The Cost of the War in Afghanistan

70 billion dollars. That's the projected amount of our nations budget that will be spent on the war in Afghanistan in 2010. Its just interesting to see that 70 billion tax payer dollars are going to to war with little participation by the country we are helping. I'm not here to say the wars wrong, its just questionable to see were putting money towards a conflict when the country we are helping doesn't seem to care.

Go Figure

It seems our attempts to fix our rising health care issue might be coming just in time. Reported on at time.com an independent economic group has found that

the United States ranks near the bottom in life expectancy among wealthy nations despite spending more than double per person on health care than the industrialized world's average

If this doesn't convince you that we need health care reform, what will. Were spending over 7000 dollars per person on health care, 3x more than the average in industrialized countries, and our mortality rates are still high. I think its time to turn our health care system from treating sickness, to prevention.

Low Income Babies

I think watching Fox News will now get me a better laugh than comedy central.
When you ask if their will be more low income babies due to no government subsidization of the cost, then you really should just leave journalism, not that fox news is much of a news organization anyway.

This also qualifies as my humor break, as it essentially is the same thing.

It does amazingly however, bring up and interesting point on abortion. Should the government pay for low income woman who cant afford to keep the child to have an abortion. Personally, i say yes, and i say this as a devout Christian. While im all about Pro-Life, i think that woman should also be able to choose, but should see all the facts and realize the options they have if they do conceive. Im not about scaring the crap out of them, just let them know you will probably regret this in the future.

Obama on the Media

Swampland had a really interesting post about Obama's view on the media lately. While it seems his war with the Fox news channel is over, it seems he still has a problem with other media outlets.

But it's not going to come easily and it is going to require a level of cooperation and a willingness to work strategically together that we have not seen over the last several years. And frankly, this town and the way the political dialogue is structured right now is not conducive to what we need to do to be globally competitive. And all of you are leaders in your communities -- in the business sector and the labor sector, in academia, we even have a few pundits here -- it is important to understand what's at stake and that we can't keep on playing games.
I mentioned that I was in Asia on this trip thinking about the economy, when I sat down for a round of interviews. Not one of them asked me about Asia. Not one of them asked me about the economy. I was asked several times about had I read Sarah Palin's book. (Laughter.) True. But it's an indication of how our political debate doesn't match up with what we need to do and where we need to go.

Lets hope the media gets a clue here that they need to report on what really matters, not Sarah Palin's book.

This is Still a Problem?

New York Times posted this interesting article on its website about how Millions of people in the US still have contaminated drinking water.

According to the article

More than 20 percent of the nation’s water treatment systems have violated key provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act over the last five years

This was something you would expect in a developing country such as India or China, not back home. And while according to the article, it only seems to be happening in towns with a population of 20,000 or less, it should still be acted upon with the utmost speed and urgency.

Healthcare and Slavery...?

I think its pretty interesting how Senator Reid compared the republicans blocking of this healthcare bill to slavery. And hes right in the fact that this is the biggest piece of legislation passed since the civil rights act as it does in fact effect everyone. Lets hope this speech convinces some to switch sides and do whats right for the country.

Chaos in Iran

It seems that the dissent in Iran is again bubbling to the surface. I think its a good sign that people are starting to realize the rule in Iran is wrong. It also shows the power my generation is having, and how students can change the shape of politics in the future to come.

Small loss reported in Bailout of Banks.

New York Times posted some promising news today about the Treasury Deparments report of a possible loss of 42 billion of of the 370 billion used in a bailout.

Whats even better is that they report this years deficit spending could lower from 1.5 trillion to 1.3 trillion with the return of this bailout money.

Im stil very skeptical if there will be a large enough return to prove that this bailout worked. In my opinon, more banks should have failed for their misuse of funds, and bailing them out just lets them continue the risk. But if they do turn a small profit, or almost break even, ill be amazed.

Russia Up To Its Old Tricks

It seems the Russian Bear is starting to rouse again, slowly atleast. In an article on NYTimes.com, it seems Russia doesnt feel that Ukraine will be able to pay for the natural gas it recieves for the winter, and as Ukraines economy continues to struggle, that might be the case. I think this could be a great move for Russia if it wants to restore at least ties with countries in the surrounding area. Instead of being greedy, Russia could be seen as the US of Eastern Europe, helping out Ukraine, which could help the popularity of a candidate running for president who seems to be pro-russian. Whatever the case, this could cause problems for many countries in Europe who rely on Russias gas supply but are extremely short on cash due to the economic crisis.

Is Breaking up Big Banks a good idea?

