ART!

     Art to me is a very vague word that encompasses almost everything that can be seen or heard by humans. With this being said, art can be a picture painted or drawn by an artist, a song sung by a singer, and in my opinion the greatest artistry of all, the magnificently crafted work of mother nature. From the amazingly dressed flowers in the meadow, and the elegantly carved rock in the Grand Canyon, to the white waves crashing on the vast surface of the deep blue sea, mother nature has to be in my opinion the greatest contributor to arts history. I believe art is an expression illustrated to convey a message, thoughts and/ or feelings. Art created by a human medium is also something that cannot be completely and perfectly replicated which in my view is the reason why the original piece of art created by an artist is the most valuable and most sought after.

     A piece of art that is printed in amounts of 16,000,000+ copies a day and is handled by most Americans just about everyday is the United States dollar bill. This piece of paper has art all over it, back and front. The  all black front has a portrait of the United States first president, George Washington and also floral designs outlining the perimeters of the Federal Reserve Note. The all green back of the dollar has a bald eagle holding arrows and olive branches and also a unfinished pyramid with an eye hovering over it. Until this blog when I saw or physically handled a dollar bill, or any currency amount, I just saw money and other tangible things that I could purchase with the money. However, after researching the dollar bill for this blog, I came to notice that the artistry work on the dollar has a rich historical message, which I feel is safe to say that most Americans including my self have failed to pay attention to. The George Washington portrait on the front is obviously the tribute to the first president for his accomplishments and hand in helping build the United States of America. The bald eagle is the official bird of the United States and symbolizes American freedom along with the arrows in the eagles claws which represents Americans defense and willingness to defend it's borders and the olive branches symbolizes the longing for peace both domestically and internationally. The 13 stripes on the breast of the eagle represents the 13 original colonies and so does the collection of stars centered above the eagles head. The unfinished pyramid has 13 steps which in my observation (not completely sure)  represents the 13 original colonies, however also shows the unfinished work of the states/ colonies because ultimately today we have 50 states!

     With this art work printed on a object that many Americans have a deep passion for, I find the fact that most people can't even recite from memory what graphics are on the legal tender to be quite interesting. Obviously, the dollar isn't just an object for private use, because the government and specifically the media uses the dollar for a number of reasons. With the medias central strength and power invested in money, the U.S one dollar bill is one of the most influential pieces of art since it's first issue in 1862 as a legal tender.

Social Networking and Politics!

     Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and many other social media sources are great ways for people to stay in touch in this computer savvy age. Most Facebook pages are used for people to share information with each other and to keep in touch with friends especially over long distances. With the growing wealth of information  and diversity on these social networking sites politics has grown tremendously as it became readily accessible! 

     Social media sites are a beacon of freedom for Americans to exercise their first amendment rights, especially when it comes to politics. Facebook pages by the revered constitutionalist Judge Andrew Napolitano and also the Libertarian Dr. Ron Paul are both great examples social networking politics at its finest! Both honorable men express their views on the government through the social sites. To me, this is a great way to stay up to date with my favorite political leaders and also to stay on top of current events. 

     A political Facebook page that is not necessarily happy with the way that our American government is functioning, in particular the media corporations is the "Impeach the Government" Facebook page. I 'liked" this page just to stay informed on some of the political issues taken from a more extreme point of view and I found that theirs a good amount of people who are extremely upset with politics in America. The extent to which people on this Facebook page exercise their first amendment rights is really interesting with their sometimes controversial political agenda. 

     Facebook is a great way to let off "political steam" and to gain knowledge about current events and truths about our media corporations. Yes, I understand that Facebook is not a reputable source by any means. However, it is a great source to that enables the users to stumble upon information about a certain political situation or current event that may trigger you to further investigate the topic. 

YouTube and the Media!

YouTube has been a major source of video media since its launch in late 2005. With millions of videos uploaded to the website and with hundreds uploaded every day, YouTube can serve as a rich resource of information, laughs and scholarship via video format! With this wealth of information, YouTube is a great website to view politics. With the contentious campaign season behind us now, I am still able to reminisce about my hero and also access amazing video footage of Ron Paul thanks to YouTube!

