Out of the mouths of babes.....profanity and political discourse...

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2012/09/27/samuel_l_jackson_to_obama_supporters_wake_the_f_ck_up_.html

Stay Nonpartisan, My Friends

People in my office were looking at this and I thought it was pretty funny!!! Enjoy!\

The Politics of Beer: Stay Nonpartisan, My Friends

http://hotlineoncall.nationaljournal.com/archives/2012/09/the-politics-of-3.php

F*** Prison I'm a Party Rapper

It's hard to explain, but it works.

This is a little odd to read in the 21st century

Mom angry that male vice principal spanked child

"While paddling in public schools has been outlawed by 31 states, as well as by Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, the Supreme Court ruled in 1977 that it was legal unless it has abolished by local authorities, according to the web site Corpun.com.

It is legal in 19 states; efforts to ban it in Wyoming, North Carolina, Louisiana and Texas failed. However, in 2011 laws were introduced in both Texas and North Carolina giving parents the right to exempt their students from paddling." 

On the 47%--a comic smack down, like shooting fish in a barrel....it's too easy....you almost feel sorry for him, but he did say all those things....http://entertainment.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/19/13963038-romneys-47-percent-tape-is-comedy-gold-for-jon-stewart-stephen-colbert

FiveThirtyEight

Just throwing this out there. I don't know if anyone else reads 538 blog, but I subscribe to it religiously. Their election forecasts are updated daily to reflect the current state of the race.

Believe it or Not...

http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/mittromney/ig/Mitt-Romney-Pictures/Romney-and-Bush.htm

I thought this was kind of funny, also kind of scary. Enjoy!

U Didn't Build That

U Didn't Build That: A rap by President Barack Obama

Mitt Romney on the 47%

Here’s a fun clip of Mitt Romney sharing his thoughts about Obama voters at a private fundraiser earlier this year. He says, “There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them…My job is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”

I'm not at all surprised by his comments, but I am curious to see if/how he responds to this video. My guess is he'll call it a petty distraction from "serious, economic issues."

I came by this by way of a friend.  Thought it was fitting to the semester's topic of study. 

In honor of this week's debate...

As many of you probably know, this week's debate is on the Affordable Care Act. This summer, when the SCOTUS decision came out, I was working in a campaign field office shared by Organizing for America (AKA Obama's peeps). Everyone was quite excited by the ruling, and we sent around this blog:
http://whenscotusupheldobamacare.tumblr.com/
I think there are a few funny posts, so check it out if you want...

Military Members Involved in Shooting Rampage

This article reminded me of the discussion about whether or not the government should implement more extensive background checks on people who would like to have a gun... "Are Military Hate Groups on the Rise?"

“In early August, two National Guardsmen on trial said that they joined the military for the specific purpose of receiving training that they could use for skinhead activities. The same month, a shooting rampage at a SikhTemple in Wisconsin that killed six was allegedly committed by an Army veteran with a long history of white supremacist involvement."

 

 

 

Interesting social experiment for k-12 education and the effects on a community

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/16/magazine/kalamazoo-mich-the-city-that-pays-for-college.html?pagewanted=1

iPhone 5 and Keynesian Economics

Analysts at JP Morgan released a report that argues that Apple's release of the iPhone 5 could potentially increase GDP growth in Q4 by 1/4-1/2 percentage points.

How?!?
1. The report projected that, given last year's 4S sales, Apple will sell an enormous amount of phones in the 4th quarter, given the fact that the iPhone 5 launch is expected to be bigger.
2. Although iPhones are manufactured overseas, the majority of the price you pay is domestic value-added (retail, advertising, profits).

Is the JP Morgan report convincing? If so, what does it say about the state of the U.S. economy?

Krugman is calling it "The iPhone Stimulus"

The Truth?

The Romney/Ryan campaign strategy seems to involve laying out broad principles and telling the American people they'll worry about the details after the election. Can they win the race without talking specifics? This short video mashup says it all.

The Words They Used

The Words They Used

Pretty cool interactive feature on the NYTimes website that tracked the most used words at both conventions. Click on any word find excerpts from speeches!

#whenindc

If anyone hasn't seen this yet, it's pretty funny (what I can relate to of it, anyways)

#whenindc

The lack of teachers reflects students' productivity

Florida Schools In Session, But Teachers Absent



Thousands of students in Florida are starting the school year without permanent teachers.

"math tutor Ronnie Padilla is filling in as the French teacher. There's only one problem: He doesn't speak any French. Across from his classroom, Alma Cendejas — the school's front-desk receptionist — is filling in as the Spanish teacher until the school can find one."

And yet Florida expects for students to get good grades, be motivated to go to school, and even better... graduate and make the state proud? 

With out teacher how are students going to learn? If they don't see any progress, how are they going to be motivated? What makes the government believe that students are not going to just "wing it," if that's what the subs due?

Steve Bridges = the man

Unfortunately I only heard about this guy after he died a few months ago. His videos are seriously funny though: how many people (ever) have shared the stage with a sitting president with the sole purpose of making fun of said president? Steve did just that with Bush a couple years back, and did a great job too.

Steve also did a great Obama impersonation, proving that it's possible to make fun of the chief and still be funny. 

It's really too bad he isn't around, I'm sure he'd do a great Romney impression too.

"Wow. Does anybody ever ask that question?"

Apparently it's still necessary to ask women if they can handle simultaneous political careers and motherhood since, you know, it's 1950. Props to Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan for her calm demeanor and quality responses after a reporter asked her questions of this incredibly sexist nature not just once, but three times. 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/post/chicago-sun-times-pursues-politician-who-dares-to-be-a-mom/2012/09/07/f76732e6-f928-11e1-8398-0327ab83ab91_blog.html

Heard on "Wait, wait, don't tell me":  "Michelle Obama's speech at the Democratic Convention was probably the only gun show those delegates had ever attended."

Polling the twitter-verse

While it's too early to tell the effects of President Obama's convention speech, at least we know the speech garnered 52,757 tweets per minute! 

This is what Obama might have been saying (and thinking) last Thursday night.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qv7k2_lc0M&fb_source=message