Jump Ship or do Nothing?

Today I was faced with an interesting decision. What will I do if my candidate, as a democrat, isn’t chosen as the nominee? I had a vague notion that I just might “jump ship” and vote republican. Then I came across this article and realized that I wasn’t alone.  To be honest I’ve always been a conservative democrat, (whatever that means) and this election just might send me over the edge.  I do feel a little guilty, deserting my party selfishly because my candidate didn’t win the nomination but this whole super-delegate situation has made me lose sight of the democratic candidates’ stand on the issues and focus more on who’s winning what.  Because of this I have become more aware the republican’s platform and have begun to lean more that way out of pure irritation. I can’t help but wonder who else shares this view and who also may “jump ship”.

Total Chaos

As a college student, the incident at Virginia Tech last year caused me some distinct unease. However, this unease should not turn into a certainty that most people in this world are” out to get you”. As much as I can empathize with this point of view, it must be said that giving college students permission to carry concealed weapon is a recipe for disaster. I’m actually amazed at how many people think that this is a good idea and how many of my own friends have already joined Facebook groups supporting concealed weapons on campus. Students need to understand that crazy people are everywhere and if you start out carrying a concealed weapon to classes, what’s next? Are we all going to grow up to carry a handgun in our briefcases and purses to the office each day? Are the future leaders of the free world going to just walk around shooting each other to end disputes like in the old west? I hope I never see the day when it’s considered alright to carry a concealed weapon on college campuses.

Clinton Losing Steam and “Friends”

It seems that recently even with the years of experience that Hillary has on Obama, she is slowly losing ground with some of the democrats that she has built relationships and trust with over the years. Suddenly those that swore to support her are shifting toward Obama and no one seems to have a clear answer as to why. Mrs. Clinton is even losing backing from former Clinton white house aides. I definitely think it’s a shame to lose the loyalty of people whom you have known for years  but on the other hand politics is business and sometimes in business you have to make professional decisions over personal ones. Here’s a New York Times article on the matter.

Clintons sort friends: Past and present

Are Some Crimes Worse Than Murder?

When it comes to justice there are many Grey areas. There are some sections of the law in society that are incredibly controversial and subjective. For instance, many people completely oppose the death penalty. I am not one of those people, however I do partially agree with them. I do concede that a lifetime in prison to some is probably worse than death. I also understand that some offenders of heinous crimes can be “corrected” in a correctional facility and some can even help to teach other inmates/criminals by example. What i do think is wrong, (this would be where the moral and controversial part of the law comes into play), is that a person who shoots an adult will be put to death while a person who has the capability of raping a child, will live. If it were possible or practical and a direct election was taken among the entire voter-eligible society, I truly believe that the death penalty would be revamped to include more sex crimes and less violent crimes. This of coarse  excluding  adult rape because it has already been deemed unconstitutional  to be put to death for adult rape. The rape of a child is quite another matter, here’s an  interesting and disturbing article on the situation.

Death Penalty for Child Rape?

Nuclear Energy

While nuclear energy is a much cleaner and cheaper form of energy, it must be remembered that it is also extremely dangerous. The most obvious and cumbersome problem with nuclear energy is the disposal and storage of the waste. Even with initiatives like Yucca mountain the transportation of the waste in itself is a major issue. The transportation and placement of all of the US nuclear waste in 1 spot is a huge terrorist threat. The Bush administration has been pretty big on the idea of reprocessing the waste to reuse it. This sounds good in theory but there are major issues with that as well.

http://www.ucsusa.org/global_security/nuclear_terrorism/extracting-plutonium-from-nuclear-reactor-spent-fuel.html

Controlling Nature

I’m not a socialist or Nazi. I have a deep appreciation for living in the free world. However, there is something to be said for controlling who can and cannot have children. The only problem is that there really isn’t any humane way to do this. I’ve repeatedly racked my brain trying to think of a policy that could help stop overwhelmingly “hereditary” problems such as drug abuse, poverty and criminality let alone the gross amount of child abuse and neglect that precedes these children growing up to be just like their parents. A disturbing example of the need for more social service programs in this area follows.

