The first day RECAP: Democratic Convention was not just embarrasing it was horrible

I must admit, it was worse than I thought it would be, I almost cried.

The News [alternatively: World is a Twisted Place, or Politicians are still Politicians]

Three things.
0) Russia goes to war with Georgia. Wow, that sucks. CNN on the subject:

TBLISI, Georgia (CNN) — Bombs rocked Tbilisi early Saturday morning as the fight between Georgia and Russia over a breakaway region intensified and moved into the Georgian capital.
…
Russia and Georgia, a former Soviet state, are fighting over the disputed Caucasus region of South Ossetia, a pro-Russian autonomous region of Georgia.

(As far as I can tell, it seems that some small region broke away from Georgia, and now Russia is bombing Georgia because Georgia had troops in this area. Russia and breakaway blame Georgia, Georgia blames Russia. What an utter mess.)

1) Yeah, John Edwards had an affair, and basically lied about it. More from ABC:

John Edwards repeatedly lied during his Presidential campaign about an extramarital affair with a novice filmmaker, the former Senator admitted to ABC News today.

2) Rush Limbaugh says the Clintons are up to something:

RUSH: Remember all those times, ladies and gentlemen, I warned you never, ever trust a Clinton? Nothing that happens with the Clintons is a coincidence? Isn’t it interesting, with the Lord Barack Obama plunging in the polls, there’s a story today from the Huffington Post about how he’s losing in Pennsylvania, and they can’t believe it. He ought to be cleaning up in Pennsylvania. We can believe it.

And then people wonder why I dislike politicians. So there you go.

On the economic highway, there is no middle way.

“Middle-of-the-Road Policy Leads to Socialism”
This is a writing by Ludwig von Mises that explains the problem with the thinking that has made the US government so huge, and so controlling. Essentially, it proves that the theoretical “middle of the road” between free-market (true) capitalism, and socialism is: 1) unstable and 2) really a entirely separate system. It really lines up with what I see going on in politics today

Speech I Intend to Give

I intend to give this at the beginning of the spring trimester, in my AP US History class, in response to things my teacher has said, and to what my classmates have said.

“I intend to expose the flaw in your theory of pragmatic, or non-ideological, politics.
Idealogy is used to make ideas that are logically consistent. Your ideology of pragmatic politics is the ideology of inconstancy. You will find that the policies you implement to solve the problems you see will lead to further problems, that will require more policies. As the government balloons in size to manage the horrid tangle of legislation, regulation, and social reform programs, it will further intrude into the lives and liberties of every citizen. The economic regulations you so enthusiastically call for only blur the lines between government and business. Monopolies will exist in every part of the market, and they will be in perfect harmony with the government.
Well, welcome to fascism! Welcome to Mussolini’s corporatism! Welcome to totalitarianism! You have asked for the god-state, and you have received! And it all came from the non-ideological desire to reform society and the pragmatic search for a third way between capitalism and socialism! Well, here it is!
Thank you for listening.”

What do you think? Anything I should do to make it clearer? Anyone?

John McCain, considered lesser evil by Republicans.

John McCain is considered a lesser evil to the Republican party than Clinton or Obama.  Demonstrating an impressive show of real politic, republicans in Texas voted in the democratic primaries, skewing the vote towards Clinton by a few percent.  Many republicans, included ‘elder’ conservative Rush Limbaugh, believe that Clinton is easier to beat than Obama.  Clinton still hasn’t caught up to Obama’s lead, but has closed the gap to 144 pledged delegates.  By keeping the gap narrow, republicans hope for the democratic party to continue to feud among themselves, opening holes in its armor for McCain to shoot at.  McCain continues to strengthen his position among independents and “open minded liberals”, but still has trouble with getting the conservative base behind his campaign.  With Huckabee telling his suporters to vote for McCain and President Bush telling the republican party that McCain is a,”true conservative,” the party might fall in line behind their nominee.  Also many Republicans believe that McCain is a lesser evil than Clinton or Obama.  With the Republican nominee select already decided for the 2008 election, the Democratic presidential nominee will have a hard time trying to catch up in campaigning against the republican party and McCain.

Latest in Presidential campaign

So, John McCain cinched the nomination, and Mike Huckabee dropped out, finally. Well, meh. I don’t really like McCain, but then again, I dont really like anyone in the race right now.

