President Bush on "Deal or No Deal"

President Bush gave new meaning to the term "lame duck" when he made an appearance on the popular game show "Deal or No Deal". His recorded message was a surprise to the contestant who served in Iraq three times and was a Purple Heart recipient. The message, which was recorded at the White House, was used to encourage the contestant and wish him luck and for President Bush to thank him for his military services.

It was a surprise to see the President appearing on a game show during his lame duck period. This term is typically applied to politicians serving their final term in office. Recently much of the media's attention has been focused on the primary election, particularly between the Democrat candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. President Bush hasn't been featured in the news nearly as much as any of the main candidates.

Green Is In

Environmental consciousness is the latest trend in American life. From coast to coast, the country with a historical reputation for being obscenely wasteful has caught the conservation bug, which manifests itself in several forms, such as buying energy-saving light bulbs, driving hybrid cars, and voicing concern over climate change’s effect on wild animal species like polar bears. The latest object of the green craze’s affection is the narwhal, a horned species of whale that scientists recently concluded is even more threatened by global warming than the polar bear, the current mascot of the “go green” movement.

Will America’s sudden fascination and respect for the natural world last, or is it just the latest pop culture fad, destined to exist the public sphere as quickly as it entered like so many others that have come before? The country’s huge media hype machine is great at saturating an issue with obsessive coverage before quickly and unceremoniously dropping it in favor of the “next big thing.” The possibility of the green craze suffering this fate is very real. Certain wild animals – narwhals, polar bears, penguins, and Al Gore – are praying otherwise. If the movement dies, they may very well disappear along with it.

Illegal Workforce

A study by the U.S. State Department that was released today suggests that a proposed federal law requiring employers to fire employees whose names and Social Security numbers do not match will cost employers up to $1 billion per year, and cost legal employees who get fired due to administrative records errors up to $37 billion as a whole. This is another example of how dependent many companies in the U.S. are on illegal immigrant labor, and why passing significant immigration reform proposals is almost impossible to do. Companies with a large undocumented workforce oppose any attempts to either crack down on illegal immigration or improve illegal workers’ rights, because either scenario means the company will lose lots of money. No matter what you think about the whole illegal immigration debate—whether the immigrants are criminal trespassers that should be deported, or well-meaning workers just looking for a chance to succeed in life—it is hard to argue that, at least for the time being, illegal labor is a huge part of the U.S. economy. To get rid of it—by either deporting the illegals or granting them legal status and thereby increasing their pay—would hurt the economy deeply. That would be a terrible thing, since it is already close to a recession. For the economy, no news on immigration reform is good news.

Hillary's Big Win

Yesterday, Hillary Clinton gained a much needed boost in the Democratic Primary when she won Pennsylvania. Analysts say that this win was crucial in order to stay a competitive candidate in the election. This win couldn't have come at a better time as Clinton was running low on campaign funding. At the end of March, "the campaign revealed that at the end of March it had just over $9 million in the bank and $10 million in debt". Her victory instantly resulted in numerous donations. Claiming it was the best fundraising day ever, Clinton recieved nearly $10 million dollars by the middle of today, many via the internet.

Although this has given Clinton some momentum in her campaign she still trails behind Sen. Barack Obama. Obama has recieved larget amounts of funding through campaign websites. Both sides will have to turn their attention to beyond the primary in order to be able to take on Sen. McCain.

Polygamist Fashion

Since the breaking of the polygamist scandal, not a day has gone by that the story wasn't featured in the news. Many of the interviews featured women from the Texan church of LDS. Their appearance is very outdated, similar to farm wear from the 19th century. The women's bodies are almost completely covered by long pastel dresses with sleeves and high collars. Their hair is long with rolled bangs, which they wear down or in a bun. According to an anthropologist from Lyndon State College in Vermont, LDS women cover their bodies in order to appear unattractive to other men. The pastel colors are meant to evoke a sense of femininity. They don't cut their hair because they believe they will eventually use it to wash the feet of Christ.

Such fashion seems very dated compared to what is usually seen in the media. With this polygamist scandal getting so much attention, their look is in the media daily. Because their look is so outdated it makes it more difficult for the public to understand the LDS lifestyle and causes them to seem drastically different from ourselves.

