Democratic Debates and Pakistan

Debating Democrats

On Tuesday the Democrats were at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA  with another debate in which many people were expecting fireworks. Prior to the debate Senator Barack Obama said he’d be getting more aggressive with Senator Hillary Clinton and did he deliver.

Not only did he deliver, but Senator John Edwards seemed to be the most aggressive one on stage on Tuesday night. Although he seemed to be going too far at times, sometimes going after her character itself. It was important for Clinton to get attacked a bit that night, and especially important for Obama and Edwards, but as Governor Bill Richardson put it, it seemed like they were just attacking her character and she may have won some sympathy votes.

As for who won the debate, I believe Obama had the best performance. He attacked Clinton but didn’t attack her too much, which he needed to do to show that he can stand up when he needs to. Clinton stumbled when confronted with the issue about drivers licenses for illegal immigrants, which is a horrible idea by the way.

I really do wish that Joe Biden  had a better chance of being the Democratic nominee, but it doesn’t look good. Though he should be considered by everyone in about sixty four days, I heard at least three times someone say “I agree with Joe,” or “Joe is right.” He really hit the head with one specific thing though…

Pakistan is the biggest threat to the United States… not Iran.

Joe Biden hit the head when he said that. Iran does not have nuclear weapons yet, while Pakistan does. Pakistan really is out of control. There have been multiple bombings there that have been linked to the Taliban and even Al Qaeda. Now, please tell me. What’s a bigger threat? Iran wanting nuclear weapons or Pakistan having nuclear weapons while unstable. On MSNBC.com they reported that there might be a state of emergency in Pakistan. It really doesn’t come close. Hopefully the media catches on to what Biden said and digs into that story a bit deeper.

Keep your eye out on the news. Pakistan seems to be falling apart.

Ahmadinejad, Shock Therapy, and a Patriotic Act.

It’s pronounced e-rahhn.

So the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, had his opportunity to speak at Columbia University to the young people of this country. Controversy has followed his talk at university very loudly and isn’t going to get the volume turned down anytime soon when just today Ahmadinejad mentioned that he enjoyed the talk despite the insults from Columbia President Lee Bollinger.

I cannot help but wonder why so many people didn’t want Ahmadinejad to speak at Columbia. Let the man speak and trash him afterward. I don’t believe we’ve officially come to the conclusion that he sponsored terrorism, at least to my knowledge. I don’t like the guy and would love to see someone else at the head of Iran’s government, but he should get his opportunity to talk.

Now that he’s talked… he comes off as a master of conversation. Saying that Iran does not have homosexuals and later saying he meant that there weren’t as many as there are in America (yeah, right… what next, the Holocaust didn’t exist?).

In fact, he did say that. It sounds just as ridiculous as the last time he said it, but this time he made it sound better by putting a large red bow on it saying that we should continue researching time periods like that.

He also talked about Palestine a bit and some other things and even was applauded apparently, but we’re not going to hear about that from the media when we can just criticize him.

Shockingly Awful.

In the past two weeks there have two instances of the police being criticized for the use of tasers. Both cases, the one at the University of Florida and the other one in Ohio, both I believe were appropriate use of the taser. Both victims were not listening to the officer/officers and left them no choice. Although Heidi Gill (woman at the center of attention in the Ohio incident) was attempting to kick open the window inside the patrol car and such things and the student decided to yell when they had told him not to yell.

It’s not whether the taser was used at the right time or for the right reason in this case, it’s whether they over-used the taser and whether they should be used in the first place. Hopefully this issue gains momentum and we can do away with the taser, which should be considered cruel and unusual punishment, and try to find another non-lethal way of dealing with disorderly people.

Unconstitutional?

A judge in Oregon found two parts of the Patriot Act unconstitutional. It involves the whole surveillance and searching without a warrant thing, something the 4th amendment guarantees.

It’s going to be interesting to see what happens with that piece of news. Could it grow into something larger and cause the end of the Patriot Act? Or in this post 9/11 world lead to a new amendment of the constitution? Only time will tell.

Note: All news talked about in this blog was read on CNN.com