My View On "Blood Testing Justification"

In my fellow classmate’s blog “Blood Testing Justification,” I totally agree with Mary on the issue of police officers being able to stab a person with a needle to draw blood. She said that they are “trained” to do so, but we have all dealt with a drunken person in our lifetime and we know that it is not always the easiest thing to do. Now imagine trying to stick a needle in them…. I do not see that going over very well. I do not think that anyone should be able to prick my skin without my permission regardless of the reason I am being pulled over for. The time it will take for the officer to call a judge, take them to a “clean room,” disinfect the arm, and finally draw blood, the results of the blood draw may be different than if they were to take it at the scene. There could be more or less alcohol in the blood stream by that time. I really think this violates our rights as individuals and that police and the government are gaining more power over the people. What happens if the police officer has to prick a person many times just to get a small sample of blood? Is the police officer responsible for possible assault charges or abuse? I just do not think this is going to keep anyone safer than we already are. I think this is going to anger citizens more than help. Again, I do agree with Mary that something needs to be done about drunk drivers, but I do not think that violating our civil liberties is the way to do it.

Anti Gay Ignorance

Longtime anti-gay activist David Wilson is wasting his time and money handing out fliers opposing Annise Parker as a potential mayoral candidate for Houston. Wilson once led a very successful effort to deny benefits to the partners of gay and lesbian city employees. The 35,000 fliers he has handed out show a photo of Parker being sworn in as controller while her partner, Kathy Hubbard looks on. The headline reads, "Is this the image Houston wants to portray?," on the reserve side it says, "Just because Annise Parker is a lesbian doesn't make her qualified to be mayor of Houston." Regardless if Parker is a lesbian or not, that should not determine weather she is qualified to hold a political office.
Wilson said that he tried to word his flier as a compassionate Christian. In my opinion, I do not think that Christians need to insert their constant two cents into politics and what is right and wrong. Shouldn't religion and state be separate? I am constantly hearing Christians preach this, but yet that is not what I am seeing. My mother is one of these "Christians" that will not shut up about gays and family values. As a homosexual, it really makes me upset that my own mother is the same way if not worse than Wilson. Wilson is also concerned that if Parker is elected mayor that it would inspire others to enter politics that are possibly gay or lesbian. At this point in life, who cares? Are we not adults? I do not think that someone's sexual orientation has to do with his or her qualifications on a job. In a political office, we need more people that are open-minded not only for gays, but for everyone. I think David Wilson should stop wasting his money and time on something that will eventually not even be a second thought for most Americans.

My Response To Tax Dollars Being Used On Abortion

I n my classmate's blog entry "Should Our Tax Dollars be Going To Women To Have Abortions?", she talks on the subject of using tax dollars to fund abortion. I do not think that tax dollars should be used to fund abortion. I think that abortion is a woman's choice, but I do not feel like that my hard earned money should be spent on someone's possible mistake of not using some sort of contraceptive and got pregnant. I think that abortions should only be performed for only a few reasons such as a woman getting raped or if there was some sort of health at risk with either the baby or mother. I do not think that a 16-year-old girl should be able to go through the hard emotional process of killing her child because her and her boyfriend thought they were mature enough to have sex. However, I can not tell someone what they can and can not do with their body just like someone can not tell me how to use my body. I think that if a woman or a young girl decides that having an abortion for whatever their justifying reason maybe that they should fund that themselves. I do not think that raising taxes or shifting money should go to pay for something like this. I agree with Whitney that it is their responsibility to pay for a procedure like that, not mine. There are other options for woman out there to choose than abortion. I think for some many people that is the easy way out. I also believe that if people have funding to pay for this that it might make it okay for just anyone to be able to get this done and it is not.

Death Penalty in Texas

There has been so much focus surrounding the death penalty here in Texas and it has been a subject that I have been following. I believe in the death penalty to a certain extent, but I think we have abused it quite a bit over time. Texas is a very proud state and I think people here want others to make sure they know they will not get away with anything because they could possibly face the death penalty. I think if you do a horrible, unspeakable crime that you should be put to death, "an eye for an eye" type of thing. However, I think we need to change the structure and the process of people that are put on death row. I do not think that people need to be on death row for ten plus years. That is ridiculous. People should not have to sit around that long knowing that they are going to be put to death. They need to shorten the process of appeals and only allow so much time to process it.

I also believe that the prosecutor needs to prove that without a shadow of a doubt that the person that is being tried is guilty of the crime. There have been too many cases in the news lately that are showing that an innocent person has been executed here in Texas such as Willingham. When things like this show up in the news and media I think it makes Texans look really bad especially our governor who did not want to even look over the case and the new investigation done. There needs to be extreme investigations and research done before delivering a verdict in a case like this.

