The Debt

Today I spoke with an old friend. His name is Seth and is currently deployed in the United States Army in Afghanistan.  He and I have a interesting relationship as we both went to vocational school together years ago. Today I am getting ready to finish college, as he is ready to come home from war. We discussed things and literately exchanged information so to speak.

He tells me of horrible events he has witnessed overseas that I have heard no news reports of. Then I tell him news reports of things he has never heard of. He tells me how things really are over there while I tell him what things are really like here.

Sadly we are sure about one thing. The government is making huge cuts in its budgets and is doing no apologizing about it.  Seth was told by his commanding officer that cuts were being made and nobody was getting a raise anytime soon in his platoon.  I echoed that reality as I told him about looming government shut downs and proposed cuts in the State government.

We both ask each other… how did things get so messed up? How are we going to fix this? Aren’t we supposed to be the ones with the answers? Young minds in positions where we should be making things better. Maybe we aren’t responsible to make things right but we both feel helpless, as we aren’t able to do anything.

A great illustration of these cuts in spending is well explained in this video I’m about to share with you by Rep. Ryan of Wisconson.

http://youtu.be/Xwv5EbxXSmE

West africa struggle

There is a revolution going on right now that you may not have heard of.  Not in the middle east or north Africa. But in west Africa right now there is a disputed election. The current president who has already had a full term in office has been voted out. But he refused to leave his position. Laurent Gbagbo  is a defiant little dictator that has taken the capital by force with troops loyal to his regime. 

The internationally recognized president of the country of 20 million citizens  Alassane Ouattara  declared a curfew in this capital and fierce fighting has been taking place. Citizens are reporting hearing loud gun battles and smoke in the streets. Citizens of the capital city of Abijan are afraid for a full blown conflict.

It has been reported by CNN that top ranking military officials inside the old regime have fled the country and are asking for asylum. They claim “The Army does not want to fight for Gbabgo against its own people”.  Its expected that the primary crises for the besieged city will be a humanitarian crises with shortages of food, water and basic civil services. 

The Naval response to the crises in Japan

Disaster in Japan

            To understand the size and scope of this you really have to use your imagination. For those who were in Japan it’s very easy for them to understand. Because a 30 foot high wall of water just pushed the entire coastline inland by six feet. The Earthquake that devastated New Zealand not so long ago was not nearly as powerful as the one off the north east coast of Japan. 8.9 Magnitude is an historic quake as powerful of one in over 100 years. History has only recorded four other earthquakes larger than this one.

            The very word Tsunami in Japanese means “Harbor Wave”. Imagine sitting on the beach and then to see what looks like a bump in the water coming closer. The horizon could be playing tricks on you and you squint to see. But ever so closer this wave comes. As the wave comes closer inland it grows in size. You’ve seen larger waves but this one is different. Suddenly it grows nearly 30 feet tall and is as wide as the coastline. This 30 foot tall wall of water slams into the coast and pushes everything in its path under it.

            The disaster in progress was unfathomable in reality when the first reports of casualties in the hundreds which was very inaccurate. Current estimates of deaths are 9500 with 16,000 missing. Estimated death tolls could eventually equal of up to 15,000 casualties.

http://photos.denverpost.com/mediacenter/2011/03/japan-struck-by-major-earthquake-tsunami-–-day-13/#18

            The United States Navy immediately began what the New York Times reportedly called “ Operation Tomodachi or (friend in Japanese). The U.S. Aircraft Carrier Ronald Reagan along with 19 other United States Naval vessels made a course change for the ravaged coastline.

            Operation Tomodachi is a U.S. Aide and Diplomacy effort to save civilians by using helicopters and other resources who now are refugees from the disaster. One Japanese woman was reportedly saying “They look like gods coming out of the sky!”. U.S. helicopters began dropping off crates of food and water and clothing amongst other supplies.  These rescuers are sometimes veterans of other rescue operations of the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia.  The Navy reported they have donated over 194,000 lbs. of food to people in hard hit areas.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/world/asia/23reagan.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Regional Riots

The Spreading regional riots in Africa and the Middle East


The spreading unrest in the Middle East and Africa came as a surprise to some but to others it was very predictable. The spreading violence committed by police against civilians in these countries is a testament to the illegitimacy of these governments. People that are deprived of opportunity, education and legitimate representation will inevitably rise up against oppressive forces. This is not a phenomena limited to the current riots and demonstrations in the Middle East and Africa.

hour and a half debate on NPR on spreading Democracy by the sword

The debate really is if America should spread democracy by force. The link above is a great hour and a half debate on the subject. In 2003 when the United States invaded Iraq, one of the admitted goals of the operation would be a stabilized and freely elected government free of a dictator. Sadly the end result has been a country divided by ethnic and tribal lines that has prevented the government from passing crucial legislation to bring true economic and political stability in Iraq.