I found this pretty interesting on Richard A. Posners blog on theatlantic.com. In short, its about if its a good idea or not to break up some of the big banks to diffrent areas to possibly prevent another meltdown of our financial system. Personally, i dont think its a great idea. Everything is tied to together now, and seperating all of them would be extremely costly and somewhat risky. And a bank that focuses just on something such as savings accounts or something along those lines would generate very little income. I think if there was an actual well thought out solution it might work, but other than that, this seems like just an idea, nothing more.

Obama Signs Anti-Hate Legislation

Times.com reported a really remarkable report in my opinion about President Obama signing into law that ban assaults on people due to sexual-orientation. Does this really prevent this incidents from happening? No, not really. Just because a law's there doesn't mean people will follow it. But it still is a step in the right direction. We can only hope more legislation will follow this, and continue to promote the rights promised by our constitution for everyone.

Mental Health Break

There is really no need for explanation. This is the perfect example of a great mental health break.

Senate Reacts to Irans Refuesal

In an article posted on the NYTimes, it seems Iran has renegaded on its earlier plan to ship most of its Uranium out of the country. Is Iran just flexing its muscles and trying to show the world there not getting picked on any longer. But it seems the Senate has something to say about it. The Senate Banking Committee approved legislation that would generally increase the US Governments power to impose more sanctions on Iran. Will this help? Who knows, but at least it shows that the United States is serious about putting Iran and its nuclear ambitions in its place. Senator Christopher J Todd of Connecticut put it perfectly when he said

"We must send a clear signal to Iran’s leaders that, if they continue to defy the will of the international community, our nation is prepared to confront them on that"

Tax Evasion at Home

This article posted on the Time Magazine website was really interesting in my opinion. The US, as the article points out, has done a pretty good job of late finding all of those who hide there money overseas to prevent a large hike in taxes, and i think its great they started finally working on this problem. But whats really weird is how our own banks help those evading taxes in countries to store money secretly. One statistic is that "70% of professionals and 40% large businesses " represent most of the 4.1 billion annually flowing illegally out of mexico. I think its time for America to step up to problems on our end of are neighbors issues, not just our own, or soon even our closest allies may not want to co-operate with us.

Catholics and Anglicans

From an article on the Washington Post, it seems the Catholics are easing restrictions for dissatisfied Anglican christians to join the church. I think its fairly intersting that the Catholics are really opening up admission into the church with very little restriction, as they usually are so caught up in tradition and law that mass conversion from diffrent sects is extremely difficult. Even more interesting is that the Anglicans were the first to split from the Catholic church and can be seen as the great reformation. It will be interesting to see how this effects both churches population wise and spiritualy.

Afghanistan Elections Cont.

As reported on the New York Times website, President Karzai of Afghanistan finally agreed to a second round of elections after he condeded to losing around 1/3 of the votes he claimed to originally recieved. I personally think that this is a great step forward for not only the future of Afghanistan but also victory for the troubled US presense in Afghanistan. Having a political administration in power accused of corruption in such a fragile reason was a very large step back, but now atleast it seems the problem has been adressed and temporarily fixed.

Axelrod Slams Fox News

I personally think its great that someone is finally calling out Fox News for what they truly are. I think that when people realize that Fox commentators and it shows are just complete garbage, then the radical ideals they are pushing will finally be exposed for what they really are. Far right-winged nonsense.

Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize

It seems that early this morning, at around 6 a.m. eastern time, the Obama administration was stunned by the news that President Obama himself had won the Nobel Peace Prize. I think its was a bit premature to give President Obama the prize due to the fact that most of his initiatives for peace such as nuclear arms disarmment, easing tensions in the Middle East and a increase in fighting climate change. But nevertheless, its nice to see Obama is atleast getting recognized for his attempts.

UAE Going To Far?

This was recently posted on the LATimes website that i found interesting. It seems the United Arab Emirates is going to become the first nation to create a database of all of their citizens DNA. Their proclaiming it to be crime deterrent but it seems peoples civil liberties are at stake. I personally think its wrong to do this because of the invasion of rights. No one should have access to our DNA unless we are frequent offenders of the law, anything else is just a crime.

Hope in the Housing Sector??

It seems President Obama and Treasury have been making some strides in the home mortgage problem. As posted on NYTimes.com, the treasury has reported that 40% of 1.2 million, or 500,000 homeowners, are finally receiving benefits from the Making Homes Affordable Program. I think this a great step forward, even if it is a small one. Its always nice to see a glimmer of hope in barrage of terrible economic news we continue to hear daily. If this can continue, more and more homeowners will have a larger amount of disposable income, which could stimulate the economy to an even larger degree.

