Rand Paul Filibuster

I will cover this in more detail later but I felt the need to post this now. If I could I would be up in the gallery standing with Rand Paul. Thank you Senator Paul for standing up for us all.

Obama "Not bluffing" on Iran

Today at the annual conference for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Vice President Joe Biden said President Obama is not bluffing on his willingness to use military force to prevent Iran from acquiring nukes. Biden also remarked that protecting Israel is in the United States' interest and that Iran's efforts to de-legitimize Israel as a Jewish state are the most dangerous changes he's seen relating to Israel's security. Further clarifying the erroneous comments of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, Biden explained that the United State's policy is one of prevention and not containment. Hopefully Biden is speaking the truth and not just playing politics like this administration typically does. 

Also present at the conference, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Iran is nearing what he calls "the red line" (defined as making 90 percent of the progress toward bomb ready uranium) while at the same time maintaining Iran has not yet crossed it. 

Obama Blasts GOP on Sequester

Unsurprisingly, President Obama blasted Congressional Republicans on not coming to a compromise on the Sequester. Saying that the sequester is "just dumb" (even though it came from his office), he urged that Republicans put new revenue (tax hikes in Obama speak) on the table and that he cannot do it on his own because in his own words: "I am not a dictator, I'm the President". Unfortunately, if the GOP "compromises" in the hopes of reversing the sequester and getting spending cuts in areas that actually matter, they will end up just getting screwed over like they did during the fiscal cliff deal with no spending cuts and all the blame while Obama is portrayed by the media as saving the middle class from the evil Republicans. Now we will just have to hope that Boehner has grown a spine since the fiscal cliff deal and won't agree to ANY new taxes.


It seems like the only positive thing that has come out of this mess is that Obama finally come out and said that he is not a dictator. He sure had me worried there. As an aside, Obama's golf outing with Tiger Woods cost just as much as 341 federal workers furloughed.

Obama Immigration Plan "Will be dead on arrival"

Yesterday , the draft for President Obama's immigration reform plan was "leaked" and obtained by the Miami Herald. According to the leaked draft, the plan calls for illegals to wait the shorter of eight years or until immigration backlogs are cleared before being granted a green card and then citizenship five years later. Other requirements to receive the green card are paying a fine, attending civics and English classes and passing a background check. On the surface the plan looks similar to the Marco Rubio plan but with a shorter path to citizenship. Why then, did Senator Rubio say that the Obama immigration plan "will be dead on arrival"? Because it lacks increased border security which has to be part of any reform in order to avoid a repeat of the 1986 immigration reform that did nothing to solve our illegal immigration problem. Senator Rubio's plan calls for tightened border security and he is on record saying that he will not endorse any plan that leaves out this crucial detail.


Although border security is the biggest problem with this plan, there are several other issues, many of which are also present in the Rubio plan. Starting the process is completely dependent  on the illegals coming forward willingly and applying. But how many of them will really come forward? A good portion of illegal immigrants have a low income and education and send most of their earnings back home. Do you think that someone who is already poor will come forward and willingly pay a fine so that they can start paying taxes? I know I wouldn't want to give up some of my hard earned money so that I could start paying a percentage of everything I make. Also, while I agree that felons should not be granted permanent residency and should be deported, there is no way a felon is going to come forward if he knows that he is going to be subject to a background check.


Although the Rubio plan does have its flaws and illegal immigrants do hurt our economy and society, we have to remember that we are dealing with people and not just statistics. It is important that we give those here illegally the chance to eventually become permanent residents (or have a guest worker program like Rubio suggested) while at the same time making it easier to come here legally and making it harder to come here illegally by increasing border security. Even though they may be a burden on society, we have to give illegal immigrants the same dignity that we all deserve.

Bizarre North Korean YouTube Video

The latest threat to blow the United States sky high from North Korea comes in the form of a bizarre YouTube video that looks like it was designed in the eighties. The video shows a Korean man dreaming about a successful space launch and a unified North and South Korea before showing what appears to be New York City under attack.... using footage "borrowed" from a Call of Duty trailer. The official video was taken down but it appears that a copy is still up here. 

