Powers on Politics Issue XIII

POWERS ON POLITICS
ISSUE XIII
There are things that I believe that I shall never say, but I shall never say things
I do not believe.


Happy New Year: Yeah! It’s a new year with a new president nearly in the White House, and the USA is about to see what exactly it was they were voting for. Now I know some of you are pretty sure who you were voting against, but I’m sure that President Elect Obama will give us a few surprises yet.
With the new year comes our (because without someone reading this why should I keep typing it?) Powers on Politics newsletter and hopefully it doesn’t go anywhere. Trust me I don’t think that anyone but us selected few even know it exists-so we’re probably safe. Hopefully I can continue to come up with new things to type about…or at least a certain someone will keep giving me things to discuss. With that firmly in mind let’s begin this the first issue of Powers on Politics of 2009.


Ice Age Coming: Breaking news has just been made up in my brain! Everyone has to know what’s coming and I believe it’s my job-like it was Al Gore’s job-to let you all know. A new Ice Age is about to cover the earth! Indeed this catastrophe is already occurring outside my very window! There is snow and ice everywhere, and the sun is only barely managing to peak out of the thick cloud cover. What’s worse is that all the trees have lost their leaves, and crops are no longer growing! People I’m not just making this up, this is serious. Scientists are saying that the polar ice is thickening more than it ever has before, and that this has been the coldest winter on record in many places all over the world! There is only one solution for this problem!
Everyone turn on your vehicles in the driveway and let them idle for an hour, run through your houses and begin turning on appliances and just leave them plugged in! We have to combat this, if Al Gore is correct we have literally non-polluted ourselves out of Global Warming and are now heading to the extreme in the other direction. In order to stabilize the climate we are going to have to begin to take the opposite extreme measures every other day. Today we’ll turn on everything and pollute, tomorrow we’ll save gas and make sure that toaster is not stuck in the wall! With your help I know we can prevent the ultimate demise of our planet, so stand with me for Global Stabilization!
Do you see how silly this is? How ridiculous I just sounded for all of two paragraphs? I hope you were all rolling your eyes begging for me to stop this nonsense, but I was actually demonstrating something. I took things that I’d heard on the news-things I saw outside my very own window and blew them out of proportion. Does that sound familiar? For those of you who do still believe-or did believe-or whatever in Global Warming did any of this sound familiar? Or was I missing the graphs? I could add some in. But I won’t…it’s just utter silliness. What we are trying to accomplish with this little article is to prove the stupidity with more stupidity. If I can show you something, or tell you something the same way that someone like Al Gore does and you look at it and say… “What is wrong with you?” Why should you not be doing the same thing with him? Just an experiment I wanted to hold, and I hope we all learned something.

p.s-If any of you would like to tell me what you thought of this-or what you were thinking when I started this article I’d love to hear reactions. Please and thank you!


Gaza Strip Conflict: I’m sure that everyone who has heard even a smallest trace of news has heard that there is a big fight going on in the Gaza Strip between Israel and these guys Hamas. I’m going to try my best to explain a bit of what’s going on. This explanation may well take up enough space so that there are only two topics here in this issue, but to me I think it’ll be worth it.
First we need to know who Hamas is. Though I hate to say it I managed to find the most basic and unbiased information on Hamas on Wikipedia, so I’ll quote them but I highly encourage you to go make sure the facts are straight-what I’ve gone through between Wiki and other sites seems to be right together. “(حماس Ḥamās, an acronym of حركة المقاومة الاسلامية Ḥarakat al-Muqāwamat al-Islāmiyyah, meaning "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni paramilitary organization and political party which holds a majority of seats in the elected legislative council of the Palestinian National Authority. [1] Hamas is listed as a terrorist organization by Canada,[18] the European Union,[19][20][21][22] Israel,[23] Japan,[24] and the United States,[25] and is banned in Jordan.[26] Australia[27] and the United Kingdom[28] list only the military wing of Hamas, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, as a terrorist organization. The United States and the European Union have both implemented restrictive measures against Hamas on an international level.[19][29]”
So correct me if I’m wrong but these guys don’t sound like the nicest individuals on the face of the planet if there are this many people who have them noted as Terrorists. Next let’s all be clear-there has been a conflict between Palestine and Israel for many hundreds of years. The reasons just date back centuries, and I don’t really care about those so much because they only tell us what I can sum up considerably faster. These two groups Hamas (the extremists of Palestine) and Israel do not like each other.
Next we have to begin with what sort of kicked this whole thing off. Apparently there was a cease fire agreement between Israel and Palestine that lasted for six months-I’m sure it basically said what you would believe any cease fire agreement would say. You don’t shoot at me, I don’t shoot at you…we all live and grudgingly leave one another alone. However this cease fire finally came to a close this last December 19th. It was at that point that Hamas attacked. They started launching Qassam rockets over into Israel. Well this wouldn’t fly with the Israelis who retaliated…and thus it all began.
The airstrikes called “Operation Cast Lead” are designed to dissuade Hamas and other militant groups from continued attacks on Israel said the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Though he admitted that it was “likely to take time”. Israel just doesn’t plan to lay down and die in this case.
The biggest problem besides the attacks going on between themselves and Hamas seem to be that they are getting limited support from other world leaders. A man by the name of Shlomo Gazit remarked that he didn’t believe that the airstrikes were an effective military exercise, and others such as President Bush have expressed their wishes that the two would come to a renewed cease fire agreement and live in peace. However on a side note, and probably of no consequence to anyone at all…Obama hasn’t said a single word about what he thinks about the conflict. I couldn’t imagine what’s keeping him from voicing an opinion (perhaps too busy getting bare-chested shots of himself taken while skipping through ocean waves?).
This conflict has lasted just over two weeks total and neither side looks willing to make a compromise. Israel has been aiming primarily for targets known to be occupied by Hamas, while Hamas just keeps launching rockets over to Israel. Basically it’s a big bloody mess over there. Let’s hope that we get a good solid resolution…though in my opinion Israel is totally in the right here.

Many Apologies: I know, two pages of discussion and only two topics. I’m lame. I realize, but since Christmas I’ve listened to virtually no radio and so I don’t know what news to go investigate because I’m not hearing any. I’ve checked some of the News Websites in hopes of digging up something worthwhile for everyone but you’d be surprised at how slow things are right now…at least what’s being readily reported. Let me promise you that by next Thursday at the latest I will have your stories, and I promise to make the issue at least four pages long with at least four stories present. I will get the news somehow! Thanks for your patience and I hope that you still enjoyed the issue. Thanks everyone!


Chene’