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. 
Continue reading "Why Israel?" »
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. 
Continue reading "Obama/Clinton? Oh Jeez" »
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.
Continue reading "U.S. Manufacturing Strength" »
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