Pass the Gas

The most extensive financial incentives plan to reduce greenhouse gases was passed in California. 9-1 was the vote from the Air Resources Board on Thursday. Mary Nichols, chairwoman of California's air quality board, said, "We're inventing this, there is still going to be quite a bit of action needed before it becomes opperational."
I feel that the government should not tell us what we can and cannot do for the greenhouse emisions. I think that it is ok, however; to give incentives to people who want to make our planet safer to live on and make what little we have last a long time. The greenhouse gasses cannot be soley blamed on us though. That is like saying becasue of humans the "Great Ice Age," turned in to the "Melt Down." No, that is not what happened although we humans have helped pollute the earth with our cars and big factories, a lot of the stuff is naturally occuring and not everything is our fault. We can point fingers at who is to blame, but that wont get us anywhere. I feel that if we want to do something or feel compelled to do something than we should act, but we should not be forced to act on something we do not feel is important.

$315K

Julian Assange, the founder of wikileakes, has bail that is set at $315,000. He was being held in solitary confinement for his protection, for sexual assult charges from Sweden. Espionage charges, from the U.S. Many of his supporters have offered to help pay his bail, Micheal Moore pledged 20,000 pounds do his bail. The lawyer of the two Swedish women, said that the sexual assult charges are in no way politically motivated, and that the acusation angered the women.
If Assange, got all of the information on his own then he should be charged with espionage. If he was supplied the information, whoever supplied it to him should be charged with treason. Being supplied the information and then publishing it is not a crime. But if he knew that national security and alliances could be broken for the U.S., he should get into trouble because he knew.

Being Flagged for Prayer

In Tacoma, Washington, a high school football players was flagged for dropping to his knee and pointing to the sky after making a touch down. Ronnie Hastie, the Tumwater High School running back, says that he does that everytime he makes a touch down. "I play for God, he is the one that gives me the strength." For this act of "unsportsman like conduct." Apparently he broke the rules by drawing attention to himeself.
I totally think that is an unfair call, he was drawing no more attention to himself than other players do when they do those silly little dances or jump on top of other players after making touch downs. It is totally rediculas that they would be penalized fifteen yards for Hastie dropping to his knee and point up at the sky. He has never gotten into trouble before for doing the exact samething so why now, would he all of a sudden get into trouble for it. I feel that a referee was up set with them for some reason, he probably didnt like the Ronnie or he was paid off, or threatened in some way to through the game. If this is to be considered a bout of unsportsman like conduct everytime anyone celebrates getting a touch down, there should be a fifteen yard penalty.

Food-Bourne Illnesses Issue #2

E-coli and other food-bourne illnesses are usually not thought about to much in the U.S. So in 2006, when the e-coli bacteria was proven to have made people sick due to eating contaminated spinach. This out break killed 3 people and sickened 200. They found that wild pigs spread it in to the spinach fields of a California farmer, from contaminated cow manure. Many other incidents came after this, causing people to become ill. Fresh fruit and vegetables, along with the organic makes it easier to contracted e-coli because unlike meats, fresh fruits and vegetables can not be cooked. Cooking meats, such as beef kills the bacteria and makes it safe to eat. But eating organic and fresh fruits and vegetables makes killing the bacteria impossible.

Some people are saying that better regulation is needed. A better regulation that is run by the government. The Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (FDA), due to the out break, received a budget cut of 37%. If the government were to step in and regulate everything that the agricultural farmers were doing, the cost of produce would sky rocket. All of the agricultural farms would have to be inspected and meat regulations that would make it so that farmers would have to raise their prices to cover extra costs. I feel that if the farmers were helped and given the tools needed to make their production more efficient and increase the safety levels without causing a sky-rocket in prices. This could be done by having an inspection once or twice a year just to make sure that there are no possible factors that could cause an e-coli or other bacterial outbreak.  So without taking things to an extreme, some type of regulation is needed just to help ensure that there is not another ourbreak.

http://kellimontbriand.blogspot.com/2010/11/issue-1-comprehensive-vs-incremental.html

http://aaron2010blog.blogspot.com/2010/11/ensuring-quality-care-for-medicare.html

"Shove it Obama"

Frank Caprio told President Obama to, "take his endorsement and really shove it." In fewer words, the democratic canidate for the Rhode Island government race, is less than happy that Barack Obama is visiting today. Caprio, feels this way after finding out that the president no longer supports him. This only made Caprio upset mostly for the fact that he supported Obama in the 2008 elections. Caprio is convinsed that "insider politics" is going on in Washington. "Insider politics at its worst," Caprio states.

