1. Increased Funding for Pell Grants
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A higher education overhaul that allows for an increase in Pell Grant funding at universities has been signed by President Barack Obama as a part of the health care reform bill. Students will now receive federal financial aid directly through the government instead of working through middleman lending agencies. Obama contends this stipulation will make an extra $68 billion available over the next decade, much of which will be funneled into Pell Grant funding.
Quote: "School, as run by corporations, teaches us how to use our FEEDS."
— M.T. Anderson (Feed) pg.109
2. Ended Media Blackout on War Casualties
image via: BBC
Reporters are allowed to witness ceremonies marking the return of fallen soldiers, with the permission their family members. The media ban was first put in place during the 1991 Gulf War. President George H W Bush, who implemented the media blackout, said it was necessary to protect the families of fallen soldiers. President Obama and Defence Secretary Robert Gates opted to change the policy shortly after Mr Obama took office. Under new guidelines, the media are allowed access to the ceremonies, but only with the permission of the dead soldiers' family members.
Quote: "I can remember remembering. Who are we, if we don't have a past?"
— M.T. Anderson (Feed) pg.199
3. Obama & Google Get "Cozy"
image via: Zimbio.com
A watchdog group is calling for a probe into a company that it says is far too cozy with the Obama administration: Google. The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), a group that advocates for a smaller and more ethical government, wrote to leaders of the House Oversight Committee this month urging them to investigate a major privacy breach by Google. It wants to know if the company’s ties to the administration helped it dodge penalties after the incident.
The group also urges a look at Google’s ties to the administration more generally, pointing to what it calls “a growing body of evidence” that shows the administration’s “unusually close relationship with Google has resulted in favoritism towards the company on federal policy issues.”
After Google admitted last month that it collected and stored private user information, including passwords and entire e-mails, from Wi-Fi networks, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) closed an inquiry into the issue, citing promises from the company that it would improve its privacy practices.
Quote: "The Net is becoming a universal medium, the conduit for most of the information that flows through my eyes and ears and into my mind."
— Nicholas Carr, "Is Google Making us Stupid?"
4. Tobacco Regulation
image via: TMZ
By a ratio of 3 to 1, the House of Representatives approved the Senate version of a bill that gives the federal government sweeping new powers to regulate tobacco.
President Obama, himself a smoker who has struggled to quit, congratulated lawmakers. "We've known for years, even decades, about the harmful, addictive and often deadly effects of tobacco products," he said. "Each year, Americans pay nearly $100 billion in added health-care costs due to smoking. Each day, about 1,000 young people under the age of 18 become regular smokers."
For smokers, the law will mean confronting graphic warnings of the risks of their habit every time they pick up a pack, and possible changes to the formulations of cigarettes and cigars. Congress has been battling for more than a decade over regulating tobacco, coming close several times but faltering in the face of procedural hang-ups or opposition from the tobacco lobby or the White House. Over the years, changing social attitudes toward smoking have helped transform the suggestion of regulating tobacco from controversial to common sense.
Quote: "The television commercial is not at all about the character of products to be consumed. It is about the character of the consumers of products."
— Neil Postman, "Amusing Ourselves to Death" pg.128
5. Obama was top recipient of BP-related dollars in 2008
image via: Rollingstones.com
As petroleum giant BP comes under congressional scrutiny as its ruptured oil rig pumped thousands of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, its political contributions were being scrutinized, too. The top recipient of BP-related donations during the 2008 presidential election was Barack Obama, who collected $71,000, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
When questioned about the donations, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs made a point of noting that the money came from employees and not the company itself. BP employees gave more than $3 million in campaign contributions during the past decade and almost $110,000 in 2010. Fifty-seven percent of BP's contributions went to Republicans, while 43 percent went to Democrats.
Quote: "The natural world is so adaptable...So adaptable you wonder what's natural."
— M.T. Anderson (Feed)
6. Obama Places Shady Investments
image via: News.Yahoo.com
On March 7, 2007, the New York Times reported that Obama had invested more than $50,000 worth of stock in two "speculative" companies whose major investors included some of his largest political donors. One of the companies was a biotech concern that was starting to develop a drug to treat avian flu.
In March 2005, two weeks after buying about $5,000 of its shares, Mr. Obama took the lead in a legislative push for more federal spending to battle the disease. The most recent financial disclosure form for Obama also shows that his blind trust bought more than $50,000 in stock in a satellite communications business whose principal backers include four friends and donors who had raised more than $150,000 for his political committees.
Quote: It is essential that physicians, epidemiologists, and health workers speak out through their respective associations and refute the government officials who are acting on behalf of the pharmaceutical industry, as well as denounce the manipulation of data.
— "Project Censored 2011" Chapter 11: The H1N1 Swine Flu Pandemic: Manipulating Data to Enrich Drug Companies
7. Obama Takes a Dip into Blackwaters (Xe)
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In late 2008, Blackwater Worldwide, already under fire because of accusations of abuses by its security guards in Iraq and Afghanistan, reconfigured a 183-foot oceanographic research vessel into a pirate-hunting ship for hire and then began looking for business from shipping companies seeking protection from Somali pirates.
