Hush, Hush

Some people like to have their noses in everyones' business, and other people keep to theirselves. For reasons I'm not sure, being called a "know-it-all" is a insult. In years back it was looked down upon to look around and snoop in other peoples business. Todays standard is different because everyone is so for our amendments, ecspecially the first one, the freedom of speech. The same people who were elected to make sure our rights were upheld began trying to censor tv, internet, music in an effort to cover up the things they don't want the masses seeing. Wikileaks became the gateway, relasing the things the goverment didnt want us to see. So the question is should we know everything, as Wikileaks believes, or do states have rights to keep secrets.

Wikileaks is considered a "whistleblower" website, a whistleblower being someone who knows about illegal activites or wrong doings of the government. The website's intention was to inform everyone on what actually happened with events in the middle east. In 2007, the website relased a video titled "Collateral Murder" which showed video of a US helicopter killing a group of people is Baghdad, killing civilians. The news was report, but the US claimed that all they fired upon were the insurgents, and they were not sure how the civilians died. When the news hit home, the governments War on Terror was up for question and it left people wondering what we were doing there. The troops seemed hungry for some trigger time, repeatedly asking permission to engage the target. They even shot and killed a man and badly injured his two sons who were trying to recover the dead bodies from the street. The people of the united states were upset that the goverment lied and attempted to cover up what had happened. From a local report to national news, people want to see the story how it happened, not interpreted or covered up to make it look like we are the good guys. I stand for that but what happens when the people do know it all.

The big issue to anyone going against wikileaks, is the issue of national security. Should the government cover up their wrong doings?No. Should the government try to hide the brutality of war from the people?No. Should they cover it up because the contents inside is a threat to national security? Well of course. Like I said, Wikileaks has good intensions, but when they post news on the internet and the wrong person gets his hands on it, you begin to understand why there is government cover ups and they go to such lengths to hid them. Im sure there has been a few events through out history that has been kept on the hush for fears that people may panic. They could get their hands on information of nuclear weapons that then another country gets and buids it themselves. Now an enemy of the United States would have weapons of mass destrcution that could kill millions because some pissed off computer geek believe "everyone deserves to know". Yes everyone should learn something new everyday but when millions of lives are at stake and the well-being of our earth as a whole is at risk, I believe some things are better left unsaid.

Sources:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/05/wikileaks-exposes-video-o_n_525569.html

wikileaks.org

www.nydailynews.com

Better safe then sorry.

I believe I was only in 1st or 2nd grade at the time, but I must say I do remember that day. The principal had called all the school into the basement cafeiteria, and turned on the TV only to hear about the chaos going on in New York. Not until a few years later I realized what had happened. The older I got, the more I looked into it, it only brought about more questions. I realized that our actions went from doing the right thing, into making the whole situation a shady ordeal. We arent to sure what happened but whatever was planned was a sucess.

To say that we over reacted, initally, is obsured. I couldn't imagine having a family on the plane, or being in New York that day and dealing with that mess. The country sprang into action, and did what was on all the peoples minds. "It may had failed to advance Bin Laden's goal of promoting radical islamic caliphate, but when we saw the iconic towers falling to the ground.....we became unhinged with fear." The quote is so true, which goes back to the article I sent you about low tourism in the post 9-11 US. People became afraid to fly, take trains, go to work, it put a stop to our country and economy. But that was Al-Quieda and Bin Laden's plan all along. They wanted to instill fear into the people and that is what they suceeded with.

Second Time Around?

Does President Obama deserve a second term? Which GOP candidate is his biggest challenger? Obama became the first African American to become president of the United States, which is quite a feet, because it was something I wasn't sure I'd ever see during my life time. He was know as the "voice of the younger generation". A very elegant speaker, he used he's calm and cool tone, appose from his money and TV ads to help him win the election. He was seen as a real person, not just another politician. Having that major appeal from the common person, it helped his causes during the '08 election. His biggest problem was coming into office at such a hard time in American history.

Obama has accomplished alot following Bush leaving the office. He managed to pass a nation-wide health care plan (aka Obamacare) for the United States. He has had a major roll in the education system for public schools. During the BP oil crisis, he reacted quickly and managed to gather people to repair the leak. He even charged the company for its damage it had done to the wild life and ocean. His plans to help steer the country away from its dependence on foreign oil and more towards the use of different forms of energy. His foreign affairs involve helping bring down Osama Bin-Laden and Kudaffi. He helped provide jobs by rebuilding road ways, streets and highways. In my eyes, his biggest accomplishment was helping the end the war in Iraq and help bring the troops home.

I personally believe Obama's accomplishments have out weighed his wrong doings, therefore he deserves a second term. It's easy to come into you presidency with the country on an upturn, but to come in during one of the worst economic moments in American history, its hard to make yourself look good. He's a good candidate because he's one of those "for the people, by the people" sort of president, not just one the believes they know the proper way to run it. Not everyone is ever going to agree on any topic, but I believe if you see his ideals and whats he wants to do, I believe its a positive thing for this country and he deserves a second term.

Dear Media: Pick a Side!

Does the media tend to lean more towards a liberal side or a more conservative side? Well that's hard to determine based on where you go to for your news. In my eyes its nearly impossible to receive solid news, because whether its the writer themselves or the person who owns it, they're going to show you or tell you whatever they decide. It's truly a struggle to find someone who is not bias at all. Since everyone has different views of what seems like the right thing to do, everyone will have a different say on certain matters. As we either hear, see or live through these events we call "news", we receive the news and often ask "is that right?" or "is this how it happened?". Now to me, its hard for me to determine exactly what you mean by mainstream news. Clearly not every person reads the Herald or watches channel 5 news. In a country filled with leaders whom either are liberals or conservatives, why is in so hard to find news from a third party?

When speaking on the liberals side of the news, a majority of people aren't sure as to how to determine whether the news the are getting is bias. Well that is only determined by the other party to accuse them of the biasness. Major news channel companies accused of being liberal by the conservatives are CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN & MSNBC. Now I'm sure we all at one point or another have watched these channels, but if you truly listen to all these major networks reporting on similar subjects, you begin to see the similarities in the news they post. Many conservatives believe the "big-boys" of big business pay the editors and reports, to post the news they seem fit. Now that doesn't seem fair, because that means the owners of the networks show us the news they want us to see. They twist and turn many stories that hit the hot-button issues, including subjects such as race, gun control, abortion and of course money spending.

On the Conservative side of things, or the republican side, the company has the most attention for being conservative is FOX News. Like the channels I named above, FOX news was under heat from the public after being called to one sided. A good example was during the Bush administration, as you could tell they had high support for the republican party (which Bush is), while companies like CNN and ABC often bashed the Bush administration. This is different today, as Obama being a democrat, FOX News often bashes him and his administration, while tending to receive positive reactions from the liberal news groups. The thing is, this is more then just one-sided television news, its over the radios, on the Internet and in papers. In my eyes the news today that I see the gist of tends to lean more towards the conservative side of things. Me tending to be more of a conservative I agree with about 55% of the things they say. Saying that, it really gets to me, because during the research for this blog, I noticed myself getting my information from these biased websites. I think its a shame how hard it is to find a news station with some actually middle ground.

Sources :
http://www.opednews.com/

http://rightbias.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/