Iraq

On March 19th, 2003 the United States went to war with Iraq. The idea of invading Iraq seemed foolish to me initially. We spent so much time attempting to convince the rest of the world that Iraq was a threat and had taken part in 9/11 and yet only diehard allies to the U.S. were willing to follow us there. If the evidence was really there that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction then why couldn’t we convince the rest of the world to join us? This made me very suspicious. But I didn’t have a say in it and we went anyway. So we’re there and we have to make the best of it, right? Three and a half years and 2,711 dead American soldiers later and there still seems to be no end in sight. How does this end well for us? What do we consider a victory at this point? I know we can’t leave for a while, but when is it time to get out? I worry that the situation could deteriorate into a Vietnam like conflict. If this happens, at what point do we cut our losses and bring our boys home? Ideally, we leave the country with the ability for its military to police itself. But how much time and how many American bodies is that worth? I don’t want anyone to get the idea that I’m in favor of withdrawing our troops anytime soon, but it really doesn’t seem like there is a timeline for our withdrawal and that makes me more than a little nervous.

-Hogan

Political Online Reputation

Campaign Finance Reform and New Jersey's Clean Elections

The McCain-Feingold bill has banned soft money -- unlimited contributions made to a particular political party. But what if we took that one step further and only allowed small chunks of money, mostly from individuals, to be donated to a campaign? Well that's exactly what New Jersey aims to do with their 2007 Fair and Clean Elections Pilot Project.

The Project was approved in 2004 for two New Jersey districts to allow public funding for Assembly candidates who have raised 1,000 $5 contributions and 500 $30 contributions from district voters. With adequate community support, those running for office also qualify for funds from the NJ Election Law Enforcement Commission.

This is a great way to get big money special-interests out of the political process. It allows those seeking office to run without the help of wealthy individuals and corporations. The process also places more importance on volunteers and grassroots politicking.

"This is a public investment in cleaning up the culture of corruption," said New Jersey Assemblyman Bill Baroni (R-Mercer). Bill Baroni is a member of the New Jersey Citizens' Clean Elections Commission and is willing to run under the Clean Election rules in 2007. Baroni believes the program pays for itself by inducting candidates who won’t reimburse their donors with costly public favors.

-Dippold

political online reputation

Voter Identification

The House approved a bill Wednesday requiring voters in the 2008 federal elections to present a picture ID, and by 2010 proof of citizenship is required. The Senate may pick up the legislation next session.

Supporters say this is the only way to prevent fraud at the polls. The measure is mostly supported by Republicans who claim its purpose is to keep noncitizens from voting and deter the overall laxity of the voting system.

Opponents suspect Republicans of actually preventing citizens from voting. Those who most likely would have difficulty receiving an ID -- minorities, the poor and the elderly -- would be shut down when trying to vote.

Even though the bill stipulates that those who can't afford an ID will be provided one for free by the state, this is a silly issue. This whole notion seems somewhat like the Orwellian national ID cards proposed in Great Britain. Just another way to possibly invade privacy by creating a potential national database complete with photographs.

-Dippold

political online reputation

How Soon is Too Soon?

The five year anniversary of 9/11 was a week ago so it seems a little appropriate to speak about it now. I’m recently bothered by the films released earlier this year pertaining to the tragedies of that day. I haven’t seen either United 93 or World Trade Center, and I really do not care to. It is five years later but they still seem opportunistic. I might feel different if Nicholas Cage did the movie for free or if the studio donated all the profits to a disaster relief charity, but as long as anybody is making any money off these movies I will be strongly opposed to them. A few days ago I saw a commercial that featured footage from 9/11. I couldn’t hear the commercial at the time so I was unaware of whom it was promoting or attacking. After a quick internet search I found a liberal leaning blog that had the commercial posted to it. The blog says the commercial was made by the Center for Security Policy and that it was meant to attack antiwar lawmakers. I think the Center views the ad as being “about the nature of our war against Islamofascism”, but the link on their site is broken so I cannot confirm that we’re talking about the same ad. I find this ad so disturbing that I’m not going to post it on this here. If you want to see it you can go to the blog I mentioned earlier. 9/11 was such a sad day in our nation’s history and I really can’t understand how anybody can use anything that happened that day for their own advancement. I suppose the ad isn’t supposed to help the CSP but rather the candidates it supports. Still, it is sickening and disappointing to see such a tragedy being exploited for political or commercial purposes.

-Hogan

Political Online Reputation

My Name a Borat

Looks like the upcoming Borat movie will cause a White House summit. Outraged over Sacha Baron Cohen's portrail of Kazakhstan, the nation's President Nazarbayev plans to meet with Bush to discuss the topic along with oil supply. In the upcoming movie "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" Baron Cohen depicts the Asian country as backwards and pokes fun at gypsies and women.

Now Sacha Baron Cohen makes fun of just about everybody possible: whites, blacks, homosexuals, the Jewish community, the list goes on and on. So what is the problem with his portrayal of Kazakhstan? Nothing. It is all in good fun and betting that all sorts of groups will get lampooned, the movie will be funny. It should offend everyone.