Some of the parts are downright pathetic like when they show a space shuttle orbiting earth and when they steal the Call of Duty material. Nevertheless, it is scary that there are people who are crazy enough to want these things to happen. 

Should we Scrap the Penny?

Here we go again. With what seems to be an annual tradition, President Obama remarked on how he would like to see the penny phased out in response to a question he received Thursday during a Google+ hangout.


Putting aside the fact that this is an obvious softball question, Obama does have a point. The penny is nearly worthless as to its purchasing power and it costs more to make than it is worth, costing taxpayer money. Put in the fact that it is an inconvenience (personally this is one reason why I often opt for plastic at the register) and scrapping the penny would seem like a no-brainer right? Well some people have legitimate concerns about what removing the penny from circulation could cause, notably the stability of our currency and a potential rise in the cost of goods.


Concern over increasing prices is probably the biggest fear for those who wish to keep the penny. Without the penny cash transactions would have to be rounded either up or down to the nearest nickel while electronic transactions remain the same. However, the rounding up/down margin is exactly even so in the long run you would pay the same. And even if somehow it would be rounded up all the time, the effect would be inconsequential because this would be applied to overall sales and not single items.


Fears of the stability of American currency because of ditching the penny are completely unfounded. Many countries (most recently Canada) have gotten rid of their one cent coins with no effect on the stability or inflation of their respective currencies. Also, unknown to most people, the US has already undergone a similar change before when the mint halted distribution of the Half-Cent in 1857. The fact that nobody knows about this event speaks volumes to the fact that eliminating obsolete coins is rather painless once you get over the sentimental value.


In conclusion, do I think getting rid of the penny is a good idea? Yes. But will it happen anytime soon? Probably not. Although this may help to streamline transactions and lower deficit spending by a hair, we have much more serious problems to tackle so it looks like the Lincoln will live.... for now.

Global Warming Caused by Man: A Fallacy

            Over the past decade, global warming has been a source of controversy.With Al Gore and other leftists claiming that man is making the earth warmer with our carbon emissions, there have been efforts to curb carbon emissions which would severely hurt industry both at home and abroad which would ultimately affect the lower working class the greatest.  With many seeing this as an open and shut case, I would like to remind the reader that this is still an unproven theory with many faults and fabrications made up for political gain. 

            First off, earth is not the only planet in our solar system that is experiencing climate change. Pluto, Mars and Jupiter have all seen to have rising surface temperatures. Pluto seems to be a seasonal change, which we do not see too often because of its agonizingly slow rotation around the sun. Jupiter’s is probably due to a hurricane-like storm that has been raging on for years. But what about Mars? It doesn't have a storm on it and it doesn't take 248 years to revolve around the sun. And even more strangely, it is changing in line with the earth. If there are no people on Mars and it is seeing change that is similar to Earth, it is easy to reach the conclusion that the Sun is the main cause of climate change. Furthermore, samples taken from satellites have seen that the sun is hotter than it has been for a thousand years. This further reinforces the theory that climate change is caused by the temperature of the sun, which is impossible for us to control. 

            Many of the arguments supporting man-made global warming revolve around the theory that carbon dioxide emissions warm the earth. However, these claims can be rebutted by the fact that carbon dioxide can’t absorb enough heat for this theory to hold. To be a major contributor to the greenhouse effect, carbon dioxide must be able to absorb large quantities from the sun’s radiation, as well as the energy that the earth “bounces” back. Atmospheric physicist James Peden collected results to an evaluation called atomic absorption spectrometry, which measures the ability of the gas to absorb heat. The results of this experiment are extremely damaging to the man made global warming argument. The final turnout of the experiment was that carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere takes in 8 percent or less of the total radiation from the sun.

            Despite what many liberal political and public figures are saying, man-made global warming still hasn't been proved; it’s still just a theory. Because of the unproven nature of this issue, we shouldn't be making environmental policies based on a faulty scientific theory.