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