QOTW

Unfortunately, unlike most people, I really don't have a lot of holiday stories. But, my favorite memory has to be the time  I got to go to the White House when they still did tours of the place. I had the fortunate chance of going through the white house garden and tour the grounds. Unfortunately, due to security issues, the guards would not let anyone go inside of the white house for a tour but to me, it didn't really matter. The fact was, I got to visit the white house and at that point in time, that kind of amazed and humbled me at the same time.

Political Cartoon/Current Event of the Week

This picture shows a clear comparison between the blotches in Newt Gingritch's personal career and the many controversies surrounding it and his reputation as a historian by using two big history books as symbols for each part of Gingritch's life; one book for his personal life and one for his professional historian careers. The little notes that are sticking out of Gingritch's personal book are parts of his life that are filled with controversy. This Cartoon was drawn by Adam Zyglis for The Buffalo News.

This political cartoon by Rick McKee of  The Augusta Chronicle shows President Obama supported thinly on a ledge by working middle class members of America. Obama is seen saying that it is a "make or break" moment for the middle class, while, he is seen being shielded from crashing only by his middle class.

QOTW

President Obama doesn't seem to be enjoying his approval ratings recently. Of course, these ratings are nothing   to smile about, Obama polled in at a 43% approval rating and a 50% disapproval rating. But I think that President Obama still has relatively few concerns if he keeps running steam and has a campaign that is comparable to his 2008 run. But, this rating is nothing to smirk at. Other presidents didn't have approval rating this low at their times. While I think President Obama has his isssues to sort out as president, I feel that some are past his head and some are within his realm to complete, whether or not he completes them essentially decides his candidacy in 2012.

Why Mitt Romney Should Be Elected

Out of all of the current presidential nominations in the republican primary, I believe that Romney holds the strongest chance of winning. Why? Because he's probably the most rational and sensible candidate out there right now. I personally feel like every other candidate is just getting caught up in the press and losing value because of it. Romney has had his fair share, but, right now, he looks to be the poster child of his party. Romney does have a great track record as the governer of massachusetts, cutting a whopping projected 3 billion dollar deficit. If he were to be elected, maybe he could do something of the same extent on the federal level. In addition, he has a lot of money that he can use for his own campaign, so that essentially puts him very far ahead of some other candidates who have a lot of fund raising in the upcoming months. Overall, if I could personally  vote right now for the republican primary, I'd probably vote for Mitt Romney. He has a lot of things going for him in the upcoming primary and I think that a lot of the other candidates are making his election process a lot easier.

Political Cartoon 2

This cartoon, by Rick McKee for The Augusta Chronicle literally states the problem. The elephant repulblicans state that Cain is toast (which he literally is) following the hot tension and controversy over his alleged affairs. Cain states, "Just because there's smoke doesn't mean there's fire" makin him sound kind of clingy and wishy-washy for the last bit of hope before he reassesses his campaign.

Question of the week 1

I believe that Governor Perry really doesn't have much going for him in this race, he essentially already lost. But, Mr. Perry is a great candidate for you if you're a strong social conservative. He stands up for lots of socially conservative issues like abortion or gay rights. But, again, he really doesn't have much going for him. Once he made a fool of himself trying to name off the three organizations he was going to cut, he lost any and all chance of winning the candidacy.

Political Cartoon

 This cartoon depicts a group of elephant conservatives "downing their candidates away" In the back, one can see Mitt Romney, probably going off to campaign for the presidential candidate. In addition, Gingritch is seen  taking a doggy bag of happy hour out to the car. The use of reference and allusion with the beer bottles and the disgruntled elephant helps show the disapproval and exasperation that the republican party feels with it's candidates,

Pressing Issue in VA

     One of the biggest issues facing Virginia is traffic. With the influx of people moving into virginia for various purposes, jobs, homes, etc., traffic is turning into a humongous problem in virginia. Heck, I can barely get through 267 in rush hour. The traffic there is absolutely atrocious. While proposals like expanding the metro are gaining traction and influence, they aren't really expanding everywhere. We need a combination of solutions like expanding lanes, encouraging h.o.v more, and adding the metro to try and aleviate the growing traffic problem of Virginia.

