Full disclaimer, I get paid to write articles for other sites, I understand nothing in life can be free and those who create work, tangible or not, should be compensated.  Randomn3ss has been a passion of mine for years as a way to explore my own writing and more specifically in this case, there is no option on The Morning Call’s website to leave comments for the article, which I find odd, so I’ll rebut it all here, piece by piece.

The Morning Call’s publisher is quoted as saying,

the decision to begin charging for digital content is based on readers’ strong demand for local news, features and sports on the Internet and mobile devices

That’s fine, but it’s been free since at least 1996, the earliest date the Wayback Machine has a cache of.  So to establish a timeline, that’s 15 years of publishing content online. In those 15 years we as a society have drastically changed how we choose to read and consume material and now have more options than ever.  It is not the readers’ strong demand for content, it’s more a matter of how we want that content, and when we want to read it.

The article goes on to boast some rather impressive stats, including a 62% spike in page views from 2005 to 2010, of which I don’t attribute much to the website as I do to how we consume our information.  It’s faster, easier and more likely for the large majority of readers to consumer information at their jobs, either at lunch or on company time than it is to get up early and read a paper at the breakfast table.  Readers are also more likely to read more articles in a digital version because each article contains links to other articles.  Some more impressive stats are mentioned, like August 2011′s page views at 18 million.  These are important numbers.

As the article continues, the publisher gets on his soap box and spouts some crap about how amazing it is that the growth is due in part to the in-depth local news coverage and that forthcoming they intend to provide readers with innovative new ways to read content and get weather on whatever device they want to.  Right here is part of the ignorance that will bury The Morning Call.  More on this in a minute.

When The Morning Call switches to paid content, non-paying readers will only be able to see 10 pages per month.

Directly quoting from the article:

A drop in revenue from print advertising helped drive the trend to charge for content, as well as the realization that advertising based on Web page views cannot sustain independent local journalism, especially in a bad economy, said Ford Risley, head of the journalism program at Penn State University.

Risley noted that news gathering is a labor-intensive and expensive business.

This is an interesting note, because the economy was great in 1996, even after the dot com bust of the 2000′s it was still great. What’s really going on here is that The Tribune is using The Morning Call as a guinea pig to see if paid content will work on their larger newspapers.

Aside from shifts in technology and advancements in how we consume information, The Morning Call, under control of The Tribune has always been a step or five behind where it needs to be.   Wikipedia reports daily readers of printed material around 94,000 and Sunday’s paper at 121,000.  That’s actual papers delivered to paying customers.  The people I know who personally pay for the paper rarely actually read it, much less the entire thing.

The newspaper industry has, up until 20 years ago, had free reign on profits and margins, double dipping if you will. They charge advertisers based on the number of subscriptions they have and charge the consumers for the content, which is then laden with advertisements.  No one has successfully done this with a website that supplies news and that is because unlike start-up’s and venture capitalists out of Silicon Valley, no one in the publishing world ever listens to what the consumers want.

The Morning Call’s website has always been out-dated, poorly laid out and riddled with horrible advertisements.  The latest version of the site is designed around a fairly friendly 980 pixel width, happy to suit most peoples computers.  Ads crammed on both sides of the body of most articles bring the actual content readability down to just 362 pixels.  This article has no less than 14 ads on it, not including more ads linking to internal The Morning Call articles that are not related at all to the content of the story.  The page is so heavy with ads that even on my FiOS Internet connection it takes almost 6 seconds to fully load everything, watching all the ads load in the status bar of Firefox for confirmation.

A key to generating revenue from any website via affiliate marketing or ad sales is to not only target the consumer but to not forget that they first came to your site to read the information.  The Morning Call is making it difficult to actually read the articles, regardless of their high traffic rates.

Taking a look at the numbers, 100,000 subscriptions to the printed version means that roughly 1 in 8 people from The Lehigh Valley subscribe to the paper, an amazing accomplishment, one that really couldn’t be much better in my eyes.  Then you look at the 18 million page views.  The rough math says that every single person in The Lehigh Valley viewed about 23 pages of The Morning Call’s website that month.  That number is astounding.  Anyone running a commercial website would be thrilled with these numbers, yet The Morning Call says they are broke and now need to charge for online content.  They are broke because they have poor delivery of online content and can’t make ad revenue stick, that’s the real reason.

