A divided government: The dark art of "filling the tree"

America is at a crucial point in its history, where every political action carries incredible weight. As stated in my earlier post with the political cartoon, it is crucial that our nation moves forward by working across the aisle rather than continuing to gridlock. This article provided a different perspective on the source of gridlock within the senate. In fact, it showed that this is not even a new occurrence, that gridlock has been occurring for years. It simply has been growing in magnitude. This article published in the NYT and written by Jonathan Wiseman, begins with an explanation on background of the issues plaguing the senate. The concept of "filling the tree" is introduced. This has been a strategy utilized by the majority of the senate(primarily the democrats) over the past few years. "Filling the tree" is matched with strong filibustering on the part of the republicans. This has left senate in a stalemate, where even the simplest legislation requires a supermajority to pass. Wiseman presents the information in a very unbiased manner remaining neutral. Both perspectives are presented equally, where many seem to have claimed the senate itself has always been incredibly gridlocked. Wiseman also pulled information from political science majors to explain the perspectives. Not only does this establish a sense of ethos and legitimacy, but it also provides a greater sense of persona and color to the text. The interviews assisted in my understanding of the topic. The use of a graphic also assisted in showing the drastic increase in the use of the dirty political tactics. The graphic is below:

The top line is a representation of the number filibustering practices and the bottom line represents the use of "filling the tree". Below the line graph is a representation of the majority and minority parties for each senate. This clearly shows the dramatic shift in use of dirty tactics and really struck a nerve in my mind. Hopefully in the future our nation is able to overcome the political pandering and to come together as one productive unit.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/25/us/politics/new-senates-first-task-will-likely-be-trying-to-fix-itself.html?pagewanted=1&hp&gwh

Preparing for the worst: The growing survivalist industry

Sandy laid a devastating blow to the northeast US, causing widespread power outages and billions in damage. Accompanying this were gas shortages and scenes that would have been thought to be post-apocalyptic. This had left a great deal of fear within the thoughts of Americans, but that fear had already been present with many other Americans. Thus, the prepardness industry was born. This article follows the life of Ron Douglas, a suburban dad who started a preparedness company. From the beginning I was struck by the image chosen for the article. This image shows his fairly large family of 8 surrounded by an incredible spread of materials. Who has over 20 barrels of rice and solar panels in their basement? Ron Douglas does. The article starts off with a presentation of Douglas grabbing a coffee at Starbucks(seemingly breaking the persona of a typical survivalist.) An exposition explaining the industry itself is first presented. Then, a background is presented on how Douglas moved into the industry and what prompted his interest. The whole story seems to look at his life in an almost ironic sense. Most suburbanites would not be thought to be preparing for the worst as he does. By using this irony, the article attempts to smash the stereotypes often associated with an individual who is a survivalist; a rural conservative. This is also the aim that Douglas himself wants to create. He wants every individual to be prepared, regardless of political stance, and that was evidenced by the stark contrast presented by the booths at his expo. A local tea party delegation was present along with an organic juice company, two organizations you would never expect to see in the same room. This article was part of the NYT magazine and was written by Keith O'Brien, a frequent contributor to the Times. His use of interviews and imagery of Douglas' life provided great perspective on the character of Douglas. O'Brien was able to present  the aim of Douglas while still presenting background on the individual himself. His writing was very effective and concise. In the future, it will be interesting to see how relevant the movement remains.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/18/magazine/how-to-survive-societal-collapse-in-suburbia.html?pagewanted=1&gwh&ref=global-home

Political cartoon post election: exactly mimicking my thoughts

When browsing time earlier today, something in the political cartoons really caught my attention. Why is that? It is because the cartoon resonated exactly with my concern for the future of this country. Here is the cartoon in its full glory:

Source: http://ideas.time.com/2012/11/08/cartoons-of-the-week-november-2-9/?iid=op-article-cartoonweek

