Taxes are due when?

Rosie Githinji, Alestle Opinion Editor

by Rosie Githinji, Alestle Opinion Editor

It’s tax time, and everyone is scrambling to make sure they get everything turned in by Thursday. For those who did not receive extensions, it could get a little overwhelming.

My favorite part about tax time is all the people who do not seem to realize you can file your taxes as early as January.

Each year, as soon as my W2s arrive, my mother and I sit down so that I can get my taxes done and filed. My only reason for bothering with it or even remembering is that the earlier I file my taxes the sooner I can get all my financial aid paperwork done. And, especially at SIUE, I have found the earlier I file paperwork, the better.

One day, I will not have my mother to remind me to make sure that my taxes are done. And hopefully, one day, I will not have to worry about getting them done early to get my financial aid paperwork done early either.

I am going to have to start educating myself on what I need to know to do my taxes. Since there are all kinds of programs to do it yourself, it should be pretty easy. Still I am always terrified that I am going to do it wrong, thanks to the commercials talking about all the different tax law changes and and that I could be getting more money back than I thought.

I can only hope that it will either become easier or cheaper to do taxes, because I am not a number-oriented person.

If the government has the time to find all the mistakes I made when I filed taxes, they should think about implementing some kind of program to make sure that its citizens are at least marginally educated in the whole tax filing process.

Unemployment laws should remain consistent

Rosie Githinji, Alestle Opinion Editor

by Rosie Githinji, Alestle Opinion Editor

A twist in unemployment laws will hurt more than help those who need money because they can’t find any work.

With the state of the economy during the past few years, it is not really a surprise that the government is now trying to find a way to give out less money than when the economy was thriving. Many of the people who have found part time jobs are now getting cuts to their unemployment checks because all the paperwork is being recalculated.

Even though most of the people who are now losing money are part of a federal program that was put in place to help those who had run out state benefits, instead of cutting the paychecks so drastically, there should be a more vigorous application process.

It is good that people cannot collect from both state and federal funds, but the federal government should just give the state the money to hand out instead.

Congress changed the unemployment laws in the 1990’s to make sure that unemployed people would not be penalized for finding part-time work, but that change is now “expired” and that does not make sense either.

It is the work of the government to take care of its citizens. If one law is going to be made to help the people, then more time and money should not be spent on changing those laws after they are put into place.

And in this current economy, there is nothing worse than being told you are not worth the paper the unemployment check is printed on.

Health care bill shouldn’t be top priority

Rosie Githinji, Alestle Opinion Editor

by Rosie Githinji, Alestle Opinion Editor

Everyone’s health is important and Obama understands that we all need some kind of health coverage. But with the health bill at almost 3,000 pages long, it is going to be hard to find a way to compromise and still make sure everyone is going to get at least some of what they need to make sure they remain healthy and still be able to afford it.

According to a story on yahoo.com that breaks down health care coverage and the bill that is going up for a vote, everyone would see some kind of change almost immediately if the bill is passed.

Those who don’t have health care or cannot afford it would have a cheaper alternative than what they do now. Those who already have health insurance would have a few more safeguards in place to make sure they are getting the most out of their coverage.

That part of the plan does not seem to be too threatening, and it sounds like it could be beneficial to almost everyone, but that is just the beginning. It seems to get worse as you get deeper into the bill.

Employees who work somewhere health coverage is not offered and those who are self employed would be able to get health insurance through some kind of exchange program. Families who are middle class would have to pay out more than families with a lower income. That is not fair, and in a world that is already not fair, why should we push to make it more so?

Also, once this exchange happens, then those who do not get health care would be fined. Not a smart idea. If we have problems paying for health insurance, then where will we get the money to pay for not having health insurance? We would be punished more than we already are for something we may not even need.

The bill goes on and on and on, but this small example is just a taste of what is to come if the bill is passed.

While there are many people out there in dire need of health care, myself included, I don’t think this particular health care bill is going to help the people of America as much as punish those who are already struggling to pay those outstanding hospital bills or other medical expenses.

There are a lot more important things that should be taken care of before the government starts looking into ways to make more money or whatever it is they are doing with this bill.

We need jobs and more money for education and a slew of other things before we can even think of affording health care. Once the big problems are taken care of then the government can start meddling more in the lives of its citizens. Until then they need to fix the real problems.

The Word of Obama and The Word of Bush

by Catherine Klene, Alestle Online Editor

President Barack Obama gave his State of the Union speech Tuesday, and moments after it was over, every news network from CNN to Fox News to the BBC had in-depth analysis… sometimes to the point of ridiculousness. (I don’t care how many magic boards or Twitter followers CNN has, I really don’t think they are relevant to explaining the speech.)

I’m not a political expert, and I won’t pretend to be one.  However, I am a writer, and it’s interesting to note which words are chosen and which audience is trying to be convinced.

Call what follows an amateur political experiment.  I created word clouds of Obama’s 2010 State of the Union speech and President George W. Bush’s 2008 State of the Union speech.  (For those who don’t know, word clouds are a computer generated mashup of the most frequently used words in a block of text.  The bigger the word in the cloud, the more frequently it’s used.)

Again, not an expert, nor am I Wolf Blitzer, but feel free to drawn your own conclusions from the word clouds below.

President Barack Obama's 2010 State of the Union Address

Obama’s Top 10 Words:

1. American   25
2. You              25
3. Who             25
4. From           23
5. Know           22
6. Economy    22
7. We               22
8. Plan             21
9. Every           20
10. People         19

President George W. Bush's State of the Union Address

Bush’s Top 10 Words:

1. America     30
2. Must           29
3. Congress    27
4. You             26
5. Them          26
6. Year            24
7. New            24
8. Us               22
9. More          22
10. Iraq           21

Google to China: It’s over

Sean Roberts, Alestle Photographer

by Sean Roberts, Alestle Photographer

Recently, Google has threatened to pull out of China. I for one, am all for it. For those of you not aware, there was a recent cyber attack against Google and many more U.S. companies. The primary reason for this attack was to steal Google’s code and to view account information of human rights activists. Even more shocking, indicators show that this attack likely came from within the Chinese government itself.

In order to get into China, one of the things Google had to do was censor search results for the Chinese people. Their government does not allow them to see information the government deems harmful. This includes things like the very existence of popular protests, including the one’s in Tiananmen Square.

The very idea that a country that is quickly becoming a superpower censors basic information from their own people is awful. We should all see this as completely unacceptable. While, understandably, this has not done a whole lot with our business relationship with China- after all, we do make money from the situation and avoiding all of that because of its government would be naieve, U.S. companies should not actively be involved in censorship or oppression of an industrial nation who acts like it is still part of the third world. I am glad that Google finally opened their eyes after this attack on American companies.

If China expects us to bend over backwards in order to serve them and get us involved in the attacks on their own people, they should at least respect the businesses that were willing to do so.