Unbiased Bitch Coverage: Presidential Debate no. 2

Photo Credit: http://www.policymic.com

Debate on higher education:
Both want to make sure that jobs are created for America’s young. Neither pose a straight answer to the question.

Unemployment

Romney: can create jobs

Obama: Romney “has the rich playing by another set of rules”

(again not a straight answer)

Gas Prices

Obama: Alternative energy resources are increasing. Fuel efficiency on the rise. Has allowed us to lower our oil imports and will keep them lower. Romney wants the oil companies to just lower the gas prices, but not with energy efficiency. “We are using oil more efficiently” but we are “drilling more on our lands”. Romney shut down a coal plant but wants to bring one back. Cleaner energy, cheaper energy. Romney wants to use an old plan, need to use alternative energy (wind power in Oregon/Iowa)

Romney: Oil production down because drilling is not coming from federal lands. Coal country, want people to save their jobs. But EPA keeps limits. “Abundant energy” by more drilling. More jobs for middle class. Obama hasn’t
Tax Code

Romney: 1. Want to bring Middle Class taxes down, give them tax break. 2. Bring rates down for everyone, but want high income still paying. 3. Balance budget, reduce middle class taxes. 5 point plan. Poverty increase in the past four years. Credibility: balanced the budget in Massachusetts. The President has doubled the national debt, and he will continue it.
Obama: Middle Class relief. Cut taxes for families “3600 dollars” on average the past few years. Income tax reform for first 25,000 dollars. Romney holding back the bill. Wants the rich to pay more. Brings up Romney’s 60 minutes interview about rich not getting tax breaks fueling out economy. Who is going to pay for the 7-8 trillion dollars of the five points plan?

Women in the work place

Obama: Talks about his mom. Women are becoming the bread winners of the family. Young people need to have an accessible education: poll grants/student loan program so many have been able to afford college, allowing women to compete in the market place. We can not tolerate discrimination, we haven’t. Contraceptive coverage counts economically – includes mammograms and cancer screenings too, which are expensive. Not just women’s issues, family issues. Women need same opportunities as men. Brings in daughters.
Romney: All the men have qualification. Went out to look for women in his cabinet, had more women and seniors in cabinet than any other state. Flexible schedules for women. Women have lost 580,000 jobs in the past four years. Women need a stronger economy. All women should have access of contraception.

Romney being a republican, what is the difference between you and Bush

Romney: 5 point plan much different. Energy security. Trade in China and latin america, adding more free trade. Balance the budget. Championing small business, contrary to party beliefs. Obama care keeps small businesses from hiring more people.

Obama: “digging ourselves out” – 5.2 million jobs created. Romney a pioneer of outsourcing. Signed trade deals already. Leveled playing fields and unfair trade practices by American workers in Bush term. Immigration reform and Planned Parenthood show that Romney more extreme than Bush.

What has Obama done?

Obama: Jobs, End war, Osama Bin Ladin dead, Wall street reforms, 5 million jobs created, saved auto industry, education, reducing deficit, putting people back to work, energy reform. Kept my commitments, not a lack of trying. Romney will keep his too – cut of obama care, education, planned parenthood. Whose promises will help your kids go to college, get you a good paying job?

Romney: These past four years have not been good. We can’t afford it. 9 million American’s still without work. Medicare and Social Security not reformed, no proposals. Immigration same thing. Didn’t cut half the deficit but doubled it. Middle class taxes have gone up. It’s just going to keep going. Middle class is getting crushed because Obama doesn’t understand how to reduce employment. More people on food stamps..how about the growth of the economy? Uses Reagan recession recovery program as the ideal solution. Median incomes down. Who can get the middle class a better economy?
Immigrants

Romney: We welcome legal immigrants. Uses family as an example. We should give green cards to graduates. We need to stop illegal immigration, but put in place a legal work code. Military service to become a citizen. Obama didn’t do anything with a democrat senate/house. Romney admits to liking aspect of the Arizona law that determines whether an immigrant or citizen. Let people make their own choice to go somewhere else, not in favor of rounding up people. Criminals need to be rounded up.

Obama: Everyone wants to come to America. Need to fix the system. Made it easier for people to come and contribute to our country, create jobs. More border control, lower than it’s been in 40 years. Go after criminals, not students or families. Those who live here feel they are citizens, and they should have access to citizenship. Romney wants Arizona law nationwide. Republicans don’t support immigration.

