Terror in Colombia

I was shocked when I read this article, because it really reveals some of the horrors in this world. In Medellin, Colombia, there is constant gang violence and drug wars. In this particular article, there is an interview that involves two Hit-men, Red and C. There is much corruption in Columbia, and especially in Medellin, where even politicians are hiring Hit-men to rid their opponents.

According to the two men, Red and C, there is much chaos in their neighborhoods in Medellin, since authorities have locked up many gang lords so now there is a lot of chaos. Many drug wars have been fought and many people killed. Recently, in August, Samir Romero, someone who is apparently in these wars, was shot thirteen times. This caused a lot of grief for his relatives and you can see the anguish in the photos.



According to the interviews, the two Hit-men have the support of their neighborhood who they deliver food, probably provided by the drug lords of the area. They see it as a "kill or be killed" situation that is very hard to leave. They can either wind up in jail or end up dead in the streets. The authorities also have a huge problem catching all the drug lords, since more people will replace the jailed criminals. With Colombia's neighborhoods falling into poverty, more and more people are drawn into this chaos, and according to the C, one of the Hit-men, this chaos doesn't seem to have an end.

- Henry Zhang

Fact check on VP debate

Fact Check on Cost of Iraq combat v. Afghanistan reconstruction
In the Vice Presidential debate last night Joe Biden said that the United States spends "more money in three weeks on combat in Iraq than we spent on the entirety of the last seven years that we have been in Afghanistan building that country … or six-and-a-half years in Afghanistan." I think someone in class asked if this was true or not. Well according to figures from the Congressional Research Service he is right. However, Biden was only considering the costs of developement in Afghanistan, not the $17.2 billion the United States has spent on security in Afghanistan and $1.3 billion on "governance, rule of law, and human rights" efforts. In the debate Biden made it clear that he was referring to development projects only, and i thought he put a good spin on the information. Personally, i thought that Biden was referring to all US spending and was aghast that the US has spent so much money in combat in Iraq and so little in Afghanistan. Even after adding the other US spending in Afghanistan i still feel like the US should spend more money helping out in Afghanistan.

The VP debate for any of you who missed it on television last night. Enjoy :)

Political Cartoon

I am not sure if the animation is going to show up for this clip, but if it doesn't you can see it here. (Basically Bush says, "Look, John, the House GOP is saluting you...They're waving a finger. They must be chanting 'your #1'") This cartoon reminded me of when we were talking about the bailout in class. I remember someone saying that the House Republicans have basically abandoned John McCain, this cartoon reminded me of that.

Voting for President can be Hazardous to your Health

I read this article (linked in the title above) and said wow. Who knew that you had an 18% increase on election day to get in a car crash and die or that an additional 800 people suffer disabling injuries from car crashes on election day? I was skeptical at frist, but it appears that this data has been consisted for the last 8 elections. Even Roy Lucke, senior scientist at Northwestern University's Center for Public Safety, said the "science is good". So, on November 4th when you plan on getting in a car to drive to school, or to vote, or to go where ever drive safely because apparently many drivers experience a lot of "road rage" that lead to an increase in accidents. Drive Safely on November 4th...

Update on the Bailout Plan

On Wednesday the Senate plans to vote on the bailout plan that the House of Representatives failed to pass. If passed the bill includes new provisions like the raising of the FDIC insurance cap to $250,000. This raised cap will hopefully provide assurance to people and businesses and keep them from extracting their money from banks like during the Great Depression. The bill also has added tax breaks. Despite the failure of the first bailout plan to pass in the House of Representatives, most people seem confident that the bill will pass in the senate. In response to the confidence that the new version of the bailout plan will pass, the Dow Jones industrial average is up 485 points, or 4.7 percent.

Although the US' current economic situation resembles many of the events that happened before the Great Depression, i think the US is a long way off from the Great Depression II. The Great Depression II is always possible, but when I think of all the changes in the global economy it doesn't seem likely. In 1929, Europe was the only major economic player besides the US and they were in economic troubles in the 1920s. So when the United States economy crashed there was no backup. However, now the US is not the world's main economic player...theres China, India, and Europe. If the US economy does slump drastically there are other countries that could pick up our slack. And before people start freaking out that the US economy is doomed, they need to put in perspective that compared to Europe and China the US is not looking so good...but there are countries in Africa and other places across the world with unemployment rates as high as 75%.

I haven't taken economics yet so this could be totally wrong, but yeah...

Is Sarah Palin Hiding From the Media?

Compared to Joe Biden, Sarah Palin has done less interviews with the media. Interviews that she has done with the media have turned out disastrous, most notably here interview with Katie Couric (it looked like she was even reading notes when she was answering the questions...heres a clip of the interview if you missed it). Sarah Palin has failed to hold a major press conference which makes me question if she has something to hide or if she isn't prepared. As a potential Vice President of the US it makes me uneasy that she is so recluse from the media. The media has been extremely harsh on Sarah Palin, making fun of her for her claims on foreign policy and other comments she has made, so i understand if she is reluctant to talk to the media. However, I think that it is in her best interest to get more involved in the media after she has been given some time to learn about some issues in the US like the Bush Doctrine to try and prove to everyone that she is a good candidate for the VP. Maybe the VP debates coming up will giver her a chance to prover herself, but it could also be a chance for her to further prove to everyone that she is not prepared to be VP of the US. Either way I think that Biden has a difficult task in the VP debate. I think that he will have to be extremely careful not to come off as sexist or pompous.

UK Reaction to the Rejection of the Bailout Plan

Britain is currently facing many of the same problems as America like rising mortgage payments and soaring food and fuel costs along with the fear of a recession. The bank issues that the US is facing now closely mimics the bank issues that Britain is facing. For instance Washington Mutual, the giant mortgage lender which had assets valued at $307bn, was sold to its rival Citigroup around September 25. In Britain the mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley was nationalised on the 29th of September. The British government took control of the bank's £50bn mortgages and loans, while its savings operations and branches were sold to Spain's Santander.

The UK's reaction to the US House of Representatives rejection of the bailout plan seems to be very disappointed. Gordon Brown seems especially disappointed in the decision and claims that Britain has taken decisive action to ensure the stability of their system and will take whatever action necessary to ensure the stability of their system. With the failure of the bailout plan the uncertainties surrounding how banks will deal with their exposure to toxic loans and how credit markets can begin to operate more normally are left unsolved, I think the US and Britain are headed for even worse economic troubles. With Gordon Brown's claims of decisive action maybe Britain will come up with a solution to the current financial crisis. However, it appears that the Bush administration and congressional leaders are scrambling to reintroduce the bill again on Thursday. I don't think the bailout plan is the best idea but something needs to happen before the situations in the US and Britain gets even worse.