Barack Obama

So I am sure many of you know that Barack Obama was in Eugene last night at Mac Court giving a speech. I unfortunely didn't get to attend but I did watch his speech on T.V. and jotted down a couple of notes on the speech. As we all know this is a very crucial election and I wanted to make an educated decision. I am registered as democrat but that doesn't mean that is the only way I will ever vote. I think it is very important to look at each candidate and see what they have to offer before making a decision. Overall his speech was good and he is a very good speaker to boot. I liked what he had to say but sometimes you have to think about how these politicians plan on pulling off the things they are promising. I am going to post the highlights from his speech.

Healthcare
Barack Obama has promised to put into place a healthcare system that benefits all American's by the end of his first term as president. If you are already receiving healthcare from your employer then he plans to work with the employer to help lower premiums by $2500/year. If you don't have healthcare then he plans to implement a government-run plan that will allow you to choose your own doctor healthcare that will not exclude due to pre-existing health conditions. Also he plans to implement prevention education to help turn it back into a healthcare system as opposed to a disease fighting system.

CEO's vs Workers
-take away tax breaks for oversea labor and creat ta breaks for business that move their labor locally
-trade agreements that set labor an environmental standards.

Environment
- he wants to cap greenhouse gas emissions and fine polluters who excede the cap, that money would then inturn be invested into clean energy
-infrastructure- break reliance on oil by investing in clean energy: solar, wind, and biodiesal power

Schools and Education
- invest in early child hood education
-reward teachers: Higher salaries and more support
- higher standards in shool (not just by standardized tests) which encourages all subjects not just math and science but art and music, etc as well
-College
-$4000 tuition credit in exchange for students to be actively involved in community service, volunteering, peace corp, etc.

War and Military
-believes we need to get out of this war
-promises to pull out one batillion of troops each month until all troops are removed from Iraq which could take up to 16 months
-invest in proper training and proper troop rotation
-take care of our troops when they get home.

As I watched and listened to this speech I couldn't help by feel like jumping on the Barack Obama band-wagon. He said all of the right things and if he could pull off everything he says that would be awesome, but I'm not ready to throw my hat into his ring until I research the other candidates as well. I would also like to see how Barack plans on implementing many of the things he is planning on. Where is he going to get the money to do all of this? I guess I will have to research him further but overall I like what he has to say.

So, this is it?

Alright, here I am, trying to figure out how exactly one starts a blog...hmmm. Well I guess I'll just go with it and see what I come up with. I figured I would give this a try not just for everyone else but for myself. All to often I don't realize what exactly is going on in my life, so I figured if I blogged and actually kept up on what is going on I couldn possible see where my life was headed and how I'm getting there. First off my name is Mishaun and I am a U of O alumn doing absolutely nothing with my degree right now. I am currently slinging pasta at the Olive Garden and still trying to figure out why I'm still there with a four year degree. Well truth be told I can't do anything that I would like to do with my degree. I still need two years of school and being accepted to graduate school seems to be getting in my way, I never realized how hard and frustrating it would be, but here I am, just waiting it seems like. I stay at the Olive Garden because of flexibility. I can pretty much pick my own schedule within reason and can easily get time off when I need it. Who can beat that right? Most the people I work with are pretty kick ass and my management isn't half bad either, so I will keep slinging that pasta I suppose until I can actually start doing what I really want. What exactly is that you say? Speech-Language pathology. I have always found the aspect of communication systems extremely intriguing. I also love children and want a lot of time of...so combine those three things and you get a Speech-Language Pathologist. So hopefully by the year 2011 I will be done with all this restaurant mambo-jambo and will be moving on the bigger and better things. Currently I am volunteering at the Eugene Hearing and Speech center in a preschool language development classroom. I absolutely love it. I pretty much go in once and week and kick it with little kids for hours. On Monday's I babysit my boyfriends nephew and I'm pretty sure he's the coolest little kid there is. Monday's have slowly become one of my favorite days of the week because I love kickin it with the little guy and taking him on adventures. It's crazy how fast they grow. Anyway, If I keep going I'm never going to stop and before you know it you will have my whole life stories, even the not so interesting details, so as of now I am going to sign off and when I come up with something interesting to say that won't put you to sleep I will offer it up for you all to read! Until then take care!