Randi’s Blog

1.     On November 5, 2008 Barack Obama was elected the 44^th president of the United States. I chose this as my top story, because it will go down in history, and it changed our world’s course. Never before in the United States was it considered a black man being president, and on November 5, the “rules” were all changed.

The car companies are wanting to help reduce the American dependency on foreign oil. Toyota and GM have ideas on what kind of all-electric cars they want to produce but they are worried that they won’t make any profit from them. This is because the parts required to make these kind of cars are very expensive, hexpensive enough to where they can add on an 8,000 dollar cost to the car you wish to purchase. The automakers have another problem to worry about, the fact that they are under pressure to make sure they have a plan to use their bail-out money to tranform their companies into places that will produce cars of the future. Obama said on his sixty minute interview “that we are creating a bridge loan to somewhere as opposed to a bridge loan to nowhere.” GM has plan to introduce a hybrid car called the Volt in 2010. But they do not know the cost because they don’t know the cost of oil prices in 2010. Even though most people would want a fuel and enviroment effiecent cars many experts say that people will still choose a regualr car especially with gas prices so low.

In my opinon I think that it is a very good idea but at the same time, it scares me also because it seems like everything is running out. I know that gas is not a renewable resource, which is why it is good that we are trying to find new ways… but even though these new cars dont use gas, dont they use another form of energy? And then my question is when will that run out? And when that does run out what are we going to do then? But instead of stressing out about decades from now, right now in the present i think that having electric cars will be great. We dont have to worry about gas prices or running out.

Barack Obama announced yesterday he would nominate Hillary Clinton as his secretary of state. Clinton will take lead role in the foreign policy and national security team that Obama introduced.  Hillary accepted her nomination at the Chicago news conference where Obama made it official. Clinton said, “I will give this assignment, your administration and our country my all.” She acknowledged her eight years as senator and thanked New Yorkers, but she thinks that the best way to continue serving her country is to go to work for Obama in what will be a difficult and exciting adventure in the new century.

I think that she just shows how unselfish and smart she really is. I bet it was very hard for her to decide if she wanted to accept the offer or not because Obama was just her rival.  But also instead of thinking of it that way, she is very selfless and put the interest in our country first and put aside their differences and said that in her opinion going to work for Obama will help our country out. Hillary will do a great job. I think that she will help our country out a lot.

George Bush is the forty first president of the United States. He was elected president on January 20, 2001, and ends at noon on January 20, 2009. During his term, September 11, 2001 occurred. Bush announced a global War on Terrorism, ordered an invasion of Afghanistan that same year, and an invasion of Iraq in 2003. We are currently still fighting in Iraq.

My opinion of Bush is that he is a liar. He lied about what sorts policies he would implement. He made himself out to be a compassionate conservative. We all found that that was not true when he masterminded a huge tax cut that benefitted only the wealthy. I was looking up George Bush’s past and I found alcoholism and suspected ex cocaine addict in his past. Also don’t get me started on September 11, 2001. I think what made everything worst was that he was our president during that tragic time. He made all the wrong choices that’s why our troops are still in Iraq seven years ago.

General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC would get $25 billion in loans from the Treasury’s financial-rescue plan under a proposal by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank.  Legislation is needed to authorize the Treasury to use part of its $700 billion rescue fund for the auto industry. Plans to introduce the bill Nov. 18 and hold a hearing on it the following day. “A collapse of the American automobile industry would be the worst possible thing that could happen at a time when we are already weakened,” a Massachusetts Democrat, said. Passage of an industry bailout plan may keep GM from running out of operating cash by year’s end, which it says may happen without U.S. help. GM had $16.2 billion on hand as of Sept. 30, down from $21 billion at the end of June, and said it needs at least $11 billion to pay its monthly bills.

In my opinion, I personally do not think that we should bail them out because just like what Mr. Grasmick said, the government would not help us if we didn’t have enough to pay our bills. A bailout to GM will only cover up a huge problem in our economy. The way I see it, GM has no chance of ever becoming profitable again! If a company fails it’s their own fault even though we are in hard times they made bad choices and shouldn’t be saved… no one sees the government bailing out the failing citizens, only the rich. Obviously the car companies don’t handle their business good and make wrong decisions, if we bail them out this time what makes us think they are going to change and make better choices?