I personally think that Caprio has a right to be upset that Barack Obama desided to not endorse him. Caprio knows that just enough people are willing do to what ever the president says so, this could change the outcome of the election. If I were to have someone support me in something that I need help with, I am going to do what I can to help them if my help is ever needed. I do not think that anybody should get elected to any part of the government if they are having highly influencial people riding on their wings. On that note, the American public needs to be able to see through the lies and the propoganda being spread by the "Highly Intelligent" people on TV talk shows. Again I think that Caprio has every right to be upset becuause he fully supported Barack Obama in his quest to become president of the United States, along with many others including; TV show hosts, and movie and pop stars. The "common courtesy" would be to return the favor.

Universal Health

President Barack Obama has presented the Universal Health Care Plan, and Congress has passed it. "Everyone must have Health Care." It is now against the law to not have any medical insurance. But, is it fair to tell everyone that they must have medical insurance? This is one of the many questions or issues that have been brought up surrounding the Universal Health Care.
Telling everyone that they must have medical insurance and making it against the law to not have it is completely wrong. Not only forcing people to have health insurance, but telling them that they can only have the same insurance that everyone else has is wrong. If someone can afford to have private health insurance they should be allowed to. I can see why everyone should have health insurace but telling people that they must have a government run health care will not work. Countries such as Britian and France, have a government run health care system and guess what, it is NOT working. Britain and France are taking steps to becoming a more capitalistic government, which is what the United States is. The reason Britain and France is trying to become more like the US, is because they are realizing that their system is not working and that it is causing the countries to go bankrupt. Unless we want to go bankrupt and have to dig ourselves out of a bigger debt than we already have with China, we must not have Universal Health Care. Do not let the government run our lives, we are supposed to be the ones running the government.

Invation of Privacy

The new Z Backscatter Van (ZBV) is a van that has an x-ray scanner in it. It has been made to detect illegal substances in vehicles. Anything from car bombs, to illegal alcohol have been found due to the technology of the ZBV. This could continue to be a great tool to help crack down on illegal drug trafficking and looking for suspected bombs.
I think that the ZBV is potentially a great time saver for investigations on large drug dealers, and if a car possesses the threat of having a bomb it in checking using the ZBV will save time and decided if the bomb squad needs to be called. However, if the ZBV get put into corrupt hands, privacy will be invaded. The ZBV can see through clothing and some houses. It is totally unacceptable to look through people's clothing and through the walls of houses that are supposed to provide privacy. The ability to see through clothing is violating, this is just a signal for perverts to get a hold of a completely undetectable way of prowling about or being the secret "Peeping Tom." I feel that since this technology is out in the world,  people who use it should have to send everything that is being seen with the ZBV to a place that is recording it so that the privacy of everybody is protected.

Fame Array

February of 2007, Jennifer Mee of Tampa Bay, Florida, became known world wide for her uncontrollable hiccups. She was even asked to appear on the Today Show. Mee appeared twice on the Today Show, once when she still had the hiccups and again months after her hiccups had been cured.
Jennifer Mee, never did stay out of the spot light. The next time Mee appeared in the news was when she ran away from home later in 2007. Then in January of this year, she ran away again. According to her mother she ran away because she had a fight with her boyfriend. She was turned in by a friend, who called the police. This was not the last time she would appear in the news for delinquency. This past Saturday she was arrested and charged with First-Degree Homicide. She lured Shannon Griffin, and two male accomplices robbed and shot Griffin.
This is a classic case of a young girl who has 15 minutes of fame and cant cope when the clock stops. I feel that she turned to the first people who would give her attention and tell her that she was pretty and that she was everything. She believed them, as any girl would, and got caught up in a rough crowd of people and didn't know how to get out; however, this doesn't give her reason to help murder someone.

ISSUE #2 -Spending What We Can Afford.

