Monday, February 04, 2008

Obama Baby! '08

Some friends and I have researched and composed an email that we think will be interesting for people to forward and post on blogs. Our hope is that you will forward the copy below to all of your contacts and start a forwarding e-mail campaign. To go along with Obama's 'Change' theme, we have created an “It’s time for a change” onesie (get it?) and other baby merchandise at www.obamababy08.com. As you will read below, the merchandise fits within the theme of our forwarding e-mail campaign. Profits after the administrative costs of the Obamababy08.com website will be donated directly to the Obama 08' campaign.

To the estimated 4 million babies born in the United States this election year…

On the day you are born... According to current census data, over 40 million people in the U.S. were considered to be living in poverty, over 45 million people were without health insurance, and the national debt exceeded $9 trillion.

The cost of fighting one day in Iraq could provide health insurance coverage for a year to 380,900 uninsured children in America, immunize every baby born in the U.S. against measles, mumps, and rubella 14.2 times, and feed all of the starving children in the world four and a half times over.

By the end of your first year in the world... As you're just beginning to walk, you will be facing a 50% likelihood of the detonation of an atomic weapon by a terrorist on U.S. soil within 10 years.

At the end of 2007, Harvard professors Graham Allison and Douglas Dillon said, "Based on current trends, a nuclear terrorist attack on the United States is more likely than not in the decade ahead. As horrific as that vision is, the most important but largely unrecognized truth is that this ultimate catastrophe is preventable."

By the time you enter kindergarten... As you're learning to read, at least 40-50 million Americans will not read well enough to provide a wage to raise their standard of living above the poverty line.

Six million middle and high school students read significantly below their grade level. A full third of high school graduates do not immediately go on to college. American 15 year olds rank 28th out of 40 countries in mathematics and 19th out of 40 countries in science. Almost 30 percent of students in their first year of college are forced to take remedial science and math classes because they are not prepared.

By the time you are a senior in high school... As you are taking your SAT/ACT's and applying to colleges, you will be facing the reality that your first year of tuition will cost about $54,750.

College costs have grown nearly 40 percent in the past five years. In 2007, the average graduate left college with over $19,000 in debt. Between 2001 and 2010, 2 million academically qualified students will not go to college because they cannot afford it.

By the time you finish your last year of college... As you are looking at places to visit on your spring break, you will have 5-7 years left to see Glacier National Park before all the glaciers melt due to climate change.

As of 2007, Glacier National Park only has 27 glaciers, versus 150 in 1910. In the Northern Hemisphere, thaws also come a week earlier in spring and freezes begin a week later.

By the time you're 30... As you are preparing to marry or start a family and plan for your financial future, the Social Security system will be able to cover only about 73 percent of benefits owed.

According to projections, in 2015, the Social Security program will begin to spend more money than it collects in taxes. At that point, the Social Security program will begin to collect on the money that it has loaned to the federal government. Between 2037 and 2075, the Social Security program is projected to run annual deficits totaling 30 trillion dollars.