October 2008 Archives

Standing in a Paris bank last June, I knew something wasn't right. I had just swapped the $500 cash I'd brought from home -- money earned through many grueling hours in the Stauffer-Flint newsroom -- for just around 300 euro.

I had expected $500 to last me for at least one week of sightseeing, dining, public transportation and shopping in Paris. I ended up using my credit card by the fourth day.

It was a surreal experience, watching the value of my money arbitrarily evaporate within seconds and being able to do nothing but stand there, dumbfounded and awkward. I had no idea the American dollar was so weak in Europe. I look back on it now and can't help but think this experience was probably very much like what a lot of people faced in the recent economic collapse.

But just as the dollar's fall from grace in Europe couldn't have happened overnight, the country's recent economic woes could not all have unfurled overnight, or even over just a few months, for that matter.

I did a quick Google search for 2008 economy warning signs, and it turns out the mainstream media reported many warnings about the possibility of an economic crisis. A December 2007 article on the Wall Street Journal's MarketWatch.com made me feel outrageously out-of-touch, as it flat-out states, "Everyone knows the U.S. economy is teetering on the edge of recession in the next year, but no one knows if it will tip."

I suspect many Americans were like me, and didn't take notice of our country's economic situation until it hit painfully home. Not to say the blame for this mess rests on the people who lost their nest eggs, or that the outcome would have been miraculously different had we all been religious readers of MarketWatch.com. We just might not have felt as dumb because we were caught thinking everything was peachy keen.

My ignorance regarding the economy was the most recent reminder of a flaw I've known about myself for a long time: I don't pay attention to news that doesn't appeal to my superficial interests, no matter how relevant it is to my life.

Yes, USA Today has a Money section, but it's just the one that always comes before the Life section. Just as I didn't bother to look up the dollar to euro exchange rate before going to France and instead researched trendy Paris hangouts, I also never bothered to pay attention to money -- something that, for better or for worse, permeates every aspect of our lives -- and instead read about Nicole Richie's baby bump and Yoda, the four-eared cat.

So where do I go from here? I'm one of the lucky ones graduating in December, and although everyone's in a panic over how December grads are going to find jobs amidst this crisis, that's not really what I'm worried about. I'm worried about how I'm going to finally shake this Midwest scene as I've been planning to do since, oh, about age 14.

The disastrous economy undoubtedly hinders my ability to just pack up and go, especially because where I want to go is a bit pricey. I know there are jobs there. It's just a matter of getting/being there.

I crave sunshine, warmth, a new beginning. But when icy, confining January comes, I will be in Kansas still, a prisoner to immobility like every year before.

The best solution just might be a one-way ticket back to Paris. Wherever I end up, one thing is certain: I'll at least be skimming the Money section of the newspaper from now on.

The analog TV is dead.  Its funeral is in February 2009.  With the passing of the grandfather of television the death of cable is not too far in the future.  

Sophomore year, I gave a presentation in my German class about the healthcare system of Germany.  My teacher was a real live authentic Berliner, so he was theoretically the best suited to teach the class (He was an excellent teacher).  However, during the presentation, I made one cataclysmic mistake.

I called the German government "socialistic".

Needless to say, this infuriated my teacher, who rabidly pointed out that Germany is not a socialist country and that there was not even the slight wiff of socialism in Europe.

I amended my presentation to say that Germany had modeled their healthcare system off the Clinton Plan (a decidedly socialist program).  Even though I was inferring that Germany had adopted a decidedly socialist healthcare plan, it was the word "socialism" that earned my teacher's ire.

There is absolutely no denying that most capitalist countries today exhibit very socialist traits.   With Bush's recent nationalization of banks, it seems even our bastion of Adam Smith-like utopia could fall to the scourge of Bolshevism.

I'm being sarcastic, of course.  Even if we don't want to admit it, our country has had socialistic tendencies for years.  Socialism as it's practiced in the modern world is merely the offspring of the Second International - that is to say that socialism is the practice of government intervention to regulate and maintain free market and the citizenship (social democracy).  We see this every day of the week - the government regulates business and taxes the people; social security gives money to the elderly; public education and unemployment benefits aid those who are between jobs.  Socialism has existed in Germany since the 19th century when the Social-Democratic movement picked up steam.

But why does the mere word "socialism" inspire such anger in people?  I choose to blame Karl Marx and Joe McCarthy equally. Both men fanatically believed that socialism was intrinsically linked to communism and the destruction of democratic social norms.  Both men were quite vocal to this point.

