By Ben Luongo
PoHo contributor
Our debate on health care reform has been a disappointing state of affairs. Stories of town hall meetings turning violent and reports of organizations planting disruptors are hardly proud examples of a successful democratic process. It speaks volumes of how political a society we have come to be.
Click after the jump to watch what has been happening in Florida.
By Ben Luongo
PoHo contributor
Jeb Bush spoke recently with the Miami Herald about our education system and offered that America should be open to learning from other successful education systems around the world and adopting similar working models if they apply.
According to Bush:
We should be taking the best ideas from around the world, tearing down the barriers to let these things happen, and apply them in a way that we move away from this homogenous type education system where every child learns the same way and learns the same thing.
Watch the video and read the rest after the jump.
By Ben Luongo
PoHo contributor
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the declared winner of the Iranian election last week, has told Obama to stop interfering with Iran’s affairs. According to Ahmadinejad:
We don’t expect much from British government and other European governments whose records and background are known for everybody and have no dignity but I wonder why Mr. Obama who has come with the slogan of change has fallen into the trap and taken the same route that Bush took and experienced its consequences.
By Ben Luongo
PoHo contributor
Local transportation agencies have been holding joint public outreach meetings in an effort to inform and involve the public on transportation issues. These agencies, which are the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority (TBARTA), and Hillsborough Area Regional Transit (HART), have coordinated efforts forming a transportation task force which has held public meetings throughout the city.
The need for public transportation is growing, especially in Tampa, which makes these meetings rather important. Wednesday, I attended a meeting at the Community Center on 22nd Street. Thursday, I was able to chat with the MPO Executive Director Ray Chiaramonte.
Why is developing public transportation in Tampa important? Here is what we talked about:
By Ben Luongo
PoHo contributor
Experts and analysts were prepared for a close election between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and challenger Mir-Hossein Mousavi. That didn’t happen; Ahmadinejad won by a landslide, 2 to 1.
Civil unrest has ensued. On Saturday, disappointed and suspicious demonstrators took to the streets. Those protests, supporters of Mousavi, were countered the next day with pro-Ahmadinejad rallies. Divide is growing and Khamenei is now calling for an investigation hoping to quell the unrest.
Here’s the video from that violence:
By Ben Luongo
PoHo contributor
Charlie Crist leads over Marco Rubio 54 percent-23 percent (measuring registered Republicans) for the 2010 Senate seat in Florida according to the latest Quinnipiac University poll. The other 23 percent of voters are undecided or giving other answers.
By Ben Luongo
PoHo contributor
The Marion County School Board has ruled on the Code of Student Conduct, which now requires students to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, after a meeting last week. For months, the school board debated the proposed change to the code which wouldn’t require students to stand. Veterans from the area attended the meeting to protest the proposed change arguing that not standing for the pledge is disrespectful. The only leeway in the code allows students not to stand as long as they have a note from their parents.
The school board decided to remove the “standing clause” last year after a federal court ruling did not require students to stand. However, this change was met with pressure for the past couple of months from local veterans and possible lawsuits.
Are we comfortable with requiring our students to stand?
By Ben Luongo
PoHo contributor
Iran’s missile launch on Wednesday is not making President Barack Obama’s diplomatic efforts in the Middle East any easier. This demonstration, however, could be seen as more of a reason for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to embrace the two-state solution.
Netanyahu has made it clear that he sees Iran as a threat. On Tuesday, after meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, he said:
“[Iran] is a great danger to all of us, to Israel specifically and to the moderate Arab regime, and to America. Especially if this regime were to arm itself or arm terrorists with nuclear weapons, the consequences could be unimaginable.”
By Ben Luongo
PoHo contributor
President Obama spoke at Notre Dame’s commencent address on Sunday. There has been some controversy as to whether Notre Dame would honor him with an honorary law degree or not. Some from Notre Dame are opposed to Obama receiving a honorary degree because of his policy preferences, such as abortion, have not reflected the Catholic morality.
The controversy over honoring Obama with a degree may not be the most impacting news story in the world, but it does speak volumes on the issue of morality and religion and how they intersect with politics.
