I love the changing tide of politics! Youth are finally starting to get involved, to better us as a country, to move us toward equality. With the way things are going in the United States, I hope it doesn’t take another Civil War or some kind of socialist/communist revolution for the leaders to pay attention and start making changes.

Our middle class is virtually gone, wage disparity is at the highest level in history, the baby boomers are starting to retire and by 2050 Anglo-Europeans will be the ethnic/racial minority. We can’t keep having business as usual if we’re going to survive as a country, we need to change an adapt to the needs and demands of our population. Do you hear that Speaker Boehner? Do you hear the Sarah Palin and other GOP politicians?

Here are two interesting blurbs I saw on Facebook today:

In regards to this: http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2011/02/03/why-was-cowboys-stadium-exempt-from-blackouts/

In regards to: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/behind-the-numbers/2011/01/about_a_third_of_americans_say.html

We, as a generation, need to realize that passive apathy isn’t going to work any more. If we want to keep America as we know it – freedom, plenty, decent education – we need to use our political voice for change. Otherwise I’ll see you guys in the toilet paper line in the USSA in about 20 years.

Most of my life I have been very critical of “illegal immigrants” ruining our country. I thought they were a terrible menace that should be shut out, kicked out of our schools, thrown back over the border. I think I even joined a Facebook group called “line the border with land mines to keep ‘em out”.

I’m glad to say that I no longer feel that way. Our country is full of immigrants, that is what makes America beautiful. It was originally religious and sociocultural refugees from Europe who came here seeking freedom and opportunity in the (literally) “new world”. For that reason people still come here, from all over the world, for a new life in the (figurative) “new world”.

Conservatives love to make comments about doing it the “legal way” and illegals coming here to rip us off and take our social services – but I don’t think any of them really understand the truth of the matter.

The truth is that there are many barriers in the way of immigrating legally. Not only does the US make it almost impossible for people from the “third world” (developing countries) to immigrate here, but it’s an expensive and time consuming process. The working poor not only don’t have the financial means to immigrate legally but in most cases they do not have a marketable trade to even be considered for immigration. Thus, their only option to provide a better life for their families is to immigrate illegally.

As black and white as conservatives make it sound, illegal immigration is not an easy process. “Border hoppers” not only risk the lives of their families during the trip through rugged unforgiving desert but it oftentimes costs them a lot of money to shady traffickers who leave them to die in the desert at the first sign of trouble. Once they get into the US, if they get in alive, they have limited civil rights, no voice, cannot find legal employment and are almost always abused.

Contrary to popular belief, they general do not abuse social services; most of the time they do not use social services because that would “out” them as illegal immigrants and get them deported. Some do come to the US to have their babies as American citizens, but that is few and far between. Plus having a baby in the US only makes the baby a citizen, the parents still have to return to their mother country until their child reaches age 21 and can petition to have the parents enter the country.

The ironic thing about immigration is that the philosophically black and white conservatives and tea partiers do not seem to have the ability to empathize with immigrants. They are very fond of their civil rights as Americans but not only do not WANT to share them with others, they are unable to understand WHY others would desire the rights. They completely dehumanize immigrants.

Today I watched a powerful movie with Harrison Ford called Crossing Over. Not only was I surprised to see Harrison Ford in such a movie, I was pleasantly surprised that it was a deep psychological movie. It really makes one think about the state of things in the United States. It really gives a face to the different groups dealing with our broken immigration system. It isn’t all Mexicans “anchor babies” who want to steal our social services, it’s plenty of people from developed countries as well who are abused and mistreated because they have no legal rights without a proper immigration status and do not want to draw attention to themselves.

For a while now I’ve asked myself why I want to go into law. Yes I want to make a difference, yes civil rights have always interested me. But deeper than that, I want to stand up for people who do not have a voice, who cannot stand up for themselves, who are victims of a broken system.

Human rights are everyone’s business. Immigration is everyone’s business. We cannot accommodate everyone who wants to immigrate to the US, legally or illegally, but we ought to treat them like human beings with dignity and rights. It is not only a shame but an injustice that the DREAM Act still has not passed in the legislature. It appears that conservatives hate immigrants even more than gays. Rather than allowing immigrants of good moral character to legally immigrate to the US if they go to university or join the military, our politicians have decided to demonize them all as menaces to society. Not only is the DREAM Act the right thing to do, but it would be good for our country. Not only would it provide us upstanding citizens (regardless of their national origin) but it would stimulate the economy in terms of tuition, housing expenses, money spent in American stores, etc.

