National Security - Hayley Roberts

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/national-security/under-obama-an-emerging-global-apparatus-for-drone-killing/2011/12/13/gIQANPdILP_story.html

This Washington Post article discusses Obama's use of drones to secretly take out suspected terrorists and track  other adversaries. Staying out of the public's eye, Obama's drone program is surprisingly extensive and has bases in six countries and two continents. In the past year, 3 U.S. citizens have been killed by drones, two being suspected of having relations with Al Qaeda. The lack of public attention and debate can most likely be accredited to Obama's undeniable success in weakening terrorist forces. However, it is not something to be ignored.

I think it is wonderful terrorist forces are being diminished, but I have issues fully agreeing with this drone program. When the word "suspected" is thrown in front of people the United States has taken out, we are only asking for trouble.  The taking of life without a fair trial is unconstitutional, especially with U.S. citizens. The article also discusses the separate lists the military has versus the CIA's of those to be murdered with the drones, which seems sloppy, for lack of better word. If the government cannot come up with one concrete list of people, how is the country so confident these are the people we want? As the article says, Obama has undeniable success with the war on terrorism, however, I believe this tactic may not be without consequences.
This is relevant to our class currently with how ideology varies throughout politics and how candidates would handle using this kind of warfare. 

Environment - Kyle Perkins

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2011/12/pictures/111227-most-overlooked-energy-stories-of-2011/

I covered a series of six short articles relating to important energy developments occuring throughout the year of 2011. The first article pointed out several new large oil discoveries in Africa that were unavailable before due to political instability. The most significant of these discovereies, in Mozambique, was stated by the oil company Anadarko to be the largest oil discovery in a decade. The second article discussed the need to end energy poverty by providing every family with energy by the year 2030. The main obsticles to this goal are the financial aspect and the environmental effect of the increase in emissions. Article three points out the massive carbon footprint left by the indoor growing of illegal drugs. Although this is not a new development, its impacts are substantial. According to article four, commercial flights and military jets are beginning to incorporate biofuels into their energy use. This is extremely positive because of the massive amount of fuel used by aviation. Article five addressed the cancellation of carbon capture and storage projects that could not only reduce emissions, but could possibly recycle the carbon to be combined with hydrogen to fuel hydrocarbon engines. Lastly, article six covered a pipeline burst in the yellowstone river, estimated to be the equivilent of 1000 barrels of crude oil. The cost of the burst was estimated to be around 135 million dollars.

These articles relate to our course because, as stated in the articles' subtitle, the media's coverage of the Fukushima-Daiichi disaster took presidence because it would be more interesting to viewers than other energy developments.

I believe that finding a substantial amount of oil in Africa is both a blessing and a curse. It's positive for the obvious reason of having a greater supply of energy, and the possibilty to lower gas prices. This could also be negative because it's a step back from reducing our dependance on foreign oil, and oil in general. More oil provides an excuse for putting back finding alternative, dependable, and environmentally sources of power for the world. I agree that reducing energy poverty is important, and should be adressed. However, I believe that it's important to find alternative sources of energy before spreading the need for energy. The incorporation of biofuels in aviation is a huge step forward, in my opinion. Lastly, I think that the pipeline burst really should increase the desire for oil companies to ensure that their means of getting and transporting oil are more or less foolproof. Oil spills are environmentally and economically destructive, and seem careless to me. I'd rather not have to tell my children that the water isn't safe to drink and the fish aren't safe to eat, so I believe oil companies need to step up and ensure that problems like this won't occur.

Social Welfare- Baylor Hill

Rick Santorum believes that social welfare programs are like fascism in Benito Mussolini's Italy. According to Santorum, all of these government subsidies make people more and more dependent on our government to provide them with things like Medicaid, food stamps, and all sorts of other welfare programs. A couple of weeks earlier Santorum commented that Obama's Affordable Care Act could be the "death knell" for America. He believes that the United States could become "kind of country" as fascist Italy was. He also talks about how people should not be talking about taxing the rich people as they are the ones who have been successful and redistributing money. This is connected to our class because the first day of the quarter we talked about the Iowa caucus and Rick Santorum who is a candidate for the republican presidential nominee got second in the Iowa caucus. My reaction to this article is that Rick Santorum is wrong in what he is saying. We need some dependency in our government for them to give us what we can not obtain. I don't believe that our country will ever become like fascist Italy and we should continue to provide things like Medicaid, food stamps, and all sorts of other welfare programs.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/04/rick-santorum-social-welfare-programs-fascism_n_1183514.html

Economics, Colin Black

http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/09/news/economy/jobs_environment/index.htm?iid=SF_E_River

A Maryland-based environmental group is thinking of starting a new project to clean up the Chesapeake Bay. According to the group this project would create up to 240,000 jobs over the next few years in efforts to clean up mercury pollution and upgrade the sewage system for better pollution control. However, many are saying that in the long run this project will not have many financial benefits as nothing extra is being made. People for the project are stating that the health benefits are going to be astronomical, yielding between $30 billion and $90 billion each year while costing just $10 billion to install. Therefore healthier people means less doctor visits.

