Deportation Policy

According to the New York Times, President Obama met with Hispanic activists on Friday where he “pledged to refine enforcement of immigration laws.”  The article states that Obama was motivated to meet with this group to ensure that his party does not lose the Hispanic vote in the next election.   The Hispanic activist would like Obama to stop the deportation of illegal immigrants; however Obama does is hesitant to do so.  Although he believes that the immigrants should not be deported, he is incapable of lifting the laws without getting backlash from the Republican party, who would be sure to argue that his lifting the law is illegal. 

This article relates to our reading on the public sphere.  The Hispanic activist are an example of the public sphere, as they have all gathered together to discuss their feelings towards the immigration law and the need to have it lifted.   On a larger level , the millions of immigrants that these activists are representing are also part of the public sphere.   I am sure conversations about this law have and will continue to take place within this group of people, as it effects all of them. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/15/us/politics/deportation-policy-shift-is-signaled-by-obama.html?_r=0

Millenials Lean Democratic

The article I found refers all the way back to millennial. The piece was written by Jesse Holland. It pretty much just speaks of how people aged 18-33 is leaning more democratic in their decision making. It speaks of how "hipster" we are in not wanting to be labeled. It speaks of how while many may not claim to represent the Democratic party but lean that way despite their "independent" allegiance. Half of the millennial generation share this sentiment. 

I agree with the author. A lot of liberal ideologies are being used as the basis of national progression. The legalization of marijuana, immigration, and gay rights are the main topic of discussion. This/my generation are rebelling against the old notions of church going and young marriages, as mentioned in the article. It is interesting how times change. I even notice how presidency seems to flip flop from one party to the next.

Blog#7

A elderly couple was enjoying there mid-afternoon "Scrunch" a cross between lunch and supper, when they were approached by a very rude employee who told the elderly couple they needed to move so that he or she could clean the floor where they were sitting. The wife of the elderly couple said no we are not leaving. A manger then approached the couple stating, "you two need to leave your half hour is up." Although the couple said they did not realize that there was a time limit at McDonalds!!!! They then wrote a letter to the corporation who then only sent the couple a coupon for TWO FREE SMALL COFFEES the wife sent back the coupons!! Although there letter did not go unnoticed by a BBQ Smokehouse who offered the World War 2 vet and his wife, FREE "Scrunch" one day a week for life!! 

If I was the elderly couple I would have done the exact same thing. McDonalds is a LARGE corporation who makes BILLIONS of DOLLARS, and they only offered the couple a two free small coffees, WHAT?!  This presents negative face by not only McDonalds as a whole but also this specific franchise. The owner of the franchise apologized to the couple saying the manager is still in training and wants the elderly woman to come and help out with his training. That owner must be crazy, instead of offering her to help train the rude manager, throw the couple some free cheese burgers instead. Because of the incident that occurred they no longer will be giving business to that franchise. And this also shows positive face because of the BBQ Smokehouse owner being so kind to the couple when the incident did not occur at his restaurant. Goes to show there are still very nice people out there! 

President Obama and Humor

President Obama recently did a live phone interview with Ryan Seacrest on his on air radio show on 102.7. Seacrest mentioned Obama's past interview with Zach Galifiankis on his show "Between Two Ferns". He asked how that experience was with Zach and how Zach asked and responded to some questions. Obama mentioned his kids who were shocked and excited to hear that their father was going to be on a show with Zach Galifiankis because they have watched his previous shows. President Obama kept the interview very humorous, but also well informed. He used his opportunity for being on a live broadcast radio to reach out to the audience about his political views and especially about healthcare.
As we discussed in class after watching President Obama's interview with Zach Galifiankis, we shared the ideas of how President Obama kept his humor well appropriate as well as still aiming for political talk. Obama still made it a point to mention the Affordable Care Act in both his interview with Zach and Ryan. The video of the interview "Between Two Ferns" reached over 15 million views and Obama mentioned to Ryan that many people have signed up and heard about healthcare ever since then. Obama still wanted to keep it professional and use all his opportunities to reach out to the younger audience that might not know much about the act or politics in general. President Obama's choice and professional skills resulted in perfect results because since he has done these interviews, the audience has heard and acted on the Affordable Care Act.

Biden and Positive Face

In class we discussed the idea of humor in the Presidential primaries, specifically talking about the debates. We watched a video that showed Biden and Ryan having their debate, one which included much more humor and one liners. It became evident that Biden was much more willing to use his humor and one liners to degrade the arguments, which often seemed false, of his opponent Paul Ryan. I really found this to be interesting because we made the connection between this debate and that of one between Obama and Romney in saying that the humor was not as funny. As a class we made the assumption that this was due to the fact that the individuals running for president were scrutinized more and the person running for VP could get away with more.

Relating this issue to one of our past readings, this reminds me of negative and positive face. For me, the Biden and Ryan debate instilled an idea of positive face in Biden. How so? Seeing Biden express his humor in the ways he did really allowed me to relate to him and want him to be the person to assist in running our country. Being someone who tends to use humor to express themselves it really helped me relate to him on a personal level because I could understand his personality and understand the way he thinks. His actions which instilled, in me, a positive face reaction made him likeable, whereas, had an effect on Ryan that had a negative effect and made me not like him even more...giving him the negative face effect.

Word Choices by Media...

Two traumatic events have taken place within the week. The first is the disappearing plane and second the 2 killed and 20 inquired explosion in New York. In the disappearing plane article, 277 people were abroad the plane. I find the words that the media outlets choose to use as interesting (annoying too). "Disappeared" is used in the article title, when I read "disappeared" I feel like the media source is trying to soften the tragedy by not creating imagery. The word disappear gives me hope that maybe the plane reappears. If the title consisted of "Lost communication with Airplane, possible 277 passengers dead" I would feel more emotion. In the article for the New York explosion, the title clearly states 2 were killed and 20 injured. Accidents like the plane and explosion are absolutely tragic, I don't think media sources should make light of any situation. They should be clear that the world has lost 277 people due to a communication lose with a plane, just as they were clear that 2 individuals were killed in an explosion.  I don't want to be left out of the dark about what is going on and the media has done a great done making sure we don't know much about what's going on. It may not be with the "disappearing" plane but it's definitely an example.

I think this all relates back to what Brandon said in class earlier this week, (I believe it was Brandon) The government knows more than they tell us. Whether it be aliens or not, I think it's annoying that media will try to make light of certain situations. Whether it be 2 people killed or 277 people, we are humans and we've lost a significant number of people due to tragic events. I think they should be more clear. 

Other group topic ideas

For those of you still struggling, here are some other suggestions:
Media coverage of women in politics
Sweatshop protest movements
Olympic protests
Celebrity influence on campaigns
Campaign ads from PETA
Immigration protests
Occupy Wall Street
Anonymous
Get out the vote campaigns: Helpful/hurtful