Recently a bill to repeal "Don't Ask Don't Tell" passed the US House of Representatives and was then sent to the Senate for a vote. Polls show that a large majority of Americans support repealing DADT, in fact a recent poll says that 77% of Americans support repealing DADT. Obviously Bob Corker doesn't care what Americans think.
Currently thousands of men and women are bravely serving our nation who, in order to get the chance to risk their lives for us, had to lie about who they are. They have to lie every day about who they are. When they come home from Iraq or Afghanistan they don't get off the plane or the boat and look out to see the most important person in the world. They can only look out and wish they wouldn't be risking their job if they ran out and gave their partner a hug and a kiss. Bob Corker obviously doesn't care about the brave men and women in our military forces.
Bob Corker cares so little about our service men and women and what the majority of Americans want that he wants to stop the vote on the repeal. In order to stop the vote he has announced that he will try and stop the vote on the START Treaty if the DADT vote comes up. The START Treaty will reduce the number of nuclear weapons in the world. Nuclear weapons that are currently aimed directly at the United States. This treaty will improve our national security and make us all safer. The START Treaty is supported by people like George Bush, Sr. and Jr. There is a long list of both Republicans and Democrats who support the passage of the START Treaty and who say that it is necessary for our national security. Bob Corker obviously doesn't care about our national security.
Bob Corker doesn't care about what the people of this country want. Bob Corker doesn't care about the brave members of our military. Bob Corker doesn't care about our national security. Bob Corker hates America and we should do everything in our power to make sure he doesn't get another term in the senate.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Monday, November 29, 2010
Repost
Approximately a year ago I posted the following blog post. I am reposting it because we now stand closer than we ever have to repealing the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy, the Pentagon says it doesn't benefit the military, poll after poll show that a clear majority of Americans want DADT repealed and yet certain members of the look like they are going to fight the repeal so as to make the repeal fail or at least to delay the vote. This is not about the military, this is not about what the people of this country want, this is about politicians reaching for power and favors and trying to keep themselves in office. Make this difficult for them, write your senators, both republicans and democrats and tell them to repeal this misguided program, tell them to stand up against any plans to delay voting on the repeal and tell them that one of the biggest issues of this past election was voters feeling like their representatives aren't listening to them. The people have spoken over and over again on this issue and now our Senators need to listen to us and act accordingly.
Find out how to contact your Senators here,
www.senate.gov
and take the time to contact them, then repost this information everywhere you can so the Senate has no choice but to listen to us and to start supporting our troops, all of our troops.
Find out how to contact your Senators here,
www.senate.gov
and take the time to contact them, then repost this information everywhere you can so the Senate has no choice but to listen to us and to start supporting our troops, all of our troops.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2009
Thoughts about a homecoming story.
Listening to the radio on my way home from work tonight I heard a reporter tell the stories of a few military families as they waited for their loved ones to return home from Iraq. They talked about their excitement and joy at getting to see their sons and daughters, husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, boyfriends and girlfriends again for the first time in many months. They talked about the pride they feel knowing that their loved one is sacrificing so much for their country. They talked about the sacrifices they themselves make, waiting at home, anticipating that next letter or call or email. Making sure that they take advantage of every chance to tell their sailor or marine how much they love them and how proud they are of them.
A few minutes into the story the magic moment arrived. In the background you could hear the sound of buses pulling up and a growing wave of cheers, shouts, and cries of joy. The reporter related in great detail the scene of uniformed men and women rushing from the buses and being swept up in a wall of hugs and tears and kisses. I could easily visualize the scene the reporter talked about and could feel how powerful and joyful of a moment this had to be for everyone involved.
Well almost everyone. The reporter then turned to a family who could only stand and watch as the other families greeted their returning heroes. The father in the family explained that it had been their plan all along to be there that day, to greet his son as he stepped off the bus, to give him the kind of hug that only seems to be possible after a long separation. Sadly this wouldn't be possible as their son had been killed in Iraq, still, they wanted to share a little bit of the joy the other families were feeling. It made my heart hurt a little less for them knowing that the other families were doing everything they could to help them through this, that they were willing to take a break from their celebrations to help this family who could only celebrate their memories, to acknowledge that they were all part of a bigger family, a military family, and that like any good family they would be there for each other to lean on.