Cohen says his work is a 'dramatic demonstration of how racism feeds on dumb conformity as much as rabid bigotry'. He is Jewish, raised by Orthodox parents and still practices his religion so it would be hard to call him an anti-Semite. People need to lighten up sometimes and be able to laugh at themselves.

-Dippold

Update: ABC News reports that the topic of Borat will not be a part of the summit.

Political Online Reputation

Beer + Barbecue + Idiots = Political Arguments and Some Guy Who Fell on his Ass

I got into a wonderful little argument this past weekend concerning immigration. The boys and I were drinking (go figure) at the tailgate and we somehow got started on a conversation about the War in Iraq. One guy mentioned that while he isn’t a republican he would probably vote that way in the coming elections. His reasoning was based on Democrats stances on the War and immigration policy. We went a couple rounds on the War and then we did a couple on immigration, although, I’m not really sure what the big deal is.

Here are some of my friends concerns:
1) Illegals committing crimes
2) Illegals not paying taxes and sending all the money they make back home to Mexico
3) Illegals wanting to protest
4) It’s illegal

My responses:
1) I understand the concerns about illegal immigrants committing crimes. Somebody attempted to quote me a statistic saying that approx. 90% of illegal immigrants in jail committed violent crimes. I’m not sure I believe this, but I don’t know where to get statistics like this (I’m not sure anybody reads this blog yet, but if you do and you know where to find stats like this, let me know). I too am concerned about illegals committing violent crimes, and if I thought that effectively closing the borders would substantially decrease the amount of violent crimes in America then I would be all for that. A) I’m not entirely sure there would be a decrease and B) I’m not entirely sure it would be possible to effectively close the borders. The U.S./Mexico border is over 2000 miles long. I have no doubt that it could be done, but the time, and effort, and money that would be needed to do this job right, in my mind, negates the impact.
2) The guys I was arguing with said that there isn’t a significant economic benefit to the United States to keeping the borders open. I countered with a statistic I remember reading a few years ago that said for every job someone comes over here and takes they create two. I don’t know if is still or was ever true. If it is, then the economic benefits are obvious. Aside from the fact that Mexican immigrants are typically finding jobs in America that Americans don’t want. So I say let ‘em have them. But they’re not paying taxes and they’re receiving the benefits of our social welfare programs. So instead of figuring out a way to lock them out, figure out a way to get your damn taxes. But they send all their money back to Mexico. I don’t care. That means they’re building the wealth of that nation, and the more they do that the less they’ll need to come over here to get jobs.
3) One of the guys got pissed off because he had seen a protest in Chicago of illegals protesting some immigration reform. He wasn’t real specific and he didn’t need to be. His point was is that you’re here illegally, so you don’t get to bitch about the process. My thought on this is that if somebody wants to participate in an American political process where something like 30% of eligible voters actually do vote, then let them. More power to them. The political process in this country is broken. Citizens are apathetic and jaded and don’t feel like they make a difference. If someone comes over here and has something to say, if someone thinks they can make a difference, then kudos to them, they’ve just earned the right to protest. It kills me that these white, suburban kids are bitching that illegals are protesting when they themselves have never protested.
4) The point we kept coming back to was that it was against the law for them to be here, at which, point I had to keep reminding them that we were all drunk in public, that we had a keg we were breaking the law to have, that we drive too fast and that sometimes we litter. We break the law, almost every single one of us, and if it doesn’t hurt anybody then we don’t care all that much. Who cares if an illegal’s only crime is that they came here?

That is my immigration rant. I’d really like to understand this issue a little better. Please give me more sides and arguments. I don’t feel I understand enough about this issue. What are the other questions and concerns? I want to know. Maybe I’ll tell you what we had to say about the War in my next post. How original, a blog about the War in Iraq

-Hogan

Political Online Reputation

More Poll and Voting Tools

Today MSNBC rolls out its new Politics Page. NBC News teams up with the National Journal to bring together all of the site's political news and offer interactive features. Up-to-the-minute news and a new discussion area should make this a site to watch.

A similar project -- joining C-Span and CQ -- is Campaign Network. It has Capital news; CQ Political headlines; C-Span video covering debates, campaign ads and politics; and the ever popular interactive map showing the current and projected political landscape.

Slate's Election Scorecard bills itself: "Where the Elections Stand Today". Based on current polling data the site attempts to predict the outcome of the house, senate and gubernatorial races. You can also drill down to see details -- consisting of an elaborate line-based chart.

On a more comprehensive polling tip there is Pollster. This site contains more data than Slate's. It reveals who the pollster is, the number of people in the poll and the method. The data reaches all the way back to April.

Finally there is the voting resource Can I Vote? The National Association of Secretaries of State brings this site to those of us who would like to find out if they can vote, what kind of ID to bring and where and when to vote. It even reveals how to be a poll worker on Election Day.

-Dippold

Political Online Reputation