Egypt in chaos

Walk like an Egyptian

The news is filled with pictures of men wailing in the streets standing on tanks and defying police. This is all due to a dictatorship that has lasted for over 30 Years. President Mubarak has been in power too long and the people defiantly and violenty protest his rule. President Mubarak is the successor to millitary dictator  Anwar Al-Sadat who was assasinated during a millitary parade that left the entire country shaken in 1981. Mubarak was his successor and has somehow remained in power over several assasination attempts on his life. This isolated Mubarak further and made him recusive and paranoid of any public appearances. Can't really blame the guy.

I can certinatly blame him for all of the violence that we have seen over the past couple weeks. Mubarak has demonstrated his inability to be a leader and rule. The president who is in his 80's has announced that he will not seek re-election in september. This at first was seen as a victory but it left most peole unsatisfied. The Egyptian people continue their protests as they call for him to step down immediatly and hold special elections. The people cry out for equality, Job opportunity, civil rights and Democracy to be the rule of law.

Democracy is the prefered direction we would like to see the Egyptian government  take. Although that seems to be a long road to walk for the Egyptian people. Groups like the Muslim Brotherhood are at work in Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood is a secret muslim organization that dates back to 1929 that calls for Islamist style government and sharia law. Sharia Law is condemned in Saudi Arabia and practiced in places like Iran and the was practiced in Afghanistan before the American invasion.

It's hard to predict how democracy will divide Egypt as supporters of Mubarak were reported to be responsible for heavy machine gun fire in the capital last night as protestors defied marshal law and curfew.  Reports of battles between protestors and government supporters for the first time were reported all across Egypt.

I applaud President Barack Obama for calling upon Mubarak to step down and hold special elections.  He has done the right thing by speaking out on a situation that needs a calming authoritive voice. Obama has also done the right thing on making it clear to President Mubarak that aide and assistance to Egypt recovering from this destructive violence will depend upon how co-operative Mubarak will be with the incoming transitional government.

This transitional Government doesn't even exist yet. In my humble opinion no progress or ground can be made on resolution before Mubarak steps down and the violence and protests stop. The "Angry Mid-East Crowd" is usually a staple for news agencies to jump on and get pictures to sell ad's but in this situation it has turned on them. Anderson Cooper of CNN and his camera crew was attacked and assaulted as they attempted to make their way threw Cairo demonstrators. Violence upon journalists is universally condemed by almost every country as they should not have an agenda other than too report facts.

Egypt is important to the entire world. How the next few weeks and months are going to unfold will set the tone for future Middle-east relations. If we see a successful Democracy come out of Egypt that is fair and efficient, this will embolden those in other countries who feel that the chains of theocracry or dictatorship need to be forever broken.

Immigration, Freedom vs Security

Immigration, Freedom vs Security

            I feel that this subject is sadly the most politicized subject in our national dialogue right now with both sides painting each other as immoral or nefarious intentions on policy. When in my humble opinion it’s one of the important issues we need to come to a serious conclusion about. Because we are so undecided on what laws to enforce or if to enforce them at all it leaves the American people at a disadvantage and the foreign person at the mercy of our political instability.

            The United States on average admits 660,000 legal immigrants per year (1988 figures). 55% of all illegal aliens come from Mexico with 20% accounting from other Latin American countries.  The illegal immigrant population is growing by about 275,000 people each year.  The INS (Immigration and Naturalization Services) is responsible for Border patrol as well as interior enforcement. One of the hardest questions to answer is how many legal immigrants too allow and how many illegals we need to prevent.

http://www.ontheissues.org/Background_Immigration.htm

Democrats want all undocumented illegal aliens to have a path to citizenship. Undocumented people in our country face the threat of unlawful labor practices or human trafficking and drug smuggling to be forced into part of their daily lives as a means to get an income while in our country without a social security number. Democrats believe that people need to have the ability to come out of the shadows and speak out and not be penalized for trying to just get into the most developed and civil countries in the worlds history.

Democrats also want reform of the INS to help backlogged immigration application as old as two months to two years old to be brought to the front and be heard first before new ones are.

Democrats also want to prosecute employers who illegally recruit and take advantage of these immigrants who aren’t educated under our laws of what a reasonable place of employment is and what isn’t.  Also grant political asylum to anybody fleeing violence from any government.

http://www.ontheissues.org/celeb/Democratic_Party_Immigration.htm

Republicans want to use biometric data to better track foreign travelers. This system has been used at more than 115 airports and is presently being implemented at land border crossings. Reconnaissance cameras, border patrol agents, and unmanned aerial flights should all increase at our borders. We need to strength our Border Patrol force to stop illegal crossings, and we will equip the border patrol with the tools that would give them the ability to do so. There will be harsh penalties for those who smuggle illegal aliens and those who sell or distribute false documents. State local and federal law enforcement will all work in a cohesive manner in making our borders air tight

Republicans would only allow legal documented migration though tightly controlled borders. This way in Republicans eyes it’s done in a legal, safe, orderly and humane manner. This also supports measures to ensure that the immigration system is structured to address the needs of our National Security.  This allows for better verification of the identity of who is coming into our country.

