Entry 15

Michigan Approves Right-to-work amid Intense Protests

Fox News,  December 11th, 2012
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/12/11/teachers-call-out-as-protests-rev-up-against-michigan-union-bill/

Summary

In Michigan, the "right-to-work"bill was passed with severe protest of laborers. The bill is about lessening the domination of labor union in workplace by prohibiting nonunion workers to financially support the union. As the law is not only applied to workers in private company but also to government workers, the passage of bill brought significant repercussion among pro-union workers. Right-to-work was a contentious bill whose passage was mostly dominated by Republican politicians in state legislature. Even though Democrats' warnings and severe opposition of workers, Republicans enforced the passage of law, and indiscreet approval of law engendered strikes in many industries, including auto industry and school teachers. Furthermore, there is also an issue that it is difficult to rescind this troublesome bill. Since the law is a appropriation bill, it is impossible to propose referendum by popular vote, but its appropriation must be invalidated by people before referendum. While the contentious situation between Republican and Democrats is in progress, it is impossible to adumbrate the future of right-to-work bill.

My thought

Even though the domination of labor union in workplace is unfair for nonunion workers, restricting the activities of labor union in workplace is an unacceptable encroachment of workers' rights. Right to collective bargaining rest on workers, and it cannot be unreasonably limited by corporations as well as government. The passage of "right-to-work" bill is a peremptory actions of Republican parties which did not concern general opinion of people but heavily focused on the benefits of employers and small portion of workers. As a matter of fact, referendum of this bill must be held as soon as possible, and new laws must be set to protect rights of workers authentically instead of such laws threatening the rights of workers.

Entry 14

Egypt's independent papers suspend publication in latest protest against Islamist president

December 4, 2012, Fox news

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/12/04/egypt-independent-papers-suspend-publication-in-latest-protest-against-islamist/

Summary

Press and the media in Egypt determined to strike against the President Morsi and his totalitarian government. Due to the passage of the constitution of enforcing Islamic dogma, court justices were already in the strike against the peremptory rulings of Morsi Administration, and protestors held rallies against Morsi's despotism. This time, several private media corporations also participates in this protest for raising voice against the government's limitation of basal freedoms, such as speech and religion. As a result of protest, Egyptian government is sharply divided into pro-governmentalists, who agree upon government under Islamic dogma, and anti-governmentalists, who oppose the domination of Islam in the government and promote democratic system. Not even stabilized the government after the Mubarak crisis, Egypt is now facing another political crisis again.

My opinion

Morsi's administration seems not so different from what Mubarak had done in Egypt for several decades. Even though Egyptians successfully overthrew the dictator Mubarak out of Egypt, I think Egyptians failed to get rid of dictator system out of the country perfectly. This is the fundamental reason that similar incidence is also happening again less than two years and perpetually having an unstable government. For the most part, this is the only good opportunity to get rid of the seed of despotism in Egypt and formulate a stable democratic government by electing new leader or amending the constitution.

Entry 13

European countries divided ahead of Palestinian statehood bid

Fox News (via Associated Press), November 29, 2012


http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/11/28/european-countries-divided-ahead-of-palestinian-statehood-bid/

Summary

Recognition of Palestine's statehood is hotly debated in the UN General Assembly right now. While two thirds of the member states have already agreed upon recognizing Palestine's statehood, European and American nations are sharply divided to accept its request. The countries which go for accepting Palestine's request argues that Palestine has rights to be recognized as a sovereign state which can have an equal power to negotiate with Israel, so recognizing Palestine as a state is a separate issue that does not require the negotiation of both Israel and Palestine. In contrary, several countries, including the United States, Israel, and Britain, aver that recognition of Palestine's statehood only deters the peaceful approach of dealing the action by unilaterally imposing actions to Israel without consent and strongly expressed their opinion that they would not vote for the recognition.

My opinion

Accepting Palestine is not an issue that Israel is required to intervene. Even though Israel is directly related to PLO issue, it is the right of Palestine to be recognized as a neutral sovereign states in UN, and the opinion that direct involvement of Israel is necessary is a weak argument merely favors the United States and other nations allied with Israel. As a matter of fact, UN should acknowledge Palestine as a neutral state that has an equivalent power with Israel. Palestine may have seize more power due to the recognition; however, the world has been only favorable to Israel and the United States, and if the world steadily keeps this view, Zionism is merely the intrusion of Jews in Arabic country where Arabians have lived for thousands of years.

