After nearly nine months in office, President Obama is under heavy pressure to follow through on the campaign promises that got him elected. Obama inherited a heaping plate of problems from his predecessor, but he now has to take ownership over the successes and failures of these issues, including the economy, health care reform, and the war in Afghanistan.
Although very few Americans had any reservations about retaliating against Al Qaeda and the Taliban after 9/11, the past eight years has seen many Americans become dissolutioned with our role in Afghanistan. The Iraq War has diverted both military resources and public attention, resulting in today’s all-too-common questions: (1) What are we trying to achieve in Afghanistan?, and (2) Should we send more troops?
To help provide an updated perspective, Frontline aired “Obama’s War” last night:
I came across an insightful documentary on KQED tonight and wanted to share it here. Why We Fight is not a new release (it has been out since 2005), but Eugene Jarecki did a great job in summarizing the fruition of President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s warning about the burgeoning military-industrial complex. The documentary is 90 minutes long and should be required viewing for all those interested in American foreign policy.
Health care. Say the words and they naturally incite deep-seeded emotions. Whether through personal experience or those of loved ones, we have all had some interaction with the system. So, it should be no surprise that when large, sweeping change to the American healthcare system is on the table, both positive and negative feelings will erupt, including hope, fear, and hate.
With so much apparently at stake, members of Congress have headed back to their constituents to explain the contents of the bill and hear about their hopes and fears of the plan. Unfortunately, meaningful dialogue has been impeded by an organized “shouting down” of congressional Democrats at these town hall-style meetings. While I am all for protesting and public displays of dissent, meaningful debate is clearly not the intent of these groups (Note: I use the term “groups” here, not “mobs”, which I feel is being inaccurately used as a Democratic talking point to build support for the healthcare bill) and it’s unfortunate questions can’t be answered in the forum. These individuals come to the meetings with the impression that they know all they need to know about the proposed reforms. Principally, they believe this bill will result in a single-payer system and ultimately, is just more big government intrusion into the lives of citizens.
But who’s informing and organizing these groups? Clearly, this can’t be a random gathering of concerned citizens, right? Last night, Chris Matthews had on a representative from FreedomWorks, the principal group behind these shouting-sessions:
In a presentation at MIT and replayed on Academic Earth, Pullitzer Prize winning columnist Thomas Friedman discusses his book, The World is Flat. He discusses the competitive impacts of globalization, the evolution of the “Flat World Platform,” and the need for the U.S. to lead the clean energy revolution.
Before you take a look at the 45-minute video, here are my main five takeaways from Friedman’s presentation:
Global economic competition has been flattened in the last decade. (06:10) According to Friedman, “From the year 2000 to the present, [competition] was shrinking the world from size small to size tiny and flattening the global economic playing field at the same time. Only what’s really new, really different, really exciting, and really terrifying, is that this era of globalization is certainly not spearheaded by countries, and it’s not exclusively spearheaded by companies anymore. This era of globalization is spearheaded by individuals.” During these times of mass media and mass communication, we are also witnessing a new dawn of mass competition on a global level. Continue reading
While many people turn on their auto-response when they hear the phrase “universal health care,” I would like to offer a follow-up to The Camo’s discussion from last week. Whether you find yourself automatically a proponent or enemy of the concept (whether we have a true grasp of what it means or not), there are a few things far scarier than the government reforming our failing health care system:
You or a family member dying because you could not afford proper health care, and
Learning that the free market does not always have the motivators in place for insurance companies to break from the pack and do what’s morally right for consumers (read: removing rescission from their arsenal).
A recent PBS Frontline program covered both these travesties. Continue reading
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