Author Archive » Sam Bear
About Sam: Sam Bear is the founder of For A Better America and a sophomore at Washington University in St. Louis, double majoring in Political Science and American Culture Studies. He lives in Oakton, Virginia. (View my For A Better America profile)
Using community to fight drugs
The background to the story is a classic inner city crime-ridden neighborhood where police can’t effectively prosecute drug markets since it looks like community norms sanction them and the community thinks that police are in cahoots with drug dealers because calls to police are relatively ineffectual. Police Chief Fealy called open meetings with the community in 2003 to admit bravely that the police had been ineffective and often caused more harm than good. That led to lots of useful dialogue. The Police Department got community residents to understand both that their walking away from drug dealers let the drug trade continue and that they had a lot of moral outrage about what was happening. The Chief emphasized that by partnering with police they could both dry up the drug markets and all the associated crime.
Read the story from Social Capital Blog | No Comments | Posted April 9, 2008 at 12:17 AM by Sam Bear
Administration Unveils Sweeping Plan to Overhaul Financial Regulation
he Bush administration Monday proposed the most far-ranging overhaul of the financial regulatory system since the stock market crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression. The plan would change how the government regulates thousands of businesses from the nation’s biggest banks and investment houses down to the local insurance agent and mortgage broker. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson unveiled the 218-page plan in a speech in Treasury’s ornate Cash Room. He declared that a strong financial system was important not just for Wall Street but also for working Americans. The administration’s plan was already drawing criticism from Democrats that it does not go far enough to deal with abuses in mortgage lending and securities trading that were exposed by the current credit crisis. The plan, which would require congressional approval for its biggest changes, seeks to trim a hodge-podge collection of overlapping jurisdictions that date back to the Civil War.
Read the story from AP | No Comments | Posted March 31, 2008 at 10:08 AM by Sam Bear
One-year earmark moratorium fails in Senate
A closely watched proposal for a congressional “time out” on earmark spending failed by a wide margin late Thursday night, creating some unusual Senate alliances along the way. Senators voted 71-29 against a measure by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) that would have imposed a one-year moratorium on earmarks. The measure needed 60 votes to pass because it was ruled non-germane to the budget, prompting DeMint to ask that the Budget Act be waived. Presidential candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) all voted for the amendment, as expected. In a surprise, so did Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a longtime top appropriator for Kentucky who has traditionally taken a skeptical approach to the idea of limiting earmark spending. “The DeMint-McCain amendment would have provided an important pause to allow us all—those who oppose earmarks and those who favor them—to take a step back, build a better oversight system, and allow these reforms to be implemented,” McConnell said in a subsequent statement.
Read the story from The Hill | No Comments | Posted March 14, 2008 at 10:19 AM by Sam Bear
Nothing better exemplifies the fact that a lot of people have a lot of different ideas to make the country better than this video from the New York City improv troup Improv Everywhere:
According to their website, Improv Everywhere “causes scenes of chaos and joy in public places.” Thanks to You Ain’t No Picasso for the heads up.
Weather Channel Founder Wants to Sue Al Gore
John Coleman wants to sue Al Gore for fraud. Coleman, who founded the Weather Channel in 1982, thinks taking legal action against Al Gore would be a great “vehicle to finally put some light on the fraud of global warming.” Coleman rejects the notion that people must take drastic actions to reduce their energy use. Speaking at the 2008 International Conference on Climate Change on Monday, Coleman sharply chastised those who further global warming alarmism. Coleman believes that the station he founded has been captured by alarmists, such as the Weather Channel’s Heidi Cullen, who has advocated revoking the license of meteorologists that believe global warming can be explained by cyclical weather patterns and not human activity.
Read the story from Citizen Sugar | 2 comments | Posted March 5, 2008 at 7:42 PM by Sam Bear
There is not another industry in the United States that has been more vilified in the past few years than the Oil Industry. To many Americans, these companies represent corporate greed and the stranglehold that “special interests” have on politics in Washington. Driven first by the populist message of John Edwards’ campaign, the Oil Industry, ExxonMobil specifically, has proven an easy and popular target for Democratic presidential hopefuls. Barack Obama often announces at large campaign stops:
I know that it won’t be easy to change our energy policy. ExxonMobil made $11 billion last quarter. They don’t want to give those profits up easily.
Hillary Clinton has been no more gentle, saying:
Now, ExxonMobil had, you know, the highest profits in corporate history. Yet when CEO Lee Raymond was asked about how much his company had invested in alternative energy over the last decade, his reply was, and I quote, “a negligible amount.” Well, that’s unexcusable. You know, the oil industry is making $300 million a day, not because they planned on it, not because of great managerial expertise, but because of escalating world demand and therefore increasing prices for this commodity that they didn’t create in the first place. I think it’s time that we made sure they put a fair share of their profits toward a sound energy future.
There is no shortage of criticism against the Oil Industry. What we don’t often hear, is a response. How does the Oil Industry justify such high profits? Given these profits, why are companies like ExxonMobil still receiving government subsidies? One of our users, who works for an oil company, forwarded me an email sent to company employees in response to these exact questions. Click here to continue reading…
One of the most interesting conversations we have going on the site so far is about creating universal health care. Here are the facts: nearly 47 million people in this country are currently uninsured; of those 47 million, more than 80% come from working families; while in 1987, 70% of people had employer-based insurance, that number is down to 59.5%; and, finally, 40% of America’s uninsured live in households that earn more than $50,000 a year. The reason for the increasing number of uninsured Americans is simple: insurance premiums are rising at just about 5 times the rate of inflation.It’s an incredibly important issue, and our users are doing a great job tackling a lot of important questions. Some of them are skeptical:
Gagarin wants to know how we would pay for a universal health care program:
UHC would be very peachy and nice, but someone has to tell me how they’re going to pay for it, WITHOUT saying they’re going to “tax the rich people ’cause they don’t need the money” because thinking that will increase revenue rather than reduce it is wishful thinking.
Lobachevsky thinks the government might be overstepping its role:
The government should be involved in situations that individuals cannot control. I do believe that the state of our current health care system is not satisfactory, and that it requires some government involvement, but not to the extent of national health care. The national government should put its time and effort, and our money, into stimulating competition in the health insurance market as to make it more affordable to all Americans.
In my opinion, universal health care is a moral imperative. While stephendolenc compares health care to “universal cell phone ownership [and] universal fitness club memberships,” I think the comparison to public education is much more apt. I don’t believe we have any more of a right to deny an American citizen the ability to be treated by a doctor than we have to deny them the services of the Fire Department should their home catch fire. Click here to continue reading…
Stanford Law Professor Larry Lessig Explores Bid for Congress
Digital rights crusader Larry Lessig said Tuesday that he’s considering a bid to take over the late Rep. Tom Lantos’ (D-Calif.) congressional seat. He has given himself a March 1 deadline to make the decision. In a video released on the web late Tuesday, the Stanford law professor formally launched what he calls the “Change Congress Movement,” and he put out feelers to check support for his candidacy. The professor’s goal is to tackle a problem that has dogged politics since perhaps the beginning of time: the corrupting influence of money. In the video, Lessig called on members of Congress to form a bipartisan coalition whose participants would take three pledges he says would change the system: Take no money from political action committees, ban earmarks and agree to public financing of campaigns.
Read the story from Wired | 2 comments | Posted at 10:43 PM by Sam Bear
A (Super)Delegate Guide
A lot of people have questions about how the delegate and superdelegate process works. Here are your answers courtesy of The Page:
Read the story from The Page | No Comments | Posted February 19, 2008 at 11:12 PM by Sam Bear
Happy Presidents Day, W!
Click here to continue reading…
