A Saving Grace

In a day and age where most politicians are known for being untrustworthy, greedy, power-hungry people, there is a beautiful beam of light shining out across the sky. Harvard Law Professor and Special Advisor for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Elizabeth Warren is almost too good to be true. She is an incredibly experienced and highly intelligent woman who is fighting for middle class America. And she’s passionate about it because she believes in doing what is right. Warren’s focus is on regulating the big financial institutions by bringing back the effective, necessary laws that ensure safer, more manageable lending for average American families. This includes everyday things like mortgages, credit cards, and car loans. These were highly regulated for many years until the big institutions realized they could trick people with fine print, and profit from it!! So now, the big CEOs on Wall Street are screwing the American people, the exact same people that saved their butts not long ago with bail-outs. Their thinking is so crooked that they can’t stop stealing money from honest Americans - hiking up interest rates and adding fine-print to everything. So many times, the consumer has no idea what they are getting themselves in to. Warren says this just isn’t fair, “Nobody can tell the price of a credit card... What [the CFPB] really wants to do is make prices clear, risks clear, and get rid of the fine print.” Common sense, right? Well, naturally, those CEOs are mad! They have been lining up, with bankers, politicians and many Republicans, to attack Warren in hopes of stopping her. These businesses have been making tens of billions of dollars by preying on customers and now she is saying enough is enough. Warren is a threat to them, but don’t think she is intimidated, “[I am] playing a lot of defense to keep the [CFPB] strong and alive… [I am] always ready.”

Elizabeth Warren’s current work is really extraordinary. She is standing up to the “big boys” and working to save our nation. I, for one, am thankful!

Commentary on a Colluege's Work

Mr. Richard,
I completely agree with your comments on the secrecy of the government. They are always hiding something. Always trying to pull a fast one on the American public. And we never seem to get quite angry enough to ever make them stop. I actually don’t think that will ever happen.
Every election there are big, bright promises that we always seem to fall for. It’s nothing new - lower taxes, improving the education system, Social Security reform, and/ or getting us out of the economic slump. And America is so happy that this saving-grace has come along, only to find out it was all a bunch of bull! Then, shortly thereafter we end up passively accepting their explanation of, “What I meant by that was...” .
I was also happy to see that you pointed out that the government is so easy to blame. The big, bad government can be at fault for practically anything. It makes it incredibly easy for Americans to “give up”. There are numerous groups that are trying to make a change every day yet most people don’t even care. They will complain about the crappy government as they sit on their couch and watch American Idol.
Like I said, I don’t know if this will ever truly change and I must admit that the whole topic hurts my head, but I appreciated reading your take on the issue. In my mind, if every American just put the slightest bit of effort, even 5 or 10 percent, into learning/ keeping up with news and politics, then the world would be a better place. But I guess that just as unrealistic as all those empty promises!!

"Everything That's Wrong with Corporate Power Today"

The fact that President Obama is still standing behind Jeffery Immelt, Chairman of the Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, after this month’s developments is devastating. Immelt is General Electric’s CEO and, in the past few years, he has successfully cut jobs in America while outsourcing many others overseas. In this time he has also doubled his own salary and is imminently expected to ask 15,000 GE employees to accept massive pay cuts.
In 2010 GE made $14 billion in profits ($5 billion in the US alone) yet paid ZERO DOLLARS in federal taxes. Yes, zero dollars and zero cents. And this was after a $3.2 billion bail-out was issued to the company. It’s hard to understand how taxpayers helped out GE when they were in major trouble, and now GE has worked hard to find loopholes to screw us in return. One of Immelt’s many justifications for this atrocity is that GE has paid over $14 billion in taxes over the past five years... Oh, that’s right, I’ve paid my taxes for the past fives years too so I deserve one year off as well. I don’t think so. That’s not how this works!! Under Immelt, GE spends hundreds of millions of dollars hiring lawyers to evade taxes, and I guess it has paid off. Article after article, I am still amazed every time I read these facts.
And let’s not forget that Obama has just recently named Mr. Immelt Chairman of the CJC. The Council on Jobs and Competitiveness was created to strengthen the Nation’s economy and find new ways of creating jobs - not really something I can see Immelt being successful at considering his performance history. Somehow the President still believes he should support Immelt even though he seems to be the very thing Mr. Obama says he is against. Obama even continues to say that GE is a “model” company.
Jeffrey Immelt is a disgrace, and President Obama needs to wake up and let him go!