I was still sad for one other group though, this group was never mentioned in the story, and it is possible that that particular day they weren't even there. I know that this forgotten group of American heroes is often present on days like this though and it saddens me greatly.
Imagine stepping off the bus having just returned from a long deployment, risking your life every day for the country you love. Imagine looking out into that sea of people waiting for the return of you and your fellow soldiers, sailors, airmen or marines. Imagine looking out into that crowd and not seeing the person that you love the most. Worse, imagine stepping off that bus and seeing the person that you love so much but not being able to run to him or her and throw your arms around them and kiss them with the passion you feel for them deep in your heart, a passion intensified by the months you have spent apart. Imagine the distance that separated you all those months seemed even greater because you had to temper all of your letters, your emails, your phone calls so as to keep your love for each other a secret. Imagine all of this. Imagine the loneliness, imagine the empty feeling you would have knowing that you have to wait to get that welcome home kiss, that "thank God you are back" embrace, and the reason that you have to wait is because of the government of the very country you have been risking your life for.
Thanksgiving is upon us and I think we owe it to the fine men and women who serve our country and who also just happen to be gay or lesbian to be able to get that kiss, that embrace upon seeing the person they love for the first time in months. They deserve to be able to serve their country as who they are, Americans. Americans who just happen to love someone of the same gender. We should let them be as thankful for living in this great country as we are, and that means never making them question why they are giving up so much to fight for a nation that is forcing them to live a lie.
A few minutes into the story the magic moment arrived. In the background you could hear the sound of buses pulling up and a growing wave of cheers, shouts, and cries of joy. The reporter related in great detail the scene of uniformed men and women rushing from the buses and being swept up in a wall of hugs and tears and kisses. I could easily visualize the scene the reporter talked about and could feel how powerful and joyful of a moment this had to be for everyone involved.
Well almost everyone. The reporter then turned to a family who could only stand and watch as the other families greeted their returning heroes. The father in the family explained that it had been their plan all along to be there that day, to greet his son as he stepped off the bus, to give him the kind of hug that only seems to be possible after a long separation. Sadly this wouldn't be possible as their son had been killed in Iraq, still, they wanted to share a little bit of the joy the other families were feeling. It made my heart hurt a little less for them knowing that the other families were doing everything they could to help them through this, that they were willing to take a break from their celebrations to help this family who could only celebrate their memories, to acknowledge that they were all part of a bigger family, a military family, and that like any good family they would be there for each other to lean on.
I was still sad for one other group though, this group was never mentioned in the story, and it is possible that that particular day they weren't even there. I know that this forgotten group of American heroes is often present on days like this though and it saddens me greatly.
Imagine stepping off the bus having just returned from a long deployment, risking your life every day for the country you love. Imagine looking out into that sea of people waiting for the return of you and your fellow soldiers, sailors, airmen or marines. Imagine looking out into that crowd and not seeing the person that you love the most. Worse, imagine stepping off that bus and seeing the person that you love so much but not being able to run to him or her and throw your arms around them and kiss them with the passion you feel for them deep in your heart, a passion intensified by the months you have spent apart. Imagine the distance that separated you all those months seemed even greater because you had to temper all of your letters, your emails, your phone calls so as to keep your love for each other a secret. Imagine all of this. Imagine the loneliness, imagine the empty feeling you would have knowing that you have to wait to get that welcome home kiss, that "thank God you are back" embrace, and the reason that you have to wait is because of the government of the very country you have been risking your life for.
Thanksgiving is upon us and I think we owe it to the fine men and women who serve our country and who also just happen to be gay or lesbian to be able to get that kiss, that embrace upon seeing the person they love for the first time in months. They deserve to be able to serve their country as who they are, Americans. Americans who just happen to love someone of the same gender. We should let them be as thankful for living in this great country as we are, and that means never making them question why they are giving up so much to fight for a nation that is forcing them to live a lie.
Deflation
So, indulge me for a few minutes here as I break into a discussion of macroeconomics and current US economic policy.
Currently the Federal Reserve Bank is doing its best to encourage inflation. By keeping interest rates as low as they can possibly keep them they are trying to get consumers and businesses to spend money and crank up demand. The government has also pumped a lot of newly printed money into the economy which tends to lower the value of the dollar which when combined with the theoretical increase in demand created by artificially low interest rates should cause prices to rise, in other words, inflation.
