Political Jargon and Other Things that Matter to Me's Higher Education Blog

The following was in response to a fellow student's blog on higher education in America today.

This is a very important issue to me. It has affected my life in some major ways. When I was a senior in high school, I moved from the city I had lived in for my entire life to Georgetown so that I could attend Southwestern University. It is a wonderful private school with an amazing teaching program. I worked hard in school, got everything taken care of that was needed and ended up getting accepted in early decision to the college. My family and I were so happy. Then I got the information on my financial aid and scholarships. Now, neither of my parents went to college and both work terrible jobs and barely make the bills each month, so they couldn't help me. The tuition for one school year at Southwestern is around $45,000. But even after my scholarships and grants it was going to be at least $15,000 in loans from me a year to attend. That would mean by the end of school I would have at least $60,000 in loans after college. A teacher makes an average of $30,000 a year. How was I supposed to ever pay that off? By the time I figured this all out, it was too late to apply to any other colleges except for the community college. So I am now attending ACC until I can transfer to another University. 
I know that was long, but I wanted to explain why this issue is so important to me. Luckily, it seems that Obama realizes that this is such a huge problem, and he has a couple of things in mind to try and help with the problem. He has plans set up to lower the cost of college, help middle class families afford school, strengthen community colleges, and making the government more transparent so they can be held accountable for the things that they do.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/education/higher-education

The Three Amigos Become a Duo

Since 2002 Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona, Democrat turned Independent Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina have been traveling the globe trying to influence our countries foreign policy. One of the reasons many people trusted them and listened to what they had to say was because they were a bipartisan group. They were not a group from one party trying to get there specific party view out in the world. They were genuinely trying to get done what they thought best for the country.
Sadly, Joseph Lieberman has decided that he is going to retire. So now the group, dubbed the three amigos but Gen. David H. Patraeus, will no longer be bipartisan it will be left with two Republicans. The question on everyone's mind now is whether or not the group will have  as loud of a voice in foreign policy decisions now.
I do not think that they will have as much influence in the process as they did before Lieberman retired. People trusted that they were just trying to do what was best for the country, but now that they are only Republican, people may question their decisions in the future.  It has already been shown that without Lieberman the group lost some of its voice. McCain and Graham joined together with Republican Senator Kelly Ayotte when trying to make a special committee to investigate the attack that happened in Benghazi, Libya. Even with the three pushing it, it did not go through. And even Lieberman has stated that he feels that the group will still be important to the country when it comes to decisions on foreign policy, but that he does not feel that their voice will be heard as loudly as when they were a bipartisan group.

New York Times

Response to a classmates editorial

I completely agree with you on this. I think that marijuana should be legalized. I am not someone who uses marijuana, but I have done research and I feel that the benefits we could receive highly out way any problems that would arise from this.
   First off, one of the benefits would be the increase in money the country could make off of it. After doing some studies and using multiple different variables, studies have shown that the marijuana industry makes anywhere from $1,000,000,000 to $109,000,000,000. If the government would take this substance and regulate it like they would alcohol or cigarettes, they could make a lot of money on the taxes that they could impose on it, helping the country with the current debt we are in.
   Secondly, industries could use the hemp material that you get from marijuana to make cheaper paper, clothing and ropes. It would help with the environment because it is easier to grow, so we could start cutting down less of our precious trees that take years and years to grow back.
   Also, there have been studies that show that marijuana has many health and medical benefits. There are already multiple states that allow marijuana for medical use only. I feel that if we have found something that can help people with many medical issues, why would we try and ban it.
   Finally, it has been shown that marijuana is less dangerous then alcohol and cigarettes. There has never been a case where a person has died from overdose with marijuana. And marijuana does not affect your health like a cigarette does. People also feel it is more dangerous because it causes crime rates to go up, when really there are very few cases of crime where marijuana was involved.

http://www.uri.edu/personal/atro6990

http://www.cnbc.com/id/36179677/How_Big_Is_The_Marijuana_Market
 
Me, the People

Hope for Third and Independent Party Candidates?

