POLITICAL MUSIC!

Conor Oberst is one of my favorite musicians and he is very involved with politics. His band, Bright Eyes, went on the "Vote for Change" tour with Bruce Springsteen and REM before the 2004 presidential election and performed at a series of Obama rallies in 2008.

 

Conor has never been shy about sharing his views and criticisms of the government. In 2005, he performed his controversial Bush protest song "When the President Talks to God" on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and subsequently had cancellations from 2 other late night talk shows he was scheduled to perform on.

 

This year he has gotten very involved with the border control/illegal immigration situation. He teamed up with the ACLU and put on "The Concert for Equality" in Nebraska, his home state, which raised money for a lawsuit against the city of Fremont, Nebraska for an ordinance the city passed on June 21, 2010 banning the hiring of or the rental of properties to illegal immigrants. The song above, "Coyote Song", is about two lovers separated by the Mexico-United States border. All proceeds from the song will go directly to the Sound Strike Fund, which provides needed resources to families caring for children in Arizona whose parents are detained or have been deported, immigrant rights organizing and legal defense.

Cronkite and Murrow Would be Proud: The Uncovering of the Atlanta Public School Cheating Scandal

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution asked the state attorney general Friday to investigate Atlanta Public Schools for withholding a critical report largely confirming the newspaper’s findings last year that test results in a dozen schools were highly suspicious.

The AJC asked Attorney General Thurbert Baker to determine whether the district’s denial in July of a request for the report was a criminal violation of the Georgia Open Records Act.

The newspaper’s complaint calls the district’s refusal to produce the report a “willful and premeditated violation.”

“The purpose of the Open Records Act is to prevent government officials from burying information in this way,” said Tom Clyde, an AJC attorney.

District spokesman Keith Bromery said Friday that officials were reviewing the complaint and would not comment.

The complaint comes amid federal and state probes into the falsification of hundreds of Atlanta students’ scores, with dozens of GBI agents questioning teachers and administrators at schools across the district.

Breaking the open records law is a misdemeanor and carries a $100 fine.

The statistical analysis by University of Pennsylvania researchers surfaced last week after Channel 2 Action News and the AJC obtained copies from a non-profit education advocacy group.

The report largely validated the newspaper’s October 2009 findings on statistically improbable gains or drops at a dozen Atlanta schools on that spring’s state Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests. The newspaper found the odds of such drastic changes were astronomical and could signal cheating.

In response, Atlanta Superintendent Beverly Hall announced that two independent experts would scrutinize the district’s test results.

In February, the district released a report by one of the experts, consultant Douglas Reeves, that concluded the gains were consistent with academic practices he observed at the schools — eight of which he visited on a single day during a whirlwind tour.

But the district made no announcement when the second expert, University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education Dean Andrew Porter, completed his report in May.

At the time, the district was in the thick of a state-ordered investigation into additional revelations that high numbers of wrong answers had been erased and corrected on CRCTs given at 58 schools.

The AJC requested the Porter report July 19. District officials responded July 22, saying, “A copy of the Porter report does not exist in the district.”

Last week, however, district spokesman Bromery said Hall read the report in May. He said district officials gave it to investigators hired to scrutinize the erasure findings.

It would have been “inappropriate,” he said, to release the report once it became part of the investigation.

According to state law, public officials cannot turn over documents to private individuals to avoid disclosing them.

The AJC also argued that the investigation is not a valid reason to keep the Porter findings secret.

“The circumstances indicate the Porter report was withheld by APS at a time when Superintendent Hall did not want it to reach the light of day,” Clyde said.

“A public official should be very concerned by a possible criminal violation of the Open Records Act. If it is proven, it’s effectively a finding that the official is intentionally concealing information for the very citizens that they are supposed to serve.”
-Atlanta Journal Constitution

As we have discussed in class, muckraking and journalistic investigation is mostly dead. We no longer have anyone like Edward R. Murrow or Jack Anderson who make it their job to investigate and call the government out when something does not seem right. Also lacking, are objective and trust-worthy broadcasters like Walter Cronkite, David Brinkley and Peter Jennings. They were journalists who America could trust, but sadly they have been replaced with talking heads, like O’Reilly and Olbermann, who are clearly biased and only want to promote one side of any argument.

