Joe Wilson

We all know what he did. And most of us agree his outburst was inappropriate. However, when do we say enough is enough? This story has been going on far too long. The House has even "officially" rebuked his action. Can we get on with it? Was rebuking him necessary? My answer: absolutely not. Why dwell on it? Wilson himself has even apologized for his remark.

Oakland's Shootings

About two months ago, a young man was killed by BART police in an Oakland station. There are two videos that show a subdued man get shot by an officer. The shooting was ridiculous, and the officer is facing charges. There have been many rallies and protests in the bay area condemning this action. People do have a right to be angry about this event. (However, it has been suggested the attack was racist and there is no evidence this is true).

A little over a week ago, a man with an extensive criminal record shot and killed two officers. Then the man fled to a nearby neighborhood and hid himself in a building. After getting a tip, SWAT entered the building and two more officers were shot and killed. The perpetrator was shot and killed by SWAT.

Earlier today, more protests occurred in Oakland calling for an end to police brutality. As a bay area resident, I was extremely pleased that the BART shooting was protested extensively. I thought it was a sure sign that police brutality will not fly. Then this tragedy happens and more protests happen. It was extremely upsetting to see this, even more upsetting for the family of the victim in the BART shooting. The recent protests call into question the integrity of the previous protests. I cannot begin to fathom the reason for the recent protests. My condolences to the family of the four slain officers.

A Modest Humanitarian Proposal

You know you live under a rock if:

You don't know most coffee is grown by farmers too poor to send their children to school.

Nike exploits their workers in sweatshops.

Slave children farm the chocolate for Hershey's.

The list goes on. It ridiculous that we the consumer let this happen. However, especially during this economic hardship, we willingly ignore this because of the results it yields. Namely; a much cheaper product.

But I think it is time we did something about it. A lot of this behavior goes unnoticed because it takes place in other countries. I propose that no good gets sold in the U.S. that does not meet certain specifications.

I understand this would be extremely difficult to police. However, that is of no concern as of now because if the above mentioned proposal was law and it wasn't policed, we would be no worse off now than we were before. The only difference is that we would have this law that could be policed at any time.

Limbaugh Challenges Obama to a Debate

"You are one of the most gifted public speakers of our age. I would think, Mr. President, you would jump at this opportunity." -Rush

This debate will obviously not happen. The quote above would think to make sense, but if you think about it, Obama has zero incentive to accept this debate. What does Obama have to gain from it? If he wins, nothing happens. If he loses, he is humiliated.

Assisted Suicide

I am perplexed that assisted suicide is illegal in this country. I honestly don't understand it. First of all; if someone wants to take their own life, why does the government need to get involved? What gives them the right to tell someone they have to continue living? Second, these people are going to kill themselves regardless of whether the government gives them the okay.

Big Promise

Obama has recently promised that he will cut the national deficit in half by the end of this term. What a monstrous promise, especially since the nearly 100 dollar stimulus bill has just been passed. The deficit keeps growing as our government keeps spending. And somehow, Obama thinks he will be able to cut his inherited deficit in halve.

If he somehow accomplishes this, he will be gaurenteed a second term. If he makes no progress, he will surely lose. If it is somewhere in the middle, it will come down to more then the economy.

Geraldo At Large

Geraldo Rivera is a Fox News correspondent that hosts the show Geraldo At Large. Before seeing this show for the first time, I had a lot of respect for him. I have seen him countless times on Fox and every time I did, I thought he was the most level headed member of the Fox News team.

However, I just saw his show for the fisrt time tonight and was absoluetly disgusted. He was covering Haleigh Poutre recent kidnapping. Rather than it being an informative show, he used it let Haleigh's mother and her mother's family speculate, and I repeat speculate, about thier child's abduction and father's involvement. It is a soap opera. It is sick. Geraldo is letting these people slander on his show, and is even aiding them on. No claim they make is even attempted at being backed up. This is on a national show. I feel bad for Haleigh's father and I hope the nation sees this investigative show for what it is; a joke and a bad attempt at reality television.

