The Non-Politicians Among the Politicians

The republican candidates, on Tuesday's debate, criticized Herman Cain for his ideas. In the round table discussion Herman Cain was criticized, by the other republicans, on his 9-9-9 plan he promises to put into action if elected. This law will tax 9% of corporate income tax, national sales tax, and income tax. As other republicans claim 9-9-9 will never pass Cain defends his proposal and speaks about how this makes him different between who thinks about what can be passed from his idea what needs to be passed. Ron Paul attacked Cain for stating he would choose Alan Greenspan for his Federal Reserve Chairman, someone Ron made clear lead this country to an economic failure. Cain's flaws are pointed out for the lack of experience he has by being a CEO of pizza and a non-politician.

The people get an overall idea of how our country will function differently depending on who is the final republican. This law would have to be put into the system of checks and balances where congress would have pass this law as a federal tax. This has the possibility to create conflict within the system of federalism, between states and national government. The 9-9-9 plan creates lots of controversy as it goes through criticism of how it could harm the country economically.

The Iraq War: a tricky game of Hardball Politics

It is June 2011, and President Obama is feeling the pressure to please surrounding constituencies with his scheduled Afghanistan policy announcement. The only other previous announcement pertaining to the War in Afghanistan made by President Obama of this size has occured on December 1, 2009. The revealing of this largely anticipated war decision is going to occur on the eve of President Obama's re-election campaign. The reactions of loyal and liberal supporters of the Presdient, opponents in the Republican Party, military Commanders and Congress to this war anouncement are a very crucial factor for President Obama's success. Pressure of the announcement's pivotal date and the difficult task of pleasing contrasting organizations sets up a tricky game of war politics for President Obama to play.

Hardball Politics are a very present subject President Obama is faced with when making his decisions about the United State's position in the Iraq War. There are so many important factors that relate to this decision; a good game of hardball is inevitable for President Obama to play. In this specific event, the goal of the game for everyone is to succesfully end the war. Liberals and loyal democratic supporters of President Obama attack him with oppositions to the United States's expansion in the war. In contrast, the Republican Party and military Commanders attack him with critical views of necesarry US expansion. All things war related cause reactions in Congress to be quite controversial. Realistically, in order for President Obama to maintain himself politically; all 12 hardball strategies are needed to be used by President Obama when making the decision of the United States's role in the Iraq War.

original article!

Skinner vs. Switzer

Skinner vs. Switzer
On Monday the
Supreme Court passed a law allowing prisoners the access to DNA evidence in hopes to prove their innocence. The Supreme Court recently ruled 6 to 3 in the case of Henry Skinner.
Skinner was convicted of murdering his girlfriend and her two children. Skinner
had 45 minutes last year until death last year when the court took his case. Texas
is one of the 48 states which allows inmates access to DNA
evidence from the crime scenes. Sense allowing this, more than 260
prisoners have been let free. In 2009 a largely divided
decision stated that the testing would be left to congress and ruled that the
convicted prisoners had no constitutional right to testing but allowed a small
opening for those who tried to prove the state’s law which governed the access
to DNA are insufficient.
Skinners attorney protested against that by suing the Gray County District
Attorney Lynn Switzer, saying the judgment
to withhold DNA testing in his case went against his (Skinner) federal civil
rights. Skinner and his attorney hope that the DNA testing may allow proof
in Skinners case. The Texas court came back saying that Skinner did not meet the requirements of the state’s law allowing him
access to DNA testing, Justices Thomas, Kennedy, and Alito disagreed saying that civil rights laws
should not allow Skinner another way out when he has used and exhausted all
appeals. Skinner continues to pretest his innocence. Despite the fact the
he was there during the 1993 murder of his girlfriend her two sons. The police
found Skinner hiding in a previous girlfriends closet covered in blood and a
gash on his hand. Skinner said during the murders he was passed out on a
mixture of codeine and alcohol, which was proved on a legal test. Skinner says
he woke up to find his girlfriend and two boys dead, the blood was from examining
the bodies. Proocuters did not test all of the evidence which was found on the
crime scense including the hair and skin cells under Busby’s (girlfriend)
nails. Skinners attorney feared that getting more DNA testing may prove Skinner
as guilty. Northwester University Medill Project have belief that Busby’s (now
dead) uncle may have been the killer. Skinner
still wants the evidence tested.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/07/AR2011030701658.html?sid=ST2011021400582

