Original commentary #1

When it comes to the Texas justice system, its wide range of cases it has to deal with each year is tremendous ranging anywhere from enforcing traffic laws to the ultimate criminal punishment. The enormous budget that the justice system has, stating it is somewhere around 3.3 billion dollars annually in public safety and corrections and another 175 million for the court systems, goes to show the effort that it takes to keep the system running smoothly and to maintain all of these efforts.

The growing population of Texas over the years has led to an even greater emphasis on crime and punishment and with that being said creates more tension as Texas already demands a strong punishment when it comes to acts of crime. Unfortunately the lack of funds sometimes creates a problem in the justice system and keeps it from running as smoothly as it should.

The attorney general in office plays an important role in the justice system and is constitutionally bound to keep up with important tasks such as,

• defend the laws and the Constitution of the state of Texas
• represent the state in litigation
• approve public bond issues

One of the hardest problems facing the justice system is that it must at all times treat people fairly and equally and not make decisions that are based too much in either direction. It must always be well informed and in touch with its resources but at the end of the day always be accountable for the information and knowledge they put out there. This task is extremely difficult. The involvement of Texans in the issues that face our world is an important factor in keeping the system in balance and running the way we want it to.

The six percent

In the article titled “The six percent” author Harold Cook puts a humorous spin on today’s political issues. He is applying his own witty banter on topics such as the abortion bill being passed and the question of who really won or lost this battle the democrats or the republicans. He states that the Democrats probably thought that they won a big one among the sea of republicans. Cook appears to be very opinionated upon topics such as the abortion bill and his sarcasm is apparent throughout this article.

He does back up his information with solid facts and numbers but he his delivery of his opinions and views are very one sided and could appear to be interpreted badly by those that disagree with him, which appears to be on purpose and probably amusing to his sense of humor. I do agree with his opinion on the topics that he is discussing, fully believing as he that the abortion bill would be highly unconstitutional and would cause many more problems than it would do good.

The backbone of his article is very much a battle of the good old democrat vs. Republican Party and it is obvious looking through his sarcasm, that he is in favor of the democrats and rooting for them to “kill this bill.” Which, in this case I can’t say that I disagree with this particular statement. 

Austin would be ill-advised to ban plastic bags

In the Austin American Statesman an article titled Austin would be ill-advised to ban plastic bags, author Burnett speaks about the topic of Austin choosing to ban all plastic bags in all retail stores. In his opinion it would be a bad idea for this to occur. He argues the case that it has been argued the reason behind doing this is because plastic bags account for 2.2 percent of the cities liter, which in reality is false. He says that this information has been exaggerated by Gedert who's information turns out to be all wrong. Steven Steins correction to this mis representation of information was that the correct numbers was 0.6 percent, this number even being higher because it includes the numbers of other plastic wastes such as industrial wrappin, dry cleaner, and trash bags. The other argument that is made in this article is that the ban of plastic bags also takes away jobs from Americans. Because, plastic bags are produced in America the stopping of this production and using of more reusable bags, which are made in China, gives more opportunity for China to succeed in this business production, while Americans are left out of work. Austin businesses will lose sales and tax revenues due to this ban as well. In another point that the author made, which I think is a good one, is that plastic bags are not generally only used once, but for multiple purposes inside of the home. Plastic bags are used for trash, animal waste, and diapers. Without these bags it will likely result in more purchasing of plastic bagies for these purposes. This article was obviously posted prior to this ban being enforced in the Austin area in March of this year, but I found myself agreeing with many of the points that the author made throughout this article. Though I am all for keeping our city of Austin beautiful and reducing liter, I was unaware of some of the good points and numbers that he used to back up his opinion. It appears to be that the author of this article had a solid opinion of this matter and he backed it up with subtancial information.

Controversal abortion bill now goes to governor

On KVUE on July 13, 2013 there was a posted article titled "Controversal abortion bill now goes to governor" This article touched base on the very controversial topic of abortion and the new bill being passed. Hundreds of people, both pro-life and pro-choice, showed up in downtown Austin to share their opinions about this bill being passed and many pro-life supporters were dissapointed by the outcome. This debate is much larger than just in Texas, invloving many other states. It stated that 17 other states have passed bills on the issue of abortion whcih leads us all to believe that the topic of this matter will not be going away anytime soon. I think that this article is worth reading because this is a topic that for the majority of us we have a clear side that we take, whether that be pro-life or pro-choice. It is important for us as citizens to keep up with issues that are happening such as this one and to show our support whatever your opinion may be.