Farmhouse for a dollar

A farmhouse in Leesburg is being sold for a dollar the only catch is you have to move the house off the land. The house is really of no historic importance, but in times like these I found it odd that people would still be willing to move a giant house anywhere. Also moving the house would be a huge hassle because you have to move utility lines out of the way and it would cost more depending on how far you have to move it. Would a house be something that people should really be investing right now is what I am wondering.

Judy Chu

After listening to Hilda Solis's speech, I quickly went into the football field to take a picture with Judy Chu, the current Vice Chair of the California Board of Equalization. Unfortunately, we could not take a picture with Hilda Solis.

GM to cut 21,000 US factory jobs, shed Pontiac

Finally GM starts to do something on its problem. Since GM has been lost a lot of money in pervious years even in the time that the economy is growing, GM should have been resolve its problem earlier by improving their car models and restructuring their management and workers' health care. Their management is responsible for losting numerous of money and part of the government debt.

The problems with GM is that their cars are not competitive with the German and Japanese cars, that means GM has to work more on that and should try to earn money to return to the government that not to be a bad factor of the country to move away from capitalism.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090427/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gm_plan

Judy Chu and me

After Hilda Solis' speech, I saw Judy Chu and take a picture with her. We were so close and almost can take a picture with Hilda Solis but she left when it is our turn to take the picture.

Judy Chu

during the hilda solis event this last sat we meet judy chu...we tried to get hilda solis but there were just too many people

Chrysler Wins Union Concessions

The United Auto Workers announced Sunday that it has reached a tentative agreement on concessions in its contract with Chrysler LLC -- a key step in final efforts to help the automaker avoid bankruptcy.

Looks like there finally may be some hope for the troubling automaker. But i have a hunch that any tentative agreements will not last long. Unions are to blame for many of the problems. When a union demands something, depending on demands a company may or may not agree depending on profits. If it is not profitable then there is no incentive to accept demands but instead to decline. during union strikes there is always heavy losses to both sides depending on which side has the least losses determines who has the upper hand. If every major corporation was unionized there would be major problems. Of course Unions would want more benefits and companies want more profits. Because of this there will be constant gridlock and nothing would get done. chances are many things we take for granted would not be available anymore. That is why counties without unions do better and are more competitive.

Democrats near agreement on budget

President Barack Obama's Democratic allies in Congress have agreed to allow his signature $400 tax cut for most workers expire after next year but are moving to give him a better chance at passing his health care bill.Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Friday that most House and Senate negotiators have resolved most of their differences over a congressional budget blueprint designed to advance Obama's agenda through Congress. The measure will set the rules on how Congress considers Obama's agenda for the rest of the year.Lawmakers are rushing to agree on the budget framework in time to give Obama a victory within his first 100 days in office. Late-night talks Thursday produced the framework of a deal that would protect his ambitious plan to overhaul the U.S. health care system from a Republican filibuster. As you can see Obama is trying to pass legislation that would favor him. since he has more than half of the seats in Congress, he wants to give Democrats far more control over the specifics of the health care legislation.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30391669/

Top U.S. Military Leader Offers Help to Mexico

Mexico could borrow from U.S. tactics in the fight against terrorism as it battles a crisis of drug-related violence along the U.S.-Mexico border, the top U.S. military officer said Friday.
Returning from a six-day trip to Latin America punctuated by news of beheadings and intimidation by Mexican drug cartels, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said the United States could help with equipment and intelligence techniques.
Adm. Mike Mullen would not be specific about what kind of intelligence or surveillance help the United States might offer, but said he saw ways to employ experience the United States has gained in the ongoing hunt for extremists and terrorists.
He would not say whether there may already be U.S. drones flying over bloodstained cities such as Ciudad Juarez, where 17 bodies came into the morgue on one day recently, including the city police force's second-in-command and three other officers.
"Obviously it affects us because of the relationship between the two countries," Mullen said during a telephone news conference as he flew to Washington following meetings in Mexico, his last stop.
Mullen referred to the spike in violence as a crisis, and said it occupied much of his discussions with Mexican military leaders.
More than 1,000 people have been killed in Mexico in drug-related violence this year. In 2008, the toll doubled from the previous year to 6,290. Both the U.S. and Canada have warned that murders related to drug activity in certain parts of Mexico, particularly along the border with the U.S., raised the level of risk in visiting the country.
There are signs the violent competition among Mexican drug and smuggling cartels is spilling across the border, as cities in Arizona report increases in such crimes as home invasions. More than 700 people were arrested as part of a wide-ranging crackdown on Mexican drug cartels operating inside the United States, the Justice Department said last month.
Last weekend, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he also saw opportunities for the U.S. military to help with military training, resources and intelligence.
"I think we are beginning to be in a position to help the Mexicans more than we have in the past. Some of the old biases against cooperation with our -- between our militaries and so on, I think, are being set aside," Gates said in an interview that aired last Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."
"It clearly is a serious problem," he said.