It is at this point that I must say that I in no way advocate the Third International's conception of violent revolutionary socialism or communism.  I'm just trying to point out that our system of government is already socialistic.  The concept of socialism is the idea that the government should be beneficial to everyone.  This doesn't run contradictory to our great democracy at all.

Hell, wasn't it the great Commissar Reagan who furthered the idea of earned income tax credits?

The only good thing about not having any money is that you have no money to lose.

There is no way to get around this: our economy is flagging, failing and collapsing all around us.  People seem to be convinced that this is the end of our great nation.

Students, often victims of high-interest loans and substantial credit card debt, find themselves most at risk of our faltering economy and the limited post-graduation job prospects.  Some students can't even afford to go to college.   

 

Some so-called economic "experts" say that there is no easy fix for this broken economy and the doom that it seems to be spelling.

 

Andrew Neubauer, however, sees only tremendous opportunity.

 

The freezing of the commercial paper market, the rabid decline of the dollar, the credit default swap fallout, and the home lending crisis can all be solved with my patented quick-fix: we need to convert to the simpler, sweeter time of the SOVIET UNION!

 

Think of all the great things associated with Mother RUSSIA!  You don't have to think! The party will do all of that for you!  You don't need to worry about housing! You can live in a Glorious People's Hovel of Revolutionary Pride and Freedom!  Money is irrelevant, because the only thing you need to do is work on the communal farm for the party! You wouldn't even have to think! In fact, if you do, you'll probably end up in a salt mine of some sort.

 

The best part of this plan is that it works at all levels because literally any problem can be solved by the government dominating every aspect of your life. 

 

Am I serious? No, not really.  Do I see the US as completely doomed? No, probably not.  The greatest thing about this nation is the full-scale adoption of creativity and out-of-the-box thinking that has allowed us to extricate ourselves from this sort of thing before (see: 1930s, 1970s).  Are we, the future generation of this country, being made to take the biggest hit from the irresponsible actions of those who looked to make a quick buck?  Yes.  As a nation, we will recover from this, but the heaviest burden will be laid on students who took a chance on the education they couldn't afford.  The future of our country all too often is sacrificed in the now.  

Internships are supposed to help students get jobs when they leave college, and make them feel like they are ready for the real world. But with the currect economic situation, my internships have shown me the reality of workers being laid off as well.

At the Kansas City Star, my boss ended up accepting a buy-out a leaving half way through my internship.

At NBC one of my coworkers was on a part-time program that ends after one year. However, his department at NBC couldn't afford to hire another person full-time. They kept telling him they wanted to hire him, but there was no way they could.

This has left me concerned. Will I constantly be worried about being laid off when I graduate? Will I even be able to find a job that pays enough with this economy? According to the Economic Policy Institute, the recent female college graduates' average hourly wage has gone down about 60 cents since 2001.

 When I was an underclassmen at KU, I wasn't too concerned about this, but now that I'm getting closer to graduating, I realize the economy is really going to effect students when we leave here.

I just hope by May the economy starts improving, and that my resume from the wonderful William Allen White School of Journalism can take me to the next level.

It is on every web site, TV ad and front page. The economy. Or more like its decline. The front page of MSNBC today had an article about people preparing for the next great depression stalking up on 'beans, bullets and band-aids.' I never thought that my generation, the one of Starbucks, I-pods and camera phones would ever think about going through anything like the great depression.

Sure the bail-out and foreclosures are on the mind of the nation as a whole but the problems in the economy are affecting me too. I used to spend $35 a week on gas. No joke when I first got my car. But now it's more like $65. $65! Sure the prices may have fluctuated some-what to the lower end now, because of the election, but I know all too well that that will change again as soon as the next president is in office.  

But gas is not the only commodity food prices have increased as well. McDonald's Dollar Menu has gone from a dollar to $1. 05 and is now "considering making some changes to its popular dollar menu -- either by changing the items on the menu or bumping up prices -- saying the cost of selling meat at such low prices might be too high," according to the Boston Herald.

 We ran a story on KUJH today about how the economy is not only affecting people but animals too.  Now in Lawrence there has been a "15 percent increase in the number of pets turned in" to the humane society because people cannot care for them.

    

The awakened and knowing say: Body I am entirely, and nothing else. And the soul is only a word for something about the body. -- Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Most of the personalized ads that pop up on my Facebook profile flow logically from the information I've shamelessly divulged about myself on the site. There are ads about journalism jobs, France, my favorite bands -- even ads for argyle-print clothing, as I am the proud founder of the Argyle Appreciation Club.

