Response to Illegal Immigration

After reading a blog called “Illegal Immigration” from America Soup Talk by Josh Waggoner I felt I really learned something about illegal immigration in the U.S. I would have to say that I agree with my colleague that the government does really need to start doing more to protect the U.S. citizens and do more to punish and keep out the illegals. In my colleagues blog he discuses how if immigrants are caught the first time they only serve a two month prison service, and a second offense is only two years in prison. I believe that my colleague is correct and that there should be a greater punishment to scare them from trying to enter illegally. In this blog there are a lot of problems listed such as businesses hiring illegal’s to save themselves money. I also agree that if the government starts fining companies for the number of workers that are illegal they will start to end that problem. If they know they will lose money they will stop trying to get away with breaking the law. Also in this blog is Mr. Waggoner discusses how there is big problem with using illegal’s to bring drugs into the U.S. This is a good blog about the problems with illegal immigration and how the government should be doing more to solve this problem. This blog had a lot of key arguments about why illegal immigration is a big problem, and for me this is a big problem to me. Being in Texas this is a problem for us so I must argue more should be done to stop this problem.

National Debt Crisis

I believe that the United States government needs to start changing things if we want America’s future to look better. The first thing I believe that needs to really change is for the Obama administration and the Republicans and Democrats to work on getting us out of debt. One of the plans had the idea of raising 15 cents a gallon on the federal gasoline tax, and another idea was to raise the retirement age for Social Security to possibly 69. I think that it is good that they are coming up with ideas to get America out of debt, but they are going to have to do more because people in office can’t accept the Social Security and spending cuts. Also I believe that both the Republicans and Democrats are so worried about reelection no one wants do anything. The Democrats and Obama need to show America that they are serious about their pledge of long term deficits and the Republicans need to show that they are willing to consider tax increases. I believe that the debt is one of the most important things holding this country back and we are going to need strong leaders to help us overcome the debt. I believe that the U.S. needs to stop wasting money on stupid activities and projects. One problem that needs to stop is the government continuing its uninhibited spending, and they need to stop wasting and spending money more than what the government takes in resulting in inflation. We need to start coming up with ideas to fix our debt instead of blowing it off because if we don’t start now it is going to be a big problem in the future.

Health Care Reply

I would have to say after reading an article called Health Care Yes? From blog America Soup Talk by Joshua, I was glad to learn about what Obama is doing with the health care issue. As I read this blog I learned that Obama is helping people who don’t have health care and that he is also making the coverage more affordable for the common man. I also learned that another part of the health care is letting young adults stay under their parents insurance until they are 26. This is good because kids can get into trouble sometimes at this age and health insurance is very important. One concern I have is the rumor in this bill is that the State government is responsible for providing everyone with health insurance. They state that the states would have to raise taxes so these uninsured people can be under coverage, which will affect citizens who already have health coverage. Josh Waggoner agrees with the Obama health bill and believes that it can help people that can’t afford health coverage. I’m going to have to agree with this blogger because having the disease I have I need to be able to have a good health insurance coverage that I can afford because I’m going to have this disease probably for the rest of my life.

Dont Ask

Earlier in one of my blog posts I talked about the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy, and I thought that now would be a great time to talk about how I feel about it. I feel that the U.S. national government should hurry up and get rid of this policy. Many members of the national are so scared to say that they disagree with this policy because when voting comes around they might not get reelected. I believe that if a person is willing to fight and put there lives on the line for our country that person’s sexual orientation shouldn’t matter. This subject is a tough subject for people to discuss and most people want to avoid it because it can have such a negative effect on the way people view that person. This subject is probably the hardest on President Obama who has to worry about angering people if he does repeal the law. The Obama administration says it is in favor of repealing the law but still until he does something that helps get rid of this policy our national government will look weak. In a recent article the Obama administration asked a federal appeals court to immediately suspend a judges ruling that overturned the military’s “don’t ask don’t tell policy”. There reason for doing this would create uncertainty about service members who may reveal their sexual orientation. This article was at the USA TODAY and the article was called “Government seeks stay of Don’t ask, don’t tell ruling”. This tough issue is really showing weakness in our government and we need a strong leader that can end this issue

War on Drugs

           

In the blog “The Wars on Drugs and Terror: mirror images” by Glenn Greenwald he writes on November 2, Californians will vote on Proposition 19 which would legalize marijuana. He talks about how he has an Op-Ed in Politico today on the success of drug decriminalization in Portugal based on his research in Portugal in 2008. He says that Portugal has reduced the problems with drug usage and manage and control the problems related to drugs unlike other nations the criminalize drugs such as the U.S. The author believes the “War on Drugs” is irrational and empirically false are the justifications for drug prohibition. He also believes this war is too costly and believes the War on Drugs is a mere image of the War on Terror. He believes the both of these use deceitful propaganda and driven by the same motives and both destructive to the American people. Mr. Greenwald brings up how both use scary villains like Mexican cartels and the Terrorist mastermind to “keep the population in a state of heightened fear and thus blind them to rational discourse.” The author is basing his claims on his research in Portugal and claims if drugs are legalized America might be able to reduce the problem with drugs. The author believes that these wars are in an endless loop and he believes the industries that fight them become richer and richer. While the political officials that own them get more and more powerful. I can’t totally agree with the author with having drugs legal because I still believe that there would be crime and drug problems in America. I can agree that I believe that people are using deceitful propaganda and trying to scare the American public. They even try to get the American public to think the only way they will be safe is if they give more power to the state. The author of this is targeting an older audience probably older men and women.

The Senate Needs to Step Up

In the editorial “The Senate and the Spill” at the New York Times, the author talks about how the House has already passed a bill that would build from the gulf accident and make offshore drilling safer. The author then states that it would be very irresponsible of the Senate not to pass a bill that would help build and make offshore drilling better in the future. In the article the author states, “The Senate has not distinguishes itself on environmental issues over the last two years, failing to even vote on comprehensive energy and climate legislation that the House had passed. The least it can do is muster a meaningful response to the oil spill.” In the article it is mentioned that Harry Reid the Senate majority leader has a bill that could help if passed. The bill would tighten environmental safeguards and like the House bill it would require companies to list more detailed response plans before receiving drilling permits. I would have to agree with the author of this article because I believe that a bill is necessary in both the House and Senate to help prevent another environmental disaster like this oil spill that was one of the worse disasters in American history. I believe that if a bill is not passed in the Senate that oil companies will just go back to the way they did things before and another spill could occur and could be worse than this last one. The author also asks what’s taking the Senate so long in passing a bill and I agree the faster the Senate passes a bill the faster the environment and America will be safe. The author doesn’t need much logic to back up what he is saying because there is so much evidence of the oil in the ocean to prove that a bill is needed to be passed.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell

In the article “Pentagon: No Plans to Change Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Policy after Court Ruling” at FOXNEWS  it states that the military wont reinstate any gay members discharged. The soldiers were discharged under the “don’t ask, don’t tell policy” even though a judge’s ruling last week ruled the policy unconstitutional. A pentagon spokeswoman said that this decision has no affect on military policy because the current law is still in affect. The judge that ruled this unconstitutional was District Judge Virginia Phillips who also said that the policy “violates their constitutional rights and has a direct and deleterious affect on the armed forces.” The Human Rights Campaign a gay rights campaign has said that 14,000 service members have been discharged. Imagine how many more service members could be discharged if the military knew they were gay, that number may be a lot more than 14,000 in the next few years. When does the government have the power to choose who can service the military? Is the military allowed to discriminate against someone’s sexual preference?