Common Civic Good

Would Reagan be Considered a Democrat, Now?

2011-10-04T11:32:00.000-05:00

I have found this video comparing speeches between President Ronald Reagan and President Barack Obama about closing tax loopholes to millionaires. The cuts of the video show eerie similarities between the both men's speeches. It raises the question has the Republican party gone so far right that Ronald Reagan would be considered a Democrat in this political climate. We know now that President Nixon would be with the Republican war on the EPA, but Reagan would be disastrous blow to Republican ideals. Propping up a man who would agree with your opponents more than his party. It is troubling. Here is the video

Fighting the Good Fight

2011-09-30T00:00:00.000-05:00

Well, it has been a couple of months since post has been typed on this blog, and with fall approaching it is time to start working hard on the blog. I missed some fun stories ranging from government showdowns, world riots, and a stagnate economy.

As a journalist/scholar I have been really lazy. We will see if we can change that. Game on!

Happy Fourth of July

2011-07-04T12:17:00.002-05:00

Take time to be thankful for all the freedoms that we have. Enjoy this Monday.

Why We Need a Compromise on the Debt Ceiling

2011-06-30T17:45:00.000-05:00

The clock is ticking for the Congress to reach an agreement on the Debt Ceiling. The Debt Ceiling was created in 1917 and is used to cap the amount that Congress can borrow. The original Debt Ceiling was set at 11.5 billion dollars, and now the ceiling is at 14.26 trillion. Debt ceiling is usually raised at the time of a spending hikes or tax cuts is the reason for the raising of the ceiling.

Now today's impasse is that Republicans with the help of their Tea Party base are finding the raising of the Debt Ceiling unacceptable, unless drastic cuts are made to lower the deficit. The cuts that the Republican propose are for 2.5 trillion dollars of cuts for the next ten years in exchange for the Debt Ceiling to be raised.

The Democrats on the other hand want to make it an 80/20 split between cuts and tax increases. Some of the options that the Democrats have mention was to get rid of tax breaks for items like yachts and private jets, and have even gone as far to rescind the Bush Tax Cuts from people that make more than 500,000 dollars. Meager hikes that only affect the wealthy individuals on luxury items.

The problem that arises is the the Republican Party does not want to increase taxes on anything. The idea of raising taxes on yachts or private jets is a non-starter. Pretty much it means do not tax anything or anyone, but only accept budget cuts to social programs. This is disturbing in American society. What is being set up is Un-American.

Here is why. One America is about setting up equal opportunity for all of its citizens. Hence in the Declaration of Independence our founding fathers wrote all men are created equal.( Now we know their understanding and what is accepted now are different, but the idea stays the same.) If all men/women are created equal should be allowed to have the same opportunity. This is where social programs helped equalize the opportunities for people that were at a disadvantage.

People who argue with this rationale say that once a person made it to the top that they are a self made man and owe no one for their success or should pay higher taxes. This is laughable. Anyone who was successful has had help. Lets take a store for an example. Minimum wage is 7.25 nationally. Living wage is considered about 11 dollars an hour. The person who starts a business usually pays minimum wage not living wage. Once some one has more money the wages do not change. These people that work 40hrs a week on minimum wage are more likely to rely on government assistance than people who make more. The sad thing is that its their labor that makes huge companies successful.

I do agree we need to lower our debt. If we do not we will be on a course to ruin, but we have to be reasonable human beings and not allow our greed to hamper this process. We are only as strong as our weakest link, and if we follow with only cuts we will become a weaker nation.

Summer Reading List for the People of the Missouri River

2011-06-15T10:58:00.000-05:00

Summer is a time to catch up on reading that has been put off, and with the interest in the high water on the Missouri River I have some reading recommendations for people that are interested in the current flooding of the Missouri River. These books are long and comprehensive, but of a high academic quality.

Through my studying of the Pick-Sloan Plan two books I would recommend if you want a comprehensive history on the dams and the Corps are The History of Large Federal Dams: Planning, Design, and Construction in the Era of Big Dams, and Big Dam Era. Chapter 6 (p235-292) in Large Federal dams covers the Missouri River the building of the structures and the Pick-Sloan Plan. Big Dam Era covers the Missouri River from the implementation of the Pick-Sloan Plan to the 1990s. This book is about 200 pages. Granted both are written by the Corps, but they good comprehensive background histories. Luckily, they are now online in PDF format and the full text can be accessed on-line which is better than writing the Corps for a copy or trying to find them in a library.

If political history is more of your thing then I would suggest; Dammed Indians Revisited by Michael Lawson, Unruly River by Robert Kelly Schneiders, Cadillac Desert by Mark Reisner(Chapter 6 p170-213), and River of Promise River of Perilby John Thorson. It is alot of reading, but they are interesting books to give a perpective of the Corps, Janklow, South Dakota, and politics surrounding the dams. Finally, if your interested in the legislation of the Pick-Sloan Plan I would recommend The Missouri Basin's Pick-Sloan Plan A Case Study in Congressional Policy Determination by Marian E Ridgeway. In my opinion the best book that describes the legislative process of the Pick-Sloan Plan without reading thousands of pages of Congressional documents.

Summer reading List
The History of Large Federal Dams: Planning, Design, and Construction in the Era of Big Dams, and Big Dam Era.
Big Dam Era
Dammed Indians Revisited
Unruly River
Cadillac Desert
River of Promise River of Peril
The Missouri Basin's Pick-Sloan Plan A Case Study in Congressional Policy Determination

I know these are huge books and more time is required then the average reader might want to put in, but these are the best. So these are my recommendations for summer reading. Please leave comments on what you think or other good books or articles on the topic. If you read or had read any of these works feel free to comment on them.

Flooding on the Mississippi and the Missouri

2011-05-28T10:04:00.000-05:00

Flooding for the last month has ravaged the Mississippi River and now reports of possible flooding on the Missouri River has made the author think about pass floods. This week we will look at the floods on the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. For post on the Missouri River you can check on our sister blog The Angry River Rat or other sources like the Pierre Capital Journal, and for Mississippi flooding check out Shreveport Times .
Floods are important to recharge ecosystems, but sometimes they cause damage and destruction. Our thoughts go out to the flood victims and their families.

Osama bin Laden Dead on Sunday in Pakistan

2011-05-04T09:29:00.000-05:00

I know I am late to the story, but it is still an important one to tell. On Sunday Osama bin Laden was killed in his Pakistani compound 30 miles from the capital of Islamabad. With his death, the United States has successfully accomplished one of its goals on the War on Terror set by former President Bush. There are many questions we hope to answer this week. Ranging from was this legal; to why no one knew he was in a comfy suburb of Pakistan? We hope to get our posts up ASAP. Stay tuned and give us feed back on what we should look into?

Apology

2011-04-14T15:45:00.000-05:00

We are sorry for the two month delay in posting our time has been divided between our new South Dakota political blog, The Angry River Rat, and the Common Civic Good. We should be back up and running at full speed for the summer. Thank you for your support.

Editorial Staff
Common Civic Good

Protests in Wisconsin Shows Peoples' Anger to Governor Walker's Budget Measures

2011-02-19T01:00:00.000-06:00

In the past week since the fall of the Mubarak Regime in Egypt protests have been springing up against governments in the Middle East and in Wisconsin. The uprisings in Middle East come from anger of autocratic rule, but the protests in Wisconsin about state governments taking away unions to produce collective bargaining agreements.

Collective bargaining defined by the Legal Information Institute from Cornell Law School states, " Collective bargaining consists of negotiations between an employer and a group of employees so as to determine the conditions of employment. The result of collective bargaining procedures is a collective agreement. Employees are often represented in bargaining by a union or other labor organization." The benefits of this are that individual workers join together to gain a better deal, and management is able to work more efficiency by listening to one voice instead of many. Overall, a win win situation for both sides.

In times of economic prosperity, collective bargaining groups do not reap the financial compensation that is awarded to the private sector counterparts, but receive a better benefits package instead. The problem that occurs in times of hardship,the recession, groups that collectively bargain seem to have a better situation than private individuals due to the agreements made previously. A real world example would be if someone would buy a hundred gallons of gas at 2 dollars a gallon, and could reap the 2 dollar price even if the price rose to 3 dollars a gallon. People who did not lock in the price would be upset of the benefits received by the person who locked in the price. Now if the price went down to a dollar the person paying two dollars a gallon is still stuck with the price unless he renegotiates, and would only get it dropped to 1.50 instead of the dollar. The person with the gas contact would not have to worry about the market fluctuations, but might might not get the best deal all of the time. In a time of economic distress and high unemployment people see Unions as a target.

Now to the issues in Wisconsin and their budget fight. The problem lies with a 137 million dollar shortfall that needs to be paid by July 1st. Governor Scott Walker's plan to cover this shortfall is to not allow collective bargaining by public unions except for pay, and that could not rise higher than the Consumer Price Index. If this arrangement would be passed by the Wisconsin State Legislature, public unions would not be able to collectively bargain for their benefit packages. Walker is quoted in an ABC News article by saying,"If we don't do this, there will be layoffs. By July 1, when the next budget starts, we'll have to have layoffs of 5,500 state workers plus a similar number of county and city workers."

The issue that arose from this is how did this 137 million dollar deficit form? Some sources argue, such as Ezra Klein from the Washington Post, that a majority of this deficit came from actions done by Walker in a Special Session of the Legislature in December. The Wisconsin Fiscal Bureau stated that earlier estimates put the state budget at a 120 million dollars in black, until the December session with the passage of health savings account, tax cuts for new and relocated businesses, and tax exclusion for new employees. This helped cause the 137 million dollar shortfall. According to Brian Beutler from Talking Points Memo, states it best, " public workers are being asked to pick up the tab for this agenda."

So what is being done to prevent this bill from passing? First is that the Wisconsin Democrats in the Senate have fled Wisconsin to Illinois. By doing this, the Wisconsin State Senate only has 19 members. This makes the Senate one member short from making a quorum. Without a quorum, the Wisconsin State Senate cannot take up any legislative business. Therefore the Wisconsin State Senate is suspended indefinitely, until the Democrats come back. This is a major win for opponents of the bill because when the bill passes the Wisconsin State House it cannot be taken up by the Senate.

In addition to the flight of the Senate Democrats, Union members and students from the University of Wisconsin Madison have also started protests, teach ins, and walk outs. These protests have been very successful in the amount of people that have came to them. The average protest numbers at the capital have ranged from 15,000 to 30,000 people and the estimate today was at 40,000 people. At first it was more Union members, but then increased with students and citizens as the week progressed. Even with all of the protesters in Madison the Police report that it has been very peaceful assembly. Teachers throughout the state have been doing their part at all academic levels. Other than protesting teachers have been informing the public of the plan and calling in sick. In Madison school had been cancelled since Tuesday due to the protests and now in Milwaukee school was cancelled today due to the absence of teachers.

The protesters have made their case clear and they are supported by various groups. The most obvious group have been key Democrats such as former Senator Russ Fiengold, Senator Dick Durbin, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and President Barack Obama. The Superbowl Champions the Green Bay Packers have also weighed in and are supporting the protests. Other support has also came protesters in Egypt. Overall, many different groups of people are supporting protesters.

Supporters of Walker are coming to his aid. Many political commentators such as Glenn Beck, Mike Huckabee, and Joe Scarborough are supporting Walker's proposal. In addition to these political commentators Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Speaker of the House John Boehner have also supported Walker's bill. Not to be outdone by protests, Red State announced that Andrew Breitbart is staging a counter protest on Saturday in support of Governor Walker, and against those"union thugs and clue less college students." Unlike the current protests, which are a large majority of Wisconsinites, the proposed Brietbart/ Tea Party Patriot counter protest will look more like an astroturf protest because of the busing in of out of state protesters.

