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Why Israel?

by Jeff Hagen

Elected Officials Support Israel But Rarely Say Why

There is a lot of confusion and misunderstanding when it comes to the relationship between the U.S. and Israel, particularly on my part. For years now, I've been hearing campaigning U.S. politicians telling me of their support. Far fewer are the number of instances of their being up front as to why. The general line goes something like this, 'As your commander, I will strongly support Israel as the only Democratic regime in Middle East.'  Next, the topic of the conversation usually changes.

Obama/Clinton? Oh Jeez

by Jeff Hagen

The debate is as to whether an Obama/Clinton ticket would be a good one. There are certainly points to be made on both sides. Prior to January of 2009, this ticket would likely be a winner.

Senator Clinton has been very strong with certain voting blocks, women and low income whites being examples. In my opinion,however, Senator Clinton pushed any values that she may have had to the side while endlessly maintaining a position in the Democratic primary well beyond when it had become clear she'd lost any chance to win. Can we forgive her for that? I can. But I'd never consider voting for her.

Senator Obama, on the other hand has been very strong with his overall message of unity in government. Mrs, Clinton portrays this message as a grossly unachievable 'Love Your Fellow Partisan' type vision that will not and can not survive in Washington.

U.S. Manufacturing Strength

By Jeffrey Hagen

One of my major concerns with the United States is the dealing or, better stated, lack of dealing with the flight of our manufacturing base, the most obvious price of which is the loss of well paying jobs. While this does get some occasional attention from the media, unless you are watching Lou Dobbs, it usually does not take precedence over the 2008 election cycle, the President’s latest exhibition in incompetence, or the undying fiasco in Iraq. Keep in mind that while our economy is losing, many others, particularly those of Asian states, are gaining. Rapidly. Don’t get me wrong, I think that it is wonderful that China is building its economy. Just not at the expense of the citizens of the United States! Worse, I feel that it simply does not need to be this way. I am not a lawyer and I can’t claim to understand why our trade policy is set as it is but it seems to me utterly masochistic to provide tax breaks, large tax breaks, to corporations to spur the movement of factories overseas. Incentives that ship jobs overseas in the form of extremely low wages and virtually unregulated facilities already abound! This activity is growing, again rapidly, and can be painful to think about.