Nerd Galore (current event 4)

Congress has recently released an act called the E-Parasites Act. For a simple explanation of what is it, please watch this video. Like the video stated, it's essentially censorship under the excuse of piracy. The biggest problem with this bill is that it's wording is SO liberal. It's effects could literally apply to any website. For example, if the government feels that the regulation behind YouTube isn't doing it's job right, it could just stop and sue google. New websites and domains that can't afford legal battles would essentially be crushed. The openness behind the web would be crushed. While the idea behind this bill is fantastic, preventing piracy is a just and awesome cause, this bill's wording makes it seem perfectly like it has many ulterior motives. I might sound controversial but I feel that people who don't understand the Internet (senators) shouldn't have say about how to handle it. Their affects on people and corporations that rely heavily on the Internet or are Internet based would be tricky and substantial. The worst part through all of this is that few congressmen have even thought about taking steps towards changing the wording and etc. behind it. (source)

Presidential grade of approval

  If I could have voted during the 2008 election. I would have voted for Obama and the Democrats. Granted, Obama hasn't exactly walked the walk on a lot of policies, but, if I could do it again, I would still vote for president Obama. I think that what he has done in the past couple of years is not exactly revolutionary, but, he has kept his fair share of promises. Personally, I feel like Obama came in with too many promises and ended up with a "snakes on a plane" situation. Even though he makes several helpful decisions,  Obama will be seen as  a failure because of the over-hyping that he made for himself. Overall, I'd give Obama a c+ overall for his administration so far. Obama's supposedly major economic package hasn't really created many jobs and overall, the economy hasn't improved. When it comes to healthcare, Obama did deliver his promise on govt. healthcare, so, I guess he did impress there. Concerning the war on terror, he hasn't really stayed to his promises. Many troops still remain in the war and the military budget is still just as big as it was last year.But, Obama has struck a major symbolic victory with Bin Laden's death. Finally, Obama has a very,very solid reelection bid, with chaos in the republican house and no clear candidate, it seems that the republicans will just splinter off, like they did in 2008.

No Jobs, No Money

 Predictably, the senate republicans unanimously agreed to filibuster and kill Obama's jobs bill. According to Macroeconomic Advisers, this bill could have created 1.3 million jobs in 2012 and raise economic growth by 1.25 percentage points. While this bill would not have been the solution for the crisis; it most certainly would have helped, according to the article, many economists were predicting some positive effects coming from this.

  I have a lot of mixed feelings about this jobs bill. I don't know whether it would work as Obama has not really sent job policies that have had amazing results yet. But, I have yet to see any action from the republicans. To me, it seems that a lot of the republicans are just hiding behind pledges and motives. I could be wrong in saying that though, if I am, please correct me. In all, democrats are just going to rally that this plan had potential and that the republicans put it down and are impeding success; the republicans are going to say that they stopped a disaster, and in the end, there ends up being no plan whatsoever.
(source)

What Issues are big for you? (Q. of the week)

       To me, the issue that I've probably looked at the most is the argument over the debt ceiling. Again, I'm more of a centrist on this issue. I believe that some programs like no child left behind should have been cut to reduce the budget and others like NASA spending should have stayed and/or increased. I also thought that politicians were being very petty in their debate over what gets cut and what doesn't. I think that the public approval rating of congress is a very good indication of their decisions and I really think they could have done much better. In addition, it became very, very apparent how much lobbying affects politicians. Many politicians were rallying behind their lobbiers and approved budget decisions that benefited them. In the end, Congress's attempt for a war of attrition ended up with too many casualties.

Foreign Policy Fiasco?(current event 2)

     Last friday, Mitt Romney made a speech at the Citadel in South Carolina. Specifically, he was talking about his stands on foreign policy, stating, "I will reverse President Obama's massive defense cuts". But, where are those defense cuts that he is speaking about? Granted, President Obama has made defense cuts here and there, but for the most part, Obama has not made massive defense cuts. Heck, he actually sent 34,000 more troops to Afghanistan in 2009. In addition, Romney called for additional spending on top of freezing the cuts in his attempt to create a "New American Century". Romney is mainly calling for these additions to defend America against other countries that have "anti-american visions of regimes", which include  Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, and Cuba. In addition, Romney believes that countries like China and Russia pose a major threat as well. In all, Romney's idea of a "New American Century" confuses and scares me. With the level of globalization and global cooperation, is adding more military spending to the world's biggest military budget (which spends almost 600 billion dollars more than any other country) a good idea? 