Our country is attempting to escape the economic depths which are at its deepest since the great depression. Yet, our congress has the lowest approval rating ever. This is caused by strong political divide between the GOP and Democrats. America has taken on an unfortunate mentality of "my team is better than yours." and this represents the failures and shortcomings of the American two-party system in this day and age. Politicians simply can not be bipartisan anymore. In Mitt Romney's concession speech he urged politicians to "work across the aisle", if Romney had run off that platform from the beginning he would have had mine and many other moderate's vote. But, the extreme right conservative base has restricted the GOP candidate's mobility. For the successful future of the GOP and America in general, a transition must be made, where compromises are made. Compromises built this country, and it is time to return back to thinking in the general well-being of this nation. This cartoon represents that great divide confronting our country. On the left is Obama and the democrats celebrating their win, which is appropriate. But, on the left the GOP is celebrating a loss. This right off the bat, creates a strong sense of irony. Wouldn't you want to reevaluate your party values if the election was unsuccessful, so the party could win in the future? Instead, the group is adding "gridlock" into the mix. Which implies the notion that the GOP-controlled house will block all forthcoming legislation to put the president in a negative light. Put simply; this is ridiculous. This cartoon incites anger within me, forming a strong sense of pathos without any real strong words. It incites fear, fear of a tomorrow marred with a lack of progress and improvement. The author's intended purpose was to show the division present, this then creates an assumption that our country will not move "forward" as was the campaign slogan for Obama, and will rather be stuck like a traffic jam. This cartoon was taken from the International Herald Tribune which is the global version of the New York Times, a very popular source for US politics news. This cartoon brings out the greatest disappointment currently present in the dirty game of politics, I can only hope that in my future my peers and I can rid this gridlock and bring unity to a great nation in need of an economic recovery.

Steve Jobs entry two: From the first encounter to the first polished product

Steve Jobs continues to deliver on its original hype with the next reading I completed. At first glance, I was incredibly surprised to see a biography at 500+ pages, it would seem as if the text was written as a textbook on Steve Jobs. As I progressed into the second section of my reading, I began to understand why the book looks so thick. The level of detail presented with each story in Steve Jobs is simply impeccable. As someone who has a great deal of background knowledge on Steve Jobs, it was incredible to see how much I never knew about him, and to see the small details, such as the fateful day when Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak met was really enlightening. It is no question that the author, Walter Isaacson, spent many days talking to Jobs about his life and the intricate details of every scenario. That being said, the book still seems concise, as I felt like I was flying though time as each story was linked together. Isaacson accomplishes an incredible feat in writing; providing a great depth of detail in an incredibly concise manner. This reading section went from the spawning of Steve Jobs longtime friendship with über tech-nerd Steve Wozniak. Wozniak is described in great detail as someone who was incredibly tech savvy, more so than jobs. They would then become the power duo, with Jobs being the business/marketing end, and Wozniak being the technical end. Isaacson described the couple through metaphors; "Wozniak would be the gentle wizard coming up with a neat invention that he would be more than happy to give away, and Jobs would figure out how to make it user friendly , put it together in a package, market it, and make a few bucks." (Isaacson 30) Isaacson also furthered the less-than-perfect character of Jobs. Many saw Steve Jobs as someone who was perfect from the start, but in actuality, Jobs had no real direction in life before Apple grew to its success(which began at the end of this section with the Apple II). Vivid imagery is utilized to portray Jobs' "experimental" period. Jobs would often take LSD, and went on a trip to India to discover himself. He came back a buddhist, a religion to which he held onto until his death. Perhaps the most interesting tool that Isaacson utilized in this section was intricate characterization of each individual that had an impact on Jobs' life. Isaacson split each chapter into specific sections which furthered the characterization of less-important individuals; such as his high school girlfriend. These sections also included interviews from the actual people themselves describing Jobs' own character. This really gave many different angles on Jobs, not just a one-sided perspective. Isaacson's book continues to impress and I can not wait to see how the rest of the story progresses.