Abortion? Critique of Ms. Michaud's Post.

After reading Ms. Michaud's article on Abortion, I found myself agreeing with almost everything she said. As someone who is pro-choice, I find it hard to agree with what President Obama was quoted as saying that everyone who is pro-life are terrorists. I don't agree on so many levels. Everyone has a right to do with their body as they please. I agree with her stance on Oklahoma having strict abortion laws. I mean, what does race have to do with having an abortion? I believe that what you do with your body is your own personal business, I think that's where government should draw the line. I don't think government should dictate what a woman does with her body. Plus, if we overturn Roe v. Wade then you'll have women getting botched abortions which leave them unfertile or worse they wind up dead. I hope I never see this in my lifetime or any lifetime for that matter. I also agree that it shouldn't be tax-funded. It is not health care. Although I think that we should atleast help these women financially to afford it. Although I agree with what Ms. Michaud stated I would've liked her to delve more into the history of abortion and why it's important for us to retain Roe v. Wade.

Million Dollar Men

"Pricing an Afghanistan troop buildup is no simple calculation" states Christi Parsons & Julian E. Barnes of the Los Angeles Times. The White House' estimate is double the Pentagons estimate for how much it would cost year to send an additional 20,000-40,000 troops to Afghanistan.

The Pentagon publicy estimates that it will cost $500,000 a year for each additional troop sent to Afghanistan. The White House nearly doubled that estimate. Both the White House and Pentagon have different methods as they have different priorities that come into play. The White House has said that the reason the price is so high is that they don't want to underestimate the cost and lose public faith. Both sides state that these numbers are merely estimates and could change at any time. President Obama is expected any week now to respond to requests from his Commander in the region for a strategy change and for additional forces. They could announce the increase of 20,000-40,000 troops shortly after Thanksgiving.

I don't think they should be sending anymore troops over to Afghanistan in my opinion. We have already lost enough troops, we need to start focusing on what's happening here and deal with that. We need to pull out of this war as soon as we can, it's pointless and unjust. I don't want to have to spend my tax money to send troops there if I don't want to. I hope President Obama does what he intended to do in the first place, send the troops HOME!

It's about time to end this war

It's about time to end this war is an opinion piece in my classmate Ana's government blog, in her piece she urges President Obama not to send 40,000 additional troops over to Afghanistan to fight this so-called war. Stating that "about 36% of our tax money goes to this war while only 30% is used for human resources."

I think this is a good piece. I like the way she emphasizes how much of our money is put into this war and how more and more countries are pulling out of this war. She puts alot of stuff into perspective and tries to make us see that there's really no point in sending more troops. Although this is a good post I would've liked to know how many casualties throughout this whole war we have lost. But other than that it was a really informative piece and I enjoyed reading it very much.

Pres. Obama passes new Hate Crimes Law

Today, Pres. Obama signed in to law the Matthew Shepard & James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. This law expanded on the 1969 United States federal hate crime law to include crimes motivated by a victims actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. This law is also the first ever law in the history of the U.S. federal government to extend legal protections to transgender persons.

This law is named after 2 victims of bias-motivated crimes in the United States, Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Matthew Shepard was a student who was tortured and murdered in 1998 in Laramie, Wyoming because he was perceived to be gay. James Byrd Jr. was an African-American man who was tied to a truck by 2 known white supremacists, dragged from it and decapitated in Jasper, Texas in 1998. In both cases, we as a nation got a personal look at the sickness that intense hatred and prejudice wreaks — a hatred based on someone's perceived otherness, be it the color of their skin, religion, ethnic origin or sexual orientation. It is a hatred that fuels a violence that terrorizes not only the victim, but others who may share similar characteristics.

I think the passage of this law will lead to more laws being passed that protect and recognize LGBT persons and other groups of people. I think this has a opened a door for more laws like this one to be recognized and brought to people's attention. This has given hope to gay right's activists saying that this could advance more issues like the repeal of DOMA, repeal of DADT, and passage of ENDA. I feel this sends a powerful message across America: That hate will NOT be tolerated. I feel that this is just the beginning. This really is the first federal gay rights act, so it is truly an historic moment that we must celebrate. I think this is America acknowledging homophobia as a social problem.

