GT Group 1

Tryons Class

2004-12-06T06:42:00.000-08:00

Sorry i couldn't do this for my last blog but technincal diffulcuties did npt allow me to finish. This class very good class cause the teacher did not stress on us about homework and a lot of test I may have turned this in late O just want to say something abou this class. Now that it is over I believe that I actually learned something from an English class and can take it to further studies. One important thing that I leaned is that your opinion does matter and dont ever take it for granted. It was fun talking open in a class without having to raise your hand and actually haold a real discussion. So I would like to thank chuck for allowing me to be a part of it.

Have a good break!!!

Study Habits

2004-12-05T17:30:00.000-08:00

I think maybe if I were not an architecture major, and did not have to deal with Sabir Khan and the rest of the life-consuming curriculum of the Common First Year in the College of Architecture, I would not have spent the suggested amount of time studying that this survey believes should be necessary. Most of my time was dominated not by studying exactly but by drawing and drafting in the studio. I pulled so many all nighters in there that it was proverbially not even funny. I’d stayed up all night exactly once before I came to college here and it was definitely not because I was studying, and now I feel like I never get sleep. You know the headache people get when they sleep for too long? I get it after eight hours of zzz’s. Or possibly my headache is due to guilt from wasting that much time instead of going to work on things in the studio, or doing something else more productive like writing blog entries. I understand that college is supposed to be hard, but it is also meant to be extremely fun. Everyone likes college. Study hard, and have a good time. I seem to be missing the fun part. In high school I studied for tests and quizzes in the five minute break before class started, and I was valedictorian. I knew the plot lines of like five primetime television shows my senior year. I ate three healthy meals every day, and ran various numbers of miles every day as well. In contrast, I am failing calculus, eat crap at random times, and never sleep. Wow, college. Fun.

Chuck’s Views

2004-12-05T17:29:00.000-08:00

To comment on Professor Tryon’s excellent knack of keeping his political views out of sight in order to keep the class non-partisan, I think he did an exceptional job. I mean, it must have been difficult what with Danielle’s prying and the general heightened feelings of everyone because of the proximity of the election and the serious issues at stake. I must digress from this English class for a moment to mention my AP Government class at West Hall High School in Gainesville. There were ten students in the class. By the end of the first day it was very apparent that eight of them were staunchly conservative. By the end of the first month my teacher, Lynn Suggs, had obtained a life-sized cardboard cutout of George Dubya Bush from somewhere or another and placed it in one of the front corners of the room. Every day I was greeted by the bright and cheery smile of our president at the beginning of second block. If Mrs. Suggs (housewife-esque short blond hair, lots of eye shadow, quite the Southern accent) came in late, the class played various pranks on Dubya like sort of folding him and putting him in a student desk, poising him behind the podium, or adorning him with scarves and jackets. Sometimes Dubya hid in the closet or behind the door, or someone helped him to jump out at people as they passed the classroom. After a month or so I pretended to abandon my liberal views and my grade promptly skyrocketed. I could go on forever about how partisan that class was. I got ticked off almost every day. So in conclusion, Chuck, you’ve done quite a good job, especially compared to the country bumpkin of a government teacher I had.

South Park

2004-12-05T17:23:00.000-08:00

Because she is obsessed with South Park, my roommate forced me to watch the season premiere this year which happened to be the one we watched in class and was also the first episode of the program that I had ever viewed in its entirety. South Park has perfected the art of being completely honest and exceptionally offensive to everyone, and for the people not being made fun of, absolutely hilarious. I mean, a competition for the new South Park Elementary mascot between a giant douche and a turd sandwich (and why is Microsoft Word spell check giving me a red line under “turd”? That is so spelled correctly) is perhaps the best analogy between John Kerry and George Bush that I have ever heard. Tall and wimpy versus short and turd-like. No wonder lots of people refrain from even registering to vote. As Timmy (or whoever) said, every election is always between a giant douche and a turd sandwich. I don’t really think Kerry is a douche (he did after all actually serve in the military and fight and stuff), but this is beside the point. Anyone who can butter up the number of people that must be sucked up to in order to get on enough people’s good sides to become a presidential candidate, well, must be a sleazy person. Kerry is probably less sleazy, I think, because lots of his funding just came from his wife. Bush had to suck up to Corporate America.
I suppose the results of the election just demonstrate that America (or slightly over half of America) believes that with a giant douche, you just get a douche. With a turd sandwich, however, you get the full package of the bread, and the turd, and the lettuce, and the olive.

Tryon’s Class Rocks

2004-12-05T17:21:00.000-08:00

I wholeheartedly agree with the rest of my blog group that your idea for an English class centered on the election rocks, Professor Tryon. The timing, of course, was fantastic. The purpose, divine. The way the class was conducted was also splendid (ok, too much thesaurus). I was so very excited when you announced that the class was going to be focusing on politics, in light of the stirring election that was about to take place. I’d taken a seat at the very front so as to be as involved as possible in my first college English class. You, Professor Tryon, introduced the theme of the class and made sure to be very clear that it would be more of a commentary, and quite absolutely not a partisan debate. Then I realized that the t-shirt of the day happened to be the bright blue one with “VOTE KERRY 2004” written quite blindingly in white on the back. I slouched down into my rolling chair and attempted to nonchalantly pull my cardigan on. No need to make enemies on the first day of class.
The only fault that I personally found with the class was due to my own reserved nature. I always had so much to say, but did not want to say it because I did not want to seem partisan. The conversation seemed to be dominated by a lots of well-spoken (mostly) people, and I didn’t want to say dumb stuff. Again, this is no fault of yours, Chuck.
Ah yes, and I am also having a bit of a difficult time pulling off writing oh, sixteen blog entries by ah, next week. I guess college is all about pacing yourself?

Response to “Journeys with George”

2004-12-05T17:20:00.000-08:00

I very much liked Alexandra Pelosi’s glasses. They totally displayed her quirky yet businesslike personality. Purpley horn-rimmed. Those were the kind of glasses that obscure art-flick directors wear, not the reporters that follow a Presidential candidate (and a conservative one at that). They probably helped with her image of someone who is harmlessly asking questions, to whom a politician might divulge a bit more candid information. This image helped Alexandra’s documentary, “Journeys with George,” to be successful and interesting. Although I was a bit apprehensive about it, the way the film portrayed President Bush was actually comforting. I don’t like his political standing, but I do like the dry sense of humor and excellent handshaking that were visible in the film. I would, in fact, rather have a beer with Dubya than with John Kerry (that is, if we both liked beer). This is, of course, not to say that I would rather Dubya be president. But I stray from the point. I admire Alexandra Pelosi’s talent to leave her Democratic views at the door of her documentary (except the one time when she called Bush out on the death penalty—and she quickly backed off). Different from Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9-11,” which was one-sided to the point that it could hardly be taken seriously, “Journeys with George” neither supported George nor bashed him. It simply showed the way that the presidential candidate conducted himself toward the members of his press following while he was campaigning. Whether this is how he acts under different circumstances is left up to our imagination.

Vince Keenan Made Voting Easier (for Michigan)

2004-12-05T17:17:00.000-08:00

OK, I realize that this essay is quite a bit “after the fact”.
Vince Keenan sure put a lot of effort into making voting easier for his fellow Michigonians (no, that is not a legitimate word, but it sounds good right?). I was not sure what to expect from his lecture and I am not completely sure what I got out of it, but it was interesting in its own right. I think the lecture was focused more on the general Techies that Vince was talking to, rather than the political aspects and significance of what he and his buddies did. I very much appreciated his effort and tireless dedication to his cause, especially because I have no idea how to code web pages and such (HTML? Java? What?). Creating Publius (despite its rather suggestive name—not suggestive of voting) was a very worthy project and so I will give it the accolades that it deserves. It is so important for people to vote because our country needs an accurate representation of the opinions of everyone in order to choose the best person to lead our country. I think voting should be required, like in Australia, but this is sort of beside the point. So here we go, back to the point. I got more from when Vince came into our class and discussed political and voting issues with us (despite the rather dictatorial structure that the other teacher, not you, Chuck, was staunchly creating and forcing Vince to adhere to) because it related to our class much more than the technical aspects of creating Publius. I wish we had something like that page here in Georgia, but I am satisfied with the process I used in finding my polling place.

Voting (and my lack thereof)

2004-12-05T17:15:00.000-08:00

My best friend literally gasped when I told her I had not voted in this year’s presidential election. My roommate gaped in shock. I could barely believe how things had turned out myself. Now I have to wait four years for the next presidential election to sort of anonymously voice my opinion. The results of the election were even more devastating for my sense of self worth. Because of me, and people like me, terrible things are going to happen like more wildlife being destroyed, more people being killed for (in my opinion) an unworthy cause, more money being spent adding to the deficit that people my age will be held accountable for when we do have jobs and have to pay taxes, no equal rights for gay people, the disintegration of the separation between church and state…the list goes on. I am a terrible person; I did not vote. Luckily I haven’t seen Puffy hiding in any bushes by my dorm. I must explain, although there is no real excuse for my lack of action. I intended to go home to vote (I only live about 45 minutes north of Tech, in Gainesville) and skip part of my architecture studio class (which lasts four and a half hours anyway). To my dismay, a week before the election, a project was assigned that was due on Election Day. I was required to attend the full class. It was too late for the absentee ballot. I almost cried when I watched Kerry’s concession speech. Some say he looks like Frankenstein’s monster—I still wouldn’t have minded that big hug he wanted to give his supporters.
So maybe my vote wouldn’t have “counted”. Bush won Georgia by a landslide, of course. I just wanted to stand in line and know that I tried. And not be gaped at by my friends.

Blog Essay 15

2004-12-05T11:53:00.003-08:00

For my last blog entry I have found an old Atlanta Journal Constitution article that talks about Bush and Kerry sparring with words during one of their debates. In "Free-Swinging Verbal Slugfest: Bush, Kerry go toe-to-toe on issues in their most aggressive exchange yet" Ken Hermann goes about explaining how Kerry and Bush spent the entire time squaring off at each other critizing every thing they could about their opponent. This is not any kind of surprise considering that is what most candidates actually do in debates instead of actually explaining why they are the better candidate or what their policies and beliefs are (a good example would be the South Park episode we watched in class when the two candidates had their debate). The debate was also an important stepping stone for each candidate, Bush needed to get back at Kerry after losing the first debate and Kerry needed to improve his stronghold to gain as many swing voters as he could. However, it seemed that neither candidate really accomplished what they needed to do in the debate to improve their chances to win. If the candidates would explain their positions instead of destroying their opponent, then maybe the voters would get a clearer understanding as to what candidate they would actually agree with. By taking verbal jabs at your opponent during the debate and throughout the election, it only causes your opponent to take those jabs back at you making both of you left finding ways to fix what they said instead of getting your ideas and visions out to the voters.

Blog Essay 15

2004-12-05T11:53:00.001-08:00

Blog Essay 15

2004-12-05T11:53:00.000-08:00

Blog Essay 14

2004-12-05T10:56:00.000-08:00

In "Stem cells could repair your spinal cord" the issue being discussed is stem cells research. The issue of stem cells research has gotten a lot attention lately with people such as Ronald Reagon's son rallying behind it. However, it is kind of confusing as to why people are so against this study. With the use of stem cells as a substitute for real human parts a lot more people can be helped who have diseases that deteriorate their bodies. It can also help many people live longer, happier lives than the ones they would have before hand. Such medical problems as spinal cord injuries and multiple sclerosis could be fixed just by allowing this research to continue and finish what has been started. This is not including the idea of cloning, which is one of the reasons why many people are against stem cell research, but just the idea of creating options to help people who need it. Why should some people have to suffer very painful and shorter lives when there is possibly a way to improve them just because some people who have never experienced or seen what these sick and troubled people are actually going though don't think that it is ethically right. All in all when you actually think about it, what is stem cell research even doing; everything that it being done is just creating cells in a labortory that can one day eventually be used to help out some one to live a longer and more pain free life.

Blog Essay 13

2004-12-05T10:51:00.000-08:00

In "Maybe Same-Sex Marriage Didn't Make the Difference" Pam Belluck goes about explaining the effect of the entire same-sex marriage issue in the decision for who our next president was going to be. The big issue discussed in this article is did the whole same-sex marriage issue cause some states to go a different way in voting in the election. When it all comes down to it, you have to think that it did play a major role in what ended up happening. The same-sex marriage issue has a lot of people who are extremely against it and if it was up to them, they would never allow gay people to be able to get married. This would play in effect to Kerry's stance on the issue, by being democrat he supported in a way more than Bush, leading to the possibility that with all that has gone on with same-sex marriages in the past year in areas like Boston and California, maybe Kerry lost because some of his supportors switched sides because they are so against even the idea of gay marriage. In the article, Matt Foreman (executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force) explains how the same-sex marriage issue should not have played any bigger a factor in the election as other morally based issues such as abortion, capital punishment and so on. Many supportors of same-sex marriage feel that the issue is much like the racial issue from back in the 1950's and 60's when the civil rights issue reached a peak. This comparison is pretty good by the fact that some people accept it and allow it to happen, while the others are either to for it to allow any thing to get in the way of making it happen, or to against it to allow such a disaster happen.

I.B.M. Being Sold?

