health care reform

The current state of the health care reform is that it passed through the house and the senate is now voting on it. Obama is trying to push the health care bill through both sides of the checks and balances before the new year. I think universal health care is headed to make the country better. I think that if a national health care program works for other developed foreign countries as well as it does then Americans could definitely benefit from one.

The debate is that the current system has failed so many Americans and with the recent loss of jobs and economic downturn health care reform is nesscessary. Currently the bill is being left up to Congress.

political cartoon #2

Parker drew this cartoon. This was published on the 20th of this month in Flordia. This cartoon deals with texting while driving. Currently I believe they just put a ban on it. I think the cartoons message is that technology is all too frequent these days to the point that it is taking over people's lives. I agree with the cartoons message because texting while driving is dangerous because you arent paying attention to the rode and endangering other peoples lives.

#1 political cartoon.

Pavel Constantin drew this political cartoon. This cartoon deals with the issue of the "swine flu" or the H1N1 virus. The cartoon's message seems to be joking at the epidemic a little bit. The cartoon features a pig sitting a humans chair with people are supposed to be the pigs. It is joking at the craziness surrounding everyone starting to be "germ freaks". I am indifferent to the cartoon. I have not been too caught up in the worrying about contracting swine flu. I have been worrying about getting something more common as the flu in this upcoming winter season.

new principal

I think Herndon having a new principal in place by the beginning of December should have a couple qualities to be the right fit for Herndon. I think the type of person to be principal should be honest, caring, trustworthy, fair. I think the principal should be honest and caring in they way that he/she talks to students and caring enough to understand in specific ways but treats everyone equally with a similar punishment meets the crime type way. I think the principal should be someone that students will trust and be able to come to if they wanted, someone the school would be able to say hello to. I think someone who comes off as either funny or a relaxed would be a good match for Herndon because I think the majority of our students are funny and relaxed. Someone not always taking everything extremely serious. A principal that supports the school with a positive outlook when first being at Herndon.

My choice

For my choice post to write about I decided to discuss what I learned from taking this Ap government course so far. This class had made me want to be a little bit more aware of what is going on not only in politics but awareness issues around the world in general. It has made me feel as though I should value that I have access to learn about so many issues yet I have choosen to remain ignorant to basically everything that the news, internet, and politics has to offer. I have learned that knowledge really is power and I personally dont have very much knowledge on any educated subjects. I think that throughout this class I will learn even more as to which political party I allign myself with more. Right now the issue that makes me lean democratic is the pro-choice view of democratic candidates. I have discovered that I am very pro-choice and am interested in learning more about pro-life and pro-choice simply so I am educated enough to have a discussion about the topic. So far I have jsut realized I am strongly pro-choice and have only joined a facebook group that supports that view to try and learn a bit more about the actual arguments that go into the debate. Other then that so far I have learned that most Americans dont take the oppurtunity to vote and what seems like long ago people died in wars to defend our freedom and nowadays Americans just waste this precious opportunity. I think so far this class has educated me enough to want to vote when I am eligable in the next election.

Obama Tempers Good economic news with caution

For my current event article I read about Obama and how in the past month the economic down turn has gone up by a couple percents. The article basically talked about how this is a good sign not to get to " big headed" and realize that we still have the possiblity of having rough times ahead. The unemployed rate is still very high and may very well increase. But the good news is the economic upturn will create new jobs to be held. The fact is that the economy being up right now is very positive news compared to about a year ago when we thought we were headed for another great depression.Obama says that the investments in the stimulus package aren't just helping for in the short term but laying down the foundation for long term improvement overall. The wrap up of this article was that although government programs like cash for clunkers are bolstering the economy once they are done lingering problems will rise.

current event

Cameras will remain in six trial schools cafeterias, the board voted last thursday to a yes. The main idea and putting these cameras in the trial schools is to prevent student theft in their school cafeteria. Why? The money losses to the school are estimated at 1.2 million a year from theft of food. They are still in the progress of having these cameras in some of our local high schools to decide whether to make this a huge thing or not. The only problem in that is the estimated budget cut for the coming years versus the costs of the cameras and such. Although they have shown that the losses of money through stealing have gone down since being installed they still dont know if this is the route needed to take to totally prevent it.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/24/AR2009102401896.html?hpid=newswell

Virginia Governor Race

The two Virginia delegates running are Creigh Deeds and Bob McDonnell. Deeds is the democrat and McDonnell is the republican. The voting for the candidates in on November 3rd. Creigh Deeds supports things like clean water, improving the quality and runoff, and reducing the runoff. On the environment he wants to reserve more woodland space. He is the pro-chioce candidate that supports Virginians having availabiltiy to quality affordable health care. As far as education goes he wants to up teacher salaries and make college more affordable. He supports using renewable resources more often and I think that is a positive thing about his campaign. After comparing the two candidates I have been talking about Deeds views on the campaign becuase if i could vote I would vote for him. I like his environmental views the most and of course his pro-choice view. The things I didnt like about Mcdonnell and his views were the pro-life view of women not having the right to choose what decisions she makes about her body. I really diskliked that he opposed legislation to to control toxic waste production and against closing landfills that pollute groundwater. I also didnt like that he didnt want to raise teacher's salaries.

