Immigration Reform

Republican's blueprint for Immigration Reform offers legalization for some of the 11 million people that are in our country illegally. The illegal immigrants are not offered any special pathway to citizenship except for children brought to the country by their parents. The blueprint states that legal status is offered to immigrants as long as they admit to wrongdoing, pay fines and taxes, submit to a criminal background check and learn English and civics. These measures are to come only after measures were taken to secure borders. "In his State of the Union speech, President Obama again called for immigration reform. He has said he would be willing to work with Republicans, but in the past has insisted that any plan should include a path to citizenship for most of the 11 million here illegally." http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/politicsnow/la-pn-house-immigration-reform-principles-20140130,0,5804580.story#ixzz2s3CrQdG3


Many argue the many negatives and positives to the Immigration Reform blueprint. Including keeping families together, cutting the costs of deporting millions of individuals to their countries and avoiding racial profiling in Laws such as Arizona's "Show Me Your Papers". On the other hand, conservatives are arguing that the millions of immigrants that have taken the correct route on waiting for citizenship are disadvantaged because others will pass them in line. This Immigrant Reform relates to our class because it is a main political issue for generations.

Amanda Knox NOT being Extradited! (Blog 1)

According to the New York Times, Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend, Rafael Sollecito have been convicted for a second time, and can face up to 28 years in prison (Povoledo1). The former couple is accused of killing their friend, a British exchange student, Meredith Kercher. The article explains that currently Knox and Sollecito, though found guilty are currently in the United States and are not being extradited to Italy. 

This disturbing case relates to some of the points discussed in class. In one article, author Hunter describes the uses of common symbols that “make collective life possible” and that anywhere there is a need for a “universal system of law and justice.” This case however argues differently; that just because a high court in another country says one thing, does not mean it’s the same across all courts in other countries. Meaning if the United States and Italy shared these same symbols of meaning in regards to justice, then Knox would already be in Italy receiving the justice that the courts decided for her.

I have personally kept up with this story and it’s updates since it came about 5 years ago, and there still remains a lot of unanswered questions about the police tactics in Italy but also about Knox’s shaky testimony over the years. I believe that in this case specifically, Knox and Sollecito should face their justice. This is the RE-TRIAL, it’s not like they just sentenced them off of a whim. After 6 years the Kercher family has been trying to seek justice for the brutal murder of their beloved daughter, what does it say about the United States preventing the extradition of the accused? It says that as Americans we have this notion that our way is the best and only way,  and if a decision is made elsewhere, the US can be slow or fast to react depending on their preference in the matter. Knox being apart of the Millennial generation, and her belief, as the articly by Stein and Stanburn mentioned is that she is entitled. Her stance is that she is not guilty so even with evidence and a verdict she still believes she has some sense of entitlement on not facing justice. It’s not realistic and I know justice will be served on behalf of Kercher and her family.  

Offensive Remarks From MSNBC Make HeadlinesYet Again

In response to a Cheerios commercial featuring a bi-racial family, MSNBC’s twitter account put out a tweet stating, "Maybe the rightwing will hate it, but everyone else will go awww: the adorable new #Cheerios ad w/ biracial family.”  According to CNN, “MSNBC President Phil Griffin apologized Thursday for what he called an "offensive" network tweet.

This tweet is a clear example of the negative face (Hunter, 136) of politics.  Hunter speaks of the negative face attempting to “discredit the opposition” (Hunter, 136).  In this case, MSNBC made an attempt to discredit the entire Republican Party by making the unwarranted suggestion that they are racist.  Disturbingly, this is not the first time that MSNBC has made news regarding matters of race.  According to dailycaller.com, “In December, MSNBC weekend host Melissa Harris-Perry and her panel of guests mocked a picture of Mitt Romney, his wife Ann, and their 21 grandchildren — one of whom is black.”

