Thursday, January 28, 2010

State of The Union Address

I think that overall, the Democrats were the main ones supporting Obama, which obviously isn’t much of a surprise. I think that Obama’s ideas sound great, but he doesn’t present the reasonable plan to back them up. He talks about decreasing the deficit while decreasing taxes, but he never states how he is going to do it. Also he uses statements like the one where he mentioned that he didn’t increase income taxes for anyone. While this statement is true, he fails to mention that he just redesigned the tax tables for people. He also mentions how student loans will get paid off by the government after 20 years if the students pay 10 percent of their income every month. This sounds great to every student thinking about going to college, but the problem is that colleges put out a certain amount of money every year expecting to get most of it back from student loans. Essentially, they are spending money that they do not have, but are guaranteed to get reimbursed on. While this sounds great, if students do not pay back the full amount that they took out, then the colleges cannot supply their current students with money because the amount that they are supposed to receive back will not be paid back fully. The students trying to get into college will not be awarded with as many grants and scholarships because the colleges will need the funding to actually remain afloat. His plans for eradicating debt are in my opinion useless, because if you don’t have a plan to actually get rid of it, then you don’t just stand back and do nothing with it, instead; just as he suggested with the student loans, you just spread it around and wait for future generations to eventually pay it off.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Kennedy and Eisenhower speeches

Do these speeches show basic agreement or disagreement a bout the goals of national policy? Use specific examples from the speeches to illustrate your ideas.


"This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence – economic, political, even spiritual – is felt in every city, every Statehouse, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society".

Eisenhower wanted to improve the arms that the united states had by becoming more technologically advanced and making the US stronger by increasing the amount of supplies we had.

JFK wanted to use mental tactics and well thought out moves before using weapons.
In this sentence he states that arms are necessary and we will have to eventually fight but the reason that we are fighting is also impoartant and it is good to be smart in the decisions that we make.

"Now the trumpet summons us again—not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are—but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, "rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation"—a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself".

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Eisenhower and Stevenson campaign ads

As I watched all of the Eisenhower campaign ads, the notion of the family man who was a brilliant and strong general is reinforced through every means possible. The ads portray a man who is quick but decisive and can make decisions that will be wise but also morally strong. With the Korean War being fought at this time, the people of the United States were looking for a leader that was familiar with war but would also bring the men who the constituents loved home, so that they could be with their family. The point that Eisenhower was trying to get across was that he had the knowledge and experience of battle and could bring a peaceful ending to the war. One of Eisenhower's ads has a black male asking him a question and Eisenhower has a response that is summarized to say that the American people are facing all kinds of problems and that life isn't as good as people lie about. By posing and answering this question, Eisenhower tries to show the people that he recognizes the problems and will not just look over them hoping that they will go away over time. With the cheerful chants of "Ike", I also noticed that this catchy song hooked the viewer and made it almost seem as if the viewer would be happy like the song if they voted for Ike.

For the first clip for Stevenson, the reader is drawn in by an attractive woman singing. This tactic was used to show women that other women had an interest in Stevenson and this add lured men into watching it because the woman has a low cut dress on. The image of a housewife saying that Stevenson would be good is reinforcing the notion of the wives at home helpfully suggesting to their husbands what would be good for them, just as all mothers do. With the seductive winks and nods and eye lash flickers, the woman's appearance is focused more on than the rhyming of the lines within the song.

The tactics of rhyming, attractive women, and television ads just show how technology and campaigning is evolving. These ads show us that in 1952, the world was becoming for technologically advanced and also more deceptive, since now they not only could deceive the audeince not just through the radio, but also visually. The use of attractive women singing and catchy rhyming songs helped to get the tunes stuck in someones head which having an image to go along with the tunes certainly helped also.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Cold War Blog Post

Truman Doctorine:
His main point is that he is worried about foreign policy and how the Greeks and Turkish are threatening it. Spreading democracy is our main goal and with the threat of Communism "riding our tails" the fight so actually spread democracy becomes threatened. Truman addresses Congress to find ways to protect the nation as a whole and how to get involved with other countries and protect them. The economic situation of the world is starting to become more upward looking and Truman wants to keep the world in a more positive direction. Truman asks Congress to give him aid in helping the Greek government who is begging for our help. This document helps us to understand that America was against Communism and wanted to approach the situation in a frienly, helping manner, while remaining within the bounds of the constitution. Truman wanted to plan his moves and make them as decisive as he could so that a full war did not break out between Democracy and Communism.

Kennan's Telegram:
Just as Truman was trying to find the smartest ways to approach the request in aid with Greece, Kennerman tries to do the same for the Soviet union. In a world where Communism reigns and where Capitalism is wished to be, again the US is faced with the fight against forgien ideals. While trying to keep peace around the world by spreading democracy and captialism, the US attempts to battle an ideal which they are strongly against. Just as Truman addresses that he wants to keep peace in his address to Congress, Kennan also reiterates that peace in the world should be maintained while spreading our ideals.