“Here Comes the trouble makers, again”

Comments on ideas of my friend posted in Capital Politics Since 1776.

I do agree with the fact that there should be a proper regulation in controlling environmental pollution, not only in the coal mine industry, also in all industries that emits harmful gases. Yes, today several industrial countries are trying to find the ways to reduce the production of excessive harmful gases, like Carbon dioxide Carbon Monoxide, Nitrogen related gases, and so on. Controlling the emission of carbon dioxide from coal is just one of the thousands problem that every developed countries are facing today. Before it gets too late each country has to come up with proper rules and regulation, which can save environment in future. Today, we have seen developed countries like the US, Germany, UK being criticized for not showing enough concern to save the environment. Growing automobiles and industries all over the country have assisted in polluting air and eventually damaging OZONE layer, which is very vital for the existence of living beings. Today’s global warming is, of course, the consequence of such growing pollution. The US has been criticized even more after the country’s refusal to ratify the Kyoto Treaty, the convention that was held in 1997 to control the climate change.

Carter meets with exiled Hamas leader

I read an article on CNN about former President Jimmy Carter's controversial trip to the Middle East to meet with leaders of Hamas, a Palestinian political party. The U.S. Department of State objected to his trip, because many think Hamas is a terrorist organization.Several countries like UK and Israel believe that with such political meeting the Organization may get encourage to do more damage for the rest of the world. On the other hand, Carter, as a citizen, believes differently. He thinks that someone has to start from somewhere to negotiate two different polar thoughts to get to the peace process. He expressed in his own word, I’m not a negotiator. I'm just trying to understand different opinions and communicate, provide communications between people that won't communicate with each other."

I believe that what Carter thinks is right. Forget about the regions only in the Middle East, even the rest of the world is fed up with seeing day to day killing, suicide bombing, missile attack in that area. Killing each other is not the solution for the existing problem. If you talk to these Islamic people, they think Israel and the US are the ones who stipulate violations. On the other hand, Israel and other countries believe that the terrorist organization like Hamas is out there just to break the Middle East peace process. I do not think blaming each other will bring the solution towards the peace process. Israel says that the military is the only solution, but I do not think this is a good idea. The US government should initiate talk with all parties in the region and encourage leaders like Carter to get involve in peace process rather than criticizing what Carter is doing at the moment. From the fighting no one but innocent civilians are getting victimized. So, I have a strong support for Carter for what he is doing for peace in the Middle East.

Comments on **Star and Stripes**

Whitney has commented about the risk of going into yet another depression in her Original Editorial posted on **Stars & Stripes** . I do agree with her in a way that the current economic condition of the country is not in a good shape. As we heard from Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke that the overall economy is slowing down and we are very close to get into recession. But I do not believe that High energy price is the main reason for this cause. It is, in fact, is mainly caused by mortgage market failure. Many banks like Citibank are in big trouble for not getting payment from consumers. Records numbers of houses are going out for foreclosure. Many financial companies and banks are laying off records numbers of employees. Therefore, I believe that the mortgage market failure is the main reason for the US economy downturn and then comes the rest.

Five Years in Iraq: Is it something to be proud of ?

Five years have passed since the invasion of the US Army to Iraq. There are groups of politicians who take these five years as success; while other thinks it was nothing but a waste of taxpayer’s money. And this argument has been going on without any conclusion. Yesterday, I read an article in cnn.com, which said that today not only we passed five years milestone, nevertheless we lost 4000 lives of US military unfortunately. Among them more than 3000 life were gone in the post war era. On March 24, 2008, President Bush said that we are lurking towards peace in Iraq. According The New York Times, president believes that the US army sacrifice in Iraq has not gone in vain. Therefore, the question remains do we really use these lives and money for a good purpose?

Since the tragedy of September 11, the country had gone through a shock and now it is slowly healing. We all know that it is never going to be the same. However, the US government along with the country people became emotional and decided to fight against terrorist organization like Al-Qaeda. No matter how much government say, it is very hard to admit that we are fully successful over them. Even after seven years, Osama Bin Laden is on the run and still haunting us with all kinds of threats. The US government thought that by overwhelming Iraq could made much more easier to get control on the Al-Qaeda, but many people doubt that today, it has really happened. The US army went out and fought against Saddham Hussein regime thinking that they possessed weapons of mass destruction that turn out to be wrong. During this period hundreds of thousands innocent civilian got killed. So, my question is who should take responsibility for those killings? Now Iraq is on the verge of getting into civil war because of the growing conflicts on Shea and Sunni Muslims. Because of that risk, the US cannot even take out its army from Iraq. As described in The New York Times, even though, President Bush promised that he would reduce the number of troops in future, it remains same in 2008.The government cannot keep the US armies over there for longer period because of increasing protest back in the US. Therefore, no matter how much the current US government feels proud of, I believe, invasion in Iraq five years ago proved to be a failure. However, I do believe that the US must fight against the terrorism methodically not emotionally.

