"Katy Perry Gets High Schoolers Suspended"

   We live in a world of freedom of expression and freedom of speech, where everyone has the right to express him or herself and realize their full potential by enjoying all the basic rights. I came across this article named, "Stupid Texas Schools:Van Twirlers suspended for doing routine to-I Kissed A Girl" editorial by Vince Leibowitz, which was published in our very own Capitol Annex.

 An incident that took place in van high school where three girls were suspended from two footballs game performances on the basis of changing the music to their performance. According to reports the Van ISD assistant superintendent Suzie McWilliams said the suspension involved a recent performance that was not consistent with the district’s student code of conduct. It might be an argument that the song that the girls chose was not fully "appropriate" but suspension on these terms seems totally uncalled for .By nature, its rebellious and such moves not only alienate certain students but also affect the student and authorities relation as a whole.
KDFW-TV reported the girls performed to Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl,” after school officials told them the song was too suggestive. Well for one argument the girls did not actually kiss but performed to the song. If such songs and videos have been passed by the government to be viewed on TV whose audience is young and old alike, I see no reason why the school should have a problem with the girls dancing in this track. These double standards at different levels is primarily the reason that the youth is getting more and more difficult to control for one government strategy stops them from doing something while the other promotes it. This has left not only the youth but also the general population confused but also asking questions and being rebellious.
For example 50 years ago such a song would be unthoughtful of on TV as well as on the field but today our double standards to life on tube and life off it is just making our population more and more eager to live the life we show on tube. These double standards need to be changed and be changed for good. I just think that it’s a song, “It’s just like any other song for me”.

"No news is good news"

While going through blogs, I found “ A bloodbath” by Robert, an interesting topic to comment on. The way writer projects opinion on Politics is credible. “Road to tomorrows politics” states how the citizens perceive politics. It is an undeniable truth that politician present themselves worthy to be represented, by bashing opponents. Writer expects politicians to provide with convincing factors that could encourage writer to vote them. These expectations are among many citizens who are persistently trying to get their representative work in favor of the nation and people themselves. But,if we perceive political battle in other way, it sounds interesting to most of the people who try to choose their candidates. The Tv shows, newspapers, online and other media sources make general people know about politics. Generally, in political battle candidates battle in certain issues that attracts viewers and statistics says that political battle in media increases the number of voter turnouts. Today’s voters get interested on watching political battles and attack ads rather than reading newspapers or going to campaign websites. I bet most voters would be interested on watching politician battle to prove them worthy than others. Who wouldn’t be interested if there pops out a “BREAKING NEWS: Negative Attack Ads on Obama” in youtube?? Political battle has been a new face to modern politics. This is what politician rely on to attract voters by understanding the needs and feedback on certain issues that general public create.

"Time to restore diverted unemployment funds"

The article titled "White calls on Perry to restore diverted unemployment funds" by RG Ratcliffe reports on why white called Perry to return the Texas Workforce Commission that was diverted to Texas Enterprise Fund. In the article, the author picks up the fallen sword and tries to make a point with given facts that the unemployment fund is always under-funded in economic downturns and I completely agree with him. Perry's action has led to tax increase on small businesses. His policies doubled the pay-roll taxes that are clearly affecting the job growth.

In a counter argument, the author has taken up a very sensitive issue and tried to deal with it in a very simplified way, a little "too simplified" I would say. The author has quoted that "the news media has linked Perry's enterprise fund financing of companies to donations received by his campaign.” Radcliffe proves his point by saying that all these politicians are trying to use the money for other enhanced benefits which is very true. After Perry, the trust fund has become empty. I found out after my research that all these dollars are giver to countless campaign contributors for Perry. There are few major reforms Texans are expecting which are just minor for all these politicians if they act smart. First of all, restore diverted funds that is $161.5 million Secondly, audit the enterprise fund used for subsidies and finally, disclose the plan for repaying borrowed federal stimulus funds.

An expert’s opinion on this issue is totally similar with what the author says. Personally as a keen observer of current events, I would rate the article an 8 on a scale from 1 to 10.I actually liked working on Ratcliffe's work but moreover the language of the article in itself does not seem convincing enough for such a sensitive issue and is flamboyant and casual, more suited for an article on celebrities and their ever happening gossip. Well, just a thought of mine.