Dario_J's blog

Brown University scholars have released a study of the total expenses of the past ten years of American battles. The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have ended in almost 250,000 people being killed, and may expense upward of $4 trillion or even more ultimately. Post resource - Wars cost American taxpayers almost $4 trillion in past decade by Newsytype.com.

There were over 125,000 Iraqi civilians killed

As reported by Reuters, the expenses of war since the 2001 Sept. 11 attacks are being added up by scholars from Brown University. "Costs of War" was the name of the project. The Watson Institute for International Studies released the project. A site is available to see all the findings. This contains about two dozen scholars from different universities. After President Obama has said $1 trillion would be spent on the Afghanistan battle, the research has come about. It may result in being between $3.4 and $4.4 trillion when you count the expense of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. Almost 250,000 people are estimated to have been killed. States show that during the battle, there were about 125,000 Iraqi civilians that were killed although journals such as The Lancet was criticized a lot for inaccuracies in estimates, states Al Jazeera.

Interest payments alone in the hundreds of billions

War has caused both the Bush and Obama administrations to borrow heavily. The interest alone is hard to bear. Of the payments already made, there has already been a lot spent. There was $185 billion paid out already. Reuters thinks that more cash will be needed where that came from. CBS reports this number to be around $1 trillion. The president's quote of $1 trillion for war spending is partially accurate; an estimated $1.3 trillion was appropriated for direct war spending. Since the Department of Defense has not yet unveiled its war expenditures, additional expenses are left out of that figure. The amount of money spent just on veterans that were injured in combat is at $36 billion. By 2050, it could possibly be around $900 billion instead though. Other veteran costs, and costs to their families, also have to be paid. That will cost an extra $400 billion. In 2008, there were 181,000 Iraq and Afghanistan battle veterans that got Veterans' Administration benefits, USA Today reports. As of 2006, 947,000 Vietnam vets were receiving similar benefits.

Costs over just working class individuals

It will be decades before everyone can even tally up what the finals costs will be. Besides costs to American taxpayers, the expense to Iraq and Afghanistan in repairing wrecked infrastructure, caring for people with disabilities and lost income from individuals who were killed may never be tallied. A 2010 USA Today article explained that the United States had already spend $44.6 billion by the end of 2009 in rebuilding Iraq which consists of military and security forces. A Foreign Policy article showed how much the U.S. has been doing in Iraq too. The United States has already spent $19 billion on rebuilding efforts. Afghanistan is so decimated that one of few lucrative occupations is cultivating opium. Afghanistan supplied 92 percent of the world's opium last year, according to The Guardian.

Articles cited

Reuters

reuters.com/article/2011/06/29/us-usa-war-idUSTRE75S25320110629

CBS

cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20075350-503544.html?tag=stack

Al Jazeera

english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2011/06/2011629145430649752.html

Costs of War

costsofwar.org/

USA Today on Veterans Benefits

usatoday.com/news/2008-05-11-disabled-vets_N.htm

USA Today on rebuilding Iraq

usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2010-03-22-iraqcosts_N.htm

Foreign Policy

shadow.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/06/13/castles_in_the_sky_the_failure_to_rebuild_afghanistan

The Guardian

The controversial Patriot Act was given a new lease on life, thanks to President Obama. The bill went to the president from Congress, though President Obama is currently in France. It was revealed the document was finalized into law using an autopen, a pseudo-robotic system that replicates signatures, and this act has proved controversial.

Not ending government surveillance just yet

Recently, certain key provisions of the Patriot Act, were set to expire unless a bill was created, passed by Congress and finalized by the president. Three provisions of the domestic security laws that allow for highly controversial surveillance procedures would have expired, according to the Christian Science Monitor, but Obama signed the bill at the last moment. Even though Senator Rand Paul tried to rally against the bill, the government can still use the internet, business records and wiretaps without a warrant whenever they want. However, according to CNN, brouhaha in Congress has begun since the president used a robotic pen.

