Obama Loosing Young Votes

"Shortly after Obama took office, 84 percent of voters aged 18 to 29 approved of the president, according to Post polling. Earlier this month, that figure had dropped to 52 percent." opens a new Washington Post article when discussing Obama's ratings.
Apparently, Obama's approval rating has been steadily decreasing since he took office with not only the young voters, but also with the Latino and African American groups. That being said, the polls still declare Obama the favorite among the young generation and, I believe, that Obama will be able to increase his approval rating not only with the young, but also with the other minorities as he begins his campaign for the 2012 election. Personally, I believe that Obama is going to win the 2012 election. 

Biggest Political Problem Facing Virginia

Personally, I think that the biggest political problem facing Virginia right now is funding for the roads. An article in the Richmond Times argues that a increase in taxes is necessary for Virginia to be able to have enough money to keep up with the quickly deteriorating funds. Apparently, only $2,000 has been allocated for road maintenance for the past six years. Increase in sales and gas taxes have been proposed to fix the problem.

Hehehe :)

Obama's Report Card

Health Care B
To be honest I'm not really educated enough on Obama's Health Care ideas to make any informed comments on it, but I do respect the fact that he has made an effort towards reform and has succeeded in passing a bill so I'll give him a B.

War on Terror A
Obama took down Gadalfi and Osama and I've heard that all of the soldiers will be out by December 2011. A.

Dealing with the Economy B
Stimulus? Barf.
That being said, the unemployment rate is decreasing. Weather or not this is because of Obama is up for debate. B

Reelection Bid A
Personally, I think that Obama is going to win reelection simply because the Republican party can't get it's act together (ni****head? Really?). I also think his killing of Osama, his sympathizing with minorities, and his all around charisma are going to carry him along. A.

Medical Marijuana?

Hey friends :)

As you may have heard, whether we as a country should legalize marijuana is currently a very popular topic. Despite what many people think, this issue is not just a fight between those who think marijuana is harmful and those who don't. With the legalization of marijuana, the United States would see changes in the economy along with changes in other countries as well. As with any other product, the legal introduction of marijuana into our economy would allow for new jobs to be made and would help with money flow and would be another source of tax revenue for the government. Unlike other products though, with the legalization of marijuana we as a country can basically stop a terrorist organization in it's track. The Mexican drug cartel is getting out of control and, unfortunately, most of it's money comes from illegal drug deals with those in the United States. With the legalization of marijuana and with the introduction of legal methods to purchase marijuana in the United States, citizens of our country would no longer have to turn to illegal means to get the drug and the source of revenue for the drug cartel would dry up.
In addition, studies have shown that medical marijuana is a cheep and effective method for dealing with certain diseases. One of these diseases is Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) which can be caused by,"any event that results in psychological trauma. A recent article in the Washington Post by Steve Fox called Marijuana may help PTSD. Why won't the government find out for sure? brings up the issue of Medical marijuana and criticizes the government for not allowing research to be done that could prove how effective it is. Apparently, there is a chemical in marijuana called cannabinoids that is more effective than current drugs to treat the disease. This chemical has been tested and proven in animal trials, but the government is putting it's foot down and discontinuing all current studies and prohibiting new studies.
An important thing to remember about this issue is that a lot of people who currently suffer from PTSD contracted the disorder during a traumatic experience they went through while serving in the US Military. Personally, I believe that the government owes it to these men and women to do whatever they can to help them. If medical marijuana really can help these people then nothing, including the government, should be able to get in the way.

Immigration

Being Hispanic, Immigration is an important issue to me and my extended family.
I am a second generation American which means that my mother was born in the United States and so was I, but it also means that my grandmother and everyone before her in my family tree were not born in this country. Though my grandmother entered the United States legally, held a job for the entire time she was here, and raised and cared for a family, it took her over twenty years of applications and paperwork to finally become a citizen of this country.
Personally, I don't think that our economy can support everyone who would want to come into this county, but I do think that the government needs to start putting more of an effort into regulating and bettering the application process for becoming a citizen and into regulating the flow of immigrants into this country rather than simply ignoring the problem or putting even more money into fortifying our borders.
I believe that immigrants come into this country searching for jobs when they cannot find any at home or cannot support their families and, that if our economy truly couldn't support them and they couldn't find jobs they would return to their original country. Also, while many people are against immigration, we as a middle class benefit from the work immigrants do, many of whom take jobs that those in the United States wouldn't take which allows food cost and the costs of many other services to stay relatively low.
While I don't have a solve all method to offer regarding immigration, I think that we have reached the point where we as a country must focus on organizing and regulating the flow of immigrants rather than trying to cut it off completely.

Unemployed? No, thanks.

Hey friends :)

As you've probably heard, the unemployment rate in the United States is very high relative to what is usual in our nation's history. When last reported in August 2011, it was found that around 9.1 Americans are currently unemployed. For this reason, I was shocked to read an article in the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/jobs-bill-backed-by-obama-would-tackle-discrimination-against-unemployed-applicants/2011/10/09/gIQAn0gDXL_story_1.html) describing the hiring practices of large businesses  Apparently, people are being denied the right to have a job potentially, to support their families simply because they are currently unemployed.