political issue in va now

I think the biggest political issue in Virginia right now is the banning of smoking in certain places. There is a law passed banning smoking ciggarettes in public places likie restaurants beginning to be in effective. This is officially in place December 1, 2009. I think this is a big political issue in Virginia right now because it truly shows the people that times are changing and the government cares about our health. This is becoming a law very shortly in main to protect the restaurant workers and patrons from second hand smoke.I think this is a very good thing. I think this because im sure second hand smoke has affected someone's health in a very negative way and that isnt far to them. I think that restaurants should in turn have a room like in the airport or soemthing for the patrons that do choose to take part in the behavior of smoking. But then again its bad for you anyways and I like fresh air:)

Doctor says near death experiences are in the mind

For my current event I read about a special-needs bus driver who had a near death experience and what she saw. Laura Geraghty was out for 57 mintues and shocked 21 times before she came back to. The doctors said that to see things of people in your life that arent here anymore or the typical "bright light" is very common for people going into cardiac arrest like Laura. During her near death experience while she was out she reports seeing those who have passed years before in her family. Humans have a "fight or flight" reaction to things like near death experiences. This article discussed the "bright light" and how it could just be the REM you see in dreams. Geraghty is struggling everyday from her near death experience that has changed her life. She believes very strongly that she was in another world beyond us while she was gone and the article has the doctors who worked on her while she was out quoted. He feels the same way.
I have to say if i had a never death experience and fought it I would probably firmly believe I went away and came back if I were to see loved ones who have passed.

Obama's grade report

So far I would grade Obama on the major issues of his presidency with and A for effort. I think Obama's intentions and goals are positive for the United States as a whole. I did have to research about Obama's presidential actions to write this, but from what I read I thought it sounded like he was on the right track. It looked to me like the Republicans are just quick to criticize and that everyone just wants the change Obama promised to happen immediately. Regarding the ecomonic downturn I think Obama's plan to help the unemployed with health care needs to be discussed a bit more but that it sounds liek a well thought out plan that could possibly work. I have to admit I couldnt think of a better plan and I would give Obama an A because if you focus on the efforts he is making and not the criticism you can see he is doing very well.

"Still laws to change, hearts to open."

This week I read about Obama and his take on gay rights and activists. The night before a huge gay rights rally in Washinghton Obama gave a sppech that some say was historic. In the speech Obama openly supported gay rights and gay marriage. Discussing the "dont ask dont tell" policy withoin the military and the fact that gay couples should have the same rights and responsibilites.

The gays feel like the government is not moving fast enough in this effort but Obama encouraged them that everything is being done, there is just alot to do, and to keep pursuing the policies that they support. Obama gave his word that he was urging Congress to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and to pass the Domestic Partners Benefit and Obligations Act. Obama will pass this into a law and is set to pass.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/10/10/obama.gay.rights/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

Current event 2

For my current event I read about what president Obama is doing about the Afghanistan delema, dubbed the "Biden plan".It talks about how Obama said that invasion of Iraq was just a diverson from America's war on terror and said he was going to get out. It turns out that Obama sent more troops and but Joe Biden, his top advisor, suggested that he withdraw the troops.It states that the advisors opinion on the issue was mostly spilt.

Overall the public opinion is leaning against it but not by a huge majority.I dont think Obama should start anything with foreign countries while trying to make a huge change in your counrty at the same time. I think it would be too much to try in accomplish in the time he has as a President. I just rather see Obama make changes here in our country politically and economically before we get into anything in another country.

Political Issue I am Interested in

The political issue I am currently interested is teen pregnancy and abortion. I am interested in this issue because I am doing my social conscieness project in english class on the issue. Some things brought up that relate to politics involving teen pregnancy in particular is sex education. This deals with politics because in some schools they are rejecting the state money for teaching and abstinence only programs in favor for a sex education program that is more realistic to and reflecting of the youth today. The abortion issue is obviously in politics because there is huge debate politically on whether having an abortion should be legal or not. Pro-choice and pro-life sides politcally can range. For instance a generalization could be made that if a catholic were republican they would be against abortion and birthcontrol. I think this is a social issue because there are laws involving both of my issues.

I am further interested in abortion and teen pregnancy/prevention because I am pro-choice and dont think it is right to be able to tell a women what she can or cant do with her body. I think this because although abortion may not be seem like the right thing there are extenuating circumstances that it might be and it shouldnt be up for debate whether the government can debate on that or not. I am interested in teen pregnancy/prevention because through my research paper it has come up and deals with abortion and sex education in general. So I have been getting more educated recently in all the areas surrounding this and the government seems to be involved in all aspects.

For my current event I found an article "Bill Clinton:'Vast right-wing conspiracy'as 'virulent' as ever". Throughout the article Bill Clinton is quoted about different subjects, including President Obama. It discusses the risk of republicans taking control of the House of Representatives and the Senate in the coming 2010 midterm,similiar to in Clinton's term. Bill Clinton gives his view that the problem of universal health care needs to discussed and a solution found.

This article gave me a look at a few things President Obama pushes for. I also learned something that didn't work out in the past for our government, the Republicans having total control. Something i didnt like about the article would be that it did a little too much quoting and not enough actual information about discussing the similarties of Obama and Clinton as presidents. I think the title was a lead on but really the article was just quotes on what Clinton thinks about Obama.



http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/09/27/clinton.conspiracy/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

What political party are you most closely aligned with?

I think I would be most closely aligned with the green party. Although I don't know much about political parties and what really goes into them. I think I identify myself with the green party because it isn't one of the two main politcal parties and it cares about the environment. I didn't do extense reseach into the party but some key things I related to caring about in any way were the views on non-violence, respect for diversity, and the call for global awareness. The green party views that the people should be directly involved in the decision-making process of law. I think that citizens should be able to be directly involved in the government.