John Stewart Vs. Bill O’Rielly
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05/18/11
Author: Tsemaye Awani
05/16/11
How Much is Too Much?
http://www.gallup.com/poll/123101/americans-likely-say-government-doing-too-much.aspx
The Article discusses how more Americans are begining to feel that the government is doing too much and should scale back on the regulation of business. The percentages of Americans that feel this way is higher than its been in a decade with 57% feeling the government is doing too much and 45% thinking that there is too much government regulation of business.
This feeling is the same feeling that was in America just before Ronald Reagan took over. In March of 1981 the 54% of americans thaought that the government was doing too much. Ronald Reagan ten took over and deregulated a lot of things. It seems like 30 years later, not much has changed.
05/11/11
NAFTA
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is an agreement signed by Canada, Mexico, and the United States, on New Years Day 1944 that thus created a trilateral trade bloc in North America. What the NAFTA aggreement was designed to do was lift trade and investment deterents between the three countries. The first thing it did towards this goal was phase out any tarrifs that existed between the countries. It also is supposed to eliminate non-tarrif trade restrictions.
One of the hinderences of the NAFTA aggreement was the environmental concerns. The American people thought that the US freely trading with these countries would promote harmful environmental activities. Present Clinton accordingly got Canada and Mexico to agree to and sign the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC). The Commission for Environmental Cooperation was established to monitor the environmental effects of NAFTA. NAFTA is still an issue of concern now, as can be seen by this exchange at the Presidental Debate:
- Tim Russert:: Senator Obama . . . Simple question: Will you, as president, say to Canada and Mexico, “This has not worked for us; we are out”?
Obama: “I will make sure that we renegotiate, in the same way that Senator Clinton talked about. And I think actually Senator Clinton’s answer on this one is right. I think we should use the hammer of a potential opt-out as leverage to ensure that we actually get labor and environmental standards that are enforced. And that is not what has been happening so far.” February 23, 2008
05/2/11
Protest Song
Masters of War by Bob Dylan
Dispear – Nas
These two songs protest the current situations in America. The first one is a protest on the war on vietnam. Bob Dylan Goes as far as to comparing America to Judas saying that America is decieving the people. He says that america is doing this by fighting a war that is unwinnable and saying they are trying to obtain a goal of peace. He is saying that with all of the weaponry all america has done is destroy and no matter what they do they would not be able to gain forgiveness for these places they ravaged.
In the second Song Dispear by Nas & damien Marley he attacks all of america’s history to present day in its economic focus. He compares them now to the slave master relationship. “the master, the masses, one has power the other one lacks it guns are power controlled by assets owned by financial forecasters. whos the masters their the gangstas their tha bankers the ones who tax us, the masses they are us the people the sheep divided in classes.” This line represents what he basically says about the situation.
04/11/11
Good Golley Miss Molley
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The 50’s experienced the outbreak of rock music. Like we all know, music, or any kind of art for that matter, is a reflection of reality. Music in particular does a great job of reflecting the views of society and in the 50s Rock-n-Roll took off. The content of the music contained 2 central themes. One theme was a reflection on politics the other adressed women whos role was rappidly c h anging in the times. This time period has seen outrage over the Vietnam War and a controlling theme in rock was fighting back against the man. Also u can see withtin the females referenced in songs a shift in the role of women. They were having a much expanded role in the 50’s. Rock also served to break down the racial divide, another societal theme during the 50s. Crowds repetately integrated themselves during Little Richard concerts and black performers began to perform at white venues.
04/4/11
NATO
It seems a lot of the time that people just refuse to learn. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was formed in the year 1949, jus a few years after 2 huge alliances caused mass destruction on a global spectrum. America, along with several European nations decided to plant the seeds for another such episode.
Not only did the mere presence of a large scale alliance encourage a repeat of the past but the attitude at which they approached the alliance aided digression. One would recall that the harsh nature of the treaty of Versailles was the main tool that Hitiler used to persuades the german people into conquest. One would think that after episode the world would learn that once you have beatene an opponet u let them go in oppose to holding there head underwater, becauses that would leave them no choice but to retaliate once again, out of desperation. However Lord Ismay, NATO’s first Secretary general said the purpose of the organization was “to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down”. Fortunately, these seeds never grew into a war. It was still however a wreckless action to take at the time they took it. We were one bad decision away, from turning the Cuban Missle Crises to World War III.
