Immigration Follow Up
My fellow classmate brought up the curious case of the ongoing immigration issue in the U.S. I must say, his argument is completely valid and correct. Like my colleague, I too have been on both sides of the argument of illegal immigrants living here in the U.S. I have worked with these people in food-service jobs and some of my family thinks that they pose a threat to us Americans (a bit paranoid to me, but an opinion nonetheless).
My view is a positive one, I do believe that they are good, hard-working people and they just want to be like us citizens but it's just not that easy. Visas and citizenship are hard to achieve for these people (just the U.S. citizenship test alone is ridiculous alone to pass). Most have good intentions about coming here and wanting to have a life that they love, they want to experience the American dream.
I do see the argument about why they can be a problem though. They send their kids to schools that taxpayers pay for and they don't pay those taxes, some have a strong reluctance to learn and/or speak English. They also sneak through our borders with ease (where's the gatekeepers?) and that can lead to overpopulation and other consequences.
I'm not at all against them being here, but it'd be better if the process to become a citizen or obtain a visa were much less difficult. In order to keep the illegal immigration down, we have to compromise and make things more simple for these people. They aren't terrorists or anything, they just want a slice of the pie we Americans get every day.

Our Corrupt Leaders

 Recently, former Congressman Tom Delay was convicted of money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Now from what I've heard, he's probably going to be sentenced to 10 years probation instead of possible jail time. A slap on the wrist for a serious white collar crime? Really? To me that's absolute bullshit (pardon my colorful language).
Delay did wrong knowingly and willingly and now he might get to pass on jail time. It doesn't matter if he's a congressman or even the President of the United States, he shouldn't get a pass for a crime as serious as this. If I were the one to make the decision, I'd lock him up just like everyone else who's committed crimes like this. No one, and I repeat no one deserves to get what he might get. Now that I've ranted about this, I'd like to bring up another point.
I know for a fact that Mr. Delay isn't the first politician to be convicted of a crime, but I also know that there are plenty of politicians out there who are just as dirty, if not dirtier than Delay. I know politicians take bribes, steal money, abuse their power, and etc. Some of them are brought to justice and some easily slip away from punishment. Now I'm speculating here, but if the people who are supposed to keep these people in check aren't catching them, why do they still have jobs? Delay laundered money for years and now he's getting punished (lightly). That seems inefficient to me and if I ran the show, I'd definitely be keeping a close eye on these people. Well, that about does it for my rant and hopefully in the future politicians are kept on a tighter leash. Ha, yeah like that would ever happen.

Let the Votes Decide

Let the Votes Decide
Ms. Cayla Cravens and I have a similar mindset about Texas politics and politics in general. If how I interpret her words is correct then, yes we both have the thought that Perry isn't particularly right for Governor and maybe Texas needs a change. Again, this is purely speculation on my part so I'm not entirely sure if I am correct about my assumptions.
Anyways, she brings up the term limit discussion on how it should or shouldn't be limited. She states that people in power should be in power for as long as they are voted in as political officials. That's fine with me (although I don't actually support our current Governor or anything, but we live in a Democratic nation where people's votes do matter). I mean it sucks for the people who vote and support those who lose the elections (like myself) but it's totally fair.
I think of it this way, one of these days Perry will be ousted and someone (hopefully better) will replace him and that person will have no limit in how long they stay as Governor, just like Perry has been the last 10 years. So in short, Ms. Cravens blog post to me is very well argued and written. She makes valid points for both sides of the argument and I have a similar feel about her political opinion on the matter. I'm hoping I interpreted her post right and I don't sound like an idiot for posting this, but from what I can tell about her post, this is how I feel about her writing. I praise my fellow classmate on her insightful and interesting post.

