The Bill O Rights

The bill of rights is an excellent document, one that displays our freedoms and privileges, and even though it was written so long ago it still has so much usefulness today. The problem I though is not the fact that it is used today, but why it is used today. For example the first amendment states:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Now somewhere in the middle of this clause they have found some strange things. Now in the text above me, some how, somewhere, the Supreme Court saw that the people have the right to privacy- Okay sounds fine to me- and with this privacy you have the right to an abortion…………..okay what? Apparently somewhere between the lines of this simple statement of freedoms is a long list of things I guess I just missed.
The second amendment is one most people jokingly call the NRA law:
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a Free State, the right of the People to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
Right, that one sounds simple enough, but right now the Supreme Court is trying to decide if because of that comma after State, - they think that since we don’t have to raise a militia in a heartbeat that people should not be able to carry guns. I think it would be a good thing to not let people carry guns but what about hunters and people just trying to protect themselves, because like the old saying goes, “If Guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.” I say just let them have it because they’ll get them one way or another.
The list goes on and on about how this and that is different or interpreted, but in the end it’s just like what my political science teacher use to say
“The Constitution says what 5 Supreme Court Justices say it does.”

The U.S. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is a law ensuring public access to U.S. government records. FOIA carries a presumption of disclosure; the burden is on the government - not the public - to substantiate why information may not be released. Upon written request, agencies of the United States government are required to disclose those records, unless they can be lawfully withheld from disclosure under one of nine specific exemptions in the FOIA. This right of access is ultimately enforceable in federal court.
This is an issue that made conspiracy theorist happy because it basically gave people access to government documents to let them know what the government is doing.
The nine exemptions to the FOIA address issues of sensitivity and personal rights. They are (as listed in Title 5 of the United States Code, section 552):

(A) specifically authorized under criteria established by an Executive order to be kept secret in the interest of national defense or foreign policy and (B) are in fact properly classified pursuant to such Executive order;
related solely to the internal personnel rules and practices of an agency;
specifically exempted from disclosure by statute (other than section 552b of this title), provided that such statute (A) requires that the matters be withheld from the public in such a manner as to leave no discretion on the issue, or (B) establishes particular criteria for withholding or refers to particular types of matters to be withheld;
trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a person and privileged or confidential;
inter-agency or intra-agency memoranda or letters which would not be available by law to a party other than an agency in litigation with the agency;
personnel and medical files and similar files the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy;
records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes, but only to the extent that the production of such law enforcement records or information (A) could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings, (B) would deprive a person of a right to a fair trial or an impartial adjudication, (C) could reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, (D) could reasonably be expected to disclose the identity of a confidential source, including a State, local, or foreign agency or authority or any private institution which furnished information on a confidential basis, and, in the case of a record or information compiled by a criminal law enforcement authority in the course of a criminal investigation or by an agency conducting a lawful national security intelligence investigation, information furnished by a confidential source, (E) would disclose techniques and procedures for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions, or would disclose guidelines for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions if such disclosure could reasonably be expected to risk circumvention of the law, or (F) could reasonably be expected to endanger the life or physical safety of any individual;
contained in or related to examination, operating, or condition reports prepared by, on behalf of, or for the use of an agency responsible for the regulation or supervision of financial institutions; or
Geological and geophysical information and data, including maps, concerning wells.
Other than that it’s open season for information.

Executive branch

Executive branch is the branch of government that is headed by the president and there are certain pros and cons if you will of having a strong Executive branch. Usually the strength of an Executive branch is a good leader and fresh ideas and a plan to lead this country to better and beyond. There is also a down side to this; the president has this privilege of what political junkies call the “Bully Pulpit” which is basically when they talk people tend to listen to whatever they say, they may not believe it or act on it but they listen. One great example is the War in Iraq, most of the folks in Congress will tell you that they were swayed by the President to go to war. Other examples in history would be Andrew Jackson taking land from the Indians even though Congress told him he wasn’t allowed to. The system of checks and balances we have in our government today was set up for a reason and let’s hope that we figure it out before something like this happens again.

