Political Cartoon Blog #2

Here we have Barrack Obama inspecting some "vintage WHINES"..as in complaints, which I found funny because all i hear on the news concerning Obama is how he is appointing people to his cabinet who have a lot of political experience, such as the "Clinton People", which isnt change, its a revival of old times, which must be extremely annoying for him. Leave him alone! im sure the guy knows what hes doin...i hope.

Political Cartoon Blog #1

Well...I cant figure out how to put the cartoon on this damn thing so until I do figure it out...theres gonna be no picture. So just imagine Barrack Obama sitting at a dinner table eagerly awaiting his Thanksgiving Dinner, while George Bush brings out a burnt old nasty looking turkey entitled "the Do It Yourself Thanksgiving Cartoon. Underneat, a caption reads: "Its easy! choose a label...cut it out...stick it on President Bush's burnt turkey". The captions say things like "Iraq", "auto industry", "the stock market"...all very popular issues in America today. So pretty much, the burnt turkey represents America. Bush is handing over America and all of its problems to Barrack Obama to fix up.

Community Service Blog #2

The second day I volunteered, I did it for 7 hours STRAIGHT! it was the worst 7 hours of my life. The whole time I sat at the phone and called people. And they yelled at me. But i was able to get through it by the friendly conversations I had with the other people volunteering. A lot of them were REALLY nice...a little too nice almost. Like evangelical Christians or something; thats what they reminded me of haha. But yea they were really cool and made the whole thing a lot less boring and it was cool meeting all of the other volunteers.

Community Service Blog #1

So I volunteered at the McCain place last month (before I became an Obama fan) and it was quite an experience. The first day I volunteered, I spent three hours straight on the phone making phone calls asking people to vote for McCain, and I have to say more than 60 percent of the time, the person didnt answer the phone. But when they did, 90 percent of the time, I would get hung up on or cursed at, especially after I said "Hi my name is Tim and im calling to ask you to support John MCcain!!!" it suckeddd. I also spent an hour putting together the McCain signs that you see on the median while you drive down the street. I do have to say, the people I worked with were very nice, and there was lots of food there...haha. So I guess that was a positive aspect of the experience.

Election Post #6

Well, I think Obamas got this one in the bag. Especially with what the polls are saying...Some of the polls put him like 14 points ahead of McCain. I think the only way McCain could win is if he wins every swing state, like Ohio and Florida and Virginia, and i doubt he can win them all. Obama has such a big lead because he controls the states with the highest populations and highest electoral votes like New York and California. Mark Warner is going to win the senate seat, just because he has an enormous lead in the polls...like a 61 percent lead. This election is a huge victory for dems wahoooo!

Current Event Week#5

My current even is about the highly anticipated vice presidential debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden. What makes this debate so interesting is that nobody knows what to expect when these two candidates buck heads. Despite previous mishaps with the media, the most famous being on an interview with Katie Courrick, in which Palin couldn’t state specifics of John McCain’s economic plan, McCain has confidence in her knowledge and experience. Yet, the democratic vice president nominee plans on focusing on boosting Obama and bashing McCain, instead of focusing on Sarah Palin. I think Palin really needs to be prepared to defend her running mate. According to a reliable source, a.k.a my dad, in a newspaper article today, the democrats stated that they actually FEAR for Biden. Officials of the Obama campaign pulled out some old debate tapes from Sarah Palin’s file and found that she is actually an amazing debater. Im excited for the debate…it will definitely go down in history.

Election Post Week # 5

There are a quite a few pivotal swing states which will determine this election. Two of them being Virginia and Florida. The polls put Barrack Obama ahead of McCain in Virginia from as few as 5 points to as many as 14 points. Traditionally Virginia has gone Republican, but Obama has made strides in the densely populated region of Nothern Virginia, where the population base is more liberal. But in the past, the more rural areas of Virginia have come through for the Republican party however it looks as though that will not be the case this year. Florida is another state which is hotly contested, very similarly to the 2000 election, where Bush won the state. Florida is a contested state because in a race this tight, every electoral vote counts. Obama has been fighting hard for Florida and other states, making McCain fight very hard for states which have traditionally gone Republican in the past.