Why would the Fed want to cause inflation? Simple, it is relatively easy to control inflation as you can simply raise interest rates and quell demand. So if something less than positive has to happen the Fed seems to think that inflation is the way to go, especially since the alternative, deflation, scares the guys at the Fed more than almost anything else in the world.
So let's talk about deflation for a second. Deflation is basically a way of saying that prices are falling, which of course sounds great. We all love getting a deal and walking into a store to find that everything is cheaper than it was the week before sounds like a pretty exciting prospect, especially when this happens during a bad economy and so many of us are watching our spending so closely.
This is where it gets tricky though, you see deflation is often times caused by a bad economy causing consumers and businesses to reduce their spending. As demand decreases manufactures reduce production and reduce their workforces, these layoffs cause an even greater reduction in demand which also leads to a reduction in prices to try and clear old merchandise off of stores shelves. This reduction in prices is of course, deflation. So prices start dropping, but they tend to drop in a rather gradual manner. Consumers knowing that prices are dropping can then enter something of a waiting game, patiently holding off on purchasing to see just how low the price might go. So even while prices are dropping consumers may still not spend at levels to raise demand to levels that would inspire companies to hire and even worse these same companies are making less money on each item sold and so they might even result to further layoffs to save money. This out of control downward trend is known as a "deflationary spiral" and there isn't much the Federal Reserve Bank can do to slow it down once it starts. Many believe the Great Depression can be explained as a deflationary spiral.
Add to this the fact that deflation hurts borrowers. When we enter a deflationary period we know that prices go down, this decrease in price is accompanied by an increase in the value of the dollar as each dollar can buy more. If you take out a loan with set monthly payments, of say $300.00, then as prices decline, but your loan payments remain the same, then you are actually paying more each month as your $300.00 has gone up in value.
Let's look at our current economic situation. Demand is low because of high unemployment and a slow economy. Savings rates are higher than they have been in years which reduces the amount of currency in circulation and would tend to increase the value of the dollar. So it seems that we should be experiencing deflation right now. But we aren't.
Currently we are experiencing very low levels of inflation, barely over 1%, but prices are still rising when it seems that they should be dropping. Why is this? Well the Fed's effort to spur inflation is working, just not in the way it should. Instead of low interest rates increasing demand, which isn't happening to any great extent (banks are still rather hesitant to loan money and so the lower interest rates aren't allowing consumers and businesses to spend more) what they are doing is, however, having an effect on the value of the dollar on the international currency market. The dollar has been maintaining a fairly low value against other currencies because of the low interest rates set by the Fed, this means that the price of imported goods, which are much of what we buy these days, stays up and, in my opinion, is responsible for keeping us from entering a deflationary period.
But just as prices aren't dropping as we might have expected them to several decades ago before the manufacture and production of so many of the goods and items we purchase shifted to other countries so of the negative aspects of deflation might not occur as we would expect.
Lets say the Fed started promoting deflation instead of inflation. The first thing the Fed would do is raise interest rates. Currently I think this would have a very minor impact on demand in the US economy as banks won't be any less likely to loan money with high interest rates than they have been with low interest rates, in fact they might be willing to loan more cash as they would see higher possible profits once interest rates were raised. Raising interest rates would cause an increase in investor demand for US currency though as the value of our currency increased. This would cause money to be removed from circulation which would cause a further increase in the value of the dollar and a decrease in the prices consumers pay at the store.
If the value of the dollar increased quickly enough and prices fell fast enough I don't think we would see consumers waiting for even lower prices, especially if there is pent up demand that lower prices could tap into by overcoming consumer caution. We also wouldn't see major layoffs in the US as most of the manufacturing jobs negatively impacted by deflation have already moved out of the US and those jobs wouldn't be as negatively impacted because the reduction in the end prices paid by consumers would be offset by the increase in the value of the dollar being paid to these foreign manufacturers.
So we could see reduced prices, increased demand, and no real unemployment threat if we venture into deflationary territory. Yes, borrowers would still be negatively impacted, but the current economic situation is hurting them just as much. So please, if anyone reading this knows someone at the Fed tell them to reconsider their forecasting models, it seems they would have worked great 40 years ago, but they come up short in the global economy. Go Deflation!
Currently the Federal Reserve Bank is doing its best to encourage inflation. By keeping interest rates as low as they can possibly keep them they are trying to get consumers and businesses to spend money and crank up demand. The government has also pumped a lot of newly printed money into the economy which tends to lower the value of the dollar which when combined with the theoretical increase in demand created by artificially low interest rates should cause prices to rise, in other words, inflation.