Constant change to the newsprint and online version of the site has left readers wondering where articles can be found, and how can they find them.  The website is confusing for the older generation who are moving from print to digital.  The photo galleries are horrible, forcing one to view a single photo at a time then click the dreaded next button, in some cases 20 or 30 times to see all the photos.  This is done to increase the page views but it hinders the user experience, greatly.  The lack of moderation in the comments is appalling, especially in cases where people have passed away due to causes other than natural death.  Viewing The Morning Call on a mobile phone or tablet is painful because the web designers didn’t integrate browser awareness technology which would know I’m on an iPhone and adjust automatically for me, instead I need to remember to go to mobile.mcall.com.  This is especially annoying when following @mcall on Twitter and clicking a link from my phone, again the normal site is so ad-heavy that it’s nearly impossible to actually get to the content and because the site isn’t smart enough to push me to the mobile version, I’m left with a bad experience.  This doesn’t even touch on the horrible Twitter practice that The Morning Call has where it primarily act as a talker, using Twitter to deliver the new articles on the site, not writing actual tweets of interest and rarely engaging with their audience.

My personal feelings is that The Morning Call can and will see the same decrease in numbers as when Mayfair moved from a free event to a paid event.  Furthermore, no where does it say that if I pay for a digital subscription will it be ad free.  I wouldn’t mind paying a few bucks if the content was ad free, or if there wasn’t equally as good and free content out there.  You’ll see a huge spike in sites like WFMZ and Lehigh Valley Live, without a doubt they will benefit from The Tribunes poor choice.

What if anything can fix this?  The Tribune needs to stop treating the Internet like a printed paper and hire some consultants and more importantly, bring a few qualified user experience people in to redesign a site that is better for the readers.  Take the focus off selling ads and back to providing readable quality content, after that the click-through rate of the ads that remain will drastically increase.Similar articles that might also interest you:

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According to the Associated Press, the Obamas are in a “gray area” because the dog they adopted was returned to its breeder before finding its way to the Whitehouse.  In my opinion, that area is not gray.  They were given a dog as a gift from the Kennedys and the Kennedys got the dog from a breeder.

The press is arguing that it was from a reputable breeder (as opposed to a puppy mill) which is true, but I would argue that even reputable breeders are creating an excess of animals.  There are around 3 million dogs euthanized in shelters every year.  3 Million!  Out of those 25% are purebred, single-breed dogs.

Right now on Petfinder there are a number of purebred Portuguese Water Dogs listed in DC shelters.  Those are just the dogs listed on the site.  Rescue groups and other animal welfare organizations have more dogs ready to be adopted.

I find it unacceptable that the Obamas chose to use their daughter’s allergy as their excuse for not adopting from a shelter.  I feel that it sets a bad example for the rest of the public and uses a weak excuse as a reason not to act responsibly. It is absolutely possible to find not only a hypo-allergenic, but a purebred dog in a shelter or from a rescue organization.

Oprah was able to find her companion in a Chicago-area shelter, it’s a shame the Obamas could not follow suit.

Looking for a dog or other pet?  Try Petfinder.com, the largest online listing of shelter/rescued animals.

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Republican Rep. Bachus Makes List of Socialists in House of Representatives [Huff Po]

And the coward didn’t even have the balls to release the names of these so-called “Socialists” in Congress.

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On November 4th i was at the Campaign headquarters at 15th and Sansom with hundreds of others watching history unfold on tv. We sat there exhausted with the final push yet exhilirated by the possibility of the extraordinary. We cheered as Obama won state after state, wondered what if and cried when it became a reality. Our voices already gone, our eyes already dry we took to the streets. First there were just thirty of us marching along Broad St. As we passed City Hall our momentum took us down Market and towards Independence Mall, the birthplace of America. By the time we reached the Liberty Bell we were over a thousand strong and an impromptu rally took place. We then headed back up Chestnut St. towards Broad St again and ran smack into another rally and all of a sudden we were 10,000 deep. Here are some pictures of the evening. I hope you enjoy.

oh.. and YES WE DID!!!

