The "Equal Oppurtunity to Govern" Amendment

Most American's are aware of the fact that you need to be a "natural born citizen" to run for president. In today's day and age this rule is very controversial, and everybody has their own opinion... I personally don't agree with the natural-born citizen clause. I understand it's purpose, but it just seems bit hypocritical. I mean, one of the underlying foundations of America is the fact that it's a melting pot. People are allowed to come here from all different ethnicities, and I believe that same mentality should be included when deciding who can run for president. It is for this reason that I agree with the natural-born citizen clause being discriminatory. It doesn't really matter to me where you're from. If you live in America, respect America, and have the skills to lead America, why shouldn't you be allowed to run for president? It makes sense to me...

The Power to Pardon

Wow... this is a really difficult question to answer. I understand that if I were the president the power of pardon would be bestowed upon me, but I would have a tough time using that power. Its sad to say but the prisons scattered across our country are filled the brim with convicts... giving me and me alone the ability to release one particular prisoner just seems like too much of a responsibility for me. This country's government focuses on the idea of never giving too much power to one person, or one branch for that matter. I understand the President of the United States as at the top of the food chain, but the whole concept still just seems out of place. The whole thing also seems kind of barbaric and old-fashioned as well. I mean, when I think about the President's power to pardon, I can't help but imagine the way things were centuries ago. For example, when a Roman emperor would give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to determine whether or not a gladiator would live or not... it just doesn't fit with what our government stands for...

Obama's Most Important Advisors

In my opinion, the most important advisors that Obama is going to need once he has taken his oath are going to be the ones that make up the National Security Council. Our country is unfortunately in pretty rough shape right now, and I feel that this past election is going to make us seem more vulnerable to our enemies. It is for this reason that Obama is going to need to focus on our Country's protection and well being, and the NSC is responsible for those things.

Senior Journal #1

This summer I took course in Washington DC that was part of the NSLC (National Student Leadership Conference). The course itself was approximately two weeks long, and while I was there I learned about the fundamentals of National Security as well as the different Government agencies that work together protect our country. Not only did I hear lectures from some highly distinguished members of our Government, I also had the opportunity to take a tour of many different government agencies themselves. I went to places such as the Pentagon and CIA headquarters and was able to get an interesting but controlled view of how these different factions work.

This entire conference helped me a lot with understanding the steps taken for National security, as well as politics in general. I'll admit that I arrived rather nervous mainly due to the fact that I didn't know much about what the conference was based on. As time progressed however, it became more apparent to me that I wasn't alone in this situation... after all, at the end of the day this whole was conference was a learning experience. This isn't to say that there weren't kids that seemed to be experts on everything that were learning about, but the speeches that were given were accessible to people like me, and I never truly seemed to be in over my head with anything.

Another cool aspect of the conference was the mock National Security Council meetings. After we had learned a decent amount about how the National Security Council operates, we were assigned to new groups (which meant new people that I hadn't met before) and formed our own National Security Council. In these smaller groups, we each had our own roles in and had to perform our own responsibilities under a mock crisis-situation. In these scenarios, the sky was the limit and we were allowed to perform any courses of action we deemed necessary as long as we decided on things as a collective. This was done to ensure realism, and after we had made a decision, we would learn about the consequences of that decision the next day on a National or sometimes even global scale. Near the end of the Conference, all the NSC groups convened and shared their successes and failures.

Overall, the conference I attended helped me immensely in understanding the immensely confusing language that is politics. The fact that this entire program was “kid-oriented” allowed me to get a good grasp on what they were teaching us. I intend to use all the knowledge I gained over the summer as well as the knowledge I'm still gaining right now to help me with my up and coming project.

Obama = our next president.

I didn't find out who officially one the election until this morning on the news, but I was following the poles last night and even then it seemed like a pretty clear-cut election. I don't have any problems with Obama being elected. I respect him, and think he can be a great president. Now that the elections are finally over, and the hype is beginning to wind down, all I can really do is hope that our country stays safe. I also want to mention the speech that McCain after Obama was declared the victor... I was genuinely impressed with McCain's words. He was very mature about how he treated Obama (and maturity is very hard to come by in politics) and was also optimistic about America and the American people. I thought it was interesting how McCain was able to be such a good sport about Obama's victory. I mean, if you really think about it, these guys have been attacking each other left and right... but now that its all over McCain can completely pull a 180 and wish Obama the best of luck. I both respect and admire that.

Is torture a legitimate means of combating terrorism?

