Iran Has Possibly Been Hiding Nuclear Weapons

U.S. to Iran: Prove your nuclear program is peaceful

The United States believes that Iran has been hiding its nuclear weapons under the disguise of an uranium enrichment plant for the past five years. Negotiations begin on Thursday and the United States and our allies think the Iranians are in tight spot. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton thinks that if Iran cannot prove that their nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only, the U.S. should use our strongest sanctions possible. Most officials believe it to be for completely non-peaceful purposes. They wonder why this illegal plant would be hidden underground if it was meant to be peaceful. Iran is not living up to the IAEA policies. Our only weapon at the moment is time.

The world should be a little panicked that Iran may have nuclear weapons. That would mean there is one more country out there that can blow the rest into little peaces. The U.S. is ready to go in guns ablazing but are our pockets ready? We are just pulling out of the recession and if talks on Thursday do not go well there is little we can do with out using money (which we don't have). The Internationl Atomic Energy Association should have full access to that plant to determine if the world really even needs to worry because Iran was telling the truth or to see if what they claimed the plant to be is a facade. Iran insists that they met all standards and are letting the IAEA in. This in itself makes me think they are inoccent however, they may have know for a time that they could be caught and hidden

Hate Crime? Or It Just Violence?

'Small town killing puts focus on crimes against Latinos'
Chrystal Dillman's husband to be-- Luis Ramirez-- was beaten to death by a couple of teenage boys in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania. A fight broke out between the Latino Ramirez and the white high-schoolers. Luis died days later from the injuries. The teens had yelled several ethnic slurs while attacking him. Dillman believes her fiance was a victim of a racial hate crime. Research conducted has shown that there are three types of hate crimes that occur: thrill-seekers, retaliators, and defenders. Anti-Latino crimes have increased by 40% since 2003. Police have a hard time deciding if the crime was just blatant violence, or if it was based on race. The people responsible for Ramirez's death were sentenced to 2 years in prison. They were not charged with ethnic intimidation.

It is near impossible to differentiate, in my opinion, between plain violence and hate crimes when the acts are committed between different races. One could easily point fingers to racial prejudiced crimes just because the victim was white and the antagonist black-- or vis versa. I think instead of trying to nail down whether or not the murder of Luis Ramirez was a hate crime, more action should be focused on stopping crime in general. While we are trying to fix the problems that arise today, we should also go to the younger children to prevent these crimes. To instill a good sense of equality early on is vital for people in later life. They will be less likely to commit acts of violence, especially based on mere race. I am extremely against the idea that people can act out against others just because our skins are different color.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/10/22/lia.shenandoah.killing/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

The Recession: Is it over?

Bernanke says recession ‘very likely over’
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Benanke said on Tuesday that the recession is over. The economy is stabilizing and our country will soon be on the path to recovery. However, Benanke also mentioned that this growth is should not be expected to happen quickly. It will take some time for balance to be regained. While the forecast is looking good, Deutsche Bank analyst Karen Weaver predicted that 'national home prices won't stop sliding until next summer and likely will fall another 10.5 percent from this summer's levels.' Unemployment is expected to reach 10 percent in this next year. The recovery won't happen immediately and might have a V-shaped turnaround. Policymakers are starting to meet to see if they will continue stimulating the economy now that it seems to be leveling.

While it is being predicted that the recession is almost over, there is still proof that it could continue. Home prices are still going down and unemployement is still going up. It is slowing but that could be just one hill on this rollercoaster of an economy. Hopefully these predictions of moderate growth are correct. It will obviously take some time and probably more money for us to get back to where we were before the recession. Our economy will seem very unstable for a while because of the recession even as it begins its upward slope. Two factors that weren't included in the article mentioned above are our spending of troops and people in the middle east as well the new strand of Swine Flu (H1N1). Our involvement in the middle east is going to continue to drain us of money, resources and labor until we get out (not saying that we should get out, merely that it will continue to take a toll on the economy). Who knows what H1N1 has in store for our country. It could be just another mild flu or a wordwide epidemic. In other words, while we hope for the best case scenario, we must be prepared for the improbable worst.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32858855/ns/business-economy_in_turmoil/