Obama vowes to break jobs plan into seperate bills after Senate setback

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cr4bJEegXjA

        President Obama made a $447 billion job plan so that more people could maintain jobs and boost the economy. This plan stalled on Tuesday which led to Obama breaking it up into separate bills to make the process easier or go by faster. This would most likely cause even more arguments between Democrats and Republicans on the subject of where and how the government would get the money to do this. The Democrats pushed this bill and had to receive at least 60 votes from the Senate, but only 50 members voted for it while 49 members ballots were against it. Obama concluded that this would not stop him from pushing this bill even further and claiming victory. He now plans on working with Senate majority Harry Reid to come up with several smaller bills which focus on the main idea of this larger one. Later this week, Congress is going to have to decide on whether we should put teachers, construction workers, police officers and firefighters back on their jobs. Congress will vote on whether tax breaks should be protected or not for small business owners and middle-class Americans or the higher-class people such as millionaires and such. The main reason that this bill failed in the Senate was because of the fact that we do not know how to pay for job initiatives.
       
         

          This is a checks and balances issue because the Democrats and Republicans are fighting over this bill and what each group wants to happen. The Democrats are for the government while the Republicans are focusing more on the private enterprises getting this done. Obama presented a matter to Congress telling them to stop focusing so much on their parties and elections, and focus more on helping people get their jobs back and raise the economy. A majority of Democrats voted in favor of this bill, however the Republicans are still pushing it away. This is showing how although one part cannot overpower another, the Republicans are trying their best to keep this entire bill from happening oppose to the Democrats who are trying even harder to get past the Democrats to push this bill.  GOP thinks that this entire thing is just a huge "political stunt" of Obama. However, President Obama uses the Don't Get Mad, Don't Get Even, Get Ahead strategy to get through it. No matter what people are saying, he keeps pushing this bill as far as possible for the sake of the people and his country. "Obama said "In a perfect world with unlimited resources nobody would have to pay any taxes, but that's not the world we live in. We live in a world where we have to make choices." He cannot alone pass this bill which is why he needs to persuade Congress and the Senate to help him pass this bill as soon as possible.

Same-sex marriage cases wind their way to Supreme Court

Political change is going on it washington right now when a public poll said that 2/3 of americans would vote for a qualified gay presidential candidate. This may be in the near future. President Obama has elected 4 gay candidates for the bench in the Supreme Court and there has been a already confirmed federal judge. Gay rights groups are happy with there current progress, having gained serious political ground. The house filed the legal brief, Defense of Marriage Act, thats prevents any gay marriage preformed legally in a state to be federally recognized. DOMA will not go in front of any judges until 2013. California's proposition 8 appeal is bouncing back from california courts to 9th circuit courts. Judge Joseph Tauro ruled it unconstitutional that DOMA defined marriage as a legal union only between one man and one woman. That appeal is in 1st Circuit courts. Gay rights being meet through judicial means is a distinct possibility for the near future.