I feel as if this is a good project as many jobs will be created, even if they are temporary. I do not believe that 240,000 jobs will be created but a very large number will get people motivated to continue a job hunt. Also I feel as though this will allow other companies or groups to want to do projects creating even more jobs and boosting the economy. I agree with the people backing the project saying that it will make better health benefits. Being healthier is a good thing and will help motivate people to want to better their country and environment.

Economics: Tax Gap: IRS comes up $385 billion short

http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/06/news/economy/tax_gap/index.htm?iid=HP_MPM

15% of taxes were not paid in 2006 according to the Internal Revenue Service, or IRS becoming the closest example of the government's annunal revenue shortfall. The breakdown of how 385 billion dollars was not paid is amamzing. 84% came from underreporting of income, 10% came from underpaying of taxes, and 6% came from nonfiling of tax returns. According to the IRS, the underrporting of income came from corporations, small businesses, and individuals. The IRS does admit that some of the underreporting could be mistakes, but could also be intentional. People not including all their reciepts or overstating their expenses are both ways of underreporting income. Because the IRS only has about 22,000 employees, the chances of auditing and closing the tax gap is almost impossible when more than 140 million tax returns are filed each year. The tax gap is causing the government to call for tax reform, but one still has to take in account that Americas are still the most compliant people in the world when it comes to paying their taxes.

When I first saw the headline for this article on CNN, before even reading it, my reaction was: what has the IRS done now? But as I read the article, I became more and more suprised. Corporations, small businesses, and individual people did not pay $385 billion of what they owed the government. Now, I can see it from their perspective. We are in tough economic times and people are struggling to get by everyday, so it is easy to see why some individuals or small businesses could be doing this. I have to say, though, that I have problems with the fact that corporations are not paying their taxes. Not to jump onto the whole The 99% bandwagon, but it is a fact that CEOs of corporations routinely make millions of dollars a year. Considering the government has not yet raised taxes for them, they should have no problem paying their taxes and if their companies can afford to give them million dollar salaries, the company should be able to afford to pay its taxes.
A class connection to this article is our mixed economy. The government fearcely regulates and controls businesses. They need to get going and work on tax reform so that this gap will not happen again.

The School Lunch Barometer

The economic downturn is forcing more and more families into poverty. According to TheTimes, the number of reduced-cost/free lunches rose from 18 million in 2006 to 21 million in 2011, a 17% increase. As of last month, in New York, 62% of the city's children were eligible for free lunches. An all time high percentage. Under federal rules, a family of four earning $29,000 a year are eligible for free meals. While, a family of four earning $41,000 a year are eligible for reduced-cost lunches. The federal government spent around $11 billion on this program in 2010, and is highly likely to spend more in 2011.

I find this to be unfair towards the middle/upper class working families. If citizens of the lower class don't make as much money as the middle and upper classes, that's their fault. The middle and upper classes work to earn their money and what happens? They end up spending it all on high taxes while the lower class, in some cases, doesn't pay a dime. The government should be directing their money towards bailing themselves out of debt, not making an attempt to "assist" the poor. If the government were to focus on getting out of debt, this would open up more career opportunities. Thus, the rate of poverty in America would significantly decrease. The government is just digging the "debt hole" even larger by trying to help the poor families.

Welfare Programs Comapered to Facism

In this article the flamming right wing candidate Rick Santorum stupidly compares social welfare programs such as food stamps and medicade to the Italian government in the 1940's. Facism practiced by Hitler and Musssolini was a government run completely by a dictator, which aparently also includes health benifits for the poor. Santorum claims that the government is stealing money from the successful through raising taxes and redistributing it to the less fortunate. Programs such as Obama Care are included in his rant and I highly recommend watching the actual speech seeing as it is the primary source of the information.

My personal opinion on the matter is that the American health care system is based on insurance instead of a universal health care system, which is a stupid idea. Almost all other developed nations have this system, and it is extreme constervatives like Santorum who are keeping this nation from moving foward in the health care world. I weep for humanity if this guy gets elected. Finally i think that the article it self is fairly biased toward Santorum calling it a "victory speech" when he is in reality being prejudice against the poor especially the poor African American population who he singles out.