CATO

Since the blog I was following before hasn't been recently updated, I switched to Cato-at-Liberty. A little bit of background: the Cato Istitute is a non-profit public policy research foundation. Their mission is to increase the understanding of public policies based on the principles of limited government, free markets, individual liberty, and peace. There are new topics posted daily about all sorts of politcal issues.

Most of the recent posts focus on the presidential election and a lot of the issues that the candidates are faced with. The most recent post, and the one that interested me the most is about how Hawaii, the only state to have it, dropped it's universal child health care program. There are two main reasons why: 1. Universal Coverage means paying too much and 2. Universal Coverage means getting too little. Then it goes on to talk about Obama's health plans. I found this interesting considering I just did my soapbox on health care and this was extremely related. Also if you click on his picture, there is a video clip of Barack Obama speaking about his proposed plan.

I think especially with the struggling economy the cost of health care is very important, and right now its extremely expensive. Here is a document I found that has all sorts of facts and figures about what health care and insurance cost.

Vice Presidential Debate

On October 2nd, 2008 at 9 p.m. was the most viewed Vice Presidential Debate ever. I happened to be a part of it. I found it pretty interesting. This is the first year that I have really payed any attention to politics and the election, mostly cause I can be a part of it. There were many different issues discussed during the debate, three of them really stuck out for me.

Obviously, with our current economic state, the economy was a big one. Biden really emphasized the focus on the middle class. He said how it drives the economy and right now its not doing so hot. Sarah Palin on the other hand said how people have become to fear the economy and that it needs to be reformed and John McCain will do that.

Another topic discussed was the environment. Palin thinks that we need to become more energy independant and that energy is key to the future. She felt that the change in climate is all natural but that the planet still needs to be cleaned up and related this to her experience in Alaska. In Biden's opinion everything thats happened to the environment is man made and that investing in new, clean energy will also create more jobs.

The final issue that stuck out for me was foreign policy. I did not know a whole lot about this before watching the debate. On the subject of the war, Biden said we will end this war soon but Palin strongly felt that we couldn't pull out now. And when asked which was more of a threat, Iran and thier nuclear weapons or Unstable pakistan, Biden thought Pakistan while Palin thought Iran. It seemed they disagreed on most issues involving foreign policy.

So, although the media stressed what a good job Sarah Palin did, that was only because she had such low expectations. In my opinion, Joe Biden won the debate. From listening to him I felt he really knew what he was talking about and had a lot of experience whereas Palin is extremely new at all this. She hardly answered any questions, and Biden had a good answer for most. Some of my opinion might just be from a general dislike for Palin but overall Biden is much more suited for a position like the Vice President of the Unites States.

All Things Cynthia McKinney

This blog is all about Cynthia McKinney, the Green Party presidential candidate. It has a ton of video clips and and clips of speeches. It also has tons of links to articles, as well as to volunteer, contribute, and other ways to participate in her campaign.

This 'professional' blog is a lot different than most of the other blogs I have seen up to this point. There is a lot more information as well as the video clips and picture. Also all the links to other sites involving Cynthia McKinney help you to further understand who she is and what she stands for. All the other blogs seemed to be mostly just text and not all that appealing to look at. This 'professional' blog makes it easy to find anything you may want to know about this party and the candidates campaign.

One of the major topics discussed in an entry on this blog is energy. McKinney's opinion is to "leave the oil in the soil" She really emphasizes how we need to change our habits on use of energy and everyday events. She thinks we need a president who isn't going to be stuck in old ways. A lof her campaign focuses on the environment. I think this is very important, many companies these days are trying to 'go green' and I am a big believer in this as well, we all need to be a little more aware of the world around us and how the things we have been doing obviously is not working. I think Cynthia's stand for this will win her a decent amount of votes from all those American who also are very pro-earth.