Question #4

My favorite holiday is: New Year. Even though I like most of the holidays, I enjoy this one the most because all the family and friends get together. Everybody is waiting to 12 a.m. to wish somebody else a great year. I consider this day a really important one, since we begin a new year, which means, something new will happen. Although, I see this holiday really different here, in the US, since it’s in winter, which means people come back to work after two or three days. In my country, however; New Year is in summer, which means children don’t go to school till March, so I think it gets notice even more since we are on vacation time. On the other hand, here is beautiful, since we can enjoy the snow, and stay at home warm and spend more time with our family.

Cartoon #4

-The cartoon was drawn by John Cole.

-It was published in The Scranton Times on December 18, 2009.

-The cartoon deals with the holidays. Obama is dressed up as Santa Claus with a man on his lap asking him for a job, but all Obama does is ignore his petition, and reply to his wish with issues such as health care bill, the war in Afghanistan, and Global Warming trades, as if he was not listening to his needs.

-What the cartoon is trying to tell is Obama’s inefficient plans. This cartoon is referring to the waste of money that the government is making instead of be concern about what really could help the country to get rid of the recession, such as giving people better jobs.

-I agree with the message of the cartoon, even though I don’t think Obama has the total responsibility of what is happening, he is the main person, so it’s easy to blame him for every problem that we have.

Cartoon #3

1-The cartoon that I have picked was drawn by Jimmy Margulis.

2- It was published in The Record of Hackensack, NJ on December 11^th

3- the cartoon deals with the issue of the war in Afghanistan, since it shows a common man who is complaining about his electric bill saying that he has to pay $30 billion, while he is complaining the costumer service woman who is sitting reading the newspapers said he has to pay that amount of money as a result of the lights that are at the end of the tunnel.

4- the cartoon message is that every common person will pay for the war that maybe they did not even agree with, as it’s showed here, this ordinary man has to pay for something he has nothing to do with.

5- I think the message is correct since it shows how every single person gets touched by the war, how every person has to pay from their taxes or bills to help this war to continue. Even though lots of people don’t agree with the war, most of them don’t even know that they are actually paying for it.

Question #3

I actually did not pay attention to the religious symbols that have been displayed for Christmas Holidays, since in my country we have one predominant religion; anyway I think that every religion should be able to display as many symbols as they want, since they have the same right to show what represents them even though their religion does not preponderate. By saying this I don’t mean that every single spot in the town should be filling out with symbols or signs, otherwise it would be a mess. Although I consider everybody should be able to feel as part of the society even though s/he religion is not a predominant one.

Cartoon #2

I looked at cartoon by Pat Bagley, which was published on http://www.cagle.com/politicalcartoons/, The issue that this cartoon deals with is the War in Afghanistan, giving us a message that can easily be read since Obama has all his ideas and plans about the war but it seems like he is not taking action. Moreover, the soldier who appears on the drawing along with him is asking the President to give them an answer about what he will do. I don’t know if the word will be agree or disagree, I just think that wars aren’t valuable at all, and we should try to get rid of them as soon as possible, but as we all know United States has a lot of issues that need to be solved. It would be really good if we start off with some of them.

Question #2

As we all know, Health Care Reform has been one of the strongest issues debated since Barack Obama became President, hopefully it seems like it’s finally going somewhere and optimistically politicians will find the best way to make it work.

This issue has been debated in Congress, where the majority leaders, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada introduced an $848 billion dollars plan, the last week; on the other hand, the House plan encloses public option with no “opt-out” provision. Finally both houses voted and Congress cited Reid’s bill as the best one after years, since it concerns a comprehensive national health insurance program.

In my opinion, I think universal health care is headed to people who can not afford the expensive use of insurance companies or even the doctor’s bills. I believe that Barack Obama is really concern about this issue, and he’s finally trying to get a solution of all this. In his last speech he was really clear about what his reform means, and what he wants to do, trying to spend as less money as he can which makes me feel secure since the president is being really honest and he also embraced an idea that was from a Republican, but as he said it was a good idea so he will still hold it.

Question #1

I think the perfect type of person that would fit in Herndon as the prinsipal of our High School would be a person who knows what her/his goals are, but also having present the students goals. I know it would sound kind of crazy since we have such a different number of personalities here at Herndon, but as teenagers we all want to be heard and i think that the principal should known that.

A principal should like his/her job as nobody else and s/he should try to do anything for her/his school, by doing this the principal will gain her/his respect and the students would like the person who is representing them.

