BP Releases Video of Oil Leak

Now alot of people know that alot of oil is spilling into the Gulf of Mexico and landing on beaches along the Gulf, but actually seeing the oil and gas spilling from the ocean floor is an eye opener. About 200,000 gallons of oil each day is entering the ocean, and in the first 21 days of the oil spill, almost 4 million gallons have spilled into the Gulf of Mexico.

The below is a video from abcnews showing the oil and gass spewing into the Gulf of Mexico.

When it comes to our environment, I'm definitly side with the Democratic Party

On the issue of our environment, I am seen as very progressive. I do agree that using oil like it is a renewable resource is not the best way for our world to go. We need to look for new technologies or materials to use in the future: like briquettes that are being tested, as a sustainable fuel source, in Kenya.

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is devistating. Although the oil spill occured in late April, the effects are still being felt today. One example of its effects is shown by just looking at the picture above. The bird and the water around it is covered in oil. Unless this bird is cleaned soon by volunteers, it will most likely die. I think that our culture and the rest of the world needs to come up with a solution soon: to our environmental problems of too much carbon emissions being caught in teh atmosphere, not having sustainable fuels, and not having enough sustainable transportation.

An action that is being taken is stated by BBC News "Bundles of absorbent material have been laid along the shore of Dauphin Island in an attempt to protect the resort area." Another action that has been taken is placing a large dome over the leaks.

Republicans

In my opinion the Republicans have more strengths than weaknesses. A quote from GOP that shows a Republican strength is that they "believe in the value of voluntary giving and community report." A weakness from the same source is that they "support low taxes because [they think that] individuals know best how to make their own economic and charitable choices." From yestodemocracy a great weakness that they have is that "Republicans have readily dismissed global warming as being a threat despite all the scientific research that has been conducted". Although this is true yestodemocracy also stated that "in recent years, they have been warming up to the idea that this [global warming/climate change] could be a viable threat".

Another large amount of weaknesses shown on the onetheissues.org website have to do with abortion, gay rights, and our environment. The Republicans think that there should be a "Human Life Amendment" added to the Constitution, and that Abortions should be banned with the legal help of a Constitutional Amendment. The republicans view on homosexuality is very blunt. They want to act upon creating a constitutional amendment that would ban all same-sex marriages, and they support the traditional definition of marriage of a man and a woman getting married.On the subject of our environment. Republicans think that there should be no mandatory carbon emission controls, and that "Cap-and-trade market-based air pollution" restrictions should be reduced.

Democrats

The Democrats have many strengths and weaknesses that help people to choose what political party they affiliate themselves with. To help you decide here are the major strengths and weaknesses, in my opinion, of the Democrats.

In my opinion, since I affiliate myself more with the Democrats, there are many strengths.

From the following links 1, 2, 3, 4, many facts and statements are given. Most Democrats believe in higher minimum wages to help with the working poor. Democrats usually oppose tax cuts for our economy and "typically favor higher taxes"says yestodemocracy. Also on the topic of taxes, many Democrats think that the richer and larger companies should pay higher taxes that the lower earning and poorer people. The Democratic party, as money matters thinks, has a "strong stand on affirmative action, welfare for the lower class, unemployment labor unions, and immigration." When it comes to education, college, and money, Democrats have a great view. They want to "aim to provide low-cost publicly funded college education with low tuition fees and increase availability of grants and scholarships" and that "college tuition [should be] tax deductible." In a short and sweet Democratic view on Abortion, Democrats believe in easy access to birth control, public funding for contraception for the poor, and believe that choice is a fundamental right that all women (should) have.

On the issue of our environment the Democrats have many views and suggestions. From ezinearticles most Democrats want to "strengthen environmental protection laws and impose stringent sanctions on polluters". Money Matters says that Democrats believe that "we cannot drill our way to energy independence". Also that we need to "Develop renewable energy and efficient vehicles. [And that our governments should] Invest in technology and transportation [that is] friendy to the earth".

