“The Josh Clark Show” January 24 2012

Ladies and gentlemen, the day has finally come!

The first podcast of “The Josh Clark Show” is finally finished and ready for the big times!

I will be posting the links to the podcast on this website (they will load from iTunes) and I am working to get them up as quick as possible. The feed for iTunes is something that I’m really adement about getting started. I’m sure it is really cool to have something that you’ve created and really poured your heart out into sitting with the big leagues on iTunes.

Look out for more information about the iTunes feed of “The Josh Clark Show.”

As always you can listen to my show on WSKB 89.5 FM, or on the online feed here. The link to the podcast for the January 24th show will be posted when it’s available on iTunes!

Joshua Clark
Editor-in-Chief
The Joshua Report 2.0

 

New Hampshire Primary

It appears that Mitt Romney has pulled off another victory this primary/caucus season.

However, it has become apparent, at least in my view, that the other candidates are enjoying running a smear campaign against him. Now, I’m all for Ron Paul and his Libertarian views, or Jon Huntsman and his foreign policy experience, but it’s time that the other candidates start to run a campaigns differently.

Elections are supposed to be about the candidate and their views. Candidate A feels this way about a topic while Candidate B takes the hardline opposite approach to that same topic. I believe that the election seasons are the complete opposite of what they should be.

This is due to the media. The media is dirty, and they portray the candidates in whatever way they see is fit. If they don’t like the way Gingrich feels on immigration, they’ll portray him as a racist xenophobe who only cares about building a concrete wall along the entire border with no checkpoints. Gingrich may not feel this way at all, but if the media has a hatred for him and his policies, then they will portray him as that guy.

While they may not take that approach with the frontrunner (Mitt Romney), it is obvious that this occurs with the candidates falling behind.

My basic point is this. The election seasons are longer because the candidates need to prove themselves in the eyes of the media. They need to show through 30-second soundbites and beautifully thought-out debate answers that they are the right candidate. Once they achieve this, then they will portrayed in the media as the guy with all the answers (Barack Obama in 2007-8) and will most likely be a contender against Mitt Romney for the nomination.

Let’s face it folks, Mitt Romney is basically at this point a shoe-in for the nomination. Winning Iowa and New Hampshire is nothing to sneeze at. Did being the former governor of Massachusetts help him in New Hampshire? Absolutely. Did the mud-slinging and uncertainty of the other candidates help him? Absolutely.

The candidates need to start re-focusing their campaigns on the issues and not on Mitt Romney and what he has or hasn’t done. Trust me, the media will take care of Romney just as well, if not better, than the candidates will if there is something that needs to be brought to light.

Leave the mud-slinging of the Republican front-runner for President to the pros–the liberal media.

Joshua Clark
Editor-in-Chief
The Joshua Report 2.0

P.S. Last week when I wrote my post about the Iowa Caucus, I speculated that Rick Santorum was that week’s media puppet and that he benefited in the caucus because of it. Where did Mr. Santorum finish in the New Hampshire primary? Second? Nope. Third, perhaps? Nope. Seriously, forth? No again. Rick Santorum finished fifth place. Granted, Santorum might not have campaigned the same in New Hampshire as he did in Iowa, but still. My speculation that Santorum was the media puppet is right thus far. It will only be confirmed by the South Carolina primary coming up soon. –J.C.

Iowa Caucus

This past Tuesday saw the most influential preliminary race of the 2012 election season, the Iowa Caucus. While most people focus on the general election and focus their judgement on the nominees, there are still a few die-hard political junkies that focus on the caucuses and primaries like it’s their job.

This caucus definitely threw us for a loop. Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts, came in at first with 25% (and the plurality) of the votes. Rick Santorum, senator from Pennsylvania, came in a skin-of-the-teeth close second, also with 25%, but eight votes shy of beating Romney. The biggest surprise of the event came from the third place finisher, Texas congressman Ron Paul, with 21% of the votes.

The political junkies are claiming that Santorum is going to give Romney a run for his money when it comes to the nomination. However, I do not believe this is true. This election season thus far has been about upswings.

