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Posts Tagged ‘Biased Media’

Economic Downturn or Not – Americans Still Donating to Charity

Friday, November 28th, 2008

We all have many reasons to be proud to be an American, but one of the top reasons why I’m proud is our proclivity to give to charitable causes even in the worst economic times. CBS News ran a story on their website the other day talking about how Americans are still donating money to nonprofit organizations even as their 401k accounts and discretionary income dollars are dwindling. From the article:

The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University says that historically, charitable giving has been recession-proof.

Contributions to American charities have increased during 39 of the past 40 years in today’s dollars, and a change in the tax laws – not the stock market crash – can be blamed for the drop in 1987, said Melissa Brown, associate director of research for the center. Between 69 and 72 percent of people give routinely, she said.

The article goes on to talk about how some nonprofit organizations are cautiously optimistic about the potential donations for this year’s Christmas season. Believe it or not – we may be hearing about all of the horrible things going on in the auto industry and the banking sector, but Americans are prepared to give to charitable causes nonetheless. This will be an interesting phenomenon to watch – will Americans continue to give their scarce dollars to charitable causes even as the biased media runs around talking about the “horrendous” market conditions? I guess we’ll see.

There are only a few places that I donate my scarce dollars. The first place is my national fraternity’s foundation, which is (of course) helped by the fact that I am a Board member for the foundation. I began donating to some other causes like child cancer research and feeding the homeless, but I felt like my meager dollars were lost in a mess of bigger donations from bigger donors.

I’d like to find a small, locally-based nonprofit organization which is really helping to make a change in society – even if the geographic boundary of that “society” is defined as a single township or a single county in New Jersey, etc. I really think that a small nonprofit like that would be the perfect “project” for a donor to take on in terms of giving away money to help a specific cause. Unfortunately, those types of organizations really don’t exist in Monmouth County or my hometown up in Morris County, so there isn’t any opportunity like that – for now.

As we go out and purchase gifts for our loved ones this year, please remember to give a few dollars to a charitable cause if you can.

Posted in Money, Jobs, & Finances, Winter & Christmas Time | No Comments »

Where Do The Republicans Go From Here?

Saturday, November 1st, 2008

Though this post might be a bit early, all of the polls are suggesting that this Tuesday is going to bring big gains for the Democrats in the Congress. Oh, and then there’s that whole Presidential election, where it is likely that Barack Obama will bring the White House back to the Democratic Party. The Democrats are looking at holding a solid majority in the House, Senate, and the White House for the first time since 1992. And it’s looking more and more like the Democrats will wind up with 60 seats in the Senate after the election, giving them a filibuster-proof majority.

Halloween was yesterday, but this is a frightening proposition.

Now settle down my little extremist minded readers. I am not suggesting that this is scary because the majority of our government will be Democrats. Rather it is scary because one party will have complete control of the American government (the Supreme Court ideologies do not count). That’s not right. Of course, the Republicans have had this coming to them for a while now. The Republicans took over the American government and did not bring the change that the people wanted. It’s funny, though, how in the wake of President Bush’s second term the nation forgets about the Democratic scandals of the last two decades. It’s even funnier that this country is dominated by a vicious, disgustingly biased media. But I digress…

What will the Republicans do if they fail as miserably this coming Tuesday? Frankly, it’s time for the GOP to go back to the drawing board. They had their opportunity to make a difference in American government and they failed. I see two paths for the Republicans in the wake of a pending disaster on Election Day.

First, they can choose to take up a truly moderate position on all of the major issues. Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich has a think tank called American Solutions. This group has taken a variety of polls showing how 80% – 90% of Americans agree on certain issues. For example, polls show that 87% of Americans support English as the official language of the United States. Another example – 81% support greater use of domestic energy sources to fuel America’s future. Great.

The Republicans can choose to be the champions of these bipartisan issues and use this stance to win back some of the good graces of the American public.