Has anyone else noticed that Dick Cheney just won’t go away? Maureen Dowd of The New York Times has. Her take on Cheney as the new “Rogue Diva of Doom” after the jump.
By Ben Luongo
PoHo contributor
Only after Charlie Crist announced his bid for the Senate was Marco Rubio’s campaign message, to use his words, “coming into focus.” After Crist announced his Senate candidacy, Rubio aired his first attack ad which linked Crist to President Barack Obama. Rubio then went on Fox News to pitch his campaign and talk about why Crist is not the man for the job.
By Ben Luongo
PoHo contributor
It seems as though the threat of swine flu has died down. Despite that Florida has five confirmed cases and 22 probable cases, Florida high schools reopened their doors this week. This is because were finding out more and more that the swine flu isn’t all that different than a typical seasonal flu. If that’s the case, did the media and goverment overhype the threat of swine flu? Read the rest of this entry »
The first 100 days of the president’s administration is usually used as a report card to judge its success or gauge where it might be for the rest of its term. However, the closing of President Obama’s honeymoon may not even be the news headline as reports of Arlen Specter switching parties overshadows the president. This completely arbitrary 100th-day-mark might underscore more the status of the Republican Party than anything else.
By Ben Luongo
PoHo contributor
Ben Luongo is a USF political science graduate student. He will be graduating this spring.
Florida universities face serious budget cuts if the proposed House of Representatives budget (here’s a .pdf of its appropriations) for higher education goes through. The budget would cut $500 million in basic budget support and an additional $100 million in salaries.
What does this mean for our Florida Universities?
President Obama announced on Earth Day new initiatives to harness alternative energy including wind, solar, and ocean currents. During his speech, Obama made it clear that his new initiative was not only intended to address threats of climate change but could also create new jobs.
Now, the choice we face is not between saving our environment and saving our economy. The choice we face is between prosperity and decline…. The nation that leads the world in creating new energy sources will be the nation that leads the 21st-century global economy.
It is refreshing to finally have a president who recognizes that “environmentally friendly” doesn’t mean “bad for the economy.” A video (after the jump) demonstrates how a green economy can actually create jobs. The new initiative will lease federal waters to harness wind and ocean currents as a renewable source of energy. These facilities must be designed, materials need to be bought, their construction needs to be contracted, staff needs to maintain it – all are positions waiting to be filled.
By Ben Luongo
PoHo contributor
Ben Luongo is a USF political science graduate student. He will be graduating this spring.
I wanted to follow up on my last piece which was on the tea party protests, so I attended Tampa’s tea party at 5 p.m. on Wednesday. I previously wrote that the debate on Obama’s spending has suffered from the failure of both sides to provide reasons for their arguments. I therefore attended the event with the hopes of understanding some of the tea-partiers’ reasons for their concerns.
Here is what we talked about: Read the rest of this entry »
Conservatives have not been shy to voice their concerns about Obama and his stimulus plan, especially with their new fad, Tea Parties. More than 600 Tea Parties are planned nationwide on tax day Wednesday, according to taxdayteaparty.com. There will be around 40 to 50 Tea Parties here in our home state. However, its not clear as to what the concerns over the stimulus really are because the protests are rife with attacks calling Obama a “socialist” or “commander in thief.”
Check out the video from taxdayteaparty.com below:
However, the dumping of tea into rivers and lakes is not only a waste of tea, it’s a waste of an opportunity. I propose an alternative plan which will put that tea to good use:
By Ben Luongo
PoHo contributor
Ben Luongo is a USF political science graduate student. He will be graduating this spring.
Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, appeared on ‘Fox News Sunday’ with Chris Wallace this past weekend to discuss U.S. foreign policy. The major topic of discussion was North Korea’s probable launch in the next week. Concerning the launch, Wallace asked “and there’s nothing that we can do about it?”
By Ben Luongo
PoHo contributor
President Barack Obama announced on Friday his new Afghanistan/Pakistan strategy, which he says has a clear goal:
To disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al-Qaida in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to prevent their return to either country in the future. That is the goal that must be achieved. That is the cause that could not be more just. And to the terrorists who oppose us, my message is the same – we will defeat you.
