods. Many anti-gun supporter view this lack of funding as a weakness in the government’s promised to crack down on gun crimes. The administration points to Safe Neighborhoods as the most effective to remove illegal gun owners from the streets of America. It also is attributed to the seventy-six percent increase in federal gun prosecutions in the last four years and a significant decrease in gun crimes. As with everything else the statistics attributed to the Safe Neighborhoods program is being questioned by other groups such as Americans for Gun Safety. They believe that the program simply focused on common street criminals instead of seeking major black market dealers of illegal guns. The results of the change are yet to be determined. Only the next four years will reveal the results whether good or bad.

Senate favors Pro-life supporters

2004-12-02T16:50:00.000-05:00

Changing Senate Looks Better to Abortion Foes

With the coming and going of this past election, many things have changed. Due to the many Senate seats up for grabs this election power has shifted from a Democratic majority to a Republican majority. Another thing that the Senate has gained this election is many new, strong opponents of abortion. Abortion bans have always has a difficult time gaining support in the Senate but with the addition of abortion opponents such as Tom Coburn the task will now be less daunting. Pro-choice supporter Tom Daschle also lost his Senate seat this election. Many bills that were once unable to be considered much less have the number to pass will now more than likely will be passed. These bills are in generally very focused restrictions to abortion rights. One such restriction that hopes to pass would make it illegal to circumvent parental consent laws by taking a minor across state line to receive an abortion. Anti-abortion supporters are also hoping that general attitude of the senate towards abortion rights is also changing. They hope the Senate will change with the perception that he nation is moving more toward pro-life sentiments. Surprisingly the president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America Gloria Feldt believes the opposite is happening. She feels that the new Senate is much less concerned with reproductive health and abortion rights. It will be interesting to see how the new Senate deals with the increasing demands to address abortion rights.

MoveOn,org is MovingOn to bigger/better things.

2004-12-02T16:11:00.000-05:00

MoveOn.org Moves on to New Battles

The non-profit organization MoveOn.org has received a huge amount of publicity during this past election’s campaigning. The liberal group MoveOn.org was first founded during President Clinton’s impeachment. It served as an on-line petition for the government to “censure him and move on to other business. The group’s publicity began to rise as it emerged as the leader in protesting the war in Iraq. Recently it waged a proverbial war against the re-election of President Bush. The group raised more than $30 million dollars for its campaign. Once the group’s only presence was on the internet, but with the funds it collected from many people including billionaire George Soros the group hosted concerts and aired political commercials. The group is still hoping to move its influence even more off line. Many suspected that the group’s activity would fall off the radar after the substantial loss in November. But the group’s leaders feel the opposite. They see this as the time where more activity from the group is needed. Their focus for the time being is preparing for battles over the privatization of Social Security and nominations for the Supreme Court. Looking even farther into the future, MoveOn.org hopes to create think tanks to interact with conservative organizations and to build grass roots organizations to beat out the Republican grass roots organization. The group plans to continue its trade mark response system by rapidly dealing with the issues at hand. The next four years look to be promising for the groups with such ambitious goals.

A win for America's children.

2004-12-02T13:55:00.000-05:00

Court Panel Says New York Schools Need Billions More

Lack of funding in the public school system of America has become a huge problem in recent years. As the years have passed, the cost of providing a sound, basic education for America’s children has increased while the amount of money available is staying static or decreasing. America’s children are slipping further and further behind the already low standards. Finally the New York City Council for Fiscal Equity has had enough. This group has sued for the city for more money to provide education to the city’s children. Justice Leland DeGrasse appointed a panel to review the system. This panel has recommended a 43% increase in the state’s school budget which is now $12.9 billion. The increase will provide $5.6 billion each year to cover the basic cost of education, and it will also provide $9.2 billion over time to build new classrooms, laboratories and other facilities necessary to relieve overcrowding and reduce class size. This ruling has placed some tight time restrictions for improving the system. The panel demanded that within 90 days the state develop and begin to execute a plan to add $5.6 billion to the budget each year. This plan will be phase in over four years with a gradual increase over the period. The panel also called for the state to devise a plan to provide the system with the extra $9.2 billion to cover school repairs and construction. This plan will phase in over five years. This case will hopefully open the doors for other states to gain funding for their school system. Currently, there are lawsuits for education in most of the states that have not reached decisions. This case should prove helpful in creating change in those states.

Blog 14: Validity of the Elections

2004-12-02T13:49:00.000-05:00

The article “Activists Continue to Challenge Ohio Ballots” in CNN.com voices the complaints of the activists in Ohio. After Bush has been declared as President for almost a month people of Ohio are not satisfied with the result of the election. Some activists including Rev. Jesse Jackson are demanding a recount. Since Kerry gave up after seeing the unofficial results the people have been criticizing the election procedure. According to Jackson the validity of the votes should be checked since too many questions are being raised. Most of the citizens of US were hoping that the 2001 election is not repeated at the 2004 elections as well, but now people are concerned about the validity of the election. Jackson said that it does not matter whether Kerry wins or Bush wins but the matter of concern is whether the elections are fair or not. Many critics are blaming the electoral voting machine for giving Bush extra votes. Everyone is demanding the Supreme Court to look into the matter and call for a recount. The chances of a recount now are very unlikely because Bush has already been declared President and Kerry withdrew himself. Blackwell is a GOP leader and he oversees the election procedures, he was called on to step down from office by Jackson. Even if Jackson is concerned about the fairness of the elections it is said that he is protesting because “his candidate” did not win.

The link is:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/11/29/ohio.vote.ap/index.html

Blog 13: Bush Win for India

2004-12-02T13:24:00.000-05:00

The article “Indo- US Ties will Continue with Bush’s Win” in an Indian newspaper, the Indian Express, states that the ties between India and US will flourish under President Bush. The IT industry of India and the job market are happy to have Bush as President of US for four more years. The ties have already been made between the countries and since Bush is President no time will be wasted in strengthening the ties. The main issue of concern for India in the 2004 US elections was outsourcing. Outsourcing is very important to India because many Indians get jobs because of this policy. Kerry was not very favorable to outsourcing but Bush had always said he welcomed outsourcing and it will continue if he becomes president. According to Indian ambassador, Lalit Mansingh the business ties between the countries will strengthen while they could have come under strain if Kerry would have been elected. It is also observed that the countries are at a platform where their relations will increase and it wouldn’t have made a difference even if Kerry was elected but a lot of time would have been wasted in working out new plans for the countries. US elections have always been a matter of concern for the entire world. Since US is a super power the president of US is a very important post for every country. Every country looks for its benefit and awaits the result of elections with the same excitement as US itself.

The link is:
http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=38001#compstory

Why can't we just get along?

2004-12-01T01:03:00.000-05:00

For every person in the world there is a stereotype that could be applied to that person. Just as the terms cheerleader or jock carries a certain connotation depending on the person who hears them, so do the terms Liberal and Conservatives. The American political system has long been plagues by these stereotypes. It is these stereotypes that are driving the two sides further and further from each other, preventing mediation between the two. The fight has reached a point in where both sides think that the other is their archenemy, and that each is unwilling to listen and compromise with the other. In the article Perverted, God-Hating Frenchies vs. Inbred, Sex-Obsessed Yokels, Steven Waldman does a good job of calling out the certain assumptions that come with the terms liberal and conservative. He then addresses each to attempt to persuade the other side that the other is not as bad or as completely opposite as the stereotype would make it seem. If liberals and conservatives would both look at the other group and try to see where the other was coming from, or even looked past the extremist views, both sides would find that they are not much different than their so called “archenemy”. This realization might make it easier for both sides to reach a compromise that both can live with when dealing with important decisions. Or at least it might calm down the heated arguments between the two groups for a while.

Blog 12: A Close Call for President Bush

2004-11-30T13:30:00.000-05:00

The article “Iraq and the Election of 2004” rightfully states that President Bush almost lost the elections because of the war on Iraq. The writer, Christopher Preble says that the Iraq war created a doubt in everybody’s mind that whether Bush will be reelected. If it wouldn’t have been for the war the win would have been very easy for the President. Senator John Kerry was very critical of the country’s economic condition but the economic state was on a rise. The unemployment rate had decreased in 2003 and most of the statistics were favorable for the President. His popularity had increased tremendously after the 9/11 attacks. However, much to everyone’s surprise Bush’s popularity was declining constantly following the attack on Iraq. Earlier the citizens supported the military action but as time passed they realized that the war was not in the benefit of US. Many people blame the fluctuation in the President’s popularity on other factors like the budget deficit and some of his foreign policies but it is clearly noted that as the military action in Iraq increased Bush started losing his supporters. The reason Bush got the support of the citizens back was because he successfully convinced most of them that the war on Iraq was a continuation of the war on terrorism. Kerry could have easily made use of this aspect by making his strategy in Iraq in interest of the people but he failed to explain his plan. But even now if President Bush does not change his policies in Iraq it may still cost him his popularity in US.

