Powell Endorses Obama Again

I've always respected General Colin Powell and I still do after he endorsed President Barack Obama for another 4 years. It should come as no surprise since for almost a year the former Secretary of State has been in disagreement with the Republican Party on nearly every foreign policy and domestic issue. General Powell a moderate conservative or Republican with conviction.

While many might try to paint the General as a loyalist who gave an ill advised speech about Iraq's weapons of destruction on the United Nations floor on behalf of the Bush administration, he is in fact not that at all. In fact, I believe the General gave that speech based off of information or intelligence that he believed was concrete and accurate. However, as we now know the information was flawed. So since that day, General Powell has been trying to rebuild his image of diplomacy and not the neo-conservative war hawk speech that diminished his once spotless image. Therefore, Powell's endorsement of President Obama for another 4 years is not surprising since Governor Mitt Romney has failed to provide any real details of his foreign policy plan.

The General's endorsement shouldn't come as no shocker and less than 2 weeks left in the campaign, it comes at a to late too little time perhaps.

All Elections are Important!

Many people think that Presidential elections are the only important elections in the world. Millions of people turn out to vote in Presidential elections that don't ordinarily vote in other elections. What's even more frustrating is that even when people vote in these Presidential elections, they forget to vote on many ballot proposals that will affect their everyday lives more so than what the President of the United States proposes to Congress. For example, one ballot proposal in my state of Michigan this year, would give healthcare home workers the right to unionize and another ballot proposal would eliminate Public Act 4, which is the creation of an Emergency Financial Manager that can do practically anything.

Also there is the case of the non-partisan side of ballots where people get to elect judges to the various courts in their city and state. Thus, when I tell you every election is important it's no joke. While voting for President every four years is good, what really counts is voting in every election and voting on every ballot proposal as well as the rest of the ballot. Who you put in Congress is just as important as who sits in the White House? Who you elect to the United States Senate is just as important as who chooses the next Supreme Court Justice? Who you cast a vote for to be the Governor of your state is just as important as changing your states constitution by voting yes or no on a state ballot proposal?

When you vote, you make a difference in deciding who will not only be the next President of the United States but who can be the next Mayor, City Council member, State Representative, State Senate,  and even the next County Executive, Sheriff, or Prosecutor. Voting in every election whenever there is one can decide if your property taxes go up due to new bond mileages to build new schools or to pay for the community colleges in your county. Voting should be contagious and it should not only be done for the President of the United States of America but it should be done on a consistent and continuous basis in every election year.

So vote every year because every election is important.

Fact is Fact

What bothers me more than anything when it comes to politics is the notion that all politicians are liars or to be a politician you have to be a liar, tell a lie or believe in lies.  Well I'm here to tell people that you don't have to be a liar, you don't have to deal in lies or believe in lies to be a politician. In fact it is shameful that many politicians and political candidates distort the truth in order to get elected to office. What's even more shameful is that many supporters of the candidates continue to spread the lies even after the lies have been proven to be a lie.

Just look at Tuesday's Presidential Debate and you can find all types of lies told by both President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney.  However, it is good to see that even liberal blog/news sites such as the Huffington Post are not allowing either candidate to get away with the constant lies or misgiving of information they give.  Now I always expect conservative blog/news sites to give me half the truth but lately most liberal blog/news sites have been just like the conservative sites. So on Wednesday when I read the following article by the Huffington Post entitled, Fact Check: Presidential Debate Claims By Mitt Romney, Barack Obama Scrutinized, I gained new hope that perhaps the fact checking of political candidates on both sides of the aisle will begin back up again.

Still I caution those who support candidates or politicians on either side of the aisle to do your own research on certain topics and issues before posting what the candidate, politician or political website tells you to post. Facts are facts people and regardless if we like it or not, we cannot change that. So no matter what, don't just post on your social networking page information that you have not taken the time yourself to fact check or research.

Its vital we do not feed into the lies that are told by sharing the lies with others who won't actually take the time to do the research on their own but will rather believe what you or I say based off of what we post. Its time to start a truth telling squad and I am the first member. No more lies, just facts and the truth. Join me.

How About Just Vote Youth, Vote

           Every 4 years, it seems to be a new voter slogan comes out to entice young voters to vote.  We’ve come from “Rocking the Vote” to “Vote or Die” to “Yes We Can!” to “Shut Up & Vote”.  However with each voter slogan comes opportunist’s willing to gain a profit because of good old capitalism.  Now I’m all for capitalism and for making a profit but what affect if any has any of these movements had on youth voting outside of the Yes We Can! 2008 was a rare occasion not expected to repeat itself this year because many millennium voters have become discouraged over the past 4 years due to what they see as a lack of change or progress.

