Honors American Studies: March 2012

Friday, March 30, 2012

Shell Chief: Energy Prices too Cheap to Change Consumption

On Friday March 23, Peter Voser, President of Shell gas said that “for certain things energy prices need to be expensive….If you look at the world prices today I would say the prices are too high because they reflect geopolitical issues. But I would also say it will not go down too much because it will not otherwise allow industry to develop enough to supply.” The reasoning of this is because gas prices are based on the law of supply and demand, and when you factor international conflict with countries like Iran (most of our oil is from the middle east) the gas prices are going to increase. To see dramatic changes in gas usage, Voser believes the prices need to spike much higher. But to avoid this, he wants America to turn to renewable energy sources. Already, Shell gas company has invested in 80 MegaWatts of Photovalics to solar energy (for those who don’t know, photovalics is when solar radiation is converted into current energy).In addition to these energy inefficiencies comes water inefficiencies. There is a predicted water shortage of 40%, something that will surely raise the costs of water. Furthermore, it doesn't help that 15% of our US water is lost each year through leaky pipes. Shell has also stated it is working on some Carbon Capture and Sequestration projects to limit the amount of CO2 emitted int the atmosphere. (caps carbon emissions). In addition, Voser is also a supporter of California’s cap and Trade carbon emissions policy, which puts a carbon cap on the amount of emissions companies can use. Last week, Shell has signed an agreement to invest in Shale oil along with China. Shale oil is thought to have less carbon emissions than coal and it is expected to lower gas prices since there is an abundance of it in the US. Furthermore, another issue coming to international attention is that our global population is increasing exponentially. As more countries become developed the need for energy is greater. In fact, Voser states, "We estimate that the energy demand will double from now until 2050 - 90% of that will be in non EOCD countries and half of that will be in China. This doubling will only happen if we can solve some of the energy efficiency problems."

Thus overall, our world is in no way sustainable and as we continue to use natural nonrenewable resources, the price of necessities like oil and water will keep increasing unless companies like shell and other large corporations can start investing in energy efficient technology or alternative energy resources.

Do you think that renewable resources are a better alternative to the pollution we are emitting? If so, why do you suppose more companies aren't turning to these alternative resources and what can be done to encourage more companies and developing countries to invest in renewable resources?

http://energy.aol.com/2012/03/23/shell-chief-energy-prices-too-cheap-to-change-consumption/?icid=related3

Monday, March 26, 2012

Obama Defends His Policy on Oil Pipeline

President Barack Obama made a speech in Cushing, Oklahoma about his policies on the oil drilling in America. He made it clear that they were not paying attention to the increased oil production and were misleading about the causes of the rising gas prices. He stated “And anyone who says that just drilling more will bring gas prices down just is not playing it straight.” He then continued to acknowledge that Americans are drilling and producing more on their own but it is still not enough to bring gas prices down overnight.

He also emphasized that even if we drill every little bit of the US there will still not be enough oil to supply the whole country. We would still have to import an enormous amount of oil from the other countries. Also by drilling in the United States it will not make gas prices go down any noticeable amount any time soon, nor will it produce long term supplies for our country. The reason why the gas prices were sky rocketing is because we get our oil from the Middle East and when tensions rise over there the the global market pricing rises all over the world not just for us.

Obama also visited Ohio State University, he said because we are being smarter and doing things better we have reduced the amount of oil we have to have imported. He also said that since he has taken office in 2009 our dependency on oil has gone down every year showing that he indeed is making changes that people are overlooking.

Others such as Rick Santorum are saying that Obama is "against everything that will create economic incentives to drill." Arizona Senator Jon Kyl agrees with everything Obama's doing but does not like how he is lacking taking action and is just keeping his plans in words. Obama followed up his speeches by adding that he is making the oil pipeline a priority and as long as he is president he is going to keep encouraging oil development and infrastructure and he is going to do it in a way that protects the health and safety of his American people.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/22/politics/obama-energy-tour/index.html?iref=allsearch

Do you think drilling in the US is a good thing or bad thing and will it ever make an impact in reducing gas prices for any time in the future? Also do you think he is just making this an important issue now so he has a better chance of being reelected?

