Obama's Postponement Response

I am in complete agreeance with how the author of the 'New News' blog responded to Obama's postmonement of the withdrawl of our American soldiers from the Middle East soil. The role of the United States political system as the "World Police" has gone on for far too long. In other words, "you can lead a horse to water but, you can't make it drink." We can stay in this war for years on end, but our goal of making these foreigners accept the idea of peace and loving their neighbors is only something that can be done from their own will. This war's foundation is on revenge. That revenge has taken the form of teaching our opponent a life lesson. Sure, defeat on their behalf might put a dent in their terrorist attacks. However, it's the character behind these attacks that needs to change. Their reasoning for causing such travesty is what needs to change. Changing their way of reasoning is a difficult task which is most likely not achieved through a war. That kind of change takes root in culture, tradition, and familiarity. An outside force telling them "no, this way is right" is a strange idea and therefore, harder to accept. Withdrawl from this war is an absolute must. Sending more young women and men abroad to sign their life away for reasons that they may not even be aware of, is absurd. Also, a great level of hypocrisy on Obama's behalf should be considered. His platform for presidency was "change." He promisd a withdrawl from this war. Yet, his actions continue to prove that this promise to the his nation will go unfulfilled. How many other promises will we see go down this path as well? To conclude, a withdrawl from the war is a clear win. Great deals of money would be saved, lives would be spared, and promises would be fulfilled.

"Inconvenient" Time

Global Warming, it’s been a long time since I heard that phrase. Thank goodness for Copenhagen and the International Climate Change Summit or the media might not be talking about climate change. The country is getting really tired of hearing the words “Health care” at least I am because that is clearly the topic on the news. Ok, so cry me a river. That’s exactly what is going to happen if we don’t participate actively in the climate summit. The polar ice caps are melting as we speak and will catastrophically fill our rivers, lakes, and cities. The Republicans have been ignoring this because to them it sounds like a science fiction movie. History does repeat itself. The world was once comprised of one continent, Pangaea. Look how much the Earth has changed. It is forever evolving and we have the ability to see this evolution. Animals are dying, entire continents are having changes in weather and scientists have been warning about this for years. Don’t you think there would be even a slightest chance of a phenomenon change in our environment that might ruin our world? It’s bound to happen sometime. One thing I like about our President is his vision for taking on the environment; to create a strategy that will eliminate most of the emissions that are consuming our atmosphere. In the article from Boston Globe, “Finally, US leads on our environment,” the author revealed a statistic that was startling to me. The U.S. is about six percent of the world’s population and we consume about a quarter of the world’s energy and are responsible for a quarter of the world’s greenhouse gases. Overwhelming-considering the industrial production of Asia and their greenhouse gases while they are on the brink of their own Industrial Revolution. The EPA is now encouraged that we can possibly move forward on this issue due to the tolerant attitudes in the White House. We are spending too much time on a Health Care bill that can change at any time and may not even work. There are other more pressing matters to consider. We must remember that we are on Mother Nature’s watch now. Our strategy in the White House is and should be to gather the most talented scientists on the planet to activate a strategy that will reduce our emissions to preserve our planet.

30,000 for a good cause

President Barack Obama has ordered a deployment of 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan and Pakistan to combat the Taliban and Al Qaeda forces. His intention is to provide enough support so that we can teach Afghan security forces how to control their own borders and control extremists. Troops will be deployed mainly in the south and east borders of Pakistan and Afghanistan. At the same time he announced the additional troops, he announced that they would start returning to the US in July of 2011. The additional deployment of troops in this region will give the United States a greater capacity to partner with Afghan security forces along the border and to go after insurgents along the border. President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan has pledged cooperation with the increased number of troops and has pledged to “spare no effort” to cooperate with the United States war strategy. While grouping with the Afghan security forces the U.S and NATO will be able to train and increase the capability of Afghan security forces. Army General Stanley Mc Chrystal requested even more forces in a report to Congress earlier in the year, but respects Obama’s recommendations. Congress is considering the order, but has questions about the cost of such an operation ($30 Billion per year) and whether it was smart to mention a date for removing the troops. Afghanistan is very mountainous and has a difficult terrain. Opium is quite prevalent and poppies are the largest crop grown by the Afghan people. This war is very different from others the United States and NATO forces have been involved in. Even though the President has ordered more troops, it will take months to get equipment and troops deployed. Some people say that it may be fall of 2010 before all of these troops are in place.

Response to Political Musings' "Yes times are changing"

In response to this colleague's post, I feel that the writer touched on some very crucial aspects of President Obama's term thus far. Yes, many Americans pose the question of where exactly this change is being directed. However, the changes that President Obama brought to America's greatest attention were the large issues that require attention. Not only do they require attention, they require action immediately. Universal healthcare is a quickly growing issue in the country. During Obama's campaign, he pushed that this would be at the center of his priorities. Can we now say that he was speaking truthfully? I think not. Sure, Obama has displayed many committments to peacemaking within and outside of our nation. However, his promises are going unfulfilled. When you consider the magnitude of the issues he is attempting to handle at once, some issues should clearly take precedence over others. For instance, the fact that millions in America are without proper healthcare is devastating. And yet, he chooses to aid smaller amounts of people with relieveing prisoners in Guatanamo Bay. Don't get me wrong; this relief was necessary. But how about aiding those who voted you into the office because of your promises, Mr. Obama? I agree with the last statement of this writer's post. I'm all for being with Mr. Obama just as long as he starts filling his promises with a little gusto!