Granted now both sides by Saturday will have outside influence, and the nation has now taken notice. It will really depend on how both sides handle themselves. The pro-Union side has made overtures to Governor Walker to reach a settlement, but Walker has not responded except for staying the course. Wisconsin Union leaders have done the right thing by fighting for their rights. Governor Walker could have prevented this crisis by not allowing the tax breaks in December or meeting with leaders in January to find common ground in working on a compromise, but his brash ideology brought upon these protests and disruptions.

Overall, the Unions are doing what they are suppose to do, protecting their workers rights. No one should complain that the protests are unnecessary. Protests are part of democracy. When the Tea Party shows up with their heroes to support Governor Walker lets hope that the peaceful protests will continue, and hope that they will not act in the way of Mubarak protesters in Egypt and cause a violent confrontation. For democracy to work the best it needs to be done in a peaceful and respectful manner, and we hope these issues are resolved peacefully and that both sides are content with the outcome.

In Defense of Public Broadcasting Part 1

2011-02-17T00:20:00.000-06:00

Funding for Public Broadcasting is up on the chopping block. Many Republican Representatives in favor of removal of funding argue that cutting all funding will save the U.S. tax payer money for an unneeded item. We would disagree that Public Broadcasting is an unneeded item with its 170 million monthly users. Compared to the U.S. Census numbers of 310 million Americans, Public Broadcasting is used by fifty-five percent of the population. We think that it would be hard to find another item that fifty-five percent of the population uses.

Over thirty Representatives want to eliminate funding and the Corporation of Public Broadcasting. They believe that Public Broadcasting should not be in existence or federally funded. To put this in prospective, Public Broadcasting reaches 99% of public households compared to cable or satellite services, which only cover about 33% of all households. People that do not have the means to pay for television programming of the Discovery Channel can turn to the quality programming of their local PBS station.

Public Broadcasting is a great source for information, educational entertainment, documentaries and local events. Shows like Nova, Nature, Bill Moyers Journal, News Hour with Jim Lehrer, and Frontline. These shows provide new information to a vast public audience. Educational entertainment come from Sesame Street, Word Girl, Barney, and Clifford the Big Red Dog. These shows teach children at a young age skills that they will need the rest of their life. One story in particular comes from Andy Dehnart in an audio essay for All Things Considered in November of 2009. Dehnart could apply the lessons that he had learned from Sesame Street into real life. There are very few shows where life lessons taught to children at the age of 4 that can be applied at 40. Another item is the documentaries that Public Broadcasting helps produce and distribute. In addition to Frontline, Nature, and American Experience; there are the documentaries done by Ken Burns which include Baseball, The War, The Civil War, and Lewis and Clark Expedition. Finally the local programming, is a very important aspect of Public Broadcasting. Local news, entertainment, state issues, and even athletic events were covered by their local Public Broadcasting stations. In all reality your PBS station can cover all your needs, especially now with the splitting of the signal into three channels. We have only covered the tip of the iceberg in the great programming of PBS and the importance that it plays in society.

Overall, society has benefited from Public Broadcasting. The withdrawal of funding from it will hurt future generations of Americans. This funding is needed and should be protected. There are other areas of spending that could handle a cut, but Public Broadcasting is not one of them.

Tomorrow I will cover the importance of National Public Radio and the reason for the assault on Public Broadcasting.

South Dakota GOP Mandates Gun Ownership as a Joke, But leaves Door Open for the Individual Mandate

2011-02-04T12:24:00.000-06:00

Earlier this week, the South Dakota State Legislature introduced House Bill 1237. HB 1237 would mandate all South Dakotans to purchase a firearm of their liking for self defense at the beginning of 2012. The only exclusions to gun ownership would be criminals that are not allowed to have them by law. This story broke in the South Dakota's Argus Leader and in local liberal blog The Madville Times on Monday. The national websites at Talking Points Memo and Politico picked up the story on Tuesday. All of the comments from the local sites and national sites show people upset with this law. When asked by the Argus Leader, State Representative Hal Wicks sponsor of the bill stated, "we do not believe the federal government can order every citizen to buy health insurance." Later on Wicks said that this bill was a joke, which did not sit well with many South Dakotans who are worrying about a 107 million dollar deficit shortfall. This joke by these state legislators brings and interesting discussion about the Individual Mandate.

The point of their failed exercise was to prove that the Individual Mandate is Unconstitutional, but they forgot that state governments are different than the Federal Government. The first item that they are not aware of is that state governments are allowed to have Individual Mandates. An example of this is automobile insurance, which every state requires of automobile owners to have the insurance or these owners have to pay a fine. It is mandated by the state that automobile owners are required to have the insurance. This gun law like the automobile insurance law is created by the state regulated by the state. Therefore there is no correlation between South Dakota's Gun law and the National Healthcare Law. This attempt by these Legislators failed miserably.

Since these legislators were looking to make an example of how in their view that the Individual Mandate was Unconstitutional, lets give them another example how the Individual Mandate is Constitutional and employed by our Founding Fathers. One example is the Militia Act of 1792 signed into law by George Washington on May 8, 1792. In the organization of the Militia by the Militia Act of 1792 required white males between 18 and 45 to join a militia and be able to supply themselves with the necessary equipment. As seen here in section one:

That each and every free able-bodied white male citizen of the respective States, resident therein, who is or shall be of age of eighteen years, and under the age of forty-five years (except as is herein after excepted) shall severally and respectively be enrolled in the militia, by the Captain or Commanding Officer of the company, within whose bounds such citizen shall reside, and that within twelve months after the passing of this Act. And it shall at all time hereafter be the duty of every such Captain or Commanding Officer of a company, to enroll every such citizen as aforesaid, and also those who shall, from time to time, arrive at the age of 18 years, or being at the age of 18 years, and under the age of 45 years (except as before excepted) shall come to reside within his bounds; and shall without delay notify such citizen of the said enrollment, by the proper non-commissioned Officer of the company, by whom such notice may be proved. That every citizen, so enrolled and notified, shall, within six months thereafter, provide himself with a good musket or firelock, a sufficient bayonet and belt, two spare flints, and a knapsack, a pouch, with a box therein, to contain not less than twenty four cartridges, suited to the bore of his musket or firelock, each cartridge to contain a proper quantity of powder and ball; or with a good rifle, knapsack, shot-pouch, and powder-horn, twenty balls suited to the bore of his rifle, and a quarter of a pound of powder; and shall appear so armed, accoutred and provided, when called out to exercise or into service, except, that when called out on company days to exercise only, he may appear without a knapsack...

As section one reads,"That each and every free able-bodied white male citizen of the respective States, resident therein, who is or shall be of age of eighteen years, and under the age of forty-five years (except as is herein after excepted) shall severally and respectively be enrolled in the militia." The only people that were considered citizens at this time were white landed males over the age of eighteen, which this law mandated their military service. This is one example, but playing devils advocate we can argue that this does not require people to buy things. Now if you read further into the act, you can find where the government mandates its citizens to purchase items. As it mandates their militiamen to supply their own supplies for training. This can be seen again in section one:

That every citizen, so enrolled and notified, shall, within six months thereafter, provide himself with a good musket or firelock, a sufficient bayonet and belt, two spare flints, and a knapsack, a pouch, with a box therein, to contain not less than twenty four cartridges, suited to the bore of his musket or firelock, each cartridge to contain a proper quantity of powder and ball; or with a good rifle, knapsack, shot-pouch, and powder-horn, twenty balls suited to the bore of his rifle, and a quarter of a pound of powder.

This is an mandate by the United States Government for its citizens at the time were required to purchase items for military service. Clearly the United States Government created an Individual Mandate to its citizens and required them to purchase the necessary means for militia service.

The Militia Act of 1792 was repealed with the Militia Act of 1903, because of the need to update standards and to add Federal funding to state militias. Not to argue that the requirement of militiamen to supply their own equipment was Unconstitutional. No one had challenged the Militia Act of 1792 in the 111 years of existence. It had been amended, but no one challenged the Constitutionality of the requirement for militiamen to obtain their own supplies for military service. Overall, this Individual Mandate was unchallenged and accepted.

The Individual Mandate will be argued until the Supreme Court makes their ruling. Both sides will try to make their own points in the matter. As the South Dakota Legislators tried to make a point, and my blog post is an attempt to counter their argument. I have tried to provide accurate evidence that back up my points with respectable links. Hopefully, this will be resolved soon.

Representative Paul Ryan Contradicts himself

2011-01-25T23:32:00.000-06:00

Watching Paul Ryan's response to the State of the Union response was kinda weird and seemed to be contradicted himself. Some items I would like to point out Government help innovation, Free Enterprise, and Limited Government helps people. We will take time to look at these statements.

Lets start with Ryan's argument that government does not help innovation. Without government help or need to fund the space program we would not have made the leaps and bounds to be behind the Soviets in 1957 to beat them to the moon in 1969. Without Government funding the innovations for this to happen, we would not have beaten the Soviets to the Moon. That is just one example to prove Ryan's statement wrong. Another one, the U.S. Government created the Internet. It was our need for a communication system if phone lines were down during a nuclear attack that birthed this great innovation. The second point I would like is Ryan's statement of Free Enterprise is better than Wall Street and the Government intervention. The problem with this Wall Street is our Free Enterprise system. Wall Street is our example of Capitalism working, if your for Free Enterprise you are for the reckless handling of our economy two years ago. If Rep. Ryan was against Wall Street, he should have argued that Wall Street reform benefited Americans, but he did not and rallied for Limited Government. Going to his final argument that Limited Government did not help the American people. Granted even the President made this point in his speech, but Rep. Ryan did not accept the idea of some expansion of government was necessary in protecting the American people. If we had the Limited Government we would not have Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Labor Laws, and Food Safety Laws. The near crash of the Financial system shows a need that government in regulation, and the programs mentioned in the last sentence show that Government involvement is supported by most people. Rep. Ryan wants a small Limited Government, which will contradict his ideas toward stopping special interests like Wall Street.

The problem with the policies that the Republican House will promote is that they are based on shaky truths. Yes, sometimes government bureaucracies hinders innovation, but if an overall tally was done it would probably favor that the U.S. Government helps innovation more than hurts it. Free Enterprise does help people prosper from humble beginnings, but it also helps Corporations have a tighter hold on the market and makes competition more difficult. Limited Government is a nice idea to have a government that can flexible and nimble, but are we ready to remove safety nets and cut our ties to a safe Social Security?

Their is a pro and a con to all three items. We look forward discussion all these items on the blog. It was a joy for me to watch the State of the Union Address and the Rebuttal by Rep. Ryan. I hope we move to a more meaningful conversation and improve this country for the better.

Happy State of the Union Address Day!

2011-01-25T04:00:00.002-06:00

Updated: Its on right now!

JOIN THE LIVE CHAT

VISIT WHITEHOUSE.GOV

Today, the State of the Union Address will be made in Washington D.C. It is as exciting as a high school prom for some Senators. There are many outlets to see the State of the Union, but so far whitehouse.gov seems the most interesting site to watch the State of the Union. I hope to have more interesting information as it gets closer to the speech and some after speech commentary and some opinions of the rebuttals by Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and by Rep. Michelle Bachmann of Minnesota. It is going to be a great day.

Investment is a Code Word for Insane Spending?

2011-01-24T23:24:00.000-06:00

An outline of President Obama's State of the Union Address was presented via an online video today. In that outline today he mentioned investment in Education, Green Technology, and Infrastructure. These are important items. Analysts argue that President Obama's State of the Union Address is going to be a call to arms for investment in these three areas. These are good goals. Investing in these areas will help boloster job growth in this country.

For example, Education will create jobs and train future generations for the work needed to be done in the future. Green Technology will provide jobs that cannot be outsourced to China or India. Jobs for Americans in America providing alternatives to foreign oil and dirty energy. By moving to a Green Technology, we stop damaging the Earth. These innovations in Green Technology cannot happen without a great educational system to teach future generations and challenge them to become better. The last item is Infrastructure. We have not made a revolutionary change on our Infrastructure since the Interstate Highway System during the Eisenhower Administration back in the late 1950s. An update is needed for America to stay competitive in the 21st Century we need to update our roads, bridges, and rail to support the economy of the future. All three of these items go hand and hand. Without an educated workforce creating and installing the green technologies, and the infrastructure to move this technology where it is needed America will not prosper.