Entry 12

Obama campaign took unorthodox approach to ad buying

Washington Post, November 15, 2012
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-influence-industry-obama-campaign-took-unorthodox-approach-to-ad-buying/2012/11/14/c3477e8c-2e87-11e2-beb2-4b4cf5087636_story.html

Summary

For the TV ads, Obama's Campaign team chose a novel strategy that deviates from typical "norm" that most of the Presidential campaign usually follows. Unlike buying certain airtime according to TV ratings and watching demographics, Obama's Campaign team only bought time of day in certain channels. Before releasing the advertisement, the "optimizers" gathered information by phone call and door to door survey to make sure that the campaign is targeting the right audiences. Then, the team bought a detailed data for TV viewers, including demographics, matched up the collected data with their own internal voter list and poll responses, and targeted two particular voting populations: voters who still on the fence against Obama and his sporadic supporter. Consequently, Obama's Campaign gained great success in TV advertising in a way of buying many channels to contact with voters and outnumbered Romney in TV advertisement, while using less money than Romney's Campaign spent. For the most part, the new advertisement strategy that Obama's Campaign team implemented for the Election 2012 brought about successful and efficient result for the Obama's Campaign.

My thought

It is interesting that his advertising strategy is quite successful. It is a common idea or a norm that it is much efficient to target certain demographics by showing advertisement to particular TV viewers in specific time. However, I realized that there are different way of attracting voters effectively instead of buying the airtime but buying many channels. Even though it sounds economical to show advertisement based on demographics and TV ratings, it is much efficient to buy as many TV channels as possible and appeal as many voters as possible. For the most part, though it deviates from the norm, the choice of Obama's Campaign team was a wise and creative solution for outnumbering Romney in TV advertisement and exposing himself to larger voting population than Romney did. In brief, Obama and his Campaign team did a good job in attracting voters and inducing the victory in the Election of 2012.

Entry 11

DOJ sends voting rights monitors, observers to 23 states

CNN News, November 2, 2012

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/11/02/justice-department-to-deploy-election-observers/?iref=allsearch

Summary

In order to prevent the deprivation of voting rights of minorities in election place, Department of Justice sent 780 voting monitors to ensure that voters–especially minorities–do not lose their voting rights for unjustifiable reasons, including language fluency, ethnicity, wealth, and national origin. The voting monitors are dispatched to 23 states with a mission of guarding that the election is held properly according federal laws. DOJ sends more observers in several place where problems can arise, such as Arizona, South Dakota, Chicago, and Michigan where a large number of ethnical minorities reside–Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans.

My thought

Sending observers to ensure the provision of voting rights is a proper action that the government must take to protect basic rights of the U.S. citizens. Despite civil rights movements and social activities extended the rights of minority groups and hugely contributed on establishing egalitarianism in the U.S. society, there are still many limitations on and discriminations against minorities. Therefore, DOJ, as the government institution in charge of providing civil rights for every citizen, ensuring that the minorities are not underrepresented or barred by unreasonable backgrounds, including national origin, physical disturbances, and ethnicity, is necessary action in terms of providing equal rights and protections for all the citizens of the United States.

Entry 10

Kennedy relative Michael Skakel denied parole

CNN, October 24, 2012
http://us.cnn.com/2012/10/24/justice/connecticut-michael-skakel-parole/index.html?hpt=ju_t4

Summary

Michael Skakel, the nephew of Robert F. Kennedy, is denied the parole after serving 10 years in prison for murdering Martha Moxley with gold club in 1975. Killed her during adolescence, Skakel lately get tried for conviction and sentenced imprisonment for his crime. Dorothy, the mother of Martha Moxley, claimed that Skakel must be imprisoned for at least 20 years, and John Moxley left a remark about him "representative of the most dangerous aspect of our society" in his letter to call for the denial of Skakel's parole. In contrast to the opinions of Moxleys, several witnesses describe Skakel religious person. Moreover Robert Kennedy Jr.described him as a kind and religiously devoted person who cannot commit such a heinous crime, and his attorney Hope Seeley also portrays him a concerning and generous figure who commit himself to God. She added if the trial was held during his juvenile years, he would receive only four years imprisonment, so it is enough for him to be imprisoned for 10 years and he deserves parole. As Moxleys and witnesses are having different view on Skakel, his parole is ultimately rejected.