Cartoon #1

I looked at Job Number Thanksgiving by Eric Allie it was posted in Caglecartoons.com on November 20. This cartoon shows Obama with six more people all of them are about to have dinner for Thanksgiving but all they have on the table, besides silverware, plates and empty cups, is a bag which seems to be a cereal bag that says Stimulus Job #s. I think this is a pretty important message since the Washington Post just posted that the major issue that affects the American population is the unemployment. Moreover if we think about the holyday that is just coming up next week, and we also think about how taught times are getting we should be grateful for having dinner all together, but maybe being different from the years that just passed.

Free Response

Swine Flu

Since last year we have heard a lot about this new flu that has been discovered in Mexico and after a couple of days it had spread out killing people all around the world.

It seems like people are getting to know it just this year, but the truth is swine flu has been giving a hard time to all governments around the world.

Hopefully in America we have a government who really cares about people, and we are able to trust them because of the solutions we have got every time an issue has been faced. Compares with poorer countries we have a lot of better conditions to prevent it and government is able to afford it too. In countries like Mexico, Uruguay, Argentina; however, it’s really expensive to give the shot to every single person. As a result of this, we have a lot of people dying for this flu and just a couple of them are safe. I should say the lucky ones who either don’t get the flu or have enough money to afford the shot.

Current Event #6

The article that I read is called On Healthcare, Americans trust more Obama than Congress the reason why I picked this article is because I think the information it’s giving us is very interesting.

It states the percentages that believe in Obama’s healthcare plan which are much higher than the percentages that trust the Congress.

I think this is quite interesting since we have heard how people talk about Obama’s presidency saying all the things he could have done, but he did not yet; the result of it shows us how people still believe in Obama. For me it is a good thing given that he is our president hence the one who has the responsibility to give this country the best solution to solve its issues.

Who will win and why?

I think Mr Deeds is the one who has to win. The reason why I’m saying this is simple. I’m a democrat so it’s pretty easy for me to take this choice. Moreover I think Mr Deeds is the one who could give us a solid solution with transportation. As we all know Virginia has enormous issues with transportation and Mr Deeds is the only one who has talked about this. I just think Mr Deeds has his own ideas clearly defined and they promise us a better future than Mr Mc’Donnell’s.

Current Event #5

The article that I’ve read is from The Washington Post. It is about the healthcare bill.

Essentially what it talks about is how people see their own costs worsening under a healthcare bill. Giving us information about polls, and how these have been increasing their numbers since people don’t believe that the healthcare bill is a good idea. People are more likely to doubt about this new reform given that they are pretty sure the areas that will get more affected are quality, costs, coverage, and insurance company requirements.

I think we should wait until a new bill passes. We can not predict whether it would be better or worse if we don’t even know how it would work. What I mean by saying this is people can not say it would not be a positive result if they don’t know how it would be when applied in our society, as we all know a bill looks different when it becomes a law and is applied. Even though there are a lot of things going on with the healthcare bill, I think our governments will take the best choice so people can be contented and relaxed with the new bill. Since it would be really disappointing if people have to pay more for their insurance and the quality of it is decreasing its level.

Current Event #4

The article I read is called Hillary Clinton Now More Popular Than Barack Obama from the Washington Post. Basically, it talks about how the image of Barack Obama has changed over this period of time that he became president, contrasting the image of Hillary Clinton at the same time.

Even though this article says Obama’s presidential job approval rating has increased after he won the Nobel Prize this survey was made before he got it.

We can see in percentage how Hillary Clinton has increased her favorable rating having the best favorable ranking rank within 17 years.

I think it is pretty interesting they way it turns. As we all know Obama won as the representative of Democrats because people wanted him. It is common that people make up their minds and think differently over a period of time. I think the reason why Hillary Clinton is more popular than Barack Obama is simple; she is not the president, she did not take such important decisions as the president does. I think the percentage would be really different if she would be the president of the United States. People change their minds all the time, so basically what we have here is a group of humans who did not like some of the Obama’s decisions; so now they think Hillary would be the best choice instead of Obama.

what is the biggest political issue facing the State of Virginia?

The biggest Political Issue facing the State of Virginia is the Fiscal Issue.

Our state needs to fix its finances. The generosity of state tax relief measures adopted in 1990 and the major withdrawals are some of the consequences that we have to face and hopefully learn about it so we won't make the same mistake twice.

Obama report Card

Obama report card:

I give president Obama a C in his health care plan; I think it’s a good idea what he wants to do by expanding it to everybody, also I find really remarkable that he wants to get rid of the history of people so the insurance companies will not prohibit anybody to have insurance, even though this person has a disease already. The negative part of it is that president is not making it work however; I know it’s really difficult to convince every one about it.

