I don’t believe in the Republican Party or the Democratic Party. I just believe in parties.

November is only 5 months away and we all know what that means! Turkey, mashed potatoes, food coma and black Friday shopping?! Well yes but not what I had in mind. It’s actually the 57^th quadrennial presidential election! Obviously much more exhilarating…

Yeah I know what your thinking – “Politics? Really?” Hear me out though, really.

As some of you may know, America consists of two political parties who run against each other every four years to become President of the United States. No these parties are not the Frat Party and Bar Party they are the Republican Party and Democratic Party. This year current Democratic President Barak Obama and Republican candidate Mitt Romney will be running against each other for the 2012-2016 presidential term.

As young adults it is our responsibility this November to vote in the 2012 Presidential election.

Not sure what you need to do to be eligible to vote? No worries, just check out RockTheVote.com and all the information you could possibly need is there. You’ll be ready to straight-ticket whichever party in no time.

-Chelsey Perry

Making Joseph Kony famous – Why was the Campaign so Successful?

I’m impressed but also a little bit horrified.

By now over 15 million people have seen Invisible Children’s Kony2012 campaign, a 29 minute film detailing the horrific actions of the Lord’s Resistance Army and its leader. This rebel group, which has captured 30,000 young children and molded them into guerilla fighters and sex slaves, started in Northern Uganda in the 1980’s but has since moved out of the region into the Eastern Congo and Central African Republic.

Despite the video’s recent release, it has seen an overwhelming amount of criticism – some of which I believe is warranted. Put simply, the movement would have been beneficial decades ago when the LRA was still highly powerful and in Uganda. Sadly, it was entirely ineffective at relaying where exactly the atrocities were currently being committed. The result? Now the general public, as evidenced by my Facebook newsfeed, still believes Uganda is a war zone. The campaign was also unclear about what exactly it wanted its viewers to do aside from signing a pledge, donating their money or putting up a yard sign.

But, weaknesses aside, we all need to admit: this campaign is one of the most effective marketing ploys we’ve seen in a very long time. So let’s focus on what made the video so powerful and leave the political and global implications for the experts.

Heart-wrenching cinematography? Check!
Images of young, frightened Uganda children running for their lives into the night combined with the producer’s toddler son Gavin, giving us his opinion on the travesties. How can you not feel emotional? I can’t help but wonder if they strategically placed Gavin front-and-center in the film because they thought the public would best understand the conflict if it were simply explained to them by a “parent.” Give us a little credit please!

Highly overpriced bracelet and poster? Check!
But wait, it gets better. You also get one to share with a friend. This is a key item for any “Action Kit” because it allows supporters to be identified by a signature item while helping them feel a sense of group pride and loyalty.  Apparently the kit was so popular that sales had to be put on hold because of high demand. Wasn’t this something they should have been anticipating or is the shortage part of the more elaborate plan?

Make young people feel empowered? Check, check, check!
The video was genius-ly focused on “this time” and “this place.” College students are a prime target for inciting change because we always want to be a part of the next big movement. The video tapped into our idealism, energy and talent for social media.

I happen to believe that this video is only Step 1 of an elaborate process that we will see unfold over the coming weeks. I think it is unlikely that the campaign released this video more than a month before their event on April 20^th expecting the energy to maintain itself. While the video was obviously effective in igniting a virtual frenzy, it was not as effective in disseminating the correct information.

So, for all you idealistic, bracelet-wearing activists please also check out the two valuable critiques of the video below and Invisible Children’s response. The best opinion is always the most informed.

Visible Children
Foreign Affairs
Invisible Children’s Response

-Nina Keehan

WBC and the Art of Protesting

For all my outspokeness about politics, I rarely actually get to be part of any real political protests. I support the Occupy movement wholeheartedly, but sadly my work schedule at Newhouse negates me from being able to participate as much as I’d like. However, I recently had the opportunity to participate in a political protest against the Westboro Baptist Church last weekend.

For those of you who have not heard of the Westboro Baptist Church, they are a church group who believes that because America tolerates homosexuality, that is why God has let X happen. Over the years, X has included soldiers’ deaths, Hurricane Katrina, 9/11, etc. For those of you who are unaware of their existence, I envy your ignorance. I myself had the displeasure of finding out about these guys when they decided that the entire city of Syracuse was going to Hell for worshipping Bernie Fine–a guy I’m sure most of us didn’t even know about until the scandal broke.

Barney Frank’s Retirement Signifies the End of an Era

Barney Frank has announced that he is retiring from Congress after 30 years of service to the United States and its citizens. For those of you who are unaware as to who Barney Frank is, he is one of the most well-known and prominent openly gay Jewish elected officials in the United States. Seriously, this guy is like the living, breathing embodiment of everything liberal. Only thing he needs now is two lesbian mothers to flesh it all out. But not to worry, we’ve got this guy, so all is well.

