Political Cartoon 3

My political cartoon was about Obama's Senate seat scandal. The cartoon was a bid by Rod Blagojevich on ebay for Obama's vacant Illinois senate seat. It's a buy it now auction and the price is a substantial salary for Rod and a 150,000 do-nothing-job for his wife and some campaign money. The picture for the bid is Rod and a golden chair. The seller history says that Rod Blagojevich has been a scum bag for a long time

Political Cartoon 2

My political cartoon off cagle.com this week was focused on the bad year the stocks have had. The cartoon shows two stock people in hell talking to the devil, right next to them is a big arrow pointing down, its the symbol for the stock worth. The devil says that "he doesn't know what happens below." This represents the extremely bad year the stocks have had because of the recession and that no one knows how bad the stocks are going to get.

Political Cartoon 1

This week I got a political cartoon from cagle.com. The cartoon is George Bush handing Obama,whose sitting on a dinner table, a burnt turkey he made. The cartoon has directions for a do -it-yourself political cartoon. There are labels at the bottom. They are The Deficit, Auto Industry, The economy, The constitution, America's reputation, Pakistan, Iraq, Stock Market, and the enviroment. The instructions are to put a label on the turkey. The labels and turkey are symbols for the problems Bush is giving to Obama

Volunteer Blog 3-

On my last day of volunteering It was a chill day. I didn't really do much except make sure that whoever was voting actually went out to vote. And a last minute push to get voters to go democratic. But most adults wouldn't listen to a teenager, maybe because they thought I was supporting Obama because it was a trendy thing to do. Overall it was a learning experience,but if it wasn't for the assignment I honestly wouldn't have volunteered. I was hoping to bring my manager to volunteer because he was a a big Obama supporter and would always ask customers who they were voting for and try to convince them too vote Obama but he was always busy

Volunteer Blog-2

I volunteered again for Obama. This time I got another area to canvass but it was near Ferndale. It was across, so I am not sure if it was still Ferndale but it was still a different area and different people. Although it was still predominately Hispanic. It was practically the same experience. Not many people would answer their doors because this area had also been done before also, I guess because I did volunteer closer to election time. It was another good experience. I became less nervous this time around and I learned more about the geography in Herndon also. Most residents were Hispanics but their was also the occasional elderly couple or a single female in her late twenties

Pictures

The left brochure was for the Target voters, the Right single piece was for the Sporadic voters












A friendly reminder to go out and vote















Me canvassing a house. Not many people answered













Ill post more pictures if once I find them somewhere on my computer

Volunteer Blog

On Sunday October 19th I volunteered for Obama. Even though I was hoping I wouldn't get canvassing for the first day I was given it. My area was the Ferndale area. Basically they gave me a list of residents living in that area that were registered democrats and the list also had they're voting tendencies. They were either sporadic, which meant they occasionally vote Democratic but they were not 100% voters. Then there were Target voters which meant they probably need convincing. While on my way to my area I met another canvasser. Since I was a little nervous this was my first time, he gave me a few tips. He told me not to worry, don't take it personally , and that a lot of people aren't going to answer their doors anyways. Well I got to my area and I looked at my list and materials. I had a sheet that told me Obama's key points,but the other canvasser told me to just summarize it instead of reading a lot of it. Now depending if they were either Sporadic or Target they would get some type of literature. The sporadic people got one piece of paper with the candidate and a big reminder on the other side to vote. While the Target people got a whole brochure basically because they needed more convincing. Well I started and I was discouraged a first because nobody was answering their door. But this could have been due to the redskins game being on or the fact that I was given a area that had been done once or twice already. I got a few people who opened their door and most of them were for Obama, I ignored the houses that had McCain propaganda,not that their were many anyways. Me being fluent in Spanish also came in handy since the area is predominately Latino. After a few hours I got more people but I still didn't get as many as I had hoped for. After going through the whole list I tried to go back to the people that didn't answer but It was getting dark and it was already cold. Overall it was a learning experience but I will be the first to say I wasn't too good of a canvasser

I will post some pictures once I find them on my computer.

Current Event 6

My current event was on the meeting the federal open market committee had on wednesday were it was expected to cut the U.S. interest rate atleast half a point. A nalysts remain skeptical that reducing it any further keep the United States from sliding into a prolonged recession.

