| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | M - Th 11p / 10c | |||
| Harry Truman Was Not a War Criminal | ||||
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Daily Show covered France and Sweden and in a very positive light, in a span of one week. Is this a coincidence? OR Are they trying to influence their viewers in support of Obama's administration plans for increased regulation, employment benefits and other European style policies?
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | M - Th 11p / 10c | |||
| The Stockholm Syndrome | ||||
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| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | M - Th 11p / 10c | |||
| The Stockholm Syndrome Pt. 2 | ||||
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| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | M - Th 11p / 10c | |||
| Christine Lagarde | ||||
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Do not know if these appointments has any significance at all for India, but it is interesting nonetheless to have two Indian descent people in key roles in Technology!
Aneesh Paul Chopra - CTO
Chopra serves as Virginia’s Secretary of Technology. He leads the Commonwealth’s strategy to effectively leverage technology in government reform, to promote Virginia’s innovation agenda, and to foster technology-related economic development. Previously, he worked as Managing Director with the Advisory Board Company, leading the firm’s Financial Leadership Council and the Working Council for Health Plan Executives.
Vivek Kundra, Federal Chief Information Officer
Vivek Kundra formerly served in Mayor Fenty's cabinet as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for the District of Columbia, responsible for technology operations and strategy for 86 agencies. He has been recognized among the top 25 CTO's in the country and as the 2008 IT Executive of the Year for his pioneering work to drive transparency, engage citizens and lower the cost of government operations. Kundra is also recognized for his leadership in public safety communications, cyber security and IT portfolio management. Before Kundra came to the District, Governor Timothy M. Kaine appointed him Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Technology for the Commonwealth of Virginia, the first dual cabinet role in the state's history. Kundra's diverse record also includes technology and public policy experience in private industry and academia. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia's Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership and holds a MS in Information Technology from the University of Maryland.
Obama unveils a 'Strategic Plan' for the high speed rail future in US. Fantastic.
"Imagine whisking through towns at speeds over 100 miles an hour, walking only a few steps to public transportation, and ending up just blocks from your destination. Imagine what a great project that would be to rebuild America."
When you hear Obama saying these lines, you sure would be excited as hell and start dreaming about the day you step on to one of these trains in San Francisco Transbay Terminal. So I was all excited about the plan and digged in a bit to check the dates when I can start riding in one of those machines. There is nothing!!! The plan boasts of $8 Billion allocated to project in the Stimulus. What a joke!!
Just the line from 'SF to LA' has been in plans for ages and state is struggling to find the $40 Billion it costs according to the current estimates. Just one line from SF to LA. The plan doesn't even mention the total cost of this vision, forget about how they plan to raise the money. Check out the strategic plan here - http://www.fra.dot.gov/us/content/31
This takes me back to one of the line that got me excited from his 'Not State of the Union' speech, that they already identified $2 Trillion in spending cuts. Which turned out to be nothing more than the savings for not continuing the 'Surge' in Iraq.
I still like a lot of things that he is saying in his speeches, at the face value, but am afraid to dig in, for it may just be another farce.
In his 'Not State of Union' speech Obama recognized some important problems that needs to be addressed for long run health of the economy.
Health Care, Education and Energy. I'd add social security and defense spending to that.
I was impressed. But once his solutions are being laid out it is not good.
Education
California has the highest state taxes in the country and it spent 31% and 10.3% on K-12 and higher education respectively in 2008-2009. (20.4% and 8.6% in 1992-1993)
I have no big problem with spending on higher education. US has the best of the schools in the world. It is an merit based open system. Any one can study anywhere as long as they can get an admit.
But K-12. Spending 31% of all state tax revenues on state run education system is unacceptable. This is not all that is spent on education, local and federal governments also spend money on k-12 education.
What is the problem with the state run education? too many to list.
low paid teachers
no competition and no incentives for the brightest minds to be in the teaching...
choice of schools
you can only go to the school in your community. no regard for choice. homogeneous class rooms. artificial inflation of real estate in communities with good schools.
no child left behind
...
...
Pouring more money into the failed education system would not lead to more quality or quantity, it just goes down the drain. giving computers to the schools wouldn't help if they don't have competent teachers. competent teachers would be possible only with competitve incentive based market. Most of my friends never knew how to use computers until they got admitted to engineering schools, but now they are doing cutting edge work in computer science because they all came from a very competitive education system and knew all the basic mathematics and sciences.
It's so easy to see anywhere in the world and I am stunned how the US is turning a blind eye to the facts. Govt. involvment should be in oversight, not in management.
http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/pdf/BudgetSummary/SummaryCharts.pdf
http://www.caltax.org/RESEARCH/spending96/spend96.htm
The Oil prices are high and there are no signs of slowing down. An global demand is not going down anytime soon.
New solar and wind power technolgoies have years to go before they get affordable and mature. Battery technology and Hydrogen fuel cell cars are still in budding stages to be adopted on a mass scale. It would probably take atleast 50 years to significantly displace the existing energy sources with these Greener ones
We have to try working with the current technologies we have while continue exploring new frontiers and adapt to them. There is an urgent need in short term for energy to continue to be competitve in this globalized world.
There is a need to diversify the portfolio of energy sources and have a right mix to decrease the dependency on the foriegn oil.
I do not understand why for every step in that direction, there is huge resistance in this country.
Produce more oil with offshore drilling in US?? NO. Oil Spills.
