* Blogs & Pol' *~COM125 Assignment #9

In today’s world, blogs are commonly used to express one’s thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. In our own class, COM125, we’ve learned to become a part of this “blog world.” What’s interesting to me, is that the world blog is still unknown in old school dictionaries, and even on Microsoft Word’s spell check. I think Microsoft needs to get with the program! J

So what is a political blog?

According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_blog), a political blog “is a common type of blog that comments on politics. In liberal democracies the right to criticize the government without interference is considered an important element of free speech.” Political blogs also tend to take one side of an issue. They clearly express someone’s views about a certain topic, and politicians tend to write them to try and persuade others to side with them on these views. The only problem is, these blogs are often too anyonymous, and sometimes can be seen as not trustworthy. But I guess it’s under our own personal discretion as to whether or not we want to believe these blogs, right?

An interesting blog that I came across online, was a blog titled “My Disability Blog.” It is found on http://disabilityblogger.blogspot.com/2007/08/social-security-disability-buffalo.html. The name of the blogger is Tim Moore. Tim is in the industry of Technology (so it says), so he is just a citizen blogger who has a true passion for Social Security Disability issues. But Tim was a former claims specialist. In his profile, it does not state his age. He first created his blog on blogger in September of 2005. In his “about me” section, he expresses that it’s tough to describe himself, but the one word he uses is ‘tricky.’ Hmm. Three things that stuck out to me about his interests were news, ideas, and political philosophy. I found political philosophy interesting because according to Wikipedia, political philosophy is “the study of fundamental questions about the state, government, politics, liberty, justice, property, rights, law and the enforcement of a legal code by authority.” Just a thought.

In Tim’s blog, he expresses his passion for the lack of immediate processing of Social Security Disability claims. He mentions in his blog called “Social Security Disability Buffalo- Statistics that “the average length of time time for filing a request for a social security disability hearing and the actual occurrence of the hearing is 22 months in the Buffalo, New York area. Nationally, this averages 17 months.” These are statistics that he read from an article written by a woman named Erica Bryant.

• Erica Bryant I became an editorial writer for the Democrat and Chronicle last July, after graduating from Boston University. I was born in Rochester and have lived here ever since, except for three years in Boston and one in Grenoble and Paris, France. I got my start in journalism by writing for bluejean magazine, a local young women¹s publication. Later I had two internships at the Democrat and Chronicle, as a reporter and an editorial writer. My areas of focus include the city, the environment, technology and issues affecting younger people. I live in Corn Hill. My parents and sister, Eddie, Jackie and Tiffany Bryant, live in Pittsford.
  This is the link to the Democrat and Chronicle.
  http://democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage

Here are a few more statistics that Tim Moore has found that clearly shows his hatred for the slow processing of these Social Security Disability claims.

• As of July, there were 14,707 cases waiting to be scheduled at the Buffalo hearing office. (Tim says that they did not disclose the amount that have been on hold for longer than a year)
  
• The Buffalo social security disability hearing office has only thirteen judges. (Tim finds this ludicrous considering the amount of cases waiting to be scheduled)
  
• The number of cases backlogged at the hearing level is 745,000 nationwide.
  Since 2001, congress has annually provided the white house with 150 million less than what has been requested for the social security administration budget.
  
• Two and a half million individuals file for disability each year and two thirds of them, nationally, are denied. This is an average, of course. In some states, an incredibly high percentage of claimants are denied for disability.
  http://disabilityblogger.blogspot.com/2007/08/social-security-disability-buffalo.html (Here’s the link to this particular blog)

These are pretty amazing statistics that he’s added onto his blog, from Erica’s article. Since he did claim exactly where he got these stats from, he seems more believable. Although Tim’s blog only ranks at 437,475 on Technorati, he has some valid points. He is a clear example of how citizen bloggers try to get their word out on how they feel about certain issues. It is seen just from this one blog, how he’s taken the time to do research on the lack of attention that Social Security Disability claims are receiving. It’s scary to read about things like this because one day, we could all reach that point!

As I mentioned above, blogging is the new and “it” thing of our society today. It is a way to fully express the way we feel about ANYTHING. With so many people online and the internet today, it seems that we can get across our opinions easier using blogs. Just with this assignment alone, and reading about other people’s blogs, it’s clear that politics is truly involved in blogs. Anyone can choose to blog about politics, and more often than not they will be heard. It may not automatically be by other politicians or any high status member in the government, but being heard out by a normal citizen can move mountains also. In Thornton’s article, she expresses how “The research confirmed that this situation leveled out using email. Higher status and lower status members had a more equal contribution to make both in terms of the amount of talking they do and their influence on outcomes. They also express more opinions and ideas, and vent more emotion.”

Resources:

• Thornton, Alinta. (2002, October). Does Internet Create Democracy? Retrieved October 23, 2007, from https://ublearns.buffalo.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab=courses&url=/bin/common/course.pl?course_id=_47434_1.
• Moore, Tim. (2007). My Disability Blog. Retrieved October 26, 2007, from http://disabilityblogger.blogspot.com/2007/08/social-security-disability-buffalo.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_philosophy