First it was Michele Bachmann, the representative from Minnesota, who in my opinion resembles Sarah Palin wholeheartedly. Bachmann was the media’s pet, flashing her picture and playing her sound bites daily on the nightly news or the talk radio shows. Whether it was positive attention or negative, Bachmann had the media’s spotlight. Unfortunately, Ms. Bachmann has decided to drop out of the election due to her last place finish in the Caucus with 5%.

The next media pet was Rick Perry, the current governor of Texas. Perry was a very popular person when he was in the media. He was gaining interviews with the Sunday morning shows, he had his face on the cover of Time, he was everywhere. However, when he made some stumbles in a couple of the debates, including one where he couldn’t recall the cabinet positions that he would eliminate, the media knew that Perry’s 15 minutes of fame were over. Perry finished second-to-last with 10% of the vote.

Their next focus was the ever-moral former Speaker-of-the-House Newt Gingrich. Newt was also popular, but his views I feel are not mainstream enough for his campaign to ever pick up some actual steam. He’s too radical for the average voter, and his several divorces and scandals are not going to sit too well with the Bible Belt voters, aka the Iowans. Gingrich has recently had a falling out with the media and finished in forth place with 13% of the votes.

This brings us back to Rick Santorum. Santorum has now become the focus of the media due to his views, but not because their popular with the public, but because they’re awkward considering the fact that he is a prominent political figure in American life. He recently compared gay marriage to polygamy, something that is not going to sit well with the LGBT community, even though they are traditionally left-leaning. His sleeveless sweaters may be the talk of the media, but it won’t be for long.

I feel that the challenge for the Republican nomination will be between Mitt Romney and Ron Paul. Paul, in my opinion, is the politician that everyone looks for but never gets. He isn’t a fat-cat in Washington, he’s a doctor from Texas that thought he could do a better job than the people that were there. His Libertarian views are attractive to people who want to get back to the roots of our Constitution and shrink our government.

One of my favorite views of his deals with the presidential salary. The presidential salary currently sits at $400,000. He feels that the salary should be equal to the median salary for all American workers. This currently sits somewhere in the mid-to-high $30,000′s. This would mean that the president should have the incentive to try to raise that, considering the fact that the median salary would now be equal to his salary.

Romney is most likely going to be the nominee, and not because his views are popular either, but because of his super PAC. Don’t get me wrong, Romney has some sound views and opinions on changing this country for the better, but the super PAC that he formed for Iowa worked really well to getting his message heard by his potential voters. The robocalls, the negative ads against Gingrich (that resulted in Gingrich calling Romney a liar), the volunteers all helped Romney win the Caucus.

Now, something could be said for Santorum, being only eight votes away from beating Romney, but I attribute that to him being the media’s current pet. There is no correlation, in my opinion, to Santorum’s campaign and his views and him coming in second. I mean, the man lost the second-to-last election he competed in by 18% because he ran a poor campaign. There is no reason for me to believe that all of a sudden he has the key to beating Romney.

Romney’s steam-roller of super PACs will overtake anyone who steps in his way, mark my words. It will be Mitt Romney vs. Ron Paul at the Republican National Convention. You heard it here first.

Joshua Clark
Editor-in-Chief
The Joshua Report 2.0

Recent Happenings, Vol. 2

The last post I wrote for the blog was in November, and so it’s been a while.

Lately, I’ve been working on finishing the semester off. I registered for classes for next semester; this time I got to pick which classes I was going to take. I definitely vetoed taking any Math or Science classes, and went for the more history and psychology classes. Next semester, I’ll be taking Western Experience II, State and Local Government, Intro to Psychology, Intro to Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, and English Composition II. My schedule is stacked.

Also, I’ve been focusing my efforts on my radio show. The Josh Clark Show airs on WSKB 89.5 FM on Tuesdays from 6-8 pm. I don’t know if it will have the same time slot next semester, but I’m hoping it will. It went from a random mix of stuff in the beginning, to a somewhat organized, respectable show toward the end. My last five shows were the best and each one improved on the other.

The first of the “best five” featured Dylan Reese, aka Reese McFly, his manager Bobby Hobert, and his videographer Sam Scrivner. The interview went very well and it was probably what broke me out of my shell as far as being a radio DJ goes. The flow of the show was good, and at the end, Reese performed a freestyle so it went well.

