John McCain Concession

I watched John McCain's concession speech. His was unlike any of the other very dry speeches we have watched in class. McCain truely appears to be sincere and his supporters are clearly upset. At the begining of the speech they began to boo at Obama's name but McCain told them not to. He really seems to want the country to come together and put this election behind him. He is ready to move on and he wants his supporters to know support Obama. It was interesting to see the emotion that is not seen in the other candidates. Instead of thanking everyone in the begining he wait until the end to thank everyone specifically.

Watching a Video

For this assignment I watched president Bush's acceptance speech in 2000. It was interesting to see his promises and how he wanted to change the country and now looking at what has happened. The speech had a lot of promises for change after the long run of president Clinton. I think this years speeches will be very interesting to see.

How my perspective has changed

I really had no idea how many people talk about McCain's age. I had always thought it was a small group of people that thought he was too old but in reality a lot of people think he is too old including people his own age. I think he is a little older than I would like but I still think he is capable of doing the job.

Primary Sources

My sources have given me insight to different age groups opinion on McCain's age. Not only are younger generations concerned with McCain's age but his peer also consider it dangerous since they know the dangers and health problems concerned with growing old. Not only are people concerned about McCain's age but they also believe that Palin was not a wise choice since she has no national experience. Allowing me to see all the opinions of different generations is helping setting up a case against McCain's age.

Research

So once I started researching I realized how much harder it is to find primary sources and not opinion pieces. I am having a hard time finding pieces about John McCain's age affecting his appeal but the ones I am finding are helping out a lot so hopefully after class today I will have some more ideas on where to look.

Unit #2

For this unit I want to change my focus from the environment to this issue on age. I know there has been a lot of talking about John McCain's age. I want to take that topic and focus more on the experience he has because of his age. A major debate in the election is the amount of experience people have. I think alot of people are concerned with John McCain's age and are talking about the issue. I think it will be very easy to find articles about the topic and people have the write to know the facts.

Hummorous Argument

This past Saturday SNL did another opening skit with Tina Fey as Sarah Palin. The skit was about Sarah Palin's interview with Katie Curic and how Palin was unable to answer some of the question or she would resort back to her same steady answers. It really makes you think about the idea of whether or not she is ready to be the VP and if she will always resort back to what she is told to say.

Why politics need to go green
Getting involved encourages our politicians to take notice
Looking at Hollywood there is a push to go green. What exactly does it mean to go green and why should we care? Lately there has been a global climate change, no it is not “global warming” it is a general change in climate. If you haven’t noticed Texas didn’t get as hot this summer and we have been getting much more rain than normal. The reason is the world is not warming it is actually shifting changes in climate. The point is we only have one planet and we need to take care of it or the world as we know it will literally completely change.
This year is an election year; the fact that the climate has been changing you would think it would be an important subject on the political platforms of both parties. However, with issues like the economy crashing, the war in Iraq and the ever increasing prices of gas the environment has definitely been put on the back burner. What people don’t realize is that all of these issues intertwine together.
Until I took an environment class I had no idea how my choices affected the environment. Now there are companies like Frank Water in the UK that have made several efforts to educate their customers, such as Frank states that one recycled plastic bottle can power a 60W light bulb for six hours on it website. Many companies and governments in other countries have made the effort to educate people on environmental issues but the United States has made no attempts. When people show the government that they care about the future of the Earth the government takes notice and begins to implement policies to protect it.
In the late 1800’s we started the environmental cause with Theodore Roosevelt beginning conservation and setting aside national parks for no development to occur on. How have we slipped so far back that now people want to take away land from the national parks in order to drill for more oil or destroy precious underwater environments just for a short non-sustaining fix?
Both McCain and Obama were originally opposed to the idea of off shore drilling. Now they are both considering it in order to please their supporters. Even if we drill off shores it will take 50 years to make a real difference. We can’t just keep drilling hoping the world will have enough oil because it won’t if we continue to use as much as we do now. That is why we need to find alternative renewable energy sources.
Looking up the platforms of Obama and McCain I was hoping to find under the energy section ideas to implement researching renewable energy resources. Instead under their “Energy” section all I found were exploration and production of natural gases and domestic oil. Both candidates call for a reduction in carbon emissions but they only have short little paragraph on looking for alternative sources of energy. If people would begin to show that they care about the environments the issue would be taken off the back burner and put into the main light because the candidates have nothing else to do but take notice.
Taking care of the environment would actually help our nation’s problems. If we began putting more of an effort into finding renewable resources more job opportunities would arise because of the need to change current problems into the environmentally friendly solutions. It would also stimulate the economy by giving tax deductions to people who chose to be more “green” and buy green products. The gas problem would subside in the next 20 years with a change from gas and oil to alternative sources of energy. The price of the war in Iraq would decrease because the United States would no longer as a country needs to depend on foreign sources of oil. There are many changes that could be made to push America back to the frontline of being an environmentally responsible country. With this year as an election year we need to push our candidates to really think about the issue and how they can implement change to take the step to being a better country as a whole, but it all starts with you as an individual taking a stand and letting it be known that you care. Written by: Teresa Powers
Ways to Go Green:
(1) Buy and use the reusable bags at stores. (2) Choose to eat at home rather than buying fast food and throwing away everything. (3) Buy green products (usually have little green leaf on them). (4) Support companies recycling their old plastic bottles to make shirts and clothes. (5) Of course Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. (6) And always: plant a tree.