I came upon a ray of hope, however, when I heard about the cheating scandal of the Atlanta Public Schools. The Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC) did their journalistic job and uncovered this scandal themselves and brought it to the public’s attention. They were the first to raise questions about the improbable test scores in December, 2008. The newspaper showed analysis of implausible gains on core skill tests that were taken by students in the spring and then again in the summer. Then in the fall of last year the newspaper struck again, this time over student’s scores on the CRCT that they had taken that spring. The CRCT scores from twelve Atlanta schools showed implausible gains and drops on the test which is considered the most crucial measure of academic achievement for grades 1 through 8. The AJC also brought allegations about graduation rate calculations of the Atlanta Public Schools, which did not seem to add up. Then, when the superintendent withheld a report largely confirming the newspaper’s findings about the extremely suspicious CRCT results, the AJC did not hesitate to ask the state’s attorney general to investigate the school system.

This is the kind of journalistic investigation that I like to see. They researched a story they found suspicious and then brought about public awareness. On Saturday, the Atlanta Public School Superintendent Beverly Hall announced that she will be stepping down next June and both the state and U.S. Attorney’s office are launching investigations into the issue. Cronkite and Murrow would be proud.

http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/ajc-files-complaint-with-748329.html?cxtype=rss_news


http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/atlanta-superintendent-beverly-hall-747762.html

The Real World: Alaska

Willow Palin, the 16-year-old daughter of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, wrote multiple Facebook posts containing homophobic slurs such as "faggot" on Sunday night, according to TMZ.

The web site reports that Palin's teenage daughter wrote the comments on Sunday night, when her mother's television show "Sarah Palin's Alaska" premiered on TLC. According to TMZ, a classmate of one of Palin's children published a Facebook update claiming that the show "is failing so hard right now."

Willow Palin reportedly unloaded on the student, calling him "so gay" and "such a faggot." She later demanded that the student "quit talkin shit about my family." According to screenshots obtained by TMZ, the 16-year-old called another commenter on the Facebook thread a "low life loser" and lashed out at multiple others, writing, "Sorry that all you guys are jealous of my families success and you guys aren't goin to go anywhere with your lives." -Huffington Post

Does Willow Palin realize that her family's reality TV show is on The Learning Channel (TLC) not MTV?

Why in the world would someone who knows that their every move is being watched have an out lash like this on the Internet and even go as far as to use gay slurs? It really is hard to fathom this kind of ignorance. I am sure that Sarah raised her better than that…right?

Her mother may be the next President of the United States and she is cussing and calling someone “such a faggot” on her own Facebook account? I understand that she was upset that people were reacting harshly to her family’s reality TV show, but come on! When you are in the spotlight you are always going to have critics. It just comes with the territory. You are a public figure and therefore as we have discussed in class you have less protection against hateful speech. You are only giving the "haters" more pleasure by lashing out and giving them the attention they want anyway.

I would expect this kind of behavior from let’s say…Snooki off of Jersey Shore, but not the daughter of a former Alaskan Governor and Vice Presidential nominee. Are there any boundaries anymore? Has the Real World house become no different from the White House? With political figures now having reality TV shows I am not really sure that there is…

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/16/willow-palin-facebook-posts_n_784585.html

MSNBC: Behind on the Times?

NEW YORK (AP) — MSNBC says Keith Olbermann will be back on the air Tuesday, ending his suspension for violating NBC's rules against making political donations after two shows.
MSNBC's chief executive Phil Griffin said late Sunday that after several days of deliberation, he had determined that two days off the air was "an appropriate punishment for his violation of our policy."
The left-leaning cable network's most popular personality acknowledged donating $2,400 apiece to the campaigns of Kentucky Senate candidate Jack Conway and Arizona Reps. Raul Grijalva and Gabrielle Giffords. NBC News prohibits its employees from making political donations unless an exception is granted in advance by the network news president. In this case, Olbermann's bosses didn't know about them until being informed by a reporter.
Left unanswered is the question of why Olbermann would do something he undoubtedly knew would be provocative, or whether he was trying to make a statement against NBC's policy. He did not immediately return an e-mail message seeking comment Sunday.
On his Twitter page, Olbermann wrote: "Greetings from exile! A quick, overwhelmed, stunned THANK YOU for support that feels like a global hug."
The incident raised questions about how long-standing rules designed to preserve the appearance of objectivity for news organizations fit at a time that cable news networks, most prominently Fox News Channel and MSNBC, have increased their popularity through prime-time programs that dispense with any notion of impartiality.

