While the effect of increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases was originally called ‘global warming', the name soon got changed to ‘climate change’ as it better explains the actual process. True, some places get warmer. But other areas get cooler.  Or the amount of rainfall starts to fluctuate.  If snowfall in the Sierras or Rockies drops, then the southwest and California will have droughts.  It’s just that simple. Moreover, we just had the bizarre spectacle of Washington D.C.

Obama pledged to shut down Guantanamo Bay by the end of his first year as President.  One year later, Guantanamo Bay is still open and may remain so for an indefinite period of time.  Legal logistics and a strong, conservative backlash have hampered efforts to close down the US military base located in communist Cuba. 

California's Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein has proposed legislation that would divert a large portion of California's public water supply to Southern California agribusinesses.

Many in this nation are growing increasingly concerned about the national debt and foreign policy of the United States.  As a result, CAIVN would like to share a portion of Marcy Winograd's recent press release in order to stimulate debate and discussion.  Here is the abridged version:

Though he was ridiculed in the media (for no other reason than his boring demeanor), Al Gore was on to something with his 2000 Presidential campaign promise to put Social Security money in a "lock box" where politicians couldn't touch or spend it. The current system is a pay-as-you-go system where people who are paying into the program now are funding the retirements of people who are retired now, with the expectation that future generations of workers will fund the retirements of today's labor force.

Governor Schwarzenegger’s 2010-2011 budget proposes the virtual elimination of critical in-home services to California’s poor and disabled seniors.  The targeted program is known as the In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS), a program that has provided in-home domestic and personal care services to elderly, disabled, and poor Americans who cannot safely live and take care of themselves without assistance for six decades.  The goal of IHSS was, and still is, to provide care while allowing our nation’s most vulnerable people to remain in their homes as opposed to living in an inst

The drug trade and its accompanying violence continues to be a problem south of the border.  Approximately 90% of the cocaine reaching U.S.

It’s been a successful week for supporters of cannabis taxation: the recent news of strong support for an initiative (09-0024, or the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010) to tax and regulate marijuana has spread quickly.

You won’t believe this until you see it.  In a stunning admission, former Governor of Kentucky and current State Senator Julian Carroll admitted, “I could care less what want…we operate democracy in this country with a two-party system.”  These comments were expressed following an interview with independent activist Michael Lewis, where the Senator suggested that if independents don’t like the way the political system is run, they should “leave the country”, and by pushing for open primaries, independents were trying to “destroy the two-party system.”

The New York Times recently cited rancorous partisanship as one of the chief causes of America's skyrocketing national debt.  Running $1.4 trillion budget deficits and having increased the debt ceiling to approximately $14 trillion, our nation is headed toward certain fiscal disaster unless a major policy shift is enacted.  And while Republicans and Democrats continue to point fingers at one another, the debt spirals out of control.