The link is :
http://www.cato.org/dailys/11-26-04.html

Luciana's Blog Entry #12

2004-11-30T01:18:00.000-05:00

The documentary "Journeys with George Bush" was very interesting to read because it provided me with many information about the president, describing him since the beginning of his 2000-2004 term until now. It brought a very in-depth view between Bush and its candidates. I think that if I have seen this documentary before this year's elections, I would have voted for neither candidates. While I was watching the documentary, it was very hard for me to believe that politics was all a fake. Campaigning seemed more like a pep rally rather than a demonstration that results in a national decision. I was also very surprised to see the president acting very goofy in front of the cameras. It made me think that I was no different than him. However, the video revealed that president Bush matured a lot throughout his four years of being the president of the United States. He worked very hard through his actions so that American citizens could look up to him and respect him. Although he looks like a very serious guy now on cameras, I'm sure that he still has that goofiness inside him, but he now learned to hide it when in front of cameras and other respected people.

Luciana's Blog Entry #11

2004-11-30T00:47:00.000-05:00

College life. Who does not want to experience one? Everybody does. There is no pressure from anybody to do anything, you have plenty of time to do whatever you feel like doing, you can do whatever you want, there is no curfews, etc. You basically have freedom when you attend and live in a college. The article demonstrates a very precise picture of college life. Most freshmen that enter their new way of living have a hard time getting used to their independent actions, and therefore end up not appreciating living in a college. Also, time management is also something that college students are strongly challenged with. Because they have so much time before and after their classes, they do not think of studying or doing their homeworks until it is a day before the due date or a couple hours before the class. That is why college students are always complaining that they have too much to study or too much work to do. Being able to manage your time is very crucial. Also, in order to relieve all the stress that college students go through, they should engage themselves in a side activity that makes them not think about their duties for a while. It has been proven that it works, therefore, students in college should not just study but involve in different activities and interact with their neighbors and classmates. Emphasizing more on the advertisement of these activities to these students would be a lot more helpful for them to get involved.

Luciana's Blog Entry #10

2004-11-29T23:51:00.000-05:00

From the CBS News, the article called "Illegal Aliens Back in Spotlight" discusses about the change of actions made towards migrants that were illegally living in the United States. Proposed by president Bush, these migrants were told that instead of being considered as an alien residing illegally in the U.S., as a welcome note, they would receive a temporary legal status to live in the U.S. This suggestion by president Bush brought a lot of relief and hope for these migrants because once they move to the U.S., they do not have to worry about being prosecuted for being an illegal migrant, and they can take this time to apply to become permanent residents. In order to attain this temporary legal status, they just have to show a proof of their employment. Migrants satisfyingly looked up to Bush because they were so thankful. However, a step to put this proposal into action has not been taken yet, even though Bush made this suggestion over ten months ago. Secretary Colin Powell explained that current circumstances, such as the elections, were impeding this problem to be taken care of, however, he affirmed that as soon as the elections were over, it will be taken into consideration. He also added that this migration process did not have to be immediately done because they border between the U.S. and Mexico is already reinforced, so there are not that many migrants moving to the U.S. as much as before. However, there are migrants from other countries living here illegally, and they have been waiting for a long time for this process to be taken care of.

Final Blog 15

2004-11-29T23:33:00.000-05:00

I have learned so much about the world and America’s politics through this class. I have really gained respect for the election system and the way our society works on selecting our new president. As we followed the candidates from the beginning of the semester to post-Super Tuesday, I have found out that no real person can be the best president. Because there are so many different situations that not everyone can be pleased. It amazes me how we always want to look to someone to guide us. It is never or rarely a group we look to. As humans, we instinctually point the lead to one person. As kids we select team captains, as parents we select PTA presidents, and as citizens we select the new leader of the free world. Whether it is to give power or blame, one is the number we look to. Even though the system may be crazy and full of money, like how the media distorts the facts, or how the people who determine the crappiest health care have the money to receive the best. It seems ridiculous but one thing remains. Americans don’t mind as long as they get theirs. When we reviewed specific voting through the Publious presentations and talks with lecturer Vince Keenan, I saw how politicians were not getting the votes of young people because they don’t talk about the issues they want to hear, what will satisfy them. So kids don’t listen or vote until they really pay taxes. The kids aren’t getting theirs so they look away. We are a “when we need it” base country, so it shouldn’t be a surprise. This semester has treated me to a new view of the world and America.

And now since this is the last and final blog post:
My political party is….well…lets just say I never forget.

Luciana's Blog Entry #9

2004-11-29T23:18:00.000-05:00

In another editorial in the Miami Herald newspaper, the unknown author discusses about whether ex-criminals should have the same rights as a citizen that never committed any misdemeanor or felony. In my opinion, I think that the answer to this question should be neither yes or no. After finishing your sentence in prison, I am pretty sure that there is some kind of record in their history. That is, if anybody gets their social security number and searches for their past, they can see that they have been criminals before. Therefore, I think that they should only have some of the privileges that a non-criminal has. For example, if they are applying for a job, the priority of giving the job should always be given to every other applicants before it is given to the ex-criminal; or they shouldn't have the privilege of getting benefits from the country, such as medical aid and insurance benefits. These suggestions may not sound very fair for ex-criminals because they have already gotten punished for committing crimes and felonies, and they should have learned that what they did was wrong. However, not every felon changes their mind, even after being in prison for many years. In order for their minds to change, their personality should also change, which is something that is very hard to do. There can always be a situation where they will be tempted in commiting another crime again, whether they are with their friends or by themselves. Therefore, our society can not fully trust ex-criminals and expect that they will behave in the right way. But we also can not deprive them from everything that a society has to offer, or they would be experiencing jail all over again.

F.Y.I.

2004-11-29T23:14:00.000-05:00

Just a note: The official word from Dr. Tryon is that our blog entries (all 15 of them) will be due Monday, December 6 at "high noon." Thought you would like to know.

Uniform Voting?

2004-11-29T22:30:00.000-05:00

Miami Herald Editorial on Uniform Voting

My favorite paper the Miami Herald reviewed the last election and analyzed the situation. They thought that the election results were great considering the fact that there were no hanging chads. I agree, though coming from the state that messed everything up and begun the conspiracy that the Jeb gave his brother a very nice Christmas present, I will admit that we had troubles. We are not the most perfect state, and it could be worse, I mean Texas wanted to succeed from the union! Anyways the Herald goes on to describe a solution to better voting through uniform voting standards. Because there are a lot of possibilities depending upon the polling place. Florida had people vote early so that they could count every vote. I don’t know if they did though, I was an absentee and I heard on the Atlanta news that they were checking signatures on absentee ballots in Georgia. If the signature did not match, then they didn’t count it. I mean my signature is no the same every time. Though it should be, and I wouldn’t want to let my vote not be counted, because I want to believe that I am contributing to this country. As a citizen allowed to view my candidates and choose the one I think is best for the job, whether that be for my own personal gains or the gains of the country, even other countries. I just want assurance that the vote counts everywhere and looks to me for the answer.

Post Election Thoughts

2004-11-29T22:29:00.000-05:00

The election of 2004 turned out how thought. I thought that Bush would win and he did. Though I was hoping that there wouldn’t be another 30 day wait. I’m glad that Kerry did concede to Bush. He did lose by a lot and the country voted him out. There was a tremendous amount of red when I viewed the polling map. The north east was blue, the south was red, except for Miami. And all in all only the major cities had a democratic view point. I thought the media did a better job at covering the campaign than the first campaign with Bush. Though through all the SBV and terrible campaign ads and the Libertarians looking like the little brother that bothers you a lot, the campaign turned out pretty fair. Though the rest of the world think we are idiots, they didn’t think that when we re-elected a president who lied about committing adultery. But that’s another story. Whether the world approved of our decision or not, this is where we are at right now. And can’t do anything about it. Perhaps we needed a smoother coverage against our own public out cries. I think the country will move towards not changing the Electoral College, though I think they should, because I would like it if my vote counted. But regardless a lot of people made money off of this election, and a lot of people may have lost but also got a lot of money. An American election is so complicated and so grand we can just accept the percentages.

Journeys With Bush

2004-11-29T22:28:00.000-05:00

Journeys with George provided me with an amazing look on the president of the United States. The documentary was well done and had a lot of information about George Bush. It brought an intimate view with voter and candidate. If I had seen this documentary while he was running for president, I would not have voted for him. Probably not anyone. All the politics was a stage. It was all set up. Campaigning seems more like a high school pep rally, rather than a national decision. I was appalled when I saw that the signs at the rallies were pre-made. That’s what they do at wrestling matches. And that is the fakest thing out there. (Though when I was younger I thought it was real.) I was surprised to see the president of the United States act so goofy around the reporters. But I guess he is just a regular guy running for president. But as in the video, Bush has matured because of his experience in office. He matured through out the campaign and worked really hard to get his face and name out there. I liked the comic relief through the other interviews and the Newsweek man label. This documentary showed me so much more to George W. Bush than I would have ever thought. It just seemed to reconnect me to that candidate back in 2000. And now he has grown to this leader of the free world. He acts the part when he’s on camera, but looks like a very nice guy to hang around. He reminds me of an uncle rather than a leader.