Working on the autopen

The signature was needed immediately on the document in the president was in France. He used an autopen to sign it. The autopen is a device that could be used. A person's signature can be reproduced with it. It is virtually extremely hard to tell the main difference between a genuine signature and an auto signature. MSNBC reports that the machines could be very complex or not complex at all. Several sites are reproducing an interview with Bob Olding who is the owner of one of the two corporations that exists in the U.S. that makes the machines. ABC spoke with Damillic Corp., owner Olding who said that the technology hasn't changed much since the 1930s when it came out. He makes sure the goods are being used ethically by Damillic customers as part of company policy.

Legality problems

In the Constitution, it simply states the president will sign a bill. "He shall sign it" is in there. The Department of Justice says a signature is valid if it is directed to be attached to a document. The Justice Department initially looked into the use of an autopen for precisely this reason in 2005 and informed then President Bush that as long as he indicated his consent to the signature, an auto signature was legally valid. V.P. Quayle admits that he used an autopen in 1992 while Donald Rumsfeld used one in 2004. This was for the letters he sent to families of troops killed. The signature and letter duplication machine was built in the 19th century. Thomas Jefferson was responsible for this. Autopens aren't that uncommon. They were used in the past by astronauts, business executives and government officials.

Citations

Christian Science Monitor

csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2011/0527/Patriot-Act-three-controversial-provisions-that-Congress-voted-to-keep

CNN

whitehouse.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/27/rise-of-the-machines-autopen-puts-bill-into-law/?hpt=T2

MSNBC

firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/05/27/6731197-the-great-presidential-autopen-hullabaloo

ABC

blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2011/05/robama-is-it-ok-for-a-president-to-autopen-a-bill-into-law.html

Damillic Inc

realsig.com/index.htm

The IRS deadline for filing income taxes is still in effect, even if the federal budget brouhaha outcomes in a government shutdown. The date remains April 18, and a return still has to be filed If a shutdown occurs, refund checks can be delayed. Post resource - Government shutdown does not postpone IRS deadline by MoneyBlogNewz.

Shutdown impacts Internal Revenue Service employees

In the event of a government shutdown, there will be a few agencies that are unaffected in their operations. The Internal Revenue Service will not be among them, and all IRS agents and personnel could be told to stay home as long as the shutdown lasts. Unfortunately, according to Bloomberg, that doesn't mean the deadline to file an income tax return is postponed. It is possible that a deal could be made and the government shutdown won't take place. However, more than likely, April 8 will be when the shutdown occurs.

Best way to file is electronically

None of the paper returns can be received by the Internal Revenue Service if there is a shut down. That means paper returns will not be sent back either, so no refunds. The IRS is urging working class individuals to file electronically because any online tax return filings could be processed as normal.

How government workers will be affected

It is contended that the shutdown is going to occur because Congressional Republicans insist on defunding Planned Parenthood since the organization provides abortions. CNN states the members of congress and the president will nevertheless get paid. The individuals who will suffer are government employees. The work will stop for anybody who's considered "unnecessary personnel." This involves everyone not needed for the safety of the U.S. residents. Those who perform necessary services, like the FBI and the military, will nevertheless have to go to work. These employees are required to work for free during this time. There is no guarantee they'll get back pay.

Articles cited

Bloomberg

bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-07/shutdown-won-t-budge-april-18-tax-filing-deadline-irs-says.html

Times

curiouscapitalist.blogs.time.com/2011/04/08/tax-refund-fears-would-a-government-shutdown-hurt-spending/

CNN

money.cnn.com/2011/04/08/news/economy/shutdown_congress_pay/index.htm

Billing is always a tough challenge for any business. Computerized billing systems are supposed to make things much simpler. A $16 million cable bill is the latest in a long string of unintentional overcharges that call that into question. The lesson of this giant invoice can be taken by more than just one March Madness fan, however. Putting your finances on autopilot can backfire at times. Source of article - $16 million cable bill quickly reversed by Time Warner by MoneyBlogNewz.

