Pogs, Politics, & Negative Campaigning

Pogs, a reference you might have to think hard to remember because it was the 90’s after all. But out of all games from Hungry Hungry Hippo to Don’t Break The Ice! Pogs had to have been the one I most loved, even if it took me a while to find the purpose of the game and how to play it- kind of like politics. You see the slammer, or heavy piece is the media and the stacks of caps (cardboard pieces with characters and designs) are the politicians. There are the skeletons, which represent the evil politicians and the poisonous 8 balls, which represent the super evil politicians. There are also nicely designed soft characters, but they rarely get noticed; I don’t remember my sister yelling “Yes, I got the lion pog!”
She was more like “Your going to f@*#ing die, I’ve got the skull with flames shooting out of it’s eyes!”

Perhaps these small items we so desperately needed introduced us to the real skulls and fire, challenges that are unwinnable and the inevitable of losing to the higher power who holds the better Pogs. Because even in the game the one with the most points is the winner and in life as an adult, the one with the most money and the most friends is winner. But that isn’t the point. The media does a good job embarrassing people- it is the slammer after all, so strong and unforgiving. At times it can be entertaining, just ask Anthony Weiner and his…well, weiner. But when media is twisted to serve a purpose to obtain voters is where the game should be abandon. Yet, there are always players.

I’m talking about the mudslinging, gun pulling, meet me at high noon behavior during presidential elections.

The past is good example of this.

“(Obama) is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect, imperfect enough, that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country," said by Sarah Palin during the 2008 Elections. Unfortunately, her mouth ran quite a bit in 2008 and soon after though no one really pays much attention anymore.

But even words are not enough, the use of campaign ads as a tool to destroy or at least discredit the other opponents is still relevant, in 2011! Haven’t we learned anything? No- sadly we haven’t.

This year I came across an Obama campaign ad for 2012 elections, bashing McCain (of course by a voice actor and not himself- he wouldn’t want to look like he would be winning by playing dirty). Below is a link to the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CK3Y1KPzW9k

In the video it is mentioned of the quotes said about John McCain and his mudsling. So Obama approved a message of mudslinging another opponents past mudslinging? Makes no sense, right? Right. Instead of listing his accomplishes and wining on his own merit, he has resorted to the one thing he wasn’t going to do, which is be exactly like everyone else. Another failure for Team Obama.

Negative campaign ads have sprung like an infectious disease, making and breaking promising runners. Its media at it’s best and worse. In 1992, Clinton approved a message attacking Republicans, showing the high unemployment problem. But even then it wasn’t as nasty as it has been in the past few elections. It detailed his accomplishments, and his plans, also in a subtle way talking about George’s Bush Sr.’s negative views on Clinton, pre-Monica Lewinsky of course.

Perhaps it’s the sinister voices and sound effects that are enhanced that make it seem like the opponents are murderers on Law & Order. Maybe it’s a genius way of winning.

How do they get away with this? We allow the loudest fool win the prize of driving us into the dirt. Not only are the morals during these important times missing, but they make it seem like a dirty soap opera, entertaining only themselves and the uneducated who do not know any better. The American people deserve better. The less mudslinging, the better the candidate.

Because we are not playing a game, and they shouldn’t play with our lives.


Below: Some campaign ads
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsQmS1OcXTQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6pgoqZpfUU&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHoXkCprdL4&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34pQsHwN9iI&NR=1

A nice gesture, but too little too late?

Obama is no fool, at least when in comes to being a good salesman, even when the product itself is completely flawed. What is he selling on today’s infomercial of bull? The Buffet Tax. If you have been following the news then you are already away of Warren Buffet who admitted that he and other rich were given special treatment, paying the amount of taxes like the rest of America instead of what they should have been paying. So Obama devised this plan, more like scheme to benefit his number one fan: himself.

But we all know Congress will ignore him like a redheaded stepchild anyways. Obama no longer, if ever, holds any value in the White House and this last gesture seems more like a slap in the face than a helping hand.

I am certain Mr. President was aware that the gracious upper class taxes were barely existent and is taking this opportunity only after Mr. Buffet revealed the truth we all knew, but never heard from the horses mouth. If he did not know through the four years of his terms, than he isn’t qualified to even be a contestant on ‘Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader’. There is no point getting into detail since he will be playing this detailed mockery on Monday for the world to see, pulling hopes of gullible citizens who need to believe in something, even when its an empty attempt to regain back the peoples respect.

Just remember, he was vacationing not too long ago, not thinking one moment about the people he’s in charge of, and for that he can take back is foe product back in his bag of magic and draw an illusion that at least looks like he will penalize the rich and revive the country.

Because Yes we can and No he can't.

-Sara McClory/ Angry Citizen

Someone Call 911

I thought I would have had my life without telling my children I witnessed a war. To me, my father talked about them like they were legends of epic proportions, not real scenarios that last years, taking the lives of many like chess pieces on a board. This is a game, isn’t it? Before the attacks of 9.11 I never really knew what war was other than in history class. In a way it was like a myth. Then it became a reality. At the time of the attacks I was out home skipping school. On the television the news break through my show and it showed the disasters and wave of smoke engulfing New York.

I didn’t get it- only being in Briscoe Middle School in Beverly, Ma. My parents however held a face of grief that to this day seems still stuck, unable to completely peel away. I’m twenty-three years old. I understand what war means now from the eyes of a United States citizen. To watch the documentaries, read all the articles, see people who have lost someone. Luckily, I have not lost anyone that day because I could of. My father before his retirement a few years ago had been a firefighter for Peabody Massachusetts and felt the pain of his fellow brothers of New York being lost in the flames of the Twin Towers.

For me it’s difficult to see the photographs of Falling Man-I get emotionally every time because out of desperation someone took control of their life and ended it the way they wanted to. But even that shouldn’t have happened. But thus I get to my point- that we have no control of our lives anymore but we can with strength. With each new President, comes more disappoint, destruction and the disappearance of the middle class. Many feel stranded and helpless as the people supposed to protect us are the prime suspects forcing us into poverty. The land of the free and home of the brave is becoming the land of the empty houses and the streets of the dead and I have to ask myself, how did we get to this point?

The United States is in distress, will anyone listen or will we go on until there is nothing left and Death has called ‘checkmate’?


-Sara McClory/ writer, concerned citizen