Obama might as well be Osama?

Apparently the argument that he wasn't born in the US holds some weight otherwise it would simply be dismissed like many other "rumors" that are circulated. The fact of the matter is, the President's early childhood is very vague at best. There is reasonable doubt that he isn't an American born citizen.
His past shouldn't have been scrutinized by a pompus, egotistical, for all intents and purposes, reality TV star but none-the-less when there is doubt about something as serious as this it should be quantified. The President of the United States should be born on American soil, so the subject should have absolutely been followed until the end. Whether or not you believe the birth certificate that was produced is genuine or not is up to you.
I do agree that he shouldn't have wasted a press conference on something like this. It is very easily a subject that could've been just released to the press like all kinds of other Presidential news.

Clean Energy on the Back Burner

For once both political parties agree on something but it's not doing any good at the moment.  That something is nuclear energy, which truly is sad because with all of the clean energy movements it is the cleanest viable form of energy production.  As with everything else the economy has people scared to make a move which is understandable when taking a multi-billion dollar gamble.

In the past one of the biggest road blocks was getting an actual license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission but now that gateway has been opened along with the government opening up even more loan guarantees.  For once the government is doing the right thing to cultivate a true solution to a problem.  Not just a temporary patch like they're so prone to do.  President Obama has been one of the biggest proponents for clean energy and seems to truly understand the value of the atom and its ability to create massive amounts of power while having relatively low impact on the environment.

While the residents of Japan might disagree with that, there were inherent problems with the design of their reactors and were never updated like their American counter-parts.  That subject leads to another reason why the industry may be a bit sluggish to kick off now that the tools to break ground have been laid by the government.

With energy consumption growing in the world market the need for more power production will need to be met.  Nuclear energy is the biggest and best solution to this problem and the US government seems to grasp that concept and is embracing it.  Hopefully with the government's good-faith investment into the industry will help spark more new construction and help America get the energy sources it so badly needs.

"Change we can('t) believe in" is pretty spot on

Kamran Sheikh wrote an informative and seemingly neutral commentary on the President's proverbial "report card" pertaining to all the promises he made during his campaign for the Presidency.  The main points that he ran his platform off of are covered fairly well with the exception of making the legislative process transparent and doing away with the corrupt lobbyists.  The three main points that I believe the American people are most worried about are hit on well, those being gas, troops and taxes. 

Some of the points could've used more elaboration but given the word count constraints, space in the article was used wisely.  Overall the blog was effective in conveying the author's stance and was well written.

Government and Serious Relationships

Arguably the most controversial subject in the US government right now is our invasion or "help" in Libya depending upon who you believe and what news source you use to obtain your information.  While it seems that its hard to find clear and concise information about President Obama's true intentions with the situation what is very apparent for anyone who has their head out of the sand is that there is an astronomical break-down in communication between the Executive and Legislative branches of the government.

President Obama has largely ran the campaign in Libya with little regard to what the Legislative branch has to say even though the President is suppose to consult them about any act of war, which launching over 100 cruise missiles into Libya could certainly be construed as an act of war.  As with any serious relationship whether it be a personal relationship or like the one that the Executive and Legislative branch share, communication is of paramount importance.  Without proper communication, major problems are imminent.

The biggest problem is since President Obama didn't consult Congress about the situation in Libya, it seems he didn't formulate a clear strategy and policy for this entanglement.  He doesn't have a good exit strategy, nor a clear policy on exactly what the US will and wont do for the Libyan rebels.  Without Obama explaining to the American public clearly what he envisions our role being over there, he opened himself up to all of the criticism he is receiving.

Most of the negative feedback he is receiving about the Libyan situation is due to his lack of communication with his governments counter-parts and the American people.  If in the very beginning, he would've came out and highlighted his main goals and some sort of game plan I believe he would be receiving much more positive feedback from everyone.

Honest Politicians?!

The article Walker, Wisconsin Ranger starts off with a catchy title that really grabs the readers attention as you want to know why the author named his article that.  After you get past the novel title you begin to see why the author chose that name.  With the large shift in voting back towards the Republicans, the politicians are beginning to see that Americans are watching somewhat and that they are being held accountable for the first time in decades.  With the large budget crisis' facing almost every state, Scott Walker, Governor of Wisconsin has taken a very tough stance on budget cuts and is ruffling many feathers.  The author does a good job of explaining how and why he is making so many waves in the proverbial pond but could really use less bias inciting phrases such as the ones used when describing the Democrats walking out.  If some of the conservative biased would've been checked at the door when he entered his office to write this piece it would be a bit more credible.  Aside from the steady bias undertone, the article is well founded and gives some good insight into what is being done to cope with the massive financial problems facing the United States.  When the author goes off on a tangent about morals with the over-drawn spiel about service to your community, it derails the methodical thought process he had going with elaborating on the money saving policies.  This is almost towards the end of the article therefore having that to end with along with the bias undertone really makes it hard to take everything at face value even though the "meat and potatoes" of the article are very well executed.  Overall the article does a good job of conveying the facts about the change in the way government is doing business but the bias of the author and their personal convictions get in the way of sealing the article as a success.

No Funding=No Birth Control?

In these tumultuous times of national government, the Republicans and Democrats are always struggling for power and one of the latest struggles is over government funding of family planning supplies.  Whether it be birth control or abortion funding.  An article in the New York Times entitled "The War On Women"  has the author making the point that without government funding these programs will cease to exist.  While if the free handouts stop, there are other options out there for women if they truly do want the services still made available to them.  I believe that if you have the drive to get something you can.  At the age of 19 I found a full time job that had medical benefits, albeit the job was not fun and the hours sucked, it was worth it for me to have health coverage.  All cutting government funding will do is make the people who don't want to provide for themselves to begin with to no longer have those benefits.  Those that really do want access to these "essential" services will find a way to obtain them.  The points the author makes about the "gag" rule and some of the proposed legislation such as not allowing abortions even when it endangers the life of the mother are quite well founded.  The points of the editorial are well founded and bolstered very well, although some of them I do not agree with in general the piece is very well thought out.  I do not believe the government should cut funding for some of these programs mentioned in the article but it is far from a "war on women" as the author would have you believe.

A Very Tight Rope to Walk in the Middle East

On Fox News there is an article about a man who is part of the embassy staff over in Pakistan who was detained after shooting two people who were mugging him.  Despite the fact that there were witnesses who said he shot the men in self-defense AND he has diplomatic immunity, the Pakistani's are charging him with murder.  On one hand we want to keep Pakistan as an ally in the East but on the other hand they cant just do whatever it is they want to do and disregard our laws all while getting BILLIONS of dollars in funding from the US.  While I dont disagree that they are a very good ally over in that part of the world we are also dumping billions into Iraq to rebuild it.  Why not stand up for ourselves, cut Pakistani funding and send that to help our infrastructure in Iraq.  We could make that country a much better base for our counter-terrorism operations and not have to deal with all the political backlash that comes with Pakistan.  Theyre recieving billions of dollars in aid for education and defense but as of late arent delivering on their end of the deal.  If the Pakistanis hadnt detained Davis(the American) in the first place like they did the attention wouldnt have been so high and escalated to what it is now.  Unfortunately theyre trying to feel out their boundaries with the US and it looks like its going to cost them a lot of money or the US is going to do something theyre oh too well known for, make a horrible decision by leaving a man behind.