Tuesday June 29

Throughout this we have discussed many topics. Such that include the BP Oil Spill, immigration bill SB 1070, and the flaws in American Education. All three of these subjects are very controversial and touchy topics. They have definitely created a big problem for the Americans. I believe that the most harmful current event to our economy is the BP Oil Spill. Even though it has slowly faded away behind the curtains of politics, it remains a major problem for America. The spill has not stopped since it started on April 20, 2010. Today, it is June 29, 2010 and the oil is still leaking with no signs of slowing down. There was an estimate that seventy thousand barrels of oil were being spilled each day (Maestas, 2010 ). Billions of dollars of oil have been wasted, the whole Gulf Coast is contaminated with oil, and the people that lived and worked in or along the Gulf Coast have lost almost all of their business. It is a very horrendous scene. I believe that this disaster has the whole country angry because it has been approximately three months, and there has been nothing done to stop the leakage.

There are those out there that blame our President, Barrack Obama for not being able to stop the oil spill. Well, to those people I would like to say, “He is our President, not Superman!” I believe that Mr. Obama is doing the best he can to possibly stop this disaster. I don’t believe that he is enjoying seeing this oil spill taking over the waters of the Gulf Coast. He is taking the necessary procedures to help maintain the spill. The President has also talked to the BP officials and he has made it clear that they need to figure out the how to secure this spill (Jones, 2010)

If anyone should be held responsible, it should be BP. They were deep water drilling and they knew the consequences of it, but they continued to drill, even though they did not have the proper technology to use in case something was to happen to the drilling rig. This clearly shows the irresponsibility of BP. What the despicable part about this is that BP said that it has twenty billion dollars set aside to compensate those who were hurt by the spill, but the residents that were near it haven’t received the money that they deserved. If BP can not run their company with right morals and integrity, then maybe they should be shut down because all they have done so far is hurt Americans.


Jones, Jeffery. "Obama, Cameron to Discuss BP Oil Spill Crisis - Yahoo! News." The Top News Headlines on Current Events from Yahoo! News - Yahoo! News. 12 June 2010. Web. 29 June 2010. .

Maestas, Aislinn. "BP Oil Spill - One Month and Counting - National Wildlife Federation." Home - National Wildlife Federation. 20 May 2010. Web. 29 June 2010. .

- Ali Raza

Thursday June 24

The education of American students is being hurt by the tough economic times of our country. The trimming of school budgets by state legislatures has led to school districts receiving less state funding. What this means is that, since school districts have less money, they have to cut back on some novelty education materials, such as computers and other technological items (Rieman 2008). I believe that this is very dreadful because the majority of the students in high school use computers and technology. I mean if you don’t agree with me, then go as a kid if they have a Myspace, Facebook, or Twitter. I am sure that you will find out that the majority of the kids do have one of these three social networks. Therefore, the generation of students of the present has the access to these technologies outside of school, but when they are in school, they are stuck reading out of a tedious textbook.
Bad grades can both be the fault of the student, or the teacher. There are two parts to this story. Some teachers are friendly, kind, and passionate about teaching and building relationships with their students. To me, these are considered to be good teachers. I believe that because personally, when a teacher likes what he/she does and takes the effort to construct a relationship with his/her pupils for the year to follow, it just makes a student feel more wanted and urges the student to learn. The persona of a bad teacher is one of those teachers’s that just puts you to work right away, without explaining anything. These teachers just make me angry. They aren’t teaching you anything by making you read a book. They are just passing time so they can get a pay check. Just because you have been teaching for thirty years, it does not mean that you are a good teacher. It just means that it was nearly impossible for someone to fire you, so they were left with no choice, but to let you remain as a member of the faculty. Teachers are somewhat accountable for the way that their students perform. If the teacher is a good teacher and has taught the class properly, then the student should have no excuse to perform poorly. That is unless the student doesn’t care about their future or their present. Those students are just a waste of time and a desk. They shouldn’t even bother waking up early in the morning and coming to a place of education to just take up oxygen that can be used by someone else who is motivated to do something in their life.
The “Race to the Top” is a program created by the Obama Administration that focuses on giving states grants upon the progress they make in their schools. It is a 4.3 billion dollar race that will help the economy and the schools get better. The most important thing that this program is set out to do, is to motivate students, teachers, and schools to competitively perform at an elite level of education and to raise their standards (Hamilton 2009). I believe that this is a very good program. It sounds like it can help out many schools. Maybe the schools will finally realize that the tenure teachers that are teaching their classes with obsolete methods are hurting the students rather than helping them. Hopefully this reform causes change in many schools throughout the country, and the respect for an American education is rejuvenated.