I will make it my goal, upon finishing law school, to help all of the gays and illegal immigrants that feel they do not have their own voice, to stand up for the people who are victims of evil corporations and unjust laws.

This is absolutely beautiful. We did it America, YES WE CAN!

I hope that the next time Lt. Dan Choi gets a ring it is for full marriage equality. I also hope that it is as an active duty soldier. We still have a lot of work ahead, but it is looking promising.

I was catching up on my equally neglected Google Reader account when I came across one of the most profound articles I have seen in a long-while.

It is on Richard Dawkin’s site and called “The Gays Are Winning – And the Religious Right is Losing: What Nontheists Can Learn from the Success of the Homosexual Rights Movement” and is really a sign that we are making progress as a country; the culture war is finally swinging in the favor of the left.

Within the past two years President Obama and our legislature have made more progress and been more productive than (arguably) any other legislature in American history – or at least as productive as the legislatures under FDR and LBJ. I take back all of my criticism of President Obama concerning LGBT rights because he really has made me proud in the past few weeks.

You go Keith!

Anyway, the ironic part about this e-mail is that this time I actually agree with them. It’s called “Divorce Agreement” basically implying that the Conservatives are going to take all the “good” in America and leave the Liberals with all of the “bad” except what is good and bad to them is almost exactly the opposite of good and bad to us. So I agree, I think we should break into two countries and the liberals can have the West Coast, New England and Illinois. And the conservatives can have the rest.

Dear American liberals, leftists, social progressives, socialists, Marxists and Obama supporters, et al:

We have stuck together since the late 1950′s for the sake of the kids, but the whole of this latest election process has made me realize that I want a divorce. I know we tolerated each other for many years for the sake of future generations, but sadly, this relationship has clearly run its course.

Our two ideological sides of America cannot and will not ever agree on what is right for us all, so let’s just end it on friendly terms. We can smile and chalk it up to irreconcilable differences and go our own way.

Here is a model separation agreement:

–Our two groups can equitably divide up the country by landmass each taking a similar portion. That will be the difficult part, but I am sure our two sides can come to a friendly agreement. After that, it should be relatively easy! Our respective representatives can effortlessly divide other assets since both sides have such distinct and disparate tastes.

–We don’t like redistributive taxes so you can keep them.
–You are welcome to the liberal judges and the ACLU.
–Since you hate guns and war, we’ll take our firearms, the cops, the NRA and the military.
–We’ll take the nasty, smelly oil industry and you can go with wind, solar and biodiesel.
–You can keep Oprah, Michael Moore and Rosie O’Donnell. You are, however, responsible for finding a bio-diesel vehicle big enough to move all three of them.
–We’ll keep capitalism, greedy corporations, pharmaceutical companies, Wal-Mart and Wall Street.
–You can have your beloved lifelong welfare dwellers, food stamps, homeless, homeboys, hippies, druggies and illegal aliens.
–We’ll keep the hot Alaskan hockey moms, greedy CEO’s and rednecks.
–We’ll keep the Bibles and give you NBC and Hollywood .
–You can make nice with Iran and Palestine and we’ll retain the right to invade and hammer places that threaten us.
–You can have the peaceniks and war protesters. When our allies or our way of life are under assault, we’ll help provide them security.
–We’ll keep our Judeo-Christian values.
–You are welcome to Islam, Scientology, Humanism, political correctness and Shirley McClain. You can also have the U.N. but we will no longer be paying the bill.

–We’ll keep the SUV’s, pickup trucks and oversized luxury cars. You can take every Subaru station wagon you can find.

–You can give everyone healthcare if you can find any practicing doctors.
–We’ll continue to believe healthcare is a luxury and not a right.
–We’ll keep “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” and “The National Anthem.”
–I’m sure you’ll be happy to substitute “Imagine”, “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing”, “Kum Ba Ya” or “We Are the World”.

–We’ll practice trickle down economics and you can continue to give trickle up poverty your best shot.

–Since it often so offends you, we’ll keep our history, our name and our flag.