       The United States is not a country for third and independent party candidates. The Republicans and Democrats have been our two major parties since the 1800's and it does not look like that is going to change anytime soon. There does seem to be a downward trend in the number of votes third and independent party candidates are receiving each year. But this year the Libertarian Party received the highest number of votes in the Presidential election in their history. Candidate Gary Johnson won 1,139,562, approximately two percent, of the votes across the nation. The highest that had ever been achieved before was 921,128, close to one percent, in 1980 by Ed Clark. Johnson got his highest percentage of votes in Alaska, Maine, Montana, New Mexico, and Wyoming. He got his lowest percentage in Alabama, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, and Wisconsin. Across the nation the Libertarian Party has now achieved qualified party status in five more states.
       There were also some other third party candidates that ran for president this year but they did not fare too well in the election. The fourth runner up Jill Stein of the Green Party received 98,000 votes. The Justice Party's Rocky Anderson won 31,230 votes. And Virgil Goode from the Constitution Party only received 7,800 votes. Compared to the last election votes for third party candidates decreased significantly. In 2008 Independent Ralph Nadar received 672,000 votes, down from the 2.7 million he won in 2000. Bob Barr for the Libertarian Party won 500,000 votes. And the Constitution Party's nominee Chuck Baldwin had won 145,000 votes.
       After learning that approximately thirteen million eligible voters did not go out and vote on Tuesday; I can not help but wonder if there could have been a higher percentage of votes for the third party candidates. I personally knew many people who said if they had voted they would have voted for a third party candidate. The reason many stated they had decided to stay home instead is they knew that the candidate they wanted had no chance in winning the election. I also had people who would have voted for a third party candidate, but instead they voted for one of the two major parties because they did not want the candidate from the other major party to win. Hearing my peers say this upset me tremendously because how is a third party candidate supposed to ever have a chance to win if the people who will vote for them do not go out and do their part? They can only win if we give them our support and go out and mark their name on the ballot. I was sad to see that the numbers for most of the third parties were down, but was ecstatic to see the Libertarian Party's numbers raise compared to last election. I think that if people did their part and believed in our system of election enough, anyone could be voted President and i definitely feel that there is hope for the third and independent parties in the future.
     
     
     
 Sources    

KPCC

IDigital International

Bloomberg Businessweek

The New York Times

The Village Voice Blogs

The Indypendent

Romney "Surprise"

     In the Washington Post Opinions section there is an article about a surprise Romney could use in the debate tonight that would sway many Americans in his favor. The author of the article is Washington Post author Matt Miller. Matt is involved in politics not only by writing for the Washington Post, but he is also a senior fellow of the Center for American Progress. Miller was writing this article for any voting age American who is paying attention to the Presidential elections; but he was mostly targeting Romney supporters.
     The article is about the debate that is going to happen tonight. Miller feel that if Romney is asked about the percentage of taxes people pay, he will state that he has changed his mind on his taxing policy. In the article there is a scenario set up that a woman tells Romney that her family makes $75,000 a year,  but they are still having trouble saving up for a house and a college fund for their kids and are barely making it by. She then asks how it is fair that her family paid a higher rate for taxes the year before then Romney did on his 2 million dollars that he made. After the woman confronts him, Romney will apologize to her and say that she is absolutely correct. He may have said in the past that he would not raise taxes for the upper class, but after a lot of thought and reflection he realizes that he was wrong and he will raises taxes for the upper class when he becomes President. Miller then goes on to state that Obama's only argument would be that Romney has flip-flopped on the issue and never has a clear answer. For some reason Miller feels that this would cause many Americans to sway in favor of Romney.
     I completely disagree with Miller. Romney has gone back and forth on many issues throughout his campaign and just because he says this once during a debate, that does not mean that he will actually do it. I know that would be many Americans that would be swayed by this, but I would need a lot more from Romney to be swayed, not just this one statement.

The Washington Post "Romney's Oct Surprise"

Romney Pulls Ahead

 I read an article from Fox News stating that Romney has now pulled ahead in the polls after his amazing win of the first debate. Romney won 72% to 28%, which is the largest margin of win in the history of the debates. This is an important article because the Presidential election is the most important thing in this country. The fact that we get to vote for our President is an amazing thing and everyone should be paying attention to the debates and the candidates so that they can really vote for the person who they feel will do the best job running our country. I decided to blog about this particular article because like I said, the election is the most important thing in this country. I feel that everyone should be watching who is pulling ahead and if they don't like what they see, then go out and do something in their community to try and get the results they want. That is what is amazing about our country, we can so something about who is going to be our leader, we do not have to just sit around and hope that someone good takes over, we can go out and do something about it.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/10/08/romney-pulls-even-with-obama-in-first-post-debate-gallup-poll/

My Political Bio

Hey there everyone.. My name is Courtney Blackwell and I am doing this blog for my U.S Government class. I am supposed to be writing about my political bio but sadly there is not much to write. I have not yet had the chance to vote, this coming up presidential election will be my first, and I am still not sure on who to vote for because I am not sure on where they stand, or where I stand for that matter. I took the political ideology test and it says that I am post modern. I am pretty sure that that means that I am somewhere in the middle of everything. I am taking this class to learn some more about our government and what it's all about since I now will be able to vote and I need to understand what the candidates are talking about to make the right decision for me. I am also hoping that the discussions in this class will help me to figure out where I am politically and what my beliefs are.