Government Diigo

Voters retained Justice David Wiggins on the Iowa Supreme Court, following a heated campaign to remove him from the bench. Wiggins, 61, needed a simple majority of votes to stay on high court. With 83 percent of Iowa's 1,689 precincts reported, Wiggins had 54 percent.

President Barack Obama rode a wave of broad support from minorities, women and moderates to win re-election Tuesday by defeating Republican challenger Mitt Romney in Democratic strongholds and key battleground states.

From NBC: http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/06/14976592-victorious-obama-more-determined-in-face-of-challenges?lite

It pays tribute to the Native American war hero with a sculpture that, at many times the size of nearby Mount Rushmore, will one day constitute the world's largest mountain carving. That is, if it ever gets completed.

"As Americans count the hours until the election is over, thousands of lawyers for the Obama and Romney campaigns are preparing for the possibility that the counting of votes will stretch well beyond Tuesday night." A look at how broken America's voting system is.

This article just reminds me how much we need to overhaul our presidential election system. It's sort of sad, really.

"Like our financial system, our voter registration system needs a federal government bailout. Before the election, while the public and press are still paying attention, we should get both presidential candidates to commit to a more sensible, secure, and universal voter registration process."

"OK, Mr. Mourdock, you say your principles require a raped woman to carry the rapist's child to term. That's a heavy burden to impose on someone. What would you do for her in return? Would you pay her medical expenses? Compensate her for time lost to work? Would you pay for the child's upbringing? College education?" A look at the economy and its impact and abortion rates.

This is ridiculous. I think we should set a cap on how much money can be spent running for office, since (in my opinion) a lot of the money that goes into campaigns is wasted. My family has actually received multiple DVDs in the mail from a few different political parties (mostly Republican and Tea Party, I believe). When campaigning gets to the point where parties are paying for movies to be produced - one of them was about how Obama is a Communist - and paying for what is presumably thousands of DVDs to be mailed, something needs to be changed.

It goes to show how close of an election this is. I mean people are very in depth on who are next leader should be if they raised this much money!

I got one of these, I looked at it, and pretty just looked at the description. Who cares if his real father is a communist?

This is totally great. I think it made a great comparison between racism and being against gay marriage. I highly recommend watching this.

Religion is based off of your own personal faith and beliefs and with so many different versions and beliefs you can't let one person say what it means and stereotype that religion. You also have to consider the fact that things change with time, people evolve and so do thoughts. Like Snider showed in the video, we once thought that racism was right and accepting other nationalities was against their religion.

As I have said before, religion should have no influence when it comes to government policy. As for the bible, I could point out many things wrong with the bible, and the idea that Christianity not supporting gay relationships. I will not, simply out of the urge as to not ruin peoples views on religion. What I will say, is that the bible should also have no say on our government as well. Religion should, and is, also limited in the US, contrary to popular belief. Religion has been limited to 1st, no human sacrifice. (We don't need them crazy beheading Aztec's coming in and just start slicing peoples heads off right?) Second, separation of church and state. That right there means religion is not allowed to say, "You can't be gay, ban gay marriage." (And oddly, it still managed to happen.) I'm really looking forward to the supreme courts ruling on this, as long as they decide to take the case.

Its insane how badly the East coast was hit this past week. And no power for up to 9 more days that is going to be difficult seeing as most businesses use all electronics now a days. And this storm is not only going to affect just the east coast but everybody because of all the income the government needs to begin repairing they will raise prices on a lot of things gas being one of the main targets.

This article explains a lot, and points out flaws in Romney's plans.

I love this article. It points out exactly what I've been trying to tell people. Romney never fully answers the question. He has good ideas but never can tell us what will happen and how he will actually do it!

Mitt Romney is so vague he never does answer directly answer the questions. I agree with Rainie it bluntly shows that

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments today in a case called Kirtsaeng v. Wiley, and their final decision could help shape the future of "first sale," a legal doctrine that underpins the right to sell, lend, or give away the things you buy, even if those things contain copyrighted elements.

I actually read another article about this somewhere (wish I had saved it now.) In the article I read a law professor or a lawyer or someone like that said that it isn't things manufactured overseas but things originally bought overseas. The example used in the article I read was if you bought an iPod in China because it was cheaper then tried to sell it here for a profit then the "first sale" doctrine doesn't protect you. However, if you buy the iPod here in the United States, even if it was made in China, then you'd be protected. Not sure how accurate/unbiased the article I read was as I don't remember who it was by but I do think that this article sounds a little biased and like they are trying to push two sperate issues together ("first sale" and the controversial digital licences issue). Just my take though.

