Many of the current administration’s members feel deeply passionate about education in general, and Vice President Biden was clear about gravity they place on the matter.

“I make no apologies for this being one of the highest – and maybe the highest – domestic priority for this administration,” said Biden. “From day one when we came in, we’ve been focused on this.”

The Vice President went on to talk about some of the issues impacting the affordability of college attendance, including the housing market, and how in turn this affects the nation. He spoke not only of the outcome of not being able to attend college on the nation as a whole, but also of how this issue influences the lives of individuals.

“We talk about [college affordability] in terms of how it affects … our ability to compete, but there’s another element to it – the human element – that I think is sometimes overlooked by those who talk about it… and that is the impact on a parent not able to help their child,” said Biden.

Throughout his address, the Vice President remained jovial and relatable, using personal anecdotes to exemplify the human element of the problems of higher education. He made a point of reminding audience members that, like a lot of them, he came from a middle class background. He had experienced many of the same struggles that they had regarding higher education, both from the standpoint of a young man going to school and as a father trying to provide his children with the best possible education.

Vice President Biden gave a brief overview of the Obama administration’s plan for keeping state universities accountable for their cost of attendance. In exchange for going out of their way to decrease spending – without compromising the quality of the education they provide – colleges that keep their cost of attendance down will be eligible for more funding from the government than those who do not. He outlined some examples of how universities can eliminate excess expenditure, including combining orders with state departments when buying new equipment in order to get bulk discounts.

The Vice President began wrapping up his speech by returning to the importance of higher education. In addition to the personal benefits being college educated can have on individuals, increased income among them, he talked about how beneficial having an educated population is to the innovative growth of the nation. Before opening the floor for questions, the Vice President concluded his address with words of encouragement for the current generation of college students.

“You are going to be the generation that outshines any other generation in American history,” said Biden.

Reactions to Vice President Biden’s address were generally very positive.

“I felt refreshed about his opinions on just how important not only college education is, but how important early education is,” said Florida State University Editing, Writing, and Media senior Christian Rincon. “I just think that he has – [he] and the whole administration have – the right idea when it comes to what needs to be done in this country. It seems like they have the right plan and they have everything set to have a major overhaul as far as education, and I think the right things are going to be done as far as putting pressure on states to just reform education.”

Some students were struck by the Vice President’s genuineness.

“He’s really down to earth. He really surprised me…. Now I really can see why Obama picked him, because in person, he’s just really charismatic,” said Justin Mann, a Florida A&M University Psychology junior. “He really made me look forward to the future. I’m really excited for the next few years before I graduate.”

It seems that the Vice President may have breathed new life into those who were in attendance, energizing students and exciting them about their futures.

“He cares so much about it,” said Florida State University freshman, Natalie Giulianelli. “I just feel really, really lucky, and I’m wanting to learn more.”

Throughout the course of this week the Republican candidate has been touring the state emphasizing the importance of faith, family and freedom (ranked in this order of importance) as the guiding principles of his campaign.

To the observer, it may seem that Santorum’s battle is an uphill climb. On Monday he was greeted with a glitter bomb by Occupy Tampa protesters, his name has become a trending Google search term and he is currently ranking at 18% in the national poll, putting him in third place under Gingrich and Romney respectively.  Despite this, Santorum was eager to let it be known that he won’t be going anywhere.

The Senator opened his discussion on the importance of being active participants in protecting our own civil rights:

“What comes naturally is people who gain power and want to exercise that power and authority over the people who don’t have any… And unless you have generations of Americans who understand the threat of centralization and collection of power…the threat to you as folks who want to go out and exercise economic liberty, exercise political liberty, exercise moral liberties, religious beliefs—all of those things ultimately will be at stake.”

These concerns of an all-too powerful government became the overarching narrative of Santorum’s discussion as seen here:

And here.

There is a certain irony that is inherent in political agendas. In this case, Santorum’s claims can lead to some confusion about what his exact message is.