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Prepare to be schooled. Legitimately.

On the second Tuesday in November, history will be made. America will have elected either its first African American president, more than 140 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, or the first woman vice president, nearly 90 years following the ratification of the bill that gave U.S. women the right to vote. It’s a spectacular opening of doors for future generations in America, and a new source of untapped talent for the highest offices in the land. Regardless of the scurrilous gossip strewn about the candidates personal lives, about the disagreements over flip flopping and petty fighting between party lines, there are real issues here at stake that actually matter to our lives and the lives of our children. As Lauren stated, it’s exhausting to witness the bickering, and maybe this is only another voice in the crowd of many. I’ve painfully recognized how uneducated and seemingly uninterested Americans are on the actual FACTS of this election. We have let our reality become distorted by the most backwards and terrifying process of dehumanization out there, the agenda of the corporate American press.

In an attempt to be as bipartisan as possible, I thought that I would try to outline some of the basic issues of both candidates and what they stand for. This is in no way a purpose for me to be stumping for either party (even though you know I’m not afraid to let you know who I support), this is simply an attempt to break down the basic facts. Just because you’ve always voted Democrat, or you’ve always voted Republican, does not mean that you should blindly support whomever that party has nominated. Do you agree with their stance on foreign policy? Their answer to the war in Iraq? Their energy policies? What about education? When it comes down to it, this is a personal decision, but one that should be an informed choice. We can’t base our sources of knowledge in hearsay, propaganda or in the opinions of spouses or parents or friends. I’ve done the gruntwork for you, and here it is. Make your own choices.

In black and white, I give you the facts:

• Taxes
  

In comparison to the policies in place under our current administration, the McCain tax plan will reduce taxes by approximately 4.2 trillion. The Obama plan will cut taxes by 2.9 trillion. McCain’s tax cuts will hit across the board, with the biggest cuts going to the highest income households (top 1% of US citizens making over $1.2 mill/year), while Obama would give larger tax cuts to low and moderate income households and pay most of the cost by raising taxes on high income taxpayers (top 1% making over $1.2 mill/year). Both policies from both parties will substantially increase our national debt over the next ten years: McCain’s would increase our debt by $5 trillion, Obama’s by $3.5 trillion.

What does this mean for you? The typical American, middle class income (incomes of less than $200k yearly for individuals and $250k per year for married couples) will raise 3% with McCain’s plan. In comparison, with Obama’s plan, middle income households will see a boost of 5% back into their wallets.

Things to consider: National debt. Want to see how much we owe? Check this out. We need to pay taxes in order to dig ourselves out of debt and get this tattered economy back on it’s feet. Bigger tax breaks and higher spending pushes this debt onto our children and our children’s children.

(Please note, these are estimations based on currently proposed tax plans. Source: Tax Policy Center, Urban Institute and Brookings Institution)

• Health Care

McCain proposes a refundable income tax credit of $2500 individually or $5000 for married couples purchasing health insurance. He believes that competition between insurance companies will lower the cost and improve the quality of health insurance. This, among other changes that McCain proposes, would cost the US deficit $1.3 trillion over ten years. Obama’s plan is to modernize the US healthcare system and make relatively low cost insurance available to everyone, along with subsidizing premiums for low and moderate income folks. This will cost the US deficit $1.6 trillion, but would also cover virtually all children and the majority of currently uninsured adults. McCain’s proposed plan would cut the number of uninsured people by a little over 6 million in ten years. Obama’s plan would bring the numbers of uninsured people down by 34 million.