It’s likely that Germany, France and Italy have already entered into a recession, as their second-quarter GDP fell 0.5%, 0.3% and 0.3%, respectively. Japan – the world’s second largest economy – is also dangerously close to recession, with its economy having contracted 2.4% in the three months ended June 30.

Week 6-Election Post

I think Obama is going to be the clear winner. My prediction is that Obama wins 322-216 in the electoral votes and that he also wins the popular vote as well. The reason I think he is going to win is that he just had major momentum since the beginning of the race. So far the polls have also been in his favor, some even going as far as saying he had a 12 point lead. Another major reason is the amount of money he had to run his campaign. He rejected the public campaign money and has made over $600 million dollars. This means he is out spending McCain 4-1 and is getting more ads out on t.v.

My pick for the senate is Mark Warner. This is very clear because all the polls I have come across have him ahead with a huge lead. In a October 20th Rasmussen poll Mark Warner had a 61% to 36% lead on Jim Gilmore.


For the 10th House seat I think that Frank Wolf is going to win. I think he is going to win because the 10th district is a republican district and although its trending away in the last election Frank Wolf had a big lead 57-41% against Judy Feder.

For the 11th House seat I think Gerry Connolly is going to win because he is the only candidate in the race with any real local government experience.

Week 5-Current Event

My current event is on how Joe Wurzelbacher, or Joe the Plumber. The most famous plumber in America plans to run for conservative talk radio host Laura Ingraham Friday he's considering a run for Congress in 2010. That would pit Wurzelbacher against longtime Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur for Ohio's 9th district on the state’s northern border, which includes Toledo and Sandusky. Wurzelbacher's chances would likely be slim. Kaptur has served in the district for 25 years, and remains a popular figure there. She won reelection in 2006 with nearly 75 percent of the vote and is expected to easily sail through another reelection this year. Joe became famous after he questioned Obama's tax plan but a spokesperson for Kaptur said he is already off on the wrong foot, since Jeep just laid of 800 workers so embracing Bush-McCain economics is kind of a strange way to launch your campaign.

Week 5-Election Post

There are many swing states in the 2008 election. They are Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Missouri, Indiana,Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida.

Nevada- Nevada is up for grabs because of the states tremendous growth. Which means its political views is constantly remaking itself.

Colorado-It is a swing state because there has been only one democratic presidential nominee since 1964 democratic presidential nominee that has carried the state. But a democratic surge since 2004 has led to a governor seat, a senate seat, 2 republican-held house seats and control of the legislature

New Mexico- The last two presidential elections have been breathtakingly close. Although New Mexico is leaning democratic, John McCain's moderate reputation on the enviroment still makes it a swing state

Missouri- Obama expects a big voter turnout in the states two largest cities St.Louis and Kansas City. But McCain hopes to have a strong showing in the out state, especially in conservative southwest.

Indiana-McCain holds a slight advantage in this state because of traditional republicans but a extremely high African-American voter turnout could make it a more competitive state for Obama

Ohio- Obama is struggling with the Appalachian Ohio- a key region Kerry ran poorly in 2004, the Republicans have struggled in Ohio in recent years.

Pennsylvania- No GOP has carried the state in 20 years, but McCain could carry that state but he would have to do well in populous, once republican suburbs of Philadelphia, where George Bush is very unpopular.

New Hampshire- New Hampshire seems to have a real affinity for the GOP Nominee, but recent trendlines are promising for democrats and Bob Barr could tip the balance

Virginia- Virginia has voted for the democratic nominee only once since 1948 but there has been an emergence of a democratic leaning Northern-Virginia.

North Carolina- Jimmy Carter, in 1976 was the last democrat to carry the state. But with the prospect of a large African-American turnout and democratic gains in the fastest growing areas of NC, Obama is doing better then expected.

Florida- Although it is the ideal republican state, there has been an increase in registered democrats that could give Obama an advantage, but he would have to do a lot of work.

I think the two most important states are Florida and Virginia. I think Obama will carry Virginia because although it has not voted Democrat since 1948, there has been an emergence in the democratic Northern Virginia that could give Obama the edge. Florida I am not sure of but I think Obama could take it because he did not campaign in this state in the primary yet in a cnn poll he is up 47% to 43%.

