May 25 - Thank You For Reading

As this is my last entry to my blog, I would like to sum up what I have learned through this process. I have noticed that by maintaining a blog, I have learned much more about the current events of the past few months. I feel that this has been a healthy experience for me since normally I don't read the news very often. This process has taught me much about the presidential candidates as well as the happenings within our society. I wish to continue the habit I have learned so that I can continue to be well informed about my society and continue to be aware of issues. I hope that you have enjoyed reading my blog as much as I have enjoyed writing it!


Thank you,

Jasmin

May 24 - Presidential Fundraisers

In a few weeks, a few family members of mine will be hosting a few fundraisers. One benefiting Barack Obama and one benefiting Hillary Clinton. The event will cost $700 for the cocktail party and $2200 for the dinner party. Initially, when I heard of the pricing for these events I was in shock! However, after speaking to some members I learned that this pricing is rather normal for such an event. Because of the crowd that will be present... these are highly requested events and many individuals wish to attend. The Hilary event will also include an appearance from Bill Clinton, which in itself is worth going for, given the opportunity.

May 23 - American-Muslim Survey

A survey was recently taken to evaluate the opinions of Muslims in America and their opinions on various subjects. Most attention has focused on the extent to which American Muslims do or do not support al Qaeda and suicide bombing.

Some findings include:
One of the most striking results was the fact that American Muslims are indistinguishable from other Americans in economic terms.

Muslims here are not a ghettoized, discriminated-against group. Most observers assume this makes them less susceptible to radicalization.

Some American Muslims defend suicide bombings under at least some circumstances

May 22 - Bill Richardson's Presidency

In spite of his decidedly Anglo-sounding name, Bill Richardson made a big deal out of his Hispanic roots in announcing his presidential bid in Los Angeles today. And thanks to a decision by his father — an American born overseas — there is no question about Mr. Richardson’s ability to run for president.

While Mr. Richardson has written extensively about his rough adjustment to America as a youth, today he celebrates his heritage. During his announcement , he spoke about the immigration issue - which some other candidates have only delicately addressed - saying that “no fence ever built has stopped history.”

May 21 - Giuliani on Letterman

In an appearance on the "Late Show with David Letterman", Rudolph W. Giuliani said he believes America might have gone to war in Iraq even if George W. Bush had not been President.

Mr. Giuliani said that at the time America went to war, there were “a lot of Democrats who supported it” and initially praised the President for his decision.

“It was the policy of the Clinton administration to have a regime change in Iraq, so in a way, George Bush carried out what Bill Clinton wanted to do and didn’t get the opportunity to do. So who knows.”

But Mr. Giuliani did once again say that there were mistakes in the way America conducted the war. He said he would have done things differently:

“I would have used – I would have used an approach that I was familiar with in New York, the Compstat approach – Iraqstat – you know, how many people are working, how many factories are open, how many children are going back to school. As well as reducing the violence, because I think what happened in Iraq is we deposed Saddam. I think the vast majority of people in Iraq were very, very delighted about that – I mean, they got rid of a terrible dictator – but then, after a while, their lives were no better, and in some cases, their lives were worse. So, we had responsibility for that, and I don’t know that we understood that early enough. I think we’ve picked it up now, but I think for the longest time, we didn’t pick that up.”

May 18 - Immigration News

Republicans in the Senate have caved and agreed to a deal on immigration that includes amnesty for illegals.

The Republican talking points say:

The bill will create an Electronic Employment Verification System ("EEVS") so only legal workers can get jobs.

The compromise should have been the implementation of the enforcement provisions first, with the amnesty part coming into play only if the government proved it could stop illegal immigration.

May 17 - The Media Progress

Nine of Barack Obama's web videos now have closed-captioning. Before then, YouTube did not provide any real benefits for the deaf and hard of hearing. Project readOn created a special player to display captions alongside a Web video.

The project will help to caption any video that users submit. After Project readOn made captions for an Obama video requested by one of its members, according to Mr. Gutierrez, the campaign asked to have the captioning widget on all of its videos.

Though Project readOn has captioned videos of interviews with President Bush and former President Bill Clinton, Mr. Gutierrez said, Mr. Obama is the “only” 2008 candidate whose videos its users have requested so far. “I’ll be interested to see how that changes,” he added.

“We noticed that everything is moving to the Internet,” Mr. Gutierrez said. Observing that advocates for the hard-of-hearing usually have to fight and lobby to get access, he sees the user-requested captions as “the perfect way to reverse that process.”

Visit Project readOn's website to see how the site works.

May 16 - Another Iraq Cutoff Plan Rejected

This morning, the Senate voted 67-29 on a procedural motion that effectively rejected the Democrats' latest effort to cut off funding for the Iraq war. It would have cut off funding for the Iraq war by March 31, 2008. No Republicans voted for the proposal, and a number of Democrats voted against it.

The New York Times called the vote a "stinging defeat" for antiwar Democrats that "underscored the divisions among Democrats over how to oppose the administration’s Iraq policy, as well as widespread fear of being seen as undercutting American troops." Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama voted for Feingold's cutoff plan. Their votes are, of course, an accurate barometer of where the Democrats' base is on the war.

May 15 - Iranian Weapons, American Lives

A pajamas Media exclusive vieo and interview about the Iranian weapons flooding Iraq was posted last week.

Visit this link for a full context: "Iranian weapons, American lives."

The video offers startling new evidence of Iran’s involvement in the insurgency. It is the first up-close, online video showing captured Iranian weapons. These particular weapons have not been shown to the public before.