2004-12-05T10:46:00.000-08:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/04/business/worldbusiness/04asia.html?oref=login

An unknown company in the United States is thinking of buying I.B.M. This company is called Lenovo. Lenovo is partially owned by the Chinese government. This company is China’s largest personal computer maker and the world’s fast growing PC company. It is also the leading the computer sells in Asia outside of Japan. The chance of Lenovo to buy I.B.M. is very unlikely because there are too many obstacles for the company to overcome, but there is a very small potential of happening. If Lenovo buys I.B.M., the competitions among other PC companies will increase like Hewitt Packards, Dell, NEC, and other leading computer companies. Lenovo will become more known throughout the world. It will also lead to PC companies to make better, faster, more durable, and more affordable computers than what we have now. Each company will try to make better computers than their competitors, so each company will be at war with each other to get the consumers attentions with sales, new gadgets on the computers, and many more features. If Lenovo buys I.B.M., I think that the consumers will benefit the most out of this deal, because they will get top notch personal computer with new and fancy features. The best thing will be the price will be cheaper than affordable, so the company will have the edge over the other competitors. I am hoping that this deal will happen, but we just have to wait and see if Lenovo going to buy I.B.M. If they do, the competition with each companies will pushed to another level.

How a Dictator thinks 101

2004-12-05T10:02:00.000-08:00

The U.N. Oil Scandal
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/05/opinion/05sun1.html
Published: December 5, 2004

Let me first say that dictators do not place a high priority on the people they rule over. They typically came into power through ruthlessness, and keep power by amassing more of it, suspicion, and parinoia. This means they are more concerned with their own power (which often comes down their military), then the basic health of their citizens. It is a generally agreed fact that countries spend money as they see fit. There is nothing the US or the UN can do about that. Given these other things it is almost illogical to expect that sanctions will do a whole lot of good.

For the sake of arguement let's say Iraq makes $100 every month (just for the sake of a nice number, I really do hope they make more than this). Saddam probably spent about $50 (randomly) on his military and weapons programs. This means that $50 go to civil programs, food, what-have-you. Now the US and UN decide to sanction Iraq, now it is only making $60 a month (arbitrarily). Now what you and I would probably do is only spend about $30 or so on the military. Not if you are a true dictator. If you were meant for the position you would know that our idea of cutting military spending is stupid/heresy. A REAL dictator still spends $50 dollars on the military, leaving $10 for the people. All the while a true dictator would be blaming the horrible US and UN for the people's woes thereby getting them to hate Americans for their problems.

I don't see why we even bother. We should just go in and get rid of Saddam for some arbitrary reason just so we don't have to deal with him anymore... wait a minute...

Blog Essay 12

2004-12-05T09:57:00.000-08:00

In "Effort by Bush on Education Faces Obstacles in the States," Diana Jean Schemo talks about Bush's No Child Left Behind law as being both effective and uneffective. The article begins by explaining how a school in Michigan is soon to have consequences done to them because of there poor standings from the No Child Left Behind tests. According to what is supposed to happen, teachers, and principals can get fired, and new management would be brought in to try and run things right. On the other hand, Watkins the super intendent of Michigan schools wants to take care of it himself (wants to keep it in the state) by advising people to tell the teachers ways to improve themselves and to use newer curriculums to get all of the students to learn what they need to learn. Watkins idea sounds so much better by the fact that Bush's idea would be like starting over with a new team not really knowing if they will do any better than the teachers and staff members before them. At least in Watkins idea you are actually giving the teachers a chance to improve themselves before or instead of firing them. If the teachers were fired, they would still end up getting a job some where else and that will leave that school with the same unprepared teacher as the other one had. Also, the idea of invoking newer curriculums to mold around what the students are stuggling in and obviously need more help in is perfect for allowing all of the students to have equal opportunities to be on the same level. It is not right to just keep firing administrations and teachers until you finally get it right when you can just as easily make it right by checking the schools progress and improving it where it needs to be improved.

Performance Enhancers

2004-12-05T09:52:00.000-08:00

Recently Barry Bonds was found for using steroids supplements that are undetectable but illegal by required drug tests. Recently players have been found using That has caused the federal govment to step in. The alarming number of players found using performence enhancers has put the lwage into to a deep thought because the game is losing its honor. President Bush, who at one point owned a baseball team has spoken on the issue and tried to hold a meeting with the association but it fell apart. John McCain has also said that any more meetings are unnecessary because the problem and the solution are already known. The big problem with this steroid scandal is that it cannot be dettected by Drug test. this would cause a very big struggle to keep sports in its purist form.

Steroids in professianla sports can cause to major consequences. One it will effect the young athletes and now that they are seeing where they want to be and what professianal players did to get there they would be reluctant to try to find som performance enhancers them self. Another thing it will destroy the resppectabilty that sports have. Baseball is not really a sport to use steroids or other, so if they can use it may will use it.

A Soldier's Story

2004-12-05T09:49:00.000-08:00

A Soldier's Story: The Curious Transformation of a Son of Dynasty
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/05/opinion/05sun3.html
Published: December 5, 2004

When I was reading this my first thought was this would be a "why a guy went into the Army in these times" kind of story. Instead I got a pseudo-cynical look at how the mayor of Chicago's son is joining up. Patrick Daley, the son, says he is signing up out of a sense of duty. I really don't understand that sentiment very well. I suppose it is personal preference (I don't know how else to discribe it).

Other columnists suggest that he is signing up to counteract some teen mess-ups. Personally I think this rationale is STUPID. Who in their right mind would go into the military in times of war just to cover up some crap that happened when he was a kid. Especially when the guy is safe and pulling in six figures at home. It seems terribly extreme for someone to go that far just so in ten-twenty years from now he can be elected mayor of Chicago just like his dad.

By the way, does having a few incidents like getting drunk at parties, etc. really come back to haunt you in elections. If so, something is seriously defective with that.

Big Plans = Big Money

2004-12-04T21:57:00.000-08:00

In Falluja's Ruins, Big Plans and a Risk of Chaos
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/01/international/middleeast/01reconstruct.html
Published: December 1, 2004

When I first read this article I got dizzy from the thought of how much money we would have to spend on this town. I do not enjoy spending buckets of money and sending our economy into further depression when that same money could be used on AMERICANS. I just want to have the federal government spend our money on us. What really gets me is that we did not really accomplish our objective. Get the insurgents. In fact, we probably actually rallyed more supporters and recruits for the insurgents.

Falluja is a rather bad place, from an American standpoint. We would have had to take care of that place eventually if we ever decided to do anything in the area. My problem is that I did not want to go into Iraq in the first place. I do not feel that all diplomatic avenues were exhausted. If, and only if, ALL means were exhausted would I consider going to war. "War is the result of diplomacy failed." I really do consider war, and most everything attached to it, a waste.

2004-12-04T21:53:00.000-08:00

In Falluja's Ruins, Big Plans and a Risk of Chaos
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/01/international/middleeast/01reconstruct.html
Published: December 1, 2004

When I first read this article I started to get dizzy. The idea of how much money we would have to spend on this reconstruction will do that to me. I bothers me that we blow up a city filled with civilians in the first place, but then to say that you probably failed in your objective (we went in to "get" the insurgents). We destroyed the city and now we have to rebuild it, that is the basic jist of it. I don't wanna take responsiblity for my actions [stomping feet in a temper tantrum].

Falluja is a rather bad place, from an American standpoint. We obviously needed to take care of this place, however I just didn't want us to. By that I mean I did not want to go into Iraq. I absolutely feel that we did not exhaust all diplomatic possibilities before we charged in. If, and only if, ALL possibilities were exhausted, only then would I admit that war should be considered. "War is the result of diplomacy failed." Now we have to pay the consequences, literally.

Defrocking Lesbians? ...Kinky

2004-12-04T14:46:00.000-08:00

United Methodists Move to Defrock Lesbian
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/03/national/03trial.html
published: December 3, 2004

Truth be told, I just don't understand anything. I don't know why people chose to (or some say don't chose to) be gay. I don't understand we conservatives feel the need to penalize people for their lifestyle. I don't get how this woman can be a praised for having good skills as a minister, but still considered unnecessary because they are not "living inside the covenant of the church." I just don't understand anything.

I'm just glad none of these denominations (the Catholics either) have it right. If God acted the way they do... frankly there wouldn't be anybody left on Earth. I can guess why the conservatives are a bit dodgy about letting homosexuals be ministers (/exist). Can we say "Sodom and Gamora". I can guess why the liberals are a little ticked too. They sit in a room with a bunch of other people every Sunday, sing some songs, and listen to some flowery talk about love and understanding. But when they walk out of that room they turn around and wonder why there isn't any of that "love and understanding" between those same flowery speakers.

I suppose it doesn't matter anyway if you are a conservative. Liberalism is a mental disorder (I SWEAR TO GOD BILL O'RILLY ACTUALLY SAID THAT ON AIR [on the radio]). They'll find a cure for it eventually.

Blog essay 11

2004-12-04T14:42:00.000-08:00

In the USA Today article "Navy probes new Iraq prisoner photos" the associated press informs us of how some of the POW's during the War in Iraq were extremely mistreated. Apparently in May of 2003 some picture were taken that show these American Navy SEALs mistreating Iraqis by using excessive measures to restrain the prisoners. Some of these measures include pointing guns to their head, abusing them causing their heads to bleed, and sitting on them while they are already handcuffed. Even though these are prisoners and the people who are trying to kill the SEALs there still is no reason why they need to be treated like lesser creates and abused. They are still human beings and even if they don't deserve to live, they still have a right to be treated as a human and not as an animal. For the SEALs to think they have a right to do this they need to be relieved of their duty. However, I don't think that they should be punished by the way of jail time themselves because they did fight in the war for America and they just did what they felt they needed to do or what the prisoners deserved. It is a shame that things like this happens, and it is not just for American troops either, many of the Americans that are captured prisoner in other countries are beaten, tortured, and or killed while in captivity. It is ridiculous that prisoners lives are not equal to every one elses. One thing about this article that is puzzling is the fact that not only did they take these pictures of them breaking the law and doing these horrible things, but they posted them on the internet and one of their wives gave them up to what will eventually lead to everyone involved to get severely punished for what they did. If you are going to do something wrong and illegal then at least don't create so many ways for you to get caught from it.

Sex Charges in High School

2004-12-04T14:30:00.000-08:00

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/cherokee/1204/02teachercharged.html

There is another sex charge on a middle school teacher. Cherokee County middle school teacher was arrested Wednesday for having an inappropriate relationship with a student. This is not the first time there were teachers having sex with the student and several other inappropriate acts between students and teachers. It is sad what the world has come to. Teachers are supposed to be there to help and teach their students, and there suppose to be trustful and keep their relationship as teacher and student only. This is not the only relationship that has been ruined like pastor and children relationships, parents and children relationships, and many other types of relationships. I think it is wrong for people to take advantage of student and children to do indecent acts. It seems like these types of indecencies with children are happening everywhere, for example, the case where Michael Jackson is accused of molesting little boys. It is sad that there is hardly anyone to trust now. It must be tough to be a parent in this day of time because the parents must worry about their babysitter molesting their children, teachers doing indecent acts with the students, wrong doing in the Boy Scout, and also in the church. It is very sad to see sexual indecencies in the church. What has the world come to see that kind of scandal to happen? Whatever happens to trusting people at the church and at the school? Trusting people is mere myth no because in this present time trusting people is a hard thing to do now.

Blog essay 10

2004-12-04T13:53:00.000-08:00

In a short article I found off of one of the group project sites called "Snow: No Need to Cut War Spending" the US Treasury Secretary John Snow said that to fix America's economy problems we do need to cut spendings, but that the cuts should not be from the War in Iraq or the War on Terror. This seems like a stupid idea, not to cut money from what we are spending on the wars, because a lot of the money going in that direction is wasted. The war in Iraq has drawn on a lot longer than it should have and what we are doing over there now is just fighting the people who are still loyal to a leader that doesn't exsist any more (aka terrorist). So if we fight them for terrorist we should go fight all the countries that contain terrorists until we kill them all. The War on Terror needs to continue and needs to be sufficiently funded in order for every last American citizen to feel and be safe; however, trying to kill or capture every last terrorist is not only impossible but futile because more will just arise. Our wars and missions to capture terristic leaders is a good idea because it will leave many terrorist without a leader to follow. So there are still many ways in which we can have a direct effect on protecting the American citizens with still being able to cut money from the War on Terror and possible cutting money from or even totally ending the War on Iraq. Snow says that the War on Terror is so important that no money can be cut from it, but what else is there, should it be cut from education, from improving America's living status's, building more internal improvements, no matter what you cut it from it will leave Americans hurting in some way, you just have to sacrifice some things in order to make something else better and workout.