Would you agree to this? If so, please pass it along to other like-minded liberal and conservative patriots and if you do not agree, just hit delete. In the spirit of friendly parting, I’ll bet you answer which one of us will need whose help in 15 years.

Sincerely,
John J. Wall
Law Student and an American

P.S. Also, please take Ted Turner, Sean Penn, Martin Sheen, Barbara Streisand, & Jane Fonda with you.

P.S.S. And you won’t have to press 1 for English when you call our country.

Aside from actually agreeing with a lot of this, I wanted to point out some of the central ironies.

America was not much different during the Bush years than it is now and everyone, including the conservatives, were bitching about it and how terrible Bush was. Now that we actually are starting to implement the changes everyone wanted under a competant President, they are all screaming for the way of things under Bush – like tax breaks for the rich, deregulation, heavy military spending while cutting social services, etc.

-We’ll keep the taxes AND the social services that come with them. Surely conservatives don’t need schools or healthcare, libraries or police, firefighters or state parks? After all, isn’t that what the EVIL SOCIALIST liberals want?

-We’ll happily keep our liberal judges and the ACLU. Conservatives don’t need civil rights or freedom of speech because they are only concerned with the wishes of the majority (ie: white christian males).

-By all means take your firearms, the NRA and the military. We don’t need to waste our money on wars that aren’t our business. But leave the police; police require taxation. Taxation is socialism, unless it’s to fund the military. Police aren’t military so we have to keep them, sorry.

-Please take the oil industry. They and their lobbyists are the ones standing in the way of true energy reform. On that note, we will also keep all of our tech companies, agriculture, wine and beer, art, music industry and movie industry. Oh and Micky Mouse.

-Oprah, Michael Moore and Rosie O’Donnell are all great public figures. We’d be happy to keep them. Although Oprah isn’t particularly liberal and rarely talks about politics on her show.

-You can keep Capitalism, greedy corporations and their special interests, pharmaceutical companies, Wal Mart AND Wall Street. But we’ll keep the biotech industry, Trader Joes and Costco.

-We will gladly keep our social services and you can let your poor, mentally handicapped, unemployed, etc starve out in the streets. In no time, you can all be the tenant farmers of the big corporations and special interests like pre-Civil War America.

-For God sake, YES, please take Sarah Palin. You can HAVE her. I think you should elect her as your President with Christine O’Donnel as her running mate. As for the CEOs, just let us keep Steve Jobs and the Google guys. You can have the rest, including all of the rednecks.

-Yes, take all of the Bibles. And the other religious text too. Our hippy utopia doesn’t need religious dogma of any kind.

-Invade all of the places you want, we think that peace is something to strive for. We don’t think that it is our job to democratize and christianize the whole world, it isn’t our business as long as they don’t directly threaten us (and no one has since WWII).

-We won’t have war protesters because we won’t have war to protest.

-By all means, keep your religious lunatics. You can even have the 700 Club, NoM and the Mormons.

-We’ll just keep Humanism and political correctness. Although we tolerate the others, they aren’t progressive values strictly speaking.

-It’s ok, we’ll gladly stay in the UN. Since most of the GDP of the US comes from liberal-leaning states, I don’t think we’ll have a problem “paying the bill”. You can go make moonshine and go cow-tipping while we create world peace.

-We’d rather have compact Toyotas and Hondas (even though they are made by the AMERICA-HATING SOCIALIST Japanese!!) than any of those cars mentioned, so by all means take your global-warming machines with you.

-Healthcare is a right, not a luxury. While you let your uninsured die, we will provide healthcare to everyone.

-We prefer “Believe” by Cher and “I’m Coming Out” and “The Sounds of San Francisco” than any of those faux-patriotic (un-PC, ethnocentric) songs you mentioned. You can keep them. And by all means brainwash them into kids. We’ll also keep Lady Gaga and Madonna, free of charge.

-Trickle Down economics didn’t work for Reagan and they won’t work for you. But it’s ok, we will directly provide social services for our citizens.

Kthnxbai

You can roll these individually into enchiladas or make a casserole by layering them in a pan kinda like Mexican lasagna. I personally prefer the layered casserole, but both ways are good.

I’m writing this from my own experience rather than a recipe book and I recommend adapting to your own personal taste.

