Comment on Nahad's idea of lowering the current voting age

In regard to Nahad’s article pertaining to allowing sixteen year olds the right to vote would be a joke. I agree with her because the greatest concern on a teenagers mind is whether he/she might get invited to the party on Saturday or if he’ll make it to third base with Bridget at the party. Most sixteen year olds don’t have any kind of intelligence toward local or even national government at that. I don’t know who would think of such a preposterous idea because these children are barely coming out of puberty and wonder what is going on with their body. The moron who would be president and allow for such a law to pass (considering that Congress approves of it and is passed the bill stage) would need to be impeached immediately and taken all US citizenship rights away. This is more of a comical idea and to be seen as a far-fetched blur but when brought up it becomes both silly and argumentative. Because there might be some teenagers who are concerned with the way they are being governed but if that is the case then why don’t we all just run with scissors? If you look at voters who are 18-21 you will find that this is the lowest number of voters who come out to exercise their right. So what would compel these teenagers to go out of their party-going, pot-smoking, just got a drivers license, to vote. Or do you think that they are going to ditch class to go cast their vote and come in with an “I voted” sticker pinned to their shirt and say “ I didn’t come to class because I was to busy voting while I failed my driving test”, like Nahad said “ I don’t think not”.  To conclude why don’t we worry about greater dilemmas like healthcare, Medicare, social security, and illegal immigration instead of wasting our time with nonsense politics?

 

P.S. Thanks Kris for all of the great lectures and wish you the best, and hope y’all have a wonderful summer.   

Here come the trouble makers, again!!!

Everyone knows that the planet is encountering a mass number of carbon dioxide emissions especially by industrialized nations. Yet to save some money countries like Germany and Italy are going to build more coal plants, which happen to be the biggest producers of coal emissions on the planet. The executives claim that these new factories are going to be “clean” factories but that is rarely the case with a coal plant. The plan is to not release carbon into the atmosphere but to capture it and store it underground, a method that has never been accomplished at such a grand scale. And, the method itself is too expensive, costing billions of dollars, unless this method is exercised there will not be “green coal plants”.

For example, the US was attempting to used the compress and store method in Illinois but the pilot project went over its budget of $950 million to $1.5 billion this year so the program was terminated. The problem is that if the storing of coal were ever possible than what would poor countries do, seeing that their government will not have enough money to pay for the extra ten to twenty percent increase in building the plant. And, for countries like India and China that have a new plant opening almost every week that would be impossible to afford. Another concern is how to store the coal, because if it were ever to leak it could be as catastrophic as a nuclear leak thus harming thousands or even millions of people. Second the Enel, the company who is building the plant, says that they will begin to work on a productive plan by 2015 and hope they will finish by 2020. But by then the plants would have produced thousand of tons of carbon to be released to our atmosphere.

There are some good things about the plants, like nitrous oxide that is converted into ammonia and coal ash and gypsum are sold to cement industries. But in the end there is more ill done than good, so on that token they should reconsider other method of developing energy. Because if they are doing this just to save a buck well I guess that buck is going to go a long way once there is no planet or people. 

A New Era

In regard to Brittany’s blog on the subject about Sen. Obama being more qualified than Sen. Clinton to be the future commander in chief I will have to agree with her because as qualified as Sen. Clinton may be I just think that most of the nation will be to preoccupied with a woman running the country as oppose to the president conducting federal politics. Also these are now times in which many groundbreaking events are happening. For example, these being the first election in which a white female and an African-American male are running for the democratic nomination and ultimately for the presidential election come November. So we should be able to see beyond the sex and color of the democratic nominee and just listen in on what issues concern each individual and be aware that they both seem to have a common feel on how to go about each issue, whether it be health care or the war in Iraq they share many similarities. I just feel that if Sen. Hillary does win then it would be easier for John McCain to “crush” if you will Sen. Clinton. Because if McCain has to go up against Sen. Obama than there might be a tighter race than most people think and it might be as close as the 2000 presidential election. And I don’t know about you but I’m still kind of skeptical about the result during that election. Also to agree with Brittany on the whole bid about Sen. Clinton having more experience than Sen. Obama, I don’t know why people think that she will be a better president than Sen. Obama because they will both face a new wave of question because of the fact that they are both minorities plus according to what I remember I think it was Bill Clinton who was president not Hillary. Furthermore, I just see it being easier for Sen. Obama because he would just be another one of the “fellas”. And, it sad to say but true that men really don’t take orders from women very well thus given Sen. Clinton a greater disadvantage if she were ever going to set foot in the oval office as the boss. Another thing is that the article in the New York Times does believe that Sen. Clinton will be a better president but it seems to me that Sen. Obama has conducted himself very eloquently in all of his speeches and on a personal note I really don’t care about his personal beliefs or what church he attends. So good luck to whom ever may win the bid.  