Colombian Drug Kingpin Faces U.S. Justice

2004-12-04T13:48:00.000-08:00

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34595-2004Dec4.html

On Saturday, December 4, 2004, the Colombian drug kingpin, Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, was captured and was flown to the United States to face U.S. justice. He is supposedly to be the most Columbian trafficker to be trialed in the United States. He is being trialed in New York and in Miami for transporting cocaine and laundering money. In 1990’s, Rodriguez Orejuela and his brother controlled eighty percent of the world’s cocaine trade, and they also earned eight billion dollars in annual profits. That is a huge amount of money that these drugs traffickers are making. I think that is great that American officials are able to capture people and trial him for bringing illegally drugs to sell to people in America. Drugs addictions seem to be growing in our country, because people like Rodriguez Orejuela are there to supply dealers to sell illegal drugs to people. The extradition of this powerful drug lord took a thirteen years investigation for the United States officials. I believe it is amazing for the country of Columbia and the country of United States to be working together to extradite powerful drug lords and to stop drug trafficking in both of the countries. Rodriguez Orejuela might be sentenced similarly to previous drug traffickers that were extradited in the U.S. like Fabio Ochoa, who sentenced for thirty years and Carlos Lehder, who sentenced life without parole. Orejuela will have to wait and see what the outcome will be from his trials in Miami and New York. People in the world needs to see more of kingpins and drug traffickers being captured.

Suicide Bomber Kills 8 Iraqi Police Officers

2004-12-04T13:14:00.000-08:00

http://nytimes.com/2004/12/05/international/middleeast/05iraq-web.html

It seems there was another horrible incident in Iraq. In Baghdad, there was a suicide bomber that killed eight Iraqi’s policemen and wounded thirty eight other people from that horrible suicide bombing. In Mosul, there was another suicide bombing at a American military base killing at least eighteen people and wounding fifteen others. I believe that the situations in Iraq is getting worse and more violent for Iraqi’s officials and American soldiers to take care of. It seems like violence is growing; and American soldiers and Iraqi’s policemen are getting killed and wounded almost everyday in Iraq. It is scary time for people and the American soldiers in Iraq during the time of war because these people do not know what holds for them the next day. Because of the constant suicide bombing and attacks from the Kurds, it makes the people there living in constant fear and pretty much living in hell. These types of violent attacks will definitely have an affect of the first official in Iraq, January 30, 2005. Because of these several random violent attacks in Iraq, several politicians believe that they need to delay the day of election, but the United States of America officials and President Bush have clearly stated that they will not delay the election at all even if all these act of violence are happening. Because of their decisions, America decided to send more soldiers to try to contain the chaos in Iraq. For the people in Iraq, just have to constantly deal with the chaos in their country.

Iran's Nukes... Wait, THEY have nukes?

2004-12-04T12:43:00.000-08:00

One More Round on Iran's Nukes
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/01/opinion/01wed2.html
Published: December 1, 2004

I got kind of nervous there for a second, then the author clarified. Iran does not have nuclear weapons, only weapon's grade material production sites. God, if those psychos had nukes the whole region would be screwed, along with our oil (and it is OURS dangit, or at least that's what Bush seems to think). Even the moderates in Iran make Saddam look liberal. The whole country is so fundamentalist it's ridiculous. Those people honestly scare me.

Enough about me though, let us talk about how Iran is scaring the rest of the world. Apparently Iran needs to be courted and threatened into ceasing nuclear arms production through the savvy use of diplomacy and economics. Reading this article gives me a little hope about the international diplomatic process. From what I gather from this article there are safeguards in place that stop every country from doing whatever they want. The US simply threatening to take the issue to the United Nations Security Council can even give Iran pause. The threat of EXTREME financial consequences is very real and can not be ignored by anyone, especially third-world countries. "Money makes the world go round."

Now the problem is, Iran could keep trying, and eventually they will succeed (if not out of share chance). Basically, the US has used some stall tactics to buy some time so they can maneuver Iran into a better position. Right now the UN is a bit hesitant to get involved until all avenues of diplomacy have been exhausted. Not that it matters what the UN says though, we didn’t need them for Iraq, right? …[sigh].

Wait, they have a will of their own?

2004-12-04T11:23:00.000-08:00

Saying No to Vladimir Putin
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/04/opinion/04sat2.html
Published: December 4, 2004

Let me just start off by saying there are few things in this world that tick me off more than presumption. I get pissed at America all the time because we see ourselves as the "defenders of freedom", "axis of justice", whatever. If you know know anything about me/have met me you know that I when I get annoyed I turn sarcastic as fast as a turtle hides his shell.

Having said that, I feel that I have established a proper context for my next statement. Vlad, you should never have let them go if you were going to treat them like they were still yours. I just LOVE how the people with almost absolute power can consider themselves fair and unbias, and how they can consider ALL of their actions right. I case you were wondering people with power have a tendancy to use it, typically not for too many others' benefit.

While I was thinking about this article it dawned on me just how few people it takes to through the world into war, economic disaster, and various other forms of chaos. If you think about it, its kind of scary. There are over six billion people on this planet. Of those six billion probably only twenty-five thousand people hold "key positions", either they are un-Godly rich, or they are a politican with incredible influence (ie Senator, President, or dictator of something). When one of these people is on the move, it is impossible to ignore them. This just means that the common man, who wants a voice, same as these elite, and try to get it through democracy will just be crushed when the person they elect is just another one of the elite. That just bothers me.

My Journey with George

2004-12-03T09:42:00.000-08:00

The movie class was a good idea to see what people do in their political campaign. This shined a new light on things that help me unserstand why politicians do some of the things they do. As for for George Busg see who he really is when not trying to really swing votes. You see the good thats their, but also the bad. Wacthing the movie made me realize we got a childish President when he is caught off guard with a question he is not prepared to answer and actually frlt hurt. To me this is not somebody that I would want as President. The it also made me realize that he is just like everyone else. So it is nice for a democrat to show some good fir a President she does not support.

I still dont like Bush and somewhat irritated wheb it cane around election time he forgot who he knew and just worried about the vote the person tallied.My feelings to all politicians are still the same and eill stay the same. The movie itself had a personal side to it that evem got me in to the movie. That some feelings for others and are revealed and how the woman docmenting George develops a relationship. It shows all the details not justwhat George Bush does but everything else that is going on. So tis documentary gave me more of a positive then a negetivw.

Study Habits

2004-12-02T21:35:00.000-08:00

Honestly this is a suprise tp me. Reseaching and surveying students on their study habits is somewhat pointless. There is a different case for every student and is unfair to judge students as a whole. There is a different reason why people cant study the recommended time such as jobs having families or even knoeing the material enough to not needing to study. Researching this information is stupid. In many cases students stay up and study till their head hurts and still carry two jobs and go to school. To me this survey is attack on them,

For me I had good stufy habits that got worse over the years. I been worj\king hard just to get A then I worked even harder as Iwant through life to work may way down to a B. I still care vut I just lost my good study habits, Now the bad habit I picked up is procrastination. I always wait till the last minute to do things, In college it not as bad as highschool but it does cause some problems and stress in my life. Being an athlete doesn't help that scenerio. Most of us work sp hard for our grade and being at Georgia Tech does not help us in our college life brcause the time that is suppose to be required to study is twice as much as other schools. We cant re;y on all the teachers to help us especially the ones that do not like us. We are stereotype against and it is not fair.

No Delay In Iraq's Election

2004-12-02T18:10:00.000-08:00

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27885-2004Dec2.html

The time is counting down in land of Iraq to the there first official election, which is on January 30,2005 . On Thursday, December 2, 2004, President Bush says that they will not delay the day of election for Iraq. This election can be the turning point for the country of Iraq formation away from chaos. I think that President Bush needs to think very carefully on making hard decisions because this election will greatly affect America. If the election goes well, it increases the chances for America to conform Iraq; but if it goes bad, American will be in a deeper trouble to contain the country and its violence. I think that it was smart decision for Bush to increase the numbers of soldiers to be there at the land of Iraq. There is bound to be act of violence in Iraq, and also a lot of things are riding on this election on January, because it will change America’s future and Iraq’s future. This is a situation that needs to have patient; it is something that cannot be rushed because it is not affect one person but a whole nation. President Bush needs to be careful on his decision that he makes for the land of Iraq because he is carrying a great mount of power for that country. If he slips up, the consequences can be huge, and these consequences will be big. For the people of the world, they just have to wait and see what going to happen on the day of Iraq’s election, January 30, 2005.

Steroids Usage in Baseball

2004-12-02T16:43:00.000-08:00

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27256-2004Dec2.html

Jason Giambi is one of the few baseball players to admit of using steroids to improve their game. It is sad that baseball players have to go and use illegal sports enhancement drugs to improve their games, instead of relying on their skills and practice to improve their game. Jason Giambi is one of several baseball players that are accused of using illegal sports enhancement drugs like Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, and many other players. It makes me wonder what other types of players are using illegal drugs for their game in basketball, football, soccer, and many other types of sports that are there. Jason Giambi must accept his consequences, but it is sad to see such a top notch baseball go down because of drugs. He was the 2000 American League most valuable player, then he says that he started to use steroid during the year of 2001. According to the Chronicle report, the drug that Giambi was using caused his tumor in the pituitary gland to get worse. That means other baseball players will have other health problems eventually, it is just matter of time. I wonder who else will come out and admit of using illegal drug enhancements. Using illegal drugs is not being fair, because for a person who worked hard and got where he is, but it is outplayed by a person who used drugs to get better. I think all sports league should give drug tests to see players are using illegal drugs. It is sad what the sports have come too.

Bush Assassination Plot Denied

2004-12-02T06:49:00.000-08:00

Columbian Rebels deny accusation

Both US Intellegence and the Columbian Government made accusations that the 17,000-strong Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC) rebel group had plots to assassinate President Bush during his four-hour visit to Columbia. Security was heightened with troops on the ground, helicopters in the sky, and Columbian warships on the coast. Although the group denies the accusations, saying they were false and reckless, there very well could have been a threat. The article points out that when former President Clinton made a visit to Columbia, materials used in creating bombs were seized just six blocks from where the President was. I'm not very familiar with FARC and what mentality they have towards the United States, but I don't see how they could see assassination of President Bush as helpful. It is not like President Bush is the only President who is going to fight the drug war and help the Columbian Government out. Assassinating President Bush would just put another man in charge who would continue the drug war and support the Columbian government. Thinking this, I'm curious to know how US Intellegence and the Columbian Government came upon these accusations. Assassinating a leader that nobody else agrees with may have a real effect, but to assassinate a leader that most people agree with is pointless.

A Recount In Ohio????

2004-12-01T20:20:00.000-08:00

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23344-2004Nov30.html?referrer=email

After reading this article, it is quite interesting that there might be a recount in some part of Ohio, but not all. The election is all over and done with, and we have clear winner that is President Bush that won the 2004 election. That is all true, but the recount is being push to see the faults in the polls. The recount is pushed by the two independent parties. Senator Kerry’s campaign is trying to join the two independent parties. Their reason for the recount is to report that there were problems with poll on the day of election. I think it is necessary to find the fault for the parties that are running because all parties should have a fair and equal chance of winning, so the parties that are pushing for the recount should get a full and fair recount of the votes in all of Ohio, so they can find how serious the faults are in the polls. When the next election comes, the problems can be fixed. I think the recount is going to be very beneficial because it can cause America to see that they might need one official voting system. It is ridiculous how many types of voting system there are throughout the country. Each counties has there own way of voting, America needs to get one official voting system throughout the nation that is easy for people to vote with; and it also has a paper trail for a necessary recount. If that happens, there would never be another Florida incident. I hope that the three parties will get an official, and fair count of the votes from all of Ohio.

The End :)

2004-12-01T18:38:00.000-08:00

I found an article when I was surfing AOL news by the title, "Impeachment Trial Opens for Nev. Official."

In Carson City, Nevada, the state's "Controller," Kathy Augustine, is being considered for impeachment, and this is particularly interesting because nothing like this has ever occured in Nevada's history (140 years). Ms. Augustine is accused of making her audience "campain central" during her re-election in 2002. According to Dan Greco, Employees scripted speeches for, and collected donations for Kathy Augustine. Her Republican staff would ask her opponent's financial supporters why they would not assist her campaing.

Dan Greco said, "They did what they were told because they were afraid. They were afraid of losing their jobs. They were afraid of retaliation. They were afraid of Ms. Kathy Augustine's famous temper." Perhaps the workers were cowardly, but it seems to take a large amount of courage to contrarily approach a stranger who financially supports Augustine's opponent.

In my opinion, the reasons for impeachment seem faulty because the author does not provide evidence for the claims against Augustine. To be fair, though, it is a short article, so the author has accented the main points, but with lack of opinion, or support. What do these paid campaigners think about Kathy Augustine? The author does not provide evidence for the cause of impeachment, so it seems to me that that Kathy Augustine should not be impeached without good reasons. Impeachment, like a fillibuster, is reserved for only the absolute worst occasion, and I'm not sure Kathy Augustine is worthy of removal.

In Response to the God-hating Frenchies

2004-12-01T13:06:00.000-08:00

Whenever I read anything from some place called "Beliefnet" I take it with a large grain of salt. When reading this article I was at first expecting him to just disprove the common misconceptions liberals have of conservatives. Then as I read on I saw he was also disproving common misconceptions conservatives have of liberals. I figured from there on out that this would be a fairly unbiased article. Although it was unbiased, his data seemed somewhat misleading. For example, when he's talking about how conservatives are just as smart as liberals, he points out that those who voted and did not have a high school diploma favored Kerry 50-49%. What does this prove? If anything, it wouldn't be saying that conservatives are just as smart as liberals, it would be saying that conservatives are just as dumb as liberals. And he is also assuming that those with no high school diploma are not smart, which may or may not be true, but is a generalization nonetheless. Isn't Waldman's purpose of the article to disprove generalizations? How can he do that when he's just introducing new ones? Another part where he claims that liberals push the issue of separation of church and state to "protect relgion" is another generalization he introduces. I'm sure the secular liberals don't care about protecting religion. His way of proving these generalizations wrong are interesting, but I wouldn't say they prove anything wrong. Not only does he need more concrete data, but he needs data that actually corresponds to the generalization.