The second direction the party can go from here is highly unlikely, but still a possibility. In short, the party can break up into various factions. Let’s face it, John McCain is not the same Republican as is George W. Bush; just as Elizabeth Dole is not the same type of Republican as Arnold Schwarzenegger; just as Christine Todd Whitman is certainly a different type of Republican than John Ashcroft. The fact is that there are too many different “types” of Republicans and this is a bad thing. Why is it a bad thing? Look at the current election cycle. There will be Republicans who lose Senate or House seats because there is an “R” after their name on the ballot. Sure, they may disagree with all of the policies of the current administration, but they’re about to get punished anyway.

Why not have a Conservative Republican party? Why not a Constitutional Republican party or a Traditional Republican party? Trust me, I understand why the power structures at the top of the Republican party would never allow this to happen (ca-ching!), but it might be time for the candidates (present and future) to take this party into their own hands. If you’re running as a Republican in San Francisco, guess what? You lose. But what if you ran as a candidate in a Liberal Republican party? What if you could disassociate with the stigmas and stereotypes of a nationwide organization?

With all of this being said, I have to say that I believe if Obama wins the election it will be very hard for him to win re-election. My reasoning is exactly the same as above. If the Democrats win the big majorities in the Congress, then it doesn’t matter who sits in the White House because the Senate Majority leader will rule the legislative agenda of the country. I believe that this country will experience a major shift to the left in the coming years and it might be too big of a swing for many to take. Obama needs to watch out for that if he’s sitting in the White House…but first he has to win the election.

Posted in United States Politics | No Comments »

The Last Presidential Debate

Friday, October 17th, 2008

Sorry, folks. I didn’t really watch the last Presidential debate so I can’t offer any insight as to who won and who lost. In my book, McCain won the first two and Palin vs. Biden was a draw or slightly in Palin’s favor given the amount of misinformation that Senator Biden put out there. But as for this last Presidential debate – frankly it’s all the same stuff over and over again with different words.

The election is in the hands on the media now, so we’ll likely see a build-up in Obama’s numbers heading into November. The media has anointed Senator Obama as the next President and that’s fine so long as America understands that we have a biased media and unless there are drastic changes (like the increasingly influence of an independent media through online channels), then we’re doomed. A news channel that would simply report factual news or even both sides of the same issues would be a huge success in this country. Oh wait, we already have FOX News and the brainwashed extremists think that it’s biased in favor of Republicans.

Isn’t weird how some Americans will ask for something, get it, and then condemn it?

Posted in United States Politics | No Comments »

Reviewing the Vice-Presidential Debate

Sunday, October 5th, 2008

Here we go again… You guys know the drill. The biased media has already claimed that Senator Joe Biden won this debate in a landslide. And, in a weird twist, they’ve decided that by not goofing up, Governor Palin “won” her end of the debate. In other words, by not being bad she was being good.

Does that make any sense?

Yet another reason why you can’t trust a damn thing you read or hear from the media these days. I had a different view of the debate altogether.

First, I think that each candidate won, but in different areas. For example, Palin was much more likable while Biden was much more of a diplomat. Palin was more down to earth while Biden was more or less the typical Washington insider. Yet Biden appeared to know more on the issues while Palin appeared to only look at the big picture stance on them. What the biased media cannot understand is how each of these stances is a win for the respective candidates.

Palin needed to appear informed on the issues in order to rally the Republican base. She did that. Biden needed to stay away from him common gaffes to energize the Obama campaign. Mission accomplished. That’s not to say that everything Senator Biden put out there was fact, because it certainly wasn’t, but he did manage to stay away from sticking his foot in his mouth.

All in all, I thought the debate was oddly reserved and yet pleasantly collegial. There were no severe barbs thrown between the two candidates as each was carefully treading historic ground. A bit too bland for my liking. Hey, did you know that nearly 70 million people watched the debate the other night? Amazing. Now the stage is set for McCain vs. Obama 2 on Tuesday night. McCain won the first debate and he needs to hit a homerun in order to move the polls in his direction.

Yet at this point with Obama up in all of the polls one has to wonder whether or not it even matters how well Senator McCain performs in the final two debates. He can knock it out of the park both nights and the media will still crown Obama the winner and the popular support will still go in his direction. Is this race still a winnable one for McCain?

