Unfinished Business - The New York Times

Today, I needed this one last blog post, so I went to The New York Times website in hopes of finding something interesting.  This editorial piece stood out to me the most.  It is talking about why Iraq is failing.  It is perfectly clear from the beginning of the article that the author did not support Bush's war there (who did?).  However, he also does not blame anything that the United States did for why Iraq is still so unstable.  He blames the Iraqi government, which has failed to make the changes necessary in ensuring peace and stability.

I thought that it was very interesting to have someone take this angle.  When I first started reading the article, I thought that it was going to be just another bash on Bush.   I found it kind of enlightening to see that someone saw another angle to the story and didn't want to just lay all of the blame upon the Bush administration.

Politics in Vernon, NJ

I was home to work this weekend.  As I was driving around my town of Vernon, NJ, it struck me what a huge joke politics are in my town.  In various yards I saw signs in people's yards in support of different candidates for town council.  I wondered who actually lived in those homes.  Did they really care what was going on, or are they just friends of the candidate?  The candidate that I saw the most signs for is currently President of the Town Council.  He signed a bill that promised my town a main street.  Well, it was passed and millions of dollars of construction and road work later, they found that the site goes through an Indian burial ground and that by law, they are not allowed to build on it.  I live in a tourist town.  Every summer and winter, people flock to Mountain Creek for the water park or ski slopes.  Main Street was supposed to have tons of cute little shops and restaurants to attract both locals and the visitors.  It was supposed to be something to build up the economy of my town.  Now, I live in a place with a Main Street that has nothing on it.  A place where the budget is gone and there was not enough rock salt to protect the people from the ice storms we suffered this winter, leaving people without power for over a week in some areas.  Now tell me, why in the WORLD would people want to re-elect the man who did this??

Network News v. the Daily Show

On Friday, I watched both the network news on NBC at 6:30 and the Daily Show at 11.  I have a few notes on what each show talked about, but I think that it is impossible to compare the two programs.  I think that what Jon Stewart says about his show is very true: people cannot use it as their main news source, it is only meant for comedic purposes and views must have some sort of knowledge about what is going on before watching it.  Anyone who uses the Daily Show as a primary news source is out of their mind.  How could you even get the jokes without knowing the story?  And as for the network news, it is a joke.  I already did the blog post on the coverage, in which I also used NBC, and it is pathetic the amount of time that is spent on insignificant stories.  I do not think that the network news really serves as a much better news source than the Daily Show.

Before taking this class, I watched the news on NBC every night.  I still do, but the difference is that now I think I am just watching it out of habit.  I depend much more on the internet for my news than I ever have before.  I go around to a variety of different sites to get different views of what is going on.

Hannity

On the April 29, 2009 episode of the show, Hannity showed a recap of Obama's first 100 days in office.  The recap basically showed all the things that went wrong, or all of the things that the conservatives did not agree with.  When I did my post on CNN versus Fox News, I really saw no difference.  However, on Hannity's show, I saw just how conservative Fox News can be.  Personally, I am a conservative, so I really did not see anything wrong with the video, and actually agreed with quite a bit of it.  I think that the United States sensationalized this man and let him have free reign for 100 days, paying little attention to what was going on.  The video showed a lot of truths.  Promises that Obama made to the people that he has not followed through with.  One thing that struck me in particular was the fact that Obama gave a specific date for when the war on terror would be over and all of the American troops could come home.  How is that even possible?  No one man can say exactly when a war will end, especially a war like this one where half of the enemies may be yet unknown.  

However, there is another side to this.  This may kind of fall into another comparison of CNN and Fox News, but it is necessary.  CNN has up on their website a progress report of Obama's first 100 days.  Instead of critiquing what he has done wrong or praising what has gone right, they just pose questions and tell what Obama intends to do in order to solve it.

I think that both of these types of coverage are important in that it is crucial to understand exactly what a President is doing with his powers and that it is necessary to know what he intends to do.  I think that Hannity delivered a very good video with important substance, things that the American people need to know.