Obama creating even more problems?

An interesting post on the Column, USA Todays opinionated column, points out how Obama's new economic initiative may not be exactly a great decision. Peter Schwiezer writes how Obama wants to create "Tier 1 financial holding companies" which is in essence creating financial firms that tax payers will make sure never fail. I really don't want to point out the obvious, but is that not how we kinda ended up where we are in the first place, bailing out big financial firms. Schwiezer points out that for past 20 years we have been continuously bailing these large financial firms out and look where it has gotten us. He also states how "The Obama administration is being pro-business because it is proposing to prop up individual firms at taxpayer expense. What it should be doing is being pro-free market, which means encouraging greater competition and letting fools fail." I really just view what president Obama is about to do as a big error, but maybe he has a plan or at least some kind of regulations to prevent this continuous cycle of bailouts.

New Life for the Public Option?

It seems that their could be a glimmer of hope for the public option. Posted on Talking Points Memo, it seems both sides of the Democratic party are taking a liking to this idea of a state wide decision to opt in or out of the program.

"Both conservative and liberal Democrats seem to be open to a new public option proposal floated by Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Tom Carper (D-DE) to allow states not to participate in the plan if they decide they don't want to."

I think that this is at least a step in the right direction. The public option is really the reform we need for healthcare, and the fact that its still fighting for approval continues to prove just that.

Animal Cruelty In Trouble?

In a recent blog post on Scotus blog, or Supreme Court of the United States blog, states that an animal cruelty law passed by congress nearly 10 years ago may be considered to vague and unconstitutional. The case in question is Us vs Stevens. I personally think that its immoral that they are even considering repealing this law. I can understand how its somewhat unconstitutional to ban video as it is freedom of speech/press, but when the videos involve things such as dog fighting, and "crush videos" videos of small animals being stomped to death, i am truly sickened. I believe that any animal in possession of someone or even not in possession of any one has the right to life like we do. While im not condoning hunting or the killing for meat, as thats a necessity for life, but stomping on small animals? I mean really. The lack of morals i continue to see this great country i live in continues to amaze me.

Jobless Rate in America Increases Still!

An article on the New York Times website recently reported that the jobless rate in America has risen to 9.8 percent, with 263000 jobs alone lost in September. With my family currently being a statistic of this ever increasing number, i personally believe that America should first and for most concern itself with helping Americans without jobs regain them, or at least a paycheck. People need to work to increase our economy, and when its a 9.8% unemployment rate, less people are helping to boost the economy. Hopefully, this number will go down soon, otherwise i don't see a light at the end of the tunnel for our economy.

The White House and Glenn Beck

Yep, still bashing Glenn Beck. In a recent post on the PoliGazette, they, along with multiple other blogs and news organizations, report that the White House decided to blog about Glenn Becks blatant discrepancy's when citing how the Olympic Games in 2016 would be bad for Chicago. Well, i don't understand how Glenn Beck thinks its even remotely a bad idea. The Olympic Games in Chicago would easily boost the economy in the city and even the state, as its basically free money coming into the city. However, what confuses me is that they pick this certain outburst by Glenn Beck to blog about, and not the other multiple times on air he has decided to take shots at the Obama Administration. Heres the video link for Glenn Becks rant.

Did Iran Cave In?

In a article on the New York Times website, it seems that Iran has finally, and oddly enough, quickly caved to outside pressure with its Uranium Enrichment program. With the recent news of their launching of short to long range missiles, this could be seen as a victory in the diplomatic challenge that is Iran. Yet, we cant get to optimistic. While their sending this uranium off to Russia to be made into fuel, who knows if they have a secret stockpile, or have just cleared everything out of the facility by now. I can tell Iran will continue to be a problem in the near future, but this is at least a step towards fixing the global standstill the West has continued to have.

Birthers and Glenn Beck challenged from the Inside

My hind-sight bias is telling me i should have seen this coming. And i am probably right. As posted by Mark Silva on swamppolitics.com, Senator Lindsey Graham is calling out both the Birthers and Glenn Beck as fringe elements of his party. Towards the Birthers, he a little lenient, calling them just crazy, but he lays into Glenn Beck, poking fun of his on air antics by saying

"Only in America can you make that much money crying"

Even going on further to say...

"Glenn Beck is not aligned with any party...He is aligned with cynicism and there has always been a market for cynics. But we became a great nation not because we are a nation of cynics. We became a great nation because we are a nation of believers."

