Government 1st...woopWOOP

The State of the Union

2006-02-08T22:19:00.000-05:00

After the reading the article from Cal Thomas written in the Tribune Media Services on Feb. 2nd, it just goes to show you how writers have thier own opinions. At some points that Cal stated I agree with, while others i disagree with. I agree with what he said about if Congress was to "put aside partisn politics" to solve our problems then partisan politics in DC will disapear. Sometimes Bush pushes plans to become in affected, but he doesnt completely think about what will happen if the plan was to be completed. I also agree with him when he said that the oil that the US gets fromt he Persian gulf is less than 1/5 of all oil imports, and in that its not truly an addiction because we are not getting all of our oil, or atleast a majoirty from the Gulf. It seems that for many decades and counting, we have heard about having alternative energy sources, but how many tools have really been pushed as sources?? The only part that I disagree with Mr. Thomas is how the 100,000 new teachers shouldnt be being placed in schools. I feel as if these teachers were to be introduced to students then the students would be more usefull in the math and science once the graduate and get into their careers. Then maybe we will be able to all have a hydrogen car.

Gay Marriage, whats right?

2006-01-29T11:16:00.000-05:00

230 years is how long the state's Bill of Rights has been in affect, stating that even though it is not right for gay couples to get married it is not offically illegal. The Bill of Rights is about to become amended, the state senate voted 28 to 11 to ban gay marriage in the commonwealth. This law now has to go into the state house and becomed passed to legalize a ban on gay marriage. Personally, I feel that what the senate and house is doing, is wrong and limits the most important right for gays in Virgnia. The way that I see it is, in the documents that were the foundation of the country states that citizens are free and have the right to do what they want. If Virginia does not allow gay marraiges then the gay couples cannot persue happieness. Also not recognizing gays married in other states and civil unions is not what America was based upon. We were based upon, EQUAL RIGHTS FOR EVERYONE. A new poll has stated that America is not completly free, we cant do certain acts, or what not. I believe that the members of the state's senate and house should worry about more important things that are going on in the state, such as education, and not bother the gays. In the recent episode of TRUE LIFE on MTV, I have gay parents, a student that attends James River High School in Richmond was one of the three teenagers who were featured on the episode. Aidan is a rising senior that is in band and wants to become the Drum Major. The band director has worries that if she was to get the position that some students would quit band because they don't agree on her parents relationship. At the end of the episode, 4 months had gone by since Aidan was picked to be the new Drum Major and not a single student dropped band. Aidan showed that her family issues are not that big of an issue to high schoolers, most students feel that gays should be allowed to do whatever straight people can do. Also if Virginia was to ban gay marriage and civil unions then the amount of children who are adopted will go down. Since gays can not have children without the help of science, then they usually decide to adopt. This is an issue that all the states in America need to look at before banning gay marriages.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/25/AR2006012501329.html

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1521644/20060126/index.jhtml?headlines=true

MINERS, HOW MANY MORE CASUALTIES??

2006-01-19T10:15:00.000-05:00

41 hours with Carbon Monoxide filling into your lungs, one of your lungs collapsing and dehydration, you would think that you would be dead. But for Randal McCloy his life was changed for ever when resucers found him in the West Virginia Coal mine that collasped on January 2nd. The 26 year old is currently in a light coma after being in a severe coma for the past 2 weeks. The mine killed 12 others when it collasped. I feel that McCloy is living on miracles after miracle, day after day. For a person who was stuck in a mine with limited oxygen, it is a miracle for him to be alive. I believe that all mines, certainly those mines in West Virginia, should take precautions to prevent these accidents from happening. They could have the miners wear oxygen tanks on their back that would help them stay alive incase they stuck in the ground 1 mile under the surface. Just a few days ago, 2 miners in West Virginia were caught in a fire under the earth, and their bodys were found just yesterday. If miners continue to die in accidents then the amount of people who want the jobs will go down, and everything will go down. The companys have to make sure that thier workers are safe and are not in harms way.

These links below are articles that describe McCloy's recovery and the 2 miners killed just a few days ago.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/01/18/miner/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/01/19/mine.fire.ap/index.html

Immigration and its new policy

2005-11-30T20:18:00.000-05:00

I read Bush's full speech on his proposal for the New Temporary Worker Program, which is in corillation to the immigration policies that are being brought up. I feel that Bush is doing this for two reasons, the first is so that his approval rating will go up, and the second reason to actually help out America. In the past couples of weeks his approval rating has dropped to a record low and this is why I think that he came out with this policy at this current time. In his speech he states 4 main reasons why he introducted this program in limited the amount of immigrants in the United States and they are, 1) to control borders, 2) that this law should serve the econimic needs of country, 3) for those immigrants who are here illegally should not get benifits like those immigrants who are here in the US legally, and 4) to provide incentives for those workers who come here to fill in the work postions that Americans wont take. I agree with the idea of Bush's plan, but I don't agree with his internal ideas. He is going still allow immigrants to come into the United States, but will only allow them to stay in if they take jobs that Americans wont take. Thats what I don't understand, why are you still going to allow immigrants to enter the United States and take jobs away from Americans?

