Was There a Winner At The Health Care Summit?

After reading several new articles and watching clips of the Health Care Summit, I have come to believe that no party won. Republicans were solely considered with "starting over" while the Democrats tried to find a common ground. Republicans such as Mitch McConnell Kentucky and Lamar Alexander Tennessee want to "start over" because they know if  they stall long enough this health care bill will die. What the meeting made clear is what the Democrats are going to do. They will attempt to bully a bill through the Congress and onto President Obama's desk. Alan Fram of Associated Press says "The Democrats seem ready to use "reconciliation," a seldom-used procedure that could let them push legislation through the Senate with a simple majority" In reality if the Democrats cannot pass this bill by using reconciliation, the health care bill will dissolve into nothing. Americans cannot handle cannot handle another year of debating on health care. Something else came to my mind while I watched the Health Care Summit. Our Senators and Representatives cannot appropriately work together in Washington. We (as a nation) need the Democrats and Republicans to cooperate together. Without cooperation, we will have a one party denominator. This is bad for America, so please Senators and Representatives work for the greater good of Americans.

My Summer

For my community service project, I went to Honduras for the summer. I spent four weeks in Honduras with a Honduran family. My partner and I talked and taught at the local grade school almost everyday. We talked about the environment and Honduran politics. One of the many projects, the community, my partner, and I did was a garden for the local school. We decided to make a school garden because the school had hardly any money for lunch for the schoolchildren. The government, at least I don't believe, does not provide funds for the schools. The Honduran government pays for the teachers; however, when the government threatened to not pay the teachers, the teachers never came to school.

In the blogs to come, I will be addressing topics as Human Rights Abuse in Honduras, the current situation of Honduras, what the U.S. government should or should not do.

How President Obama Ought to Act in Honduras

Picture from Right to Left: Manuel Zelaya Ex-President of Honduras, Barack Obama President of the United States, and Hector Zelaya, Manuel's son.

President Obama should've backed Honduras in June 2009. Obama had two choices to make: the U.S. could've either side with democracy, as every government in Latin America, or it could've side with the coup regime. The American Government decided to side with the coup. However, what the U.S. does not know is Hondurans are being denied human rights. Obama must no longer allow violence and repression that the Honduran government has practiced against the Honduran people. Hondurans are denied freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, and freedom of press. This is not democracy. Honduras looks more and more like Venezuela everyday.

Does Obama Have the Right Honduran Policy?

While President Obama supported Manuel Zelaya, ex-president of Honduras, Hondurans disagreed with President Obama and elected a new president, Porfirio Lobo. In July 2009,
President Obama said “it would be a terrible precedent if we start moving backwards into the era in which we are seeing military coups as a means of political transition rather than democratic elections. The region has made enormous progress over the last 20 years in establishing democratic traditions in Central America and Latin America. We don't want to go back to a dark past." However, why doesn't he commit to his word. The Hondurans disliked Zelaya because he tried to change the Honduran Constitution, so he could be president for another term. Obama obviously backed the wrong man, but how? Well, as I see it: carelessness. Since the U.S. did not have a stable economy during the '09 summer, how could the U.S. help Honduras when 70% of the 7 million people in Honduras live in poverty. Obama was more considered with the United States than Western Democracy.

A Slow Time For Immigration

The United States of America saw a slower year for immigrant.

Will Dow Jones Continue to Dip?

As speculation of Europe Debt Crisis continue to worsen, the Dow Jones dropped to 9,908.39. Today's closing is the lowest in three months. Contemplation lingers that American banks will suffer if the European Banks fail to pay off their debts. Jeffrey A. Hirsch the editor of "The Stock Trader’s Almanac" said, “While it may not be important technically, falling below that level indicates that the whole economic picture is not as rosy as everyone had thought." I believe that Dow Jones will continually dip because as U.S. bankers realize that countries such as Spain and Greece may default on their debts, bankers will become hesitate to invest.

The Dow Jones first hit the five digits in 1999, and it fell back to four digits in 2003 due to the dot com bubble. The Dow set a record high of 14000 points in October 2007, but after the credit bubble, the Dow is down 30% of the record high. It will take some time for the Dow Jones to continually maintain above 10000 points. We will not see the Dow Jones much above 10000 because unemployment is still high and companies will have low earnings. When companies start to make greater profits, we will see the Dow much above 10000.