An interview with a Canadian...

2:50 PM | 0 Comments

The Skinny


Having someone outside of the box analyze your problems is a technique that successful businesses often apply. I thought that it might be fun to use that tool to get a little political feedback from someone who is outside of the "American" box.

I have been friends with Ontario, Canada resident Lincoln Miller for over a decade. I am always surprised at how involved he is in politics, not only those of his own country, but worldwide politics. He seemed like the perfect person to answer a few political questions.

The Interview


Trish: If you could describe your perception of American politics in 3 words what would they be?


Lincoln: Petty.

Trish: Ouch! That's only one word.. Was your perception of American Politics different when Bill Clinton was in office?

Lincoln: Not necessarily. I thought Bill Clinton was an excellent leader who was fair and didn't fly off the handle when it came to foreign policy. The Republicans were constantly trying to get him out of office.


Trish: That seems to be the trend in our country... Do you feel like George W. Bush handled foreign relationships well?


Lincoln: In my opinion George Bush handled foreign relationships well for the first couple months after 9/11. He waited until there was evidence that Bin Laden was in Afghanistan before he attacked. However, getting embroiled in Iraq is where Bush went wrong. As a Canadian I'm offended that our troops are dying in Afghanistan while America fights in Iraq.


Trish: Do you feel like President Obama will be good for America? Do you feel like he will improve foreign relations?


Lincoln: I think Obama has already improved relations with other countries. Even if Obama can't do much with the economy his election was a boost to the morale of the world at a time it was desperately needed.


Trish: Comparing the United States to other nations, what do you feel like our strengths and weaknesses are?


Lincoln: I find America sometimes picks it's battles. For instance they would go to war against a small country like Iraq and do nothing about human rights violations in China. For strengths I feel the American Dream is something for immigrants can cling to when life is rough. For the most part, an immigrant leaving another country is going to a better place. I also feel America defends it's neighbors well. This might be a bit self serving but the Canadian North and Alaska needs to be defended.


Trish: Interesting answer... How do most Canadians (at least the ones you know.. lol..) feel about Americans?


Lincoln: If you asked a Canadian what they think you might be surprised at the answer. Some Canadians don't like Americans very much. I find it's like a family relationship. We complain about Americans alot but they would be the first to come to our aid and Vice Versa.


Trish: What changes do you think the U.S. government should make overall?


Lincoln: Perhaps getting rid of the electoral college and just going with the popular vote.


Trish: What do you think Canadian government does better than U.S. government?


Lincoln: I think having just a popular vote


Trish: How do you feel about America's two major political parties (Democrats and Republicans)?


Lincoln: I generally like both parties but it gets sickening when one president is doing a good job and the other side tries to discredit him/her.


Trish: I completely agree with you... Okay, final question. Do you feel like America is a democracy?


Lincoln: Yes I still feel America is a democracy though there are occasional problems.


Analyzing the results...


I was actually very surprised at how positive some of Lincoln's answers were, and I wondered if he was purposefully "nicing" his answers up to keep from offending me (it wouldn't have offended me if he would have had more negative answers though). Most of what he said are points that I agree with.


The one thing that bothers me is the comment that he made about China. I guess I feel that way because I don't want people to view the United States as a hypocritical nation, and I know that a lot of what we have done in the last 8 years has really hurt the way other countries see us (heck! it's hurt the way I see us too).

Conclusion


I think that it's important for us to abandon some of the pride that we have as a nation; it's time for us to be humble and accept that we haven't been the best worldwide neighbor. Hopefully, the next 4 years will be better ones for our relationship with the rest of the world.

Keith Olbermann hits a little below the belt...

2:32 AM | 0 Comments

Liberals can be just as crazy...

Last week I showed a video of Bill O'Reilly and his conservative propaganda, but republicans are not the only ones who occasionally have low journalistic standards. This week I have posted a clip from Keith Olbermann on msnbc.

The Lowdown

Mr. Olbermann's show claims to reveal "The worst persons in the world." How does it do that? By defining people based on a single event (as if any person can be weighed by that).

Highlights

Olbermann starts the video out sarcastically saying the 3rd worst person had "common sense" while implying the opposite, he also refers to a budget the person made as "bs" and jokes about it. Then he refers to rival station Fox News as "Fixed News."

Olbermann refers to Bill O'Reilly as "the sad clown," and refers to Bill's producer as a "stalker." Olbermann also calls Bill "Today's worst person in the world."

Propaganda Techniques

Photos through out the video show the people Olbermann labels as "the worst in the world" with unflattering facial poses, and were obviously used to discredit them. Olbermann also reads their quotes with voices that seem purposefully dumbed down.

Olbermann uses name calling and condescending language when referring to the three people the video clip is on.

The Big Picture

As much as Keith Olbermann dislikes Bill O'Reilly his show is literally a carbon copy that was flipped 180 degrees.


Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Misleading headlines....

