"Gate"

Every time there is a political scandal these days, the suffix "gate" is added to whatever the issue is. If the scandal involves state troopers, its "troopergate," if it involves strippers, its "strippergate."

This, of course, is a reference to Watergate, the media title of the scandal that led to the impeachment and resignation of President Nixon. For those of you who don't know, Watergate was the name of the hotel in which rooms were broken into by people working for Nixon.

Referring to scandals as "gate" points out a major flaw in the journalism community and the society as a whole. Journalists have not broken a story this big in over 30 years. Do you not think that something bigger has happened? The journalism community today, is lazy.

Of course, its not all their fault. The general public does not care much about true investigative journalism. If the news media cannot fund these investigations, then they will not happen.

Here's a list of "gates."

Bottom Line? Journalists need to shake things up a bit and the public should let them.

Rabbit

Experience

Experience, Experience, Experience

That word is thrown around a lot in this year's presidential election, and really in many elections. But, I stumbled on an interesting piece of information. Of course, Sen. John McCain has more experience as an elected official than Sen. Barack Obama but, how much experience does Sen. Obama have, compared to recent presidents?

Experience (in years) as an elected official for the last 5 presidents
George W. Bush -- 6 years
Bill Clinton -- 12 years
George H. w. Bush -- 12 years
Ronald Reagan -- 8 years
Jimmy Carter -- 8 years

How many years of experience will Barack Obama have if he is elected president in 2008?

12 years

Bottom Line? Just something to think about.

Rabbit