Rick Perry's candidacy

At the moment Rick Perry has a low chance of winning the GOP candidacy. He is getting a low score in the polls http://www.gallup.com/poll/election.aspx. Currently behind Gingrich, Cain, and Romney. A major slip up he just made was not being able to remember the three federal agencies he had said he was going to eliminate. However he has made a strong push to win Iowa. Perry took a two day tour of Iowa and spoke about how he was going to improve immigration laws to protect the nation from drugs and violence. This move may end up paying off very well for him. The GOP race is so close and has had enough slips of the tongue that most of the candidate, along with Perry, still have a chance of winning.

Occupy movement cartoon

 

This cartoon is by John Darkow of the Columbia Daily Tribune. The desk and suits along with what is talked about show that this is taking place in a political office room. The adult is a well known Simpson's character who represents the corruption of the wealthy. The boys message is ironic because he's saying the people who own the country are unhappy with the Occupy movement, when the people in the Occupy movement are the majority and are supposed to own the country. What the adult says ridicules the governments abuse of police forces. Darkow agrees with the Occupy movement that the people in power are too powerful and corrupt. This cartoon portrays these beliefs by pointing out the police corruption and showing that it's the 1% who hold the power in the US.

Boehner's and Norquist (event 3)

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/11/03/boehner-calls-anti-tax-crusader-norquist-some-random-person/?npt=NP1 this is CNN's report on GOP position on taxes. John Boehner, the House speaker, is against tax increases because they hurt the economy. Grover Norquist is the leader of the Americans for Tax Reform who are working to keep Congress from raising any taxes. They are doing this by getting senators and representatives to sign a pledge to not increase taxes, so far there are 238 house members and 41 senators signed on. This is nearly impossible to do when working to cut $1.2 trillion. To raise money some taxes have to be increased.

Corporate taxes (event 2)

According to CNN's study http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/03/news/economy/corporate_taxes/?hpt=hp_t2 many of the largest corporations are paying on average 18.5% taxes, when the tax rate is supposed to be 35%. This is caused due to all of the loopholes in taxation laws. This problem has become common knowledge and can be fixed by lowering the overall tax, but cutting out most loopholes. I agree that this needs to be fixed, but unfortunately the Senate will probably not get around to it for a while.

Virginia transportation (question 4)

The DC metro area has the worst traffic in the nation. This causes thousands of lost man hours, which equates to lots of lost money. The problem is getting the money to improve transportation while not raising taxes too much. One possible solution is to raise the gas prices. Virginia gas prices haven't been raised since 1986 and are much lower than any other industrialized countries gas tax. Whatever happens has to be done soon because Virginia is running out of funding for transportation and transportation is a vital ingredient in keeping our economy running.

Alternative energies (question 2)

I have been fascinated by the pursuit for alternative energy since I was a kid. As someone looking to become a chemical engineering I find it a problem which requires an interesting sort of combination of logic and creativity. This is also an extremely important issue that needs to be addressed if the world plans on remaining anything like it is now. Our entire society is based around power and will fall apart if a major energy crisis occurs. With global warming and rapidly depleting fossil fuels another energy option is needed and the U.S. needs to begin working on it. Alternative energy is an excellent way to reboot our internal industry. Germany subsidized solar energy investments and they are now the world leader in solar production creating a massive internal industry boom. We are searching for a way out of the recession, work on alternative energies is a practical way to reinvigorate the U.S. economy and help the world in the long run.

My political party (question 1)

I am closest aligned to the Republicans, yet very close to centered. I am closer to Democrat because I have both conservative and liberal views, but my liberal views are stronger. I am extremely liberal when it comes to social standing, I'm a strong supporter of gay marriage. I'm also a supporter of having government care for the poor and working on alternative energies. The military should be smaller because we spend more than necessary on it. Despite these liberal views I support weak federal government because a lot of the federal system gets too stuck in the bureaucracy while the states get better results more quickly.