For Tuesday

Op-Ed Piece:
I have chosen to broaden my topic to cover the environment as a whole and what the nominees should do about it. I am focusing my audience on people who care about the environment but also towards people that just want to learn more. My idle place for publishing would be in maybe the Life and Style section of a newspaper since the article also contains suggestions on how to be more environmentally aware.

Argument of Definition:
I found my example in the New York Times, the article is about the first debate coming up on Friday night. The article describes the debate and defines what it means to both parties. The first debate is always a very important debate and I know I am looking forward to hearing about it this week and what each party is doing to prepare for it.

Argument on Fact

The argument I chose is a few days old from the New York Times "McCain Calls for limited role US schools." The article is base on the facts given by McCain's political campaign and also his past policies. All he calls for are raises for teachers working in "hard-to-staff" school and starting more after school programs for failing students. His plans also include performance base incentives giving more money to the schools that are doing better. The author wonders if this is a good stand considering President Bush's no child left behind policy. The article strictly uses the facts given to build and base an argument upon.

Letter to the Editor

To the editor,
On September 10th, I was very excited to see Michael Finnagan’s piece McCain: Walking a fine line on the environment. Everyone has made such a big deal about Sarah Palin but she is helping McCain slip further away from the Maverick he used to be. The piece really gets into an issue that is close to my heart which is the environment. I try to be an environmentally conscious person and growing up in a Republican household McCain seemed the right choice in the primaries. Since McCain has become the official Republican candidate his ideals that made him the more moderate candidate have flown out the window. Now with Sarah Palin on the ticket he has lost most of his credibility with environmentalists.
There was a great hype when Sarah Palin was added to the ticket. I honestly thought she was a very good choice until I started learning more about her previous policies. Finnagan highlights some such as “aerial shooting of wolves and grizzly bears” so that the moose and caribou population will be higher for hunters. She has also argued that global warning was not caused by humans, an issue John McCain actually has several policies to control.
McCain has gain many points in the poll because of Palin and her down to earth style that many in the Bible belt agree with. Palin has closed the far left wing gap many Republican’s had when McCain was chosen. But at what cost to the environment has that decision made? If McCain’s policies continue to fluctuate he will become just another candidate catering to his party, a mold McCain had never before fit into.
Finnagan has made such a good argument for people to really think about the issue. I know the environment has been pushed to the side in this election with issues like the war in Iraq and the nation’s gas problem. But if more people would focus on the environment I think a lot of those problems would subside. If the candidates knew people cared about the environment more money could go to researching renewable energy which would decrease the gas problem and the war in Iraq could be less expensive. I am so glad someone actually pointed out the issue of the environment and McCain’s policy change to suit the ideas of his party and new running mate Sarah Palin.

My Article

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-mccainenviro10-2008sep10,0,2629682.story

From the Los Angeles Times

John McCain walks a fine line on the environment

His choice of Sarah Palin as a running mate and new support for offshore oil drilling could undercut any standing on the issue he earned with his bipartisan proposal to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

By Michael Finnegan
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

September 10, 2008

The television ad shows John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, in scenic desert landscapes as he talks about the dangers of global warming. "We have an obligation to future generations to take action and fix it," he says.

Striving to appeal to moderate voters, McCain has frequently highlighted his bipartisan proposal to clamp down on greenhouse gas emissions.

But by naming Sarah Palin as his running mate, McCain has aligned himself with a Republican whose record as governor of Alaska has drawn scorn from environmentalists, most notably for her denial that humans are causing climate change.

That, combined with McCain's call for opening new stretches of coastline to oil drilling, risks undercutting his standing on the environment.

Global warming has been one of the main issues McCain has used to put distance between himself and his party's tarnished brand. In pursuit of that goal, he and Palin also have cast themselves in recent days as reformers who would shake up Washington.

