Current Event #4

I currently read an article titled Travelers Cleanse the Soul, and the Ears, in Holy City. The article was about the huge railway networks in India and the people who ride them. More specifically, the author wrote about the railway to and from Haridar, an “ancient city where Hindu pilgrims come to pray and conduct funeral rites”. Entire school classes opt out of riding the bus to school and choose to ride the dirty and often late trains. When asked why she loves the trains so much, Divya Dhawan says “It’s like time stops”. There are very few places left in the world where a person can spend hours doing nothing. These railways are one of them.
I found this article to be a nice read. It was interesting to see how people across the world live their day to day lives. There is no way that I would find a six-hour train ride filled with tons of people in cramped cars appealing. But more and more people are turning away from their cars in favor of the train. Even though I find their lives strange, maybe those people in India would find us Americans weird. The difference in culture is fascinating.

Week 5-Election Post

Two of the most important words of the 2008 Presidential election are used to describe Florida, Ohio, and Virginia. Those words are: Swing State. These three states are among the most pivotal in this election for two main reasons.
1) Traditionally, Florida, Ohio, and Virginia vote Republican. However, this year all three of the states are showing signs that they might vote Democratic. Because of their past decisions in the previous elections, both parties are fighting hard to win these states.
2) Florida, Ohio, and Virginia have tons of electoral votes. Florida has 27. Ohio has 20. Virginia has 13. Most of the states have fewer than 10. The massive amount of electoral college votes these states have make them key states for the election. Which ever one of the candidates wins at least two of these states will have a strong lead over the other presidential nominee.
If I had to make a prediction on who would win two of the states right now, I would have to say that I believe that Obama will win Ohio and Virginia.
Ohio has Democrats in both the Senate and as their Governor. Right now, polls show Obama with a slight lead over McCain in this battleground state. I think that Obama will be able to hold his lead up through the election.
Virginia is a slightly different story. Recently, Virginia has been leaning more and more Democratic, which is surprising due to the state's Republican history. Northern Virginia is at the forefront of this political shift, leading the rest of the state in its Democratic ideals. The last factor that makes me believe that Virginia will vote Democratic has to due with who is running for the State's Senate seat, Mark Warner. I believe that his popularity will have a positive impact on the Presidential race for his fellow Democrats.

Week 4-Election Post

Polls, polls, polls. Everywhere I go I hear about political polling. As the country gets closer to election day, more and more polls are created to try and figure out who the next leaders of our country are going to be. While these handy political guages can be useful, they can also have huge affects on the final outcome of the election.
There are many differenct polling companies. Luckily, their results are fairly the same. The pollsters at NBC show Obama ahead of McCain in Ohio and Wisconsin while those polling for the Star Tribune have Obama winning in Minnesota. It is safe to say that theses polls are pretty acuarate because the information was found on one of McCain's websites.
On a more local level, both Rasmussen and NBC show Warner beating Gilmore in the VA Senate race. Because many of the polls have the same information, it is a good bet to say that the numbers are correct. Many polls are accurate because they are random and include large numbers of citizens from all of the different social classes.
So how does all of this polling info affect the regular citizens, the "Joe six-pack"s and "Joe the Plumber"s if you will. The collected data helps inform the public on the currenct feelings and opinions towards the many elections in the United States. A negative impact caused by these polls is that some citizens may be influenced to vote one way or another depending on the poll results. A person who would not normally vote at all may read a poll and decide to vote for the underdog.
This does not mean that the end result of an election will be based on polling information, but as polls become more and more accurate, we may eventually know who will be the next president weeks before the actual election. I do not know about you, but I find that idea kinda scary.

Current event: week 3

There was an article in the Washington Post last week titled "There’s a Gold Mine in Environmental Guilt". The article was about the environment and the economy. While the economy continues its downward trend, Carbon-Offset Sales have remained steady, and, in some cases, have continued to grow. The upper-middle class is the largest group of people who buy these carbon-offset deals. One of the concerns of the article was that this group of people has “not been hit hard by the weakening economy. Yet.” When this group does feel the economic pain, speculators wonder if the guilt boom will cease to be a factor in these purchases.
I can understand a person wanting to help the environment, most people do. I can even understand how some people would not want to have their dirty carbon trail behind them for the world to see. What I don’t get is why people are still paying for this type of luxury when there are other more important things to pay for, like food, gas, and a home. Even if the upper-middle class has not been greatly affected by the economic problems the rest of America is going through, one would think that they would cut off the some of the not-so-necessary commodities that they may have grown accustom to. I think that it will be exciting to see where this guilt buying leads to in the near future.

Election Post: Week 3

This week, instead of focusing on the Presidential Election, I am shifting my attention to something a bit more local: the Virginia Senate Seats. There are three main candidates for these coveted seats this year. They are Mark Warner (D), Jim Gilmore (R), and Glenda Parker (IG).
Mark Warner is a former Virginia Governor. He wants to clean up the state and help out the economy
The Republican running against Mr. Warner is Jim Gilmore. Gilmore is also a former Governor of Virginia. His main goals are to keep America running on oil and to try and help out Virginia with it's economy.
Last, but certainly not least is Glenda Parker. Ms. Parker is of the Independent Green Party. She has a Masters Degree in Business Administration from Central Michigan University. Just in case you were wondering, Ms. Parker lives in Fairfax County.
There are many issues at stake in this year's election. At the moment, the economy is probably at the top of the candidates' lists of problems that must be addressed. Trying to become a greener state also ranks high on the most-talked-about-issues list. It will be interesting to see how each of the candidates handle these tricky topics in the weeks to come.
There are many Virginians who already know who they want to vote for. A current Rasmussen poll shows Warner up by over 20 points. It will be interesting to see how this holds up over the next few weeks. In fact, it will be really interesting to see how this election compares with the Presidential election. Will two Demarcates take both President and Virginia's Senate Seats? One can only hope so.

Current Event:

This week, there was an article in the Washington Post titled "HUD Sets Aside $95 Million To Ease Foreclosures in Area". The article explained how HUD has a plan that will help states fix their housing problem. If a state can write up a plan to help fix their individual housing and mortgage problems, HUD is prepared to give them a sum of money to start them off. In reality, the amount of money that would be granted to each state and to individual counties is not that much, but at least it will get the ball rolling.
I think the plan sounds like a good idea. At least HUD is willing to offer up money to help solve the problem. Plus, the idea that the states and other local governments have to write up their own plans (even though the plan must fit within certain guidelines) is a great idea. Because each state's problem is unique to itself, the thought that the states must fix their own problems is a good one.