This story goes right along with what we have been discussing in class recently, media objectivity. Is objectivity a lost cause in today’s society? Do people even want to hear objective new stories anymore? These are important questions and stories like this bring to light the need to answer them. 

Everyone knows that when you turn on MSNBC, you are going to be greeted with a liberal slant. Just the
same as when you turn on fox news, you are going to get a conservative lean. Why then is it an issue for a news reporter on one of these stations to donate money to the party aligned with their political views…the same views that they express vehemently on their show everyday?

People want to have their views reinforced by the news channel they are watching. An extreme conservative is not going to tune into Olbermann’s “Countdown” and a liberal is not going to watch The O’Reilly Factor. Our society is changing, the way we view media is changing, and networks can either get with it or get left in the dust. News Corp., the parent to fox news, gave $1 million to the Republican Governors Association and NBC won’t allow Olbermann to donate $2,400 to three Democratic candidates?

I was glad to hear that MSNBC ended Olbermann’s suspension after just two shows and I hope that they will change their ancient company policies ASAP and maybe take a few pages from Murdoch’s playbook this time!

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jAwQNqYTGXw5vlF84xAWa8fddScg?docId=09852e5ab4bb4ed491cd6c84c6edd00d

WikiLeaks Founder Will Not Be Leaking Info About His Personal Life

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange walked out of an interview with CNN in London.
Assange, who was being interviewed to discuss the 400,000 pages of documents WikiLeaks released about the Iraq War, grew upset when interviewer Atika Shubert asked about his personal legal issues. Assange was investigated in Sweden on charges of sexual abuse that were then dropped, but the investigation was re-opened shortly thereafter.
"This interview is about something else," Assange told Shubert. "I'm going to walk if you're going to contaminate us revealing the deaths of 104,000 people with attacks against my person."
Assange repeatedly threatened to walk off, calling Shubert's questions about his personal life "completely disgusting."
As Shubert persisted, Assange apologized, removed his mic and walked off the set. -Huffington Post

In my opinion, Julian Assange did the right thing in this situation. He was being personally attacked during an interview that was supposed to be centered on much more important issues. Those issues, including our nation’s safety and the preservation of The Constitution’s “right to free speech”, are important to America and all its citizens. Assange’s personal life is not what this interview was supposed to be about or what it should be about. This story leads back to the issue of soft news vs. hard news. This reporter was trying to turn this interview into an episode of Entertainment Tonight and in doing so was avoiding the real issues at hand. Her “tough” questions ought to be about the reasoning and logic behind the releasing of potentially life-threatening and dangerous documents to the world, not questions about his inner-office relationships and character flaws. Please save that stuff for The View and stick to your guns CNN.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/23/julian-assange-walks-out-_n_772837.html

The Lesser of Two Evils: The Georgia Governor’s Race

After Nathan Deal won the Republican primary just two months ago, anyone would have thought he had the governor’s race in the bag. He had overcome his biggest hurdle, Karen Handel, and with a win of less than one percent of the vote, gotten very lucky. His luck stopped there though and only a couple of weeks after the win it came out that he has about five million dollars of debt that he left off the disclosure forms. This comes after the fact that he was already involved in an Office of Congressional Ethics investigation, regarding reports that he was pressuring Georgia officials to keep a state vehicle inspection program that benefited his automobile salvage company. This is the same automobile salvage company that he has an unpaid $2.5 million dollar loan out on.  Now the whole race has been turned on its head and is becoming a race about choosing the lesser of two evils. No one thought Roy Barnes had a chance in hell and now he is only trailing Deal by about 4 points. The press has christened the race, “King Roy vs. Shady Deal.” Whilst giving Deal the titles of, “one of the fifteen most corrupt members of Congress” and “Georgia’s Christine O’Donnell.”

Both sides are now engaged in a pretty nasty ad war. Deal has been trying to put Barnes in the same boat as Obama and has his friend Dale Peterson, the former candidate for the Alabama agriculture Commissioner, helping him out. Peterson claims in one TV ad that Barnes sounds like the president when he is going around apologizing for all his past mistakes as former governor. Barnes, on the other hand, has ads calling Deal, “as slippery as a bag of snakes” and too corrupt even for Congress. Barnes claims in one ad that he requires no on the job training, while Deal is trying to make Barnes’ former governorship seem like a nightmare. Both are mudslinging like nobody’s business and making national headlines while doing so. Everyone from the New York Times to the Associated Press is watching this election very closely.

