I try not to get involved with American politics. I educate myself from multiple world sources regarding the latest to come out of the White House, their current position in foreign assistance or whatever else gains my interest.
I am not a student of American history so I leave it there. I read, learn, form my own opinions and avoid a soapbox. I feel that politics can start a pretty heated debate, and is not my intentions with this post.
AP – President Bush next week will request a $439.3 billion Defense Department budget for 2007, a nearly 5 percent increase over this year, according to senior Pentagon officials and documents obtained Thursday by The Associated Press. link
Quoting from Islamic, Jewish and Christian texts, rock star Bono called Thursday for the U.S. government to give an additional 1 percent of the federal budget to the world’s poor. link
I feel strongly about foreign aid, and I would like to see more of the G8 countries help out. Programs such as DATA or Jubilee 2000 are a great start, and so is this. Sadly I don’t think this 1% is going to have the same impact that the additional 5% will be making. It is a matter of priorities and I think it is clear where the US is continuing to head.
Unfortunately this post preempted a U2 dedicated post being published tomorrow. Expect a decade worth of U2 review in my next post. I was in the middle of writing it up when the above news clippings came in on my RSS feeder. I felt they were more important to post tonight rather than tomorrow morning. Also, I am not one wanting to mix politics and music together.