(Source: Tax Policy Center, Urban Institute and Brookings Institution)

Things to consider: One in seven Americans are uninsured, living sicker and dying younger. Uninsured Americans effect everyone’s health coverage. Even the insured pay the price with crowded emergency rooms and escalating health care costs, which in turn make health insurance less affordable. The United States spends nearly $100 billion annually to provide uninsured patients with health services, often for preventable diseases or diseases more effectively treated with an earlier diagnoses. Can you guess where this money comes from, loyal tax payer?

• Iraq

The basic discrepancy between candidates on this issue is whether or not to pull out from the war and withdraw our troups. McCain says fight it out, Obama says end it. McCain believes that it is our moral obligation to stay in Iraq until it is capable of governing itself and safeguarding its own people. He supports counterinsurgencies (sending additional troops) in order to control the population and violence in Iraq. McCain will promote efforts within the international community to support regional stability and to bolster Iraq’s economy. He also supports structuring the US’s military posture in order to put pressure on Iraq’s neighbors (Syria and Iran) to stop aiding Shi’ite militias.

Obama believes that we are in the midst of a war without end, and proposes a plan to finish it. He believes that our military resources are dwindling and leaving us less safe at home, and that with a responsible and phased withdrawal, both Iraq and the US will be better off. Obama’s basic plan will have brigades removed at a pace of 1 to 2 per month, to be completed in 16 months. He will also have a residual force remain in Iraq to conduct targeted counter-terrorism missions as well as continue efforts to train and support Iraqi security forces with the support of the Iraqi government. Obama believes in a moral obligation to Iraq’s humanitarian crisis, providing $2 billion to support the millions of displaced Iraqi families while reserving the right to intervene militarily, with international support, to suppress potential genocidal violence within the country.

McCain highlights that the past year has shown a significant reduction in violence in Iraq, and he places the success on the shoulders of the troop surge. Obama supports redirecting our efforts towards Afghanistan where Taliban has since reemerged, pointing out that 2007 was the most violent year in Afghanistan since the invasion in 2001.

Things to consider: With hundreds upon thousands of innocent lives lost, almost 5,000 American soldiers dead since the start of the war, and $3 trillion in national debt… the cost of the war continues to rise by the second.

• Environment/Energy Crisis

It seems as though major authorities on the environment and energy crisis don’t think that either candidate has enough policy in regard to these topics. It also seems that both candidates bleed into one another’s solutions, there is a meshing between sides. The major differences are that McCain is touting increased fossil fuel production and nuclear energy, while Obama emphasizes alternative sources and conservation to meet our energy needs.

McCain’s emphasis on increased production of nuclear energy and oil is based in a re-commitment in these energy sources. Nuclear energy produces zero emissions, and could decrease our dependency on foreign oil, however safety can be an issue due to the high levels of radioactivity that can be emitted from the waste (newer plants have a much better safety record, but it makes some reminisce about Chernobyl). There are also concerns about the cost of researching and building nuclear power plants. McCain’s plan also will give $2 billion per year in order to advance clean coal technology.

McCain supports off-shore drilling, deep sea drilling off U.S. coastlines in search of oil in order to increase domestic supplies. Increasing domestic oil production could put a patch on the situation we’ve found ourselves at the gas pump, however ecologically speaking, oil is a non-renewable resource and not a great thing to be dependent on, not to mention the threat of what oil spills can do to our environment. McCain has the idea of providing a $300 million award for “the development of a battery package that has the size, capacity, cost and power to leapfrog the commercially available plug-in hybrids or electric cars.” Anyone know how to make batteries?

Obama will back limited off-shore drilling, as he believes that oil companies should first drill on the 68 million acres that they have which are so far unused. Previously against the idea, Obama has recently said that he now believes a compromise will have to be made in order to prevent gridlocking between oil companies and the government. His main objective is that we need to reduce our dependency on oil completely and move towards new fuel choices and alternative energies. Obama’s proposed policies take it a step further by investing $150 billion over ten years in order to build a clean energy future, along with creating 5 million “green collar” jobs. As for an immediate solution, he’ll give a $1,000 emergency energy rebate to help families pay for rising bills, the money coming from oil company profits. Obama would mandate the auto industry in order to influence them towards making vehicles capable of running on alternative fuels, and increase federal support of mass transit. McCain is against these mandates, and once a cap and trade is implemented (keep reading…), would rely on the market to cultivate alternative energy itself.