Week 4-Election Post

One of the polls is on the front page of usaelectionpolls.com and its labeled "John McCain is forced to play defense in 13 states. It shows that John McCain has to play defense in states that George Bush won by double digits in 2004. In the poll it shows that Illinois has given Obama a 24% increase in a seven day average. He is up 56% to McCain's 32%. It also shows that Obama has had a 4% increase to bring it up to 48%-45% in his favor in North Carolina, a key battleground state. Another poll on the same site shows the amount of people in favor to Obama and McCain. It shows some interesting information as it has Obama edging out McCain in Florida and Ohio by 49.1% to 46.46% and 48.8% to 46.0. These are key states for Republicans.

On a washingpost poll it shows that Mrk Warner leads James Gilmore by huge amounts. They took a poll by asking people who would they vote for if the senate election was held today. Warner was the ovbious winner with 61% and Gilmore had 31% and 9% other.

They have a big role in modern elections because most people now have a computer and polls can be easily reached in the internet and it gives voters information on candidates. It also shows public opinion. It has a major impact on elec ions. It can either be bad or good. It can be good that it shows what people are thinking off. But it also can go negative also. For example if early polls show an early winner it might discourage people that would vote for the winner becuase they might be thinking that their vote doesnt count because their candidate already won or lost and they can't do anything about it.

For the most part they are accurate only if they have a large sample size as to reduce the margin of error. But their is still always a margin of error becuase of many factors such as people lying or the poll can be biased itself so it might give people the wrong data.

Current Event 4

My current even was on the fifth largest rebound in percentage history and the largest since the Great Depression. The Dow-Jones closed up with an 11.08% increase or 936.42 points. It also calmed down an eight day losing streak cause by concerns about a global recession. The British government said it is injecting capital directly into three troubled banks, while the U.S. Treasury is finalizing plans for a similar program that would spend $250 billion to buy ownership stakes in a broad range of banks. U.S. regulators are expected to announce an expanded response to the crisis today, including unlimited deposit insurance for non-interest-bearing accounts, such as checking and payroll accounts used by small businesses. Although the market has rebounded “the economic outlook remains weak, and a global recession is still likely, said” Win Thin, senior currency strategist for Brown Brothers Harriman. Also although falling below $80 a barrel for the first time in a year last week, oil prices also staged a rebound. The price of light, sweet crude jumped 4.5 percent, or $3.49, to settle at $81.19 a barrel.

Current Event 3

My current event was when U.S. officials put the rescue plan into effect. This was put into effect while concerns with the European banks started to fail and with growing concerns with a global recession. The market had a bad day as well, The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell below 10,000 for the first time in 4 years. At one point it fell 797 points. The impact was not only felt on U.S. markets as London's FTSE 100 and Germany's DAX 30 closed down more than 7 percent, while Paris's CAC 40 had lost 9 percent of its value. Germany is having its share of problems as well as they just stitched a $70 billion dollar plan to save a blue-chip commercial lender that was in danger of failing called Hypo Real Estate Holding AG. A rescue plan was announced but it quickly failed as the private banks that were part of the deal called it off because Hypo Real Estate’s liabilities were worse then expected

week 3- Election post

I chose the Virginia senate race. The race is between Democrat Mark Warner and Republican Jim Gilmore.

Mark Warner-Warner is a democratic politician and business man from Virginia. He is the immediate governer of Virginia. He is also the honorary chairman of the Forward Together Political action committee. Warner delievered the keynote speech at the National Democratic Convention. Warner's tax package effected a net tax increase of approximately $1.5 billion annually. Warner credited the additional revenues with saving the state's AAA bond rating, held at the time by only 5 other states, and allowing the single largest investment in K-12 education in Virginia history

Jim Gilmore- He served as the Attorney General of Virginia from 1994 to 1998, and was the Virginia governer from 1998 to 2002. In his first year as Governor, Gilmore pushed for car tax reduction legislation that was eventually passed by the Democrat-controlled General Assembly The legislation reduced car taxes on all cars valued less than $1,000, and phased out the tax on auto values over $1,000 as follows: 12.5% reduction in 1998; 25% reduction in 1999; 47.5% reduction in 2000; 70% reduction in 2001; 100% reduction in 2002. Beginning in 2001, Virginia's economy slowed and tax revenues flattened Gilmore also proposed and signed into law Virginia's first stand-alone Martin Luther King Holiday.As Governor, Gilmore signed into law legislation establishing a 24-hour waiting period and informed consent for women seeking an abortion, as well as a ban against partial birth abortion Gilmore increased funding for adoption services.

