Wednesday, November 30, 2011

In the defense of AUTHENTICITY

In today's world of social networking, 24-hour news channels and instant fact-checking, authenticity in a political figure, his/her character, past, reputation and accomplishments, the truth about those things matter more today than the actual substance of their claims.

Whether a politician cheated on his wife or raised taxes or was pro-choice before he/she was pro-life doesn't matter as much as that politicians propensity to be honest about his past. You did cheat on your wife? Admit it. You did believe in Climate Change? Admit it. Whatever a politician running for public office does - do NOT lie.

There's an old refrain that says, the way you know a politician is lying is if their lips are moving. Hilarious. So when congressman Anthony Weiner vehemently denied that the sexually explicit photos that were alleged to be his were in fact his, he broke the rules - he lied.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Tebow Time

Tim Tebow is the quarterback of the Denver Broncos, a former Heisman trophy winner and two-time national champion in NCAA football. But ever since jumping into the NFL, being a 1st round draft pick, there have been expectations that according to "experts", he hasn't lived up to.

However, there's one thing that these so-called "experts" seem to ignore. Tebow is 8-2 all time in the NFL as a starting quarterback. When all odds are against him, when the game is on the line, 4th quarter, clock winding down, he always seems to win.

Whether it was a month ago against the Miami Dolphins when Tebow led the Broncos in the 4th quarter to become the first team in NFL history to overcome a 15+ point deficit with 3 minutes or less left in a game and win, or last night to come from behind against the Chargers and pull off the upset in overtime with 30 seconds left - he wins.

In all 6 of his starts this season, Tim Tebow's Broncos have been the underdog, pulling off the upset win in 5 of those 6 contests. Tebow has become such a clutch player in the NFL that when the game seemed to be comfortably in San Diego's hands last night, Rich Eisen from the NFL network Tweeted "Everyone adjust your clocks, it's tebow time!" And just like that, #TEBOWTIME became a WORLDWIDE trending topic.

What's my point? Tebow has had a dark cloud of doubt hovering over him since being drafted, even more since becoming the starting quarterback. And throughout his well-below passing numbers and his NFL record 22 quarterback carries in last nights football game, however unconventional that might be, he still wins. When he's up against the wall, he wins.

With his recent spike of popularity in recent polls, President Obama seems to have taken a few pointers from Tebow's playbook.

Is it Obama Time?

Monday, November 21, 2011

#SUPERFAIL

A few months ago the debt-ceiling debate was the hot button issue throughout the mainstream media. The debate ended when congress came to the agreement that created a "Super Committee" formed with the sole purpose of finding spending cuts in the national budget in order to lower the national deficit.

Sounded like a great compromise. Problem is, the "Super Committee" was comprised of Republicans and Democrats.

I know, nightmare.

Since I began following politics til now, I've always known that in American politics, the political banter and ideological posturing will never go away. Republicans will stand their ground and Democrats will stand theirs, regardless of the effect that their ideologically driven decisions will have on the American public.

So my question is, did anyone really ever think that this "Super Committee" would actually be able to get something done, an actual solution to the national debt?

Of course not. But like everything else in today's politics, we all made believe that we believed in something...


Sunday, November 20, 2011

Herman Cain Needs A Twitter

Ever looked at an everyday teenagers social network page? Any of them. Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr, any of them. If you have, I'm sure you've read some of the same types of nonsensical one-liners that teens are infamous for.

Parents just don't understand. It's me against the world. Nobody understands me - the type of rhetoric rebellious teens are known for.

Come to think of it, when you look at the Republican presidential field, there's one man that if nothing else, he's great at one-liners.

Herman Cain, the creator of the "9-9-9" tax plan/catchphrase, has throughout the campaign trail delivered some of the most memorable one-liners in recent American politics. He's displayed a magical form of stupidity, magical because it's such a unique display of stupidity that you can fit his one-liners perfectly into 140 characters, so Herman Cain needs a Twitter asap.


Wednesday, November 9, 2011

A drunk, a Mormon and a pervert walk into a bar...

A drunk, a Mormon and a pervert enter a bar Republican presidential race...

No, it's not a joke, it's the list of frontrunners for the Republican presidential nomination. With the 2012 Presidential elections less than one year away, political posturing and sound-bites are once again the focal point of the public discourse.

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry recently gave a speech where he seemed to be completely hammered and what seemed to get lost within the coverage of this hilarious-yet-shameful moment in American politics was Rick Perry's fiscal policy and the unveiling of his tax plan. 

An instant smash-hit on Youtube and a trending topic on Twitter, Perry's speech centered around his highlighting of his "bold, innovative, job-creating" tax plan. A smash-hit not for his "revolutionary" take on the American tax system, but more-so because of the curiosity of determining exactly how drunk was he.

For the most part, Perry's tax plan contains the single biggest requirement that needs to be met in order to be labeled a Republican now-a-days - lower taxes for the rich. 

That being the centerpiece of his "revolutionary" tax plan.

A plan that he was able to fit onto an index card.

An index card...

The kind we use to write down our grocery shopping-list.

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Democrazy !

Whether it's Bank Of America announcing it's going to charge a $5 debit card fee to all of its customers or Netflix doubling their prices over night, the average middle-income American has been feeling the crunch placed upon them by corporate America - and they're sick of it.

