Charles Herrera

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GBP: Health Care Reform

Charles Herrera posted an article on - Nov 26, 2010, 9:00 am
As I mentioned in the announcement right before this post, there’ll be many changes coming in the next several days.  I hope to make the process as seamless as possible, but I also like getting down and dirty with the code and also somehow doing things the hard way.  Anyway, this is most likely ...
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The Winds of Change Are Blowing

Charles Herrera posted an article on - Nov 24, 2010, 2:06 am
It’s been a while, I know; last week was incredibly busy and I just couldn’t give a post the attention I like to give it, so I left it alone for a week.  Well, between all the turkey, avoiding crowds, traffic, and other Thanksgiving/Black Friday week madness, I’m back, and I’ve got quite a ...
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Don't Forget To Check Your Liberties Along With Your Luggage

Charles Herrera posted an article on - Nov 13, 2010, 11:00 am
When will it end?  The Transportation Security Administration, the organization that mans the airport security checkpoints, appears to be just throwing new regulations and procedures at us, the American public, with the usual national security excuse.  Seriously, the conduct that the TSA now consi...
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GBP: The Credit CARD Act

Charles Herrera posted an article on - Nov 11, 2010, 10:00 am
Well, as the first salvo in a burst of blog posts over the next few days, here’s the second installment of my new series of posts called “The Good, The Bad, and the Presidential”.  This regularly-appearing series takes a look back at the various accomplishments made by President Obama in the ...
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The Good, The Bad, and the Presidential

Charles Herrera posted an article on - Nov 7, 2010, 10:00 am
Just about halfway into President Obama’s term, and we’ve had one of the most lopsided elections in American history- all based on misconceptions about what has or hasn’t been accomplished.  The media, politicians, their parties, and blogs far less sane than the one you’re currently reading...
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Tsunami or Wipeout?

Charles Herrera posted an article on - Nov 2, 2010, 9:17 pm
As you probably know, results are streaming in from around the country from tonight’s midterm elections.  I’ve said before that I dislike doing the same kind of recap posts that I did for, well, just about every primary vote, so I’m going to do something different for tonight’s analysis.  ...
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Have Blog, Will Travel

Charles Herrera posted an article on - Oct 29, 2010, 4:58 pm
This isn’t a normal post, but then again, this isn’t a normal weekend.  You might have heard about a certain Rally to Restore Sanity (or March to Keep Fear Alive); I’m going.  I’ll try to blog from it, or at the very least later on Saturday night/Sunday morning, when I’ll be on the bus b...
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Welcome to the Corporate States of America?

Charles Herrera posted an article on - Oct 10, 2010, 11:10 am
Sorry for the long absence from writing; I’ve had too much work so far this semester, and as always, I care about the quality of these posts.  I do not just randomly throw whatever up here; I take time to research these posts.  As a result, yes, I am starting to write this on a
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The Pop Star and the Politician

Charles Herrera posted an article on - Sep 18, 2010, 2:31 am
For those of you who know me, I don’t listen to pop music, hip hop/R&B, or anything really mainstream for that matter; I prefer classical music and classic rock, with some very obscure sub-genres thrown in there and whatnot.  Therefore, I’m not sure what’s more surprising: me discussing Lady ...
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One Year On

Charles Herrera posted an article on - Sep 14, 2010, 10:56 pm
I don’t usually use a post on the front page to give an update about the blog itself, saving this space for an actual post instead. As of right now, it’s been one year since I started writing this thing. To those of you who have been here since the very beginning, thank you. I
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The Casualties of the "Beltway Bubble"

Charles Herrera posted an article on - Sep 6, 2010, 6:02 pm
For what it’s worth, the Republicans don’t seem to be in favor of much of anything these days that actually makes sense.  On the one hand, I can understand their fixation on reducing the deficit; that is something this country needs to tackle before it gets much worse.  Then they say they are ...
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In Defense of the Constitution, Part II

Charles Herrera posted an article on - Aug 25, 2010, 11:23 am
I was originally going to write this in as part of the last “In Defense of the Constitution” post, but after I realized that, once again, my writing on the First Amendment was getting to be long and detailed enough on its own, I decided to split it up.  Originally, this post was supposed to
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In Defense of The Constitution

