A Taste of Power Taken Too Far

I agree with my colleague's blog that when it comes to the United States government doing less. The founding fathers never meant for the federal government to be as powerful as it has become. Unfortunately once one has had a taste of power it is difficult to go back to being second banana. The government is not going to surrender any of its power to the people or state governments.
While I do not claim to know who is responsible for the 9/11 attacks, I do agree that our presence in Iraq is unwanted and unnecessary. It is not our place to be the big brother or policeman of the world. We went in looking for weapons of mass destruction. We found none. We should have pulled out. It is not our place to set up a new form government in another country; especially in a country where the majority of citizens do not want our help.

The School System Needs an Overhaul

What is wrong with the United States’ school system? That’s simple. The government runs it. It’s not just the “No Child Left Behind Act” that is the problem - although it is a big one. It is difficult to understand the rationale behind lowering the international standards in order to say that the schools are doing a good job. How is dumbing down the curriculum a good job? It isn’t. It is robbing our children of the education they deserve and leaving them poorly prepared for the “real” world when they finally meet it. The real world is not going to coddle a person because he or she is not doing as good a job as another. In the real world that person gets left behind. It is a worthy goal that the government has to leave no child behind. However, making the teachers teach just the things that are on a certain test so that the school can look good in reports is not the same as not leaving a child behind - it’s leaving all the children behind.
A better system would be vouchers. Vouchers attach money to the child; therefore it would create competition between schools. Obviously parents only want what is best for their children so they would choose to send their kids to better schools. This would make the poorer schools try harder to better their curriculum and teaching staff. This is what will help American kids get ahead. So many students attend private schools or are home-schooled. Why? Because their parents are fed up with the public school system and what it doesn’t have to offer.
There is competition in every other aspect of one’s life. Competition is what gives us better cell phones, safer cars, and lower cable bills.
It is already proven to some degree that competition between schools works to produce better programs. High School football is very big in Texas. Schools clamor for the best coaches and work hard to be the best because that gets them more money for the athletic programs. The same principle applies to academia. Vouchers can only improve America’s public school system.

Dissecting "Where is My Money?"

According to a colleague’s blog there is need for Social Security reform. It is a well-written article. One can appreciate the use of statistics to support the article. It shows that some research was done and the article wasn’t hastily completed.
The only thing that might improve the article is if the author answered his own questions. How does the author think Congress should support future retirees? The author says “Congress needs to decide on how to deal with this problem.” Does he have any ideas or opinions on that point himself? He seems to be against raising taxes to fund Social Security, but does not present any other options.
Over all it is a good article. The reader would benefit by getting to know the author a little better through sharing his own ideas for solutions rather than just thought-provoking questions.
There was a grammar issue where the author used ‘then’ instead of ‘than’. Also ‘retirees’ was misspelled in the beginning but then corrected in the end of the article. It probably just needed to be proof-read one more time.

Predictions for November

The novelty of having a woman and an African American running for president has motivated many previously apathetic citizens to get out of their armchairs and vote. The caucus turnout during the Texas primary is evidence of that. However, so much of the media attention has been on the Democratic party candidates that it is almost easy to forget about the Republican party nominees; and that is exactly what is going to happen in the November election.
This is a critical election. The country is now going into year six of the Iraq war and people are getting tired; tired of sending their sons to die for a fight that some would argue is not ours, and tired of watching more money being poured down the drain to fund this possible hundred year war. People want change, but they won’t find drastic change in another member of the GOP.
In addition, the economy taking a down-turn has the American public worried. History shows that when this happens, the party in power is punished by being removed from power.
Just being of the same party is close enough association to the current president that many voters who are unhappy with President Bush will most likely be turned off to the idea of another Republican president.
Not only will the desire for change generate more activity at the polls but, as mentioned previously, so will the excitement over the Democratic candidate, whether it is Senator Clinton or Senator Obama. Both of them bring something new to the table that may appeal to voters who have not shown an interest in politics before.
To be sure, Republican voters are aware of the heightened activity in the Democratic camp. This is something that will bring more Republicans to the polls in November as well. However, it will likely not be enough to counter the Democratic vote. The Republican nominee will be forgotten this November.

