AMERICA FOR DUMMIES

"Witnessing and experiencing the apathy and ignorance of American youth towards the world and the people that govern it has become an astonishing aspect of the “American Lifestyle.” Growing up in a third world country, traveling the world and really seeing both sides of the picture made me question the capability of the future leaders of our world. America for Dummies is my quest to uncover why we are so apathetic about the world, let alone our nation, especially in our post-9/11 atmosphere."Niaz Mosharraf

Winner of the Youth Voice Award from the 2009 Media That Matters Film Festival.

Carrying on a Legacy - Representative Patrick Kennedy

I first met Congressman Patrick Kennedy a few years ago at a hearing in Trenton. At that time he was traveling around the country meeting with ordinary citizens to hear their mental health and addiction-related stories as well as their difficulties in getting appropriate healthcare treatment. The Congressman was the chief sponsor of and reintroduced a bill named The Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act, a landmark legislation that became law in 2008. The Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act ensures that mental health benefits are offered at parity with medical benefits, providing access to mental health services for approximately 113 million Americans. This legislation sought the breakdown of discrimination in insurance coverage for mental health compared to physical health care. No small feat. Especially since it took over ten years to pass the legislation.

Patrick Kennedy, a Democrat of Rhode Island saw the bill as a civil rights issue and openly described his own drug dependence and depression as a mental illness and felt fortunate as a Congressman to get the best healthcare treatment for his own problems and wanted to make sure every American could receive the same level of healthcare. This sounds quite reminiscent of his father Edward Kennedy.

The media eulogies abound this week for Senator Ted Kennedy, rightly so. However, repeatedly we are being told that the Senator is the last in the line of the Kennedy family legacy. Why do they not refer to Patrick Kennedy? If anyone will continue the work of Senator Teddy Kennedy it will be his son, Patrick. Patrick Kennedy sits on the Subcommittees on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education; Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies; and on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs. He is also a member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and has introduced several bills which would strengthen laws regarding handguns. He may not have the same dynamic personality as his father, but I can say he was very warm and kind when I met him.

The next time someone in the media acts like there is no one left in the Kennedy family to continue the legacy or replace Edward, let us consider Patrick Kennedy and recognize that he has the political where-with-all to continue empathetic and realistic work on healthcare reform and other social issues. But the values and principles of Senator Ted Kennedy can-and-should be realized in each of us as American citizens, as well.

BOOK | THE NUMERATI

Every day we produce loads of data about ourselves simply by living in the modern world: we click web pages, flip channels, drive through automatic toll booths, shop with credit cards, and make cell phone calls. Now a savvy group of mathematicians and computer scientists are beginning to sift through this data to dissect us and map out our next steps. Their goal? To manipulate our behavior -- what we buy, how we vote -- without our even realizing it.

Journalist Stephen Baker provides us with a fascinating guide to the world we're all entering -- and to the people controlling that world. The Numerati have infiltrated every realm of human affairs, profiling us as workers, shoppers, patients, voters, potential terrorists -- and lovers. The implications are vast. Our privacy evaporates. Our bosses can monitor and measure our every move (then reward or punish us). Politicians can find the swing voters among us, by plunking us all into new political groupings with names like "Hearth Keepers" and "Crossing Guards." It can sound scary. But the Numerati can also work on our behalf, diagnosing an illness before we're aware of the symptoms, or even helping us find our soul mate.

By analyzing the data they gather about us, retailers are learning how to lavish big spenders with special attention and nudge cheapskates toward the door... The same algorithms originally used to combat e-mail spam by predicting its mutations are now being used to predict the mutations of the HIV virus...Researchers at Carnegie Mellon are studying the patterns of office e-mail to spot signs of subversive networks taking shape within a company...

Meet Stephen Baker on October 6, 2008 at the Princeton Barnes & Noble.

PARODY THIS!

Ok, I couldn't pass this one up. My very last post was about an engaging artist exhibit that parodied the media's depiction of the democratic candidates Obama and Clinton. Now that Obama has come out as the candidate for the Democratic party, we have a fresh new media parody with the New Yorker magazine cover. But unfortunately for the smart and witty New Yorker magazine, even the Obama campaign is denouncing the cover as "tasteless" and "offensive" and of course McCain is on the same bandwagon. There's been so much outrage about this cover in the past 2 days and it just seems ridiculous. But then again we have to be sensitive about the US constituency. That's the problem with satire, it's risky and can be high-brow and people just won't get it. Messages have to be "watered down" and even the candidates who do get it, prefer to act like it's an outrage. What happened to clear communication and talking about a subject. Like parody and satire are a solid asset of our democracy. Perhaps the outrage is that we can't seem to criticize or poke fun at anything in the political and corporate arenas anymore. Funny thing is that The New Yorker knows what they're doing. They had to know this would cause a fuss. They've been known to work with companies to take over many advertising pages and integrate them into the look, feel and image of the magazine. I think there's more than meets THE EYE here.

ELECTION 2008: HOW ARE YOU LEANING?

With the Iowa Caucus drawing near what presidential candidate are you leaning towards? Don't know? Confused? Here are some fun and handy surveys to take that will only take a few minutes of your time, but may help to clarify your position on issues and that of the candidates.

Select a MPR Candidate Poll

WQAD Select a Candidate Quiz

When you're done with those consider voting on the MySpace Presidential Primary

Looking for some Iowa Primary statistics?

POLITICAL ADVERTISING. DOES IT GET ANY MORE OBNOXIOUS?

Political-advertising spending has zoomed past projections and is headed toward a stratospheric $2 billion-plus this year, some 17.6% more than 2004.
~Source ADAGE~
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A familiar excuse for negative advertising is that "everybody does it." Newspaper stories about attack commercials usually include a sampling of harsh Democratic spots in an effort to appear evenhanded. But there's really no comparison between what the two parties and their respective surrogates are doing. According to factcheck.org, a respected site that reviews the accuracy of various ads, "the National Republican Campaign Committee's work stands out this year for the sheer volume of assaults on the personal character of Democratic House challengers."

Negative Democratic ads tie Republican candidates to President Bush, and to the Iraq war, or accuse them of being in the tank for the oil or pharmaceutical industries. But Democratic ads do not charge that their opponents "prey on our children"—even though one recently resigned following accusations that he did precisely that. One can only imagine the ads Republicans would have made this year if Mark Foley had happened to be a Democrat. Spreading hatred and poisonous lies about one's opponent has become an ordinary and almost accepted part of running for office. Go to SLATE story

NEW YORKER WINS BEST COVER OF THE YEAR

A New Yorker magazine cover depicting President Bush being flooded in the Oval Office after Hurricane Katrina has been chosen by a panel of the nation’s magazine editors and designers as the best cover of the year. The illustration shows the waters rising around Mr. Bush and his top appointees as the flood from New Orleans engulfs the White House, which was criticized for failing to respond promptly and fully to the disaster. Read Story