To start off, I'm waaaaay behind on this blog. I'll probably be posting previous Questions of the Week later on to catch up.
Moving on to Obama, he really seems to put more effort into his job when election time starts coming 'round. According to poll information (from gallup.com) Obama has a 44% approval rating, which is a huge improvement of his low of 38%. Basically this means that he has a higher chance of getting re-elected now that he has switched into campaign mode.
Monday, December 12, 2011
Cartoon of the Week
Found at http://www.uclick.com/client/nyt/bs/
Drawn by Ben Sargent
Key Objects: Wall Street street sign, trash can, milk carton featuring a middle class American family as "MISSING MIDDLE-CLASS AMERICAN DREAM". The Wall Street street sign represents Wall Street businesses (fairly straight forward), the trash can (which is holding the milk carton) is what the middle class American dream has become (trash, lies, etc.), the milk carton represents the missing/dying middle class American dream.
Techniques or Devices Used: Ummm. All I'm seeing here is symbolism.... Ummm.... It's not really making fun of anyone so that knocks off satire and ridicule. I suppose it could be caricature, but it's not really disproportionate...
Issue or Event: The shrinking middle class and fading American dream.
Cartoonist's Message: Our middle class is disappearing and the American dream is dying.
Cartoonist's P.O.V. (Point of view): That the rich keep getting richer while the poor are getting poorer.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Old Grudges, Assassination Plots, Foreign Countries, and a Mexican Drug Cartel?
Kicking it off in a true James Bond fashion Iran, Saudi Arabia, and a Mexican drug cartel all meet on American soil. How? Theory is that that Iranian government hired a Mexican drug cartel to kill the Saudi Arabian ambassador so that the relationship between America and Saudi Arabia would be wrecked. This would let Iran step in as the new power for the Middle East and none would truly notice while America and Saudi Arabia were at each other's throats.
Obviously the operation didn't go as planned. The ambassador is fine, and now all eyes are on Iran. While the Iranian government is insisting that they had nothing to do with the plot, there is substantial evidence against them and this may have pushed the Saudi Arabian government from simply belligerent to openly hostile.
Personally I'm having trouble getting past the fact that if someone hadn't told me that this really happened I would have thought that they were talking about the next James Bond movie. I haven't had the pleasure of living long enough to have the chance to experience this phenomena more than once, but this is truly a time when reality is stranger than fiction. Here's the article from "The New York Times" that I read this story from.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/14/us/obama-calls-for-iran-sanctions-following-alleged-plot.html?ref=todayspaper
Obviously the operation didn't go as planned. The ambassador is fine, and now all eyes are on Iran. While the Iranian government is insisting that they had nothing to do with the plot, there is substantial evidence against them and this may have pushed the Saudi Arabian government from simply belligerent to openly hostile.
Personally I'm having trouble getting past the fact that if someone hadn't told me that this really happened I would have thought that they were talking about the next James Bond movie. I haven't had the pleasure of living long enough to have the chance to experience this phenomena more than once, but this is truly a time when reality is stranger than fiction. Here's the article from "The New York Times" that I read this story from.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/14/us/obama-calls-for-iran-sanctions-following-alleged-plot.html?ref=todayspaper
Question of the Week. Obama's Grade Report
Foreign Policy: C+
Our troops are coming home, we are leaving the middle east in capable hands, and the world isn't making any new jokes about American stupidity. Though I have no complaints about how he has handled foreign policy, I feel that Obama hasn't done anything to improve international relations or world wide standing. Instead I feel like he has spent his entire term trying to clean up the mess that was left behind.
Economy: C-
When Obama was running for office his promised that he would bring change. Yet I see no significant change in our economy. Unemployment is still high, prices are rising, wages are frozen, and none of the governments plans have been effective. The main reason that Obama has a C, instead of a D or and F, is because I understand that Congress is part of government in charge of the money. Still, I feel that as president Obama should have been able to do something.
Health Care: D+
Universal health care was Obama's main goal to achieve while he was in office. Many argue that demanding that people pay for health insurance is unconstitutional and fought this bill every step of the way. Despite the opposition, Obama managed to get his health care plan passed. So why am I giving him such low marks? Because the plan won't take effect until fall of 2012, after the next election, meaning that if Obama isn't re-elected the new president would have time to undo all of the work that he's done. Personally, I think that it would be a shame to have to go through the whole process again when the current plan should work well enough.
Re-election: D-
I have yet to hear anything about Obama's re-election beyond "his t-shirts are made in America" as a side comment in a story about how many of the GOP candidates claim that they support American workers yet their campaign merchandise was made outside of the U.S. Yet, sometimes, no news can be good news. Even though he isn't appearing on the news talking about what he'll do with his second term nightly, he isn't being covered for something stupid either (like say Perry's rock).
