Political Football

http://youtube.com/watch?v=wcRcOK_dbTY

http://youtube.com/watch?v=nhxj0GTpa9w&mode=related&search=

the links above are short segments of Rudy’s talk in Bettendorf on August 7

070807_rudy_audio.mp3

The link above is audio of the Q/A issues at the Rudy visit to Bettendorf HS today

Rudy has a comprehensive plan to reduce abortions, increase adoptions and protect the quality of life for our children:

-Increase Adoptions to Protect American Children

-Promote Adoption as a Responsible and Rewarding Choice

-Simplify the Adoption Process

-Give States Control of Child Welfare Spending

-Build Partnerships with Faith-Based Organizations

-Enhance Tax Incentives

-Reduce Abortions to Promote a Culture of Life

-Promote a Culture of Life

-Encourage informed decisions

-Improve Federal Abortion Data

-Maintain the Hyde Amendment

this is an overview of his 25 minute talk… I can go back and check my personal audio tape if you have specific questions or want specific quotes.

During his normal talk he spent about 5 minutes on his stance on adoptions and abortions (standard fare – in NYC I increased adoptions, decreased abortions, etc) and he expanded the talk to supporting the war on drugs. He had a meeting with a group of law enforcement officers comprising of what is called the TASK FORCE on Drugs (mostly meth activities in Iowa) and related that to helping children say away from drugs.

He thinks from what the officials told him Iowa is doing a good job of removing the meth labs as a source but that other sources are moving into Iowa to fill that vacuum. “you must remove the supply as well as the demand.” No state can do that alone; it must be in concert with federal agencies that can go into Mexico or beyond to remove that source. In removing the demand there must be strong rehabilitation programs.

America is fabulous at advertising. Why can’t America develop a campaign that explains more about the bad things about drugs. we worry about global warming, but we don’t care about what we take in to our lungs? Young people need to learn these things at a very early stage. The reduction in demand is just as important as the reduction of supply.

And then we need better treatment programs. I’ve been in law enforcement for a long time – the first drug case I prosecuted was when I was 24-25 years old. Spending a life time prosecuting drug dealers and seeing the affect this has on the lives of people, not just children but adults, I’m a big believer in drug rehabilitation, because I believe in people.

I’m known as a tough guy but I believe in rehabilitation. Maybe not for the dealer, but for the user. I have seen many people turn their lives around to lead very useful lives. People who are users don’t see a way out, they buy into the idea that their lives are ruined, that there is no hope for them, so they continue to increase usage – the same could be said for alcohol abuse. If you can turn that around you can change their lives. There are good programs and there are bad programs. We need to find ways to measure that and support and increase the good programs.

If we can reduce the demand, by very very good law enforcement, and reduce the supply by better education programs and then rehabilitation programs we can produce a brighter future for our children.

The TASK FORCE told him some of the drug enforcement $ has been redirected to the WoT. Rudy said that we can’t have an either or. Terrorism could destroy us from the outside, but the Drug problem destroys us from within. The reality is we need to deal with both, with a positive point of view.

We are good people, enterprising people – we can figure out how to deal with this and give our children a much brighter future and if we can solve these problems by working together we’ll have a more productive country.

thank you for having me here today and thanks for listening.

Trackback This Post | Subscribe to the comments through RSS Feed