You guys want to nominate Santorum?

You guys want to nominate this guy?

If there is one candidate Barack Obama will wipe the floor with, it's this guy. I haven't liked this guy from about the middle of November. His rhetoric is far to the right, he is going to alienate 65% of the American population who do not agree with his far-right conservative ideals. Yes he is energizing the white male conservative Christian base (why? I have no idea! Someone please tell me what they see in this guy?) with his anti-gay, anti-big government, anti-abortion, anti-women, I'm God's candidate blah blah blah speeches, but that is not going to win him votes in November. 

If you guys nominate Rick Santorum, it's four more years of Barack Obama, guaranteed. Conservative pundits might like him, but I predict Americans in general will not.

War Drums

Because diplomacy and harsh sanctions against Iran have run their course without the desired results, insiders are forecasting that Iran will be bombed sometime later this Spring or Summer. With or without the United States' permission or support, Israel will attack Iran's nuclear facilities before they reach the "immunity zone," wherein no bunker-busting bomb can penetrate, in the name of self-preservation. It is unacceptable to the Israelis that Iran acquires nuclear weapons, seeing that Iran's leaders have repeatedly referred to Israel as the "cancer" of the Middle East that needs to be "wiped off the map."

These are certainly some perilous times across the globe, to say the least. Whether we like it or not, this imminent conflict in the Middle East will affect us in profound ways given our historic support of Israel, our presence in the region, and our obvious dependence on foreign oil imports. So I guess I just wanted your insight about some of the following questions regarding this issue:

1) How do you see this impacting the 2012 U.S Presidential election?

2) Given how war-weary this country already is, is there any way we could help our Israeli allies with the Iranian attack without it turning into a multi-year occupation of yet another foreign nation?

3) Are you guys cool with Iran getting a nuke? In other words, should we even be helping Israel at all?

4) How (if at all) does President Obama's recent decision to shut down the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline play into all of this? If we opened up our markets to Canadian oil for refining via Keystone, would there be less of a dependency on Middle Eastern oil? What are the national security implications at play here?

Of course, any other thoughts you might have about the impending Israel-Iran showdown would be welcome as well. Looking forward to hearing what everyone has to say.

Tax Time Again


A couple of weeks ago, Mittens (that's for you Creighton) was destroyed in the South Carolina primary by Newt, and one of the main reasons, in my opinion, is that he was unwilling to share his tax information when called out on it by his opponents.  After losing the primary, he did come out and release his info and we all learned something that we already new...Mitt has a lot of money.  We also learned that for the amount of money he has, he sure pays a pretty low tax rate, around 15%.  Upon learning this, much of the media tried to turn this into a crime against the country, showing us yet another shining example of how corporate greed is destroying America.  Fortunately, this was an unfounded argument and didn't stick, and in reality I was kind of proud of Mitt for astoundingly low tax rate.  The way I see it, he is just like any other good American I know.  We all have to pay taxes, but we try to pay as little as we possibly can.  So, kudos to you Mitt for finding your way through the loopholes that litter our current tax system, I wish I knew more of them.

I have recently begun gathering all of my information for the last year to be able to file my taxes.  1098-T for school, W-2 or is that a W-4 that I used for work study this last summer.  Do I file a 1040, 1040EZ, or is there some other number and letter combo that could work better for me?  And what in the world do all of those numbers and acronyms mean anyways?  My father in law is helping us out with our taxes again this year via his friend who is an accountant.  Did you know that even though I grossed approximately negative $90,000 last year between mine and my wife's schooling, we somehow owe taxes on part of that loan money?  I don't understand it and I probably never will.  Then we learned that I can deduct the cost of my computer (that I bought before I was in medical school) from my taxes this year, plus other books or "supplies" we "needed" for school.  So, like we Mitt, we are slowly trying to chip away at what I can give back to the government for all they do for me.