Produce more power with more nuclear plants?? NO. Nuclear Waste.
Produce more Ethanol/ Bio Fuel?? NO. Food Security/ Unethical.
Yes, we need to move towards cleaner and greener energy sources. But you need to have the Economic strength to be able to make that bold change. It does cost significant amounts of money to turn green. There is absolute need for a practical and affordable path to get there. And that would come only with Economic strength. And Energy security is a must.
I know, I know!! I thought I would keep myself out of it.
I was wondering why Hillary is still in the race while the complicated democratic delegate math makes it next to impossible for her to win the nominee. Dig deeper, there is more sense to it. There are number of ways Hillary could hypothetically win the delegate math.
Lets consider, winner takes all delegates for a state, like the Republican Math. No super delegates here -
After PA, Hillary leads Obama by a healthy margin
Appx. 1560 vs 1260 not including Florida and Michigan.
Appx. 1735 vs 1260 including Florida. (No Michigan)
Wow!! that's a big lead.
Now lets forget about Republican math and work out General Elections math which probably makes more sense -
After PA, Hillary leads Obama
251 - 197 not including Florida and Michigan
278 - 197 including Florida (No Michigan)
She'd already be president ;)
If we discount the states which held caucuses which obviously do not reflect the popular vote. Remember Texas, where Clinton won the primary by 5% but lost Caucuses square and out by more than 15%. Barack leads Clinton 69 to 5 in electoral college votes for Caucus states, which could have gone either way -
Then, Hillary's electoral college lead in the states that held the primaries -
256 - 128 with out FL
273 - 128 with FL
There is more than one reason for Hillary to stay in the race. :)
I am sure they are presenting the super delegates with this kind of Math. If they are not already doing that, they should. But to atleast make a case, I think the popular Vote is something that she must probably win. Obama leads by 1.4% including Florida before PA results are counted. 422K more votes in hard numbers.
These are calculations from my own spreadsheet with data from different sources. So there are approximations. Hmmmm, don't I have anything better to do?
It is amazing how media feeds their interests into the general public minds like a slow poison. Subtle references and opinions are embedded all over the commentary in the news or op-eds or talk shows.
Last week I was watching a news cast in CNN about the recalls of toys in United States sold by US companies which happened to be manufactured in China. And there is a collective media effort to blame it on the Chinese. OK, agreed. Chinese plants are not sticking to the standards. But they are just factories and manufacturers. If there is a problem with the quality of the products, it is an issue between the company that sourced its manufacturing to these Chinese companies. It's the US companies which are selling those toys in USA and it is their responsibility to make sure they are checked for Quality and are adhering to the standards of the market they are selling into. Even a kid can understand that.
But if you watch day after day, show after show, they blame it on the Chinese. And even more subtle is the way the Media project China as a nation. Check this comment from Lou Dobbs.
Tonight, a massive new recall of dangerous toys imported from communist China, another recall, another example of our government's failure to protect American consumers from dangerous toys, food, and other imports from China.
He referred to China as 'Communist China'. Where does communism come into picture in this scenario. There is no nation by the name 'Communist China'. Given the fact that, here in US, the word 'communism' is more or less a swear word it shows how the media is using to slowly inject the poison into the people heads. And trying to brand China with poor quality. If there is any one to blame here, its the US government and the Company which released them into the market.
And now you have 21.7 million pounds of Beef recalled from the US company from a US source, which is much more dangerous and serious situation than having a little lead in the toys. And I am curious to know the adjectives the media use for United States. Beef recalled from 'Chauvinist US', 'Imperialist US', 'Democratic US' ... hmmm.. Don't get me wrong here...I love US and I think it is the best place to live in.. but can't turn a blind eye on such manipulations. So in the true American tradition, I don't act on it, I just Blog ;)
Here in America, people take pride in their democracy and freedom. I find US a great place to live in. I am single healthy guy with a decent job, with not many responsibilities and earning enough money to live well.
But when I try to look deeper, I understand there are many problems. Lack of sound education system for the kids, failing social security and health care, an economy that is going down, a foreign policy that makes more enemies every day and arrogant politicians who stick to populist politics rather than doing a reality check.
What is more appalling more than any of this is public inaction. 70% of the nation do not believe in Iraq war any more, but they are doing nothing to end it. US spends more money on defense and military than rest of the world combined. The budget on military is more than the entire economies of countries with a billion citizens. I hear politicians say, there is a cost for freedom, but how much? When security is a bigger concern than education and health care and quality of life, it is a clear indication that there is some thing is wrong. We are paying taxes through the nose around 35% of what we earn, then sales tax of 8% on everything we buy and many more.
And its a big disappointment looking at how this money is being transferred to the big companies.
But where is the reaction, why don' t people take to streets. Why do they just leave it to the politicians to work it out. How does these opinion polls help, if the president can ignore them like its just some noise. Democracy doesn't just come into picture, when there is an election. Look at the Mexicans, in spite of having no legal ground for their cause, they are brave and strong enough to march in millions on the street and initiated this whole debate. What are the natives doing to get us out of Iraq? Get more money to health care, decrease the war spending. You spend a trillion on homeland security and have a wide open border on the south and a free for all shipping yards. US cannot even control the drugs with in its own borders.
USA is stinking rich when compared to other countries and pay more taxes to the government than any one else. Why do they need to settle for less quality in life. If US cannot afford it, no one can. What is the use of democracy, when the people cannot dictate the policies.
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