Posted in United States Politics | No Comments »

Vicious Attacks on Governor Sarah Palin

Thursday, September 11th, 2008

While a change in our nation’s leadership is always an exciting time for America, the vicious attacks being heaped on to Governor Sarah Palin – the Vice Presidential nominee for the Republican Party – are both disgusting and inappropriate. The combination of an already biased media and far-left citizens essentially losing one of their issues seems to have driven people over the edge! The other day I was actually approached by someone who told me that she absolutely hated Palin. The person went on for about 30 minutes about all of the negative, horrible things that made her detest Palin both as a person and as a legislator. Bear in mind that Palin had only been announced three days earlier!!! Talk about bitter partisanship.

Far-right blogger Michelle Malkin has begun diagnosing crazy, angry people like this with a PDS – Palin Derangement Syndrome. I got a kick out of that!

Most of the things that this woman was saying to me a few days ago have already been proven false. But that hasn’t stopped far-left people from spreading rumors as truth. Just listen to the Howard Stern Show where there were at least three or four lies or half-truths discussed as though they were concrete facts. For example, there was a discussion about how Palin wants creationism taught in schools. Let me show you the twisted logic of the hate machine that is attacking Palin…

Palin’s original comment: “I don’t think there should be a prohibition against debate if it comes up in class. It doesn’t have to be part of the curriculum.”

The biased media and far-left spin of the above comment: “Palin wants creationism taught in schools.”

Dummies.

In fact, Palin’s position appears to be much more in line with what our Founding Fathers would have wanted – the freedom to discuss any idea that comes up in conversation. But remember – many people on the far-left (and I’m not talking about Democrats or the traditional liberals here – but the hate merchants and vicious online attackers) don’t like the concept of all ideas being discussed freely. Instead, they only want to hear far-left or uber-progressive discussions. Hell, while I don’t have much respect for Ann Coulter’s tactics I suggest anyone read the appendix of any of her books. She is a citation queen when it comes to using people’s words against them and her appendices are second to none with primary document sources. Of course many people will write off that previous comment because Coulter is the very bottom of what the far-right has to offer, but I digress.

Maxim Lott at FOX News published an article called the Top 7 Myths, Lies, and Untruths About Governor Palin. I suggest everyone take a read. Once again, though, many of the vicious hate speech people will see that this is a FOX News article and immediately dismiss it. What a boneheaded move. Personal feelings about FOX News aside, this is exactly what a news organization should be doing right now! They should be researching rumors and suggestions about the candidates and presenting the facts to the public! But hey, let’s not let logic get in the way of bashing FOX News, right?

I said in a previous post that I hope this election season is quick and painless. Well, we know it won’t be painless, but for the sake of Palin’s family (who have also been inappropriately attacked), I hope it is quick.

Posted in United States Politics | No Comments »

John McCain Trumps Barack Obama with Palin

Friday, August 29th, 2008

The selection of Governor Sarah Palin was a brilliant move on behalf of the McCain campaign. Let me explain some of the reasons why this was an excellent pick made by McCain.

The obvious – she’s a woman. Palin might be able to bring in even more of the Clinton voters that have been disenfranchised by a biased media and a sexist primary campaign. Side note – welcome to all of those disenfranchised Democrats who now (finally) see how biased the major media networks can be!
Palin is a hardcore conservative. She’s a supporter of the NRA and a pro-life candidate. This will help shore up the far-right votes which have been elusive for John McCain.
She’s the epitome of a Washington outsider. You can’t really get much further from Washington, DC than the state of Alaska!
Choosing Palin immediately gives the McCain campaign the mantle of “change.” I’m a huge supporter of Joe Biden, but he (like McCain) has been in Washington for quite some time. The choice of a young, female Governor from thousands of miles away represents true change.

There are some other good things that can be said about the Palin pick, but I’m sure you will all be reviewing the many comments all over the internet today!

Posted in United States Politics | 2 Comments »