Then, a couple of days ago, I found an article from the NY Times outlining the story of James Ross.  He is a self proclaimed "1 percenter" who is a lawyer and now runs an investment firm in New York.  The surprising part of his story is that last year he paid 102% of his taxable income to taxes!!  Are you kidding me??  Sure, many people will say that we shouldn't fill sorry for a multi-millionaire who has to pay a lot in taxes, which I don't exactly feel sorry for him, but I do think there is a fundamental flaw in a system that even has the possibility to have people pay over 100% or even close to 100% of their taxable income.  (Here's a link to the article http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/04/business/at-102-his-tax-rate-takes-the-cake-common-sense.html )

So let's sum this up.  Basically, Romney was able to make millions and pay just little bit back in taxes because most of his money came through investments.  Mr. Ross had to pay back most of his money because his was based on an "earned income", that is, he worked for his money and I will have to pay however much in taxes for taking out student loans (from the government who is also getting interest on those loans).  So tell me this, why is it that we find it appropriate to tax the life out of people who are working hard for their money, doctors, lawyers or other professionals, but allow those people who just invest the money they have and let there money work for them get away without paying even half of what the rest of us pay?  I feel that one of the best ways we can get our country and our economy back on track would be to just do a flip flop.  Let those people who are out making jobs and working hard for their money, enjoy the money they earn.  As for the investors, let's use their money to fund the many government programs that are both useful and sometimes necessary for the people lower on the economic totem pole.

I'd love to hear any ideas or any comments from all of you that are smarter than I am when it comes to this stuff.

The Abortion Question

A couple days ago I was driving to school listening to Rush Limbaugh (yes, I listen to Rush Limbaugh every day, although I am not a Rush believer). During a timeout, I heard an ad for Newt Gingrich, er, a super pac ad against Mitt Romney from Winning our Future. They basically just played a recording of Mitt Romney talking about how he supported a woman's right to choose, and even supported a young woman under the age of 18 getting permission from a court to have an abortion when her parents wouldn't give the permission. I'm sure it made all those social conservatives cringe and throw their support behind the Newt.

I don't think Romney ever was down with abortion. I'm not necessarily a Romney supporter or hater, I think the dude says what he has to to get elected. Although I believe he mostly kept his promise to the people of Mass that he wouldn't mess with a woman's right to choose (not that he could anyway).

I have two points to make in this post, but before I do, I want to make something clear. I am strongly opposed to abortion. I would never advocate anyone get an abortion (except in cases or rape, incest, or when the health of the mother is in severe jeopardy, and even then, I wouldn't necessarily advocate the woman get the abortion.) Being in medical school has made me wonder if I could actually perform one of these elective procedures and the answer is not a chance. I literally would feel like I was committing murder, I couldn't do it. And so I am against it. So with that disclaimer, I make my point.

Point #1
This actually should not fire up conservatives too much that Romney said these things. Massachusetts is obviously a pro-choice state, most of the residents are pro-choice, and in their state, the majority of people want a pro-choice governor. Republicans believe in state's rights, and if that's how Massachusetts-ites want their state to be, then so be it. Romney probably wouldn't have been elected if he would have ran on a pro-life platform.

Point #2
I made it clear that I was against abortion in almost all cases, but with that disclaimer, how do you get rid of it? If you make abortion illegal, there will be women who are raped, or who are impregnated by their father or brother, or women whose health is in serious jeopardy. Where does the bigger injustice lie? In forcing those women to bear a child that was the product of a serious crime? Or allow a woman to die? And on top of that, illegal and dangerous abortions will continue. It happens in countries where abortion is illegal. I think I'd rather have legal, safe abortions done by someone professionally trained than illegal, dangerous abortions performed by some novice looking to make a buck. I just don't see how to get rid of it, other than sharing our opinions about the sanctity of life and hoping people make the right decisions.

What do you guys think? I hear candidates talking about overturning Roe v. Wade, but I just think why bother? Even if you threw all your weight behind it, it probably wouldn't happen. What are you going to replace it with?