The American Reform Party

Ok, so this blog is going to be about the American Reform Party...yeah....

Basically the American Reform Party (according to their site www.americanreform.org) is the "sister" party to the Reform Party. You may remember the reform party in that big eared gremlin looking runner Ross Perot ran as the party's representative in 1996.

From what I can understand, the difference between the two parties came with the decrement of political agenda and funding. I'm assuming they don't want the "front office" or the deep pocket folks of the party to ultimately decide what the political agenda is... I don't know, you decide:

"Mr. Perot who ran for President on the Reform Party Platform with his own funding, the party needed a strong political base built from the ground up rather than from the top office down as in the case of Mr. Perot. This fundamental difference in views and approach ultimately lead to a split in the Reform Party with most supporters leaving...Hence the American Reform Party was born."

Referring to themselves as a committee, the American Reform Party has existed since 1997, and are currently looking for candidates to run on their platform for the presidency. The following are just a few of their views, so if you feel you've got the chops, give them a call...

Foreign Affairs

• Keep our United Nations dues current, meet international obligations and humanitarian needs, and stay engaged in world affairs as the political and economic leader of the free world.
• Restore normal diplomatic and trade relations with Cuba.

Campaign Finance Reform

• Reduce the influence of money and special interests groups in campaigns.
• Establish public funding options for clean elections and shorten election cycles.
• Eliminate soft money from corporations, unions, and wealthy individuals.
• Prompt Internet disclosure of campaign contributions and voting records.
• Lobbyists provide information, not money
• Establish election spending caps on candidates with annual adjustments tied to relevant national inflation/cost index

EXTRA TID-BIT: lmao...

Take Back Control Of America

Time to kick some ass and take back control of our Country and its government from the corrupt officials and Progressives. Both our government and its leaders are entirely out of control. They continually violate the laws of our constitution and ignore the will and desires of the people. When their actions are questioned their canned response is "we did what was best for the good of the people". In other words, Not what the people wanted but what THEY wanted. This has to stop! They need to remember for whom they work. And that is the people. And what we want, is for the "Good of the People". Well we have a plan to put a stop to this abusive style of governing which is destroying our Constitution and our freedoms and liberties.

Time to Act is NOW!

Jim Crow: "When freedom 'ain't' free"

There's no secret that slavery existed here in America. Stories and photos of Africans turned African-Americans fill historic records and texts with tales of sorrow and heart-break. Families were ripped apart through slave trading and bloodlines tainted due to slaves being raped. After President Lincoln emancipated the slaves, there was still a level of animosity towards African-Americans generally and politically.

Politically there were the Jim Crow laws. These laws prevented blacks from living equally among whites. Anti-African-American racism was pretty much legal, and even if gruesome acts were brought to trial, often times than not, whites you were put on trial were acquitted. It wasn't until the civil rights movement of the 1960's that the issue was adequately addressed. This means from the 1880s to the 1960s (roughly 80 to 90 years) blacks were freed without being free. They were still targets for hate crimes, still not recognized as members of t

he general population, and still weren't seen as human beings in many cases. States all across the nation created separate entrances and refused service to African-Americans, and many other minorities during this era.

The struggle of racial equality is still a relevant issue today. Though things have looked up for minorities there are still hurtles left to climb by themselves and those hell

bent on bigotry and racial segregation.

Examples of Jim Crow laws: http://academic.udayton.edu/race/02rights/jcrow02.htm

Where the hell am I?

Ok, this is just an insight post. Being a college senior and involved in various organizations, stress gets a bit high for me at times. I know that there are a lot of people like me who feel the pinch of the "real world" or suffer from severe cases of senioritus, so really I'm talking to you.

Recently I bombed, and I mean BOMBED a history exam. Why am I putting this information on the web? Because I'm real. I feel like I represent the everyday student, ok, maybe not the everyday student, but the 'dreamer' students. I'm a musician, I eat, drink, and breathe melodies and rhymes, so for me to make it this far in school is a big deal. It's not that I don't value learning, it's just that I've lost my faith in the education system.

A lot of professors will tell you that they don't care about a letter grade; that what matters most to them is that their students learn...damn that sounds like a beautiful theory, too bad it only ends there. I can count on one hand how many professors actually spoke to me as a person who wanted to pass along their knowledge rather than throwing facts at me and leading me to water to see what I've learned, "Hope you know how'da swim b*tch!!" *KICK*

I love learning, I don't do it very often, but picking up a book to learn about something is cool to me. This is only when I have free time, and I'm not worried about what concept my teacher feels is most important. Half of the classes I'm taking will prepare me to be involved in some sort of media outlet, yes, but what stresses me the most is the fact that the best paying jobs are nowhere near my field. These days it's all about engineering...I'm a journalism major, you do the math. I'm not nosey enough to be a journalist. I don't want to ask a whole bunch of random people questions on something I don't care about, I'd rather be behind a microphone slaying a track about why I can't stand a girl, how we as a human race need to get it together, or just how nice I am at rhyming, period. We as a society have strayed from what it means to be happy. I'm tired of people lying to these kids about following their dreams, only to tell them 12 years later that their dreams are stupid/flawed/or unrealistic. I'm only here for a piece of paper that deems me qualified in a field I have little interest for. A columnist, maybe. It's more up my alley, but reporting...not so much. Unless it dealt with music (lol).

