Seeing Green..

   Many people have posted arguments about legalizing marijuana, but my classmates blog "Understanding Politics...Hopefully" brought this hot topic to my attention today. Everyone's main argument with the marijuana issue is that it is a drug and it alters your perception of reality and affects your judgement. Well this all may be true, but does alcohol not do the same thing? And maybe even to a greater extent? Why is it ok for alcohol to be legal and marijuana not?
   If it is acceptable for alcohol to be legal and have its own industry, where it makes billions of dollars every year, than shouldn't they be able to do the same thing with marijuana? People are going to smoke and drink no matter what the law says, the prohibition era is a perfect example of that, so its time for people to get smart about it and make some money off of it. Instead of the government spending millions of dollars fighting the use of marijuana they could be making that amount of money, and more. I am not a user of marijuana so I don't have anything personally to gain from the government legalizing it, but even i can see the profit potential of this arrangement.

Go Arizona

In my government class we were recently asked to discuss the current issue between Congress and Arizona over the new Arizona Immigration Law. Arizona’s new law allows law enforcement officials to question citizens with “ reasonable suspicion,” regarding their legality to be in this country. I think it is completely wrong of Congress to be attempting to sue Arizona over this new law.  Arizona is simply doing what Congress should have already put into effect. The Fed’s argument is, "In our constitutional system, the power to regulate immigration is exclusively vested in the federal government." Arizona’s Governor Jan Brewer’s rebuttal is that it is ,"Wrong that our own federal government is suing the people of Arizona for helping to enforce federal immigration law." The Governor goes on to say, "Today's filing is nothing more than a massive waste of taxpayer funds," and that "These funds could be better used against the violent Mexican cartels than the people of Arizona." Governor Brewer I completely agree with you. Instead of using tax dollars to fight a law that protects our country, maybe Congress and the President should step up and admit that this issue would not exist if they would have taken responsibility for their inaction and taken care of this problem a long time ago. If you are not legally in this country than 9 times out of 10 you should not be here. If you want to be in this country, then go through the proper legal process. I’ve said this before, but I know people first hand who have had to go through this process, it took about a year, but I think that year is worth not ever having to worry about being deported because you are unlawfully living in this country.

We are Letting it Slip Away..

Political America, you make an extremely valid point in this post. Our country was founded on the idea of less involved government, but it seems the people have forgotten about that, and our government officials are in no hurry to remind them of their independence. Our government is supposed to be, "For the people, by the people." Our votes don't even count for goodness sake. How is that by the people? It may just be me, but I think we should have some say so in electing the person that is going to influence the people who control the major aspects of our lives. Elections have turned into a popularity contest, who can make the most promises and be the most convincing and charismatic. It is very distressing to see these things happening, and for the most part the general population doesn't even seem to care. The fact that the government is starting to take over our lives, I think, has a lot to do with the fact that so many people are absolutely uninterested. When you don't care, it makes it a lot easier for someone else to accomplish the things that they want. I think, in fact, that the blame rests a little on each of our shoulders. If we want to take back our government we need to be aware of the processes going on that are affecting our lives.

Disappointed..

   Disappointed is a word that comes to a lot of American's minds whenever the subject of Mr. Obama's presidency is brought to surface. According to pollster.com, Obama's approval rating is steadily declining. His approval is plunging, while his disapproval continues to climb. He is doing a lot of things differently than previous presidents, but I think a lot of this gloom is caused by the expectations everyone set for his term. There are, and always will be, some people who just flat out do not support Mr. Obama, but the group who is more saddened by this are his supporters, who had high hopes and dreams for his presidency. With all his promises of change, he filled people up with an air of excitement. I think a lot of his support came from the usually unaffected people. He found a way to reach out and grab the attention of America, something presidential candidate's careers highly depend on. He popularized his campaign. He made it appeal to people of all ages. Never before have I seen in my entire life teenagers running through the halls of a public high school wearing t-shirts with the face of a presidential candidate plastered all over them. Kids starting fights in his name! Whether it was in a positive way or because of negative reasons, he got the attention of even the most oblivious people. He made politics interesting, and supporting him become some what of a popular fad. I honestly believe THAT is why he won. He filled every one with hopes and dreams of change, even more so than most presidential candidates of the past. A president only has so many capabilities. No matter how many promises someone makes, they are not real until they are executed. Below is an excerpt, written by a man named Lincoln Mitchell from the Harriman Institute of Columbia University, I liked from a well written article I happened upon, pertaining to this subject. 