Even though it seems like Investing in these three items would be a smart long term investment key Republicans are starting their assault on this plan from both houses. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Fox News Sunday,"anytime they want to spend they call it ‘investment,’ so I think you’ll hear the president talk about investing a lot on Tuesday night. We’ve got a huge spending problem here.” This sentament was also spoken by House Majority Whip Eric Cantor on Meet the Press,"when we hear invest from anyone in Washington, to me that means more spending.” These ideas are coming before the State of the Union is even presented. What Republicans are trying to do with these comments is not allow the idea of investment in programs settle into minds of U.S. citizens, but to make it all about government waste. Republicans came back into power in the House under the idea that they would cut the decifict and create jobs.
The problem with that agenda is to coin an old phrase," you have to spend money to make money." Without investing in America, America cannot rebound. The Great Depression was solved not by the budget cuts of 1937, but by the mass industrialization of the country by World War II. We did not beat the Soviets to the Moon by sitting idle and saving money, but by spending on our rocket programs and providing science scholarships to students to help produce a booming technology economy. America does not slove its problems by cutting and reducing, but by investing and reaping the rewards. Another example of investment is the GI Bill given to soldiers after World War II. Seven billion dollars was given to GIs in educational loans and the return was 48 billion dollars. Almost a return of seven dollars for every dollar spent. That is a great return.

We now have an opportunity now to do what we did back then. We have the need and we need to act upon it. For the United States to stay a major player in the world we need to retool for the 21st century we need investment in Education, Green Technology, and Infrastructure.

Do People Really Want Healthcare Repeal?

2011-01-19T11:35:00.003-06:00

*Author's Note: Due to the shooting in Arizona this post was postponed like the upcoming repeal vote. We think this information is important and this issue needs to be addressed. Our hopes and prayers are with people are recovering from the shooting and the families that lost love ones on Saturday.

It has been the goal of the Republican Party to repeal the Health care bill as soon as they arrived into power. The second bill that the Republican House brought up H.R.2 ,Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act, to repeal the current Health care law. Today is the day that the House will vote on this bill. It will be interesting to see how many Republicans will defect from their parties vote.

According to Mother Jones looking at the January 16, 2011 Washington Post/ABC Poll show at a glance 45% in favor of the bill and 50% not in favor of the bill. The kicker with this is that 13% of the 50% did not think the bill went far enough. In reality that means 58% were in favor while only 37% were not in favor of the bill. Granted the 13% are not happy with the bill, but they are glad that it is there. To show the support of the bill only 1 in 4 people favor repeal of the bill according to AP-GFK Poll. Overall, the Health care law should not be repealed.The benefits of the law are favorable enough that even polls show people favor this law after they know what is in it.

From a budget perspective repeal is horrible. If repeal passes it will cost us 320 billion dollars over ten years, unlike if the bill still stays in effect which would save us 149 billion dollars over 10 years. That is roughly a half of a trillion dollars in difference between repeal and keeping the law. That is a huge difference. We are talking about 1/26th of all U.S. debt difference. Money alone shows that this law should be kept.

Overall, we believe that the Health care law should be kept instead of repealed. The benefits law are far better than its imperfections or the process of creating the law. It is in our best interest to improve this law and move forward instead of backwards.

*Updated The House of Representatives have passed H.R. 2 by the vote of 245 to 189. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has made a statement that H.R. 2 will not be considered in the Senate. Without the Senate voting on the bill it is practically dead. The only way the House Republicans can stop the Health care bill is by defunding it. That battle will come later on. For more information go to CSPAN website

Is the work of the Civil Rights Movement Deteriorating?

2011-01-17T23:41:00.000-06:00

Today is Martin Luther King Day a day of remembrance of the struggles that people endured to provide civil rights to a majority of Americans. Martin Luther King Day was created in 1983 by an act of Congress and signed by Ronald Regan on November 2, 1983. It officially became a Federal Holiday on January 20, 1986. After it became a federal holiday, it took 14 years before every state in the Union officially made it a holiday. Most states in the transition had a holiday of remembrance on this day, but did not officially call it Martin Luther King Day.

The Civil Rights Movement was a successful in eliminating discrimination starting in schools and then moving to human rights and then voting rights promised in the 14th and 15th amendment. These were great strides in American civic culture. Now it is under attack. Many Tea Parties have tried to turn back time. Granted they have not repealed the 14th and 15th amendment, but they are taking small steps to change these rights given to all by the Civil Rights Movement.

One example of this is happening in Wake School District in Raleigh, North Carolina. According to an article in the Washington Post , Wake School District is doing some dramatic engineering to its school selection process. The new Tea Party backed Republican School Board has decided to throw out the diversity standards to the district. What is surprising about this, is that Wake School District is a district that is known their success in integration. Wake School District had the policy of integration to make sure that all students had an equal opportunity. This policy was enacted in 1970 for racial integration and then in 2000 they changed it from racial integration to economic integration.

Now with the change in the school board and some parents concerns, the school board is decided to remove the diversity policy. School Board Chairman Ron Margiotta stated about the changes, "if the result is a handful of high-poverty schools, he said, perhaps that will better serve the most challenged students." The new boards idea is that students should be able to go to the schools closest to their place of residence. What happens is that students will not be integrated. Pockets of public schools in the district will be better off than others. This plan will set up separations of economic status.

Separation of economic status is violates Brown v. Education 1954. A quote from Chief Justice Warren's Majority Opinion that can apply to this situation:

Segregation of white and colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon the colored children. The impact is greater when it has the sanction of the law, for the policy of separating the races is usually interpreted as denoting the inferiority of the negro group. A sense of inferiority affects the motivation of a child to learn. Segregation with the sanction of law, therefore, has a tendency to [retard] the educational and mental development of negro children and to deprive them of some of the benefits they would receive in a racial[ly] integrated school system.

Now white is replaced with rich and colored is replaced with poor this statement would still be true. Many studies have have shown that when students in poverty are consolidated in a school the outcome is not benefitical for the students that attend the school. It is important for intergration for the success of all students.

The importnace of Martin Luther King Day is to remember where we came from and not to repeat it. Moves like this done by the new Wake School Board move us backwards instead of forward. The new civil right movement is not of race, but of economic status. For all of us to be the most productive in society we need to intergrate our schools for the common civic good. On Martin Luther King Day please look at yourself and society work together to make a better country.

P.S.: So everyone remembers what King said on the Mall on Washington here is the I Have a Dream Speech.

Martin Luther King - I Have A Dream @ Yahoo! Video

Representative Gohmert Wants to Take Congress Back to the 1850s

2011-01-13T19:46:00.003-06:00

Yesterday, Representative Louie Gohmert from Texas is introducing a bill that would allow Congressmen to carry firearms on the Senate and House floor. Gohmert argument for this bill is that members of Congress do not feel safe. Gohmert told Politico that,"[He knew] friends that walk home from the Capitol. There’s no security for us.” His solution to this problem is to allow members to be armed. This does not seem like a good idea, because of the history of firearms on the floors of Congress.

Firearms and Congress historically do not mix well. The best period of history to look at this mixture is between 1830 and 1850s. According to Joanne Freeman in her New York Times article When Congress Was Armed And Dangerous that violence was normal on the floors of Congress at this time. It was found that if Representatives wanted to gain the upper hand in a debate a weapon was a valuable tool. For example Freeman gives is stories about Representatives threatening each other if angered by a fellow Representatives statement. This attitude slowly came to a stop when telegraph was invented and when Civil War started. Violence was toned down and their were a few fist fights during the Civil Rights Era. After that Congress was more behaved.

Now according to Think Progress the reasoning for Gomhert's bill is that he fears that Congress' civility will deteriorate and duels will come back. This seems like flawed logic. Looking at Freeman's article we see that weapons did not deter violence, but increased it. Congressmen used weapons to intimidate fellow Congressmen. Weapons should not be on the floor of Congress. If we allow this to happen we are reverting back to the 1850s. With the violent rhetoric used by some members of Congress, giving them the ability to have a weapon of any kind on the floor is dangerous and not needed.

We as a nation need to be civil towards each other. When we form a society, we trust each other to act in accordance to the ideas of law created by that society. When these laws are broken, we break the trust of society. As a society we make these laws to protect society against acts of violence. We should not as a society revert back to violence or threatening themes to get what we want. By allowing Representatives of Congress to have firearms, we will revert back to a Congress of the 1850s. We suggest opposition to any law or rule that will decrease the civility of any society.

Updated: Media Matters has an interview of Representative Gohmert with Fox and Friends. Gohmert argued that, "guns are the great equalizer." Here is the interview below.

Six Dead and Eighteen Shot at Arizona Democratic Congresswomen's Cracker Barrel

2011-01-09T01:04:00.000-06:00

Today at about 10 a.m. Mountain Time in a North Tucson Safeway during Representative Gifford's Cracker barrel a gunman, Jared Loughner of Tucson, open fire on the Giffords and the crowd. In Loughner's shooting spree he killed 6 people including Federal Judge John Roll, and 18 people were wounded including Representative Giffords. Most of the wounded are in critical condition, but hopefully they will all recover.

Now many areas of the web both sides are trying to pin the shooting on different political identities. The more Liberal blogs like Talking Points Memo have pointed out to the web and rhetoric of the shooter matches some of the rhetoric of the Tea Party. While some Conservative blogs like Red State argue that their rhetoric had nothing to do with this and that we will find out that the shooter was a leftist radical. Both sides are trying to use this as a smear on the other side, but also giving their condolences. It is sad in America today that each side uses a tragic incident like this as political leverage against the other side.

Outlets like Fox News and Tea Party pundits like Sara Palin, Michelle Bachmann, and Glenn Beck are the easiest to blame in this situation because their rhetoric is often includes violent language that excites people. They are not to blame for this shooting. All current signs show that they did not influence the young man that committed this crime. The problem though it has been the aim of Conservative pundits to use violent language in exciting their base. If you go to a Tea Party or watch Fox News you will see throughout the day a reference of revolutionary violence either against the 111th Congress or the Presidential administration. Television leaders like Sara Palin, Michelle Bachmann, and Glenn Beck help stoke the conspiracy theories by playing them out or creating new ones. When people believe in conspiracy theories, they start to morph fiction into reality.

Now Liberals are not out of the woods on this one yet. The shooters was not a Tea Party member and had a broad reading list. The overall theme of the list was anti-government not anti-Democrat or anti-President Obama. Talking Points Memo interviewed the Tucson Tea Party and their spokesperson Allyson Miller, said,"she knows the members of her tea party, who she called "reasonable individuals" closer to her age of 55 than the suspected shooter's 22." Yes the Tea Party's average age according to a February 2010 CNN Poll is closer to 55 than 22, but that does not mean the rhetoric only stays with people around the age of 55. That is the problem today.

The rhetoric used by Politicians, Pundits, and Everyday people is to the extreme. We as Americans now do not hash our differences out now at a coffee table or at a cafe, but with loud speakers and weird signs. Both sides have started an arms race in who can go to the furthest extreme and have the most followers. This is madness. John Stewart was correct in having his Rally to Restore Sanity. By doing that he showed that their are sane people, and they want a voice in government. For us to survive as a country we need to stop the insane rhetoric and to talk to each other as human beings. We need not to call names, but buy each other coffee. If we do that we can bring back civil discourse back to the United States and accomplish something. If we do not, we could see more of these tragic events. My suggestion to all of you is to by your political opposite a cup of coffee and find some common ground.

House Republican Promises can be Tracked

2011-01-05T18:39:00.000-06:00

Now that the Republicans have control of the House of Representative, it should be our job to know their agenda and how they are going to implement it. Now instead of reading the Pledge to America, we have found all fifty promises on on PolitiFact.com from the St. Petersburg Times. I hope you all look at this link and then call your congressional representative if you agree or disagree with the Republicans plan. It should be an interesting two years. Enjoy!