Analysis of the Obama Speech

From AMERICAblog Joe Subday writes, "While we know someone at the White House,spent part of the weekend dissing progressive activists and bloggers, I found it interesting that many in the traditional media used blogs as sources for their reporting on the President's big gay speech." Arguing that while the Obama Administration denounces blogs as sources, the media still uses them as credible sources.

Posted on 10/12/09, Analysis of the Obama speech in the traditional media, tells us that while these sources are being discredited in the White House, still alot of people look to them for sources or answers.For example this quote in the Washington Post from gay rights activist and editor of AMERICAblog.com John Aravosis,"Many gay rights activists are disappointed that Obama has not moved forward on two major issues: ending the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, under which gay soldiers can be discharged for their sexual orientation; and his failure to work toward ending the Defense of Marriage Act." This reporter didn't talk to John directly, he found the quote in a blog post. Joe Subday's audience is of course readers of AMERICAblog.com, people who are for gay rights, and people who want President Obama to answer those tough questions that need to be answered. I think that this was a good post about how the White House can easily dismiss anything they see harms them, but we as a nation still look to those credible sources for answers or insight. I agree with Joe 100%, President Obama needs to start answering the tough questions and not just circling around it, giving us misleading questions. He needs to start living up to those campaign promises and just not tell us what he's going to do. He needs to do it. I think this was a really credible post, I didn't find anything that struck me out of the ordinary. All in all, this was a very good post and I enjoyed reading it.

Where the war is leading us.

From the Austin American Statesman commentary page, Ruben Navarette Jr. of the San Diego Union-Tribune remarks, "You can place a top general in Afghanistan, but you can't tell him what to think." Arguing that Pres. Obama has refused to listen to Gen. McChrystal's request for 45,000 additional troops in Afghanistan. The Administration isn't ready to consider that option.

Posted on September 27, Navarette:Where the war is leading us, tells us that Pres. Obama has refused to make a decision on what to do in Afghanistan and hasn't given Gen. McChrystal the tools he needs to do what is necessary. The author's intended audience is right wing conservatives who are dissatisfied with the way things in Afghanistan are being dealt with. He says that Pres. Obama's own arguments about what to do aren't really persuasive either, and then gives us an example to prove this argument. He then tells us that this has nothing to do with the Afghan elections, it has to do with politics here at home. He states that according to "a CNN/Opinon Research poll, researchers found that only 39 percent of Americans favor the war — an all-time low — and 58 percent are opposed to it." He then goes on to say that McChrystal doesn't understand why Pres. Obama said that Afghanistan is a war of necessity, if he won't supply them with the tools to do what is necessary.

I really don't understand why we're still there in the first place. I say we just leave, I don't even think we should be there. Americans aren't gonna be safe just because we "won" this war, it's just gonna make even more people hate America. I say we focus on real problems here before we worry about other nations. Afghanistan doesn't even pose an attack on us, it's Al-Qaeda and not Afghanistan as a whole. What we need to do is worry about the Health Care Crisis and not about how we're gonna "win" a war that doesn't even need to be won.

"I am not going to apologize again." the South Carolina Republican said on"FOX News Sunday" when asked about the pending disciplinary actions taken by the House. Joe Wilson stated that he apologized to Obama, and that Obama accepted it, and that should be enough. However, he insisted that Obama "was misstating the facts." Republicans insist that there is nothing in the proposal that prevents illegal immigrants from getting free insurance coverage. He also noted that Senate Finance Committee members have called for enforcement mechanisms similar to what Republicans are proposing. House Democrats plan to censure Wilson if he refuses to apologize on House floor next week. Wilson added that he respected the president and "would never do something like that again."

Wilson: No more apologies for outburst against president