CNN v. Fox News

Yesterday, I spent a little bit of time flipping back and forth between CNN and Fox News.  I'll be honest, I usually only watch either of these programs when either I have nothing else to do or there is something specific going on that the other networks are not yet covering.  I have always found both to be kind of boring, and always preferred to get news and information from the internet.  Well, after spending nearly an hour back and forth between the two, my mind has not changed.  I still find both to be rather boring and really do not see much difference between the two.  I know that it is said that Fox News is more conservative and CNN offers objective coverage, but to me it was hard to tell because both lacked any real information and substance.

For instance, when talking about President Obama's crack down on business taxes, both CNN and Fox News reported on what the plan was.  To me, this is a pretty important thing because I think that the government needs to crack down on the things that American businesses get away with so that they can give back to the average person who has done nothing wrong their entire life.  However, neither of these networks really seemed to care, and they both moved swiftly to the next topic.

Classmate Blog

I was just looking though everyone's blogs when I came across one that Lindsay wrote about the swine flu and thought I'd post about that because I had also just written something about it. According to Lindsay's post, television news coverage of the outbreak was horrible. I thought that was kind of interesting because I was not too disappointed with what I heard on NPR about it. They gave the symptoms, in addition to the report that I posted on a few minutes ago about the controversy about the U.S.-Mexico border.

I think that it is really interesting to see that the television news is doing such a poor job reporting on the outbreak. And from what I have seen, I totally agree with Lindsay. Everything that I have seen on TV about the swine flu kind of made me feel like I needed to hide under my bed and stay away from people until it is over. Then i sit back and think about it for five seconds and realize that twenty infected people in New York City out of the millions of people who live there is not really that bad.

Another thing that I found to be interesting was that Internet news coverage seems to be about the same as television coverage. Articles like this give the impression that there is no hope... that we are doomed to the swine flu.

Also, as I said in my other post about this issue, the United States is perfectly equipped with the medical resources to treat the swine flu. We aren't living in Mexico people!! If you're feeling sick, do what you always do and go to the doctor for some medicine. No need for all of this panic really.

"Good Night and Good Luck"

Last week in class, we viewed the film Good Night and Good Luck which was about a news show in the 1950s dealing with the exploitation by Senator Joseph McCarthy of people he accused of being communists. The main characters of the movie, Edward R. Murrow and Fred Friendly, sought to bring him down and prove that he was falsely accusing these people.

The film related really well to a lot of what we have discussed in class in regards to the responsibilities of the press. I think that this film shows that sometimes in media doing the right thing is not always easy, or allowed. A lot of the people who worked for the station were worried that they would get accused of being communist if they were seen publicly denouncing the accusations of McCarthy.

While the film was a little bit slow-moving, it really showed what the media goes through. When they know that something is wrong and that they have the power to expose it, it may not always be in their best interests to do so. I would like to hope that there are still some people like Murrow and Friendly working in the media today so that if there were a situation where the media found out that something was going on, I would get to know. The sad part is, however, that I am not really sure that there are that many people left like that.

NPR on the Swine Flu

Yesterday, on NPR's morning show, they discussed that the United States border with Mexico is still open, despite the Swine Flu, which seems to be at its worse in Mexico. According to the report, custom's agents pull aside people who have fevers or look sick and containing them so that they cannot spread the disease within our borders. Apparently, Congress has gotten into a small debate about this issue because some of the members would like to see the border be closed off. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has come under some scrutiny over this issue, because it would be her choice to take action and close the border. Her answer was that the virus is already here and closing the border would not do much to help contain it. Also, she said that it would create a lot of economic issues, making it even more unnecessary. The best solution that has been offered by Homeland Security so far is the screening at the border.

In my opinion, Homeland Security really is not taking this seriously enough. I understand that in the United States we are better equipped with the resources necessary to treat the Swine Flu, but I think that if we are making such efforts to contain it and keep it from becoming an epidemic, then we need to keep as many infected people out as possible. The only person to have died on U.S. soil from this disease was someone who was visiting from Mexico. I think that it is important that the United States take necessary precautions to keep us safe, and then that we should also try to help Mexico deal with the problems that the swine flu has caused for them. They are suffering much worse than we are, but letting them into the country right now may not be the best answer.