Our troops are coming home, we are leaving the middle east in capable hands, and the world isn't making any new jokes about American stupidity. Though I have no complaints about how he has handled foreign policy, I feel that Obama hasn't done anything to improve international relations or world wide standing. Instead I feel like he has spent his entire term trying to clean up the mess that was left behind.
Economy: C-
When Obama was running for office his promised that he would bring change. Yet I see no significant change in our economy. Unemployment is still high, prices are rising, wages are frozen, and none of the governments plans have been effective. The main reason that Obama has a C, instead of a D or and F, is because I understand that Congress is part of government in charge of the money. Still, I feel that as president Obama should have been able to do something.
Health Care: D+
Universal health care was Obama's main goal to achieve while he was in office. Many argue that demanding that people pay for health insurance is unconstitutional and fought this bill every step of the way. Despite the opposition, Obama managed to get his health care plan passed. So why am I giving him such low marks? Because the plan won't take effect until fall of 2012, after the next election, meaning that if Obama isn't re-elected the new president would have time to undo all of the work that he's done. Personally, I think that it would be a shame to have to go through the whole process again when the current plan should work well enough.
Re-election: D-
I have yet to hear anything about Obama's re-election beyond "his t-shirts are made in America" as a side comment in a story about how many of the GOP candidates claim that they support American workers yet their campaign merchandise was made outside of the U.S. Yet, sometimes, no news can be good news. Even though he isn't appearing on the news talking about what he'll do with his second term nightly, he isn't being covered for something stupid either (like say Perry's rock).
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Since I'm already on the topic of immigration...
Here's an article I found in the New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/08/us/alabama-us-appeals-immigration-ruling.html?scp=3&sq=alabama&st=cse
It's talking about how Alabama passed a new immigration law. This law is supposed to prevent illegal immigrants from entering Alabama. Yet, The Justice Department feels that this law could lead to discrimination against legal immigrants in Alabama. It let's the police check the status of anyone they suspect of being an illegal and asking for their papers. Personally I hope this law falls inward on itself. It's too reminiscent of Jim Crow laws for my tastes.
It's talking about how Alabama passed a new immigration law. This law is supposed to prevent illegal immigrants from entering Alabama. Yet, The Justice Department feels that this law could lead to discrimination against legal immigrants in Alabama. It let's the police check the status of anyone they suspect of being an illegal and asking for their papers. Personally I hope this law falls inward on itself. It's too reminiscent of Jim Crow laws for my tastes.
Question of the Week. Discuss one political issue that interest you and why.
One political issue that interests me is immigration. The reason I'm interested? Because our current immigration system is broken in more ways than many would ever admit. We have so many people coming in illegally with their families and so few coming through the legal channels. Why do people come in illegally? Because the legal system would require for the potential citizens to wait while their children suffer, there is a surplus of jobs Americans refuse to do that won't get done, and they make more at wages Americans would scoff at than they would where they came from. Generally Democrats are all for assimilating immigrants into society, but the issue is a hot one. It has gotten so bad that the Republican party is almost evenly divided on how to respond. Some wish to kick out all illegals, while others propose that the illegals are put into a six month guest worker program. Personally, I think that have people come on a guest worker program is the best way to go. But what do you think?
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Question of the Week. What Political Party are you most closely aligned with? Why?
To put it simply I support government regulation and having the government help out the people on the issues that people have no ability to handle on their own (including unemployment and fights between businesses and workers). This marks me as a Democrat seeing as a main Republican ideal is to have the states handle everything and keeping the national government uninvolved. That being said, I have issues with both political parties and how they focus on staying in office more than what they actually do in office, the personal lives of the candidates rather than what they have voted on in the past, and can't seem to work together on anything. I don't care what political party a politician is from that politician is supposed to be working with all of the other politicians on a bill, not arguing party lines. So rather than following any party lines I'll tell you what my opinion on certain issues are and what I think about a candidate, but I won't align myself with either political party.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Hello
Just a little introduction before I get started. I don't care for party lines because few people agree with all the ideals that their party supports and there are idiots everywhere. I'm pro-choice, but I believe that the father should have a right to the child if abortion is discussed as an option. I am 100% for health care and bettering our education in the U.S. I am not an economic expert so I'd ask them about what they think before committing on the U.S. economy. Though I don't think that having the government provide jobs is a bad idea. I'll be dicussing an article (I'll post it as well) along with an answer to a weekly question.
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