Original editorial or commentary #2

Immigration issues are getting worse and worse in this country. Not only are our borders unsecure but also the immigrants we have in the country already are being exploited because of their lack of a legal status in this country. Employers take advantage of these illegal immigrants and make them work long and hard for very little pay. The only reason employers are able to do this is because the illegal immigrants are not able to get respectable jobs in other places so some employers hire them and exploit their short comings.

In her article titled “Immigration—the next big push?” Bonnie Kapp writes about President Obama’s comprehensive immigration reform.  She writes about how Obama has been promising a immigration reform, but has not been able to fulfill the promise he made to the country.  Bonnie Kapp writes “Then candidate Obama frequently promised comprehensive immigration reform, even pledging to La Raza, the Hispanic civil rights advocacy group.” She goes on to write about a few times that Obama promised immigration reform and didn’t deliver. Obama has been concentrating on the health care reform law up until now.  She writes about how she believes that Obama might put his full attention on immigration reform now.

Immigration is one of the most important issues in the United States of America, but politicians don’t treat it as such. Obama has been promising Immigration reform ever since he was a candidate for the Presidency.  Immigration reform is very important because our borders are not as secure as they should be. There are way to many ways to get into the United States.  The borders to our country need to be secured! Another reason reform is necessary is because the immigrants that we have in this country right now are getting treated like crap by employers because the employers know that the immigrants are desperate for work and cannot do anything to stop them. We need an immigration reform to crack down on those abuse employers. We have over 12 million immigrants living in our country; we need an immigration reform to push them to try to become legal citizens of the United States of America. Although Obama has promised an immigration reform many times, he hasn’t delivered yet. He needs to put immigration in a higher place because it is very important. Now that his health care reform law has passed he might finally put his full concentration on immigration where it should have been about two and half years ago on November 4^th, 2008 when he was elected. 

Comment on a colleague's work #2

     In her blog, the author Morgan Noack writes about an article titled, “Arizona Sues Federal Government for Failing to Enforce Immigration.” When you click on the hyperlink that takes you to the article, there are two authors present. Morgan Noack did not acknowledge the authors in her blog. It is important to tell the reader who the author, so the reader knows who is writing the article and if they please, go do some research in the author of the article. She begins her article by giving a brief summary of the article. The summary is a little too brief and doesn’t really provide much detail. If the summary were made a little longer and had more information, the reader of the blog would be more informed about what Morgan Noack is writing about. Although her summary is brief, it is also very point on, she tells you what the article is about and how the Governor in the article feels about the situation. She writes “Brewer desperately wants the borders protected once and for all. Brewer also makes an approach to blame the Obama administration for this problem.” After that she goes on to tell the reader of her blog why they should go read the article she is writing about, she says, “I believe that this article is worth reading so that Americans that don’t live in a border state can idealize what those people are dealing with.” In the article that she is writing about the main issue at hand in immigration, it would have been a better overall post if she decided to tell her readers about how she felt on the issue. Although assumptions can be made on the style of her writing, no obvious statement is made by Morgan Noack.

     Mogan Noack’s post was short and to the point. She should elaborate more in the summary and in the details. She should also give her own view on the subject at hand because after all it is her own blog. Overall the post was good but with some improvements and the addition of her own opinions can make it great. You can read her post at: http://mnoackusgovt.blogspot.com/2011/02/article-pick.html

Comment on a colleague's work #1

In his blog the author, Tony Kukowski, writes about an article that is titled “Six-Figure Bus Driver and Other Working-Class Heroes”. He starts his blog by giving a quote on how the article is started so the reader can understand what the article he is referring to, is about. He then goes on to give a description of the author of the original article that he is writing about. This is good because the author of the article, Ann Coulture is very conservative and the reader of Tony Kukowski’s blog needs to know that. He then goes on to write about the article itself, he gives a few details and then he gives a short and to-the-point statement on how Ann Coulture feels about the subject at hand. Tony Kukowski says, “After reading her article, you can clearly understand her stance on the issue. She does not support what the public sector employees, and the unions that they are associated with, are trying to accomplish in Wisconsin.” He did a good job by doing this because the reader can now continue on reading the blog instead of going to read Ann Coulture’s article, which now they can read after they are finished reading Tony’s blog. Tony Kukowski also provides quotes from the article that give the reader evidence on the way Clouture feels. He then goes on to write about how he feels on the matter.

Overall Tony did a good job. He did a great job making the reader familiar with the article and the author. He also did a great job showing the authors stand point on the issue. The only part that could use some work is the part where he voices his own opinion, this part is to short and it does not provide any evidence to support his argument. It doesn’t really convince me of get me thinking to go against Ann Coulture’s argument. If he made his own opinion longer, clearer, and provided evidence to support his argument this would be a great blog. You can read Tony's Blog at: http://thedeepnorthoutlook.blogspot.com/

Rights, Rights, Rights, and more Rights.