Death of Bees:An Obvious Sign of Global Warming and the Over Use of Pesticides?

2011-01-04T19:19:00.000-06:00

Yesterday The Guardian reported that a study from the University of Illinois that found out that the bee population in the United States dropped 96%. This is not shocking back in 2006 scientists started finding out about colony-collapse disorder. Colony-collapse disorder happens when the bees contract a virus and then die suddenly. This shocked many scientists, but what colony-collapse disorder would hurt the most is the U.S. farming industry which uses bees for pollination 90% of all crops. The economic impact of these crops not being produced would cause a loss of 15 billion dollars in the U.S. farm industry.

According to the University of Illinois study they argue that two reasons why bees are dying off lack of genetic diversity and pesticides. The lack of genetic diversity comes from the inability of bees to move from hive to hive, or not being able to start new hives. As most high school biology classes teach their students, lack of diversity hurts a species population. When species diversity is non-existent, genetic mutations happens and usually these mutations have negative consequences to that species.

In addition to lack of genetic diversity the increased use of pesticides by agricultural industries and the public sector exploit this problem and cause an even faster decline in the bee population. Since bees are unable to adapt to the new climate reality and their range is limited, pesticides are affecting bees more. This is not good because most agricultural seeds are developed to resist most herbicides and pesticides, but the bees have not adapted and have became victims.

What we can do to help the bees are very obvious. If we cut our CO2 output, we can help the bees. By cutting our CO2 output slows the climate change and will give the bees a fighting chance. Another item that can be done is not use pesticides on your yards. There are natural pesticide alternatives that can be used that would have the same effect as the chemicals pesticides, but they would better for the environment. Another way to help the bees is to have more bee habitat. By making a bee habitat will allow the bees to move around, will allow them to intermingle with the other bee populations in the area. It is important that we will make sure this insect survives.

Overall, climate change and pesticides affect bees. The increase of CO2 in the climate with the warming temperatures have caused the decrease of the bee population. With the heavy use of pesticides in the United States, has not helped the bees survive. We could be seeing the effects mentioned in Rachel Carlson's Silent Spring. We need to work together to make sure that the bees will not become extinct.

New Year New Technology for the Blog!

2011-01-01T00:00:00.002-06:00

For some of our regular readers will see changes in the Common Civic Good. We have added another writer to the blog, we are now have a facebook page Common Civic Good, and we have opened up a Twitter account to be more mobile and to highlight some of our new stories. The goal of this is to allow our articles to reach the most people we possibly can. By using this technology we hope that we can move information faster and create connections with our audience to make the blog better.

If you have any ideas that you would like to see the blog do or any story ideas please tell us. We would love comments and we hope next year we will have more social interaction.

Thank you for reading and have a Happy New Year from the Common Civic Good.

Sloppy Oversite Hurts the Teaching of U.S. History in Virginia

2010-12-30T19:17:00.000-06:00

Talking Points Memo and the Washington Post covered a story today about how the elementary history textbook Our America had many errors in it and according to some of the reviewers should be removed immediately from students. Some of these issues involve African Americans fighting for the South during the civil war, the United States entered World War I in 1916, and the first Europeans to explore the continent wore full suits of armor. All of these items are untrue. One historian, Mary Miley Theobald quoted in the Washington Post, "Any literate person could have opened that book and immediately found a mistake."

Now a question that needed to be asked is how did these textbooks get into the hands of Virginia school children? In Virginia all text books have to go through a set of standards called Standards of Learning. The Standards of Learning are a set of standards indented to give students a full academic experience. These standards are good I have read all of the Third Grade History and Social Science Standards and United States History to 1865 and they are legitimate. The United States History to 1865 standards reads like a college syllabus. So we can conclude that the standards did not create the problem.

The main problem that occurred came from the elementary textbooks to fulfill the Third Grade History and Social Science Standards. As the Washington Post article points out that all elementary school books are reviewed by elementary school teachers before entering into the class room. With some of the worst errors such as African Americans fighting for the South should have been spotted by the review committee or someone in the Virginia Department of Education. I just read the Wikiapedia article on African Americans in the Civil War and their article stated African Americans did not fight for the South. Simple fact checking should have found that error. The Virginia Department of Education should have had a historian of some degree, a Graduate TA, RA, a Professor, or a member of the Virginia Historical Society, double check the books. They did not and now some Virginia schools are stuck with an inadequate textbook.

Now though we cannot place all the blame on the Virginia Department of Education or the elementary teachers that reviewed the book. The publisher should also have to take the blame Five Ponds Press out of Weston Conn. They are the ones who published the textbooks in question. There are many flaws in their production of the material. A historian did not write the textbooks a random author with no historical authority wrote them. The book was not vetted by an independent historian validating that the text was factual and properly covered the material. An independent historian should have reviewed the text for quality and accuracy. If that did happen, most of these mistakes would have been caught.
As a historian having the facts is a important part of understanding history. Without those false narratives can be created and dueling views of the world can be promoted. These ideas can be taken to the extreme and create an alternate view of reality and create hate or misunderstanding that can be used to move an agenda. When history is used to move an agenda, it is more like propaganda than history. It is important for all parties in the production of any historical textbooks to go through them like a fine comb to find all the inaccurate claims. If everyone works hard together, we as a society can produce texts that we can be proud of and teach our children an accurate version of history.

DADT Repeals Passed in the Senate 65-31

2010-12-18T16:06:00.000-06:00

At 3 P.M. EST today the Senate passed the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell by a vote 65-31. Senator John Ensign from Nevada and Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina. This was increase of two Republican votes from the cloture vote. Now the bill will go to President Obama for his signature, which will happen since it was part Obama's goals told during his 2010 State of the Union. Below is the Democrat response to this historic day.

DADT Passes Major Senate Hurdle Thanks to Six Republicans

2010-12-18T12:44:00.000-06:00

Today the Don't Ask Don't Tell leaped over the final major hurdle to passage. It passed a cloture vote today with a 63 to 33 in favor of moving the bill to vote. Six Republicans Scott Brown (R-MA), Susan Collins (R-ME), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), George Voinovich (R-OH), Mark Kirk (R-IL), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) voted in favor of the bill. This allows the bill to have an up or down vote. The possible vote will happen as early as 3pm today. After that it goes to the President for his signature, and after his signature he will implement the repeal. This is a great day to be an American.

Below is a link to CSPAN-2 so if anyone is interested they can watch the Senate proceedings.

Watch the Debate on CSPAN-2

A Conservative Activist Judge Strikes at Healthcare Reform

2010-12-15T21:21:00.000-06:00

On Monday Judge Henry Hudson ruled in favor of Virginia's Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli by agreeing that the Individual Mandate was Unconstitutional. This is an interesting ruling since two other judges have already dismissed the claims. His argument was that the Individual Mandate went passed what was intended in the Commerce Clause. This ruling is pretty radical on all fronts. Not even conservative lawyer thought it was possible for this denial. George Washington University Law Professor Orin Kerr from the Volokh Conspiracy, claims that, "Given that existing Supreme Court caselaw gives the federal government a fairly straightforward argument in support of the mandate under the Necessary and Proper clause, Judge Hudson’s error leads him to assume away as a matter of “logic” what is the major question in the case." The statement by Kerr argues that with prior caselaw argues that if the Commerce Clause does not cover a law, that the Necessary and Proper Clause usually covers most laws of that magnitude.

Now the question that should be asked if a Conservative Lawyer like Kerr argued that Hudson made a mistake in his ruling, why did Hudson make this ruling? Talking Points Memo via Gawker found information that Hudson had ties to Campaign Solutions (a Conservative Public Relations Firm) that helped Congressional Republicans fight the Healthcare bill. Notable Congressional Republicans that used Campaign Solutions were future House Speaker John Boehner, Michelle Bachmann, John McCain, and Virginia's Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. John Boehner and Michelle Bachmann were extremely against the Healthcare bill, and Ken Cuccinelli from the state side has been leading a crusade against the Healthcare bill. Overall Hudson was profiting from the idea of being against the Healthcare bill.

Now here comes the legal problem that arises from Hudson's ruling. We are not going to get into the specifics of the Commerce Clause or the Necessary and Proper Clause, because that is extremely higher than our pay grade, but we will look at if Judge Hudson should have recused himself from this case. Reason's for recusing yourself from a case mainly are based if it is thought that the judge may show impropriety to a certain issue. What sort of impropriety should you avoid? The Federal Judicial Center has a list of the five basic canons that every judge should abide by. They are listed below.
The Code of Conduct for Judicial Employees provides as follows:

Canon 1: A judicial employee should uphold the integrity and independence of the judiciary and of the judicial employee’s office.

Canon 2: A judicial employee should avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in all activities.

Canon 3: A judicial employee should adhere to appropriate standards in performing the duties of the office.

Canon 4: In engaging in outside activities, a judicial employee should avoid the risk of conflict with official duties, should avoid the appearance of impropriety, and should comply with disclosure requirements.

Canon 5: A judicial employee should refrain from inappropriate political activity

From my reading of the Canons, I can tell there are three Canon's that Judge Hudson broke. It would be Canon 2, Canon 4, and Canon 5. Canon 2 was broken by Hudson when he took a case knowing that he had financial ties to the outcome of this case. Canon 4 was broken when he received his share of the profits from Campaign Solutions, a PR firm helping Republicans to stop healthcare reform, and did not see that as a conflict of interest and did not recuse himself from the case. Canon 5 is more difficult to argue, but if you look at a line taken from Judge Hudson's memoir and quoted in the Virginia Lawyer Weekly December 3, 2007 issue you find the evidence to support this claim. Hudson is quoted in saying,

“Campaigning for a federal judgeship is almost as challenging as running for political office,” he writes. “Rather than court voters, aspirants solicit endorsements from influential political activists with close ties to the senators, particularly the activists who raise the big money.

“That is where 20 years of active service to the Republican party, and helping in the various campaigns of each senator, paid dividends and gave me the edge[.]”

This a clear argument that Hudson thinks being a judge is just as important of a job dictating legislative policy similar to a Congressional Representative. That train of thought breaks Canon 5.

Overall, Judge Hudson overstepped his bounds as a judge. He did not give an impartial ruling, or recuse himself from the case because of the huge conflict of interest he had with the case. Also, he did not take into account of the other rulings by the other Federal judges who already ruled against the plaintiffs, which upheld the current healthcare law. To say the actions by Judge Hudson were based on legal scholarship is wrong when some of the best conservative legal minds disagreed with him. Only one logical conclusion can be made that his ruling was a pure political ruling. Judge Hudson did not look at past caselaw, but decided to blaze a new trail with his legal decision.

Bernie Sanders the One Man Filibuster

2010-12-10T16:47:00.001-06:00

Today Independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is filibustering the Obama Tax Compromise on the floor of the Senate today. This is the exciting to see an actual filibuster and not a threat of a filibuster. I hope this challenge by Senator Sanders wakes up the American People and Congress to not pass this Compromise. For your enjoyment here is the link.

http://www.c-span.org/Watch/C-SPAN2.aspx/

Updated
Senator Sanders filibuster lasted 8 1/2 hours. He ended it at about 6:30 EST. I am still looking for a video of the whole thing, but here are the first twelve minutes of it from his website.

We at the Common Civic Good would like to personally thank Bernie Sanders the Senator from Vermont for fighting for the working people of America.