Holder: "US a Nation of Cowards" on Race

I have to agree with him. It is not so much that we are a nation of racists, just that we are cowards when it comes to race. He described what he meant by saying; at the workplace, their is plenty of diversity, but when we go home, we tend to segregate ourselves.

I am a college student at UC Santa Cruz. What he described was UC Santa Cruz. Plenty of diversity. No signs of racism. However, after classes are done and it is the weekend, I find that different ethnic groups segregate themselves. Asians hang out with asian people, white people hang out with white people, etc etc. My experience tells me he is right.

Freedom of Speech

At Los Angeles Community College, a student was harassed by his professor for giving a speech supporting "traditional marriage". I want to make it clear that I am extremely opposed to the view that homosexual couples should not the right to get married. However, silencing this kid in a classroom setting is flat out intolerant. Of course others are going to have opposing views, but that does not mean this professor should not show the kid respect. If he wanted to challenge his speech, he should have challenged the speech. Making fun of the kid and not allowing him to finish is cowardly.

Fox, CNN, and MSNBC

Watching Fox news this morning was a waste of time. First I got to here gossip about Michelle Obama. Then I hear gossip about Joaquin Phoenix. I changed the channel to CNN and had similar results, went to MSNBC and had the same story.

Maybe it was a slow day in the news, maybe not. But it's time the media actually tried to inform our public. I know they have to be enticing to get viewers, but it shouldn't be at the cost of the viewer being ignorant. I'd like an update on what is happening in the Gaza strip. I'd like an update on what is happening in Darfur. I'd like an update on what the UN is doing in Rwanda. Enough about Michael Phelps. Get back to reporting the news.

Who Wants Obama to be Successful?

Watching the O'Reilly factor today, I was reminded of those who want our President to fail. 60% of O'Reilly's viewers want Obama to succeed, including O'Reilly. The other 40% of the O'Reilly audience want Obama, and his policies, to fail. This blows my mind.

Why would any American actually want our President to fail? I am really wondering how any decent person would wish this on so many people. The only answer that I come up with is; they want the policies to fail in order to say "I told you so". In order to show that the conservative way is the right way. They would wish upon our country to do worse than it has been the last eight years in order for their opposition and their policies to be proven wrong. The thing that came to my mind while watching the show was; how selfish. Where is the humility?

Stimulus Plan

I'm going to keep this plenty short.

I cannot fathom how the U.S. is planning on paying off the estimated 1.1 trillion dollars this plan is going to cost. I have also seen plenty of examples of the places where this money is going that have nothing to do with economic stimulation. If they are going to call it an economic stimulus plan, they should make sure it is a plan to stimulate the economy. I'm extremely worried about how this is going to play out over the next decade.

Partisan Politics

The two party system in American politics does more harm to the US than it does good. The Republican party is not just a place where people with like ideals reside, it is also a place where people go to form their ideals; the Democratic party is the same way. My point is; people should decide for themselves what is right and wrong on issues and not just let their party decide for them.

Summary: if you are uninformed on an issue, do not automatically assume your party has the right answer. This behavior would be ludicrous.

Gaza

The world is up in arms because of the current situation involving Israel and Hamas. Many are calling it a massacre and world leaders are calling for a truce. The death total is currently near one thousand. What I am concerned about is the uproar (or lack of) about the genocide Darfur. Their death total is up over 300,000. Three hundred times that of the Israeli conflict. There isn't even a comparison, however, the focus still seems to be on Gaza.

I'd also like to point out that during the attack by Israel, Hamas is also sending their own bombs. I'm not saying I support Israel, but I certainly do not support Hamas. Contrary to popular belief, Hamas had it coming.

Filibuster Proof

I'm sure that those of you who follow politics are aware that the last couple races for the Senate are extremely close. The Democrats need to win out in order to have a filibuster proof majority (sixty seats). Supposedly sixty is the golden number. I'm not a big fan of Al Franken so I could care less if he loses and I really do not know the candidates from Georgia. My post is to point out how ridiculous filibustering is.

Filibustering, to my knowledge, has been going on since this country was founded. I recall hearing about someone reading from a dictionary for hours. All to avoid voting. It just doesn't make sense to me. Why is this still being allowed? Filibustering seems like a juvenile way of avoiding your opponents. I hope that filibustering becomes illegal or that it just fades away into history because it does not help our country.