College students not studying... not a surprise!

2004-11-29T20:59:00.000-05:00

The Chronicle’s report of the study habit of students is not at all surprising to me. The amount of time many professors believe to be required in order to succeed in his or her class is generally overestimated. Many times a substantial amount of time is needed to increase your grade from a low A to a high A, but to simply pull of a high B or a low A requires much less time. The time required also depends on the classes taken and the institute at which the class is taken. While I defiantly spend 25 or more hours a week studying, I know that some of my class require 2 hours or less a week in order to be well prepared for them while others consume 15 or more hours alone. I have a more difficult time believing that the administrations of the colleges polled refuse to release the results of the surveys. I feel that it would be much more beneficial for the public to see the results of these polls. I also think that it is a shame that so few college students visit art museums or the theater. I think that no matter what your major, whether engineering or English, every person should learn to appreciate and enjoy art in all forms. I also feel strongly that student should read the newspaper in addition to watching the news. By getting your information from more than one source you are better able to judge the validity of the sources. While I am appalled by some of these findings, none of them really surprise me.

David's Blog Entry #6

2004-11-29T19:39:00.000-05:00

The Media and Democracy

A free media is an integral part of a healthy, functioning democracy. As the principal conduit through which citizens obtain news and information concerning politics, it serves as a mechanism through which the public monitors—and informally “checks”—the actions of government. Indeed, as expressed by the American political theorist Robert Dahl, a free media is a necessary condition that must be present for modern political democracy to exist. Without it, the ability of the citizenry to hold the government accountable is greatly diminished.

A common criticism of contemporary Russia, for example, is that the Kremlin exerts too much control over the media. The Russian government actively discourages the coverage of events that may put the country in a bad light, and journalists who fail to conform to this standard often lose their jobs, and in some cases, their lives. In such circumstances, the balance of power between the people and the government is tipped in favor of the latter—leading to a deterioration of democracy and civil liberties.

In contrast, the U.S. media, by all worldly standards, is free. The first constitutional amendment guarantees the freedom of the press, and the number and variety of American media outlets reflect this. There exist thousands of sources—operating in print, radio, television, and cyberspace—offering a diverse array of opinions. Talk radio, the Drudge Report, National Public Radio, the New York Times, AlterNet.org, and the Fox News Channel are but a few examples. Collectively, these media outlets monitor events in Washington and around the globe and disseminate such information to the public, ensuring that our elected officials serve according to the duties of their office and on behalf of the national interest. Even critics, such as Noam Chomsky, who argue that the mainstream media and its agenda are dominated by corporate interests, agree that the American media rivals the world’s freest and most vigorous.

In essence, a free media ensures that a modern political democracy remains democratic. It is a means through which citizens may ensure that the government upholds its end of the social contract. Inasmuch as a free media is a “procedural minimal” requirement for a healthy democracy, a restricted media is a symptom of an unhealthy democracy.

"Frontline" is Online!

2004-11-29T18:13:00.000-05:00

As I was stumbling around the internet during Thanksgiving break, I struck gold: old episodes of Frontline hosted on the PBS website! Here is a link.

David's Blog Entry #5

2004-11-29T18:09:00.000-05:00

Kiev's "Chestnut Revolution"

If you've been near a radio or a television in the past week, you may have heard or seen news of mass demonstrations in Kiev--the capital of Ukraine. In what has been called the "Chestnut Revolution," hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have taken to the streets to protest the results of their recent presidential election. The 'winning' candidate has since threatened to establish an autonomous eastern Ukrainian state in the event that he loses the follow-up election, and now all eyes are on the Ukrainian Supreme Court. The following is a brief primer on the situation in Kiev.

Background:
Ukraine recently held presidential elections on the 21st of this month. When the official results were released three days later, 49.46% of the vote went to Viktor Yanukovych while 46.61% of the vote went to Viktor Yushchenko. Exit polls, however, had predicted that Mr. Yanukovych would win 40% of the vote while Mr. Yushchenko would win a clear majority. This, along with widespread allegations of fraud and vote manipulation has led to the current crisis.

Who were the candidates?
The two candidates for election were Viktor Yanukovych and Viktor Yushchenko. Mr. Yanukovych, who represents the status quo, received support from the Kremlin and the eastern half of the country. It is widely believed that his rise in popularity occured largely due to propaganda from the state-controlled media. Mr. Yushchenko, a popular politician and the former head of the national bank, is a reformist who recently broke ranks with the incumbent government. He draws his support from the western half of the country.

Why is it called the "Chestnut Revolution"?
The leaves of the chestnut tree, which line Kiev's main thoroughfare, are a national symbol.

What is likely to happen in the future?
Currently, all eyes are on the Ukrainian Supreme Court, which will rule on the results of the election. If the Supreme Court validates the election, Viktor Yanukovych will become president. If that happens, the protests in Ukraine may escalate or even turn violent. If, however, the Supreme Court invalidates the results of the election, a follow-up election will likely be held. And if, in that scenario, Viktor Yushchenko wins the election, Mr. Yanukovych claims that he and the eastern half of the country will secede.

Bonus!
Viktor Yushchenko claims that the recent change in his appearance has been caused by poisoning (scroll through the article for before and after pictures). Pretty creepy!
Another set of pictures here.

Link to BBC news article

Blog 11: Relief for Illegal migrants

2004-11-29T15:05:00.000-05:00

The article “Illegal Aliens Back in Spotlight” in CBS News is a big relief to the millions of illegal migrants living in the US. President Bush had proposed that the migrants should get a legal status to live in the US temporarily. Although the temporary living status will not be helpful in becoming permanent residents but it is a welcome change for the migrants. The migrants are required to provide proof of their employment and the temporary living status will provide them with time. It has been ten months since President Bush proposed this act but no action has been taken till now. The secretary of Collin Powell says that the time after the elections is perfect to work on this proposal. Another reason that makes this time good is that the US-Mexico border is much more secured because of the security improvements after the 9/11 attacks. The officials of Mexico called the migration process of US “absurd” because Mexico contributes largely to the US economy and according to them some consideration should be given to the citizens. The discussion on this issue is expected to begin in January 2005 and it is expected to be in Bush’s favor. This reform will be a welcome change for most of the illegal migrants because they have long awaited this reform. The reform will not only be helpful to the Mexicans but to other countries as well as there are millions of illegal migrants from various countries of the world living in the US.

The link for the article is:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/11/09/politics/main654415.shtml

David's Blog Entry #4

2004-11-29T01:25:00.000-05:00

Media Manipulation in Russia

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4043389.stm

Of all the recent articles I have read concerning Russia, none have been positive. They have consisted, instead, of reports about murdered journalists, government corruption, and terrorist actions--the most recent example of which is the Beslan school siege, in which over 300 children, teachers, and parents were killed by Chechen militants. This is in spite of government efforts to control the media--to restrict the publication of news that puts the government in a bad light or reflects poorly on the country. If such news were merely the proverbial tip of the iceberg, I can hardly imagine the reality of life in Russia.

It is no secret that contemporary Russia is in jeopardy: the economy, the government, and the people are all in poor health. The country’s economy continues to be propped up by the exploitation of rapidly diminishing natural resources (e.g. oil and lumber), the gap between the rich and the poor has grown into a chasm, and the country currently faces both an AIDS epidemic and a population crisis. Though Russia's per capita GDP stands at a paltry $9,000, the country is home to the fourth largest number of billionaires in the world. Furthermore, since 1965, the life expectancy of Russian men has decreased by nearly six years (in spite of increasing life expectancies worldwide); and, estimates indicate that by 2050, the country’s population will decline by a third.

Now, this latest article continues in the same tradition. Raf Shakirov, the editor of Izvestiya, a popular Russian newspaper, has been dismissed from his position due to his paper's graphic coverage of the Beslan school massacre and its written skepticism over official casualty figures. His dismissal, of course, followed "three phone calls from people highly placed in the Kremlin." Currently liberated from his job, Mr. Shakirov has criticized the government's manipulation of the media. In addition to comparing the current government control of the media to that during the Soviet era, he has cited the use of the state television station ORT in the 1990's to bolster support for Boris Yeltsin in his presidential campaign. Mr. Shakirov said, "The most prominent example [of media manipulation] is Yeltsin's rise, which was organised by the media, by presenting his election campaign." Nevertheless, the former editor also expressed hope for the future, saying "I was lucky to survive two coups d'etat--in 1991, and under Yeltsin when he fired the Parliament. So I have seen worse times. I'm optimistic in nature. We will see." Current trends, however, indicate that the situation is likely to get worse before it improves.