The YouTube video “Ron Paul 2012: Why the media ignores Ron Paul” is an amazing video that depicts the media corporations as biased and unwilling to give Ron Paul fair air time. This is quite evident in both the 2008 and 2012 election seasons. Tuning into the media channels such as CNN, Fox News and MSNBC the average viewer wouldn't find much information about Ron Paul thanks to the little coverage. However, on YouTube there are numerous videos from Ron Paul interviews, documentary style videos, political debates and also any other information such as coverage of the 2012 Paul Fest.

YouTube has opened many doors and also helped educate people on different political figures through uploaded presidential debates, presidential advertisements and all other sorts of videos. YouTube is a great website to catch up on current issues if you do not have a TiVo account and also a way for users to view videos from decades ago (before most of us were even born)! This revolutionary website has truly been a beacon of knowledge and power for the 21^st century and I’m sure it will continue to inform the public even when the main stream media fails. 

                                                               Works Cited

"Ron Paul 2012: Why the media ignores Ron Paul." Video Clip. 19 August, 2011. YouTube. 13 November 2012.

Internet & the Media!

The internet has been a breeding ground for politicians, government agencies, media corporations and even individual citizens of the United States to post just about whatever they want to post on the World Wide Web.  The internet is a tremendous source of information about just about everything in the world and what is known to man. With this wealth of knowledge, people are able to become more educated, strive in their social lives and become more aware of foreign affairs. However, with this knowledge comes trouble at times. The internet while moderately regulated is still free and open to lies, biases and false truths.

Media Corporations such as CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC all have web sites which provide the same information that their television program provides. This is revolutionizing and makes it easier for their agendas to be advertised to the general public. The internet has a ton of resources which provides these corporations the ability to sell their agendas whether it’s through an official website, advertisements, emails or social networking. The internet has provided politics to be more readily accessible to the general public especially on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter or MySpace. If you don’t believe me, log onto your Facebook around the presidential campaign season and count all of your friends with their political science doctoral degrees based on political status updates.

The important thing to take away from this blog is to be aware of the biases and lies that are posted on the internet every hour of the day. With this political season in full speed, careful research on the internet is necessary to not fall victim to corporate and social networking lies.

Scholarly Article on Money and Democracy!

I chose to write my blog on the journal article “Building a democracy: People or corporations” by Marty Jezer and Randy Kehler. I found this journal article through the databases in the Texas A&M Universities library. I determined that the article was in fact a scholarly source by searching and locating the journal in the ULRICH’S Periodical Directory; the content type verified that it is an academic and scholarly source.

            The article “Building a democracy: People or corporations”, written by Marty Jezer and Randy Kehler puts a huge emphasis on the involvement of money in politics; and also examines how money has corrupted the democratic process and American values in a historical perspective.  Marty and Randy (2006), both articulates this message by stating,  “while the right to vote has been extended to all adult citizens regardless of race, creed, religion, sex, or economic status, the value of the vote has been deflated by the domination of the dollar” (2006, p. 57). The blatant truth in this statement is important to the authors overall agenda, in informing the readers to understand not only the present political atmosphere, but also the history of the relationship of politics and money within the United States. The author’s main topics within the article are the “History of Abuse”, the changes in legislation allowing for Super PAC’s and corporations to dictate the elections, and also the need for a “Grassroots Democracy Movement”.

            The author makes his argument that money in politics is corrupting the democratic system that was put in place by the Founding Fathers. This claim is supported by the author’s examination of American History and in particular the Compromise of 1877, Mark Hanna’s “free- wheeling” process of campaign funding in the McKinley and Bryan’s presidential campaign and also by describing politics of “the Gilded Age”. The author’s explanation of the needed grassroots democracy movement acts as the solution to the authors problems with our democratic system. The author lays out a list of alternative ways to promote equality among the individuals, and to take the vote back away from the corporations.

            Overall, this article is very informative and conveys and important message to the American people about the role of money in politics and how it can be detrimental to the democratic system, if we don’t change it soon. Even though this article was written in 1995, it still speaks true volume today, and is still applicable to the politics in 2012. The author made valid points and was very informative.

 

                                                                       Works Cited

Jezer, Marty, and Randy Kehler. "Building a democracy movement: People or corporations?" Social Policy. 26.1 (1995): 57-63. TAMU Library Database. Web. 23 Oct. 2012.