I think he’s doing pretty well with the Economy, so I give him a B. When he became the president of the U.S, this country was on its head, people lost their jobs and could not find any, and people lost their houses, but know, it’s getting better. You can find a job easily; even people are applying to buy their own houses again. I think he’s doing a good job.

I think he is trying to get end up with wars. I give him a C. I think he did pretty well the first couple of months when he took care of this issue, but I think he really needs to work a lot on it.

Current Event #3

Current event

The article that I read is called “Obama’s Nobel Prize: Opinion Context” from The Washington Post. This article talks about the recent Nobel Prize that the President of United States just got because of his efforts to make stronger the international diplomacy and cooperation between people.

This article also talks about the approval rating of Obama on issues with a range of 50-55% which is below the average of all presidents since War World II. It points out the international perspective that the president has and it also compares it with the ex President George Bush, giving Obama 67% of people who say they have respect for him against a 24% who say they have respect for Bush. Towards the end, the article points out how the approval of the U.S. has increased internationally.

I personally think this article is interesting because we have a lot of data in it, which compares both presidents the Republican George Bush and the Democrat Barack Obama, giving us more specific information about what people think about them, or what they did right, they did not take care enough or how they change the way the country looks around the world.

I believe it’s a good thing that Barack Omaba has received such an important award as the Nobel Peace Prize because it gives the United States another view. If such an important country has a Nobel Peace Prize president that means that people will trust him more, which could end up in better international relationships hence better trade and economy.

Curren Event

As we all know the war in Afghanistan has been taking place since George Bush was president, but the troops sent to this country have increased their numbers much higher during these days. When Obama was a candidate he said he will do anything to remove troops from Iraq, however he identified the Afghanistan “a war of necessity”.

The article Obama’s Afghanistan dilemma talks about how death keeps rising in the Afghanistan war setting new records, how government is responding about president’s thoughts of sending more people to this war, and the “Biden Plan” which basically is to bring the troops home, so government can concentrate on Al-Qaida instead of Taliban since they find the terrorism more important.

As I read this article I figured how government is always trying to protect themselves but not the people who live in their country. One of the reasons why I say this is because there are a lot of people who are dying out there trying to protect their country, even though they are recognize for this, it still damages them forever. As we all know when people go to war they may not come back, however if they do come back they are not the same person ever again. I personally think wars are not the best answer to solve an issue.

It seems very easy when you are giving directions behind your desk but it’s more difficult when you are literally fighting for your life. As human beings as we are we should be able to talk and come up with an agreement instead of fighting until death.

Discuss one political issue you are personally interested in.

Political Issue: Enviroment.

The political issue I have chosen is the environment because I think many people don’t realize how pollution devastates us.

Since America is one of the biggest countries in the world; hence it has a lot of environmental issues because of its extremely big population. Some of these problems are global warming, unclean air, and the oceans’ dirt.

The reason because I’m interested in this issue is because environmental issues are not like economical issues or abortion issues given that the ecological issues involves every single person in the world, and I think nobody will like to live in a world where pollution as the main character.

I also think sometimes people don’t really realize how the place they are living in is being destroyed and damaged, therefore they will not think how they can change it. But if we just give them a little bit of information about what is going on out there I believe they will make up their minds and will try to find some solutions to solve this issue.

If we actually think about it, it would not be that difficult because we as population can take care of it, we don’t really have to ask for anybody else to do it.

There are no other people who can solve this issue but ourselves, let’s get rid of it.

What Political Party are you most closely aligned? Why?

The Political Party I am most closely aligned is the Democrats because I don’t think that privatization is a good solution in our society, I don’t trust large corporations and I think they have to pay taxes anyways.

I think everybody in the society has to have participation because everyone is part of it. I don’t really like the difference between the social classes, for the reason that every time this happens, the low class is the one who gets disadvantaged just because they don’t have enough money. As a democrat I believe the best option is to work so everybody can afford what they want. I totally disagree with the republican idea of not increasing the minimum wage; I think the best way to make a worker do a better job is stimulating him by paying him more money so he can feel he’s doing a good job and also will be able to do it better since he has a reason to do it. Otherwise if we, as a boss don’t recognize our employee's work he will not have a motive to do in a better way and it will end up as an ordinary work.

Also, I consider myself a liberal person, and I believe that the family is the most important place where we learn how to behave.

Last but not less important I think that as rational human beings as we are we should be able to speak instead of using weapons.