David's Blog Entry #3

2004-11-27T17:38:00.000-05:00

Response to: "Undergraduates Study Much Less Than Professors Expect, Survey of Student 'Engagement' Says"

The National Survey of Student Engagement has found that forty-four percent of students spend ten hours or less per week studying, while only eleven percent of students spend twenty-five hours or more per week preparing for classes--the amount of time that most professors believe is necessary for success. In addition, the survey found that despite the failure of most students to spend the suggested number of hours per week studying, forty percent of students report earning mostly A's and an equal proportion of students report earning mostly B's.

I am not the least bit surprised by the survey's findings. In fact, I have found that the survey's findings are largely consistent with my own experience. I estimate that in the course of a typical week, I spend an average of 2 hours every weekday and 3 hours on the weekend studying, for an average of 13 hours per week. Additionally, like 40 percent of the students in the survey, I earn "mostly A's."

The disparity between the number of hours professors expect students to study and the actual number of hours that students do study can be attributed, I believe, to two main factors: (1) professors hold unrealistically high expectations for students and (2) students are inherently lazy.

For example, my computer science instructor has maintained throughout the semester that students should spend a minimum of ten hours per week studying solely for his course (CS1371). However, none of my peers have admitted to spending close to 10 hours per week. Though some of them may be sandbagging, my own experience has proven my instructor's expectations wrong: I spend approximately 3 hours per week on the homework and maintain an A-average in the class. Also, because the majority of professors teach only one or two different courses, their high expectations may result from their greater focus on the material.

A second factor for the disparity between professors' expectations and students' actions is the universal and oft-proven law that students will do the least amount of work necessary to earn a satisfactory grade in a given class--a "satisfactory grade," of course, is determined by the student's standards and a cursory cost-benefit analysis (e.g. "do I really want to kill myself to earn an A in that course?"). For example, I am writing this blog entry simply because it will count towards the total number of blog entries (15) that I need to pass this course. Likewise, I estimate that few students plan to go the extra mile and write 16 blog entries. Except for rare moments of motivation (or perfectionism/OCD), our laziness dictates that we abstain from expending too much effort for diminishing marginal returns. Thus, I believe that the difference between the two figures results from professors' unrealistically high expectations of students and the immutable law of student lazin...

Blog 10- College life

2004-11-24T01:00:00.000-05:00

The article gives a clear picture of college life. College is very different from high school and most of the students feel a lot of pressure in the beginning. But as time passes and once the way of studying is understood most of them don’t study as much as they are required to. In high school there is always a pressure from the teachers or from the parents to do well but in college it solely depends on the student to do well. There are lots of opportunities on every college campus. Many students don’t get involved in any activities and limit themselves to their books. But the students who are involved tend to do much better because it is a very good stress reliever. There is a lot of pressure in college with deadlines and homework’s in every subject so if every student has a stress reliever where they can forget about their studies then it helps a lot. The survey in the article shows that the students who are involved in co-curricular activities get much better grades. It has been found that more students are getting involved in the campus over the last five years as most of them realize its positive effects. The stress levels are extremely high during the dead week that is the week just before exams and most of the colleges try to engage the students in some activities at that time. Although the response is not very good but some students have been benefiting from it because their class performance improves drastically. All colleges are trying to start new activities for the students after the positive response and I wish the type of activities keep on increasing.

Journeys with George

2004-11-15T21:18:00.000-05:00

The documentary film Journeys with George, gave me anew insight into the world of politics First I did not realize that candidates for the primary races and presidential candidates are followed so closely by reporter during their campaigns. The lives of the reporters really are similar to a dysfunctional family. They spend so much time in close proximity to each other. This situation creates an environment that fosters unique friendships among the reporters. Each can relate to the other reporters when it comes to missing family and the constant stress of travel. The documentary also shed a new light on the relationships that the candidate has with the media representatives. I am not sure if all of Bush's interactions with the film maker were sincere or if it was only because she was making a film about him. Bush seem to get involved in her personal life a little too much for me to believe that he treated all the media representatives like he treated her. It was also interesting to see the change in Bush’s mannerisms between the primary race and the actual Presidential race. He changes from a Texas cowboy to a well mannered states man. His attire as well as the manner in which he presented himself changed as he moved from primary candidate to the Republican nominee for President. Finally the most amusing part of the documentary was the portrayal of Bush supporters. Most of the supporters interviewed had little or no facts to back up their support of Bush. They were characterized as simple minded Americans. Overall the documentary was entertaining and informative.

Article for Class Discussion

2004-11-15T17:01:00.000-05:00

"Supporters Look to Bush to Back Gay Marriage Ban"

Blog 9 : The documentry film

2004-11-12T15:23:00.000-05:00

The documentary film “Journeys with George” by Alexandra Pelosi gave a very different look of the election campaign. The film dealt with small details about the entire campaign which made it very interesting and unique. The journey was screened from the reporter outlook and it gave an insight into the lives of the reporters themselves. The fact that stuck me while watching the movie was that although the reporters were from different news sources they were nothing like rivals. All of them were very friendly and it seemed like a family staying together for one year. An absolutely different side of President Bush was seen. He was shown playing jokes and his funny side was depicted well in the film. Alexandra, the director of the movie presents the personal lives of most of the people also which gives the movie a personal touch and does not seem like a proper documentary only related to elections. The noticeable point in the movie is that even a President can be funny and he is like a normal person who enjoys life. President Bush has a great relationship with all the reporters and he seems like a friend to them. He is a no nonsense person and when he did not like some questions addressed to him he made it clear in a very direct manner. All the reporters were banking on Bush’s win because their careers were based on his win. The entire time everybody was doing the same thing everyday because the whole group was traveling to different places but addressing the same issues.

The Environment: An Important Aspect to Consider

2004-11-08T14:25:00.000-05:00

G.O.P. Plans to Give Environment Rules a Free Market Tilt

In the recent election there were many topics that held the nations attention. Many Americans focused in on the candidates’ positions regarding foreign policy, tax plans and the economy. But one very important issue was barely even mentioned. Neither candidate took time to address the ever growing problem and concerns that are arising with the environment. Many Americans are unaware of the changes in policy that President Bush plans to instate in the next four years. Overall President Bush is more interest in allowing companies and individuals to decide on making broad environmental goals work. HE also plans to push the “Clear Skies” initiative. This initiative calls for lower emissions standards for nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide and mercury. While this seems to be a step in the right direction, it doesn’t reduce emissions as quickly as other initiatives that have been proposed or even as well as the law currently on the books. If the law already in place were properly enforced we would be better off than with the “Clear Skies” initiatives. The Bush administration also has no plans to reduce the production of carbon dioxide which is the likely cause of global warming. Many Republicans are also pushing for a change in the Endangered Species Act that would make it more difficult to add a species to the endangered list. As a side effect of this change the land that would be protected for endangered species could be used in other manners. Many energy producers are looking to use land once protected for wildlife. It is highly likely that 2,000 acres of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will be opened to energy exploration. Most American are totally unaware that in the neat future their may not be wildlife to enjoy. We must take action now to prevent the loss of wildlife and national parks. Protection the environment should have had a bigger impact in the last election. If we don’t act noe their will be nothing left to protect.

Should Ex-Criminals Be Given Rights Automatically?

2004-11-07T17:46:00.000-05:00

Criminals allowed to be put back into society?

In the Miami Herald this editorial seemed like a very good topic to discuss. Should ex-felons have their rights restored after they serve their time in prison? Personally I believe all criminals should have their rights restored immediately. They serve their time and now should be able to hold jobs. If criminals don’t get to have their right to have a job restored, then perhaps that’s just an incentive to make them go back to their usual business. Maybe not, but it is extremely important for the criminals to be able to regain some sort of status. Though a criminal does show that he/she can change their ways after being behind bars, that doesn’t mean that they are the Godliest of saints. They are human and humans have instincts of going back to bad habits. It is only a matter of time. Perhaps criminals should only be able to work for the government doing landscaping or other such beatification processes around public area. Instead of the chain gangs, they are now free to live in their own place and only attend jobs that better America through manual labor. It seems tough because where do you draw the line between human and non-civilian? Maybe all criminals are the scum of the universe. They shouldn’t have done those unlawful things like kiddy-porn, rape, armed robbery, and other such needless acts to take the fast track. But they are human. Now if they affect me personally whether that is through me or my family or a loved one, then I hope they rot their freaking brains out in that cell and die of starvation.

18 and Excited to Vote!