“I think that it’s good that he wants to concentrate more on what we need to concentrate on –to not concentrate on spending big money, but getting our money back,” said Brendan, a Junior Music Performance major. “The only thing I didn’t totally agree with was the fact that it seemed like he put a really big emphasis on religion, on Christianity. I wasn’t sure what he was saying about that. I want America to be a place where everyone has a choice to do whatever religious thing they want, as long as it doesn’t involve any religious sacrifices.”

The paradox is particularly apparent here, considering the Senator’s stance on same-sex marriage and abortion, among various other social issues.

Reactions to Santorum’s lecture were varied.

“I think he’s a principled man and I think he really does believe in what he says,” said Lawrence Dunn, a Senior Mathematics major. “It’s just that I think that what he believes is wrong. Basically, it’s ironic for him to talk about liberty and the Founding Fathers and then in the same sentence, talk about the fact that he doesn’t believe in gay marriage. He doesn’t believe that women have the right to an abortion. He doesn’t believe in legalizing drugs, despite all of the drug violence that’s going on that’s a direct result of the United States drug war. What he is trying to do is sell his principles and his rhetoric rather than actually fix things. I don’t think he wants to talk about real issues.”

To this criticism, the Senator is unapologetically straightforward.

“People say well, ‘What’s your position on the economy?’ ‘What’s your position on deficits?’ ‘What’s your position on all of these issues?’ I could go down and give you a laundry list of all of those things. But I think the most important thing for you to understand is how I look. It’s not what I believe, it’s why I believe. You want to understand how I’m going to approach every problem, now you understand…”

Not everyone was critical of Santorum’s application of principle to politics.

“[Santorum] always does a great job of relating his view points on social issues to his overall stances on everything and how that guides his beliefs in decision-making,” said John Clark, a sophomore Business Major. “Instead of ‘I believe in less spending’ or ‘I believe in a strong national defense,’ he really explains why he believes this. It’s something that you don’t see with a lot of candidates on the right or left.”

Still, Santorum may have a long way moving up in the polls and getting the support of Florida voters.

“He put a big emphasis on what he thinks we all should do,” said Brendan. “I admire that. It seems like he has a good moral compass. But, sometimes I think that leading by example, through things that are admirable to do, is more powerful than telling people what they should do.”

Florida’s primary is next Tuesday, January 31^st.

With unemployment yet again set squarely above 9% and 14 million Americans still out of work, President Obama’s speech to a joint session of Congress last Thursday served as a blunt reminder of the dire condition of America’s flailing economy. Obama seeks to fulfill the unanswered promises of TARP with a new recovery initiative carrying a price tag of nearly a half trillion dollars. Among the parts of his plan that he failed to elaborate on, Obama mentioned yet again the need to raise taxes on the wealthy and close tax incentives to corporations. In a joking tone, Obama observed that some in Congress had made a promise to never raise taxes.  Although the pledge signed by many in Congress to Americans for Tax Reform most certainly promised to not raise taxes, it was a pledge to citizens concerned with the growth of government spending and an unsustainable addiction to debt. Obama’s glib reference to this pledge is one of many reasons that his divisive jobs speech imbued his newest initiative with the political rancor necessary to all but guarantee its failure in congress.

The moment that Obama decided to schedule his speech one day earlier, at the same time as a significant Republican primary debate, he cast a shadow of politics over what should have been a unifying message for all Americans.  Upon House Speaker John Boehner’s refusal to host the speech at a time when many Americans would be forced to choose between watching a debate between presidential candidates and the president’s speech, President Obama backed down and rescheduled.  Despite his embarrassment over the scheduling snafu, Obama proceeded to play partisan politics by presenting a plan that would be “paid-for” by the same bipartisan super committee that the president and congress established to confront government spending.  Rather than allow the super committee to draw up its own plans and make a real dent in this nation’s debt crisis, Obama decided to pass the buck of his plan over to them. He also discussed reforming entitlements to help pay for the plan, again taking away the authority of the bipartisan super committee on an item committee members expected to confront in a bipartisan fashion. Obama used the word “taxes” 23 times, and urged Congress to “pass” his jobs bill 20 times, yet did not use the word “bipartisan” even once.  You do the math.