UN Address

Pope Benedict addressed the United Nations today in New York City to talk about the need for international cooperation and diplomacy to deal with world crises, instead of resorting to violence and unilateral action (or inaction). Above all, the Pope said, respect for human rights is the key to solving many of the world’s problems, such as genocide and political oppression. This is a familiar stance for a pope to take. Respect for human rights and liberties are central to the Church’s mission. During the Cold War, the Church under Pope John Paul II was very active in speaking out against Communism and the human rights violations and political abuses of Communist governments. Pope Benedict also mentioned the need to protect the environment, which is a relatively new focus of the Church and many other religious denominations.

Pope Benedict’s plea for international cooperation was driven by his view that too many of the biggest decisions in the world are being made by a few of the most powerful nations, without thinking about the impact on smaller countries and populations. He did not directly mention the United States directly, although the U.S. and the Vatican have been at odds in recent years over some major foreign policy decisions. It can be assumed that the U.S. was one of the targets of Pope Benedict’s criticism.

The Pope Meets Abused Victims

Today, the Pope prayed with families and victims who have been affected by the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church. The pope stated that the scandal has greatly hurt the mainstream view of the Church.

The website bishop accountability allows the browser to look up priests who are sexual offenders by dioceses or name. Since I attended a Catholic School until high school I eagerly looked up priests in my area to see if anyone looked familar. Although I didn't recognize any of the 16 priests in the Diocese of Sacramento, two of them were from schools nearby, where league sporting events were held. I was surprised that priests who are known molesters would be assigned to a church that has a parish school. This website was helpful in listing priests and their offenses, whereabouts, and parishes, quite similar to Megan's Law.

The Iraqi Football

Democratic pundits say a withdrawal from Iraq will force the Iraqis to start policing themselves and control the violence in their country. Republican pundits say withdrawing would cause Iraq to spiral into chaos. Whether or not the U.S. military leaves Iraq any time soon in the first place will depend on who wins the presidential race, which may be followed as closely in Iraq as in the United States. Ambassador Ryan Crocker suggested that the country’s fragile political balances will fall apart in the event of a pull-out as the Iraqis fall back on centuries-old ethnic and religious alliances in order to protect themselves from emboldened insurgent groups. Of course, the anti-war Left emphatically rejects this line of reasoning (no matter how much theoretical sense it makes).

What really would happen? In reality, nobody knows, and a lot of the most outspoken pundits on the issue probably don’t care. To them, Iraq is just one more topic to fight about with the other side, a tool to stir up partisan fervor, increase T.V. ratings, and win elections for their side by either sucking up to voters’ naturally sunny/non-violent dispositions (Democrats) or preying on their fears (Republicans). Given that a pundit’s popularity and salary depends on being both loud and right, too few of them probably have the best interests of the Iraqis at heart. It is why many liberal pundits automatically refuse to consider the merits of Crocker’s analysis. As depressing as it sounds, some probably hope that the violence and disorder in Iraq continues if McCain wins in November. Likewise, if Obama or Clinton wins, a good number of conservative talking heads will be secretly hoping that Iraq descends into full-blown chaos when the American military leaves, for no other reason than to prove how right they were all along.

Will Iraqis take express solidarity and finally take charge of their country, or re-draw their traditional battle lines? The only certainty is that no matter what happens, America’s opinion leaders on both sides of the spectrum will claim victory.

The Catholic Vote

Pope Benedict’s visit to the United States is an exciting time not only for American Catholics but also for the candidates in the upcoming election as both parties look to gain the Catholic vote. Although more Catholics identify themselves as Republicans, their values and belief system fall in both ends of the spectrum. Pope Benedict himself identifies with the Republican Party on issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage. However his viewpoints drastically differ in regards to Iraq and the death penalty. Also the Catholic faith encourages helping others, which is sometimes possible through Democratic welfare and health care initiatives.

According to an article in the New York Times, both Republican and Democratic committees are allocating substantial resources to win the Catholic vote. The voting block could be considered a swing vote, as Catholics have voted for Kennedy and Clinton but also Regan and Bush. Although it may appear that Catholics prefer John McCain, there are numbers that support Hilary Clinton, yet Barack Obama falls far behind the other two candidates.

One can conclude that the effort from all candidates to attract Catholic voters is strategic. The vote can go to either candidate because American Catholics are a very diverse group ranging from Conservative upper-middle class professionals to new Hispanic immigrants.

This Year's Olympics

Several leaders of Western countries have vowed or threatened a boycott of the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing as a protest of China’s track record of human rights abuses. Some nations, such as Germany and Poland, are already committed to boycotting at least the Games’ opening ceremonies. In the United States, all three major presidential candidates have implied support for boycotting the ceremonies, though not the Games themselves.

