Fox News is Once Again, Brilliant

While President Obama was signing the Health Care Bill, FOX thought that it was of utmost importance to cover the unplanned landing of an airplane. I thought that this was ridiculous, there was one of the most important pieces of legislation passed, and they decided to cover the story of an airplane landing. I feel like this is an all-time low for cable media, and it should be a wake-up call to its viewers.

Offshore Drilling

This is one thing that I must disagree with Obama on. While we are making no very large steps in the direction of greener energy sources, we are expanding the areas available to off shore drilling companies. One of the major things Obama campaigned on was the need to have a larger base of renewable energy and start moving away from environmentally-threatening fuel sources. It just seems like he is beginning to go backwards on his ideals about the environment. Not only does this prevent a motivation to create new sources of energy, but it subjects a much larger area to the possibility of an oil spill that could be devastating to the organisms that live there.

"Don't ask, Don't Tell"

So, the government is thinking about lessening the "don't ask don't tell policy" that is such a huge part of the perception of America from other countries. I think the fact that people can risk their lives for the nation, but we cannot let them tell us if they love other people of the same sex is disgusting. I feel like the much of congress is removed enough from the violence and death that occurs in war, and feels the need to be unfairly selective when it comes to sending people out to defend their home.
Personally, I think that the members of the army should be allowed to love whoever they want if they are risking their lives for ours, and that we do not have a right to stop them from defending us. The people standing in the way of the repealing of this bill need to rethink what America is and what is stands for. Equality and fairness.

This Day in History....

I believe that today will go down in history just like the days that medicare and medicaid have gone down. This health care bill may not alter the entire fabric of America's existence, but it will still make a change and be important. This bill has gone through an incredible amount of editing and change and evolution, that I think it was about time to pass.
One Republican (Representative Mike Pence) put it as "Some say we are making history. I say we are breaking it". I have to disagree here, I do not see it in any way corrupting or ruining our country, it is something that needs to pass in order for Americans to start having to save less money for health care and spend it, which would boost our economy greatly.

Stupak is a Traitor... wait. Really?

So, Bart Stupak has decided to vote in favor of the health care bill.

Many people are angry at him because he previously stated that he would not agree to it unless it promised not to fund abortions.

He said that he agreed to sign the bill because of an executive order the president is going to put through that abortion cannot be funded for by the government. The reason people are outraged is that he is "going against his word" even though he has had his "requirements" fulfilled.

Direct Selling of Milk to Consumers

In this blog, I will be addressing only the first 2:10 of this video.
This man first comes across as being a little bit strange, but the things he says are actually quite interesting. He talks about what would happen to farmers if they could sell milk directly to the consumer. Initially, it looks like a good idea, but if taken under a microscope, there are flaws in the plan. The regulation that farmers are under right now are very intense and specific, and the addition of a whole other branch of farming would just increase the amount of time the government would have to spend checking all of the bottling equipment that they would have to construct. Another issue is the time. Many farmers do not have the time to take on that much more effort, because they are already busy with taking care of the rest of the car.

Health Care Votes!

Although you may not be able to see it clearly, this is a graphic from the New York Times's coverage of the status of health care reform as of 5:50 PST on Sunday, March 21, 2010. The health care bill is to be voted on in a matter of hours, and I thought it would be interesting to look at the stats going into the official vote.
This shows the amount of votes there are in favor of the bill, and the number of votes that are against the bill. In favor, there are 218 votes for yes, and 206 for no. There are 4 Democratic votes that have still not been released to the public by people holding out for deals. These four representatives are from Virginia, Illinois, and Tennessee. Personally, I do not think holding out on the information is going to be effective into the hours preceding the vote. Nancy Pelosi has the votes that she needs to pass the bill, and she will probably not be interested in giving someone a deal if she doesn't need it. They do, however, conveniently get the attention of being one of the stragglers in this historical event.

Thomas Jefferson Eliminated?

I came across this story about the board of education in Texas. There is an effort to get Thomas Jefferson out of the history books, because he was not guided enough by Christian beliefs. He is going to be replaced by the man from John Calvin, from the reformation. This is just ridiculous. He was the write of the Declaration of Independence, one of the greatest documents in American history. He was a product of the enlightenment and was for the separation of church and state.

