Republican Bil Passed by the Sate of Wisconsin

This past Friday the Wisconsin State Assemply passed a Republican bill to strip most public workers of their collective bargaining rights. The people of Wisconsin have not lost their rights yet. The bill still has to pass the state Senate. Since news of the bill passing by the Assembly, 14 Democratic senators have feld the state to Illinois to prevent from voting on the bill. This bill has been protested by thousands and many have urged the 14 senators to come back and debate the issue. Republican Governor Scott Walker said that if Wisconsin legislature does not pass his bill, state aid could be cut by $1 billion. Walker said, " Wisconsin State employees have the strongest civil protections in the country, That's not going to change in this bill. It's not about the union boss coming in from other parts of the country. It's about whether we protect the taxpayers and the workers." However, Walker was recorded during a prank call discussing the idea of luring the Democrats away to talk to the assembly while the 19 Republicans settle the bill. Wisconsin faces a $137 million budget shortfall by June 30 and a $3.6 billion gap by 2013.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/02/25/wisconsin.budget.bill/index.html#

Democrats try to Cut Nascar

Everyone knows that the government is starting to cut back on funds that are unnecessary. Democrat Betty McCollum proposed cutting the Pentagon's sponsorship of Nascar and is supported by at least one more house democrat even though this move would break a ten year relationship between the US military and Nascar. In 2010 the US gave $7 million to Nascar in sponsorship and $11.6 million in 2009, which is a lot of money to spend on cars racing around in a circle. I am not a Nascar fan and also feel like this is a waste of money. If the US military decides to no longer sponsor Nascar then Nascar will find other sponsors instead. Nascar is not going to disappear. However, some feel like Nascar is good recruitment for the military since 1 in 3 people in the military are Nascar fans, but I agree with the opinion of those who feel that Nascar did not help them decide to join the military as they watched the go army car drive around the track. These people in the military are just fans, and I think that declining further sponsorship of Nascar would be a wise decision.
http://www.theweek.com/article/index/212262/democrats-vs-nascar

Mubarak's Surprising Choice Not to Resign

Hosni Mubarak, the President of Egypt, has deceived everyone from Egypt's military to President Obama. Mubarak gave a highly anticipated speach Thursday evening through which he implied he was going to step down from office. In this speech he claimed that he was not stepping down but simply giving more power to his vice president Omar Suleiman. Officials were atonished, claiming that this is not what they were told. The officials were not the only ones who were told President Mubarak was going to resign. Obama was expecting this as well and was probably left feeling confused and embarrassed. Obama was left disrespected and looking like a fool, which shows the US is no longer as strong of a country as we once were.  Protesters reacted violently, and his speach can only lead to more violence in Cairo. History could be in the making but not smooth peaceful history, history of violence and anger against a power hungry dictator. Nothing positive can come from this decision.
  http://theweek.com/article/index/212017/mubaraks-refusal-to-resign-did-he-just-make-things-worse

Obama and Russia Create a New Nuclear Arms Treaty

Many people are scared of the idea of more and more countries possessing nuclear arms. Nuclear arms are powerful and not only need to be handled responsibly but there also needs to be knowledge and an agreement between countries about how many each can possess. Wednesday, Obama signed documents for America's new nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia. This consensus is known as the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty ( New START) and is replacing START 1, which expired in December 2009. The treaty is meant to lower the large amounts of strategic nuclear weapons in both countries from the current capacity of 2,200 warheads and 700 launchers to 1,550 warheads. This agreement also requires the resumption of inspecetion of nuclear weapons. Obama said this is, " The most significant arms control agreement in nearly two decades." I think this is a good move because both the US and Russia have a large amount of nuclear weapons, which can be threatening to other countries, increasing their chances of competing. We should have enough to defend our country if we ever needed to, which I hope so much is never the case. But we do not need such a large amount that other countries are uneasy about it.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/02/02/obama.start/index.html#

2010 Sinner and Winners Awards

This past year PR occupations have become more demanding of a professionals time and effort than ever before for both political and celebrity figures. Politicians and celebrities have been know to publicly skrew up, leaving a mess for their PR to clean up. When I read the results of the sinners and winners awards I first started laughing because I totally agreed with some of them, then I thought to myself how I would hate to be their publicist. One of the most deserved awards was the CEO of the Year Award given to Tony Hayward who said the BP situation was a little more than a "modest spill". Needless to say it was a little more, and BP stepped up, claimed the disaster as their fault, and offered to pay for damdges and cleanup. I love that they called Hayward's reaction to medication " foot in the mouth disease". This was very clever and sarcastic, which made it humorous. My other favorite award was the Not Knowing When to "Fold Em" Award, given to Bret Farve. He was a football icon and even a hero to some. Farve had the good family man image, and was a sponsor for many compnanies until he started testing his good reputation. He was on the top of football charts, and now he is only on the top of headlines. He should have stayed retired while he still had a respectable reputation. The sinners and winners awards are very pessimistic but entertaining and truthful. They sum up 2010 accurately.