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.