"Operation Intervention"

I recently came across an article in the Austin American-Statesman on Governor Rick Perry’s Operation Intervention. Up until this point I had no idea what this Operation Intervention was about but as I kept reading it all made sense. To explain to anyone, who like me had no idea any of this existed, Operation Intervention is basically Gov. Perry’s way of trying to get U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison out of the governor race. The way he plans to do this is by “persuading” Sen. Hutchison’s supporters into joining his effort. Well isn’t this a coincidence we are only a few days from the filing period to begin and now is when Gov. Perry is trying to convince others to join his effort. He has had enough time to try and convince them but has done nothing. This is just another last moment effort to try and confuse voters or make them uncertain if they are making the right choice or not. Although many might say that it doesn’t make a difference because Sen. Hutchison is already unsure of whether she would even run for governor this is beyond the case. The point that I want to make is if this was really in the best interest of Texas citizens then why wouldn’t this have been proposed sooner rather than less than a week before the filing period. However, as all of us know most of the political actions are taken right before deadlines to make our politicians make themselves look a lot better in the eyes of voter.

Proposition 8

Who is responsible for raising and maintaining an army? Who controls the army? Under the U.S. Constitution the federal government has the power and responsibility to do so, based on this the federal government should be 100 percent responsible for the care of U.S. Veterans.
One of the amendments the Texas legislature is hoping to pass on November 3rd, is Proposition 8, which will make Texas responsible for the construction of new veteran hospitals and the federal government would be responsible for the maintenance. There are only 9 veteran hospitals in Texas, which have been constructed and are being maintained by the federal government. The legislature sees the need to build more institutions since the veteran population in Texas is very high and the locations of the 9 hospitals are not very convenient, many find it too expensive to travel there.
I am not opposed to the idea of creating more veteran hospitals throughout the state however I am opposed to the state spending money on creating the new hospitals when it is the responsibility of the federal government to do so. The money that would be spent in building these hospitals could be spent in other areas in which the state is solely responsible for the funding. The money that the state would need to construct these institutions would also in crease not only our state taxes but our federal taxes as well since the federal government also need more money to maintain them. Personally I believe that we need to improve many of our veterans living conditions because it is an outrage that while you are driving around you can find many of our veterans living out in the streets. Our senators should be doing as much as they can in Washington to find a way to better accommodate the men and women who have served our country so that the state do not have to worry about this problem as much. The national government need to begin paying more attention to those who fought for our country and those who are still fighting and will soon return.

In lieu of taxes, Perry is reaching for fool's gold

Arnold Garcia Jr. wrote an opinion article in the Austin American-statesman titled, "In lieu of taxes, Perry is reaching for fool's gold", on October 4, 2009. In this article Garcia brings to light that Gov. Rick Perry would like to see a constitutional amendment were a two-thirds vote, from the legislature, would be needed to raise taxes. Having lower taxes seems like it would be a great idea but Gov. Perry has essential taken this idea from California which has not seen many benefits from having lower taxes. Garcia states that lower taxes have become a burden for California.
While i understand that Gov. Perry thinks that the best thing to do is try to create lower taxes i would have to agree with Garcia's argument. Since California is already demonstrating hardships with a similar two-thirds requirement why would we risk having the same results. Garcia has made a perfect statement by saying that "California is a textbook example of how anti-tax fever can put state government in a straitjacket." Without the ability of taxing to fund various needs for the state, how else does Perry plan on obtaining this money? Although, many of us hate the
thought of having to pay taxes there is really no other better alternative, having low taxes would just mean that the government would have to find another way to make us pay, which would be extremely pointless. I agree with Garcia that this is just another way for Perry to try and appeal to more people and in the end gain more supporters for the next election. Hopefully the Texas legislature doesn't want to follow in the foot steps of California.

State board vows to save Christmas, Chavez

The State Board of Education (SBOE) has found itself in the news quite a bit for the past couple of weeks. The controversial subject in question has been recommendations of removing Christmas and Cesar Chavez from the Social Studies curriculum. In this article of the Austin American-Statesman some of the board members have taken a stand against these suggestions and have said that they will not allow such changes to be made in the curriculum. It is understandable that many parents who do not celebrate any of the holidays mentioned in these textbooks would want to have them removed from the curriculum and in an effort to accomadate everyone the SBOE has decided to incorperate different holidays into the textbooks along with those already mentioned. However, the thought that some see the need to remove a very important Mexican-American hero, Cesar Chavez, is not only insulting to Hispanics but to all Americans. With all the diveristy in our country, and not to mention all the Latinos in Texas, we should teach our children that people from all types of backgrounds helped shape this country into what it is today. If the changes that have been shown in this article are made to textbooks in Texas the only ones that would suffer would be our kids.