 

Yet for every one of these ads, there always seems to be an ad for a diet -- the Acai Diet, the Kim Kardashian Diet, the Supermodel Diet -- even though I have nothing on my profile about dieting, weight, food, fitness or appearance.

 

Why, then, am I getting such ads? The only reason I can fathom is this: Under sex, I identify myself as female.

 

I'm probably a bit more sensitive to/interested in body image issues than the average person is. And I'll admit that it's too simple to blame this whole thing on advertising. No, it goes much deeper than that, down to our culture's basic views and expectations of women. 

 

It's a general societal assumption that all women want to lose weight. It's practically what unites us as women: a desire to be thin, delicate, refined, controlled, needless. Women talk about diet and weight as casually as one might talk about the weather, as a point of connection even among total strangers.

 

I'm always amazed when a female I barely know feels at liberty to comment on the caloric content of something I'm eating, babbles to me about how little she's eaten today or how she like, totally needs to go on a diet because she's like, totally fat.

 

According to the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), more than one in three normal dieters progresses to pathological dieting, and of those, 20 to 25 percent progress to partial or full-symptom eating disorders. NEDA estimates that nearly 10 million females and one million males in the United States have eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia.

 

I understand how narrow-minded and inaccurate it is to blame the media for all the ills of society. But I find it unlikely that the 91 percent of college-age women who feel the need to be on a diet (NEDA) all just adopted the notion on a whim.   

 

I don't mind personalized ads. I'm not bothered that Facebook knows I get giddy about argyle shoelaces. I am bothered that the people behind the Facebook personalized ads assume that, just because I am a young female in college, wanting to lose weight is an inherent part of my identity.

Every October you are bombarded with Breast Cancer Awareness fundraisers and merchandise. For me, this marks the one-year anniversary of when my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Two student photojournalists and their adviser were arrested for rioting during the Republican National Convention  in St. Paul Minnesota earlier this week. The students were not working a report especially for the paper, but were going to blog on the event. If the students were doing nothing more than reporting on the event, and not involved in the rioting how dare the police interfere?

I am going to assume that the student reporters were working on reporting and not participating in the riots. Regardless if they are students, reporters or seasoned professionals they were at the scene reporting what was happening and had every right to do so. The police violated their rights by arresting.

Sure, the police may have a job to do, protect the public and serve for the greatest good, however they should have realized that arresting photojournalists while they were doing their duty of reporting is an impediment on the student's rights as reporters.

Do reporters get special privileges? Yes, they are the ones that making a living by getting the public the story on everything that is happening in the world. I am not saying that they get to go out and riot- not by any means, but if they happen to be at such an event then it is the police responsibility to allow the reporters to do their job just as the police are doing their job by attempting to keep the riot under control.

Just as the police feel it is their duty to protect the public it is just as much a reporter's duty to inform the public on events that are taking place.  If the police are constantly obstructing reporter's ability to do just that, then the entire America public will suffer consequently.

 

The 2008 election is breaking barriers left and right. It is composed of a young black man, a middle age white women and an old white man. Not to mention an Episcopalian, a Baptist, a roman catholic and a Pentecostal. Talk about "isms"- add in another minority and the stereotyping boundaries will be stretched to cover anything list as a typecast.




My Public Relations professor called McCain's selection of Palin a brilliant strategic move- he would be correct.

 The Independent- a news source in the UK states "while white women favored Mr. Obama over McCain before the conventions by 50-42 per cent, the picture today is dramatically reversed, according to the Washington Post/ABC survey. Now they back Mr. McCain 53-41 per cent. That is a 20-point change."

It seems like the political spectrum is moving the in the same direction as other trends in the nation.  Like their cars, house and Apple's I-pods a people can choose what color, size, style and uses they want their I-pod or elected official to have.
 
But on a more serious note, the American public can now choose between the person/people they feel would not only best represent their issues, but represent them as an individual.

The 2008 election is not only unique for having the first black male candidate for the Democratic Party and first female running mate for the Republican Party, no this election is by far one of the most exciting and interactive. The role of the web is colossal. It has changed the playing field immensely.

Now the media has taken a backseat to the interactive realm the web has created for the everyday public. Bloggers write their opinions, I-reporters post their stories and everyday people can find facts about candidates with a click of a mouse. Anything from their stance on war or abortion to meaningless how their favorite foods make them the people they are.

The internet is also making it possible for young people to care more about the election.