6:55 PM | 3 Comments

I was browsing the news today and came across this headline on the front page of foxnews.com: "President Obama does the right thing." This surprised me because Fox News is known for their anti-liberal sentiments.

My curiosity got the better of me so I decided to watch the short video (which is embedded below). I try not to watch Bill O'Reilly very much (he's the king of Fox News propaganda), and I almost immediately realized that it was a mistake to watch the video.

The video starts out on a positive note, but that only lasts for about 10 seconds, and it becomes clear that "President Obama does the right thing" is nothing more than a short living back-handed compliment.

Bill O'Reilly begins his trademark name calling by saying that liberals are "left-wing loons." He then says most "sane" Americans agree with him. Then more name-calling "These people are so stupid they're dangerous."

Once Bill O'Reilly begins to talk in terms that even "NBC news can understand," he begins the fear tactics. He says that drastic action had to be taken to prevent more "murder," a word that was obviously carefully planted.

O'Reilly continues to say that tough action was taken and "it worked, we were not attacked again." What he should have said is that terrorists did not attack us on "United States soil" again. It was unnecessary because we went to them, and there have been too many casualties (military and civilian) in the middle east to say that it has been a successful "tough action."

O'Reilly then calls anyone who questions the post 9/11 action an "ideological nut." He also says that anti-bush sentiments are "simply hateful" and based on nothing but the liberal need for "revenge." He says that Bush's mistakes are fodder for "haters who couldn't care less about America." These remarks blanket every individual who questions the Bush Administration as a bad person.

O'Reilly ends the clip with more fear tactics saying "We are living in a very dangerous time; people want to kill us." Then he declares once more that any opinions that differs from his are "Anti-American garbage."

So (under Bill O'Reilly's logic) if you didn't like how the Bush Administration went back on the Geneva Convention you are a bad person. If you think that Bush allowing war-profiteering was wrong that makes you "Un-American." If you even think that it wouldn't hurt anyone to just have an investigation- that makes you a hater.

If the Bush Administration didn't do anything wrong, then why are Republicans so hardcore against the public examining it? Republicans didn't feel like wanting to know whether or not Bill Clinton had a relationship with Monica Lewinski was Anti-American, and that wasn't nearly as serious as what some people think that the Bush Administration has tried to cover up.

Calling people names has never proven a point. Making people afraid is a functional way to control them, but does not prove a point either. Telling people that they are Anti-American if they disagree with you is not a good argument, and it does not make a news network "fair and balanced."



**Disclaimer** I am trying to make this blog as unbiased as possible, and since I spent this post analyzing conservative propaganda, I think it is only fair that I spend my next post analyzing liberal propaganda. If anyone has a good (and recent) example that I can use for my next post, please let me know.

Obama plays it smart!

4:09 PM | 0 Comments

Photograph by Jonas Karlsson, for Vanity Fair Magazine.

By now almost everyone has heard something about the Bush Administration torture memos .

President Obama has said that no one will be prosecuted if they were acting legally and in "good faith," but many people (including some congress members) are not satisfied with that. The biggest controversy is over a method of torture called "waterboarding."

After World War II some Japanese interrogators who "waterboarded" United States troops were severely punished. It is a double standard to say that it wasn't okay for enemy soldiers to do that to our troops during a time of world war, but it is entirely okay for our interrogators to do it to people (some of whom were innocent bystanders picked up off the street). It is easy to see why this issue has the country in uproar, and only time will tell whether the rights of the individual were sufficiently weighed verses the greater good.

I don't think that the question is whether or not the Bush Administration will have to answer for what happened during their 8 years in office, it's going to happen! President Obama obviously knows that if he doesn't demand "justice" someone else will. By not taking up the cause and heading the parade- Obama is able to focus on the issues that he promised to, and he does not villainize himself in the eyes of the voters. That kind of "cool" thinking is exactly why I voted for him.

What our forefathers really thought about intertwining religion and politics.

2:20 PM | 1 Comments

Photo from: hhh.gavilan.edu.

Religious leaders attack politicians every week; they cite the bible as a source for why our elected officials are not doing a good job. Politicians use their "faith" to promote their own opinions on everything; race, education, global warming, taxes, the war on "terror"- the list goes on and on, and nothing is exempt from religious scrutiny.

Religion, in a lot of cases, seems to be just a way for people to promote their agenda without giving a logical reason. It also serves as a way for people to remove themselves from any personal responsibility (i.e. "it's in God's hands" and "God told me to.").

The bible is an easy tool to use if you want to prove a point because it says contradicting things about pretty much everything. If you want to retaliate against someone you can use the doctrine "an eye for an eye." If you want to preach forgiveness you can tell people to "turn the other cheek." These two statements give people carte blanche to do whatever they please when confronting someone in a disagreement. If the bible is really the answer to everything, then how can such discrepancies exist? Whether you believe in God and Jesus, they did not write the bible, man did (and we all know how corrupt man can be).

