Senators Working on Financial Reform

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd asked important members of his committee to form bipartisan groups as part of an effort to "break the logjam" on financial reform legislation. The idea for this new plan came up on Saturday night right after the health care vote, this plan calls for each 2 people team to focus on one of the complicated issues that is included in the 1,136 page discussion draft that Dodd unveiled a couple weeks ago on Nov. 14. Dodd will pair up with Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama to work on two of the most difficult and controversial elements: prudential regulation of banks and consumer protection. Dodd proposed to create a single federal banking regulator out of the many agencies that supervise them, including removing the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s bank supervisory powers. A new measure to create a new consumer financial protection agency that the Obama administration wants has emerged as the biggest partisan issue of the reform debate. Sens. Jack Reed and Judd Gregg will focus on tackling derivatives and credit rating agencies. Sens. Chuck Schumer and Mike Crapo will work on executive compensation and corporate governance and Sens. Mark Warner and Bob Corker will work on two of the more complicated pieces: systemic risk and resolution authority.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

President Obama predicts that main plotter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will be convicted and put to death because of the 9/11 attacks. US Attorney General Eric Holder assured lawmakers that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed would not be set free even if he is acquitted by a jury in New York. Obama believes "these terrorists possess some special powers that prevent us from presenting evidence against them, locking them up and exacting swift justice." He also acknowledged the fact that he won't be able to meet the January 22,2010 deadline he announced on his second day in office for closing the Guantanamo Bay prison. Holder explains this delay for having to face "unexpected difficulties to reach that goal." He hopes to overcome this problem by finding destinations for those detainees that have been cleared for release. Holder believes that "failure isn't an option" and that these are cases that need to be won and doesn't expect any other result. Critics have warned that civilian trials will give the accused more rights and that as a result could set a precedent that could change how the US military gets intelligence from suspected terrorists captured overseas. the five men face trial just a few blocks away from Ground Zero where many lost their lives after Al-Qaeda extremists flew hijacked airliners into the towers. Relatives of the victims of 9/11 denounced Holder's decision. But he still believes that by bringing prosecutions to both courts and military commissions, the final steps to justice are being taken.

Bill O'Reilly and Rachel Maddow

Bill O'Reilly can be described as a man with not so liberal views who has a conservative view when it comes to immigration because as he states in his show with Geraldo Rivera as his guest, he believes that no one should enter the country illegally and that the border should be kept secured. He believes illegal immigrants "have no right to be here" and should be deported when they commit any type of crime. I could tell that those who watch his show are those that really share the same views he has because he constanly brings up his own opinions and those with more liberal views who don't agree with him are less likely to watch it.


Rachel Maddow can best be described as a a person who tends to have more liberal views because throughout this short video from her show she talks about the whole new tea party event that happened a couple months ago with a sarcastic tone. She criticizes the whole movement and even laughs when she explains what has happened and laughs when she talks about how Republicans were even promoting the whole thing. She even admits that she can't keep a straight face and can't stop laughing. I could really tell that people with more liberal views watch her show because she practically makes fun of Republicans and conservatives as well as the TV anchors from FOX news who report the tea party news.

Media Research Center and FAIR

Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) mainly focuses on a diversity in the press, they deliver the news honestly without censoring anything. They tend to incorporate their own opinions into the article they are writing while being completely honest. They also tend to provide constructive critique along with using sarcasm when it comes to covering different issues or news. FAIR believes that it is necessary to have an "independent, aggressive and critical media" in order to have a successful democracy, this is why they provide their news in a straightforward way without censoring anything. They cover all sorts of news without being biased and criticize the different actions that politicians have taken as well as headlines that have made the news recently. In one of their articles they criticize the New York Times for using words in one of their health care articles that are intended to send a political message about what policy ideas are wise and which aren't. 

When it comes to the Media Research Center, they mostly focus on having a more conservative view on different topics and also provide counter arguments that are presented with a more liberal view. The also criticize past actions that have been taken that they believe should have been approached with a different view, like in one of their articles where they criticized Larry King for asking former Miss California Carrie Parjean many questions because she doesn't believe in gay marriage and has expressed many conservative views. They believe it wasn't right for him to ask her so many questions because they think the only reason he was persistent was because she has expressed in the past many conservative views. They tend to feel as if people with conservative views are attacked by a person with a more liberal view. 

