Terms You'll Want to Know for the 2008 Presidential Election

Affirmative Action: Actions taken by the government or some private entity to counteract the results of past discrimination in social, economic and educational arenas. For example, If a person owns a business in a largely minority town and everyone that works for that person is caucasian, he/she could be prosecuted for not having a balance of employees at least somewhat reflective of the local demographic.

ANWR (Ann-waar) – Alaska National Wildlife Refuge: The area along Alaska’s northern coastal plain where a mother load of oil is waiting to be harvested. A huge debate rages between environmentalists on the left and "Big Oil" men on the right about whether or not to open the pristine nature reserve to oil drilling and development.

CAFE (Kaff-ee) – Corporate Average Fuel Economy: MPG. The standard the federal government uses to insure conservative fuel consumption in passenger cars and light trucks.

CAFTA (Kaff-ta) – Central American Free Trade Agreement: A free trade agreement between Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and the United States.

Charter School: A school funded by tax dollars but which is exempt from abiding by regulations and standards which govern ordinary public schools. Charter schools are often regulated by a board of parents and do not necessarily require a teacher to have a degree associated with the field in which they teach, and sometimes, don't require a degree at all.

CNTBT – Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty: A treaty between 44 nations which, at the time of its inception, possessed either nuclear weapons or nuclear energy capability. It contains a comprehensive ban on nuclear detonations. Created in 1996, this treaty has still not been ratified by several participating states, and therefore is of no effect to any. The treaty will take effect 180 days following the ratification of the last participant.

FTA – Free Trade Agreement: An agreement between two or more states (countries) outlining the basis on which they will trade for each other’s goods and services at no cost, i.e. no tariffs, border fees, or any other type of non-tariff barrier.

GATT (Gatt) – General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade: Predecessor to the WTO. A loosely constructed agreement between many states (countries) founded on principles of free, or quazi free, trade, monetary policy, economic security, etc. GATT was intended to counteract the effects of protectionism and depression which followed the stock market crash of 1929 and the economic problems created by WWII.

HMO – Health Maintenance Organization: Any number of health service providers which are not insurance companies. An HMO is frequently a conglomerate of doctors, hospitals, and health care providers that band together to provide strength in numbers.

Kyoto Protocol: An amendment to the U.N. Convention on Climate Change which sets forth mandatory restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions. The protocol must be ratified by member states. Many states already abide by the restrictions but many others don’t. Some member states haven’t ratified it but still abide by the restrictions.

Medicaid: A federally subsidized program intended to provide medical care to the poor, to those who do not qualify for Medicare, and to those who can’t otherwise afford health care.

Medicare: A federally subsidized program intended to provide medical care to the disabled and the elderly who can’t otherwise afford health care.

NAFTA (Naff-ta) – North American Free Trade Agreement: The free trade agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico. It guarantees the free trade of goods and investment between these states without any restriction by means of tariffs or other non-tariff barriers.

NATO (Nay-toe) – North Atlantic Treaty Organization: 26 member countries including Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Rep., Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States. Originally began as a hedge against hostile Soviet action following WWII. Since the 1990s it has become more a mini-military-UN.

OEF – Operation Enduring Freedom: The official name of “The War in Afghanistan”.

Off-shore Company: A company which sets up its base of operations in a country which does not extensively tax said company. That company then does a majority of its business in a different country (the United States). That way, all that income will be taxed based on where it has its base of operations and the company avoids paying the high taxes of the country where it does the majority of its business. Often the company’s base of operations office is no more than a hole in the wall but because it calls that place its base of operations it gets to avoid all the taxation associated with the country where it does most of its business. In these cases, most of the operations occur in the country of business.

OIF – Operation Iraqi Freedom: The official name of “The Iraq War”.

OPEC (O-peck) – Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries: Members include Algeria, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. OPEC is an oil cartel which has a large impact on the price of oil due to its large market share.

PAC (Pak) – Political Action Committee: A political group not directly associated with a political party but with some special interest group, such as educators or farm workers. A PAC raises money for and endorses specific political candidates for public office. Many politicians operate PACs as well and raise money that way for their own political purposes. These PACs will not only donate to their own campaigns but to their political allies as well.

Pork (Barrel): Spending by the government that is of little use to anyone, anywhere except in a very localized municipality somewhere. For example, some congressperson wants money to restore a deteriorating library in a politically important town in his/her constituency. Every congressperson has one (a pork project) and nobody wants theirs to be eliminated so they all vote for everyone else’s in order to keep their own. “You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.” Tit-for-tat. Quid-pro-quo. None of it is good for the nation as a whole and a huge majority of it should be dealt with by the local authorities and local tax dollars, but since politicians generally lack integrity, they choose to do what is best for them rather than what is best for the United States as a whole.

SDI – Strategic Defense Initiative: Sometimes called Star Wars, sometimes called Missile defense. The not yet fully developed or reliable concept of shooting down incoming missiles using modified Patriot type missiles. The concept requires very advanced identification, tracking, and targeting systems that are not yet more than 50% reliable in test runs. The program is very expensive and whether it is worth the expense is much debated since there are only a few remaining nations that have the ability to launch a missile at the United States.

Soft Money: Money contributed to political parties to finance party operations but not to support specific candidates for public office. Often used as an umbrella term encompassing any money contributed to candidates for public office which is ethically questionable in origin and purpose. For example, a Senator from Kansas who perpetually favors oil drilling in ANWR receiving large campaign contributions from wealthy oil companies, or a Senator from Wyoming receiving large contributions from the NRA (National Rifle Association) who consistently favors unfettered gun access.

U.N. – United Nations: 192 Member States. Headed by the Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, of South Korea. World security stops with the Security Council, a board with 5 permanent members which include the United States, China, France, United Kingdom and Russia, and 10 rotating seats which are elected by the U.N. General Assembly for 2 year terms, 5 of which are replaced annually.

Vouchers: Money given to parents by the government to enable them to send their children to a school of their choice, rather than to the public school which they would ordinarily attend. The debate is over whether the money would be better spent improving the existing public education system.

WTO – World Trade Organization: The successor organization of GATT (GATT was only an agreement, this is an actual organization). The WTO has 150 member states and promotes free and fair trade on a global scale. The WTO is often associated with globalization, the ideal being a world where no tariffs exist, nor non-tariff barriers. The WTO has been the brunt of many protest campaigns aimed at protectionism and protecting local and regional trade. In many instances free trade hurts local economies as that business can be obtained for less somewhere else in the world. Many local economies have been and will be hurt by globalization and the WTO. Others will be greatly benefited. The term comparative advantage is critical. Comparative advantage is the idea that each area should produce what it is most efficient at producing, and buy everything else from those who are best at producing everything else.