In the end, Blackwater Maritime Security Services found no treasure in the pirate-chasing business, never attracting any clients. And the Obama administration chose not to sever the American government’s relationship with the North Carolina-based firm, which has collected more than $1 billion in security contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001. Blackwater renamed itself Xe Services, and earlier this year the company won a $100 million contract from the Central Intelligence Agency to protect the spy agency’s bases in Afghanistan.
Quote: "The number of strike orders by the Obama administration has now surpassed the number during the Bush era in Pakistan, inciting fierce criticism from Pakistan and some US lawmakers over civilian deaths."
— "Project Censored 2011" Chapter 5: Blackwater (Xe): The Secret US War in Pakistan
8. Obama’s Charter School Policies
image via: Thecaucus.com
Obama’s national education policy supports the expansion of charter schools to undermine public education and schoolteacher labor unions. Obama wants to tie teachers’ pay to student performance, which would be measured through test scores. Merit pay based on performance is strongly opposed by teachers’ unions nationwide. Teachers want equal pay for equal work and assurances that funding for low-income schools will be fair. Charters are known for resisting teacher unions, which means they drive segregation not only in the student population but in the school workforce as well.
They say the US cannot compete globally without an educated workforce; they tell us that America is falling behind in the economic global race to the top; they say US competition is failing and thus the entire enterprise of America stands held hostage to the unforgiving failures of American public education that can be pinned on the teacher’s unions.
Obama’s "Race to the Top" contest has awarded only two states thus far, but has compelled nearly every state to alter its education code in anticipation of winning a piece of the several billion dollar federal aid package.
Quote: "Charter schools continue to stratify students by race, class, and sometimes language, and are more racially isolated than traditional public schools in virtually every state and large metropolitan area in the country."
— "Project Censored 2011" Chapter 20: Obama’s Charter School Policies Spread Segregation and Undermine Unions
9. Celebrity in Chief?
It has been a long debated question whether Barack Obama is more of a politician or a celebrity. As a presidential candidate, he has come under heavy fire for his celebrity status. Seeing that all presidential candidates are under the merciless eye of both tabloid reporters and political columnists, the question is whether he has really earned this dubious reputation — and whether it matters.
What I’m interested in is what makes Obama such an iconic figure. I think that for many young voters, and young people in general, Obama has transcended the celebrity status. Humans are by nature intrigued by the lives of others and tabloids only tap into this innate thirst for gossip. Even for bystanders who look down on celebrity gossip, they are nevertheless intrigued by the lives of the stars — who’s in relationship with whom, who’s in custody battle over which adopted child, and what celeb is getting out of rehab today. Obama has earned not only the support of many college students, he’s also earned nods from many other celebrities.
Quote: The term “Global Media” is misleading in that it obscures the fact that ownership and control of the “global” media industry is not really spread out globally, but instead are centralized and concentrated in a few wealthier nations.
— David Croteau and William Hoynes, "Media/Society"
10. Obama & Media Influence
image via: CNN.com
The media loves him. Worships him. To the point where he could actually be much more dangerous and destructive than I think he actually is. This isn’t Barack’s fault, either–it’s the media, the modern political-entertainment-industrial complex, and the apparently very large percentage of the American people that are ripe to shave their heads, join a cult, and drink whatever Kool-Aid someone really cool (and well-spoken) is willing to offer them, especially if it comes with the promise of some sort of magical fix or government hand-out.
image via: TMZ
I wonder if People Magazine supports Obama?
Who wouldn't support a perfect family man, right?
image via: comicbookresources.com
Savage Dragon endorsed Obama. A very hard-won endorsement, no doubt. Because Obama is, like, a modern Superman. Except he doesn’t actually capture criminals, fight crime, or solve problems of any kind. Or have any super powers. Or look good in red-and-blue tights.
Much of today’s society seems obsessed on what actors/actress, athletes, and music artist are wearing, eating, who they are marrying, dating, where they are vacationing, what affairs they are having or have had, and how they live their everyday lives. What is so interesting about this obsession is as a society we are implacable and often place celebrities on a pedestal, only to destroy them when they are illusive or promiscuous. But what about a celebrity president? How do we react to this new celebrity hybrid?
Media outlets are swift to report when celebrities are in trouble and quickly forget all their accomplishments. It is as if we want them to be perfect but once they are associated with a scandal we become set on destroying their reputation and character. Do we as a society have the right to castigate presidents when they screw up? You bet we do! But how are we going to effectively elect future presidents if all we base our vote on is looks and what designer they wear?
Massaging the neocortex part of our brain, these factors raise awareness of the political shift from regulation to deregulation. Also, persuasion techniques such as, bandwagon, beautiful people, race card and strength. The bottom line is this: researching questions of ownership, production and distribution is vital to fully understanding media's influence.
Quote: "Our politics, religion, news, athletics, education and commerce have been transformed into congenial adjuncts of show business, largely without protest or even much popular notice. The result is that we are a people on the verge of amusing ourselves to death."
— Neil Postman, "Amusing Ourselves to Death"