Ingredients:
Corn Tortillas
Spicy Tomato Sauce (canned, El Pato brand if available)
Green Enchilada Sauce (canned, El Mexicano or Monterrey brand if available)
Canned, chopped Green Chiles (El Mexican or Monterrey brand if available)
Onions, Zucchini, other veggies you have on hand
Canned or Fresh: corn
Canned or Fresh: beans (preferably black beans), seasoned Mexican beans if available
Cream Cheese (or Vegan Cream Cheese)

Lay cream cheese out overnight to soften or place in a pan on low heat for 15-20 minutes.

Heat a pan on high heat with approximately 5 tablespoons of canola or corn oil. Once pan is hot, place one tortilla at a time for approximately 5 seconds on each side until they are firm but not crispy. Lay out on paper towels to absorb oil.

Combine spicy tomato sauce, green enchilada sauce and canned green chiles in a big bowl to make the sauce for the dish. Set aside.

Combine corn and beans in another bowl; set aside.

Sautee veggies with 1 tablespoon of oil until they are tender-crisp; set aside.

Assemble the casserole or roll the enchiladas.

Casserole: Take a large oven-safe dish, put a layer of sauce in the bottom of the pan and then place 3-4 tortillas to form the bottom of the casserole. Next, place a layer of cream cheese and sauce on this layer. Put another layer of tortillas and then a layer of veggies and sauce. Another layer of tortillas and then beans and corn with sauce. Another layer of tortillas with cream cheese and sauce. Another layer of tortillas with shredded cheese and sauce to top the casserole.

Enchiladas: Take an over safe pan, put a layer of sauce in the bottom. Take individual tortillas, lay them flat on a plate or your counter, spread cream cheese and then put corn and beans, veggies and a bit of sauce. Roll the tortilla tightly and place in the pan. Continue the process until you have filled the pan. Put shredded cheese and sauce on top of the enchiladas.

A lot of the sauce will be absorbed by the enchiladas when cooking, so you may want to save sauce to add later.

Cook at 375 F for approximately 1 hour. If you would like them crispy on top, cook uncovered. If you cook covered with foil be careful to prop up the foil to avoid it getting stuck to the layer of cheese on top.

These are great to serve with salsa, guacamole, sour cream, salad and rice & refried beans.

Enjoy

Original E-mail:

Subject: Free Lunch

There was a Chemistry professor in a large college that had some exchange
students in the class. One day while the class was in the lab the Prof
noticed one young man (exchange student) who kept rubbing his back and
stretching as if his back hurt.

The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student told him
he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting
communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country’s
government and install a new communist government.

In the midst of his story he looked at the professor and asked a strange
question. He asked, ‘ Do you know how to catch wild pigs?’

The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line.

The young man said this was no joke.’ You catch wild pigs by finding a
suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it
and begin to come everyday to eat the free corn. When they are used to
coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are
used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn
again and you put up another side of the fence. They get used to that and
start to eat again. You continue until you have all four sides of the fence
up with a gate in the last side. The pigs, who are used to the free corn,
start to come through the gate to eat, you slam the gate on them and catch
the whole herd.

Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around
inside the fence, but they are caught. Soon they go back to eating the free
corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how To forage in the
woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity.

The young man then told the professor that is exactly what he sees happening
to America. The gov ernment keeps pushing us toward Communism/Socialism and
keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such as
supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income, tobacco subsidies,
dairy subsidies, payments not to plant crops (CRP), welfare, medicine,
drugs, free medical, etc. while we continually lose our freedoms – just a
little at a time.

One should always remember ‘There is no such thing as a free Lunch! Also, a
politician will never provide a service for you cheaper than you can do it
yourself.

Also, if you see that all of this wonderful government ‘help’ is a problem
confronting the future of democracy in America, you might want to send this
on to your friends. If you think the free ride is essential to your way of
life then you will probably delete this email, but God help you when the
gate slams shut!

My Reply:

I so totally agree with this e-mail!