The next show featured Joel McAuliffe, and Reed Sutherland and Vassilios Karsaliakos of ”The Varlets.” That show was also really good, mainly because Reed and Billy performed acoustic versions of their more well-known songs. It felt like a radio version of MTV Unplugged. (I wish they brought that show back.)

After that, Joel came on the next two shows, kind of acting as an unofficial co-host. I still had Mike Flaherty and Ryan Daley coming on, but Joel was the closer, if you will. He is one of those guys that knows how to be a radio DJ (a little too well if you ask me) and knows how to fill awkward silences or fill extra time with meaningless banter. He will be joining me next semester as the unofficial-official co-host of the show. I’m looking forward to having him on.

I also have been working on getting recordings of the show, so that when the show is done, I can turn it into a podcast and it could be distributed on iTunes. People could listen to my show while they’re driving to work, driving to school, working out, etc. Although I don’t expect too many podcast subscribers, it would still be cool to have my show available on the internet for people to check out. It progresses the success of the online feed in that it enables people to save the show in mp3 format and listen to it on the go.

In conclusion, I will be writing more often on the blog I hope. 2012 will be an interesting year, and we should see drastic changes in some way. I don’t know what these changes are, but I hope they’re good ones. Some of you might think that those changes include “the world ending” or Nostradamus’ prediction, but I think that those predictions are often false. (Y2K, etc.)

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,

Joshua Clark
Editor-in-Chief
The Joshua Report

Recent Happenings

I’ve been pretty busy here at Westfield State University.

Last Wednesday, I was asked by the editors-in-chief of The Westfield Voice to stop by the office after I returned from work.

When I stopped by, they said they had two questions to ask me. They started with the good news first before the good good news.

They first asked me if I was interested in going on an all-expenses paid, week long trip to Paris, France to attend a couple of seminars. Of course I said yes! The seminars have mostly something to do with journalism and/or politics. I guess last year they had somebody from the U.S. Embassy speak to the conference.

The reason why they wanted to ask me lead to their second question. They wanted to know if I wanted to take over for them as the editor-in-chief when they graduate next year. I, of course, said yes again.

I went back to my dorm and started planning out a re-design of the newspaper that I would try to institute next year if not when I take over. I included my design here. “My redesign, revision 1“

I’ll keep my readers posted on the trip and my redesign project.

Joshua Clark

From ‘The Voice’: Op-Ed: Election Day and its many lessons

Elections are always a sore subject for many people. There is a cliche that says that you should never bring up politics or religion in a conversation at a party or function. And with good reason–people hate talking about them. Political discussions always lead to arguments or heated debates on which candidate has the better platform, better speeches, or in some cases, better looks.

Politics has always been a fun topic for me. I’ve always liked researching it, learning the politicians’ views on topics and making up my mind on which candidate I’d support and why. It wasn’t until I was registered to vote last year that I decided to take what I’ve learned from my research and put it to good use.

I grew up in Chicopee, Massachusetts, a city of about 50,000 people that is on the other side of West Springfield across the Connecticut River. I went to Chicopee Comprehensive High School and while I was there I took AP U.S. History and AP U.S. Government and Politics. Those classes helped me learn and understand politics on a broader scale than what I had previously thought. They taught me to analyze and filter what is propaganda, spin, and just flat out lies. During my sophomore year, my Pre-AP U.S. History teacher (now a Vice Principal there) founded a Political Science Club that met once a week on Wednesdays and discussed the current events and how they were all related.

One of my friends and a founding member of the Poli-Sci Club was Joel McAuliffe. In Tuesday’s election, he ran for a School Committee At-Large seat against a 22-year School Committee member who instead of running in his ward, was trying out running for an At-Large seat. Joel got very heated during some debates that we had in class and even shut out others’ opinions asserting that only his was right and not including anyone else’s. Over time, this has calmed down, but watching him argue passionately about a topic, whether it be the wars in the Middle East, the health care bill that President Obama was pushing through Congress, or a simple ordinance that was being proposed in Chicopee, showed me that Joel would make a serious candidate someday.

The fall after he graduated from high school, Joel took out papers to run for State Representative for Chicopee against the well-established incumbent Joseph Wagner. He called me up and asked me if I’d go around to several houses with him getting signatures for his petition. I reluctantly obliged and went around with him. Some of the voters that we talked to decided that Joel was inexperienced and needed some training, whether it be college or at least some college courses before he makes such a jump like that.

