Israeli action against Hamas

For the past three days Israel has been bombing Hamas targets in the Gaza strip. These attacks are retaliations against the rocket attacks that Hamas keeps making on Israeli cities. Israel is now moving its tanks and troops to completely surround the Gaza Strip. Tension is building and according to senior Israeli officials a ground operation may be started (CNN). Throughout the 3 day period almost 300 people were killed ,most of them Hamas militants.

In my opinion Hamas is just asking for it by sending their rockets into Israeli cities and killing random civillians. Israel is taking the right action by moving their troops around the Gaza strip. In case the conflict escalates they need to be ready to defend themselves. Israel knows many of the countries near them and most of the arab world hates them. They have prepared for that hate by building up a strong military.

Hamas has extraordinary zeal when it comes to hating Israel. It is likely that they know that Israel has much stronger armed forces then they do but, their hatred for them transcends common sense. At this point nothing will change their mind and open military conflict is inevitable.

Idle Auto Manufacturers

After the Auto bailout failed in the senate , the White House announced that it would offer GM and Chrysler 17.4 Billion dollars in emergency funds. This action is unnecessary because giving an unprofitable company more money will not make it profitable. The government should let the Big three fail. If we keep throwing them lifelines , they will just continue to put out bad products and still be unable to deal with the unions. Workers in the auto industry make ,on average, about 70 dollars an hour. Workers in foreign car factories make about half of this. Until these unions cease to ask for such huge wages , American car companies will be choked to death. By letting the companies fail, they would file bankruptcy and could cancel their union contracts. This would open up the opportunity for restructuring their business models.

As of right now GM and Chrysler are temporarily closing their assembly lines. Chrysler announced that it would cease all factory operations for at least a month. Meanwhile GM is shutting down certain plants and laying off workers. Just recently GM announced that one of its Ohio plants was being shut down and all 1080 workers would be left idle. Hopefully the unions will accept lower wages and perhaps then these companies may become profitable.

Innocent until proven guilty

Almost as soon as our governor , Rod Blagojevich, was arrested the Attorney General , Lisa Madigan, was asking the supreme court to remove his powers. Not only that ,but many other people are already calling for his impeachment or removal from office. What people are forgetting here is that while it is highly likely that our governor is guilty of corruption ,he is innocent until proven guilty by a jury. Calling for his impeachment or having his powers as Governor removed before he is proven guilty is unconstitutional. I have already wrote an article on Blagojevich ,where I criticize his ability to manage our budget and his failure to care about Illinois' natural resources. It was common knowledge that Blagojevich was corrupt ,but now that some solid evidence has come up we may finally be able to throw him in the slammer for a long, long time.

In other news, Bush got a shoe throw at him during a farewell speech in Iraq. To Iraqis the throwing of shoes at someone is a sign of contempt. The person who threw it also shouted , in arabic, " This is a farewell kiss , you dog." Bush responded "So what if a guy threw his shoe at me?" Classic Bush.

Obama's Ascension to the throne

Soon it will be time for Bush to step down and Obama to step up. This is a critical time because in this transition period terrorists are most likely to strike. On Sunday, Obama said in an interview that choosing his national security team is one of his top priorities due to the nation's vulnerability. Obama is already promising that he will crush the Taliban and fix our economy. One thing that I can agree with him on is that we must stop the recession from becoming a depression. "We shouldn't worry about the deficit next year or even the year after. ... The most important thing is that we avoid a deepening recession."(Yahoo news). Obama is hoping that the markets have found their bottom and will begin improving over time. Hopefully this is the case and within a year we will be able to see some improvement. While it may takes as many as 10 years to completely fix the economy the first step now is to stop the recession from worsening into a depression. If we can accomplish this it will take less time to fix the issues.

No guns for you

Since Barack Obama has been elected , gun stores have reported staggering sales on semi-automatic rifles. With such an anti gun president , people are worried that their right to bear arms will not be honored. Some gun stores are reporting sales in excess of $100,000 a day. While it may be true that in the future restrictions on these guns will be placed, I feel people are acting on impulse when they go in to buy that gun. In my opinion people should wait a few months and see where Barack is going to go in regards to his gun policies. If he makes a move , that would probably be the time to buy the guns. Depending on the law, old guns may be grandfathered in ,thus allowing assault rifles to be owned by the public even though the guns would be illegal to buy or transfer after. As I have stated in the past , banning these guns would have ZERO effect on crime. If someone will not obey laws against murder,theft,rape and battery why would they even think about obey laws related to guns ?

