"Americ...uh"

There’s no doubt about it, those of you who have younger siblings, or babysit know exactly what I’m talking about. When you’re in a supermarket, or a department store, or even someone else’s house, and that one little kid throws a temper tantrum. Your first reaction is to glance in that general direction, out of the corner of your eye of course. The screaming, crying, and frustration draws the attention of everyone in a twenty foot radius. By the time the child’s parents realize what’s going on, it’s too late. Now take a step back, and imagine this child were older, maybe not such a child anymore, maybe like 40 or even 50 years old. Imagine a grown man or woman throwing a temper tantrum. Forget a temper tantrum, just think about a grown man or woman saying something so ridiculous, that it’s funny. In the world of politics it happens, trust me, and plenty of our public officers do it. These mess-ups and mishaps can be detrimental and potentially career ending for these men and women. For today, I’ve assembled a collection of some of the more recent and amusing political gaffes, mishaps, and just all around ridiculous comments. Enjoy B-Readers!


Former Alaskan Governor and Republican Vice Presidential Candidate (2008) Sarah Palin touts her foreign policy experience:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXL86v8NoGk


It’s great to see that our President knows how many states there are in our country, are you sure about 59 states President Obama?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpGH02DtIws



And finally, who doesn’t love to listen to the political expertise that is former President and Texas Governor, George W. Bush:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sP26ZmCHY4

So, be they male or female, black or white, Democrat or Republican, no politician is safe from the media scrutiny, and apparently the mishaps. So, B-Readers, watch what you say, and how you say it, because you never know who’s watching. Be on your way, and have a great day. Until next time!

Where Is The Love (And Money)?

     “Rule #1: Never lose money. Rule #2: Never forget rule #1.” Warren Buffet was definitely on to something when he espoused this advice to the American public. Today we hear both President Obama and former Governor Romney talk about the budget, and how, especially on the Republican side, our country has “no money” and that we are running a deficit. Well, to tell you the truth, neither side is wrong, so let’s try to make some sense of this budget issue. When former Arkansas Governor and President Bill Clinton took office in 1993, he was welcomed by a roughly $290,000,000,000 budget deficit. However, with some tax raising and belt tightening, Clinton was able to leave the country with a roughly $46,000,000,000 surplus by the time he left office. This means that Clinton managed to run our country relatively smoothly, and acquire a net gain of roughly $336 billion dollars. If these numbers sound ridiculous to you, just hold on. After eight years of former President George W. Bush’s administration, two wars, four years of an Obama administration, and countless bailouts, our budget has exploded, and exploded again, to $16,000,000,000,000. 

     So you’re probably thinking, how do we get out of this debt? That’s a very good question, and anyone with a plausible answer should contact 1600 Pennsylvania ASAP. Well, our country needs money in order to operate, there’s no doubt about that. However, we also need another country to buy the debt from us. There are only a few countries who are endowed with a functioning government, and the means to absorb all this debt. In the case of the United States, this country happens to be China. China essentially acts as the United States’ credit card, alleviating the debt and subsequently allowing the American government to conduct its day to day business. In return, the United States gives China certain rights, mostly diplomatic, but it also allows, and sometimes even encourages American businesses to set up their factories and manufacturing plants in China. This explains why the American Olympic uniforms were not made in America, but in China. Ridiculous, but I’m not joking, I promise...(http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-07-16/made-in-china-olympic-uniforms-are-a-win-for-the-u-dot-s-dot). 

     Undoubtedly, this issue has taken its place in the 2012 Presidential election with both Romney and Obama having already reiterated their views on the issue. In a nutshell, the Republican ticket of Ryan/Romney have taken staunch positions against raising taxes and have advocated a smaller government budget as well as a smaller government in general. President Obama and Vice President Biden have advocated for a continuation of our current budget situation, while not raising taxes, at least not in the near future. 

     Simply put, there’s no easy answer to this debt problem, and it’s one that will have to be tackled head on by the next administration, and lowered by any means possible. For further reading and enjoyment, here’s the live running national debt clock (http://www.usdebtclock.org) and another article explaining the national debt situation (http://abcnews.go.com/Business/national-debt/story?id=17159803). Until next time B-Readers!!

"As American as Apple Pie?"

     Salutations B-Readers! Well, the time is upon us. And no, I’m not talking about the beginning of football season, or those random days off of school for all the religious holidays. I’m talking about that process by which, every four years, we elect (essentially) the ruler of the free world. Yes ladies and gentlemen, the contest to elect the person that this land’s citizens deem “as American as apple pie” is well upon us. If you had told me eight years ago that the race would pit former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney against (now President) then Senator from Illinois Barack Obama, I’d have been skeptical. But yes, on November 6th our country will be able to choose between these two men, as well as a number of other candidates, to serve in our country’s most sacred office. While candidates from the smaller parties could make an impact, we’re just going to focus on the big two, Romney and Obama. 

