Archive for September, 2009

I have always been the person to believe in second chances and that people can change. Maybe it’s still the youth inside of me, but I believe in hope and that if people truly want to change they will do so.

In November a case is going before the United States Supreme Court in which the question will be answered if it is cruel and unusual for juveniles to be sentenced to life in prison without parole for a crime that does not involve murder. We are one of the only countries that do sentence those under the age of 18 to life in prison without parole for non-homicidal crimes.

I take the issue of juveniles and crime very personally and seriously not just because it’s the field of study I wish to go into, but because I was once a youth who spent time in juvi. Granted I spent two weeks for a crime that doesn’t even compare to anything as serious as rape or robbery, but the two weeks I did spend in the Kingman Juvenile Detention Center I saw the flaw in our juvenile system.

The answer is not to lock up these kids and throw away the key. Give them hope. They are still in their teens, some even in their pre-teens. What they need is someone who is going to stand up for them, bring them hope, and make them feel wanted. Most of the teens in there I saw came from broken homes and felt no one cared about them. I’m not saying it’s an excuse for what they did, but I do seriously think with the right rehabilitation, juveniles can be saved from committing future crimes. Adults are a different story – they are old enough and they should know better. I just hate to see a juvenile locked away for the rest of his life with no chance of ever getting out when he has his whole life ahead of him.

We said that the death penalty for juveniles was cruel and unusual. Well I think it’s also cruel and unusual to lock someone up for the rest of their life with no chance of ever getting out. Let’s change it to life with a chance of parole. At least then they have a chance to turn their life around and become productive citizens of this country. Let’s have a little faith and hope in our youth. Maybe I am naive, but I’ve been there and look at me. Ever since I have never once been in contact with the law again, not even for a traffic ticket. Maybe it’s because I had that loving family who cared for me. So we need to give these kids who don’t have that type of family a chance and show them that there is a reason to turn your life around.

Sarah

I was reading this article on Arizona Central today about a lady who lives in Canada. She started having this pain in her legs that made it so she could no longer hike or ski. She went to her local health care clinic who told her she needed to see a hip specialist. She was referred and told she’d have to wait a year for an appointment. So she waited until January of 2009 when she was then referred yet again to a back specialist because the pain in her leg was caused from a narrowing of her spine. She was told she’d have to wait until September to see that specialist and after that it’d be another year and a half before the surgery could actually be performed. So how long is that? That’s almost three and a half years this poor lady would have had to gone before she could get surgery to fix her spine and thus fix the pain in her leg. Three and a half years! Did she wait that long? No, she crossed the boarder into the United States and had the surgery done in 2 days. Granted it cost her $50,000 without health care, but she said it was well worth it.

Canada’s health care system is a public run one, where health insurance is provided by the government. Christina Woodkey was not given the option to get private health care. Will Canada change its tune and allow private health care? In British Columbia there are currently 70 private health providers who can perform simple surgeries and MRI’s with a waiting period of as little as a week. If Canada were to switch to a system that does allow for private and public health care, it is feared that those who are old, disabled, and poor would suffer the most. As doctors move into the private industry that pays better, the waiting lines for those who are currently on the public system would get longer.

The point being though – Canada is thinking of going to a split system. If Universal Healthcare was so great, the thought of going to a split system wouldn’t even be in motion. The risks of doing a split system also lead to similar problems the United States will face if it goes that route as well. Long wait times to see a doctor and years before someone is scheduled for a surgery? Is that what this country wants! Let’s look at Canada – their health insurance is paid for through the tax payers. Canada spends about $172 billion on health care a year and the tax payers pay about 33 percent of GDP. It’s not a free system and does not offer us better quality. Taxes will rise and quality will go down. Is that what this country wants?

I hope people really research this and look at other countries that have Universal Healthcare. You’ll see that it’s not the answer to our problem.

Sarah

Have you ever tried texting while driving? Very hard task – I personally don’t recommend it.

So does that mean we need a national ban on it? I think most do agree that texting while u drive is a distraction. There is no need to text while you drive. If you have something to say – pick up the phone and talk to that person. Seriously, what happened to the days of actually calling someone to talk? Now we get out our cell phone and text something that could have taken us a minute to say, yet we spend ten minutes typing it. I have friends who won’t even call me anymore. Our relationship consists of text messages and those occasional facebook wall posts or comments. To each their own, and I would be lying if I didn’t say I don’t text. But do we really need to be doing it while we drive?