“Mr. President have you looked at your pension?”

“It’s not as big as yours.”
National security/Benghazi

Obama: Close to those overseas, personally. We need to go after people who threaten Americans. Romney making political security an issue in the heat of the moment. Decreasing war, retreat from foreign issues. “I have to greet the coffins when they come home, I mean what I say.” Hilary Clinton works for him. Afterwards, told the American people he was going to figure out exactly what happened, and do what he could. Romney being offensive and insensitive after the attack.

Romney: Obama takes responsibility. There was a terrorist attack in Benghazi, not a demonstration. President flies to Las Vegas day after. Not a spontaneous reaction.
Gun Control

Obama: Our nation believes in the 2nd amendment for sport and protection. But people lose lives because of weapons. Colorado shooting example. We need to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill. Military weapons don’t belong on the streets. Need an assault weapons reform. Need a comprehensive strategy in communities to catch violent impulses. Romney endorsed by NRA. Skilled worker training. Millions of young people can get education needed before. Teachers will grow our economy.

Romney: Don’t need to make more gun control, but enforce the gun control we have. We need less violence, more education like in Massachusetts. Need family base. “Fast and furious” – weapons given to Mexican drug lords by the government. Massachusetts pro and anti-gun people come together to create gun reform. Need to work on a bipartisan basis.

How to brings jobs back

Romney: Make America a place for entrepreneurs, small businesses. Need fair trade with China who is manipulating currency for profit. On day one, Romney wants to put a bill in place to limit China. Need to be competitive to keep more jobs. Obama care deterring people from being hired.

Obama: Wants to close loopholes to allow businesses to profit offshore. Romney wants to expand tax breaks. Need to change tax code and double exports, on pace. Trade deals make sure that country is getting a good deal. Reporters call Romney’s outsourcing “pioneers of outsourcing”.
Macs and Apple, bring to America

Romney: China is cheating by keeping currency down and stealing technology. Fake Apple in China. “Government doesn’t create jobs.”

Obama: Some jobs will not come back. Low skilled jobs. Need high skilled jobs. Need high science and research in world. Can’t cut funding to research, or we will lose technology race. Those investments will propel us into a better economy.

You as a Man

Romney: Campaigning attacks people. I care about every American. I spent myself in private sector, not in government. I believe in God and we have to care for each other. Pastor, family man, missionary. Schools in Massachusetts number one in the nation. We don’t have to settle for gas prices, food stamps, unemployment, college kids with out work. I will reform, change what Obama didn’t. I have done these things as a governor.

Obama: Free enterprise, self-reliance, individual, risk takers. But, everyone should have a fair shot, everyone should play by rules which created the middle class. Romney a good man. But, country does not view itself as victims. GI bills. Need similar opportunities.
Fact check to come.

A Declaration of Independence for Both Sexes

Has anyone ever wondered why nearly fifty percent of all American marriages end in divorce? I’m sure there are a lot of factors. For instance, our fast paced world doesn’t make relationships the easiest thing. There is temptation everywhere and social media has made it easier to reunite with people from your past, and in your future. To me, I think that those are all tiny factors in a much more interesting theory of mine. That is independence.

Very long ago, in a time that seemed like another world, marriage ment financial stability for women. It seemed like the only way for a woman to survive in this world. Likewise, men did not know how to live alone. marriages didn’t stay together because people loved each other more, they stayed together for survival. That is why, in my opinion, the rising in divorce rates does not equal the downfall of our society, but rather, society’s rise.

For instance, out of 2,390 students enrolled at DePauw University, 56% of them were women, and 44% of the students were men. Clearly, women are no longer depending on men for financial stability. We are educated, powerful and strong. This trend is not only at DePauw University, but most institutions of higher learning. I would have to say that out of hundreds of college brochures that I received, the women that were enrolled out numbered the amount of men. Women no longer need men, leaving the only reason to get married as a want thing. In the words of Gloria Steinem, “a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.” Umijo, Kenya proved this fact very well. It is a women’s only village and a safe haven for women who were forced into unwanted marriages and rape survivors. Rebecca Lolosoli, the founder of the village, tells women that they do not need to be forced into marriage. They are safe and free in a village of their own.

