Gov. Elliot Spitzer has brought to the floor a bill that would require that victims of sexual assault be allowed to have the HIV status of their attackers revealed after they are indicted. Currently the law does require HIV testing only after they are convicted of the crime. Many Democrats are up in arms over the revealing of personal information. If they are wrongly accused this information of their personal HIV status would already be given the prosecutors and possibly newspapers possibly ruining and innocent persons reputation and lifestyles.

     There are many possible bad effects of this testing. Perhaps the indicted person is in a window of testing negative even though they truly carry the virus thereby giving the victim a false sense of security. Currently most victims are counseled and told to begin the cocktail of drugs given to HIV carriers, if the victim was told the accused is negative and stopped taking the medication would be putting themselves in harm.

     Let’s look at the flip side, the indicted attacker’s perspective. What if they are indeed innocent and have their HIV status publicly announced. They can then loose their job and credibility in society (even if it is not legally allowed to terminate over HIV status, we all know it happens).

     I see a lot of pros and cons in this bill. I am all in favor of victim rights and truly believe convicted criminals have way too many rights, but we are on a slippery slope with this idea. I urge we carefully weigh the effects a bill like this can have on our society. We hear of numerous accused rapists being wrongfully charged and later cleared on DNA evidence, therefore we must be weary of testing on indicted persons.

     I applaud the government on taking on something as important as victim rights, but I worry of the ramifications a bill of the type may have on the innocent.

     Immigration has become a hot topic among Republicans and Democrats alike and the solution is yet to be reached. Democrats seem to favor the idea of legalizing nearly 12 million illegal immigrants already in the United States while Republicans favor deportation and increased border controls.

     Now, amidst all the ongoing battle, five churches in New York City have announced they have formed what they call the New Sanctuary Movement in which they will offer illegal immigrants facing deportation sanctuary in their churches. The movement, they say, is gaining in popularity and will soon be present in other major cities including Chicago, Los Angeles, San Diego and Seattle.

     When you see this type of action, the church basically taking on the rule of the land, it makes you realize why our founding fathers add into the Constitution the First Amendment, separation of church and state. Is it ok for the church to disregard the laws on the books? NO! The church is truly over stepping their boundaries here. It is amazing enough in my eyes that we have in the law “illegal’s will be deported” yet when we have multiple illegal immigrant rally’s in the past few months with thousands gathering together, even the police do not enforce their own laws and no arrests are made for being illegally in the US.

     What is a real solution? Unknown, the idea of rewarding citizenship to illegal’s for sneaking into our country doesn’t seem right, nor does the cost of deporting millions all at once. We need to find a happy medium to some how live by our own laws. We do not have time to go through case by case and decide who is “US worthy” or living a productive life in the US and should be considered for citizenship.

     I, by no means, am anti-immigrant, after all we are immigrants or our relatives were, but it was accomplished in the way law intended. We went through the proper channels to gain legal citizenship here. I just feel that if we aren’t going to enforce our own laws, then why even have laws? Why is it fine for thousands of illegal’s to rally, but I get fined $50 for not wearing a seatbelt? We can’t pick and choose which laws we will uphold and which we will look the other way for.

     Republicans have made this a hot topic, but the solution is lacking again. Both political parties seem to love to take that soapbox, but never offer real solutions. You politicians have brought this to the forefront of issues, now figure it out! Stop using immigrants, same sex marriage and abortion to gain votes and instead do the job you were elected to do and find solutions based on your constituents voices. The solution is simple, uphold the laws you put into effect or change the laws, bottom line.

     Over the past 7 years politics has become a subject of great divide for most people in America. In general, political discussion has become so polarized it is likely to start a fight if you and the other person you are talking with are on the opposite side of the issues. Now, I realize politics has always been a hot topic, but nowadays it is absolutely brutal.

     No matter what political party you belong to you are automatically labeled a Liberal or Neocon. You could be a centrist or a moderate, but it does not matter if you say you are a registered to a party you are automatically lumped into the worst of that group. The center, my friends, has been lost and is being rolled over by both parties.

     Which party has been guiltier of rolling over the center? In my opinion, it is the Republicans. Over the last 7 years the Republican motto has been; “We know what is best” and “If you are not with us you are an enemy of the state” (just look at Sean Hannity’s segment Enemy of The State).

     I voted for The President in 2000 because I believed he meant what he said. I thought he really wanted to be a uniter and not a divider, he has been anything but since he was elected. I believed he really wanted to help the environment, the middle class and lead us into a bright future. What we got was anything but that.

     We, instead, got an administration that is secretive, was protected by Congress and will not accept responsibility for anything they have done over the last 7 years. The current administration is also in favor of censorship and circumventing the constitution whenever possible. All one has to do is look at all of the scandals over the last few years to see this abuse. Unfortunately, the media has not done its job in reporting all that has happened and they have been warned that they will be labeled traitors or Un-American id they question the President.