Below here are the links to Senator Sanders website and his Youtube page.

http://sanders.senate.gov/
http://www.youtube.com/user/SenatorSanders

Congress in Defiance: Congressional Democrats and Republicans Saying No to the Obama Tax Plan

2010-12-08T12:19:00.000-06:00

Two days ago, the Obama Administration presented a bipartisan plan to stop the gridlock on the Bush-era Tax Cuts and created a tax compromise with Congressional Republicans. This compromise; would extend all of the Bush-era Tax Cuts for all income levels for two years, index the alternative minimum tax for inflation, drop the estate tax down from 45 percent to 35 percent on all income above five million dollars, an extension of Unemployment Benefits for all that apply, a payroll tax holiday of 2 percent, an extension of all tax credits, would allow businesses to write off their capital improvements, and also allow business to keep a research and development tax credit. Overall, with this plan, everyone wins, but this does not help the country to become more fiscally responsible, help the people in the greatest need.

The cost of this plan would be 990 billion dollars. That is 171 billion more than the Stimulus spending in back in 2009. Republicans back then and during the 2010 general election argued that the Stimulus spending was a waste of taxpayer money. In article published in August of this year at the Brookings Institute Senior Fellow Gary Burtless argued, "there are many indications that these policies have been successful in achieving
their intended goals." The tax compromise though, does not look like a policy that will help all Americans.

Today in the Huffington Post Jason Linkins reports that wage earners that make between 20,000 and 40,000 dollars will see an increase in their taxes due to the reduction of available tax credits for that income bracket. While the richest people get the greatest benefit. For example, the richest Americans will benefit from the tax cut, the estate tax, and benefit from the payroll tax holiday. Granted the poorer Americans will receive the payroll tax holiday, but their benefit from the tax holiday is smaller than the lost tax credits.

Overall, the Obama Tax Compromise should not be passed. Obama administration made the best compromise possible with Congressional Republicans, but the problem is that the rich get richer while the poor become the pawns for the powerful. Obama promised during the 2008 election that he would not extend the Bush-era Tax Cuts for the wealthiest. This compromise breaks that promise and should not be supported by Congressional Democrats.

It would be for the best for Congress to reject this plan, because what the nation will give up will hurt us in the end. Example this plan increases the deficit by 990 billion dollars over two years. This plan is supported by Republican leadership, which argued that by electing them they would help cut the deficit. This plan does not do that. If Republicans are serious about deficit reduction, they need to vote against the plan.

Compromise is a great item and should have been used more often during the 111th Congress. Unfortunately, though, this is not one of those times. A new plan needs to put on the drawing board that limits the impact on the deficit, but does the greatest Common Civic Good.

House Democrats Finally Showing Some Backbone

2010-12-01T20:55:00.000-06:00

Today the leadership of the House Democrats announced that they will proceed with a vote on extending the Bush-era tax cuts for wage earners that make less than 250,000 dollars. This is a major step forward made by the Democrats. Instead allowing the cuts to expire or having the Republicans bully them into extending the cuts for all wage earners, they finally showed some backbone. They are following through with the President's promise to only extend the cuts to people making 250,000 dollars of less.

The problem that arises from this move by the House Democrats is that Republican Minority Mitch McConnell (Ky) stated that that Republicans in the Senate will not take up any legislation unless all of the Bush-era tax cuts are extended for all wage earners. This means that the tax cut extension to the middle class will be delayed or will possibly not get passed. With the Senate bogged down with the possible incoming battle on who will have their tax rate extended, the outlook of other possible legislation passing through the Senate during lame duck session is minimal. The problem with this is that many things that the American people want are stuck in the Senate.

For success in the lame duck session both houses of Congress need to go to work and stop playing political games. Political games will not lead to success in passing any legislation that will help the American people. Overall, Senate Republicans need to learn that they need to compromise instead of playing hard ball.

Texas Board of Education Makes another Controversial Move in its State's Social Studies Curriculum

2010-09-24T22:47:00.000-05:00

Today by a 7-6 vote, the Texas Board of Education voted to pass a resolution that stated that the Texas Board of Education would not purchase any social studies textbooks that would give more Islam more space in the textbooks than Christianity. Their move to do this came from the idea that most social studies textbooks have a Pro-Islam slant and an Anti- Christian slant. In a Dallas Morning News Op-Ed, Southern Methodist University Professor Mark Chancey wrote,

[The Resolution in] Its first line complains that "pro-Islamic/anti-Christian bias has tainted some past Texas Social Studies textbooks." It later objects that "pro-Islamic/anti-Christian half-truths, selective disinformation, and false editorial stereotypes still roil some Social Studies textbooks nationwide." In its rhetoric, the terms "pro-Islamic" and "anti-Christian" go hand in hand; whatever is "pro-Islamic" is by definition "anti-Christian."

Pitting religions against each other is not good especially in the political climate that we are in today. The idea that one religion is taking priority over another is bad, but in the way that the Texas Board of Education is doing it is to raise fear and create hate to another religion. This idea that it is right to use education as a religious battleground is unfair to the students of Texas and the students of the United States. By this resolution by the board will change textbooks because Texas is the second largest market for textbooks. U.S. students will already have to suffer to the changes made to the Social Studies Curriculum in March, to see the changes check out Texas Board of Education New Amendments to the Social Science Curriculum Give it a Conservative Spin, now with this change the national Social Studies curriculum will change for all Americans.
We as Americans have to realize that, not all history portrays Americans beliefs and ideals in the positive light. Our history is checkered with massacres and bad decisions that have shaped the country that we live in today. For example of this 50 years ago students were taught that what happen at Wounded Knee in 1890 was a battle between the Sioux people and the U.S. Army, and today most students learned that it was a massacre of the Sioux people by the U.S. Army. Yes, it does not paint the U.S. Army in a positive light, but it is the truth and the truth hurts some times. We cannot rewrite history to the way we want it because it makes us feel good, because we lose the teachable lesson that history provides us to become a better society. To put this full circle the Texas Board of Education can rewrite history and depict it on how they feel it should be taught, but that teaching of history will never be the truth and never can be accepted as the truth.

According to the New Census Numbers ONE out of SEVEN people live in Poverty

2010-09-16T23:25:00.000-05:00

The Census Bureau came out with its 2009 numbers on poverty. In their research, 14.3 percent Americans are in poverty. The number increased from 13.2 percent from 2008. This is the largest amount of Americans below the poverty line since 1959. The biggest increase came in a racial demographic Hispanic population. This is not good for America.
Two reasons this is not good for America. Even though businesses are recovering, American citizens are not feeling the recovery yet. Second the increase of Hispanics into poverty. I will dissect these two groups in the following paragraph.
American businesses are recovering the stock market has rebounded from its low of 7,029 points in January of 2009 and has increased 3500 points now in September of 2010. Most businesses have recovered and most of the TARP money has been paid back to US Government. Our financial sector is slowly recovering, and now the biggest problem for the American economy is that the working class has not recovered. These numbers show that the working class has not recovered like businesses. Granted most small businesses are not in shape to survive another collapse, but its important to realize if businesses are going to survive the standard of living of Americans needs to improve.
The second reason the increase of Hispanics into poverty is also troubling. It is known that the Hispanic population is the largest growing population in the United States. The increase of Hispanics into the US population, but their inability to get into the middle class will affect America. With the largest growing group having the most difficultly becoming middle class, the need to help this group is very important. Now how to help this group is the more complex problem that needs to be solved. I will tackle this in a later post.
It is important overall to realize that to solve our problems we need to work together.

Republicans Stall Unemployment Vote in the Senate and 2.5 MILLION people wait for 30 Hours

2010-07-21T14:38:00.000-05:00

Yesterday the Senate voted 60-40 for cloture to move forward on passing an extension. This finally passed on the fourth time. Two Republicans from Maine Senator Snowe and Collins voted with the Democrat majority. Now it will go up to a vote in the full Senate. The only procedural method that the Republicans have to slow the vote is to use all 30 hours for debate.
Republicans biggest reason for opposition is the cost of 34 billion dollars. They argued that this bill would increase the deficit. Their solution to help employment is to keep the Bush Tax Cuts. They think that this would help spur job growth.
Unfortunately for the Republicans, it is statistically shown for every dollar given out in unemployment benefits the economy gets $1.62 back. For a tax cut, a dollar given out 30 cents is spent. If you look at this, 34 billion dollars turns into 55 billion dollars. That is a 20 billion dollars injected into the economy, which is almost 2/3 the amount Congress has allocated.
These benefits are needed for Americans to hold on until the economy comes back up.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/21/unemployment-extension-re_n_654083.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/20/unemployment-extension-bi_n_652805.html

Happy Memorial Day

2010-05-31T21:43:00.000-05:00

Today was Memorial Day. A day of remembrance of fallen soldiers and veterans. These soldiers, sailors, and airmen risked their lives in the defense of our freedom. We should remember these people throughout the year.

Arizona Treads on American Rights by Giving Police the Right to Detain Americans

2010-04-25T18:44:00.000-05:00

On Friday Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed into law Arizona Senate Bill 1070. This bill will allow police to stop anyone that looks like an illegal immigrant and ask for their residency papers. If the stopped individual is unable to show their papers they can be detained. The horrible thing is if they are actually a citizen and did not have their papers they are given a 500 dollar fine and 6 months in jail.There is no way to identify illegal immigrant. As most people know illegal immigrants come from all parts of the world and not just Mexico. This is a bill will discriminate Hispanics and other peoples of color.

Immigrants built this nation into what it is today. Naivest movements come and go, but what is scary about this movement is that a state government is supporting it. The bill allows a great expansion of state power through law enforcement. The ability given to police in Arizona now can be compared with power given to police in the Soviet Union and Nazi German. I know these are radical examples, but this is how bad this law can get if something is not done. What needs to be done to counteract this law is support of its repeal.

This law does not help the common good of the American people. The law is direct discrimination of American citizens. There are better ways to fix the immigration system than discriminating against a group. It important that people express their displeasure, because complacency will allow this to happen in more areas.

Fact Sheet for S.B. 1070
Arizona S.B. 1070
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20100419/us-immigration-enforcement/
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/04/25/us/AP-US-Immigration-Enforcement.html?_r=1

Happy Earth Day

2010-04-22T13:47:00.000-05:00

Today is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. It is important today that a conversation is started on sustainability and what we as a nation could do to help. Doing things to help out are not difficult. Simple things like recycling, buying reusable products, and using more efficient products also can make a big difference. For example buying four 13 watt CFL bulbs would equal a regular 60 watt light bulb. Technically four rooms could be lit for the price of one. Another item using reusable shopping bags also help dramatically. By using those bags can cut the amount of plastic used in the environment. Along the same lines carry your own water in a reusable water bottle. This will cut the amount of plastic used, save water, and save you money. On average 60oz of water are used to make a 20oz bottled water bottle. This is horrible.
If we all work together we can save the world. The important thing to remember if we work for the common civic good we will all suceed.

Throwing Bricks Through Windows Will Raise Your Taxes

2010-03-28T21:07:00.000-05:00

Some protesters of health care threw bricks through windows after the legislation was signed into law. Arguments made by most of the protesters that their taxes would be raised and they did not support the health care bill. It was counter productive to vandalize Congressional offices and threaten Congressmen. The cost incurred for the additional protection and fixing the vandalized property would be paid by the U.S. government. The U.S. government gains their revenue from taxes, therefore the vandalism and threats have raised taxes.

Protests are great items to help express points of views. The problem is when people take their protests to the extremes hurt their cause. It is not benefitical for the country. We the people need to have a civil discussion with each other to have better understanding of views. If people do not do this and still portray their hate the country progress can not be made.

Health Care Passes

2010-03-21T22:38:00.000-05:00

Tonight Americans have witnessed one of the biggest legislative packages passed since the Medcaid Act of 1965 part of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society. Reform that has been elusive for 100 years is now into law. This is a great moment for democracy and people that want affordable health care. The plan is not perfect, but a great start. Hopefully in the near future reforms can be made to improve the reform. As of now Americans are gaining freedoms that some have never had in thier lifetime. This is a great time to be an American.