My Opinion

Even though he is showing good moral character today, it is undeniable that he committed the crime.  And the most serious moral depravity is shown by the fact that he did not turn himself to police for 27 years after he committed crime. For the most part, it is dangerous to justify that he is a good person who will not commit crime in the future. The primary reason that he receive much longer sentence than 4 years is that he did not confess his sin for 27 years and tried to conceal his crime. Who knows that all of his benevolence and good deed were actually affected behaviors to cover his evil nature? Even though the Moxleys' reaction is quite exaggerated, I also agree with Moxleys that his wrongdoing must be punished harshly, and it is too early to be paroled for good moral character. 

Entry 9

Obama says he has lead, as poll shows Romney a head and gaining among women

Fox News, October 25, 2012

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/10/25/after-obama-claims-has-lead-new-poll-again-shows-romney-ahead/

 

Summary

The President's popularity rate has been declined from last month's. During the interview with NBC, the President said that he outweighs the governor Romney among women voters. However, according to the poll held by Associated Press-GfK, Mitt Romney is practically leading Obama among women voters. Although the Romney made an indiscrete remark that implies abortion issues as a part of rape and incest, he still keeps higher approval of women voters than Obama does. Furthermore, in economic realm, women voters tend to trust Romney more than Obama, an situation that was just an opposite in the last month. In order to pull up the popularity rates, both candidate is putting enormous efforts on political campaigns. 

My thought

Actually, I believe that the changes in popularity trend is extremely significant in this period as the election is coming up closer. Even though it is the slim difference, this slight difference would determine what candidate will be the 45th President of the United States. As a matter of fact, this situation would be tough for both candidates. Since the President was used to outweigh Romney among women voters, it would be desperate for him to attract women supporters that Romney has taken. On the other hand, Romney would also have a hard time pulling up the popularity rate among women voters and making a significant gap between the President. For the most part, the campaign for October and November would determine the winner, and it is obvious they should make a spurt until the last minute.  

Entry 8

Ohio Appealing to Supreme Court on Early Voting

Fox News, October 09, 2012

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/10/09/ohio-appealing-to-supreme-court-on-early-voting/

Summary

In Ohio, state and Democratic Party are in controversies over setting state election law that limited early vote of residents for Friday evening before Tuesday's election while only excepting military personnel and oversee residents. Secretary of State Jon Husted appealed to the Supreme Court that it is state's rights and authority to settle exceptional election laws that offers various options for Ohio voters and insist state legislature is in charge of setting state election laws, while Democratic Party claim that state law giving unequal voting rights to the people is unconstitutional and outweighs state's authority. While this controversial election law is becoming the issue in election this year, it is the Supreme Court's decision to make an acceptable decision.

My thought

Even though it is state's authority to set election laws for the state, it is not proper to make laws that differentiate the voting rights of people. In fact, there are about 93,000 people who voted before election day 2008, a statistic that shows many people cast vote during that period. However, limiting votes of vast majority of Ohio resident during such an imperative period is unconstitutional and beyond the authority of state. For the most part, Supreme Court would also decide the law as unconstitutional and prevent Ohio to implement such a improper laws.

Entry 7

Mitt Romney begins to open mouth about taxation plan

Romney gets specific on tax plan

http://politics.blogs.foxnews.com/2012/10/03/romney-gets-specific-tax-plan

Fox News, October 3, 2012

Summary
Presidential candidate Mitt Romney was hit hard by Obama for not adequately preparing for the taxation plan, but he finally brought something to the debate about tax. To reduce across-the-board tax rate while maintaining deficit neutral, all the people would have $17,000 reductio or they can choose another reduction in either charity, healthcare, or mortgage. Though he did not specifically defined what will it be about, he laid the table for debate about taxation policy

Romney signals limits on tax breaks

http://money.cnn.com/2012/10/03/news/economy/romney-tax-plan/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

CNN, October 3, 2012

Summary
Presidential candidate Mitt Romney finally suggested something about taxation policy, which is reducing income tax for 20 percent. He mentioned that there are another option instead of $17,000 deduction and there would be small numbers in higher income earners who would gain benefits from this policy. Besides capping tax rates, it is assumed that Romney would have more agendas about taxation policy, but Policy Tax Center speculates that his plan would reduce around $500 billion of revenue per year. Still, there is no clearly defined policy for taxation plan, and it is too early to estimate the impact of policy that are not even defined properly.

