Response to Texas My Texas

The following is to a response to a commentary titled:

What to do about those pesky drug cartels...

I agree with you completely saying we need to send US’s special units to help deal with this drug cartel problem.  You have to fight fire with fire to get any message to these drug lords.  The special units would not have the restrictions that the army would have and they will get the job done in a timely manner. The army would be useless because of the restrictions and they have to deal with the corruption in the Mexican government. 

I also agree with you in saying we would never be able to cut off the supply of drugs coming into the US because to many people in the US use these drugs.  We have made these drugs illegally and yet they still are finding ways into the US.  It is the same as when the US tried banning alcohol; it just will not work. 

They only way to help solve this problem is “getting our hands dirty” and send our special units into Mexico to help deal with this.  It is the only way I see that could help these killings stop in Mexico, especially with all the corruption in Mexico.      

           

 For the orginal blog click the following: What to do about those pesky drug cartels...

Tom DeLay Found Guilty of Money Laundering

As many of you know, Tom DeLay was found guilty of money laundering on Wednesday, November 24.  He will be sentenced to life in prison on December 20.  However, DeLay is appealing this case on lack of evidence and I would have to support him on this.  There was no hard evidence to suggest that he did any money laundering.  According to DeLay’s attorney, DeGuerin, "It was not criminal for there to be a money swap — that is for lawful money, collected from corporations for the national Republican party, and for the Republican Party to send money collected from individuals to the Texas Republican Party. That was not unlawful."  According to Barry Pollack, a Washington-based white-collar criminal defense attorney, "Typically, in money laundering, you can trace the laundered money directly back to the illicit money. Here, you can't.

To me though I believe the main reason Tom DeLay was found guilty is because he is a strong Republican and was tried in a very liberal county, Travis County.  If this case was in a more moderate county I guarantee DeLay would have been found not guilty because of the lack of evidence.  When he takes this case to the appeals court I would be very shocked if they don’t say that he is not guilty because there was no evidence to suggest he was guilty. 

In the end though, even if Tom DeLay is found not guilty by the appeals court he will most likely never be able to run and win again because of this money laundering case. This is a shame because he is a very good and strong Republican.              

Click the titles below for more information about this case:

DeLay's conviction starts lengthy appeals process

Jury finds DeLay guilty of money laundering

Response to Texas & Local Government: Friend or Foe?

Cecilia Hernandez, I think you misunderstood what the article, “The Grey Haired Brigade,” was saying.  It was not saying that younger people are stupid and can not make good decisions about government.  He was saying that the younger generation did not care about government as much as the older generation did, and he is right about that.  Voter turnout is lower for younger people then older people.  Younger people, as he said, care more about their jobs and lifestyle then government.  The reason for this is because the older generation made sure that the country would be in a good state for their children and grandchildren. 

This is one of the first times that the country has been down and the younger generations have had a say in what we should do.  So when think about, the younger generation is new at making decisions with government while the “grey haired brigade” has had experience in government.  We need to be saved by the “Grey Haired Brigade” so that we can see the difference between policy that works and policy that sounds good.  Through out the 2008 election all I heard about was that “Obama is a great speaker unlike Bush and McCain.”  What people should have been focused on was whose policy is going to work better.  Obama’s policy sounded like socialism, while McCain would have worked much better and not increased the national debt by so much.  Also, we would not have this stupid Health Care System.   

That’s what Fred meant in his article and I believe he hit every point very well.  Also, it looks like the Grey Haired Brigade did their job this election.                   

Poll: Likely voters ready to embrace GOP

With the upcoming House and Senate race many voters are planning to vote republican this year. The reason behind this is many people, 59 percent, think the country is headed in the wrong direction with this democratic controlled congress and president. They want the economy to get back on track and many think the republican party can do it. The democratic party has just spent more money than have with no results. Our debt has been raised dramatically, the unemployment rate is still around 10 percent and not many jobs have been created. Another reason people are not supporting the democratic party is because of Obama’s health care plan.
Republicans are hoping that with a big victory here so they can improve the economy, they hope to take back Washington in 2012. With success this election many republicans are hoping to gain support for the 2012 presidential election. People are disgusted with politics now and with successes in the economy and job creation republican support can only grow. Also, many do not like what Obama has done with his “stupid” stimulus package and with his continuous decline in popularity, republican support is gaining for the upcoming elections.
In conclusion, Obama’s election might have been one of the best things for republicans to happen, because it has brought the party more together and also many are frustrated with the democratic party. Many hate this Health care plan and hate all the spending Obama has been doing. Republicans are planning to cut down on spending and get rid of the health care plan by saying its unconstitutional. We will have to wait and see what happens with politics in the next few years.  Click this to read the full article.  