Many people feel like politics should not be influenced by religion, but unfortunately that constantly are. Our country was built by people who wanted to escape religious persecution, how have we strayed so far from that?

Thomas Jefferson, our 3rd president and the cocreator of many of our founding documents, was skeptical of what we gain by following religion. Some of the things he was quoted saying include:

"Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of
Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not
advanced one inch towards uniformity. "

"But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. "


"The whole history of these books [the Gospels] is so defective and doubtful that it seems vain to attempt minute enquiry into it: and such tricks have been played with their text, and with the texts of other books relating to them, that we have a right, from that cause, to entertain much doubt what parts of them are genuine. In the New Testament there is internal evidence that parts of it have proceeded from an extraordinary man; and that other parts are of the fabric of very inferior minds. It is as easy to separate those parts, as to pick out diamonds from dunghills. "


"Priests...dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of daylight and scowl on the fatal harbinger announcing the subversions of the duperies on which they live. "


Another American founder that disapproved of religion influencing politics was Benjamin Franklin. Some of Franklin's quotes include:



"Lighthouses are more helpful than churches."


"I have found Christian dogma unintelligible. Early in life I absented myself from Christian assemblies."


"The way to see by Faith is to shut the eye of Reason."

When people talk about returning to "good old fashioned values," why does it never include the sentiments of the men who built this country? I firmly believe that religion has no place in the political arena. For more information check out Religulous, it is a great documentary with a lot of information and interviews relevant to the topic.

The holocaust all over again? Not really.

12:54 PM | 2 Comments

Huffington Post Photo.


Antichrist, Hitler, pimp, homo, bisexual (like a bicycle). That's just a sampling of the things that Barack Obama is (without empirical proof).

That people are calling Obama "Hitler," makes me wonder if there are any intelligent people left in this country. Obama wants us to "hope," Hitler took away not only the "hope"- but the lives of millions of people. There is a difference between being a "liberal" and committing genocide while simultaneously trying to overthrow the free world.

Calling Obama an Antichrist is just as ignorant. Obama has tried to empower us with the message "yes, WE can," but apparently some die hard religious nutcases want the world to know that "no, WE can't" and "only Jesus can." No offense, but Jesus died 2000 years again, and he hasn't shown his face since. It's time for us to start taking the personal responsibility that Obama urges us to.


Using gay/homo as an insult is not only close-minded, but it makes me think "so what if he is?" The gender someone is attracted to does not define whether or not they are a good person.

The worst thing is that I do not even think that any of these people actually believe these things. They are just using it shape the opinions of people who are not smart enough to understand that it is propaganda. Because in the end, it doesn't matter whether Obama is a good person/president/Christian/whatever; it is much more important to have a republican in the office who will make sure that the rich can get away with anything that they want to.


Washington has become a kindergarten playground for "grown" men...

2:40 AM | 0 Comments

AP Photo- Gary Locke w/ Mr. and Mrs. Bill Gates


I am a little disappointed with our politicians this week. Here are a handful of things that would warrant most toddlers a time out.

Vice President Joe Biden and Bush adviser Karl Rove are engaging in a passive aggressive name calling match. It doesn't have anything to do with the present, the future, or the Obama administration at all. It's all about George W. Bush and things that allegedly happened between him and Biden, and none of it has any hope of EVER being proved or disproved.

Next is the Gary Locke controversy. President Obama has promised up and down the street to keep big business, 3rd parties, and lobbyists out of the Whitehouse. Unfortunately, Obama recently appointed Locke to head the dept. of commerce. The problem with this is that Locke has received a ridiculous amount of campaign contributions from all sorts of major corporations, and he also owns an estimated 1/4 million dollars of Microsoft stock. The fact that he is a major investor in a company that he will definitely be dealing with in the commerce dept. seems a little unethical, and he has accepted so much money from other businesses that he undoubtedly has become too biased towards them to make the right decisions in his new position. I love Obama, and I was a big supporter of his presidential campaign, but this new development feels a little bit like the first time your child says "I hate you Mom!" You'd think it would make you feel angry, but in the end all you feel is sadness and disappointment.

This week congressmen continue to publicly pick apart Obama's budget proposal. I know that this is a "democracy," and we all have freedom of speech, and so many people want to know every centimeter of what the government does... but that being said, sometimes I wish that Congress would just STFU. Why can't they work together as a team, and then show a united front when they present us their final product? Do we really need to hear propaganda and minor nit picking that is deliberately done to stir up controversy?

If you have degrees from prestigious universities, have heavily coveted political positions, and are way past the point in your life when it is "acceptable" to have a midlife crisis; and you still haven't mastered the basic principles that most 5 year olds have (play nice with others, e.t.c.), then you need to grow up or get out of Washington! We elected you (or at least elected the people that appointed you), and you owe us more than petty bullshit.