Yesterday the Governor Rod Blagojevich of Illinois was arrested for having the gall to try to sell the senate seat that Barack Obama will be vacating to the highest bidder. Thankfully Obama has nothing to do with this character, who obviously thought he could get away with this simply idiotic crime. It was reported that since illinois is a competitive state for both Democrats and Republicans thus makes it more prone to corrupt politicians. On average there is a corruption scandal in Illinois every 10 years. It’s hard to believe that an decent politician like Obama came from that state.
I really believe that President-Elect Obama sincerly wants things to change but will he really be able to get around a system that seems to foster corruption. It appears that most government officials either want a favor or need a favor and they barter with legislation that is mutually beneficial to whoever is involved in the deal. If you have enough money you can get anything done in America. you can get unpopular bills passed you can put politicians in your pocket and get inside information. How can we move American forward with this kind of system?
As far as politicians go I believe Barack Obama is an honest man but as we all know he can’t deliver on all his campaign promises without help from others. Whether or not he will get that help remains to be seen. I feel that once he gets the economy moving forward again and keeps us out of any more unneccessary wars that he would have done his job. Anything else he gets done would be icing on the cake.
Politics is America is a dirty game and very few politicians are able to keep their noses clean. Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac and I believe that many government officials fall under its spell and forget the reason they were elected was to do the people’s business. A politicians office should not be a platform to seek home renovations, luxury vacations, to have various sexual trysts or whatever else their heart desires. So we should not be surprised when a scandal breaks because I believe we expect too much of politicians because after all they are only human.
Does that mean that they should get away with doing what they want, of course not! But until some method is found to reform the American political system there will always be lobbyists, partisanship and snipping in Washington. Real change will be hard to come by!
I really hope Obama can make a change but i’m realistic if change doesn’t happen it won’t be his fault it will be ours because we keep electing officials who are seeking their own interests not ours. President-Elect Obama needs elected officials around him who also want change for American he can’t do it by himself! Unfortunately, many of our elected officials talk about change but what they really want is power and this doesn’t bode well for us regular people.
The New York Post - All The News That’s Not Fit To Print!
Monday, February 23rd, 2009I used to buy the New York Post every now and then, but it was always for the sports section. Over the many my many years residing in New York I found that the Post was the paper most likely to sensationalize stories and just print plain rubbish. I give the National Enquirer and The Star more journalistic props than the Post! Now that they have allowed the clearly racist cartoon showing two white officer gunning down a chimp and the caption saying ”They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill,” I will not buy the Post again!
Everyone knows who that President Obama was pushing the stimulus in an attempt to jump start our ailing economy. So obviously this is a thinly veiled reference referring to him. President Obama has probably worked harder in his first month of office than any other President in US history. George Bush has left a 1.3 TRILLION DOLLAR deficit in his wake and yet the Republicans continue to rail at the Obama plan. Put politics aside for a change and try and help OUR President get the job done. If the economy crashes we are ALL going to suffer grave consequences. All the inflammatory rhetoric is just uncalled for. How is knocking the stimulus going to get us anywhere, especially when the previous administration has left us and economic disaster. All I hear from the Republicans is tax cut, tax cut, tax cut, what else can be done?! Tax cuts for the rich certainly aren’t helping me.
The Post generally supports Republicans, which is not a problem, they have a right to represent their constituency, but they should find a more civilized way to vent any displeasure with the stimulus. Intelligent discourse is what will help us figure out this problem, not blatantly racist cartoons disparging the leader of our great country. Some people say the cartoon doesn’t mention President Obama by name, all I have to say to that you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to understand the reference. If you can’t see a problem with the cartoon take off the blinders and look at it objectively.
While the Post has apologized they are still trying to gloss over the issue by saying the cartoon was referring to congress. Oh really?! Why didn’t it say in the caption?! And what is up with the “Beware of Dog” sign on the pole in the cartoon?! Why use a chimp in the first place?! I know there is story about the chimp that was shot dead for attacking a woman and ripping off her face has been all over the news. It is very insensitive to draw a reference from that story where the woman was badly injured and try to link it to the stimulus bill.
Senator Eric Adams burned a copy of the Post as a symbol of the extreme outrage in the community over the cartoon incident. Personally, I would have just kept things simple and enthuse people to do some good for the environment and use the Post to clean up excrament after their animals and then throw it in the garbage where it belongs. After all it’s all the news that’s not fit to print.
Tags: Barack Obama + chimp cartoon, chimp cartoon, Economic stimulus package + chimp cartoon, New York Post chimp cartoon, Senator Eric Adams, stimulus bill
Posted in Barack Obama, New York City News, Social Commentary, US Politics | 3 Comments »