Response to Brandon (Politics of New and Now)

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I agree with Brandon’s topic that enabling a student body with an ease to access firearms would result in more shootings due to the fact that people are not always rational of their emotions and acts.
The Gun Control issue is second in the Big Three issues in terms of viewer interest, behind Abortion and ahead of Education. The incident that happened in Virginia Tech shows big time that gun ownership should be limited to the point where people don’t have to worry about their safety at all!
It is understandable that hunters want to be able to have guns for hunting. For that matter there should be a “gun hunting leasing system” during hunting seasons, created for safety purposes. For example: people come – lease a gun for the day when they are hunting and return it at the end of the day.
For those people who want to own a gun at home in order to protect themselves and their family from criminals, robbers, etc. each and every gun should be kept at home only (with a previous background check of an owner and household of course). Also there should be a similar to a GPS system device installed permanently on the gun, just in case the owner wants to take the gun out of his or her house, the police department would be notified of that.
I personally think that guns are very dangerous and very unnecessary, and of course safety comes first, so the possession of firearms law should be restricted in order for people to feel safe and protected in public places.

Privacy

Since we have been talking about this today in class I want to give my piece of opinion about the topic.
The right to privacy is threatened as never before in modern history by the policies of the Bush white house and the Ashcroft justice department.
Some people may say: “I don’t have nothing to hide, let them watch me.” Might as well put a camera in their bathrooms. Let them watch! Some might say: “Find it in the Constitution, then I will be against warrant less wiretapping." But the thing is that there were no phones and internet back in 1776 so it could not have been written.
A big political issue because of the "Patriot's Act". I understand the need to protect our country, but why is the government seizing library records without warrants? I don't think that anyone cares about cameras set up in the city or the streets (except for the local criminals), just as long as they keep it out of my house. Ashcroft's "Patriot Act" is pretty argumentative. Every person must have a right for privacy, and shouldn’t be watched or wiretapped without a judge giving a permission for that. It is understandable why government does not want to this the legal way. If they needed a warrant for every person they want to watch, it would be too much work that has to be done to track every suspect the legal way. With all the hyperbole that's being thrown around, it wouldn't surprise me if political dissidents or 15 year old, who downloaded the new Eminem song, were considered "terrorists" and affected by this bill. Ben Franklin once said, "They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security" . The way I personally look at the issue if you don't actually have control over your possessions, yourself, and what you do, you don't own your life.

Response to Derek ( National Government 101)

I almost entirely support Derek’s opinion about the war in Iraq and what we should do. I support it because I have the same beliefs and thoughts about it. Of course it was never a good idea for Bush to send our troops to Iraq in the first place, but since, like Derek said: 4000 soldiers lost their lives “to help try to give the people of Iraq a better life”. Very generous, BUT what about mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, wives and kids who lost their family members to the war? What about those people going through pain of loosing their loved ones to this war, and now almost the whole Nation is against it. What about them? I don’t think that Bush considered that as much as he should have.
I strongly agree with Obama's plan to pull our troops out of Iraq. Derek thinks that since so many soldiers lost their lives to this war then we should stay and finish what we started. I really think that we shouldn’t . I am not an American, I came from Ukraine, but I love this country and I care about it and it’s people. Like I said before – we lost TOO many lives, and we shouldn’t loose any more!

Economic Issues

Everything comes back to the economy. We have a massive deficit and are still spending tons of money. Costs of everything are going up. America needs to have a much better economy than it has right now. I mean, that's just a fact. It isn't as big of a focus right now as it should be.
Foreclosures are at an all-time high. Families are so close to the fact that they are going to lose both home and life savings. Education and investments have a cost factor that is fast approaching to the “I can’t afford it” for the middle class. The loss of economic power of middle class families is a huge elephant in the room that won't get proper coverage of the oh-so-liberal media that presents a picture much cleaner than it really is. If the economy doesn't allow a middle-class family to afford a university education for two kids and at least one health problem, aren't we simply talking about a big form of gambling where the participants simply “hope” that bad things happen to other people? Yes, there are a lot of people that, for example, have money in the stock market but it does not mean that business is going to take care of economic problems and issues.