Meeting Mark Kirk

Last week I went to meet Mark Kirk. Before the meeting I proffered Kirk to Seals. During the meeting Kirk talked about ways in which he fought the dumping of oil byproducts into lake Michigan. Various Oil companies such as BP dump their waste products into Michigan which in turn causes problems along our beaches. Kirk fought to prevent this from happening and succeeded. While this was a positive, I found out something that made me change my mind about Kirk completely. It seems he started the initiative to ban Assault rifles. If you refer to my first post you will find out why I strongly disagree with this. I didn't have time to ask him any questions ,but if I had 6th free , I would have asked why he supports banning assault rifles. The truth is people support banning these guns without fully understanding why. The word assault implies these guns are used to rob banks or kill large amounts of people. In actuality "assault" rifles are barely used in crime at all. As mentioned in the first article "Assault Rifle " is merely a fearsome epithet. I thought Kirk would have been a full blown Republican ,but sadly he seems more like a democrat.

Illinois' Mismanagement of natural resources.

Illinois has a serious problem with the management of its parks and fish/game. Governor Blagojevich doesn't seem to care much about the environment or the conservation of wildlife. The problem with Illinois' budget system is that revenue from sources such as fishing licenses , hunting licenses and DNR ( Department of Natural resources ) tickets goes to the overall budget and not to help conserve and protect our parks.

Due to Illinois' 2.1 Billion budget deficit on Nov. 1st , 39 state employees will be fired and 11 state parks will close. The root of this issue is a broken system and an indifferent governor. Blagojevich has a long track record of not caring about conservation and not being able to balance a budget correctly. He has been critized in mishandling the budget , causing deficit and using improper means to balance the budget. He called for balancing the 2005 budget by removing 1.2 billion from the state pension fund.

One of the problems that this issue causes is that because not enough money is appropriated to the DNR , they cannot do their job correctly. Officers are given too little gas and are unable to give tickets to raise money and protect our fish/game. Poachers are decimating populations of animals in Illinois and nothing can be done to stop it because the DNR has no money. It saddens me that our Natural resources and parks are being mismanaged. This issue will have an affect on future generations. If we do not do something soon to change the way the budget works and increase DNR funds , our parks and fisheries may be ruined for a long time to come. The best way to fix this issue would be to take funds from fishing/hunting related tickets and from fishing/hunting licenses and use that money for specifically fishing/hunting related purposes such as conservation and restocking animals where populations have declined. We need to fix this now and not pass this on to the next generation, because by then it may already be too late.

Mccain's new econmic plan

In what seems to be a last ditch effort , John Mccain revealed his new 52.5 billion dollar economic plan. The plan would guarantee all savings for 6 months in an effort to calm American's fears about bank failures. It would almost cut capital gains taxes and end taxes on unemployment benefits. Obama's campaign spokesman , Bill Burton stated that this plan would have no affect on the middle class and would only increase the incomes of the upper class. The fact that Mccain released this plan makes little difference because he has already lost. Unless a very huge event has a dramatic influence on voters Obama has already secured the presidency. With Obama having an 8 point lead in the polls , there is little that John Mccain can do at this point to win. The electoral vote predictions put Obama at 330 and Mccain at 164. This pretty much sets things in place for Obama to be our next president.

Mud slinging

This week Sarah Palin made the following statement: "Our opponent though, is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country." She is reffering to Barack Obama's friend Bill Ayers , who bombed various government buildings in the 70's. In my opinion Palin has the right to make a statement like that and Obama cannot say it isn't true. Obama met with Ayers multiple times since Obama's senate campaign. In response to Palin's attack Obama accused the Mccain campaign of using smear tactics. He said that Mccain was more intrested in smearing him than fixing the economy. Obama is quick to call attention away from the fact that he does indeed know Bill Ayers. Although a rational person would probably see that it is unlikely that Ayers affected Obama , the smear is aimed at the people who would only hear " Barack Obama and terrorist". Obama will have to find a way to reach out the the average American , who has no intrest in listening to 2 hour long debates.