Does Deal deserve this large of a backlash for his financial woes? Well it all depends on who you talk to. The Republican’s are saying that the recession is to blame for his losses and that these financial hardships are only making Deal more sympathetic to business owners who are going through the same things in these tough times. He was just a father trying to help his child out like any parent would. While the Democrat’s are using the argument that if his personal finances are so bad then there is no way he can run the state’s finances and if he is lying about personal finances then what else could he be lying about. A good parent might pay for a child’s college tuition, not sign for a $2 million dollar loan. The Democrat’s seem pretty confident in their argument though, since the Democratic Governor’s Association just poured $1 million into Barnes’s campaign.

This is a time when the Republican’s should easily be sweeping elections and filling offices. Especially in a red state like Georgia, and yet Deal has still managed to put the governorship in question. I am sure that the Republican’s are kicking themselves in the behind now for not electing Karen Handel in the primaries. This race could have been a cake walk for them if she had won the vote. Sure, you cannot go back and change what happened but when you are involved in a race that should be as easily won as this one, maybe you should go with a safe candidate instead of one who was already involved in an ethics investigation.  Deal was just a ticking time bomb. Democrats are the party in control and the country is in a recession with the president’s approval rating on a downward spiral and the unemployment rate at 9.5%. Yet, the Republican’s STILL cannot secure the governor’s race in a RED state. That is just embarrassing.

This is going to be an interesting race to watch and I know I will definitely be at the polls on November 2^nd to cast my ballot. I honestly do not know who will come out the winner. Will more scandals be unearthed before Election Day? Nothing would surprise me at this point…. The winner is going to come from who can get the 13% of undecided voters to side with them. As I said before, I think that a lot of people, including the undecided voters, feel that this race is about choosing the lesser of two evils. Go ahead and pick your poison, Georgia.

http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-politics-elections/ad-war-in-georgia-594812.html

Vs.

Free Liu Xiaobo!

OSLO (AP) — Imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for using non-violence to demand fundamental human rights in his homeland. The award ignited a furious response from China, which accused the Norwegian Nobel Committee of violating its own principles by honoring "a criminal."

Chinese state media immediately blacked out the news and Chinese government censors blocked Nobel Prize reports from Internet websites.

The people of China cannot even celebrate Liu Xiaobo’s great achievement today…. because they don’t even know about it! His name has been expunged from all forms of media. The so-called "Great Firewall" that the Chinese Government has created is being used in full force to censor any searches involving the “Nobel Peace Prize” or “Liu Xiaobo”.

Xiaobo received the Nobel Peace Prize because of his brave fighting for democracy and human rights in China and is being praised as a hero by many. Yet, China put him in jail for this very behavior. It is all pretty insane to think of here in America, but there are plenty of people who would rot away in jail to get the kinds of freedoms that we take for granted on a daily basis.

These are the exact types of media controls and regulations that the U.S., as a democratic society, is so fortunate to not have to deal with. When we talk about things like the Fairness Doctrine and news channels being required to promote good citizenship in our class lectures and debates, this is the perfect example of just how bad things could get if we started down any of those slippery slopes. This is definitely not the first time China has used this type of censorship, Google anyone? This, however, is just another example of why we need to strive to keep our media free and keep the government’s hands out of our news! Long live the First Amendment and the right to free speech!

America, are you mad as Hell?

WASHINGTON- The number of voters who cast early ballots in this year's primary elections increased 50% over the 2006 midterm, a USA TODAY review of key states shows, the latest uptick in a trend that is reshaping political campaigns.

Nearly 6 million people took part in early voting during this year's primary elections in the 13 states reviewed, including California, Florida and Texas. That's up from just over 4 million voters in those same states during the 2006 primary election.

Does this mean that American’s are all of a sudden more concerned with politics than they were two years ago? Maybe….but probably not. It is still good news nonetheless. Most likely this large change is the effect of states making it easier to cast early ballots.  