Homeland Security is now testing the next generation of security screening, a body scanner that can read your mind. A new system called MALINTENT turns the old school approach on its head. MALINTENT searches your body for non-verbal cues that predict whether you mean harm to your fellow passengers. It has a series of sensors and imagers that read you body temperature, heat rate and respiration for unconscious tells invisible to the naked eye. Here is how it works, when the sensors identify that something is off, they transmit warning data to analysts, who decide whether to flag passengers for further questioning. The next step involves micro-facial scanning, which involves measuring minute muscle movements in the face for clues to mood and intention. DHS is now planning an even wider array of screening technology, including an eye scanner next year and pheromone-reading technology by 2010.b

Do you know how people always say that in the future that we are going to probably have spaceship looking things instead of cars, and everything is going to be technology? I think that we are going one step further to getting to that point. I personally do not like the idea because I categorize it as the same idea that the government wanting to put chips into everybody. They are both stupid ideas, which people come up with just wanting to have power and calling it “security”. Even though they have the argument that they would be able to stop a terrorist, I don’t think that we should turn to a mind reading machine. No thank you, I do not want a machine scanning my body and reading my mind. If you have all this machinery over you everybody thinking that you may be a terrorist, you might make the thing go off. It says it can see the difference between stress and bad ideas, but I personally can’t see this working.

Yesturday was the most important day in our country’s history. We elected the president that is going to lead our counrty for the next four or may by even eight years. The results came out that Barack Obama won. He is now our president, NO MORE BUSH!!!!!! Thank God!!! Barack Obama won a lot of popularity votes. Obama had sixty eight thousand votes, and McCain had fity five thousand.

First of all, im just glad we got rid of bush!!!! Anybody would be better then him. In my opinion, I am happy Obama won. I think that he is going to bring the change we need to our country. Hopefully things start looking up for us now. He just better mean everything he was talking about before the election, and he better come through with everything he was saying. But all in all I am very pleased with the outcome of the election this year, and I hope this makes us stronger and better. 

Gas prices at the highest they have ever been, Brothers, sons and fathers dieing over seas in iraq, economy at its weakest, i think we are ready for change. The president that will bring that change is Barack Obama. He wants to end the war in iraq, bring our troops home. He supports the working middle class. He has a much better health care plan, he is going to lower the prices for drugs.

By all means, if you enjoy paying almost four dollars a gallon for gas, nearly five dollars for a gallon of milk, go ahead and vote for McCain because he is Bush Jr. If these last eight years have been fun for you, vote for McCain. Obama understands that our economy is pretty bad and he wants a change. Unlike McCain, Obama understands that we are nearly in a depression, he does not try to say that we are “fine”. Obama is the change that we need he is a great leader and he cares, thats why he is getting my vote.

Obama says he is willing to compromise on offshore drilling. Obma quoted “My interest is in making sure we’ve got the kind of comprehensive energy policy that can bring down gas prices. He also says, ” What I will not do, and this has been my position, is to support a plan that suggests this drilling is the answer to our energy problems.” He also added, “When I’m president, I intend to keep in place the moratorium here in Florida and around the country that prevents oil companies from drilling off Florida’s coasts,” Obama told reporters in Jacksonville in late June. “That’s how we can protect our coastline and still make the investments that will reduce our dependence on foreign oil and bring down gas prices for good.”

I think that Obama has a point that when it comes to offshore drilling that we shouldn’t use our resources untill they are needed, to a certain point. Oil is not a renewable resource. Eventually it is going to run out. Whether that is going to be sooner or later. I feel that we should have offshore drilling to lower gas prices now, but I also feel that, that is being selfish, because I am not thinking about the future of the United States, I am just thinking about the gas prices now. But overall, i agree with Obama.

Obama and Joe Biden want to make health insurance work for people and businesses, not just insurance and drug companies. They want to do this by creating a new small business tax credit to help small businesses provide afforadable health insurance to their employees. Lower costs for businesses by covering a portion of the health costs they pay in return for lower premiums for employees. Also they want to ensure everyone who needs it will receive a tax credit for their premiums.

I think that their plan sounds good. I like that they want to make sure that employees  have afforadable health insurance. My favorite thing about their plan is that the want to make sure that everyone who needs it will receive a tax credit for their premiums. I also looked at McCains health care plan and he is all about taxes to me. He rewords the his plan but to me it just seems like he is all about taxing us. So when I read Obama’s it was ensuring that he wants to help us out.