1st answer: I said yes. The way I see it, we live in a violent and dangerous world, and thus sometimes I feel it only appropriate that we receive important information via violent and dangerous ways. The key word is sometimes... I don't think we should resort to torture all the time, but it can certainly produce results, and thats the important thing. An interesting thing the opening paragraph told me is that information received from torture is "notoriously unreliable". Thats something to keep in mind.

2nd answer: Yes again. The important thing that is being stressed to me is America's own policies on torture. Thanks to the Geneva Conventions, we must treat POW's humanely. I don't still don't think a little treaty from WWII should affect our outlook on current-day conflicts.

3rd answer: Yes. Once again, times have changed, and our world is still changing. To say that the US can't "stoop to our enemy's level" doesn't make sense to me. Torture, in my opinion, has nothing to with morality and whether or not what you are doing is humane. We can use torture to win, and that is very important.

4th answer: No. I decided to go with no just to see what the rebuttal would be. Now it's saying that information gathered via torture isn't unreliable? That is a total contradiction to what was stated before. Basically, there's no scientific proof of whether or not torture is beneficial.

5th answer: No. This final response was more hypothetical than anything else. It seemed to explain how I felt. When it boils down to it, I believe torture should be admitted, but under extreme conditions. I'm not saying it is respectable to torture someone who being cooperative. When it comes to our enemies that tell us anything, then we need to play a little dirty to achieve results. There isn't really anyway to sugar coat that.

Palin Rally

The Palin Rally was an awesome experience (even though the weather was bad). I think its awesome that both the Democratic and Republican parties held rallies in such a small town like Fredericksburg because a lot of people I know that have gone to have a political rally have had at least some type of commute to deal with. With that being said, the rally also turned out to be just as I expected. Deep down it was just a bunch of people screaming "SARAH!!!!" over and over and again. Honestly... I've found these political rallies (even the RNC and DNC) to be slightly barbaric. I also found it interesting how many people that attended the rally were so one-sided. While waiting in line, Landon was talking about the Obama rally and someone in front of him turned around and got really nasty with him, which I thought to be really immature. I really think people should be more open-minded with others' beliefs... isn't that one of the main ideas that this country is founded on?

Should the voting age be lowered?

I really don't think it should be lowered. It seems to me that age is one of the more commonly debated aspects of every controversial topic, but I don't think it's really that important lower age restrictions or even raise them for that matter. In terms of voting, I don't feel there would be a large turnout of 16 year olds on election day, even if the age restriction was lowered. Politics is one of those things that we become more immersed in as we mature. At a younger age we understand the concept of having a president, but we aren't affected enough to formulate serious ideas about a presidential candidate. I think 18 is a good age to vote because it allows for the voter to have a much more opinion...it's as simple as that. I also think this is the reason Government classes are offered to seniors in high school. If anything, I would say that the age could be lowered to 17, but I don't think lowering the restriction just one year would change the turnout that much.

Should the Electoral College be Reformed?

1st Answer: I said no. I originally made this decision because I'm not very aware of the problems that our election process. I have been learning so much more about our country's election process this year, and thus am a little bit more able to point out some problems I have with it. Up until recently I always just assumed that during the time of an election the American people would simply just check the box next to the name of whoever they were voting for and at the end of the day the majority would win. This is the case, but as I've discovered the whole process is a little bit more complex than that. Its the electoral votes that confuse me the most... apparently George W. Bush had received less votes from the people but still won the election? That doesn't seem right...

2nd Answer:Yes. I said yes because of the whole situation of electoral votes being the final say in a popular election. I don't really agree with that. Something for me to consider however is that America is not a complete democracy... I thought that we were a democracy, but apparently our government just have some democratic characteristics? That kind of changes my opinion seeing that my original answer was biased from the idea of us being a true democracy.

3rd Answer: I said no. I simply figured that things have been working pretty well for the most part right now, so why should we reform the way our country's government works? Hasn't our government been one of the things that we are the most proud of?
4th Answer: I still said no. This argument is getting a little confusing.

5th Answer: I still said no because I accept that nothing can ever be truly perfect. No matter what I would have said this website would have disagreed. I believe that there will always be discrepancies in every government that exists because thats just the way we are. Seeing that government plays a large role in all our lives, it would be only natural for us to try and criticize anything that has control over us in any way. That, to me, is human nature.

Interest Group Participation

Much has already been done to try and make interest groups as fair and as equal as possible... but I think the real problem is that there are sooooo many of them. I understand that having the ability to start up an interest group is one of the main aspects of our constitutional right, but it is extremely difficult to have both equal opportunity and control over a very wide range of groups that focuses on many different things that vary in importance.