A Crisis of Faith

The article “A Crisis of Faith” by a New York Times columnist Paul Krugman brought up an interesting question about the US economic status at present. Obviously we all know the financial condition of the US has not been in a good shape since it has reached the peak in 2000 AD. Series of Gulf War and Afghanistan War. Sequentially, the internet bubble collapse, 9/11, and then the wars lowered the consumer spending. Since 2001 the US economic had been in a stagflation up until 2005 when we started to see little bit of progress in the market. We witness that the government did not actively involved in the marked until it got really worse.

Since 2005 we started to see the same problem in the housing market. The forty years low interest and the booming housing marking made the general public invest more and more regardless of what sort of income source they had. According to the article the trouble in the financial market was brought up by investors and the banking, which I do not believe it is true. Yes, today we can claim that the faith between the investors and bankers has diminished, but who is to blame to bring up this situation today. My question here is why the federal government was apathetic about putting some sort of regulation from the very beginning? How come people who do not have stable job were allowed to get enough loans to buy more than one houses. As we all know how the banking system collapsed in the early 1930s. Having witness the lack of government intervention at the right time has brought up such financial crisis in the financial market today. The author complains about not having the faith between bankers and investors. In my point of view it is not bankers or consumers to blame who created record high default loan in the market, it is the lack of government regulation that has not been implemented on time. The US government could have intervened by setting up strict rules and regulation against banking system as well as against consumers even if the market was running smoothly. In the article the author is right in his point of view for the current situation. However, to find a solution we have to look at few years back what brought this problem.

Substantial Commentary on President Bush’s Agenda for Tax Relief

Recently President Bush put forward his fair tax relief plan. According to the plan, the tax cut should reduce inequalities of the current tax code. President Bush believes that the current tax code help ensure the Americas remain prosperous. Under his plan a general American family with at least four family members can keep at least $1600. According to the article the president Bush’s tax cut plan can increase tax fairness to general American people.
As per the Bush’s Tax cut plan poor and middle class families definitely benefit from it, however, this tax cut plan still would not be sufficient to help reduce the income inequality. The President Bush’s tax cut plan can help general American family only for a short term. Think about those levels of people who are making millions of dollars every year. Think about those mighty corporate offices, which have benefited from relatively low tax pay. The Bush’s tax cut plan does not mention about how to gain more tax from these high-level people. So, it obviously looks like that President Bush’ tax cut plan is nothing but just playing around with numbers. I do agree with the fact that by cutting marginal tax, rates raise the standard of living, but how Bush’s plan is going to get success unless the government finds the way to collect extra money from other source. Plan does not necessarily get successes unless there is a solid reason behind this. Day- by- day, the country’s military expenditure is increasing because of the war; day-by-day budget deficit and trade deficit have hit the record high. The economy of the country has been slowing down since 2000. Therefore, the plan itself does not make the American families better unless the leader of the country does not find the ways to rescue the citizens. I think, President Bush’s tax relief plan must include the ways to impose more tax to the wealthy families and give it to the poor and working class families to make the tax relief plan successful.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/reports/taxplan.html

Obama Offers Health Care Plan

Recently Senator Barack Obama proposed a new health care plan that would overhaul a major hindrance that uninsured Americans are facing today. According to his plan, about 45 millions of uninsured Americans will benefit from low premium cost. He believes the premium costs that many insurance companies charge today are unacceptably high and too costly to afford for low-income family. From his plan, a typical family would save up to $2500 dollars a year.

Mr. Obama on his speech acknowledges that other leaders have proposed similar health care plan but such proposal never became alive in the end. He admits that his health care plan costs about $50 billions $65 billions a year once it goes into a full phase. He believes that he has some specific plans to make this successful. One of the proposals includes a new requirement that employers either provide a health care insurance to their employees or pay the government based on employees’ pay rolls. According to him, small employers (about 15 employees) will exempt from this requirement. He plans to increase the government fund by imposing relatively higher tax for those who make $250,000 or more. He also plans to do a serious auditing of all the insurance companies if they are over charging to the public.

I read “Obama Offers Health Care Plan” in the New York Times from May 29, 2007. I think it is very important to know how presidential candidates are leading with different proposals to win voter’s trust. I suggest everyone to read this article because it is based on current problems faced by 45 millions uninsured Americans. Let’s see how the thing turns around in the future. Please click the link below to follow the source.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/29/us/politics/29CND-OBAMA.html?_r=1&em&ex=1180584000&en=5cfaca388aac563d&ei=5087%0A&oref=slogin