Current Events: Financial and Immigration reform

Earlier today, the senate voted against opening up discussion on financial reform which would aim to prevent the need of future bail outs of Wall street by Washington D.C. Republicans have been cited as the party which blocked the vote from passing. I think that it would be safe to say that this "no" trend coming from the republican party can be expected to continue through out the rest of Obama's presidency. Unless of course they win back a majority in November which will change the way the legislation is written and then the "no" torch will be passed to Obama in the form of his veto pen. While republicans defended what could have been a national toss up in opinion on healthcare reform, it is my opinion that Americans overwhelmingly want financial regulation reform to prevent wasteful allocation of their tax dollars. The on the street consensus is that those guys have way to much power and money for it to continue like it is. They either need to be broken up or have restrictions on how they conduct business.

Edit: Just days later, Republicans decided not to filibuster the vote which would open up debate on financial reform. In my opinion this was a wise decision for republicans seeing that financial reform is extremely popular with the american people. Republicans already have a bad stigma associated with their party about them being in bed with big business. This was especially driven home during the bush era when the vice president Dick Cheney gave huge government contracts to companies he was formerly associated with.

Also, Goldman Sachs is being criminally investigated for knowingly selling bad investments while claiming that they were AAA rated. This criminal investigation and the oil spill has caused setbacks in the stock market.

Moving on to immigration reform, Arizona just passed a state wide immigration reform bill which makes it a state crime to be an illegal immigrant. Here is president Obama's response to its passage.

While I would agree with the racial profiling injustice this bill would create, I hardly think that enforcement agencies are going to be raiding homes and cars in search of illegal immigrants. What is likely to happen is that they are going to continue their border security and stop people along the border who are traveling. When caught as an illegal alien this new law allows for harsher punishment. This will reduce the amount of illegal crossing along the Arizona border which was the intention of the bill.

Protest movements against the bill have started up across the country and is now officially condemned by the government of Mexico. One such protest resulted in a conflict between police and protesters in which the protesters threw water bottles at law enforcement agents.

Opinion section

Personally I feel that in order to get a grip on the immigration issue facing the country right now we would first need to get complete control of our southern border. The border fence along with increased man power on the ground and in the air could accomplish this. Requesting national guard presence for some length of time would be ideal as well. Not only would this stop the flow of illegal aliens to and from the united states, but it would also decrease the flow of illegal narcotics.

Once the border is stable, immigration can be re opened the legal way which is encouraged by the United States. Personally I think that this country needs passion and motivation which are displayed in the attitudes by Mexican immigrants coming to this country today. To many people have become apathetic and have no real motivation where as immigrant workers are some of the hardest most motivated people that I have ever seen. We need more Americans like that but it must be done in an orderly fashion to give our system time to deal with he mas influx of people to the united states.

Government out of Control

For decades (perhaps forever) there has been a feeling among a portion of Americans who think that our government is too big and is beyond the control of the people. Just recently in the past couple of years this sentiment has grown even stronger with outrages including wasteful spending and unfair taxation as the focal point of concern. Careers in Politics has Decided to give its own take on the issue and how others are perhaps using it for ends that have nothing to do with the mean.

I will admit that I personally think that the way our government operates is not effective. One of my good friends said, " bureaucracy is expanding to meet the demands of expanding bureaucracy." I found this statement to not only be humorous but also a good explanation of how broken our government actually is. In my own opinion, most of the problems facing our nation have stemmed solely from the governments expansion into the lives of the American people. Then again, one must ask, what do we want from our government. Is it that Americans are so divided in that basic issue? Or is it actual corruption that is making our government ineffective? For example, some argue that our income tax laws have created a group of people with no shared responsibility in our government’s finances. The 50 percent of Americans who pay no income tax, or actually receive money from the government being this group. I personally agree with this theory because I was genuinely ticked off when I had to pay 115 dollars in income tax last week. Why was I ticked off? I was ticked because pretty much nothing the government spends its money on, is something that I agree with. Think about this, to half of the American population, tax day is a holiday. They GET money. I am sorry, but every American should be on the same page as his fellow American for us to work as a nation. And if I am cursing tax day while one is rejoicing it, we are obviously living in two different Americas. I could compare this to the civil rights movement in that our nation was not working with two groups of Americans, one with rights, the others with out them. Now it is one with chips in the game, one with out. This notion that government in general means something different to different people is very troubling to me. How can we ever agree as a nation when one side says yes please and the other side ends up footing the bill. Keep in mind, a High schooler making 7000 a year is apart of that group who is paying the bill. WHO are these people? I don't get it. I simply do not understand how we can continue this corruption. After the feelings I had on tax day, I don't understand how it has gone on for so long. How people have continued to pay their taxes and swallowed the fact that half the country does not pay anything, and that the money that is being taken from them is being completely and utterly wasted. The old problem of Taxation with out representation has turned into representation with out Taxation.

