politicsplace

President Elect Barack Obama is moving to Washington DC this week with his family. His daughters Sasha and Malia need to start school so he wanted to move to Washington DC now. They are going to be staying at a hotel until they move to the White House after Inauguration Day. I feel for the President Elect’s daughters, it would not be fun to live in a hotel for three weeks. They also have to leave their home and adjust to a brand new school system.It will be an adjustment for them to have their father be the President of the United States. You will constantly be reading about him and you lose all of your privacy and anonymity. Most of the young girls who come out of the White House act appropriately and responsibly after their fathers leave office. They are photographed all the time, yet celebrity teens end up on episodes of E! True Hollywood Story. Why this is? Who knows.I hope that the Obama family’s move goes well and that the girls can quickly adjust to the new changes that they are facing.

I was watching the news the other day and I heard about the controversial song about President Elect Barack Obama. The song is called Barack the Magic Negro. I cannot believe that I am writing about this. I mean the title of the song is bad enough. A Republican by the name of Chip Saltman sent a CD with the controversial song on it to other members of the Republican party.The CD is called we hate the USA. Mr.Saltman managed the campaign of Mike Huckabee. Rush Limbaugh played the song in 2007. It is set to Puff the Magic Dragon. I really cannot believe that Mr. Saltman did this. I mean Barack Obama is reaching across the aisle with his cabinet selections and this guy is mocking him and insulting him because of his race. This man is the next president of the United States of America and to say that he hates the United States is just disgusting.The president Elect deserves respect as do all African Americans. This man is in public service and he is distributing this song. This is not bringing the country together, it is really distasteful and disheartening.

I heard today on the news that teenagers who take pledges to remain virgins until they are married are just as likely to have sex than those who do not take a purity pledge. I went to a private school, where girls took purity pledges. Some of them ended up getting pregnant because they did not know about sex or birth control. If your boyfriend also takes a purity pledge and you do end up having sex then chances are you will not use birth control because you will not have access to it. Abstinence programs do not work in my opinion they leave teenagers unprepared for the world around them. Teenagers need to know about sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy, birth control, and the consequences of having unprotected sex. If you keep a teenager too sheltered then when they go to college they will be unprepared for what real life holds. We need to decrease the teen pregnancy rate.

Again, the world is in unrest. Israel has been dropping bombs on Gaza and now the Israelis may invade Gaza by using a ground troop invasion. The UN Security council wants this to stop but the Israelis are doing what they want. I had had such high hopes that the Christmas holiday season would be a peaceful time. I guess that I was wrong. Many of Gaza’s people are trying to escape by going to Egypt. This actions by the Israelis needs to stop. The heads of government for Gaza and Israel need to come together and work out a compromise. Killing people and taking military action is never the solution. It just makes chaos, terror, sadness, and pain. The Middle East has always had issues keeping the peace. When we were younger we all said we wanted to see peace in the Middle East before we got older. Now, I am almost thirty years old and there is still so much unrest in the Middle East. Peace is a small word but it takes so much hard work and time to achieve.

Joe Biden seems like such a great gentleman, He still takes the Amtrak train home to Delaware. He is such a breath of fresh air to the post of vice president. He seems like a people person whereas Dick Cheney seemed to be secretive and closed off. I feel like we can all trust Joe Biden. He has years of experience in politics but can have fun and laugh. He seems like a very intelligent person, and really shows that he wants to be in public service for all the right reasons. I saw him on Larry King Live and I have to say that I was impressed. He answered the questions eloquently and he seems like he enjoys talking to people, even the media. His daughter and his wife were killed in an accident many years ago but you can still tell that the man is still hurting from his loss. He has a wife named Jill, who is a teacher. He always talks about her so you can tell that he is a family man and loves his wife and family. His son Beau is even serving in Iraq. I think that the changing of the guard at the vice president’s office will be a smooth transition. Joe Biden is a great man and will be a great vice president.

I read a poll that says that seventy five percent of  people in the United States of America are glad that President George W. Bush is done and will be leaving office. Twenty three percent of people said they would miss him. Now, I think those twenty three percent are late night comedians who have made millions of dollars off of telling jokes about President Bush. I think Jay Leno and Jon Stewart especially will miss “the decider”. A new era is coming upon us. On January 20, 2009 Barack Obama will officially be our forty fourth president. Whether you agree with his policies or not you can tell that he will be a totally different president than George W. Bush was. It makes our country feel rejuvenated when a new president takes the oath of office. You feel like anything is possible. We all know that usually the government does not do a lot of good things for the average person but maybe this presidency will be different. We can only hope.

According to the news, President George W. Bush made a surprising move and made twenty four appointments. On Wednesday, he appointed twenty four of his White House officials and supporters to three or six year terms on government councils or committees. This is surprising. I guess he is trying to repay those people who worked for him and supported him  for the last eight years. I guess he was trying to keep people employed in the bad economy that he made. I do not know if these appointments can be overturned by the Obama administration but I am guess that either they cannot be or they will not be overturned by the Obama administration. George W. Bush has about twenty five days left in office. That is three weeks and four days. president Elect Barack Obama will take the oath of office on January 20, 2008. I am very, very happy about that. Merry Christmas everyone!

The election still is not over in the state of Minnesota. Al Franken and Norm Coleman came to an agreement about the rejected absentee ballots. Their agreement states that they would only count rejected absentee ballots only if both of them agreed that they were not supposed to be cast aside in the first place. The Minnesota Supreme Court needs to read and review the agreement that the two men made and then decide what they will do about the rejected absentee ballots.The court had said that the deadline for the recount was December 31, 2008. However, it does not look like the recount will be completed by then.Al Franken is currently ahead by a small margin of votes. This is surprising because Norm Coleman was ahead for most of the recount process. Hopefully, we will have an answer soon, but I expect that the recount will go until at least the first week of January if not longer. This recount has taken forever, considering election day was on November 4, 2008.

Rush Limbaugh, who annoys me to no avail has said that he thinks that the Democrats, especially Senator Charles Schumer of New York started the economic crisis to get Barack Obama elected. I am sorry to say here Rush, that you should thank your best friend forever, President George W. Bush for starting the economic crisis. His wars have cost tax payers billions of dollars. Rush Limbaugh needs to stop inciting hate. If he wants to place blame then go after the Bush administration, who had warnings that there were economic problems, yet they did nothing at all. I love how he also blames the media. The economy has been bad for over two years, which was before Barack Obama even decided to run for president. He should also thank Sarah Palin because she brought down the ticket for McCain, she was the butt of jokes and no one took her seriously. The Republicans always think the economy is great, they need to talk to real people and get the 411 on what actually is happening in this country.

The Obama administration transition team has received three hundred thousand resumes for job positions in his administration. There are only around eight thousands jobs to fill. This means that thousands of people will be disappointed when they do not receive jobs in the President Elect’s administration. President Elect Barack Obama’s administration is a historic administration. he is our first African American president. Many people feel inspired and want to take part in this historic administration. Barack Obama gives people hope and it would be fun and motivating to work for someone who was the under dog and worked hard to achieve the American dream.I will not be surprised if he gets thousands more resumes before he is inaugurated in January. I wish that I could work for him, but I do not live near Washington, D.C. It must be hard to sift through thousands of resumes. I feel bad for the people who have to do all of that reading.