Media Criticism

Guest Posting Today, we have Caroline

Caroline Golon/Romeo the Cat
www.romeothecat.com
caroline@romeothecat.com
@romeothecat Twitter

See the full Bio at the bottom of her post:

After the initial frenzy of media coverage about Bo Obama, six-month-old Portugese Water Dog who’s now livin’ large at the White House, things died down for a few days.

Now come the new angles on the stories. Like Peoplepets.com finding Bo’s big brother Solo, and sharing insight about the dog family’s temperament and USA Today doing a piece on Bo’s trainer.

There are always going to be Bo stories because we’re fascinated by the first family’s private life. And Bo’s a pretty darn cute dog too. 

But with all the media coverage now and that’s to come, it would have been terrific if these stories were about Schmoopy the rescue dog and not a Bo the perfect purebred. (read my post on Michelle Obama Watch blog entry)

Imagine the great coverage: “President’s Rescue Encourages More Adoptions Nationwide”  or
this article  could have been about Schmoopy and could have taught kids the importance of  helping animals in need.

Ah well.  

Caroline Golon is the staff manager for Romeo the Cat, a two-time rescued Persian cat who’s dedicated to raising money for rescue animals across the U.S. Through individual and corporate donations, Romeo raises money for a new local rescue every month.

Since February, Romeo has raised more than $14,000. His sponsors include FURminator, Inc., Feline Pine Cat Litter, Wellness Pet Food and Clean+Green by Sea-Yu Enterprises.

Monthly beneficiaries are selected from submissions made by Romeo’s blog readers so make sure to subscribe to his blog so you’ll be alerted when he’s taking recommendations for next month.

Romeo and his adopted brother Pugsley live in Charlotte, NC with their parents and 8-month-old human sister

This is not a political blog.  It is merely something that came to my attention tonight and I felt I need to say that I am amazed and I am grateful that a man, any man, any where would say this……….it’s prolific, PERIOD!

I’m paraphrasing here but what he said that was so powerful to me was this

“I believe that this is a moral issue….I believe that this is not an issue that women take lightly….I believe that women are in a better position to make decisions on this matter than congress …or the President of the United States….and at the same time….I want to see what we can do to prevent unwanted pregnancies especially in teenagers…..which is on the rise”

People, that is powerful stuff!  The man has the ego big enough to finally be open and say that regardless of what men say, they have no idea what pregnancy feels like or how to do with unwanted pregnancy.

Said it ain’t so?  But, it is, the Obama children have thus far been able to remain the little girls living the little life they were living prior to their father being the most well-known man in the world.  You see, they have a new swing set.  What kid doesn’t dream of a new swing set?

President Obama himself and his wife Michelle went to work while the girls were at school.  NO no no, they didn’t actually put the thing together, because I mean…erm, doesn’t the leader of the free world have more to do than put together a swing set?  But, they did make arrangements for it to be installed on the south grounds of the White House within sight of the Oval Office. 

That would be the one place where President Obama spends the majority of his time.  So, at the very least, he can watch his girls grow up swinging on the monkey bars and not swinging from one bar to the next.  Sorry, couldn’t help but throw that in there for good measure. 

The girls have never lived anywhere but Chicago until now but they seem to feel at home in the White House.  The structure has four swings, including a tire swing, a slide, a fort, a climbing wall and climbing ropes.  That’s not a swing set?  That’s a full out jungle gym. 

A swing set is those metal things you get at Wal-mart, give me a break.  When the girls got in from school though, they ran straight for the swing set….all four of them.  And, for the two adults, there’s a picnic able with brass plates etched with the names of all 44 presidents. 

Once the girls were out playing, they stayed out for almost an hour in the chilly weather.  The swing set was paid for by the Obamas (or you and I) and was made and installed by Rainbow Play Systems of Brookings, S.D. 

So, ok, I get it, Obama went to Canada for his first international trip.  Is that really considered an international trip?  I mean, let’s be safe and all, guard our ol’ Pres because he’s cool and hey, Canada, it’s just a hop, skip and jump over there. 

