Withdrawing US Troops

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, recently announced the possibility that some of the U.S forces involved in the Afghanistan surge, could leave the country before President Obama's announced July 2011 withdrawal date. He announced his predictions during his recent visit to a training ground in Kabul where Afghan soldiers train under U.S. and British instruction. British Brigadier informed Gates that if more NATO countries were to contribute more trainers, the ability to expand Afghanistan's army would keep its pace. In a conference Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak said he and his country are ashamed and embarrassed that other foreign nations are assuming its defense and said he is eager to take over the difficult job. The main goal is to hand back the responsibility of their own country by next fall. The goal is to expand the Afghan National Army to 171,000 and the police force to 134,000. Wardak hopes that by next year they will be capable of taking responsibility of the "security of the country in different regions," believes that the process will continue as the numbers and their capabilities increase. Gates went on to say that the transition will happen no later than July 2011 but the pace will depend on the conditions. Gates was impressed when Afghan soldiers dealt with a stimulated roadside bomb explosion where they tended to casualties and contained the explosive. Even though their attention right now is focused on the southern parts of the country, Gates believes that the training for the long term is ore important and the Afghans are the only ones that "will be able to provide security for Afghanistan."

Working on Immigration Reform

President Obama discussed an effort to work on an immigration reform with Republican senator Lindsey Graham and Democratic senator Charles E. Schumer. Obama is planning to work on reviving the nation's immigration laws since he has already postponed such plan before. He discussed the issue privately with his staff hoping to advance a bill through Congress before the midterm elections. In the meeting Obama and members of his Domestic Policy Council discussed ways to invigorate the effort in the meeting with both senators who have both been working for months to create a bill. The White House may ask both senators to at least come up with a blueprint that could be turned into legislative language sometime after. The bill would include a way for for the 10.8 million people who are living here illegally to eventually become citizens. But citizenship wouldn't be easily granted because undocumented workers would need to register, pay taxes and pay a certain penalty for violating immigration laws, if they fail to comply they might face deportation. The bill would also include improved border security. Supporters of an immigration overhaul are pleased that Obama hasn't abandoned the effort to do something about immigration but they expect Obama to take a more assertive approach instead of leaving it up to Congress. Supporters believe that a proposal must be made by April or May to actually have a chance of passing this year. Republicans are unlikely to provide support for such a bill as Sen. Schumer pointed out that it's hard to find republican supporters.

AARP Support

With the current debate over health care, the AARP supports Democrats in their plan to cut $460 billion in Medicare to pay for landmark health insurance legislation. As Republicans wanted to restore the cuts, the AARP said Democrats were only recommending elimination of waste and inefficiency within the health care program for seniors. Barry Rand, the AARP's CEO, said that the legislation doesn't reduce any Medicare benefits. Republicans led by Sen. John McCain, said seniors would lose some of their add-on benefits that are part of their coverage under private insurance Medicare. he believes we shouldn't use "Medicare as a piggy bank" to pay for other programs. Democrats supporting a proposal made by Sen. Michael Bennet, said the bill wouldn't cause any sort of reduction in guaranteed Medicare benefits. Overall the legislation is designed to extend health care to millions of Americans who lack coverage, prohibit insurance companies from denying coverage because of pre-existing medical conditions and slow the rate of growth n medical spending. Most Americans would be required to have health insurance, while employers wouldn't be obligated to provide it and huge companies would face penalties if they didn't and their workers received federal subsidies to help defray their personal insurance costs.  

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.