Imparting what I learned from politics thus far, I told Joel that he should try to start a bit more locally, maybe jumping into maybe a School Committee race, or a City Council race. Jumping into state politics where even tried and true politicians have come short was risky and something that looked to me like a waste of time, money, and resources.

Joel listened. This year, he ran a clean, honest campaign against his opponent. I stood out with Joel holding signs on the busy Granby Road rotary in Chicopee, I put the lawn sign in my yard, I even stood outside of my polling location in my precinct holding his sign urging voters driving in to vote for Joel at the last minute.

All of it came up short, however, as Joel lost the election only garnering about 40% of the vote. His opponent, being on the School Committee for the previous 22 years, beat him. Talking to Joel on the phone after he conceded, he said that he isn’t going to give up. He’s going to keep on fighting the good battle until he wins.

The moral of the story? Politics could be dry, boring, and sometimes frustrating. But perseverance as a candidate can go a long way. Name recognition, perseverance, and downright luck can win a candidate the position he longed for only if he wants it. Joel’s campaign and ensuing election has nothing to do with Westfield State or this newspaper but the lesson to be learned here does. Starting from the bottom and working your way up to the top is an effective way to get what you want, no matter how many times you have to get back on the ladder.

Power’s Back On

The power has now been restored to my neighborhood and I’m back posting on the blog. My house got its power back Sunday night, and so my girlfriend and I left campus to sleep there while the campus was still out of power.

It’s times like these when you realize how dependent we are on our phones, computers, and other electronics. People in the lines and aisles of the grocery store were getting frustrated at the lack of provisions that we had. The store I work at lost ice, batteries, and other “essentials” causing people to wonder why we weren’t adequately prepared.

Luckily, many of the people without power are getting their power back and we’ll return back to normal.

This year has been wacky with the tornados, hurricanes, earthquakes, and now this. Who knows what’s next, a volcanic eruption?

“Democracy” needs only to be spread to those who want it

Democracy, rule by all, is a term that is used loosely these days. When our founding fathers were putting together our government, they decided that democracy was “mob rule.”

How did this know this? They looked to Ancient times. Ancient Athens, a city-state in Greece, was as close to a pure democracy as one could get. Pericles, a well-known Athenian statesmen and former ruler of Athens, propelled Athens into an almost pure democracy when he gave all powers to the legislative and judicial powers of Athens. He also retracted a law that stated that the lowest class of citizens were disallowed from holding legislative office.

This meant that Athenians ruled Athenians, not the Athenian ruler.

What the founding fathers opted for was a republic. That is, bodies of government that perform checks and balances on each other. The executive checks the legislative, the legislative checks the judicial, the judicial checks the executive, and so on and so forth.

If we take a look at our present wars, we know that the American military is fighting a war to protect the Iraqis and Afghans from the dictators that ruled them for decades. Without sounding like I’m undermining them, their goal is to spread “democracy.”

Cultural diffusion, the spread of culture, language, ideals to other peoples, is what is taking place currently. We are using our wars overseas and our influence as a world power to diffuse American culture and political style into the Middle East.

Our founding fathers warned against “mob rule” when they opted for a republican government. What was that “mob rule” that they were opposed to? Democracy.

Going back to before, they got this metaphor for democracy from Ancient Athens. The forum, where the men would meet and discuss political issues and happenings, would be filled with people trying to change the government. The good (and bad) thing for them was that they could. They could easily be selected into the legislative body and make a change in the laws.

The idea that the United States is trying to spread democracy is, by my estimations, true.

When the Americans invaded Iraq and Afghanistan in 2003, one of the results of that invasion was the resignation and resulting exile of Saddam Hussein. The government turned into factions, or… mob rule.

When the Arabs of the Middle East decided it was time for a change and they started to revolt against their dictatorial governments, leaders who had been in power for decades decided to go into exile. The most recent case of this is Muammar Gadhafi. He was killed last Thursday by rebel fighters in his hometown of Sirte. What do the politicos around the world think is going to happen to Libya if they don’t come together? Mob rule.

These revolutions and revolts, in my opinion, are misguided into thinking that democracy is the right way to go. What they really need is a republic. Our government is not a democracy. This is a common misconception. Our government is a republic and it has been effective for the past 235 years and we expect that it will be effective for years to come.

