Obama's Inauguration

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/24/chris-christie-obama_n_2544725.html#slide=2007450

Chris Christie, previously alienated by the GOP for his support of Obama's reelection and criticisms of the Republican Party's response to Hurricane Sandy relief efforts, stands out in full opposition to Obama now.  He said "its my way or the highway" pertaining to the president's objective of his speech.  Rep. Boehner said Obama was on a mission to "annihilate the Republican Party." Similarly, Sn. McConnell claimed that Obama is attempting to invoke an "era of liberalism."  

Obama's Immigration Plan

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-obama-immigration-reform-speech-20130129,0,3033072.story

http://timelines.latimes.com/obama-speech-immigration-reform/

The first link is a video of President Obama's speech in Las Vegas about immigration plan.
In the second link you will be able to see a transcript of his speech. I couldn't find a video with the transcript but you could minimize both of these windows to fit your screen.

On January 29, 2013 at Del Sol High School in Las Vegas, Nevada President Obama spoke about how he will be dealing with immigrants in this country. His plan for immigration reform is similar to the one that was dictated by the bipartisan group of senators on January 20, 2013. First of all, as President Obama says in his speech, we will have to work on tightening the security at the borders which has been unsuccessful since the year 2000 and businesses will have to check people's employment statues before hiring anyone because even if it's unknowingly businesses hire illegal immigrants because they have no proof of who they are. Finally, it maybe be a long process but if people want a green card that leads up to a citizenship then they are going to have to get their background checked, pay all the taxes that own since they have been living here in America, pay a penalty for coming illegally, learn English and will have to wait until the people who are waiting in line to come to America legally.  

 

President Obama clearly states that yes the immigrants have broken the rules but they have done so much to help America. I was amazed to find out that Google and Yahoo we both created by an immigrant and so were Intel and Instagram and these immigrants studied in the United States and stayed here. However, people that were born here, studied here decide to go an work of other countries so basically we are creating our competitors. America is a nation of immigrants, it is a place where people can  make a future. Coming from different countries it not easy because they face many problems such as racism and because they are here to earn for their lives and families, people take advantage of them by paying them low wages for double the work but the immigrants do it because they have no other choice.

 

According to President Obama's plan he believes that immigrant will be able to come out of their shadows and show that they also exist. They will also be able to know that we do care for them and know that they are also one of us. I am very happy to see President Obama doing such a difficult task that can takes years to happen but he is taking the risk. The best thing is that Democrats and Republicans are working together on this so it might be better and more successful than any other plan ever made.

 

Now my question to you is what is this process takes too long maybe more that four years than what will happen to the immigrants if a Republican is a President and is very conservative? Is it really a good idea by letting more immigrants coming in the country when we already have 11 million illegal immigrants in this country? How will citizens of America react to this plan? Will it create more chaos and problem for the economy?

Some Helpful Links

Hello everyone. During today's class when everyone was doing the current events check-in, were you confused about a topic or two? Three or four topics? Perhaps all of them? Well, have no fear, I have found several links that should help you gain enough knowledge to easily answer those questions.

Also, in addition to the two links Ms. Blatteau gave us in our lesson plan (on bottom of post), I highly recommend using Google News as a way of finding out more information about current topics. All of the links to the answers of the questions below were found using that resource. I never knew until today how great of a news search engine it is, so I recommend checking it out!

1. What major issues was President Obama speaking about in Las Vegas this week?
http://www.voanews.com/content/obama_focuses_on_us_immigration_reform/1592944.html
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/01/30/immi-j30.html

2. What is going on with local New Haven politics?
http://www.wtnh.com/dpp/news/politics/destefano-wont-seek-reelection#.UQw4CKVZXSg
http://www.wtnh.com/dpp/news/new_haven_cty/candidates-to-replace-mayor-destefano#.UQw4xaVZXSg

3. In Connecticut, what is the topic of multiple public hearings that are happening in Hartford different parts of the state?
http://www.wtnh.com/dpp/news/politics/public-hearing-on-mental-health-issues#.UQw6LaVZXSg
http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Father-of-Newtown-victim-heckled-at-hearing-4228992.php

4. Who did the Senate confirm for Secretary of State? Whom did he replace?
http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/01/opinion/brazile-hillary-clinton/index.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/01/hillary-clinton-resigns_n_2600344.html

5. Why is Chuck Hagel in the news?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/01/31/chuck-hagel-was-bad-and-it-doesnt-matter/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ken-blackwell/mr-president-chuck-hagel_b_2599752.html
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-hagel-confirmation-hearings-20130201,0,7189272.story

Links to Review (from lesson plan)
http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/

I hope everyone has a nice, productive weekend!