Likewise, men don’t need women for survival. They can cook, clean, and are perfectly capable making lunches and changing diapers no thanks to condescending ad campaigns from paper towel and diaper companies. There is no need to marry someone to run the household. Even if some guys aren’t the best cooks or cleaners, they can hire someone to do that, buy t.v dinners, or take a class. In the same way that women can choose to either pay someone to do things that they aren’t the best at, like cooking, or cleaning, or learn how.

People are starting to live together before marriage and they are starting to wait longer before marriage. I think that this is reassuring the sanctity of marriage. No longer is it something to be taken lightly, or the be rushed into before becoming an old maid at the age of 22. It is something that is, or should be, based on love, and only love. Then, when the love is gone, people (most of the time) leave and try to find love somewhere else.

Of course, there are those people that hold society back. I’m talking about grown women who can’t live on their own for more than a few months without a man to support her financially. And I’m talking about men that rely on women to do their housework and to cook. Our jobs, as NotYourCoffeeBitches, is to spread the word of independence to a select few in the western world, but more importantly, those in the developing world. They are the ones who need a hand. They need educated to become independent and they need our help doing it. Watch Half They Sky and then visit www.halftheskymovement.org to donate. I dare you to not be inspired.

Photo Credit: ivn.us

Bitch Exposure: Feminist professor encourages gender inequality

Allow me to self-indulge today with an editorial involving the mistreatment of women by women. I was utterly appalled by how I was treated this morning by my speech professor, an astute and beloved woman who has taught at my University for over ten years.

A friend who I play tennis with sits next to me and she assumed we would be in the same group and told the class so… calling me “his girlfriend”…repeatedly.

I asked her if she knew my name and she looked right through me as the class laughed. I can’t believe that a woman who considers herself as an animal rights activist and feminist would diminish me to a “girlfriend” aka something owned. My friend, who is married and has a child, was also very uncomfortable.

I left my class completely enraged, wondering why it upset me so much. It could have been just an off the cuff remark… was I looking too hard into it? I couldn’t help but wonder about the way I conducted myself. What left me looking like arm candy?

I would consider myself an independent woman. I am currently in a committed relationship, with a boyfriend in Chicago. We’re both going to different colleges and pursuing different career paths. He doesn’t define me in the slightest. I would never allow myself to be defined by a man, or anybody for that matter.

Women are so quick to judge each other. No wonder gender equality is still a problem. What is the solution to this social issue? This isn’t unlike the girls who I wrote about supporting a rape case: https://notyourcoffeebitch.wordpress.com/2012/09/07/girls-rally-behind-alleged-rapists/

Especially among women, there will be no social advancement in terms of gender equality, if females cannot look past their preconceptions/ misconceptions.

It is important, especially as a professor, to value a person by the contents of their mind and encourage it’s further development. I thank her for giving me the opportunity to expose the injustice of solely defining a woman by a man, a belief I thought she held.

Domestic Violence is a Two Way Street

For as far as women have come, there is one huge thing that holds us back. This thing, my friends, is domestic violence. Before you get ahead of yourself, it probably isn’t what you are thinking about. In my experience as an avid television viewer, I have noticed women glorified for hitting, beating, and shoving the men in their lives.

It is seen everywhere: Sex and the City, The Client List, and most recently Think Like a Man. In Sex and the City, Carrie repeatedly hits Big with her flowers after being dumped. If Big were to hit Carrie like that, he would have been classified as a monster, possibly arrested, and never spoken to again. When Carrie did that, she was made out to be a victim and whisked away on a Mexican holiday with her friends. That is completely uncalled for. Violence is never the answer. I have always been taught that you should do on to others as you want others to do to you. That being said, I would assume that no one wants to be a victim of domestic abuse, so why would you hit someone else?

Just because you are a woman, doesn’t mean that you have full rights to hit men. It is wrong. According to an article published by DailyFinace.com 50% of all victims of domestic violence are men. Just because they are men, doesn’t mean that they should just take it. They need to be able to seek out help. Sadly, almost all funding to help victims has been given to women and it is harder for them to find help.

How did we let this happen? Thinking that men don’t face this issue, solely because they are men, is considered sexism. Yes, women can be sexist too. That is part of the reason why we at NotYourCoffeeBitch try hard to stay away from feminism. We want gender equality, not preferential treatment because of the past.

Photo Credit: satopsychology.wordpress.com

A link to the DailyFinance.com article http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/01/30/a-hidden-crime-domestic-violence-against-men-is-a-growing-probl/