Election Result WIdget

The Vice Presidential Debate

The Vice Presdential Debate did not provide any surprises.  Both sides distorted each others records.  Sarah Palin dodged questions like she was in a grade school gym playing dodgeball.  But Joe Biden dissapointed me the most with one comment when answering about the powers of the Vice President.  He said that article one of the Constitution establishes the executive branch and that the only responsibility granted the Vice President is to grant a tie-breaking vote.  That statement is so wrong, and possibly the most distorted comment of the entire night.  Article I establishes the Legislative Branch.  Article I Section 3 establishes that "The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided."  To me that seems his first responsibility is to be Vice President of the Senate.  His second responsibility is to cast a vote when the Senate is divided.  

Say it ain't so Joe.  I hope you correct the record as soon as possible after the debate.  I expect more out of you.  The Constitution is our fundamental document.  Every policy we create should be viewed through the eyes of the fundamental purposes of government.

I'm still going to vote for the Obama-Biden ticket.  The have the fundamental policies that will rebuild the middle class and therefore rebuild America.

Obama's Speech to the NAACP

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDeMFZIR1V0

Personal responsibility must be shared amongst each and everyone of us. From CEO's to laborers, we each have the same goals and dreams for our families. Barack Obama is the right person to lead us into the future.

Political Changes

the best political actions are incremental, respectful toward accumulated practice and more attuned to particular circumstances than universal laws. Brooks, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/opinion/15brooks.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Initial thoughts on social security

Social Security. It's time for a solution all age groups can agree with. Social Security may be a moral right, but it is not a constitutional right. The constitution guarantees the right to life, liberty and the PURSUIT of happiness. It does not provide a right to happiness. Life does not guarantee of happiness. Life should not guarantee happiness. Life would be too easy and we would fail to advance as a society. Our society was structured to allow individuals to go out and acquire what they could in pursuit of what each individual defined as happiness. Problems breed solutions. Challenges breed collaboration. A lack of guarantees breeds competitiveness. What does a free capitalist society need most? Competitiveness, collaboration and solutions. That is the American way.

The solution I seek: The retirement age should be fixed at 67. Everyone within 10 years (i.e. age 57 and above) should be guaranteed the full benefits the social security system would pay out. Everyone within 15 years (i.e. 52 and above) should be guaranteed 50% of the total benefit payout. Within 20 years (i.e. 47 and above) should be guaranteed 30%. Everyone else is free to set up their own personal account and are responsible for their own retirement. If they fail to save, then they rely on their family or they continue to work or they are screwed. (But thats life. If you fail you fail. Nothing makes people work harder than the prospect of failure)

The benefit of this type of system is that we slowly over time ween ourselves off the social security system. An entitlement program that will bankrupt the country over time. The statistics do not show otherwise. We cannot allow ourselves to continue to be a socialistic country. Or if we continue, we should stop kidding ourselves that our markets are free and admit we are very socialistic.

That is enough ranting for now. Post comments

Fareed Zakaria interview Barack Obama

If you are interested in Obama's foreign policy views, make sure you check out video of Fareed Zakaria's interview. It is in two segements and will take about a half hour to watch. Here is a link to part 1: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2008/07/14/zakaria.obama.intv1.cnn

and part 2: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2008/07/14/zakaria.obama.intv2.cnn

One major problem I have with the media is how the try to pigeonhole the views of each of the candidates. If anything, the past eight years is a perfect example of why a policy of stubbornness will not work. Sticking to one view until the end simply cannot work in the complex and fast moving global world of 2008.

Talking with our enemies is not appeasement.

Negotiating with your adversaries is the best course of action. Often the least expensive and most beneficial results happen with tough negotiation from opposing sides.

The parties have stopped negotiating with each other. And that's one reason why Congress has been stagnant since the end of the Clinton Administration.

The Beginning

I am starting this blog really for two reasons. I want to share my thoughts with my family, friends, and no on in particular in order to start a discussion about important topics in our lives. Politics, sports, social science, physical science. Everything is fair game. I also want to improve my writing, and the best way to get better at anything is to actually do it...over and over again. I hope to post something once or twice a week. Come the beginning of 2L year at McGeorge that will probably wain off. But for now I think I can do it.

More to come