Also, unlike most infamously closeted gay elected officials who tend to run on ‘family values’ such as Phil Hinkle, who allegedly offered an 18 year old a bribe consisting of an iPad, Blackberry and cash to keep quiet, Frank has never been shy or quiet about his own orientation and who he is as a person.

The GOP’s Problem with Facts

Okay, fresh off the great Rick Perry “Oops” debacle, we have Herman Cain with his own ridiculous political blunder. For those of you who don’t know what happened here yet, during an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial board, Herman Cain was asked a very simple question: Was he in favor of the actions taken by President Barack Obama in Libya? Cain then proceeds to breathe heavily, look around vacantly and muss about with his water bottle as he desperately searches for an answer in his own head. Take a quick look for yourselves.

I’ll be honest, this flub is not quite as bad as the Rick Perry debate, but his inability to give a straight answer does give the impression of one of two things. First, he actually does not know the issues at hand well enough to form a coherent opinion. Second possibility is that he does know and simply is trying to figure out which answer is the one that Republican voters want to hear.

NYC City Hall: “Take Your Rights and Get Out!”

I realize that I’ve been ranting and raving about the the Occupy Wall Street movement, and I will continue to do so long as it’s relevant. But, it just seems that every other day, something enlightening or maddening occurs within its context. It’s kind of like a car fire to me, I just can’t seem to look away.

With that said, I would like to bring to you yet another injustice brought down upon the OWS protesters who have been going strong for two months. Last week, the protesters were handed an eviction notice by City Hall. That’s right, they were told to leave Zuccotti Park, the place where the mini-village of protesters has sprouted up, under the pretense of “park cleanup.” Because calling the protesters ‘trash’ like they want to would have been a bad PR move.

Depicted: Jobless OWS Protestor

Bachmann Sucks. Santorum Sucks. Who Else?

Oh yeah, that’s right, Rick Perry sucks too, and he just proved it spectacularly. I was trying to actually avoid dealing with this particular debacle, but Perry’s royal screw up is kind of like when you’re throwing a college party and ‘that guy’ no one knows gets so drunk and sick he can’t remember where his own house is. When you’re a political blogger, you just can’t ignore something like this.

It's kind of like that, but with a leftist spin.

So, what’s to be said about the Rick Perry brain fart? For one, it shows that almost none of the GOP candidates seem to have thought of a political position that goes any further than “we need to cut big guberment!” Seriously, cutting, that’s all they’ve got going for them. Bachmann wants to repeal the EPA; Cain, when not being accused of some nefarious sexual misdeed, wants to ‘cut’ all taxes down to 9 percent; and Rick Perry seems to have already cut the connections to and from his own prefrontal cortex. For those of you who haven’t witnessed this clusterfuck yet, I’ll let you guys take a look at this mess for yourself.

‘Faketriots’ Run Amok

Originally, I was going to make this about how the only time you hear about violent extremism, it is almost always right-wing ‘patriots’ who seem to think that bigotry, hatred and violence are the most American thing since apple pie. Unfortunately, the douchebag Occupy Oakland vandals decided to piss all over that for me. But regardless, their petty acts of vandalism pale in comparison to the level of violence planned in Georgia by a group of right-wing geriatrics that I will loathsomely dub ‘Faketriots.’

Apparently, these Faketriots decided they had enough of government intervention, all likely while being on Social Security and Medicare, and decided that it was time to heave themselves off their hemorrhoid doughnuts, take a beta blocker and after Bingo, plot a little domestic terrorism.

"Sorry, can't watch "Price Is Right" with you. I've got plans..."

Dear Occupy Oakland Douchebags, Knock It Off!

I’d just like to preface this with a statement: I do not begrudge the Occupy Oakland movement as a whole. This address is strictly to the dumbasses that seem to think that smashing windows and spraying graffiti is a good way to make progress. I’ll put it to you all quite simply: you are deluded, violent criminals and are no better than those we fight against. You are all traitors to the cause. Shit like this has absolutely no place in these protests. All you are doing when you act violently is give the entire movement a bad name and grant sympathy to the institution we are fighting against.

Great job, douchebag; you sure showed them.

This movement is about something far greater than your petty desire to break and paint shit. The entire Occupy movement has a fragile enough peace with the authorities doing everything in their power to shut down the movement. You just gave them the pretense they need to slam us all and lump us in with you. So, what you did makes me draw one of two conclusions.

Is the GOP Cockblocking Obama?

As if my amazement could not grow even more, it turns out that the gridlocked Republican majority House of Representatives actually passed a part of the Obama Jobs Plan. Now, the real question is, what’s the catch? When I read this story, I immediately began to look for the greater substance. Well, the real substance is that the effort was actually centered around repealing a tax requirement on an obscure number of businesses that was never even enacted.

This was passed while the rest of the Jobs Plan, which was intended to “overhaul the tax code, make sweeping changes to entitlement programs and eliminate the waste, fraud and abuse that lawmakers so often cite as their central legislative goals,” has yet to be voted on. The illustration below is a dramatic enactment of what this passing means as a whole in terms of job creation.

Yay...