Officials Push to Bolster Law on Wiretapping

Law enforcement and counterterrorism officials seek to overhaul the federal laws that require phone and broadband carriers to create technologies that the government can easily wiretap. Officials say these laws need to be toughened because telecommunications companies have been updating their software, making it technologically incompatible with government wiretapping devices. The Obama administration plans to submit a package to Congress next year that would update the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act of 1994. This package would incorporate Internet platforms into the legal code for the first time.

This type of policy making would be classified as a regulatory policy. According to Birkland, regulatory policies are intended to govern conduct of businesses, and telecommunications companies like AT & T fall under this category. The tools of public action that will be used in this case are unclear yet; some possibilities could be fining companies for failing to meet standards, or providing incentives for companies that are proactive in changing their technologies.

It will be interesting to see which approach the Obama administration takes. I would expect incentives to be more successful than fines, because providing rewards is more effective (people respond to awards) and efficient (providing benefits would encourage the greatest number of companies to comply). It will also depend on budget factors and which government agencies collaborate for this effort to see which tools will be more politically feasible. Which approaches would you anticipate the Obama administration to use?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/19/us/19wiretap.html?_r=1&hpw
Stephanie Doctrow

Obama Pledges Aid To 2-Year Colleges

On Monday President Barack Obama announced his "Skills for America's Future" initiative. The aim of this is at increasing cohesion between community colleges and industry partners, at a meeting of the Economic Recovery Advisory Board. This initiative will use $2 billion over four years which will be taken from the controversial Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act. The plan will create private partnerships and training programs in community colleges nationwide. Since the recession has placed such a burden on state and local budgets, community colleges have been forced to cap enrollments and scarp courses. Obama said, "Not only is that not right--I think it's not smart." A few corporations which Obama said will be participating in this program will include, McDonald's, Dap Inc., Accenture and United Technologies. The goal of this program is 5 million more community college graduates and certificates by 2020. This plan is definitely needed and extremely valuable. Education in America in the past years has declined and unemployment rates are at its peak. This plan could only help both of these crisis issues. Students with lower financial status and who are not able to attend public colleges and have the grades for four year colleges still deserve a chance and a some what equal chance to all other students; this plan will give these students the equal opportunity they deserve. Having 5 million more students with certificates rom 2 year colleges and actually graduated from these colleges is a huge impact from that of just $2 billion.

http://www.lsureveille.com/news/obama-pledges-aid-to-2-year-colleges-1.2354197

House Passes 9/11 Health Care Bill

On wednesday, the White House approved legislation to provide billions of dollars for medical treatment to rescue workers and residents of New York City. This is for people who suffered from illnesses from breathing in toxic fumes, dust and smoke at ground zero. The one concern of this bill was from the 157 Republicans and three democrats who raised concerns about the $7.4 billion cost of the program. This bill is going to provide $3.2 billion over the next eight years to monitor and treat injuries stemming from exposure to toxic dust and debris at ground zero. Of these expenses, New York City would be paying 10 percent of those health costs. There are nearly 60,000 people enrolled in a variety of health monitoring and treatment related to the 9/11 attacks, according to the sponsors of the bill. The federal government is the one providing most of this money for these health programs. Yes, this bill has been having a lot of discrepancies between parties; but should there be any questions at all? These 9/11 victims did not harm them selves are selectively put themselves in harms way, nor did anyone of them do anything to cause this. This is a major public issue and has been since 9/11. I believe that the government are the ones who should be responsible for these survivors well being, how could they turn there heads on there own no matter money, no matter what party. These 9/11 survivors deserve every bill in there favor and everything they can get to help them with matters regarding to the 9/11 tragedy.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/29/911-health-care-bill-passes/?hp

Is Obama Soft on Environmental Crime?

