My criticism on Politics for Idiots.... by King of said Idiots.

I chose to write my final blog over Politics for Idiots.... by King of said Idiots simply because the name of this blog intrigued me and I wanted to see what the author had to say. For his most recent blog, the author discussed his feelings about a company named Cigna and how they have been depriving many people of their rightful care and money.

I really respect your outlook on this topic. I can relate to your situation of graduating and moving out of your house for college because I just completed my second year at Texas. I also took for granted the 'free money' I had received for the first 18 years of my life so I can understand where you are coming from with this insurance company committing these 'crimes.'

I too feel that this insurance companies heinous acts should definitely be stopped. The man that they deemed 'not disabled' even though he has a terrible disease is horrible. Like you said, a doctor killing someone due to malpractice is unconstitutional and illegal so why in the world are Cigna's decisions of depriving people who need financial assistance not unconstitutional. I knew that there have been unfortunate situations such as this one over the years, but I had no idea to the degree Cigna has been doing wrong.

I really found your previous blog extremely insightful and especially after reading the article. After thinking about this subject, I feel that it is up to you and I and the rest of our generation to make these atrocities come to an end. I feel that as we become more educated on political topics such as this one, we must act on them and make sure that our congressmen address these topics in their entirety. Unfortunately, I feel that no matter what, things like this will continue to happen to many unfortunate people for a good while due to the nature of American businesses and the cut throat people who run them.

My thoughts on where our government is today

For this particular blog, I have an open forum. So I have decided to discuss the topic of the current relationship between our National government and American sports.
During this past spring, this topic was all over the news with the ‘Mitchell Report’ being published. Senator George Mitchell wrote this in-depth report over accounts of illegal steroid use in major league baseball. Although there were many names listed in this lengthy report, Roger Clemmens and Andy Pettite were among the marquee names. This strikes close to me because Roger Clemmens played his college baseball at The University of Texas which I am a student at currently and Andy Pettite played at San Jacinto Junior College which is in my home community in Clear Lake.
With this in mind, I wanted to express my feelings of our government getting involved with sports and steroids. Senator Mitchell obviously must have had strong feelings on this topic to put in all of the time and dedication he did in this report. However, I feel that this is a bit overkill, especially that most of the alleged steroid users either used them when they were legal or used them for medical purposes such as recovering from an injury. I feel that our government should be focusing on more important topics concerning our entire nation. I feel that with everything going on such as the war in Iraq and Immigration, our congressmen shouldn't be so concerned with illegal steroid use in sports.
Another thought on this is regarding our last discussion with national and state powers. I feel that maybe this issue should be dealt with by the respective state governments. I will ask you, the reader, what your thoughts are on the government dealing with steroid use and rather it should be up to the national government or the state governments?

Criticism on KTWise's Blog

My criticism of KTWise's blog.
I found your blog to be particular interesting in reading your insights on the concept of seperation of powers. I completely agree with you on the issues of the balances being off throughout recent history. I feel that congressmen should not just worry about themselves when election time comes around the way they have been with gerrymandering and earmarking to influence the votes the recieve. Although I am a proud American, I am not proud of some of the things our congressmen have done with disregard to our nations needs. The issue of the Iraq conflict is a touchy subject and I respect you expressing your opinion because that is one of the great rights we have. Although I feel that this conflict was necessary in 2003, you may argue that it has been prolonged. Our president was put in such a terrible situation with the terrorist attacks, false information regarding weapons of mass distruction, and the deaths of our troops and innocent Iraqi people, so this is up to the reader to interpret however they see fit.
After searching through various classmates blogs, I found this topic of the recent unbalenced seperation of powers to be most intriguing. I feel the attempt made by Rick Perry and Tom DeLay to redistrict certain areas of Texas to influence voting on a racial scale is a perfect example of this abuse of power made by the legislative branch. However, it was up to the supreme court to check this and balance it and they came through with a case against these legislatures. Likewise, one may make the argument of my comments above about our president exceeding his powers by declaring war on Iraq and keeping us in it for so long. I am choosing not to express my opinion on this matter due to the high level of controversey I have experienced with my own friends and troops that have made it home. I will just ask you to think about the issue, research it, and create your own educated opinion.
All in all, I too feel that the seperation of powers have not been equally balanced and that certain branches of our government have been manipulating this system for their own benefit in our recent history. It is up to our generation to put a stop to this unbalanced system that our founding fathers created so long ago.

Muslim women barred from picture at Obama event.