The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said the United States could help with equipment and intelligence techniques after returning from a six-day trip to Latin America punctuated by news of beheadings and intimidation by Mexican drug cartels.

This I myself have seen when I have gone on vacation to Mexico. The famed group is called "Los Zetas," they aren't just drug cartels, but also some corrupt officials. The people there need help because it is has become worse. There are a lot of beheadings and people missing. Most of it is the drug cartels. This is disconcerning because it doesn't let you feel so safe while you visit. This can lead to affectint the Mexican economy even more with less tourism.

I think it is good that something might be done to help solve this problem because it might spread to the US. Here the same thing may be going on, but it is hidden, while in Mexico it is more open. Helping them with intelligence techniques will help Mexico solve the problem themselves without as much interference from the US.

Watch Your Government

http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/0409/Pelosi_I_didnt_know_about_waterboarding.html

Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi was pushing back on GOP charges that accused her of doing nothing to stop waterboarding. Pelosi claims that she had been briefed on the issue but was never really informed about whether or not waterboarding would be used, but there was "opinion" that they could be used. Boehner, House Minority Leader, also claimed that there was a briefing on waterboarding but no one said a word. In defense, Pelosi said that classified intelligence briefings were meant to be kept quiet about.

What does this tell me? This tells me that our government may be getting too corrupt. The US was not suppose to use any sort of interrogation techniques, whether it is waterboarding or something else. I think that using "enhanced interrogation" may lead to unjustifiable answers and forced information, so it probably doesn't work. We need to watch our government. If something like this goes unrecognized, eventually, Pelosi or any other members of government may be the one that prevents us from receiving all our rights. This means that citizens may be subject to being plucked off the street and sent directly to "enhanced interrogation" or what I like to call it: torture.

Kansas governor vetoes late-term abortions bill

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30376695/

Governor Kathleen Sebelius just vetoed a measure that would have required physicians to report additional information to the state about the late-term abortions they perform, and would have allowed more county prosecutors to pursue criminal charges over potentially illegal late-term procedures.

In layman's terms, anti-abortion people are pissed.

You may recognize Kathleen Sebelius as Obama's choice to be the Secretary of Health and Human Services, but right now she's still a governor, and she's making opponents of abortion angry. This could potentially harm her, as those people who are angry over this are building pressure on senators to reject her nomination as Secretary.

She defended herself saying that the measure would cause honest doctors to potentially accidentally break the law, and that the bill would have been struck down in federal court anyway.

If that is so, then maybe she should have helped save her nomination by letting it get struck down. That way she doesn't look like the bad guy.

However, I don't think her nomination will get rejected just because of this decision alone. Unless of course, we find out that she also didn't pay her taxes. Then that would just be bad.

Should America Torture?

Looking around , I came across an article talking about torture. Evidently, I have failed to notice in the last couple of years that America uses torture techniques. Do I agree with it? Well, we did catch some bad guys running around like crazy half way across the world.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0409/21648.html

Obama has recently taken water-boarding and other torture tactics out of use. This is a really interesting move which has created a lot of chaos. Our vice president Dick Cheney disagrees with president Obama. He believes that Obama did a mistake in outlawing the tactic's because torturing the enemies has saved many American lives. So the question still remains:

Does torture work?

Some say it does, others say it doesn't. These are some view points in the article:

1. Harsh interrogation works. Period.

Proponents: Cheney, former CIA director Michael Hayden, former CIA director George Tenet

The argument: It weakens America to take harsh interrogations off the table against al-Qaida – a sworn enemy that trains its members to resist interrogation.

2. Harsh techniques may work sometimes, but the United States still shouldn’t use them

Proponents: President Barack Obama, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, Sen. John McCain

The argument: Obama’s press secretary Robert Gibbs laid it out in detail at Thursday’s White House press briefing, when he called the usefulness of harsh interrogations “ambiguous”

3. It doesn’t work. Period.

Proponents: Hillary Clinton, the American Civil Liberties Union, many military interrogators

The argument: Aggressive interrogation techniques like water-boarding simply don’t produce useful information.