So in all kids, follow yourself. If you want to be a comic book writer, cool. If you want to be a dancer, cool. A rapper, well you're going to have to see me, but still, cool (lol). Learn along the way though. it's ok to pick up a book and see how things work or where we come from. Everything you need to be educated is in a library, don't let these nubs tell you anything different. It's a trap. Do better than I have. I'm going to make it, but I'd rather be honing my skills elsewhere. Happiness first people, and I'm out.

'Cool Reviews: Spirited Away

Ok, so after everyone feasted and left me what was at the bottom of the bucket, I was surprised to see this film wasn't picked up by anyone... "Haven't you heard of this?! Sheep! You are all sheep!"

But I digress.

Hayao Miyazaki's "Spirited Away is, well, think Wizard of Oz meets The Never Ending Story, and you get one heart warming acid tri

p of a movie.

The story follows Chihiro, a little girl who is basically dep

ressed with the fact that she has to leave behind her friends and old life to start anew with her family on the other side of town. The idea of meeting new people didn't sit too well with Chihiro, so in the process she became melancholy, distant, and a wee-bit of a brat...but only a little.

Chihiro's adventure begins when her par

ents lead her down what can be simply put as a gateway into another world, where due to their ignorance, leaves Chihiro to rescue them from the wicked witch Yubaba.

"Spirited Away" is largely about the growth of Chihiro. Several times during the film her will is tested, ultimately leading to a bulk in confidence an

d strength. Miyazaki creates a world of spirits, frogs, and big headed witches all in illuminating color. The characters of the movie reflect most of humanities natural emotions and vices, including greed, compassion, vengeance, and love, bringing the audience closer to understanding the motives and intent behind Miyazaki's unique art of story telling.

My only gripe with the film was how it ended. As mentioned before, Chihiro went through trial after trial and grew throughout the course of the film, and when it was all said and done, it seemed like she was handed her prize without much effort. It was like ordering a fight on Pay Per View. You watch great preliminary match ups that go the distance, but when it comes time for the main event, you get a knock out 26 seconds into the first round!?

Besides that though, I can understand why this movie has been held in such acclaim over the past few years. It's a beautiful movie that serves as motivation to never quit, that no matter what you're faced with, there's always a way to make things work (spare me your judgements, I know what I

just said was corny, but hey...sop). I recommend this movie for kids, esspecially between the ages of 9 through 13, mainly because there's a lot to keep up with. The flick gets an official Cool seal, check it out, and I'm gone.

Plates Y'all...

There have been a lot of major geological incidents in recent years: the tsunamis of the pacific, the earthquakes of Haiti, Chile, and Taiwan, as well as major climate changes around the world. These and other events motivated me to look up the explanations for these happenings to figure out what they meant in the grand scheme of our planet, and I found out some interesting stuff. For one, our planet's poles are beginning to shift, that's right. The magnetic fields of north and south are swapping polarities, which means bad news for us, but I'll save that for another post.

What I really wanted to talk about were the real movers and shakers of our planet, and I mean it quite literally. They're called tectonic plates. They are the cause of a lot of what goes on here on Earth. There are six main plates as well as a handful of smaller plates, but don't sleep on the smaller ones, they have just as much an impact as their big brothers.

There are three types of tectonic boundaries: convergent, divergent, and transform.

Convergent boundaries are when plates come together. When they do, you get a massive pile up, i.e. mountains. such as the Himalayas. They are even responsible for the formation

Divergent boundaries are when plates move apart due to magma from deep within the earth's core. NationalGeographic.com says that due to divergent boundary shifts, the eastern coast of Africa will split and form a new land mass that will mark the boundaries of two plates beneath the continent (Arabian and African Plates).

The last of the types, transformation boundaries, are pretty much when two plates grind side by side on each other, this phenomena is responsible for earthquakes.

So there you have it, a brief, VERY brief over view of tectonic plates. Check this out for more info. >>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDqskltCixA

About: "Don't ask, don't tell"

I'll keep this short.

This post is to briefly inform those on a legal act that impacts our nation's defense agencies. In a few states today, the right to homosexual unions or "gay marriages" has been passed, legally recognizing the relationship between man and man, and woman and woman in the court of law.

In 1993, congress passed the "Don't ask, don't tell act" (DADT) in an effort to mandate openly gay and lesbian service members. According to the Service Members Legal Def

ense Network, more than 13,500 service members have been fired under enforcement of the law since 1994.

Recently, President Obama and his administration have made it a mission to repeal the act with the Military Readiness Enhancement Act (MREA).

Based on data from the Service Members Legal Defense Network, 73 percent

of military personnel are ok with gays and lesbians in the military.

In my own opinion, the U.S. military is the most ironic place for segregation. In the past, minorities had been banned to serve, and when they were finally allowed, were subjected to racial torment and injustice. With DADT, it's just another way to divide our country, which is supposed to stand for freedom and democracy. I'm not saying that I support all gay rights, i personally believe a marriage is a union between man and woman under God, but if you're gay and you want a forever relationship, then by all means fight for what will make you happy. In a time where enlistment is somewhat shaky, I don't think that our department of defense can be picky. Younger generations have gotten a lot better with accepting people for who they are, but some still hold on to visions of a separated nation, which isn't really ideal for anyone, but that's just me...