Political Student

Written by Dave Chase

There is a joke making the rounds in the business and economic worlds that goes like this: If the US government can fire CEO’s of companies who took bailout money then China should be able to fire President Obama.

The punch line comes of course from the fact that China has loaned a huge amount of money to the United States over the past 10 years. In fact, they apparently have so much of our debt that people have begun to talk about how China should have a say in how the US is run.

So, with all of this concern over our debt, I felt like it was time to do a little post dispelling a few common assumptions about our debt. The first is who is the main holder of US debt.

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Written by Dave Chase

The Federalist system in place in the United States has worked well for the past 230 years. However, in the age of globalization, instant communications and supra national organizations, the Federal government must be granted far more power then the state governments.

I am certainly not a proponent of abolishing State governments and I firmly believe that there are certain issues that should be left to the States, however, there are an increasing number of issues that certain States have ignored or legislated unfairly on that lead me to believe that there are simply some issues that the States cannot handle.

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Written by mitch

In March, the International Criminal Court, one of the international judicial institutions, issued an arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan. The ICC’s jurisdiction extends only to prosecution and the ICC has no enforcement power. Enforcement is up to the individual states that are members of the ICC. Currently, 108 states are signatories, most of Latin America, Europe, and sub-Saharan Africa. The US, China, Russia, India, and most of the Middle East are not signatories; therefore they have no responsibility to carry out any arrest warrant.

President Bashir has recently been gallivanting around the Middle East, showing off that the Islamic states support him. He visited Eritrea, Libya, Egypt, and Qatar, and now he is in Saudi Arabia for Umrah, which is an Islamic pilgrimage. In Qatar, he attended the Arab League summit, the members of which defied the arrest warrant by ICC and threw their support behind President Bashir.

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Written by Dave Chase

Tonight, President Obama held a town hall to answer some of the question that people submitted through the White House website over the past few days. Now, as I shared yesterday, there certainly were some rather silly and dumb questions but the President only answered the top rated ones.

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Written by Dave Chase

President Obama has set up a section on his website where people can ask questions to the President and vote on the questions that he will answer tomorrow night.

I thought I would share a few of my favorite ones. I think these are truly examples of the serious problems this country faces and they certainly further my desire for education reform.

“Considering how much money, effort, and time has been wasted so far, will you provide your birth certificate and shut up the birthers once and for all?”

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Written by Dave Chase

I had an interesting conversation via Twitter yesterday with @Axsom about professional politics and how it has corrupted our government. It’s hard to argue that our nations leaders always act in the best interest of the country. In fact, nearly every politicians decision can be explain as an attempt to get votes.

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Written by Dave Chase

Mitch Paine, University of Nebraska

It occurred to me that I should probably introduce the newest writer to Political College Student, Mitch Paine. I wish I could spend all of my time writing posts for this blog but with school, work and clubs, I just do not have the time to post as regularly as I would like. So, I figured what better way to make sure the blog stays active then to bring in another writer!

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Written by mitch

As a new writer on the blog the Political College Student, I thought I’d first talk about my philosophical political background. I am a life-long Nebraskan and am from a state in which politics operates much differently than the other states in the Union.

Many aspects of our political system besides the legislature set Nebraska apart from other states, including the way we elect our delegates for President. Nebraska and Maine are the two states that allocate Electoral College votes on a representative basis, two votes overall go towards the state winner and then each congressional district has a separate vote (two in Maine, three in Nebraska). This year, for the first time in half a century, Nebraska gave an electoral vote to a Democrat. It may be just one vote, but that little vote completely changes the way Nebraska voters think about their state.

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Written by Dave Chase

My beloved Senator, Ted Kennedy, made a surprise visit to Obama’s summit on health care. Kennedy has spent the last few months at his home on Cape Cod (CC Represent!) after he was diagnosed with brain cancer last Spring. He wasn’t even well enough to make it to DC for the incredibly close and vital vote on the stimulus package.

But health care has been Ted’s pet project since he was elected to the Senate back in the day. “Now is the time for action” was Kennedy’s message at the summit.

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Written by Dave Chase

Today the Maryland Senate altered the Governor’s bill that would have repealed capital punishment in Maryland.

Who can blame them though? 46-50% of the country “favors the death penalty over life in prison for murder one.” (Source) They are just looking out for their political future.

Well, to answer my own rhetorical question, I can. The Maryland Senate stripped the repeal of the death penalty but are proceeding with capital punishment reform because they know that the country is not there yet, despite the fact that few arguments can be provided for the death penalty beyond the satisfaction is gives victim’s families.

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