U.S. set to pay Taliban members to switch sides

Experts of the region believe that creating a program to pay the Taliban to quit the orginization will buy temporary loyalty. On Wednesday, Obama signed a $680 billion defensive bill that will pay for military operations in 2010. The Taliban will be recieving $1.3 billion. The plan is to seperate the Taliban from their leaders, and put a stop to the surge against americans in Iraq. Sen. Carl Levin says that the Taliban are moitivated mostly by the need for a job and a loyal leader, not religion. The bill has been a main priority now after many Americans have lost their lives in the past few months. On Tuesday, 8 soldiers were killed in a attack in southern Afghanistan. Levin also says that many Iraqis have switched to our side due to the promise of jobs and anmesty of past attacks.

After what I have a heard of the Taliban, I don't think that they can be trusted. I think that $1.3 billion dollars is a lot of money, and what would they spend it on? I think whatever it is, it would only cause more problems for us.

On New Orleans visit, Obama tells critics, "I'm just getting started"

On Thursday, President Obama visited a town hall in New Orleans, Louisiana. Obama replied to his critics who claim he has completed little while being in office for 9 months, saying "I'm just getting started." Obama has gotten a lot of criticism for his visit in New Orleans. Even 4 years after Katrina, theres still about 60,000 homes abandoned, and about 1,500 people are still living in temporay homes. However, since Obama has taken office, 1.4 billion dollars has been sent to aid for those who have suffered from Katrina. Also, more than 1 billion dollars from the stimulus package has also been sent to Louisiana. Obama will spend less than 4 hours in the area, going to a charter school as well. Republican Representatives are dissapointed that Obama will only be spending a few short hours in the region, stating that New Orleans deserves more than a "drive through daiquiri."

I don't think that the delay in returning New Orleans to its normal state is all of Obama's fault. I think that the citizens of New Orleans need to take matters into their own hands. If they truly want life to be like it was before Hurricane Katrina, then they shouldn't wait for somebody else to come do a job that they have the ability to do.

Artic ice to vanish in summer, report says

On Thursday, new data was released which claims that the Arctic Ocean will be "largely ice free" during the summer months within the next 10 years. The data was presented by the UK-based Catlin Arctic Survey and the World Wildlife Fund. The researchers forsee within the next couple of decades that the Arctic Ocean will be completely clear of ice. They surveyed the northern part of Beaufort Sea and found that most of the ice was first year ice. The scientists are worried by this because normally it is made up of much older, thicker ice. People from the WWF believe that changes in sea-ice cover will only increase global warming.

I think that its time for country leaders to step and try to prevent this from happening. This global warming has been going on for long enough and it needs to be stopped before it gets even worse. I think that eventually if the world doesn't do something to stop global warming now, the consequences will become very severe, and it will be too late to do anything about it.