Ohio resident charged $16 million

In Ohio, there's a resident named Daniel DeVirgilio. He gets Time Warner cable service at his house. The charge card DeVirgilio uses to pay his cable bill got denied at the end of last month. He got notification of this. A charge of $1 million per basketball game during March Madness was put on his account by Time Warner. This added up to $16.4 million total. Time Warner changed this after the glitch occurred.

Autopay may not be a good choice

Several individuals use autopay. Daniel DeVirgilio is just like this. Monthly invoice pay services where customers just give over their credit or debit card number happen often. Bill payers are able to know their invoice will always be paid this way, without having to manually do it each month. If the charge hadn’t been $16 million and gotten his charge card dropped, Daniel DeVirgilio would never have noticed. This is the only reason why he noticed something wrong.

The policy of watchful waiting

As the $16 million cable bill illustrates, putting your finances on autopilot can be hazardous. A lot of people (this author integrated), however, have a tough time remembering the due date of every bill. You are able to do many things without forgetting to pay your bills while waiting for them to arrive. The simplest way to do this is to pay your bills as they come. Do this right when you get them, without putting them off. That may not be an option to you depending on your circumstances. If this is the case, start tracking dates on a calendar. Auto invoice pay can be a great choice for you. If you do this, make sure you are spending a few hrs each month checking your payments to make sure they're all right. The likelihood you'll encounter a $16 million cable invoice is small, however an additional few dollars each month can add up very quickly.

Information from

Digital Life Today

digitallife.today.com/_news/2011/04/04/6405791-time-warner-charges-man-164-million-for-cable-service?GT1=43001

Yahoo News

news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110325/ts_yblog_thelookout/ohio-man-gets-a-16-4-million-cable-bill

Home sales are moribund and home prices have been in a long decrease. People are not buying houses, however perhaps they would if they could. However it's a good time to purchase a house, in accordance with most of the individuals responding to a study released Wednesday. Source for this article - Housing market: most in U.S. think now is the time to buy a home by MoneyBlogNewz.

The buyer’s sector is clear

A lagging real estate market has been a drag on economic recovery, however a recent Gallup study found that when it comes to home buying, 67 percent of Americans feel that now is a good time. That isn’t really good news even though several study respondents believe it. The poll, taken earlier this month, involved a random sample of 1,018 adults. Just a year ago, this same poll of respondents had 72 percent thinking a buyer’s market was occurring. That was up from 1009 where it was 71 percent. Now the amount of homebuyers that are optimistic has gone down to 67 percent. The home values are declining as this happens too. Potential house buyers are waiting for home prices to bottom out.

The massive cut down in the price of a home

In 2007, home prices began to drop as they'll continue to do through 2011. In 2010 there were a record number of foreclosures shown by the real estate sector research firm Realty Trac. The homes have not even been marketed yet. That will occur leaving the home inventory bigger. That isn’t good. A report from Standard & Poor's said the average price of homes within the U.S. could fall by another 7 percent to 10 percent this year. Home prices will continue to go down in accordance with 27 percent of Gallup study respondents. Even more, 42 percent, are worried that their own homes will continue to lose value. Then there was the 21 percent that expected their community home values to go up. That was a bit surprising.

Seeking to what the real estate market will soon look like

To resuscitate the housing sector, the government pulled out all the stops last year. The government gave out a new house buyer tax credit. The mortgages got $8,000 in credit. Over $1 trillion in mortgage securities were bought by the Federal Reserve. That keeps mortgage prices low as well. But with joblessness still high, most American's believe the recession hasn't really ended. Fed chairman Ben Bernanke said last week that it could take at least three more years for employment to recover to pre-recession levels. It may be a good time to invest in a home since interest rates are so low right now though. Investing is not something Americans are willing to do today. Still, it's something they seem to think is a good idea.

Articles cited

MarketWatch

marketwatch.com/story/many-americans-say-its-a-good-time-to-buy-a-home-2011-01-18

24/7 Wall St.

