State of the Union

    President Obama gave his 2011 State of the Union address on Jan. 25. President Obama started his speech by mentioning the Tucson shooting and Gabrielle Giffords.

Many people attending the speech wore ribbons in memory of those killed and wounded 

at the shooting and a seat was left open in Gifford’s honor. Some of the victims families sat with Mrs. Obama. 

      The speech focused on education, the economy, the deficit and clean energy along with several other things. Obama wants to increase spending on education, infrastructure(like high speed rail), clean energy and high speed internet. He said to prepare for 100,000 new math, science and engineering teachers to improve math and science education. Obama also wants to put in place plans for 80% of American’s electricity to come from renewable resources and 80% precent of American’s to have access to high speed rail by 2035. He also wants businesses to deploy high speed wireless to 98% precent of Americans.

          He asked americans let go of their differences to compete India and China, saying we need to “out-innovate, out educate and outbuild the rest of the world.” Democrats and Republicans, who usually sit on opposite sides, sat together during the speech for the first time.                      

     Obama also talked about budget cutting to reduce the deficit. With a five year freeze on spending in some domestic programs that could reduce the deficit by 400 billion dollars in ten years and a 78 billion dollar cut in defense spending. Despite this Republicans do not believe he is doing enough to decrease the deficit. Obama did say he would veto any bills with earmarks, trying to please Republicans. 

     When talking about the heath care bill, which many Republicans want to repeal, Obama said “lets fix what needs fixing and move forward.” He said he did not want to re-fight the battles of the past two years. Obama said the country can not afford the permanent extension of the tax cuts for the rich. Extending the tax cuts was part of a deal with the Republicans and they took it as a bad sign when Obama said he wouldn’t extend them.        

     President Obama finished his speech by saying, “The state of the union is strong because the future is hopeful.”

My sources were:

    > The New York Times- Obama Calls for Bipartisan Effort to Fight for U.S. Jobs- http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/26/us/politics/26speech.html?_r=2&ref=todayspaper

    > The Wall Street Journal- Obama: U.S. Must Compete- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704698004576104134043682882.htmlmod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories 

    >NPR- Obama: “Our Destiny Remains Our Choice”- http://www.npr.org/2011/01/26/133219913/obama-to-urge-a-united-focus-on-jobs

    >Huffington Post- State of the Union 2011: Speech, Reaction and Commentary-http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/25/state-of-the-union-2011-s_n_813477.html 

    >The Washington Post- Obama Challenges the Nation - and Republicans - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/25/AR2011012507377_2.html?hpid=topnews&sid=S   

    

Extreme Winter Weather Causes Debate Over Global Warming

  A large blizzard hit the east coast on December 26, 2010, causing widespread problems. One of the worst areas hit was NewYork City. The Blizzard shutdown the city’s three major airports and stopped trains. It was the six largest snowfall in New York

City’s history with twenty inches of snow.

     The clean-up of the blizzard has been slow causing officials to examine the response. The slow response left streets unplowed for days and many passengers were stranded on trains and in the airports. On Dec. 26, all flights were canceled at the Kennedy International Airport and the Newark Liberty International airport in New Jersey, but some flights did come out of La Gaurdia Airport. The flight

cancelations totaled 4,000.                                                                                                

    The New York Department of Sanitation has taken heavy criticism.  It’s workers have been accused of being purposely slow in their response because of anger about recent budget cuts. Some workers have said that their bosses ordered them to slow down. New York City’s Department of investigation is deciding wether to conduct a formal investigation. 

     Along with the people stranded, thousands of people were without power from the sixty-five mile per hour winds and falling trees. Five people died in car accidents during the storm.

     The recent cold has caused people to question global warming. Some Republicans have said that global warming is ending and that it was a hoax. This si a big blow for many left wing democrats because they support global warming and climate change where as the right wing republicans support big industry and spending. Many global warming experts now say that the recent cold temperatures are actually a sign of global warming. Some weather predictions have shown that January could be the coldest for the U.S. since the 1980s. Scientists have said that the melting sea ice and rising temperatures have caused changes in atmospheric pressure that has affected the jet stream, changing the way cold air moves.

Also the melting ice has created more moisture in the air which has turned into more 

snow over in Siberia. Some of the weather fluctuations in the US and Australia are due to the rise minimal rise in water in the ocean. Although the rise was small it created massive fluctuations in weather patterns. This was cause by there being more area for the sun's rays to reflect which caused the weather patterns to shift due to a small amount o cooling. When the weather patterns changed both countries were very unprepared which resulted in a catastrophe for them. In the US it shut down most of New York City and in Australia it resulted in a flood the size of Germany and France combined.

       Scientists do not completely understand how the melting ice will affect the climate, but its affects will increase as more ice melts. The cold weather has caused an increase in global warming skeptics. Studies have shown that the number of believers increases after an unusually hot summer and decreases after a very cold winter.

       Despite of the recent cold 2010 turned out to be one of the warmest years on record and the past decade has been the warmest decade on record. Also the record 

highs have increased compared to record lows to two record highs for every record low.

   I believe this is important because Global Warming is a major world issue.

     

   

My sources were: 

    >The New York Times-Science-Snow and Snowstorms http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/snow_and_snowstorms/index.html?scp=3&sq=northeastern%20blizzard&st=cse

    >CNN U.S.-NYC Officials to Probe Response to Last Week’s Blizzard-http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/01/04/new.york.snow/index.html?iref=allsearch 

    >The Scientific American- “Bulge” in Atmospheric Pressure Responsible for Cold Winter Amid Global Warming-http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=bulge-in-atmospheric-pressure 

    >The Washington Post-Record Warmth in 2010 Despite Cooling Influences- http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitalweathergang/2011/01/2010_dominated_by_record_warmt.html

     >The Wall Street Journal-Fear of a White Planet-http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203513204576047741057676566.html?KEYWORDS=global+warming