Church and state

Since a blog is my opinion, and I like to give my opinion, this one is going to probably offend somebody. Separation of church and state is an issue that gets everybody riled up, but all for the wrong reasons. The first thought that comes to mind is the removal of the Ten Commandments from courthouses. Now I understand you can’t be prejudice against another religion and if you have one you have to have them all, but for someone to stand and say that if they read the Ten Commandments someone is forcing religion on you, I mean come on you read it. People throw fits if they hear Jesus on the radio or watch some preacher on T. V. and say that they are being forced to do so, but most people fail to realize that if you don’t like it turn it off. It’s sad to me that people will surf through channels and flip through stations just to find something they don’t like and complain about it. A good example is a lady called into a Christian radio station just to tell them that quote, “There is No God.” Why would you waste your time? But that’s the attitude that people have about this issue and don’t get me started about the censorship on T.V. The fact that you can show soft-core porn in television shows and every cuss word that you can think of before 10 o’ clock is fine, just as long as you don’t say anything about faith or Jesus then the folks will get offended just seems a little hypocritical. Thomas Jefferson stated:
“ Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their "legislature" should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between church and State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.”
This Quote is the main weaponry for the argument, but if you know the man he was; a church going person who had seen what religious governments can do to the people and didn’t want to see it happen again. So next time you think about this argument try putting it in reasonable perspective.

Waste makes.....well Waste

I was reading the news; you know trying to keep up with everything when I came upon this article about Government waste. According to The Heritage Foundation, that if the government truly cut down on its waste, it could save over a $100 billion annually; and that is money desperately needed elsewhere. The article goes into detail of extreme waste like the fact in 2003 that there was $24.5 billion dollars spent, but strangely enough, no one knows where it went to. Don’t start freaking out yet it gets better, an audit revealed that between 1997 and 2003, the Defense Department purchased and then left unused approximately 270,000 commercial airline tickets at a total cost of $100 million. Did you catch that? “Left Unused!!!” Okay it’s one thing to buy a bunch of airplane tickets but to not even use them is just idiotic. Even though all these things are bad, there is one that puts them all to shame. According to the article the biggest waste is the way Medicare works. Medicare pays as much as eight times what other federal agencies pay for the same drugs and medical supplies. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently com­pared the prices paid by Medicare and the Depart­ment of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care program for 16 types of medical equipment and supplies, which account for one-quarter of Medicare’s equip­ment and supplies purchases. The evidence showed that Medicare paid an average of more than double what the VA paid for the same items. The largest difference was for saline solution, with Medicare paying $8.26 per liter compared to the $1.02 paid by the VA. I’m not the greatest math student but by the numbers, somebody’s getting screwed over. After reading this article and seeing this waste, I wonder why hasn’t anything been done?

Columbia......could help?

The Wall Street Journal is a great magazine especially when they publish articles like this. It talks about how the Government is trying to talk a free-trade agreement with, get this…..Columbia. Now I don’t know a lot about this kind of stuff but I always thought that Columbia was just a poor little country that nobody wanted, and nobody wanted to talk to. I didn’t know about the country so I looked it up on http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107419.html and the top three exports in Columbia are: Coffee (of course), Coal, and (drum roll please) Petroleum. We could save money by buying oil from them and it would cost less to transport it here. There probably is a down side to this but right now it sounds pretty darn good.

High Gas prices hurt more than i thought

I was reading today, you know checking the news, and I came across an interesting article. It was about the problems with high gas prices but not how they affect your wallet but how it is affecting a precious commodity….Food. Apparently, higher gas prices affect the farmers with tractors and transporting the livestock or supplies to stores is causing them to have to raise prices to compensate for it. This is causing protests in other countries and in one they are even capping how many imports and exports so help with the shortage. It also was talking about the raise in food prices was helped by the attempt to change over to ethanol, which is made with corn and soy. In the article, Time Magazine called it a “fraud” because it would hurt the country more than help it. In Brazil, they tried making ethanol with sugar cane but they ran of the problem that they were using so much of it, that deforestation started happening. This to me sounds like a bigger problem that needs our immediate attention.