Got a great idea for a debate topic? Send it our way at fsuyeti@gmail.com!

Last week, after a small scheduling conflict that several pundits laughably attempted to portray as political, Pres. Obama stood before a joint session of Congress to lay out his new plan dubbed the American Jobs Act. Keeping to his current strategy of giving the opposition nearly everything they want (while hoping that they might stray from their own strategy of only uncrossing their arms to give him the finger) nearly 55% of the $447 billion cost of the plan is in tax cuts.

The cuts include two payroll taxes aimed at working Americans and small businesses (who employ a majority of jobs in the country). The employee tax cuts count for $175 billion of the plan, offering around $1,500 to families taking in $50,000 annually. The other $70 billion is for small businesses covering a 50% cut on the first $5 million in payroll taxes as well as a credit for hiring veterans. The rest of the plan includes money for many construction projects throughout the country as well as the renewal of extended unemployment benefits and aid to state governments in an effort to help them avoid laying off the people who police our streets, put out our fires, and teach our children how to read (useless fat-pensioned freeloaders that they are).

As the President repeated several times in his speech, the proposals in this plan have been supported by Republicans and Democrats alike. There is also $10 billion in the plan to create an infrastructure bank which will allow the creation of several more construction jobs over the next few years, an idea first proposed by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX) and Sen. John Kerry (D-MA). Based on this pre-existing solidarity, as well as the immediate need to address the 9.1% unemployment our country is facing, the President urged Congress twenty times to pass this legislation. Already a number of ideologically divided think tanks are lobbing their roses and rat carcasses on the bill with economists on one side saying it will work well and economists on the other saying it absolutely will not; now’s a time when we have to ask ourselves just how theoretical the study of economics actually is.

With a majority of money spent being tax breaks which would add more to the deficit (that thing that became the biggest issue in Washington when the opportunity arose to make it so) his own base might be reluctant to support it, or, for that matter, pass it. But along with the tax cuts and the President’s proposal to add the $447 billion to the $1 trillion of spending cuts the new Super Committee is supposed to find by late December, finding enough votes on the other side of the aisle might be possible. The reason this should, as the President repeatedly urged, be passed by both parties immediately is that small businesses and working families have been hit almost as hard as the $14 million unemployed in this country, and encouraging them both to consume and hire new employees can turn around the current devastating direction both the middle class and the economy as a whole. It is cutting the right kind of taxes.

Got a great idea for a debate topic? Send it our way at fsuyeti@gmail.com!

Apparently, he is state attorney general under Charlie Crist but is running to be governor of Florida too.  He is also trying to sue the federal government.

Let’s get this straight. Bill McCollum is standing up for our rights as citizens against health care reform! Three cheers for our one-man squad. Oh wait, he seems to have a team with him. A few other states have agreed to come together for this case, including: Alabama, Colorado, Idaho, Michigan, Nebraska, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Washington. The attorney generals for each state have finally joined forces to stand up for our rights!
They just happen to be mostly Republicans. Definitely a coincidence. Definitely.

According to CNN, “White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the Obama administration expected to win any lawsuits filed against the health care bill.” The big guys don’t seem to really be worried about the little Republican ant army.

Specifically, McCollum stated he had problems with the insurance mandate in the health care bill, that requires everyone to be insured or pay a fine, but low-income people get an exception if the insurance costs are too much. His argument: “This is a tax or a penalty on just living, and that’s unconstitutional. There’s no provision in the Constitution of the United States giving Congress the power to do that.” He wants to personally sue President Obama for surpassing his boundaries as President of the United States.

However, there is power in the people. More specifically, power in a single man to speak for the country as a whole. Oh wait, that’s the president, the one who signed the health care reform bill after the House of Representatives passed it. (You know the House of Representatives, that group of folks we the people decided were qualified to make decisions on our behalf as representatives in an election.)

