Even Charities are going Millennial

The Salvation Army is looking for new ways to raise money in the financial downturn, and they are getting creative. 

According to an article on CNN, "To boost donations, the Salvation Army is expanding its fundraising campaigns from traditional shopping centers and direct mail to cell phones and Internet social networks like Facebook and Twitter."

It also stated they were interested in reaching out to the younger generation, and were very much interested in learning what makes us tick. In a very creative way to reach young people, the Salvation Army is trying out a new cell phone plan in Atlanta and Columbus. By texting a code to the given number, cell phone users can donate five dollars, which is then charged to their monthly bill.

Also, the SA has a twitter account, and an email account where people can solicit donations from contacts via the internet. The SA is really hoping for some donations to roll in, because 2007 was the first year in eight years that donations slowed down instead of increased. 

Although they are not looking to get rid of the red kettle altogether, they acknowledge that it is much cheaper to use text messaging and social networking sites as opposed to paying people to ring a bell. 

Bad example of web usage for Millennials

A 19 year old college student committed suicide via live video-streaming a couple days ago. This student notified people through a body building website then provided a link to a video streaming website so people could watch. While he was streaming, some members of the audience egged him on, some tried to talk him out of it, and some debated whether or not the dosage was high enough to kill someone.

The body was found several hours later when someone watching notified the body building website who then traced the IP address and notified the police. The camera was still rolling as the teen lay dead on his fathers bed. 

A professor at Bowling Green State University in Ohio said "Bigg's very public suicide was not shocking; given the way teenagers chronicle every facet of their lives on sites like Facebook or Myspace."

That attitude towards our generation is ridiculous, of course the way he did it was shocking, why would you broadcast an attempt to kill yourself? I think this adult does not understand our generation, while we may constantly update people on our lives, it is not a logical next step that if you want to kill yourself, you put it in live feed. 

The way the Millennials are using the web is increasingly changing, but I hope it never escalates to a place where this kind of thing is common. 

Rallies

Proposition Eight is easily the most controversial law passed by voters in a long time. Not only does it draw in the religious side, but the civil rights argument as well. The ban on same sex marriage was passed in Fl, Ar, and Cali. The response to these results have been great in number, and not just in those states, but across the country. 

I know there was a protest held in Providence advertised by the school that students could attend. I myself did not go, but I imagine there was a fair number of students that participated. This site was no isolated incident, they are happening in many cities.

The protesters were of course met with counter-protests. The protestors against the passage of the ban had signs with sayings like "All you need is love", "Love and Unity not Hate". Those protesting the protest had counter sayings such as "Theres nothing civil about a man marrying another man". 

This issue is very heated, and only expected to become more split as time goes on. The site that planned the rallies in California, Join The Impact, says they will be holding future rallies in increasingly larger numbers. 

Trick or Vote anyone?

Now that the polls are about to open, the shit really comes out. States across the board are relying on dirty tricks or intimidation to convince people not to vote. As predicted also, some of these nasty little ploys are decidedly racist. 

In Philly for example, there have been complaints from mostly black neighborhoods about circulating fliers, claiming that citizens could be arrested at the polls for minor offenses such as unpaid parking tickets or  if they were criminally convicted. 

In Virginia also, fliers are popping up all over the place saying they are holding two election days. Tuesday for republicans, and Wednesday for Democrats. This suggests the Republicans are getting desperate in their last days before defeat. Most of these tactics coming to light are detrimental to the Democrats, leading people to think that radical right wing groups are behind it. 

In New Mexico, two hispanic women filed a lawsuit after claiming to have been threatened by a private investigator working for a Republican Lawyer. 

"He was questioning her status, saying that he needed to see her papers and documents to show that she was a U.S. citizen and was a legitimate voter," said Guadalupe Bojorquez, speaking on behalf of her mother, Dora Escobedo, a 67-year-old Albuquerque resident who speaks only Spanish. "He totally, totally scared the heck out of her."

With the Obama campaign singing up millions of new voters, its only logical that the suppression tactics have become more common and radical. To help out though, Obama has recruited thousands of civil rights lawyers to help with voter intimidation. 

This election could still get worse, much worse. It will be interesting to see how successful these tactics will be on election day. 