Susan Boyle

Recently, a show from across the pond has been making headlines in the American news. American Idol spin-off show Britain's Got Talent got a great shock when one of their contestants came on the stage. Forty-seven year old Susan Boyle took the stage looking old, disheveled, and quite frankly, unattractive. The judges joined the crowd in giggling at this woman, in horror of what was about to come out of her as her performance. Crowd and judges alike got a big shock when Susan Boyle began to sing. As it turned out, she had a stunning voice.

While this is a "cute" story, a sort of Cinderella tale, it is really unnecessary for it to be such a hit in the mainstream American media. One youtube clip alone from her performance received over 49 million hits. Obviously, it was not all Americans looking at the video, but its not even just youtube that has been taken over by Boyle's performance. News of her appearance on Britain's Got Talent reached the nighly news in the U.S. in no time. Also, shows such as Entertainment Tonight and Access Hollywood were instantly obsessed with Boyle's new fame. Entertainment Tonight's website featured about a half-dozen articles related to Susan Boyle.

The question here really is not why this is such a big deal. Everyone knows why but most people are too politically correct to bring it up. The way that she looks compared to the way that she sings is what makes her so unbelievable. It's truly pathetic. If Susan were in her twenties, 5-5, 115 pounds with a pretty face, she would have been no big deal. She would have been no exception to the norm of these kinds of shows. This is sending the wrong message, and now we are seeing that this phenomenon is not isolated to the United States. This show is aired in a different country with different viewers, and yet we all thought the same thing when we saw her. I'll be the first to admit that I thought it was funny the first time that I saw it. It was shocking to see a woman like Susan Boyle get up on stage. But after I thought about it, I realized that it was not her looks or her singing that were really shocking to me, but rather her confidence in herself. She went up there wiht people laughing at her and none of them believed in her. But she believed in herself and proved them all wrong.

Once again, the question arises, why is this news?

The Today Show

I stayed home last night, and this morning while I was getting ready for class, my dad was watching the Today Show on NBC. The segment that I happened to see was about High School Cheerleading coach Carlie Beck who got fired because she had posed for Playboy. At first I thought, well ok I guess that makes sense, but then I saw the rest of the story. One of the girls had been banned from tryouts for the next season because she had more than three unexcused absences from school, which was against the coach's rules. It was not until after this happened that the cheerleader and her family exposed the coach for having posed naked for Playboy. Apparently, the high school is in an uproar over this issue, most of them wanting their coach back. The girl and her parents claimed that they only exposed her on grounds of morals and because the coach was supposed to serve as a positive role model for all the girls on the sqaud.

This reminded me of some of the topics that we discuss in class in regards to ethics. Are there certain jobs that former Bunnies should be ban from? Is it true that because this woman posed for a few photos that she is a negative role model for these girls? I instantly thought of my post on E!'s show The Girls Nextdoor. When I think of those Playboy Bunnies, I think of idiots and skanks (pardon my French) who should not be anywhere near impressionable young girls. But then I also wonder, what is the coach's side of the story? I am not sure if the show gave BEck's side of the story, but I do not think that they did. There are a lot of questions left unanswered here. How many photos were there? When was she a model?

In addition to all of that there is the fact that Beck, in addition to school officials, were setting really high standards for the cheerleaders at the school. According to the article on the Toady Show's website, "These cheerleaders are not allowed to have racy pictures on MySpace, there’s a lot of things they’re not able to do, or shouldn’t." I feel that as long as she is not currently posing for Playboy then she really is not doing anything wrong. I say that only without knowing her side of the story. Maybe she regrets the things that she has done in her past and wants to help these girls do better for themselves.

Some of my classmates may say that this is not even "important" news. At first, I thought the same thing, until I really thought about it. Initially, I thought, why do I care this is jsut one high school in California, a thousand miles away from me. Then I put it into this perspective... The decisions made in this instance could end up having a huge impact on high schools everywhere. I realize that it sounds like I'm trying to defend the Bunnies, but I'm really not. If it is found that a woman who posed for Playboy is an unfit role model and should not work around kids, then what other kinds of people will also be banned? It's really hard for me to make up my mind on this issue, and I think that the circumstances underwhich she was fired are the biggest cause. Some girl cut school one day and her coach reacted so she got her fired. It's blackmail, and I think thats really the only reason why I feel bad for Beck. I do not have children of my own yet, so I really don't know how I would feel about a woman like Beck being a coach to my child. Read the article and see what you think.