Gay rights groups are using the court pathway of action. They are gaining there means through the courts and so far it has been exceedingly successful. They have found that this pathway of action has helped to give there cause serious political ground. Many americans and other politicians are speaking up and supporting gay rights. If and when these cases are brought to the supreme court, there will most likely be a decision made in favor of these gay rights movements. Another issue that the court may face when presented with these cases is weather same sex marriage is a state power or a federal power. The same butting heads that the court sees all the time. Is it constitutional for the federal government to control weather states acknowledge same sex marriage? We will see the Supreme Court make a decision on this issue in the near future.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/same-sex-marriage-cases-wind-their-way-to-supreme-court-as-political-climate-changes/2011/09/25/gIQABW03wK_story.html

"Lawmakers, Regulators, Meet To Discuss Drilling"

Congressmen Jeff Landry and David Vitter beet with a top Interior Department official to discuss the speed of President Obama’s administration regulation of the offshore drilling industry for the Gulf oil spill. The republicans were hoping to get Michael Bromwich, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement Director, to try and approve oil and gas drilling that will lead to more fast improvements. Bromwich turned down Representative Jeff Landry for a meeting, due to Landry stating in an interview with the Times -Picayune that the staff in the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement could be compared to the lawmakers of the Gestapo.

Republicans want to pass a regulatory bill that would allow more oil and gas drilling permits, which would increase the speed of President Obama’s “slow -walking offshore oil and gas permits.” Michael Bromwich, director BOEMRE, is part of the federal government and said that the bill could divide regulatory work and make it more complicated. The Republican bill would cause delay and duplication on whether who has a lease and who does not have a lease. Jeff Landry and David Vitter are using the lobbying pathway as to try and contact people that will support the Republican way of thinking on the issue of the oil spill. President Obama’s administration hopes to collect taxes that will provide the government with enough money to fix the problem but does not allow any drilling. Most people in Louisiana do not agree with Obama because as a state, we are very dependent on drilling right now. The Republicans think that people themselves need to be able to help with the oil spill and that the Democratic way of thinking is taking too long. Landry hoped to meet with Michael Bromwich to discuss factors of the Republican bill, but the interview was dismissed as Landry went on to compare the Federal government with that of the Gestapo, for simply making him wait twenty minutes in the lobby. Gregory Rusovich, chairman of the Business Council of Greater New Orleans and the River Region, disputed Browmwich’s and the Republican’s assessment by stating that there does not need to be more regulations and bureaucracies, there only needs to be safe and honest energy production.

Works Cited

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/09/drilling_regulator_michael_bro.html

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/10/sen_david_vitter_to_accompany.html

http://www.wdsu.com/news/29451927/detail.html

http://media.nola.com/politics/photo/jeff-landry-holds-signjpg-60ef7608de4a8dde.jpg

Bobby Jindal Ahead of the Election

Over the past month, Bobby Jindal has spent $1.3 million on advertising for the next election, even though he has no big competitors in the upcoming re-election. Jindal has around $6 million left and on average spends about $97,000 a day with 2/3 of the advertising being on the TV or the Internet. Jindal is running against 9 other competitors who don’t have nearly as much money or recognition as him so he has very high chances of winning the race. A new report states that the other candidates have raised much more money than they had in mid-September. One competitor, Dardenne, raised $514,000 and another $83,000 since the end of the reporting period while Nungesser raised $820,000 and another $24,500 raised after the reporting period. Nungesser put $1 million of his own money while Dardenne hasn’t put up any of his personal investments. Jim Tucker raised more than $600,000 in his campaign while Tom Schedler, raised $363,000 in his campaign. They both put their own additional money in the campaign also, Tucker $500,000 and Schedler putting up at $350,000. Since Jindal does not have too much competition, he contributed $80,000 to the other candidates. He also spread his campaign dollars to lawmakers, education board candidates and statewide elected officials.

Bobby Jindal is getting ahead of his upcoming election by raising more money than anyone else in the race. Bobby Jindal is a very popular Governor right now and does not need more popularity and advertising because his polls are so high. Jindal is following the chapter in Hardball “Don’t Get Mad, Don’t Get Even, Get Ahead.” Bobby Jindal is ahead with all of his campaigns because he knows that these competitors will soon be more successful than they are now.

http://www.fox8live.com/news/local/story/Jindal-has-hefty-campaign-warchest-ahead-of/Kv0zcLFtIE-ZGkApg3eBbA.cspx