Response to Faith Factor

2004-12-01T08:00:00.000-08:00

I was also confused about the author's political orientation at first, but the "trading gay jokes" made it clear she was liberal. I don't see how people relying on the Church for material assistance is any different than people relying on the government for material asssistance. In fact, I favor people getting assistance from the Church rather than the government. The Church gets its donations from members of the church, including monetary and other material donations that are meant to help the needy. The American Government gets its "donations" from every single tax-paying American. The difference? The Church gets money and material donations from people who are willing to help. The Government doesn't give anybody a choice. And people may say that there's not enough the Church has to give, but when the majority of America is Christian, I don't think it is a problem. And one thing the Church can give that the government cannot is the spiritual assistance ... because money doesn't buy happiness, right? My point is, instead of using everybody's money, including those who really don't want to help anyone out (that's their freedom to decide that they dont' want to help anybody, as mean and cruel as they might be), to assist the needy, let the people who do want to help give assistance to the needy. I know we're not going to get rid of government assistance programs, and it's probably a good thing that we don't, but there's nothing wrong with Church assistance, even if the people going to the church aren't Christian. Even if you view it as non-Christians taking advantage of the church, what's the difference in them taking advantage of the government?

College Study Habits

2004-12-01T07:40:00.000-08:00

I wasn't surprised at all by the findings of this research. I honestly don't know anyone, personally, that studies the recommended amount (twice the number of credit hours you have a week). Maybe the material doesn't require that amount of studying at this point, but I think that study load is intolerable. How is one supposed to enjoy their college life just one bit if they study that much? Enjoying college life is hard enough as it is at Georgia Tech, I don't need insane amounts of studying to make it any worse. I barely study at all, and when I do, it's the day before a test, or in some cases, right before the test. I know it's a bad habit, but I've never had great study skills. I never needed them before in high school. All you had to do was pay attention in class half the time and you could ace the class. I wish it were like that here, but now you have to pay attention all the time and then go back through the material you didn't understand and get help. I'm sure over the years it will change for me, but doing nothing but studying all the time is not what I will do. I don't think it is even physically possible for me to study for those long amounts of time. I become easily distracted and studying never seems to have helped me much in the past. I think for a lot of people, studying is a problem because they can't teach themselves. They need someone else to explain it to them and go over it with them for them to actually comprehend the material. That's why I enjoy review sessions as opposed to studying on my own.

Blog essay 9

2004-11-30T10:53:00.000-08:00

In "The Chronicle of Higher Education" Eric Hoover goes over the results of some surveys that took place in colleges. Through the survey's he learned that only a small percent of students actually study the recommended 25 hours a week in college. This totally makes sense since lot of students only need to study in certain subjects. To be in college, you had to have some skills of studying and learning material before entering into the college you are at. Those skills can help you learn some material faster than others. So when you are only taking a small number of hours (say 13-15) and there is only one or two classes that you have trouble learning, then you don't need to spend countless numbers of hours studying. Especially if you can get help in the subjects giving you trouble, such as tutoring or a study group, then the amount of time you need to study to get a full comprehension of what you are going over should not be that tedious. If you spend a couple of hours a day studying the subjects that are giving you a hard time then you should not really need to study 25 hours a week; you should be able to get a full comprehension of what you are doing. Furthermore from that article it indicates that seniors do more community service work than freshmen. This is easily understood because most freshmen are clueless as to how to go about doing community service work and might be scared to go particapate in some of the activities that do it. Also they need to get a feel for college and the environment they are working in, so they might not have enough time to go out and do service work until they feel they have totally adapted to college life.

Blog essay 8

2004-11-30T10:04:00.000-08:00

In the Nancy Pelosi film "Journeys with George," then governor George W. Bush is portrayed as a normal person going for something that he wants pretty bad. During the film, Pelosi seems to become come friends with the soon to be president and though this friendship is able to show a side of Bush that citizens normally don't get to see. Another major factor with the film is the way Pelosi acts, she is having fun with it and in turn we are able to see just how the president acts when being asked silly questions and when people need his help. By saying "when people need his help" I'm refering to times such as when Pelosi got alienated after accidently releasing the survey of who was winning the election that she took of all the press on Bush's campaign. After that none of her friends or allies that she had created on the campaign trail were talking to her, and it took president Bush to actually make her part of the pack again. The press is supposed to be savages that don't care about who they hurt as long as they get their story; from this documentary you get the feeling that Bush understands what the press has to do and how he needs to act around them so that they can make him sound good to the American people. Bush acts good to the press so maybe they too will write good things about him. The movie shows just how fun and caring the president can actually be and does a real good job at putting a character and a personality to the president. It's good to know that even during such stressful and sleepless times as an election, that President Bush can still know how to lighten the mood and have a pretty good time.

Blog Essay 7

2004-11-29T19:08:00.000-08:00

In "Frist's Fury Over Filibusters" the Senate Majority leader Bill Frist seems to be getting angered about something stupid. To get a position like the Senate Majority leader, Frist should have been informed enough to know that filibusters have been used by people in the senate forever. Filibusters are a way to allow parties in the government to create time to keep something from occuring so they can find a way to actually stop it from occuring. For Frist to actually want to come up with a piece of legislature to end filibusters forever is insane. Frists says that "This filibuster is nothing less than a formula for tyranny by the minority," refering to a filibuster by the democrats that would keep all corrupt, incompetent or ideologically extreme nominees for federal judgeships. Filibusters are what allow the Democratic Party a say in who becomes a judge. Since there is a Republican as president, he has the ability to put pretty much who ever he wants into the position of Supreme Court Judges. If the candidate is a bad one, shouldn't the Democrats have a right to try and stop it from occurring. Filibusters give politicans the right and the ability to stand up to the greater party at the time and actually have a say in what is occurring in the government at that time.

Was the 2004 election a realignment election?

2004-11-29T16:59:00.000-08:00

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16756-2004Nov27.html?sub=AR

Many political analysts would say that this election is a political realignment election. This means that power and public opinion has shifted to the views of one party. This is true only to an extent. Republicans do now contorl the House and Senate both, and in that respect it is a political realignment, but as far as public opinion goes, the margin of victory was very small for Bush. If the war in Iraq and on terror is such a realigning issue, why was this margin of victory so small? It should've been much greater than the one or two percent that it was. In total, more people turned out for this election than ever. Fourty five percent of the Republican party came out compared to just thirty five percent in 2000. Now, referring to Republican dominance, how long will this last? Well it is thought that if they continue playing the religion and terrorism card, their domincance could last for an undetermined amount of time. In other words, a long time. Being that republicans are in a strong position of power right now, they have many opportunities and ways to maximize their time in power. They may be able to find a way to elude the pendulum that is politics. They have the upper hand on many political issues, as demonstrated by this most recent election, whether or not by a small margin. They now control the House and the Senate, and soon Bush will be able to add some justices to the supreme court who will agree with his policies, being that many of the current justices are ill or very old. As far as this election being a realignment election, I think it could be if Republicans would just refine their methods a little bit and increase their margin of victory in the next election. Only then could the government and public opinion be controlled completely by the Republicans.

Blog essay 6

2004-11-29T10:16:00.000-08:00

In the article "Bush follows vice presidential debate with sharp critique of Kerry" Bush continues to try and not only criticize his opponent, but he also makes excuses for his weaknesses that his opponent points out. From this article I got the feeling that there is a lot of accusations being made by each administration toward there opponents on making everything they have done look bad. From the title you get a feeling that the article will go in detail and explain how Bush criticizes Kerry and Edwards; but instead it talks about how both sides are criticizing each other and how the Vice Presidential debate went.
On the subject of the Vice Presidential debate, the criticism that Edwards throws at Cheney is ridiculous. Edwards says that "One thing that's very clear is that a long resume does not equal good judgment," and while that may be partly true, a long resume does mean experience and knowledge about what is occurring in the government and gives Cheney first hand experience with how to deal with a lot of situations. Another thing Edwards and the Democratic Party tries to throw at Cheney is the fact that he has met Edwards before even after Cheney said that he had never met Edwards before the debate they had. The meeting they are referring to is a handshake the two men had four years before; for a man like Cheney to remember every little handshake he makes every year is ridiculous, that does not count as an actually meeting, it is just a brief encounter. If either party wants to actually prove how the other party has failed they need to stick to specific incidents on matters that matter, not by showing that something said by one of them that no one really cared about in the first place was actually false by something as brief as a handshake.

Poker, A Problem?!?

2004-11-28T21:10:00.000-08:00

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/shared-gen/ap/National/Poker_Playing_Teens.html?UrAuth=aN`NUOaN\UbTTUWUXUUUZTYU_UWU_U]UZU\UcUcTYWVVZV

It seems like the card game of poker is a new thing to the for high school teens. I am not surprise at all because the game of poker is everywhere especially on television. Celebrities and professional poker players are playing the game of texas hold’em and other form of the game poker on television like on the big channel like ESPN, the Travel Channel, and many other channels. There are several local tournaments going on like at bars, restaurants, and several other gathering places. I know for sure that Barnacles (the bar and grill) have tournaments on Tuesday’s, Wednesday’s and Thursday’s. It is no wonder that teens are playing this game. I know that several of my friends play a friendly game of texas hold’em poker every Saturday night. I admit that I get sucked into playing because it looks fun and looks like there is no harm of playing. But the truth is, there is downside to this game. This type of game can lead these teens to a gambling problem in their later years. Parents say that they would rather see their kids playing poker than smoking pot, because it gives them a chance to beat athletes in a fair game and also to improve their math skills. I think that poker is a great way for teens to get away from the stressful homework, having a good time with their friends, and earning a little money for snacks. I also believe that the game of poker should be control by their parents because the betting can get out of control among the teens and violence can be unleashed if it is a high betting poker games. Poker is a great game to get to know people, and it is a great form of entertainment when you and your friends are bored.

What's Happening in Iraq?

2004-11-28T19:31:00.000-08:00

While reading an article about current events in Iraq, I realized that in all of the chaos of the election and school work, I have been largely out of touch with what is happening in Iraq. When wrapped up in studying, it is easy to forget how terrible things still are there. It is obviously good, then, that I am leisurely reviewing current events for my English class. The whole situation seems unreal to me, like it is not really happening, because I have purposely tried to avoid the war since the news of the matter is always terribly about death.

The New York Times article, “Amid Relative Calm, Iraqis React to Calls for Election Delay,” highlights the deaths occurring in Iraq, such as four corpses that were found shot in the head with their feet bound by insurgents. With all of the dead bodies in Iraq in mind, this Thanksgiving I am thankful that I am not there. It is great to hear that the American soldiers who are there are making progress. Apparently, Saturday American and Iraq forces raided a building finding a 55-gallon drum of materials for assembling bombs. This bit of positive accomplishment seems to somehow balance out the overall negativity of what is reported to be going on in Iraq. It is especially nice to hear that Iraq forces accompanied Americans during this triumph.

The article is also about whether or not the election should be postponed for six months, as several major groups are in favor of. The author quotes people who believe that delaying the election would be much worse than holding it in January, as planned, but he fails to mention why these people, such as Iraq’s deputy prime minister, believe the election should not be delayed. The author explains why a delayed election would be beneficial, so I am curious why they should not delay the election if a delay would allow more people to vote and perhaps develop a more informed decision. Maybe this is common knowledge that I am simply unaware of, but I think the author should offer an opposing viewpoint, since he focuses only on why people are in favor of a delay.

History is on the Side of Tolerance

2004-11-28T17:43:00.000-08:00

In the article, “Perverted, God-Hating Frenchies vs. Inbred, Sex-Obsessed Yokels,” Steven Waldmen made an interesting remark about conservatives’ historical viewpoints of civil rights and women’s rights. He said, “Liberals believe that historically red state conservatives were on the wrong side of the civil rights struggle (first as conservative Democrats and then as Republicans) and that they opposed much of the campaign for equal rights for women that enabled Condoleezza Rice to be National Security Advisor and Sandra Day O'Connor to be on the Supreme Court.” It is disappointing that people, particularly conservatives, have not learned the dangers and errors of being close minded. Conservatives wrongfully opposed civil rights and women’s rights in the past, and now they resist gay rights because they are afraid of anything new and different, which they consider outrageous. I do understand why conservatives are passionate about certain issues. I am much more liberal now, but I grew up extremely religious and conservative. I once thought that it was absolutely wrong to be gay because it was a sin, and I was also against abortion. Similarly, religious people supported segregation in the past, but now Christians believe that a black man and white man should be treated equally. Obviously, we have since then realized that our previous failure to embrace people who are different was ignorant. It is now considered a sin to be racist. I wish Conservatives would realize that their current failure to accept all people is as immoral now as it was in the past.

