IM2Opinionated - Common sense views on politics

ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) noun 1.    An nonpartisan, Republican organization that facilitates the buying and selling of legislators or legislation . 2.    Defunct, debunked, lie CLIMATE CHANGE noun 1.      An ecological disaster created by a few corporations and industrialists to satisfy their greed. DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENTS noun 1.    Republican Party doctrine which states that there is no need to help the needy.  It requires that services meant to individuals (the poor, elderly, disabled) not be provided:  Whether seeking funds to attain a degree higher than primary education or loans to start a business or simply funds to avoid becoming homeless, THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENTS forbids any such attempts. 2.    A Christian philosophy according to republican leaders like Paul Ryan, a self-admitted follower of atheist author Ayn Rand who now denies his praise for her....

With Obama coming out for gay marriage (sounds kind of funny). Let's look at our choices this November. While I do believe that there are republican leaders who do seek to help people out, I feel that they will never have the support of their party. With this in mind, let's look at how our choice for president should be considered later this year. The democratic party at least says that it see ks to help out the poor, while the republican party says that it wants to cut Medicare, Social Security. The democratic party at least says that it seeks to help out the middle class and the unemployed, while the republican party says that it wants to give more tax breaks to the rich and they want to shorten the time people can claim unemployment benefits. The democratic party at least says that it seeks to help out students, while the republican party says that it wants to double the interest rate on certain student loans. The democratic party at least says that it ...

The higher standards that some of our leaders place on their constituents never ceases to bewilder me, because these same standards don't seem to apply to them.   As I was driving to drop the kids off at school this morning, I kept hearing stories about the impending FCAT.   For those unfamiliar with this acronym, F.C.A.T. stands for the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, which was initially intended to measure a student's academic achievement.   Recently however, it also serves as a basis to rate the quality of the education at public schools as well as the quality of the teachers at those schools. One of the problems, as was reported in a story I listened to today is that the F.C.A.T. or at least version 2.0 which will be administered this year, has questions that are not accurate or are misleading.   An example is provided here: * This sample question offers the following observations, and asks which is scientifically testable. The petals of red roses are...

Mission Statement And Statement of Values and Beliefs by Chris Stanley Ossman Mission Statement I believe that the country in which we live currently is not the one the founders of this nation sought or proposed when they wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America.  I believe that our Democracy has been undermined and over-taken by plutocrats who have been reshaping America based on an ideology that only seeks to; further the fortunes of the few, eliminate the will of the majority and segregate us all by the standards that they set regarding an individual’s status. I refuse to allow what has happened, over the past twenty five to thirty years, represent the next few decades.  In this regard, I will fight to usurp the authority of any person group or organization that seeks to do harm, purposefully or accidentally to the United States of America. I am of the belief that those who lead a sovereign nation should hold, above al...

    I've heard many people say that we should dwell on the past and by the past, I'm speaking about GW Bush. The problem I have with not dwelling on the past is, as the old saying goes, dooming one's self to repeating the mistakes of the past.     With the presidential election coming up, people need to think about the presidency we got that was based on lies: In the end it was proven that Gore had ... won Florida and it was known at the time of the election that the head of the elections board worked on the Bush campaign. And then we got the war in Afghanistan (justifiable) and the war in Iraq (not justifiable) and if you believe Richard Clark, a war that was forced by Bush, based on untruths. So, in 2012, we have the republican candidates for the presidency campaigning on outright lies.     Worst than their falsehoods however is the fact that republican voters don't seem to be outraged by these falsehoods. Instead they seem...

It is my fervent belief that the biggest problem facing America today has nothing to to with the economy, nor the environment.  It it not social issues, as most elected republicans and those who hope to be elected are telling us with the laws that they're passing in the states and the rhetoric they use on the campaign trail.  It's not education nor the fact that the United States of America has a broken educational system.  It's not even Wall Street or greedy CEOs who have stolen the futures, dreams and hopes of so many in this country.  Americans have to look more deeply into the source that allows all of these tragedies to occur. While all of these things do present severe problems that we, as a nation, must overcome before we can consider ourselves on the mend from the greatest recession since the Great Depression, the truth of the matter is that we need to look past them all to get to the root.  We have to stop arguing about oil subsidies versus those for ...

In the past few decades, the argument for privatization of practically every service normally run by public entities, such as cities, counties, states and even the federal government has been pushed by the Republican party.   The claim that private enterprises could do a better job for less expense has been a compelling one.   So compelling was this argument, that when presented to the public, there were few to question its logic, while the arguments of those few who did oppose things such as charter schools, privately run prisons and the construction of municipal facilities by private contractors fell upon deaf ears and were vocalized by mute politicians. Having worked in both the public and private sectors, I can honestly say that private contractors neither save more money, nor do they provide a better product in many cases.   Sometimes the shortcomings of contractors are only apparent in their failure to stay within a contracts budget.   At other times however, t...