           Thus the real question is why youth voters just can’t tell each other to vote because elders marched, fought and dead just for us to have a right to vote.  Why can’t youth voters just tell each other to vote because it’s the cool thing to do, it’s the new "it" trend, and it will be all anyway talks about on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and any other social network site on Tuesday, November 6, 2012?  We don't need anyone  to tell us to rock a vote when the vote won’t be rocked in no shape or form unless every single American in this nation actually votes in an election.  Simply having youth vote more won’t rock the vote but it will tip the scale of balance from more attention being paid to the elderly and middle classes to perhaps the millennium voter in future elections.

           When P.Diddy or Diddy, whatever he goes by today launched the whole “Vote or Die” campaign in 2004, it was cool, trendy and thought provoking.  Many youth across America sported the shirts and others who didn’t sport the original sported knockoffs.  Nonetheless, the message on the shirt at the time was never questioned.  However I’m going to question it because actual people actually dead trying to vote when they weren’t allowed to vote but in 2004 was that the case.  Nobody’s life was in danger in 2004 by casting a vote, in fact, no one would die by simply voting at the time of the slogan debut.  Still 8 years later and Diddy still a millionaire with a trademark on “Vote or Die”, has not been actively involved in the political process the last 8 years whatsoever.  In fact, more “Vote or Die” t-shirts are being sold yet alone the slogan is not even been mentioned until I just brought it up.

           We all know what happened in 2008 where there was a spike in the millennium voting with the “Yes We Can!” slogan.  I don’t have the actual statistics but last I checked at The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE)—http://www.civicyouth.org/PopUps/FactSheets/FS_08_exit_polls.pdf—estimated that youth voter turnout rose to between 52 and 53 percent, an increase of four to five percentage points over CIRCLE’s estimate based on the 2004 exit polls.  However 2004 was considered a large turnout for youth compared to 1996 and 2000.  However the 52-53% is almost identical to that of 1992.  Even further research shows just how much the youth vote changed in 2008:http://www.civicyouth.org/quick-facts/youth-voting/.

           As we approach the 2012 election season and I look on my twitter feed and see Shut Up and Vote, I have to question does that mean if you don’t vote you have to shut up or just vote and shut up.  Either way I have to question, does that mean everyone who was eligible to vote in previous mayoral elections, state elections and so on have to shut up since they didn’t vote in 2011, 2010, or 2009 since they have been eligible to vote.  How does telling someone to shut up and vote encourage anyone to vote when voting is about exercising a right and it is a freedom of expression?  Therefore if we truly believe in the voting process than we couldn’t want to be disrespectful by telling people with different opinions than us to shut up and vote especially if you want that person to vote for the candidate you like. I’m just saying.  Nonetheless while the slogan looks good on a t-shirt, it doesn’t push the needle to get youth to vote.

           If we truly want the youth to vote than why not have a discussion with all your friends and you all encourage each other to not only register to vote but to vote not in just this election but every election.  If people are serious about voting and not just selling slogans on t-shirts what about telling people to vote and they will get a free t-shirt at certain polling stations.  If people are serious about getting the youth vote out than what about have a party on college campuses or at clubs near universities and colleges that offer discounts to those sporting I voted stickers or if you have the sticker stub from your ballot.

           The truth is youth have voted in a decent amount in Presidential elections since 1972 (40% or above) and at almost the same rate of (20% or above) in every midterm election since 1974—http://www.civicyouth.org/youth-turnout-about-20-comparable-to-recent-midterm-years/.  So why do the news media and everyone like to make it seem that we as youth aren’t voting.  While the truth is, those of us between 18-29 years of age, make up one of the largest voting blocs yet we are not one of the most sought after votes because we don’t vote consistently in every election.  If we as youth voted more constantly and could be depended on to vote in every election from mayoral, county, state legislature, U.S. Congressional and Senate races as well as Presidential and ballot proposals than perhaps more ads will be geared toward us similar to how campaigns gear campaign ads toward the elderly in Florida or Hispanics in Texas, Florida, New Mexico, etc.