Newborn abuse and Neglect 

Another Reason Why Politicians Have a Bad Reputation

It’s always nice to get a good laugh in first thing in the morning. Sometimes strange stories in the news can do this for me. However, these stories don’t usually involve Congress wasting billions of dollars. This morning that’s exactly what I was laughing at, because it’s a joke. Billions of dollars in projects  involving lobsters, fruit flies and golf just seem a little ridiculous to me. Pork barrel legislation is generally a sleazy misuse of the democratic process on the part of politicians. There’s nothing wrong with a senator wanting to help his or her own district, but the line has to be drawn somewhere. Let’s not forget the famous bridge to nowhere. Here’s an interesting article on the subject.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/04/02/pork.spending/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

Foot in Mouth

Please somebody stop Geraldine Ferraro. Finally someone from Obama’s “team”, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, says something that takes a little bit of the heat off from her abrasive and hypocritical comments and still she has to open her mouth again.

Ferraro: I am no Jeremiah Wright

Posted: 08:50 PM ET

Ferraro isn’t happy Obama compared her to Jeremiah Wright.

(CNN) – Just over a week after she resigned her post on Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign after making controversial comments about Barack Obama’s presidential bid, Geraldine Ferraro said she resented being compared the Rev. Jeremiah Wright in the Illinois senator’s recent speech on race relations.

“To equate what I said with what this racist bigot has said from the pulpit is unbelievable,” Ferraro told the Daily Breeze newspaper an interview published late Wednesday night. “He gave a very good speech on race relations, but he did not address the fact that this man is up there spewing hatred.”

“What this man is doing is he is spewing that stuff out to young people, and to younger people than Obama, and putting it in their heads that it’s OK to say `Goddamn America’ and it’s OK to beat up on white people,” Ferraro also said of Wright. “You don’t preach that from the pulpit.”

 http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/

I respect a powerful and opinionated woman as a great representative of my gender. However, I cannot respect the train wreck of ignorance and scatter-brain politics that pours from this woman’s mouth on an almost daily basis.  It’s a shame.

What is Taking So Long?

 Gov. Eliot Spitzer has been caught red-handed in one of they very situations that he has so aggressively fought against through out his political career.  He’s made an awkward and short press conference admission (with his wife in toe), yet still he hasn’t resigned from office. After his Monday morning confession to involvement in a prostitution ring it only seems fitting that by now the governor would have stepped down.Some say he may do the unthinkable and hold on to his position if the public is alright with it. Last I checked it’s kind of difficult to hold a political office from prison.  Even if Spitzer doesn’t land himself in prison it’s surely impossible for him to continue with the respect of the public seeing as his entire political platform is built around putting down corruption. How embarrassing for New York. This is worse than all of the problems with government corruption the small city of Oswego had a few years ago, but not quite as bad as when the president himself had a little monogamy problem. How ironic for this to happen while that very former president’s wife is running for office.

“…..But more than a day after the scandal broke, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and other senior Democrats in the delegation had yet call on Spitzer to quit…..” http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gvseu7uDYI9vGyMHJCo51IdS-4twD8VBG9NG0

More interesting is the public opinion. Some are taking the same stand that was taken by many when President Clinton committed adultery. Theses citizens believe that the entire issue has no place in politics and is his own business. I’d say they would be right had he not created his entire political platform around advocating for non-corruption. This incident means that Spitzer is not only a hypocrite but a pathological liar. He’s created an entire lifestyle and image around something that he clearly isn’t. He’s let down his wife, his family and the public. It seems that the situation is embarrassing enough and ”number 19″ needs to step down already.

“The Torture President”

Obviously Bush has no problem with not only going down in history as a disgusting disappointment but also a monster. He’s really doing his best to leave a bad taste in the mouths of all Americans and, once again, it’s all about the terrorists. The president has vetoed the bill banning water boarding and other kinds of intensive interrogation in the CIA. He calls it a “valuable tool in the war on terrorism” Bush is supporting the CIA in using interrogation tactics that are not only banned by the military but also defined by the military as torture. I like the idea of getting the bad guy as much as the next person. Efficiently. Ethics aside, morals aside, it is an inefficient form of questioning. The interrogate might make things up to stop the interrogation and the responses to this kind of questioning will not hold up in most courts of law. So, it seems to me that Bush just really likes the idea of torturing terrorists. Well, he doesn’t love it nearly as much as terrorizing Americans about terrorism. He’s claimed that he wants to “sprint to the finish”. At least he hasn’t said “smoke em out”, in awhile.