Clearly, with 9.1 percent of the country currently unemployed, this pattern is doing nothing to solve the unemployment problem, but rather is making it worse. If we allow large companies to continue to turn away those who are out of work, we as a nation cannot be shocked when we find ourselves faced with another depression as bad or worse than the one we faced in the early 1900s.

That being said, Obama has addressed this problem in his recently proposed jobs bill in which he explicitly prohibits companies from "refusing to consider — or offer a job to — someone who is unemployed. The measure also applies to employment agencies and would prohibit want ads that disqualify applicants just because they are unemployed."
Personally, while I do not agree with everything proposed in this job bill, the thought that someone with previous experience and skills could be turned away simply because they are currently unemployed scares me. Personally, I think the government should step in and should attempt to stop this problem, whether it be by passing the jobs bill or through some other method. 

Yum... Politics :)

Ok.

    In an attempt to answer the question of the week I am going to categorize myself as a libertarian. Libertarians are people who are not completely conservative or completely liberal, but tend to lean more the the conservative side. This is mostly correct. Based on my limited knowledge of politics, I am under the assumption that political parties are based on a person's beliefs on key issues so, as a way to back up my claim to be a libertarian I am going to tell you about my views on what I believe to be important issues right now.

Marriage   I have been raised my whole life as a strict Catholic and have been conditioned to believe that marriage is a sacred union that should only be between one woman and one man. I disagree. I think that any two people who love each other should be able to get married and be privilege to any rights and benefits that come with being married be it two women, two men, or a man and a woman.

Abortion
   After giving it a lot of thought, I am against abortion in all cases other than ones where the mother's life is in danger. It might have been my upbringing or the fact that I have so many siblings that I've watched grow up, but I believe that a person is a person from the moment of conception on and because of that I can't support abortion.

Immigration
    Though many people say I don't look it, I'm Hispanic. In fact, my grandmother was not a citizen and it took her decades to get her citizenship even though she came to the United States through legal means and was completely qualified. Immigration is a tough subject, and while I do not believe that we should open our borders to anyone and everyone, I think that immigration will only happen if the economy can support it and because of that the United States should work towards a more civil and organized way of dealing with the issue of immigration.


Government Involvement
    To make this short, I think the government needs to back off. It has gotten to the point where they are truly doing too much. The patriot act is what really shocked me into realizing that the government is too much into our business. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA_PATRIOT_Act

Capitol Punishment
    To believe in Capitol Punishment is to believe in the United States judiciary system and, while I do believe that they are right most of the time, they are wrong some of the time as well. Every time someone asks me about my stance on the death penalty I can't help but to think that if we are to implement the death penalty, there will be someone one day who dies because the courts mess up. For that reason, I don't believe in capitol punishment.

Occupy Wall Street

Hey friends :)

    Despite the fact that things in Northern Virginia have been carrying on as normal, for the last fifteen days protesters have been camping out in Wall Street New York for a demonstartion they are calling "Occupy Wall Street."
     While there is no known individual founder/leader of the group, the main goal of the protest is to bring to light the fact that the government is catering to the rich at the expense of the poor. That being said, there are many protesters protesting more specific issues such as global warming, genetically altered food, gas prices, and even what they believe to be unbearable school loans.
     All in all this protest has been mostly calm, but there have been times where the police have stepped in and arrested protesters. Shown in the video below, a large group of protesters who were blocking the road were herded behind a mesh blockade and then maced and arrested. Those who sympathize with the protesters have been calling police brutality while those who are against the protest are saying that the police were right to use the mace. Either way, the media for the protest has been growing exponentially since the macing video was put up and I believe the coverage will continue to grow until the protest is over. 

    There was also a large arrest yesterday of about 700 people who were said to have been jaywalking as they crossed the Brooklyn bridge on areas other than the crosswalk. As with the macing incident, there are two sides of the story with the police saying that the protesters were stopping traffic and the protesters saying that there was no room to get through and that they had no choice but to walk on the non pedestrian part of the bridge. Either way, the media coverage is still steadily growing.
     Personally, I can see both sides of this story. The protesters are causing massive traffic problems and are probably pretty annoying, but at the same time I think that anyone has a right to say what they want to say. This protest has been mostly peaceful and I think that it's about time for the government to stop avoiding it and to start listening to what the protesters are saying. While I am not an elitist myself, I do believe that the protesters have some merit and they should at least be dignified with some response by the government other than police brutality and, I'm pretty sure that until they get that response they're not going to stop.
      It has been 15 days and they're still going strong. If nothing else, at least they're persistent.
                                                                            :)

Here are some articles about the protest that you guys might find interesting:
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/8351661/peaceful-women-maced-during-nyc-protest
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sheldon-filger/occupy-wall-street-and-ma_b_991325.html
http://abcnews.go.com/US/occupy-wall-street-protesters-americans/story?id=14652698
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_19024775?asid=af2a7105