Theres a blogging community called Post Secret. Its a site where people mail in their secrets anonymously and anyone can go take a look. It has been featured in bestselling books, on numerous social networking websites and even in music videos such as "Move Along" by All American Rejects. 

I felt that this postcard represented what many people feel with this election. This election has been cited as the most important of the last hundred years, for not only is there the option of electing the oldest or first black president, this is the election that will decide the future of America. 

Among the postcards on this site, one was an anti-Obama postcard, this one speaks for itself. I find it interesting people would go to such new lows in showing their favoring of one candidate over another. This site is in essence a social networking cite, bringing people from all walks of like together. This site just allows people to do it unknown. 

In two days, the future of America will be known. We will make history with either candidate, and a new era will come regardless. Personally, its nice to know that other people share my feelings.

Palin and fireworks

Theres a story on CNN today about a bonfire in the British town of Battle going out with a bang. 

Every year this town has a huge bonfire and political characters are favored to be blown up. This blowing up of some political figure has become a tradition, only with different people every year. This year, they chose Sarah Palin. 

"This year's creation was a rather unflattering depiction of the self-declared "hockey mom," a machine gun brandished in her muscular arms, bright red lipstick surrounding a grimacing smile and a moose at her side."

Making sure to not be one sided, there was another, smaller version of the float as Obama, wearing a military type helmet. 

They stated the point was not to offend anyone, saying that the chosen candidates were simply the most interesting. More interesting is that they did not have floats of McCain, supporting the idea that Palin is just as much a celebrity as Obama. This event is believed to have begun in 1646 and has seen politicians such as Tony Blair in recent years. 

Pop culture and Politics for real

Walking through Balfour last week, there was a open mic night going on. Whatever the club is that writes and recites poetry that was there. My favorite girl, the one who wrote the poema bout change was speaking. 

It amazed me how many students are unwilling to accept the current situation. People are so hungry for a better future here. College students especially, I feel they are the most responsive to the call for change, because by just being here, they are saying they deserve better. More kids than ever are growing up with the intention of going to college. 

The need for change is apparent even in clothing now. Graphic tshirts with sayings like Hugs not Drugs, Save our Planet, Love one another, or Recycle are the fashion now. Theres no better use of pop culture as propaganda than that. 

Back to Balfour, after that girl finished, four dancers started moving to a song. The song was Obama's "Yes We Can" speech, but not the Will.I.Am version. I was disappointed, for i rather like that song. It was just interesting to see though that people are starting to associate Obama with the word change. They are looking to him to provide us with a better opportunity to fix our world for the better. 

I left before the dancers finished, but the fact that they chose a speech instead of a popular song about change struck me as the culmination of this election. 

Is Bailout really helping?

According to AOL the bailout is not really helping America as much as we thought it would. 

As it turns out, Wall Streeters are still getting paid bonuses with a portion of the money, with estimates running into seventy billion. If you do the math, thats ten percent of the bailout that should go to helping the economy, just going right back in their pockets. 

Also, AIG reportedly scheduled a lavish retreat for its employees, costing upwards of 400,000. This came right after it received the money from the bailout bill. There was another one planned soon after, but that was squashed right after the press got a hold of the story. 

On the bonuses point, some of the company's employees are receiving more money just to stay on for one year, shouldnt keeping their jobs be enough reward, especially when everyone else seems to be losing theirs?

What happens to the millions of dollars that was lost by failed CEO's? Well, they get to keep it, as compensation for what they made when it was working. 

As it turns out, banks can use the money any way they want to. There are no specifications as to what they must do with the money, so some are planning on buying up other banks instead of re-investing it back into the economy. They are not thinking of adding their millions to the lending pool so they can make more loans, they are thinking of using it for selfish terms. 

Whos the real money makers, well lawyers of course. They are making huge amounts on billable hours because of the bailout, not to mention representing the firms that are now having problems with regulators. 

New emblem?

So i just got an email, saying New US Emblem?

According to Winograd and Hais, our generation is described as being optimistic about politics. We are described as believing in the power of our government to change things for the better. If this is true, then this email, send to me by my sister, also a millennial, is the opposite of what Millennial Makeover is proposing. I realize this is not true for all of our generation, however, I agree with the picture. I also think that our government is changing for the better though. Maybe because Ive been influenced by the description of our generation as positive, but I really believe that things are changing in our government.