Listen to his speech below:
To achieve this, Obama is sending an additional 4.000 U.S. troops to the 17,000 scheduled to be deployed to the region in the next couple of months. He is also sending a civilian “surge” which would include mostly diplomats and specialists.
Is this a good idea?
Read the rest of this entry »
By Ben Luongo
PoHo contributor
Ben Luongo is a USF political science graduate student. He will be graduating this spring.
Talk of the St. Pete Pier has dominated a lot of local discussion. Last week the City Council approved $40,000 in rent reductions to help out business owners. There is still talk in town, though, as to how much more the city should do to keep the pier afloat.
The Pier provides St. Pete with shopping, dining and tourism, and its upside down pyramid shape makes the Pier a landmark in the city. However, the Pier has a history that predates the retro-70s architecture that we have all come to know and love.
By Ben Luongo
PoHo contributor
Ben Luongo is a USF political science graduate student. He will be graduating this spring.
Let’s talk about condoms.
Remember when the ex-surgeon general, Joycelyn Elder, said that “the vows of abstinence break far more easily than latex condoms.” Teaching abstinence just doesn’t work as far as actually preventing people from having sex. it is our nature, our biology go find a mate and do it. So what does Pope Benedict XVI preach to HIV/AIDS stricken Africa? He told the region that “HIV/AIDS is a tragedy that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which can even increase the problem.”
What then is his solution…?
By Ben Luongo
PoHo contributor
Ben Luongo is a USF political science graduate student. He will be graduating this spring.
Last Thursday marked the six-year anniversary of the war with Iraq. During this time, the U.S. has lost more than 4,000 troops and Iraq civilian losses are estimated around 90,000. According to the National Priorities Project the war has cost more than $650 billion so far, and much more will be spent. Also according to them, Tampa taxpayers have paid more than $600 million in federal taxes towards the total Iraq war spending approved to date.
By Ben Luongo
PoHo contributor
Ben Luongo is a USF political science graduate student. He will be graduating this spring.
One of my posts last week, inspired by the human rights violation of California’s prop 8, discussed how the state should recognize the legal equality of all sexual orientations. Florida took a step in the right direction when Judge Cindy Lederman ruled that the laws restricting gay couples from adopting children were unconstitutional.
Martin Gill and his partner brought their case to the court wanting to adopt two brothers that they have been fostering. Lederman ruled that there was no “rational basis” for banning gay couples from adopting. The law banning gay men and lesbians from adopting was 31 years old and it was about time that it was challenged, especially since Florida was the only state with an outright ban on gays and lesbians adopting. This is not the end of the story, however. The decision has already been appealed by the state and is likely, after the appellate court rules, to be heard by Florida’s Supreme Court.
If Florida’s Supreme Court overturns the law then it would ban restrictions statewide, and it should. Here is why:
Read the rest of this entry »
By Ben Luongo
PoHo contributor
Ben Luongo is a USF political science graduate student. He will be graduating this spring.
I watched Dick Cheney’s first interview since he left the vice-presidency on John King’s State of the Union Sunday public affairs talker. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I shouldn’t have thought it would be different from any other Cheney interview. I knew that Cheney would continue to defend all of Bush’s Iraq war policies – he has always demonstrated unshakable confidence in previous interviews. However, his confidence in his decisions often makes him appear clueless to the consequences of those decisions.
Unfortunately, the interview was just another display of thoughtless and tiresome arguments, with the most aggravating statement said by Cheney being “with respect to Iraq, at the end of now six years, is that we have accomplished nearly everything that we had set out to do.”
Here is the problem with that line:
By Ben Luongo
PoHo contributor
Ben Luongo is a USF political science graduate student. He will be graduating this spring.
Tampa’s 15 billion gallon reservoir is now basically drained and the rainy season is months away. According to Tampa Bay Water spokeswomen Michelle Robinson, Tampa is now going to have to rely on both the underground water aquifer, which could increase the risk of sinkholes, and the small of amount of desalinated water from the plant.
