Tag: Congress

Would YOU be able to survive on $15,000/year?

The U.S. federal minimum wage was first established during the Depression, and since 1933 has risen from 25 cents to $7.25 per hour.  As it stands now, three years will have passed since the last increase in the federal minimum wage, which is currently just over $15,000 a year for a full time worker.  Can …

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The NRA, Gun Owners, Advocates for Gun Control: Why Not Work Together?

There is no doubt that that the mass shooting  in Newtown, Conn., has heightened the political debate on gun control in the United States. The Obama-backed gun bills are considered a long shot in Congress. This is due to the opposing views on gun control in congress. One group in Congress is standing behind the …

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Working on College 2.0

Not long ago I wrote a blog post on the changes that President Obama wants to bring to universities.  Many of his changes revolved around student loans, and helping young people get the best out of their higher education experiences.  The president has been calling for education changes in rapid succession, and recently asked Congress …

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Looking Forward to Next Year’s Foreign Aid Budget

On Friday of last week, the House of Representatives passed a bill approving the foreign aid budget for 2012. Anticipating that the Senate will pass the bill this week, the winners and losers of the proposed budget allocations becomes clear. Foreign aid has become a big target in this economic recession, with government more hesitant …

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The US Focus on Uganda: Why Now? (part 2)

In my blog post last week I addressed the history of the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) in an effort to show who they are and what this organization is doing in Uganda and other countries in Africa. I hope that I was able to convey that the LRA are not, as Limbaugh seemed to think …

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#OccupyWashington

Chances are, if you haven’t been living under a rock for the past month, you’ve heard about Occupy Wall Street – a burgeoning movement that protests against economic inequality and corporate greed and has spread not only around the country but around the world. Although the concrete goals of the protestors are not completely clear, …

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No-Fly Zone for Syria?

As you may recall, I wrote a post over the summer about Responsibility to Protect and the Arab Spring.  In this post I discussed the intervention in Libya and how the creation of a “no-fly zone” was a manifestation of this RtoP.   I also discussed the reasons why RtoP was not going to be invoked …

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Country Over Party

As a college senior, Areeba’s latest post really resonated with me. My friends and I, at the cusp of graduation, are about to get thrown to the wolves. Hundreds of thousands of us will be vying for jobs with much fewer available positions. Some of us will hide ourselves in grad schools, some may take …

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Women’s Equality Day

“I call upon the people of the United States to celebrate the achievements of women and recommit ourselves to the goal of gender equality in this country.” –          President Barack Obama Today has officially been declared Women’s Equality Day in the United States—yet it is widely unheard of by most Americans.  On August 26, 1920, …

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America’s Hidden Secret Part II

In my last post, I gave an overview of the plight of U.S. child farmworkers and the lack of protection they receive.  Hundreds of thousands of children are working on U.S. farms, picking the fruits and vegetables that land in our regularly shopped grocery stores.  Despite popular belief, the agricultural industry has been found to …

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