Texas Board of Education New Amendments to the Social Science Curriculum Give it a Conservative Spin

2010-03-13T19:41:00.000-06:00

Friday according to Talking Points Memo the Texas Board of Education voted 10-5 to change their social science curriculum to include a variety of Conservative points. The vote was along party lines some outlets like Fox News have made the argument that this is a war to save our children from evil liberal policies. Other outlets are arguing that what Texas decides shapes the school curriculum for the entire nation.

Major alternations according to the New York Times include works Thomas Jefferson will be limited in talking about the Constitution because he was a strong supporter for the separation between church and state and considered to be a major person in the Enlightenment. He will be replaced with by religious thinker John Calvin the founder of Calvinism. This only pertains to World History. Another amendment that is out there is the inclusion of Conservative ideals like Newt Gingrich's "Contract with America," Moral Majority, and the National Rifle Association. Other items lessen with these amendments are the great tragedy of Japanese Internment Camps, the Civil Rights movement will also show the downfalls that it brought to society, and the importance of McCarthyism in the fight against Communism.

The view of history projected by the Texas Board of Education is biased and does not serve a purpose of educating students, but promoted an agenda through the second largest buyer of textbooks. Interesting facts none of the board members are Historians. They do not have any formal training in the subject matter that they are changing. A quote from Mary Helena Berlanga a board member commenting on the amendments, “They are going overboard, they are not experts, they are not historians,” she said. “They are rewriting history, not only of Texas but of the United States and the world.”

This is an outrage 10 people are holding the history curriculum hostage for their personal beliefs instead of the common good. They are angry that beliefs that they hold have not been criticized by historians and want revenge by altering the textbook for a more favorable view of history. What they are doing is wrong. History is the way society looks at the past and critiques what went right and what went wrong. By top loading history to benefit one side does not help that side’s argument. History is free flowing and the truth will come out. Unless Texas changes their college, history curriculum the true idea of history will be told. It is impossible to change history to your liking what the Texas Education Board fails to realize that will history teachers actually teach the lessons that they propose? What happens when history educators rebel? This attempt by the Republican 10 to alter history textbooks to alter history will not work and will fail.

Resistance to Student Loan Overhaul will Push it to Pass the Senate in Reconcilliation

2010-03-12T19:33:00.000-06:00

The plan presented by the President and supported by Arne Duncun to overhaul the student loan industry by cutting out the middleman is facing resistance in the Senate. Arguments for opposition of this bill are saying that 12,000 jobs will be lost if the funding structure changes. That means possble savings of 87 billion dollars over 10 years will be lost to protect 12,000 jobs.

For public information these are not jobs held by low paid wage earners, but people that make between 400,000 and 700,000 dollars. Their companies' greed is slowing this reform. Sallie Mae has increased its lobbying efforts from 3.2 million in 2008 to 3.8 million in 2009. These companies know that this is easy money for them. It is important to call your Senators and tell them to vote for financial aid reform.

The Importance of Education to the United States

2010-03-04T23:41:00.000-06:00

Today students around the United States protested budget cuts and tuition hikes by their states. States are finding that their solution for their budget problems by implementing the budget cuts tuition hikes. According to the Huffington Post Texas Governor Rick Perry is cutting 29 million dollars from the Texas budget from their department of education. Another example in California at UC Berkeley massive protests against 30 percent tuition increases. Tuition there has increased twice in two years at unprecedented levels. To show their solidarity schools across the United States have staged protests and teach ins. For more information go to Defend Education, they have been important organizer for this movement.

The problem today with the budget cuts and tuition hikes is that the quality of education in this country is getting worse not better. A four year degree does not hold the same value as it did 30 years ago. Colleges today do not have the same value. It is important for everyone to gain a good education, but College is not the perfect fit for everyone. The idea that modern society puts on its youth that the only way for people to prosper is through college is false. Technical schools and the military are honorable career paths for students to follow. It is important to realize that all students are not one size fits all.

This leads us back to our original path the inability of state governments to provide adequate education at affordable prices without cutting quality. If we want to be the best in the world in all aspects of global dominance we need to provide the funding to our education systems so future generations can maintain our strides in improving technology and learning. There is not a short cut of being innovative or great. To be the best time and effort are needed. For our country and our states that means funding for students at all levels. From elementary, middle school, high school, community college, college and graduate work funding should not be taken away, but increased to propel learning and our country forward.

If we do not do this we will fall behind. Our educational system shapes our leaders of tomorrow and if we do not fund it adequately or let it be affordable for all students we will fall behind. It is in our common civic good that we as a nation protest to our state and national government about the importance of education.

Bunning Balks in Senate's Attempt to Extend COBRA

2010-02-27T16:23:00.001-06:00

Thursday night Senator Jim Bunning from Kentucky held a three-hour filibuster on the measure that would extend COBRA benefits to the many unemployed people. Instead of letting it go to a vote, Bunning led a one-man filibuster against the needed funding for the bill. When asked by some Democrats to allow the COBRA bill to go to a vote. Bunning’s answer was that he did not give a sh*t about the bill.

This is a prime example how Washington is broken and that leadership of the Republican Party cannot control their members. About one year ago Representative Joe Wilson yelled at the President "You Lie," which was blatant disrespect to the Presidency. The inability for the Republican Party to control their members casts a bad light on them and this country.

To put Bunning’s filibuster in terms of his old profession baseball would be like a pitcher coming into the seventh inning for a relief appearance. That the pitcher’s side had the lead, but knows that they are going to lose and calls for the catcher for a mound visit. Instead of resuming the game, they have a talk until the Umpire has to call the game off because it is no longer safe to play and awards the stalling team the win. The fans feel cheated by a selfish action by the pitcher to secure victory. As the people file out of the game two things happen, distrust with the team on the mound and distrust in the league's ability to conduct itself in a meaningful way. Any sports league would be bankrupt if this tactic could work, but in the representative bodies in Washington it is fair game.

It is important for all of us to call our representative and work on items that move ideas forward instead of stalling items for personal and political gain.

Representative Boehner is Upset with Obama's Healthcare Proposals

2010-02-24T01:31:00.000-06:00

Hopefully everyone knows by now that President Barrack Obama is having a healthcare summit with both political parties to come with a compromise on some healthcare measures. This will allow bipartisan support to healthcare legislation. Prior to the meeting he has released an 11 page document stating the proposals that he wants to see in the final legislation. Today, House Minority Leader John Boehner complained that Obama's proposal was too small at 11 pages. To put this in perspective, the Republican plan that posted by Minority Whip Eric Cantor is only one page. In the past Boehner complained that the House bill was too long. Now in a reverse fashion he says Obama's proposal is too small. The newscycles only pick up on Boehner's detesting of Obama's proposals instead of what is in the proposal.

Now the problem that might occur is political positioning instead of bipartisan discussion. Granted, differing of views is important to the political process, but compromise is also important. Understanding the othersides view on the manner is very important. In this process of healthcare debate we have seen the Democrats bend over backward to appease the Republicans. Now it is time for the Republicans to bend for the Democrats. Both parties are walking into a meeting and should lookout for their constituents not their political party. This summit will be a great way to show that Congress is not broken.

Scott Brown Does Not Tow Party Line

2010-02-23T11:26:00.000-06:00

Yesterday Scott Brown voted in favor for clouture for the Senate jobs bill. This is a big deal because the Republican Party leadership portrayed him as a roadblock to the Senate Democrat adgenda. The measure passed 62-30. Other Republican Senators that came over were: Snowe and Collins from Maine, Bond from Missouri, and Voinovich from Ohio. Bond and Voinovich are retiring after this session. It is good that people are willing to cross party lines to work for Americans and the common civic good than their parties interest. Hopefully, we will see more of this in the comming months.

Why Government is Broken

2010-02-21T19:50:00.000-06:00

All the rage on today's Sundays Talk Shows dealt with the public's perception of why Washington is broken. Republican representatives argue that it is the Democrats tactics via the administration and Congressional leadership as the main reason why Washington's is failing, while the Democrats argue it is the inflexibility of the Republicans that do not allow the movement of governmental policy. To their credit, they are both right and because they are both right we as a nation lose.

With the Republican blaming the Democrats for the failings and the sluggishness of Washington politics argue that the Democrats have full control of both branches of Congress and do not care about Republican ideas or amendments. Granted, this is true that Democrats do not need the Republicans blessing to pass many forms of legislation. The problem that the Republicans have is not that they disagree with the Obama administration's view on items, but actually put out legislation that is successful make a good counter argument. Example in November, the House Republicans put out a health care bill on their ideas of healthcare reform. When the Congressional Budget Office scored the bill, it said that it would only cover 3 million Americans instead of 36 million that the Democrats proposed.

That leaves Republicans with their favorite tactic deny that the Democrats have done anything and call them names. If this is not true an examples of Republicans failings of actually debating policy is when they tell the public about "death panels" and "killing grandma". Both of these items are not true, but they can stir emotions of people that do not have favorable views of Democrats and cause them to protest. Another example is claiming the stimulus package did not work, but request funds for their home state. Granted, the argument that if the money is being spent that all states should have a piece is valid. In reality though, they get to position themselves in a politically favorable view and get to receive funding at the same time.

Now the Democrats blame the Republicans as the Party of "No". This is evident by their non willingness to go along with any of the Democrat's major bills such as Healthcare and the Stimulus. The Democrats had an interesting position by having filibuster proof houses of Congress. By having this it allowed them the option to pass anything, but infighting and a strong Republican resistance caused the biggest problems. To help the Democrats out would be a branch of bipartisanship to the Republicans, but the problem with that is that the Republicans do not want to do anything that might help a Democratic agenda.

The problem going with bipartisanship is that people are not going to like the change. Liberal Democrats do not like the catering to the Republicans and Republicans do not like the catering to the Liberal Democrats. This leaves a problem with the Democrats in control of the Congress. If they lean too far toward the Republicans, their base is angry, and if they stay with their base the Republicans argue that they are too partisan. The best measure for the Democrats would be to go with what they can get for the American public.

The gridlock will continue if the political policies are still enacted. We have lost our political middle. The need to have moderates that are willing to work across the aisle is the only solution. For both parties if moderates are willing to broker a deal between both sides comprehensive legislation can be accomplished. Unfortunately, we as a nation have become polarized in our views of political policy and by our actions have helped caused this gridlock. The answer though does not come from the Tea Party or T.V. Pundits, but from the Youth of the United States. We as youth are able to move with our ideas and bring unity to this country for the common civic good. Instead of yelling at your opponent, have a good conversation and agree to disagree at least.

Bayh Favors Sallie Mae Over College Students

2010-02-17T15:07:00.000-06:00

Evan Bayh this week announced his retirement. All the major media outlets were shocked and awed by his comments that there was too much partisanship in the Senate. Politically leaves Indiana seat open and leaves another open chair by a retiring Democrat. Bayh is entitled to his retirement and there is no problem there, but Evan Bayh is showing what side he wants to be on discussions.

According to Ben Smith's Blog from Politico, "....expressing reservations about the plan for the government to eliminate private-sector middlemen and make student loans directly." As previously mentioned in a blog post on the 9th of February, Archie Duncan wanted to cut out the middlemen in student loans and use the 85 billion dollars for direct payment. Well now, liberated Senator Bayh believes this is a bad idea because it will hurt student loan corporation Sallie Mae in his state.

Granted it can be argued that looking out for business interests in your state is a required job for a senator, but when their decision could hurt 40,151 college students alone and about 18.3 million college students in the U.S. Now what is more important the 18.3 million college students or Sallie Mae who was bailed out by the federal government in 2008?

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan Wants to Save 85 Billion Dollars Over Ten Years by Cutting the Middle Man

2010-02-09T23:26:00.000-06:00

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan with the Obama administration wants to change how financial aid is distributed to students. The new idea was formulated in the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act, which passed the House of Representatives. The Department of Education would dole out the funds for student loans. The amount that they give the banks is 88 percent of what is loaned out to prospective students. Under the current system about 85 billion dollars, which comes to 88 percent, is given to the banks to give student loans. That money the banks collect the interest and make a nice profit. The system is safe to the banks because the government provides the capital.