How Angry?

How angry will Hillary Clinton supporters be if it turns out she is not offered Secretary of State? Almost fifty people have been interviewed for the job by Obama, but I would be shocked if she did not get the nod. It is almost as if Obama is required to offer her the job, unless he wants to divide his party. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.

I'm a little disgusted that the media got a hold of this story because it could inhibit Obama from selecting the best person for the job. I am not saying that Hillary is not this person, but I do not want a high position, such as Secretary of State, given to someone to appease a constituency.

Election Day

It's election day, get off your chair and go vote.

ACORN

ACORN is a community based organization that has been around since 1970. They have recently been under scrutiny for their involvement in what some have labeled as voter fraud. ACORN is being investigated because they have registered fake names, dead people, and some people more than once. While this is illegal, can it really be called voter fraud? ACORN is a non-partisan organization (although they are on the more liberal side of the spectrum as a whole). Their problems with fraudulent registrations was not a attempt to steal an election.

The motive behind the fraudulent registrations was simply their employees trying to earn more money. ACORN is at fault for this because they pay their workers by how many voters they register. Obviously this is a bad idea. I would not call this voter fraud, I'd call it stupidity. It's important to note the difference. Labeling it voter fraud is misleading.

Proposition 8

In this country, church and state are separate entities. Marriage is not solely a religious ceremony, this is obvious because we are in fact voting on the definition of marriage in November. If marriage were solely a religious ceremony, people would not need to get marriage licenses before getting married. Religious people who think homosexuality is a sin should take into account that not everyone in this country holds this view. These people should think about how they would feel if they were forced to abide by the rules of someone else’s religion. That would be absurd. Morality should not be legislated because it is not our government’s role to protect us from god.

Same sex marriage should be allowed in this country because it is not harmful to anyone. If something is not harmful, why should it be illegal? Many proposition eight proponents have argued that religions can be sued if they do not allow homosexual couples to be married in their buildings. This is a fabricated argument to justify their position. If there has been a successful lawsuit religions would in fact have their freedom of religion infringed upon. However, I have yet to see any such case because such a lawsuit would be unconstitutional.

Proposition 8 proponents have also claimed that schools will teach our children that same-sex marriage is okay. Their “beef” is not that same-sex marriage is legal, it is with the curriculum for enforcing teachers to teach about morality. Morality should be taught in the home, not the school. This rationale is not a reason to ban same-sex marriage, it is gimmick to get same-sex marriage banned.

Passing proposition 8 will infringe on the rights of law-abiding citizens. Homosexuals have the right to be happy just like anyone else. They should not be treated any differently under the law. If you do not see this as a civil-rights issue, you are only kidding yourself. Civil unions are not the same as marriage. Separate but equal is not equality at all.

Bill Ayers and Why He Does't Matter in this Election

Bill Ayers is was a member of the Weather Underground, a group responsible for many bombings forty years ago , including one at the pentagon. Before the Weather Undergroung, he was the leader of a non-militant group called the Students for a Democratic Society.

The WU were a confused bunch of left-wing activist that evolved from the SDS. The WU had noble ideas that they tried to accomplish using foolish tactics. Protesting the Vietnam war by bombing government buildings is no way to accomplish anything. Bill Ayers was part of this group and is not exempt from these attacks.

After these attacks, Bill Ayers became an elementary education activist. His recent work is for a noble cause, a cause that he recruited Obama to help him with.

The sound bite, "We didn't do enough" is a statement grossly taken out of context. This statement was a response to a question about his involvement in protesting the Vietnam war. The soundbite we all have heard many times is a complete distortion of Bill Ayers' position. In fact, he wrote a letter to a city lawyer (Richard Elrod) injured in an attack made by the weatherman to express his condolences. The lawyer is quoted as saying that Bill Ayers was "Remorseful".

We know Obama and Ayers knew each other more than Obama expressed to at first. If Obama is going to be attacked, attack him here for not being completely honest. Don't attack him for knowing this man, in fact, Obama said his actions in the WU were dispicable. They were on a board together to improve the community, not to blow things up.