For this particular blog, I decided to write about a more sensitive topic regarding a pair of Muslim women showing up to one of Barack Obama's rallies. They were prevented from sitting behind the podium from the other volunteers which made a back drop during this rally in prevention of the television cameras showing their head scarves. Although the Obama campaign has apologized to these two women and have stated this is no indication of how they are planning on running the campaign in the ensuing months, I am sure they are still rattled by this.
This editorial entitled “Muslims barred from picture at Obama event” goes into great detail of analyzing this volatile move made by the volunteers. From the research I have done in the past on Barack Obama, I have found that his father was an atheist, his mother did not practice religion, but his step-father had been known to practicing religious ceremonies at a mosque on occasion during their stay in Indonesia during Barack's early childhood. In addition, Barack Obama is a member of United Church of Christ at Chicago. These facts are under debate throughout this reading as well. Many Obama opposer's are accusing Obama as being a Muslim. Moreover, some extremists have been accusing Barack Obama's potential presidency as being a extravagant Muslim plot against The United States of America. I personally find these extreme views hard to believe. With Obama's track record and the connections he has, I would find it almost impossible for these allegations to be true.
Even though Obama and his campaign crew have apologized for this discrimination, the two women naturally are not yet fully satisfied. They feel that this is a far bigger deal than what it has been made out to be. My question to you, the reader, was this a move that could be justified as the volunteers had with the climate of the world events going on today?

Is Michelle Obama too negative?

For this particular blog, I am writing from Galveston Island where I am currently on vacation.
When I was looking through several political websites, I found an interesting editorial entitled “Michelle Obama becomes GOP target.” I don't feel that this needs any clarification but just in case, Michelle Obama is presidential candidate Barack Obama's spouse and the GOP is an acronym standing for the 'Grand Ole' Party' which refers to the Republican political party. The name of the editorial speaks for itself with the context being political reporters talking about how the Republicans are already beginning to use Michelle against Obama.
Throughout the text, republicans are accusing Mrs. Obama as being unpatriotic and a radical. As I have been watching several of the televised speeches made by Obama and his wife, I have too noticed that Mrs. Obama has a certain pessimistic view on the state our nation is in right now. On the other side of the debate, Mrs. McCain has been quoted as saying she is proud of her country, not just once but always. I feel that there is a fine line in between the two potential first ladies. I feel that Barack's wife is warning, if not scaring, the American public of the issues we are dealing with and how her husband will be the one to turn them around. Likewise, Mrs. McCain has been nothing but positive from what I have read in this editorial which may not be the best approach. However, Michelle is gaining a lot more attention from the American media than her counterpart, so it may be hard to say what exactly Mrs. McCain's views are on the broad scope of issues this debate will be dealing with.
I feel that this editorial is worthwhile to read and asses on your own. I'm sure that all of those who read this blog may not agree with me, but it is up to you to create your own opinion on these two potential first ladies.
p.s. This blog is five days overdue from when I wrote it because the resorts computers were not compatible with the blog server for whatever reason.

Closing the Gender Gap in American Politics

I chose to write about this editorial titled “Editorial: Political Gender Gap Closing Too Slow.” I found this editorial interesting because of this years presidential campaigns. For the first time in American history, a woman was considered as a legitimate contender for the honor of being The President of The United States of America.
This is an editorial on research done by two assistant/associate professors from respected American Universities. The research was done by conducting surveys across the nation by way of mail and were sent to thousands of citizens in various fields such as buissness, law, politics, and education. I feel that this variety of knowledge was appropriate for conducting an experiment on the gender gap in American politics.
The research found that roughly a quarter of the state and national political jobs are held by women, such as representatives and legislators. However, there are only 9 female governors and 10 female Mayors out of the largest 100 American cities. I on the otherhand do not find this startling. Sadly, women have only been holding political titles for a fraction of the time men have and I believe these numbers are a lot higher than previous years. Although the Secretary of State and the Majority House Speaker are both females, women for the most part are not holding office in higher American politics. However, after seeing these inspiring numbers, I do feel that this will be changing drastically in the next quarter Century.
After reading this editorial, you will see that America needs to work harder on closing this gender gap in American politics. America ranks 84th in ranking their women in politics just at 16.3%, placing behind desolate countries such as Rowanda and Cuba. Moreover, I hope to see a strong push to close this gender gap in the near future and I strongly believe that research such as this will be an eye opener to necessary changes in our political system.

John McCain, Prisoner of War: A First Person Account

I wanted to post this blog about our Republican Presidential Nominee, John McCain. Over the weekend I was watching a baseball game with my father and we began to shoot the breeze about politics and the upcomming election. We started talking about John McCain and were discussing how he was shot down in the Vietnam war and was captured as a prisoner of war. This article is a great article to read because it is a first person account of being a prisoner of war in a very hostile environment. McCain spent 5 1/2 years as a prisoner during the Vietnam war. He suffered many hardships and injuries including a broken arm and leg during his time there. After reading this article, I feel that you all will agree with me that John McCain is a true American hero. I feel that anyone who can survive the hardships of a pow camp, especially for 5 1/2 years, deserves the proper honor and respect from the American citizens no matter what political views one may have.