David Ortez

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense." – President Dwight D. Eisenhower who was a five-star General for the United States during World War II.

"[A] single worker needs an income of $30,012 a year — or just above $14 an hour — to cover basic expenses and save for retirement and emergencies. That is close to three times the 2010 national poverty level of $10,830 for a single person, and nearly twice the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour."

Read the New York Time article, "Many Low-Wage Jobs Seen as Failing to Meet Basic Needs" by Motoko Rich for more insightful information.

As the GOP looks to cut the Federal budget, they are aiming to reduce a total of $60 billion off the 2010 slate. At the same time, the main goal of the cut seems to be geared towards decimating some of the initiatives of environmental regulation and the agency behind environmental progress. The proposal would end up slicing the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by 30 percent. This would by far be the largest cut of any agency and would total about $3 billion.

In the lexicon of American democracy, the word "sacrifice" means that the citizens are supposed to do with less benefits and services at the expense of an elite few protected by Washington because they do not wish to sacrifice their pleasure of owning more. – David Ortez

I was greatly disspointed with the Obama Adminstration when they released their proposed 2011 Federal Budget. What ticked me off more than anything was the decision to reduce Pell Grants from the Education Budget.

Pell Grants are post-secondary educational Federal grant aimed at lower-income students. Pell Grants at one point of our American history were able to cover as much as 60% of the students tuition bill. At today’s standards, one is lucky to get at least 30% off their tuition. When one asks what is wrong with our unsatisfactory education system … well there’s your problem.

Sometimes my conservative friends say the darnest things. Other times they say silly comments that challenge my perception of them. If anyone has noticed, today was a cold day. In fact, when I woke up around 7AM, the news reported that it was 21 degrees but it felt like 8 degrees. 

I have always enjoyed the following political cartoon by Joel Pett of the Lexington Herald-Leader.

For any skeptic out there, I highly recommend checking out this 18 panel series by Darryl Cunningham that introduces the reader to climate change information in an interesting way. 

This is a visual graphic comparing states that permit gay marriage versus those that permit marriage between first cousins. A first cousin is the child of your aunt or uncle. Thus, it is legally permissible to marry your first cousin in 23 states.

During the last 3 months as I have followed each of the candidates from forum to forum and private gathering to fundraisers … there is one thing I have noticed … they have the right ideas to make Houston great.

Yet, at the same time the situation that I encountered when it came to releasing how the candidates intended to achieve a promise was rather weak in substance.

Only Peter Brown stepped up to the plate and would release a detailed (as detail as you can get of course) plan on how he intended to achieve some of his goals. From updating infrastructure to explaining how to address our flooding issue … there always seemed to be a saturation of policy initiatives from the campaign.