Dan Antinori- Rhetoric and Such

Here is the script from my Advocacy Project. If you don’t understand some of what I am saying you should watch the youtube clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqJBotTOmFU and then you will probably understand it even less. The script isn’t exact because I only had one chance to record…. enjoy!

How now brown cow. How now brown cow. Hello I’m Ron Burgundy. Ah just kidding I can’t wait for that movie to come out though. My name is actually Dan Antinori and this is The Advocacy Project, O 13.  Oh thank you, thank you. No need to chant my name. Yes I have a real audience here in front of me. Can we get a shot of the audience? Wow, would you look at that. All my friends showed up! And a bunch of stuffed animals which is kind of weird… We have a big crowd tonight so this should be a great show! This is coming straight from the center of the Center for American Awesomeness. For those of you new to the show this is all about America and how awesome it is. It is about the core concepts of freedom and honesty in politics.

I would like to start off by talking about my main man Fidel Castro. (Insert picture) Or as I like to call him, Liam Neeson with Zack Galafanakas’ beard photoshopped on him. He limited expression, assembly, press, and emigration and was the leader of a communistic country. I’m not sure why he wasn’t the most liked man around town he was in so many great movies. Maybe it was because of The Grey… Well guess what Fidel/Liam, the United States Congress is right down there with you. Now let me throw some stats at you. (Insert graph) Congressional approval rating has declined to an all time low of nine percent, which is just four measly percent away from Fidel Castro’s approval rating. Does this mean all of the Conservatives were right? Is America being turned flipped upside down into a communistic socialistic liberal death trap? Let’s go to our friends in D.C. for an answer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9o19CaOSuD8

OK I guess that clears that up.

From a recent wave of polling that just occurred inside my head, I think it means the people of America are pissed off! Let’s look at some graphs that help prove my point. Here is a graph (insert Graph of How Congress Works). There’s another one (insert Graph of Things People Like More than Congress)! Convinced yet? I am.

Why do Americans feel this way? We can’t place all the blame on Congressional members for not doing their job of representing their constituents and compromising to pass helpful legislation. (cough, allergic to bullshit, meme of sarcasm in background) I am just going to say that politicians are not all that bad! I mean they are people just like (insert Terminator + theme song)… ok maybe they aren’t people, but at least they look like us. Let’s face it though, Congress members are allowed to have a good time too. Take Representative Steve Cohen for example (insert Tweet). He obviously had a great night with Cyndi Lauper that he decided to share with the Twitterverse and immediately regretted doing so. I mean come on Steve you’re married, and she is a little.. uh.. what’s the word I’m looking for… oh right BATSHIT CRAZY (picture of partying Lauper… sounds like some sort of animal). And who can forget Representative Anthony Weiner (not sure if that’s how you pronounce his name but that’s how I’m saying it forever and always). His famous (Sexting Picture) scandal was known as Weinergate, in which he sexted various women pictures of his ding dong. Last but definitely not dead yet, Charlie Rangel’s enjoyable day at the beach (Passed out Picture) in his villa in the Dominican Republic was a day to remember when he stood in front of the ethics committee a few weeks later. I think I speak for all of America when I say http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JFfN5pKzFU. You took the words right out of my mouth Jeff!               

You might be thinking wow this guy is extremely talented and funny, but where is my place in all of this? Your right I was kidding you probably aren’t thinking the second part at all. But you should be!

If I ask college students most would probably not be able to tell me about any of these events, or even who their representatives for Congress are. But if I ask them about their favorite sports team, which affects them personally in no way, they will be able to answer most questions. College students used to advocate political causes such as sitting down (insert Sit In) and arts and crafts (insert Vietnam Protest). Now, a new generation of college students has been born. Let’s see what they pay attention to.

The State of Union response by Marco Rubio was recently one of the most trending topics in social media. (insert meme) Because he got a drink of water. It was really funny. I have never seen anyone drink water on TV before. Ha. Ha. Next on the list of recent important political news is the newly coined term, “jedi mind meld”. During a speech about why no important bills to stop the sequester were passed, the President referenced Star Trek and Star Wars mind control combination to control members of the opposing party. With these three small words our president could have possibly started the ball rolling for Revenge of the Nerds five.