Why would the Fed want to cause inflation? Simple, it is relatively easy to control inflation as you can simply raise interest rates and quell demand. So if something less than positive has to happen the Fed seems to think that inflation is the way to go, especially since the alternative, deflation, scares the guys at the Fed more than almost anything else in the world.
So let's talk about deflation for a second. Deflation is basically a way of saying that prices are falling, which of course sounds great. We all love getting a deal and walking into a store to find that everything is cheaper than it was the week before sounds like a pretty exciting prospect, especially when this happens during a bad economy and so many of us are watching our spending so closely.
This is where it gets tricky though, you see deflation is often times caused by a bad economy causing consumers and businesses to reduce their spending. As demand decreases manufactures reduce production and reduce their workforces, these layoffs cause an even greater reduction in demand which also leads to a reduction in prices to try and clear old merchandise off of stores shelves. This reduction in prices is of course, deflation. So prices start dropping, but they tend to drop in a rather gradual manner. Consumers knowing that prices are dropping can then enter something of a waiting game, patiently holding off on purchasing to see just how low the price might go. So even while prices are dropping consumers may still not spend at levels to raise demand to levels that would inspire companies to hire and even worse these same companies are making less money on each item sold and so they might even result to further layoffs to save money. This out of control downward trend is known as a "deflationary spiral" and there isn't much the Federal Reserve Bank can do to slow it down once it starts. Many believe the Great Depression can be explained as a deflationary spiral.
Add to this the fact that deflation hurts borrowers. When we enter a deflationary period we know that prices go down, this decrease in price is accompanied by an increase in the value of the dollar as each dollar can buy more. If you take out a loan with set monthly payments, of say $300.00, then as prices decline, but your loan payments remain the same, then you are actually paying more each month as your $300.00 has gone up in value.
Let's look at our current economic situation. Demand is low because of high unemployment and a slow economy. Savings rates are higher than they have been in years which reduces the amount of currency in circulation and would tend to increase the value of the dollar. So it seems that we should be experiencing deflation right now. But we aren't.
Currently we are experiencing very low levels of inflation, barely over 1%, but prices are still rising when it seems that they should be dropping. Why is this? Well the Fed's effort to spur inflation is working, just not in the way it should. Instead of low interest rates increasing demand, which isn't happening to any great extent (banks are still rather hesitant to loan money and so the lower interest rates aren't allowing consumers and businesses to spend more) what they are doing is, however, having an effect on the value of the dollar on the international currency market. The dollar has been maintaining a fairly low value against other currencies because of the low interest rates set by the Fed, this means that the price of imported goods, which are much of what we buy these days, stays up and, in my opinion, is responsible for keeping us from entering a deflationary period.
But just as prices aren't dropping as we might have expected them to several decades ago before the manufacture and production of so many of the goods and items we purchase shifted to other countries so of the negative aspects of deflation might not occur as we would expect.
Lets say the Fed started promoting deflation instead of inflation. The first thing the Fed would do is raise interest rates. Currently I think this would have a very minor impact on demand in the US economy as banks won't be any less likely to loan money with high interest rates than they have been with low interest rates, in fact they might be willing to loan more cash as they would see higher possible profits once interest rates were raised. Raising interest rates would cause an increase in investor demand for US currency though as the value of our currency increased. This would cause money to be removed from circulation which would cause a further increase in the value of the dollar and a decrease in the prices consumers pay at the store.
If the value of the dollar increased quickly enough and prices fell fast enough I don't think we would see consumers waiting for even lower prices, especially if there is pent up demand that lower prices could tap into by overcoming consumer caution. We also wouldn't see major layoffs in the US as most of the manufacturing jobs negatively impacted by deflation have already moved out of the US and those jobs wouldn't be as negatively impacted because the reduction in the end prices paid by consumers would be offset by the increase in the value of the dollar being paid to these foreign manufacturers.
So we could see reduced prices, increased demand, and no real unemployment threat if we venture into deflationary territory. Yes, borrowers would still be negatively impacted, but the current economic situation is hurting them just as much. So please, if anyone reading this knows someone at the Fed tell them to reconsider their forecasting models, it seems they would have worked great 40 years ago, but they come up short in the global economy. Go Deflation!
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