Economy Over Environment?

A recent poll gathered by CNN shows that more people care about getting the economy back in line than care about protecting the environment. This is after years of a downgrading recession. In the poll, 51 percent of precipitants stated that they would rather do what is necessary to get the economy back on line even if it harmed the environment to a certain degree. On the other hand, 45 percent of the people who participated in the poll put environmental protection over economic relief. To me this is funny not because of the numbers, so much, but because of the big deal that CNN is making about the whole thing. Really CNN? A six percent spread in a poll that did not get close to covering an extremely varying group of people. It just seems ridiculous, because it's almost as if the numbers could change and switch in the next day or so. The public needs polls to know what is going on and to know what to do. This is just one of the many flaws with politics in the United States - too many people rely on each others' opinions. The article link is here.

Oil Drilling Update

When Obama was running for president, his running opponent, John McCain was constantly calling for more offshore oil drilling in the United States, and less dependence on foreign oil. Now, to the dismay of many environmentalists, Obama has decided to look toward oil drilling of the East coast of the United States. If there is one victory out of this presidential decision for environmentalists, it is that Obama put a hinder on the possibility of drilling in Bristol Bay Alaska. This is what led to the determination that most of the oil was going to have to come from different areas, such as the East Coast. Bristol Bay is not completely off the hook, however - Obama merely made it necessary to conduct a thorough environmental impact study before any initial drilling work could take place. In my opinion, Obama's plan actually makes sense. Our country needs more of our own fuel sources which would provide many jobs to the public. The areas drilled would also not be quite as fragile as the Bristol Bay area. His plan even has a political tilt; if it makes to to the table, he will gain some much needed support from the GOP - the group that has been calling for this kind of drilling ever since the Presidential campaign. Overall, the step by Obama could just be the start of healing ties with the "other side," a strict division that has arisen over many years.

New Student Loan Guidelines

It seems that in the near past any guidelines relating to student loans were completely ignored, as if they were being followed by pirates. In this case, the pirates turned out to be the banks that student loans were previously given out through. However, the new addition that Obama signed for the health care bill states that there will be no banks involved in the student loan process - The funds should now go directly from the federal government to the students. The great thing about this proposal is the fact that previously the government was paying banks to do nearly absolutely nothing; this ended up just losing money for the banks. This means that the government, according to an estimate, could save nearly $68 billion in the next ten years. The money will thus be going straight to students instead of spending time in the pocket of some large bank CEO. In my opinion this was one of the best things that Obama could have added to the health care bill. Although student loans have almost nothing to do with health care, they are a subject that touches millions of young voters; voters who could be swayed by knowing that something in the health care bill benefited them specifically. The young voters are mainly how Obama won the office in the first place, and they will be key to his success if he decides to run in the 2012 election.

Guilty and Deportation.

We just got done studying the Supreme Court in AP Government, and since then they have made a landmark decision that could effect thousands of people in the United States. I say in the United States because it may not exactly be affecting citizens. The supreme court has decided that the lawyer of any immigrant now MUST tell the criminal if pleading guilty to the crime would lead to deportation. This decision results form a multitude of changing laws regarding immigration and deportation. Some criminals thought that they would just get off with a few years in prison because they had been living legally in the United States for many years - This was not enough protection, however. Many were deported back to countries where they had nothing started and nothing going for them. These actions of deportation were what caused the Supreme Court to take a serious look at this problem. In my opinion this is a smart choice. People were suffering (although they had committed crimes), but they were not suffering with knowledge. People need to know what will happen to them if they plead guilty (this is different than proven guilty). For some people, they were willingly giving up their right to live in the county without even knowing it. This injustice is what is cured by the decision.

Repeal of Health Care Bad for Votes

Opponents of the recently passed health care bill are thinking twice about repealing it. The reason for this sudden decision against appeal - votes of course. After all, what else does politics circle around. Members of Congress and the GOP fear that an repeal of the controversial health care bill will not put them in good light with the voters this fall; some people dislike the bill, but more people dislike the stalling of legislation - exactly what a repeal would do. This means that no matter how many people happen to absolutely hate the health care legislation, it is unlikely that anything will be done to repeal what has been passed. They only thing that might lead to more change would be the introduction of a completely separate bill which would undo the doings of the latest bill. In my opinion, this is exactly how policy is implemented in the United States. It always seems that one side creates and passes a policy that allows for something to happen (like health care), and then the other side passes basically the opposite legislation to counteract what the other side does. This is just a vicious circle that never seems to end. The only thing that would change health care this time is that the GOP would have to wait until this fall to possible have a majority in either houses of Congress. Any attempt by this time could be futile. Link to the article is here.