My issue- The most important issue I thinks is the energy crisis. Jim Gilmore has the same view on solving the energy crisis as John McCain and George Bush, he wants to continue off shore drilling. Mark Warner wants to use more alternative sources to break our addiction to foriegn oil.

Poll data- on most polls Warner has a sizeable lead. The Real Clear Politics average based on 23 other polls is 58.6% to Warner and 30.4% for Gilmore. The spread is Warner +28.2

Current Event-2

My current even was when the house rejected the rescue plan the first time it went through. I was surprised by that because I thought they had agreed on a solid plan. Apparantley that was not the case and the house rejected it. As a result stocks dropped to all time worst. They dropped as the rejection of the bill became apparent. What surprised me more was that no one would step up and give a real reason as why the bill failed, both sides just blamed each other. One of the most surprising comments was that America was on a slipper slope to socialism.

I think the most national issue right now is the economy. I am not saying that the other issues might not be as important but to fix the others they all cone back to the economy. If they want to come up with different sources then oil then they need money for the programs. I also think it is important because it affects everybody, I was watching a CNN special after the failed rescue plan about how wall street affects normal citizens not just big corporations.

A local issue is the need to fix is one I just read about. It was about how more then 2 million adults in Virginia struggle with basic or below basic literacy skills. I think it needs to be fixed because these problems could be passed on to their children .

I think Obama won the debate. Both did well in some areas and not so well in others. Such as Obama had a clear economic portion but McCain did not. But McCain won points on his foreign affairs policy. A CBS poll had 55% to McCain and 49% to Obama on who would make better decisions on the war in Iraq. But the same poll had 68% to Obama 41% to McCain on who would make better decisions on the econmy. This was a poll on undecided voters. And 46% of undecided voters had a better opinion on Obama after the debate.

The electronic media has a very important role in the elections. Everyday we see ads from both sides attacking each other in an attempt to sway voters to either side. They are also trying to get the youth vote with the electronic media, a great example is the increase in the candidates using youtube to reach out to younger voters.

Current Event -1

My current event was on the financial rescue plan. The plan is expected to cost $700 billion dollars.The plan would also put in place restrictions on the executive compensation of the firms that receive help and calls for more government oversight of the program. It would also require the Treasury Department to help distressed homeowners as part of the package, including rewriting bad mortgages. The Senate Democrats' plan also calls for the creation of an emergency oversight board made up of the Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Securities and Exchange Commission, plus two outside experts appointed by Congress. It also calls for the secretary of the Treasury to make monthly reports to Congress. But people are still skeptical about the plan as the price of oil spiked and Dow Jones' Average went down.

Week 1-Election post

I really have no party of choice. I choose more on the candidate and what platform they have rather then the party they are in although my ideals lean more to the liberal side. As of right now I am supporting Obama because of his stand on the energy crisis. I believe we have an addiction to foreign oil. I really like Obama's plan of creating a green sector, that will not only give us better energy sources but also create up to 5 million jobs.

Energy- Both Obama and McCain want to break our country's dependency on foreign oil but both seem to have different ways of achieving that goal. Obama's platform is more focused on renewable resources while McCain's platform is to lift the restrictions on off-shore drilling. Both have a similar car plan. Obama will put plug-in hybrid cars, cars that can get up to 150 miles per gallon, on the road by 2015. McCain is giving a 5,000 tax credit to customers that by a zero carbon emission car.

The economy- John McCain plans to help the economy out by enabling a summer gas tax holiday to suspend the 18.4 cent federal gas tax and 24.4 cent diesel tax from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Obama would plan to enable a windfall profits tax on excessive oil company profits to give American families an immediate $1,000 emergency energy rebate to help families pay rising bills. McCain's plan to help support small businesses relies on creating cheap energy for the companies, he plans to create 45 nuclear power plants to create cheaper energy and creating 700,00 new jobs. Obama's plan is to eliminate all capital gains tax on start-up and small businesses to promote innovation and job creation.

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