New Law in Afghanistan

This morning, I was browsing through the New York Times online, and I came across this article about a new law in Afghanistan.  The law is only directed at the Shiite minority and has three provisions.  It makes it marital rape legal, requires that a woman get her husband's permission before working outside the home or going to school, and it makes it legal for a man to force his wife to "make herself up" or "dress up" if he wants her to.  The article speculated that the Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, did this to render support from the Shiites in the upcoming election.  Karzai receives a lot of support from the United States and other Western nations, so he quickly came under attack from the leaders of these nations for passing such an oppressive law.  Now, he is reviewing the law to potentially change it.

The article also talked about a march that about 300 women had protesting this law.  They were attacked on the streets by men, but they continued on to the Parliament were they vocalized their feelings about this law.  According tot he article, most of the women in Afghanistan are illiterate and do not have nearly half as many freedoms as the men.  "But there they were, most of them young, many in jeans, defying a threatening crowd and calling out slogans heavy with meaning."

This whole thing took me really off guard.  Obviously, I have known for some time that women suffer from great oppression in the Middle East, but when I went on the New York Times website this morning, I really wasn't prepared for something like this.  When I first started reading the article, I thought of Shaima in our class, and it made me really sad.  I really don't know if she falls into the Shiite minority or not, but either way, it made me think of her.  Every time I read an article regarding that area, I wonder how someone could really deal with such things on a day to day basis and be as well-adjusted as she is.  Even before knowing Shaima, I would read articles like this or see stories like this on TV news and really feel somewhat spoiled for the life I have lived here.  I get upset when my computer breaks or when I don't do well on a paper.  Reading stories like this make me sit back and realize how lucky I am to have access to my own personal computer and, especially, to be enrolled in school as a woman.

Instapundit

Glenn Reynolds' instapundit.com is nothing more than his own bantering about news.  I guess that this is the whole concept of a blog and is what I have been doing on this site for the past few months, but it is weird to me that someone is making a living off of this.  While I am having fun doing this project for class, it seems somewhat pathetic to me that a grown man sits around all day thinking "what should I bitch about today."  That is not to say, however, that all of is posts were of that manner, but some of them definitely were.  Today alone he had 44 posts between the hours of 2:28 AM and 7:00 PM.

While a lot of the content was definitely based on what is going on in politics, there was a lot of other stuff in there that has no relevance to the real world.  One of today's posts was simply his own banter about something that someone had written about him in their own blog.  To sum it up, someone had responded to a quote from instapundit and then accused him for deleted the post so that no one would see the wrong that he had done.  He then goes into a page-long description about how the post was lost and why what he had said was right.  Really... who cares??

The rest of the content contained bits and pieces of stories from the rest of the news media, such as famous court cases and stories about Obama's initiatives.  Overall, this blog was not very interesting.  I am not trying to sit here on a high horse and say that mine is any better, but then again, I'm not doing this for a living and as far as I know I don't really have any fans that I am trying to make happy.

NBC Nightly News

This seemed like an appropriate post for today, since this is what we were talking about in class today.  A few weeks ago, I did the post on the local news, and this one is for the nightly news.  Before I go through what was on the news, I have to comment on the difference between these two types of news broadcasting.  We always talk in class about how the local news has more "fluff" than the nightly news, and I never realized how true that is.  While the local news does sometimes touch upon the larger issues, it spends much more time with "fluff" content, such as fires and robberies.  As was said in class today, the nightly news does tend to be more serious, but I found that it is still insufficient.