To read the article to which I responsed, click below:

Alien Health Care??

The White house is trying to legislate prohibiting illegal immigrants of purchasing health care plans even if they are able to pay. Luis Gutierrez, a House Democrat and the majority of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus are appalled by the executive’s initiation. Gutierrez claims that President Obama has dehumanized and criminalized illegal immigrants in the states. Gutierrez states that if we don’t provide health care plans for illegal immigrants then there will be a significant raise in taxes due to prone increasing numbers of immigrants in the emergency rooms. Should we provide health care plans for illegal immigrants? Not in our best interests due to some statistics. We have enough problems as it is. It is just too burdensome, statistics show that one-third of the children of illegal immigrants live in poverty nearly double the rate for children of U.S. born parents. Therefore, majority of the illegal population are unable to cover standard hospital bills that can exceed to about $20,000 for two overnight stays, despite the fact that Medicare only covers a certain percentage of the bill depending on the quality of health care insurance you have, in this case most won’t have compatible insurance to cover most of it. Most records show that the population of illegal immigrants can reach as high as 20 million. For the United States to cover another hefty load of people is just asking for our economy to nose dive. If they are here illegally what makes them think that we are going to provide them with health insurance at a time when we are trying to get back on our feet. Insane! Back to Gutierrez statement about the emergency rooms, President Reagan in 1986 signed an Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act which is offered by Emergency Medicaid, personal insurance if patient has it, or by out of pocket, if not either of these it is recorded as charity care by the hospital. In Texas the state comptroller estimated that illegal immigrants cost the hospitals a whopping $1.3 billion annually. In desperate reconsideration illegal immigrants should be deported if noticed in emergency rooms so our nation can stabilize our economy to not deter anymore. All in all this could be the resolution to our problem. Who would of thought?

First Federal Hate Crime Bill

On October 22, 2009 our nation has passed its first Federal Hate Crime Bill called the Defense Appropriations Bill. The Senate ambitously wanted to limit those who are interested in discriminating against the homosexual community. This is our first landmark in protecting the citizens who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. This bill has the same intent as the Civil Rights Movement did back in the sixites. This bill is to recognize the protection of federal hate crime laws to now include sexual orientation, gender, gender identity and disability.
In the blog of "A round of applause for a true civil-rights landmark: Final passage of a federal hate-crimes bill" by David Neiwart, expressed the views of the Republicans who were against this bill and how past presidents thought that this bill was unimportant.Early in the blog the author stated that the Senate back in 2005appologized for not passing an anti-lyniching statute back in the twenties and thirties. Lynching was common among Black Americans due to their successfull adaption to society. Legislators have noticed that the public display of homosexual life is increasing meaning their is a possibility of events of mayhem coming upon those groups in the future. The lawmakers notice that history does repeat itself.
In the 1900's their were many public displays of killings, riots, burning and hanging bodies, only to those who were different at the time which were notoriously blacks. Since the turn of the century our society has become somewhat tolerable of same sex relationships and sex operations. Our nation is one of the most violent countries in the world and to see a norm of society change, there will be conflict which can be devastating to those minority groups at stake.
The officials who were in favor of this bill wanted to reassure to the homosexual community that the government is on their side in regards to preventing discrimination and harmful incidents that can take place. Hate crimes are often ways of limiting ones freedom by one or more of our fellow citizens. Hate crimes are often started as groups which can have a positive impact on society that can potentially create followers which will strenthen the group, like the Ku Klux Klan. I don't know about you but I rather not see a Klan be established by the means of killing and oppressing those who have a different sexual preference.

Fight Funding for Extra Air Force Jets

Democrat Sen. Claire McCaskill is opposing President Obama's request to add another extra $332 million dollars to the military budget due to purchasing two more C-37 jets and two more C-40 jets. Initially the Air Force only asked for $66 million dollars for one C-37 and $154 million dollars for one C-40 and two other leased C-40's. Sounds like a mouth full but Obama's addition is certainly not in Americas best interest.

President Obama and cabinet claim that it would save money to buy the extra aircraft for "travel government - executive level personnel." Really, the White House does not need to be wasting tax payers money on reasons for interest of making the executive officer comfortable for travel. I'm sure the military has plenty of planes that would suit the executives nicely.

I really don't know what to think of all this, the republicans are outraged. I was thinking for awhile that Obama is doing anything necessary for the good of America but not so much anymore. All he wants to do is spend money! I was all for the stimulus package but this proposal will not greatly advantage our economy. The fact is that we don't even need the planes, despite the fact that our nation is already in trillions of dollars in debt due to the last terms of office.

I think that everyone should consider this because a lot of people are bringing a lot hype about Obama and to realize that Obama needs to slow his roll when it comes to spending money. Ya, the economy will get back in gear in the long run but what about the money that we owe after all this, causing for higher tax rates.