Marijuana? More like "mariwinning"

I read an interesting post on Mr. Ebeling's blog about legalizing marijuana in Texas. I completely agree that we should legalize marijuana. Not only would it help our economy, but if we do put the money towards education as suggested, we would be able to keep our economy stable by providing better paying jobs and making higher education more affordable. The only thing that I might find problematic about the legalization of marijuana is the rule book that is going to go along with it. What will the age requirements be if not prescribed for an illness? Will it be covered by health insurance companies here? How affordable is it going to be and will we be facing isues with those who are currently illegally dealing the drug? While I am sure there are answers that can be made, it will be a very long time until such a conservative area sees this drug in vending machines. As soon as we do see it, I'm hoping there's food being sold right next to them. You know...for my glaucoma.

$61 Million to HHSC, WHP still hurting

Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, Texas will be receiving $61 million to improve health clinics and provide more jobs within those clinics. We'll finally see more opportunities for low-income families, the uninsured, and those who are looking for a position within the medical field to assist these new patients. Not only will we be steering this money to helping those less fortunate, we will also be creating new facilities and touching up the old ones, getting better equipment and ensuring the clinic and hospital staff is well-paid for their duties. Texas has a fairly high reputation for housing some of the best hospitals in the country and even within the nation, so being able to give that care not only to those who are lucky enough to afford it but to those who can't and who need it is exciting and I am all for giving the best back to our health clinics. Texas is short of medical providers, so with this money, they are hoping to see a proportional ratio to provider-population.

My only concern has to do with the WHP. Ever since the federal agency opted the WHP out of gaining anymore funding because of Planned Parenthood, women may still be hurting for specialized clinics that cater to their needs. It was as if a cut and paste of money was taken from the WHP and placed into the HHSC. It's hard to argue that it is wrong when this money is also going to better the health of our community, but it does strip away a significant source of medical attention that is needed to help out the women in our communities. Unless the $61 million will tap into creating better and more affordable services geared strictly towards women's health, I can't help but feel torn about the money we are receiving. It should be an equal distribution, including the WHP, and until I see some sort of settled negotiation that has put them back on something more than just the little state funds keeping them barely alive, I can't be fully okay with all of the money we're getting to go elsewhere.

Texas' money issues and education

After reading Olive's blog about Texas' money issues and hasty cuts from our education budget, I can agree wholeheartedly where she stands. Education, time and time again, has been claimed to be our number one priority yet we have slashed our budget by a significant amount and are seeing cuts in places that I find unnecessary. As taxpayers, isn't education what our money should be going to? We sit on a Rainy Day Fund that could solve the cut crisis and give back to schools who are now overpopulated and are cutting hundreds of jobs, but do we see anyone trying to do that? No.

As Olive states, it would be ideal to have an audience actually paying attention to the actions of politicians when it comes to our money and where it's being cut and pasted. However, that isn't the case. Maybe if we cut things from education like a few liberal arts classes or certain sport teams with little enrollment per school, we could churn that money to going towards political awareness courses and not only getting the students involved, but motivation to get their families involved and stop the future of our youth from being under-educated about government and the power we have if we utilize it.

For now, we see our money cast astray to other "priorities", but hopefully a politician who is true of his word for education being most important will come along and make sure Texas is in the best of hands.

Parenthood should stay planned

As most of you may be aware by now, Rick Perry is doing everything in his power to make sure Planned Parenthood is wiped from existence. Coming from a female college student in her mid-20s surrounded by friends and family who rely on such services, I find his pursuit to eliminate Planned Parenthood extremely ridiculous. Coming from a tax payer, I yet again find his pursuit to eliminate Planned Parenthood SUPER ridiculous. With the knowledge I have of the organization that is used to help low-income families and younger women afford cancer screenings, sexually transmitted disease tests and contraception that won't cost an arm and a leg, I find no reason to stop funding an organization that if absent, would leave our state in utter chaos.

The only reason Perry is all about wiping out PP is because they are able to perform abortions when requested, even though PP does not use their federal funds to perform them (when, if any of them are performed). If he can successfully see to it that these facilities are no longer open, our state is facing a future of higher taxes to support welfare, public education and there's definitely going to be an issue about paying in full for a doctor's visit to get contraceptives along with paying for the prescription at full price. Why jeopardize our economy when we have something to help sustain if not spare it from any more destruction? Without Planned Parenthood, we are looking at supporting more low-income families, having to open up a million schools and trying to cram more students in them along with leaving some people just pure at loss of everything.

I believe we should do everything we can to keep these facilities open. Maybe settle a deal or make the application process for abortions more difficult or something along the lines of that. Either way, we can only expect things to get worse as one by one, these clinics close and leave more and more women and families with little to no room to move for affordable help towards the best of their health.

Just stop, Rick Perry. Stop it.

Yeah, that's the guy who is messing up everything for women and NOW everyone else.

In the Burnt Orange Report blog, I found a piece written by Katherine Haenschen written on March 15th about how Rick Perry plans on funding a Women's Health Program by cutting in to Health and Human Services. The author is not only appealing to Democrats, but pretty much to anyone else who has a family, children, or is disabled. For someone that wants to make sure Planned Parenthood goes extinct and make sure women are getting the care that they were ALREADY getting at PP, eating away at funds that go to more than just women and rather families as a whole seems pretty freakin' retarded.