Current Event Week #4

Barack Obama and John McCain are in an all out war over Virginia’s 13 electoral votes. Traditionally, Virginia has voted republican, however this election is bringing about several surprises, one being Virginia’s status as a crucial Swing State. The state’s population has voted 46% for John McCain and 49 % for Barack Obama. McCain and Obama have strengths in different plans for running the country. McCain has an advantage over Obama in issues dealing with the War on Terror. Luckily for McCain, Virginia is supposedly home to approximately 800,000 war veterans and more than a dozen military bases. Typically, foreign affairs play a key role in winning Virginia, and this could work in McCain’s favor for obvious reasons. Likewise, Obama has a 10 point advantage over McCain in fixing up our economy. McCain and Obama need to try and sway the 19 percent of Virginia voters who aren’t secure with their position on who they would vote for. However, I believe Obama may have the advantage in this, as in the article it says that most Americans think that the economy is the biggest issue that needs to be handled before everything else. McCain needs to get his act together and come up with a secure plan on how to deal with the problems of the economy in order to win this state. If he fails to convince voters that he has a plan that will definitely work to fix the economy, Barack Obama will win Virginia for sure. However, if Barack Obama wins Virginia, he would be the first Democrat to win the state since 1964. I think the odds are in favor of McCain for winning the state as long as he squares away a good economic

Current Event Week #3

This article is about the two presidential campaigns advertisement battle against each other. This is only natural, because it is the final month of campaigning…and its usually the most intense. John McCain bashed Barack Obama over his past association with a 1960s radical leader, and Obama struck back by highlighting McCain’s connection to a corruption scandal surrounding the 1989 failure of a savings loan. Because of this recent wave off attacks by the McCain campaign, Obama claims that their campaign is getting desperate, and their tactics have fallen to a level of “character assassination.” Obama also took the heat from Sarah Palin, who also attacked him about his association with William Ayers, who she said was a domestic terrorist who targeted his own country. Ayers was the founder of Weather Underground, a radical Marxist militant group which targeted the pentagon, U.S Capitol and claimed responsibility for other bombings. Obama claims that Ayers is “a guy who lives in my neighborhood, whos a professor of English in Chicago who I know, but not a close associate or someone I regularly exchange ideas with.” Obama described Ayers’s actions in the 60’s as “detestable”.
I believe this banter between the two candidates is ridiculous. They should stop focusing on each other’s past affiliations, and focus on what is happening right now. The candidates really need to get back to the real issues which affect us the most, not some failed loan in the 80’s or a run in with a former domestic terrorist. Although the terrorist thing is kinda creepy…Obama should definitely not be chilling with that dude.

Current Event Week#2

In Cleveland Ohio this morning, Senator John McCain delivered a surprisingly forceful restatement of his economic proposals and hammered Barack Obama as a “tax-raising” liberal. McCain condemned the economic stimulus package proposed by what he calls the “dangerous threesome”- including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Senate Leader Harry Reid, and Barack Obama. Supposedly, the “dangerous threesome” plans to spend 300 billion dollars on top of the one trillion dollar of rescue financing. McCain calls this addition of 300 billion a “spending spree”, and that’s pretty much what it is. How is one trillion dollars not enough already? That 300 billion could be used in better ways, like tax cuts for the middle class. And that is exactly what John McCain believes. I love this quote from McCain…”I know it is pleasant to listen to Senator Obama’s rhetoric, but look at the record. This is a fundamental difference between Senator Obama and me. We both disagree with President Bush on economic policy. The difference is that he thinks taxes have been to low and I think that spending has been too high.” I’ve noticed that Obama’s rhetoric does kind of suck me in…he is fun to listen to, but that could be a mask for something he is trying to hide. DUN DUN DUNNNN. It seems as if Senator Obama’s approach is to radically increase spending and then raise taxes to pay for them. Which sucks!

Current Event week #1

My current event is about Colin Powell’s recent announcement stating he is backing up the democratic candidate, Barrack Obama. He is the most prominent Republican to endorse Barrack Obama, crossing party lines to declare Obama a “transformational” figure. At first Powell supported McCain and considered him a friend, but McCain’s “unsure” response to the ongoing economic crisis and his selection of a running mate who is not ready to be president of the United States. Powell, along with millions of other Americans, are amazed by Obama’s ability to inspire, the inclusive nature of his campaign, his reaching out all across America, who he is and his rhetorical abilities, his style and his substance, which is why they want him to become president. Obama says he is “beyond honored and deeply humbled to have the support of a great soldier, a great statesman, and a great American.” McCain responded by saying he was pleased to have the endorsement of four other former Republican secretaries of state, and said he had a “respectful disagreement” with Powell over his assertion that Obama is ready to lead the country. Powell’s support for Obama comes as no surprise to many people. It is not that he is black and so is Obama, it’s that Obama is the better candidate.