It seems like this fun little political scandal/press gimmick is a fresh and interesting reminder that most people in this country don’t really understand that we do control the government, hence the title DEMOCRACY. The president was elected, remember that? In 2008, with all the signs with John McCain’s face on them?

McCollum claims this is an infringement on our rights, but let’s take a few steps back. Exactly what will the Health Care Bill do, anyway? What McCollum didn’t say:

• Health care reform would reduce deficit by $143 billion over the next ten years.
• Over 32 million Americans will now be insured with affordable health coverage who were not insured previously.
• With Medicare, senior citizens also will receive a 50% discount on prescription drugs starting in 2011.
• Medicaid will expand to include 133 % of the federal poverty level (FPL) and to include childless adults.
• The Federal Government will pay 100% of newly eligible individuals’ costs.
• Illegal immigrants can no longer legally purchase insurance coverage, even if they pay for it themselves… in cash.
• Insurance companies cannot deny coverage to children with preexisting medical conditions and by 2016, they cannot deny coverage to anyone with a preexisting condition.
• Insurance companies have to allow children to stay on their parents’ insurance plan until they are 26. (Now that’s a plus I can get behind!)

So regardless of the insurance mandate that McCollum so avidly hates, the reform bill really isn’t some big bad monster come to eat all of our lives away.  If we are looking for inexpensive health care, and I think that deep down inside we all are, it seems Obama had his head on straight when he signed that bill. It appears there are a lot of benefits, that responsible leaders carefully thought out to put into this health care reform bill. Most of them are benefits, but nothing in this world comes free, hence the mandate. Whoever expected to have doctors at their door begging to treat patients who don’t have insurance and can’t afford to pay out of pocket must have been confused–and that is what the mandate is for. So calm down McCollum, Big Mr. President Man knows what he’s doing.

Yahoo! News has its take on the matter with this outstanding headline: “White House, experts: Health care suit will fail.” I think that says it all.

For all those who claim Canada or Costa Rica are better options, or are maybe looking over to Russia from their Alaskan border where the ice is apparently whiter, remember that Canada and Costa Rica have socialist universal health care like most of Europe, and Russia used to be the USSR.

]]> http://www.theyetionline.com/views/who-is-bill-mccollum/feed/ 6 http://www.theyetionline.com/views/carly-fiorinas-new-attack-ad-a-hot-mess/ http://www.theyetionline.com/views/carly-fiorinas-new-attack-ad-a-hot-mess/#comments Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:00:04 +0000 Morgan http://www.theyetionline.com/?p=1814

My fellow Americans, here we are again, confronted with seven minutes of the most insane/hilarious political propaganda ever created.

Carly Fiorina’s new campaign ad stars Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) as a horrible demon blimp that floats around our nation, babbling indistinctly and casting an ominous shadow over all of us.

I know what you’re thinking: “Who will save us from the comical zeppelin of terror?” Carly can, my child. Carly can.

Who’s Carly? Judging by this video, she’s another millionaire former CEO convinced (correctly) that you can buy advertising with money.

I love the comparisons we see: Carly smiling with a warm backdrop, smash cut to the Boxer Blimp spewing “partisan hot air” (HAHA GET IT? BCUZ SHE’S A BLIMP???) or a shot of her crying at random monuments in DC.

Not that we should be surprised, really. After all, this is a state whose governor slid his way into office toting a funny accent and a “bad ass” movie resume. It was bound to create these little “Carly-Monsters.”

The small truth anyone can and should extract from this abomination is this: the people responsible for this ad are IDIOTS. Carly is a law school drop-out who should be focusing less on comically losing a Senate bid and more on keeping the voices at bay.

The question remains the same: Who believes this shit? Is there someone out there, anyone, who believes Senator Boxer is more concerned with global warming than with actual terrorism? Actually, now that I think about it, of course there is. Probably a lot of people believe that. Which makes it really hard to not just give up and surrender. At least there will always be people like Carly to give people like me something to laugh about.