These, in order, were tonight's topics:

-Flooding in North Dakota along the Red River

-Tornadoes in the South

-The state of the U.S. economy... there were 652,000 new applicants for unemployment this year

-The Treasury Secretary has asked for more strict regulation on the financial system

-Obama's new strategy for the Middle East, to be officially announced tomorrow, but it is already known that it is not the same as the plan that he ran with

-Defective drywall that emits sulfuric gas, causing people to become sick

-Earthquakes in California, getting closer to San Andreas Fault

-Bonus system on Wall Street

-Passport applications down 25% from last year, less money, less travel

-"Making a Difference" this is a new addition to the nightly news, focuses on local people doing their part to make a difference during financial crisis. tonight it was a salon in Massachusetts that gives free haircut coupons to unemployed clients.

I realized while watching this that their is a very crucial question that we missed in today's class discussion: Why is there only a half hour for the news?  I mean, we did kind of discuss this when we were talking about what people want to see on TV, and it seems that they'd rather have entertainment than news.  If the nightly news had more time, I think that more of the issues that we need to hear about would make the cut.

Also, in class today, we learned all the reasons why media picks the stories that they do.  One of the biggest things that media likes to cover is crisis and tragedy.  This explained to me why flooding in North Dakota and tornadoes in the South were the first things on the news, while Obama's new Middle East strategy was shoved in the middle before defective drywall.  It strikes me as slightly pathetic that this defective drywall even made it on the news.  I think that the time spent discussing this could have been better spent on a more crucial social issue.

Overall, I don't know if NBC chose the "right" stories to put on tonight, maybe I think there are some things that are more important than others, but this is their decision.  Given what they chose, I think that they ordered the stories pretty well in order of importance.  At first I thought maybe the flooding in North Dakota wasn't that important, but then I remembered our class discussion and I guess it makes sense to report on disaster first.  Personally, I would have liked to see Obama's new strategy for the Middle East rank a little higher in importance.  Maybe tomorrow, when they have the full report on his plan there will be more time devoted to it.

The Girls Next Door

Sometimes I happen to come across reruns of E!'s show The Girls Next Door and the amusement of the subject matter of the show never ceases to amaze me.  Instead of waiting for one of the episodes to pop up, I went on youtube and found various clips from the show.  After looking through some of them, I picked this episode.  The episode opens with a few of the girls going to a trapeze class.  It starts as Bridget's (one of Heff's girlfriends in the show) idea, and she says that it is something that she has always wanted to try.  When they go, they make it seem like going to trapeze class is a totally normal event.  This is the biggest problem I usually have with this show is that they always seem to be doing something extravagant and seem to think that it is a totally normal thing.  The episode then goes into the girls panning the annual Midsummer Night's Dream Party, and being sure that they meet all of Heff's need at this party.

Usually when I watch this show I only think of how funny and ridiculous it is.  I mean, yeah this is someone's real life but this isn't REAL life.  It wasn't until I received it as an assignment that I asked myself how this may affect the socialization of young girls.  Me personally, I never watched anything like this when I was little.  I, however, had the luxury of a stay at home mom who could monitor what I was doing and what I was watching 24/7.  Now, this situation is much less common, and more children have their own bedrooms with their own TV in it.  With both parents working and out of the house and away from the children more often, I guess it is much more possible that kids are seeing this kind of stuff more regularly that I did.

If a young girl watched this show, she would be getting a lot of mixed messages about what her role in life is.  First, Heff has three girlfriends in his house where any number of hot young blondes with big boobs live.  This tells girls 1. that men will be more attracted to them if they look a certain way and 2. that it is a=okay for a man to be with multiple women.  On the show, all 3 of Heff's "girlfriends" tell him they love him, and he loves them too.  In my opinion, this is not what children should think of love as.  It should not be expressed to them that this kind of behavior is okay, because then you end up with girls sleeping around in middle and high school.  Another thing that this show tells girls is that they could live a fantasy life by being a playboy bunny.  That's all it is... a fantasy life.  There is no other place in the real world where young adults sleep until noon, hang out in their bikinis all day, and party all night.  The only place close to that is college, and that's not even the real world yet.  For example, the episode that I chose to write about earlier in this post, the girls went to a trapeze class.  In another episode I saw a few nights ago, the girls went to Paris and met the Prince.  This is worse than a Disney movie!!

