After numerous deaths in committee, failed amendments and missed opportunities, network neutrality is returning to the foreground as a key priority of President-elect Barack Obama's technology agenda. Senators Byron Dorgan and Olympia Snowe have also stated their intention to reintroduce legislation on the issue. With a new administration and a new Congress, the time has come for Washington to finally enact meaningful network neutrality regulation.

2008 has been a tumultuous and expensive year for the American people. At the same time that the average American family is struggling to pay the mortgage, fill the gas tank and put food on the table, some major businesses are getting an unwarranted helping hand from the government.

Recent news headlines like these have led American politicians to worry about the stability of a Pakistan equipped with nuclear arms:

Squandering US$10 billion from precious reserves in less than 10 months, the country goes begging for $10 billion more… Standard and Poors downgrades the country’s credit rating to junk… Double digit inflation shoots by 25% within an economic quarter… Real estate values are depleted by 20 to 30 percent and foreign exchange reserves are reduced by more than half…

The flavor of last month seemed to be health care policy in America. It has taken a back seat to the overall economic crisis, but is still lingering in the minds of voters and the politicians who sought their vote. Barack Obama is promising a health care policy that gives health insurance, or a government equivalent, to those who cannot afford it themselves.

As the United States forms a new government in the coming days, developing nations anticipate a change in the approach to international development. Can President-elect Obama increase the impact of foreign assistance? During the campaign, Obama said he would double the amount of U.S. foreign aid to $50 billion by 2012. Yet, the question is not how much money is given, but how well it is spent. He has a golden opportunity to exhibit leadership on the international stage by taking a more effective approach to aid.

According to the Case-Shiller Index, median housing prices doubled from 1987 to 2000 in major housing markets, including L.A., Miami, D.C. and San Diego. In less than half that time, from 2001 to 2006, housing prices in L.A. and Miami almost doubled, while prices in D.C. and San Diego shot up 1.5 times. Overall, nationwide median housing prices doubled from 2001 to 2006. In an economy as mature and developed as the United States, how could nationwide housing prices almost double in a span of only six years?

How often do you think about your mouth? Of course you use it to speak, eat, and breathe, perhaps to kiss loved ones. Your mouth is a pretty important part of your life. But how often do you think about how it’s doing? I never used to, until I learned how much it matters to how the rest of me is doing.

Diplomacy should be our nation’s first line of defense. Engaging foreign leaders and attempting to prevent misunderstandings between nations is a true preventative approach to international conflict. Diplomacy is valuable even when incapable of resolving conflicts on its own.

As 2008 draws to a close, we may witness the completion of 670 miles of border fence between the United States and Mexico as authorized by the U.S. Congress. Advocates in the Department of Homeland Security and within Congress may consider this venture to be a success and merely a phase of a larger scale project, which would involve authorizing construction on the remainder of the roughly 2,000 mile border with our southern neighbor.

Once he locked up the Republican primary, Senator John McCain spent several months building a narrative for the general election. His operatives spent countless hours reciting Mr. McCain’s willingness to politically stand on principle. Television ads paired Senator Barack Obama with flimsy celebrities and mocked his followers as naïve idol-worshippers. In the process they cast their pitch for the election: Mr. McCain would take his duties seriously as President, and Mr. Obama wouldn’t.