Stage Four: Critique an editorial or commentary from a blog

I read the article The Last Big Chance To Take On Romney's "12 Million Jobs".
This article caught my attention because of how important the elections of president are to the United States. I bet that everyone is just as anxious as myself, to see who the president will end up to be. However, in the mean time the people of this country are tuned into what is going on, regarding Mitt Romney and Obama. The author's intended audience in this article is to all of the United States because at the conclusion of the day everyone should be attentive listening to the changes and updates that relate to the elections. The arguments that the author makes are that these elections' issues that Mitt Romney brings up are all revolving around economics. The author clearly lets the audience know how Mitt Romney is saying how he will bring 12 million jobs into the country but how their would be an increase of jobs being introduced into the country regardless of if he was president. Another argument is that the math is not right because 12 million jobs would not be available just like that within the 4 years of his presidency. The author also goes on to say how Romney had one last chance at explaining himself along with the things that he is promising.I do agree with the author because the economy has been getting better and the increase in jobs is not going to be because of Romney, it is going to happen either way, so I do not believe that Romney should be taking the credit.

Stage Three: Critique an editorial or commentary from a national newspaper

The article titled Increase the Gas Tax introduces the idea that more funding for our transportation system is needed; however, many politicians are not willing to support the proposal for an increase in state and federal gas taxes to provide the money. I was intrigued by the fact that a portion of the government is contemplating substituting the increase in gas tax with a Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) tax. The new proposal includes drivers paying per mile traveled instead of per gallons used. Drivers would receive a monthly or yearly bill depending on the distance traveled instead of conveniently paying at the pump. My attention was especially caught by the intrusion of privacy posed by the GPS tracking systems that would monitor the miles traveled to ensure accountability is met when paying bills according to the mileage. Increasing the gas tax seems to be the easiest option, but the hardest to get passed by the legislation. 

The author, Duncan Black, writes with supporters of increasing gas taxes as his intended audience. Duncan Black is a fellow for Media Matters for America and an editorial columnist for USA Today. Black is in favor of increasing gas taxes for the state and federal governments rather than placing the economic burden on the American population. He claims that raising gas taxes would be an unpopular thing to do with elections right around the corner. However, Washington and Nevada are testing the GPS technology and Nevada is preparing to do so, as reported earlier this year by USA Today. Black believes that paying at the pump and gas station owners turning over the money to the government rewards those who use better mileage cars and lighter vehicles with lower gas prices which in turn results in less damage to our transportation system. Black claims that another option to the GPS system would be self-reporting; however, that poses a threat to accountability.  Black concludes his argument by stating that even though the gas tax would take a toll on poorer individuals that a simple solution to this would be to lower the income tax burden for low-income individuals ensuring that the simple existing system stays in place. 

I agree with Black that the legislation should pass an increase for gas taxes rather than making the average citizen carry the burden of invasion of privacy and inconvenience. I believe that the excess work and stress for the government to implement a whole new method of enforcement and money collecting is not worth imposing on people’s rights to privacy and raising the costs of driving and getting around town. The VMT seems to be a good option in the long run, but now it seems to be a problem and the best bet is to raise the gas tax. People are used to this system and putting a whole new one in place would disrupt easy daily activities such as pumping gas when in a hurry for work into a complicated process.

Stage Two: Article Introduction & Colleague's Blogs

The article I read was "Angry Birds On Sesame Street want Obama to take down PBS ad". The article is basically talking about how the Obama campaign administration is using big bird from Sesame Street in a mocking way for a television ad, which is against Mitt Romney. Obama is trying to make the point by being sarcastic to say that by Romney being in favor of taking away the subsidies that are given to PBS, that big bird is now the enemy for Romney. Romney however, says that since Obama does not have a positive record to back himself up on, that Obama has to be using small issues turning them into huge thing during the elections to distract the audience. Romney uses the example of showing people how many times Obama has brought up the word big bird yet has not brought up much more important issues, such as healthcare. PBS asked the Obama campaign administration to remove the ad since they had not given them permission to use it, and did not want to take part in the politics. This article is worth reading because as people of this country we should be aware of what is going on with the elections, since they are fast approaching. It's interesting in this article that Romney points out and attacks Obama by saying that he tried to cover up the Libya attack in order to make himself look better. This article actually relevant to everyone since these elections have to do with the elections of who could end up becoming the next president so people should know what's going on to see who they will be going for and voting for. I decided to blog about this because this article caught my attention of recent things that are going on. The article has a great video featured on the same page along with the article.

Link to article:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/10/09/obama-campaign-deploys-big-bird-in-new-ad/