God bless America.

image via knightnews.com

Before even stepping foot in any NFL stadium or combine, Tim Tebow is already making a bad first impression on the league. But is he untouchable? He is, after all, still in college.

Ah, Super Sunday. No one loves it more than I do, even if my team is watching from home this year. What could ruin such a special day? Someone trying to preach to you about the gift of life, that’s what. These people refer to themselves as “pro-life,” but I call them “anti-abortion.” The other way makes its opposing party seem to be pro-death, a willful distortion on the part of anti-abortion advocates.

Somewhat-overrated college football star Tim Tebow came on screen Super Sunday with momma ‘Bow to tell the story about how she was advised during her pregnancy to abort the future Heisman-winner because of serious medical concerns. Surprisingly enough, the commercial didn’t even drop the a-bomb, and except for the sight of Timmy’s face, wasn’t too insulting.

Funded by the conservative evangelical group Focus On The Family, the commercial was thirty seconds long and cost a reported three million dollars. CBS has faced criticism for agreeing to show the ad, as it rightly should have.

I’m not saying commercials must or should be crass and involve bikinis and beer, but frankly, the Super Bowl is like polite conversation: no religion or politics. Tebow broke both rules.

At The University of Florida, student-athletes must abide by a set of guidelines as determined by the university, as they must at any other school. According to the UF Student-Athlete agreement:

A student-athlete shall not be eligible for participation in intercollegiate athletics if the individual accepts any renumeration for or permits the use of his or her name or picture to advertise, recommend or promote directly the sale or use of a commercial product or service of any kind.

But Tim Tebow is no longer a participating student-athlete since his pitiful performance at the Senior Bowl (with only fifty passing yards), so does this apply to him? In this writer’s opinion, yes, yes it does. He will probably be attending his alma mater’s Pro Day and (former?) Coach Urban Meyer will surely be spanking his prodigy’s buns as he crosses the white lines for the NFL combine.

Also, let’s consider that Tim Tebow has gotten a lot of screen time over the past three years, and is currently just about the most high-profile representative of his university.

It’s too much to ask for more than a week without hearing about Tebow, and even though he’s a known pushy evangelical, I wonder if he just couldn’t handle the minimal time out of the limelight.

And so, Judgment came sandwiched between beer commercials on Sunday, but it was nice to remember that there’s only one city in the whole country that likes hearing from this particular spokesman, and they live in a self-proclaimed “Swamp.”

Life goes on, but Tebow’s career probably won’t. I for one take some solace in that.

[Ed. Note: We at The Yeti love politics. We also love poetry. Most of all, though, we love combining things we love.]

A HAIKU ON CONSERVATIVE PRINCIPLES:

Time-tested truths, like
“The gov that govs least govs best.”
(Somalia rules!)

A GHAZALVILLANELLE ON NATIONAL SECURITY

[Ed. Note: Originally I wanted the national security poem to be a ghazal, an ancient Arabian poetic form, for irony. But ghazals are super difficult and complicated, so I wrote a villanelle that steals pretty heavily from Dylan Thomas' classic "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" instead.]

Do not be so gentle as to give terrorists rights,
We must oblige our enemies if they want to call it war;
After all, America is always looking for a fight.

The Muslim snuck in ‘cause our security wasn’t tight,
They should have made him strip, drop his pants to the floor;
Do not be so gentle as to give terrorists rights.

And that other country, Yemen, should be in our bombing sights—
If we aren’t killing foreigners, then what’s our freedom for?
After all, America is always looking for a fight.

We aren’t even torturing, that keeps me up at night,
The rule of law prevailing will just make them hate us more.
Do not be so gentle as to give terrorists rights.

But Mr. President, for Iran please do what’s right.
(Psst, I heard the Ayatollah called Michelle a whore.)
After all, America is always looking for a fight.

We must shock and awe the world, must attack with all our might,
Must kill and maim our enemies, must wage an Endless War.
Do not be so gentle as to give terrorists rights.
After all, America is always looking for a fight.