I truly believe it takes guts to call out people associated with your party, especially one in such turmoil as the Republican Party. Hopefully these kind of incidents can continue and the Republic Party can soon restore itself to what it was in the Pre-Bush era.

Republican Health Care Plan...

Isn't it interesting that we view the republicans bashing of Obama and his public option health care plan as basically turning America towards socialism, yet a democrat can speak on the house floor and say the republicans plan is basically warning America not to get sick, and if they do, just drop dead. While i support neither Democrats or Republicans in this case, i really think we should take the Democrats off their pedestal and realize both sides like to slander each other. Sad really.

Obama and School.

In a recent article on AOL.com, Obama has revealed his desire to increase school days and lower summer vacation because "the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom."
While i will be enterting college next year so this wouldnt neccesarily effect me, i fear for the future generations of children. School already is a demanding part of a students life, with 8am-3pm hour school days plus limited amount of downtime during the weekend. But the shrinkage of summer vacation, something that drives students towards to end of the year as a payoff, is just horrible.

Maybe Obama is becoming socialistic.......

The Need for Taxation..?

In an Op-Ed article on the New York Times website by Phillipe Douste-Blazy, the French Foreign Minister from 2005-2007, he really brings to light an issue i truly believe Americans have forgotten. While the G20 is currently meeting to discuss multiple problems the world is facing right now, the vast amount of countries effected by this economic downturn who are not the powerhouses wait on word that they soon might recieve the aid promised before these problems occurred. And as Douste-Blazy puts so simply, the solution is quite easy.

"The one untapped source that could easily provide the amount of money needed is the foreign currency market, which handles almost $800 trillion in trades annually, all of which is untaxed. A tiny levy of 0.005 percent on transactions involving the world’s most traded currencies — the dollar, the euro, the pound and the yen — would raise more than $33 billion annually for development, while not hurting the market or affecting the average international traveler."

Just a small tax of 0.005 percent could raise the money to fight poverty, AIDS, famine, and other diseases ravaging the developing world. Hopefully the G20 realizes the necessity of helping these countries out, otherwise the world as we know it may not return to its former glory.

China and Pollution

This article accuratly reflects how China and its enviromental problem is going to be the major issue of the future. When China has just now started to industrialized fully, and they are #1 in CO2 emissions, the problem needs to be adressed now. Hopefully, China will eventually cave in to international pressure come December, but the world should prepare for the worst.

Megacities in the Future...

In Tom Friedmans novel, Hot, Flat and Crowded, he cites a statistic by the UN, claiming there will be 26 megacities in 2016. A city qualifies for its megacity status by having over 10 million inhabitants. Not a single city in the United States except New York city boasts this number. With this many people in cities by 2015, think about how many there will be in 2030, 2050, and so on. The number is just absurd. Population growth may be the new global warming in a few years.

How is this still happening?

It seems 8 years after the event, many muslims in the United States continue to fear backlash over the 9/11 attacks. What happened to 9/11 being a bonding moment in our culture, a moment in our history that we could all relate to. As stated in the article, some even fear leaving their homes during the day. I think as Americans we should be ashamed this continues to happen. We are one big melting pot, and alienating one of the many cultures in our country can only lead to more hate.

We cant pass the gas

It seems are own greed is killing a chance at a moderatly clean source of energy seeing the light of day. Natural gas has been hyped for years as a possible solution to coal fire plants and curbing our dependance on foreign oil, but as stated here, it seems our own congressmen who hail from the coal rich areas want us to slowly choke on our own fumes. Wonderful.

Socialist Agenda....

After President Obama's speach regarding the youth of our nation, i think the world could take a quick sigh of relief due the fact we now dont have to listen to conservatives claiming it was his chance to brainwash youth with socialism. As stated in this article by CNN, that was a big negative.

Sudanese Woman Arrested For Pants

It amazes me how in the 21st century, countries can arrest women for wearing pants and even call it public indeceny. I understand its a bit of a culture thing but still, its pants. In every other part of the world, not wearing pants in the issue, not the other way around.

US Share of Arms deals around the world

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/07/world/07weapons.html?ref=world

Its an interesting possiblity that we ourselves might be indirectly supplying those that wish to hurt us with weapons. I guess the only positive is that atleast something is going up in this recession.

Trouble in Afghanistan

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/02/world/asia/02fraud.html?_r=1&hp

Could the corruption of Afghanistans government and the highly likley political instability that will follow cause even more problems for our troops over there?

Because I have to

This blog was created as an assignment for school. And because it pertain to Econ/Gov, my first post will be to honor Ted Kennedy. He was an excellent congressmen and was an icon in my old state. RIP.