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Could Gas Prices Be Raised to 5 Dollars by the Summer

The title of my article is Will Gas Prices Be Obamas Achilles Heel. Some background about the author is that Ford C. O’Connell is a republican strategist who worked on the McCain-Palin campaign in 2008 and is also a chairman of CivicForumPAC which is an organization that promotes conservative activism.

So, the dramatic increase in gas prices could become the issue that slows the economy, could stall the recovery and sink Obamas chances at a second term. O’Connell says that he is shocked that Obama has handled this issue so poorly. Even though Presidents can’t do much to lower gas prices, people must acknowledge that they are doing everything in their power to ease the suffering. 65 percent of Americans tell pollsters that they disapprove of Presidents handling the gas prices.

Nationwide, gas prices have reached 3 dollars and 87 cents, which is the highest price ever recorded in March. Gas prices are even expected to rise more as the summer season approaches.

O’Connell says the popular opinion could tae a strong turn against Obama if the situation is not taken under control by the summer because Americans do not want to be paying 5 dollars for gas by the summer.

Even if Obama did change his policies, it wouldn’t dramatically increase domestic oil supplies in the short run.

Former President George W. Bush confronted a similar topic about gas prices spiking during summer and spring of 2008. He lifted an executive branch moratorium on oil and gas exploration in the Outer Continental Shelf region in order to jumpstart production.

Obama is leaning towards dipping into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which might work because it does not actually increase production.

The Republican candidates want to seize the moment and push for an energy policy that would serve the interests of the middle class.

Also, President Obamas Energy Information says we will need almost as much gasoline for transportation in 20 years as we consume today.

Republican hopeful, Newt Gingrich, says we should tap into proven homegrown reserves in High Plains in Alaska. This approach can help drive down oil prices for the short term and create jobs and provide new revenue streams for the government.

In October of 1973, there was an oil crisis in America. Members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries proclaimed an oil embargo. This was in response to the United States decision to re-supply the Israeli military during the Yom Kippur War. This oil crisis lasted until March 1974. With the United States actions initiating the oil embargo and the long term possibility of high oil prices, disrupted supply and recession, a strong rift was created with NATO. To address this development, the Nixon Administration began making negotiations with Arab oil producers to end the oil embargo. The promise of a negotiated settlement between Syria and Israel was sufficient enough to convince Arab oil producers to lift the embargo in March of 1974.

Obama has based his re-election hopes on an economic recovery. If gas prices don’t go down soon, then consumer spending will decrease because of the gas prices. If consumer spending is slow, then Obama could potentially find himself not getting re-elected in November of this year.

Question - Do you agree with what OConnell is saying, that Obamas chances of being reelected in November are slim because of gas prices. And would you be willing to pay 5 dollars for gas if it does reach that.

Conn. workers call for raising the minimum wage

February 29, 2012

The people of Connecticut are fighting to pass a bill that will increase the minimum wage for their state. The bill would take affect in the month of July raising the minimum wage up to 9 dollars an hour. Then it would increase the minimum wage again the following year to $9.75. The people say that the minimum wage is tied to the rising inflation problem and should continue to rise accordingly. If this bill is passed then the current nearly 106,000 people earning minimum wage would have there pay increased and about eighty percent of the people are over twenty years old. If this bill passed Conneticut would have one of the highest minimum wage rates in the country. There are two sides for this bill the people who want to see it passed and the people who want to see it fail.

-For:

-$8.25 an hour or around $17,000 a year for full-time employment — puts the state's low-wage workers below the poverty line.

- increasing the minimum wage would help put more money back into the economy, because the workers would have more spending cash.

-Margot Dorfman, chief executive officer of the U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce, who testified at the hearing, said raising the minimum wage would help level the playing field for women-owned businesses. Dorfman said these businesses, as a whole, tend to pay employees above the minimum wage. She said requiring big-box stores to raise their minimum wage payments would help female-owned businesses compete.

Against:

-could discourage employers from hiring new workers, resulting in potential job losses.

-Andrew Markowski, the state's director of the National Federation of Independent Businesses, said raising the minimum wage would be devastating for small business owners under the current economic conditions. He said NFIB members in Connecticut would suffer under the increase as small businesses are still recovering from last year's tax increases and did not include the raise in their budgets...."Increasing the minimum wage is a good idea wrapped in bad policy," he said.