Both candidates support tax credits to those that buy hybrid cars. Both support a cap-and-trade system that would place a cost on emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases linked to global warming, in order to encourage a shift towards renewable energy. Both also agree that regardless of the solution to stop the immediate oil bleeding from the gas pumps in America, something needs to be done to catalyze our shift from fossil fuels to alternative energy sources.

Please see this as well as this for further info.

Things to consider: Where you’ll be in 2050 when the Arctic Ocean has completely melted, the glaciers are gone from the Alps, and over one million species of animals are extinct. I’ll be (hopefully) still kicking it at 68.

• Education

The low standards that our education system has currently in place are dismal at best. American children rank 28th out of 40 countries in mathematics and 19th out of 40 countries in science. Education should be a top priority. Bush’s No Child Left Behind plan was a complete dud, most agree the reason for this is because it was neglected in funding. We have huge issues in America with teacher quality and accountability. (Although this article is Obama based, if you are interested in the current state of our national education system, it is phenomenally written, please devour.) McCain will work to improve the No Child Left Behind Law, Obama will fundamentally extricate it.

McCain doesn’t seem to have a clear plan in regard to changing our education system, although lets hope he focuses more on this issue with the addition of his running mate and mother of 5. He does believe that public schools need to be publicly accountable for test results. McCain supports the basis of using competition in order to obtain greater quality teachers, and thinks that if parents are unhappy with the public education of their children, they should be allowed to change schools. He’ll also reward teachers with individual merit pay. Obama‘s main concerns are in the US’s high school dropout rate (30%), quality of teachers, and extremely high college costs. He will work to create a voluntary national performance assessment for new teachers, as well as work with school districts to create a program for salary increases for accomplished educators that work to mentor new teachers. Obama will also enact an unprecedented American Opportunity Tax Credit of $4000 to families universally. He will also ensure that the tax credit is available to families at the time of enrollment by using prior year’s tax data to deliver the credit when tuition is due.

Things to consider: Children are our future!

The basis of this article has grown out of Project votesmart. I believe that being informed is so important, and I am up for anyone willing to question. If we are open to it, we can all learn something here.

Signing off before my fingers fall off, as your CNN addict/political adviser chick, I bid you adieu…. DON’T FORGET TO VOTE!!!!Similar articles that might also interest you:

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We walked past the bar when jackie stopped dead in her tracks. The tv was on like normal but instead of Sportscenter the bartender Steve had put on CNN. A small plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. Honestly i did not have any real emotional reaction to it. It just didn’t seem like a big deal at the time. After Steve gave Jackie and i an update on the situation we returned to work. It was only a few moments later that we heard some loud screams from the bar as we cleaned out the urinal cakes in the mens room. For the next few moments everything was a blur after planes crashed into the WTC, the Pentagon and in rural Pennsylvania.

An hour later we sat in front of Chef Geoff. All i remember thinking was that i was sure the restaurant would close and we would go home and deal with the ramifications. I wanted to be anywhere but at work. I wanted to go home to Philadelphia to be with my mother. I tried numerous times to call my mother and my father but the line was busy. It wouldnt be until late in the day when i finally reached them. They were crazy frantic. I wanted to be anywhere but DC, well DC and New York City. But Geoff sat there steadfast and resilient. He told us all to man up and get ready for work. We were going to remain open and be a haven for people all across the area. Sure enough businesses and restaurants closed across the DC metro area. Geoffs wife was Nora O’Donnell, an MSNBC White House correspondent and she brought all her friends and peers to the restaurant. By Noon we were packed. People sat in silence and watched in horror as the footage played over and over again.

Who was to blame? Why was this happening? What the fuck was going on? Everyone had their theories. Some thought it was Saddam. Some even thought it was the beginning of a new cold war and that Russia (even with its failing economy) was up to no good. No one thought or knew that it was some extremist from the mountains of Afghanistan who was trained by our own CIA.