03/30/11
Arranged Marraige: Africa
A cause of World War I not often discussed is the intense competition to rape Africa. A simple google search of “Scramble for Africa” would return you with plenty results citing the time period of the scramble as 1881-1914. There is no coincidence that World War I started in 1914. It is easily proving that tensions at during that time period were high among the European nations that wanted to colonize Africa for themselves. The Berlin conference was an effort put forth by several of these countries in order to try and ward off a war over Africa. So Action was taking similiar to when a prince chooses a princess to bring to countries together. The princess has no choice in the matter and neither did Africa. At the Berlin Conference the countries drew lines on a map of Africa and thus determined who was allowed to satomize which seection of Africa. France got most of West Africa, Belgum the Congo, Britian East and South Africa, Portugal 2 Colonies in South Africa, and Germany a small colony in each region. I Dont think it is a coincidence that Germany lost all four of its colonies after it lost WWI.
03/21/11
360 Degrees of Power
(Carlisle in the Atlanta Constitution)
The Artist was saying by the next voting session all of congress would be ran by the democrats. The artist wanted to illuminate that because of Republicans standing in the way of the New Deal they will all be voted out by the public. The artist depicted this by showing the “Republican Obstruction” being kicked out the way my by the public in order to make way for “Roosevelt Reorganizational Power” as the Democratic Congress ushers the bulldozer along the way. The Bulldozer is on a path to pave the government cost rearing out of control. This cartoon was drawn at the time of a huge expansion of the role of the Government.
02/23/11
A Dollar And A Dream
Immigrants at Ellis Island, circa 1900. Photograph: Bettman/Corbis
Mulberry Street 1900 in New York’s 5 Points. Library of Congress photo
The first picture is one of immigrants as they arrive on Ellis Island. They stand on line with there bags waiting to get processed. This picture represents hope. The immigrants left whatever struggles they were comming from in hope of a new, more sucessful life in the US. They come with nothing more than their bags and hope.
The second picture overlooks one of the most dangerous places american history has ever seen. The picture overlooks Mullberry Street, one of the streets in the infamous five points in NYC. That picture represents what became a reality for many immigrants. They traded their domestic sufferings for foreign ones. Their living spaces were overcrowded, their jobs remidial, and their dreams deffered.
02/14/11
It Aint Over ‘Til The Fat Lady Sings!
Reconstruction virtually ended when the fat lady sang in Ford’s Theater. A single bullet to the back of the head killed the hopes and dreams freed slaves. President Abraham Lincoln was assasignated on the night of April 14, 1865. Lincoln’s death left Andrew Johnson to be president.
In January 1865 General Sherman issued Special Field Orders, No. 15, which is known to most as 40 Acres and a Mule. It was an order that gave freed black slaves land. Approximately 10000 freed slaves had settled on 400,000 Acres of land when new President Johnson reversed the order and forced freed blacks to return the land.
Also Established in 1865 was the Freedman’s Bureau. The Freedman’s Bureau created schools & hospitals, negotiated labor contracts, leased or sold confiscated lands to the freed men, and tried to protect former slaves from their masters in the South. President Johnson vetoed the bill for its extension in 1866.
The final straw for a reconstruction period that barely got anything done was in 1877 with the corrupt bargain. The corrupt bargain was basically a deal that exchanged the presidency for an unsupervised south. This is likely what lead to Jim Crow laws and other laws of that nature.
Reconstruction ended at the very beginning, with Lincoln’s Death.
02/9/11
Blame It On The Alcohol
The 18th Amendment banned alcohol and allowed organized crime to make fortunes in the bootlegging business. Fortunes that spawned later political and musical careers, the alleged fixing of the world series, and an entire city, Los Vegas.
02/2/11
Where’s The Line?
I do not see the point of archiving the billions of tweets on twitter in the library of congress. If the intention is for historical purposes I would contend that billions of tweets are too much to sift through to be historically relevant. Historians already have enough trouble sifting through the surplus of information out there. It would be much more productive not logging the tweets themselves but rather the trending topics. With the trending topics you can keep track of what the hot button issues of the times are. Seeing what the most searched topics are on search engines would also be a suitable tool for historians. Blog posts and things of that nature are much more formidable tools for historians and are all meant to be publicized.
My biggest problem with this though is the privacy issue. Not so much so about the tweets but about where it made lead. This could be the start of a troubling trend. It seems like the government time and time again moves the line governing privacy closer and closer into our personal space. This is the first step in a process that’s sure to get worse. We should learn from the Allie’s mistake in world war 2 and stop Hitler at Munich. We need to draw a line.