      I personally disagree with Mitt Romney and his plan in a way scares me. Adding more military to an already bloated system seems like a bad idea to me. In addition, Romney's statement of a "New American Century" seems to be placed very much on purpose. Whether or not this statement is an empty catch phrase or a slogan to get behind on, the idea and implication it places on other countries in an era of globalization is a tad bit alarming.(text of the speech)

News Update

Wikipedia has shut down in Italy due to the censorship of some posts with Berlusconi's new wiretap act (source)

Time to play Wheel of Fortune!!(Q. of the Week)

Personally, I don't really align too much with political parties, but, if I really had to choose, I'd probably be a Democrat. According to the World's Shortest Political Quiz, I am a Centrist, but, I side more liberally on personal issues like gay marriage and abortion rights. In addition, I'm more of a supporter for conservative economics. But in the end, I think that because money isn't too much of a big impact on me yet, I don't really see the effects of that bailout policies and this cut and that spending yet. Social issues on the other hand, I can see the effects of and in turn, I am more affected by them at this point in time. This is probably one of the main reasons that my political views haven't really settled down. I feel like I need to age and join the "real world" to actually have a more accurate voice and opinion in politics right now. Again, because I side more liberally with social issues, I feel like at this point, I'd align more with the democratic party.

#OccupyWallStreet: from Hashtag to Social Revolution(Current Event Story)

   If any of you are on twitter, you might have seen this hashtag, #OccupyWallStreet, but exactly what is Occupy Wall Street? From pepper spray to mass arrests, this demonstration is definitely causing hell on the streets on New York, but, why?

     Occupy Wall Street is a very, very social media driven demonstration in New York. As of this Sunday, this demonstration is in it's 16th day of protest. Influenced by revolts in the middle east and organized under the message "We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%", many common people have taken to the streets and are trying to show their repugnance towards big corporations and big money.

    On this Saturday, October 1st, over 700 protesters have been arrested for their conduct, On that day, the people participating, more than 2500 people,  went from Zucotti Park to the Brooklyn Bridge, chanting slogans and just simply trying to get their point across in general. Eventually, they ended up huddled and "occupied" the Brooklyn Bridge (source). So what, 700 people were arrested? What does this mean? Well, this most certainly means that this demonstration will get the press coverage that it deserves. Most news teams were pretty unwilling to cover this story in the beginning, but now, with 700 people arrested, they will most certainly have leads to write on.

   This revolution is just one of a very, very big wave, starting in Egypt, travelling over to Libya, and now, taking a little snack over in America. I personally think that this demonstration is great because it's a bunch of normal people that are taking action for their beliefs. Sure, it might seem a little bit radical for most people, but it will incite everyone else to think and will help change policies and in turn politics. If politicians don't take this demonstration and the beliefs in these demonstrations into their hearts, they will be behind, and politicians that are behind never win. Expect this to play a big part in the upcoming presidential elections. Also, isn't it simply amazing how much of a role social media has played here?  I mean, even without major news coverage for a while, this movement has just kept growing and growing and growing.

Couple of articles that you might find interesting if you liked this:

      interesting view on this
 ask me anything of a guy who was arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge signed up for an(SOME COMMENTS MIGHT NOT BE SCHOOL APPROPRIATE)
story of a 15 year old on the bridge (again, somethings might be NSFW)
Main Source for my article: source

Did you know that the Pledge of Allegiance was actually written by a socialist?
  The Pledge of Allegiance was written by Francis Bellamy in 1892 and adopted by Congress in 1942. Francis Bellamy was a Christian Socialist who "championed 'the rights of working people and the equal distribution of economic resources, which he believed was inherent in the teachings of Jesus.'"  (source)

 Hi, I'm Jayanth, thanks for taking a look at my blog. I'm going to try to provide some up to date news and my own views on political, social, and economic issues. For my news, I like to go on reddit.com, several blogs on cnn.com(good website for news!), msnbc.cnn.com,npr.com,politico.com. Check out those websites if you want some great news, but other than that, hit the follow button and stay here for the ride.