Iraq will be a very long and sadly bloody problem for American foreign policy makers for another decade. Although things have calmed down in the country it is far from being a flourishing place for freedom and trade. The example American purists would argue would be Japan and South Korea. After American occupation and development both countries rank in the top 10 or 20 in things like education and GDP growth. Although the difference between South Korea and Iraq couldn't be bigger. But the fundamental foundation being provided to them is no different. Perhaps it will take a few generations before we see Iraq rank along side Japan but if we hold true to our original goals, that could be a real thing we see in our lifetimes.

Where this policy has failed miserably of course would be the bloody jungle war in Vietnam that was a nightmarish and hell on Earth scenario for the U.S. Military and Government. The only good thing that came from that conflict is how badly the taste of a draft is in the mouth of American public opinion. The desire for the Pentagon to have a purely volunteer military has been good for U.S. interests. It keeps a high moral in the ranks and it keeps anti-military arguments dull and without a point since nobody is being forced to wear the uniform of our country.

How this all relates back to the spreading of Democracy and the regional riots and revolutions across the middle east is that its now happening naturally. Violence is always a last resort for U.S. Policy and diplomacy is always the first. Sadly we are better at Warfare and Diplomacy most of the time. So we always will talk to countries and try to convince them to allow free elections and let go of theocratic or fascist styles of governance. We sometimes don't to the best job at making that case clear. Sometimes we are faced with hostile actions and we as policy will always defend ourselves around the world wherever Americans are.

These revolutions spreading across the middle east are happening in my opinion only because it's come to that boiling point for the common man. When America had it's revolution we tried to negotiate and adapt to British rule that was both tyrannical and without representation. It was until the frustration grew to a point where the common man would risk his life for his freedom that his freedom was achieved. The courage to demonstrate and rise up against these oppressive regimes across the mid-east has come from the example America has set in 1776 by overthrowing English rule and in 2001 invading Afghanistan to not spread democracy by the sword, but to protect democracy abroad.

Dictatorships and Theocratic rule has no place in the free world. Slowly and naturally the old ways of Monarchy and Military rule over the people will slowly degrade and go away. As people cry out and demand and demonstrate for there rights to their own pursuit of happiness.

2012

2012: A presidential election and the end of the world.

            Everybody is talking about 2012. In fact the campaign for the presidency of the United States in some ways began as soon as the 2010-midterm elections ended. Sadly in my opinion the time between 2010 and 2011 should be for working for the American people. But politicians suck most of the time and tend to be only concerned with getting re-elected.

            Something else that is supposed to occur in 2012 is the end of the world. The Mayans have a calendar that predicts the coming of the 9^th planet that is in elliptical orbit around our solar system. This Planet is called Nibiru and is home to the Abunaki that will come down like they did 50,000 years ago and enslave the human race and interbreed with them to create hybrid man-aliens. Then after they have stripped the majority of precious metals from the earth’s crust they will leave us to our own devices in a drastically destroyed and changed planet.

           

            But since I’m not an idiot I know that the big thing that’s going down in 2012 will be the presidential election. Obviously President Barack Obama will be the incumbent running against a Republican Candidate.  For a complete list of candidates fallow the link below.

 CLICK ON ME FOR THIS AWESOME LINK!

Personally I like General David Petraeus or Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal. The awesome feature in this website is that you can actually compare candidates profiles against each other and even compare it to the current president Barack Obama.

            

Corruption in congress

Corruption in Congress

It seems like every few months we see in the headlines some new scandal arrising out of the halls of Congress. The American people sadly are desensitized and apathetic to the conditions that our lawmakers have left our country in. Campaigns seem to begin the day after elections. After an election traditionally it's the time to set aside politics and go to work for the American people. Sadly power and wealth seem to currupt and poison the work of even the most senior and honorable public servants.
Just today I opened up to the online sources of information I usually go too and I discover a Republican congressman just stepped down in western New York. Congressman Christopher Lee (R) of New York was caught posting shirtless pictures on Craigslist seeking a girlfriend. The man is a married congressional lawmaker and he is just exposed himself to adultry. For somebody who taughted Republican principles and beliefs it's highly unnaceptable for him to behave in this manner. He stepped down of his own will but I garuntee that the rest of the congress would have asked him to step down.

