1. )

• Barack Obama wants to create new standards for how America uses energy. "Obama will create a federal Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) that will require 25 percent of American electricity be derived from renewable sources by 2025, which has the potential to create hundreds of thousands of new jobs on its own" (Plan to Strengthen the Economy).
• Hillary Clinton also has a plan to combat global warming: "A $50 billion Strategic Energy Fund, paid for in part by oil companies, to fund investments in alternative energy. The SEF will finance one-third of the $150 billon ten-year investment in a new energy future contained in this plan" (Powering America's Future: New Energy, New Jobs). She also wants us to cut foreign oil imports by 2/3. But she fails to explain how all this is going to help the economy.
• John McCain's campaign website doesn't really outline any specific solutions to the problem pertaining the environment or global warming. The site explains that McCain believes Americans have a responsibility to take care of the environment and "He believes that ignoring the problem reflects a "liberal live for today" attitude unworthy of our great country, and poses a serious and unacceptable threat to our environment, our economy, and U.S. national security. He has offered common sense approaches to limit carbon emissions by harnessing market forces that will bring advanced technologies, such as nuclear energy, to the market faster, reduce our dependence on foreign supplies of energy, and see to it that America leads in a way that ensures all nations do their rightful share" (Stewards of Our Nations Rich National Heritiage).

2. ) I would have to say that McCain's solutions are the weakest. He fails to give specific examples of what exactly is going to be done and how it is going to help. Hillary and Obama both seem to have really good solutions. I can't say I'm in any position to judge whether or not the solutions could actually work...I guess America just has to trust whoever we elect...

3.) McCain had the most fallacies. He was just repeating slogans and 'miss america talk' instead of providing specific examples. He seemed to be beating around the bush; he was very vague.

4.) I definitely think that Hillary has a lot of great solutions to combat global warming. However, I'd like to ask her how she plans on increasing the amount of stable jobs, if she is going to do anything about retirement (like, have more companies offer retirement plans for workers), and whether or not she thinks her deadlines (2020, 2030, etc) are realistic. COnsidering the fact that it takes 50 years to phase in a new energy source, I don't see how 2020 can be a realistic deadline for "reducing electricity consumption". Where are the other sources of electricity going to come from?

5.) An excellent way to help out is Habitat for Humanity. This organization is huge; they have it in every major city and town. They sponsor so many things, including building homes for the homeless in poor countries. This helps the environment because instead of letting some industrial company buy the land and use it for factories or something else that is detrimental to the environment, volunteers come in and give something back to those in need. They even build energy-efficient houses, which is great.

Pirating MP3's...

Me: Hey everyone! Thanks for joining us today on The Becky Show. How are we all doing? Fabulous. A big controversy up in smoke right now, are you keeping track of what your kids download? All that music on their iPod, did they pay for every song? Well, today we've got Scott Matthews and Fred von Lohman, from The Washington Post, here to talk with us about illegal downloading of music and MP3's.
So, Scott, why don't you give us a little background on what's going on.

Scott: Well, the record industry and EFF are preparing thousands of lawsuits against individuals who have illegally downloaded music. The record industry is losing billions of dollars from all this cost-free file-sharing, so they have a plan to wipe this out completely.

Me: Interesting to hear that. So, if there are millions of people out there doing this, how exactly does the EFF plan on accomplishing this?

Scott: Okay, their plan is to tax internet use, so if one were to download any files "illegally", it wouldn't really be illegal because the tax will allow the governemtn and record companies to be compensated.

Me: So, this whole issue is really just about the fact that the record companies want to be compensated for their losses?

Scott: Yes, exactly.

Me: Interesting. So, they are planning to tax internet use? I'm too sure if that's a realistic solution. But, hey, let's asl another expert. Here we've got Fred von Lohman from the Washington Post. How are you today?

Fred: Doing well, thanks.

Me: So, tell us, what's your opinion on the matter?

Fred: Well, Becky, at its heart, this is a fight about money, not morailty. And the truth of the matter is, no solution seems to work. Subscriptions for unlimited downloads for $10 a month are offered with services like Napster and Rhapsody. But these are failures because music expires after time, files are not compatible with the iPod, and the selection is slim.

Me: Not compatible with the iPod? Well of course no one's going to subscribe. Why download music when you can't even put it on your MP3-player...and everyone has iPods these days.

Fred: Exactly. Apple has also created a legal downloading process with iTunes. But the songs downloaded from iTunes are only cimpatible with Ipods, and it costs $1 per song and sometimes when you purchase a song, it has an error while downloading...but it still takes your money. How can you be sure you'll get a refund when everything is done electronically?

Me: It seems very tricky.

Fred: it is. Kids want music, they hear it on TV or the radio or whatever. They want the easiest way to get it. They also want to share their music and musical taste with friends, what better or easier way to do that than file-sharing.

Me: So, Fred, do you suggest any other solutions?

Fred: Yes, The only solution is a blanket license that permits kids to get unrestricted music and movies from sources of their choosing. We should have schools and universities collect cash, pay it to the entertainment industry and let the kids do what they are going to do anyway. In exchange, the entertainment industry should call off the lawyers and lobbyists, leaving our nation's universities to focus on the real challenges facing America's next generation of leaders.