The IRS Scandal

Recently the IRS has surfaced into the news as an agency abusing its power. In Cincinnati numerous groups that contained "Tea Party" or "Patriot" in their name were put through numerous questionnaires that turned out to be a means of intimidation for those filing the applications. The accusations originally began in 2010 and continued for about two years. The additional questionnaires with unfair criteria that were sent out from the IRS were found to be done by low level employees. When their managers caught wind of the acts they made an attempt to correct the issue. 

It's troubling that such an important agency could allow something such as this to occur. Some individuals that were attempting to receive the tax exempt status which would allow them to carry out various political activities felt frightened about divulging their information or not divulging enough which means committing perjury. The IRS has admitted to the unnecessary criteria being used as a tactic to discourage the conservative groups from being created.

Other reports have risen about the same issue occurring in California but it appears that the only legitimate offenses have so far occurred in Cincinnati. Now that the issue is in the public's focus if it happening in other locations then it will hopefully be taken care of quickly. Unfortunately it won't help those that feel the government will always abuse its power and is too large to serve its purpose.

Works Cited

  

GOOD, CHRIS, and SHUSHANNAH WALSHE. "IRS Asked About Political Views, Tea Party Groups Claim Mistreatment." ABC News. May 14, 2013. Accessed May 14, 2013. http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/irs-asked-political-views-tea-party-groups-claim/story?id=19171967.

"New IRS Scandal Revives past Allegations against Agency." Fox News. May 14, 2013. Accessed May 14, 2013. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/05/14/new-irs-scandal-echoes-agency-problems-past/.

PHILLIP, ABBY D. "IRS Guilty of 'Thuggish Abuse of Power,' McConnell Says." ABC News. May 14, 2013. Accessed May 14, 2013. http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/irs-guilty-thuggish-abuse-power-mcconnell/story?id=19176388.

Tanfani, Joseph, and Richard Simon May 14. "Report Cites Poor Oversight in IRS Targeting of Certain Groups." Los Angeles Times. May 14, 2013. Accessed May 14, 2013. http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-irs-taxes-conservative-groups-20130514,0,591063.story. 

Fight On Food

Looking through the science articles in the news papers many things keep coming up. What I keep seeing is genetically altered food. The biggest story that hit email this week was about making the perfect burger, this dish that will cost $325,000.  This is not only a case that is controversial with in the United States, this burger article takes place in the Netherlands and has to do with the United Kingdom. Yet within the United States the fight about food rages on. Though the issue on food has not been at the fore front of the news lately it is very much with in the secondary tear, as I like to call it. 

This issue comes up over and over again, in so many different ways, PETA will argue and lobby for animal rights, even going as far as to advocate that meat should not be served as food. Yet, the scientific solution to that opinion would clearly be artificially growing meat in a lab, where it may not even take animals to make it. On the other hand, this means that many chemicals and preservatives and additives would have to be added to make sure the food will last, and will taste similar to what people are used to. With that, many people also are against chemical additives in there food, which also includes pesticides. This is also a very valid point in my opinion since there isn't much research of the long term effects that the genetically altered food can have on us. 

With that this issue seems to be nothing less the a double edged sword. There is no solution that will please all parties, and with that in mind there is not much room for compromise, if there is any at all, so where does this leave us. It leaves us all very split on the issue, with out coming to a conclusion. Each side of this issue seems to feel so strongly about there opinions and stance on the issues that there is really no way to even really talk about the issue. If the news has shown me anything it just seems like each side is just doing there own thing to try and prove there way is better rather then having someone very scientifically compare and contrast both side and decide what is useful, safe and helpful from both sides. Will we ever be able to agree on what food should be, most likely not, but the battle rages on.

"Engineering the $325,000 In-Vitro Burger - NYTimes.com." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 May 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/14/science/engineering-the-325000-in-vitro-burger.html?ref=science>.

" People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA): The animal rights organization | PETA.org." People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA): The animal rights organization | PETA.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 May 2013. <http://www.peta.org/>.

"Genetically engineered foods: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia."National Library of Medicine - National Institutes of Health. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 May 2013. <http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency

Violence Solution?

With the upcoming trend of shootings going on around the country along with other acts of violence that extend further then just a shooting many people are "up in arms" for lack of a better term about the subject. Today there was a shooting during a mothers day parade in New Orleans, which left nineteen wounded at least. This year alone we have dealt with more of these public acts of violence then i can remember ever seeing. Be it the shooting that took place at the elementary school, the Boston bombing or the theatre shooter at the premiere of the new Batman movie.

 This of course is not only happening in the United States, its happening all over the world, this kind of violence is starting to make its way into the media constantly unlike when I was younger and only the big stories that had to do with gun violence were covered. Due to this a lot of things have happened, a lot of people are begging for more gun regulation and even for more mental health facilities that fit the needs of the people who are not in a healthy mental state. The questions then becomes how do we fix this. Politically this has become an extremely hot button issue, most likely because it is so shocking each time it happens and it really hits home with a lot of people. It seems no candidate is taking a full stance one way or another.