The tweet from the MSNBC spokesman regarding the cheerios commercial clearly came from an ugly place.  His failed attempt to make republicans look bad worked directly against him.  This tweet, as well as the previous slander against Romney's grandchild resulted in the entire MSNBC network appearing overly preoccupied with race.  In my opinion, if people did not go out of their way to make such a big deal out of something as insignificant as race, race would not still be the big deal that it is proving itself to be.  This day and age, many families are mixed.  The little girl in the commercial is very clearly a mixed child; therefore it would only make sense that her parents be two different races.  The remark from the MSNBC reporter accomplished nothing except for the fact that it put a negative light on something that really should not have been newsworthy to begin with.

J Biebs Deported?!

ABC posted an article "Justin Bieber Deportation Petition Gets White House Attention,"on January 31st (today) regarding a petition to try and deport Justin Bieber. In the article it mentiones that as of today, there are 223,269 signatures on a petition that was started this month on the "We The People" website, after Bieber was arrested for a DUI. The petition calls for the government to revoke the green card of 19 year-old pop star and notorious trouble maker, Justin Bieber. Although there is no answer quite yet, the White House Press Secretary says that there will be an answer regarding his citizen status soon. Typically this is taken care of by Homeland Security, but the press and attention this petition is receiving is making the White House pressured to step up and say something.

This relates to this weeks reading of the Public Sphere and how much the policial public sphere has changed since 1974. In the article they consider the public sphere to be newspapers, magazines, and radio but now it is much more broad than that. Not only do we have those influential factors, but the internet is starting to play a large role in our government. The fact that we can now get over 200,000 people to sign a petition would be nearly unheard of before the internet era. Also, it pushes the government to actually make a change. Is this a good sign for the future of our country? I personally love that we can make changes
Original Article

Legalizing Marijuana or No?

In a CNN exclusive video interview, Jake Tapper interviews President Obama on his thoughts on whether or not marijuana should be legalized or not. Jake Tapper first brings out the issue of President Obama comparing marijuana to drinking in a previous interview with The New Yorkers. He states that President Obama said, smoking marijuana is a bad habit, but he did not think it was any worse for a person to drink. Jake Tapper argues that marijuana is classified as a schedule one narcotic and questioned President Obama why he thinks this drug should be legalized. Obama answers back that whether or not a drug is classified as schedule one narcotic is up to the congress and that when comparing drinking to marijuana he believes that smoking marijuana for casual use is subject to abuse, but if it is used for health reasons it is comparable to the habits of drinking.
In the first day of class we were asked to partner up and share issues that we agree and disagree on. My partner and I disagreed with each other about the use of marijuana and my opinions were the same as President Obama. I believe that if marijuana were to be legalized in all states, people would take that to abuse. Marijuana would be used more for personal and casual reasons rather than medical reasons for the sick. There are many crimes and deaths involving drinking because some people can not control their alcohol consumption so why would marijuana be any different? People will start to abuse the legalization of marijuana and we will soon have an unsafe environment. So, I want to end by asking what others think about legalizing marijuana? Should it be legalized in all states or should it remain only for medical needs?

Erin Burnett OutFront exposing mental illness (blog #1)

Yesterday, CNN's Erin Burnett posted a story on her television show's blog page entitled "Kids in Crisis: family struggles with mentally ill son". The article features the story of a family whose adopted son began exhibiting violent behavior at a very young age. The boy, named Teddy, clearly needed to be in the care of a mental health facility full-time. However, due to a lack of space in their state's public mental health facilities and private mental health facilities that his parents couldn't afford, Teddy was in and out of different institutions throughout his childhood. He did not find a permanent residence in a facility until 2006, when it was ordered in court by a judge - after he murdered someone.

Mental illness is becoming an increasingly bigger problem in the United States. The rise in shootings and other violence in recent years has brought this issue to the forefront, and is closely related to the political debate regarding gun control. Burnett asks whether a person really has to commit murder in order to have their illness taken seriously and get the treatment they really need. She uses positive face to expose the flaws in America's mental health care system, explaining the issue for what it really is - a lack of hospital beds/funding required to get the mentally ill the care they need - and the highlighting the potential dangers if the issue of mental health is not given more attention. 