The current national minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. At least 18 states have set a minimum wage exceeding the national requirement. Should the people of Connecticut pass this bill and change the minimum wage up to $9 an hour and then increase it again the following year or should they decline this bill? If you could vote which side would you choose and why?

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

The Constitutionality of Healthcare

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Joe Biden's Speech Against Republic Candidates

Yesterday on March 15, 2012, at a United Auto Workers hall in Toledo, Ohio, Vice President Joe Biden criticized economic policies of the Republican presidential contenders, Mitt Romeny, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum. He harshly states, “If you give any one of these guys the keys to the White House, they will bankrupt the middle class once again," Biden told autoworkers in Ohio. What Biden is referring to here is when we had the automotive industry crisis in 2008, where General Motors, Ford and Chrysler filed for bankruptcy. When President Obama heard this news he said how, “The auto industry is the backbone of American manufacturing and a critical part of our attempt to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.” So he knew quickly that the government needed to fix this issue. The government came to a decision of $25 billion in loans for the automotive industries to help them get back on track. This loan eventually did help the Big Three also known as Detroit, but at its expense, these companies had to set cut-offs and layoff salaried employees cutting between $5 million and $1 billion capital expenditures in both 2009 and 2010. After this major crisis for the automotive industries it hurt their businesses severely which had auto sales sliding further. This is what Biden felt necessary to bring up again four years later to prove his point that the GOP candidates had already crucially messed up before and he doesn’t want to let it happen again.
One point that Joe Biden makes clear in his speech was when he said, “These guys have a fundamentally different economic philosophy. We're about promoting the private sector. They're about protecting the privileged sector." By private sector he means, the part of the economy that is not state controlled, and is run by individuals and companies for profit. He supports the middle class in making their own hardworking money, where as the GOP candidates are only interested in protecting that 1 % at all costs, they support increasing the payroll tax, which President Obama lowered so working Americans can keep more of what they earn and help our economy grow. Parallel to this, Iowa Democratic Party Chairwoman Sue Dvorsky says, “The Republican candidates’ economic policies offer more of the same failed policies that say that everything will be fine if we just give more to the folks at the top. Their policies offer new, large tax breaks for the wealthy while increasing the burden on the middle class – and the flat tax is no exception. The flat tax would radically restructure our country’s tax system and does nothing to make the economy fairer for hard-working Americans. In fact, it does exactly the opposite.”
So in all, Vice President Joe Biden makes clear to us that he believes and knows that the GOP candidates, Mitt Romeny, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum are not fit for elections in November. They will ruin this country in bankruptcy and hurt the middle class badly. He stands by Obama for the elections hoping for a second term. And until then will seek to let our citizens know who is looking out for our best interests, and will improve this economy as a country.

QUESTION: Do you agree with Vice President Joe Bidens "promoting the private sector" or the Republican candidates "promoting the privileged sector?" Explain why.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Shayna's Current Event: Racism at St. Paul's Middle School

Earlier this year, in Minneapolis, at St. Paul’s middle school, Tim Olmsted, who is a sixth-grade teacher, was placed on paid leave due to racial discrimination. Latasha
Tolbert, a mother of one of one of Mr. Olmsted’s students, said Mr. Olmsted
told her daughter that she would be standing on the corner with a sign begging
for money on the expressway. Mrs. Tolbert told the principle this and was
shocked by the lack action taken on Mr. Olmsted. Mr. Olmsted also told the
whole class that it is easier for him to teach rich white folks than poor black
people. This is complete discrimination and needs to have action taken to end
this discrimination. This can be related back to the segregation of schools
because even though this school is not segregated, this teacher treats kid poorly
if you are a minority group. Tolbert said the discrimination started in her
daughter’s class months ago. At the time, five of the students in Olmsted’s
class were black. Tolbert said all of them were singled out at some point for
the color of their skin. Meg
Kane, the attorney for the families that are filing racial discrimination
charges against Mr. Olmsted, says that known of the students have ever been any
trouble. The children told Kane that all of them had to sit at the back of the
class. Kane said Olmsted called them “fat, black, and stupid,” and said such
things as “You will never amount to anything” and “You only have one parent.” However,
this is not the only racial discrimination case in the U.S; Attorney General Erik
Holder is claiming that minority groups are being discriminated against in
schools everywhere. He is stating that some school administrators are enforcing
the disciplinary code more towards minority groups and only those groups. He
states “83 percent of African American male students
and 74 percent of Hispanic male students ended up in trouble and suspended for
some period of time.” However, Erik Holder ignores the statistics that 59
percent of white males are also disciplined. However, even Erik Holder
statistics are a little shady, if does not erase that fact that discrimination
is still occurring in schools. The integration of schools was meant to end
discrimination but clearly, there are still people out there that take it upon
themselves, like Mr. Olmsted, that ignore the fact that everyone is created equal
and there are no differences among any races, and are just racists and always
be.