Bad Immigrants!

Everyday thousands of illegal immigrants cross our borders through the southern states of our nation. Many of these illegal immigrants leave their country of origin in order to pursue the “American Dream”, but most face harsh abuse from employers who know that they can get away with cheap labor, thus increasing their personal profits and knowing that the illegal immigrants cannot do anything in regard to using the legal system to defend their rights because most are afraid of deportation. This nation was built upon the belief that we all have equal rights and that we must have the opportunity to pursue happiness. But for some reason this new immigrants are different, although they do enter illegally which is a crime most don’t come with any bad intentions. We need to have some kind of sub-amnesty to help all of the responsible illegal immigrants by implementing a rigorous procedure and with accordance to some kind of order that would place them behind all of the rest of the immigrant applicants who are already on their way to residency or citizenship, and those who are applying for immigrant visas. Obviously we cannot give all illegal immigrants the right to just apply for a green card. Each individual must meet a certain standard of rights. The applicant must be able to provide a clean criminal record, allowing only traffic violations. Must be current with their taxes and must be a able to support him or her self along with all of their dependents and not become a public nuisance. Also the immigrant must pay a fine for immigrating illegally and must stay out of trouble when living in the US. If there is any kind of problem with the immigrant than he or she will be deprived from all rights and deported immediately. This is just to point out that our immigration problem is going to be fair as oppose to the idea that we are just pulling people over asking for proof of citizenship (which is unconstitutional) and if not able to show any kind of proof will be sent to the county prison to await deportation. Thus resulting in citizens coming home with no parent to provide for him or her and ultimately ending up in foster care. And in “cleansing” the system with all of the worthy immigrants we will be able to take out most of the bad apples from the crates so that they don’t spoil the rest. Because truth is most of these people help our crippling economy whether it be with sales taxes or filling in jobs that most US citizens would not want to do they help the countries economy greatly as oppose to the damage they cause through well fare programs. Finally if we cleanse the system properly and help out those who will help our country then both side would benefit and that would hopefully in some way deal with one of our countries dilemmas, we need to stop being hypocrites because we took this land from Native Americans who are now hardly ever seen.

Wrapping it up!

Within 24 hours the race will finally be decided as millions of Texans and Ohioans (Rhode Islanders and Vermonters can’t forget about them) take their vote to the polls to decide who will be the winners in the primary election for both democrat and republican parties. Now the real dirt comes out as both Senator Obama and Senator Clinton try to wrap up their final chance at winning the primaries on March 4th. First Sen. Clinton accuses Sen. Obama of lacking time to hold even on meeting as chairman in regard to troops in Afghanistan, claiming that he is to busy trying to run for president. To counter Sen. Obama blamed Sen. Clinton of doing the same as well by not attending hearing for the Afghanistan troops either. These will be the final blows that both ground breaking candidates give each other, one by the charismatic lady who attempts to defeat the flamboyant JFK of the new millennium. Many believe that if Sen. Clinton doesn’t win the March 4th primaries then she might consider dropping from the race but Sen. Clinton says that she has only begun. Followed by a charge to Sen. Obama’s tactics toward NAFTA stating that he is just bluffing when he promises a better policy as oppose to NAFTA, and is behind doors saying to Canadians that he is just using the excuse for political purposes. Sen. Obama denied all of the charges that Sen. Clinton fired his way. Meanwhile there are problems inside the Clinton campaign with Mark Penn, the campaigns pollster. Who is responsible for all of the public relations that have anything to do with the media and he oversees Sen. Clinton’s media speeches. But Mr. Penn stated that he was with the Clinton camp but didn’t have a serious position or that he matter much in the campaign. Then he claims that he was misinterpreted and that he is a key player in the game. Causing some speculation on whether the Clinton campaign is unstable. On the other hand Sen. Obama is being questioned heavily over his relationship with developer Antoin Rezko, who is a friend of Sen. Obama and is being tried for political exploitation relationships with governor of Illinois, Rod R. Blagojevich. Sen. Bema has come out and told the public that he has committed a mistake in regard to his dealings with Mr. Rezko (Sen. Obama purchase some land adjacent to Rezko’s land and Rezko has made over $150,000 in contributions to Sen. Obama. To conclude, both candidates should beware of whom they are dealing with and keep the medias “big eye” away from their personal relationships as much as possible. On a personal note both of these dealing are very sketchy but who is going to win come March 4.