The fact that people can take out one of the FOUNDING FATHERS from American History for the entire state of Texas is completely insane in my point of view. If it weren't for Jefferson, Texas may not have even come into existence. Another thing that I find disturbing is that the Texas schoolbooks are used in other states as well. I am worried for the next generation of voters and politicians who are uninformed about one of the greatest men in history and the decisions they will make for our country.

Fiji Cyclone?

I have brought the maimed focus of the media several up several times in the past, and I am here to talk about it again. This Fiji Cyclone has apparently been going on for several days, and I had no idea this was going on. One thing that worries me more that anything else is that the media isn't covering, and therefore people aren't hearing about it. People donate to causes when they hear that "bad" things are going on in the world, but if they don't hear about it, how are they supposed to help? The aid that is needed will not get there, and Fiji will not get the help it needs.

No Homosexuality at Prom?

So, this story has been all over the internet the past few weeks. Constance, a Lesbian student in Mississippi wanted to take her girlfriend to her High School prom, and she was told that she could not take her girlfriend to prom. She refused, and her school district canceled their prom. I do not think that this is OK at all. This all goes back to the opposition to homosexuality. I have made myself pretty clear on this topic in the blog before, and will reiterate; I do not think this makes any sense at all. It is not a choice and people should not be criticized for things that they cannot control.

The response to this story, in my eyes, has been incredible. People have started to thinking about creating another prom for the students at the school. Also, there is a Facebook group that has hundreds of thousands of "fans" supporting her.

Obama on Fox?

So, Obama is going on Fox . When I heard this story, the first thing that popped into my mind was the fact that the White House under the Obama Administration reprimanded Fox in October of last year for not being a reliable news source. This is obviously a way to try and get more last minute support before the big vote this weekend. I do not believe that this will work. The people who present on Fox do not seem to report in a way that they would not focus on health care, but will start talking to him about things that are completely unrelated to the topic.

Getting Votes.

This PBS clip is about the Democrats trying to round up the votes necessary for getting the health care bill. John Boehner states that reconciliation should not be allowed to pass this bill, but the Republicans have used this technique several times in the past as well.

One thing I picked up on both in this video and while watching the summit is that the Republicans often use the same words and phrases to describe what should be done. Some of these include "start over", "clean sheet of paper", and "step by step approach". These phrases, repeated over and over again get into people's head and stick. I don't think this is OK. I feel like the people who are saying this are just told what to say and don't think for themselves. Another "technique" I have found the Republican's use is that they say the American people are against reform. Personally, I do not think this is true. I find that it is more against their political alignment than their constituent's view they are representing in Congress.

Obama's Abridged Version of the Summit

So for those who did not tune in to the six hour affair of the health care summit, President Obama provided a way for everyday Americans to stay in touch with this issue. One thing I found interesting is that he said that the Republicans had good ideas. As I mentioned in my earlier blog post, I can not help but feel like he is doing it to get support.

He touched on many important issues. I think he tried to make it sound like the summit brought out what needed to be done and he did a good job. I noticed that towards the end, President Obama started doing what he does best; "riling" the Americans up for action and "inspiring" them (or us). He is very good in making sure that he is understood and that everyone knows what needs to be done.

I also think that this video is a response to the critics who say that the process has not been transparent enough. It seems like Obama is giving no one the room to disagree with him, and personally, I think it is a good tactic.

Effects of Health Insurance

This video brings up two topics that I thought were interesting. He emphasizes that the rate of innovation present in the health care industry will not be diminished, which is something I think that many people were worried about. I think this comes around the idea that if the government pays for peoples health insurance, then there might be less of an incentive to produce new ideas.

The point he was talking about was the biotechnology industry and how it is expected to grow. I am currently in a biotechnology class and think that it is incredible the things we can do with science, and can have a mutual relationship with the new health care. When they are being paid to produce more product and encouraged to strive to new ideas and concepts.

Obama's Letter to Congress

Earlier today, President Obama published a letter to the congressional leaders in which he described ways that the Health Care bill picked up a few Republican ideas: undercover health care "police men", increasing the use of health savings, increasing payments to the Medicaid program providers, and giving states power to solve malpractice in the medical field.

While I feel that these are all good ideas, I can't help but think that Obama added these mainly to appease the Republicans, which is something he needed to do. Even if he were to take the bill to reconciliation, it would not be "right" (in my own view) to pass it into law if so many people were anti-reform. Obama has shown through his persistence on health care that he will not let this issue take the back burner, which I think is something that needed to be done.