Katherine writes,
"Last session, the legislature cut $73 million from the state's family planning budget. Those cuts caused women's health clinics across the state to lay off workers, decrease services, or shut down entirely. The sneaky Republicans didn't merely eliminate the $73 million -- they diverted $61 million into other programs that serve the disabled, children, and the elderly, thus trying to force Democrats to vote against amendments to fund these programs at the expense of family planning programs. Now, HHS will have to look for any money that hasn't been spent yet, or bills that aren't due until later in the biennium, and divert the money back to the women's health program."

Like the author said, the Republicans were sneaky. Rick Perry cut this money to rid of Planned Parenthood and knew that less than enough people would vote against funding the other programs. Now it's just a big mess and we're looking at what, I believe is to be, an unnecessary cut with little to no pasting back where it belongs. We are going to have to extract money from where we put it (into the disabled, children and elderly) into a Women's Health Program which would not even have to happen had we kept Planned Parenthood.

Not only did the legislature make that cut, but they also underfunded Medicaid's last session by $4.8 billion dollars. Good job, Perry! Way to put us in a multi-billion dollar debt all because you didn't want to back up the program at 100%, which you should have. The writer also concludes that because of this underfunding, Medicaid will face a $15-17 billion dollar shortfall. Yikes.

What we have here is a (excuse my language) shit storm provided by our governor. "Rick Perry could have continued the successful Medicaid WHP Program that provides Texas with $9 in Federal funds for every $1 in state funds we spend on women's health and family planning. Instead, he's so determined to shut down Planned Parenthood -- which Federal law says Perry cannot shut out from the women's health program -- that he'll take funding for seniors, children, and the disabled down with him if he has to."

Who voted for this guy? Seriously.

Overall, Perry is going to put our state in a tremendous amount of debt, and it seems like there is little that we can do to stop him until he realizes that he dun'goofed and that millions are suffering on his behalf. I'm really hoping he wakes up from his crazy dream or someone else takes a stand and can stop this vicious cycle before it becomes unstoppable.

Scrapping for acceptance

In the Austin American Statesmen, there beamed a shiny editorial in regards to the policies and regulations of college admissions. While there is no author to give specific recognition to, there doesn't appear to be any specific audience other than one that believes in a fair and equal policy when it comes to admissions. This article is based off of a case of a white female student who was not accepted into the University of Texas. The story goes as follows:

"The UT case starts with the top 10 percent law passed by the Legislature in 1997. Under the law, Texas students who finish in the top 10 percent of their high school classes receive guaranteed admission to state-funded colleges and universities.

In 2008, Abigail Noel Fisher of Sugar Land applied to UT, but because she did not graduate in the top 10 percent of her class, UT put her application in a pool with other applicants who also did not graduate in the top 10 percent.

UT used race as one of several factors — experiences outside school, signs of leadership and so on — to decide which of these students would be allowed to fill out the fall 2008 freshman class.

Eighty-one percent of the 2008 freshman class graduated in the top 10 percent, leaving only about 1,200 slots available for students outside the top 10 percent. There were an estimated 16,000 students competing for those slots.

Fisher was not admitted. She enrolled instead at Louisiana State University and is set to graduate this spring"

Abigail intended to sue the University for discrimination. The author leans and agrees with Abigail's reasoning to confront the school, but also concludes that, in the end, "to reject one factor from consideration is to favor another." I can easily agree with both the author and Abigail. As a college student who just applied to go to a university where there are limitations on acceptance and make it more difficult to be accepted, I am intimidated that my 3.5 GPA and caucasian background will leave me scrapping it out against the few others trying to transfer out of state and requesting financial aid who may have a different background than I do. However, I know I'm a well-deserving student and despite my color not being the minority, I believe that I am just as equal a candidate as them.

Diversity should no longer be a factor. Diversity by color, anyway. Also when the author mentions the ridiculous percent of the school being accepted for being in the top ten percent of their high school, it's baffling to see that a mere 1,200 students who weren't are getting in based on how "diverse" they will make the school appear. It is unfair not only to the students who apply, but also to the school itself in depriving what possible "diversity" they hope to achieve by automatically accepting far too much of the top ten percent.

Rules and regulations need to be altered, but, again I will agree with the author and say that "there is no perfect college admissions policy"...however, that doesn't mean we can't try to create one.

Fix the education system!

I came across on article in the Houston Chronicle titled "Texas Democrats urge Perry to call special (school funding) session". The article relays the fact that $5.4 billion has been cut from educational funds and we are seeing classrooms exceed populations due to the closure of several schools and thousands of teachers losing their jobs. "The State Democratic Executive Committee of the Texas Democratic Party unanimously passed a resolution Saturday asking Perry to call the Legislature into immediate special session in order to restore funding to public education."

I think this is an interesting article to read because not only is the education of our youth most likely our top priority in the state and nation as a whole, but also because the Democrats are finally stepping up to the Republicans in a Republican state. The article also outlines a Democratic revolution, providing alternatives to reverse this huge error. "WHEREAS there will be at least $7.3 billion in the State Rainy Day Fund at the end of the current budget cycle, more than enough to restore the cut funding without raising any taxes and still leave billions in the bank". I believe that this situation can easily be reversed with commonsense alternatives such as this...it's just getting the Republicans to focus on what the real problems are in this state and do something about it.