Generally a lunch shift at Geoffs lasts from ten am till 3 or 4 pm. My shift lasted till 7 pm. When i got off work i had a glass of red wine and a ny strip steak. I checked my phone and had 17 voice messages from various friends and family. A few were even from my ex girl friend from highschool who hit me with her car earlier in the year and cracked two of my ribs. Of course in such circumstances i had to suck it up and call her back even as my ribs were still sore from her VW Jetta attack a few months earlier.

In the following months life in DC was odd and unfamiliar. It was like living on a different planet. The week after the attakcs all flights were suspended. The American University campus laid right under the flight trajectory of Reagan Airport. After a week flights were open again. My friends and i sat on the quad passing a joint attempting to make time go faster. Then all of a sudden the sky boomed. We turned our heads up in horror as we watched the first flight since the attacks glide over us. Planes didn’t sound like planes anymore. The ambient sounds of jet engines that we were so accustomed to were all of a sudden sirens of terror. We were sure this plane was destined to crash somewhere nearby, perhaps even on our campus. We waited and waited but nothing happened. We were safe. We passed the joint in silence.

Soon after, DC was hit by a string of Anthrax attacks. I was scared to open the mail. I made my roommate Whitey open all deliveries. To fuck with me he would take the envelopes and rub them all over his body. I figured better him then me. My paranoia was at an all time high. It didn’t help that a few months earlier i was at a Phish concert and some hippie chick dosed me with acid unknowingly. I bugged the fuck out. As a result i developed a paranoid personality and became increasingly anxious and uncomfortable around large groups of people and clowns (don’t ask). I couldn’t sleep because i was afraid people were gonna get me (i was only sleeping 4 hours a night). I wouldn’t eat because i thought all food was dosed with acid by extremist hippie kids (i lost 25 pounds). When the anthrax came it just added to the paranoia and my lovely roommate Whitey willingly tortured me throughout the whole ordeal. I even called 911 when i saw a letter laying in the grass close to a mailbox. It would take a year before i could get the mail out of my own mailbox.

Shortly after some guy with a sniper rifle started gunning down random pedestrians across the DC metro area. No one wanted to go outside. For some reason he shot some people at random gas stations and even filling your car up became terrifying. I would watch people run outside their cars, put the hose in their tank, duck and run around and wait in their cars, heads hidden down while they prayed. I myself did the same thing. After 13 victims the sniper was caught on the of the highway taking a nap in his car. Some trucker called in a suspicious vehicle, a regular sedan. Everyone applauded and congratulated Police Commissioner Moose Johnson for his forces superior work. Apparently they all forgot that he ID’d a large white van as the snipers mode of transportation weeks earlier. We spent a month ducking for cover everytime we would see a fucking white van when all along it was not even close to a white van! Good work Moose.

We also had bomb threats and were forced to evacuate the school twice. A fellow student thought it would be funny to freak out his schoolmates and made some prank calls from a local Maryland drug store. Funny guy. We all wanted school cancelled for the rest of the week but they made us go back to class later that day. My friends and i instead went to Geoff’s and got drunk on shots of tequila.

At graduation our commencement speaker mentioned all the shit we went through while going to school in DC. She listed 9/11, the Iraq War, Anthrax, Sniper attacks, a horrible economy, a shit president and then continued that if we went through all of that, we would easily be able to take on the real world. It was 9 am on a Sunday, most of us were ridiculously hungover and stuck in a hot ass auditorium. All we could think was when she was gonna shut her fucking trap and when we could start drinking. Apparently in the real world in times of turmoil, liquor sales go up (at least thats what i heard). If that was the case then we were all gonna be fine because if we had learned anything in college, we had at least developed a strong tolerance for a stiff drink. God knows we needed it.

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I’d like to think when I become a parent (and my hope is for the rest of the parents out there) my child is number one. My child’s health, success and life should be of the utmost important thing to me.

Now, I do not eat meat. My plan is to not eat me again, EVER. That’s F-O-R-E-V-E-R. I realize what the risks are in not eating meat or dairy. I eat as much protein as I can and have even taken supplements to elevate that stress on my body.