Faith Factor Response

2004-11-27T11:28:00.000-08:00

When I first read the article, “The Faith Factor,” by Barbara Ehrenreich, I, like Clara, felt a bit confused about the author’s viewpoint. I was not sure whether she was conservative or liberal. It seemed to me, at first, like Ms. Ehrenreich was completely bashing the church, but then I thought that she started proclaiming Jesus’ name and saying that everyone should to be a Christian. Then I reread the article and realized she is a liberal and Democrat after all. She is just saying that the Democrats need to act like ancient Christians in the sense that Democrats are also a minority and need to stand up for what they believe in. The author really exaggerates the roll of the church, and makes Christians almost seem like criminals. She says that Christians are helping a criminal continue his bloody work. She even says that the church is a great place for unemployed people to hang out and for drunks to get booze money. “Got a drinking problem, a vicious spouse, a wayward child, a bill due? Find a church.” This seems a little ridiculous to me. I don’t think that church is a popular form of welfare. In my opinion, Christianity is harmless, and the church has no intention of supporting criminals. Religion is good for people. However, I do think extreme conservatives/religious people can be scary in political positions because of certain moral views that they usually have, so I agree that democrats should stand strong.

Arato's Article

2004-11-27T11:06:00.000-08:00

I got the same impressions that Chris got, that the author seems certain of his opinions. He spells out how the Democratic Party screwed up, beginning with their first mistake, collaborating on tax-cuts. It is great that he feels as though he knows exactly why people voted the way that they did, but I do not find the author, Andrew Arato, very credible. I am sure he probably is, but as far as I can tell, there is little evidence to suggest that the he is indeed trustworthy. I do agree with a couple of his ideas though. Mr. Arato says, “Kerry could not offer concrete proposals that would simultaneously cut the deficit and provide much needed new programs.” I do believe that this was a major factor in the election. Even if a candidate offers plans that are excellent, the plans will be of no assistance if we do not have the necessary funds to put the plans into action. The Democrats did not have the means to offer new programs. Any time a plan was spoken of, voters, including myself, were left to wonder how it could ever be financially possible. Unfortunately, the government’s recent spending was not Kerry’s blunder, but it still greatly impacted his chance in the election. Right before the election I definitely remember hearing everyone saying, “The candidates always speak of their plans so vaguely. We need to know the details.” I think voters did want Kerry to construct some sort of plan for Iraqi disengagement, and that more specific plans, in general, would have helped either candidate win the election.

Filibusters

2004-11-26T10:47:00.000-08:00

I support the use of filibusters used as intended. I am wondering how many people in the Senate actually support Mr. Grist’s opinion that "one way or another, the filibuster of judicial nominations must end.” I think the important thing to remember is that this tactic is not employed unless a number of people are strongly against a nominee, and in that case I think that the voting should be delayed, and the nominee should be reconsidered. The voice of the minority should not always be overpowered. If the Senate made this tactic unconstitutional I do believe that they would regret it some day. Filibusters have been used against “military adventurers and war profiteers,” and there is no reason why the strategy will not continue to benefit our country. I think it is funny that Bill Grist is threatening to use “the nuclear option.” What is “the nuclear option?” Not scary. In response to something Clara said: it is troubling that our nation’s political leaders often have such religious agendas. It is dangerous to mix religion into key decisions, like war. Once you have that, “I am good. I am doing this for my religion,” mentality, you will do anything, like crazy religious suicidal bombers in other countries. I went of on a tangent, but anyhow, there is no reason why Grist should be scared of the minority, or threatening them. Grist needs to take everyone’s opinions into consideration. The Senate is supposed to be about compromise, not your own selfish endeavors.

Study Habits

2004-11-26T10:09:00.000-08:00

I think that the amount of time this author believes students to be studying is representative of most students, but not Georgia Tech students. The majority of colleges, especially other public colleges in Georgia, are not as challenging, so the students do not have to study as much. I have friends that go to Georgia State that say it is basically like high school, and I do not feel at all like my school resembles high school (thank God!). I know quite a few college students that do decent in school, but don’t have to study 25 hours a week. I, on the other hand, do study at least 25 hours a week, and I still feel like I should be focusing on school more. I am still not doing as well as I would like to be doing, mostly in calculus. Although, I feel confident that if I went to the college down the street I would making all excellent grades, and be one of the best students again. This article tells me that I’m in the 11% of students that actually have to study at least 25 hours a week. It’s depressing in a sense, but I know that I’m getting a good education, and that I’ll probably be more prepared for challenging things to come than the students that were not challenged as much at their colleges. I agree with the headline, “Undergraduates study much less than professors expect.” It seems that my profs certainly do expect more than I can handle, or find time to accomplish.

Nuclear Waste at Yucca Mountain

2004-11-26T08:45:00.000-08:00

I have continued to think about an earlier post I that I wrote about voting. I mentioned that I did not really feel comfortable voting for either Bush or Kerry when I went to the polls. This is primarily because as soon as I finished voting for Kerry, I went home and finished my English paper about nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. I full heartedly disagree with Kerry's plan to stop a nuclear waste repository from being constructed at Yucca Mountain. During the election I felt like I was required to weigh this issue (consolidating our nation's radioactive waste) against other important issues (stem cell research, ect.), and ultimately decide which was more important to me, which is a hard choice to make. I definitely felt like I had to vote (not that I didn't want to) because I would be a bad citizen and an ungrateful American if I did not exercise my freedom of choice. Now, I continue to feel disappointed in myself, in a way, because I had to choose to vote for someone, even though I hate the fact that he is against burying nuclear waste. Honestly, it is disgusting to me that Kerry let his opinion of what should be done with our country's dangerous nuclear waste be determined by what he hoped would win Nevada's votes. He said that if he were elected he would absolutely stop the Yucca Mountain project, and hire scientists to find the best way to store the radioactive waste that is vulnerably sitting inappropriately all over the country (138 sites). Scientist found the best site (Yucca Mountain) and the best way to store the waste (geological disposal) over 20 years ago, and they have not found a better site yet. Nuclear industry officials are disapproving of Kerry's policy, and even Nevada voted for Bush overall. $9 billion dollars and decades of research have gone into this project, and Kerry wants to kill it instead of help fund, and properly design it. I guess it might be good (in this instance) that Bush is still president after all.

We don't work hard enough?

2004-11-22T10:48:00.000-08:00

Suggestions have been made that college students don't work hard enough. College professors suggest that students should study atleast twenty five hours a week in order to succeed. I think they are basing that number on when they were in college, and how much studying they did. A survey was conducted and said that students generally study ten hours a week, yet stil make good grades. Maybe times have changed, and maybe students now are smarter than students several years ago. Just a thought. Personally, I would say i study between ten and fifteen hours a week. However, this school is very difficult for me, so I still do bad. This leads me to two conclusions. Either I'm studying too little, even though others study less and do better, or the way I'm studying doesn't work. The second conclusion could be a likely reason for why students do better with less studying now then years past. After all, we now have many new tools at our disposal, like the internet, calculators, computers, many other things as well. I think this helps kids get more studying done in a shorter amount of time. The survey goes on to say that students who are involved in campus activities do better. This is true to a degree. You can be so involved that it takes all your time and your grades suffer because of lack of studying, or you can do just enough to force yourself to manage your time better, and not procrastinate. Also, being involved in campus activities can also help keep your interest in school and not become un-motivated. For example, if you like cars, join GT Motorports. This way you will be more motivated to succeed and to do well in school, so you can stick with the club. There are probably other factors in the way students succeed and how they get good grades, but these are clearly two of the biggest differences between when professors went to school and today.

The Two Americas

2004-11-22T10:27:00.000-08:00

Arato has some interesting views in this article. He lays out the exact reasons why the Democrats lost the election. My problem is this is where does he get these ideas from? He says things like "the first mistake they made..." then goes on to list a couple others. They way he words this article it is like his reasons are the ONLY reasons that they lost. He goes on to say that the primary reason they lost the election was the fact that they did not support a war in Iraq, or atleast Kerry and Edwards didn't. This is only partially accurate. This contributed to them losing not because they didn't support a war, but because they kept changing their story about what they supported. He (Kerry) mislead people often by coming out with different statements and ideas and policies nearly every month. There is an anti-Kerry website that puts all of his statements together back to back, and people can really see that they clearly contridict each other. Another reason Arato mentions is the taxing situation in this country. In order for the Democrats policies (education, welfare, social security, etc...) they would need to raise taxes, but with the Republicans proposing a tax cut, the "very reasonable" idea of raising taxes was out of the question for Democrats, making many of their plans obsolete. In my opinion Arato is correct on this. Who would vote for a plan when they knew no one could pay for it? I think in the long run, it was clear to many voters that Bush was a better candidate because Kerry clearly wasn't sure what he wanted to do, or how he was going to do it, while Bush had experience and had a clear plan that he was going to stick with. However, had Kerry had a plan laid out saying exactly how he was going to do things, even a vague plan at that, the election in 2004 might have gone very differently. The thing I like about this article is that for the most part, it is very well laid out, provides background information about things before it dives into them really deeply, and is fairly simple to understand, even if you have limited political knowledge.

Response to “Perverted, God-Hating Frenchies…”

2004-11-20T23:31:00.000-08:00

I don’t know that I consider all Republicans to be inbred or sex-obsessed. (Yokels, well that’s another story—just kidding.) In fact I disagree with many of the comparisons that Mr. Waldman makes between liberals and conservatives. Why would conservatives be sex-obsessed? They are anti-abortion and totally Bible-belt. Maybe he meant gender obsessed. That I can agree with. I really think that the differences between Republicans and Democrats are very legitimate and are rooted not in name-calling but in convictions and values. Republicans and Democrats don’t get along as such not because of their political labels but because of differences in their lifestyles. A personal example of mine regards my best friend Christina. We were raised in very different ways (she, on following the Bible, and I, on composting and being tolerant--hehe) and recently, whether it is correlated with the election or not, we just don’t like to hang out. I don’t think of her as a Republican; I just don’t like her lifestyle and I don’t agree with her basic value system about gays and abortion and such and it affects the way I think of her as a whole, and she of me. It doesn’t matter who we wanted to win the election, although our differing political preferences do rather embody our value systems. And my refusing to mail her repulsive absentee ballot was perhaps the last time we communicated. But anyway. I think Mr. Waldman made a lot of generalizations that are just as false as the ones he attempted to refute. Not all liberals are as “moral” as all conservatives are, and not all conservatives are as “smart” as all liberals are.

Response to “The Two Americas” by Andrew Arato

2004-11-20T16:39:00.000-08:00

This article made a lot of sense to me in some ways, but it was a bit too harsh toward everyone. In the first paragraph, Arato lists a series of contrasts between the Republican party and the Democratic party. Some of the pairs of words are quite harsh toward the Republicans, such as, well, all of the contrasts. “Nation vs. democracy; imperial aspiration vs. the rule of law; rhetoric vs. rationality; incarnation vs. persuasion; will vs. judgment; symbolism vs. interest” and the list goes on. I’m not sure that anyone of conservative views would be persuaded into anything by this article, but persuasion was probably not Mr. Arato’s point. He tried to rationalize why the Democrats lost the presidential election this November, and in doing this he was not speaking to the Republicans about how they’re just sorry people—instead, he seemed to be addressing the Democratic party as a whole about how they screwed up their chances in the election. Arato seemed to take pity on the Republicans, in fact. At the end of the article, Arato expresses his sadness that the poor, misled people who voted for Bush were less at fault for the terrible outcome of this election than the Democrats, who simply did not take advantage of the chances they had to show the conservatives the light. Maybe I am just avoiding self-incrimination, but I disagree. The Dems did their best. It would have been beneficial for Kerry to have voted against war and then voted for the funding, but that is now in the past. Americans are divided almost neatly in half, I think, because of the issues involved in the election—not so much because of political strategy.

Response to The Faith Factor by Barbara Ehrenreich

2004-11-17T17:01:00.000-08:00

For a little while when I first read this article, I had trouble deducing which side Ms. Ehrenreich was on. The title, for one, screams Conservative. She says the Democrats’ recent action has been “repulsive”. The Democrats don’t understand how out of touch they are with the religious transformation of America. Something about the Great Revival and then that churches offer not only eternal salvation but also material assistance. But then, what’s this? Churches offer lunches where carwash owners and bank loan officers get together to trade business cards and joke about Democrats and gays? And then my feelings changed. She’s liberal. I reread the article and it made much more sense, kind of like Fight Club. Every time you watch it, something else makes better sense. But anyway. I had never thought about repulsively conservative evangelicals that way before but I can see that Ms. Ehrenreich is correct. Their faith is used to their advantage—to get food, get bills paid, and the most typical, trading business cards. It’s blasphemous, really. If the Church were what the Bible implies it should be—humble and the scum of the earth, people whose treasure is in Heaven—it would be interesting to see how many of these evangelicals would attend services, or even associate themselves with Christianity. But this is beside the point. Conservative evangelical churches take programs and funding away from non-Christian poor people. This would be great if everyone were Christians, but as it is, it’s not acceptable. Ms. Ehrenreich says we are on a downward spiral to theocracy. If the Democrats don’t do anything about it, I say she’s right.