According to Next Web WebTipr "The internet has become a leading source of campaign news for young Americans. 42% of those ages 18 to 29 say they regularly learn about the campaign from the internet. In 2004, only 20% of this demographic group said that they got such news from the internet."

Networking sites like facebook, twitter, youtube and myspace play just as large a role for a young audience as well with profiles and interactive ways for users to discusses and get informed about the candidates and election. These sites allow users to campaign and brand the candidate with facebook groups like "

Other web sites like Hitwise are taking a leap into guessing which candidate might win the election by monitoring web traffic on candidate's web sites.

The days of reading the paper and listening to radio or even watching tv to gather information and knowledge on the election are fleeting. Anyone with an internet connection can now delve into the complex world of politics for themselves and "rock the vote" based on the candidate's political platforms or their preferred fabric softener.

Image courtesy of: thenextweb.org

Today is Rosh Hashanah, the start of the Jewish new year. Going to private Jewish school the first six years of my life I can tell you the meaning of each and every Jewish holiday, why we matzo on passover and read and write in Hebrew.

The older I got the less religious I became, and more interested in being educated about religions world wide. I can tell you who Jesus's apostles were, what the Vedas and Upanishads are and even explain what the Law of Threefold Return is. I know that many people may not be able to answer all of those, but what happened to me at work the other day completely astounded me. I had no answer for it.

My manager at Sonic, hit his elbow on the side of the desk and said "that is so Jewish." The cook came out of the kitchen and said, "man I cut myself with a knife earlier that so freakin Jewish."

I literally felt my jaw drop. I asked both of them what was wrong with being Jewish and for what reason they were using the word in a derogatory manner.

The manager went on to explain that "its just another word that is fun to say. Like those people speak Jewish and pray Jewish and all that."

I should have been offended but I was more shocked at their level of ignorance.

I told them to please be respectful around me of other people and their religious choices. 

Yes I was offended. Not as a Jew but as a person. I calmly explained that Jew is not a derogatory term and that "Jewish" is not a language.


They said nothing and went on about their business not saying anything else on the topic. But I could tell my comment did not matter to them.

I felt sad for them, for their ignorance and lack of wanting to learn different.

I have been a vegetarian for 3 years now. I never really liked meat or fish because I felt guilty eating it. I finally decided to become a vegetarian when at a restaurant the guy next to me cut into a steak and blood filled his plate. He put the fork of bloodied meat into his mouth and I never touched meat again.

My friends asked how would I eat out, my mother asked how I would get my protein and my littler sister wanted to know if I would be eating tofurkey for thanksgiving.

I did research and found some astounding facts that confirmed my decision. Like the fact that 7 billion animals die every year because of human consumption.

Why eat animals when there are so many other options available to me that are still nutritious and taste good?

I was sold. I then began the second part of my journey, finding ways accommodate my new lifestyle to my life. It was much easier then I thought. I found that I could get protein from nuts, beans, boca burgers and tofu.

I found that any place I went to eat always had one vegetarian option. I also found that I found I prefer boca cheeseburgers to real ones.

After 3 weeks I didn't even give being a vegetarian a thought. I was proud of my decision.

Dear Mister President,

For some time now, the Russian Federation has been governed by the manliest man on the planet: Vladimir Putin.  He's jacked, he was a secret agent (albeit KGB), he saves his cameramen from tigers and now he has an instructional Judo DVD.  I expect in his free time he gets into fist fights with wild bears a bathes with dish soap and brillo pads. 

Now, you'd have to be extremely gullible to believe that some of the things Putin claims he did (read: saved his cameramen from tigers) weren't staged.  The fact remains, though, that his popularity is ludicrously high.

Your job approval rating hit a new low last week, meaning you will probably leave office with your popularity on par with a middle schooler who doesn't bathe.  In the spirit of love, compassion, and a sincere desire for our President to be cooler than Russia's, I've come up with a list of simple over-the-top things you could (cough) stage (cough) to help save your legacy before you leave office in January:

1.       During a press conference in the Rose Garden, release a wild bull on the White House lawn.  Proceed to wrestle it to the ground bare-handed.

2.       Go on "WWE" and challenge none other than Hulk Hogan to a no-holds-barred cage match.  Be sure to emphasize how feminine Hulk is compared to you.

3.       Fly to Iraq and single-handedly/guns-blazingly beat the Mahdi Army, a la Rambo II.

4.       Give Dick Cheney a spanking on national television.

5.       Fly to Pluto, measure it, definitively prove that it is indeed a planet, then claim it in the name of America.

Any one of these simple tasks would, in my humble opinion, be enough to resurrect your public image.  Heck, if you accomplish three or more we'd probably let you run for a third term.

