Posted 7:01 PM by Anonymous

Political Issues

In the upcoming year we are going to start hearing more and more from potential candiates for the '04 election. I am willing to bet money that the primary issues politicians will be gabbing about are The Economy and Security. Granted these are important issues, but shouldn't they be important by default? What is the point of debating stuff like this when I think its safe to say that everyone is in agreement that something needs to be done. In fact I don't think presidential candidates should even be allowed to debate these issues, they should be required as part of their job to come up with a plan to handle both of them.

The issues I'm most interested in will probably get swept under the rug this election. The problem is everyone thinks too short term. The American public (as a mob entity) isn't very smart. They only believe and place importance on what the media tells them to. I challenge people to expect more from candidates this year than a platform on the economy and security. These are the issues I would prefer to see not only plans for but action taken on!

- Education: Teachers are underpaid and understaffed. The rich have all but abandoned the public school system in favor of private schools. Our national education and literacy rate sucks when compared to other nations. Granted the world needs janitors as much as it needs doctors but come on! College costs are on the rise, will it even be affordable in 20 or 30 years when I have to send my kids? There is a lot of work to be done in this area. While legislation can't cure everything it can certainly start the process. Much of the responsibility lies with parents too.

- State Budgets: The federal government needs to help them out. The majority of states in the country will have huge budget deficits this year. By law many of them are required to have a balanced budget. That means that many of the services we count on are going to be cut, states take care of most of the things we interact with daily. The federal government needs to quit cutting taxes (especially to the top 5% Americans - f-in republicans!) and help out the states some. Honestly, is another $600 check going to enrich your life and stimulate the economy? I doubt it, most people will blow it on frivolous stuff or save it. The government could make much better use of the money. The richest Americans definitely do not need any tax cuts.

- Alternative Fuels: The government needs to face facts and realize that we cannot continue to have our balls handed to us in a sling because 4 or 5 nations (mostly hostile to us) control the oil production in the world. The fact that we need these nations for their oil has caused us so much trouble internationally. The government needs to sponsor some serious programs toward inventing viable transportation alternatives that do not rely on fossil fuels. The big oil companies and car companies will surely protest but the gov't needs to bite the bullet. Its been more than 100 years since we invented the combustion engine, surely in all that time we have been able to think of something that will work better. In fact I know we have but the damn oil companies and car companies buy the patents and ensure they never come to fruition.

- The Environment: I suppose everyone thinks that when we have sufficiently screwed up this planet we can just all load into a spaceship and go to another one. Wrong. We haven't even sent a manned mission to mars much less found another hospitable planet anywhere close by. We need to realize you can't shit where you live. The data is in, the planet is dying day by day, its indisputable. Sure we can only do so much on the home front without the cooperation of other nations but we need to do that. Everytime I see someone driving a gas guzzling SUV it pisses me off (and texas is full of them). Do you really need a vehicle that gets like 15 miles a gallon that ends up carrying one person and a lot of cubic feet of air most of the time? Why should manufacturing plants be able to dump dangerous chemicals into the air and water just because they were "grandfathered in", make them accountable!