This sadly is not the worst that our public elected officials have been caught doing. According to the Huffington Post

COOL HUFFINGTON POST LINK!

 860,000 people lost their homes in foreclosure in 2008. 3,000,000 people forclosure notices were sent out. 11,000,000 citizens are out of work. What does congress do? they give themselves raises and ask the American taxpayer to pay for their homes in washington and the districts they represent. When most congressional officials are wealthy in their own right they ask the taxpayer to burden the bill for most of their expenses.

From Charlie Rangal, John Edwards, John Kerry, Bill Clinton, Bill Frist, Scooter Libby... all these high ranking public officials have violated code of conduct and broken laws and have smudged forever their public image.  Power breeds curruption out of a desire to use it. Men since the dawn of time have lacked the morality and self control to really display real leadership. It seems only in the darkest of times and national emergency is when these people come out and do the right things... when it's needed the most. But when things are calm and nobody is looking... good lord knows what kind of back room dealings and curruption occurs when we don't know about it.

Congress has a 30% approval rating most of the time. My own personal opinion of congress is really low as well. I approve of the job our congressional leaders from Maine are doing. They in my opinion do a good job representing the opinions and beliefs that Mainers hold. If I could have one piece of legislation passed it would be either a flat tax system or a roof do our national Debt.

How Wikileaks is good and bad for America

Julian Assange is the founder and owner of what is known as Wikileaks. Wikileaks last year released thousands of classified documents that were only intended for State Department and Pentagon eyes. These documents pertain mostly to the conflict in Afghanistan. These documents portrayed the American effort in Afghanistan as no longer "winning hearts and minds". It depicted the conflict as a special op's operation without an end in site. With night time assasinations and IED's as the normal standard. 

Ever since Vietnam America has always had wars brought to the television screen showing the horrible violence occuring overseas. The person responsible for bringing this information to light was a private in the Army. This private is currently in prison for commiting treason. So why isn't Julian Assange being put on trial? Not because he is a Journalist or claims to be one. Because he is not an American Citizen. Only Americans can be tried for treason under American law. In fact only Americans who are employed by the Government or Millitary can be held responsible for not disclosing state secrets. If a civilian journalist discoveres dirty laundry, nobody can stop him from airing it out for everybody to see.

Although I understand Julians motivations as too expose how horrible the situation is in Afghanistan to try and promote popular opinion to end the conflict. This has had a opposite result in my opinion. By releasing these classfied documents that describe in detail the horrific nature of conflict. It defintly has the desired effect of turning off the American public, but it also makes them aware of how dangerous the situation is. Also some information was classified because it was important to the war effort that certain places and documents were kept secret because as soon as these reports went public, they also fell into enemy hands. 

Julian also dropped a big egg yok on China exposing the communist states opinion of it's proxy North Korea. "A spoiled step child" being the words chosen to describe the rouge communist nation that shelled an island off the coast South Korea that killed Civillians and Marines. This helped the United States and South Koreas position in defiance too North Korean hostility. With it's dictator (Kim Jong Il) aging and ready to be replaced we must watch the korean peninsula closley . His son hopefully will not be as close minded and prone to Nuclear weapons as his Father. 

Julian is not a Journalist in my humble opinion. He is a owner of a special interest group that is motivated to aquire classified and private documents as to expose private business decisions and sensative state information. This "transparency" theory is very popular and cries out for Governments to have no secrets and all it's operations to be in public forum. This sounds great but in reality it's horrible way to operate your Government. The United States needs to have the ability to keep secrets and opinions private. This "expose" or "ambush" style of so called "Journalism" really just creates more world instability and makes it harder for the State department and other agencies to work on the relations they have with foreign countries. With people predatorialy seeking out secret information will automatically have the opposite effect on Government. If Uncle Sam knows you have the ability to intercept cable transmissions from Embassys abroad to the Pentagon, Uncle Sam simply won't use those cables anymore. In fact they will keep information more tightly gaurded and make it more difficult for accurate information to be gathered via traditional means. More harm than good may come from Julian and his Wikileaks.