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In order to keep up with the nature of free, spirited debate, I wanted to place the chat feature at the top of the homepage. This ensures people can come here and share their views on anything they wish and not have it be related to any specific discussion. Here, people can share ideas, links, and views "unmoderated" and an their own pace. To me, this makes The Elephant in the Room blog truly a place for debate.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

February 15, 2012 - Morning Headlines

Morning Headlines:

- The U.S. and Europe are considering unprecedented punishments against Iran for its alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons. These punishments would come at a cost to the U.S. as it would affect Iran's ability to sell oil, potential increasing oil prices around the world (Fox News): http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/02/15/us-europe-eye-risky-unprecedented-penalty-for-iran-over-pursuit-nuclear-weapons/

- A tentative deal has been reached in the Congress regarding the payroll tax holiday extension (CNN): http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/14/politics/payroll-tax-negotiation/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

- Iran will be inserting its first nuclear fuel rods into a test reactor today (CNN): http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/15/world/meast/iran-nuclear-rods/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

- Israel is building its case that the recent bombings in Georgia, India, and Thailand were part of an Iranian terror campaign (ABC News): http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/thai-police-3rd-iranian-involved-blasts-fled-15622452#.TzufLk47VWI

3 comments:

  1. Personally, I'd like to see more light brought to this story:
    http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/15/opinion/wertheimer-super-pacs/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

    Mr. Wertheimer absolutely nails it. Super PACs are absolutely corrupted, exploited, and making a joke of our 'democracy.'

    I wish this would receive more attention, and I'd certainly be interested in hearing the argument for leaving them unchecked. I personally can't see anything good coming from them at this rate.

    Even enacting the potential minor solution discussed in that article would do well to keep corruption in check without ‘imposing on freedoms’:
    “Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland, has introduced the DISCLOSE 2012 Act to close gaping loopholes in the disclosure laws. It requires super PACs immediately to disclose their donors and campaign expenditures, and requires the PACs' top five donors, and the amounts they gave, to be listed on each of their ads. This legislation is essential to inform citizens about who is providing the money to influence their votes.”

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    Replies
    1. RKen - You know what I have to say.......

      Reader's Post from Rken?! Huh? Huh? Lol.

      For me personally, my background is econ and I try (though sometimes I do write about other things) to write about it mostly. I don't know much about Super PACs as much, though I will admit, it seems like this is something people do want to talk about. I haven't written about it much because I'm just not as knowledgeable of it. I have a surface opinion of it, but that's about it.

      So... with that, the link is here: http://loudmouthelephant.blogspot.com/2011/12/readers-posts-our-open-forum-blog.html

      If you do, great! If not, great! I might try to look in to it. I will ask the other writers of the blog to take a look, took. I'm sure it would be a great debate with a lot of people engaging.

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    2. I was considering making a reader's post actually lol, perhaps sometime in the not-to-distant future. I only face doubts on what topic to choose, and a bit of worry that I might put too much time in it lol. I'm not very good at doing something without putting 110%, and I can very easily kill many hours writing up one thing. :(

      But I'm sure I'll put something together eventually.

      That article I linked does a good job of explaining super PACs though, for anyone that may not know much about them.

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