Over-caffeinated, tired of the same, and only two days of classes

         Those, along with a growing dog who seems to be occupying himself more often these days, are the reasons I thought of for starting this blog. I've also been reading a fair amount of news the past few years, doing my best to be an "informed citizen", and I've become disgusted with the way both politics and economics are covered by most news sources. Although these arenas have a broad and meaningful impact on people's everyday lives, the media presents them as abstract concepts being debated by much smarter people than me with the nation's best interests in mind. Here's my problem with this. It would require me to believe that our politicians have even a cursory understanding of economics, which they either do not, or if they do, they choose not to explain it to the people they represent.

          Case in point: Obamacare. Most people who follow the news know that the Democrats lost Ted Kennedy's senate seat in a special election last week. This means the Democrats only have 59 senate seats and cannot pass healthcare without facing a Republican filibuster. However, most of us have no clue what the actual healthcare bill says. In essence, the media has portrayed this bill in such an irrelevant partisan fashion that it has forgotten to examine the bill itself. The public discourse then is one of even more irrelevant party rhetoric since no one has a clue about the specifics of the bill. “Lower taxes, smaller government” and “healthcare is a right” become substitutes for substantive debate.  

          The general way I am hoping this will work is that I will present my opinion on a (most likely) current political or economic issue or criticizes the way the media presents an issue. I will also post interesting articles and such that I have read that day. Hopefully, someone else will then comment. I also realize that I have a leftist bent (possible understatement), so I will make anyone else an author on this blog. I will even share the ad revenue, which I expect to be none. But the general theme must remain how political and economic events affect people.   

--Joe