Midterm Blog

Even after learning so much about both politics and the presidential campaign, I still would have to say that I don't have a definite answer for who I would vote for. When it boils down to it, I'm really not overly-impressed with anyone of the candidates in particular. I both agree with some of their beliefs and disagree as well... for the sake of this blog however, I admit that I would probably end up voting for Obama. I just feel that, between the two, he would be the best leader to have. Though he doesn't have much of what McCain would call a "track-record", he seems to offer more of what I agree with in terms of the war in Iraq and the safety of our environment. Another thing that I want to point out is that it's possible I'm being slightly blinded by his seemingly sincere words of leadership. There is no doubt about it that this man is a leader, and one thing that I always notice about him is that to me he looks presidential. I know that looks can be deceptive, but it is still important to note that the way he presents himself reflects on how much I trust him. There are also things about his policies that other people strongly disagree with, and I simply don't have to deal with... things such as raising taxes. Some people have a serious problem with that, but I don't have to as much because I don't have to pay taxes yet.

2nd Presidential Debate

I really wasn't impressed with last night's debate. I had high hopes for it mainly because of I thought that the "open ended" approach would shed some new information on the candidates. Sadly, I didn't hear anything new... I didn't necessarily think that the questions were bad, but they probably could have been better. I understand that both the candidates have to play dirty to some extent, but I really find it immature when McCain says that Obama signed off on this way back when or when Obama tells us that McCain voted for something and thus he can't lead the country. The whole thing is just getting a little repetitive to me, and I'm ready for the actual election to commence. On a positive note... I did like the variety between the moderator asking the questions as well as the audience. I thought that it was pretty balanced.

VP Debate

I watched about an hour of the debate last night, and from what I got out of it, I can't say if there was a definite winner. If I had to choose, I would say that Biden was the most grounded, but at the same time Palin surpassed my expectations. The biggest problem I had with the debate was how the questions were addressed. Neither of the two candidates seemed to actually answer the questions, and they constantly seemed to be going around in circles...

Political Humor

Simple political cartoon that shows a "thumbs down" that has written on it the reason as to why our economy is in bad shape. The purpose of this cartoon is to show that our country needs more leadership and less arguments from the many politicians that "lead" our country.

http://www.politicalcartoons.com/cartoon/5d007e35-f2ef-4740-b387-66cf9dcd56de.html

Who do I agree with about our environment?

After studying both Barack Obama and John McCain's plans for our enviroment, I find it tough to simply decide on just one or the other. Each candidate, in my opinion, has certain traits that I like and others that I dislike. If I had to choose one however, I'd probably lean towards McCain's ideas. I think this is partially due to the fact that I have done more research on him than Obama, and thus know a little bit more about his plans. As I said before, there are certain things that I agree with on McCain, and there are others that I don't. For example, I definately support his ideas of discovering cleaner alternative sources of energy, but I don't think his "clean car challenge" will be very sucessful. If it truly has a lot of potential, I do support his plan for putting a greater emphasis on coal and its qualities.

Issues that matter to me

The war in Iraq
Our country's economy
Immigration

Liberal

I was classified as a liberal after taking the quiz yesterday. I was honest with all of my answers, and the description that was given to me seemed to make sense. The one thing that I need to keep in mind however is that my answers to these questions my vary from time to time. It is for this reason that I feel I can change from liberal to conservative...

Republican Convention Blog

I was able to watch the Republican Convention in bits and pieces whenever I could, and I noticed that it was very similar Democratic Convention is some ways, even though the faction and its beliefs were entirely different. The Republicans spoke about their strengths and how much McCain would help the country if he was elected. I found the beginning of Palin's speech to be overly corny when she was introducing her family and everyone was smiling through their teeth. Once again the energy was high throughout the course of the convention, and it's obvious that each candidate has his own group of followers. What I am curious about however is how many people changed sides from one group to another after these conventions. I believe that is what would measure true success. Watching these conventions was an entirely new experience for me, and it helped with my undertanding of our country's political process.

Democratic Convention Blog (Revised)

I found that the DNC had a combination of positive and negative traits (just as I expected). I did find the speeches to be both passionate and informative, and was particularly impressed with both Michelle and Barack Obama's speeches, as well as Joe Biden's. Although the amount of energy both the candidates and the crowd had at the convention was exciting, I found it to be a little too extreme after a while. I mean, for something as serious as a political convention, the whole thing seemed too much like a rock concert with people yelling and screaming the whole time...

Post #2

The stadium where the convention was held was HUGE! Obama's speech wasn't overly impressive to me, he just seemed to talk about the same stuff as everyone else...

Post #1

I was very impressed with Joe Biden's speech on Weds night. This was the first time I had ever heard him speak to an audience, and I found him to be both very charismatic and appealing.