My key issues
MY PLATFORM 2010
On September 11th 2001 the United States was attacked by Al-Qaeda under the direction of it's leader Usama bin Laden. Nine years later thousands of guilty and innocent lives have met an early end in Afghanistan. Nine years later Usama bin Laden has not been captured and may be dead. Our government supported the fraudulent election of the Afghan President. For how long is it justified to keep our active military abroad? Should we assist a corrupt government in Kabul for One more year, Five more years, or another Nine? I advocate bringing our soldiers back home so they can be safe with their families on Camp Pendleton. We should withdrawl our armies as soon as logistically possible from the nation of Afghanistan. Why? Terrorism is a tactic. It is arrogant and foolhardy of any nation or group of nations to believe terrorism can ever be fully eliminated from the world.
The invasion of Iraq was begun in 2003 under pretense of unreliable intelligence, verging on nonexistent. I say with a heavy heart that the reasons given for war were so few that to mask Operation Iraqi Freedom as anything other then an imperial action is wrong. There is nothing Un-American about admitting that any President or Congress made a mistake. I support the removal of all U.S. forces from the nation of Iraq as soon as logistically possible. I see no reason for delay. Iraq has the infrastructure and resources to defend and maintain itself.
I often carry a U.S. coin in my pocket minted in 1922. On the tail side of the coin is an eagle perched on a rock. On the rock "PEACE" is written.
- "The War on Drugs" and Marijauna
Our government has for decades pursued a policy toward it's citizens that does not allow them full control over what they can choose to consume into their own bodies.The primary example being prohibition in the 1920's. Prohibition of alcohol caused more harm to society during that period then consumption alone could ever do. Because it gave the Mafia more power and money then they could have ever attained because of the willingness to risk jail time to provide a substance many did not feel was wrong. This black market for alcohol outside of normal society was the cause for the wars among the Mafia families. These horrible people were not the only ones killed. Many innocent people died also. I understand the horrible things drugs can do to an individual and to society. A person's body is the most intimate and cherished object in an individual's life. For some it is all they have and others all they want. I believe that all a person enters and leaves this world with is their own body, that whatever a person wants to do with it is their sole and sacred right to decide. If a person wants to run or not run, learn or remain ignorant, ingest or obstain, is not for a government decide. Only an individual can make that choice for himself. Many people look through history at Prohibition as an impossible and almost laughable policy. One day soon I believe the nation will look back at the "War on Drugs" and the past relentless persuit of those cultivating and consuming a plant as a distant and bad dream.
The issue of immigration has been a very divisive problem in America for decades. What we can all agree upon is it is very difficult to stop a migration of large numbers of people. What we can also agree on is a person will go to where he\she believes they can find fulfillment in their life or in the short term a job. People will go to were the work is. The U.S. government did not actively begin restricting the flow of immigrants into the country until The National Origins Act of 1921. Quotas were set by the various biases of the time. During the Great Depression immigration numbers fell. The number of immigrants has fallen by One million people in the past two years. ("Drop in Illegal Immigration....." by Carl Franzen 2\12\2010 aolnews.com) To say our unemployment rate is at 10% and we should stop anyone from moving into the U.S. is wrong. This would not help the economy. Migrant workers are the labor behind California's agriculture economy. To restrict immigration is more a sign of fear then a statement of a proud nation. To understand earlier views of a more welcoming time. The inscription on the base of the Statue of Liberty (1886) by Emma Lazarus reads: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breath free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore, send these, the homeless, tempest tossed, I lift my lamp beside the golden door."
I believe in free migration of people. At the very least the Federal Government should allow more people into our country legally. The infrastucture required to deport people to their native lands would be much less of a burden if more could enter legally. I see as the only solution is to issue more work visas.
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