At the end of the day, I think that we need to change a system and process to better provide a solution to people that could possibly be placed on death row. Just imagine if you were the person that was sentenced to death row and you knew that you were innocent, but there was nothing you could do to find the system.

Prop 4

Proposition 4, up for vote on November 3rd, is a controversial idea to push for more tier-one universities in the state of Texas. While some see it as controversial and unnecessary, I, and the author of the editorial, would like to see the Prop 4 pass with flying colors. According to the author in the editorial, "A vote for Proposition 4 is a vote for education and economy," the money that would be used to fund universities throughout Texas, such as UT-El Paso, UT-Dallas, and Texas Tech (just to name a few) to achieve tier-one status is already there; the money has just been laying dormant for some years now. Texas looses about 10,000 high school graduates each year to other out-of-state universities who grant doctoral degrees at other tier-one schools. Additionally, Texas only brings in about 4,000 students from other states to attend universities here. The reason Texas looses so many prospective students and only draws in a small amount is due to the lack of funding for Texas universities to thrive to their greatest potential. Since the money is already there, and the schools are already built, saying yes to this proposition would seem ignorant.

As a college student in the state of Texas, I would throughly enjoy the opportunity to have more variety of tier-one universities in my own state. I could avoid paying out-of-state tuition, as well as stay close to family and friends. Passing Prop 4 would not only alleviate admission pressures at UT-Austin, but would also boost the state economy because more students would want to continue their higher education in the state of Texas.

Governor Perry, An Innocent Man, and Texas

There has been a lot of media attention surrounding the recent execution of a possible innocent man, Cameron Todd Willingham, in Texas. I located an editorial from the Austin Statesman, "Governor Grants Stay of Scientific Evidence," which I think had good logic regarding the entire issue at hand. After being on death row for years, Willingham's case came up to review again long before he was executed. Despite new science, new theories, and new arson investigators that found the man innocent of the crime, he was still executed. Governor Perry has said that he sees no reason to doubt the conviction and took drastic measures to the Teas Forensic Science Commission by replacing different members that would not question him. Was this just the timing or was there a different motive for Perry to replace these members? This article shines light on an issue that needs to be brought to the attention of Texas residents, so people can realize that we may have killed an innocent man here in the state of Texas because of one man's ignorance, Governor Perry. Governor Perry completely dismissed the evidence of the new arson experts. The author thinks that this whole ordeal seems shady and I totally agree. The author states that "science proves otherwise, more than one Texas might want to blurt out the kind of profanity laced statement that Willingham opted for in his final moments." Most innocent men do not use profanity when they are about to get executed. The author thinks that Texas needs to get this one right even if it is ex post facto to make sure this kind of thing does not happen in the future. It is one thing to put an innocent man in jail for the rest of his life, but to kill an innocent man for something he never did is another. I agree with the writer of this editorial, but I think that his thoughts and points could have been structured and formatted in a different way. While reading the article, it seemed to jump around and, I as a reader, was unsure the direction and points that the writer was trying to make. It was not until the end that it really stood out to me that he felt like something needed to be done in Texas about the execution of innocent men. This issue brings attention to the fact that Cameron Willingham might not be the only person who suffered because of a man's ignorance.

Comptroller: Energy bill will cost jobs

http://www.kxan.com/dpp/mobile/Comptroller_energy_bill_will_cost_jobs

I was reading an article from KXAN's political section and came across something that I found to be interesting. There is currently a new energy bill that is moving through Congress that will implement a cap and trade on energy use. The comptroller is saying that if passed it will cost Texans over a hundred thousand jobs. The cap and trade bill would "cap" limits on carbon emissions in an area and then in those areas those are allowed to "trade" credits to areas in need of reducing emissions. Different areas would buy, sell, or trade greenhouse gasp credits to credit some sort of limit on the state. This bill would not impact families directly, but Texas is the # 1 oil and gas exporter in the country and this bill would definitely limit the amount of production people would be able to do. Since people would not be able to produce the amount of what they are currently doing; therefore, they would not need as many employees or laborers to work for them creating major jobs cuts in Texas. I thought this was interesting since Texas has remained one of the few states that have not seen a huge job loss in the recession that we are living in. People are moving to Texas from all over the country to have a job and make a life for their families. If they were to pass a bill then people would have no reason to move here to keep the economy steady like it is now and possibly get laid off from their new job. Texas is a state that has a lot of jobs in manufacturing, agricultural, gas, oil and electric industries. A bill of this nature would directly impact all those industries. In a time that every job counts, they should rethink about this bill and possibly make more modifications to it.