Now about hearing, the possible news that this lucrative deal might be lost Sallie Mae has been lobbying Congress for this bill to be defeated. In a New York Times article they figured that Sallie Mae's amount of 4 million dollars averaged to 25,000 dollars a day for when Congress is in Session. For most kids that is a year’s worth of tuition to a private school or a full four years to a state college. Arne Duncan is upset that the banks are using funds government funds to fun the lobbying. In the Huffington Post Duncan was quoted,

I think banks have had a sweet deal. They're a powerful lobbying force, and working-class families don't have lobbyists working for them. They're just trying to make ends meet and pay to go to college. And so you have strong, entrenched interests that have lobbied and continue to lobby to this day, and they're running ads in states. And you have, on the flip side, millions of working-class families trying to do the right thing and go to school.

The reason why this has not been put into law is that like the many other laws that the House of Representatives have passed they are stalled in the Senate. Lobbying efforts by the banks have been more successful because of the worries that this measure will cut jobs in the financial services industry and leave the United States with more debt from students that do not payoff their loans.

For something like this to pass the Senate, it is needed that people call their Senator to tell them that we want Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act. This law is in the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. It is in every student’s best interest to call or write their Senator to pass this bill.

In a Daily Kos Poll Republicans Help Enforce Sterotypes

2010-02-03T22:51:00.000-06:00

Four days ago The Daily Kos did a poll on how Republicans see themselves and the President. It was shocking the results that their survey. Many of the stereotypes that the poll covered were on Barrack Obama's birth, should Obama be impeached, is Obama a socialist, and does Obama want the terrorists to win. The poll surveyed 2,000 self described Republicans with a 2 percent margin of error.

On the first question should Obama be impeached, 39 percent responded that he should be impeached. The funny thing of this is that there has not been any proof of this statement at all. In the second question is Obama a socialist, 63 percent responded that Obama was a socialist. A false belief by Republicans during town halls and was rapidly flamed during the healthcare debate. Bernie Sanders from Vermont is the only person that calls himself a socialist and the correct term is Democratic Socialist. On the question of Obama's birth in this country, 36 percent responded that he was not born in the U.S. Many programs and fact checkers have shown the birth certificate and the birth announcement in the paper. To deny this as truth is another way to deny the legitimacy of this President. The final question that I will look at is does Obama want the terrorists to win, 24 percent responded in favor of that question. I would hope as American citizens we would be in favor of defeating our enemies and that would be a common goal.

A final note on the survey, it worries me that the South as a demographic lead on all these categories. The sad thing is that an argument could be made that a majority of these beliefs could be based more on racism then actual policy. If we as Americans cannot get away from our fears our country will not grow. To become better citizens we need to move on and learn to accept our neighbors as friends and not enemies. If we do not do this personal growth, we will lose our unity as one people and be demolished by other interests.

Top Military Official for the "Removal of Don't Ask Don't Tell" and Republicans are Upset with the Answer

2010-02-03T00:30:00.000-06:00

Today Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen came before the Senate Arm Services Committee and passionately stated the need to remove "Don't Ask Don't Tell" from American law. In Adm. Mullen's testimony according to the New York Times he said, “No matter how I look at the issue, I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens." This statement caught everyone off guard, but a bigger bombshell dropped by Mullen really angered some Republican Senators. Mullen continued, "allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly would be the right thing to do.”

Many Republicans led by Committee Chairman John McCain do not want to repeal "Don't Ask Don't Tell" They believe that the system is effective. According to the USA Today, Senator McCain argued, "At this moment of immense hardship for our armed services, we should not be seeking to overturn the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy." Other fears by Republican lawmakers are the possible expansion of these terms including transgender and hermaphrodites.

The view that everyone should be treated equally should go for everything. "Don't Ask Don't Tell" should be repealed. This law is doing two things that hurt America. First, it does not allow every able body person to serve his or her country. In a time of war, our armed services need as many people as we can get. By limiting, this number because some people do want gays and lesbians in the military hurts our armed forces. Second, it discriminates against a person's sexual orientation. We are a country that has fought against discrimination on all levels and for all ideas, but when it comes to equal rights for all sexual orientations, we have fallen behind other industrialized countries.

From AOL News in an article titled, "In Israeli Army, Gays Are 'No Big Deal'" the author Linda Gradstein shows in her article that being Gay in the Israeli Army is not a big deal and it is accepted. She also says that, "The right to be openly gay has been acknowledged in the Israeli military since 1993, and there is little evidence that policy has caused any problems." AOL also ran a story on the British system. In Theunis Bates story, "British Army Actively Recruits Gay Soldiers," that the British Government is recruiting openly gay men for military service. Theunis writes about how fears were not realized,

In fact, the biggest news about the change was that it resulted in no news. Academic studies published in peer-reviewed journals found that allowing openly gay troops to serve in the U.K. had no negative impact on cohesion, readiness, recruiting, morale, retention or any other measure of effectiveness.

Here are two well trained armies with independent studies that show that openly gay members of the armed forces do not pose a threat to the cohesion, readiness, recruiting, moral, retention or effectiveness. Britain and Israel are known for their tough militaries and take pride in their accomplishments. Anything to lessen their effectiveness would be changed.

O'Keefe is Not Bringing New and Radical Approach to Journalism, but Airing Out Nixon's Dirty Tricks

2010-01-29T23:49:00.000-06:00

This week James O'Keefe (the lying pimp from ACORN videos) and three other cohorts were caught in impersonating phone repairmen and recording it in Senator Mary Landrieu office in New Orleans. According to the New York Times O'Keefe's argument for doing this was that rumors were floating around that her office was not answering their phones to hear complaints about healthcare legislation. Landrieu's office reported that many people called in in waves and left voice messages for the Senator due to the fact her staff did not have the capacity to answer all the phone calls. O'Keefe's idea was that they would record the telephone men and record a tape of them unable to reach Landrieu's office. They were caught and arrested. All men in the group face a 250,000 dollar fine and up to 10 years in Prison.

Tampering with phone lines is not a new tactic, Nixon had men in July of 1972 to bug Democrat Headquarters. They were caught and it was called Watergate and led to the fall of Nixon. Those men’s' actions were perceived by the public as criminal actions. O'Keefe and his men followed in the spirit of Nixon's men and not in investigative journalism.

As American citizens, we need to call out the injustices perpetrated by people like O'Keefe.

Historian Howard Zinn dies at the Age of 87

2010-01-28T15:17:00.000-06:00

Today historian Howard Zinn died from a heart attack at the age of 87. Zinn, known as a professor, author, and activist brought the plight of lower class Americans to the forefront. His crowning achievement was The People's History of the United States, a book that looked at the history of the United States through the eyes of women, minorities and lower classes.

Zinn has been an ally to the lower classes in civil rights movements and in anti-war movements. Zinn understood the horrors of war being a bomber pilot over Europe during World War II. In 2006, Zinn wrote in the Progressive anti-war articles showing his disagreement with the Bush administration and previous administrations with their use of killing civilians in the name of world peace. Reuters obituary for Zinn sums up this argument, "Once we decided, at the start, that our side was the good side and the other side was evil ... we did not have to think any more. Then we could commit unspeakable acts and it was all right."

Zinn also had some critical words to President Obama published in The Nation on January 13, 2010. He was not hopeful that President Obama would change the current system. Zinn is quite skeptical of any meaningful reform. Zinn said, "I think people are dazzled by Obama's rhetoric, and that people ought to begin to understand that Obama is going to be a mediocre president--which means, in our time, a dangerous president--unless there is some national movement to push him in a better direction."

Zinn's life goals were to raise the middle and lower classes of all backgrounds to have a voice and not be exploited by wealthy and the powerful. The empowerment that Zinn tried to provide citizens needs to be picked up by younger generations and carried into the next decades. Items like caring for all our neighbors around the world, fighting against true tyranny, working for a better standard of living for all world citizens, and not forget to condemn the exploitive deeds that have been done for human advancement. As a world community, we need to accomplish these goals for the betterment of the world society.

Bauer's Comments Shows the Lack of Caring by some People of the United States

2010-01-26T23:38:00.000-06:00

Thursday, at a town hall meeting Lt. Governor Andre Bauer made some comments about some people's dependency of people on government assistance. These comments were in very poor taste. In the Washington Post AP writer Seanna Adcox leaves us with this quote from Andre Bauer.

My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed! You're facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don't think too much further than that.

Bauer has half-heartedly apologized for the comments equaling poor people to stray animals. His lack of compassion shows how out of touch politicians are to reality sometimes. I am reminded of attending lectures done by the former Senator from South Dakota George McGovern and his crusade to end hunger. What McGovern found out from his travels is that if you want people to go to school, which a meal was provided, that there would be higher attendance at the school. This includes an increase of attendance from boys and girls, which means a more educated populous. They would have a better job outlook. This will in the end lessen the dependency, and prove Bauer's comments wrong.

As good Americans, we need to look out for the less fortunate citizens and help them. We should not destroy social programs that help fed 31 million (2000 est.) Americans. Political rhetoric like Bauer's comments should not be accepted in American society. We as a nation need to stand strong, because we are as strong as our weakest link.

Obama Wants Help Students with Loan Repayment and Republicans say No

2010-01-25T20:41:00.000-06:00

With President Obama speaking today on his plan to help the Middle Class, he emphasized a new cap program for college loans. In Nick Anderson's piece from the Washington Post explains it pretty well.

Under the proposal, monthly payments on federal loans would be limited to 10 percent of discretionary income -- above a "basic living allowance" -- for qualified borrowers. That would be lower than the current cap of 15 percent in the income-based repayment program that began last summer. In addition, the administration said, certain borrowers could be eligible for loan forgiveness after 10 years in public service or 20 years in other fields of work.

By capping to 10 perecent will allowing college students searching in the job market a little bit of breathing room. The breathing will help students and allow them to take jobs that do not provide with the money needed to pay back the loans. Federal service jobs and teaching jobs that come to mind when that are low paying, but need a four year degree. These people that take it upon themselves to do jobs that are extremely needed and are low paying. By having this plan enacted in a bill will allow highly qualified people into a field that needs highly quilified people.

The counter of this view is that this is a waste of money and that the American people do not want this plan. They argue that it is a waste that creates a higher deficit and people showed their distrust in Obama's ideas by voting for Scott Brown in Massachusetts. In David M. Herszenhorn's blog The Caucus, Republican representative John A. Boehner brought the counter argument.

“Less than a week after the Massachusetts special election, the Obama Administration is vowing to ‘stay the course’ and double down on the same costly, job-killing policies that are leaving America’s middle-class families and small businesses high and dry.”

“This ‘stay the course’ approach doesn’t just apply to a government takeover of health care,” Mr. Boehner continued. “Out-of-touch Washington Democrats remain committed to all their costly, job-killing priorities, including more government ‘stimulus’ spending, a ‘cap-and-trade’ national energy tax and ‘card check.’”

As it shown Boehner attacked the adminstration with a generic line. Boehner did not look at the what Obama said, but stuck to the generic line. He skipped the ideas of middle class tax breaks and the loan repayment plan for college students. The idea that Boehner did not come up with a counter argument or a counter plan he stuck to the Republican party line of disagreeing with the President. It would be in Republicans best interest to actually have a plan in place or an argument to counter President Obama's ideas. By not being flexable will hurt them in the long run.

Polls and the Over Use by the Media (Lighter Note)

2010-01-22T19:45:00.000-06:00

This week needs something light and happy with all the bad news that has happened in the last week. I was reading a comic done by Jorge Charm on January 20th from PhD Comics where he comments on how the media uses polling data incorrectly and claims it as fact. It is quite amusing and I suggest that you look at it.

Conservative Activist Judges Erase over 100 Years of Campaign Finance Reform Laws

2010-01-22T00:30:00.000-06:00

Today in a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that regulations can not be put on corporations or unions to limit their spending on campaigns. This allows corporations and unions to funnel money to candidates of their choosing without limits. Buying a vote from a candidate will be extremely easier after this ruling.