           So until we as youth reach that point of just vote, we need to stop with the gimmicks on t-shirts as if they are actually going to persuade someone to vote.  Simply having the discussion of voting in one’s vocabulary is the first step to getting the vote out.  Just tell people to vote but not who to vote for.

The Pastime I used to Love

           Since 1992, I have been intrigued with politics from campaigns to governing to elections and voting.  However each year my intrigue has dwindled to disguise and quite frankly it has to a point of complete disdain for a process that I once endured.  As a little boy, I couldn’t wait to actually vote but I refused to allow my age to stop me from participating in the political process.  In fact I was encouraged by my parents to get involved in my community.  I was encouraged to speak out any injustice that I saw at the age of 7 and even more than that, I was brought along to community, neighborhood watch, political and all types of organizational meetings by my parents.

           It was those moments that defined my political interest.  In was during that grooming phase of my life that I saw what right and wrong was and how passionate people were about not just people voting for a particular candidate but for issues that affected the majority of us.  Now granted I grew up in a impoverished neighborhood on the eastside of Detroit but it was in that neighborhood that we stood up for community issues.  It was that community that fought against city government, state government and even against those in the community who tried to sell it off, write it off and give it away.

           Now as I watch politics in 2012, I’m ashamed to call it the pastime I love anymore.  I hear most politicians and their talking heads today talk about the middle class and how they want to help, however they ignore the fact that it’s not just the middle class that needs help, it’s the poor.  Most Americans are living in poverty today so who is going to fight for them.  I hear most politicians talk about getting Americans back to work but most of them don’t understand that Americans don’t just want jobs, they want careers and the jobs that are available aren’t good paying one’s so how will they fix the problem.

           I hear politicians talk about the importance of making higher education more affordable but not one person has suggest raising the Pell Grant maximum to $10,000 or more as the cost of living is steadily going up thus the cost of tuition, room & board, books and more things in higher education are steadily increasing.  How can higher education become more affordable and attainable when parents and students are being forced to take out more student loans due to the fact Pell Grants and other federal grants don’t cover the full cost of an education at a university or college?  Some might say more people need to seek scholarships but even getting a scholarship isn’t that simple and most scholarships are attached to certain majors, stipulations of GPA standards, etc. so even more added pressure are added to students seeking a higher education.

           Don’t let me even get started on issues of healthcare, equality, minimum wage, immigration reform, and a host of other issues.  My point is simply, politics has changed not for the better but for the worst.  Even the two party majority political system has lost its way as each side steadily blames each other for the problems our nation faces but when their guy is in office, they make it seem as if all is rosy or that it’s the previous party in control fault.  The fact is that Democrats and Republicans are to blame for America’s mess, like it or not, they both had added to our  nation’s deficit, have ignored fixing illegal immigration and have even ignored curving the cost of healthcare at the expense of just passing a healthcare bill to say we finally did it.

           You don’t have to believe it or like what I’m saying but if you look at the tone of every political ad running today on television: they are not ads of hope, prosperity or positivity.  Quite simply they are ads of despair, fear mongering, and negativity that cast their opponent or the other party as evil and full of dislike for a certain group of people or issue.  Is this the way politics has always been?  Whatever happened to ads that displayed where candidates stood on the issue?  Whatever happened to ads that discussed a candidates plan for the future?  Whatever happened to candidates standing up for the people and being held accountable for their word?

           The pastime I love has become a sporting event where even the media are picking sides, which leaves people like myself who are unbought, unbiased and unwilling to give in to one side or the other feeling betrayed.  The media used to be one of the most unbiased things to go but even the news they give out is tailored to make things seem one way when it actually isn’t.  Therefore the news reporters on television and even the investigative journalists are even taught to chose sides and stick with it, all in order to ramp up ratings.  This used to never be.

           Now as I sit hundreds of thousands a miles overseas, I realize now more than ever that the pastime of I used to love has politics has definitely left me behind but I’m not willing to go away without a fight.  I’m not willing to conform to the norm just because the masses say so.  I’m not willing to stand by and allow candidates, politicians and political parties to ignore the real issues plaguing the people.  I’m not willing to allow the news media to betray the sacred trust to give the news to the people unbiased and full of the truth.  Therefore I encourage all of you to not give to what the majority is doing because the majority is not always right and the masses don’t always know what is right.

           If the pastime I love is to come back, it will have to do it by the people demanding more from the political process than the two bit sound bites we are getting that a small majority want the masses to hear in order to manipulate us into thinking one way instead of the other way.  Enough is enough, it’s time to change the culture for the better.