Congressional Lesson: Case for a Third Party

image from politico.com

During the last presidential election, I tried to spread a single point across my personal social circle as well as social media. Everyone seemed to be focused on reelecting President Obama or Governor Romney, but almost nobody was looking at the alternatives. I said it then, and I still say that the two party system of government in our country has the capability of doing far more harm than any one man ever could.

Now we find ourselves in a government shutdown and on the path to “falling off the fiscal cliff.” We want to blame our federal government, but what could we have done differently? Did we not vote our leaders into office?

People are often afraid to commit to any third party often because the simply doubt a third party could ever be as popular or powerful as the Republican or Democrat parties. That is the beauty behind this concept. 

Third parties never have to be the majority in order to be effective. They simply have to be strong enough to make sure no single party has over 50% of the House of Representatives or the Senate.

This scenario would help to eliminate the deadlock that is often associated with party line voting in Congress. It is up to us. We have the ability to change the future for our children and grandchildren. 

What do you guys think?

6 Steps to Building a Better Tomorrow

To everyone that actually cares:

I saw a video on a blog this morning that identified a liberal city councilwoman in Denver who was trying to change the behavior of the city’s citizens. That was the point of the video anyway. It was really a 15 second clip of a woman that said she wanted to put a small tax on plastic grocery bags so people will start using reusable ones instead.

The sad thing is that people actually responded to that message. People get caught up with the petty things in our politics and fail to see the things that actually matter. They let the media tell them what their feelings are because they are too lazy to figure it out for themselves. They think they are too far outside and do not have the wisdom to have an original opinion.

As most of you know, I am conservative. I am only mentioning this to express my lack of bias in this particular case. I am getting sick of the country that I love. I have been a public servant for almost as long as I have been of the age to do so and I think we need a change. This change isn’t going to come from politicians on any side, but from the people.

Change. The word reminds me of President Obama’s 2008 campaign for election. The reason it was successful is because all Americans have a deep desire for something different. He tapped into that beautifully, but the execution has been horrible.

Our forefathers created this “Great Experiment” in hopes that things would be different. They even wanted a change back then, and it was unforeseeably successful. They created a nation that could rule itself with structure.

The President is not supposed to be the most important governing position in our country. When President George Washington designed our nation’s capital, there is a reason that he put Congress on the hill and the White house off to the side. There is a reason that the capital building is the tallest in the district. There is a reason that the President is sworn in on the Capital steps. Our legislature is what was designed to set our country apart from the rest of the world. It has also had a hand in making things how they are today.

The biggest problem is with the political parties. I’ve said it before, and I will continue to say it. No one person can really cause that much trouble for our country. Even so, we are at the mercy of the two main parties for our choice. These days, we aren’t picking the best person possible for any political office. We are only picking out of the two that their respective parties think would be most likely to win. So many of our history’s great leaders wouldn’t even be options today. Instead, we get cookie-cutter candidates who are puppets to the polls and political parties.

The power to make a change has always been with the citizens, but we have either been too afraid or too ignorant to do so. I challenge all of you with this:

1. Demand that your respective political party give you better representatives for your needs.

2. Demand that your peers stop focusing on silly little jabs at the opposition.

3. Tell Fox News and MSNBC to start giving you unbiased news that actually matters to you.

4. If any of the above is unsuccessful, have the courage to look for alternatives.

5. Encourage the people you care about to do the same.

6. Encourage your children to become hard working, self-sustaining adults that are true to their word and their families.

We can make the changes that we have been looking to our political leaders to make. After all, we are the ones who put them there. The power is ours. We need to stop complaining and do something about our situation. They might be the board of directors, but we are certainly the shareholders in this organization.

George Zimmerman: Not Guilty In Trayvon Martin Case

As the old adage says, the jury is out. George Zimmerman was found not guilty for murdering Trayvon Martin in a case that we have been force-fed by the media for the past year. During that time, an estimated 16 thousand or more other people were killed in the United States and there were about 2 million emergency room visits due to assault, according to homicide statistics from cdc.org.

Why are we hearing more about this case? Some would say it is due to the possible race or racial profiling implications that may have been involved. Do I think it was about race? I have no clue, but that really doesn’t matter. If the media says it could be about race, people watch it, ratings increase, and the networks drag it on until the horse is dead, buried, and in horsey heaven.