The argument against it is where do we stop? If we ban texting while driving are we going to ban other things, such as eating or putting on makeup, as well? Is texting while driving worse than eating in the car? There are many things that go into consideration on this, and it is not a straight forward answer. Texting while driving is a distraction and personally I don’t see the need to do it; however, we can’t go all out and start banning everything.

I guess I don’t have the answer in the end, but AAA is saying they want texting while driving banned as of 2013 in all states. So are we going to let the law pass or do enough people think it is unnecessary? Maybe this is one law we should leave up to the states. Just a suggestion.

Sarah

I heard a wonderful speech today by John Munger at the Lake Havasu City Republican Women’s Club. John Munger is the chairman of the Imagine Arizona, which is a Political Action Committee with a mission to promote policies based on creating dynamic economic growth through the empowerment of free people and limited government.

He made some very great points about how we can reform Arizona and bring economic growth to our state and how we can reform our educational system. I would like to touch on a few of the topics he discussed today.

First off he talked about our school system and how we should decentralize it. Now what is decentralization and centralization of government organizations? It just so happens I happen to be learning and discussing this in school right now – so here we go:

Centralization is is where the authority to make important decisions is retained by upper management in an organization.
Decentralization is when the authority to make important decisions is delegated to managers at all levels of an organization.

While there can be some good things to centralization, I think at the end of the day decentralization is by far the better organizational structure. Right now we our school systems are set up to be centralized. Let’s take Lake Havasu Unified School District for example. Right now, if the principal of LHHS wants to fire a teacher they must do so through the LHUSD. Right now, it is NOT Ms. Cox who makes the budget for LHHS it is the LHUSD that makes the budget for all the schools in the district. Right now – about a quarter of every dollar that your tax dollars spend that go to LHUSD is actually being spent in the class room, the rest goes to the administration. Does anyone see a problem with this? So let’s decentralized our school districts. Dear lord I am going to say this (you all know I dislike Ms. Cox … but here goes) – give Ms. Cox the power to fire and hire teachers at her school. It should be the principles power NOT the school districts. Give her the power to make the budget for LHHS. Take that power away from the school district. Let the principles manage their own school not the administrators and governing board of the school district. I think we should still have a school district as a check on the schools. But let them be the watch dogs not the managers of the schools. We need to put the money back into the classroom. It should be the other way around – a quarter of every tax dollar she be spent on the administration and the rest in the classroom! So come on people – fixing our educational problem is NOT rocket science. Decentralize it & by doing so – you not only help it financially but you strengthen the schools in the process.

Another think John Munger discussed was corporate tax and bringing business into Arizona. Why does Arizona have the highest corporate tax – 6.5% – than the surrounding states? People always say “oh California will bring in industry to Arizona.” Well … they haven’t because we tax them too much! And then it takes FOREVER for these industries to pass regulations. We need to put time limits on regulators and lower our corporate tax. We need to give these businesses a reason to come into this state and do business. If we don’t, we are never going to have any new growth.

One last thing I want to mention about his speech today is privatization. Government control of things is NEVER the answer. Privatization is. Let’s be logical and take the example that Munger used when he said let private industry build our roads. California and Texas have a system set up where private industry built toll roads. They were built to reduce traffic on the public roads. They were built WITHOUT tax paying dollars. Industry came in, hired people to build them, and they are toll roads so u pay five dollars to drive on them. But it’s growth, new roads, and being done without a dime of the tax payer dollars. The same goes for prisons – let’s get private prisons! Take the burden off of counties and states! Maybe then we can afford to pay probation officers and rehabilitate these people!! My tax dollars should NOT go to pay for a criminal to sit in jail. Give that job to private industry & let the counties and states worry about other things.

Politics is not rocket science. If politicians would sit down and just think … a lot could be done and a lot could be done a lot cheaper than it is.

We need to put logical people in office in 2010. We need elect leaders NOT followers and we need to take this country back!!

I hope John runs for governor – so far he’s got my vote!