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/01/20040107-3.html

Detainees

2005-11-17T08:46:00.000-05:00

When we look at the media coverage from the International Terroist suspect prisons, we see "safety" pictures, pictures that the Bush administration want the US citizens to see. Ever now and then we get pictures from the camps/prisions where we see US soliders torturing the detainees. Why is this though? Who knows. I believe that US soliders do this because they think that that the pictures will never come out and that since they are in distress then they can make others in distress. But this is unacceptable, the detainees are already being forced in the prisons and are seperated from thier country. Bush states "We do not torture", but how many times have US soliders been charged with torture, such as Linda England. Here are a couple of other websites that discuss torture of detainees.

http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041027191906.zkezbsp8.html
http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/torture.htm

The race was close....or was it?

2005-11-13T13:04:00.000-05:00

While I was waiting for the 11 o'clock news to come on Tuesday night, I had a strong feeling that Kaine was going to win. I kept checking the poll results online every 5 minutes just to make sure he was still in the lead. When 87% of the results were in, they knew that Kaine was the victor. I asked my family who they all voted for and they said Kaine, I then responded to their remarks by saying, Great Choice. They knew and I knew that Kaine would be the best choice for Virginia.

The media says that one of the reasons that Kilgore didn't win was because his radio and media adds were too negative, dissing Kaine, and didn't show enough postive adds. In the debate early October, Kaine promised that less then 50% of his adds were going to be negative until the election, Kilgore never made the promise, and that cost him the election. I'm happy that Kaine won, he is going to move Virginia forward in the right direction, not take the state back 4 steps, like Kilgore would do.

VIRGINIA BE HAPPY THAT KAINE WON.

CIA leak

2005-10-31T20:16:00.000-05:00

Personally I think that this should have never happened in the first place. It all started because Libby didn't like how Valerie Plume went to Africa with her husband, Joseph Wilson. Wilson said that it was "highly doubtful" that the searches in Niger for unranium had any meaning. Then Robert Novak states that Wilson's wife is a CIA agent. Once he did that he stepped himself into a whole new issue. Since Novak said that Plume was a CIA agent, he could have faced up to 10 years in prison, but he never released his source, and his source was "Scooter" Libby. Judith Miller then gets involed and won't release her source, so then she is jailed for some period of time. Rove then gets and involved, and all these other important personal, but all that is happening is making things worse. I believe that it all started over how Plume and J.Wilson were saying "democratic" things against Bush and his administration. Who knows what will happen next, only time will tell.

AWESOME CARTOON!!!!!

Harriet Miers who?

2005-10-19T20:42:00.000-04:00

After reading these three articles from Time, Newsweek and U.S News and World Report it is apparent that most Americans are highly upset at Bush for nominated Harriet Miers to the U.S. Supreme Court. Some conservative republicans have even taken it to the point of saying that they felt betrayed. Due to Harriet being Bush's long time lawyer, many americans believed that that was why Bush picked her to replace Sandra Day O'Conner.

On a personal level, I believe that Harriet Miers should have been more out there with her job career. Even though she has more then enough credentials, she is highly unknown to the American public. She played tennis throughout high school and college, but really how can the help you when you might be a Supreme Court Justices? Personally, I dont think that she is a good candidate for the job. Bush only picked her because he's known her for 10 years, there are so many more lawyers out there in the country who do so much better then Harriet.

DEATH PENALTY

2005-10-17T00:08:00.000-04:00

This article discuss' the death penalty and the candidates thoughts on the issue. Through out the whole article, when ever Kilgore talks about the death penalty, all he talks about is Kaine. Maybe that all he knows on what to say when this topic is brought into dicussions. Also Kilgore mentions that Kaine's opinion on the death pentalty is a personal issue. Which it is for Kaine, for one reason and one reason only, his religion. Being that he is Catholic, he believes that it is wrong (a sin) to murder someone.

After reading this article, I'm a little confused on Kaine's stand on this topic, only because he says that he doesn't support it, but then he was also involved Mark Sheppard case and how he wanted him to be killed. I might sound a little flip-flopish on my opinions, and that is only because I'm confused on the candidates true and honest thoughts on this topic.

http://www.augustafreepress.com/stories/storyReader$37418

Gubernatorial Debate, a strong step for who???

2005-10-10T23:22:00.000-04:00

Last night when I was watching the debate between democratic candidate Tim Kaine and republican candidate Jerry Kilgore. I noticed that Kaine was very composed and was not nervous in his words when he sopke. On the other hand Kilgore was very nervous, he would stumble on what he was trying to say and he would use hand jestures at inappropriate times. After he would stumble, what he was trying to say would not come out the way he wanted to.

