Free College

Ok so this is kind of a cool idea. President Obama plans on proposing a plan to give college students two years of free community college on 

Friday. He said: "Put simply, what I'd like to do is to see the first two years of community college free for anybody who's willing to work for it," He wants to make these two years as common as high school. The details will come in the state of the Union address on the 20th. There are some numbers out. They plan on 9 million students and the cost would be close to $70 billion for the first 9 million for two years. Thats a lot of money. In order to make this work the states, communities, colleges, and students would have to cooperate with the Government. College is a key step to better jobs, more money, and a happier life. 
Cory Fritz a speaker for the speaker of the house John Boehner said: "With no details or information on the cost, this seems more like a talking point than a plan." Unfortunately I agree with The speaker (both of them) I did say that it sounded like a cool idea not something that is going to get done anytime soon. Once The President comes out with his plan on how it is going to work it is definitely worth another look.  

New Congress No Change?

With a very low approval rate it is no surprise that there are quite a few new members in congress. But is this going to make that much of a difference? I found this article that juxtaposes the new congress with the previous. The 114 congress has the most amount of women in power (Hurray 4th district (sarcasm)) but still not enough to statistically make a big difference. Another point the article mentioned was the age. The House is now 644 years younger than last year. Mind blown. The congress is significantly younger. Over the past few years the average length of service went down as well. The public seems to be jumping on to the younger bandwagon. Despite these changes there still remains one large similarity. The most common profession in Washington is still either law or politics.

I think that change is good. Nothing was getting done before so lets switch it up and see what happens. I guess it could totally crash and burn but I think we need to try something new. The biggest change is going to be the republicans controlling both the house and the senate but I still think there will still be a stand still. 

The Gas Tax

Gas prices have dropped. I just got a full tank for a little less than $20. It's been nice. With congress getting ready to start meeting it is a good time to raise the gas tax while taking a minimal political hit. There is a proposal floating around to increase the 18.4 cents to 30.4 cents per gallon. Bye cheap gas. Well not really. I mean it's just a 12 cent increase. The increase is badly needed to build and fix public transportation and roads and stuff. The gas is so cheap because back when it was way up there US oil companies started buying land and using new techniques that were both expensive and effective. Meanwhile in the Middle East... OPEC, a group of countries that control the sale and prices of crude oil, started flooding the market with their product. They are trying to make the price so low that it is not worth it for the companies using these expensive methods. Dirty business tactics. It is all a big mess and I do not know how long the prices will be this low.

I think that even though it will raise the prices I think its worth it. If they put the money into public transportation then more people would use the transportation system. They are happy, the money they give to get on the train or bus helps the city, and hey even those green people are happy with less CO2 emissions from cars. 

Here is the complete story with more of the politics and junk 

"Same-sex Marriage Juggernaut"

Here we go again. The supreme court is going to meet on friday to determine if same-sex marriage is ok or not after the disappointing no decision in October. The word on the street in Washington is that it is more likely that there will be a definitive choice this time because the lower courts are split. However the decision could come as late June, so don't get your hopes up. Gay marriages are legal in 36 states (plus DC), illegal in 10, and under review in the remaining 4.
Honestly I am just happy that the supreme court is hopefully going to deal with the issue and come to a conclusion. If the court decides that it is legal then, of course, we will continue to hear about discrimination towards same-sex couples. I think the issue will continue to be in the news for a long time. My view towards the whole thing is this: I think it is morally wrong but that shouldn't necessarily make it illegal. I think that they should have the rights of a legal marria
ge. They are going to live together anyway so whats wrong with giving them the rights that come with marriage. Thats just my opinion. What's yours?

Military Budget Cuts

Looks like the US military is moving forward with budget cuts by closing military bases across Europe.  This news was confirmed by US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who states he recognizes that around 2,000 US personnel will lose their jobs due to this change and is grateful for the support they have received over the years.  You're welcome, Chuck!  Other bases closing will also include Germany, Belgium, Italy, and the Netherlands.

The main purpose for closing the military bases is to cut costs.  But the pentagon states they also want to re-focus their strategies towards Asia-Pacific.  If you ask me, I think we should cut some military bases. I mean we need to cut something. I think we should cut a little off of a lot of things.  

Three military bases will be left in the UK.  The air-to-air tankers currently housed in RAF Mildenhall, the KC-135's in particular, will likely be moved to a US base in Germany.

You can read the article here and tell me what you think.

A Two Hour Execution?

So in January of last year Ohio started using a combination of two drugs to perform executions. A different prison in Arizona used the same two drugs on an inmate and what resulted was a two hour execution. Another prison reported a 26 minute execution that caused the victim to "gasp and snort." They finally banned the drugs in Ohio. Some prisons are facing another problem: they don't have enough drugs because the drug companies don't want to be that guy. Ohio then created a law that allowed the drug companies to sell to prisons and not have to tell the public. But of course the prisoners were not happy so they sued the state for concealing public information that could fuel the fight against the death penalty.
To me this story is one of the sad realities in the world today. I cant imagine two hours of trying to catch my breath only to fall down dead just the same. To me this is just another reason to ban the death penalty. Lethal injection sounds awful but I think it also sounds quick and reasonable, futuristic even. But apparently it is not as clean as it sounds. I just plain don't think it is worth it.
Heres the article. What do you guys think?

'Merica!

I found this video and thought it was funny and worth sharing. The vid is about what people out side of The US think of American customs. It covers a couple of points that they particularly found strange. One such point was price tags. They complained about a 99 cent burger really costs $1.05. What if you only have a dollar? They also talked about the pledge of allegiance allegiance being ritualistic and kind of scary.
Some of these things I had never thought about like the prices. Well I guess I questioned them years ago but not recently. That would be great if the taxes were put into price tags but that probably isn't going to change. Another, more political, issue talked about was health care. One person writes that they don't understand the fear of universal healthcare that Americans have. I agree with them here. But I guess being and American there has to be some fear. Either that or just the fear of something new. I mean this is The United States of freaking America: the best states to ever unite, so obviously our system is perfect. (Sarcasm) Anyway overall I think that most of the points talked about were interesting.