Sarah

This is the last political rant for the day – I promise! There’s just so much going on and you know me – I like to voice my opinion on things.

Anyway let’s turn away from national politics for a moment and focus on local ones. Let’s first look at this IDD Tax Lawsuit Lake Havasu City is facing. Here’s the thing – the city council chose to increase the IDD Tax over increasing our water rate by 29% over the next three years. Now don’t let that fool ya though – they STILL increased our water rates but only by 9%. The IDD Tax increase is going to help the city in funding their water and wastewater system. So what is the controversy? Well Sam Scarmardo and Harvey Jackson claim increasing the city’s IDD Tax is a violation of Prop 201 passed in 1997 which says “no new taxes or increase in existing taxes could be imposed, and no sale of, or commitments of revenue to repay Municipal Property Corporation bonds could occur without approval by more than two-thirds vote at a special election called for the specific purpose.” So the city is going to court and debating on how much to spend on it’s defense. So the whole reasoning behind increasing the IDD tax is to save the tax payers money. Right? Okay, so the lawsuit itself in the first year will cost the city $60,000, the water rate will still increase 9% over 3 years and the IDD tax is increasing (if the city wins the suit). So the question remains – in the end – does this REALLY save the tax payers money? If there a prop saying you can’t increase the tax – then don’t increase it and don’t waste tax payer money on a lawsuit trying to defend yourself when you know you’re going to lose. And even if you are in the right – I have to ask though – is the lawsuit worth it in the end? Because I have to question – are we really saving enough money by increasing the IDD tax to make all this worth while?

So people are still ranting and raving on Sosey’s Windmill. It’s headed to the Superior Court. So here’s the story on that – Sosey was supposedly in violation of an “accessory structure” – the windmill was 30 feet tall city code says it can’t go over 15. So the Board of Adjustments for LHC voted against Sosey’s Windmill. However Sosey claims the BOA voted against it as a “structure” not an “accessory structure.” Either way – who cares? It’s NOT being used to produce energy and it’s just for decoration. As long as it can fall and NOT hit anybody else’s property – who cares!! Move on and stop finding the littlest (okay big in this case but still) things to rant and rave about. Oya!

So I read an interesting editorial in September 1sts edition of the Mohave Valley Daily News on health care and health insurance. First off they are two different things!! No one is denied health care in this country – major misunderstanding! If you go to the ER, have no health insurance, and it’s an emergency you WILL be treated!! It’s a federal mandate!! Obama wants everyone to have health “insurance” NOT “care.” I agree with the editorial – politicians seems to be interchanging the two terms lately when they are NOT the same thing.

And finally I would like to say thanks to all the volunteers who worked more than 3000 hours at Windsor Beach this summer to keep it running! You are appreciated!!

Sarah

I think at the end of it all – there would have been far less controversy had Obama addressd the students on a prime time network and not in the class room but nonetheless – I’m ganna take a stance on the topic. Some of my response to the situation might surprise ya. So here goes.

First off – I agree with those who were against the idea of Obama presented a “lesson plan” to schools that the kids were to do following the speech. Leave it up to the teachers if they want a lesson plan or not. The White House should NOT release a lesson plan to follow the speech!! To me – that is mixing politics with education right there!!

Second off – it should be up to the parents if they want their child to watch it or not. NO school should mandate that the children watch the speed. If a parent doesn’t want their child to watch the speech – then by all means, that child should not watch it!

Now let’s just for a moment focus on the speech itself – the speech in and of itself was NOT as bad as people made it out to be. It was a very well written speech (the end result anyway). I might have left the comment on swine flue out of it (but that’s just me), beyond that it did send a good message to the youth of this country. Click here to watch the speech I would have said the same thing in a nut shell if I was given the opportunity to address the nations schools.

It is true at the end of the day you have to believe in yourself and you have to be responsible enough to stay in school. I know far too many classmates from Lake Havasu High School who dropped out four months (FOUR MONTHS PEOPLE) away from graduating! There is no excuse for that!!

So should Obama of addressed our schools? Mmmmm … now that’s debatable … and I don’t know. Do you think by addressing them, Obama, they are more prone to listen to you then their parents, school teachers, or loved ones? -shrugs- Maybe in the end you shouldn’t have given the speech but then again – I will say – it was not as bad as people made it out to be.