Charles Herrera posted an article on - Aug 13, 2010, 10:11 am
By now, I’m sure you’ve heard of the Cordoba House, the name of the proposed mosque and community center near Ground Zero.  What began as a simple local zoning matter became the latest flash point in our post-9/11 society almost overnight.  What’s striking to me isn’t the fact that some re...
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What You Should Know About Missouri's Proposition C (And Others Like It)

Charles Herrera posted an article on - Aug 5, 2010, 9:00 am
Well here we go: as Congress goes to its month-long August recess, we have a full slate of primaries and other developments in the midterm election races to keep us engaged in politics.  This Tuesday, the August primaries began in earnest with three states choosing their general election matches. ...
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Food for Democracy: Transparency Versus National Security

Charles Herrera posted an article on - Jul 27, 2010, 9:00 am
If Afghanistan is our generation’s Vietnam, this is our generation’s Pentagon Papers; oh wait, just about every political observer out there has called it that already.  Anyway, if you haven’t heard about it yet, the website Wikileaks.org is causing quite a stir in government circles this sum...
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UPDATED: The Benefits Are Restored, But At What Cost?

Charles Herrera posted an article on - Jul 21, 2010, 10:15 am
Update is below Ladies and gentlemen, the wait is finally over.  Today, unemployment benefits are on the verge of finally being reauthorized after nearly two months of the nation’s unemployed having nothing to rely on other than whatever savings they might have had left.  Technically, the be...
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A Viable Deficit-Reduction Compromise?

Charles Herrera posted an article on - Jul 16, 2010, 9:00 am
Ah, the deficit.  No single issue has caused as much consternation in Congress and around the country as the deficit has in recent weeks.  Sure, health care reform tied up Congress for just about a full year, but now everything is getting held up because of the blasted deficit.  Unemployment bene...
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Playing With Fire

Charles Herrera posted an article on - Jul 9, 2010, 9:00 am
Ah, another Congressional recess without addressing the unemployment benefits crisis.  According to the Huffington Post’s count, it’s now been 37 days since the impending specter of that final benefit check was hung over the collective heads of the millions of unemployed Americans.  I ...
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The Fix to the Citizens United Ruling?

Charles Herrera posted an article on - Jun 23, 2010, 9:00 am
It’s been a crazy week in politics, particularly in Texas; the “silly season of politics”, as various people have called it, is in full swing.  Unfortunately, as much as I’d love to repost that video, I have no activists in chicken suits, nor do I have anything connecting ce...
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Brief Thoughts: Should We Have A Constitutional Convention?

Charles Herrera posted an article on - Jun 17, 2010, 10:09 am
Welcome back folks, to another look into my mind on politics.  I intended these ‘Brief Thoughts’ posts to be a daily, or near-daily, thing, and now that I’m all settled into my internship for the summer, I’ll make a shot at meeting that schedule.  Of course, an interesting ...
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Did President Obama Waste His Oval Office Address?

Charles Herrera posted an article on - Jun 16, 2010, 9:00 am
Insert memorable quote here.  Seriously, I just finished watching President Obama give his first televised speech from the Oval Office, and with all the hype comparing the speech to JFK’s “ask not what you can do for your country” speech and FDR’s famous inaugural address (&...
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Brief Thoughts: Just Who the Hell is Alvin Greene?

Charles Herrera posted an article on - Jun 14, 2010, 10:41 pm
Oh, South Carolina, just when we thought you’d given us all the political scandals you could muster, you just keep them coming.  One of the more interesting developments out of the primaries last Tuesday was the shocking win of Alvin Greene over heavily favored former state lawmaker Vic Rawl....
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And They're Off! General Election 2010 Gets Underway

Charles Herrera posted an article on - Jun 11, 2010, 9:00 am
Well, this week another big set of primary elections was settled.  Other than a few remaining primaries and run-off elections, the field for the 2010 midterm elections is now set.  Sorry this post took so long to come out; there are so many different narratives that emerged on Tuesday, both new an...
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Brief Thoughts: Defense Spending Reform Takes Shape

Charles Herrera posted an article on - Jun 4, 2010, 10:00 am
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about how Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is going to make a serious attempt at squeezing savings out of the Department of Defense and how it would be a great example for the rest of the government if it were to work.  Of course, it is hard to
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Israel's Quandary

Charles Herrera posted an article on - Jun 1, 2010, 6:31 pm
Well this is a mess for anyone who was hoping for the latest attempt at peace between Israel and the Palestinians.  In case you haven’t heard about it by now, early this morning, Israel intercepted the “Freedom Flotilla”, an attempt by human-rights activists to get past IsraelR...
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Brief Thoughts: The Deficit Needs to be Dealt With, but So Does Unemployment