Hamilton, Justin. "President Obama, U.S. Secretary of Education Duncan Announce National Competition to Advance School Reform." U.S. Department of Education. 24 July 2009. Web. 25 June 2010.
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Rieman, Heather. "The Economy and Education- Will the Budget Crunch Facing States Affect Education Spending | New America Blogs." NewAmerica.net. 31 July 2008. Web. 25 June 2010. .

- Ali Raza

Monday June 21

SB 1070 is a very controversial reform that the state of Arizona is trying to go through. It is said to deport an estimated twelve million illegal immigrants back home. There are obviously two sides to this political and social reform. There is the side that supports SB 1070, and there is also a side that is against the reform. The supporters believe that the economic cost of illegal immigration is taking its toll, especially in Arizona. According to a recent study by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, Arizonans paid 2.7 billion dollars in 2009 to support illegal immigration. The amount of money to support illegal immigration does not cover the amount of money that it cost the state to deal with the increase in violent crimes and the rise of the drug cartel in the state. (Stopa) I am a supporter of SB 1070. I believe that if a person is not in America legally, then anything that they do in this country will be illegal. Also, in these tough economical times, Americans need help and support. They need jobs to feed their American family. When illegal immigrants come into America and take the jobs of Americans, it hurts the people of our country, and I think that US citizens deserve to be in a better situation than the people that aren’t legally living in our country.

On the other hand, there are some people that are against Arizona’s new reform. They believe that SB 1070 is unconstitutional and immoral because it requires the use of racial profiling. Racial profiling is prohibited by the law, but in order to accuse an illegal immigrant of reasonable suspicion, there has to be a tie with the race of the person. What some people will argue is that, many illegal immigrants are being targeted by the police because of their skin color. They will claim that America is supposed to be the land of the free, but it is taking away freedom. Some other people believe that there will be a loss of culture and values if the 12 million illegal immigrants are deported.

Michael Stopa. “Why the Arizona immigration law makes sense here, too.” Boston Globe 15 Jun 2010. US National Newspapers. Proquest. Web. 17 jus. 2010

-Ali Raza

Wednesday, June 16.

There are many economical and political implications resulting from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. First of all, the leak is a very large amount and it can have a severe negative impact Gulf Coast region. There is an estimated seventy thousand barrels of oil that are being leaked every day into the ocean. That is very hazardous for the region itself and the creatures that dwell in its habitat. Another problem that is going to be created by this large oil spill is that people may have to pay more for the products that are made with oil, or products that rely on oil to operate. One very large issue that is to be brought up as a concern is that many of the fisherman and businesses along the Mexican Gulf Coast are and will be suffering quite heavily from this disaster. They have already lost their jobs and lifestyle. When Obama took office, America was in a pretty bad shape, considering the recession, war, and unemployment rate. This oil spill really hasn’t helped him with getting people work, instead, it has backfired.
Yesterday, President Barrack Obama addressed the nation upon this matter. He discussed how the oil spill is affecting the country, and that his administration is doing their best to fix the problem. I believe that they are, but I am just one person. What does America believe? This long period of solitude between the Obama administration and the head officials of BP has made the American public wonder about what in the world is going on, and why isn’t a solution to this problem arising. This can be very dangerous for President Obama because he may lose some supporters that he had. If this crisis isn’t handled in the timeline that the President has given it, people might even turn against him. He can have a tough time getting re-elected. This oil spill is considered to be “Obama’s Katrina”. Is he going make sure that it gets fixed before America turns against him… let’s hope so.

-Ali Raza

Monday, June 14.

I agree with the saying that there is no such thing as a free lunch. You are paying for your lunch no matter what. The people that do get free lunch have it paid by our tax dollars. They are still technically paying for their lunch, but since their families are listed in the category of "free lunch" they receive that luxury of saying that their lunch is for free. But in reality, nothing in this world is for free. Somebody, somewhere, had to have paid for that food that is being labeled in the free lunch category.

Personally I would rather be in a position to be able to buy my own lunch then to be in the free lunch category. This is because the people that do receive free lunch are obviously having troubles making ends meet. Some of the cause might be because of the great recession that we are going through. Maybe, a child’s lunch is least of the parents’ worries. However, I would rather pay for my school lunch then have financial problems in my home.

- Ali Raza