Moving away from philosophical analysis of the issue, some are using this recent jump in anti government activity for their own personal gain. Certain individuals and organizations come to mind such as Sarah Palin and fox news. Fox news as I pointed out earlier, is backing a movement which they once shot down in the form of a political candidature known as Ron Paul. Sarah Palin tried to swindle the Tea Party into following her but failed in that 47 percent of the Tea Party has no support for Palin what so ever.

Other prominent names in politics such as former president bill Clinton has told the anti government activists to calm down in fear that this anger could cause violence reminiscent of the Oklahoma City bombings. Oh wait..... it already has. Does anyone remember that guy who flew his plane into the IRS? The anger isn't what is causing the violence, it’s the situation that is being presented to the people of the United States. A crummy forecast is going to make people mad and want to change things. Violence is not the option that should be on the table but it’s really not that surprising that people are lashing out. Should all violence be condemned? I think not. Violence is a last resort when faced with violent oppression. Should a lone domestic terrorist who had beef with the IRS be condoned? No. Fact is, our human rights are not being infringed on, just our pocket books.

Career Opportunity Review: Congressional Intern

I first had the idea to review this potential career in politics because it would seem like a very natural position for someone right out of college or perhaps still attending college would get into. In my opinion it would seem to be a good way to get to know some of the finer points in Washington while working with an elected official. After some informal research, this is what I found out about congressional interns.

They read and respond to tons of mail. Every letter/Email is read and replied by interns.

Interns spend lots of time researching current legislation and the view points associated with it.

Inters write local newspaper columns.

Guide visiting constituents through the Capitol

Here is a personal experience that I read about being a congressional intern. " I got to see, first hand, how our government works. I learned that a lot of the work that goes into passing legislation is done by very talented and dedicated people that are younger than I am right now. And, at least 15 years ago, the future of our country seemed to be in very good hands. I also learned that Congressmen are very adept at staying abreast of many issues and juggling the many concerns from their districts. They earn every cent that they make! I also had a ton of fun hanging out with the other interns who I worked and lived with, and tried to experience every facet of Washington D.C. life

My Congressional Internship was unforgettable, and provided invaluable experiences that would not have been possible anywhere else! I would recommend a Capital Hill Internship even to those who are not interested in pursing a career in the political or public service area. A D.C. internship ship set me apart from other job applicants right out of college and has opened doors that otherwise would have been closed. I should mention that this internship was unpaid, as were most of them, but some did pay enough to let you eat. In addition, you may receive from college credits for your work (if you happen to be currently enrolled in college at the time, that is).

So, if you have ever given this type of experience any thoughts, my advice is to jump on the opportunity! Almost all Congressmen and Senators employ summer interns, as do many lobbying organizations, and of course, the White House (be careful there!). The experience will be invaluable! Good luck!"

LA Times reports on the composition of the Tea Party

Tea Party members are normal Americans not the racists that so many claim. Click here
The LA times has been pegged as having a left leaning bias so for them to report a poll on a conservative esk movement truthfully is a testament to the polls accuracy.

It is very timely for this unbiased polling to be released today right after I posted about how the members of the tea party are just like every other american and are not "crazy". The polls show that 41 percent of the tea party movement is comprised of democrats or independents.

Just staying one step ahead of the news cycle right here on Careers in Politics, hahaha.

