Social Networking Project

My Social Networking Project on Inequality can be found here.

Repulican Youtube Debate

On Wednesday, November 28th, the Republican Party had a debate based on questions that everyday citizens posted on the website www.youtube.com. It was a different idea and turned out to be better than regular reporters asking questions to the speakers. There was far less mud slinging than the Democratic Debate. I enjoyed this debate more than the democratic one. I felt like the youtube format made it easier to follow along. I especially enjoyed the end of the debate when Rudy Giuliani bragged how the NY Yankees won 4 world series when he was mayor of New York. Mitt Romney replied that he was excited when the Boston Red Sox won after 83 years, though it was actually 86 years. The best line of the debate came from Mitt Romney when he said "All Americans love their sports teams and hate the Yankees."

Though it seems that there are tons of Republicans running, I thought that Rudy Giuliani was the most educated about every subject and had brains to be the next president. I guess this is no surprise, because he was the one that was chosen by an internet site that compared my beliefs to the candidates. He did impress me with how much he actually knew about the major controversial issues that we have today.

My second pick would go to Mike Huckabee. He was also very knowledgeable and seemed that he would be a good president. Plus he's Chuck Norris approved!!! How could he go wrong?

My least two favorite candidates were Ron Paul and Mitt Romney. Though the Ron Paul has the Ron Paul Girl on his side, I do not agree with any of his policies, and the man's appearance scares me. I don't think he would be good president at all. Though Mitt Romney lightened the mood at the end of the debate, it seemed as though he flip flopped on issues and only said things that he thought people wanted to hear. I hate when politicians go around their main beliefs just to get everyone's vote. It seemed as though he was the only republican candidate that had this problem.

If I had the choice, I would vote for Rudy Giuliani because he is probably the most educated of the candidates and may be the only one that will be able to beat Hilary Clinton or any other democratic politician.

New Sanctuary Movement Event

The New Sanctuary Movement Event Meeting was very informative. The main speaker was very knowledgeable and seemed to have the right plan to fix the immigration situation. The pastor that spoke seemed less knowledgeable about immigration. He kept comparing immigration or the New Sanctuary Movement to the Nazis, which kept confusing me because they are unrelated topics.

I feel that the immigration problem cannot be fixed by a wall between Mexico and the United States. People will still find a way around the wall. The government needs to make more visas and set up a system to make it easy for people to be documented citizens. The United States also has to put special interest into Mexico and help the country, like we are in Iraq, to help purify their corrupt system and help increase and stabilize their economy. The money used to build the wall could instead could be used to help Mexico's economy. One Mexico's economy is set, it will be a nicer place to live and there would not be as great as a need to immigrate to another country.

Las Vegas Democratic Debate

The Las Vegas Democratic Debate was held November 15, 2007 at UNLV.

The Las Vegas Democratic Debate was mostly what I thought it would be. It was incredibly stereotypical of what a normal debate would be. Some good points, lots of arguing/mudslinging, and rants being rudely interrupted. Hilary and Barack argued with each other's policies and personal mistakes. Mid way through the debate, I found myself falling asleep. The best part about the debate was that the other candidates, besides Hilary and Barack, were able to speak and rant their policies.

Bill Richardson and Joe Biden were the most interesting to listen to and I would most likely choose to vote for one of them. Bill Richardson is the Governor of New Mexico and Joe Biden is a senator from Delaware. It seemed that Richardson's experience as Governor was relevant to many controversial issues that would have to be dealt by the future president. Joe Biden made many good points and was extremely interesting to watch. The problem with voting for one of these two is that they will not be able to win the democratic primary and therefore will never be able to become the next President of the United States of America.

Interactive Constitution Part 2

http://www.constitutioncenter.org/constitution/
7th Amendment
"In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law" (Constitution of the United States).

The 7th Amendment says that one can get a trail judged by peers for any civil case that involves more than twenty dollars. A judge cannot override or influence the jury to choose one decision.

This amendment is very outdated. At the time of the constitution, twenty dollars was a lot of money. Nowadays, twenty dollars has a lesser value. The system has also changed. There are now different types of courts, such as small claims. To try someone in a small claims court the controversy has to exceed five hundred dollars and the decision is made by a judge instead of a jury. The amendment does not apply anymore though it continues to be apart of the bill of rights.

The Family Jewels

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB222/family_jewels_wilderotter.pdf

•Read The Family Jewels summary…pick one of the “skeletons” from the report and write a one paragraph reflection

•10, 11, and 12 are particularly interesting

The Family Jewels is a CIA Document that uncovers many CIA covert operations that were classified. Many of the "skeletons" listed in the article make the CIA seem sneaky and suspicious. If the public found out the CIA was continuing to do these types of actions today it would not be happy. The 10th skeleton explained how the CIA experimented with interrogating prisoners using drugs, 11th dealt with the assassinations of world leaders, and 12th was about groups being monitored. Many of the other skeletons were about wire tapping or reading through mail. These actions violate citizen rights and is unconstitutional. It is surprising that the public does not demand more current information about the CIA activities more recent "skeletons." I believe that the CIA should keep doing their job to get information to keep the homeland safe, as long as they are not caught breaking law. It is important that the CIA has made their mistakes public, knowing that the past cannot change. They should continue to release old classified information to distract the public from the new skeletons of today to be able to continue their work.

