Disappointed..

   Disappointed is a word that comes to a lot of American's minds whenever the subject of Mr. Obama's presidency is brought to surface. According to pollster.com, Obama's approval rating is steadily declining. His approval is plunging, while his disapproval continues to climb. He is doing a lot of things differently than previous presidents, but I think a lot of this gloom is caused by the expectations everyone set for his term. There are, and always will be, some people who just flat out do not support Mr. Obama, but the group who is more saddened by this are his supporters, who had high hopes and dreams for his presidency. With all his promises of change, he filled people up with an air of excitement. I think a lot of his support came from the usually unaffected people. He found a way to reach out and grab the attention of America, something presidential candidate's careers highly depend on. He popularized his campaign. He made it appeal to people of all ages. Never before have I seen in my entire life teenagers running through the halls of a public high school wearing t-shirts with the face of a presidential candidate plastered all over them. Kids starting fights in his name! Whether it was in a positive way or because of negative reasons, he got the attention of even the most oblivious people. He made politics interesting, and supporting him become some what of a popular fad. I honestly believe THAT is why he won. He filled every one with hopes and dreams of change, even more so than most presidential candidates of the past. A president only has so many capabilities. No matter how many promises someone makes, they are not real until they are executed. Below is an excerpt, written by a man named Lincoln Mitchell from the Harriman Institute of Columbia University, I liked from a well written article I happened upon, pertaining to this subject. 

"Barack Obama's presidency, while far from being a failure, has been something of a disappointment to many of his initial supporters. The noise from people on the far right who question the president's place of birth or believe him to be a socialist because he passed a stimulus package that many economists believe to be too small and a health care bill that will lead to millions of new customers and new revenue for the insurance companies, has overshadowed some of this. However, Obama's disappointed supporters are far more important to his political future than angry opponents who never have and never will support him."

A Little Bit About Amnesty..

GOP Lawmakers Want Explanation of Draft Memo on Amnesty for Thousands
Published July 30, 2010 | FoxNews.com
   Amnesty, in the context of the law, as defined by dictionary.com is, "An act of forgiveness for past offenses, esp. to a class of persons as a whole." 
   Apparently immigration officials in the Obama administration are pushing to "provide a so-called non-legislative version of amnesty." A group of Republican lawmakers wrote the Obama administration asking if any large scale plans are being made. "The lawmakers cite an 11-page draft document written by staff to the director of the Citizenship and Immigration Service that says they are reviewing several executive orders and other mechanisms that effectively would serve as a substitute for comprehensive immigration reforms." 
   The objective is to promote "family unity, foster economic growth... and reduce the threat of removal for certain individuals present in the United States without authorization." So basically, it seems, all these things that the U.S. has been doing to try to discourage illegal immigration and remove the people who are here illegally, will go down the drain if this legislation is passed. 
   Personally, this makes no sense to me. You would not have to worry about threatening "family unity" if people would simply complete the legal processes required to become a citizen. I am a strong believer that if you want to be a part of our country you need to go about it the honorable way and go through all the legal and necessary processes. 
   I have personal experience with this issue as a family member of mine recently married an individual from out of the country. They went through all of the legal processes as one is supposed to do, and now less than a year later, they are happily building a family together, the honorable, and legal way. 
   This is a very informative article and I would highly recommend reading it.

A View on the Presidency

"A Year and a Half of President Obama" is the title of the article. The description under this heading is "Team Obama marks 18 surprisingly incompetent months in office." It talks about the disappointment and the ineffectiveness surrounding Obama's presidency. How he had such a promising campaign and inauguration, but his presidency has just been "incompetent" so far. The author of this article, I believe, is trying to appeal to the population of Americans who are less than happy with the way Obama’s presidency has gone so far. He is trying to convince Americans of the inefficiency of Obama’s presidency so far. He’s trying to tip the ones who are just on the edge of believing all this is true, trying to show the people that are unaware, what has been going on. The author, Deroy Murdock, a writer for the National Review, goes into listing the many accounts of evidence that he believes makes this true. Such as how Mr. Obama shipped off a statue of Winston Churchill, the "legendary statesmen," a very prominent figure in our history, who helped drive Adolf Hitler to suicide among many other great things, who was given to President Bush shortly after the 9/11 attacks. The author sees this as a very disrespectful move that even, "The last thing a nine-year-old would do is send a gift back to the giver." The author goes on to bring up more prominent cases, such as many time-wasting and frivolous acts Mr. Obama has committed, continuing to appeal and try to convince his audience of his views. He hits on the sore subjects of un-kept promises; favor gaining promises that he swore, unlike other politicians, he would keep. In my opinion he holds a fair argument. The author seems like he has done his research and has a lot of evidence backing up his claims. It is a very interesting, and at times, humorous, article and I would recommend it for reading.

What America is Thinking..

The article i posted a link for is a somewhat short article that includes a video, but still I find it interesting. I was scanning through some of the main media pages and came upon this entry. It lists a number of poll outcomes regarding some major political issues. It is interesting to read because it gives us insight into how the thoughts of the American people are changing. I am always interested to see what the general population is thinking about current issues.

52% down to 43% - The number of Americans who say the war in Afghanistan has been worth fighting.

56% down to 45% - Obama’s approval rating for handling the war.

42% - Say the war in Iraq has been worth fighting, (about the same as for Afghanistan.)

71% - Support removing all remaining U.S. combat troops from Iraq.

60% - Support keeping up to 50,000 non-combat troops there in a supporting role.

These are just a few of the results. Go to the link below to read more.

A Little Bit About Me.

This is a blog i created as part of a requirement for my college government class. I am taking this government class because it is a required class in order to obtain my degree in International Relations and Global Studies, and Linguistics. I am hoping that this class will help to refresh and expand my knowledge of government and the way it functions. I feel this increase in knowledge will benefit me in my everyday life, in the pursuit of my degree, and also in my later endeavors.

When it comes to politics I think I definitely lean a little more towards the conservative side, but I base my voting off of the people and what they stand for rather than political party affiliation. I took a short little typology quiz and it told me that I most closely resemble survey respondents within the Upbeat typology group. This does not mean that I necessarily fit every group characteristic or agree with the group on all issues. (http://typology.people-press.org/typology/results.php)
Here are some of my thoughts on major topics today:
I believe that you do not get anywhere, nor do you deserve to get anywhere, without hard work, patience and a positive outlook. When it comes to abortion I believe the woman has the right to choose whether she wants to have a child or not, up until that child is a full fledged individual. I am not saying I believe it is right, but I think it is up to the woman because after all it is her body that the child resides in. Same Sex Marriage: I think people should be able to do whatever makes them happy. "Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness." When it comes to wars I do not condone violence nor sticking our nose where it does not belong, but there are some bad people in this world and we need to do what it takes in order to keep this country safe and secure. Freedom is definitely not free so if terrorists want to come knocking on our door then they better watch out because, "It'll feel like the whole wide world is raining down on you. Ah, brought to you, courtesy of the red, white and blue." (Toby Keith, "Courtesy Of The Red, White, And Blue") The Death Penalty: I do support the Death Penalty. I think that there needs to be no doubt in anyones mind that the person being punished in fact did commit the crime, but if they did commit a crime that treacherous, then they deserve the punishment. The Environment: I believe if we want our children and grandchildren to have a beautiful place to live we need to start taking better care of our planet. It is a very important problem to me. It is so easy to do little things to help, so do your part.

Those are just the basics on my views. There are so many important issues going on today that I could never elaborate on them all.