We should immediately abolish our evil socialist regime!
-Libraries
-Free education
-Fire fighters
-Police
-Welfare
-Food stamps
-Social security
-Unemployment
-Employment legislation to protect workers
-Environmental legislation – regulation is communism, let’s have free capitalism at the expense of the earth
-Civil Rights – the pesky government shouldn’t protect blacks and gays and women, we should just live by the Bible which our country was founded on and STONE THEM ALL!
-Public Utilities
-Military

Yeah we live in a Socialist country and it’s SIMPLY EVIL!

America is by no means Socialist. But countries that are Social Democracies like Germany are healthier, happier, more prosperous and have much better qualities of life then we do in the United States. Maybe they are on to something?

A great article in The Nation – “It’s Better Over There” - http://www.thenation.com/article/154477/its-better-over-there

For those people who live in Chula Vista, CA especially those who go to Southwestern College I wanted to offer some input on good voting decisions.

Governor – Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown. Jerry Brown is the obvious choice for governor considering his opponent is Meg Whitman. Whitman is a successful business woman and former-CEO of eBay. In her time at eBay, she outsourced a big percentage of jobs (somewhere around 40%) and laid off 10% of workers. Before she won her primary election and he website was “moderate-ized” she was against energy and environmental policy, she was against equality, she was against a woman’s right to choose, she was against immigration, she wanted to cut back on healthcare and education spending and increase tax cuts to businesses at the expense of consumers. She has not voted for many years and financed her own campaign with something like $100 million of her own money. California is not a business that can be bought.

Lieutenant Governor – Gavin Newsom. Gavin Newsom doesn’t even need an explanation, he is an amazing man and has been a superb leader as mayor of San Francisco.

Senator – Barbara Boxer. Boxer has been a great senator for a very long time, working for the average American for civil rights, tax breaks for the middle class, education and healthcare reform and progressive values. Carly Fiorina, her opponent, is basically a more classy version of Meg Whitman.

Courts

I don’t have a lot of strong opinions about the courts except as follows:

Associate Justice of the (state) Supreme Court – Ming W. Chin – Vote no on Ming. He was one of the dissenting minority votes back in 2007 who voted against gay marriage when it was temporarily legalized leading up to Proposition 8. He is a conservative Vietnam vet who is unable to separate his own personal views (and bigotry) from the values of the constitution.

Presiding Justice, Court of Appeal, District Four, Division Three – David G. Sills – Vote no on David. He is the leader of several different Republican organizations. We do not need conservative interpretation of the constitution in courts.

Southwestern College IMPORTANT

This is one of the most important considerations in this election. Southwestern College is an amazing institution that brings education to so many people (20,000 per year to be exact) who would otherwise not have access to it. It brings education to the working poor, English learners, people with disabilities, veterans and so many others. I’ve personally been fortunate to be educated at Southwestern College. All of this said, it is very important that we remove all of the incumbents up for re-election at Southwestern College. They have made poor decisions which have resulted in the campus being a political war zone this past year from protests to news crews on campus. They have appointed a corrupt President who has restricted civil rights, significantly cut classes and intimidated both employees and students.

Not only this, but at least one of the incumbents has accepted campaign donations from companies who were awarded construction contracts by the college which is not only unethical, but illegal.

Despite every effort by SWC administrators to keep the school’s anti-administration newspaper from publishing until after the election, they have  worked tirelessly to raise the funds necessary to self-publish and have posted a great editorial concerning the school board elections.

Here is a great article from the award winning Southwestern College Sun:

Unsigned (link)

If you are reading these words in a newspaper then a miracle took place.

Southwestern College Superintendent Dr. Raj K. Chopra seems to want The Sun to go away. If it were not for overwhelming public support, media coverage and donations, this paper would not have been printed, and the entire staff may have come under the control of Chopra himself. The public said NO! loudly and clearly.

This marks the third time SWC administration has overtly attacked the campus newspaper over the last year and half. We have learned that asking questions at this institution of higher education is dangerous and will result in punishment. Speak freely and at your own risk. And so as you read this editorial, understand you are reading outlawed words on outlawed pages. It is only a matter of time before Chopra and his highly paid PR staff, such as Focuscom Inc., which advised Chopra to “isolate and expose extremists” and “manage the media,” will find a way to attack us again.

Thank you to all who supported The Sun through these trying times. You have not only helped a small community college newspaper, you have helped to defend the most important article of this democratic republic-the First Amendment.

