/#######################################################################\ | | | P o l i t i c s O n l i n e M a g a z i n e | | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | | Volume 1, Number 2 | | | | Head Editors ..................................... David Killoren | | ..................................... Josh Renaud | | | | Contributing Editor/Consultant ................... Mark Waelterman | | | | Columnists ....................................... J. Thomas Martell| | ....................................... | | | | Contributing Writers ............................. Shai Sachs | | ............................. Gary Brown | | ............................. Shawn Hayes | | ............................. Joe Antonucci | | | | Publisher .............................. GrossWorld Publishing Co. | | | \#######################################################################/ /#######################################################################\ | | | P o l i t i c s O n l i n e M a g a z i n e | | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | | Table of Contents | | | | | | Introduction to Politics Online Magazine | | Family Values .................................... Josh Renaud | | The New Political Landscape ...................... Joe Antonucci | | Spreading the Military ........................... Joe Antonucci | | | \#######################################################################/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | Introduction | \==============/ Welcome back! This is the December issue of Politics Online Magazine! Yes, this is our second edition, and we are glad to get it out! Though we are still a little writer-deficient, we are managing. We were glad to see some of you taking advantage of out Reader's Write. Many of you contacted us and gave us kind comments and offered suggestions. We do consider all of them carefully. For further information on the Reader's Write, skip to the end of this issue. In further news: The Republicans swept the Congress away in the 1994 elections. We've got several articles relating to that issue. That's about it for this month. Just remember, wherever you found THIS copy of POM, rest assured, there will be another next month (Or should I say next year?). Have safe and happy Holidays! ... The Editors ... %************************************************************************% +============+ |Rap City BBS| +============+ Sysop: Dr. Dre Co-Sysop: Quarth SOLARnet @1 (NC) | WWIVlink @13495 (314)963-7960 WWIVnet @2132 | TerraNET @3450 (AC) WWIV v4.23 - Heavily Modified IceNET @3454 | EliteNET @3451 (AC) Since April 8, 1992 =============ASSnet @1004================ 213 Megs/Over 150 Message Bases %************************************************************************% ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | Family Values Update | | | | Josh Renaud | \======================/ Family values. I'm sure you've heard that term countless times before. You're probably tired of hearing the same old "our familes are breaking down. What can we do?" articles. Well, in case you were wondering, this isn't one of those. The Republicans now control Congress, plus they have the majority of the governorships. How will this affect the family? Positively, I hope. The Republicans are notorious for their support of the family. Remember Dan Quayle and Murphy Brown? I'm sure you probably do. They have already promised to get prayer back into schools. How does this affect the family? In several ways: 1) Over the past few years, religious activity (all religions) has been on the delcine. Humanism has been on the rise, along with substance abuse and high school dropouts. Because religion of all types has been taken out of school, children (who spend most of their time in school anyway) are having less of a religious background. Because of this, religion at home is weakening, and this eventually weakens the family unit. Another point: The Republicans are going to be changing the crime bill. How does this affect the family? Inner city gangs would be the number one answer. Although most kids aren't part of these gangs, every school has cliques and little groups. Every school has one group notorious for it's roughness, their stealing, cheating, et cetera, et cetera. The updates to the crime bill will hopefully begin solving the problems of crime, taking away the fear, and making kids turn from gangs back to their families. What about abortion and other services like that? Abortion is a very controversial topic. Families are split apart by both of the arguments concerning it. Take the girl who gets pregnant and doesn't want her familt to know. She has an abortion, then her family gets mad at her. Or what about the family that tries to support a pregnant teen. The teen wants an abortion, but the family wants the babyto go to adoption. Fights ensue. What can the Republicans do to remedy these problems? Nobody knows the answers yet. Hopefully voluntary prayer will be put back into schools. Hopefully scientific creationism will be taught as a theory along side evolution. Hopefully crime will begin to break down. And hopefully answers will be found to the pressing health care issues. Everything affects the family. TV and movie violence and sex, gangs, peers, all those sort of things. Answers must be found before it's too late. Do you and your family a favor. Write or call your Congressmen and tell them what YOU believe. That is the only TRUE way to make a difference. %*************************************************************************% /\/ Flash BBS /\/ -= Running on an Atari ST with FoReM ST software =- Over 45 subboards on the Xnet and CrossNet, with nodes ranging all over America! 15 online games, like Space Trade Elite, Space Empire, Football Pool, and Assassin. Megs and Megs of files for your downloading pleasure! [314] 275-2040 14.4 USR modem %**************************************************************************% ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | The New Political Landscape | | | | Joe Antonucci | \===============================/ With a flip of a switch, the voting populace changed the workings of the American political machine, from one of Democratic supremacy to a more conservative base, by engaging the cams of Republican directions. For the first time, in 8 years the GOP now has a senate majority. For the first time since 1954, they have taken control of the House majority. And for the first time since 1970 do they hold a majority of state gubernatorial positions. The Republican party, having always had a stronghold in the midwest now found itself strengthening it's foothold, on what were once predominantly liberal Democratic regions. Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and the southern states offered up little or no resistsance to the changing of the guard. This change of political demography offers many scenarios to the balance of the present administrations agendas. The president may focus more attention to foreign affaiars, as a retaliation to congressional friction on domestic issues. Foreign policy, offering less of a congressional overstructure, would still not be without it's conflicts or obstructions, whereas in concerning countries with blue chip interests,( i.e. Iraq, Israel, etal), he will find little or no contention. He may be faced with a certain degree of resistance to "nation building" on purely humanitarian interests. New Senate Foreign Relations Commitee Chairman Jesse Helms ([R] N. Carolina) has already expressed his mistrust with this administrations handling of foreign affairs, and is reassessing the outlook of future programs in this issue as well as the whole of it's programs. The Serbian peace treaty, should there be one, may find no U.S. troop involvement to enforce the ratifications and agreements to their desired conclusions. The domestic policy of the coming years, as with foreign policy, will find many conflicts of interest, stemming from taxation, and health care on through to welfare and gun control, with some of the programs enacted by the former Democratic congress actually being reversed or ammended to. Governmental downsizing may offer the biggest stumbling block to the health reform act, as will the reviewing of the newly emplaced tax rates, such as sin taxes and this administrations tax hike of 1992. Gun control once again will take a front seat in both house and senate hearings, with new ammendmants to the Crime Bill actually nullifying or reversing some of it's underlying constraints and a possible reassessment of the second ammendmant resulting in unconstitutionalizing many of the restrictions enacted since 1954. The changing profile of the political landscape leaves many questions to be seen answered. For instance, how will foriegn policy hold up under world wide scrutiny, could it cause worldwide ramifications? How many of the previous programs will be challenged or reversed? Can the new Republican congress not only hold their current footing but add to their foundation on a more overwhelming scale come the 1996 elections ? The next two years will hold many answers and many changes, and although with change comes hope, there also comes learned uncertainty. The only course that remains for us, is vigilance, and although with change comes hope, there also comes learned uncertainty. We will see what happens. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | Spreading the Military | | Joe Antonucci | \=========================/ Over the last few years, extensive budget cuts, accompanied by increased responsibilities, have put a great strain on the workings of the U.S. Armed Forces. In September of 1994, the first year of the Clinton budget, the United States Military ran out of money. Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. William Owens says that despite the budget cuts, "We've gotten better since 1991 and can get even better with surveillance and smart technologies to offset manpower losses.", however if you look at the areas that the cuts have hit the hardest you will notice that the R and D, and Procurement budgets just can't allow for the amount of aquisitions that would offset such losses. Clinton budget cuts 1994 budget area.............%cut...precut...post cut maint. and operations .. 10% 103 blln. 92.9 Personell ...... 23% 91.2 70.5 Procurement .. 54% 93.7 43.3 Research and Develop. .. 14% 42.1 36.2 other .. +1% 9.21 9.29 TROOP DEPLOYMENT AND MORALE While the cuts affected the area of procurement hardest monaterally, the affect upon personell cuts has had a harder impact upon morale and deployment capabilities. The swapping and shifting of troops has caused fatigue and disorientation among the service men and women. This shifting has meant less hometime for our troops, and as this has a direct influence on the reenlistment rate of a volunteer military we can expect less reenlistment of veteran personell and more new recruitment. That means more training and less experience, for a smaller force. The 10th mountain divis.,currently in Haiti barely had enough time to change their gear,(from the desert camoflauge they used in Somalia to the greens they are using now), before they were redeployed to aid the Haitian conflict. Many of the troops now deployed in the Persian Gulf were taken with little or no leave from the Bosnian Herzgovenian conflict. Troop Deployment as of Oct. 1994 Hemisphere Troop deployment under 3000 over 3000 Western (exc. U.S.) 1000 trps 5 countries Guantanamo Bay 7,700 Panama 10,400 Eastern (exc.europe) 8100 9 Persian Gulf 40,000 Japan 45,000 S.Korea 36,900 Europe 6000 7 Germany 102,000 Italy 12,700 Spain 3,100 Turkey 4,700 U.K. 14,700 READINESS VS. SIZING DOWN In the United States, American troops are used in various forms other than their major role of defense, some are implemented as drug enforcement units assisting the DEA, while others are operating in more domesticated purposes, such as fighting the forest fires in Idaho, and California to checking the borders for illegal immigration. Worldwide our country men are in over 100 nations in the capacity of military trainers, or as peacekeeping forces. In Haiti and the Sanai desert they are involved in"nation building", in Rawanda they're part of the humanitarian relief force,and they are currently overseeing the peace talks in the middle east. Now as these may be generally safe areas of utilization, some of the forces are deployed as deterrants against at least two heavily armored armies, one being North Korea, the other Iraq, both being potentially viable situations. When asked about the problems of facing two areas of potential conflict, Chmn. J.C.o.S. Gen. John Shalikashili said, "although we are stretched we are not stretched too thin. We are better, in command control and communications, than we were in desert storm, and can handle the situations in N.Korea and Iraq without much difficulty," but he added, "any more cuts to the budget could cause significant shortfalls". Now while Shalikashili's answer tends to put us at ease Gen. Sullivan's comments seem to be a little less comforting when he states,"smaller is not better..better is better...at some point, when you cut enough back, we just get smaller and ineffective". Though we are still the strongest fighting force in the world, the role as super cop coupled with extensive cuts to the budget, seem to be fatiguing the beams, and without the money in r and d and procurements, then expanding the high tech to compensate for personnel loses and increased usage does not calculate to a winning proposition. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Editorial and Writing Staff here at Politics Online Magazine wish you and yours a very merry Christmas. Thanks for downloading this copy of POM, and stay tuned for our first issue of 1995! Have safe and happy holidays... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | Reaching Politics Online Magazine | | | \=====================================/ To write a letter to the writers at POM, send us a Reader's Write letter, or just to make comments or suggestions, please call the following BBSes and EMail the Contact listed. If you are interested in becoming a writer or an advertiser in POM, use the Flash BBS instructions. In Area Code 314 Rap City BBS ........ (314)963-7960 Contact: Captain Kirk House of Texaco ..... (314)963-9374 Contact: Captain Kirk Flash BBS ........... (314)275-2040 Contact: Josh Renaud %************************************************************************%