Where There's Smoke There's Fire...

Government, just the word can be scary, aggravating, intimidating, or sometimes even comical. Our government has been around for over 200 years and is constantly adapting to an ever changing world, not to mention trying to work out all the kinks that were already in place. This whole process to me seems to get even more complicated by the constant infighting between political parties and everyone else.
All too often the left and right spend more time pointing fingers than actually working on the issue at hand. I truly believe that is one of, if not the main problem facing our government today.
Something that doesn’t help the fact is that main stream media uses this constant conflict to gain ratings, which in turn fans the flames between the political isles. So it seems like a never ending cycle with everyone involved just feeding off the anger and aggravation. With an atmosphere like this it’s not surprising that the American people and the world for that matter are losing faith in the United States.
If we could all stop for a little while put aside the petty arguing and work together to get things accomplished in this country, we would be a lot better off. How many times has a piece of legislation came down the pipe that would have benefited both parties been shot down by one side or the other, just out of spite. Is this anyway to run a country and have it prosper? Obviously it isn’t because at times it seems like the walls are coming down around us.
Of course there will always be division and that division is what keeps the whole thing going. However there isn’t any reason that both sides can’t come together and work hand in hand on truly important issues instead of becoming the weekly highlight reel on Fox News or CNN. Hopefully we will see some change soon before it’s too late.

The Real Problem With Afghanistan

I read a very interesting article on the real problem with the war in Afghanistan by Fox News contributing Editor Wendell Goler. The problem that he speaks of is their government. The Afghani people just had a very pivotal election which unfortunately was riddled with allegations of fraud. So while everyone is trying to figure out how the election actually went down, President Obama has to wait see what happens before he can decide to send more troops over or not. This, in my mind is totally unacceptable. There are soldiers losing their lives over there every day do to the fact that they are spread so then and don’t have the back up they need. It really doesn’t help when Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s brother happens to be a local drug lord.
It’s extremely hard to get a country back on its feet while the top levels of its government keep kicking them out from under you. One thing I believe is that we will eventually whittle away the insurgency in Afghanistan. To make this easier though we need a local government that can handle itself and more U.S. boots on the ground. Without either of these we will be stuck in that part of the world for a very extended amount of time.

A Devided House Will Fall...

I recently read an opinion piece on Fox News that caught my attention. "10 Thoughts on Incivility in America", by Bill Shuler a pastor at a church in Arlington, brings up a problem that we run into every day in politics. I am not an overly religious person but this man of the cloth brings up some things that politicians and everyone for that matter, should remember. All too often especially of late, there is name calling and mud slinging across the political dividing line. I feel that this common practice takes up time and energy that could be focused on the problem at hand. Not to mention the fact it is human nature to jump on the defensive and fire back once a person is verbally attacked. In a world where 95% of what we hear and see in main stream media is negative in some way shape or form, the last place we need incivility is in our elected officials who are going to shape national policy that not only effect us but the world around us. It seems at times that our government has turned into the high school lunch room where name calling and finger pointing run wild. Instead of everyone duking it out over who caused the problem why can't they hold a conversation like an adult and fix it. It's easy for me to sit here and say everyone should just get along and be nice. Lets be real it's not going to happen we are human, but we should at least give it our best shot to reduce the madness and concentrate on the issues at hand.