I also noticed that Kaine has and will also relie on what he and the current govenor, Mark Warner, did while being the attorney general. I think that if he gets elected govenor he wont know what to do with Virginia. During the debate Kaine would sometimes actually answer the question while other times he wouldn't, by just attcking Kilgore. Many of Kilgore's answers, weren't really answers, well they were answers to other questions, none of which were asked, but to his own questions. Most of all the topics that were disscused, both of the candiates dissagreed on everything the other one said.

Kaine had two catch prashes of the night, the first one was, "...best amanged state" and the second one was "i'm not going to apologize for my religion." Kilgore did not have a catch phrase that he would continue to use.

Through the many articles that I have read from last nights debate, most of them have said that last night was a sure win for Kilgore, but I believe differently. I believe that last night wasn't a sure win for any one of those two candidates. Personally I'm leaning more toward Kaine, and the only reason is that at the end of the debate, Tim Kaine made the promise to make sure that at least 51% of his campaign adds for the last month will be postive adds. On the other hand, Kilgore never made the promise, which probably set a sour taste in voters mouths. I know it did to me.

Who knows what will happen in the final month of campaigns.

~~~Sites viewed~~~
http://timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1128767444571

http://vaconservative.com/archives/2005/10/09/debate-post-morten

Katrina's Silver Lining

2005-09-14T21:55:00.000-04:00

"BUT AFTER THE TRAGEDY COMES THE OPPORTUNITY."

In this article David Brooks, recommends that we, as Americans, take this prime opporunity to change the living styles of the residents from New Orleans. He says, " It has created as close to a blank slate as we get in human affairs, and given us a chance to rebuild a city that wasn't working...but it would be a double tragedy if we didn't take the advantage of these unique circumstances to do something that could serve as a spur to antipoverty programs nationwide." I agree with this statement because if we were to just rebuild the city and allow the same living conditions perspire, then it would be worse then not doing anything at all.

Brooks states that there are two important rules for rebuilding New Orleans. The first rule, Nothing Like Before, says that in these cities, it is/was normal to drop out of school, become a teenage mother, commit crimes and go to jail. This is true because they the citizens thought that in all communties it was normal to do those types of acts. The second rule, Culturally Integrate, states that in order to make these culture changes we must allow the underprivilaged personals from these poor cities to move into a middle-class neighborhood, where not commiting crimes and going to college is normal. David writes, "...that means we ought to give people who don't want to move back to New Orleans the means to disperse into middle-class areas nationwide."

After reading this article, I believe that these "rules" are the only logical and ethical way to stop poverty from contiuning down in that area. Who would have thought that this hurricane would allow us change so many lives??

Mayor criticize FEMA response

2005-09-11T16:58:00.000-04:00

I believe that once FEMA knew about Katrina, in the very begining stages of storm, they should have gotten all of the thier supplies and workers together and start the evacuation of New Orleans, Lousiana, and Mississippi much sooner then when they started. In this article Pascagoula's mayor Matthew Avara states " Clearly the FEMA response has been slow, ...They wear their badges and they look good. But unfortunatley, we just not have seen all the assests and all the resources that we need in our city." After reading that, I am ashamed to know that the money that we give the government, from taxes, is not going to what the agency should be doing with it. FEMA is suppose to be helping after an emergency, but now it feels that what they are doing, being that the help is too little, too late, is hindering the recovering process. The refugees living down there need help as soon as possible and FEMA is just not living up to what it said it was going to be doing.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/07/news.update/index.html

relief coming from all over the world

2005-09-06T21:02:00.000-04:00

thought that this was interesting since we discussed this in class today

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/06/international.aid/index.html/

test

2005-08-30T10:12:00.000-04:00

test

taking more vacation then americans

2005-08-30T09:44:00.000-04:00

While reading this article, I come to realized that W has been on vacation in these past five years more then I've been in my whole lifetime. I believe that he should be more worried about the war and the American people, then when was the last time Supreme Court nominee exercised. I agree with everything that Maureen Dowd wrote about the abuse that the current president has used toward taking time off from being the Commander and Chief of the American people. Being that Bush has finally spoke about the politcal reason for invading Iraq. W said the reason for invading Iraq was to "create a democracy with freedom of religion and minority rights", which I believe that this reason is a bunch of b.s., the only reason that I believe that we invaded Iraq was to allow people around the world to think that Bush is actually a good president to run the U.S.A. I would like to end this comment with a question, why is Bush the only president who's dad would always get him out of trouble? comment back if you either agree or disagree....I would love to hear your opinion about both this article and our president.

Virginian burns controversal flag

2005-08-25T21:54:00.000-04:00

Thought that this was very interesting especially after we talked about how in the Constitution the American people have the freedom to burn the American flag...I know that this is my second posting but what the hay, see ya'll on Monday

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/08/25/flag.burned.ap/index.html

Test

2005-08-25T12:53:00.000-04:00

what is up my fellow CHS'ers??? this is the jolly green giant...yeah...thanks for visiting...hollla at cha girl

Five milants shot in raid in Israel

2005-08-25T10:33:00.000-04:00

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/08/24/mideast/index.html