     The Democrats, on the other hand, are just as guilty by backing down at every turn. They have been impudent in coming up with a cohesive plan to solve our nations problems. They have been listing in the wind for the past 7 years complaining from a far, but unable to deliver anything other than those complaints. They only won Congress in 2006 because of the war in Iraq and united their opposition to it in one voice, a first in a few years.

     The Democratic Party is also plagued by their ability to be pushed around by minority groups, such as illegal immigrants. They have also become the PC police and because of this they find themselves in a catch 22, are they for free speech or not? In America everyone has the right to say whatever they wish, even if I do not like it and I will die for people to exercise that right, but in their world you better not offend anyone.

     In other words, here is how the political landscape has played out over the last few years. Republicans, somehow, are considered holier than thou, on the side of righteousness and strong on terrorism. The Democrats have been considered weak on terrorism and liberal, in the words of Bill O’Rielly, Kooks. I believe both characterizations are wrong and I think both parties, by in large, suck.

     Neither party cares about the everyday person and they both cater to the rich, no matter if it is big business (R) or the Hollywood actors and actresses (D). All they care about is re-election and raising money. They will tell us what we want to hear and then do nothing about it.

     It makes sense if you think about it, if they actually fixed the ‘hot’ issues of our country there would be nothing to scare us with and no talking points to make them feel more important than they really are. They would also have to actually spend time with real Americans to find out what the real problems are and we all know they do not want to do that.

     The solution, break out of this polarization and demand a strong third party to equal the playing field. Every other developed democracy offers more than a two party system, but not the USA. Our politian’s fear a third party and will fight it tooth and nail, look what they do to every viable independent party candidate. They smear them and make sure they never get any air time during a debate and that is so Un-American.

     Our system is broken, this is supposed to be a government of the people by the people, but for some reason 99% of Americans are letting the richest 1% of Americans make the rules for us. Then we b***about how things are ran, well here’s an idea, look around, find the problem and fix it. In this case find a third party to even the playing field.

     Hillary Clinton along with Democratic Senator Robert Byrd (W. Virginia) have begun plans to try to repeal the Presidents authorizing of the war in Iraq. The results of this proposal would be unknown and it is unclear whether the President would be forced to remove troops from Iraq immediately.

     The President would be able to claim that Congress can not repeal prior authorization. Clinton, who originally voted in favor of the war, has now become a stark critic of it and the Presidents handling of the Iraqi involvement. Some believe this move is merely to attempt to up her standing in the Democratic Party.

     When I first read this story one thing came to mind, “Where’s the logic here?” We made this mess and to simply abandon the entire disaster is not a logical solution. No matter where your stance is on the war, and regardless of which political party you belong to, the one thing 70% of Americans can agree upon is we have made a mess of Iraq.

     Our good intentions have sent Iraq into total upheaval and the thought of leaving suddenly would be, in my opinion, even more devastating, if not all together wrong. I have never supported the war, which is not to say I do not support our troops, however, there is a right way and a wrong way to accomplish our goals and conclude our invasion.

     What is the solution? Get the Iraqi’s to be able to stand up for themselves, but no one has given a reasonable plan to get the Iraqi’s to be able to stand on their own. Apparently, we have only two proposed plans, more of the same or withdrawal and both of the plans make zero sense.

     We need to be getting the Iraqi troops more involved and handing over more responsibility to them if we want to ever see an end to our occupation there. President Bush has said for quite awhile now that the Iraqi troops are ready and able to take control of the country, yet this must not be reality as the President has asked for, and received, a ‘surge’ of even more US troops. This is just a fancy way of saying escalation anyhow, let’s call it what it really is, and this escalation should have happened 4 years ago.

     Politicians love to take the soapbox and blast their feelings, but none seem to ever offer a solution. Then again, Politian’s only offer rhetoric to insure political divide and to keep getting elected, actually solving a problem does not help their political future. We need to focus on real solutions that can help the Iraqis regain full control of their country and the US to take a step back and eventually pull out, hopefully sooner then later.

     I believe the interim election has shown the American peoples wishes, enough is enough and to have invaded a country without a solid exit plan was irresponsible to say the least. More importantly the interim election was a message to the President that the American people want change in policy decisions, but he has not allowed any changes to take place.

     Equally to blame is the newly elected Democratic Congress who compromise as little as the President. This is a give and take situation and neither party is willing to negotiate and make a united decision. This is no surprise as we have seen political divide rule over the past decade and politics is now the strongest polarizing subject I have ever seen.

     Politicians need to do what they were elected to do, represent the people’s requests. I do not see this request by Mrs. Clinton happening for any reason and it is apparent that this proposal is designed to try to win the up coming election. Words don’t win you an election, actions do. Instead of having a polarized view and making unreasonable requests I recommend Mrs. Clinton come up with an actual plan and finally take some real action to win this war.