Since the announcement of their price hike, it's not clear what was more jaw-dropping, the nearly 1 million customers that have fled Netflix or the Twitter eruption that served essentially as a cyber protest of the corporations greed.


Netflix stock was at its highest point ever when the price hike was announced. Now it's down 75%.
Down from $305 a share to $80.

In a country where #OCCUPYWALLSTREET protests are taking place, protesting the tactics of corporate America and where we have Presidential candidates saying "Corporations are people too my friend" - it's nice to see that democracy still exists.

Sunday, October 16, 2011

The Rich Feel The Itch

The top 1% income earners in the United States own 42% of the wealth while the bottom 99% own 94.7% of the debt. 27 million Americans are unemployed. People are angry, and no, it's not just the Tea Party.

 The "We are the 99%" posters began springing up in New York's financial district under the credo of "Occupy Wall Street" - an instant Twitter phenomenon. However, the protests have grown in unprecedented proportions, while the political pundits on the right have dubbed the protesters "bizzare anti-American freaks", the protests have spread far beyond America's borders to over 17 nations around the world including countries in Europe and Asia.

The question has been raised over-and-over again on the News Networks: What do these people want?

I have the answer... [drum-roll]... they want acknowledgement from the top 1% that their actions have negatively impacted the bottom 99% and they want change.

Basically:



Sunday, October 9, 2011

IN MY OPINION: #OCCUPYWALLSTREET

Although the recent protests taking place around the country that originated in New York's financial district lack a clear message accompanied by specific demands, I still understand the message and I still understand their demands.

They're not very well organized and they don't have any symbolic hats like the Tea-party, but it's clear that these people are upset about the way their country is going.

So what do they do?
 They go to the scene of the crime.

The protests began with a few hundred people in New York organizing via social networking sites, but the movement didn't garner national attention until the "#occupywallstreet" hashtag became a trending topic on Twitter. From entertainers to political junkies, tweets accompanied by the trending hashtag were being shared on a global scale. As of Saturday morning, a Facebook page for the protests had 50,000 "likes".

Of course, the support of the protests is split upon party-lines. On Fox News' "THE FIVE" talk-show, 4 out of 5 of their hosts referred to "everyone" involved in these protests as "socialists, marxists and communists". A sentiment I couldn't disagree with more. Interesting though, how when the left-wing media generalizes about the Tea-party protests, calling them all racists, Fox News goes up-in-arms about not generalizing on an entire protest movement because of a few hundred signs depicting the President as Hitler - irony.



Sunday, October 2, 2011

Banking And Taxing

Bank of America, the largest bank in the country, announced earlier in the week that beginning in January of next year they will be charging customers a $5 fee once a month if they swipe their debit card.

Doesn't matter if you swipe your debit card once or fifty times, you're still getting hit with the fee.
According to CNNMONEY, the bank is charging the fee to offset the loss in revenue as a result of the new banking regulations that go into effect in the beginning of next year.

On the same blog, CNNMONEY reports on some of the other new fees the bank will charge including $5 for replacing a new debit card and an $8.99 fee for speaking to a human teller if you're enrolled in online banking - seriously.

All this comes in the backdrop of the debate of whether or not corporations such as Bank Of America should have their taxes raised as a way for the government to increase revenue. Considering that corporate tax rates are at their lowest point in the last 60 years, those in the political left are in favor of raising taxes on the top 1% and on corporations to the levels of the Clinton era.

Saturday, September 24, 2011

"It's better to risk saving a guilty man than to condemn an innocent one." -Voltaire

Recently the TV news has been consumed by the execution of Troy Davis, a man convicted of killing a police officer in 1989 although there was no physical evidence - no DNA and no weapon - and although the prosecution relied primarily only on the testimony of nine witnesses, seven of witch have recanted over the years citing police coercion, the execution still took place on Wednesday.

The story quickly became international news with when the Twitter hashtag "#TROYDAVIS" became a trending topic late Tuesday evening, bringing in opinions and views from all over the world on the execution. The ACLU called for action Wednesday morning by asking citizens to urge their state to abolish the death penalty - going as far as dedicating part of their website to an internet protest allowing citizens to petition their state to abolish the death penalty. 

Ironically, death and the death penalty were sources of controversy in the previous week. During CNN and NBC sponsored Republican Presidential debates, people actually cheered for death and the death penalty.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

How do you get YOUR news ?

Ever catch yourself listening to something on the radio or the television regarding a current event, and you start nodding your head and agreeing ? Ever wonder if what you're hearing is actually true ?
You're not alone.

A University of Houston study finds that among other things, listeners of conservative talk radio are more likely to be misinformed than listeners of moderate talk radio - but they're more likely to agree with what they hear. Why ?

Vanity magazine reports the average age of conservative talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh's 19-30 million weekly listeners is around the age of 67.


With the younger demographics sticking to the web and social media outlets for their news on political and social issues, prominent conservative radio personalities such as Rush Limbaugh and Laura Ingraham have a stronghold on our public discourse on talk radio.


If old school conservatives are sticking to old school media for their politics - are liberals establishing themselves with social media?

The President of the United States certainly is.