Sarah

You spoke on health insurance – saying that everyone deserves to be covered and no American should go uncovered due to a pre-existing condition. You talk a good talk – it would be wonderful if EVERY American could have health insurance. If every American – despite some pre-existing condition – didn’t have to worry about paying that 10,000 dollar medical bill that just came in the mail. It’s a great concept – let’s create competition so the private health cares lower their premiums. Okay! Great!!

….

Um, how are we going to afford this again?

I’m sorry – even if my employer did give me health insurance – do u honestly think Americans are going to stick with their health insurance provider if they can get it cheaper through the government? Screw the fact it’s probably crap – people don’t pay attention to that – they pay attention to the price tag. So what happens when too many Americans go on your health insurance Mr. Obama? How do you plan on paying for this without raising taxes and without adding to our national deficit? I cannot wrap my mind around how you plan on accomplishing this!! The entire program will be paid through tax dollars – why don’t you get up there and tell the American people the TRUTH – it’s NOT free and it WILL be funded through the people!! So sure maybe someones premium is 100 dollars vs. 200 through private insurance but at the end of the day – I’m still paying for my neighbor to have health insurance.

It’s all theoretically a great idea – to cover every American because ur right – no one deserves to be denied health insurance because they have a pre-existing condition. It would be great if we could cover health insurance for America. But I just don’t see it as a reality. How? We are trillions in debt and I’m sorry you cannot pass health care without adding to the deficit. Sure I supposed you could if you raise taxes but then again – who wants that during an economic recession?

Great in theory Mr. Obama but at the end of the day — wake up! Something needs to be done – I don’t deny that – health insurance is expensive (I should know – I have private health insurance) and it seriously covers crap, but having a government run system is not going to solve anything. Especially when you can’t even get up there and tell the American people the truth on how you plan to pay for it.

Sarah

Well crap – just when I thought switching over to a more fuel efficient car was worth it!

What do I find out – that the state DOT departments are going to try and tax the drivers now on how many miles they drive! Yes you heard – you could be taxed on how many miles you drive! Why? Well if more people get fuel efficient vehicles they wont be using as much gasoline which in the long the state DOT (department of transportation) loses money through the gas tax.

Just when you thought things couldn’t get worse …

Gatta love taxes!
Sarah

I thought I’d post this – it is some talking points for Republicans on health care. Obama is set to make his health care speech to Congress this Wednesday, so the Republican National Committee came up with some talking points. Check them out –

• After the outpouring of opposition Democrats heard to their government-run health care experiment the
past month, the president’s address to Congress Wednesday night is a “Hail Mary” pass to try and
salvage his health care reform plan one last time.
• Bill Clinton did the same thing when he addressed a joint session of Congress to try and save Hillary
Clinton’s plan for socialized health care, and it failed miserably.
• The president has “hit the reset button” on his government-run health care experiment 12 times
already.
• We know the president will give a good speech and say things the American public likes to hear – that
they won’t lose their insurance, there will be no rationing, Medicare won’t be cut, and no bureaucrat will
interfere with their health care. But all of those things will happen under the Democrats’ bill.
• Speeches and marketing may win campaigns, but they are no substitute for governing – Americans
don’t want another speech, they want another plan.
• The president should start from scratch on Wednesday night and invite Republicans to the table to talk
about real solutions for America’s health care system.
• He should call for tort reform to end frivolous lawsuits that drive up health care costs for everyone.
• He should encourage health care portability so people can take their health coverage with them when
they change jobs.
• And he should make it clear that Americans should be able to get coverage regardless of preexisting
conditions.
• Republicans want to reform our health care system – it costs too much for all Americans.
• Republicans want to work with the president on common-sense, bipartisan health care reforms. The
RNC unveiled a Seniors’ Health Care Bill of Rights that provides a starting point.
• Voters made clear during August that they oppose the Democrats’ government-run health care
experiment, which would increase health care costs, increase taxes, increase the deficit, and reduce
the quality of health care.
• Unless the president is willing to stand up to the left-wing extremists of his party, he will simply push
through his government-run health care experiment that the American people have overwhelmingly
made clear they do not want.