Charles Herrera posted an article on - May 29, 2010, 2:07 am
Today, we saw a repeat of what happened the last few months with regard to the special extensions to unemployment benefits; on Tuesday, millions of Americans will, once again, see an interruption in their unemployment checks thanks to Congress balking at extending the measures that were intended to ...
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It's Time for Immigration Reform

Charles Herrera posted an article on - May 26, 2010, 9:00 am
I’m sure just about all of you have heard about the controversial Arizona law formally known as SB1070 by now.  The law, signed over a month ago, essentially requires Arizona police to question anyone about their immigration status if they have “reasonable suspicion” that someone ...
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Is Wall Street Reform Destined to Fail?

Charles Herrera posted an article on - May 22, 2010, 10:00 am
By now, most of you have probably heard: on Thursday night the Senate passed Wall Street Reform after a debate that had proceeded remarkably smoothly up until the last week or so.  In fact, throughout the whole process, not much out of the ordinary for what the people should expect of the Senate ha...
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The Rise of the Challengers

Charles Herrera posted an article on - May 19, 2010, 8:00 am
Yesterday, in case you didn’t notice, was being called Super Tuesday by political pundits, most of the mainstream media, and just about all the campaigns involved in the various primaries being held around the country.  Technically, it wasn’t the “Super Tuesday”, as that ref...
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Just a test

Charles Herrera posted an article on - May 14, 2010, 10:28 am
As part of those changes I mentioned in the intro to the previous post, I’m testing a couple of things with this one… MRG5E8MFERT5 Filed under: Uncategorized
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The Beginning of Deficit-Minded Government?

Charles Herrera posted an article on - May 14, 2010, 10:00 am
Well everyone, hopefully I’ll be able to get back to a normal posting frequency next week.  It’s been a rough month, but I’ve just about finished running the gauntlet and things should be calming down to where I can actually write again.  Thank you everyone who kept reading rando...
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Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Charles Herrera posted an article on - Apr 24, 2010, 9:00 am
Well folks, there is still about another week or so at a minimum before I can resume something resembling a normal post frequency, but I found snippets of time here and there to draft up a condensed version of this for my regular column in our college newspaper, Student Life, and so it was relativel...
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An Apology to My Readers

Charles Herrera posted an article on - Apr 15, 2010, 3:21 am
As I’m sure you have noticed by now, recently I have been writing much less frequently than I normally do.  Unfortunately, I must place the blog on the back burner for the next couple of weeks, as we are at the end of our academic year, and I have four, yes, four, final projects on
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Is Mideast Peace Finally About to Happen?

Charles Herrera posted an article on - Apr 8, 2010, 8:00 am
Peace in the Middle East; it has been a dream shared by millions throughout the last several decades, and it may finally be time for it to be achieved.  Of course, there are plenty of reasons to be skeptical about this possibility, but this is the first time that I can remember when there has
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The End of Student Debt As We Know It?

Charles Herrera posted an article on - Mar 30, 2010, 8:16 pm
Well, I know you probably don’t like the lack of posts as much as I hate the lack of time I’ve had to write them recently.  Well, I still have very little time on my hands, but I’m making time to write this; sure, it’ll mean a couple of nights that I’m up later than
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Health Care Reform Passes

Charles Herrera posted an article on - Mar 22, 2010, 8:00 am
Well here we are folks, the moment we have all been waiting for (or dreading) has happened.  The House of Representatives passed the Senate health care bill by a vote of 219-212 tonight following a full day of debate, the last six hours of which I caught.  Following passage of the Senate bill, the...
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Should They Slaughter the 'Slaughter Rule'?

Charles Herrera posted an article on - Mar 17, 2010, 2:27 pm
If there were ever an unfortunate name to have in politics, it would be the situation that Representative Louise Slaughter (D-NY) currently faces.
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F.C.C. Gets Serious About Broadband

Charles Herrera posted an article on - Mar 17, 2010, 12:18 am
Though it may certainly seem that way, healthcare reform is not the only game in Washington, D.C. this week.  While that certainly is big news, and I will be writing a good amount on it this week, there are other things going on.  For one, today the Federal Communications Commission presented its ...
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I'm just a college student obsessed with politics, current events, music and technology...

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