What I’m really trying to say here is that politics is a very complicated and sometimes stupid profession, and we need to do our part to make the least amount of stupid we can. Look at all of these college students being super relatively happy doing their part in politics. Don’t you want to be super relatively happy too? Then get involved!

Interview with Shaan Paatni here. Ask him about political advocacy in England, then about the Harry Potter series.

If you don’t want to listen to me or Mr. Paatni, at least listen to your distant relative Uncle Sam. Isn’t he so dreamy? (Go up and point like him).

This is Dan Antinori on The Advocacy Project O 13, thank you for watching and don’t forget- Get involved dude.

(Moustache back on) Oh, and from Ron Burgundy, stay classy Re-becoming the Bloggers we Never Weren’t!

Center for American Awesomeness

Get Smart: Public and Standardized Early Education

In November of 2012, the United States was ranked number seventeenth in overall education world wide[i]. That means sixteen other countries are more advanced academically. Other developing countries are close behind while they continue to improve their academic performances exponentially. The American students entering the workforce need to be prepared to compete in the global job market against students from these other countries. The only thing that can be done to turn this downward spiral around is to enhance our education system. Preschool is a part of the education system that is not focused on very often. Parents in the United States are more inclined to send their children to expensive day cares and not think about the quality of education at this age. In other countries children in the same age group are already learning different languages and being taught important life lessons. It is time to introduce a similar style of education into the United States. This bill is called Get Smart. It is designed as a publicly funded preschool education program that encompasses children from the ages of three to five. There are multiple beneficial reasons for implementing this program: the teaching and construction jobs it would create, an improved standardized early education system, and it provides a place for parents to drop their children off while they go to work.

The country has a budget that is subject to change at any time. The total amount of money spent by the United States government in 2012 was 3.54 trillion dollars. Education is placed under the discretionary funding category which makes up seventeen percent of the federal budget. There was a 48.8 billion dollar increase in funding for the U.S. Department of Education last year[ii]. One use of the increased budget is going towards the Race to the Top program currently being enacted by President Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. It is being severely criticized. The program is analogous to a competition between states to be awarded funding for their education programs. The program contains standardized testing, many complicated rules for schools to follow, and teacher, principle, and school ratings. Many states refuse to participate, education officials say it promotes cheating, and teachers are being harshly criticized[iii]. The Race to the top program currently spends 4.35 billion dollars of the Department of Education’s budget. As stated by the President, “if you are looking for a good bang for your educational buck, high-quality preschool is the place to look”[iv]. Preschool is the smartest use of the education budget because it makes such a huge difference in children’s lives. It reduces the amount of placements in special education and grade retention, while at the same time increases graduation rate. Longitudinal studies, which are studies of the same group of people over a long period of time, conducted by the Chicago Child Parent Center and the Perry Preschool Project, have measured a return of seven dollars for every one dollar of investment in early education programs[v].

Get Smart is not a competition. There will be no rankings of teachers or monetary incentives for states. Its purpose is to get preschoolers affordable and meaningful

 education. The program is comprised of a standard education for preschool students across the country. Teachers who are determined to teach early education will be taught specifically for the standardized program so that teaching will be as similar as possible from class to class. This special training of teachers will be at least a year long and is included

in the fiscal cost of the bill[vi]. Another important aspect of this plan is the fairness of it all. There is a huge opportunity gap for minorities in education[vii]. That is the reason why affirmative action exists. Children from low-income families on average start preschool education a year later than children from families that can afford it. Of these families that can afford it, less than thirty percent of those children are receiving a respectable preschool education. The first table shown is from the United States Census Bureau in the section: Primary Child Care Arrangements for Employed Mothers[viii]. As shown in the table, minorities such as African Americans and Hispanics are less likely to have children in preschool. This is a statistic that proves that the opportunity gap is real and present in today’s society. The second table shows the income levels of families and is compared to the type of early education they do, or do not, receive[ix]. As the data proves, families with more income are more likely to send their children to an early education program.