247wallst.com/2011/01/17/americans-expect-home-prices-to-fall/

Seeking Alpha

seekingalpha.com/article/246909-housing-buyer-s-market-to-continue-for-now

Tablets will dominate the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show that begins in LV Jan. 6. The world's obsession with smartphones and games can be represented. But in what is being called “the year of the tablet,” CES 2011 takes place without the machine that has left all the would-be imitators in the dust. Source for this article - CES 2011 begins year of the tablet in Vegas as Apple stays home by MoneyBlogNewz.

CES 2011 something Apple wants to beat

CES 2010 could be what CES 2011 looks like. Last year's annual technology trade show extravaganza featured the ballyhooed demo of a Microsoft windows tablet that never made it off the ground. Apple independently announced its iPad a few weeks later. Over 12 million iPads have sold since it went to stores in April. When Consumer Electronics Show 2011 gets under way Jan. 6, other tablet manufacturers will compete for attention as they introduce their devices. The Mac App store will come out that day too. Many say that Steve Jobs will preview the Apple ipad 2 during that time in order to upstage the CES 2011.

The struggle to catch up with Apple

Many PC and mobile phone manufacturers can be scrambling to catch up with Apple at Consumer Electronics Show 2011. The Galaxy tablet that Samsung claims it has already sold 1 million of can be featured. Tablet devices can be unveiled by such brands as Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, Dell, Toshiba, Acer, ASUS, and Research in Motion (RIM). There has been a ton of success that came from Apple’s iPad. This causes several to believe the other companies bay be able to succeed as well. But nobody anticipates that Apple's considerable lead within the tablet market will be threatened by a raft of cheap imitations racing to the bottom as they compete on price.

Consumer Electronics Show 2011 will have more

Tablets may be the one thing that CES 2011 is all about. There can be excitement about the high speed of internet on smartphones too though as it has been promised since CES 2010 happened. Motorola, HTC and others will introduce new Android phones made for Verizon's 4G high-speed LTE network. The Internet connected TVs could be a large thing this year. Also, cars and household appliances that can take command from owners will be introduced.

Information from:

Information Week

informationweek.com/news/hardware/handheld/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228901670&itc=ref-true

CNN

cnn.com/2011/TECH/gaming.gadgets/01/04/ces.expected.trends/index.html?npt=NP1

Wall Street Journal

online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110104-706499.html

The president's bipartisan commission on reducing the deficit are locking horns on procedure. Such hot button choices as Social Security, Medicare and the Bush tax cuts loom large. In a novel approach, the NY Times is asking its audience to weigh in via an interactive puzzle. Since it might take Washington years to make up its mind, the NY Times thinks its audience can (unofficially) do a better job. Source of article - You Fix the Budget, says the New York Times by Personal Money Store.

During the 'Age of Austerity,’ it is expected that ‘You Fix the Budge’

The Times’ “You Fix the Budget” puzzle is something that they're doing to help see individuals can help with Cutting the deficit. The govt is going into an “Age of Austerity” politicians have seen with the federal deficit. Readers can make the tough decisions without pressure from lobbyists or fear of alienating a constituency. Is it feasible for the politicians and NY Times readers to meet the exact same austerity?

Deficit expanding to be $400 billion too much money by 2015

The federal deficit will hit $400 billion greater than can be sustained by 2015. This is what economists are expecting. Small deficits can effectively be run forever, as a single year's economic growth pays for the previous year's Budget shortfall.But $400 billion is far beyond that level. More than half the Pentagon’s annual Budget and over half the Medicare Budget is getting used here. It is more than 2 percent of what the nation’s output in 2015 will be says experts. On the bright side, writes the Times, $400 billion is still much smaller in context than the deficits with which Greece and Ireland are currently struggling. The United States of America federal deficit from 1990 to 1994 was larger than that. It is not that bad.

Politically extremely hard to cut the deficit

William Gale of the nonprofit public policy organization the Brookings Institution suggests that what the NY Times readers decide on how much taxes ought to rise and the way much spending should be slashed is something that will “probably be something that is not politically feasible now”. Politicians who have actual plans about reducing the deficit aren’t voted in as often as those who generally talk about it.