However, it is also well known that when times are good, citizens tend to be content with “politics as usual” and are less likely to cast a ballot. We are in a recession with millions of people out of work…people want and need a change. People’s livelihoods are at stake. People have a lot more of a reason to turn off the TV and make their voice heard in this election.
I am proud of Americans for standing up and fighting for a change. Grassroots movements like the Tea Party are amazing to see even if I do not necessarily agree with what they stand for. We are a nation built by the people, for the people and its time we start showing it. As I am typing this all I can think of is the Howard Beale’s “I’m mad as Hell” speech.
"I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" You tell them America!

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Pot?

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California has a long history of defying conventional wisdom on the issue of marijuana, including its embrace of the drug in the 1960s and its landmark medical pot law 14 years ago. So it may not be all that surprising that a November ballot measure to legalize the drug has created some odd alliances and scenarios.

Pot growers have opposed it. Some police have favored it. Polls show the public is deeply divided. Only politicians have lined up as expected: Nearly all major party candidates oppose the measure. And hanging over the whole debate is the fact that marijuana remains illegal under federal law.

As the Nov. 2 election nears, Proposition 19 has become about much more than the pros and cons of the drug itself. The campaigns have framed the vote as a referendum on everything from jobs and taxes to crime and the environment.

The measure gained ground in a Field Poll released Sunday, pulling ahead 49% to 42% among likely voters. The poll also found that Californians have become steadily more permissive toward the drug since pollsters began quizzing state residents about their attitudes 40 years ago.

California never ceases to amaze me. This is another case of California separating itself from the rest of the country and showing just how independent a state can be. However, this does not always work in the best interest of the state, as we have seen recently with its massive budget deficit, low credit rates, and even some talk of “bankruptcy”. California used to be the picture of success but now it looks more like a sinking ship.

Could this new marijuana proposition actually help the sunshine state or is it just adding to the problem that got them here in the first place?

I for one believe that marijuana should be legal and could help California out of its rut. It could bring in a lot of revenue, offer a lot of jobs, and cut down on gang violence. I think that California stays ahead of the curve, which can bite them in the butt sometimes, but they are forward thinkers none the less. They keep America on its toes, and I just hope they can keep themselves afloat.

If Proposition 19 helps get California out of its predicament, maybe the federal government should give it a go. I mean we are in a recession…

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2010/09/26/calif_measure_shows_states_conflicted_link_to_pot/

Obama aide: Palin may be 'most formidable force' in the GOP

A bunch of Republicans who may seek to replace President Obama are out and about today, and it sounds like the White House would like to dub Sarah Palin the front-runner."I have no doubt that she is a formidable force in the Republican Party and may well be, in all honesty, the most formidable force in the Republican Party right now," said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs. -USA Today

Are we in the twilight zone? Maybe the world really is going to end in 2012…

Sarah Palin is now being touted as the Republican front-runner for the 2012 Presidential Election.

The media may have really shot themselves in the foot with this one. They have sensationalized her to the point of celebrity. It doesn’t matter whether they portray her in a good light or not, as the saying goes “bad publicity is better than no publicity,” and if we learned anything from the 2008 Presidential Election it is that ‘celebrity’ can be the winning factor these days. Washington D.C. is turning into the new Hollywood, and Palin is its leading lady.

It seems that the more she is mocked and made fun of, the stronger her fan base becomes. After the 2008 election I figured she would fall off the map or become a contestant on Dancing with the Stars (her daughter took that route)…not go on to become the leader of the free world. The woman who once said, "As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where– where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border,” is now one of the most influential politicians in D.C.

Whether or not she will actually be able to hold her own come election time is not clear. She was un-successful under the pressure of interviews and debates last election, but she has not let that stop her yet. As she recently stated so eloquently, you either, “Buck up or stay in the truck.”

Palin and Beck 9/11 "restore the honor" rally...Destroying America's honor, one sacred day at a time!

Last night Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck hosted a 9/11 event which had a relatively high cost of admission. Approximately 3,800 people attended the event, and to even get in the door they had to pay for ticket ranging from $73.25 to $225 per-person. Assuming an average of $100 per ticket (likely the low-end of any estimates), the Palin-Beck 9/11 event brought in $380,000.