As much as I am opposed to young girls watching this show, I have no opposition to it being on TV.  It's entertainment, pure and simple.  This is one of those times where maybe parents should be paying a little more attention to what their kids are watching on TV.  Every affect that this show could have on girls that I just discussed could be avoided by them just not watching it.  Or better yet.  Let your kids watch what they want to watch but pay enough attention to it and talk about it with them, explain to them that this is not normal, it is purely entertainment.

treehugger.com

When I was first asked to write with a link to an environmental blog, I knew that I would be annoyed with whatever I found there. While I do agree that in today's world we need to do what we can to protect the environment, I think that some people take it a little far. My dread got even worse when I stumbled across a website called treehugger.com. I skimmed through the posts with such titles as "Building the World with FlexForm Natural Composite Material," "Drink Soda Pop? You're Drinking Bisphenol A (BPA)", and "Uberstix, World's First Planet Positive Toy. But Are There Contenders?" just to name a few. The title that caught my attention the most was, "Nobody's Innocent When an Organic Smoothie Emits More CO2 Than a Coke." So I chose this post to do for the assignment. I was pretty shocked from the get go with this one because I was led to believe that anything organic was a tree huggers favorite. I always assumed that these people preferred all natural everything and organic this and preservative free that. So when I saw that they had gripes with something organic, I was intrigued.

The post starts off with the facts. A 330 mL aluminum can of Coca Cola emits 170 grams of CO2, while the subject of discussion, Innocent's 250 mL passion and mango fruit smoothie, emits 209 grams. OH MY GOD! First of all, half the people who read this probably drink the stuff simply because it is called innocent and the word organic appears on the label. Secondly, they probably all stopped drinking it after reading this because it emits a wopping 39 grams more CO2 than Coca Cola, and environmentalists worst nightmare. Like I said in the beginning, I am the first person to admit that we need to try to take steps to protect the environment. Okay, Coca Cola can are bad for the environment, but now ORGANIC smoothies aren't allowed either?

The post gets even weirder in the second part where it is explained that Innocent is looking for investors to become an international company. One of the company's that was interested was Coca Cola because they like the idea of supporting something "ethical and organic." Hmm.... this doesn't seem to make sense. Maybe Coca Cola will be able to help these people out a little in their packaging.

The other thing that I had to call into question after reading this post was why? Why in a world at war and in a huge economic crisis are we worried about 39 extra grams of CO2? Maybe I'm wrong, but even environmentally there are probably better things to worry about than a soda can versus a smoothie bottle. Fuel emissions. Natural gas depletion. The Oil crisis. Call me crazy but this is a little bit ridiculous.

NBC News at 5

Here is the rundown of the stories mentioned on NBC's 5:00 local news

-snow storm & weather

-airport delays

-back to winter storm

-shoveling for money-sanitation dept

-cancelled ny city public schools first time since 04

-more on storm...  central park sledders snow for sledding not packing for snowmen

-website.. school closings track storm send pics

-showing pics ppl sent of storm

-Wall Street: finally some real news!!

-lowest since april97 dow jones

-AIG bailout record corporate loss

-cutting/suspending dividends

-Lottery-mega millions going up and up, people want moneyy

-more on storm-connecticut

-current weather conditions

-local forecast-plenty more on storm

-late night with jimmy fallon... going on for conan o'brien

-MORE on storm!! back to Tim Minton

-plowing is uneven... really?

-small amount of people who lost power

-commuters in NJ having a tough time in storm

-port authority on keeping runways clear at airports

-sanitation department on keeping roads clean

-more more MORE on snow storm throughout east coast, more on flights being cancelled

-flu alert

-"hang up and drive" innitiative in NJ to stop drivers from using cell phones in the car

-MORE ON THE WEATER!! snow will freeze overnight

-Obama's healthcare reform

In the hour that NBC had for local news, I would guess that they spent about 90% of the time discussing the winter storm that hit the area in the past 24 hours.  The rest of what they talked about was for only a brief amount of time.  Critical issues such as Obama's healthcare plan were only brushed upon and then it was straight back to the storm.  It is understandable that the storm made the news because it was a bad storm, but NBC spent way too much time on the topic, and not enough time on other important issues.