It is interesting to see which people are supportive of the torture techniques and which are opposed. Interrogators think it doesn't work! I also found out that American troops have been trained to withstand torture tactics.

What do you think? For or against torture?

Obama 'misinterpreted' Raul's words!!!!

Fidel Castro says President Barack Obama "misinterpreted" his brother Raul's remarks regarding the United States and bristled at the suggestion that Cuba should free political prisoners or cut taxes on dollars people send to the island.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090423/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_cuba_castro


WHAT!?!?!? Just when I thought that Cuba can finally open up and the relationship between the US and Cuba can finally ease off, Fidel Castro jumped out and crushed the hope. I thought I will finally be able to go to Cuba with security, but now Fidel Castro just destroyed it.
Dave Chappellle's BYAH! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddy__GGuC7U&feature=related

Earth DAY!!!!

Being Earth day, I thought it would be nice to see how the political world is dealing with global warming.
There seems to be a consensus in the Democratic party that global warming is occurring in the world and something has to be done about it. While the Republican party cant even agree if the global warming is really happening or if it is scam. In this article http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0409/21536.html the writer goes on to say that if you ask 15 republicans about climate changes you would get 20 different answers. I don't quite understand how some people can keep denying that the earth is going through a crisis and something has to be done about it. But the bigger issue is that little things like a consensus on issues so big like global warming is causing the Republican party to crumble. Instead of trying to develop a plan of attack against global warming Republicans that will rival the Democrats' plan. Republicans are wasting time arguing about the existence of global warming.
Democrats have initiative even though their cap-and-trade system has its own problems and may be to costly for businesses. Republicans cant really criticize the plan because they don't have one.
Let's save the EARTH and RECYCLE.

SGV Tribune Article

Timing is everything, and when C-SPAN asked high school students to submit videos for their annual StudentCam competition on the eve of Barack Obama's presidential inauguration, it made all the difference, according to Meredith Rapp, C-SPAN's education program specialist.
C-SPAN received 1,000 videos, three times last year's entries.
Finishing with honors were two videos produced by Los Altos High School seniors.
The videos that snagged two out of the 75 honorable mentions were "The Economic Crisis" by Jared Kasparian, Lance Vitali and Kevin Halpin, and "`These Kids' Syndrome: A Comparative Look at American Education" by Enid Zhou and Diane Ting.

(Full article below)

http://www.sgvtribune.com/news/ci_12129608?source=rss

At least during the first semester, Mr. Park did a good job of letting us know who wrote our textbook. He was helped, of course, by the requirment that we visit its website every week and also by the mere fact that the co-author Paul Krugman, between winning a Nobel Prize, writing for the New York Times, and teaching at Princeton, is famous. Among these accomplishments and positions, Krugman is also known for being an outspoken liberal. In fact, among the mere Bush-bashing that is widespread, Krugman has called for an actual investigation of the previous president's administration.

It is for this reason that I was puzzled to see Krugman on the cover of Newsweek next to the ultimatum "Obama is wrong." http://www.newsweek.com/id/191393 "Yes, I know that," I thought to myself, "But you're the last person who I thought would admit that, Paul." This bold statement seemed strange coming from the man I've gotten to know from an argument he had with Bill O'Reilly (I admit he held his own) and the already mentioned exposure from Mr. Park. I was happy nonetheless, for it showed that even far-left liberals think Obama's wrong. Somewhere at UC Berkely, a radical elitist is saying,"Et tu Paul Krugman?"

As I read the article, however, things started to make sense. Krugman doesn't think Obama is moving in the wrong direction (towards socialism) but that the president should inflict sweeping reform on the economy, starting with nationalizing banks, and stop propping up what's becoming an "economic abyss."

Krugman would like to see the United States a Sweden of the western hemisphere, drawing attention to that country's "successful" nationalization of their banks. Although he didn't have an answer to how such a policy would be implemented in such a large, bank abundant country like the US (we have about 8,000), at least Krugman is honest and transparent as to what he wants to do. While Obama is propping up a capitalistic economy with socialistic solutions, Krugman is calling for a full fledged shift towards socialism.

Hey Mr. Park, if you get a book in the mail with a hammer and sickle on it, don't worry. It's just the updated edition of Economics from Krugman and Wells.

Hilda Solis coming to La Puente HS

April 25, Saturday, time TBD

Hilda Solis, newly appointed Secretary of Labor, will be speaking at La Puente HS

We are invited to take our students. More information to come.

+5 Points EXTRA CREDIT if you take a picture with her and post onto this blog!