Response to “Frist’s Fury Over Filibusters” by John Nichols

2004-11-17T13:30:00.000-08:00

Aren’t judges supposed to be nonpartisan? It really is unfortunate that our country is having trouble appointing judges to the Supreme Court because of differences between the Democrats and the GOP. Judges are basically supposed to read the Constitution and make decisions about important stuff. Those decisions are supposed to be based not on their personal beliefs but on what the Constitution says is correct. For instance, the Constitution says there should be a separation between church and state. If an issue arises such that a law against it or for it is based on religious ideals, the judges should decide according to the Constitution, not their religion, whatever it may be. In the case of the Republicans, it’s rather clear what that religion is. Yes, I am a Democrat, and therefore biased, but I feel like the Republicans are probably nominating a whole bunch of conservative Baptists (or the court’s equivalent) to be on our Supreme Court, so as to forward their political agenda of religion-based bans. Abortion, gay marriage, and stem cell research are three that come to mind. Of course, if the states were to vote that there be an amendment to the Constitution defining marriage as a union between “a man and a woman”, then the Supreme Court would have to judge accordingly. And all of the gay couples in America would just have to deal with not being able to see their loved ones in the hospital, and live without the Social Security checks of the partner they’d lived with until he or she died. But for now, let the Democrats filibuster.

South Park by Anyaibe

2004-11-15T19:36:00.000-08:00

This is one of the high moments of the class when we get to compare satire to real life events. It gave a whole new prospective on the election and tells in some truth what is going on in people heads about the election. Although it took things to the extreme it also shows how somethings promoting the election are also provocative. Like the Puff Daddy add vote or die. What is he trying to say and why is it put in such a violent tone. When people are told to do something they wont likely do it. South Park shows some good examples of this. So I actually support the idea of watching South Park about the election was a good idea and not just for a good laugh.

the gretest thing about this particular show is it says what people are thinking, but they wont say it. Like the debate and what happened. Everyone that watched it had to have some "What just happened" moments during the debate. Like the canidates thanking the people for being their and wasting some of the time they have over a particular subject. Also the erie pause that Bush had in the debate. They just made a joke about it and let everyonre else know they realized it to. At last at the end, it sort of encouraged voting for the thing or person you want to no matter what. This was extremely more positve the Puff Daddy way to vote. Had some positve without even trying to force it on people.

In Repsonse to Danielle's ENGL 1101 Post

2004-11-15T13:40:00.000-08:00

Let's give a round of applause to Chuck for making our English class based on politics and the election. He made a very good decision and took advantage of the fact that we were to have a presidential election this year. I don't see why there aren't more classes focused on the same thing. Throughout high school I never learned very much about the entire election process and never went into depth or discussed anything about it. After this semester, I doubt I'll have a class that focuses on politics again (except for maybe a History class, which most likely would not discuss election issues anyway). I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to learn more about politics and the way our country runs elections in English class, otherwise I might have always been confused. I'm not just brown-nosing here either ... I thought that the class would be a complete bore and that I would hate it just because it was based on politics. As the weeks went on, however, I found myself enjoying the topics we discussed and I was glad to know a little more of what was going on in the world. I'm curious about how this class would work when we're not in the election season, which is more often than not. Would students learn as much without being able to flip on the tv and recognize something that you learned in class? Once again, I feel lucky to have had this class during this semester. Thanks Chuck!

Thoughts on Journeys with George

2004-11-15T13:21:00.000-08:00

When Dr. Tryon was introducing the movie and mentioned that it was created by a "registered Democrat," the first thing that popped into my mind was Fahrenheit 911. Was Dr. Tryon really going to show such a one-sided film in class? My first thoughts were all wrong. While I was expecting a very biased film that was going to make Bush look like the bad guy, the footage the movie showed did not work in any way to deliberately make Bush look like an idiot. I was actually very entertained and wish I could have seen more. It's not everyday that you get to see Bush acting like he does behind the curtains, and when you do, it's interesting to see how he really acts. Alexandra Pelosi was very clear about what was going on in the documentary and although she did admit that she did not agree with then Senator Bush, she was very respectful about it. I like how, even though she is against Bush, she includes footage that shows how Bush is a good man, such as the time where he comforted her after her unofficial poll was leaked to the press. Personally, I would like to see a documentary on every candidate's campaign or something similar so I have more of an idea of what that candidate is like in person, not just on stage reciting something that somebody else wrote. After seeing this, I feel a little more comfortable with the divide between Republicans and Democrats and that it is possible for the two parties to get along and play nice, even if they don't always agree. Hoorah for Alexandra Pelosi, even if she is a registered Democrat.

Secretary of State Powell Expected to Resign

2004-11-15T08:59:00.000-08:00

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50926-2004Nov15.html

This article is quite interesting because several of Bush’s officials are resigning. The secretary of state Colin Powell plans to resign on Monday; and he is not the only one announcing resignation of office. Education Secretary Roderick R. Paige is going to announce his resignation also. Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman, and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, these officials will be leaving soon. Ashcroft and Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans already left office. All of these officials leaving at the beginning of Bush’s second term cannot be good. All of these departures are going to cause great changes for President Bush and for his administration. I wonder who will take over these openings? The decisions of picking the new administration officials will greatly affect how Bush’s agenda will turn out; and Bush is supposedly to have the most ambitious agenda in 2005 than any other years. I wonder why all of these officials are leaving? Are they leaving because of Bush’s decisions or are they leaving because they believe their time are up? I know for sure that the new cabinet members will have their own agenda, and their agendas will affect Bush’s agenda. The next four years will be quite interesting for the people in Washington D.C. and the people in America because these resignations will start more resignations to happen, so the new people will be coming in, and the old ones will be coming out for the Bush’s administrations. Bush’s Cabinet was quite a diverse one too. Will Bush pick his new officials that will allow his cabinet to be diverse? We just have to wait and see what is going to happen at D.C.?

Journeys with Alexandra

2004-11-14T16:01:00.000-08:00

This was an interesting movie. I have seen that 'home movie' style before, it is typically very affective. It gives that "this wasn't set up" feel to the whole thing. However I do not think this movie was supposed to be a critique of George W Bush or the Republican party. I think this was a documentary that did what it was supposed to do, document. It told us what the reporter (specifically those reporters in the Pact) saw and did. I believe many of us feel that most reporters traveling with the candidate get a whole lot of news and that those reporters just don't report it for some reason. This film shows us that this notion is wrong. The reporters traveling with the candidate are often no better off than the average citizen when it comes to knowing whats going on.
It gave us a taste of what the process must be like for the candidates. Travel, arrive, wave, shake hands, stump speech, wave, shake some hands, wave some more, on the plane/bus for some more traveling. There isn't much else to it. The film also pointed out some dark little points about these campaigns. For example the people that go to the rallies are completely insane. They sit in wait for some guy 'they like because he's a great leader' in subzero temperatures just so they can 'get some of their Bush'. I found hilarious that those lovely handmade signs you see in the background on TV when a candidate is giving his speech are actually made by the party and handed out during the rally. I also found it terrifying that when Alexandra sarcastically asked a two year old who couldn't speak "and what party are you with" the father puppets the innocent "say 'I'm a Republican'". I'm sure Democrats do that too. It makes me feel that eventually whichever party breeds more while lead the country in the future. And honestly I don't want many of these people to breed.
Anyway, despite my less than objective observations and statements I believe the film did a good job. I would recommend it to every Republican just so they can see themselves from a "not necessarily liberal" persepective.

Engl 1101

2004-11-14T14:14:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of the semester, when I learned that my English class was going to revolve around politics and that I was not required to read any books, I must admit, I was a bit dissatisfied. This was simply because I had grown accustomed to traditional English classes. I had never been a fan of politics, mostly since I had never known much about politics. Basically, I thought that I was not too fond of politics because the only major issues that I knew about were corrupt, like Nixon. I guess I kind of had this general idea that the government is twisted in many ways or not as it should be.

As the semester progressed, I realized that this type of political based English class has been extremely beneficial for me. I certainly needed to learn a few things about what is going on in the world today, specifically in the election. Before English 1101, I knew that I wanted to vote, since it would be my first chance, but I had absolutely no idea of who to vote for, or why.

Before, I could not really hold an intelligent conversation about Bush/Kerry’s policies, for instance, but now am familiar with many key issues. I feel much more involved with current events. The times that I have been working on things for English class have sadly been the only times that I have focused on the news lately. I am glad that Chuck has encouraged us to study articles related to the election.

Journeys with George

2004-11-14T13:07:00.000-08:00

Ok, so from this movie I have determined that George Bush makes the worst jokes ever told in the history of the world, part one AND two. More importantly though, it has given me a different perspective of looking at him. From all the publicity he gets on TV, and seeing him in his serious mode all the time, it really makes a person see him as a boring kind of person. Seeing this video has allowed us to see a different side of him, and I think he acted differently than many of us expected him to act. Throught the video, he never lost his temper, he made many jokes (they still count even if they were terrible), and he was clearly a hard worker. Even after he screwed up one of his speeches really badly, he didn't let it get to him, he just made it funny and laughed with everyone else. I think that shows true character. It also shows that in office, he can make mistakes and not get beaten down by them, or any criticism that others might have of him because of those mistakes. Also, instead of making the media his enemy, he made them his friends. He Flew on the same plane as them during his campaign, he took the time to meet and talk to them, and he even became some of their friends. All these different things that he showed in this video change my opinion of him for the better. I percieve him as a good hearted person, and someone with a strong will. As far as showing these types of videos in class, it was a good idea. It lets students see their leaders in a different light, a light that isn't the spotlight. It lets us see how they act as people, not as politicians. Showing more videos like this would be beneficial to students in the future.

Our Government is Corrupt

2004-11-11T17:46:00.000-08:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/10/politics/10oil.html?oref=login

This article scares me. It is definitely disturbing that United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, would avoid serious accusations of fraud. Of course, maybe this is because he is stubborn and has nothing to hide, and maybe this is blown out of proportion, but it certainly seems like Mr. Annan has something to hide. The UN is apparently stopping the Senate from retrieving documents from a service provider, Lloyd’s Register, that examined things purchased by Iraq. Obviously, when people refuse harmless documents it is almost always because they are concealing evidence.

Kofi Annan is also said to be preventing investigators from interviewing United Nations officials. The Senate would like to interview 11 officials, including Benon Sevan. What is he hiding? Investigators believe, “Mr. Sevan might have received oil allocations from Saddam Hussein.” The Senate is worried that the UN is skilled in concealing what is necessary while revealing only positive records.

I have always known that our government is corrupt, but it is still extremely bothersome. It is hard to believe that our world leaders are involved in illegitimate activities, but you know at least some of them are. Politics are undoubtedly twisted. People are so consumed by money/power that they would actually have relations with Saddam Hussein!

I seriously hope the truth prevails, but the sad thing is, judging by my experiences thus far in life, the bad guy usually gets away with the crime, unpunished. This article makes me wonder how much corruption exists within the government today. It makes me sick.

South Park

2004-11-11T16:54:00.000-08:00

I thoroughly enjoyed watching “South Park” in class on a rainy Thursday. I didn’t have my paper, which was due, I woke up late, and then traffic was so bad that I was late to class. Anyhow, the show was a great relief after a restless night, and the perfect conclusion for the election.

Immediately, and throughout the episode, Peta was characterized negatively. The creators of “South Park” initially highlighted the fact that it’s absurd to make small children change an innocent school mascot because it is an animal. Have people actually tried to do this? The children weren’t actually hurting or even handling a live animal; they were almost glorifying it by using it as the school symbol. Then, the Peta portrayal really gets gruesome when we see their living quarters. It’s beyond disturbing that the Peta characters are having sex with animals. I’m willing to bet that the Peta people are upset about the episode. It was hilarious though that the Peta people didn’t mind killing humans, but treated animals as sacred.

Also, it was funny that they shunned what’s his name for not voting. I know that whenever I hear someone say that they are not going to vote, I try to convince them that it is worth it, and that they should. It must be frustrating for those people who have made up their minds that they don’t want to vote for a lousy candidate. I hope those people who didn’t want to vote for “the lesser of two evils” realize that they will probably be never get the chance to vote for a candidate that they support in every policy. Like “South Park” says, the choice is always between a giant douche and a turd sandwich.

Journeys with George

2004-11-11T16:12:00.000-08:00

I don’t think that the reporters can give completely objective coverage of the election because on their long journey they have grown close to Bush. The British journalist actually mentioned this. Bush and Mrs. Bush are constantly charming the reporters. For example, Bush gave Alexandra a kiss on the cheek, he served the “pack” fried chicken, and he throws many birthday parties for them. Bush even shows an interest in Alexandra Pelosi’s crush on Trent. These personal gestures allow Bush and the reporters to become friends in a sense. Bush is always trying to earn their vote and their support, so that the reporters can help him win the election. The documentary, “Journeys with George”, shows Bush blatantly asking the reporters for their vote on several occasions, and he even jokingly tries to guilt them into voting for him.

Even though they sort of become friends with Bush, Alexandra still votes for Bradley. The fact that she’s a registered Democrat is unapparent except for a couple of instances. Alexandra Pelosi only challenged Bush once in the film because she has to maintain a good relationship with Bush or he’ll ignore her. She asked about the death penalty saying, “Do you sleep well at night,” and Bush got upset. You would maybe expect for Bush to be characterized more negatively by a Democrat. If the reporters did characterize him unfavorably they would not get fed their daily news release, and they may not get promoted to the white house news core. Instead, the film focuses mostly on Bush’s personality. We see that he often jokes with the reporters and has a playful attitude. Bush comes across as very personable.