Citations

NY Times

nytimes.com/2010/11/14/weekinreview/14leonhardt.html?_r=1

NY Times

nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/13/weekinreview/deficits-graphic.html

Making automobiles safe wasn't the top priority of the United States auto market. The first priority for years was for making sure cars looked nice and moved fast. It was not until 1959 that Congress required U.S. vehicles to have seat belts, in response to staggering numbers of highway fatalities resulting from traffic accidents. It has shown in the numbers that safety technology in vehicles is more advanced. In 2009, there were, on United States of America streets, less fatalities recorded than there were in six decades. The Department of Transportation reported this. Article resource - Traffic deaths on U.S. highways hits lowest rate in 60 years .

Safety advancements and tougher laws make traffic deaths lessen

The Associated Press explains that less traffic fatalities are caused as a result of seat belts, airbags, body construction and stability control. It also makes clear that laws about drinking while driving and being distracted when driving help as well. By the numbers, traffic deaths decreased by 9.7 percent in 2009 to 33,808, the lowest number on record since 1950. By comparison, 37,423 deaths related to highway accidents occurred in 2008. The number went down from 2008 to 2009. It was 1.26 fatalities per million miles and then went to 1.13 deaths. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood proudly exclaimed the latest report "shows that America's roads are the safest they've ever been.".

Is it the economic recession?

Historical data suggests that highway fatalities have tended to decrease when The United States faces recession. For instance, within the late 1970s/early 1980s when Americans suffered via recession and oil shortages, the numbers were down. The same thing occurred within the early 1990s. In both cases, the cost of driving more than likely kept more people at home or pushed them toward public transportation. Automobile traffic deaths will clearly go down with fewer people driving. The Department of Transportation shows how this isn't the case. In 2009, there was a .2 percent increase in miles traveled by motorists. 

Distracted driving what law is preventing

It is always a bad idea to focus on cell phones or texting rather than the road. This is something legislation enforcement do not like. That is why more try to stop it. If more laws were developed like this in more states, the roads within the U.S. would be safer. This comes from an interview with LaHood from AP.

Use Car Deal Expert for car loan savings

Further reading

Star Tribune

startribune.com/business/102500979.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUI"

Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seat_belt

The PSAs are workingyoutube.com/watch?v=OXUjdBnWVMM 

God isn't something needed to explain the universe, claims Stephen Hawking. If you asking Hawking, or his co-author of "The Grand Design", Leonard Mlodinow, God is just something fabricated by humans. The Grand Design has touched off a debate on the struggle between science and religion. Hawking believes that gravity is what made it so the world could be created. He thinks no God could possibly be a part of this. Scientific research is not the way to look at God and also the whole world, suggest any person opposed to Hawking.

Beliefs of Sir Isaac Newton and Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking's new book, "The Grand Design," squares off against the beliefs of Sir Isaac Newton, according to The Guardian. Newton believed opposite of Hawking. He believed that God did design the whole universe. It seemed impossible to Newton the galaxy could have formed spontaneously. Hawking says gravity made the spontaneous creation of the universe possible. The Guardian said Hawking's current stance on God is a reversal of the position he took in "A Brief History of Time," the 1988 bestseller that made him world famous. When he wrote that book, God still was part of the Galaxy in his mind. He explained, "If we discover a complete theory, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason – for then we should know the mind of God."

Hawking bets on science to win

Hawking is considered a successor of Newton. This is because he was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge in London. He explained in his book "The Grand Design" that he first doubted Newton in 1992 when finding an additional planet orbiting a distant star, meaning the galaxy could not have been formed from chaos. Hawking said that humans simply created a God in their own image to have somebody to have a personal relationship with. He said this in an interview with ABC in June. That seems extremely hard, he said, given that human life is insignificant and accidental within the vast scale of the universe. Science will win between science and religion, ABC News reports Hawking saying.Hawking has some explaining to do

Hawking's position the world naturally was created was called a "classic agnostic response" by BBC's William Crawley. Any person who has faith has the right to disagree with Hawking. To Crawley, Hawking is only speaking for himself when he says God isn't necessary for understanding the world. There is no real reason in "The Grand Design" to say there is not a religious explanation to the creation of the universe. Other scientists also disagree with Hawking. Professor George Ellis, president of the International Society for Science and Religion, told Fox News that Hawking offers a false choice between science or religion in which science may be the loser. "A lot of people will say, OK, I choose religion then," he explained, "and it is scientific research that will lose out."