These kinds of emails are sent about the net tens of thousands of times a day, but one can pretty much bet on the fact that this was sent by someone just on the cusp of our generation, or someone just older than the oldest of our generation. Whoever came up with this picture is pretty clever, for I myself would never have thought of this.

The fact this was sent through a form of mass communications is important because without the programs available to make this sort of this, no one outside a little circle would ever see it. Because of tools such as the internet, mass amounts of people can see it, and if theyre part of my generation, they are more likely to think they can change things.

The email was sent throughout the workplace of my sister, and then forwarded to whomever they know, and so on til it fizzes out. This email perfectly describes the cynicism we have discussed in class about older generations. Take a look!

McCains Blame Game again.

In a shocking (yeah right) turn of events, McCain is trying to degrade Obama's image to discourage voters from voting for him. 

The new story is that the Los Angeles Times is withholding a story, and by association protecting the candidate, about him  

"attending a 2003 party for a Palestinian-American professor and critic of Israel. The paper said it had written about the event in April and would not release the tape because of a promise to the source who provided it."

Although both candidates (McCain and Palin) are criticizing Obama's longtime friend who was said to have been at the party, McCain also has ties to Rashid Khalidi. This man has been accused of being a former spokesperson for the Palestine Liberation Organization, a position he has denied in the past. The interesting this tis that McCain has ties to this man also, through a group partially founded by Khalidi. This group has received over four hundred thousand dollars from an organization chaired by McCain.

To add to the controversy, Jamie Gold, the newspaper's reader's representative said this of the alleged cover up, 

"More than six months ago the Los Angeles Times published a detailed account of the events shown on the videotape,"

There are no details out in the open about the source used by the newspaper, and The Times has refused to respond to the criticism.

McCain, in his recently attained whiny stance, complained that the paper has become bias, and that by suppressing the article, they have openly endorsed Obama. 

This is just another tactic to discredit Obama and lend into peoples fears that he will possibly cause a World War III. This is why the younger generation is so sick of politics, this type of mudslinging is exhausting and childish. McCain needs to realize that the race is won, and not by him.

McCains Brain

On top of discouraging polls, McCain is now becoming the object of mockery like his vp, Sarah Palin. The presidential hopeful is now part of a video series called McCains Brain, a skit of what does through his head during the debates. All of these are carefully thought out and perfectly positioned to tear McCain down. 

The videos are part of mainstream media, being on youtube. They are part of a five part series, personally i think that the fifth one is the funniest. Check them out!

number one!

number two!

number three!

number four!

number five!

Stephen Colbert, a known satirist, compares the candidates to shakespeare characters. What he does with McCain is the interesting thing, comparing him to blood hungry ineffective man hungry for power no matter the cost. He also enlists a Harvard scholar to help entertain the idea. 

While apt to attack McCain and Palin, he quietly raises up Obama.

Watch Here!!

Palin, Seriously.

Aside from the fact that Palin is a dangerous woman, she could not even speak with intelligence. If she did not want to answer a question she just went back to "Well, you know, in energy producing Alaska" to differ the fact that she has no idea what shes talking about. When she called Americans "six pack Joe" i wanted to puke. How could people want this woman to be the second most powerful person in our country.

I do love that she highlighted the fact that she has only been in politics for five weeks though, and that shes new to Washington.

I found a flow chart of her debate that is interesting, and surprisingly true.

age group demographics.

I found a website that placed states as for obama, against, too close and the same for mccain according to age groups. I think its a very interesting map, concerning it has a large audience. The site is part of myspace, which is a huge social site as we all know. Anways, take a look, its pretty self explanatory and worth looking at. 

go here!

ps. youll have to sign in as a myspace user. 

snl rocks

this skit is so funny, yall should watch it.

snl is making fun of the debates. 

go here!

Debate is On

This is ridiculous. Why would he suspend the debates? He himself in not going to single-handedly fix the financial crisis. Although he's going back to Washington after the debates, theres no point. I dont think the maverick move will work to his advantage, it just looks like he made a mistake in trying to seem above politics and is now trying to cover it up. 

I think right now its more important for them to explain their plans to fix things rather than have social hour in DC. I think its going to be interesting to see what each candidate has to say. 

Bristols body, Sarahs choice

I found an interesting article on Palins stance on teen pregnancy. With all the hoopla surrounding her daughter, its an interesting look at how far parental consent can be carried