The Press of Death

Yesterday in Libya, two western photojournalists were killed and two others were wounded in the city of Misrata, which was being hailed on by government forces, and has been for weeks now.

It is unclear what actually happened, but it is claimed that a rocket propelled grenade killed Chris Hondros (of NY) Winner of the Robert Capa Gold Medal, and (British born) oscar nominated, (best documentary 2010 "Restrepo"he co-directed) Tim Hetherington, and wounded two assistance of theirs. It is said that they were following Rebel troops from Tripoli street in Misrata where there the fighting was the heaviest. Both died from brain injuries and loss of blood.

I don't want you, my readers, to think that I don't care about the troops, or the civilians or others that have died in Libya or anywhere else in the recent past, and the present. It is just that as a writer, blogger, and hopeful Journalist after school, I hold a special place in my heart for these men and women that risk their lives so keep us informed. I can't speak for others, but I want to be in this line of work to help others stay informed and to be there to witness revolutions, to be at the forefront of the news. It is exciting for me to think that these people are able to see this happen first hand. Also though, they are helping out the peoples in these places by telling their story. I have not yet seen Restrepo, but I do plan on checking it out (for any who are interested it can be found on Netflix Instant Watch).

The stories that these people tell, are not for personal glory, they tell these stories so that we can understand what is going on, what is happening. Most of their work seems to go under the radar, most of us have not heard of these nameless journalists that are being beaten in Libya, China, Afghanistan, Iran, etc etc, just so that we can sit behind our computers and have information. I commend their efforts and support their mission. These peoples are the real agents of truth, risking and giving their lives to hand us that truth. I may not yet be among their ranks, but soon I will be, and I too will spread truth to the masses.

... this has gotten a bit too melodramatic, my apologies readers.

The Civil War in Libya is far from over. Muammar Gaddafi cannot win, that is clear, but he also may not loose. There is speculation over whether or not there will be two Libyas after this. East and West Libya perhpas. I honestly don't think Gaddafi will go for this however. He is a man that has dreamed of uniting Africa under his rule and being the first Emperor of Africa, if he looses Libya that is like a kick in the shins. Needless to say, he will not give up until he feels he has won something.  So we will have to wait and see what happens there, keep searching the Net for news and info.

Here are some links to the works (or where you can find the works) of:
Chris Hondros
Tim Hetherington

 Like it or hate it, read it and share it. Remember Always Demand Truth

Monie$ and how people don't want to deal with it.

The US has avoided a partial government shutdown by an eleventh hour agreement made by those people in the White House. The $38 Billion agreement came late Friday night, I think it was sometime after 11 p.m. The shutdown was set to go for midnight that night. Republicans and Democrats alike have been bickering for weeks on this years fiscal budget that ends in September.  A Republican was heard giving a speech saying

As I understand it Democrats wanted to cut only $11 Billion from the rest of this years spending. While Republicans had varied amounts, which is not a bad thing. Haggling is a great strategy when it comes to money. But in this case it was nothing but a nuisance. Every time the D's were ready to take their deal, the R's brought up the price of the cut.

It turns out that things like Planned Parenthood and such, just NEEDED to be cut, as well as other programs (however this was the one that is most talked about in the media). So you had R's fighting for money and cuts, and D's fighting for people's rights. It has struck me as an odd fight. In the large scale of things, this is such a small, menial cut from the budget as a whole (now I know that to you and I that seems like a lot; but, when you look at how big this country is and how much money it takes to run it for a year. Suddenly $38 billion isn't so much.) So why did it take so long?

The way I see there are few reasons for this. One is the Tea Party-ers (who were heard chanting "shutdown shutdown", yeah thats great good support of the American people there.) Wanted Americans to loose jobs during the last two years of Obama's Presidency so that way an uneducated American would think that He lost jobs instead of creating them. This might cause more people to vote R and oust him in the coming 2012 election.

Another reason is all peoples involved (and I mean both R and D here) wanted to wait until that eleventh hour so they could come out and say that they did absolutely everything in their power to get what they saw fit. This would make them out to be heros in a sense. One of the Rs (I am sorry I don't know his name, nor the state he represents) was recorded saying in a speech that this was not held off until the last minuet for drama reasons, but to ensure that they got what they wanted. Now I am not going to sit here and tell you that these grown men actually were standing around knowing that they were going to come to a deal and just waiting for that last minuet to say so. But on the other hand...

They have not really been acting like adults as of late. The best analogy I can come up with is preschoolers fighting over crayons. Everybody knew that one kid who, if he couldn't have THOSE crayons he didn't want ANY crayons. That is what I saw during these debates for a budget. And that, most of all is what annoyed me about the whole thing.

We vote for these people, essentially hire them, to do a job that we ourselves are not prepared to do. Like any company that needs employees, I see the politicians as the people we have hired to do work that we should be able to oversee as managers. We get vote people in,  we vote the people out, in other words, we hire them and we fire them. Maybe we are nothing more than just hiring managers, but that is something. I don't want to go into office and make difficult choices, that is why I vote. Because I don't think I would want to do the job I have taken time and put in effort into finding someone that I think could do it. Now why are they not performing to the upmost standards? I wish there was an election tomorrow so that we could we show these guys how we felt about this childish behavior of theirs.

This also goes to show just how segregated American politics really is. The fight of the R's versus the D's seems to be hotter than ever at this point. Now maybe it is because I am new to this, maybe it really is just raging really badly right now. It could be both, I don't know. But I think political acts like the ones we have seen between the two parties at times like these when they are debating about a budget that ends in September, is what is going to see the raise of the Independent party. This is something I support whole heartedly too.

I would like to see a Party that will stand for people and people's rights, and do what is NEEDED based on those factors, not based on party bias. It would be nice to see someone actually just stand up and be for the people by the people. Now I don't think that that last statement made any more sense than you think it made but still, it would be great to see that. I think that that with more debates and close calls like the one we just had with this budget, we may see a rise in the Independent party, hopefully.

So as always, like it or hate, read it and share it. And remember, ALWAYS demand truth.