My thoughts

Even though both articles deal with the same issue that Romney finally opened his mouth about taxation plan, the attitude the the Fox News and CNN were quite different. While Fox News seems to imply that there would be some kind of big debate about taxation policy in near future, CNN pessimistically states that there are not much done for taxation policy, so it is too fast to make speculations about the estimated impact of Romney's ambiguous plan that is subject to change. For the most part, it was really interesting to see different perspective each press takes on the same issue, and I agree with CNN's opinion since Romney did not actually do anything about taxation policy yet.

Entry 6

Clinton Suggests Link to Qaeda Offshoot in Deadly Libya Attack

New York Times, September 26, 2012

Summary

Hillary Clinton, the Secretary of the States, made a remark that it is highly probable that Al Qaeda was involved in the terror happened at Libyan U.S. embassy in this September 11. Even though there are no qualified evidence that explicitly proves the involvement of Qaeda in this terrorist attack, her remark of casting the possibility of Qaeda's involvement is extremely impacting not only the U.S. diplomatic/defense actions but also that of other countries, making all the world to be alert about the terror of "international" and "Islamic" terrorists. While the investigations are carried out throughout the Libya and other neighbor countries, the U.S. and other major world powers are suspecting of the retaliation of Muslims on the U.S. assassination of Osama Bin Laden, their spiritual pillar

My thought

Even though I learned that the power of Cabinet members on government decision is exclusively influential, I was surprised at the power of Mrs. Clinton's remark impacting not only the United States but also the entire world. Her remark made the political officials to fix their eyes on Qaeda's involvement on this terror though there is no verified evidence proving that. Likewise, her authoritative remarks is positive in that they suggest the direction for finding out the source of problems; however, it can be negative in that her remarks are almost converted to be "true" even though it is still an unproven assumption. For the most part, as an authority of foreign affairs, it is better to make a remark after a long consideration rather than expressing one's assumption to the audience indiscreetly. It only provokes the enemies.

Entry 5

Republican Objections to spending in veterans jobs bill blocks election-year legislation

Washington Post, September 20, 2012

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/republican-objections-to-spending-in-veterans-jobs-bill-blocks-election-year-legislation/2012/09/19/d3acf5dc-02b7-11e2-9132-f2750cd65f97_story.html

Summary

Republican and Democrat senators are struggling for passing a bill for supporting veterans in a way of curving the unemployment rate of veterans. Democrats favor this bill since it is obviously valid for the government to support the veterans who worked for the nation, while Republicans worry that this bill requires too much budget that it would not be able to support veterans in the next year due to the lack of budget. Even though it would be impossible to be passed in the House of Representatives, Democrats are still raising their voice that veteran support is imperative regardless of budget problem, and even some of republicans tend to support this bill in regard for their glorious feats. 

My thoughts

Even though veteran support is one of the necessary social security service that the government must provide for the veterans who worked in the war field for national security, it is too excessive to pour budgets on this year support even by reducing the budgets for the next year support. The Democrats ought to realize that there is a limitation in budget, and both parties as well as the House need to find out the most effective support agendas using that limited budget efficiently. In addition, since veterans are usually not able to earn for living as they do not have a constant income source, the support must be sustainable though it is meager. As a matter of fact, Democrats ought to rethink about the best solution that is able to be implemented rather than the high-cost employment agenda. 

Entry 4

Deal on a Farm Bill Appears Unlikely

New York Times, September 12, 2012

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/13/us/congressional-deal-on-a-farm-bill-appears-unlikely.html?ref=us

Summary

The Congress finally passed the Farm Bill that has been stuck in argument for several months. The House and the Senate constantly failed to meet the common point they were looking for. While Senate promotes 5 year long farm bill, the House aspires short term farm bill contrasting to the Senate's position. However, since it is necessary to carry out the actions about farming as soon as possible, the congress decided to pass the law even though it is unsatisfiable for both. Still, some Congress members are skeptical about the decision that did not fully satisfied all the factions of the Congress.

My thought

Farm Bill struggle exactly shows the gridlock happens due to the division of Congress into the House and the Senate. Even though bicameral Congress is needed in order to provide equal and fair representation of people, it is undeniable that the efficacy of the Congress passing bills gets much lower due to the division and clashes between the houses. It is important to create factions for various representations of people's opinions; however, it is also imperative to find the common point between the two houses and compromise to formulate the decision that satisfies all people in certain degree (but no always perfect). Therefore, for some critical issues like farm bill, the Congress must meet the common demand of each house and pass the bill in short amount of time not to cause disturbances to people due to unnecessary delay.