Question: Do you think St. Paul's Middle school should have taken quicker action against Mr. Olmsted? Do you think discrimination against minority groups in schools should have more media attention?

Friday, March 9, 2012

Gainesville High School Teens Creates Racist YouTube Video

Two teenage girls from Gainesville, Florida posted a YouTube video including a racist rants directed at their black classmates, complaining about their diction and supposed lack of intelligence. The video is linked below, it’s definitely worth watching. In the video, the girls made points saying that black teenagers abuse the welfare system and that they get pregnant on purpose to keep getting a welfare check instead of getting an education. Also, one of the girls said “You can understand what we are saying, our accents, we use actual words. Black people do not.” They compared the black population between blacks and n*ggers. They stated that black people strive to achieve while n*ggers just get pregnant and don’t make a life for themselves. The principal of the high school, David Shelnutt, didn’t go into detail of their punishment, but he did say that their comments were no welcome and that there is “no place for that in society.” Once the video went viral, the two girls experienced heavy harassment and feared their safety. One of the girls even hid at a relative’s house while her mother was at work. The two girls publicly applied in a local newspaper and they stated that they weren’t “raised to hate people for their race, and [they] still don’t.” The high school wore orange, the color of race tolerance, for the week as a sigh of solidarity. Eventually, the girls were forced to leave Gainesville High School.

I related this event back to Kymberly Wimberly, who was the top of her graduating class with nearly straight As, honors and AP classes. She was originally valedictorian, but the principal decided to make her co-valedictorian along with a white male student with visible lower graders than she. It was not made clear if it was because she was black, but many believe it to be the case. Also, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was meant to end all types of discrimination and segregation against blacks. So, when these types of stories come up in the news, it just shows that people in our country are still discriminatory and that it is still a problem, even though it is a federal law.

Do you believe there is a possible way to completely abolish discrimination in our country? Explain why or why not.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Jeff's Current Event

Barack Obama, being the first African American President of the United States, has been surrounded by the controversy of his race and whether or not he was born in this country since the days prior to and following his election. In most recent events, Montana’s Chief Federal Judge forwarded a racist chain e-mail to President Obama’s e-mail address. Cebull claimed that it was sent with a political message and with no racist intentions. A report on the Great Falls Tribune newspaper quoted the message:

“Normally I don't send or forward a lot of these, but even by my standards, it was a bit touching. I want all of my friends to feel what I felt when I read this. Hope it touches your heart like it did mine.

A little boy said to his mother, 'Mommy, how come I'm black and you're white?' His mother replied, 'Don't even go there Barack! From what I can remember about that party, you're lucky you don't bark!'"

Cebull “publicly acknowledged his misconduct” and Appellate Court executive Cathy Catterson stated “Judge Cebull has initiated the process by which a complaint of judicial misconduct will be brought against him. The Judicial Council is expected to act expeditiously in investigating and resolving this matter." President and CEO of the left-leaning nonprofit Common Cause, Bob Edgar, believes that “If he has any respect for his office and for ideals of equality and human dignity on which our country was founded, Judge Cebull will step down today.” There are no definite ways of removing federal judges from office. If the situation escalates Congress could initiate impeachment proceedings, In which case the judge would most likely resign before actions would be put into place.

What do you think should happen to Judge Cebull? How would you respond to this e-mail if you were President Obama?

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Race Data and Statistics

Click here to view three documents that provide insight on race relations in the Commonwealth.

When analyzing the data, determine trends that continue to appear with regard to connections between race and class. Comment here, by group.

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