Abortion is OKAY!

I read an article that my classmate Ana wrote about abortion. She stated that getting an abortion should be legal and states should not fair away from making it an illegal operation. I agree with Ana that states should not be re-thinking that they should change their abortion laws because some people disagree. Ana states that more babies are put up for adoption then being adopted by other people. In this economy that we are in this fact can be true. Ana states the cost for having a baby and the many check-ups needed to know how the baby is coming along. These check ups can be costly for the mothers who are pregnant that cant afford it or even afford a baby. What is the point of having a baby you cant raise with no money for your self or the baby. This will ruin both lives, so rather than having the baby i believe abortion is the right way if u can afford the baby and at a very young age. What happens if you get raped? are you not allowed to have an abortion. I think that states that are questioning their laws on abortion should just leave it alone and let people make their own decisions because they have to live with it not other people who have problems with the abortion situation. I think more people should read into abortion and find out the facts about these mothers who don't have abortions and how much trouble they are going through in their life and if they have support from other people. Thank you Ana for an amazing article.

U.S States keep Families Hungry

The article on how "States Struggle to Administer Food Stamps", talks about the Agriculture Department and how they are concerned about how states are handing out food stamps. In the article Henry Jackson the columnist tells us about a letter that was send out on the annual report on food stamp eligibility. Kevin Concannon, the department's undersecretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services says states have run the program in a way that is, "“problematic and resulted in a more complex and difficult enrollment process,” also he says, "states have not served our clients or our taxpayers well.”

The article also show how states only approved certain amount of people. In California and Wyoming they had fewer then 50% of those eligible enrolled to receive food stamps. Also said the most populated states struggled the most. New York, where 61 percent of eligible citizens participated; Florida, where 57 percent participated; and Texas, where 55 percent were enrolled.

The most successful state was Missouri where almost 100% of those eligible got government aid in food stamps.

Henry Jackson talks about food stamps around the country and its problem. The source he is getting his information from is an annual report from the department's undersecretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Service him self who is Kevin Concannon. I think we need to approve as many people eligible to get food stamps. In the report is says we failed our country by leaving out many people who are starving everyday. This would be easier if we can have better application processes like using online applications, call centers electronic case filing systems. Jackson also uses these ideas which i agree upon. I mean we live in a world of technology so i think the way the government officals need to improve is by using these methods to make it faster and easier. Last week, the department's annual report on food insecurity showed that in 2008 a higher percentage of Americans than ever went hungry or struggled to put food on the table. This statement by the report it self shows the governemnt needs to do their job and think smarter about how to approch the situation and improve the way they can help needy families that really cant afford to put food on the table in the economy today.

Sending More Troops Is A Must...

The critique i read was written by Ana and she stated how the war in Iraq has no point to it anymore and there are just more and more deaths. And how Obama wants to send 40,000 additional troops to Iraq to help the cause. She stated her opinion very well and made a good argument about why we should bring our troops back home. She also stated that she didn't want to be let down by the president. She used percentages like how the war is taking 36% of our tax money while only 30% is used for human resources. Americans I believe are split down the middle weather or not to stay or come back home

I think that we should stay in Iraq because we cant just up and leave that country where we have been for so many years and even though there hasnt been improvement of the sutuation we are trying the best we can to get rid of these smalls groups of people who relate them selfs to terrorism and we are trying to educate the people about how to act and build a new government strucutre for them. We are doing more then fighting a war we are trying to help the country who is in need of leadership. She also stated why cant Obama just say lets leave. I think Obama doesnt have a choice because if it was up to him, he probably wouldnt have even gone to war. He was brought into this sutuation that he didn't start. So there is something that he sees that the American public doesnt know about and maybe he as a plan for us in the long run to help us really get out of this war and to make it a suceess.

Thank you Ana for writing a great blog on this sutuation. Your opinion and facts were great.

