9/12 DC Tea Party

On the 12th of September, the United States saw a large amount of nationwide protests aimed at President Obama and his new health care bill. I personally have no problem with protesting, in fact I encourage it because it is a direct reflection of the citizens that the government is serving and should therefore be respected and acknowledged. But I do have to say this, the 9/12 protest were nothing but a nationwide display of idiocy, in my opinion. Why do I say this? Because it was fueled by none other than Glenn Beck, the most misinformed anchorman to grace cable news. Anybody that knows me personally knows that I have never been a fan of Beck, and the reason is my belief that he really has no idea what he is doing. His show, The Glenn Beck Program, is nothing more than right wing propaganda at its very finest. And just look at his track record, from crying like a little baby on screen several times, to throwing a live frog into boiling water on live TV to prove a foolish metaphor, Glenn Beck has always proven himself to be more dimwitted than anyone expected.

And thanks to the popularity of show, he has been able to spread his dingbat method of thinking to quite a few people. Fox News is infamous for organizing these mass protests against the President, and having the nerve to call them a 'grassroots effort'. I'm sorry Fox News, but a major cable news network organizing mass protests is definitely not a grassroots effort. And the 9/12 protests are no different.

The people who were out protesting on 9/12, in my opinion, had absolutely no idea what they were there for. Some were out there accusing the President of McCarthyism/ Socialism/ Nazism and Fascism. And when they were asked by a camera crew as to why they are accusing the President of these acts, all they could do was give a blank stare to camera, and then start blathering about things that were completely irrelevant, in the same manner as Glenn Beck.

I saw a great video done by Chase Whiteside, a member of The New Left Media, and I though that short film summed up exactly what went on during 9/12. Mass confusion.

Enjoy

The Fight Against Obesity; Soda Tax

According to the US Surgeon General report, obesity is responsible for over 300,000 deaths a year in the United States alone. And we have also seen that the number 1 cause of death in the US is Heart Disease, and with Obesity being the main link to heart disease, it is clear to see that we have a major problem on our hands. And people do not really have to turn to CDC facts to acknowledge that the US has a problem, taking a walk down any busy street will paint a quite accurate picture to you about the weight problem in the US. And with late night TV being full of weight reduction pills and gimmicks, you would expect that the issue had been curbed, but all these efforts have been proven to be of no avail. How bad is the issue you say? Well here are a few statistics that really opened my eyes up;

-- Between 1962 and the year 2000, the number of obese Americans grew from 13% to an alarming 31% of the population.
-- 63% of Americans are overweight with a Body Mass Index (BMI) in excess of 25.0.
-- 31% are obese with a BMI in excess of 30.0.
-- Childhood obesity in the United States has more than tripled in the past two decades.

So now the question is, how do we attack this problem? Well, I sure do wish that there was a clear cut answer to this question, but the reality of the situation is that it would take a large collaborated effort by the people of the US to curb this looming disaster, and I am yet to see any signs of this.

I believe that the US Government should fight this disaster the best way they can, raising taxes. Now for a long time I have been a staunch critic of raising taxes, but when to comes to this issue, I am all for it.

A group of health and nutrition experts have been pushing for a large increase in Soda tax, similar to the highly successful Cigarette tax, for a very long time and are yet to be successful in passing any legislation on the matter. The newest effort that is being proposed is a sales tax of 1 cent for every ounce of soda sold. Now this is a far cry from the tax being imposed on cigarette smokers, and yet it is having the hardest time trying to be recognized. And my question is why not? This will simply mean that instead of having the regular 5 cent tax for a $1 can/bottle of soda, the tax would be 12 cents. And how much will this slight increase of 7 cents help the US? Well, it would mean that there would be an additional income of $15 billion a year for the government, and considering the economic fiasco that we are currently in, it would not hurt to have an extra $15 billion lying around. And it would also curb the increasing obesity epidemic in the US, with an average of 2 pounds less weight gain for every soda drinker within the US.

But I highly doubt this bill will pass due to the fact that the Soda conglomerates have the best lobbyist protecting their interests within the US. And yet another brilliant plan that will not see the light of day because of lobbyists.

Additional reading on the subject; http://www.boston.com/news/local/connecticut/articles/2009/09/16/fight_obesity_add_sales_tax_to_soda_tab/

Im Back

It feels like it has been forever since I wrote my last blog entry, and it almost has been too. I would like to apologize to my readers, I have been extremely busy. But now I am back and ready to assess all the political issues facing the United States. Quite a few of my readers have complained that my website has been strictly about US Politics, but it was purely because I started my blog around the historical election of President Obama, and I, like every other person in the United States, had been stricken with Election fever. Now that that is in the past, I will make it a point to be as balanced as possible with my choices in stories to cover and look forward to analyzing world politics as well as US politics.

Thanks,

A.M Tesfay