2004-10-31T01:56:00.000-05:00

Turning 18 is a big deal to many teenagers. With that magical birthday comes many privileges that include being legally able to sign medical forms, buying cigarettes and lottery tickets and most importantly being able to vote. But because I don’t smoke and don’t really have the cash to blow on lottery tickets, I was most looking forward to voting. The day I turned 18, I sent in my voter registration card to my local election commission and eagerly waited to receive my voter registration card in the mail. Finally, I had a chance to make my opinion count in a major way. I may only be one in millions casting my vote this Election Day but I am proud to say “I voted.” The first time that I voted I was so proud that I was expression my opinion. My first vote was to help decide whether or not a high school should be built in my neighborhood. Despite the fact that this vote was trivial, I felt obligated to vote because how could I complain out the school or the increase in taxes if I didn’t express my opinion about the matter. When it came time to vote in the Presidential election, I sent in for my absentee ballots several months in advance. Again I wasn’t going to miss this election for anything. I spent hours searching the internet for facts and figures on each candidate (and not just because of this English class). And while filling out the absentee ballot was not as exciting as going to the actual polling locations, I still felt the overwhelming sense of pride when I filled it out and sent it to the election commission. I even paid the extra cash at the post office so that I would receive proof that it arrived safely. I may get a bit more excited than the average person does about voting, but I am proud that I can now express my ideas and have them count. I feel like every American should feel the same pride in being able to help decide the leadership of this country and should take the time out to have their opinions count!

I Am Very Excited To Vote!!!!!

2004-10-30T18:33:00.000-05:00

This election makes me very excited to have turned 18 and ready to make my vote count. I can remember being a little kid and going with my mom to vote. She would show me how to punch the ballot card so that there would be no hanging chads. (Note: this was before the 200 election) I would say that I wanted to vote to. So here I am. But unfortunately away from Miami. So I have to fill out an absentee ballot. Though I won’t get the rush of going into that booth and feeling my vote transmit to my candidate. I can at least understand that I’m doing a true America duty. But I was really surprised to see so much activism for this election. People are really going out there to vote and get something done. I am really inspired and proud to see so many people come out to support the election. People really feel that this is the definitive decision for America. We are in the war on terror and we need a leader. America must always make itself better than it was before and to do that we need to appreciate and be active in voting. I can’t wait to see the results of the election.

FAHRENHEIT 9/11

2004-10-27T17:25:00.000-05:00

On, Wednesday, October 20, 2004, I was able to watch Fahrenheit 9/11. Full of stabs at our current President George W. Bush, this movie highlighted many of the causes and effects of September 11, 2001. Going back to when his father was president, this movie seems to exploit just about every piece of information available to make President Bush, his family, and his administration, look awful. Playing on the emotions of the U.S. citizens by showing how a particular family and community were devastated by the war. There are some parts of the movie that I agree with, like the lack of attention to the warning about the terrorist attacks, and also the false evidence and contradictory statements that led up to the war in Iraq. I do feel like there are many too many innocent lives that have already been lost in Iraq and there will be many more. If I had not seen Fahrenheit 9/11, I would not know many of the things that I know now about the Bush family and it’s history. My eyes have been opened to some of the horrible things that people are subjected to when war becomes a part of a “solution” and I feel that some of the things from Bush’s past are coming back to haunt him. Things like his relationship with the people of Afghanistan and also the censorship of records and investigations. Fahrenheit 9/11 was effective in some ways, but it also had a few “overdone” sections as well. The one shot that seemed most outrageous was the seven minutes of pure silence after Bush learned about the attack in New York. The adlibs and the comments made by Michael Moore were completely unnecessary. “Or was he thinking…Uh oh. I need a big black marker.” Comments like this could have been left out. Seven minutes of complete silence would have been more effective because it leaves the viewer a chance to feel seven dead minutes and form their own opinions of what Bush might have been thinking. By viewing this movie, I have an idea of how the media can positively use and negatively exploit an issue at one time. Now that I have seen Fahrenheit 9/11, I feel that I should also see Fahrenhpye 9/11 as well. I hope to learn a lot from this movie as well and it gives me the opportunity to witness two opposing viewpoints on one central subject.

babies in bathwater

2004-10-27T17:24:00.000-05:00

In this year’s election, the language used to describe presidential candidates is the language of “daddies and dummies”. This is how Dahlia Lithwick feels in her article “Babies and Bath Water” as the presidential debate progresses. As the race for presidency continues, there are methods that candidates and other political figures use in order to sway voters and label candidates. The characterizations of Bush portray him as childish, simple-minded, and “anti-intellectual”. Not only do these characterizations label Bush, but also his supporters. Not only are those who insult Bush are making direct connections to his current supporters and those who voted for him in 2000, and are indirectly insulting his supporters as well. Each insult shot toward Bush, the same is implied about his supporters. In a nation where a percentage of voters only have a high school education, this method of criticism has a great impact on the results of the election. These flying insults may not be the most professional way to illustrate a point, but it is effective. Lithwick, uses “Babies and Bath Water” to show how the trivial and frequent “third-grader” portrayal of Bush is like talking to and living with a toddler. With all of the insults and jokes flying about the upcoming elections, it is hard to determine which candidates are to be taken seriously. Not only that, but the entire election has become flawed with sordid insults hurled from candidate to candidate, political party to political party, and candidate supporter to candidate supporter.

Miami Herald Defiantly Supports Kerry

2004-10-19T09:08:00.000-05:00

A Paper That Isn't Afraid to Tell The Truth

Finally, the Herald is a newspaper that sees just the facts and nothing else. They should keep those blinders on for the rest of the papers history and hopefully others will follow. This editorial justified why John Kerry Deserves to be president. They went down the facts in an unbiased manner. I thought that by stating common ground interests also won the hearts of the people. For example, when you think of Miami, you see…Americans? Beaches? Nice weather? How about Latin Americans. Yes. Miami is filled with Latin Americans. In the editorial they discuss that Kerry seems to support interests in Miami, as a gold mine from Latin America. He supported the FTAA, and looks to Miami as a potential place that he could support. Well by now, once everyone in Miami has read this article, everyone will vote for Kerry. Except Bill O’Riely (because he’s on the television). Did I mention that there are a lot of Hispanics in Miami? Another interesting fact about Miami, is that there are many people who follow Judaism. I in fact went to a middle school in which I went to friends Quinces, and friend’s barmistfuhs. In the article they also appeal to Jews by stating facts that Kerry is a supporter of peace in the Middle East. He wants to make peace in Israel, with strong international affairs. The Miami Herald really does dig down, to support a President who will obviously support the economy of Miami, the interests of Miami, and Miami community. Sounds wonderful.

Kerry's economic plan

2004-10-12T12:48:00.000-05:00

Senator Kerry has ambitious plans to change the fate of the American economy by redistributing tax sources. Senator Kerry plans to raise the taxes on the top two income brackets back to the pre-Bush rates. Americans in the top income bracket would experience an increase in income tax from thirty five percent to thirty nine percent. The second top income bracket would experience an increase from thirty three percent to thirty six percent. The other ninety eight percent of the American population will not experience a raise in taxes. Senator Kerry intends to make the new ten percent income bracket permanent for the poorest Americans and keep the current rate of income taxes at twenty five and twenty eight percent for middle class Americans . Senator John Kerry also has plans to recover taxes lost from companies that continue to send their businesses overseas. Currently under the Bush administration some business that are dealing with foreign earned income are avoiding paying U.S. taxes. Senator Kerry plans to cut down or eliminate the occurrences of this as well as to lower the corporate income taxes from thirty five percent to thirty three percent. By lowering the corporate tax, Senator Kerry is hoping to encourage business to stay within the United States. The money necessary to turn around the budget deficit will not appear out of nowhere. In these times of economic instability, only those who are already finically sound can afford to help to balance the budget.

Jena's Blog Entry # 7: First Presidential Debate

2004-10-12T12:14:00.000-05:00

I thought that the first Presidential debate was an excellent learning experience. At first, I thought that meeting as a whole group was a bad idea, but I found that I paid more attention to what was going on while watching it as a group. I also enjoyed having people around me to discuss the debate with me as it went along. I did not like the repetition of some of the topics throughout the debate, and I also thought that both candidates had their weak and strong points. Bush stumbled some when Kerry brought up issues, but I think that Bush had a better tone than Kerry. Kerry had a tendency, to me at least, to sound meaner and more brutish. I thought that overall Kerry may have won the debate, but only slightly. The experience was a very good one, but I only wish that the debate could have been earlier; that is my only complaint. The class discussion at the end helped me see what my classmates thought, which many of them agreed with me. However, there were many that were on opposing sides, and I thought that it was interesting to listen to them argue various points of each candidate. The foreign policy topic is also the one that hurts Bush the most because of the War in Iraq currently going on. I thought that the debate also helped me understand better some of the policies of both Kerry and Bush, Kerry especially. Before this debate, I had a very little idea of what Kerry's policies were. Now I understand them better, and I feel more educated on both sides because of this debate.