In a time of war and economic troubles, the environment ranks low on the list of voter priorities. But it carries symbolic value and offers McCain a way to suggest that he would break with the unpopular Bush administration. Given the scant contrasts between McCain and President Bush on Iraq and the economy, anything that helps the Arizona senator distinguish himself could prove crucial.

"The environment is important to many of the groups of people that McCain has to make some progress with -- especially to many independents," said pollster Andrew Kohut, president of the nonpartisan Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.

Doug Holtz-Eakin, a senior McCain policy advisor, said that neither Palin's presence on the ticket nor McCain's shift on oil drilling would harm his standing as a champion of the environment. Environmentalists who criticize McCain "don't represent the entire spectrum" of opinion, he said, and others recognize that coal, nuclear power, gas and oil must be part of any "thoughtful approach" to global warming.

The major environmental groups, however, favor Illinois Sen. Barack Obama over McCain. The League of Conservation Voters gives the Democratic presidential nominee a lifetime score of 86% on environmental votes. McCain's score is 24%.

Nonetheless, environmentalists have cheered McCain for backing a cap on carbon emissions that contribute to global warming, a position not shared by many in his party. They have also applauded him for opposing oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a longtime goal of Bush and other Republicans, including Palin.

"To his credit, we've always said that John McCain was better on the environment than George Bush, but that's an incredibly low bar because Bush was the most anti-environment president we've ever seen," said Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters.

The McCain campaign's focus on global warming follows a tradition of Republicans brandishing their environmental credentials to gain support among Democrats and independents. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made California's law limiting greenhouse gas emissions a centerpiece of his reelection campaign two years ago.

Jim Douglas, the Republican governor of left-leaning Vermont, took on Bush in his 2004 reelection bid. "We backed legal action against the federal government when they wouldn't protect our air and water," Douglas told Vermont TV viewers in an ad.

But in June, McCain dropped his support for the federal ban on new offshore oil drilling. His sudden reversal, in a speech to cheering energy executives in Houston, set off a fierce backlash among environmentalists.

"We have a card-carrying member of the oil wing of the Republican Party," said Carl D. Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club. "There's nothing left of his independence."

McCain's decision to focus on drilling as a key to lower gasoline prices ("Drill, baby, drill," supporters chanted at the Republican convention last week in St. Paul, Minn.) has intensified the anger among environmentalists.

They have ridiculed McCain ads that tout coastal drilling in tandem with renewable power from wind turbines. In the Senate, they note, McCain has voted repeatedly against renewable energy bills. Pope, for one, called the ads "cynical and manipulative."

But the political imperative for McCain was to demonstrate that he would take action against gas prices that had soared above $4 per gallon. A Pew survey in June showed a rise in voter support for expanded energy exploration, including in the Alaska wildlife refuge.

Voters "don't want to hear about magic unicorn-powered cars or future, down-the-line, hydrogen-powered vehicles," said Rick Wilson, a Republican strategist behind the Vermont TV ad. "They want to know how you're going to cut the price of gas at the pump."

The shift in public opinion helps explain the new willingness even of Democrats, Obama among them, to consider lifting the offshore drilling ban.

Beyond coastal drilling, McCain faces new friction with environmentalists over Palin's record in Alaska. Among other things, she has backed aerial shooting of wolves and grizzly bears to keep them from eating the moose and caribou that many Alaskans -- including Palin -- hunt.

In a state where voters look favorably on oil and gas drilling, environmentalists say Palin has been better than previous Republican governors. She has promoted state subsidies for renewable energy and set up a panel of advisors to plan for the impact of global warming in Alaska. The state is already coping with the consequences of melting ice sheets, such as changes in animal migration patterns.

But in a national context, environmentalists see Palin's record as dismal. "Overall, I describe it as weak at best and ominous on climate change and energy policy," said Kate Troll, executive director of Alaska Conservation Voters.

Ignoring the recommendations of state scientists, Palin objected to the U.S. Interior Department's naming of the polar bear as a threatened species because melting ice has shrunk its habitat.

Palin has acknowledged that global warming is real but described herself last year as "not an Al Gore doom-and-gloom environmentalist blaming the changes in our climate on human activity," a viewpoint at odds with McCain's.

Holtz-Eakin, the McCain advisor, said that McCain, not Palin, would set the administration's direction on the environment. "She's a member of the ticket and supports his policies," he said.

