Japan Earthquake Triggered Tsunami Damage In The United States Of America

Tsunami Damage In The United States of America

The United States is a long way from the power and destruction of the 8.9 earthquake and resulting tsunami that devastated Japan. We all send the Japanese people good wishes and prayers for a full recovery. Even with thousands of miles of ocean to cross the power of the tsunami still made an impact on the United States.

Initial reports said that the tsunami wave went around the Hawaii Islands, but video evidence show that a glancing blow was struck on the big island of Hawaii in the town of Kona over 3,850 miles from Japan. Unbelievably, cities in California were affected over 5,478 miles away.

Although the scale of damage in the United States can’t begin to compare with that in Japan, the tsunami managed to claim a life over 5,000 miles away from where it started. An article titled “NorCal man drowns trying to photograph tsunami” by the Fox 5 San Diego Staff and CNN Wire March 11, 2011 and published on the Fox 5 San Diego  website tells of a California man that was swept out to sea and drowned while trying to photograph the incoming tsunami waves.

Although the magnitude of suffering was vastly different from Japan to the United States, they were both touched by death and destruction from the same event that demonstrated the awesome power of nature. Man still lives with forces greater than himself.

United States Tsunami Readiness Weakened By Proposed Republican Budget Cuts

 Tsunami

When the budget ax swings on anything that can be made to sound frivolous there are times when reality snaps everyone back to reality. The earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan managed to shine a spotlight on proposed Republican budget cuts that could reduce the effectiveness of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii.

An article titled “Proposed GOP budget cuts target tsunami warning centers” by Lucy Madison March 11, 2011 and posted on the CBS News website goes into the particulars of the budget cuts that are proposed. This follows a pattern as budget cuts proposed thus far nibble around the edges of the real problem. If the usual pattern was followed this cut for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency and the National Weather Service would be characterized as cutting nonessential and frivolous spending, until the disaster in Japan occurs.

Imagine the finger pointing is a similar sized tsunami that devastated Japan  were to hit an area in the United States without adequate warning and it was traced back to a budget cut that could have been avoided. There is no way to know where a tsunami is headed without the proper technology such as monitoring buoys etc.

There are always items that can be cut from a budget that sound frivolous to someone in Kansas, but are critical to the coasts and the reverse is true as well. One thing that should not be on the frivolous chopping block is protection from severe, although rare, events like hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunamis. We have New Orleans, Indonesia and Japan as proof of the need for as much warning as possible.

President Obama Produces His Birth Certificate And …

The thing that so many have clamored for has finally been produced. President Barack Obama produced his long form birth certificate and the reaction to it was shocking.

One of the first responses was, “He’s still a Muslim.” Of course, this is a hypothetical situation, but is exactly the type of response that would come from those with 10, not 1 reason they don’t support President Obama. Those ingrained attitudes are also exactly the reason President Obama should not show his long form birth certificate.

Barack Hussein Obama is the legitimate President of the United States. He was voted in by the people and sworn in by the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. President Obama met all of the requirements of the Constitution, election commission and every state's requirement for inclusion on ballots for President of the United States.

The other reason the President should not buckle to calls to produce a long form birth certificate is the satisfaction it would provide to the faction pushing the “He is an other” conspiracy theories. The satisfaction that group would get from having the sitting President complying with their requests would be immense. The symbolic damage of President Obama showing his birth certificate would be like he was pulled over, asked for his papers and that image would never go away. The individuals riding on the birther bandwagon are in a world of their own making and President Obama showing his long form birth certificate will not grant him acceptance into that club.  

Now some of these states have bills coming to their legislatures that require a birth certificate as a part of qualification to be included on their ballot for President. It is questionable if any of these measures will become law. An article titled “Ga. latest state to propose "birther"” by the Associated Press March 2, 2011 and published on the CBS News website goes into the details on the measure in Georgia. These laws seems to like rules change imposed in some sports when a player comes along and takes a quantum leap beyond everyone else participating.

This is the state of American politics today with code words, finger pointing and fear mongering as the order of the day.

Birther Bills Try To Block President Obama From 2012 State Ballots

 President Barack Obama

Here we go again. Multiple states have bills designed to force President Obama and any other Presidential candidate to produce a full birth certificate before being included on those states' ballot. The bills have made their way to state legislature in many states. An article titled “Ga. latest state to propose "birther" bill” by the Associated Press March 2, 2011 and published on the CBS News website goes into the details on the measure in Georgia. According to the article 10 other states have bills pending including Texas, Arizona, Missouri, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Connecticut, Maine,  Tennessee and Indiana. Montana previously defeated such a measure.

This is the real start of the 2012 Presidential campaign. Possible Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee made a statement recently that President Obama’s world view was influenced by his Kenyan upbringing with his Kenyan born father and grandfather. Huckabee later said that he misspoke and meant to say Indonesia instead of Kenya. President Obama grew up in Hawaii and spent four years in Indonesia as a child with his mother and stepfather, but was primarily raised by his mother and grandparents in Hawaii and that is in his biography.

It is more than a coincidence that a legitimate and former Presidential candidate would come out with Obama birth certificate talk before any Republicans officially declare to run for President. It is the first dog whistle to alert a certain voting block that he is with them, just in case he runs.

Wasn’t the birther business supposed to be old news? Well it never went away; it just died down for a while. The efforts to declare President Obama an illegitimate President seems to never end and some just won’t give in on the birth certificate business because those pushing it feel it is a disqualifier for a man they don’t think they can beat in 2012.