The Grey-Haired Brigade

The article “The Grey-Haired Brigade” by Fred from the blog, “TexasFred,” is about how this November you are defiantly going to see more older people(the Grey Haired Brigade because most have grey hair) at the voting booth trying to fix all the problems with the Democratic President and Congress. Fred’s target audience is toward the older people, but also anybody who wants to fix these problem that our government has caused, “No jobs, lost mortgages, higher taxes, and less freedom.” Fred starts out his argument by writing that we, older people, or as the young say “gone over the hill,” still have things that we need to finish with our country before we go. He then writes about all the experience they went through. We were the ones that studied math and science and made America the great nation that it is today. We fought and won in World War II, fought in Korea and Vietnam. We know the pledge of Allegiance by heart and get emotional when saying it. Many of us have experienced what you young have read in text books. We are never ashamed of our great county. Fred’s next point is that they may be old, but they still got one more fight in them. They did not fight the cold war for “Socialist States of America” but for “land of free and home of brave.” We old people are going to fix your mistakes and hopefully this time, you will learn what not to do. You young people fell for Obama’s “Hope and Change” when really he meant, “Lets be a Socialist Country.” We did not fight all those wars against tyranny and socialism just to see our country become it. We will fight against this and hopefully this time you will not be persuaded so easily to lies. The Grey Brigade is coming so watch out, roads might go a little bit slower in November. You can read the full article by clicking on the title.

Palaima: U.S. gun laws allow normal day at UT to take a scary turn

The author in this commentary is describing first hand events of the UT shooting on Tuesday September, 29^th and his reaction to Texas gun laws.  The author is arguing for complete restrictions on gun laws because this shooter got an AK-47 way to easy.  Also, that even with the fast response of law enforcement that this could have been a Virginia Tech shooting.  They only reason that it was not was because the shooter decided not to make it one, but you still get the same reaction in the students; scared and freaked out.  During the lockdown students that were classrooms were all searched to see if there was a second gunman.  The author said the experience will leave him with memories that he will never forget.  He saw one student completely freak out from the situation all of all the armed police and being searched to see if she was a second shooter.  He will also remember how concerned the police looked as he led her away for medical treatment.  In the end the author concludes that this situation could have been a lot worse if the shooter wanted it to be.  The author wants the audience to help support for the second amendment to be removed so that new stories like this can stop happening; so that students will not be scared from a situations like these when they did nothing wrong to deserve them.  My belief however is that we should keep the second amendment because to me, you are going to increase the amount of crime by getting rid of guns.  The bad guys will still find ways to get them and when people can not have guns, they feel much safer and will be more likely to commit crimes.  This kind of situation has happened before in the past, the prohibition era.  They thought people would be better off without alcohol and all it caused was gangs and much more violence.  You will not get rid of situations like these by banning guns; people will find ways to get them.

Here is a link to the author’s article: http://www.statesman.com/opinion/palaima-u-s-gun-laws-allow-normal-day-942601.html

 

   

Perry, White clash on education

Education has always been a big discussion in any election in Texas and this upcoming Governors election is no different.  Rick Perry plans to continue to help improve schools technology access and continue to help focus in the STEM package because as he states “We live in a global marketplace where science, technology, engineering and math are very important subjects for the good-paying jobs of the future.”  He wants to transition to digital textbook and more school networks to help drop outs get a good job.  Bill White on other hand argues for these five goals: reduce the dropout rate, expand pre-kindergarten classes, de-emphasize standardized tests, increase technical education and make college more affordable.  The article also discusses education spending and how each would do a better job than the other. I believe this article is very important because it not only affects us as college students but also the next generation of students.  What we do now affects the next generation, so it very important that we know everything we can about what these two politicians plan to do for education so as to make the best decision to help improve our great country.