Are the Olympics even about sports at all anymore? Originally, the purpose of the Games was to unite independent and sometimes antagonistic nations together through healthy athletic competition. However, the Games have often been more about divisive political posturing than anything else. The U.S. boycott of the Moscow Games in 1980 might be the most famous example of this. But playing politics with the Olympics tends to open up more diplomatic wounds than it heals, and this erases the Games’ ultimate reason for existence. Boycotting all or part of the Beijing Olympics will probably solve nothing, just like the 1980 boycott solved nothing. The ones hurt most of all would be the athletes who will have trained their whole lives for the chance to compete on the world stage, only to get this opportunity snatched away by their high-minded, stubborn governments.

Political Bets!

Apparently, if you want to know who will win a political campaign, you’re better off listening to a local bookie than a famous cable news analyst. According to this article in Slate, “thousands of bets [on a political race], with real stakes, are more likely to predict the correct result than even the best pundit.” The “big daddy” of political “prediction markets” which pool such bets together is the Iowa Electronic Market, which consistently picks the winners of political campaigns more accurately than the major polling organizations and news outlets.

This data shouldn’t be interpreted as saying that political gamblers are exceptionally smart, but rather that the so-called “experts” on television really aren’t significantly more informed than their audience. The gamblers, whose paychecks are riding on the outcome of these races, probably spend more time seriously studying the races’ dynamics than the talking heads on FOX and MSNBC, who get paid no matter how wrong or right they are. Perhaps, for quality’s sake, those networks should hire a Vegas casino employee to provide nightly analysis. Or, even better, link the “experts”’ pay to their performance.

Political Parodies and Their Lack of "Funny"

Admist the election season, many apathetic Americans get political insight on the candidates from popular cable shows that parody politicians and political events. Shows such as the Daily Show, SNL, and The Colbert Report deliver the news in the form of satires and impersonations. But realisitically how many times can the American public get a good laugh out of watching the President or any politician slip up and mispronounce a word or something faux-paux before the routine wears.

Saturday Night Live is a larget nextwork show with the reputation of not only being funny, but also for their parodies. Lately their impersonations have lost their edge and instead rely on their makeup artists' ability to make them look like the candidate under fire. Although they may look like the political figure and mimic their mannerism, the actors have been delivering lukewarm humor. In an article

"The Satire Recession" , the author Troy Patterson refers to their subpar attempts to be funny as "pseudo-satires". He states that such humor (like refering to John Kerry as dull or poking fun at President Bush's southern accent) trivializes political humor and other comedians further trvialize it by laughing and playing on to such jokes.

Of course this may keep the '08 candidates on their toes, knowing that their mishaps will end up on every late night comedy show. Even if you miss a big debate you'll be able to catch Hilary's slip ups on the Weekend Update on SNL.

Death By Blogging

In this day and age, it seems like everyone can consider themselves a political journalist. During this election season a number of new blogs have surfaced written by college students, political savants, and suburbanites. What seperates the typical blogger from a journalist is that bloggers are able to simply criticize the work of journalists and generate large audiences that also attack journalistic work. Not only is everyone a critic, but now, with the rise of blogging, everyone is a writer.

Lately, "real" journalists have been writing about how dangerous blogging can be, due to the combination of stress and a sedentary lifestyle. Reading these articles, one might be led to believe that blogging is a genuinely high-risk activity. Timothy Noah, in his Slate piece Death By Blogging, shoots down this idea. Blogging is actually one of the safest "jobs" in the world, with a death rate of 1.9 per 100,000 people. This is lower than construction (10.8 per 100,000), professional and business services (3.1), and government work (2.3). In their eagerness to grab hold of the coattails of the blogging phenomenon in this way, professional journalists have been ignoring the facts.

The line between "real journalism" and blogging looks like it is blurring. Real journalists, by ignoring facts in this manner, are becoming no different than the lawless bloggers that are often ridiculed by the mainstream media. If this trend continues, the front page of the New York Times will eventually look no different than the home page of Daily Kos or any other popular blog site. Since blogs have become so popular, and newspapers continue to lose readers at a fast rate, this may actually be good for print business. Not so much for reality.

Bloggers take their "work" too seriously. Now it looks like some real journalists aren't taking theirs seriously enough.