 There are a lot of things at play that make it very hard to solve this with a black and white answer, or solution. The constitution for one which implies the right to bare arms, and though the interpretation of this amendment has been discussed it is still a very bit influence on this argument. The other side is wanting to extend the law for background checks so that this includes gun shows, though this could start to solve the problem it won't take care of what is already out there. What I have seen this whole year of hearing this come up over and over again, is that no one has a clean cut solution. Clearly no one wants to see kids being shot, and that seems to be what everyone can agree on, but beyond that there seems to be no middle ground for compromise, and well even with out compromise it doesn't seem as if the problem would be fixed.

Press, The Associated. "17 Wounded in Shooting at New Orleans Parade." The New York Times. The New York Times, 13 May 2013. Web. 12 May 2013

"Teen Shot at Atlanta School; Student Held." USA Today. Gannett, n.d. Web. 12 May 2013.

"Metro." BostonGlobe.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 May 2013.

international food aid

            Interestingly, it was on a conservative blog that I came across an article about  Obama’s idea to reform how we conduct international food aid, and accredits the president’s reform as a, “small but very reasonable suggestion.”  As of now we buy most the food from our farmers and then ship it overseas rather than buying the food in the impoverished area.  If we were to buy the food overseas not only would we feed over an additional 17 million people, we would strengthen their economy and potentially discourage their reliance on food aid in the future.            

            Our current policies regarding international food aid are outdated and inefficient.  We support our farmers by buying the food here and then ship it overseas on preferred shipping vessels supporting certain corporate interests.  Our international food aid costs us only .05% of our federal budget annually and recues millions from malnutrition and starvation.  They way the system has worked until now we spend .53 cents per dollar on transport and regulation of the food which adds up to a staggering $471 annually.  On top of that the food takes up to six months to reach its destination.  In the case of Ethiopia, 2,200 tons of wheat bought here could be 5,400 tons bought in the local economy. 

            Many politicians involved in agriculture, in both parties are opposed to this reform.  Republican Robert Aderholt of Alabama, also the head of the House agriculture subcommittee is worried about how this would affect American farmers.  Democrat Sam Farr of California, who is also on the committee is,
“not endorsing the transfer-the realignment-until there are assurances that the program will remain intact and not be raided by other foreign ops interests.”  He is also confident that we will not see this happen any time soon as, “that’s the politics.”  

            While of course this type of change will bring economic losses to the country don’t think this is a party, or even political issue.  When we are talking about the lives of over 17 million people it becomes an ethical issue.

 

Works Cited

"Food aid: a critical program, ripe for reform — Oxfam America." Oxfam America: Working together to end poverty and injustice. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 May 2013. <http://www.oxfamamerica.org/campaigns/food-justice/food-aid>.

Johnsen, Erika. "Attempt to improve U.S. food-aid efficiency going about as well as you’d expect «  Hot Air." HotAir — Politics, Culture, Media, 2012, Breaking News from a conservative viewpoint. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 May 2013. <http://hotair.com/archives/2013/05/02/attempt-to-improve-u-s-food-aid-efficiency-going-about-as-well-as-youd-expect/>.

 

           

 

 

Guantanamo

     The Guantanamo Bay detention center, located at a military base on the coast of Cuba, houses over one hundred prisoners of the United States. These prisoners are those that are suspected of being connected to terrorist organizations in countries across the Atlantic, specifically in Northern Africa and in countries within Southwest Asia. The prison camp was created in the tense period between the start of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and has held some prisoners there for some eleven years now. A recent hunger strike at the camp, involving one hundred of the one hundred and sixty-six prisoners, has put more pressure on President Obama to make good on his 2008 election promise to close Guantanamo.

     I feel that the Guantanamo Bay detention should be closed. My stance on this issue is based around two points. First I believe that the basic function of the camp, to incapacitate the prisoners held there, can be accomplished by high security and maximum security facilities here in the United States. Simply put, I feel we’re spending more money than we need to on a base that does a job we can already do here on home soil. Secondly, an off-shore prison camp where detainees are held without trial for an indefinite period of time with no opportunity to appeal their imprisonment looks decidedly awful from a foreign policy standpoint for a country that prides itself on ideals such as a fair trial and other rights of the accused.

     One of the issues facing the closure of Guantanamo is what the federal government is going to do with all of the prisoners. It has been suggested in the past that the prisoners could be moved to maximum security facilities here in the United States. Not surprisingly nearly every state wanted nothing to do with these prisoners. While I understand the position of not wanting to have terrorists imprisoned in one’s own state, I do not feel that this is a rational fear. I feel as though our federal maximum-security prisons would do a more than sufficient job of keeping this prisoners incapacitated in their ability to commit terrorist acts against the citizens of the United States.

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"Naval Station Guantanamo Bay." CNIC // NAVAL STATION GUANTANAMO BAY.        Commander, Navy Installations Command, n.d. Web. 01 May 2013. <http://www.cnic.navy.mil/guantanamo/index.htm>.