"Pump Dreams"

2004-10-10T00:29:00.000-05:00

This article from The New Yorker explores the nuances of America's current energy situation. It is lengthy, but worth the while.

Melissa's Article

2004-10-09T19:51:00.000-05:00

Here is the link to my article for Tuesday:
Fact Check

Luciana's article for Sat.

2004-10-08T14:15:00.000-05:00

Here is the article that I will be discussing about:

Luciana's article

Article For Tuesday : Sugandh

2004-10-08T00:28:00.000-05:00

The link is :
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/10/07/election.observers.ap/index.html

Luciana's Blog Entry #8

2004-10-07T18:32:00.000-05:00

In one of the editorials from the Miami Herald newspaper, it is very clearly revealed that the author of this editorial supports the future presidency of John Kerry. The technique that this author used in order to persuade its audience that Kerry should win this year's election was by lowering his "thinking level" to the level of common American citizens. By using facts that citizens are very familiar with, the article brings many interests from its readers. For example, this editorial emphasizes the support of Kerry in the city of Miami. As most of people living down there already know, there is a very abundant number of Latin American people residing in Miami. Therefore, in order to get a much bigger number of votes, Kerry took advantage of this particular group of people by supporting them in many ways, such as the FTAA. By doing this, Kerry can guarantee that he will have more votes from Latin Americans from Miami, whose population is very big. Another reason why Kerry reached for these people was because there are copious American citizens who follow Judaism. To win the support from the Jewish community of Miami, Kerry stated that he would emphasize on the International Affairs' power to bring peace to the Middle East. This article seems to be very successful, but only for readers from Miami. It doesnt affect people from the other 49 states at all.

Luciana's Blog Entry #7

2004-10-07T17:50:00.000-05:00

It was a very interesting experience for me to watch the presidential debate between George Bush and John Kerry. As I was observing the two candidates speaking and revealing their opinions about each topic, I noticed that they acted in different ways throughout the debate. It seemed that Kerry was a little more prepared for the debate than Bush was. Kerry spoke about his beliefs in a very confident way, and he also responded to Bush's verbal attacks in a very patient manner, without showing any signs of hesitance. In the contrary, Bush seemed to be somewhat agitated and not very assured in what he was saying, proving that Bush was not very ready to debate with his main adversary in the campaign. Also, everytime Kerry made a statement that criticized Bush's works, Bush always responded with basically the same words, that a president could not change sides, and that he had to consistent in his words. He repeated this response at least twice, when Kerry stated that the invasion of Iraq due to Osama Bin Laden's terrorist attack was a bad move and when he sent a message to the troops in Iraq, telling them that they will be sent home as soon as possible. Although Kerry seemed to have better reasons because of his words, I think that if Bush prepared more for this debate he would have more guarantee to win because his beliefs are more rational than Kerry's.

Jena's Article for Saturday

2004-10-07T13:12:00.000-05:00

Here's an article entitled "Senate Examining (Again) Constitutional Ban on Foreign-Born Presidents.

Jena's Article

Th FBI's Fumbles

2004-10-07T13:04:00.002-05:00

Here is an article from my favorite paper:

The Miami Herald

Blog 8: The Vice-Presidential Debate

2004-10-07T12:46:00.000-05:00

The article “US Running Mates Clash over Iraq” by an unknown writer is a detailed analysis of the debate between the two vice- presidential candidates. The writer covers every aspect of the debate in a coherent manner and states the basic points discussed at the debate. The prime factor of the debate was the Iraq war. The Republican candidate Cheney supported the US attack on Iraq as according to him Saddam Hussein was an ally of Osama Bin Laden. Edwards, the Democratic representative repeated the words used by Kerry and accused the Bush government of not being clear about their motive in attacking Iraq. The war against terror, which shifted bases from Afghanistan to Iraq, was a strong point for Edwards. He condemned President Bush of neglecting the situation in Afghanistan when US were on the final stage of the war. Cheney disagreed to these allegations and said that Afghanistan had improved a lot since Taliban lost control. The last part of the debate was spent in discussing health care issues and generally the national problems.
The writer sheds light on his views about the Presidential debate and says that Kerry had emerged as a winner against Bush and this was the reason that Kerry’s prospects were increasing. Nevertheless, Bush still leads Kerry for his qualities as a great leader and the people still believe that only Bush can protect them from another terrorist attack. The vice-presidential debate was similar to the presidential debate and it is very difficult to say that a particular candidate is better.

link:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3716852.stm

Jena's Blog Entry # 6: Vince Keenan and Class Discussion (Thursday)

2004-10-06T00:19:00.000-05:00

I thought that the class discussion and participation on Thursday was much better than the presentation on Wednesday, which has a lot to do with the fact that we were his only audience. This time the students got to pick the topics and Vince Keenan asked some very interesting questions and brought up very interesting points about younger people voting. I agree with him on the fact that teens are difficult to encourage to vote, and the question of whether or not political candidates should focus on younger voters interests me greatly. What I believe we decided from the discussion is that teenagers and young adults really do not know what they want yet. Also, most of the representatives in government do not reflect a younger age group; therefore they are difficult to relate to. I think that if online voting was created that more young adults would vote because we relate better to things such as the internet, computers, or televisions. Part of the reason that young adults do not vote is because they find the process boring; why watch a presidential debate on CSPAN if “Pimp My Ride” is on MTV? Younger voters have not realized the effect that government has on them, and many do not think that their vote will make much of a difference. I believe that if something drastic were to happen that directly effects younger voters, then they would come together as a whole, but by then it may be too late. It is not a good situation, and hopefully things such as MTV’s Rock the Vote and other similar programs will open the eyes of America’s youth to the rest of the world and not just the latest pop band.

Jena's Blog Entry # 5: Wednesday's Vince Keenan Lecture

2004-10-06T00:18:00.000-05:00

The lecture last Wednesday was not what I expected, but I thought that what Vince Keenan did with Publius.org was a great idea. The lecture was more over how a website developed and its history than it was relevant to government in our world today. I understand that he had to make his lecture to appease the rest of the audience as well as the students, but I thought that he was going to tell us more about how the internet has evolved into becoming more of an information source. I thought that he was a good speaker and he was very entertaining for the most part. I also thought that his presentation showed that the internet did have an effect on voters in Michigan, but I wish that he knew more about the Georgia voting system because it seems more relevant since we are in Atlanta. Publius.org seems like an excellent way to get more voters involved because many know nothing of the candidates or the ballot before entering the voting booth. I also liked when he told funny jokes such as when he spoke of the dot com era and the fact that they could have picked whichever name that they wanted, and they chose something strange like publius.org. The lecture I think would have been more interesting if I was a CS major or something more relevant to that. However, I am a chemical engineering major, so it was a little too dull for me. Therefore I thought that overall the presentation was good, but not completely relevant to our class theme.

Blog 7 : The Presidential Debate

2004-10-04T19:42:00.000-05:00

The Presidential debate was a very interesting way to know the stands of both the candidates. The main issue being debated was the Iraq war and the security concerns of the country. Senator Kerry looked relaxed and he spoke well, bringing his points forward in a coherent way. On the other hand, President Bush seemed nervous and he was repeating many points. Every candidate had 2 minutes to answer a direct question and the other candidate had a 90-minute rebuttal after the answer. The point that Senator Kerry was emphasizing on was that the Iraq war was a wrong move because the main enemy of US was Osama Bin Laden and not Saddam Hussein. President Bush was not very strong on his stand; he kept on criticizing Kerry about being inconsistent. He said that a President could not change sides he has to abide by what he says. Kerry looked much better prepared for the debate; Bush looked agitated the whole while. The issue of bringing the troops back from Iraq was also discussed and to this Kerry made a direct attack on the President by saying,” Help is on its way “as a message to the soldiers. He said that as soon as the mess already created was cleared up the troops would be called back. President Bush again repeated the same thing about Kerry changing sides.
The debate was a very good experience as we got a very good view of the way both the candidates spoke and put forward their views. Their body language and their reactions to criticism gave a good look into their state of mind.

Blog 6 : Should the Whole World Vote for the US President?

2004-10-03T18:05:00.000-05:00

The article “Still No Votes in Leipzig” by Jonathan Freeland is a well-written article about whether the citizens of other countries should vote for the US President. It is a very debatable issue and I think the privilege of voting for the US President is a right of only the US citizens as they are the ones living in the country and paying taxes. It is true that President of America is a matter of concern for the whole world but every country in the world will think in terms of their benefit from a particular candidate. The world will not think about the people of America and their needs. The article raises points that most of the people in Europe are supporting Senator Kerry because of his policies for the respective countries and not for the benefit of America or the American people.
The Iraq war affected the American people as much as it affected the Iraqi people. Innumerable troops from the US army died and the citizens of America are still concerned about the situation and their vote will be in the benefit of the whole world. The whole world is not concerned about the healthcare issues or the tax cuts, these issues are only of concern to the US citizens and they are the best judges about which candidate will fulfill their demands.