The Calm Before The Storm

Election Day is tomorrow, November 2nd. It's a day where everyone can cast their vote to either keep someone in office, or perhaps make a change in who runs the show. However in Texas, many people (such as myself) assume that there will be no big change in the political power in this state. Many will probably elect the Republican candidates who either want to keep or gain office, since we Texas citizens live in a primarily red state. Unfortunately, this means of course that people like Rick Perry may keep office and continue to reign over Texas. Great! Now us Democratic voters get to endure another four years of hell!!! But in all seriousness, it's just another election where the votes mainly support the Republicans and the Democrats just put their tail between their legs and accept defeat. However, maybe there is some hope.
Maybe Bill White miraculously defeats Perry to become the new Governor of Texas. Maybe everyone just realizes that voting Democratic is the way to go and Texas changes from a red state to a blue state. Could it happen? Maybe so. But is it realistic? I'd have to say no, because in this state never really wants to change its mind from a political standpoint. But it doesn't entirely count out all Democrats either. Sure, Republicans will probably continue to be the dominant party, but the Democrats won't be entirely shut out of public office. People like Patrick Rose fight an uphill battle, but he's been a representative for his district for about eight years and looking to extend that this year.
Democrats may not win each battle, but year after year they line up their candidates and give it their best shot. I look for a similar situation this year with Texas politics. Now, I may not be glued to the TV just to hear results of who wins what office, but I definitely look forward to a close, competitive election here in 2010. I hope the Democrats make some kind of a push for power in Texas, but like everyone else I'll just have to wait and see who wins and who loses.

The stakes of the 2010 election & Texas democrats' massive field program

Well after reading this eye-opening, well-written blog, I have come to see that the author is clearly democratic and he backs Bill White all the way. I find his writing and his opinions to be very credible; providing statistics, links, and all sorts of other goodies that intrigued me as I read this blog. Now all of this praise that I've given to the writer is probably a little biased (since even though I am young and new to politics, I tend to think of myself as a liberal and democratic).
But there's nothing wrong with siding with your fellow party members to support your prime candidates and I will gladly side with this writer. I agree with his findings about how White can be the guy to right the ship that Bush and Perry have steered in a the wrong direction. He can work towards improving high school graduation percentage in Texas, get more health insured children in Texas, and he can be the leader who leads us out of any problems that we may face in the short or long term.
In addition to all of the facts, statistics, and Perry-bashing going on in this blog, I love the way how he wrote it. The writing had a certain tone and voice to it that I can really relate to and it made the story that much more enjoyable. The writer knew what he was talking about when he wrote this, he appeals to just about every democrat in his writing and I could continue to praise him on and on, but I figure I've spoken enough about how great this guy writes. Damn fine writing and another great article that slams Rick Perry and praises democrats' white knight in Bill White, my favorite kind of political article.

Side note: The title of the blog starts with: The stakes of the 2010 election... this is in case the blog disappears or something, hopefully it doesn't.

Perry's spoiler alert!

It's time to fix the Emerging Technology Fund

This article is mainly aimed at those who probably want our current Governor, Rick Perry to be replaced by the opposition in the upcoming election. To me, I find him to be a very reliable source on the subject of the problematic fund. He gives lots of legitimate statistics about how Mr. Perry has just been spoiling those who give him any kind of aid. From what I read in his finely written editorial, was that Perry is just another greedy politician who's just stealing cookies from the cookie jar. The author of this editorial calls Governor Perry out with various statistics and testimonials and to me they seem very concrete and valid. So, my opinion on the editorial is that I love what this author is selling. He stated the problem, backed it up with evidence, and provided an argument that I will gladly side with. Perry is stealing funds from the state just to back his own campaign, which I'm pretty sure is wrong and he's using the "spoils system" to reward anyone who helps him gain favor in his campaign for re-election. As a citizen of the great state of Texas, I hope Perry is finally pushed out of office so someone new can run things. I mean right now anyone would probably be a step up from Perry, considering he's a thief and takes money for his own political gain. So if Bill White or any other candidate has a shot at dethroning him from being Governor, I'd love if they took that shot and somehow became the new Governor of Texas.

Perry's a big spender

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/state/stories/DN-travel_21tex.ART.State.Edition1.46f363b.html

The above article states how Rick Perry spent over $100,000 in travel to areas in Asia such as Taiwan, China, and Korea. Now these reports are coming after democrats have criticized Perry's treatment of fiscal issues. He's clearly using taxpayer money for travel instead of more constructive things. To me, this is important because it shows that our governor just spends our money freely instead of tackling more important issues such as education, immigration, or something like that. Now to me what he's doing with our tax money is using it for his own personal gain, which seems like stealing to me. Maybe I'm misinformed to the gravity of the situation, but to me it seems like he's not the kind of guy I want as governor of Texas. Maybe Bill White is a better candidate for the job, but we'll need to wait until November to find out.