Open Congress

•Blog Assignment: Go to www.opencongress.org and find out about your representative. 1-2 paragraphs on what you learned and it’s impact on you.

•Don’t know your member??? Go here http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/

My representative is the Democrat, Bad Sherman. He is 54 years old and is from Los Angeles. He is on his 6th terms as a congressman. I didn't realize how many votes were taken and how many times he voted on issues. He introduced a Bill about Intellectual Property Rights, but it did not get past the House of Representatives vote. He is for the children health care bill introduced by Hilary Clinton.

Surprisingly, his top contributor to his campaigns is from the finance, real estate, and insurance companies. Besides being busy in the House, he is in much of the news and seems to be doing a good job.

I don't think what I've learned about my representative impacts me at all. Though I feel he has done a good job, its not something life altering or shocking. Though he helps pass laws and can help change the country, i feel that my local councilman had done a lot more to contribute to the community.

Interactive Constitution

http://www.constitutioncenter.org/constitution/

"The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour, and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services, a Compensation, which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office" (Constitution of the United States).

This means that the Judges are not elected to the courts, can hold their position as judge for as long as they are able and on "good behavior." Judges will be awarded for their noble work as long as they stay true to justice. If they engage in illegal actions, a judge could be impeached and their privileges are taken away.

I believe that it is important to have one well studied in law to decide the many issues that people have. It is more important that the Judicial Branch keeps the checks and balances system and keeps checking to make sure todays practices are constitutional. Unethical and unconstitutional acts need to be pointed out and made illegal. Judges need to be obedient to the law and not their personal beliefs. In the past, justices have made unlawful decisions based on their political or personal beliefs. This practice is wrong and they could be impeached for being untrue to the United States judiciary system. Good, uncorrupted judges can make important decisions that can change the world.

Candidate

Talk about who was selected as your ideal candidate. Were you surprised? Does your candidate have a chance of winning? Why or why not?

Rudy Giuliani was selected as my ideal candidate. There were only two issues out of eleven that I did not agree with him on. I agreed with Giuliani about Immigration, Taxes, Stem-Cell Research, Health Care, Abortion, Line-Item Veto, Energy, Marriage, Death Penalty and disagreed on the Iraq War and Social Security.

I was not surprised that Giuliani was the ideal candidate because my family is mainly Republican and influences my beliefs. My candidate does have a chance of winning. Many people favor him because he was the mayor of New York City during the time of September 11th. He may be one of the few Republican candidates that can compete in the polls with Hilary Clinton (or the democratic candidate), though I believe most likely a democratic will be elected into office because of the current president's approval rating and support.

Bankruptcy Reform Bill of 2005

Assignment: Google one of these 3 bills and write one to two paragraphs about how they served the interests of the industry that supported it. Facts come from CNN.com.

what they are:
Bankruptcy chapter 7: most popular type of bankruptcy, straight bankruptcy or liquidation
Bankruptcy chapter 13: bankruptcy involving the reorganization of funds

The Bankruptcy Reform Bill of 2005 made it harder for people to file under bankruptcy. This benefited the credit card companies, because sometimes with chapter 7 bankruptcy, the debts owed to the companies would be forgiven and the companies would be left with nothing. The bill keeps people from cheating the system and not paying back their debts. Creditors can now contest both chapter 7 and 13 bankruptcy cases. The creditors can inquirer more profit and be more successful due to this bill.

Community Service

Today, September 29th, I went to a local food bank to contribute my time for the betterment of society. The work was not fun, and was extremely tedious.

It was worth giving my time to help out those who are poor and hungry. I did not realize how stocked a warehouse could be with donated food.

The project was not too appealing to me, as i was running on 4 hours of sleep. As a sleep deprived college student, I'm going to take a nap and catch up on my rest.

Adios

First Assignment - Listen to the NY Times

http://podcasts.nytimes.com//podcasts/2007/09/17/17frontpage-p.mp3

Today, the New York Times summarization stated that there might be some controversy to President Bush's next appointment to Attorney General. Bush needs to pick someone who can fulfill the duties of the position instead of picking out his buddies. A leader can only be as good as the people around him, influencing his everyday decisions. If the president chose the most qualified people for the positions in the cabinet, then the president's job becomes easier. If Bush would have picked the most qualified people, then many of the problems America is faced today would be non-existent. Gonzales may have seemed like a good choice to many, but he could not deal with all the difficulties one has in government and could not explain his actions. Lets hope for America's sake that an intelligent, overqualified superhuman is appointed as the new Attorney General.

As for now.. its 2:23 in the am and I'm exhausted.