America Now - Friends and Neighbors

Last night I was watching Dateline, and Ann Curry did an entire segment on how hard the Great Recession has hit some Americans. It was called "America Now-Friends and Neighbors." For nine months she followed a community in southeastern Ohio.

The segment follows an owner of a food pantry and her struggle to keep the pantry up and running, especially as people visiting fod pantries has jumped 30%. Desperate for help, as people wait in line they write notes to the President on empty plates, a symbol for their hunger, asking him to help them out. Eventually over 1200 plates were sent straight to the White House.

It also follows several families in the area. One man has worked for 10 companies that went under and cannot find a job, an extended family of 14 people all have to live in a house together, and another family lives in a camper without running water.

None of them can find jobs. And all of them are barely getting by, just trying to feed their children, as they go hungry.

And the saddest part is these stories are just a dime a dozen.

Did you know that 40 million Americans are now living in poverty? And that means 1 in 5 children are living in poverty?

I sure didn't, and that blew me away.

These are conditions we expect in poorer, less fortunate countries, but not in the wealthiest country in the world...

... not in America.

Poverty is right in our backyard now. Literally. The University of Virginia Health System went to Wise, Virginia for a free health clinic last weekend. It's called a Remote Access Medical clinic, and thousands of people waited in line and even camped in tents in the parking lot to receive free medical care. Wise county has unemployment rates and poverty levels well above the national average. Most of the people in Wise do not have health insurance, and last year 6,000 people were treated and over $2 million of aid was given. You can read more about it here.

The stereotypes that people say about people in poverty and on welfare simply are not true. These people aren't just living off of welfare checks, being lazy, and having 25 kids so they can continue to live on the government's dime. They are working hard every day, trying to find jobs that simply aren't there. Most of them are trained in manufacturing and construction, live in low income areas where they couldn't afford to go to college, and all of their labor jobs have been outsourced to other countries.

I would REALLY encourage you to check out Ann Curry's segment America Now - Friends and Neighbors. The site has the Dateline episode posted there, as well as the full text from the show if you just want to skim through it. There are also personal pictures taken by Curry and ways you can help.

If you go to just one of the several articles/websites I post on this blog, this Dateline episode should be it.

And that's my two cents.

Washington Post Silent on Black Panther Case

As news of the Black Panther voter intimidation case unraveled, the Washington Post apparently decided to simply not report on it.

As a recap: the Black Panthers on election day stood outside of a Philadelphia polling place and threatened people with brandishing sticks to vote for Obama. When they were prosecuted, only one of them was punished, and even that was just a slap on the wrist - he couldn't come within 100 yards of a Philadelphia polling place for a few years.

Please.

So after readers complained to the ombudsman FOR MONTHS about not reporting on the case, the ombudsman scolded his own newspaper for neglecting the topic, and the Post finally issued a full length news article about the Black Panthers.

Many people are now accusing the Post of a double standard. Critics of the Black Panther case say that the only reason people such as J.Christian Adams are fighting for a harsher prosecution is purely partisan politics.

This is just simply not the case. Since when is the right to have a fair and equal voting process only a Republican issue?

Adams spoke out, to the media and the US Commission Civil Rights, that the Justice Department was showing favor to the defendants because they were black, as if trying show reversal racism.

But in the case of the Post not reporting the issue, it should not matter that this has become the conservative fight (even though I really don't understand why), or that it is a possible issue of reverse racism, or even if it's a partisan fight (which I really don't believe it is) - the important thing is that it is an issue. It is a story. And a newspaper's job is to report stories of interest and importance to it's readers. Many other newspapers and news organizations felt it was worth reporting except for the Washington Post.

See this is why I get frustrated when people complain about Fox News, calling them out for being too conservative. They're absolutely right - Fox News is conservative, and I'm not going to act like they aren't unbiased. Journalism is supposed to be unbiased, but really, what newspaper is nowadays? Fox News just reports about more issues that are of interest to the conservative audience. It was the first to pick up on the Black Panther case, and if Fox News doesn't report about these issues, then who will?

Obviously not the Washington Post.

It's clearly not just Fox News and conservative agencies showing a bias in what they choose to report - it's the liberal side, like the Washington Post too.

And again, it still baffles me why this has become a conservative issue. Why does it have to be on one party/ideoligical side at all? It's about the right that each citizen has to vote without any intimidation and experience a fair and equal voting process.

What's so political about that?

And that's my two cents.

Sometimes you just need a different perspective on life...

I first saw this video in church one time when my pastor showed it, and it's funny but also so true. Sometimes we just got so caught up in our little world, a one-track, straightforward mindset, that we forget to look around us. We don't think outside of the box. Sometimes you just need a different perspective on life, to realize maybe things aren't as bad as they seem, that life will go on - that there is always a solution, and you're never really helpless.

If not, we might just find ourselves stuck on an escalator like these two idiots :p

And that's my two cents.

Its cool when your job makes the nightly news

Last night, ABC 7 World News aired a spot about how social media is revolutionizing politics.