A permanent cement plug sealed BP's well nearly 2.5 miles below the sea floor in the Gulf, five agonizing months after an explosion sank a drilling rig and led to the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history. We have all heard about the BP oil spill on April 20 in the Gulf of Mexico that leaked 206 million gallons of oil and killed 11 workers; however has anyone heard of what is being done to clean up all the damage. There has been much speculation as to what the proper procedure Obama should take in order to do the job and punish the ones responsible. Right now the EPA is under staffed by nearly 40 Investigators for the Criminal Investigation Division (CID). They are the ones responsible for investigating the most serious environmental crimes and corporate pollution offenses. The U.S. Pollution Prosecution Act of 1990 requires a minimum of 200 CID agents, right now there are only 140. If Obama wants to take the right step at fixing this problem, the CID needs “leadership that helps rather than hinders its special agents in making busts that stick.”

Rebecca Jania

http://environment.about.com/b/2010/09/13/is-obama-soft-on-environmental-crime.htm

Is Obama deliberately destroying the economy?

Do you think Obama is deliberately destroying the economy? That has been a question raised recently, however we now believe that Obama and his administration are just naive. They have tried to create many new policies they believe will help the economy, however they are only hurting us more because they are created so quickly and with little thought behind the plan. We were not able to track the $787 billion stimulus cash, the Cash-for-Clunkers program entrapped more than it helped, and the employment rate more than doubled while Obama was in office. Not to say all of these were Obama's mistakes but he certainly hasn't shown any promises. He tried to put the government in charge of health care, auto loans, student loans, etc., and ends up asking for tax help to cover all of these expenses! This clearly shows his lack of experience in economics. Obama needs to do something quick in order to gain back some popularity before the mid term elections come around in the next couple of months!

http://www.intellectualconservative.com/2010/09/10/the-jury-is-in-obama-is-deliberately-destroying-the-economy/

Will We Finally Get a Stimulus?

I am going to start this post with adding some credibility to the source of this article. For the past year I have been using a site called The Daily Beast to get a bulk of my current event information. It is an extremely diverse blog started by Tina Brown, previously editor of The New Yorker. The blog is composed of articles written by staff writers, and articles gather from various credible news sources. I encourage you to take a look.

With recent numbers from August showing the number of private payrolls increase by 67,000, President Obama is hopeful that new policies he seeks in Ohio and Wisconsin will be successful. The first of these policies includes tax breaks. The President has plans to implement $12 billion in tax breaks, and $30 billion supplied to people who need aid to “free up” credit. The hope is that small businesses will begin to hire more rapidly. However, it is not all breaks, the bill includes a policy to terminate tax breaks for households earning more than $250,000 annually. This is a bill that was rejected last month, and is now on the table for a second time.

In addition, Obama plans to ask Congress to extend research-and-development tax credit and to increase new infrastructure spending. He believes that it is one of the most “efficient and direct ways” to use government intervention to increase payroll. The last part of the bill could include justification for tax rebates that would stimulate the middle-class spending habits.

Obama has big plans for what he wants to accomplish this fall, but it all comes down to how Congress will vote. He is asking for steep actions, with a lot of money at risk. In order to convince Congress to continue spending and increase, Obama has to be confident his policy will work.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-09-04/obama-to-unveil-economic-measures-next-week/?cid=topic:featured2

Obama is Against a Compromise on Bush Tax Cuts

President Obama has made it clear that he opposes any compromise that would extend the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy beyond this year. In this situation Obama is using his hand in politics to say who gets what, when they get it, and how they get it. Mr. Obama's opposition to ending these tax cuts open up the door for even more attacks from the Republicans. It has been put to question whether or not Obama still holds enough popularity to prevail through this economic recovery and divisions within his party. However, Obama is hoping to present this issue as a choice between supporting the middle class or breaks to the wealthy. Obama's main goal is to help the economy get better by time election day rolls around. He is doing this by putting his agenda together and finding a window of opportunity to increase his popularity.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/08/us/politics/08obama.html?_r=1&th&emc=th