What's Your District?

Ever wondered who YOUR representative is? Check out this awesome website that will tell you who represents you, how to get in touch with them and how to make them work! 

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No Budget, No Pay- Get Involved!

S.1981 is attracting co-sponsors from both sides of the aisle.  Would you please urge you state's senators to attend the hearing and support No Budget-No Pay? Here is a link you can use to easily contact to both of your Senators and let them know you want them to sponsor this bill! When you do this, you'll see that 97% of the letters sent are in support of No Budget-No Pay!  In fact, No Labels reports that more than 65,000 letters have already been sent to members of Congress about the No Budget-No Pay Act.  

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Current Statistics of Top 3

                    

According to Betfair and Trade, this is how the field currently sits with Obama clearly winning the election if trends continue. However, this is according to Yahoo so take it with a grain of salt as this search engine has already proclaimed Obama is almost certain to be reelected. Also, once a GOP candidate is officially chosen, it is very possible these numbers will change as voters gain more confidence in what is now a party rife with tumult.

Santorum Called Obama a 'Snob'

Santorum called President Obama a snob over the weekend for wanting everyone in America to attend college. At a gathering of Governor's on Monday, Obama said, "The jobs of the future are increasingly going to those with more than a high school degree. And I have to make a point here. When I speak about higher education we're not just talking about a four-year degree," the president said in reference to his position that, "We're talking about somebody going to a community college and getting trained for that manufacturing job that now is requiring somebody walking through the door, handling a million-dollar piece of equipment."

I hate to admit it, but he does have a point. In order for America to be a power comparable to China, people need to be educated past a rudimentary level. Now does everyone need to go to a four year college? Of course not, but wanting a larger percentage of the population to have some sort of education past high school isn't a bad idea. 

In other news, Santorum now receives Secret Service protection. Probably not a bad idea...

Rick Santorum

20th Birthday weekend + my router committing suicide Friday morning = no posting, however I'm back online and as promised here is the Santorum piece!

Rick Santorum

Republican

Former United States Senator from Pennsylvania

Higher Education: Does not want to make it to where every child goes to college because he feels that everyone having a college degree would be detrimental to country. (Think of Judge Smails in Caddy Shack saying "The world needs ditch diggers too."

Separation Between Church and State: Does not believe in an absolute separation as he believes it would violate the first amendment 

Same Sex Marriage: He opposes same-sex marriage, saying the American public and their elected officials should decide on these "incredibly important moral issues", rather than the Supreme Court, which consists of "nine unelected, unaccountable judges. In 2003, Santorum in an interview compared homosexuality to pedophilia or bestiality. Has also previously stated he was in favor of laws against polygamy, adultery and sodomy and other antithetical actions. 

Reproductive Rights: Prior to running for congress Santorum considered himself pro-choice, but has since drastically changed his position. He does NOT want abortion to be legal and has been very critical of the Supreme Court decision Griswold v Connecticut that held that the Constitution guaranteed a person's right to privacy and allowed married couples to purchase contraceptives. (It should be noted that Santorum and his wife have eight children. Additionally, in 1996 his wife gave birth to a stillborn son and in 2008 had a daughter who was diagnosed as having Edward's syndrom [Trisomy 18] and only a 10% chance to live past one- she is still alive).

Libertarianism: Opposes it as he believes libertarians want to be left alone and he wants government involved in the culture and even "in the bedroom"

Illegal Immigration:Against amnesty for illegal immigrants and does not want current immigration laws reformed, simply enforced. Believes English should be established as the national language as the United States. Cites his own family's immigration from Italy as immigrating the right way.

Social Security: Supports partially privatized social security

Iran: If elected, he would demand Iran open up to inspection and destroy all nuclear weapons and if they refused he would bomb the sites where the nuclear weapons are made.

Environment: Does not believe in global warming, thinks it is a scheme by the left to get more involved in the lives of Americans. (But he wants to be involved in the bedroom?)

Energy: Drill everywhere.

There is not near the information on Santorum's platform that there is on the other candidates so his positions on a lot of things are either not available or not coming form a reliable source. He tends to focus mostly on social issues and implementing radically conservative policies. He has clearly not put in the effort to make his positions on most issues known to the public especially on issues involving foreign policy. 

No Labels

Currently I am interning with the Dallas chapter of a non profit group called No Labels. This group's motto is "Not left. Not right. Forward." This group is made up of Republicans, Democrats and independents with one common goal; get congress working together and passing legislation again. On March 14th, the "No Budget, No Pay Bill- Make Congress work!" No Labels action plan(H.R. 3643/ S. 1981) will have a hearing with the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in the Senate. 

I encourage you to visit the No Labels website to learn more about the bill and to contact your representatives to let them know you support this and would like them to support it too. 