Senior officers also realize that the Democrat-led Congress doesn’t want to hear about Iran’s sinister role in Iraq and that President Bush does not want a confrontation with Iran now. To make the interview even harder to get, Maj. Weber’s specialty, Explosives Ordinance Demolition or EOD, has a culture of not talking to the press. Any EOD officer who does, owes his unit a case of beer for each appearance.

May 14 - The 2008 Outlook

Last week, a few of the candidate's outlooks on abortion and taxes made news.


Rudolph W. Giuliani tried out his new political strategy of confronting head on his departures from the traditional G.O.P. platform. The Republicans are alarmed at the prospect of losing the White House, particularly after Democrats took control of Congress last year, that they will be willing to overlook differences on issues like abortion. The second is that voters often reward politicians for candor and independence though disagreeing with them on issues. Outlook's such as Giuliani's may raise voter appeal.

May 11 - Mitt Romney on Evolution

At the first Republican debate, there was a question of Mitt Romney's stance on evolution. This week he expanded on his belief in an interview. This view could put him in opposition to some conservative Christians. Seeing that Mitt Romney needs the vote of the conservative Christians to win the election, his view is quite controversial.

In the interview Mitt Romney said, “I believe that God designed the universe and created the universe,” “And I believe evolution is most likely the process he used to create the human body.”

He was asked: Is that intelligent design?

“I’m not exactly sure what is meant by intelligent design,” he said. “But I believe God is intelligent and I believe he designed the creation. And I believe he used the process of evolution to create the human body.”

Read More On The Interview Here…

May 10 - Abortion

In recent years, abortion has been an ongoing controversial issue. So far, the partial birth abortion has been banned. ow, those advocating life believe that women who wish to get an abortion must view an ultrasound of their fetus. This is a further attempt to make the mothers feel guilty for aborting their child. In my opinion, I believe that it is the woman's choice if she wished to keep a child. If a woman is not capable of taking of her child it is unfair to put an innocent child in her care.

May 9 - Hate Crimes

The White House is threatening to veto a bill that would add crimes based on sexual orientation or gender to the category of Hate Crimes. It does not make sense why a crime based on a certain characteristic of an individual wouldn't be considered a hate crime. The rights of every citizen should be protected by the law. Those who are advocating against the bill believe that considering these hate crimes, would impose on free speech against homosexuality. In my opinion, this is a very irrational argument taking into consideration the controversial issue homosexuality has come to be.

May 8 - Queen Elizabeth II

Yesterday, Queen Elizabeth the II visited the White House with her husband as guests of honor for a white tie dinner. President George Bush and his wife welcomed the Queen on the lawn in a ceremony in front of thousands of Americans who came early to catch a glimpse of the Queen.

May 7 - Eliminating Poverty

The Washington Post has presented John Edwards' plans to combat poverty. Edwards has made his program to "end poverty in 30 years" in this country his signature domestic issue. The Post story, by Alec MacGillis, provides insight into both Edwards and the issue.

The centerpiece of the Edwards plan is to do away with public housing projects and replace them with one million rental vouchers through which to disperse the poor into better neighborhoods, closer to good schools and jobs. However, as the Post explains, a major federal experiment started during the Clinton administration shows that dispersing poor families in this fashion does not improve earnings or school performance. When this inconvenient truth was brought to Edwards' attention during his November 2005 symposium on poverty, he apparently had no answer.

Visit this link to John Edwards' official site addressing his issue on poverty:

Eliminating Poverty

May 4 - 1st Republican Debate of 2008

The first "debate" of the 2008 campaign on the Republican side took place last night . It was broadcast from the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California. The event began at 7:00 central, 8:00 eastern. Covered by MSNBC.

The first Republican presidential debate between a field of 10 presidential hopefuls highlighted a party in flux as it struggles to figure out how to retain the White House for a third consecutive term. While several of the candidates invoked Ronald Reagan, a few tried to distance themselves from President Bush on Iraq.

Read the transcript : transcript

May 3 - Clinton's New Iraq Expiration

Senator Hillary Clinton proposed to Senate today at the that October 11, 2007 be the new "expiration date" for the Iraq war.

“It is time to sunset the authorization for the war in Iraq,” she said. “If the president will not bring himself to accept reality, it is time for Congress to bring reality to him.”

A measure by Mrs. Clinton and Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia would end Congress’s use of force authorization five years to the day after the original use of force legislation took effect in 2002.

“I urge my colleagues to join Senator Byrd and me in supporting this effort to require a new authorization resolution for these new times,” she said.

Text of Senator Clinton’s remarks on the Senate floor.

May 2 - Internet Blog Influence

Never before have individuals specifically in the form of the internet had such and influence on the elections or politics in general. Internet bloggers have to opportunity day to day to express their emotions and exchange ideas with other people.

But contemporary campaigns are courting a broad group of Internet activists. “There’s absolutely no way to keep them all completely on message,” said Ms. Lemieux, “and you wouldn’t really want to because you want them to sort of internalize it and put it in their own words.”

Specifically, Barack Obama has raised the most commotion with his internet pages. Specifically with his unofficial Myspace campaign page. Where advocates of his campaign have created a greater rise in his popularity.


http://myspace.com/barackobama

May 1 - Bush Vetoes Iraq Bill

Today George Bush vetoed the war spending bill which included a timeline for troop withdrawal. The bill was initially passed by the Democratic-controlled Congress last month. He made his decision public and included that he believed the Democrats had approved a plan that set a “rigid and artificial” deadline that “would impose impossible conditions for our commanders and troops in combat.”

“I recognize that many Democrats saw this bill as an opportunity to make a political statement about their opposition to the war,” he said. “They sent their message,” but now, he warned, Congress should begin working on a new bill so that troops can get necessary funds.

Text of President Bush’s Statement