So, with that said, Michelle was busy in Washington, detailing her new duties.  I just have to say that it was kind of neat that we all gave her (and the rest of the First Family) to grow accustom to their surroundings before we started beating the living daylights out of their every move.  I mean, c’mon, be for real.  Do we have to know every time the royal toilet flushes?

I think not.  And, with that, we shall let the ol’ Pres take his journey to Canada and if they are kind enough to return him to us, safe and sound, we might considering allowing him to take a trip a little further next time around.  But, for now, how ‘bout you stay in the good ol’ USA their Pres?

And, you Michelle, you rock and we don’t care what kind of titles they try to throw on you, just get busy, do what ever it is that First Lady’s do and look good doing it because…we totally know you are going to look good doing it! 

"I have enough money to last me the rest of my life, unless I buy something."
       — Jackie Mason

As I sat and listened on Monday night to our new President speak his mind and literally when he speaks, teleprompter and all, I feel as if he is speaking from his heart and from what he knows to be true and that he believes each and every word that he says.  In all reality, my husband and I actually said a lot of the exact same things about him and that is, “the man speaks blue collar”. 

The media were asking questions as he called on them and gave them permission, but he was answering these questions with such composure and grace.  And, of course, when money is being talked about, composure and grace are really difficult to pull off.

But, if you look at that quote above, you can kind of see how it seems that Jackie Mason was on to something.  And, Obama has made it clear that he is no miracle worker, he didn’t like the fact that he had to come into office and immediately spend a lot of money, but the fact of the matter is, that’s what happened.

And you know what, if I don’t buy another thing, I’m still going to keep believing in my President…regardless of his last name.

I remember reading several months back during the Presidential campaign that Obama is a smoker.  When I first heard it, it was shocking.  He just simply doesn’t strike me as the type.  But, then again, what can you really tell about someone just because they smoke.  A majority of the adults in my family that I grew up around smoke or did at some time anyway. 

But, someone on twitter made a point of mentioning that Obama was a smoker and how she couldn’t even picture him with a cigarette in his hand.  And, the more I thought about it, I remember seeing a photo somewhere with him holding a cigarette but I don’t recall where.

The reason I don’t recall where is because it didn’t strike me as all that odd.  Now that he is actually THE President, it seems kind of odd.  Will they let him smoke in the White House?  Or will he be banned to the stepping out back like most of the people I know now that smoke are? 

What do you think?

This couple, they are the epitome of “patchwork” wouldn’t you say?  I’ve heard mumbles of the word mosaic being used but patchwork was better because Mosaic seemed to Muslim.  Whatever.  I’ve heard mumbles that “patchwork” sounds better than “melting pot” because …well they say just because it does.  I say, what difference does it make? 

There is a quote out there, somewhere, and I will find it, but for now, to summarize, it goes something like this, “the end of the hyphenated American”.  Doesn’t that sound awesome.  No more African Americans, or Latino-Americans or green-Americans, just us, Americans…no hyphens. 

Most of you probably don’t know the method to my madness when it comes to posting on my blogs, but one way, is I think of something simple and I start writing.  I jump back and forth between the post and surfing or researching and continue to come up with words.  Today, I’m searching for that “hyphenated American” phrase.

That’s why, sometimes I say, I’m still looking for ____ then in a couple of paragraphs later I say, I found _____.  And, ah ha, I found it….it was Theodore Roosevelt who, in 1915 said,

“There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all.
This is just as true of the man who puts �native� before the hyphen as of the man who puts German or Irish or English or French before the hyphen. Americanism is a matter of the spirit and of the soul. Our allegiance must be purely to the United States. We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance.
But if he is heartily and singly loyal to this Republic, then no matter where he was born, he is just as good an American as any one else.
The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English- Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian- Americans, or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality than with the other citizens of the American Republic.
The men who do not become Americans and nothing else are hyphenated Americans; and there ought to be no room for them in this country. The man who calls himself an American citizen and who yet shows by his actions that he is primarily the citizen of a foreign land, plays a thoroughly mischievous part in the life of our body politic. He has no place here; and the sooner he returns to the land to which he feels his real heart-allegiance, the better it will be for every good American.
Addressing the Knights of Columbus in New York City
12 October 1915 “

And now, as we move forward, we have a President and a First Lady, a First Family if you will who……looks like this…

“The president’s elderly stepgrandmother brought him an oxtail fly whisk, a mark of power at home in Kenya. Cousins journeyed from the South Carolina town where the first lady’s great-great-grandfather was born into slavery, while the rabbi in the family came from the synagogue where he had been commemorating Martin Luther King’s Birthday. The president and first lady’s siblings were there, too, of course: his Indonesian-American half-sister, who brought her Chinese-Canadian husband, and her brother, a black man with a white wife.”

