Palin Responds to ‘Run, Sarah, Run’  “It would be absurd to not consider what it is that I can potentially do to help our country,” Read Article 

  Obama's military conundrum Only by switching spending from war to development can America hope to defeat al-Qaida and the Taliban  Jeffrey Sachs The Guardian, Friday 22 May 2009 19.00 BST Article history American foreign policy has failed in recent years mainly because the US has relied on military force to address problems that demand development assistance and diplomacy. Young men become fighters in places such as Sudan, Somalia, Pakistan and Afghanistan because they lack gainful employment. Extreme ideologies influence people when they can't feed their families, and when lack of access to family planning leads to an unwanted population explosion. President Barack Obama has raised hopes for a new strategy, but so far the forces of continuity in US policy are dominating the forces of change.The first rule in assessing a government's real strategy is to follow the money. America vastly overspends on the military compared with other areas of government. Obama's projected budgets do not change that. For the coming 2010 fiscal year, Obama's budget calls for $755bn in military spending, an amount that exceeds US budget spending in all other areas except so-called "mandatory" spending on social security, healthcare, interest payments on the national debt and a few other items.Indeed, US military spending exceeds the sum of federal budgetary outlays for education, agriculture, climate change, environmental protection, ocean protection, energy systems, homeland security, low-income housing, national parks and national land management, the judicial system, international development, diplomatic operations, highways, public transport, veterans' affairs, space exploration and science, civilian research and development, civil engineering for waterways, dams, bridges, sewerage and waste treatment, community development and many other areas.This preponderance of military spending applies to all 10 years of Obama's medium-term scenario. By 2019, total military spending is projected to be $8.2tn, exceeding by $2tn the budgeted outlays for all non-mandatory budget spending.US military spending is equally remarkable when viewed from an international perspective. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, total military spending in constant 2005 dollars reached roughly $1.4tn in 2007. In other words, the US spends roughly the same amount spent by the rest of the world combined – a pattern that the Obama administration shows no signs of ending.The policy decisions of recent months offer little more hope for a fundamental change in US foreign policy direction. While the US has signed an agreement with Iraq to leave by the end of 2011, there is talk in the Pentagon that US "non-combat" troops will remain in the country for years or decades to come.It is easy to see how the persistence of instability in Iraq, Iranian influence, and al-Qaida's presence will lead American policymakers to take the "safe" route of continued military involvement. Some opponents of the Iraq war, including me, believe that a fundamental – and deeply misguided – objective of the war from the outset has been to create a long-term military base (or bases) in Iraq, ostensibly…

  Scene stealer Emily Blunt unwinds in a revealing Q&A

 This time change really is coming to AmericaBarack Obama is wrong to suggest he knows what change looks like but right to urge the public to get readyGiles Whittell, Washington There was no champagne for the President, at least not in public. Instead there was a short walk to the microphone at ten to midnight and a low-key speech to weary reporters. Embedded in it were six words that he had waited a long time and twisted a lot of arms to say: "This is what change looks like". It is hard to overstate the effect the reforms passed last night will have on the American way of life, because the unknowable changes may be even more profound than those that are already known. Thirty-two million people will be forced or helped to buy health insurance for the first time. Ninety-five per cent of Americans will thus have coverage, up from roughly 85 per cent. The dream of universal coverage will not become a reality overnight, but it will come closer than ever in US history, and closer to levels taken for granted in other advanced economies. This much is known, and by themselves these pieces of the bill ensure that comparisons with the great reforms of Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson are not exaggerated but entirely reasonable. What is unknown is how insurance exchanges for individuals and small business will affect their premiums, now rising at up to 40 per cent a year; how cheaper insurance could affect hiring practices and unemployment; how the career and degree choices of school leavers will be affected now that they can stay on their parents' health insurance until they are 26; or how much more - or less - competitive US labour market could become now that workers will not have to worry about losing coverage when they change or lose their jobs. "Change is coming to America," Obama the candidate told voters until even the most admiring of them had heard it quite enough. Now it really is. He is wrong to suggest that he knows what it will look like, but right to urge the public to get ready. As soon as he signs this bill - and whether or not the Senate passes the companion "reconciliation" bill designed to correct its flaws - it will be illegal in America for an insurance company to withhold coverage because of a pre-existing medical condition, drop coverage when someone becomes ill or raise premiums and deductibles to the point where the notionally insured have to remortgage, go bankrupt or sell their homes to pay their healthcare bills. Such abuses are not confined to the realm of left-wing conspiracists. They are a fact of life in the US for a significant minority and a spectral presence on the healthcare horizon for everyone. Illness is the biggest single cause of personal bankruptcy in America. Even so, Republicans swore last night that the American people wanted none of the protections…