Election Blog Week 4

According to the Gallup traditional poll and Gallup expanded poll, both polls show Barrack Obama has a significant lead over John McCain. the Traditional model estimates Obama with a 50%to 45% advantage and the expanded model has Obama leading by 52% to 43%. Click on this link it has cool charts and it talks about the data and analyzes it...http://www.gallup.com/poll/111445/Gallup-Daily-Obama-Continues-Lead-McCain.aspx
Currently, Obama has a 9 point lead over McCain, which is the best of his campaign (51% to 42%). When Obama and Hilary were competing for the democratic nomination, McCain and Obama were tied in the polls. Polling can have an impact on campaigns, for instance if a campaign is behind in the polls, they may take greater measures to make themselves look better, for instance the "character assasination" that has been going on between McCain and Obama...well mostly McCain. All of McCain's ads have something to do with something that Barack Obama said or did wrong...which is dumb! McCains gotta promote himself better. The negativity of his campaign is going to turn voters off. Hes gettin desperate. As far as the Virginia Senate race is concerned, it seems like Former governor Mark Warner has this one in the bag. All of those polls put him ahead of Gilmore at least by 15 points. Currently, Warner has a 58% lead over Gilmore's 33%. If you wanna look at polling data go to this website..its pretty cool.. cough cough cough. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/senate/va/virginia_senate-537.html

Election Blog Week 3

The 2008 Virginia senate election will be an open contest this year since the uncumbent, John Warner, chose not to seek re-election. The major party candidates are Democrat Mark Warner and Republican Jim Gilmore. Both are former governors of Virginia. Warner ran for the Democratic ticket unopposed, while Jim Gilmore competed for the Republican ticket against 11th district Congressman Tom Davis. Mark Warner had challenged John Warner in 1996 for his seat in the Senate, but was narrowly defeated. Mark later won election in 2001 as teh State's governor and left office with a good reputation and high popularity. On October 13, the Republican statepart's central committee voted47-37 to hold a statewide convention rather than a primary. Claiming it would save the candidates money, Jim Gilmore argued strongly for a convention. Also, a convention was thought to favor Gilmore because most of the delegates came from the party's activist base, which is far to the right. With this decision, Gilmore seriously considered entering the race. When Davis officially dropped out on October 25 2007, Gilmore confirmed his candidacy on November 19 2007.

Election blog week 2

I believe the two most important issues the candidates face are the failing economy, and the energy crisis. Our next president needs to change our energy culture by shaking our oil addiction. I believe that using nuclear energy, along with the newest technology such as low waste reactors, must become a national priority. Oil is like our achillies heel pretty much. Also, obviously, the economy must be fixed, or we could be in the midst of another Great Depression. Which would suck...
I believe both candidates performed well. Obama was charismatic and well spoken like always, and McCain was strong with his points as well. Both candidates agree that there needs to be something done with the economy, but something gave me a fuzzy feeling inside when Obama was talking about what he would do to help the economy. But I still like McCain.

Election blog week 1

My ideology is as follows. I am a republican and i definitely support John McCain. One main reason i support McCain and not Obama is that I fear Obama will limit our personal rights, including our second amendment rights. Although I dont necessarily care for guns, If he can limit our second amendment rights, what would stop him from limiting other rights? Also, I feel more comfortable with John McCain as the commander and chief of our armed forces because he has experience with these issues. He has directly been involved with foreigh entaglements, and I feel he would do a much better job than Obama, who has literally no experience, with the war in Iraq and other foreign issues. As far as same sex marriage is concerned, I honestly think that we should let gay people do what they want, but then again it doesnt affect me at all so this issue wont determine which candidate i choose. McCain says he will allow legal agreements for insurance and other purposes for gays, but he believes that marriage is uniquely between a man and a woman. Hes giving gay people legal rights now which is good...like i said it doesnt matter for me... As far as the economy is concerned, both candidates want to lower the taxes. John McCain will lower the income tax rate from 35% to 25% and extend the income-tax cuts that Bush put in place. McCain will eliminate the tax break workers who recieve job based health insurance currently enjoy and replace it with a flat refundable tax credit of 2,500 for individuals or 5,000 dollars for families with which to purchase their own insurance. I think McCains approach makes sense because it rewards people who have worked their way to accumulate some wealth. They are who is stimulating the economy. Iran should most definitely not be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons. Our good friends, the Isralies, are a great risk of attack if Iran was to have nukes. But there is much more to this because China and Russia have to either choose sides with us, or choose sides with Iran. McCain agrees with the Bush administrations decision to press for sanctions against Iran before the UN security counsel, and I agree also. This dangerous country shouldnt be allowed to have nukes or the free world would be endangered. On energy issues, McCain thinks we need to be independent from foreign oil and energy. The U.S must revive its nuclear power industry in order to free itself from its dependence on countries run by "mullahs" (Iran) and "wackos" ( Venezuela).