So, yea, I think it is time to toss out the “blog of ink” as it is referred to by some that has in the past made a hyphen between ______ and Americans.  We are no longer _______-Americans.  We are ALL Americans.

I started to just breakdown Obama’s speech and ask what you thought.  But, then, there was so much that I found of interest.  So, here goes and I”m definitely asking for your input on what YOU think the following quotes were meant to imply…..

“grateful for the trust you have bestowed”

You know, I told you earlier, we respect our President because he is our President, our leader, our authority figure…and with statements like that you can assume (or at least I do) that he understands that we have given him our “TRUST”.

“Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land — a nagging fear that America’s decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.”

I sure hope not.  We absolutely cannot afford to lower our sights..none at all.

After all, isn’t this what we all wanted to hear from our new President regardless of the name behind Mr. President….?

“Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America — they will be met.”

“when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around … when yellow will be mellow … when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right. That all those who do justice and love mercy say Amen.”

For those of you who say “he doesn’t believe in the same God that I do, but that I’ve never questioned who your God is, should I now question you when you talk of your God because you said your God and Obama’s God were different…but this sounds just like what I thought you meant by your God..

“but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.”

Yes, this..

“we understand that greatness is never a given.”

And, yea more of this..

“We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth”

Now, remember I am an Obama supporter but for some reason, this makes me feel like I missed something…

“Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.”

Were we in that bad of shape?  Or are we now?

And, to this..

“The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end”

Who makes the decision of yes or no?

And, this…

“For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness.”

This is major important…read it again!

Is this man a genius or what?

“For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies.”

Back to that religion thing..

“God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.’

And, then this:

“Let it be said by our children’s children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God’s grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.”

And, finally, the best of the day’s quotes come in my next post…I can’t help myself…..

In the meantime…feel free to interpret this for me as to what it means to you…….I”m game for almost anything…let’s have it.

As I read about Captain Chesley Sullenberger III, known as Sully, and his emergency landing of US Airways Flight 1549 into the icy waters of the Hudson River after engine failure…I get goose bumps.  He managed to save the lives of 155 people…which is every passenger on the flight.  He also saved the lives of the entire crew on board. 

Whoopi Golberg said it best when she said something close to “this man’s experience saved those lives, when I get on another plane, the pilot will need to be 187 years old”.  That’s not a direct quote, but you get the idea. 

On Saturday, President-Elect Obama invited the Sullenbergers to the inauguration and to fly aboard the Air Force One.  And, today, as he helped paint the Sasha Brown House shelter for at-risk children, he mentioned Sully again.  He paraphrased Sully as saying, “Me and my crew, we were just doing our job.”  And, Obama added, “If everybody did their job, whatever that job was, as well as that pilot did his job, we’d be in pretty good shape.”

I have to say, yes that is too true. I grew playing sports, I was always told that if ever person on a football field did their job on every play, the ball would never move.  Hummmmm….

I’m not going to waste my precious hours hunting the exact phrasing of sweet Malia’s quote to her father but it went something like this….

*in reference to his Inaugural Speech*

First African American President?…….this better be good.

President Elect Obama wanted to make it clear to the media that his daughters were putting the pressure on him.  I don’t think it’s a problem sweet Malia, so far, he has been cool as a cucumber. 

How will the children fair in all of this?  The media says that Rush Limbaugh once called Chelsea Clinton “the White House dog”..which doesn’t sound very nice and I hope he can just keep his tongue when the Obama’s wake up on Wednesday as the First Family. 

These girls are beautiful and life is going to bear down on them hard right now…the last thing they need is some idiot talking crap.