I think we are in recession right now and might come to a depression no matter who wins in November election, because majority of people think government is the answer, and I think the only way this is true is if we start taxing imports and start making it possible for Americans to create what they need, therefore making jobs and an economy that actually is apart of something.

Obama Denies Assuring Canada on NAFTA

In this article we have, I think, a direct example of politicians trying to look good for public. “Barack Obama said Monday that his campaign never gave Canada back-channel assurances that his harsh words about the North American Free Trade Agreement were for political show despite the disclosure of a Canadian memo indicating otherwise.” In my opinion what happened was just what all politicians, or most of them do to attract good attention from citizens, to interest people in what they are proposing for them in order to get elected. For example: George Bush. At first a lot of people thought that Bush is going to be a very good president for America, and now by the end of his term, most of the Americans can not wait for the election. Anyone, but Bush. Current president Bush made a lot of promises to our country and came out, most of it was not true, according to a Special Comment.
I am not trying to say that Obama is trying to fool everybody around to get elected, I was just giving another example of politicians trying to say one thing to make a good impression, and then doing another. According to the memo obtained by The Associated Press, Obama's senior economic adviser told Canadian officials in Chicago that the debate over free trade in the Democratic presidential primary campaign was "political positioning" and that Obama was not really protectionist. According to the news article my opinion doesn’t change about politicians trying to make themselves look better than they could be, for public, in order to get elected.

Barack Obama’s and Hillary Clinton’s Plans to Better Our Future

The article is talking about the race going on between two candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. It also talks about their plans to better Nations future. For example: Hillary Clinton has a health care plan that will cover all Americans. The government in Canada has the kind of health care system that Hillary wants to use in the United States. But there is a cost to that. The taxes will be raised of course; the health care plan needs a lot of money to cover everybody. I don’t think that Hillary Clinton’s plan for health care will satisfy majority of people.

Barack has a plan to return our troops from Iraq back to the States. I personally think that’s a great idea, and I am sure that a lot of Americans who’s sons and daughters are in Iraq are in favor of that plan, and can’t wait for it to happen. "The change we seek is still months and miles away," Obama told a boisterous crowd in Houston in a speech Tuesday night in which he also pledged to end the war in Iraq in his first year in office: "I opposed this war in 2002. I will bring this war to an end in 2009. It is time to bring our troops home," he declared.

Hillary Clinton has also a plan for getting our troops out of Iraq. “I have voted for end dates in May 2008, June 2008, and December 2008. But President Bush is not willing to set an end date. When I am President, I will end the war in Iraq. I will convene a meeting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, my Secretary of Defense, and my National Security Council to draw up a viable plan to bring our troops home starting within the first 60 days of my administration. When I am President, I will withdraw our forces from the sectarian fighting. There will be no American soldiers refereeing a civil war. No more combat patrols in Baghdad.”
Both candidates have a lot of common ideas about making our country a better place to live and it is the Nation’s decision WHO will have the chance to do so.

Has The War In Iraq Put American Economy In Recession? Six Americans Out Of Ten Already Thinks So.

Nation’s view on today’s economy has been more negative than ever in the past 15 years. Over eight people out of ten thinks that our economy is “poor” or “not so good”. The new poll, conducted Jan. 30-Feb. 1, shows how thoroughly the souring economy has overtaken the war in Iraq as the electorate's principal concern. Thirty-nine percent of all Americans state that the economy and jobs as the No. 1 issue in the presidential campaign, more than twice as many people now highlight the economy as call Iraq the top issue.

What is Government doing to prevent the economy from keep going down the hill? Democrats' and Republicans' opinions and responses on what should be done to keep the economy out of recession. Find out and give your opinion about the situation.