things

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Ron Paul for President?

          Ron Paul, 75 year old professorial obstetrician and republican representative for the 24^th congressional district of Texas, announced earlier today his intentions to enter the 2012 presidential race. Interestingly enough, Rasmussen Reports claims he is practically tied for the election with Barack Obama. I am unsure how this came about. Apparently people don't seem to realize how isolationist this republican is. In his post on lewrockwell.com he presents his 20 year advocacy for American withdrawal from such an auspicious global organization as The United Nations. To quote "We need to stop speaking of UN resolutions and edicts as if they represented legitimate laws or treaties. They do not." 

          Knowing this I am unsure how anyone in their right minds could possibly want such an extremist in office? Do we want someone whose foreign policy is no foreign policies to be our leader? After all wanting America to "not interfere militarily, financially, or covertly in the internal affairs of other nations" sure sounds nice, but really how is the United States government to ensure the safety of its citizens from hostile governments and/or terrorist organization without taking action? Does he intend to say "hey mister could you please put down the gun? I know that you want to kill me and I won’t stop you, but if you don't mind I’m in the middle of talking."

          Whatever the reason this is either another one of those instances demonstrating the average citizens complete lack of political knowledge or an indicator of a surprising and somewhat irrational new policy preference by the American people.

What are the Chances?

According to the LA Times, Obama will only lose the 2012 election if the following three conditions are fulfilled. 1 the economy has to tank. 2 Obama cannot improve his image by handling a new international crisis well, and 3 the Republicans need to put forward a candidate "who is charismatic; is a very good communicator; is in touch with the country's economic and social needs; and is a new brand of GOP leader whom many younger voters can connect with." Basically he needs to have terrible luck, screw up a major situation, and be opposed by a totally surprising and completely awesome Republican candidate.

Now what are the chances of that happening?

New West's Amy Linn reported earlier that according to top economist Christopher Thornberg, while the economy certainly has a ways to go, nevertheless it is definitely improving. That's one prerequisite down. As for the requirement of another international crisis occurring in which Obama preform poorly, I do not know of any method to anticipate such an event. And regarding the appearance of a awesome, sent by the gods Republican candidate, neither Herman Cain, newt Gingrich, Fred Karger, Jimmy McMillan, Tim Pawlenty, or Buddy Roemer resemble such an individual. 

Palin 2012

We discussed ads this week and the effect they have on elections. Well I wonder what this add will do for Sarah Palin's ratings? She really doesn't have a great image. To top it off, according to the Times, if Michele Bachmann runs for president she may steal Palin's constituents. After all they both appeal to the same people with the same attention grabbing strategies. The one biggest difference, Bachmann hasn't made as huge a fool of herself yet.

Obama's goes South

Literally, Obama will continue with his plans to head to South America despite concerns that dealing two international crises ( Libya and Japan) might be too much even without adding to it by a trip to the south. Of course Obama and his administration responded saying they would continue as planned claiming Obama could handle these events just fine.
Whatever the case may be, the interesting point here, as I see it, these complaints are all about how Obama is doing his job. While it is true visiting South America in addition to dealing with the events in Libya, and Japan, can be a lot for any one person to handle, Obama has entire departments to help him deal with these issues and these concerns seem to be just slightly idiotic.

who will win?

in 2012 it is popularly believed we will have a democratic president with a republican congress but will that really happen? NPR take down by conservative activists just as their funding had come up for discussion may indicate a new play in the political  game. While it's nothing new for politicians to attempt to control the media the republicans seem to be trying harder than usual. For whoever takes the stage first sets the mood for the play and this time it looks like the republicans have stolen the mic.

On the other hand NPR is really just one organization, a cut in their federal budget may not influence to much, and the republicans haven't made much of a move yet. So the only thing to do is wait and see, but I think the war for the presidency has just started in a battle for the media.