 

The Voice of the Corporations!

     In our bipartisanship style government, little is agreed upon, especially on Capitol Hill. However, one things is agreed upon on both sides (Republican and Democrat), Corporations are huge and powerful entities that influence politics and the flow of money within the United States on many levels! With knowing about the huge conglomerates and how much they influence political processes, “we the people” must ask how these corporations became so huge. How do they influence politics within our great Republic? Do the corporations have a bigger voice than the citizens? And one really interesting question that many politicians are asking, are corporations people?

     Well in respect to the first question “How did the corporations get so big”, we the people are somewhat to blame. In referencing Chapter 22 of Navigating America, “we as citizens grant [the] corporate giants their charter, and thus their right to exist”; we are responsible to giving these corporations the very powers that we as Americans sometimes suffer from. Corporations are comprised of people. Therefore, we the people support the money and political giants by investing in their stocks as stockholders, we support by working at corporations as employees and we also help corporations grow by buying and consuming their products. The combination of these consuming activities allows corporations to grow and flourish even in hard economic times.

     With a basic understanding of how we the people are essentially catalysts for the rapid and incredible growth of these elite corporations, we now can dissect the notion to whether corporations are actually people. In the United States Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision argued that the government is not allowed to put limitations on the amount of money corporations, unions labors, etc. are allowed to put into political campaigns; thus allowing the emergence of Super PACs. This recent controversial decision basically states, depending on your interpretation, is that corporations are people because the SCOTUS is protecting corporations right to abundantly supply money to political campaigns as “free speech”, a first amendment guarantee. These political powers granted to these wealthy corporations are the corporations “free reign” to control politics, which they are doing a mighty fine job doing. In America, money equals power, and a political figure without money is almost nonexistent.  The same goes for corporations.

     In our democracy that we live in today, corporations controls America and our freedoms. Its voice speaks louder than the individual citizens, but as stated in this blog, we give the corporations its powers and voice. Corporations are a great example of how money and politics are both fused together as one powerful entity in our American society.

                                                           Works Cited

"Are Corporations People?" Video Clip. 7 May,2012. YouTube. 16 October 2012.

Levs, Josh, and Bill Mears. "Supreme Court Refuses to Reconsider Campaign Finance Controversy." CNN Politics 26 June 2012, n. pag. Web. 16 Oct. 2012. <http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/25/politics/scotus-campaign-finance/index.html>.

Money, Politics and Film!

     For my free response to film, I decided to discuss the film The Campaign with well-known actors Will Ferrell (Cam Brady) and Zach Galifianakis (Marty Huggins). I picked this film mainly because of its heavy involvement with my topic “money, biases and political power”! With campaigning currently in season I believe this is an appropriate pick! This is film would fall under the genre of comedy and pokes fun at the “American” political establishment.

     With Will Ferrell as the arrogant, sexually explicit and ignorant congressman from a small district in North Carolina, he engages in a political confrontation with a family- oriented, humble and feminine opponent, Marty. During the political campaign as the Republican nominee Marty Huggins and Democratic nominee Cam Brady fight each other in political debates and attack ads; the actors takes us on a journey to show the nature of ‘true’ politics in America with a comical spin!

     Money is one of the main motives in this film. The only reason why the “corrupt” businessmen try to convince Marty to run against Cam Brady in the elections is to do illegal business with Chinese workers. This was supposed to create great revenue in the city at the expense of the environment and the integrity of the community itself. Ultimately, the movie ends without the businessmen succeeding; however, the motive and the theme were evident throughout the whole entire film. Along with vicious campaign ads which are only possible due to money and lobbying, Marty’s lifestyle had to change also. Marty had to change the way he dressed, the interior decoration in his home and the car he drove all had to reflect his affluence.

     Money, Biases (Republican/ Democratic), and Political Power are all major themes throughout this film and is a comical hyperbole of our American political processes. With sexual content, vulgar language and comical genre; the directors for this film has targeted and sold its product to many Americans. The directors did an outstanding job with this comedy in my opinion. This film is a must see!

"The Campaign Official Trailer 2." Video Clip. 20 July, 2012. YouTube. 9 October 2012.