President and New President meeting

Bush and Obama meeting

"The president enjoyed his visit with the president-elect, and he again pledged a smooth transition to the next administration." I think it is good that the president don’t have any harsh feelings when it comes to the election, even if they did have hard feelings they wouldn’t be able to voice them because of the media uproar that would occur.

“A day earlier, a leader of Obama's transition team said the president and president-elect were expected to discuss "a broad range of issues," focusing on the economy. Did previous presidents and presidents to be get together and discuss issues in their era? Also, since Michelle Obama and Laura Bush were there if they contributed to the converstaion.

Poll of citizens

Concerned Citizens

In this article it says that “A new national poll suggests that only a quarter of Americans think things are going well in the country today, while the rest of those questioned are angry, scared and stressed out.” and it also mentioned that "Prior to 2008, we have seen that level of dissatisfaction only three times in the past four decades -- during Watergate, the Iranian hostage crisis and the recession of 1992." I would not doubt these polls, because to me it makes sense that so many American’s are nervous or scared or whatever, they have a reason to be. We are on our way, or some people may say we are already in an economic recession. The survey also suggests that most Americans are not happy with President Bush. Seventy-two percent of those questioned disapprove of the president's handling of his job.”  Americans want a leader to emerge from the next election that will lead us out of this crisis with the least impact on the people, and wether that will take new ideas and major change on capital hill, I am not sure. The economy has become a large issue that people consider when thinking about who to vote for. Different policies could mean getting our economy back on it’s feet again or going into a depression. For these reasons I think this election is very important.

Attacked

Ax attack

A man in Morgan county was sent the the ER with head wounds from an ax. Honestly, this sounds like something from a horror movie. I have never of an actual ax murder. I think it was either an accident, or somebody was really mad at him. It is really weird if you ask me, and I cant even imagine what the police officers thought when they found the man. This incident if you to call it that, reminds me of like gang shootings and stuff where innocent people become victims in the situations and it makes you feel so sad and bad for the families of the victims because of how you feel they didn’t deserve what happened to them, just like the ax victim, who deserves to get almost killed with an ax? I hope that the perpetrator Jose Barron loses the court battle and is sent to jail for a long time. I am wondering if this crime is gang related, even though it does not seem like something a gang would do. I also wonder whether Jose is mentally insane, or what his problem is because that was a dumb idea. I think that this is a rare occurrence and I feel really bad for the victim.

The future of America

America’s future

This article is written by Glen Beck, and one of the main points he makes is that that George Washington said that political parties put their own revenge and interests before America’s interests and that will lead to the destruction of the United States. I partly agree with this because I understand that sometimes the competition between the parties gets to be a little much, but if not for different parties people with the same ideas and policies would rule capitol hill, and different and new innovative ideas to fix problems would never be thought of. He also says that is not smart to hand over tons of money to greedy politicians. I totally agree with this because I think it is not smart to offer politicians so much money, because they could be doing the job for the money, just as much as they are doing the job to serve the country. And greedy politicians are more likely to get paid off.

paid to move

Jewish Families paid to move

In this article it talks about how in a city in Alabama there are only 100 Jewish families that worship at the local temple. The leaders of the temple wanted more people to move to Dothan to make the Jewish community larger. I have never heard of this before, but when i think about it I think it is kind of weird that somebody is paying families of a certain religion to come live in a certain place. It would seem like a financial success though because of how much money they will give you, but sometimes not everyone is excited to be uprooted from their normal lives and move. Another thing is that it is about religion, I know they might not have much diversity in that area but by getting other people just like them to live with them, that is not making the city more diverse, it is just adding more people of one religion. I believe that the temple wants more members to join because of the financial advantages, and also because they want to bring people of the Jewish religion together. But an underlying reason that I don’t think has been mentioned is that with so many people that are different from them in their city, they are kind of scared and intimidated and want more people like them so that they feel more accepted and maybe there is prejudice around and against them and they want to escape it. I don’t know if that is true but it makes sense to me.

Secretary of education delivers keynote address

Reform and Hispanic education

I just read this article, and I think there are a lot of stereotypes about different races, and what they achieve academically, but situations like this destroy those stereotypes and raise the standards. My eighth grade Spanish teacher showed us a movie, and in the movie a new teacher came to a school that consisted mostly of Hispanics. Most of the kids at this high school did not graduate, and did not go on to college. But this teacher got them to pass Ap calculus, because he believed in them when no one else would, and helped them succeed. This of course was a true story, and I think it does not take a lot to help a student take their academics to the next level, they just need to be backed up and supported by someone, and they have to have a goal to work towards. This article made me think about how much the twenty first century is changing and how much more kids succeed in high school.

Financial Crisis

Financial Crisis

I just read this article, and I thinks its good that they are addressing this issue, since its an important issue and it could change who people vote for. "Eight years of policies that have shredded consumer protections, loosened oversight and regulation, and encouraged outsized bonuses to CEOs while ignoring middle-class Americans have brought us to the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression," says Barack Obama. I don’t know if it the most serious financial crisis since the great depression, because from here it could go either way, I mean we could get the economy back up to its full potential or we could just go downhill from here. I think it largely depends on what policies and taxes and such, that the new president will have.