Latest Obama Poll

I read an article that dissected the lastest poll about Obama from Times/CBS. It found that more than two-thirds of the poll’s respondents call Mr. Obama a different kind of politician, while just 1 in 4 say he is a typical politician. When those who called him different were asked what sets him apart, most said it was more a matter of his style of governing and his personal qualities than his policies.Like with everything, partisonship does come into play- a broad majority of Democrats and independents say Mr. Obama is different, compared with fewer than half of Republicans. Republicans and conservatives are among the most likely to view Mr. Obama as a typical politician, with more than 4 in 10 saying so.

College Asks Donors to Meet Financial Aid Need

I read an article on the NY Times website that would interest us as college students.Colleges and universities now are appealing to donors to help meet the huge demand for financial aid. Hampshire College in Massachusetts raised its financial aid budget 7.5% to 21.5 million because of donations from fundraisers. At this school and many others across the country, the financial aid demand for the 2009 has increased. Chapman University in Orange County said that their financial aid increased 88%.In some cases students will send letters to the donors telling them of their finanical needs and dreams. In other cases galas are held where money is raised.At the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, fund-raisers are telling potential donors that some $30 million in requests for aid remain outstanding. The endowment is down 25.6 percent, and Governor Perdue has proposed cutting state financing to the University of North Carolina system by 5 percent. They are now trying to get donors to increase their donation. I think it is a good idea. There are plenty of people in this state that could help colleges out.Every donation counts for something and will add up.If it means that 10 more students can go to school, I think it is a success.

Mad About Michelle-The Nation

I read an article by Katha Pollitt talking about controversy over our first lady, Michelle Obama. The author thinks that the reason there is so much obsession with her being different is that some of us are threatened by her. She has beauty and poise. She works at homeless shelters and feeds the hungry and she is also six feet tall.Then the author slams this piece in an article written by David Samuels:
"There are clear limits to Michelle's ambition. She went to excellent schools, got decent grades, stayed away from too much intellectual heavy lifting, and held a series of practical, modestly salaried jobs while accommodating her husband's wilder dreams and raising two lovely daughters. In this, she is a more practical role model for young women than Hillary Clinton, blending her calculations about family and career with an expectation of normal personal happiness."
Pollitt concludes that Michelle Obama made almost 300,000 last year as as head of community affairs for the University of Chicago Hospitals. That is almost twice as much as President Obama as an senator. I think everyone needs to accept Mrs. Obama. Yes, shes different than what we have seen before but this is the twenty-first century. First Ladies can show a little arm or leg and wear Versace and it shouldn't be a big deal. You would think people would be more worried about the economic situation than what she is wearing.

Foreclosure Crisis Hits Warp Speed

I read an article about America's foreclosure problem. About 6 million families could be facing foreclosure in the next three years. Recently, we've heard a lot about trying to help people stay in their homes with President Obama's $275 billion foreclosure-prevention package, but like the article said, it hasn't came through yet. NeighborWorks, an organization that helps out in community development said they were having a hard time tracking those that have already been foreclosed because in the past they had just focused on prevention.
A representative for that company says there are two types of people-those who lost their homes because they were unable to keep up with payments on poor mortgages, often with interest rates that were too high or those who are unable to make mortgage payments because they've lost their jobs. This crisis has increased the number of homeless people and those who must live paycheck to paycheck.There is some financial aid coming to those victims but NeighborWorks says it may be too late.
I couldn't imagine losing my house and we have been lucky not to, but it seems like my family has been living from paycheck to paycheck for years. I don't live in a house with a mortgage, because we couldn't afford it in the first place, but I'm scared that the job market is so bad that we are in danger of losing what little we do have.

Unexpected Increase in Factory Orders

I read an article about the unexpected rise in manufacturing orders such as metals, machines and military equipment.The Commerce Department said that orders increased 3.4 percent in February after a 7.3 percent decline in January. Orders for machinery, transportation equipment and computers and electronics rose also.The rise was even better than economists had hoped. Although the recession is still very real, hopeful investors did lift stock markets some 20 percent over the last two weeks. My husband works for a government contractor and has been getting alot of overtime in the past two weeks.
Not only this, but On Monday a report was released saying sales of previously owned homes increased 5 percent after a 10-month decline, which is good news. Unfortunetly, the median price of a new home fell to $200,900, down from a peak of $262,600.
Obviously the economy is nowhere near in good shape, but it is nice to hear some good news.

Clean Coal?

We have all seen the "Clean Coal" commericials and they are actually pretty funny, poking fun at Obama's hope for clean coal technology. Opponents to this, including Al Gore, say that there are more negative issues to this than positive. First of all, they are against mountaintop removal. My family is from the Appalachian mountains in Pikeville so I can relate to this concern. If any of you have seen the documentary "Sludge" about the drawbacks that come from mountaintop mining, you would see the opposition's point also. Secondly, the price of converting coal to clean, not to mention the research that goes into it would be ridiculous!One project announced in 2003 was envisioned to cost about $950 million dollars. The project was to be a 285-megawatt lab that would test advanced clean coal technologies. One of the positive things clean coal is said to do is generate power at lower cost than other fossil fuels. According to the Energy Information Administration, October 2008 electric utilities paid "2.19 per million BTU", as opposed to $6.94 for natural gas and $16.68 for petroleum."According to the article though, a 2008 study estimates that adding this technology would increase the capital cost of a power plant by half and that doesn't even include the costs of transporting and storing the captured CO2 or operating costs. Third, the clean coal technology still releases detrimental gases into the environment.
This new technology is a nice thought and would help the U.S. become more energy independent but personally I don't believe it can ever happen. As Obama said "Why couldn't be do this, because we put a man on the moon!" I think theres more of a chance putting a whole colony on the moon than cleaning up coal emissions.

America's Municipal Meltdown-AlterNet

I read an article on AlterNet.org about America's tough economic crisis and the effect on each region of the U.S. The story starts off by talking about a town called Elkhart, Indiana which has reportedly been hit harder than almost any other town in the U.S., with an unemployment rate of 15% while the rest of the country was at 4.5% on average. This town is called the "RV Capital of the World". The Daily Show's Jon Stewart joked,"Imagine your main industry combines the slowdown of the auto market with the plunging values in the housing sector." Though it was a joke, it is the hard truth. This is the story of many once-booming small towns all over the country. Another is Dalton, Georgia or "The Carpet Capital of the World". Another is Lehigh Acres, Florida, a community that houses carpenters and pest exterminators, that went bust in a county that between June 2007 and June 2008, lost a higher percentage of jobs (8.8%) than any other in the nation. In the East, companies such as Fruit of the Loom in Rhode Island and even local newspapers have cut endless jobs. In the Southern Appalachian town of West Jefferson, North Carolina, "the town and the neighboring county seat of Jefferson have lost more than 500 factory jobs -- a number equal to 20 percent of the town's population." In the West, the same story.In the town ofEl Centro, California, there is a 22.6% jobless rate. This is reportedly the highest rate in all metro areas. But as I read on, I found that small towns aren't the only ones hurting,but large cities also. New York City, for example, lost 65,000 jobs in the last months of 2008. Whether your in a small Appalachian town or a huge metropolis, you can't hide from the job crisis in the U.S. Locally, jobs are being cut left and right at the Toyota Plant in Georgetown, leaving its former employees wondering what they are going to do. Personally, I feel the woes because my dad had a prominent mobile home business for the past ten years that has almost went under in the latter two. Hopefully before it gets any worse, we get relief from this crisis soon.