Entry 3

Judge upholds 'papers' provision in Arizona immigration law

CNN, September 6, 2012
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/09/05/us/arizona-immigration-law/index.html?hpt=us_c2

Summary
This article discuss about block or permit the provision of the immigration profiling law so called "show me your paper" passed in Arizona state. For 2 years, several civil rights activists and even some judges in the federal court raised their voice on blocking the provision since racial profiling infringes upon the Constitution. On the other hand, the court is trying to justify the validity of the law and enforce to pass it, the civil activists are fiercely opposing against the law, and even some judges are worried whether it it too impetuous to enforce the law without concerning its effectiveness.

My thought
Since I am also one of the immigrants who will going to stay in the states, racial profiling on immigrants is not a good news for me. Even though it is important for keeping national security and prevent the violent assault by Islamic terrorists, it violates the fourth amendment of the Constitution that upholds "no seizure or search of individual's property without owner's consent." For the most part, though the court claims it does not infringe upon the Constitution, I believe that immigrants also have the rights to pursuit their natural rights in foreign soil, and such kind of archaic and stereotyped laws should not be passed.

Entry 2

Regulator Rebuffs Obama on Plan to Ease Housing Debt

New York Times, August 1, 2012

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/01/business/us-agency-bars-fannie-and-freddie-from-reducing-principal.html?_r=1&ref=economy

Summary

Federal Housing Finance Agency rejected the government's policy of alleviating the debts of borrowers for not resulting tremendous outcomes to the taxpayers. The financial administrators Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac appraised the actual benefits of the debt forgiving policy inconsequential. Furthermore, the agency's acting administrator, Edward J. DeMarco stated that this policy does not actually helped neither debtors nor taxpayers, and it even casts a doubt that Obama's Administration is enforcing it for a temporary stopgap. On the other hand, there are still some positive prospect that alleviating mortgage may allow millions of Americans to keep their homes while the banks to earn billions of dollars. For the most part, there is no clear appraisal on how debt ease plan can impact on America's economy. 

My thoughts

The core factor that caused huge collapse in American economy in 2008 was subprime mortgage. Since people indiscreetly got a loan to buy the house that they cannot afford, they cannot endure the dramatic increase of interests, resulting millions of foreclosures throughout the states. As a matter of fact, government has an oblige to protect the people cajoled by government policy and banks which instigated subprime mortgage. Even though this massive-scale-financial policy may not be realistically beneficial for taxpayers, the government must compensate the economical loss and protect their rights of pursuing happiness (keep their houses). In last, I believe that the government must take a direct action solving out this issue even if experiencing huge loss in governmental revenues.  

Entry 1

Bicycle Lanes Draw Wide Support Among New Yorkers, Survey Finds

New York Times, August 21, 2012

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/22/nyregion/most-new-yorkers-say-bike-lanes-are-a-good-idea.html?_r=2&ref=nyregion

Summary

New York City has been making 255 miles of bicycle lanes alongside the vehicle roads as a part of the Bloomberg Administration's controversial streetscape planning. According to the polls, about 66 percent of the New York citizens agreed with building separate bicycle lanes; however, it is doubtful whether the bicycle lane actually useful for the citizens. Only one third of the adults in New York owns bicycle and among them, only half of the people ride bicycle more than once a week. Though encouraging the use of bicycle is beneficial for people as well as the environment, bicycle lanes still have many safety issues due to the hazardous environments (vehicles) as well as many other inconveniences that make people avoid using them. 

My thoughts

Before reading this article, I also saw the Youtube video showing the reality of the bicycle lanes in New York City. The lanes are mostly full of parked cars and objects that can severely block the traffic, and it seems much better using sidewalk or vehicle road than using the bicycle lanes. In fact, this bicycle lane planning is a part of government's public service building roads for the convenience of the citizens. On the other hand, only 1/6 of the New York citizens actually use this bicycle lanes actively. In other words, for 1/6 of the population, the rest of the 5/6 New York City population spends enormous revenues on constructing and managing this 255 miles long lane and submit to more traffic jams due to the reduction of road for the vehicles. Even though bicycle lane is ideally beneficial for the community in prospect of its advantages in environment and public health, it is not a discreet policy to build such a lane for no good in Manhattan and Brooklyn, where the traffic jam always happens due to the huge influx of traffic. In last, the government must rethink about this policy whether it is really beneficial for the public and provide service that is more important for the public.