Food Stamp Worker

This article on Food stamp workers, is talking about how the Texas government had to hire more employees to help them go through interviews with the applicants and also view the applications. They are already way behind the deadline to approve people and many families are still waiting to hear back if they got approved. It also talks about how they are hiring so many people and these workers who worked for the government had to go through training real fast. They also say many of these workers are clueless and I am not surprised. You cant ask workers to come in and try to work real fast and interview families to see if they meet the requirements to get food stamps. These employees are working to many hours and are not getting anything done because they are so lost and were put into work without much training. Many employees also cant handle it. I think it was better to train these employees first before they put them out in the offices and made them work. These families are still waiting for responses and many of them need food stamps. The government should have a better plan towards this rather than putting out employees who dont know what they are doing and are not getting any work accomplished.
"We've moved in the right direction," Gov. Rick Perry told reporters
I don't think we are anywhere close to the right direction because 42,000 families are still waiting on responses from the government and these families don't have money as it is!
State Sen. Tommy Williams a republican from The Woodlands said hiring employees for the long term is a good idea but it wont fix the problem right now. I agree we need to work faster, I understand there are not many hours in a week for these employees and also that they already work overtime to process these applications but we need to get smarter and more informed employees to help these families out.
"I'm not sure that getting 250 or 500 people in there who don't know what they're doing is really going to solve this problem,"said Williams
I agree with this statement like i said before it will help long term but not now another thing Williams said was "The only way out is to have a task force of people we know can do the job, and efficiently, and ask them to help us get out of this hole we're in."
This will help us get the work done faster with people who know what they are doing and have the experience.
Sheila Badzioch, a caseworker in Houston said, "There is no way that people who are in training can understand policy — much less do an interview (with an applicant) — in two weeks," she also said, "You're overwhelming the people who are coming in. They're just lost."
Many people agree that these new workers don't know what they are doing. I think we just need better and more informed employees

Health Care Reform Under Obama

In Joe Sudbay's blog on, "Insurance industry's top lobbyist makes case for public option" from the New York Times, is about the Obama administration's health care reform. Joe Sudbay a blogger for AmericaBlog News, is basically talking about the insurnce industry attacking the Baucus bill. He quotes one of the American Health Insurance Plans leader Karen Ignangi saying that her industry doesn't want to insure people with "health problems."

Joe did a great job for the public and himself to back up his ideas. I believe that not everyone needs health care but it would be great to see a plan for health care reform. He gets his story from the New York Times and the source is creditable because Karen Ignangi was quoted in the article and he uses that to back up his agruments. I also don't think its right that insurnce companies are coming out and saying that they don't want to insure people with so called "health problems." What else is the Obama administration making a health reform for. The people with the health problems need it the most thats why they are pushing for health care and most of the country is divided over the issue.

Another Shot for Health Care

The article "Another Model for Health Care Reform" by Hutchison from Austin American Statesman is an argument about the role the government is taking to provide a health care plan. Hutchison also talks about how the Obama administration is pushing a massive government health care plan for everyone. This rules out people making their own decisons on what time of health care they want. She also states that the government's plan for health care will limit a person's opitions on insurance. The article also states that Texas is leading the nation in uninsured people which leads to higher premiums and property taxes for those who are covered. Hutchison wants to take a stance on health care issues but doesn't want the Obama administration to follow up on their health care plan. Her audience is the people of Texas mostly people with no health care right now and also the government of Texas to change the health care policy. Hutchison's solution to this is use health exchange. Health exchange has many advantages as she points out. One is that it is elective so you can choose to do it or not. Another is that you can choose a plan that best meets your needs and in your price range. It is also profitable for employers. The approach would cut administrative costs and labor for companies. In the article it also says that according to the Heritage Foundation, "State-level health insurance exchanges would increase health insurance coverage, significantly lower prices in the individual coverage market." Utah as implanted this plan and it has worked out really good for them so far. Hutchison suggest that the national government also Texas should follow this plan of health care. This will help keep the decison making in the hands of consumers not the government. I agree with Hutchison that we should have a different apporch towards health care and all her claims in the article are reasonable and make sense. She also found evdince from Heritage Foundation which shows us she read about the health exchange and knows much about it. I agree with the author since health care is such a big deal in todays world and many people suffer without health care. This will help everyone get health care even people who go job to job or only have part time jobs.

Democrats in Texas

This article in the Austin American Statesmen talks about 300 democrats coming to Austin on September 15th to turn around the republican winnings in Texas. No Republican nominee has lost statewide since 1994 and no Republican presidential nominee has lost since 1976. Bryan Preston, spokesman for the Republican Party of Texas said "the democrats are going to stimulate our economy." This is of course there are 300 democrats staying in hotels in Austin and going to be spending money the whole week. The Republicans are also holding a rally called "Hands off Texas." The democrats are here also because of the government elections next year in 2010 and also offical elections. The democrats also want to regain the House in texas which is at 76 republicans and 74 democrats. Also the national House of Representatives could add four more seats because of the increase in population in Texas since 2000.

You should read this article because it has to do with Texas government and who will likely hold offices in year 2010 for both state wide elected officials and the governor of Texas. It also says in the article since 2004 more republicans have jumped boat to the democratic side. Also, Gallup poll shows more people in the first part of this year identified themselves as Democrats than Republicans