When people think of Florida they might find it unlikely that it would suffer from a water shortage. However, after decades of development even a state surrounded by water is prone to shortages, and Florida is not the only one. According to a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, 36 states are projected to suffer water shortages in the next five years. Water shortage is a problem felt at local levels, like the city and state, but also at national and international levels. This means that efforts to remedy water shortages are going to require both state and federal solutions.
However, on a more individual level, there is stuff that we as Tampanians can do to reduce the amount of water that we use on a daily basis. Here are some easy and cheap examples:
By Ben Luongo
PoHo contributor
Ben Luongo is a USF political science graduate student. He will be graduating this spring.
Several hundred protesters took to the streets in San Francisco last week during a court hearing on Proposition 8, the amendment to the California Constitution that restricts same-sex marriage. Prop 8 was voted on in Nov. 2008 and followed a ruling in May that overturned restrictions on same-sex marriage. After that, California was in the business of marrying same-sex couples. This of course changed when California voted on Proposition 8 with 52 percent in favor of banning same-sex marriages. Now the court will have to rule on the validity of Prop 8.
By Ben Luongo
PoHo contributor
Ben Luongo is a USF political science graduate student. He will be graduating this spring.
The New York Times on Tuesday reported on a letter President Barack Obama sent to Russian president Dmitri Medvedev supposedly offering to terminate the development of the missile defense system in Europe if Russia became a key player in halting Iran’s nuclear program. Later that day, Obama clarified the content of the letter saying that the NYT article didn’t “accurately characterize the letter.”
“What I said in the letter is what I have said publicly, which is that the missile defense that we have talked about deploying is directed toward, not Russia, but Iran, and what I said … was that, obviously, to the extent that we are lessening Iran’s commitment to nuclear weapons, then that reduces the pressure for, or the need for a missile defense system.”
The NYT article may have mischaracterized the letter if it led readers to believe that the White House was using the missile defense system in Europe as a bargaining chip. I don’t believe that was the intention of the article nor do I think that Obama plans on using the system as a bargaining chip. There is another concern though – that the topic of the defense system even came up at all in the letter. Here’s why…
By Ben Luongo
PoHo contributor
Ben Luongo is a USF political science graduate student. He will be graduating this spring.
The idea of Rush Limbaugh filling the GOP’s power vacuum has dominated the media for the past month. The most obvious example was the TV ad paid by the Americans United for Change (AUFC), which claims that Republican senators are picking up their queues from Limbaugh.
The rationale for this ad, according to Brad Woodhouse, President of AUFC, is that “Limbaugh is the leader of the Republican Party. He says jump and Eric Cantor and other Republican leaders say how high.” To call Limbaugh the leader of the Republican Party is to lose the meaning of the word ‘leader’. He has no political power obviously, but as Fiore and Barabak from the L.A. Times put it, “Rush Limbaugh has his grip on the GOP microphone”.
The important question, however, isn’t how much influence Limbaugh has. His influence is apparent, especially now that CPAC honored him with the “Defender of the Constitution Award”. Assuming that he does have his finger on the conservative pulse, what we should ask is how Limbaugh will affect policies designed with the intention of “change,” and how will American respond to this.
The answer to this lies in the closing speech he gave to CPAC on Saturday.
By Ben Luongo
PoHo contributor
Ben Luongo is a USF political science graduate student. He will be graduating this spring.
Obama’s Congressional address was not the only speech the nation was eager to hear, but it was the only one that wasn’t a disaster. Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana delivered the response to Obama’s address Tuesday night and took on big government spending. Jindal said:
“In all these areas, Republicans want to work with President Obama. We appreciate his message of hope, but sometimes it seems we look for hope in different places. Democratic leaders in Washington — they place their hope in the federal government. We place our hope in you, the American people. In the end, it comes down to an honest and fundamental disagreement about the proper role of government. We oppose the National Democratic view that says the way to strengthen our country is to increase dependence on government. We believe the way to strengthen our country is to restrain spending in Washington, to empower individuals and small businesses to grow our economy and to create jobs.”
How did this go over?
