Something needs to change,,,here's what!

So recently has there has been increasing talk about term limits on political offices, especially Congress. That would be nice, but that is a minor source of our political gridlock.

To find our problem and ultimately solve it, we simply need to look at a map. Yes, that's right a simple map.

If someone looks at a congressional map of the United States, you see a jumbled mess of districts that are microscopic, elongated, broken into pieces, narrow and in some cases random. This mess, is the result of years of state legislatures drawing Congressional lines to suit the party in power's desire to remain that way, instead of corresponding to changing demographics.

Years of gerrymandering have resulted in districts that are politically static. The parties become entrenched and it is increasingly difficult to dislodge them. In the 2011 re-districting process. I guarantee you that both the Republicans and Democrats will look at the districts, especially ones they barely win, and redraw them to give them the advantage.

It is a known fact that the less interesting and dynamic politics are, the less the electorate wants to participate because they get the feeling that they have little influence. American voter turn-out rates during Midterm elections are lucky to get above 40% and Presidential Elections barely cross 50.

So enough negativity and here's a solution to our boundary issues. It simply demands that the basic idea behind redistricting be shifted from politics to demographics. The model lies across the ocean in the UK. Every new election cycle, a boundary commission draws new boundaries, deletes obsolete districts and creates new ones, depending on the growth or decline of certain areas. This way many more districts in the UK are contested and their turnout rates are also very high. UK politics is far more dynamic and fluid than America's. There are reasons other than boundaries but boundaries play a major role in stagnating or advancing politics.

The solution wouldn't come immediately, it would take time. But in the end it would work, political participation would increase and the ice-block that is American politics melts

More whining...

This time, I support people's whining...IT IS UNBEARABLY HOT OUTSIDE. It is unusually hot for this early in July. Adding to the discomfort is the oppressive humidity... add both together and the heat index is well over 105. Can we have a summer like the one last year when it barely broke 90 until late July? Obviously the atmosphere says "No, I'm going to give you a typical Washington, DC summer...hot, humid and uncomfortable...muhahahaha". I can't wait until this heat wave is broken but I don't like the way it will be.

It will be broken by a powerful cold front moving in from some direction with extremley powerful thunderstorms. Our conditions will be adding fuel to the fire as these storms should be supercells when the roll over the Metro area. As of now, no relief in sight...so we must endure!

Hello People...

Hello people, there is a major environmental disaster off the coasts of now 5 states.

Last night, CNN reported tar balls from the oil spill reaching Galveston, Texas and Lake Pontchartrain. I am amazed, shocked, disgusted and many other adjectives I am too lazy to write down.

If anything, people have been oblivious to this! What people don't seem to understand is the fact that the lack of response and emotion only encourages violating companies to continue their destructive practices. BP already had a massive disaster in 2005 when one of their refineries in Texas City exploded, killing workers.

There should now be an added urgency to this crisis. Hurricane season has begun and in the early months of it the Gulf and North Carribean are prime breeding grounds for hurricanes. No one has ever expierenced a hurricane strike on an oil spill and I'm sure that no one wants to.

So far there is no direct threat to the spill area, but that could change with a simple shift in the wind patterns.

This needs public attention and outrage. The media has lost the story, the public has lost the story and only enviornmentalists and the cleanup workers have sight of this. If we do not act this WILL happen again, possibly in the Gulf or somewhere far more disruptive.