Politics

So, our Social Security program seems to be heading full speed toward disaster. From what I hear, actually fixing that is necessarily going to piss a bunch of people off, so that no politician will dare try. As a young person, I am concerned that I will never get back what I am forced to pay into that system. Is there any way that we could fix Social Security? I mean, some way that has a possibility of actually happening? My idea: pass a law requiring that the financial security of Social Security be ensured, within a certain timeframe. This should be popular, as everyone wants S.S. to be secure. A possible way to put teeth into this would be that if they can't fi…

Do you see any parallels between Obama and Reagan? Both inherited a bad economy from their predecessors. As Obama's first year in office came and went, there were calls that he will be a one term president. This can, to a large extent, be blamed on his social programs, but there are also clamors that unemployment hovers around 10% and the economy is not recovering fast enough. I wonder if these same people clamoring about the unemployment remember that it was also 10% around this time in Reagan's presidency too, despite the recession he inherited being nowhere near as severe as this one. Never mind the Reagan solution was to cut taxes... for the rich, and the e…

So, as I understand it, the don't ask, don't tell policy means that anyone who is openly gay gets discharged from the military. So, anyone who is sick and tired of being stuck in Iraq, simply has to admit to being gay, and can return home. Right? http://www.sldn.org/pages/about-dadt * Since 2001, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" discharges have declined by almost half. * During every major military conflict the number of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" discharges has dropped. I wonder what would happen if a significant portion of the troops in Iraq simultaneously "admit" to being gay?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/23/military-aid-israel-amnesty The white phosphorus used on Gaza by Israel (seen above, accidentally hitting UN vehicles) was provided by the US as part of a military aid package. Sorry, can't accuse me of "spreading rumors" at this point. It's confirmed. This is potentially a war crime, and worse, the US had a part in it. Why are we giving military aid to countries perpetrating war crimes?

I'm curious what some of the folks across the pond (or rather, this side of the pond for the time being as I'm presently in Switzerland) think about the British government's Iraq Inquiry. http://mystateline.com/content/fulltext/?cid=130382 The latest news is that Blair will soon testify. While there are a number of people would like to see something similar in the US, my reaction to the UK in regard to Iraq is that the war was even less popular there and generally agitated the population more. At a time when US citizens were almost evenly polarized on the issue it seems Britons were adamantly opposed. It will be interesting to see how this turns out.

I mean Obama is all over the political spectrum. Than saying this is what I believe in than just sounding good on state of the union. It like Obama wants to spend lots of money every year but trying to sound good like they are doing cut backs not sticking to a political ideology like the the Democratic Party and republican party . Like cutting the money to go to the moon that is not going to ever happen with China space program and now the middle eat now getting into the space program.Not to say they spend money on it and the rocket is almost done. Well Obama not having a political ideology just trying look good:eek: people are not going vote him in again. …

http://cbs2chicago.com/business/obama.deficit.task.2.1449286.html Obama and moderate Democrats tried to get an amendment onto the recent bill expanding the U.S. government's borrowing limit that would establish a bipartisan taskforce to reduce the deficit by curbing spending and tax breaks. It failed. It got 53 votes (36 Democrats, 16 Republicans, and 1 independent), but needed 60. It was killed by AARP lobbyists (the fear being that social security and medicare would be reduced) and "anti-tax" (though apparently not anti-deficit) advocates. This isn't really surprising, as the default instinct of both parties is to increase spending and cut taxes, and attempts to…

How does President Obama react to last year's reports about the hazardous secondary economic effect of ethanol production, the increase of the price at the pump, and the allegations of political influence by the ethanol lobby? By planning to more-than-triple production from 11 million to 36 million gallons per year within 12 years. But there is some evidence that the new government heard the warnings and is at least putting more emphasis on non-edible sources, which would seem to address the lion's share of last year's complaints (e.g. feeding the world's starving poor in stead of American gas tanks): http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/6849995.html …

What do you all think of this? The story "went wide" yesterday with a Washington Post article that actually likened it to the Pentagon Papers, and I counted almost 500 articles in Google News about it today, and there's also a Wikipedia article on it now. I've linked some articles below. The focus seems to be on two areas: 1) Some emails seem to show examples of scientists willing to subvert their scientific principles for a political agenda. Does this mean that the consensus on global warming is artificial and political in nature, rather than wholly scientific? Or is it just an example of individuals getting carried away? (But then what IS a social agenda,…

I don't know if you all remember or not, but a year ago I said that what would be most revealing about this administration would be the fight over its first budget. Well that budget is coming out this week, and it's about to get interesting. IMO this will be a very graphic demonstration of just how far we've gone down the rabbit hole. The Wall Street Journal has already weighed in, focusing on $1 trillion in tax increases and the growth of debt-as-a-percentage-of-GDP from 53% to a whopping 77%. (No, those really aren't the numbers for this sector of the galactic empire, but your local sector official in Rigel thanks you for your inquiry.) BTW, here's a very …

In light of this thread, I was reminded of something I've been curious about for awhile... Where in the Constitution is the federal government granted power to regulate "substances", especially in cases where they aren't crossing state lines? Why aren't drugs a states rights issue?