Health Care Support Up

Before Sunday's health care vote, popular support for the bill was quite low. However, since the positive vote, support for the bill has risen a considerable amount (almost to a majority). This is an important development for any Democrat who was planning to run in the midterm elections this fall. It is quite essential that the Democrats who voted for Obama in the recent presidential election are still on board with what the party is doing today. And because health care is perhaps the greatest issue to strike during Obama's presidency, it could be what makes or breaks the Democrats during the run for midterm seats. GOP follower Sarah Palin already targeted (literally with cross hairs) the places she wants Republicans to take over the majority of seats. Colorado happens to be one of these states. This form or warfare occurs before every election between any party. It just seems to be the way things work. And to tell you the truth, if some people from the GOP were making all of the decisions at the moment, I would probably be wanting to beat them in the midterm elections (because I am a moderate democrat). So in this way what is going on happens in both directions. It is just good that some popular support is coming in for whatever the government is doing (in this case health care), because this means that people have not lost hope in the ability of the government to do something great in the future. The link to the article is here.

Palin and a Run?

It seems that whenever you turn on the television, the easily most outspoken person regarding anything that Obama is doing in the White House is Sarah Palin. Well, if Palin hates everything that Obama is doing, why doesn't she herself run for president in 2012? This is the very question that some politicos are discussing across the country. In Iowa and New Hampshire, they say that Palin could easily take the GOP primary in those states due to her popularity. This is an interesting concept to me, because I ask, "where does her popularity come from?" I mean seriously... She was perhaps one of the most inexperienced and out-of-place Vice Presidential candidates we have seen, and people want her to now run for president? Right now, I'm just using this blog to rant about something that I strongly dislike. And I'm not saying that I dislike what she stands for, necessarily, I just dislike the way in which she stands for it - she has no relation towards or has not thought about the other side (the more moderate or liberal side). To her, absolutely anything with the word liberal in it is related to the Devil. This is the very reason that I lost respect for her, and truly hope that she does not run for president. While I'm ranting, I don't really like doing these blogs very much... Oh well. The link to the article is here.

Still Climate Doubt

When a hacker broke into the private emails of the U.K.'s University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit, emails were made public on the internet that were never meant to be so. The controversy behind the emails caused the director of the unit, Phil Jones, to stand down. This may have been unimportant to American politics had Congress not been debating climate change issues on Wednesday. The emails made some skeptics of climate change resort to their founded beliefs. Republican representative James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin stated an argument along the lines that the email invalidated the recently concreted thought that humans are a cause of climate change. Others, however, such as Democratic representative Ed Markey of Massachusetts, say that climate change is a threat to our planet, and all of this is a diversion from the real problem at hand. For the most part, I agree with this view from Markey. A couple of private emails that were not supposed to be released to the public should not make legislators change their mind about the issues. The scientific reports are what should be concentrated on. However, because scandal is God in America, the issue of the contradicting emails will be blown out of proportions. The link to the article is HERE.

Obama and Health Care

Obama recently said, "If this bill fails, the insurance industry will continue to run amok." This statement shows just how much Obama and the current White House are relying on the bill. If this bill fails, in other words, Obama will have almost no time to raise his support before the next election in 2012. Although, before we consider this fact, we don't even know whether or not Obama will be running for reelection when the time comes. It seems like with all the lobbying that Obama has done, it's like he's put his entire heart and soul into this health care bill. This is most likely the reason he brought it once more from the ashes of popular support (or lack of support I should say). But when it comes down to it, the representatives are going to vote how the people they represent want them to vote. Some people, however, are saying that the representatives are going to vote the direction that is going to make the greatest number of their peers happy - a way that a majority of the people might not like. In my opinion, even though the percentage of people who like the plan is not over 50, something must be done in order to keep the United States out of the constant turmoil it has been under the past decade. Change of almost any kind is good at this point.