CNN live today focusing on potential  presidential candidate Newt Gingrich's wife Callista to an almost insane degree in what seems to be an attempt to make the public start thinking of (as we've discussed in class and seen in the readings) Newt in a favorable light

the media's tutor

it is interesting to note the different ways the Alan gross story has been portrayed by the media. briefly Alan Gross U.s. citizen and resident of the state of Maryland has been imprisoned in Cuba for allegedly spying and trying to overthrow the state. The UK's BBC news spins this story so that it seems like Mr. Gross truly was spying. In the articles title Cuba charges US citizen Alan Gross with spying we already think what was he really doing there, and the article continues to give that sort of impression in a very factual way. On the other hand on the U.S.'s NPR's news blog while the facts are also there it seemed to me like there was a definite emotional spin on the story. through such statements as his daughter currently fighting cancer and other such comments.
One wonders which people will learn more from. I merely point this out because despite Hilary Clinton's push for the U.S. based media to learn something from Al-Jazeera's news style I do not think Al-Jazeera's bodies in your face approach is something that will appeal to the average american citizens sensibilities. On the other hand BBC's style, multiple facts some of them gruesome but not in such a way as to induce horror in us, might be something worth copying.

something mildly intersting

the press seems to have decided to pass over details of the economic stimulus negotiation going on now. still its important for all the college students on financial aid , to pa attention and be aware of whats happening. as things stand and unless we do something Pell Grants among other things will soon lose 61 billion dollars by the end of this semester. this could mean many people will need to quit or suspend their college education. while this might reduce the U.S's overall budget it is not (obviously) in our best interest. do we really want ourselves or our friends to have to leave just because the senate is in a tiff with the Obama administration? Obama's plans to reduce federal funding for summer programs and hopes to leave the Pell Grants alone as he sees the Pell Grants as an investment in the future. So all help is needed and if you are feeling supportive  whether its on Facebook or if you want to send a letter to your senator feel free and feel good. 

Presidential bid

well its never to early to start paying attention and that is certainly true for 2012. Jimmy McMillan of The Rent Is To Damn High Party is apparently running for President under the republican banner. other more mainstream Republican candidates include vehement antiabortion activist and radio talk show host Herman Cain and long shot gay rights activist/ political consultant, Fred Karger. As for the Democrats well I think I can assume Obama will be running and interestingly enough infamous anti abortion activist Randal Terry will also be running though according to him it's not so he can win as he said "I am under no delusion that I can win." it seems that he wants to use this opportunity to force TV station to air his anti abortion ads. all in all 2012 seems like it will be a tumultuous year

Union Bashing

The Democratic Senator have apparently fled the state of Wisconsin in hopes of derailing the GOP majority's plans of a final Union crushing bill while avoiding State Police. I don't know about you but thats just hysterical, they don't want this bill to pass so they literally run away. God thats good. In any event this seems to be a major thing if the Unions actions are anything to judge by. The Guardian reported Union Leaders as "pouring resources into Wisconsin but are also planning for battles in Ohio, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida, Indiana, Michigan and other states facing budget crises. They have put aside $30m for the campaigns." Seems like this is gonna be a drawn out battle, but in the end as always happens there will be some sort of compromise (Probably, hopefully anyway)

Like its neighbors Egypt and Tunisia, Libya was also feeling the after effects of years of repressing it's citizens when they took to the streets calling for such basic things as civil and political rights, and a change from the sham democracy of Libya's Colonel Muammar Gaddafi to a true and fair democratic government.
However, unlike Egypt these calls seemed to be smaller and less widespread taking place not in any of Gaddafi's power bases but only in the port city of Benghazi and seemed far from truly threatening. Although if we are to judge the threat level by the response of the police they were extremely dangerous suicidal terrorists.
What this means for america is unclear as recently we appeared to be progressing towards a better relationship with Libya as it abandoned it's nuclear and chemical weapons programs and had even paid restitution to the victims of the Lockerbie bombing. However, when all is said and done I think the U.S. government would prefer to have as many stable governments in the region as possible and our history of saying "lets spread democracy" or even attempting to aid the development of democratic governments has never really been aimed at widespread regional change usually we aimed at aiding specific states even if they were sometimes a little large.

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