In the United States of America we are spoiled with the amount of rights that we have.  The rights given to U.S. citizens give them so much freedom. We have the freedom of religion, the freedom of speech, the freedom of press, and many others. The freedoms and rights that we have are not only for certain races, genders, or religions. The freedoms we have are for each and every citizen of the United States.

            The freedom of speech and press is a huge right that we take for granted here in the United States. We can say and write what we want about almost anything and anyone. We can write what we want about the government and even say what we want about the president. When we say and write these things we know that we are protected.  In other countries you can be brutally murdered for saying or writing something that is against the government or the leader. This right that we have is very important and since we have it and it’s apart of our everyday lives we take it for granted. We don’t understand how important it is that we can say and write about what is on our minds and how we feel about certain things going on in this country.

            Another right that we have is the freedom to choose the religion we want to be apart. You can be Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, or any other religion you want to be. In other countries there is a universal religion that you are ordered to follow. I am a Muslim so I know about many of the other “Muslim countries”, (yes the country is named off of a religion, I’m glad the United States aren’t like that) in which you are ordered to be a Muslim and if you are caught practicing another religion you are murdered. Although some people in the United States might give you a hard time for being a certain religion, the country and government itself will never do that same.

            This post makes it seem like I believe that we have to many rights here in the United States of America, but I assure you that is not the case. I believe that the rights we have are necessary for all men and women to have and other countries around the world should also have these rights. I sure am glad I live in the United States.

Let police pursue criminals, not immigrants

            In the article titled “Let police pursue criminals, not immigrants” the author speaks on the issue of immigration laws in California.  California is now participating in “Secure Communities, a controversial program created to track and deport dangerous criminals.” The author doesn’t support Secure Communities. The author believes that the police should be pursuing real criminals, instead of finding illegal immigrants and trying to figure out if they are criminals. The title shows that the author clearly doesn’t support the program. The author has good evidence to support his claims in the article. He says, “About 60% of the 87,534 immigrants deported under the program had minor or no criminal convictions, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's statistics”, he has statistics from homeland security to support his arguments. He also has a quote from Former Chief William J. Bratton to support him; the quote is “Criminals are the ‘biggest benefactors when immigrants fear police.’” Some of his arguments do require more evidence, toward the end of his article, the article gets a little too opinionated and the statistics aren’t as strong as they were in the beginning and middle of the article. The author’s logic is sound because of the statistics that he has provided to support his article. There are very few opinionated articles that are sound without good evidence to support the author’s argument. The conclusion, although strongly opinionated, is still valid. It is valid because of the rest of the article and all of the statistics that were provided to support the author’s argument.  

Gun saftey, Texas-style

 In the Los Angeles Times article titled “Gun safety, Texas-style” the author of the article makes a valid argument against Jeff  Wentworth. Jeff Wentworth has proposed a bill “which would allow the carrying of concealed weapons on college campuses by those with permits to do so.” A bill like this has been proposed before in 2009 and although the Senate passed it, the House of Representatives rejected it. But this time around it has a better chance “because more than half the members of the House have signed on as coauthors of a version of the bill.” The author of this article is against passing a bill like this because he doesn’t think it would actually do what it is suppose to do. The bill is being set out so that students and faculty with gun licenses could stop incidents of shooters who come to college campuses and start shooting random innocent victim. Although I see where Jeff Wentworth is coming from, I have to disagree with him because giving all students with a permit the right to carry guns at school will not make it safer for the students. It will make it less safe for everyone attending the school because anyone can start shooting out of anger. If two students are to get in a fight one of the student could pull out his gun and shoot the other student out of anger, if there is no gun to his disposal then he wouldn’t be able to do that. Also it is rather easy to get a gun licenses, anyone over the age of 21 can take the required ten-hour course and become an official gun licenses holder. If the bill is passed many students who do not have gun licenses will take the course to get a license and then a gun just so they can feel safe at school because others have guns. The author says “A student firing back at a gunman in a crowded classroom might pose as much of a risk to his fellow students as the assailant.” I agree with the author in this matter, the student trying to shoot down the “bad guy” can be just as harmful as the “bad guy”. I believe that the bill should be rejected again because it will just lead to less safety in our schools. 

Charges Against Muslim Students

   The was an article in The New York Times about 11 muslim student who were arrested for speaking out against an important speaker. Last year at The University of California, Irvine, the Israeli ambassador Michael B. Oren came to the University to give a speech, some Muslim students didn't agree with his speech or with his ways so they decided to interrupt the speech as a way to protest. By the end of the ambassador's speech 11 muslim students were arrested and were later suspended from the University for a quarter. But last week Tony Rackauckas the District Attorney  of Orange County filled misdemeanor criminal charges against the 11 students that were protesting the Israeli ambassador. You should go and check the article out to get more details, but I found it pretty interesting that the District Attorney waited so long to file charges against the 11 students for "disturbing a public meeting and engaging in a conspiracy to do so." Although the students did disturb a very important event it was to protest the speaker. I am not sure where I stand on the whole criminal segment but I don't think they did something that is worthy of prison time.