Blog Reply to Jeff at the Back of the Class

2004-10-01T22:24:00.000-05:00

Check out one of Florida's Problems: Hurricane Amnesia

I would first like to say that I was very impressed with Jeff’s analysis of the building codes in Florida. The appealing article, “Hurricane Amnesia”, appears to be an appropriate title for such a case. I am from Miami, Florida, so I am very used to hurricanes. When a hurricane comes close to Florida, every one starts boarding up and stacking up on supplies. The result? Sitting in a dark house while Homedepote and Publix stock holders make a lot of money. It seems really ridiculous, but fact of the matter is…between July and November hurricanes are just apart of life in South Florida. I can remember living in a trailer for three years with my family as a result of Hurricane Andrew back in August of 1994. We were waiting for a contractor to manage rebuilding our house but he took a long time and ran away with a lot of our money. Even after they finished, we had to ask them to double shingle our house. So they were still building on codes before the hurricane. It was terrible. And now what about the people who were poor. They had no real money after insurance to build a safer house. So the insurance companies are making more money while people are making the same amount they were five years ago. It is a terrible scheme in Florida right now. There is not enough action and care being taken so the victim becomes the already victimized. It compounds problems and leaves the hard working individual in harms way. No life should be worth a dollar sign.

Vince Keenan Lecture Response

2004-09-30T10:14:00.000-05:00

I thought that the presentation by Mr. Vince Keenan went very well. Though besides the technical difficulties, he gave some great information. It was really interesting to see how just a college idea turned into a real world application. And by what I heard, that process was extremely difficult to manage. Years of cutting and pasting trial and error, it takes a lot of patience for something of that magnitude to fly. It seemed that the website is useful to Michigan voters. But I would really like to see something like that in Florida, or Georgia. Because I don’t know where to vote, or what precinct I’m in, and frankly don’t care about candidates in the lower bracket of elections, such as district court judge, and other local government positions. And sometimes I don’t know who my congressmen are. It is really quite a shame. But the service offered through Publious and the state of Michigan, provides all that hard to find information right at your finger tips. I also like the functionality of the pre-ballot box. All your selections can be made and saved for your personal record. We needed a system like this a long time ago. It just provides the information that voters need to make a right decision. And it is strictly un-biased. I think that what Vince Keenan and his employees have done, are magnificent. It simply gets the job done, and shows to be one of the very few true projects for democracy.

the link

2004-09-28T10:39:00.000-05:00

Here's the link to the small group letters that I spoke of earlier (about electronic voting).
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/23/opinion/l23vote.html

Jena's Blog Entry #4: 9/23 Class Discussion Response

2004-09-28T10:36:00.000-05:00

The class discussion last class over the issue of the location of U.S. troops greatly interested me. I do not think that it is fair to the troops at war that many of the troops get stationed in places like Germany and Japan. However, I also saw a valid argument in the fact that it would cost a lot of money to move the bases, which are already grounded. I would not like to pay more tax dollars to move a base when the money could be better spent elsewhere (such as on the troops in Iraq). On the other hand, I think that we eventually need to move our troops back to our own country so that the military men and women as well as their families do not have to separate themselves from our country if it is unnecessary.
In my small group, I found a set of interesting opinion letters on why electronic voting systems are bad. However, I feel that the electronic systems are a good contribution to the next election because it they are faster, more efficient, and more likely to get counted than the old system. Many votes get thrown out each year because people do not punch the “chad” completely through the hole, or the voters do not vote for the president, so those votes get thrown out as well. The main argument against these machines is that the evidence of the votes cannot be seen. However, the machines can print off a ticket, and then the evidence will be seen. Another good argument that I heard about the machines is that they can recreate the election entirely again if a recount is required. I understand that it is a main concern over the trustworthiness of government, but I believe that the new electronic systems will help prevent the loss of votes and speed up the election process itself.

Sex for Voters, No Sex for Non-Voters

2004-09-25T18:22:00.000-05:00

Here's a novel incentive for you to get off your haunches and vote this November 2nd: SEX! www.votergasm.org

Luciana's Blog Entry #6

2004-09-23T19:19:00.000-05:00

During today's class discussion, we talked about how the shifting of troops to different locations affects many factors of our country, such as our financial conditions and families living in America who have relatives serving for our country in foreign nations. I think that the fact that the U.S. is worrying about moving troops to countries such as Japan and Germany is not very rational. We should be more focused on the situation of Iraq, who is the country that needs the most help. We should provide them with more troops instead of placing them in countries where it is unnecessary. Also, shifting bases to other locations costs a lot of money, and if the government is spending this money on needless things, it will be highly criticized. Our focus should mainly be made to Iraq, not to other countries where there's nothing happening at the moment. Another topic that I discussed about with my small group and that interested me was on the debate whether electronic voting systems are good or bad. Many citizens are arguing that voting electronically should be banned regardless of its efficiency because since it is electronic, it can not show a genuine evidence that proves that a certain candidate has won. However, tickets can be printed off out of these machines, showing proof of the number of votes. Particularly, I do not think that this method of voting should be annuled because it does not only speeds the process of voting, but it also encourages more citizens to vote.

American Muslims Support Bush

2004-09-23T12:25:00.000-05:00

This is an interesting link from a Pakistani newspaper which describes the support that President Bush has from the Pakistanis living in America.

http://paknews.com/headingNews.php?id=3046&date1=2004-08-14

Luciana's Blog Entry #5

2004-09-21T22:55:00.000-05:00

In relation to the election campaign of of 2004, Tom Fiedler writes an editorial that explains the theories from both Republican and Democratic parties. I liked this article because instead of criticizing one party or favoring one side, he mentions both sides' beliefs, leaving it to the reader to decide which party he or she is going to choose for this year's elections. In the article, he states that the Republican party is offering a compassionate war president, and the Democrats are promoting a president with compassion that will protect America. However, while describing the two parties and their proposals, Fiedler ends up blurting out his opinions, saying that the Republican party was in confusion with all the "compassionate war president" deal. Criticizing the Republicans in this way may sound like a bad move towards the readers, but it reveals to the reader that it is just an opinion from the reader more than trying to force the reader that he/she should agree with what he says. It is just an opinion from an American citizen; there is no pressure. I believe that Fiedler wrote this editorial in a very effective way. It gives sufficient information for the audience to decide independently which party they are going to favor for this year's elections.

Luciana's Blog Entry #4

2004-09-21T16:19:00.000-05:00

Michael Ware, the author of "The Enemy With Many Faces", uses a very effective a way of writing to persuade his readers. Compared to the describings of the current situations in the Middle East by news reporters, newspapers, and magazines, Ware characterizes the conflict in a different way. Instead of making direct statements as a method to persuade the audience, he approaches the reader by describing his own experience that he dealt with when he was in the Middle East. For example, he stated that the jehadis were still in control of most of Baghdad, and that Europeans and Americans were being killed every day, which is quite divergent from what American citizens living in the United States are being informed of. This technique that Ware uses to inform his readers is very adequate to the subject of the article because they are receiving information from everywhere, which have different opinions. But instead of giving them an opinion and telling what they should believe in, Ware uses his narrative argument to give them indirect statements, and therefore, providing them the freedom to decide what they think is right or wrong. In that way, readers do not feel that they are being forced to believe in something.

Response to Chris' (of the Sausage blog) entry on Granny Voters

2004-09-20T20:12:00.000-05:00

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13001-2004Sep10.html
"While listening to the DNC and RNC speeches, I noticed that when addressing the elderly their main topics of conversation were Social Security and prescription drugs. Of course these have always been important points in trying to get the vote of the elderly for years, but I often wonder if the older voters are a little more complex than that. Ellen Goodman, a journalist for the Boston Globe, as well as a grandmother is able to answer my questions in her editorial “The GrannyVoters, Getting Out the Vote”. The editorial is very heavy in pathos as it seems to tug at the readers values (children to be exact) from the beginning. She starts off by comparing Democratic and Republican Conventions to her grandchildren. Goodman quickly answers the question sarcastically by saying “politicians deal with the new generation of grandparents as if all we cared about were Social Security, prescription drugs and Medicare. As if the only time we think about our legacy is when we make out a will.” By saying this she means that while caring for them is important, but caring for their grandchildren is even more important. From this point she moves on to talk about GrannyVoter. GrannyVoter evolved from a small group of women who range from psychologist to anthropologist who got together to talk about life. Soon after they moved onto the discussion of polotics and this is where it was born. They want the public to realize that they are a large voting block (1/3 of adults) and that they’re concerned about their grandchildren’s futures just as much as they are with theirs. She then goes on to discuss National Grandparents Day and what they plan to accomplish that afternoon. While the beginning is rather strong, it starts to digress a little towards the middle of the piece and does not make as much of an impact on the audience as it could have. It’s important for the elderly to get there message out on what issues they stand on, but this article has a bit too much pathos for the average reader to take."

