" I screwed up"

Many people wondering on how Daschle's withdrawal with effect President Obama's health care agenda. Daschle withdrew his nomination because of controversy surrounding his tax record. Finding a new head of the Dept. of Health and Human Services is imperative because 50 million Americans do not have insurance. Most agree this is definitely a setback for the president.

Super Bowl

Before the Super Bowl started the station aired a interview with Obama. I noticed that he was very relaxed. Matt Lauer didn't talk much about important issues, they focused mainly on his personal life. Matt joked about getting Obama's e-mail address. I also was skimming channels and saw that Rachael Ray was interviewing Michelle Obama's hair dresser ...... I understand that the Obama's are interesting people but already they seem over exposed.

Mock Congress

I thought that our mock congress was extremely entertaining. I noticed that a few rep. didn't vote with their party in mind like Tessa and Grace. Kate did an excellent job was the speaker. I was disappointed that Hillary's bill didn't pass because I liked her idea. We could have been more professional during our stimulation but I thought it went very, no one freaked out. I think Kate Connor's bill brought up an interesting idea. I think that the government should help those in need but those people should also be trying to better their situation. I don't feel sorry for those on well fair that aren't doing anything else but sitting on their couch. I want that money to go to some deserving family with children that can benefit from the help. I was surprised Virginia was the only one with an environmental bill.

"Congress Filibuster"

In article "Senate Moves Wilderness Bill Forward" the 111th Congress is moving a wilderness bill extremely fast. The Bill would protect 190,000 acres in Southern California and was introduced Mary Bono Mack (R-CA). With a filibuster threat from Tom Conburn (R-OK) this same bill was not passed in November because of Conburn's filibuster. Because of the filibuster threat cloture was used in this instance. The cloture rule is the only formal procedure the Senate has for breaking a filibuster, which is an attempt to block or delay Senate action on a bill or other matter. Under cloture, the Senate may limit consideration of a pending matter to 30 additional hours of debate.With 58 Senate seats, the Democrats were able (with some Republican assistance)to obtain the three-fifths majority necessary to eliminate the filibuster and limit debate on the bill. The final vote was 66 for cloture and 12 opposed. Twenty senators did not vote.

This article supports what we have been studying because Congress was able to pass this bill even though Conburn filibustered because they were able to gain three-fifths majority necessary to eliminate the filibuster. This is an example of how there are multiple ways to get a bill passed even if some oppose. I thought that is was also interesting because we had talked about Senators not voting and in this case twenty did not vote, maybe if more had voted this bill would not have passed so easily.

http://www.towncrier.com/stories/story.2.20090115.html

Mr. Smith

I thought the movie was very interesting. I liked the idea of a good man coming into a corrupt government. I guess a lot of politicians were upset about this movie because it portrayed politic ans as crooks. I thought it was interesting that while the Speaker was reading the bills out loud not all of the Senators were present and some of them seemed so uninterested. I know that a lot of the movie was made up but that part seemed realistic to me. I was glad that Mr.Smith was cleared of his charges, I was actually worried there for a bit that he would be marked a guilty man. The idea of the senators being controlled by a political machine was very interesting, I wonder how normal that is. It was a pretty good movie I guess.

Inauguration

Wow 2 million attended Obama's Inauguration ! That is the most ever (I think). I thought that it was interesting that Obama used his middle name because he thought that would create a bridge with the Muslim world. I liked his 18 min. speech a lot. I liked how he addressed building strong ties with other nations, I think that is very important because we pissed off a lot of countries while Bush was in office. Boy did Bush look pissed when he left the inauguration. I was crazy seeing so many people cyring, this has to be the most influencial elections of my life time. I don't remember Bush's two inaugurations being this BIG. I thought using the Lincoln bible was a cool idea, I heard that if the weather had been worse they would've have been able to use it because they were afraid it could be damaged.
All in All an awesome event, wish I could've been there.

Oh and by the way I don't believe that Cheney hurt his back "moving"

In Praise of Pork

p. 183-187

I laughed quiet a lot when I saw that Bush wanted to cut $5.7 billion of pork barrel projects to help reduce the deficit (If he ended the war in Iraq and Afghanistan that would help too). I do agree that asparagus research and mink reproductions projects seem like a waste of time but pork barrel projects also seem like a good idea if it goes to good use like road repairs etc. Like Edward M. Gramlich puts it, "one guy's pork is another guy's red meat." If it helps unemployed men get jobs by building a new road than that is good right ? I don't know I think the whole pork barreling thing is pretty confusing ... I understand that many think it's a waste of money but at the same time pork ensure that taxpayers get something for their money.