Editorial #4

The Israeli parliament will probably approve a new government that, from Washington's point of view, looks problematic. Prime Minister-designate Binyamin Netanyahu had a rocky relationship with the Clinton administration when he last held the post in the late 1990s. His new coalition is dominated by nationalists and religious fundamentalists; his choice for foreign minister has proposed stripping Arabs of citizenship unless they pledge their loyalty to Israel as a Jewish state. Arab leaders are sounding the alarm about a coalition that, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat charged on the opposite page Saturday, exemplifies "some of the worst traditions in Israeli politics."

This is a problem that the new administration needs to work on. The problem with this new government is that it could start another war just like the one we have on Afghanistan and Iraq at the moment. I worry that the United states is too concerned with other countries, while we are in trillions of dollars in debt and are struggling to keep our own economy floating. I think the United states needs to back off from trying to save other nations while we struggle to save our own.

Editorial #3

The article I read was called, What Left Turn? and It was all about what obama has been doing right and how he has been working on keeping his promises. The author talks about many subjects. On the war in Iraq,ahe says that Obama has, stepped back from his brigade-a-month withdrawal plan and stretched his 16-month departure timetable to 19 months. She continues to defend obama the entire article and say how amazing he is for doing what he is doing. I don't believe this is exactly the correct approach to take because yes Obama has made mistakes, its okay to admit that. He's only human. We can't ask too much of him. She continues to talk about social issues and how Obama has proceeded largely as promised during the campaign. She then talks about his education speech that he made and not only defended him but also criticized other for their opinions. She ends the article by saying " But these are different questions from those about Obama's supposed radicalism. He's doing, or trying to do, what he promised, smoothed out by the real-world demands of governing. How shocking is that?" Basically her overall point is that everyone needs to calm down, Obama will fulfill his promises eventually. Just with the economy today, it takes time.

Editorial #2

While skimming the Washington Post I came across an editorial called The Balancing Act. This caught my attention so I decided to read on.

I found that this article was all about the economy and how things have changed very much since the Bush Administration was around. Leaders of the Group of 20 nations met in Washington on Nov. 15 and since then President Obama has replaced George W. Bush. A new economic team is in the United States. And the financial crisis that Obama inherited has, intensified. The G-20 finance ministers will be meeting in England this weekend. And they will definitely have their hands full with what is going on today.

It continues to list the problems the group will be facing and how all the different countries should work together to help the economy reach normalcy again. It was a very informal read and I really want to hear what happens at this meeting and what agreements they make.

Editorial #1

So i found an editorial all about how few pardons George W. Bush gave at the end of his term. Bush actually gave very few and the editorial criticized him for this. The author continued to talk about how there is no point in having the power to pardon if you dont use it to it's full extent. Also it speculated that the reason for so few pardons was because of all of the drama after Clinton's term. Personally I think Bush didn't want to create anymore drama than he already had with the war and the economy. Hopefully Obama can use this power to the full extent to show how it is truly supposed to be used.

Final Post for Second Quarter

This quarter many things have happened in the United States. Obama appointed his Cabinet members, Gaza was attacked, our economy sunk even lower than before and more and more jobs were lost everyday. Yet, here in Northern Virginia, we have felt nothing from this. I talk to my aunts and uncles in other places around the country and they are getting laid off, put on paid leave and things of that sort. But here, no one that i know of has really felt the effects of the crisis. At the same time i dont know if we really have a right to call it a crisis. More than half the people around the world live on less than three dollars a day, and a third of those people live on less than a dollar. Yet, when our economy drops, and maybe we lose a bit of our wealth, everyone goes into a panic. I wish people could understand this is not the end of the world. It just means we have to limit our spending until we get back on the right track. Okay I will get off of my soapbox now. Hope you enjoyed!

Post 4

I saw this political cartoon and found some very serious humor in it. Everyone thinks it is okay to make fun of bush and blame him for all of our problems. In reality it is more of Congress's fault for passing most of the laws that put us where we are today. I am glad that a whole new Congress is starting up and hopefully Obama can reach the change he is looking for. I'm am very worried for our country Over the next few months and hope that things finally take a turn for the better. I'm sure Obama's administration will do a great job, they just might take some time to get there.

Political Cartoon Number 3

I found a pretty funny political cartoon that has Obama watching CNN and deciding that he wants his reporter in his cabinet. In a way I agree with this political cartoon because some of the choices he has made for his cabinet I really don't agree with and I feel like he is making the decisions just to make certain people happy or to close political deals that he may have made. I hope that he is making the right decisions and that his cabinet will be helpful. I am still very skeptical about Hilary Clinton and I do not think that she will be able to live up to our most recent Secretary of State. The first 100 days of his presidency should be interesting.