This whole event seems like it has to be a bad joke. Just a few weeks after the Martin Luther King incident, with Beck and Palin hosting a questionable "restoring the honor" rally on the same steps, on the same day, as MLK gave his “I Have a Dream” speech 47 years ago. Now they are going to hold a rally on the same day as 9/11, one of the greatest tragedies in America’s history. Not only are they politicizing such a horrific event that took place only 9 years ago, but also they are charging up to $225 per person to attend. They are making money off this tragedy! How could they not see the potential issues with this? Do they not have any shame? I just cannot wrap my head around this. 3,000+ people lost their lives on 9/11; they are planning to make around $300,000+ off this rally.

They are taking a day of mourning and remembrance of those who lost their lives for our country and turning it into a political rally to further promote themselves. First the MLK speech and now 9/11…is there any sacred American day they won’t pervert with their “restoring the honor” campaigns? Restoring what honor? Any honorable day American has they are taking and destroying with their rallies. I am disgusted and I feel so horrible for those whose loved ones lost their lives on 9/11 and now have Palin and Beck campaigning all over their gravestones.

Would you vote for an ex-con?

Former Ohio congressman Jim Traficant, who served seven years in federal prison for corruption, today officially secured a spot on the Nov. 2 ballot as a House candidate.
It took the Trumbull County Board of Elections less than a minute to certify that Traficant had collected enough signatures to qualify as a candidate for his old House seat, according to The Vindicator newspaper. He is running as an independent.
He will face four-term Rep. Tim Ryan, a Democrat and former aide, and Republican Jim Graham.
Traficant represented the Youngstown area for nearly 20 years before his 2002 conviction for 10 criminal counts, including charges he shook down businesses for favors.
In Congress, he was known for his colorful comments -- the Star Trek line, "Beam me up, Scotty," was a standard refrain during his irreverent floor speeches -- and his unorthodox haircut. He once joked that he used a weed whacker as a styling tool. -(USA Today)

This story really tests my faith in the American political system. In one sense, I think it is great that Americans can be so forgiving and give people second chances. On the other hand, it is considering re-electing someone who committed federal crimes that were directly linked to his role as a congressman. A position he filled with lies and corruption only 8 years ago. The whole thing seems pretty bizarre.

He served the people of the Youngstown area for 20 years and people came to trust him over that span of time, but that trust should have been shattered when he was convicted of TEN criminal counts. The election has not taken place yet, so it is not clear if he will really be able to gain back the trust of the people. He has, however, already collected enough signatures to qualify as a candidate. Which bring me to my next question, should he even be allowed to run for office again? Even if his constituents are willing to give him a second chance, should the government allow it?

One of the greatest freedoms given to us as Americans is the freedom to make our own decisions, whether they turn out to be the right ones or not.

A Hate Crime, Are the Mosque Debates to Blame?

This news story is upsetting and confusing for a couple of different reasons. The first is that Michael Enright, the man who stabbed the cab driver, looks like the complete opposite of a hate crime offender from the outside. Enright had worked at Intersections International, a group that seeks to promote peace and justice. He was an honor student with no prior criminal record. What would cause someone who was seemingly on the right path in life to brutally stab a cab driver? The news is reporting that the mosque talks are to blame for this hate crime, but I am not sure that this sentiment is so shallow. Enright had recently returned from a trip to Afghanistan, where he was working on a school film project, and I believe that has a lot more to do with the stabbing than the mosque talks. What he encountered on that school trip that would cause him to act out like this is unknown but I think whatever it was is more personal than the mosque new stories.
That is not to say that I do not think that the mosque debates are creating a hostile environment for Muslims. That leads me to the second upsetting part of this news story, the news itself. With news channels broadcasting 24/7 about whether or not an Islamic cultural center should be built next to ground zero, a lot of animosity towards the Muslim religion is being created. The new stories that are questioning the building are also asking the underlying question of whether or not the Muslim religion is to blame for the 9/11 attacks, and that is causing everyone to revisit the horrors of the attacks and the feelings of hatred towards those who planned them. The Muslim religion itself, however, is not the one to blame for the attacks and should not have to suffer this religious intolerance here in America. We are a nation founded on the First Amendment and the right to the freedom of religion. If we abandon these founding principles then the terrorists will have gotten what they wanted.

To Get the Ball Rolling...

Hi Guys,
I hope everybody is having a great first week of classes! It has been a crazy one for me since I am also trying to move out of one apartment and into another this week. I enjoyed our first Mass Media and Politics class and look forward to the rest of the semester. I plan on using this blog to post an equal mix of real news and my personal views on news stories. I hope my blog can be a fun and educational read!

Emily