As for drilling in the wildlife refuge, the two have agreed to disagree. "They've come down in different places on this," Holtz-Eakin said. "But he's the presidential nominee."

michael.finnegan @latimes.com

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Copyright 2008 Los Angeles Times

McCain and the Enviroment

I have always been a supporter of McCain because of his more moderate approach to things. If you look at McCain's and Obama's views on issue they used to be fairly similar until McCain was chosen as his party candidate. I think what affects me the most would be how his environmental policies have changed. Not only are his views changing but he has now chosen Governor Palin as his running mate. Palin has several policies under her belt in Alaska that are very frowned upon by most environmentalist.
The article I have chosen was publish in the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday September 10th. Michael Finnegan write about how McCain is now "walking a thing line" on his environmental policies. It will be interesting to see how many more of McCain's ideals will be changed based on the pushes of the Republican Party.

What Matters to Me

I have been studying both the candidates' platforms. I have gone back in forth trying to decided what means the most to me. One of the things that matters the most to me is the energy crisis, our generation is left with the damaged caused by our parents' and grandparents' generations. Bot candidates have idea to improve to gas problems and to be more green but I think it is sometime a topic that is over looked. Everyone is concerned about the gas prices but no one is very concerned with where the gas comes from. I deffinately want to look more into the topic to figure out what else really means a lot to me.

Then Comes the Logic

The idea of using logos is very common even if you are unaware of the definition of logos. Using logos in an argument is give your argument support by using facts, statistics, and even common sense.
As I was waiting for a friend I happened to pick up a copy of today, September 3rds, issue of The Daily Skiff. I was flipping through when I saw the title "Officials fear parental suspicion of vaccinations." Having three siblings in medical school I know the importance of vaccinations but I think they are sometimes over looked. The issue in the article begins with a testimonial of a mother who swears that because of the mumps, measles, and rubella shot (MMR) her oldest son is now autistic. The problem with this theory there is no known evidence of MMR cauing autism. The argument within the article relys heavily on logos. Using a personal testimony to state the opposing argument gives the issue at hand credibility which we learned about using ethos, but the article goes on to talk about all the scientific experiments proving the person testimony wrong. Using facts given by doctors, surveys and actual data proves that parents not allowing their children to get vacinated only hurts their children. The general problem comes when the doctors talk about a "herd vacination" since the virus is appearing in children that are not getting vacinated it may be able to evolve into a new strand.
The article continues on but the point is deffinatly made that not vaccinating children only cause a personal problem, that may so day turn into a public problem. The argument is made though almost entirely on facts and professional opinion.

Finding Pathos in the World

Once I started reading the news paper I found so many articles containing a strong emotional stand point to really draw the readers into the article. Even the titles of articles contained this emotional draw: "Killings surge in drug-trade battles," Georgia severs diplomatic ties with the Kremlin," and of course "Making history." All of these titles use pathos to draw readers into the article. The article I chose to focus on is from the Star Telegram entitled "Making history." If you have been watching the presidential race at all you know that history is currently being made. Barrack Obama is the first black candidate for presidency and Sarah Palin is the first women ever to be on an official party ticket as the Republican candidate for Vice President. History is being made no matter which candidate wins but the article then precedes to talk about the decisions behind choosing the VP candidates. Both the Republican and Democratic party picked well liked politicians that both seem to have a very down to earth back ground. The two major parties made a wise choice on the VP candidates because both Biden and Palin can be easily compared to the general public. The argument over which candidate is a better choice for Vice Presidency really comes down to the overall emotional opinion of the public.

My Intro

Hello, my name is Teresa and I am currently a sophomore at Texas Christian University. The purpose for this blog is to allow me to express my opinions on arguments and the election for my English class I am taking this semester. I am from Fort Worth and have lived here most of my life. At TCU I am unsure what exactly it is that I have decided to study therefore I have taken several different types of classes until I find the one I would like to major in. Apart from being at TCU I am also attending culinary school part time on the weekends.
I chose to take this course because it is a requirement but I chose this particular course because I had a friend take Ms. Patrick's freshman course and loved it. So to make sure I took a teacher I knew was good I took my friend's advice and signed up for her class.
I typically enjoy writing. Most of the writing I have done has been in the class room setting, but I have been writing complete argumentative papers since eighth grade and I have been writing complete research papers since I was in sixth grade. Needless to say I have been writing for sometime and I enjoy doing so when the opportunity is given to me.
I have never been particularly involved with politics. I always watch the presidential debate and I have been voting in every election since I was eligible but that is about as far as my political experience has gone. I did however take AP Government my senior year of high school and did well. I would say when someone motivates me to be involved in politics I become involved but until that push I tend to sit on the side lines.
I believe so far the argument I am making in my blog is that people tend to be more motivate to do something if they are spurred on by the opinions of the people around them. And as a culture we keep the people with similar views to our own closer to us then people with apposing views.
Finally I would like to stay that this blog contains my own opinions and do not represent the opinions of Texas Christian University or of it administration. Also that I have read the syllabus and agree to the terms which it expresses.