Impact

I feel like many people that I have met in my life time have all somewhat had an impact on my views with politics and the government. For more than half of my life my views and opinions on politics and the government were all mainly based on what my elders thought or believed. For example, as I was growing up my siblings and my parents were my idols. My two sisters, one brother and both my parents had a big impact back then on what I believe now. It seemed like I only agreed with them, and did not really care what other people thought.
It has not always been like this. I think my parent’s divorce had a huge impact on both my views and beliefs. This is because I now had two different parents with two different beliefs. My mom had always been a hard Christian, and my dad always had a broader view on that topic. Anyways I think this was really difficult for me because I would hear two different sides of the spectrum when it came down to certain things, and I would never know which one of my parents to side with. I was nervous that if I sided with one parent, then the other would be ashamed. So I kind of lived my life back then trying to please both of them if that was possible. It was kind of always the same routine, until my dad got full custody of me and my second oldest sister. I was living with my dad most of the time, and only got to see my mom maybe three or four times a year at the most. Living with my dad has definitely been a life changing experience. I think my dad is one of the reasons that I believe what I do passionately believe in today. While living with my dad I have honestly been through a lot of life changing experiences. I think this experience has had an impact on my religious beliefs, my political beliefs, and a lot of other things.
First off, my religious beliefs. A lot of people think that my opinion is strongly based on what my dad thinks or believes, but in reality it really is not. I have learned to fend for myself, and have learned that in order to be able to survive in this world you kind of need to have your own opinion. It was definitely kind of hard for me to make such a sudden change in my life, because I had lived my entire life before that, just going along with what other people thought and kind of letting them just tell me what to do, and I would do it. Somewhere in there I realized that I could not continue living this way. I believe that everyone can have their own beliefs, but I personally do not believe there is one single “god”. I believe that the earth was created, and it evolved over a certain amount of time. That being approximately 4 billion years. This might sound too rational and straight forward, but I personally do not think we were each individually created by “a higher power”. Like I said before, I think we evolved over time, and became who we are today. Individuals with our own opinions, and beliefs on everything. Politics have never really been a hobby of mine. Sure I would occasionally hear about a governor or a president, but I never really paid attention to politics. This is definitely something that has very much changed from back then to now. I now follow politicians, and stay updated with the latest news on what is going on with our country. I now have strong beliefs with all different kinds of topics in government. For example, I am a strong believer that it should be your own choice whether you want to have an abortion or not. I do not mean to sound rude but I personally do not understand what the big deal is. Pro-choice is trying to make both sides of the spectrum happy. The people that are against having an abortion, and would never have an abortion do not have to have one. And the people that do not really want to have a child at a young age or simply just because they cannot handle having a baby, can get an abortion. There you go. Now You would think that both sides could be happy, but it does not work that way. There always has to be one thing that both sides do not agree with. This just ends up causing even more stress, and debate over whether having an abortion is right or wrong. Now I am just using abortion as an example, but it seems to me that this is always the case. There is always something that has to go wrong, so that each side can argue again.

2008 Election Broadcast

Obama was winning by electoral votes the entire time on the election coverage last night. He was at 207 elect. votes and stayed there for about an hour and a half, while McCain trailing beg=hind and was gradually catching up. It was all out of no where when Barack Obama was elected The 44th President of The United States. This all happened because the whole West Coast cam in at the same time, and that raised Obama's electoral vote count to 284, which is well over the amount of what is needed to win.

I thought Obama's acceptance speech was really good. It seemed like he was already really thinking about what he is going to do to in order to improve the economy, and try to stop the war, or at least gradually start pulling out. I thought it was also really good how much Obama thanked McCain, and I thought he was a very good sport about it, and didnt act very cocky.

McCain's concession speech was VERY good in my opinion. I really liked how he was so compassionate, and really thanked Obama for being a fantastic candidate. I also really thought it was very polite when he said he looks forward to having Barack Obama be the next President of this beautiful country that Obama and himself both very much love. I also liked how you could tell McCain was very upset during his concession speech, but he was still very proud of Barack Obama, and he actually said that.

I am very glad that Barack Obama will be serving as The President of The United States for the next 4 year term. I think he is a good guy and will stick to what he originally said he would do, and will accomplish it during the time that he is President.

The Executive Branch

The Executive Branch has a very important role in the Government, and in this country. The power of the Executive Branch is vested in the President. The President appoints the Cabinet and oversees the various agencies and departments of the Federal Government. The President is the Commander In Chief, which means he/she is the Supreme Commander of all the Armed Forces of a Nation. The Vice President is the head of the President's Cabinet, and has the most say in what goes on within the Cabinet. There are certain Cabinet members that get appointed by the Vice President every time a new one is elected or re-elected. The Cabinet includes the Vice President and the heads of 15 executive departments. These departments are Secretary of Agriculture, Secretary of Commerce, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of Education, Secretary of Energy, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, State, Transportation, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs, and the Attorney General. If somehow the President and the Vice President were to die, the speaker of The House would become the President temporarily, until a new President and Vice President were elected. At this point in time the Speaker of the house is Nancy Pelosi. So if George Bush, and Dick Cheney were to some how "drop dead" then Nancy Pelosi Would become the President of the United States, and would appoint anyone that she wants to become Vice President.