When college administration ordered us not to print our paper, people overwhelmingly asked, “what does this administration have to hide?” It’s not just what it wants to hide, it’s what it doesn’t want you to remember.

Last year Chopra and the SWC Governing Board majority tried to make friends with arguably the most controversial “mercenary” company in the world, Blackwater Worldwide (Xe). Chopra allegedly plagiarized (it was his secretary, he said). He accepted a 7.9 percent raise while cutting classes. He sent campus police to the homes of faculty after they stood with students at a peaceful rally against class cuts. He or his favorite vice president sent armed police to The Sun newsroom to investigate student journalists. He laid off employees who accused him of blatant retaliation. He stood at the helm of SWC when it was placed on probation. He dismissively waved off a faculty member’s question during his public announcement of this probationary status. He has been repeatedly accused of violating a state shared governance law. He received a series of votes of No Confidence from SWC faculty and staff. He could not get the faculty union to take a pay cut as they did with a former administration in 2003 and considered cutting 26 percent of spring ‘10 classes, “managing the budget.” His strongest supporter on the governing board has accepted enormous campaign contributions from corner lot developers.

So why does Chopra not want this paper to go to print? Hmm?

Chopra and his cadre of hand-picked vice presidents think their careers are hanging in the balance this November as the college’s board majority, which has defended Chopra, is up for re-election. Guilty conscience?

Incumbent board members Terri Valladollid and Yolanda Salcido have both received substantial campaign contributions from the construction firms that they then hired from the college’s $389 million construction bond. We have repeatedly argued that they chose construction over classes last fall, using general fund money to backfill long-standing liabilities and to build a pretty contingency reserve that would seal the deal on a nice bond rating. We have argued that when people voted yes on Prop. R they inadvertently voted to make construction companies rich on the backs of students.

And while this information alone is enough to write these board members off, there is still more.

Last October hundreds of people swarmed the college’s monthly governing board meeting when they learned that Chopra was recommending a 26 percent cut to classes in spring. They told the board adamantly, do not do it. Faculty offered alternative solutions. Former student government president Chris Debauche publicly told the board “we need to try harder.” One trustee called for a special governing board meeting where other options could be discussed. The other four voted swiftly against the motion. What happened that day cannot be slanted or spun. It was the day Valladolid, Salcido and Jorge Dominguez showed the entire South Bay they were the wrong people for the job.

That spring thousands of students were turned away from classes while the three board members voted yes on an $11,500 snack bar consultant, expensive hired-gun lawyers, parliamentarians, a $100,000 PR guy and other non-essentials.

As U.S. workers are finding themselves out of the job, experts are saying re-education is the best solution. Politicians from both parties agree community colleges are essential to the effort. America will only compete with the world if we trade our brawn for brain. Four-year colleges are shutting their doors to record numbers of students, unemployed workers are looking to re-skill-there has never been such a large demand for a seat at Southwestern College. And when the South Bay needed this college the most, the governing board voted, without hesitation, not to “try harder.”

That’s why they don’t want you to read this newspaper. They want you to forget about the 26 percent, forget about last October, forget about the classes you could not get. That is what they are hoping.

November 2 is the time to tell them you remember.

We will not be intimidated.

That said, please vote for:

Jessica Saenz-Gonzalez – Seat No. 2

Norma L. Hernandez – Seat No. 4 (served previously on the board)

Tim Nader – Seat No. 5

On to other local education, the only other strong opinion I hold is on the Chula Vista Elementary School District.

Having worked at Cornerstone Church, directly with Douglas E. Luffborough, I am unable to endorse him for the school board. Doug is a really nice guy, a great father and an active community leader. But he is also very devoutly religious and is an administrator for Cornerstone Church’s Turning the Hearts Center. If his views are aligned with the views of his church, one could go as far as inferring that he is potentially a far-right lunatic. So nice guy aside, I do not think there is any room for religion in education and therefore am voting for Archie McAllister.

State Propositions

Proposition 19 – Legalization of Marijuana. This is very important to vote yes on. Legalizing marijuana would do so many good things for society. It would cut down on crime because marijuana use and possession would no longer be illegal and would therefore not have to be sold underground. It would save the state billions in incarcerating “criminals” who were convicted on drug charges. It would raise tons of tax revenue. It would give recreational drug users a safer (if not harmless) alternative to tobacco and alcohol, both of which have been proven to be harmful.