Texas Showdown

          Senator Barack Obama (Illinois) and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (New York) once again faced-off in a political debate about who was going to be a better president and potentially be on the general election ballot in November. The debate was in a small auditorium with only a few thousand people but with millions of eyes posted to their televisions across the United States. Sen. Clinton began to speak against Sen. Obama by stating that his speeches might be powerful but that he is plagiarizing. To counter her attack Sen. Obama said that he is not going to waste his time attacking each other he is there to solve problems. So far, Sen. Clinton has been battered by recent defeats in previous primaries, eleven to be exact, Wisconsin and including an overseas competition among Americans who live in a foreign country. Some of the issues that were discussed were how to deal with illegal immigration, they both agree that surveillance cameras will be more useful than building a wall through the US and Mexico border. Also they both had about the same idea on how to deal with health care and once again Sen. Clinton said that under Sen. Obama’s plan there would be a total of 15 million uninsured Americans but Sen. Obama responded by blaming Sen. Clinton of working in secrecy while President Clinton was in office and mishandling the situation. Then both parties stated how they are going to take care of the situation in Cuba. First Sen. Clinton said that she would meet with Raul Castro but that he must enact political and economic reforms. Sen. Obama on the other hand didn’t ask for any kind of prerequisites from the Cuban leader but said that there must be some kind of human rights applied toward the island. In addition, even former president Clinton said that Hillary will need to win both Texas and Ohio in order to stay alive in the race, recent studies show that in Texas both have the about the same pull but Hillary has an advantage in Ohio. Other states that vote on March 4 are Rhode Island and Vermont but have little attention due to the fact that neither has a large number of delegates. Also during the debate Sen. Clinton said that Sen. Obama has been making promises, which he cannot keep, she uses the phrase “lets get real” and Sen. Obama accused Sen. Clinton of calling his voters “delusional” and she then said that all he is doing is Xeroxing someone else’s work. Sen. Clinton said that its time to stop talking and start doing something about the nations problems, “actions speak louder than words”. Then Sen. began to remind the public that the primaries are just a small step toward a larger goal which is to have the right Democratic candidate in the general election and that the rest will resolve itself. In other words that no matter how much they beat up each other that ultimately they have each other’s side for back up whenever needed. In the conclusion of the debate Sen. Clinton began to state that she has been through a lot, in regards to her husbands affair with Monica Lewinsky, but that she doesn’t suffer the daily values of voters. So she must consider her self-lucky, it seems that she is trying to touch America’s heart and remind everyone that she has been through a lot but so far she hasn’t cracked, at least she didn’t cry. To summarize both candidates did treat each other fairly and responded politically correct to their question. But Obama still has a lead on Sen. Clinton and seems to not be losing momentum, so Sen. Clinton better pick up the pace or she will be sitting at home with her daughter come November. 

A Broke America

In the month of December in 2007 there was less spending by consumers in goods than the previous year. Thus supporting the idea that the US is not spending enough to stimulate the economy and in the end causes inflation. One of the main reasons why consumers are not spending as needed is because of the increase in oil prices and food prices. If this activity continues than the US may be heading into a period of stagflation- a combination of a stagnant economic growth and increasing prices. Causing retailers to raise their prices by a 3.5 percent increase, and leading people to buy less goods with their money. If this process is to be helped then the central bank will have to lower the interest on money, so that it can stimulate growth, that is being printed. But in doing so this may lead to more inflation because retailer will be forced to increase their prices once more, thus causing more room for inflation. Also according to the Deparment of Labor, unemployment claims have risen from 69,000 to 375,000 who usually pans out how the labor in the country is doing. Furthermore the downfall's that the economy is facing, wether it be the housing market, retailers or gas prices, we will all be effected by the fall of the economy. In the end, these factors that affect the economy may lead to high enemployment rates, inflation and a broke America.