Which is exactly my job!

I work for Harris Media, a political communications firm that handles the social media for candidates running for political office. So I get to help update their Facebook pages, twitter accounts, websites, blog posts, etc. You can check out Harris media by going here.

There is definitely no denying how important, almost "viral" social internet media is becoming in politics. What I love about it is it brings voters closer to the campaign and the candidate. Voters can "tweet" a candidate a question or ask them a question on their facebook, and they can communicate with the campaign! Everything is literally at the voter's fingertips - whether they want to learn about the candidate's stance on certain issues, his voting record, or donate/volunteer to the campaign - it is all just a click away. The opportunities are endless.

So in the spirit of social networking - please go "like" Harris Media if you found this interesting! And yes, of course we have our own facebook page :)

Needless to say, I love my job :)

And that's my two cents.

Let's Talk About Arizona

It will probably come as no surprise to those who know me that I support the Arizona immigration law. Especially now that the Justice Department is suing Governor Jan Brewer against the law, it is all extremely ironic.

The Arizona law is actually only following federal immigration regulation. In other words, Arizona is just doing what they were told by the federal government, and more importantly, following the letter of the law.

While the fed is focusing all of its time on Arizona, it is ignoring several other local governments who are not complying with federal immigration law. These local governments are telling their police to not cooperate with federal immigration officials.

Why aren't those governments being sued? You can read more here

Arizona is not actually the first place to enact such a law. My hometown, Prince William County, put a similar law into place before Arizona did, and it succeeded. 80% of residents in Prince William County supported the law. The crime rate went down by 38%, and there was a drop in ESL enrollment and the number of uninsured illegals giving birth in the county. You can learn more, by watching this video.

I just don't understand why the federal government is fighting a law that is protecting its own tax-paying, law abiding citizens in order to promote some amnesty, political agenda.

Lastly, shoot outs resulting in numerous people dying near the Mexican-US border have become all too frequent. The drug cartels, human trafficking, and organized crime is wreaking havoc in our country. You can read more here.

So don't tell me we don't need tighter border control.

And that's my two cents.

DC area says, What Recession?

While the rest of the US is struggling in this current recession, my hometown, the greater DC-Metro area, doesn't seem to be feeling its effects.

Ever since Obama expanded the government and hence government jobs, everyone in politics, policy, and government jobs have had strong job security - aka everyone in Northern Virginia, DC, and Maryland.

Just look at the stats:
Out of the 15 largest metropolitan areas, DC was the one to lose the fewest number of jobs.
Unemployment in the Washington area was only 6% in May, while the national average was 9.5% - not to mention areas in the Midwest that are experiencing the worst unemployment spikes at 14.7%

Northern Virginia has been called one of the wealthiest, most educated ares in the country, and this current economic disconnect is only increasing DC's gap from the rest of the country.

As a resident of Northern Virignia, I have definitely experienced this. Just go to Fair Oaks Mall or Tysons Corner and you will always find a jammed parking lot and think to yourself, "What recession?"

To read more, go to this article.

And that's my two cents.

Georgetown Cupcake - worth the hype?

Georgetown Cupcake is an extremely popular "cupcakery" in the heart of Georgetown, Washington DC. It has been praised across the board from numerous newspapers and food critics - making it a place for people to gather in hopes of eating delicious cupcakes...

...and wait 40 minutes in line for them.

Which is exactly what I did with my friends while we were in DC for the day.

Georgetown Cupcake is so popular that people are willing to wait in line up to an hour for just one of their cupcakes! The line was literally wrapped around the block. People walking around in Georgetown would come up to those of us waiting in line and say, "Really? Those cupcakes are THAT good? You guys are waiting in line for a cupcake!?"

So the experience was definitely fun, to wait in line and be laughed at by passerbys and talk to other people in line - many of who were tourists enjoying the sights of DC - and apparently Georgetown Cupcake had made it onto that prestigious list of places to visit in our nation's capital.

So are the cupcakes really that good?

I was thinking that they must be really good for them to receive all this hype, but I have to say, I was disappointed when I finally bit into what was supposed to be my "40 minutes good delicious morsel of red velvet cupcake." I chose red velvet, because it was apparently what Georgetown Cupcake was known for. While the icing was very good, the cupcake part just tasted like bread and had no flavor to it. My other friends agreed that their cupcakes just tasted like bread too.

Maybe it's a result of mass production, that a once out of this world delicious cupcake fell prey to mainstream popularity which resulted in quick production for more profit. I'm glad I went though, just to see what all the hype was about. But maybe I'm saving you a trip.

Then there is the show that just aired about the cupcakery - called DC Cupcakes on TLC. My best friend and I sat down to watch it, and again, were disappointed in another Georgetown Cupcake production. The scenes looked staged and scripted, and there wasn't enough drama or story to make an interesting plot. Plus the sisters came across as whiny and self-absorbed. I don't know if I'll be tuning in for the next episode.

So the consensus?

Close...but not cigar.

And that's my two cents.