A CINQUAIN ON ECONOMIC POLICY:

Ronald
Common sense con
Did it stimulate you?
We got the cornhusker kickback
Reagan

William Blake? Who dat?

(Images via Yahoo! News)

President Barack Obama at his first State of the Union address.

President Obama gave his first State of the Union address on Wednesday, January 27, and I had my concerns about what was to come. My fears proved well-founded. Dubya’s State of the Union addresses were more than mere political speeches – they were masterpieces of dark, screwball comedy, using blatant absurdity to reveal deep and disturbing truths about our national character. Anyone with a heart and a brain had to laugh, if only to keep from breaking down in tears.

Inevitably, Obama failed to live up to his predecessor. Besides a few quips, the whole affair came off as pretty much sober-minded and reasonable, hardly the laugh riot one would expect from contemporary American politics. However, I’ll do my best examine the speech in a similar manner.

How much of what was said matters?

Obviously, certain parts of the speech matter very much. When the President announces goals and policies for the coming year, we should all pay attention. What doesn’t matter, is how much Obama claims to understand the average American’s anxieties. Every politician worth his campaign contributions says they know how rough it is for the working class, and it’s all touchy-feely bullshit. We already know we need more jobs that pay better. We already know about our own cynical and distrustful attitudes towards the government. We already know Wall Street is doing better than Main Street, and that Tennessee Street is just gross. We already know our own deeply moving and allegorical stories—we’re the ones sending those letters to the White House.

Obama waxing poetic about how much he sympathizes with us isn’t a serious explanation of his new jobs bill. It’s about selling himself as President. I get worried when I see fellow progressives trust that he means every word he says and thus things are great. I voted for the guy, and I support the jobs bill. I don’t think it goes far enough, but it’s something, at least. A good idea, and it was eloquently presented. But that eloquent presentation doesn’t matter. It’s impressive, sure, but what matters is whether or not the bill actually becomes law. And so far, Obama and our Democratically controlled Congress haven’t shown much skill in that area. [Ed. Note: Gotta love conventional wisdom.]

Yes, the Republicans are obstructionist. As Obama pointed out, they’ve nearly annihilated meaningful health care reform out of spite. But Obama and the other Democrats let them do it. Instead of getting organized, making demands, and refusing to take no for answer they twiddled their thumbs playing nicety-nice bi-partisan games that, from the outset, clearly weren’t going to get anywhere. If anything proposed Wednesday night takes a similar route, none of Obama’s inspirational talk matters, which in many cases would be very problematic, possibly catastrophic. We need debt forgiveness for student loans. We need better public transportation, and the new high-speed railway connecting Tampa to Orlando is an awesome example. We need clean energy – although I have to say, the nuclear power, offshore drilling, and “clean” coal plants Obama mentioned don’t really fit into that category. But still, these are all important issues.

Also important, as the President mentioned, is the necessity of transparency in government and the protection of civil rights. What went unmentioned were some major blemishes on the President’s record concerning both issues. On the issue of transparency, there was the secret negotiating with the pharmaceutical lobby. As for civil rights, there’s the continued practice of holding terror suspects without officially charging them with a crime, a practice that can extend to American citizens like Syed Fahad Hashmi.

To be fair, Obama has kicked ass over that last guy, even if he’s not as funny, and his big ears will never be able to rival that dumb squint. By and large, 2009 was a vast improvement over the preceding eight years of crazy. Even I felt a twinge of hope in my lightless, anarchic, distrustful heart at the mention of troops coming home. And I love having a President who can fluently speak his native language. Unfortunately, if it turns out all he can do is talk, that’s not good enough. The planet is melting, and most of my friends can’t afford to see a doctor when they need to. That’s not funny.

[Ed. Note--In keeping with the promise laid out in The Yeti Blog's original charter, we are happy to supplement Matthew's serious commentary on the State of the Union with a light-hearted musical interpretation from The Gregory Brothers (schmoyoho), the folks behind the Auto-Tune the News series of web videos. We hope you enjoy.]

Photo from Wikimedia Commons.