Political Cartoons

The political cartoon illustrated by Trever is criticizing the health care reform because it is causing the unemployment rate to increase and the economy is just going down the drain. He is pretty much blaming the high rate of unemployment on health care because of all the time that is being spent to fix it instead of focusing on other important issues. As politicians continue to fix health care the economy and unemployment rate keep suffering. They are currently only focused on health care forgetting and almost ignoring the suffering economy outside the whole health care issue.

Eagen is criticizing the war because eve

n though the U.S. is wiling to help, the Afghans aren't really grateful because

 they still hate the U.S. They only want to be "friends"and form a "lasting friendship" when they find it convenient. They don't care about what the U.S. does all they want is for additional troops without thinking about what the consequences are. The U.S. is willing to actually provide all the necessary help their government and people might need but they don't care about where the help comes from, they only care about when they will be getting that help. 

The Obama administration is so focused with health care that it's forgetting or ignoring the fact that the economy can't afford it right now. It's necessary to first focus on the economy because that is the only way it can achieve a successful health care reform. Health care reform has been pushed for so long ignoring the fact that the country has other more important issues that need to be solved and health care is being placed atop all of those issues.  The main focus so far has been on health care without realizing that we can't afford it.

After having a war for so long many innocent soldiers have died because more and more troops are being sent to fight. The number of troops that are being requested keep increasing and as a result more innocent lives are being lost on the battlefield. The problem in Afghanistan is like a never ending problem because the U.S. is pretty much in a hole. It's going to take a long time to help and fix the Afghanistan government. 

Obama Wants Change in War Plans

President Barack Obama isn't planning on accepting any of the Afghanistan war options proposed by his national security team, he instead wants revisions that would clarify how and when U.S. troops would turn the responsibility of the government back to the Afghans. Military officials said Obama has asked for a new strategy and is resisting Gen. Stanley McChrystal's recommendation for more troops. Obama was considering options that include adding an additional 30,000 or more troops to take on the Taliban in main areas of Afghanistan and make time for their small forces to take over. The other options were troop increases from a small number to the 40,000 that the U.S. general in Afghanistan wants. The Obama administration wants to make it clear that U.S. commitment in Afghanistan is not open-ended because the war is now in its ninth year and is claiming the lives of many Americans at a rapid pace as a result of the Taliban being in control in many parts of the country. Military officials believe one approach is a plan that would add 30,000 or more troops adding onto the 68,000 already in the country. They describe this plan as "half and half" because half would be fighting and half would be training and "holding ground" so the Afghans can regroup. Officials believe Obama is considering possibilities for military expansion and that his decision will cover changes that are beyond adding more troops. Training and partnership operation with Afghan forces would be part of that effort even though expansion of better trained Afghan forces has always been part of the U.S. objective and the key to an eventual allied exit from Afghanistan.  

Creating Jobs

With unemployment rising and expected to hit the double digits soon when lawmakers run for reelection next year, President Obama urged his economic advisers to come up with ideas that would create new jobs when he met with business executives, labor officials and economists. Obama is concerned that the stimulus legislation passed in February won't do enough to turn things around. Obama promised his administration won't rest until they succeed in "generating the jobs that this economy needs." He finds it extremely necessary for his administration to do something about the job losses because of the severity in the number of jobs that were lost earlier this year, he believes it will take "some bold, innovative action" on everyone's part including his own and Congress. Panel members told Obama that the administration should focus on three areas when creating jobs: exports, infrastructure and energy-efficiency technology. While Obama talks daily about green jobs and environmentally friendly technology, one panel member argued that such a transition won't benefit the country unless certain policies make companies become more competitive. General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt told Obama that the industries that made jobs grow in the past 2 decades aren't reliable to do that as the economy recovers. And when it comes to exporting, the US economy is way behind competitors, but he believes that the US could actually create between 3 million and 5 million jobs by simply doubling exports.