Career Current Events Tie In

Pretty much everywhere I go these days I am hearing something positive or negative about the tea party. Fox News sings their praises and MSNBC hates their guts. Ironically enough however Fox News did everything in their power to stone wall a certain political candidate in the 2008 election, Ron Paul, whose supporters pretty much formed the tea party after his defeat. MSNBC has been covering the same story on almost every single line up they have of a graphic Sarah Palin used on her website to rally the tea party to "target" certain politicians in the up coming election. While what I linked was not MSNBC, its no surprise that the same story is being run on the Huffington Post as well.

More down to earth criticism of the Tea Party has come from a particular teacher of mine. His criticism was more of a indoctrinating smear campaign that has taken pot shots at them all year long and just recently came to a head when he called them "the crazies" and claimed "they don't have a clue". He made this discovery when he went down to Iowa City to watch the presidents healthcare victory speech and saw several hundred Tea Party protesters.

I mean come on, he is an economics teacher. If anything his comments should be limited to the economic policies that the tea party would implicate if they could and the positives and negatives of such a policy. Instead he reserves at least 10 mins of every class for an open discussion which basically degrades to a 10 minute listen to what the teacher thinks about everything. He claims and I quote, that " I am in the top tier of people who actually understand whats goin on here". He uses that claim, his general knowledge and his position as a "cool" teacher to sway student opinion. No objectivity. None. Never.

As for my personal opinion of the Tea Party, I think that they are a pretty interesting group of people and I have actually attended a national rally of theirs while touring Washington DC during July Forth of 2009. I know from actual experience that most of these Tea Partyers are no different than anyone else. Their success is just having the unfortunate side effect of getting them both biased negative and positive attention from the media outlets. No matter who says what about them, the Tea Party does have influence over the political atmosphere in the United States and has backed and financially supported several candidates who have won elections. Most famously was Scott Brown of Massachusetts who won Ted Kennedy's seat. He was funded in part by the Tea Party.

Game Change Section Reaction

When I first started reading Game Change I was worried that it would be a boring chronical of the events of the 2008 presidential election. I can safely say that my fear of such a reality has been settled with Game Change's interesting behind the scenes analysis and unveiling of relationships that the mainstream media did not cover. For example as soon as Obama won the Iowa caucus, John Edwards staff contacted the Obama campaign and said they would be ready and willing to offer a Vice Presidential position from John Edwards. Such volatility in the early stages of a presidential campaign create interesting scenarios in which nothing is certain. The Clinton campaign was so pissed off at Obama's Iowa victory that they immediately brought the accusation of cheating to the table. They were unwilling to come to terms that they were throughly beaten and were now left with minimal funds and a third place finish. Ironically enough years earlier Hilary Clinton made numerous fundraising appearances in behalf of Obama's Senate election.

The first mention of a republican was a one liner which had a mud slinging tone. They noted that John McCain never made an attempt in Iowa and instead was in a town hall meeting that night telling an anti war protester that he was "fine with having troops in Iraq for the next hundred years". Zero context, the question was not included nor was a complete quote provided. I looked at the authors note to see who was behind this book and I found that both TIME and New York magazine were at the wheel. Time of course being the magazine which for awhile someone could play the odds on Obama's face being on their cover. Thats right, 24 appearances. Check out this cool TIME magazine appearance count bar graph. Click here.

Sarah Palin Institutionalized

A recent article from the Huffington Post reported that Sarah Palin was recently institutionalized to a rehabilitation center for excessive use of pain killers. Of all the Palin scandals from her pregnat daughter to corruption as the Governor of Alaska this one takes the cake hands down. Who would of thought that a conservative figure head had serious addiction issuses to pain killers. This just throws every ounce of her credibility in the toilet, considering that this is obviously an April Fools joke. Have a nice day.

Obama Campaign uses Biden Gaff as Fundraiser

While perusing foxnews.com, I noticed this article exposing an interesting twist in the Biden gaff during Obamas signing of the Health Care bill. The Obama re election campaign is using the situation to sell tee shirts which say, Health care, its a BFD. Of course this is reffering to Bidens comment "This is a big fucking deal". Tee shirt sales will go to fund Obamas re election campaign in 2012. I find this to be a savy move by obama by embracing the crowd which isnt uptight about obsene language and is also using the situation to raise money. Well done Obama