The Election

2004-11-07T10:21:00.000-08:00

the putcome or how the election went about was shocling to maost including me. I actually thought it would be a real race to 270, but Kerry dropped. See in the election poles i showed Kerry had a chance. Although they were allegations of voting fraud he still should of finished the race. It shows that theUS today is corrupt in many ways. The election wasn't the same feel as the past years election. Wanting your president to winn I did not get that feeling. So under Bush as President a lot of feelings I use to have has gone. Feeling of security, feeling that I will get to see my brother again after the war the feeling that the president we have is the right choice. Just does not make sense. Ths election this time made me feel like who ever I choose we will be endanger. Kerry quiting showed that half that feeling is true. Now I have to trust the selection Im dealt with. Though even if he quit I still cant trust Bush because the issue of voting fraud, This is what I felt when during this 2004 election.

I voted :)

2004-11-04T08:43:00.000-08:00

I’m proud to say that Tuesday was my first time voting. Tuesday morning I realized that I didn’t have my voter registration card with me, which was okay, except I wasn’t sure where I was supposed to vote. So, first I went to the school where my district used to vote, and found directions on where I should go- The Lion’s Club. I was in a huge hurry to get there because it was almost lunch hour rush. I stood in the wrong line for a while because someone told me incorrectly. Luckily, an old lady was nice enough to let me in the correct line. For some stupid reason, there were no signs that said where people should be alphabetically. Everyone seemed so happy to be there. In general, people were just kind, talkative, and enthusiastic. A couple of people were wearing the “Vote or Die” shirts. Unfortunately, I only felt comfortable voting for three items because I wasn’t familiar enough with the other candidates/issues. My goal is to be able to vote for much more next time around. Like South Park says, I did feel like I was deciding between a “turd sandwich and a douche.” I prefer Kerry’s ideas for most aspects, but immediately after voting for him I went home and worked on English paper about how Kerry’s policy for disposing of nuclear waste is just for Nevada’s vote, and that I favor Bush’s plan instead for constructing Yucca Mountain. It made me feel like there was no decent choice. Also, I do feel like my vote doesn’t really matter (not that I would skip voting) in the grand scheme of things since the electoral votes are really the only deciding factor. Also, I had to really squeeze it into my schedule, and for a brief moment I thought that maybe I didn’t even have time to vote with a test the next day, a lab report, and a paper due. Anyhow, for what it’s worth, I voted.

Voting is NEW!

2004-11-02T21:19:00.000-08:00

I went to vote with my mom today, and it was quite a new experience. The lines were incredibly long, even though we got to the polling area early. There were probly a couple hundred people in front of us, so it took about two hours to get through the line. The atmosphere was quite bustling. People were standing in line talking about what they thought the outcome of the election was going to be, and some people got irritated with other people's views. Must've been the long wait. When I got to the voting machine, I marked my choice and proceeded to get out of there as quickly as possible to move the line along. Unfortunately no one else was thinking the same way that I was. It felt very satisfying to finally have a say in the direction our government takes. One observation I made was that I was one of the few young people there, probably due to many people being gone at college and not making the effort to get home. In short, my voting experience was new and rewarding!

Should we Vote

2004-11-02T13:47:00.000-08:00

Something that been running through my mind is that should we Vote. Honestly Idont think we should unless you as a person want to vote for one of the canidates. People say you have to express your freedom buy voting, but not voting cause of that freedom is the same thing. There are some who believe people who dont vot are non-American. The way I understan it why vote for somebody that you dont want in office that is bandwagoning and to me is taking aaway your right as a American to think for yourself. Its okay to vote to keep someone else out of office, if your like me and there aer two canidates that have not shown they could lead the nation I wont voter. Reason being if someone does something I do not support and is bad I would feel IM to blame. Thats just me.

I dont like doing things that i dont like to do. Voting for someone you dont believe in is something I dont do. Other people feel the same way , but wet are criticized just because they dint vote. Its been said that if you dont vote your wasting your say in the world. Every President does not have the same say a others. We should look at the 1860 election and take out of there and put it in todays politics.

Yet Another First Time Voter

2004-11-02T06:10:00.000-08:00

I just got back to campus about twenty minutes ago. I went home last night so that I could leave early with my dad to go to the polling location early (thanks a lot GA Tech for not shutting down campus to facilitate voting) so that I could get to class on time. My dad and I arrived at the church about a mile away from my house at 6:30am, 30 minutes before the polls were to be opened. The parking lot was packed. My county has an average voter turn out of about 70-75%, which is pretty high, but I was not expecting a full parking lot before the polls even opened. Guess I should have known that all government-related events require waiting for long periods of time (don't get me started on the DMV). Anyways, I estimated that there were about 200-250 voters ahead of us, and according to what my dad said, it should take an hour from where we were at. And he was right. Luckily we got there when we did because from the time we got there, more and more people just started piling in. However, the atmosphere was definitely not like that of the DMV, where people are a little tense from waiting 4+ hours. I saw many of my neighbors and people that I just happen to recognize from my community that I haven't seen in a very long time. People were talking to each other and chit-chatting about the polling process. After waiting about an hour behind the large wall separating the waiting lines from the polling booths, when we got to the other side I saw that there were about 20 electronic polling machines. There was not ONE time when more than five were being used. My dad began talking about how many of the polling places are saying that they need more polling machines, but it's useless to have more machines if we can't get people through to use them quick enough. God bless the elderly poll officials for doing what they do, but for pete's sake could they move a little faster? Or at least give them a new electronic system that can verify voters at a faster rate so that all those electronic polling machines can be used at one time (of course, only if these poll workers don't type slower than molasses). After having voted, and yes, it does feel good, I realize the problems that we face with polling locations. If things could be sped up with the wonderful technology of the 21st century, I'm sure more citizens would be encouraged to vote.

What to do on Voting Day

2004-11-01T18:15:00.000-08:00

What to Do on Election Day
by: The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/01/opinion/01mon1.html

This caught my attention because it did not have an author. Also it happens to be a list. Nothing is more fun than a list. Jests aside this is perhaps one of the most important things a citizen of this country can do besides serve in the military. The suggestions are reasonable and rather common sense, but for the first time voter, like myself, they can be very helpful. For example the link to mypollingplace.com would be of extreme help for all who don't know where they have to go. I checked out the site and it seems fairly idiotproof.
Analytically speaking this is not much more than a how-to guide, but that just means it has a very specific pathos. People who will be looking for information will go for this article. Hopefully there will be quite a few people looking into this type of information.
On a side note I would like to let all potential voters to vote, I already have voted (absentee), and think that you should take the process seriously. Many souls gave there lives for the rights and priveleges we enjoy today, to make light of their sacrifice would be cruel and wrong.

Voting Burst

2004-10-31T10:03:00.000-08:00

This years election I have read in this article is that there is a substantial increase in voting, Especially among th woman population adn younger voters. Referring back to Vince Keenan lecture is this what he predicted. Well anyway the cause they present in the article is because of 9/11. THis was a major event in our history, but why did it just mainly target woman and inspire them to vote. "MILLIONS OF women are watching the presidential debates looking for answers to key questions: "Who can win the war on terror and keep America and my family safe?" "Who is the stronger leader?" "Who would use better judgment in a crisis?" This is what the article states. Personally they are selecting the wrong election to try to find a strong leader.To the contrary, it has morphed into a powerful issue with an intense emotional component that has huge political implications. It's hardly surprising. I guess the major cause is on they day all they thought about is their family and eaht they should do to protect them ot make sure they are okay. Honorable reason why they should.

First Time Voter

2004-10-27T19:40:00.000-07:00

This has been my first opportunity to vote and I am grateful to have it. Since I am officially a resident of North Carolina I must use a slightly different means to "have my voice heard". Basically, I need(ed) to get an absentee ballot. Fortunately for me, my mom beat me to the punch and sent all the information I needed to get one of these ballots. It took about two weeks in all to get my ballot, primarily because the mail here takes FOREVER to get to us. The ballot was incredibly simple and straight-forward. Unfortunately I am not familiar with the candidates running to be Appellete Judges in District 7. Fortunately, God created the quarter...you figure out the rest.
I believe our class discussions and reading assignments helped solidify my views. I was going to vote the way I did anyway, but I feel it is much better to have some reasoning behind it. Normally, I live in a relative void (politically) so class is very informative for me.

Problems with Voting

2004-10-27T18:22:00.000-07:00

From reading Moss’s article, it is very sad that the both of the candidates’ parties will go to extreme measures recruiting voters. Several of these voters were using questionable addresses. People were registering in different counties, so those people can vote more than once for this election. All these confusion that people are causing is making the officials to panic for the election that is in less than 10 days. There is so much chaos going on around U.S. with election process right now. In Colorado, people have to take an oath that they are a qualifying voter. Is that just not depressing? The officials do not know who is a qualifying voter from a non-qualifying. Most of voting that is being use on November 2 is all done electrically, so that means there are no paper trail. There is no way for the officials to recount or re-check the votes easily that the people will be casting. It is sad that the voters in the America cannot use a normal voting system that other countries use easily. Some how people messes it up and the losing parties will whine that they lost because the voting process was wrong; so to fix this problem for the next election change the voting system into one same voting process that will be used throughout the nation, instead of, having multiple different ones in just one state. The possibilities for fraud in this election are very high. People can vote more than once. People can easily tamper with computer system. The possibilities are endless for manipulation. Cannot wait to see what happens on election day, this coming Tuesday.

Dishonest voters!

2004-10-27T15:57:00.000-07:00

Moss' article is intriuging in that it opens our eyes to the corruption in our electoral system. Everyone everywhere suspects some corruption, mainly because it is inherent in human government, but this article provides additional evidence. In Ohio, there are many voters registered that don't even live in the counties they are registered to vote in. This can lead to them being able to vote twice. Also, some voters have given fake addresses to the voting comissions which again allow them to vote more than once. There are efforts to get rid of these fake registrations, and so far a list of 14,000 names has been given to the voting commisions to look for, and challenge, these fake registrations. On a more positive note, there has been a great effort to recruit new voters! The exact mechanics of how they have recruited new voters is vague. Does anyone know exactly? Another interesting thing about the election is how some of the smaller states, like Ohio for example, can carry so much weight and be considered so important in this nation of some 295 million people. It shows us how well our system is working (electoral college) by balancing out the states, regardless of size. These are just a few points for us to think about, or talk about during class.

Kerry, Clinton Team Up Against Bush

2004-10-25T13:38:00.000-07:00

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6602622&pageNumber=1

Bill Clinton is adored by his followers and hated by everyone else. I don’t understand the lack of middle ground in this issue—maybe it’s because Conservatives find it more important that Clinton messed around with Monica Lewinsky and Democrats choose to leave that occurrence to Clinton’s personal life and to focus on things like the balanced budget. So Kerry’s bringing Bill along for the campaign pretty much only rallies the Democrats, and doesn’t do much for swing voters or, of course, Republicans. The Republicans claim that Clinton’s presence will make Kerry look bad because of the comparison between the two, which makes it sound like Clinton was a good president, but that refreshing memories about Clinton’s affair with Lewinsky will also rally the Republican base. So does that mean that Kerry is an even worse person than a morally terrible adulterer? Clinton is a good guy in every aspect, to me, except that he had an extramarital affair. And any way that’s none of my business. He did a good job on a lot of other presidential matters, and his presidential performance did not seem to be affected in a bad way by his personal life, be it morally sound or not.
Is anyone else getting a little bit nervous about terrorism on Election Day? Especially since the 380 tons of explosives were confirmed to be missing from a sensitive Iraqi military installation? I wonder who would win the election if another terrorist attack occurred before November 2? Would Bush, because he’s “tough on terror,” or would Kerry, because Bush’s toughness didn’t seem to be working?

The Choice on Immigration

2004-10-24T21:46:00.000-07:00

"The Choice on Immigration" is an editorial from the Washington Post; it is one in a series of editorials about the presidential candidates.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46566-2004Oct19.html

The author of this article writes about the problems surrounding the issue of immigration and seems to lean toward the liberal side by the end of the editorial. Throughout the article he argues that neither Bush nor Kerry seems to be very vocal about the issue and he analyzes why this is the case. He assumes that the presidential candidates’ indecisive-sounding policies on this issue are due to the fact that immigration is a very touchy issue- that it “evokes strong opinions and emotions”. The author reminds us that Bush had a very strong plan at the beginning of the year to reform this country’s immigration laws, and proposed a guest worker program and also a way for illegal immigrants to earn legal status. The term “earned legalization” did not make Bush’s Republican base very happy, and the liberals who might have thought it was a good plan did not want to side with Bush. Then, in the third debate, Bush said definitively, “I don’t believe we ought to have amnesty,” to clear things up about his opinion. Kerry’s opinion differs from that of Bush. Kerry favors earned legalization and has voted for agricultural guest-worker bills in the Senate. He tends to keep relatively quiet about this, however, and focus on border control, as does the President. Border control is a good issue to emphasize, but it does not address the issue of the many illegal immigrants who are already in the country. The author ends the article by giving examples of how Americans’ opinions on the issue are conflicted; for example, we “are happy to eat the cheap food and to enjoy the cheap services provided by recent immigrants” but “prefer hearing about border controls rather than earned legalization”.