The Pearson Correlation Coefficient masseurs the strength of the linear relation between two variables. The higher the absolute value of the coefficient the stronger the correlation. A negative number indicates an inverse relation while a positive number indicates a positive relationship. Today I was home sick from school so I calculated a few correlations about crime: Correlation coefficient between high school gradation rates and violent crime rates: [math]-.337[/math] Correlation coefficient between population density and violent crime rates: [math].132[/math] Correlation coefficient between average income and violent crime rates: [math]-.046[/math] (this o…

Haiti doesn't have a lot going for it, but it does have tourism, of a sort. Cruise ships stop at isolated pockets of Haiti that are separated from the rest of the country in order to avoid any security concerns. I've been told by friends who've done these trips that visitors do not even enter the country in the sense of passport processing and so forth, and excursions are very limited. A few news articles, mostly local here in South Florida (but some have been picked up by the wire services today), are asking the question of whether this is appropriate right now. Royal Caribbean, which operates one of these isolated pocket resorts, has apparently decided to conti…

Hey, some of those senators are kind of old... what are the chances that one of them die during a filibuster?

The US Supreme Court has struck down the key element of campaign finance reform, saying that limits on non-profit corporate donations to campaigns are unconstitutional. http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2010/0121/Supreme-Court-Campaign-finance-limits-violate-free-speech Limits on for-profit corporations were left intact, and unions are still limited as well. That has been often seen as the dividing line between conservatives and liberals on this issue, with conservatives preferring no limits at all and liberals preferring limits only on for-profit corporations (leaving unions and non-profit special interest groups free), however Democrats roundly d…

Two separate polls out today show the majority of Americans favoring the abandonment of the current health care plan. A Rasmussen poll says 61% want the emphasis shifted to jobs. According to a USA Today poll, 55% of Democrats, 56% of independents, and 87% of Republicans say a new bill should be drafted. http://content.usatoday.com/communities/onpolitics/post/2010/01/poll-congress-should-focus-on-jobs-not-health-care/1 http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2010-01-22-Poll-health-care_N.htm Given that the Senate bill has no chance (according to Pelosi) of passing the House as-is, that pretty much ends the issue. It also puts most of the 2009 legislative …

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-approach-to-china.html Google implied they, along with 20 other companies, were hacked by the Chinese government to obtain information about human rights activists. They are now saying that they are going to ask the Chinese government to let them serve unfiltered search results. If (when) the Chinese government refuses, they will be leaving China. I applaud Google on this one.

On Tuesday Massachusetts is holding a special election to replace Ted Kennedy's spot in the Senate, and it's starting to look like something almost unthinkable is going to happen -- Kennedy's replacement may be a Republican. Scott Brown is either tied or leading in most polls over the Democrat candidate Martha Coakley. The election has national interest because if Brown wins Democrats will lose their 60-seat majority. Many were already predicting the loss of that mark in November, but that would have left them with a whole year of legislative possibilities and opportunities to win back waning supporters. (Democrats will retain the majority, and will likely retain it i…

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/01/assembly-committee-oks-bill-to-legalize-marijuana.html Looks like the California assembly could soon be voting on a bill to legalize and tax marijuana statewide. The opposition to the bill is laced with the same cliches and fallacies that have dominated the debate for years: "We're going to legalize marijuana, we're going to tax it and then we're going to educate our kids about the harm of drugs. You've got to be kidding me,'' Gilmore said. "What's next? Are we going to legalize methamphetamines, cocaine?'' I would ask Mr. Gilmore what he thinks about the fact we legalized alcohol, tax it, and then educate …

This week Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (a Democrat) was able to keep his job after a report surfaced that he made some insensitive remarks about Obama during the 2008 campaign, calling Obama "a 'light-skinned' African American 'with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.'" Reid apologized, and Democrats piled on to say it was okay. (source) But that's not what happened to Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (a Republican) after he made comments about former segregationist Senator Strom Thurmond, saying "When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had al…

On Christmas, a man attempted an act of terrorism on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. His explosive device failed to detonate properly and the assailant succeeded in only harming himself. He was treated for second and third degree burns. http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/crime/2009/12/26/nr.bergen.interview.cnn

An interesting new report by the Center for American Progress: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/01/pdf/immigrationeconreport.pdf They claim a program legalizing immigrant labor would massively expand the GDP by $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years. I'm not an expert on teabaggers but and they would not be in favor of such legislation. What do you think? Could a legalized immigrant program be a huge boon for the American economy?

As I understand it, only a very few Muslims are crazy killers. However, it takes only a few crazies to very badly damage their reputation. Many of their religious leaders will denounce the violence, at least publicly. My suggestion would be that the peace loving Muslims start a program to provide assistance to the people hurt by the crazy violent groups. Actions, after all, speak louder than words. As a bonus, this would provide a strong incentive to discourage violence.

The release of a Pew Research study on cellphone sex-texting by teens produced an eye-opening variety of responses from the media. A quick glance at these two widely diverging interpretations from two computer news magazines seems to bracket the range of responses pretty well: PCWorld: Sexting Study Finds Few Teens Participate CNet: 'Sexting' common among teens, survey says Other outlets tried to take a more objective view, such as this article at National Public Radio: Study: 15 Percent Of Teens With Cells Receive 'Sexts' And then of course there's MSNBC, nit-picking the data to find the most potentially terrifying numbers for parents: Nearly 1 in …

It looks like things aren't settling down at all in Iran, with protests becoming violent and looking a lot more like something out of Greece not so long ago. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8432047.stm?ls Due to the media blackout everything comes from video on cell phones and isn't verified by news agencies, but it really looks like things are heating up big time. I previously thought things were settling down, but it looks like the opposite is happening. Any thoughts on how this will play out?