Republicans want powers to deport illegal aliens with borer patrol without having to go threw the hearing to an immigration judge. Republicans want the law to be enforced to the letter and welcome immigrants who wish to come here by legal means.

Republicans also want priority given to spouses, children and family members of Americans when it comes to admission to the country.

            Republicans also feel that Amnesty encourages illegal immigration.

http://www.ontheissues.org/Celeb/Republican_Party_Immigration.htm

            Immigration is deeply debated and discussed in the halls of congress on how this matter should be dealt with. I was encouraged after my first blog post to write more on my own personal opinion. As I said earlier I am an admitted conservative and will speak on the matter when asked.

            The word “Illegal” carries with it the penalty of a crime being committed. If you are an illegal immigrant you have violated the sovereignty of the United States. If you have come here without going threw the appropriate channels you are breaking the law. Therefore I am against any amnesty or path to citizenship unless you were a minor when you crossed the border. As an adult you were in full knowing that what you were doing was a crime against the United States. You also recklessly put yourself in danger to be at the mercy of those who help smuggle you across. The legal immigrant has the right to all the privileges and rights the U.S. constitution grants.  I also feel that any employer that gives a job to an undocumented worker should face strict and harsh penalties. We shouldn’t harshly punish illegal immigrants, but we should swiftly deport them. We should harshly punish anybody encouraging or helping them cross the border.

Key differences

                Welcome to the first blog entry of mine. This Blog I hope will satisfy my goal of writing about politics in way that is simply informative and not controversial. I hope to give an unbiased measure of what is going on and take very complex multilayered issues and give you both sides of the isle’s perspective. To be unbiased in my opinion is to check your admitted bias at the door. I am an admitted conservative on most issues, but on others I can be very moderate and if not even liberal myself.

                Let’s talk about that because the words Liberal and Conservative get tossed around a lot when people discuss matters of politics. These two terms often refer to the respective extremes on both sides of our two party system. This first blog post will primarily focus differences between Democrats and Republicans that respectively hold Liberal or Conservative ideals.

I’ll give a brief  break down of couple principles they disagree on.

Economy

Democrats: Democrats are the Robin Hood of Nottingham and Republicans are the big bad Sherriff and King in their minds. They feel that the wealthy Americans got rich off the poor and their hard work. They feel that Government not only has the right but the responsibility to give all Americans unlimited opportunity to fail and succeed in making money. They also feel that Government should tax the wealthy heavily and that the richest people should pay for Government services that everybody can use. They believe that Rich people are not to be trusted with all this money. That they will only serve their own interests and by that will just perpetuate their own wealth and will not create jobs for people to get out of poverty. Democrats believe in a lot of Government regulation in private business for a few reasons. One reason for example would be regulating a bank to make sure it doesn’t loan money to a person who never could repay it.

Republicans: Republicans believe that the individual should be held responsible for their actions when it comes to money. People became rich or wealthy because they innovate and work hard or contribute to society. Government gets in the way with regulation because it slows the process and tells private business what to do. People that have a proven track record with money are the ones who should be trusted with said money. By de-regulating private business, they will inherently be successful enough to create more jobs for the people to obtain a position where they can acquire their own wealth. Government does not have the right to take all your money; you have the right to keep most of your earned wealth. Government tends to spend frivolously and irresponsibly when the individual could use it to better their individual life or employ somebody else with it.

Role of Government

Democrats: Government has the responsibility to all individuals even if it means having Government telling the individual they must be subordinate to Government will as opposed to entrepreneurial desires and initiatives (drilling in Alaska for oil for example). Democrat administration desires for centralized power in Washington D.C. with only secondary consideration to the will of communities and individuals. Democrats favor Federal-level interventions that replace community-based solutions to community problems. These regulations tend to put control in the hands of unelected bureaucrat agencies causing erosion to local authority in exchange for centralized federal authority (DHHS case worker as opposed to a community outreach program like a homeless shelter.)

Republicans: Each person is responsible for his or her role in society. Government should enable people the ability to secure the benefits of society for themselves, and their families and for those who are unable to care for themselves. Government should have a limited ability to intervene. It’s lack of authority should be a catalyst for individual prosperity. Government only should step in during specific cases where society cannot deal with things on an individual level. Destiny should be in the individual’s hands, Government power and resources should be kept close to people through their state and community leaders… not centralized in distant federal government agencies.

Immigration

Democrats: As the world superpower, it’s a responsibility for the United States to provide unconditional aid to foreign nationals. Open borders, unconditional amnesty, and laws that are on file get ignored in certain cases to provide legal forms of ID to foreign Nationals and also non emergency assistance.

Republicans: Lack of security along our borders contribute to the flow of Narcotics trafficking, gang violence, and the yearly forced servitude and slavery of over 50,000 women and children from foreign countries by human smugglers. Republicans want to fallow laws to the letter and immigration policies should be enforced securing our borders to ensure safety of our citizens and prevent those seeking opportunity aren’t taken advantage of by American companies looking for cheap illegal labor or Human traffickers selling slaves.

For a more complete list of differences on key issues… please read the following links.

http://www.ontheissues.org/askme/dem_rep.htm

http://www.diffen.com/difference/Democrat_vs_Republican