The more students involved in the program the better hence there will be no limit to the number of children that can join. The only two requirements to join are the age and a citizenship status, because it is funded by the taxes of American citizens. Some critics might say that half of Americans do not pay federal taxes. The citizens who do not pay federal taxes have very little money, and most still pay state and local taxes. They also have to contribute to Social Security and Medicare from all of there paychecks. The vast majority of citizens who are not taxed are young working families with children[x]. This is the exact category of people this bill is aiming to help. This bill would hopefully take the place of the controversial Race to the Top program. This means that since the citizens of America are already paying for a program like Get Smart, but the one currently being funded is not as effective at early education.

The total fiscal impact of implementing a plan such as this one would be 3.8 billion dollars. This number sounds big, but in comparison to the amount spent on every other part of the country, it is worth it. Here is the break down of the total fiscal cost following the Youth Leadership Initiative guidelines on how to determine the cost of a bill[xi].

The first category of spending will deal with the equipment. This includes the places of operation and supplies needed for the classrooms. The preschools will be the place of operation, which many day care centers can be turned into. Other possible construction of preschools will be met according to their demand. The school supplies are things such as paper, pencils, materials for crafts, and books. The labor is broken down by the two types of staff needed at the preschools. There are the teachers who will receive a regular annual salary and the usual benefits. These teachers will also need training because younger children require a specific education. Other school staff such as custodians and lunch staff will be needed and they also receive regular annual salaries. Electricity is needed for the lighting, heating, and the cafeteria food of all the schools. Transportation of the students to and from school is also necessary. The mode of transportation would be buses that are managed and arranged the same way they are for all other levels of school. This would save money in the end considering how many parents drive their children to and from day care every day.

Two other significant categories to consider when proposing a bill are marketing and legal counsel. Since the President is already an advocate of early learning, he will not need to be paid or convinced to announce a new preschool program. This would easily get the word out that preschool is publicly funded, not to mention every news station in the country would be covering the story. Marketing gives a bill publicity and popularity. Legal counsel is important because bills may be taken to court and defense trials may need to be carried out. This is a very extreme case, but with a sensitive topic such as the budget it is necessary to be prepared. The total estimated cost of the Get Smart program would be close to the Race to the Top program. Without the incentives of the current Department of Education’s program, Get Smart will save around 1 billion dollars while still accomplishing its goal.

The Get Smart bill is about providing public and standardized early education for children from three to five all across America. It is a necessity in order for children today to be able to compete against other countries that are starting education much earlier. The current legislation is working too hard at making the states do a job that they should already be doing. With a public program for all, no incentives would be needed and federal money being given to states would be used for a much better cause. In the country there is an opportunity gap between income groups and minorities. The Get Smart bill is fair and reasonable and would solve both of those problems. In the end, more jobs would be created, federal money would be spent more efficiently, and children would be properly educated from the beginning.

For my Advocacy Project I would really like to do something like the Colbert Report or the Daily Show. This may sound ridiculous but I think I would really like to do something like that. I am not that funny though, so I may have to recruit some people to help me with that. I love politics and I REALLY like watching both of those shows. I think this would be a really creative and fun way to advocate politics.

            In class we discussed how we need to make a justification for our project and our method of communication so I decided to start thinking about that before I do anything else. I know that the Colbert Report and Daily Show are focused on a younger audience, but since this is for a college class I think I am going to narrow it even more. I plan on making my audience college students for every age, location, and major. The best method of communication that would resemble the popular television shows would definitely be through video. The best option would be if I rented a camera to set up in my room or somewhere in the media commons so I could use different camera angles and such. That may be a little difficult considering I am doing this project by myself, so I may end up just using the one-button room. I will either edit in, or speak along with pictures, videos, and music that will make the project funny.

            I am going to be advocating political interest in politics for college students. First I will talk about how low the approval rating is, and then I will probably discuss how younger kids find politics as a source of humor instead of problem solving.