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Mitt Romney

I'll go ahead and post the platforms of the "Final 4" in a blonde friendly manner:)

Mitt Romney
Republican
Former Governor of Massachusetts

Social Issues
Abortion: Pro- Life except for incest/ rape if the mother's life is in danger
Crime: Supports the three-strikes rule (after two or more serious offenses person would receive a life sentence) and has proposed legislation in support of the death penalty.
Gay Marriage: Does not support same-sex marriage but has in the past supported "Don't Ask Don't Tell" and legislation meant to curtail hate crimes against gays
Gun Ownership: Does support the right to bare arms but supports a ban on assault weapons
Drugs: Does not believe in legalizing any drugs including marijuana
SOPA: Denounced SOPA
Stem Cell Research: Would not federally fund stem cell research


Economy
Job creation: Claims his in his own state exceeds Obama's
Stimulus: Has supported and denounced it, once in the same day!
Deficit: Supports a raise in the national debt ceiling if and only if there are major cut backs in the U.S.'s current spending habits
Unions: Critical of them. Accused them of "taking care of Obama and he of them".
Minimum Wage: Supports gradual and predictable changes to minimum wage with no sudden, large jumps
Unemployment: Instead of the current unemployment system, calls for either A) Unemployment insurance of sorts which the individual pays into and if necessary can withdraw should they become unemployed or B) Offering incentives to companies/ businesses to hire people who have bee employed for awhile
Taxes Way too much to list as far as this is concerned in a concise manner, but he just today (2/22) announced that he plans to across the board slash taxes by 20% in light of Santorum's ever increasing momentum.
Energy: Supports increased drilling and want the US to become independent of foreign oil reliance. He does support drilling in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge as a temporary solution. He supports nuclear energy as well as clean energy and wants oil companies to reinvest profits for clean energy.
Environment: Acknowledges climate change but says he believes it to be a world problem not only the United States' problem and says that he will always side with human health and safety and protecting the environment over all else.
European Debt Crisis: Has said the Untied States should not help bail them out.
Healthcare: He does oppose Obamacare. He would leave it up to each individual state to decide how to best handle healthcare but would himself like to see policies that included preemptive care and ones that  covered preexisting conditions.


Foreign Policy
National Defense: Would increase the size of the military by 100,000. Would not support reducing the number of nuclear missiles the United States possesses and says that he doesn't think ronald Reagan's belief in the abolition of nuclear weapons is realistic.
Immigration: Opposes the DREAM Act, calls for an increase in legal immigration and a decrease in illegal immigration.

War on Terror
Guantanamo Bay: Wanted to double the number of prisoners there where they could not gain access to lawyers and everything else they would have on our soil.
Interrogation: Does not support torture but does support enhanced interrogation techniques.
Iran: Has said he does not believe that the Iranians could not be dealt with but would not take nuclear measures off of the tale as a possibility.
Iraq War: Supported the invasion of Iraq, criticized the mismanagement of affairs in Iraq an criticized Obama's announcement of plans to withdraw all troops from Iraq.
Afghanistan War: Supported the bush doctrine and US troops being in Afghanistan, criticized plans to withdraw all troops by 2013.

I will be posting Santorum's platform very soon!

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*Romney of course has opinions and positions on a great many other issues and the above opinions are subject to change.

 Politics are my life and I think that everyone should be a little more aware of what is happening in Washington as it affects everyone whether they realize it or not. My goal is to break down the goings on in Washington (and wherever else is pertinent to politics) so that anyone and everyone can understand it, even a blonde.  

As of right now, one of the biggest issues (and an issue I care about immensely) is the Republican primaries and who will eventually win the GOP candidacy. Currently, this is how the field is looking. Santorum is no doubt the "come out of nowhere candidate" of this race. Anyone who watched the first debates would know, he hardly received any airtime while Perry and Romney received the bulk of it. As unbelievable as it is, at this point it is most likely between Santorum and Romney. Gingrich, my personal favorite, is a brilliant speaker and would I think destroy Obama in a debate, but he is corse and doesn't have the charisma that the American population slobbers over, so, sadly I don't see him gaining anymore ground at this point. Ron Paul is quite possibly the smartest man up there,  but he also has been painted as a crack-pot by the media, so don't expect to see him with a legitimate bid for the white house. He has always reminded me of Ross Perot in many ways. They're really smart, but all they really succeed in doing is detracting votes that would generally go to the primary Republican candidate. Since I don't see Gingrich going up against Romney/ Santorum and winning, my dream team at this point would be Romney for president with Gingrich as VP. Santorum is a little too right-wing even for me and that would risk his alienating the potential votes the GOP candidate will so desperately need to defeat Obama in November. This is basically just a summary of my view on the primaries thus far and really explains nothing, but more to come!

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