Chris comments on an editorial from the Washington Post that highlights an up and coming political group composed of elderly women voters, mainly grandparents. While I agree with Chris' rhetorical analysis of the piece, I disagree that it was ineffective in persuading its audience of its point. The author does rely heavily on pathos, appealing to the readers' values, but she does bring in points that rely on facts and on the credibility of the group. The author motive in the piece is to convince the audience that the concerns of the older voting community do not simple advocate for Social Security and Medicare benefits. She wants to convince them that the grandparents of America are also concerned with the futures of their children and grandchildren. The author uses the credibility of the members of her group to establish credibility of the entire group. She mentions that members include Geraldine Ferraro, Patricia O’Brein and many other highly respected women in the fields of anthropology, politics and psychotherapy. The author also states that 70 million people in America are grandparents or 1/3 of the total voting population. Her group and this article are pushing for a reform in the way that the elderly community is treated by politicians during a political race. It is in these facts that I disagree with Chris’ opinion that the article is weak. I think it provides good information in why the group was formed and what they hope to achieve as a political organization.

Blog 5: Situation of Iraq

2004-09-20T15:13:00.000-05:00

The article “The Enemy With Many Faces “ by Michael Ware describes the present situation in Iraq. I picked this article from TIME.com and I think that it is a very good example of a narrative argument. The author relates his experience with the terrorists in Iraq; he gives details of the story in a manner that the readers understand the state of affairs in Iraq. The article abides by the main aspect of narrative argument and that is to tell a convincing story, the fact that makes the story more effective is that it is a personal experience of the author. The writer brings to light that the jehadis in Baghdad were still controlling the major part of the city and every day some Americans or Europeans were killed, which is very different from what the Bush administration is stating. Another aspect of the article is that it appeals to the personal experiences of the readers; any reader who has a relative in the US army will understand the situation and feel towards it. Ware does not make a definite claim ,he only lists the facts and makes it clear indirectly that the Bush administration still have lots of work to do if they want to make Iraq a successful democracy. However, it is noted that the writer does not make his stand clear and leaves it to the reader to analyze the situation and make an opinion.

link:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101040927-699341,00.html

Jena's Blog Entry # 3 Can I get some political issues PLEASE!!!

2004-09-15T18:33:00.000-05:00

In Micheal Moore's blunt letter to President Bush, he clearly shows his anti-Bush sentiment. The tone of his piece is clearly loathsome, and he makes no attempt to sound sophisticated or polite. He pokes and prods at Bush, who does not openly attack Moore back, which I believe to be a very coward-like action. He attacks Bush’s statements on how Kerry has been overplaying his role in Vietnam. I am personally sick of all of the discussion of the Vietnam services of both candidates. I think that the Kerry administration has tried too hard to play up Kerry as a war veteran. He is not Ike (Pres. Eisenhower), and I think that a president whose only qualities are that of a war veteran, then they should not be running the political aspects of our country. Both Bush and Kerry served in the war, so can we please drop the crazy drama behind it? I would like to hear more on the candidate’s ideas for creating more jobs, fixing the energy crisis, working on the war, and other important issues that deal with America. What happened in the past is important to a certain extent, but I believe that a voter should vote educated on such matters. A voter should not approach the poles without knowing what each candidate represents; I mean that not as just a party, but also the candidate’s ideas on all sorts of issues. In conclusion, Micheal Moore needs to stop causing drama, and as for Bush’s side, he needs to stop prodding into Kerry’s past and start making more statements about what he wishes to do in his next four years. The good news is that this issue is currently being dropped, and if you see my Entry #2 there is a very good article that I recommend reading about the energy situation and the plans from each candidate. Also, there is an extremely funny cartoon going around the web about “This Land”. Go to the site below to see it.

http://atomfilms.shockwave.com/contentPlay/shockwave.jsp?id=this_land&preplay=1&ratingBar=off

Jena's Blog Entry #2 Bush-Kerry Energy Platforms

2004-09-14T21:16:00.000-05:00

In an article written by an unknown author of the New York Times, the author compares and contrasts the energy campaign platforms of Bush and Kerry. I liked this article because I thought it was very insightful into how the plans should be carried out. I also liked it because the author appealed to my common sense as a reader to show me how Kerry’s plan will help America. This piece was mostly unbiased because although the author leans towards Kerry, he shows the flaws in Kerry’s pieces and shows how Bush’s arguments make valid efforts and points. Therefore, it seems more like the author has come to the conclusion that Kerry’s plan is better through a careful look at each of the plans. In other words, it does not seem as if the author was immediately a Kerry supporter, and it seems as if he has chosen Kerry’s plan as the better one through careful consideration. He also points out the flaws in both Bush and Kerry’s plans, which makes the author sound like he knows what he is talking about. The issue itself is important because as Americans we are slowly running out of energy, so I think that the issue will be important in the upcoming election. One of the most important ways to preserve this energy is through organization by the government. Bush plans on drilling in the extremely hard to reach deposits around Alaska. This may waste money, but the American oil supply is decreasing rapidly, and with increasing gas prices, something must be done.

Link: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0B1EF838540C708DDDA00894DC404482

Jim Crow in 2004?

2004-09-13T21:53:00.000-05:00

In an opinion article printed in the New York Times, Bob Herbert addresses the problem of deterring the black vote in America. Through a mix of sarcasm and factual evidence, Herbert brings attention to the archaic practice of preventing black Americans from voting. The article seeks to educate the general public of the practices that are occurring and in many cases the public is completely blind to them. Republicans seek to suppress the black vote in areas that are predominantly black and thus democratic. They know that this particular group can challenge the outcome of the presidential election. Herbert article is designed to inform voters of the unconstitutional practices at hand and alert them to the fact that there are organizations against this type of crime. It is difficult to believe that in a time when acceptance of all races should be established, certain groups are still operating as if America is still caught in the Jim Crow era. In a time where Americans supposedly have left the shameful period of segregation and degradation, a few Americans are still resorting to scare tactics to prevent the voice of black Americans from being heard. Bob Herbert’s editorial is a noble effort to expose this scandal to the voting public in hopes that many will listen and take action.

Luciana's Blog Entry #3

2004-09-13T21:22:00.000-05:00

The unknown author of the article "Looking for Energy in the Campaign" basically compares the positive and negative sides of the two main candidates for this year's elections: George Bush and John Kerry. Although the author opposes Bush, he does not only point out the flaws in his plans, but he also reveals the positive and effective points in Bush's arguments. In addition, Kerry's plan's defects are also pointed out by the author. I liked how he/she planned this article's structure because it tries to persuade the reader in a very passive and rational way, by contrasting the energy of each candidate's campaigns. By analyzing each candidate's plans carefully and not ignoring Bush's strong sides, it shows and successfully convinces the reader that Kerry has better chances of becoming a better president than Bush. More persuasive writers should follow this author's way of what the reader should or should not do.

Opinion Polls for Bush and Kerry

2004-09-13T13:36:00.000-05:00

The editorial “Odds Getting Even: Bush Leading Kerry by a Length” by Chidanand Rajghatta in The Times of India is an alluring and informative article. The writer states that according to the recent opinion polls George Bush is more likely to win the elections that John Kerry. It is surprising to read that George Bush is being favored as many editorials have been raising many questions about his policies and his actions as the President. Although many people were against Bush’s policies against the war on terror some of them still believe that bush will be a better choice to deal with the problem of terrorism. The polls seem more surprising following the Republican Convention in New York, which faced serious protest from the New Yorkers. However, another point of notice is that people still prefer Kerry on the “health care issues” which can be a victorious aspect for him. There is not a marked difference in the polls received by the two candidates and the current prediction is that the opinion may change soon as the elections are still two months away. The writer uses exact figures from the survey to support his argument .The author does not reveal his stand in the argument he remains unbiased throughout the article and leaves it to the readers to do the thinking and analyze the situation by themselves.

The link is :
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/847163.cms

Objectivity in the Media

2004-09-12T19:23:00.000-05:00

Andrew Cline’s post to the Rhetorica blog examines the responsibility that belongs to journalist to report the truth. Cline present that objectivity is not simply presenting the facts, and only the facts but it is instead presenting the truth. He relates the responsibility of journalist to that of politicians. Cline acknowledges that politicians will continue to present the fact in a manor that favors their position. In politics, fact and opinions merge and nothing is presented in a completely true manor. Cline then presents that the responsibility to provide the truth lies in the hands of journalists. It is their job to present the general public with truthful information so that they can exercise their right to make up their own minds about the issues. Journalists, unlike politicians, should serve to present the truth, not just the fact so that Americans can have a source that is completely true.