Discrimination and Gay rights is also an important issue that people look at when deciding what political party they affiliate themselves with. Ezinearticles states "[the Democratic party] believes that discrimination against persons because of their sexual orientation is wrong, and they support adoption rights for same-sex couples". Ontheissues thinks that "Racial and religious profiling is wrong, and that there should be affirmative action to redress discrimination". The also think that marriage laws should be kept at the state level, not the federal level.

In my opinion, from the above given links there are two main weaknesses of the Democratic party. They "believe in the use of military force against those responsible for attacks against the United States, [and that] we do not have to choose between our economy and our environment"

2009-2010 Community Service

PART 1
There are many problems going on in the United States. The issue that I worked on was Education. Education is an important development of knowledge that lets students acquire many things for their life. Whether the student is young, old, or disabled, they all can learn knowledge, skills, training or instruction. The reason I chose education as my community service is that I think education is the most important problem that is currently at hand in the United States. The status of education in the United States is depleting. In effect, due to the current failing economy, the United States Educational system is going through tough times. The United States with a depleting educational system not only will affect our country, but the rest of the world. Many countries, developed and developing, depend on the United States, for resources, money and technology. If our education system starts to deteriorate, the world will start to deteriorate. Developing countries will lose money and resources including food. This will lead to them not being able to improve, and "come up" in the world. United States citizens not being as educated as in the past, will also lead to a possible halt in the advance in technology. I believe that the world should not have to suffer for our mistakes.
PART 2
The status of schools around the United States is upsetting. Since State Budgets are reducing due to the current economic state, schools are losing their funds that they depend upon year after year for many different things. The money that the schools are losing are resulting in many problems. One example is that schools are being closed. Some schools are being closed due to under enrollment; others are being closed due to their poor physical condition. In Washington D.C.,:

in three cases, [the education board] decided to soften the impact of the deeply
unpopular decisions by promising to modernize or rebuild the schools while
students were relocated... Parents in each community were told that new or
vastly modernized buildings would be ready within three years. But the school
system's $200 million-a-year capital program, which has delivered gleaming new
facilities such as Phelps Architecture, Construction and Engineering High School
(Ward 5) and the Wheatley Education Campus (Ward 5), faces a budget squeeze as
tax revenue declines and deficits mount,

this squeeze of money may, in fact, prolong this time they have projected for creating the new buildings.. Another reference, to the effect of loss in school funds, is some school districts are thinking of "scaling back to a four-day school week, and adding an extra hour or so to the remaining days." Four-day-schools is not a new idea to the United States. Some South Dakota school districts have been using four-day schools weeks since the 1930's,:

It was adopted by districts in New Mexico when the 1970’s energy crisis hit, and
the number of districts across the country switching to four days has gradually
increased with each economic crisis, according to the nonprofit, nonpartisan
Education Commission of the States. Currently, out of 15,000 districts
nationwide, the ECS estimates 120 districts in 17 states use a four-day week.
They are typically small, rural districts, mainly west of the Mississippi
River.North Branch, Minnesota, school district superintendent Deb Henton says
her district has cut more than $10 million out of its budget since 2003-2004,
and without the four-day week, 'we would have to look at additional cuts and
adding more students onto teachers who already experience a very high class size
in their classroom on a daily basis. For example, some of my high school
teachers see 215 students a day.'

Deb Henton makes an excellent point. Instead of stressing out the teachers, and making it harder for them to teach, by teacher larger classes, making four-day weeks not only helps reduces the costs each school produces, it helps the teachers teach, and the students learn. The reduced week also lead to an increase "in staff and student attendance".. The third major effect to the budget deficit of states, and schools is having to lose or replace administrators and teachers. By replacing administrators, and teachers, less money will be used on staffing because they are newer staff that do not have as high of a salary as those who have worked at the school longer.