Bush calls Kerry's claims about draft 'scare tactics'

2004-10-20T17:06:00.000-07:00

click here for article

I've heard a few peers in the past few weeks that were very concerned about the supposed draft that Bush will reinstate if he is reelected. I was very doubtful of the truthfulness of this concern. This article covers Bush's trip to Florida and his speech to the elderly people in that area. Bush refuted Kerry's claims that he would reinstate the draft. Bush clearly stated that he will NOT start the draft and he wants to keep our military services purely voluntary. Now why would Kerry spout of saying that Bush wants to reinstate the draft? Dick Cheney hit the nail on the head when he said that Kerry was using "old-style scare tactics." Cheney also made an excellent point that Kerry's campaign is using these scare tactics to strongly persuade both young people and old people (old people probably aren't afraid of a draft, but maybe they're frightened by privatized social security) because they are simply behind in the polls. Cheney said he was actually glad to see that Kerry's campaign is using scare tactics because that shows him that they realize they're behind. This is their way of fighting back. Bush chose the "flip-flop" argument from his arsenal, saying that he's not surprised Kerry would make such a thing up because of his record and his contradictions in his campaign. On the flu vaccine, Kerry criticized Bush about the deficit of vaccines. Somehow he relates a lack of vaccine to not being able to protect the country from bioterrorism. Someone help me out, which logical fallacy is this? Maybe Kerry wasn't listening when Bush said the flu vaccine deficit was caused by a malfunction on the supplier's side. But Kerry is probably right; the terrorists will probably infect us all with the Flu and only 4 million of the most vulnerable will get their medication. Sounds like a Tom Clancy novel, if you ask me.

The Terminator Backs Stem Cell Research

2004-10-19T18:48:00.000-07:00

click for article

Arnold Schwarzenegger announced a new proposition, Proposition 71, which will spend $6 billion towards stem cell research. To be voted on November 2nd, the proposition would spend $3 billion through bonds on stem-cell research and the other $3 billion would finance the interest payments over the next 30 years. It is odd that he announces this proposition even though he has repeatedly called for stricter financial discipline. Unfortunately, the article does not give any other details about Arnold's backing of stem-cell research. I think it's great that Arnold is taking this action in the stem-cell research field because it's important to let everyone know that not all Republicans are against this type of research. We've read in recent articles posted to this blog that Bush is very active in the stem-cell research field and the only thing that he opposes is using stem cells that must be destroyed rather than only using ones that have been destroyed by natural causes. The process may take more time if scientists don't have access to all the stem-cells they want, but the process will take a good amount of time anyway. What Schwarzenegger needs to do is let the public know exactly where he stands on the issue of stem-cell research. One small difference in beliefs of the issue could mean the vote. I feel that Schwarzenegger's views might differ from Bush's somewhat just because the article says that most Californians are for the proposition and that it will most likely pass. Am I the only one that gets a clear image of Arnold as a terminator again when he says, "we are the world's bio-tech leader"?

Funny Blog To Read

2004-10-12T07:43:00.000-07:00

This little "article" doesn't isn't really credible, it's just some guys opinion of the second presidential debate, and it's dont minute by minute. However, it is really sarcastic and quite entertaining to read if you like to hear about the candidates getting made fun of for stuff. Happy reading!!! (Sorry I keep posting totally wierd articles... =)
http://www.wonkette.com/archives/town-hall-debate-sort-of-halfassed-live-blogging-023066.php

Bush, Kerry spar over Iraq weapons report

2004-10-11T20:05:00.000-07:00

Weapons of mass destruction have long been a debate for this election. This article details some of the specifics of the reports for Bush on weapons in the middle east. It goes over point by point what the reports say, and how Bush justifies being in Iraq from the reports. This is a very informative article, and might clear up some confusion you might have about Bush's policies in this area.

Playing Politics With the Sick

2004-10-11T19:33:00.000-07:00

Stem cell research has been debated for a long time, and this article brings out some points about it. Bush has said some things that have been misconstrued as bad things. This article basically sets the record straight about what Bush has said and what it actually means. The article is pretty long winded and seems to repeat a lot of points, especially how the Bush administration "takes everything seriously." It is a fairly informative article, but you probably only need to read half of it to get the whole picture.

Bush follows vice presidential debate with sharp critique of Kerry

2004-10-11T19:21:00.000-07:00

This article is about the second presidential debate, talking about the flaws of each candidate. It seems much more Democratic than Republican however, promoting Kerry and Edwards over Bush and Cheney. Filled with many quotes that each of the candidates made against each other, the article shows the true nature of the election. It tells how each of the candidates react to each other's criticism, and what they each say to each other.

The Town Hall Debate

2004-10-11T19:09:00.000-07:00

The second debate, known to some as the Town Hall debate, was a brutal one. This article describes how the candidates were becoming overly defensive in their reactions to some of the public's questions. It goes on to explain both of the candidates shortcomings, and is really an article that is just intended to be informative, not so much promoting one candidate over the other. Being that it is quite interesting, you should take a look at it.

John Kerry, Stumping As Fast As He Can

2004-10-11T13:41:00.000-07:00

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22830-2004Oct10.html
Just an interesting article on what the real topic of the election should be. War or domestic issues?

The Undecided's Opinion on the Candidates

2004-10-11T13:02:00.000-07:00

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6191354/ This article was quite interesting because it finally showed the views of the undecided voters. In the past it has just been the views of people who are for Bush or who are for Kerry, but this article tells about the other voters. The author had sat down with these people during the second round of presidential debates and logged their reactions to how each candidate performed. It was very interesting.

Sunni Participation in Election

2004-10-11T10:49:00.000-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/11/international/middleeast/11sunni.html?pagewanted=2&8bl&oref=login

Article

2004-10-09T22:47:00.000-07:00

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6191354/

Website

2004-10-09T18:43:00.000-07:00

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/election/0904nation/06debatemain.html?UrAuth=aNaNUOcN]UbTTUWUXUUUZTYU]UWUbU^UZU]U]UcTYWYWZV

Re - The Second Presidential Debate

2004-10-09T11:27:00.001-07:00

Sorry, something went screwy. Here's the article URL:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/09/opinion/9sat1.html?oref=login

The Second Presidential Debate

2004-10-09T11:27:00.000-07:00

This is a commentary on the second debate entitled "The Town Hall Debate". It does have a slightly left slant to it (it feels that Kerry is winning), but generally I think it tries to remain objective by pointing out the weaknesses of both sides without pulling too many punches.

Playing Politics with the Sick

2004-10-08T11:44:00.000-07:00

Leon R. Kass, chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics, writes that the Republicans are actually friendly to stem cell research. . .

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16510-2004Oct7.html

Article for Oct 12

2004-10-07T06:45:00.000-07:00

No WMD found in Iraq - MSNBC

Blog Essay 5

2004-10-06T18:19:00.000-07:00

By the end of the Kerry and Bush debates I felt that Kerry did have the debate won. Although throughout the debate Bush was making very strong points, Kerry just was able to respond to each question with what sounded like well prepared responses. However, Bush being the incumbent, he was able to still hold his own in the election and I feel that even though he lost the debate, he probably did not lose that many voters. Since their will be many more debates to come, Bush still can win over the undecided voters, but if they base their decisions on that last debate I think that Kerry could have won most of the swing votes over. From the debate we had after the presidential debate I got the feeling that most people agreed with what I saw and I totally agree that Kerry seemed more prepared but Bush was very good at conveying his point and getting the audiences reaction. All in all the debate was probably won by Kerry but both candidates made enough good points to make it still be a close election.

Blog Essay 4

2004-10-06T15:53:00.000-07:00

Vince Keenan Lecture:

The 2 questions I came up with for Vince Keenan were "How much time and effort did you have to put into this before it actually took off?", and "How did you come up with the idea to start a website to inform voters of everything?"

From the lecture on last Wednesday, Vince Keenan explained how he created a website dedicated to voter education. The entire idea of what Keenan was saying is genius because, from Keenan’s explanation, it informs voters who do not know anything about the people running for an election exactly what these politicians’ views and moral values are so the voter will have enough information about the candidates to make an informed decision when they get their ballot. It needs to be adopted by every state because it allows the voter to be knowledgeable on the important decision they are being allowed to make. Keenan saw that many voters were voting for people they had no idea about and wanted to give the voters the opportunity to make informed decisions. Vince Keenan's idea to fix a problem that he saw was occurring was very helpful to all of America. It not only allowed him to do something that was enjoyable to him but to help all of America make informative decisions about who they are voting for. It is hard to understand why only one state so far has adopted his creation because it is in the best interest of the state to have something like it to elect the official that the majority of the citizens really do agree with.

Blog Entry 1

2004-10-03T21:05:00.000-07:00

Clara Olson
24 August 2004

Blog Entry #1- Douglas J. Feith’s “A Smarter Way to Use Our Troops”

Douglas Feith, the undersecretary of defense for policy, uses each of the appeals (pathos, ethos, and logos) in his essay supporting President Bush’s new plan for a change in U.S. global force position. He focuses on logos, with many reasons why the plan is beneficial to the U.S., and makes allusions to pathos. Feith’s ethos is questionable.
Because he is the undersecretary of defense for policy, Feith is likely biased in his opinions about Bush’s new plan to consolidate and withdraw troops from abroad in various places around Europe and Asia. He makes only one allusion to anything possibly negative about the plan: that “the changes will cause some dislocations,” and then immediately states that our allies, nonetheless, have “voiced support, indeed enthusiasm, for the realignment,” and thereby negates his consideration of unfavorable aspects of the plan. Ethos may be his least effective argument, where nonbiased facts are concerned.
Feith makes some references to our pathos. He sympathizes with the families of deployed soldiers abroad and notes that 60,000 to 70,000 service members will be shifted from foreign to U.S. bases. Later he gives a more specific example of the strife of soldiers who have to leave their already-deployed families to serve at a different station in another country abroad. The pathos in Feith’s argument is effective mostly for soldiers and their families.
Possibly the logos in Feith’s article is his most effective form of argument. He explains in detail why Bush’s new plan is good for our military and our world relations. Feith lists many logical reasons including that the plan will consolidate scattered facilities around the world and make it easier to deploy forces on short notice.

Kerry vs. Bush Debate

2004-10-03T10:25:00.000-07:00

Personally, I thought Kerry won the debate by a good margain. However, hearing some of the class feedback after the debate it was obvious that not everyone shared my opinion. Most were willing to concede that Kerry came across as the stronger speaker, but many felt that due to 'content' Bush made up ground. They felt that Kerry did not specifically answer the questions he was asked. For example when asked about his plan about Iraq Kerry only gave general statements like "I will form new and better alliances" whereas apparently Kerry could have explained his plan to rebuild a wartorn nation satisfactorily in ninty seconds. Yeah, right. It is unreasonable for us, as voters, to expect the candidates to be able tell us everything you would want to know about them and their policy. It is our responsibility as voters to do a little bit of research ourselves and find those things out for ourselves.
Many felt that both candidates were "side stepping" the questions. Well, frankly what do you expect, they ARE politicians. Most of those topics are political bombs; get too close to one and BOOM, you're not getting reelected. To expect a politician to answer a question where a 'real answer' will cast that politician in a bad light is just silly. For example if Bush was asked why he went after Saddam instead of 'the real target' of ben Ladin Bush's response would (and has been) that Saddam was "bigger threat and America is safer with him removed." If asked "what about North Korea? Didn't they just develop nuclear weapons? Isn't that a bigger threat than Saddam was?" Well, you can bet Bush isn't going to answer that directly. When an animal is backed into a corner it gets dangerous, when a politician gets backed into a corner he gets evasive. If we, the common people, would realize that this is just the way it is we would save ourselves a whole lot of disallusionment in our system.
Another thing many people noticed was that Bush just about called Kerry a flipflopper because of his "inconsistent" stance on Iraq. Kerry explained that Saddam was indeed a threat, the president himself pointed out that they both looked at the same intelligence, just that there were more options to be exhausted then to go to war. Something that has annoyed me for some time is how Bush seems to think that "consistent = right", this is just wrong. If anything I would prefer a flipflopper to someone like that. Using that logic if someone 'consistently' hated Jews and they believed in it completely, then at least on some level they were right. Well, clearly that is completely wrong. I would much rather have some with the capacity to admit they are wrong and adjust accordingly. Obviously there are limits to this; but to think that the President, as an individual, has so much power is scary, and I think, untrue.

Protestors

2004-09-30T21:33:00.000-07:00

Bernadette Malone:NYC errs in playing nice with protesters

This article by, Bernadette Malone, is to me a pointless attempt to attack a political party, that she really doesn’t justify which party she is attacking. Maybe her goal in writing this article is to ridicule protestors. This is where the confusion comes in, why would she talk about the people who she should be swinging votes to her to the side of the democrats. The article itself draws its readers in, but just seems like a waist of time.
The key theme in the article is against Republican protestors of NYC. The way she presents this article, she is attacking her audience. She never really makes clear who she is trying to influence, this is my assumption. If the reader was a protestor this would probably upset them. If the reader was a regular citizen this could make you laugh. So really I don’t know what she really wants out of this article. This would do more damage then would help any situation. If she was trying to attack the Republican protestors, she did it the worst possible way. I always thought that was dumb to attack your audience.
As I analyze this article her use of pathos, ethos, and logos were not even present. Throughout my blog entry I keep saying this article is pointless. This is because I strongly feel it is. She does make a few good points about some acts done by the protestors, but isn’t really appealing to me. Also attacking the mayor was not even necessary. Maybe there is a hidden agenda in this article. By the standards of pathos, ethos, and logos it is badly written.