politicsplace

Governor Rod Blagojevich of Illinois is right now making his closing statement in his impeachment trial. According to reports his statement will be an hour and a half long. He wants to bring in witnesses and have his day in court. He is allowed to say what he wants and no one can ask him any questions. This is the only day that he has attended in his impeachment trial. He keeps talking about all these good things that he has done. He has been on a press tour for the last few weeks. Geraldo Rivera is even defending the man now.I do not think that Blagojevich was ever trying to help the people of Illinois, only himself. He is calling on a few senators to be witnesses for him but I doubt they would actually attend, and Patrick Fitzgerald would not let anyone be called. What do you think about the impeachment trial of the governor?

Pesident Barack Obama gave his first television interview as President of the United States to an Al-Arabiya. I have to say that after watching the interview I was impressed. I think it was important for people in the Muslim world to know that they should not fear Americans. During the eight years of the Bush administration, Muslims could not relate to us because our president was constantly talking about war and invading countries. President Obama mentioned that he has family members who are Muslims and that he has lived in Muslim countries. He has a world view and I think that some people in the Muslim world will like that about the president. I mean you are more likely to negotiate with someone who knows a little bit about you and your way of life than a person who just does not want to understand you or the people who are from your country. Hopefully, this interview will help the war on terror so that so many people in other countries will not fear us and try to harm us. What did you think of the interview?

The first stem cell research study will be conducted this summer. The study will deal with people who are paraplegic. The study will be done on people who cannot walk bu can move their arms. The study participants will get an injection of stem cells to see if it will help their health situation. There will be about ten people involved in the study. This study is very controversial because many people debate if it is right to use embryonic stem cells since they come from embryos. I am on the fence about this subject. I think embryos should be protected, but I also think that there needs to be a way to help people with medical conditions that might benefit from the use of embryonic stem cells. What do you think about this topic? Should we use embryonic stem cells in scientific research studies?

Caroline Kennedy decided to take her name out of contention to be the person who replaces Hillary Clinton in the senate. I think that Andrew Cuomo is much more qualified for the senate job. Now, Governor David Paterson has until Saturday to name the new New York senator. I think that Caroline Kennedy did the right thing. Most New Yorkers were not happy about her submitting her name to be in contention for the senate seat. What do you think about this development?

Today was the first full day of work for our new president, Barack Obama. He froze the senior staff’s pay. He also made ethics training mandatory. He had an order drawn up to close Guantanamo Bay.He even retook the oath of office because of the problem that John Roberts had yesterday afternoon with the words. He is taking his new job very seriously. What do you all think of Obama’s first day in office?

Today was the big day! Joe Biden has been sworn in as our vice president. Barack Obama is now our forty fourth president. I watched this historic inauguration at home. I felt so relieved when he finally took office. The inauguration is simply a formality because at noon the president elect becomes president anyway. President Bush is finally gone. He left Andrew’s Air Force base and is headed to Midland,Texas. Many people went to the inauguration. I doubt there will ever be that many people at an inauguration  ever again. Today begins a new chapter in the lives of all Americans. Hopefully, our problems will be solved. I know it will take years to repair the damage that was done during the last eight years. I am hopeful though. Today, we all feel like anything is truly possible. How did you feel about the inauguration? I thought that the new President gave a great speech.

President Elect Barack Obama is inspiring millions of people across the globe. Every day, I read articles about how Obama has inspired people. He just has something about him that makes people think anything is possible. His ground game was quite impressive.Thousands of people took time out of their busy lives to campaign for hm. He was able to raise millions of dollars from donors. He captured the attention of many people. He can give a great speech and speaks passionately about issues and hope. As inauguration day nears, I would like everyone to  leave me a comment as to why they think Barack Obama inspires people. Then,I will compile a blog posting about it next week.

Today, I watched some of the coverage of President Elect Barck Obama, his wife Michelle, Vice President Elect Joe Biden , his wife Jill and their guests go on their train tour. The train tour started in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and ended in Washington, D.C. MSNBC, CNN, and even Fox News covered the train tour. Many people flocked to the stops that the train would make. They wanted to just get a glimpse of Barack Obama. Barack Obama and Joe Biden both made remarks. As we all know, Joe Biden has taken the Amtrak train from Delaware to Washington every day for years. It was a great send off for the man. I really thought that the train tour was a great idea.Many people are so involved in this election and they want to be a part of history. What did you think of the train tour today? Did you like it?

Bank of America is getting even more bailout money. They are getting twenty billion dollars more from the Treasury Department. This is outrageous. We need to stop making this bailout an everything must go sale. The only people who are benefiting from this bailout are banks and large corporations. It is very unfair. Bank of America had a  loss of almost 2.4  billion dollars during the fourth quarter. They are asking for even more bailout money to pay off the losses that they had when they purchased the assets of Merrill Lynch. Bank of America knew how bad the assets of Merrill Lynch were before they purchased the company. If I remember correctly Merrill Lynch was in great financial straits before Bank of America purchased it and there were even rumors that it would file for bankruptcy. Why should tax payers have to absorb those losses for Bank of America? Our tax dollars should go to what the tax payers need- and we need to be able to survive. The government should worry about us before the banks. What do you think?

Hillary Clinton is now officially going to be the country’s next Secretary of State. In a vote of 16-1, she was confirmed. I watched some of her confirmation hearing. It was incredibly bring. John Kerry especially made me want to nod off. How he was not elected president of the United States, I will never know. He kept naming books that he had read. It was like a bad episode of Oprah’s book Club only for people who need a nap. Hillary Clinton is now again a very powerful woman in the United States of America. She is very qualified for the job so I am glad that she got it. What do you all think about this development? Do you think that Hillary deserves the job? I mean being secretary of state is a very important job. The world is in disarray right now with there being a conflict between Gaza and Israel.