There are many things that the government is doing to help with the economic state of the United States, and the school boards who are struggling to keep schools open. One action that Obama administration is taking is giving money to failing school districts. Together Tennessee and Delaware were given $600 million to jump-start their failing schools... In total across the country "$900 million in grants and another $50 million being given to the school districts in the United States and 5,000 of the nation's worst schools [will get] back on track over the next five years."Other school districts in the country will be receiving money.

The Obama Administration also has come up with the "crazy" idea that dropping students from student loans because the government does not have the money to supply them with the coverage they need. This will reduce the number of students that will go to college. I think that this is wrong because I think that all people should have the possibility to get a higher education. The health care bill will be eliminating:

a $60 billion program that supports private student loans with federal
subsidies and replacing it with government lending to students". Out of the
total $61 billion in savings over 10 years, $36 billion will go to Pell grants,
and smaller portions will go "towards reducing the deficit and to various
Democratic priorities, including community colleges, historically black colleges
and universities, and caps on loan payments.
The Pell grant in the pastonce
covered more than two-thirds of total costs at a public university... [but] now
covers about one-third... the maximum grant could be scaled back by more than
half to $2,150 and at least 500,000 students could be dropped from the
program... So if this legislation did not pass, you would see catastrophic cuts
to the Pell grant program, effectively slamming the door shut for hundreds of
thousands of students, if not millions, who rely on the Pell grant program to go
to school
said Rich Williams, higher education associate for U.S. PIRG, the
federation for state Public Interest Research Groups.

PART 3
What needs to be done in order to make our education system better is to give more money to the school districts that really need the money. Some school district out there may be getting more money than they need. If that extra money and more money from the government go to schools that lack the sufficient funds to keep their school open, then more children will be able to get their education. If schools that are having to stop their extracurricular activities get money, that can give a chance to students to get a college education. Without their extracurricular activity, they may not be able to get a scholarship to go to school, or to get a job. What our school systems need, besides more money, is people who are willing to tutor others, whether for free or for pay. My community service of tutoring a student will help not only her, but also our country. If because of the tutoring, she is able to pass high school, and go onto college, she will be an example of what our school systems need. If there were not tutors or "aids" in the world, we would not be where we are today. More people would be dead because without nurses, doctors may not have the time to do everything. Scientists may have not found the cures to diseases without the help of their aids, and technology may not be where it is today. Without aids, who knows, we may be creating technology that, in this time was created 50 years ago.

Tennessee and Delaware win the "Race To The Top" competition

Even though Tennessee and Delaware were not favorites in the top 16 states to get the money, they won the U.S. Education Department "Race To The Top" competition. The total amount of money given to different states by the Obama administration to help support failing school districts is a whopping $4.3 billion (where the heck are we getting all of that money??).

"Tennessee chosen because 93% of the teachers unions supported its proposal so did every single school district, school board and business leader in the state ... also because Tennessee has a law that is tough on teacher accountability and allows the state to take over chronically failing schools "

Delaware also "had unanimous support form educators and politicians it too has a tough new law that rates the effectiveness of teachers and principals the state was rewarded 100 million dollars".

State Board Of Education Looks At Alisal Schools

State educators considered "new sanctions on the district (Alisal Union School District) that has consistently failed to meet state standards". In the last 15 minutes of the meeting locals, parents, and teachers were able to give their concerns. Their main concern was the appointment of an inexperienced superintendent John Ramirez, who would earn $168,000 a year for three years, with the "hiring of former superintendent Zendejas as a consultant with a pay of $14,000 a month for 10 months".

After being suggested to become a "temporary trustee on behalf of the state", Dr. Nancy Kotowski says that "she's filled that role of a trustee before and would do it until the state board appoints a permanent trustee at the next meeting in May".

Although Alisal Union School District is having trouble keeping up with state standards, I do think that they should be able to get money to help correct their problems so they can hopefully meet state standards in the near future.