"Barack Obama's presidency, while far from being a failure, has been something of a disappointment to many of his initial supporters. The noise from people on the far right who question the president's place of birth or believe him to be a socialist because he passed a stimulus package that many economists believe to be too small and a health care bill that will lead to millions of new customers and new revenue for the insurance companies, has overshadowed some of this. However, Obama's disappointed supporters are far more important to his political future than angry opponents who never have and never will support him."

A Little Bit About Amnesty..

GOP Lawmakers Want Explanation of Draft Memo on Amnesty for Thousands
Published July 30, 2010 | FoxNews.com
   Amnesty, in the context of the law, as defined by dictionary.com is, "An act of forgiveness for past offenses, esp. to a class of persons as a whole." 
   Apparently immigration officials in the Obama administration are pushing to "provide a so-called non-legislative version of amnesty." A group of Republican lawmakers wrote the Obama administration asking if any large scale plans are being made. "The lawmakers cite an 11-page draft document written by staff to the director of the Citizenship and Immigration Service that says they are reviewing several executive orders and other mechanisms that effectively would serve as a substitute for comprehensive immigration reforms." 
   The objective is to promote "family unity, foster economic growth... and reduce the threat of removal for certain individuals present in the United States without authorization." So basically, it seems, all these things that the U.S. has been doing to try to discourage illegal immigration and remove the people who are here illegally, will go down the drain if this legislation is passed. 
   Personally, this makes no sense to me. You would not have to worry about threatening "family unity" if people would simply complete the legal processes required to become a citizen. I am a strong believer that if you want to be a part of our country you need to go about it the honorable way and go through all the legal and necessary processes. 
   I have personal experience with this issue as a family member of mine recently married an individual from out of the country. They went through all of the legal processes as one is supposed to do, and now less than a year later, they are happily building a family together, the honorable, and legal way. 
   This is a very informative article and I would highly recommend reading it.

A View on the Presidency

"A Year and a Half of President Obama" is the title of the article. The description under this heading is "Team Obama marks 18 surprisingly incompetent months in office." It talks about the disappointment and the ineffectiveness surrounding Obama's presidency. How he had such a promising campaign and inauguration, but his presidency has just been "incompetent" so far. The author of this article, I believe, is trying to appeal to the population of Americans who are less than happy with the way Obama’s presidency has gone so far. He is trying to convince Americans of the inefficiency of Obama’s presidency so far. He’s trying to tip the ones who are just on the edge of believing all this is true, trying to show the people that are unaware, what has been going on. The author, Deroy Murdock, a writer for the National Review, goes into listing the many accounts of evidence that he believes makes this true. Such as how Mr. Obama shipped off a statue of Winston Churchill, the "legendary statesmen," a very prominent figure in our history, who helped drive Adolf Hitler to suicide among many other great things, who was given to President Bush shortly after the 9/11 attacks. The author sees this as a very disrespectful move that even, "The last thing a nine-year-old would do is send a gift back to the giver." The author goes on to bring up more prominent cases, such as many time-wasting and frivolous acts Mr. Obama has committed, continuing to appeal and try to convince his audience of his views. He hits on the sore subjects of un-kept promises; favor gaining promises that he swore, unlike other politicians, he would keep. In my opinion he holds a fair argument. The author seems like he has done his research and has a lot of evidence backing up his claims. It is a very interesting, and at times, humorous, article and I would recommend it for reading.

What America is Thinking..

The article i posted a link for is a somewhat short article that includes a video, but still I find it interesting. I was scanning through some of the main media pages and came upon this entry. It lists a number of poll outcomes regarding some major political issues. It is interesting to read because it gives us insight into how the thoughts of the American people are changing. I am always interested to see what the general population is thinking about current issues.

52% down to 43% - The number of Americans who say the war in Afghanistan has been worth fighting.

56% down to 45% - Obama’s approval rating for handling the war.

42% - Say the war in Iraq has been worth fighting, (about the same as for Afghanistan.)

71% - Support removing all remaining U.S. combat troops from Iraq.

60% - Support keeping up to 50,000 non-combat troops there in a supporting role.

These are just a few of the results. Go to the link below to read more.