More on this topic

The Guardian

guardian.co.uk/science/2010/sep/02/stephen-hawking-big-bang-creator

ABC News

abcnews.go.com/WN/stephen-hawking-god-create-universe-question-day/story?id=11542128

BBC

bbc.co.uk/blogs/ni/2010/09/god_hawking_and_the_universe.html

The climate change debate is intensified by a heat wave on the east coast. When blizzards hit the east last March, the debate was hot also. Extreme weather events are being seized upon by both sides to support their global warming arguments in the debate about climate change and energy bill in Congress. And just in time for the heat wave, a British panel exonerated the "Climategate" scientists, saying it found no evidence the group manipulated any of their research to back up global warming. Meanwhile, 2010 is shaping up to be the warmest year in history.

Source for this article: Heat wave ignites climate change debate, 2010 warmest year ever by Personal Money Store

Wave of heat going globalThe heat wave is news because it is cooking places where the national media hang out. You will find also other places getting hotter. The Christian Science Monitor reports the heat wave has gone global. Beijing got as hot as 105 degrees Fahrenheit. In Baghdad and Riyadh, on July 6 it was 113 and 111 degrees. Kuwait hit 122 degrees making it the world temperature high. As reported by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), the combined global land and ocean average surface temperature for the first five months of the year was the warmest on record, and 1.22 degrees warmer than the 20th century average.

Climate change causes there to be more heat waves and blizzardsClimate change skeptics mocked Al Gore during March blizzards. But will heat waves continue if carbon emissions aren’t reduced? It was reported by TIME that the fact that no single weather event is caused by climate change is clear, but politicians and lobbyists will make an effort to use them within the climate and energy bill debate anyway. Weather and climate aren’t really the same thing. Finding out how climate change affects weather is tricky. But blizzards and heat waves conform to a general scientific consensus that climate change will result in more extreme weather.Climategate scientists' research is being called legitimateThe above climate change argument is the position of the Climategate scientists, a group of researchers at the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia which is in England. It was reported by the New York Times that these individuals have played a leading role in efforts to understand the earth’s climate. Last year some e-mail messages sent by the scientists about global warming were stolen and posted to the Internet. Politicians, lobbyists and other global warming skeptics used these e-mails as proof the scientists were hiding data that conflicted with their positions on global warming. But a report by the panel investigating Climategate said no evidence was found of behavior that might undermine their conclusions.Better to be safe than sorry – climate changeEven without the heat waves and blizzards, climate change is such a controversial issue because climate science is incredibly complex and hard to explain, and the individuals doing the explaining nevertheless do not understand climate as well as they would like. On both sides of the issue, this opens arguments. In the mean time, Ezra Klein at the Washington Post points out that if we can't even deal with a simple disaster like the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico 2010, how are we going to reverse concentrations of carbon in the atmosphere?Carbon tax with the idea pay me now or pay me laterThis leads us to the climate and energy bill and its cap and trade system or carbon tax. Republicans against government intervention are potentially setting up a future in which the government is forced to intervene on a planetary scale. Klein said he's a lot more comfortable with the government's ability to levy a carbon tax now than its ability to repair the atmosphere later on. That's why, he said, when faced with the choice between avoiding the economic risk of a carbon tax or simply just taking a step to preserve the future of the planet, we should choose the planet.More details about this topic at these websites:

Christian Science Monitor

csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2010/0707/Global-heat-wave-hits-US-reignites-climate-change-debateTIME

ecocentric.blogs.time.com/2010/07/06/turning-up-the-heat-on-climate-change/?xid=rss-topstories

New York Times

nytimes.com/2010/07/08/science/earth/08climate.html?src=mv

Washington Post

voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/07/the_case_for_being_careful_wit.html