Standardized testing

Across America, cheating on standardized tests is becoming a big issue; but not by the students. Texas is discovering a vast number of teachers who have bent the rules in big ways just to get a better grade from students and raise their . Bob Schaeffer from USA Today has a few very practical suggestions on how to handle this emerging issue. He explains that since the test results are all that matter there is a large amount of pressure on teachers and schools to make those numbers look good. I know a handful of teachers here in Austin and they all agree that standardized testing misses the whole point of teaching. Teachers have to focus on “drilling in” information into student’s brains from a pretty narrow curriculum. Because of this, students really miss out on learning the real, everyday, important material that most adults today covered as young students. These tests were made to improve education, yet it is having the opposite effect.
Schaeffer suggests that basic classroom standards encourage learning and can measure the student’s span of knowledge much better. This includes things like student essays, projects, and regular classroom tests, where the teacher can still be assessed to make sure they are grading accurately.
The teachers I know personally love teaching, that’s why those chose the profession. But the “high-stakes” standardized testing - required under No Child Left Behind - is hurting more than it is helping. I completely agree with Bob Schaffer’s view and appreciate that he actually offers valid ideas for fixing the problems with the system rather than just scrutinizing teachers. He explains the problem and offers a solution. That’s my kind of writer!!

Not Looking at the Whole Picture

I am critiquing an article from FOX News’ opinion section regarding the U.S. House of Representatives’ vote to bar Planned Parenthood health centers from all federal funding. In the article, Planned Parenthood Poised to Take a Very Hard Fall -- And It Should, the author (P. Y. Nance) largely expresses that abortions are bad and therefore Planned Parenthood does not deserve federal money. Now, although Fox News claims to be an unbiased network, using slogans like, “We report. You decide.” and “Fair and Balanced”, it is widely considered to be very conservative. So the audience that Nance is reaching out to is assumedly conservative too. Throughout the article, Nance describes the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad Planned Parenthood as an evil pro-abortion clinic, even naming it “the crown jewel of the abortion industry”. Her best reasoning for America’s supposed pro-life shift seems to be that babies are cute. Nance cites improvements in sonograms/ultrasounds as making “the public increasingly predisposed against abortion.” And she even uses an old motor oil commercial - which shows a fetus as a Nascar driver - to support her argument that America’s views are changing about abortion. That is quite a far stretch; I have seen a number of commercials with babies - some driving cars, others are rollerskating, and my personal favorite -- a baby e-trader. Is this a sign that there is a “seismic political shift” on abortions? NOPE! Babies are just amusing to watch, especially when they portray adult attributes. She then tries to argue that anyone who has seen a sonogram picture in the past decade, must favor the pro-life position. It seems to me that Nance does not consider the real issues that go in to deciding what to do about an unexpected pregnancy; she is happy to just emphasize the fact that babies are cute.
Now, I am by no means pro-abortion. Personally I don’t believe that I could ever, EVER choose to terminate a pregnancy, but the beauty of the matter is that I HAVE THE CHOICE TO MAKE MYSELF!! But that’s not what this blog is about. My views on pro-life vs. pro-choice are a whole other topic.
I think what’s most important here is that Nance only focuses on one aspect of Planned Parenthood. PP also uses funding to provide low-income women (and men) with birth control; screenings for cancer, cholesterol, diabetes, blood pressure, and thyroid issues; testing for sexually transmitted diseases; tetanus and flu vaccines; and annual physicals. They also offer help/ advice on body image, healthy relationships, and quitting smoking. It’s troubling to me that Nance was able to overlook all of this just to try to make Planned Parenthood look like the bad guy, focusing on abortions.
This article did not change my point of view AT ALL about Planned Parenthood and my belief that it is wrong to cut their funding. I do not see any evidence that her point (PP should take a hard fall) is valid. And although our views may vary, I would at least expect an intelligent journalist to have some kind of evidence to back up her argument.

Let's Give 'em Something to Talk About

I came across an interesting article today asking, How Can a Democracy Solve Tough Problems. Good question, so I started reading. And wouldn't you know it, it talked about Mr. James Fishkin and his "deliberative polling". As a Fishkin fan, I was quite excited to read what the author thought of this polling process in regards to America's problems today. I, myself, wonder if it could be an answer (or at least an idea to build off of) for our country's crises - the economy and social security, even education and health-care are unstable issues. Imagine if "We the People" could truly make informed, reasonable decisions on matters because we were honestly and correctly informed. If Americans knew all the factual details (not just propaganda), and were given the opportunity to have intelligent conversions with experts, then I have complete confidence that the nation could really move forward in finding realistic ideas to sove our "tough problems". How Can a Democracy Solve Tough Problems is a worthwhile read and I hope it gives everyone something to talk about!