(CNN) -- As Americans make up their minds and gear up to vote, CNN asks some of America's foremost presidential historians to weigh in on the question: What does it take to make a president great? Richard Reeves: FDR's place in the 20th century Presidential greatness is determined by being in the White House at the right time -- or the wrong time.

"I love lakes." I don't think I need to summarize this. It's Mitt Romney.

There is a game called League of Legends that was developed over 2 years ago. This game is gaining massive popularity, primarily because those who succeed enough at this game get payed to play. For example, George Liu, a 23 year old resident of California makes over 500 dollars a day to play this game for 6 hours a day, 4-5 days a week. This is not even the highest they pay. Similar to sports, this is a team game. Recently, like all sports, they began to hold a 3 week "season playoff" game in which the winning team would receive 1 million dollars (Split between 5 people), and anyone who made it to the finals, left with at least 5 grand in there pocket, not to mention an all expenses payed trip to 3 locations in which they would host the game play. Sounds like fun right, getting payed to play a game you like? What's not fun, cheating. North America's #1 team was eliminated the first game, by the Korean team. Many claim the game play to be unfair, claims of map hacking, and many other claims of cheating have been made. So, an internationally popular game is taking away prize money which will be donated to charity, but the issues of this are so dramatic. So many opinions have been formed, that this is getting a little out of hand, over a game.

i think its crazy how much funding there is toward this game. i can understand the riot because people can get passionate about anything, but they're spending a lot just for a single game.

It's a world-wide competitive game. I mean, I see football players making more then these guys are giving away. Alex, the American teams nationality was from the same nation that had beat them.

I think that is crazy, why people think that some people would choose to be tortured everyday is beyond me. I mean come on. I think this issue should just resolve like now, yes I understand that in the bible it says that homosexuality is a sin. But God made you who you are. People have to understand that, obviously there is a plan, it just hasn't showed itself to everyone yet. Being Homosexual is a life, if a Heterosexual stepped into a Homosexual's life for one day they would understand that they go through so much crap constantly. I think if it was just passed as a law people would forget about it. And everything in the world would be a lot less hectic. P.S.... I love the translation at the bottom!! That is hilarious!! :D

my whole view on this is that it is ridiculous. gay people should get their rights already.

In all reality..... If Religion is your reason to say, "Being gay is not okay," then you really need to know your history. First, Christmas, if I recall the documentary that I watched not to long ago correctly, was a time for grown men to beat there wives, and go out and have "gay sex" with each other? So, if you denounce gay marriage because of Catholicism, or Christianity, you just denounced Christmas. Second, for those of you who are Hindustan, you have a celebrated holiday that is for 2 guys, and 1 girl, to "get it on." It's called Karma Sutra. Yeah, religion should not be allowed to interfere in America's choice to permit/deny gay marriage, and not just for those 2 reasons. (Those reasons being that the religions allow it themselves, yet say it is not okay.) Let's just read out constitution. We've all heard, "Freedom of Religion," before, right? Well, right there, religion should not be allowed to found a reason as to deny gay relationships. To add, let us look at the Declaration of Independence, "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Pursuit of happiness includes marriage correct? If so, define marriage Religion definition: The formal union of a man and a woman, typically recognized by law, by which they become husband and wife. Actual definition: Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people called spouses that creates kinship. Just by out constitutional freedoms, and foundations, most of it points in the direction of gay marriage should be legal, which Jenny, is why I agree with you. As for being gay being something you can fix, don't think so. I don't see people changing there skin color. (Except Micheal Jackson, but we all still know that he was not as light-toned as that.) Do you see people choosing there eye color? Either that is one expensive (or failed) surgery, or it does not happen. I don't think you are capable of changing the way someone is born, (unless it changes your physical appearance, which does not change you

Recently the hacker activist group Anonymous used their skills to identify a man that may have been the cause of a recent teen suicide (Amanda Todd). I know the techniques they would have used were illegal, which makes me wonder about how rigid a law system should be.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/10/16/amanda-todd-anonymous-tormentor-rcmp-scams_n_1971953.html I would like to believe that Anonymous actually is doing some good, but considering that they've never been involved in incidents like this in the past; and there have been many, many similar cases which appear on nationwide news; it seems unlikely.

When Green Party candidate Rich Whitney won 10 percent of the vote for Illinois governor in 2006, supporters hoped a new day for a party had arrived. Yet today, the Green Party holds just 10 elected seats statewide. None are in Chicago.