Cheerios Tweet & Negative Face

Wednesday Jan. 29th MSNBC's official Twitter account tweeted "Maybe the rightwing will hate it, but everyone else will go awww: the adorable new#Cheerios ad w/ biracial family." Shortly after the tweet was published MSNBC deleted the tweet and delivered this tweet in response "Earlier, this account tweeted an offensive line about the new Cheerios ad. We deeply regret it. It does not reflect the position of MSNBC." Shortly following was another tweet by MSNBC "We are deleting the earlier offensive tweet. It does not reflect msnbc's position and we apologize." MSNBC has since fired the employee that was responsible for the tweet. MSNBC is receiving heavy blowback from the rightwing media and also the RNC as a result of the previous tweet's.
Relating this story to the class, this is prime example of political parties using negative face to create a pour image of their opposition. This type of statement creates a negative implication regardless of its validity. This is one of many examples in todays political arena that is contributing to the resentment between both parties.

Beyonce

Beyoncé Must Have Her Feminist Cake and Eat It Too

This article by Ellie Slee talks about what an important figure Beyoncé is to the feminist community, but her song "Drunk in Love" has really made her seem like a hypocrite. Why? Because Jay Z's lyric "eat the cake, Anna Mae" refers to Tina Turner's abusive husband Ike, forcing her to eat a piece of cake. The lyric has a strong relation to domestic violence, and was actually blurred out in the UK, because they didn't want to promote violence against women. So, when Beyoncé sang the lyrics along side her husband Jay Z at the Grammys, a big up-roar came.

So why is this even important? Feminism is still a big political issue, women have progressed but I would argue that they are far from being complete and total equals. In the past years though, there has been a big clime of women making it to powerful positions, but is it enough? I have heard a lot of people (from professors to friends) say that the millennial's have a big task to do with how feminism will look, and they have a fear we won't let it progress. The main reason is because of situations like this, a popular and loved figure is forgiven by the public and not held accountable. I want to make it clear that I really love Beyoncé, but at the same time I recognize her errors and she should apologize (I mean she has stated that Tina Turner is one of her Idols).

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SOTU and Millennial generation

Last night (1/29/14) President Obama delivered his 5th State of the Union speech. Throughout his speech I felt a good sense of unity in his words and his voice, he was really trying to hit home the idea of the American people as one coupled with a strong sense of entrepreneurship. Overall, Obama, in my opinion, was trying to hit home the idea that the American people need to unite as one and fight for the overall well being of our future.
In class, along with out at home reading, we discussed the millennial generation and the ups and downs that go with it. To me these articles connected rather well with Obama's State of the Union Speech as he indirectly said they we are the focus of the future. By focusing on education, military women and men coming home, and entrepreneurship he showed that he is focused on making this country better and stronger on an economic level. This so called lazy generation was exactly who he was talking about when he said he wanted to better education and increase jobs in the  job hungry economy we live in. Once the country, President Obama included, realizes that our generation is capable of working and fixing the problems of the past and present, will the misnomer of the millennial generation go away and our prosperous country will thrive.

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Glenn Beck Trying To Save Face? (BLOG SAMPLE)

Last week, Glenn Beck expressed regrets for "helping tear the country apart."  He told Fox News that he regrets his polarizing commentary, some of which aired on the same channel performing the interview.  While he admits that he had "a lot of fun" on Fox News, but wishes he has been "more uniting in [his] language."  The media has expressed mostly critical responses to his regrets (check here and here).
In relation to this class, this clearly shows an example of how the use of negative face (Hunter, 136).  According to Hunter, negative face is the aspect of political discourse where people attack each other, rather than debate who has the better morals.  Negative face produces intolerance on both sides, with everyone becoming the loser, especially the American public.  Negative face makes the conflict about language and symbols, rather than ideas.  The use of negative face is detrimental to the political process because it distracts the public from focusing on the issues.  Glenn Beck is just one of many examples of negative face in action.  While I appreciate his regrets, I'm not sure he is helping the country move forward quite yet.

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Maria's test post

Testing! Did anyone else have trouble logging in with their CSUN account? I had to use my previous Gmail account.

Crystal's Test Blog

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This is the best class ever with the best professor ever! Politics are always fun to talk about (half serious half brown nose)!!! Hah.

Good political/rhetorical/persuasive/etc quotation I like:

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepted it. -Aristotle.

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I LOVE POLITICAL RHETORIC!!!

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