$900 Million in Aide to Gaza, for Terrorists?

Today, the Daily News posted an article about Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's plan to send $900 million in aide to Gaza. The article posed the question of whether or not this money would land in the hands of terrorist leader Hamas. Clinton seemed sure that her plan was careful enough not to end up supporting these terrorists but instead to rebuild Gaza in the aftermath of Hamas' war on Israel. The article went on and on discussing Hamas' destructive past and Clinton's need to keep a careful eye on him and on the reconstruction of Gaza.

Overall, a very informative editorial. But the question I found myself asking while I was reading this article is why the United States is even allowing Clinton to put $900 million in danger of falling into terrorist hands while we are in the middle of a recession. I agree that peace and stability will not be possible in the Middle East without our help, but I think that current times require that the United States be a little more careful with their money. In this case, there is a very real possibility that this money can end up in the hands of Hamas who would obviously not use it for the purposes intended, so why are we bothering? Imagine would $900 million could do in the U.S. right now.

Tennessee Guerilla Women

The blog Tennessee Guerilla Women is a feminist blog centered out of Tennessee with the purpose of ending sexism not only in Tennessee, but across the whole nation. This post focuses on an episode of Bill Maher's show Real Time. The author of the post discussed that in the particular episode, three women were on as guests. She was very sarcastic in her comments about that fact because, according to her, Bill Maher is usually very sexist. She then talks about the episode itself where one of the guests to the show, Rep. Maxine Waters, addressed Obama's plan to send more troops into Afghanistan. From this post, it is also clear that the blog is against the wars in the Middle East. This post also linked to a blog post on Huffington Post that detailed the episode of Real Time.

This post was followed by a comment that stated that this is a waste of time for the feminist movement; that Bill Maher has "a cast of three powerful and smart women, talks to them intelligently..." The person who left this comment obviously feels that Maher is not a sexist, that it would make no sense for him to have women on his staff and treat them respectfully if indeed he hated women. The comment feels that the people involved in this sector of the feminist movement are wasting their time and that there are more important things to focus on right now.

After considering both the post and the comment, I agree more with the person who left the comment. The post really did not give enough information for readers to agree with her side. She just blamed Maher as being sexist, giving no other evidence, and quoted Huffington Post. She spent so much time bashing Bill Maher when some of this time could have been used to further discuss the issue and Waters' opinion on it.

Mayor Bloomberg on Thin Ice with Political Parties

In today's issue of the New York Times, one of the front page stories, entitled "In Reversal, Mayor Now Woos Political Parties," detailed the struggle that Mayor Bloomberg is having obtaining support for running for his next term. The Mayor had previously decided that he would not run for a third term, but has recently changed his mind. The problem that he now has is that he has denounced any party alliance throughout his most recent term. The Bloomberg campaign is trying to render support from three parties in the city, the Republican, Independence, and Working Families Parties. However, Bloomberg has gone against all of these parties during his time in office. The article tells that Mayor Bloomberg ran, and won, under the Republican ticket twice, and then left the party in 2007, claiming himself as an Independent.

Mr. Bloomberg's problem with the Independence Party stemmed from divisions within the party itself. Bloomberg was planning on running for President and, in doing so, sided with one of his major supporters within the Independence Party. It was only when his plans for the Presidency failed that the mayor reached out to the Working Families Party for support, a support that they are not ready or willing to give.

The information presented in this article does not represent Mayor Bloomberg in a very positive light. It portrays him as a politician with only his own needs in mind. This is not something that Americans today want to see, even though it is really what is happening in American politics. This article is a prime example of the media exposing the corruption in politics. Not to say that Mayor Bloomberg is corrupt per say, but more so that he is taking advantage of his position. Bloomberg has a lot of money with which, according to the article, he uses as a bribe for the people from whom he needs support. The problem is that this takes some attention away from all of the good things that the Mayor has done for New York City. He has followed in Guiliani's footsteps as one to clean up the streets and make New York a cleaner, safer place. In his position, it is only human nature to try to take advantage of what you have in order to get to the top.