President Obama on his last Iraq visit

By Angel Elliott, BET.com News Staff

 

President Obama made an unscheduled stop to Iraq on the last day of his European tour according to White House Pool Press traveling with him. Although Turkey was suppose to be his last stop before heading back to D.C. this afternoon, he reportedly had Air Force One land in the capitol city of Baghdad to directly reach out to Iraqi leaders.

(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Could it be his charming smile? The way that he effortlessly passes bills and legislation from house to house without breaking a sweat? Could it be the way that he’s brought the nuclear family back into vogue? Or maybe Americans are just happy to have someone in office that’s completely opposite of Bush. Whatever it is, Americans love affair with President Barack Obama continues and is in fact at an all time high.

According to a recent poll conducted by NBC News/Wall Street Journal, “two thirds of Americans feel hopeful about his leadership, and six in 10 approve of the job he’s doing in the White House.”  That number is astonishing in light of some outright opposition to his policies, an unemployment rate of 7.6 percent, a 15 year all time high, and 70 percent of all adults being dissatisfied with the economy overall. One thing the public recognizes is Obama’s unfortunate inheritance of the nations poor fiscal situation. According to the same NBC News/ WSJ poll, 84 percent of Americans believe that the clean up the economy was Bush’s going away present to the new president.

Could Americans trust President Obama because of his transparency? All throughout the election season, Obama campaigned on a promise to change the way Washington worked; and to once again make sure Americans are always informed on the legislation being passed. So far every time he’s passed a bill or extended one, he’s held a press conference to explain it, or gone on a state to state tour pitching it to the people. He’s also followed through on his promise to close Guantanamo, cut taxes for 95 percent of all Americans which he ordered the Treasury to implement on February 21st, and signed an expansion of the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Let also not forget that 80 percent of Americans approve of his plan to pull out of Iraq within 19 months.

It looks like Obama is passing his 100 day test with flying colors, all though it has had some set backs. His trouble filling key cabinet positions hasn’t gone unnoticed by the media. Former Health Secretary appointee Tom Daschle had to step down because of unpaid tax problems; the same decision was made days earlier by Chief Performance Officer appointee Nancy Killefer for the same reasons. But this early capitulation of White House appointees could be a good thing. Lets not forget the number of folks that chose to say sayonara to our past president when he was well into his presidential term; including Secretary of State Colin Powell, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and a whole slough of Housing Secretaries, Attorney Generals and Treasury Secretaries.

President Obama just may be onto something with this new truth, trust and transparency tactic he’s using. I’m sure many Americans would agree its something that we haven’t seen in quite some time.

-Angel Elliott

Drug Bust, Baltimore Sun photo by Gus G. Sentementes

By Angel Elliott

The drug drama made nationally popular by HBO series “The Wire” comes to life in the form of a recent drug bust made by Baltimore Police. More than 90 pounds of cocaine, and $11,000 dollars in cash were seized from a Southwest Baltimore City home this past week; providing Baltimore Police with their biggest drug bust in the operations history.

Interestingly enough, the investigation didn’t take the perfunctory years and months of intelligence gathering and undercover operation; it took a matter of weeks. Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III  told reports at a press conference Friday that he believed the person arrested had a wholesale operation going.

“These drugs, wherever they were destined, whether Western Maryland, the Eastern Shore or East or West Baltimore, they are affecting our communities…Forty-one kilos of cocaine will not reach the streets of our city. All of us can take some comfort in that”

 The street value of the drugs was between $2 & 3 million dollars. Honestly, the biggest drug problem in Baltimore perhaps isn’t the suppliers or whole sale providers, it is the drug addicts. The city boasts an estimated 60,000 drug abusers and 8,000 drug treatment slots. City and state officials should perhaps spend the newly allocated stimulus money to create drug treatment facilities, and an educational program in schools teaching kids about drug abuse.

In the early 90’s, Baltimore had 750,000 residents and 60,000 drug abusers. Fast forward to today, and the cities population has decreased by 100,000, but the number of drug abusers has stayed pretty steady. Can we blame it on past Mayor Kurt Schmokes City Kneedle Exchange Program; which ultimately lowered the incidence of HIV in the city by 35%? Schmokes efforts to address the drug problem was not to arrest dealers or impose heavier jail sentences to offenders; but instead to decriminalize drugs  altogether. Perhaps not the best method, but a more creative and

Gov. O'Malley Press Conference on AIRA; Baltimore Sun photo by Barbara Haddock Taylor

almost conscious tactic of addressing the issue.

Gov. Martin O’Malley (former Mayor of Baltimore) plans to use $84 million from the American Recover and Investment Plan (the new stimulus) to fund schools throughout the state. A wise investment after initial budgetary plans before the stimulus included a funding cut of $140 million to Baltimore City & Prince Georges County schools. Perhaps some of that cash can be used to institute drug awareness and rehabilitation programs within the schools; because Baltimore’s drug problem isn’t age specific, its multi-generational.

Why not kill two birds with one stone?

-Angel Elliott