AIDS funding

According to an article in The New York Times the House Foreign Affairs Committee approved a compromise between House leaders and the White House that would authorize $50 billion over the next five years to support the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria.
This is a significant increase over the $19 billion that was appropriated for the first five years of this program and also an increase over the $30 billion that the President had originally proposed to fight only AIDS. This new program would authorize $37 billion to $41 billion for the fight against AIDS.
The program that started five years ago has already provided drug treatment for 1.5 million men, women, and children.
Some of the money will be used to train 144,000 new health care workers to care for those with HIV. That is just the tip of the iceberg though considering the shortage of health care workers in the developing world is in the millions.
A requirement of the new program is that countries use part of the funds for campaigns for abstinence until marriage and fidelity thereafter and the use of condoms.
Countries will have to report if funding for those programs falls below a certain percentage.
This may sound harsh, but it is an improvement over the previous requirement that a full one-third of the funding be dedicated to abstinence and fidelity education.
However, even $50 billion will not meet the need of universal treatment for all who are HIV positive.
One might ask why even bother with such a program if it won’t completely solve the problem and the problem is over there not here.
Since this program is not going to eradicate the HIV virus and AIDS why throw so much money at it?
To answer that question, AIDS research benefits everyone. Also some might argue that it’s our duty on a basic human level to offer help to those who cannot help themselves.

Mr. John McCain has a choice to make according to an article in The New York Times.
He will be employing the services of fellow republican, President Bush, to help raise funds for his campaign and to make him attractive to conservatives. The choice he has to make is how strongly he wants to be tied to the President.
Senator McCain must perform a balancing act. He needs the President’s help and it would be unwise not to accept that help. However, it may also be unwise to let the President help too much.
Polls show that only 30% of voters approve the job President Bush is doing as president and even among Republicans his rating has dropped to 66%.
While becoming chummy with the President might get McCain more of the conservative vote, it would almost certainly alienate independents and Democrats.
The public can expect to see President Bush appear alone in support of John McCain, but the McCain camp is not eager to create a strong tie to the President.
What McCain must do is retain the votes he already is assured and do his best to pull away some of the independent vote and maybe even some less devoted Democrats.
Mr. McCain is in a delicate situation. Democrats are quick to link McCain and the President, essentially indicating that a vote for McCain is a vote for a third term for President Bush.
Mr. McCain’s advisors are quick to point out that he will only be campaigning for the things that Mr. McCain believes in.
That is a little hard to swallow as it seems the entire Bush family is standing up in support for him. Former President Bush endorsed Senator McCain just today here in Texas.
It is difficult to believe that there will not be some political back scratching later should McCain get the nomination.
One could argue that it does not matter much whether McCain ties himself to the President or not. Voters are apparently tired of the job that the current president is doing and it would seem obvious that to make a great change the pendulum must swing the other way and put a Democrat in office as a Republican would likely not make the changes that are being looked for.
The bottom line is that President Bush is campaigning for John McCain so they have similar political ideologies. However strong McCain makes that tie to the President will not matter so long as there is a tie there at all.

A Gap in Readiness

I was appalled to read in this article about the state of our reserve forces.
There is an “apalling gap” in the readiness of the forces who would be called upon to respond to attacks on U.S. soil.
According to a congressional commission report recently released the National Guard and Reserve forces are not sufficiently trained and prepared to answer the demands of a domestic crisis.
Not only do they lack training and personnel, there is also a lack of $48 billion in equipment.
This is a dangerous situation for the United States to be in. Should there be an attack on U.S. soil, be it biological, chemical or nuclear, the National Guard and Reserve forces are unprepared and insufficiently trained to respond in a manner likely to resolve the problem.
It is clear what needs to be done. Reserve and National Guard forces need to be trained in the same manner as active duty troops. They must be kept ‘at the ready’ and with the same resources as the troops overseas.
Since September 11 many reserve troops have served overseas so we know that they are necessary.
A strong reserve is also necessary to prevent the necessity of a draft which no one wants.
One thing is clear - if something is not done it leaves the U.S. unable to defend itself in the case of an attack on our own soil.