Hugs and Kisses,

Andrew

"France is happy to welcome Barack Obama," French president Nicolas Sarkozy announced before Obama spoke in Paris July 25. "First of all, because he's American, and the French love the Americans."

 

Come again, Monsieur Sarkozy?

 

After spending the summer in France and enduring hostility/mockery/disgust at my English accent and the typical "what were you thinking?" questions about the last eight years -- and only three varieties of Coca-Cola at the grocery store -- I'd venture to say most French people aren't too wild about Americans.

 

They do, however, love them some Obama.

 

On the brink of our most significant presidential election in recent history, it was fascinating to see how the French media was covering our political process. Particularly fascinating was the fervor with which the French support Barack Obama.

 

So why does a country so notoriously critical of the United States have such a crush on Obama?

 

In a Salon.com article, TIME journalist Don Morrison, who lives in Paris, attributes the infatuation to certain personality qualities the French perceive in Obama.

 

"This is a country that takes culture seriously," Morrison said of France. "[Obama] appears to the French to be somebody who values intelligence, education and culture. That makes him one of those idealized Americans that the French have always treasured, the ones who share the Enlightenment values that France did much to invent."

 

The French Support Committee for Barack Obama states that, as president, Obama would not only be the symbol of a new America, but also the symbol of new leadership, new tolerance, new progress in the entire Western world, of which France is a part.

 

During the summer, I asked my Parisian friend Jerome if he thought a black man could be elected president of France. He laughed. Then he said no.

 

I see France's interest in Obama as a desire to share in our change, our step forward, because France is not yet capable of taking such a step itself.  

 

With Obama as president, the United States would be France's flagship, and the country is not afraid or ashamed to praise our advancement and our change as its own.

 

It's an exciting time to be in America on the precipice of so much possibility. I found it equally exciting to be in France to witness just how much our decision this November matters on an international level.

 

I just wish I could've stuck around France longer, if only just to see how "lipstick on a pit bull" would be rendered in the native tongue.

Barack Obama's campaign has done about the most fashionable thing on the Internet short of a Twitter account (They already had one).  They have released an iPhone App.

On top of the just showing off your political tendencies to anyone who might look at your iPhone it allows (read: begs) you to call all of your friends and profess to them your love for your candidate.  The App even sorts your friends by their geographic location and its relative importance in the election.  Statistics are then compiled of your calling and you can see how you compare to other App users. 

This just served to illustrate, yet again, that of the two major candidates Barack Obama is the one whose campaign understands what it can mean to be a modern candidate. Although, to be fair, he hasn't had much competition in this respect.

Despite John McCain serving years in the senate on a committee that oversaw telecommunications throughout the country he only just got online and was proud of his new found ability to send simple email.

Given his understanding of technology maybe Barack can make the last step needed to ensure a win for him in the fall. That being dropping Biden and introducing a new ticket for November.

Obama/Jobs 2008 -- "iWin"

Politifact (a joint project between the Congressional Quarterly and the St. Petersburg Times) is putting an interesting spin on seeking the truth and reporting it.  They are quite literally doing just that: reporting claims made either by the candidates or their advertisements, double-checking said facts and either refuting or supporting the claims with hard evidence. 

The site pulls no punches; they even analyzed Joe Biden's flip remark that President Bush is "brain-dead."  They cited that even those who dislike the president agree that he still breathes and responds to outside stimulus. 

This website is the most refreshing batch of journalism I've seen in a long time.  For too many elections the American people have been held at gunpoint to absolute sensationalism.  The perverse and often baffling habit of the media seems to be merely reporting the back and forth of the elections and molding them to fit story lines, rather than focusing on the content.

 In 2000, we had stories that portrayed Al Gore as a pathological liar and Bush as a lovable dope.  These lines ignored the issues, and the public lapped them up ferociously.  In 2004, we had people lobbing flip flops at campaign rallies as news.  This brand of "soft journalism," turning the elections into a circus rather than a reasoned for debate and national decision, is a dragon that desperately needs slaying.

I applaud the Congressional Quarterly and St. Pete Times for making such an accessible outlet that inherently ignores bias and cuts straight to the issues at hand.  Last Friday's debate can't even come close to making that claim.

Actually, I must admit that I have fallen in love with the site.  In fact, if Politifact was a woman, I would marry her and have half-human half-robotic fact checking babies.  I would probably not get many grandchildren.