On the Democratic side, Clinton won Ohio and Texas. I recall some pundits predicting that this means that Hillary will now begin a vicious fight with Obama that could potentially split the Democratic Party, or at least damage it. The next few months could be very interesting (read: entertaining) if the predictions of angst over the superdelegates come true. Though, at the end we are still stuck with a competition between people who will most likely push for more regulation.

Maybe I will vote Libertarian in November after all; don’t tell me that I’m throwing away my vote when the mainstream candidates are exactly the same.

A Division of Loyalty

In the United States today there are two types of politicians. There are those at the state level, and those at the national level. Politicians at the state level and lower are in direct contact with the people they serve, therefore they are more responsible to those people in case something goes wrong. Local politicians seem to always agree on the same platform issues of better education, better police, safer and cleaner city, promote business, and etc… Everyone can agree on these issues and it seems that the competition between politician campaigns at the local levels are run on the bases of who can do a better job. Business men and woman generally win these elections based on previous experience in workplace environments, and try to run the government as a business. This way of running local governments works because on the very small scale, bureaucracy is very efficient.  It is able to micromanage its’ responsibilities and is able to manage governmental programs depending on the community’s need for these programs. This efficiency does not exist pass the state or local level.  Large bureaucracies are not efficient to begin with; but what exacerbates the problem is the politicians who run this national government.

National politicians require people to reelect them to the senate, house, and presidency. This would make it seem that these politicians are directly responsible to their states. This is not the case however, because these national politicians run on the same platforms as their mirrors in the local levels. They run on educational reform, welfare, a cleaner nation, more business, a better economy, etc… These national programs seem great to the individual citizen, because they have been voting for local politicians who have used these same platforms. On the national level however, programs become very large, requiring large amounts of money to support not only the thousands of governmental workers that run the programs, but also because of the inherent inefficiency of the process. These programs become a huge mess because they are being controlled from a national level. The bureaucracy becomes extremely inefficient because it cannot micromanage its programs; and so it wastes millions of tax payer’s money, that could have been given to the states and local governments that would use the money more efficiently.

The national government is overstepping its appointed position, its position is not a responsibility to the people; that is the states responsibility or even merely the individual citizen’s responsiblity. National government’s responsibility is the welfare of our nation’s diplomatic and military relations with the rest of the world.  It is the buffer between the citizens of America, and the outside world, it is not a free life store!

The national government should be able to pressure the states for certain reforms if need be (and provide money) only if the nation is in depression.  The people of America do not need a national welfare program if we are not in depression, there is no reason!  Everyone should be working and getting paid.  It is said that if you cannot vote, you are not represented.  It is more deep than this simple understanding, if a person does not work, if a person does not pay taxes, if they are payed to live, they should not, cannot and will not be represented by congress!  Congress is suported by tax payer’s money and it is they, the tax payer who should decide the law, not anyone else.  I will list the exact money payed by taxpayers and to what departments:

Department of Agriculture					93,534	(In Millions)
Department of Commerce					6,373
Department of Education					93,429
Department of Energy					21,098
Department of Health and Human Services					684,959	Huge
Department of Homeland Security					32,358
Department of Housing and Urban Development					52,405
Department of Labor					43,138
Department of Transportation					60,139
Department of Social Security					585,743	Huge
Sum					1,673,176
Total Governmental Spending on all programs (2007).					2,799,382

It seems that more than half of federal spending could be cut on two programs, social security and health and human services.

The amount of Americans uninsured is not the fault of every other American who is insured. You are guilty, you should not be reading this article, you shouldn’t even have a computer, because your next door neighbor does not have a car to get to work and has to take the bus. This is the national government’s outlook.  The national government is encroaching on the states ability to help their people.  It is extremely inefficient, it will do a terrible job, it cannot keep these programs!  Our country will go into a recession if it tries to create programs that will tax us dry. There is a large division of loyalty in this country. What do you support, the states’ right to be able to help its people in an efficient and localized manner or the national government that will put this nation into a recession because of its large ineffiecient programs.

Sources:

    http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy08/browse.html

    http://www.heritage.org/research/features/BudgetChartBook/contents.cfm

    http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/

    http://www.cbo.gov/publications/bysubject.cfm?cat=35