Here are some topics I will probably use in my project:

            Congressional Scandals: Anthony Weiner, Charlie Rangel

            Congressional Approval Rating: Compare it to other approval ratings

            College Students interest in politics: Marco Rubio awkwardly grabbing water, Barack Obama confusing the science fiction terms

            Interview: The Daily Show always has fake correspondents from other countries and I always think its hilarious so I am going to try to include this in my project as well

Also here is an example of one of the sections of my project:

We can’t place all the blame on Congressional members for not doing their job of representing their constituents and compromising to pass helpful legislation…. I am just going to say that politicians are not all that bad! I mean they are people just like (insert Terminator + theme song)… ok maybe they aren’t people, but at least they look like us. Let’s face it though, Congress members are allowed to have a good time too. Take Representative Steve Cohen for example (insert Tweet). He obviously had a great night with Cyndi Lauper that he decided to share with the Twitterverse and immediately regretted doing so. I mean come on Steve you’re married, and she is a little.. uh.. what’s the word I’m looking for… oh right BATSHIT CRAZY. And who can forget Representative Anthony Weiner (not sure if that’s how you pronounce his name but that’s how I’m saying it forever and always). His famous scandal was known as Weinergate, in which he sexted various women pictures of his ding dong. Last but definitely not dead yet, Charlie Rangel’s enjoyable day at the beach (Passed out Picture) in his villa in the Dominican Republic was a day to remember when he stood in front of the ethics committee a few weeks later. I think I speak for all of America when I say http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JFfN5pKzFU

Do you guys think this would be a good idea? And could someone please help me be funny?

For my issue brief I decided to pick the topic of Education. This decision mostly came from the fact that I am a little tired of researching and writing about politics. In high school I followed lots of education reform movements and ideas. For one of my projects in my AP United States Government class we had to come up with a different plan for the federal budget. After we came up with a different distribution we had to pick a specific sector that we allocated more money to and come up with an idea for a program that would be helpful. I came up with the idea of a program called Get Smart and I am really interested in researching it and turning it into an issue brief.

            The Get Smart program is about early education. I participated in a volunteer Head Start program during high school and we would go twice a month to visit a preschool. We would read stories, bring supplies to make some sort of craft for an upcoming holiday, and played music for them. It became a very important topic to me because we got to meet the children’s parents and they told us a lot of what they were going through. Preschool education is a very important time in children’s lives, but very few of them get a proper early education. The idea behind the bill is to change that.

            Get Smart would be a publicly funded and standardized preschool education. Many people think this is ridiculous and that it would increase taxes by too much money. First of all, it is a great way to spend your money even if it was on the side because it is so important. The United States is falling behind in the world education race so something needs to be changed. Also, if the newly formed Race to the Top initiative was cancelled (because it is not working well) then no extra money would have to be spent, just re-allocated. I found a website that helps you plan how to propose a bill in various ways. I am not sure what parts of the website I will use yet but it looks very beneficial and you should all check it out. http://208.81.226.245/econgress/demo/research?_yli_session=16c70b7a4da3381ec38a7e153df0b822

On this website it gives you a layout for the fiscal impact, how to make info-graphs meaningful, and other good stuff like that.

Here is a rough introductory paragraph:

In November of 2012, the United States was ranked number seventeenth in overall education world wide . That means sixteen other countries are more advanced academically. Other developing countries are close behind while they continue to improve their academic performances exponentially. The American students entering the workforce need to be prepared to compete in the global job market against students from these other countries. The only thing that can be done to turn this downward spiral around is to enhance our education system. Preschool is a part of the education system that is not focused on very often. Parents in the United States are more inclined to send their children to expensive day cares and not think about the quality of education at this age. In other countries children in the same age group are already learning different languages and being taught important life lessons. It is time to introduce a similar style of education into the United States. This bill is called Get Smart. It is designed as a publicly funded preschool education program that encompasses children from the ages of three to five. There are multiple beneficial reasons for implementing this program: the teaching and construction jobs it would create, an improved standardized early education system, and it provides a place for parents to drop their children off while they go to work.

Let me know what you think!