Obama agrees with Mccain

As I watched the presidential debate on friday , I couldn't help but notice how many times Obama said that he agrees with Mccain. Within minutes of the debate's end Mccain's site already had a 30 second video up with Obama saying Mccain is absolutely right multiple times. Obama's counter was a video stating the Mccain failed to mention the middle class even a single time in the 90 minute debate. In my opinion Mccain did better overall with Obama appearing weak when debating foreign relations. Obama mentioned attacking Pakistan and Mccain countered with " You don't say that aloud". One thing I found annoying was that when Obama was talking to Mccain, Mccain looked down. It appeared he was writing something down at times ,but he should have looked at his opponent when he was talking to him. One interesting thing that Mccain said was that Obama provided over 1 million dollars of funding for earmark projects for each day of his term as senator. While Mccain's goal is to reduce taxes and reduce spending , Obama wants to increase our taxes and increase government spending. Let's hope people see that even though Obama may be a good speaker , he is not experienced enough to be the next president.

Melamine in milk

This week 13,000 Chinese children were hospitalized this week due to the addition of melamine in milk powder. The milk powder producer knew there was melamine in the milk ,but failed to recall the milk in time. Melamine is a deadly chemical purposely added to milk and other products to give the appearance of boosted protein levels. This reminds me of the March 2007 pet food recalls in which rice containing melamine was used in the production of pet foods. The official number of pets affected is not known ,but it is estimated in the thousands. The problem is that melamine can get into human food when animals intended for human consumption are fed with products from china. The FDA says this is not an issue , but these days we buy so many things from China that Melamine and other poisons in Chinese goods is a real issue.

If China continues to have such lax safety standards how can we continue to trust their goods? China's companies are poorly regulated and many officials take bribes. This problem is very hard to solve because the U.S. is addicted to China's cheap goods. People are not educated and as a result more contaminated food will reach us. If something is not done people will die. The question is not if it will happen ,but when.

What does Barack bring other than pretty speeches?

At this time of political unrest and economic troubles, America needs a president with extensive political experience. Wherever I look, people are worshiping Barack Obama and singing his praises. He stands at a podium and yells about change for an hour and people blindly follow him. Review his political background and realize we need someone with more than just a few years of experience. Everyone always tells me how amazing Obama's speeches are. So what ? A speech means nothing in terms of how well a candidate can run a country. All Obama has done is manipulate America with his empty words. How will Obama help our economy with his speeches ? What will happen when Obama pulls out of Iraq and it becomes a breeding ground for terrorists? Only then will people see that they have been fooled by the great orator. His promises are empty and while things will change , none will be for the better.

Obama on gun control

Barrack Obama's view on gun control is that assault rifles and .50 caliber rifles should be banned. This view is flawed because even though those two types of guns are currently legal , less than 5% of crimes are commited with them. From The Daily Journal 1993-May-11, by Don B. Kates and Peter Alan Kasler: :

" "Assault weapon" is just a fearsome epithet for common semiautomatic arms, which fire no faster than a civilian revolver, pump rifle or shotgun. Contrary to claims that military-style rifles are preferred by druglords and other criminals, studies across the country show them rarely found in drug raids. And though they represent an estimated 27 percent of new sales, they constitute only 1 percent to 5 percent of the guns used in crimes. Their popularity reflects their use of high-strength plastic instead of wood, making them light but rugged for hunting, camping, pest and predator control, Olympic and other target competition."

There is no reason to ban something that is not causing a problem. If assault rifles were being used in a high percentage of crimes , I would support banning them ,but based on current statistics very few crimes invovle assault rifles. They are no more dangerous than regular guns because newer models cannot be converted to automatic mode. Banning them would only hurt honest people because no matter what is banned , criminals will still have it if they need to. Obama's gun ban may go through ,but the only thing this will do is give the criminals an advantage because common people will not have adequate self protection.

The proper course of action would be to put harder background checks and make sure people are trained in the use of the gun they are purchasing. The key is to develop a system that prevents criminals from buying guns ,but allows honest people accsess to them.