The case that brought up this measure was United Citizens v. Federal Election Commission. United Citizens produced a documentary, which attacked Hilary Clinton and wanted to release it during the 2008 primaries. The Federal Election Commission declared that the "documentary" was an attack ad and not a documentary. They did not allow the film to be shown during the campaign. In the majority opinion Justice Kennedy argued that it was a violation of Citizens United's First Amendment right to Freedom of Speech that was violated.

What this allows now from this ruling is an unregulated flow of money from corporations and unions to help influence elections. With the items stripped from all the legislation dating to 1907 with the Tillman Act. The Tillman Act prohibited corporations and national banks from contributing to federal election campaigns. Campaign finance reform does not come back into the picture until 1947 with the Taft-Hartley Act, which barred labor unions and corporations from making contributions from toward federal campaigns. The next major action came from a Supreme Court case Buckley v. Valeo in 1976 in which the court argued that contribution limits were legal, but expenditure limits were restricting free speech. This was upheld in 1980 with the Supreme Court ruling of Republican National Committee v. FEC. In 2002 the McCain Feingold Act also known as the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA), came into power. This bill eliminated corporations and unions to use soft money to funnel into federal campaigns. The other major item that came from this act was the limits put advocacy ads that supported a candidate. Suggestive ads could not be ran with sixty days or less on the campaign. These laws were shoring some of the corruption problem in the Untied States.

The previous paragraph thanks to the Supreme Court ruling is now void. With the 5-4 decision, banks, corporations, and unions can put as much money into a campaign as they want. They can produce ads for the candidate that they favor and run them all the way to election day. Their major contributions can influence our members of Congress to a greater extent then they do now.

The alternative opinion of this is a victory for the First Amendment. Freedom of Speech is expanded in this ruling. This opens up to First Amendment to corporations. Justice Kennedy wrote, "We find no basis for the proposition that, in the context of political speech, the government may impose restrictions on certain disfavored speakers." He continues, "The court has recognized that First Amendment protection extends to corporations."

Although the expansion of the First Amendment this will hurt the American people. This ruling allows corporations the same rights as United States Citizens. Corporations based in the United States, but controlled by foreign interests will have a say in U.S. politics. The ruling presented by the Supreme Court today was extreme. President Obama and some members of Congress say that they are working to stop the ruling by the Supreme Court, but if taken to trial the Supreme Court will declare the laws unconstitutional. We need our voices to be heard and to support measures to curb this ruling.

Two major populous hurt by this ruling are youth and people in poverty. These voices will have an even smaller say in the U.S. political spectrum. In turn will disenfranchise many of these new voters, which will give politicians more reasons to follow the influence of corporations than their constituents.

There are ways to fight back Alan Grayson a Democratic Representative from Florida has a petition out to fight this ruling. Call your representative to show your distain to the Supreme Court ruling. Being vocal on the internet or in any public forum is necessary to show that the Supreme Court did not rule in favor of the people.

Like always the links are at the bottom.

Washington Post Article "High court shows it might be willing to act boldly"

FEC Short History

Alan Grayson Petition Link

NPR "Supreme Court Rips Up Campaign Finance Laws"

NPR Campaign Finance Reform Timeline

Obama Adminstration Wants to Protect us from the Large Banks

2010-01-20T23:43:00.002-06:00

Hot off the press from the Wall Street Journal reportersDamian Paletta and JonathanWeisman report that President Barrack Obama will propose new regulations on banks that are too big to fail. The goal of these regulations would be that banks would have to put up barriers between divisions inside the banks. The goal of this is to make sure that money that is Federally insured by FDIC is not being used for speculative investments. This means though that there will be a separation from the bank that a citizen takes out a loan or deposits money, and from the bank that sells securities on the open market. For banks this is not a good item because a majority of the big banks made most of their profit from the speculative investment part and minor part from deposits and loans.

The idea of this plan comes from the Glass Steagull Act of 1933 which separated depository banks from investment banks. This was the law of the land until 1999 when Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act became into law. This took out the teeth of the Glass Steagull Act of 1933 and help caused the market meltdown in the last decade. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 passed the full Senate with a 90-8 vote.

The Obama administration does not want to pass regulations to reenact Glass Steagull, but to set limits for banks to make sure they do not get too big to fail. This idea might find bipartisan support. A Bloomberg News article from Alison Vekshin on December 16, 2009 Arizona Republican John McCain and Washington Democrat Maria Cantwell wanted to reinstate Glass Steagull. President Obama is not the only one that wants bank reform.

Sam Brown winning the election in Massachusetts last night and the Democrats have lost their 60 seat majority in the Senate. The idea of passing healthcare reform is stalled and will not likely pass, but with the outcry of the American people for tougher reforms on the banking system allows politicians to gain political capital. Democrats and Republicans can work together on this in a bipartisan way to fix a system that failed the nation. We hope that politicians will do what is best for the country instead of political positioning.

Tighter reforms are needed on the banking system. They help our economy move forward and provide us with the capital needed to due business in the United States. We need to protect our banking system from excessive risk. It is important that our banks do not cause the nation harm by schemes that make them money, but hurt American People. Here at the Common Civic Good we support implementing ideas of Glass Steagull Act back into the legislation.

Like Always the links are at the bottom.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704320104575015910344117800.html

http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/subjects/g/glass_steagall_act_1933/index.html?offset=0&s=newest

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aQfRyxBZs5uc

The Misrepresenting of History

2010-01-19T01:15:00.000-06:00

This post is late in the terms of the comment, but it is still important item to bring up. Evangelical Pat Robertson in a comment about Haiti said,

ROBERTSON: [S]omething happened a long time ago in Haiti and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French. Napoleon the Third and whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, “We will serve you if you get us free from the prince.” True story. And so the devil said, “OK, it’s a deal.” They kicked the French out, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free.

But ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other, desperately poor. That island of Hispaniola is one island. It’s cut down the middle, on the one side is Haiti, on the other side is the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republic is prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, etc. Haiti is in desperate poverty. Same island.

They need to have, and we need to pray for them, a great turning to God. And out of this tragedy I’m optimistic something good may come. But right now, we’re helping the suffering people and the suffering is unimaginable.

Robertson does not have any information on his claim. I pulled out my old College World Civilization and Latin American History textbook to find the true story. The Latin American textbook argues that Haitian independence came from the French Revolution. The idea for a people to revolt for independence came from the mother country. The leader of this revolt Toussaint L'Ouverture a mulatto was an ex-slave. Even though L'Ouverture led the revolt it was not him who declared independence, but his lieutenant Jacques Dessalines who declared independence from the French in 1804.

Robertson’s comment on the ruler of Haitian Independence is not Napoleon III, but Napoleon. There were not any pacts with the Devil in Haitian Independence. The hope that people see that an impoverished country needs help and not for the short term. We as Americans need to help people of Haiti instead of coming up with reasons why the disaster happened.

Like always links and cites are at the bottom.

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/01/13/robertson-haiti/

Philip J. Adler, World Civilizations, 3rd ed., (Belmont CA, Wadsworth/Thompson Learning, 2003) 178.
Benjamin Keen, and Keith Haynes, A History of Latin America, 7th ed. (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company,2004) 159.

American's at their Best.

2010-01-16T02:27:00.001-06:00

Due to the recent events in Haiti, the American people have stepped up and showed a united front. Americans have work together and donate money and supplies for the survivors of the earthquake. American corporations have donated about 48 million dollars. According to the St. Joseph News from St. Joseph Missouri, the Red Cross by the end of Friday they have raised 37 million dollars in donations. Red Cross is hoping to raise 100 million dollars for the Haiti effort. The need for giving is very important for the ability Haiti and to show an united front in support.
Although the united front of support, there are people putting politics and prejudices in front of helping other people for the common good. One of the major people in this position is Rush Limbaugh. His comments help fuel hate and misdirection. Rush's most recent comment sparked a fire and is an insult to the American people who have done the right thing and helped people in need. Rush said,"“Everything this president sees is a political opportunity, including Haiti, and he will use it to burnish his credentials with minorities in this country and around the world, and to accuse Republicans of having no compassion."
This statement by Limbaugh is false. Americans are known to help people in need. People that do not believe that Haiti is not a justified cause for our support forget how how America became an influencial nation. Support the organizations that support the people in Haiti.

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9D8FHBO0.htm
http://www.stjoenews.net/news/2010/jan/16/donations-haiti-pouring-red-cross/?local
http://commongoodpolitics.wordpress.com/

We need health care now!

2009-12-11T18:12:00.000-06:00

Today is an important day as any other day in the Senate. Five progressive Democrats changed some text of the bill with five moderate Democrats to gain their votes. They include an expansion of Medicare to people 55 and over. The ability for people to buy into the Federal Employee Plan. Another important amendment would be the oppurunity of people to be able to buy precription drugs from Canada.
We support this because people need health care. One of the toughest age groups to insure is from 55 to 64. This group is most likely to have health problems and their premiums are high. We also support the idea that people should be allowed to buy into the Federal Employee Plan. Everyone here legally is a taxpayer to the United States Government and should have the ability take an insurance plan that federal employees have.
We hope that the Senate passes the bill and that legislators use their minds to think about the whole nation instead of one area. The importance of passing healthcare this year is very important. Many people need help and this bill will bring it to them.

One Dollar Gasoline Tax

2009-12-06T20:41:00.001-06:00

Thomas Friedman today on Meet the Press when asked by David Gregory how the United States should pay for the war. Friedman responded by saying that there should be a one dollar gasoline tax. We at the Common Civic Good support this idea. We as Americans consume 378 million gallons of gas in a day in 2008 according to the Energy Information Administration. The average price was of gasoline during 2008 was $3.27. Compared to all other industrialized countries adding the dollar tax only Canada had cheaper gas. If the number held true, at 378 million gallons of gasoline in one year $137,970,000,000.00 dollars in created revune. With this tax alone in 10 years it would create over 1.3 Trillion dollars, if nothing else would happen. Therefore we strongly support Thomas Friedman's comment on Meet the Press. As always the links are on the bottom.

http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/energyexplained/index.cfm?page=oil_home#tab2

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

We Need to Remember the Less Fortunate

2009-12-04T21:37:00.000-06:00

Hello all,

With the holiday season approaching we at the Common Civic Good want you to remember the less fortunate amoung us this holiday season. We hope that all of you would do something to help them out this holiday season. We would suggest working at a soup kitchen, donating toys for the toys for tots program, donating money to the Salvation Army's red kettles. We know everyone is not as well off as they would hope this year, but we should be thankful for what we have and be willing to help our fellow citizens. As always the links are at the bottom.

http://www.toysfortots.org/
http://www.salvationarmyusa.org/usn/www_usn_2.nsf

We Need to Push the Senate

2009-12-03T17:46:00.000-06:00

Hello all,

We are at an important stage of the health care debate in the Senate. It looks like that the Republicans are stalling on the bill. There are many reasons why they could be stalling. That is not the important thing though, what is important is what have we done as a citizenry to help ourselfs? We at the Common Civic Good tell you write your Senator to support the health care legislation. Below this is the names and numbers of every Senator.

P.S. There is no thing as socialized medicine. The term came from an ad agency working for American Medical Association back in 1947 to stop Truman's Democratic health care.

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Begining of the Common Civic Good

2009-12-02T23:57:00.003-06:00

Hello all,

Welcome to the Common Civic Good are mission here is to bring back the idea to have people work together for the Common Civic Good of the United States. The goals of the Common Civic Good are:

-Promote Civic Responsibility

-Promote Sustainable Budget

-Promote Increases of Government Revenue

-Promote Equal Rights to all Citizens

-Promote Universal Health care for all Citizens

-Promote Community Responsibility

-Promote Civics in Schools

-Promote a Productive Government

Our goals are simple in nature, but we hope that in our lifetime that they will be met.