Proposition 21 – State Park Surcharge – No one likes higher taxes, but state and national parks are very important for recreation and conservation. Therefore it is very important to vote yes on this proposition. It would charge a $18 tax to each vehicle annually but would allow them free admission to all state parks and allow state parks to remain open in these bad financial times.

Proposition 23 – Delay of Clean Energy – It is very important to vote NO on this proposition. We need clean energy. Not only will clean energy create tons of jobs in the short run as we implement it as a state, but it will give us a cleaner tomorrow for our children in the long run.

These are the main things I find important in these elections. If anyone is interested in my other stances I would be happy to share, but I urge you to consider voting the way I did on the bits I’ve discussed.

To begin with, the original Boston Tea Party in December 1773 was a form of protest against the British government and one of the turning points in American history leading to the American Revolution and eventual independence from Britain. The American colonists were upset about being taxed by a foreign government rather than their own elected officials. In fact, despite the level of autonomy and all of the financial support the British Crown gave Americans, the colonists were constantly unhappy about “taxation without representation” even though most of the taxes were minimal. Since the British East Indian Trading Company had a monopoly on the trade of tea to and from the colonies and many colonists were heavy consumers of tea, they eventually revolted against the perceived “unjust” law, destroying all of the tea brought into Boston harbor rather than allowing it to be sold.

Personally, I’m a critic of the American Revolution because I think the colonists were better off in many ways as a British colony. Imagine how much farther we would be as a nation today if our government followed the British system rather than our broken system where “States rights” are constantly in competition with the central government.

The British took care of defense, government, currency and largely left the colonists alone. As an independent nation, despite the best intentions of the founders, it took us until the 1960s to become a modern nation. In a lot of ways we’re still very backward compared to the rest of the world whereas the British commonwealth nations (the UK, Canada and even India) are centuries ahead of us in terms of social welfare and civil liberties.

Ironically, the anti-Obama Tea Party Movement in America has none of the grievances of their namesake. They are not taxed heavily, they do not lack legislative representation and they are not being denied rights. In many cases, as I will discuss later, they stand to benefit the most from Obama’s evil “Socialist” agenda.

According to Wikipedia:

The Tea Party movement is a fiscally-conservative socio-political movement that emerged in the United States in 2009 through a series of locally and nationally coordinated protests.^[1][2][3] The protests were partially in response to several Federal laws: theEmergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008,^[4] the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009,^[5][6] and a series of health care reform bills.^[7]

The Wikipedia article goes on to list a Tea Party Manifesto:

1. Identify constitutionality of every new law: Require each bill to identify the specific provision of the Constitution that gives Congress the power to do what the bill does.
2. Reject emissions trading: Stop the “cap and trade” administrative approach used to control pollution by providing economic incentives for achieving reductions in the emissions of pollutants.
3. Demand a balanced federal budget: Begin the Constitutional amendment process to require a balanced budget with a two-thirds majority needed for any tax modification.
4. Simplify the tax system: Adopt a simple and fair single-rate tax system by scrapping the internal revenue code and replacing it with one that is no longer than 4,543 words – the length of the original Constitution.
5. Audit federal government agencies for constitutionality: Create a Blue Ribbon taskforce^{[clarification needed]} that engages in an audit of federal agencies and programs, assessing their Constitutionality, and identifying duplication, waste, ineffectiveness, and agencies and programs better left for the states or local authorities.
6. Limit annual growth in federal spending: Impose a statutory cap limiting the annual growth in total federal spending to the sum of the inflation rate plus the percentage of population growth.
7. Repeal the health care legislation passed on March 23, 2010: Defund, repeal and replace the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
8. Pass an ‘All-of-the-Above’ Energy Policy: Authorize the exploration of additional energy reserves to reduce American dependence on foreign energy sources and reduce regulatory barriers to all other forms of energy creation.
9. Reduce Earmarks: Place a moratorium on all earmarks until the budget is balanced, and then require a 2/3 majority to pass any earmark.
10. Reduce Taxes: Permanently repeal all recent tax increases, and extend permanently the George W. Bush temporary reductions in income tax, capital gains tax and estate taxes, currently scheduled to end in 2011.