In 2007, Congress had passed a pay-as-you-go budgeting system. This system was also known as "paygo," a system that requires tax cuts or increases in entitlement spending to be made up for with spending reductions somewhere else. Whether or not paygo was the right way to go soon became a topic of debate in Congress.
Those who supporte paygo willingly respond to concerns about profligate spending. Concerns about the rising of the national debt and the fears of what type of catastrophe could happen to our economy in the future were answered. Those in support for paygo say that Congress will have to follow the rules that many businesses and families have to follow. That being only spend your money on things you actually have the money for. By taking away the wasteful spending and gathering all unpaid taxes, Congress could have the money for the funds needed to pay for new things and not go farther into debt.
Critics say that paygo is the absolute wrong way to go about reducing deficits. They say that paygo will only increase taxes so new programs can be paid for. Economic growth not budget cuts or increases in tax, should be how the deficits disappear. Opponest of paygo worry that Congress will be unable to decrease the enlargment of the Alternative Minimum Tax.




http://kellimontbriand.blogspot.com/2010/10/issue-1war-dollars.html#more

http://theresasocial.blogspot.com/2010/10/issue-3-social-insecurity.html

Recession Over?

"The recession that has plaged the United States for the last few years is now over." I do not feel that is statement is valid. Maybe the experts have seen an incline is spending and a decline is prices. But President Obama just passed a stimulus package. That stimulus package is having people spend money and put that into our economy. But where did the money for the stimulus package come from? How are we supposed to truely be out of a ressesion if we keep borrowing money?
Even if we did not borrow the money from China, that means that we printed more money from the federal reserve. Which inturns means that the American dollar just lost more value. Also, what if the stimulus was just a temporary fix? The money that has been passed out to people is eventually going to run out. What will happen when that happens? I feel that we will just go deeper into the hole. We should cut government spending and do what needs to be done inorder to get the American dollar's value back and to not have to owe China so much money. Even if the recession is over, we are still 13 trillion dollars in debt. I caution us all to do what we can inorder to restore the Roaring America, that was alive during the Twenties.

Why Jobs are Still Scarce after $800 billion Stimulus.

The stimulus plan that had set forward $800 billion for creating jobs was split so everyone could benifit from the plan. The tax payers are the people who have to pay for the $800 billion, so how it is spend should be let known. How many jobs were created, how much was spent for each job, and what were the jobs that were created. Los Angeles was given part of the stimulus, and only created 55 jobs, seven of these were private jobs, usuing 70 million dollars, and costing the tax payers 1.5 million per job. And the Department of Transportaion for Los Angeles only created nine jobs spending 40 million dollars, and costing tax payers 4.4 million per job.

I think that the taxpayers' money, our money, should be spent more wisely. The total share that Los Angeles had recieved from the Stimulus was 111 million dollars. This money only created 55 jobs. How can 111 million dollars only creat 55 jobs? If all of the people hired made 60,000 dollars a year that is only 3,300,000 dollars. That means 107.7 million dollars was wasted. Even if 100 jobs had been created, each person making 60,000 dollars a year would still be less than 111 million dollars. I think that who ever decided to spend the money the way they did should not be anywhere near the next lump of money if there ever is one. They clearly can not be trusted to do what is nessessary to provide jobs to those who need it. We must make sure that who ever is deciding what to do with our money should know exactly what they are doing or hold a vote of what to do with our money.

Economy

Many people are saying that we need to get out of debt. Many have good proposals to get out of our 13 billion dollar debt, although nobody is willing to listen to others' ideas. Some say tax the wealthy, others cut taxes to get people to spend more. Many say cut government spending, the only question to go along with this is where is government spending cut? In the school systems, government jobs? I have heard people blaming everything that is going wrong with our economy now on George Bush, I have heard Bill Clinton being the blame for this.
 George Bush was delt a bad hand for when he was the President of the United States, it was not his fault that the attacks on the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001. The sudden plummit in the ammount of jobs in the United States I feel was largly due to the President before George Bush, Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton signed the Fair Trade Act, which allowed companies to go else where for production and labor. As soon as Clinton signed the Fair Trade Act jobs left the United States for cheeper labor so more of a profit could be made. If we bring jobs back to the United States we will not rely on forgien countries for all of our goods and we can once again be a self susstaining country.