      

 
President Obama (R) and VP Biden (L)         

 

 Congressman Ryan (L) and Former Gov. Romney (R)

     So before we get into the issues of the election, a quick run-down. Current President Barack Obama, the 44th President of this beautiful nation, a member of the Democratic Party, and the first African-American man to achieve the American Presidency. His running mate, current Vice President Joe Biden, formerly a Delaware Senator, is known for his foreign policy experience, as well as his reputation for saying things he shouldn’t while on the campaign trail The Republican ticket features the duo of former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and current Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan. The two are running on an Economically conservative ticket, and have touted their budget plan at every opportunity. So you’re probably wondering where and how this election can and will affect you?

      Whenever we hear anyone talk about the Presidential election, words like: economy, healthcare, reform, immigration, taxes, and all sorts of other politically charged words are thrown around. But what we don’t get are the meanings of these words, nor do we know why they’re relevant to us. Simply put, there are too many college students who are not being given enough information about this election. It’s okay though, I’ve got your back. While there are a number of issues that these candidates disagree on, there are two key issues that I want to focus on.

     This nation’s the healthcare debate, as well as the issue of taxes are all going to be battles that will be fought and won or lost in this country over the next four years. As a college student, if you get sick, you’re taught to go to your campus’ health services center, and the hospital in emergencies. now fast forward five, six, even seven years, and you have to go to the doctor to get medicine for a stomach virus. Now there are two very different paths that could be taken. Under the Republican position, you would pay for your medical expenses out of pocket, directly paying the doctor for your expenses, with no effect on your taxes. Under the Democratic plan's universal healthcare (ObamaCare), your health insurance would be built into your taxes, raising them, but covering you if the need ever did arise. Under ObamaCare, the Federal government would mandate that every person pay for their own healthcare starting from a young age. The decision is not simple; do we, as healthy college graduates spin the wheel and hope that we don’t get sick, or do we cover our bases from the start? 

     As if this issue isn’t enough, our generation is one that will certainly have to worry about our taxes. Our nation is currently operating at what we call a “deficit.” This means that our country is currently spending money that we do not have, like a really big credit card. In our case, the country who issued the credit card happens to be our neighbors across the pond, China. The Democrats want to raise taxes in order to raise more money for our government to spend on our ever-growing population. On the other hand, the Republican ticket is promising a cut in our Federal spending, which means fewer taxes for the American people as well as a cut in funding for programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. While it’s easy to say that we don’t want to raise taxes, can we also survive without these various services? So I hope I’ve been able to shed some light on these issues, and in turn that each of you will be able to enlighten someone else. 

     But what do I think? Well I’ll let you know: while I certainly think that the Republican ticket has its merits, I think that Barack and Joe are due for another four years at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Until next time, stay beautiful B-Readers!

The Middle-East: Anti-American?

Today we mark 8 days since the tragic death of Ambassador Chris Stevens and 3 other members of the US diplomatic mission to Libya. On Tuesday, September 11, 2012, the eleventh anniversary of 9/11, Libyan protestors stormed the US embassy in the city of Benghazi, setting fire to the complex and killing 4 Americans. Since then anti-American protests have erupted across the middle-east in over a dozen countries. In most countries police failed to adequately protect US and other Western embassies and consulates.

The late US Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens.

Many of these protests have been attributed to the short film “Innocence of Muslims” produced by Sam Bacile. In this video, Mohammad is depicted as a pimp, a killer and a child-molester. When interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, Bacile said his film is “a political effort to call attention to the hypocrisies of Islam.” Whatever the motive of this film, the results of it have been disastrous.

In the past week, the US media, alongside many US citizens and people around the world, have been questioning the willingness of many countries to protect US and Western interests in the Middle-East. It is widely believed that everyone in the Middle-East except for Israel hates America and that all of Islam is Anti-American. This case of Islamaphobia, the term used by Brian McLaren to describe American fear and hatred of Islam, is misdiagnosed. To say that all of the Arabs and Muslims hate the US would be simply wrong. To put these two distinct groups into one group is a mistake in of itself but that’s another issue. It is important to recognize that these attacks were perpetrated by a small group of extremists and not by Islam or the Arab world as a whole.

Recently, video surfaced of the last minutes of Ambassador Stevens’ life. It shows a group of Libyans rescuing him from the burning building and bringing him to a hospital. There, it is reported that a Libyan doctor worked for close to an hour to try and revive him. This video is evidence that not all Libyans are Anti-American. We should not take the actions of a few as the opinion of the majority.

In a recent blog post, Fareed Zakaria, a CNN contributor, makes the point that it is not that the Arab countries are unwilling to protect American interests but rather that they are unable. As a result of the recent Arab Spring, many Middle-Eastern countries are unable to fully control their citizens and their countries. Before we criticize these countries maybe we should help them so that next time they are able to protect us.