It may very well have been about racial profiling, but it could also have been about someone dressed like they were up to no good and physically assaulting an armed neighborhood watchman. I don’t care what color you are. If you beat me up while I am volunteering to protect my block from bad guys, I might shoot you.

mediamatters.org

In even greater news, Geraldo Rivera was looking especially authoritative in his report on the verdict this morning. I have also received confirmation that his legendary mustache is indeed controlled by the strings attached to his eye brows and disheveled hair – thus adding to the suspicion that Geraldo’s mustache is actually the real television personality and the rest of his face is just a necessary vehicle for success. Another fun fact: Geraldo is 70 years old! Who knew?

-BCS

(Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman, Murder, Not Guilty, Acquitted, Geraldo Rivera)

Make them Legal! Why not?

wilsoncenter.org

Many of you have been following the “gang of eight” and the new immigration bill that is making its way through Congress right now. I have been trying to read the details of the bill from both sides, just to make sure I am getting as much of the information as possible. I find that I have to do that these days in order to cut through the political bias that the media pours on us.

Getting back to the topic, I want to provide a little bit of my personal back story on this issue. As many of you know, I am conservative. That said, my initial reaction shouldn’t be too much of a shock to anyone. I was completely appalled by the idea of making all the illegal immigrants legal, which was the main focus of the bill from the start.

Eventually, I took the time to really think about what that would mean. The biggest argument for immigration reform is that the illegal immigrants weren’t paying taxes, yet were draining from our budget through social programs and the prison system. Don’t get excited at that last remark. I didn’t come up with the idea.

So it finally dawned on me – the illegal immigrants would become legal and have to pay taxes. Isn’t that a success story? Doesn’t that solve the biggest problem? The only other major issue I can think of is the sudden saturation in the market when it comes to low income jobs. I am no economist by any means, but if more people are making more money and putting it back into the economy, isn’t that a good thing?

If the illegal immigrants become legal and have the ability to make more money for their skills, couldn’t that bring the trades back? That is an issue that I have been passionate about for years.

What do you guys think? This is only my analysis of the bill when it comes to the legalization process. As I find time, I will try to pick through the other parts of the bill.

- BCS

Oklahoma Tornadoes: What THEY Want You to Feel

news.yahoo.com

First, I want to say that I feel deeply sorry for all of those people who lost their loved ones in this horrible tragedy. I have and will continue to pray for the comfort and resolution needed to deal with that sort of loss.

I have been watching the news quite a bit lately (as always), and I have been very surprised by some of the ways that the media has tried to spin public interest. When did we get to the point that we needed the media to tell us how to feel about a devastating tornado or other tragedies?

When I was watching CNN about two days ago, I saw a woman come on and complain about FEMA. She said that the money that people would be getting from FEMA would be better used to build storm shelters for each home. She at least pretended to think it was wrong that the organization would help people rebuild their houses without providing them the added benefit of something they didn’t have before. Would insurance cover it? Why should FEMA be responsible for upgrading your home? Is it their fault that you didn’t build some sort of shelter the last time a tornado hit? Is it the tax payers’ fault? If I were involved in something that catastrophic, I would hope to think that I would be grateful for anything I got.

Another thing that the media has forgotten to talk about is insurance. If you live in a place that constantly has natural disasters, you should probably invest in it. I don’t want to sound cold, but if you decided not to cover yourself with homeowner or rental insurance in order to save a little bit of money, I consider that irresponsible and I have a very hard time feeling sorry for your material losses.

Later on another broadcast, the anchors were talking to an expert of some sort (probably simply survived a natural disaster at some point in their lives) and asked why the state or local governments did not require storm shelters or storm cellars to be built for every home. Really? Now you want the government telling you another criterion for living your own life? Just take your FEMA money or insurance claim and build one yourself. That is what I would do (aside from moving). If you feel like your insurance company is trying to cheat you out of money after filing a claim, you should probably get a good attorney (they already did).

Why is it that during and directly after the tornadoes, the major cable networks were pretending to be talking to the actual people on the ground during the coverage? They said things like, “Please take cover and protect your families” and “Do not go outside for any reason.” Did anyone else recognize the false show of support that the news anchors were showing toward people without working electricity to power their televisions? Some people didn’t even have natural gas to warm water or anything. They did the same thing with the flooding that happened the next day. We see what you are doing there, news guys.

What do you guys think about it? Am I going overboard here? Does anybody else notice that the media capitalizes on tragedies in order to increase ratings? Let me know in the comments section down below.