At the moment I have no kids and I’m not exactly sure how the vegetarian/vegan thing will go over with my kids but everything will be about choice for my kids. I do not want to force anything upon them. Certainly the choice is theirs when they are capable of making decisions with a sound mind.

With that in mind, parents of a 12 year old girl in Scotland are now facing possible charges from a strict Vegan diet they enforced. Their daughter went to the hospital due to the strict diet and lack of well being. It was then discovered that this girl has a degenerative bone condition from lack of Vitamin D.

Some of the main sources of Vitamin D are derived from liver, oily fish and dairy produce. However, Vitamin D can be found in other sources such as supplements, soy milk, sunlight, etc. So it is not that Vegans cannot access it it’s lack of action from the parents.

Therefore this makes it a such a controversial issue (especially for me). The questions that are posed for myself are why would they enforce Veganism upon their daughter, how could they go on if they knew full well what their child needs and how her health is detoriating. In addition how could they continue that diet based upon their beliefs they hold while compromising her livelyhood.

Last year a couple from the United States was given a life sentence in the death of their 6 week old baby who was starved to death. Several years back two parents were sentenced to community rehabilitation for admitting to starving their baby to death.

Just the thought of these people makes my heartbreak. How could anyone in their right mind starve or deprive their child of anything?

Yes, I believe eating animals is wrong. However, it’s a no brainer to me that an innocent being’s vitality shouldn’t be compromised. No way, no how.

These people are not only giving parent’s a bad name but also Vegans. Because of people like them that’s why others are so quick to point the finger. My guess is instead of the public examining the basics of parenthood they will examine Vegans principles.Similar articles that might also interest you:

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The projected cost of the Iraq war was somewhere around $50 billion when Bush and Rumsfeld first started out on their crusade in 2003. Numerous golf outings and five years later we now have a projected $3 trillion price tag (Nobel Laureate economist Joseph Stigliz). It’s unfortunate to assume that the Iraq war is a justified reason for the recession that we’ve found ourselves hurling toward.

Our grand GOPs in congress even enacted tax cuts back then, defying historical logic that in times of war taxes were raised to keep our economy afloat. Of course, we’re all getting beat up anyway, with conservative estimated costs of the war at about $100 a month per American household. Dear George W, Thanks for the $600 economic stimulus, which is adding to our national debt and will be back to bite us in the ass soon enough. Ouch, lucky us. We’ve also had a Democratically-led Congress for the past few years that has sat in the shadows and done little to reverse these actions; waiting and hoping and praying for the day that their golden child will arrive and make everything all better. It comes down to $435 million per day, $18 million an hour, $300,000 a minute, $5,000 per second… While Halliburton and other such companies have been sitting pretty and rich with our national debt’s blood on their hands.

Here is how the $3 trillion cost estimate of the Iraq war is to be divided in the eyes of our government:

• $526 billion: borrowed money (from other countries as well as gov’t selling of bonds, treasury bills, etc. at around 4% interest that we’ll end up paying for in 30 years)
• $615 billion: total interest costs for taxpayers (yeah, you)
• $280 billion: rebuilding of the military
• $590 billion: disability benefits and health care for Iraq veterans
• $1.5 trillion: estimated cost to continue Bush’s war plan through to 2017

It is important for us to realize where this money is going. The U.S.’s faltering economy could be our Achilles heal in many respects; a weak economy makes us less prepared to handle any threat to security or internal crisis. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has recently stated that about half of the California National Guard’s equipment is in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Aside from breaking down our internal readiness, this war will cost us more money than any other war in history except for World War II. A recent Senate committee report shows that the cost of servicing the Iraq war debt will exceed federal spending on both education and health research next year. The impact that this will have on us and our children is astronomical. When did the vitality of Iraq become more important then the vitality our own country?

Do you think you have a better plan of how to spend $3,000,000,000,000? Visit 3trillion.org, and when you’re done, give George W. a call and tell him all about it: 202-456-1111.Similar articles that might also interest you:

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