Please, don’t try to spread the ideals of democracy, “mob rule,” to developing governments, because out of every mob emerges a strong man. History has seen its share of strong men: Julius Caesar, Oliver Cromwell, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Muammar Gadhafi. Republic. Republic. Republic.

One last thought. It is proved our Pledge of Allegiance that states, “I pledge allegiance to the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.” The United States needs to start spreading the ideals of a republic to recently liberated countries, not democracy.

Rick Perry is latest to join the ‘birther’ movement

First Donald Trump, now Rick Perry. Perry is the latest victim to Trump’s philosophy that Obama is not a natural born citizen.

Starting when he was looking to place a bid for the presidency, Trump started giving speeches and interviews claiming that Obama is illegitimately the president of the United States.

In order to be a candidate for president, you must be at least age thirty-five, you must be a natural born American citizen, and you must have lived in the United States for fourteen consecutive years. This knocks out many viable candidates: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rupert Murdoch, etc.

When Trump went on a rampage trying to expose Obama’s lack of a birth certificate, the White House released a hospital statement saying that Obama was born in a hospital in Hawaii. Hawaii was in fact a U.S. state at the time.

Rick Perry, in a recent interview with Parade magazine, said that he recently had dinner with Donald Trump. Of the topics discussed, Obama’s birth certificate was one of them.

In my opinion, Mitt Romney is looking like the only viable candidate left who hasn’t drank the Trump Kool-Aid.

From The Voice: “‘Occupy Wall Street’ reaches one month mark”

From the editor: This story ran in The Westfield Voice on Friday, October 21, 2011. It is an op-ed piece about the Occupy Wall Street protests which I wrote. The version on this blog the original copy sent to the editors of the newspaper. There may be some differences between this copy and the copy in the newspaper. –J.C.

Occupy Wall Street, the protests against big government and federal waste, reached its one-month mark on Tuesday. Protesters have been occupying Wall Street and Zuccotti Park in New York City often staying overnight, chanting slogans, and generally detesting government as it is, and wanting a reform.

These protests are so popular and the ideals are so real that similar protests have sprung up around the country and around the world. Phoenix, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington D.C. are some of the places where ‘Occupy’ protests are taking place in the United States. Protests in Rome, London, and other places in Europe have turned violent, causing many arrests and citations for protestors.

The real question is: are these protests about the government, or are they an excuse for the protestors? Many of the protestors are unemployed, homeless, or on public assistance. They protest about the government spending money unnecessarily and wastefully.

Mayors Michael Bloomberg (New York) and Thomas Menino (Boston) have said that these protests are hindering day-to-day operations in their cities, tying up overtime for their police departments, and causing aggravation for citizens and people trying to get around. While they support the freedom to assembly and to protest, they feel that actions will need to be taken in order to avoid unnecessary harm to passersby.

In Tuesday’s edition of The New York Times, there were reports of protestors getting testy with passersby expressing irritation and frustration at the protests. One passerby being skeptical about the protests was encircled with signs shoved in his face, and chants shoved down his throat.

These protests are similar to ones that we heard and read about earlier this year. The Middle East experienced what many historians call a revolution, with Libya still in a toss-up.

It all started with Tunisia and Egypt in December 2010. Leaders there have since left, and impromptu governments being put in their place. The protests continued like dominoes, and now on top of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (one of the Occupy protestors’ topics), there are still protests occurring that could have been the spark for these protests.

There have been 951 protests under the ‘Occupy’ banner since September 17 2011, the start date of the original Wall Street protest.

Many celebrities have also joined in support of these protests. Some including hip-hop star Kanye West, actor Ashton Kutcher, and actress Rosanne Barr have joined in with the protestors joining to the protests’ allure. Critics include conservative talk radio hosts Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. Limbaugh says, “When I was 10 years old I was more self-sufficient than this parade of human debris calling itself Occupy Wall Street.” Beck stating to his radio audience, “Capitalists, if you think that you can play footsies with these people, you are wrong. They will come for you and drag you into the streets and kill you. They will do it. They’re not messing around.”

In my opinion, I think these peoples’ concerns are valid but the way they sound makes it look like the government is the reason why they’re poor, etc. My advice: take what they’re saying with a grain of salt.