Most of these things are completely absurd. The only part that I can really agree on is balancing the federal budget and limiting annual growth to federal spending to match inflation. We have a huge deficit that we’re passing onto future generations – but we can’t balance the budget at the expense of social welfare either.

Restoring the George W. Bush tax cuts for the wealthy , reducing earmarks, limiting environmental action or repealing Obamacare before it even takes effect are just ridiculous though.

Under the Obama tax policies as recently addressed in Congress and the Senate, things aren’t much different from the Bush tax policies. People who make less than $1 million annually actually save slightly more under Obama than under Bush. They save dramatically more than under Clinton. Why should people making more than $1 million have huge tax cuts versus the middle class?

And all of the references to constitutionality are an absurd waste of time and a waste of rhetoric. All laws are already scrutinized for constitutionality. That is why we have three branches of government and separation of powers. If someone deems a law to be unconstitutional they are free to take their case to the Supreme Court whose JOB it is determine constitutionalist and scrutinize laws against the constitution.

Before continuing on the Tea Party, lets consider some of President Obama’s major achievements (so far) as President:

President Obama:

1. Passed the “largest” economic stimulus bill in American history.
2. Ordered the closing of Guantanamo Bay military detention facility and abolished “enhanced interrogation techniques” (ie: water boarding).
3. Set a fixed timetable for withdrawing U.S. combat forces from Iraq (currently in motion).
4. Ordered 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan and enlisted European allies in a new multi-layered strategy in the Middle East and in Pakistan setting a timetable for a drawdown of our troops.
5. “Returned science to its rightful place” by lifting the Bush restrictions on federally funded embryonic stem cell research.
6. Signed laws to expand children’s health insurance (financed by a 61-cent per pack increase in the federal cigarette tax).
7. Signed a law meant to improve the ability of women who allege pay discrimination to sue their employer.
8. Lifted travel and remittance restrictions for Cuban Americans who seek to travel more frequently to the island and send more US currency to their immediate family.
9. Appointed the first Latina to the US Supreme Court
10. Signed a law supporting increased financial aid to severely injured war veterans, and their caretakers.
11. Banned offshore drilling until parameters for deep well safety procedures are clarified.
12. Put a hold on Arctic oil exploratory digging until environmental impacts are clear.
13. Passed health care reform.
14. Signed a hate crime bill.

The sad reality is that, despite all of the good he has done, President Obama is getting hit from every side. The Democrats accuse him of being too centrist and conceding to both the Right and special interests, the LGBTQ community accuses him of not acting fast enough with passing ENDA and repealing DADT and the Conservatives just hate him for existing.

Despite being dramatically opposed to the Economic Stimulus and Obamacare, conservative states are some of the first with their hands out for federal funds resulting from the “bailout” and Obamacare (examples being Louisiana, New Jersey and Florida).

Back to the Tea Party, the majority of the movement is made up of the white working middle class who, arguably, have the most to gain from what Obama has accomplished. They are the largest population that is unemployed, the largest population that stands to benefit from the healthcare legislation (ie: uninsured, uninsurable due to pre-existing conditions) and the largest population that ultimately stands to benefit from the stimulus.

Everyone – white, black, asian, male, female, adult, child, gay, straight – stands to benefit from the stimulus, the ending of the wars in the middle east, Stem Cell Research, health insurance, a more diverse Supreme Court and the suspension of off-shore drilling.

Yet we, metaphorically, “bite the hand that feeds us”. My guess is that Tea Partiers resent the fact that Obama has worked so hard for civil rights and minority protection – but none of them have the balls to attack him on those issues because they know it would be culturally unfounded. This isn’t the 1950s in the American South, this is 2010.

In the end, if we don’t start standing together, nothing will get done. President Obama, as he said when campaigning, is one man. He cannot snap his fingers and magically fix the country. He has worked hard, he has repeated successful strategies of past leaders such as Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson but unlike FDR and LBJ he does not have popular support. If the political schism continues, we’re going to alternate like a sine wave between conservative and liberal politicians and ultimately get nothing done.

So far the stimulus package has been successful; healthcare reform is something that we direly need. Why not work together to ensure our continued success as a nation rather than writing ridiculous grammatically incorrect protest signs and taping teabags to our hats screaming about issues that we don’t understand?