Giannoulias & Kirk

The latest Rasmussen Reports show that Republican Mark Kirk is leading in the polls over Democrat Alexi Giannoulias by 4 percentage points. The race is so close, that both candidates are trying to convince every last person that they deserve their vote. It may come down to that. If you are an Illinois resident, you could make a big difference in the 2010 Senate race just by voting this year.

Giannoulias, the current Treasurer of Illinois looks to become Senator of the state at the young age of 34. He was born and in Chicago, and attended the University of Chicago. He believes he knows what the people of Illinois want, and it’s his goal to help them get it.

He is up against 51-year-old Mark Kirk who currently is representing the 10th congressional district. He was born in Champaign, Illinois, and currently lives in Highland Park. He has much more political experience than the younger Giannoulias. However, Giannoulias is getting the backing of people like Bill Clinton and many advocacy groups that had backed Kirk in past elections.

By looking at the latest polls, there is no clear favorite. It will most likely come down to election night before we get a good idea of who will claim Obama’s former seat.

Education Nation

The purpose of the “Education Nation” is to discuss ways to improve the national education system that has begun to fall behind that of other nations.

On Monday, President Obama made an appearance on the Today Show saying, “Historically, when we first set up the public school systems across the country, we were leaps and bounds ahead of the vast majority of countries around the world. That just is not true anymore. They have caught up and, in some cases, they’re surpassing us, especially in math and science. It happened over decades. There are a lot of contributing factors. But part of the challenge, I think, for the entire country is to understand that how well we do economically, whether jobs are created here, high-end jobs to support families and support the future of the American people, is going to depend on whether or not we can do something about these schools.”

The goal of the summit is to fix the education system in the United States, whether it is by hiring more teachers, extending school hours/day, or increasing teachers’ education.

You can watch live coverage of NBC’s “Education Nation” right here.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

What do you think is the best way to improve education in the U.S.?

Rahm Emanuel to run for Chicago Mayor

Rahm Emanuel, who has served a number of political duties in the White House, is more than likely going to step down as Chief of Staff within the next few days in order to pursue a run for Mayor of Chicago. Current Mayor of Chicago Richard M. Daley has elected not to run for his 7th term, and will retire once his current term is over. Emanuel hopes to win his spot.

Emanuel, was born in Chicago, and lived there for a decent amount of time. Whether or not he would be the favorite in the election for Mayor of the city is an argument that has two sides.

It will certainly be a lofty goal for Rahm, whose name (Rahm) means “lofty” in Hebrew.

There is no word on who will replace Emanuel as Chief of Staff, but rumors have it that it will be the current deputy chief of staff, Pete Rouse.

Obama to answer questions on 'Education Nation'

Of course not all questions to the President will be answered, but many will be chosen. If you have a good question that you think other Americans in this country also have about education, than feel free to submit it.

As time goes on, and the 2012 election gets all that much closers, republicans must find a way to put a bad light on the Barack Obama Presidential Administration.

Bob Woodward has recently released book “Obama’s Wars“, which is his 16th book. Woodward, the Washington Post journalist, who covered Watergate had an interview with Obama.

According to “Obama’s Wars”, Obama said, “We’ll do everything we can to prevent it, but even a 9/11, even the biggest attack ever.. we absorbed it and we are stronger.”

A lot of people are taking these comments to mean that Obama is saying that the United States can handle a terror attack, simply to instigate potential terrorists. Well known talk show host Michael Savage has an opinion on why Obama is making these remarks.

Savage said, “The bottom line here is that Americans don’t believe in President Obama’s leadership. He has to find some way between now and November of demonstrating that he is a leader who can command confidence and, short of a 9/11 event or an Oklahoma City bombing, I can’t think of how he could do that.”

These suggestions that Obama is willing to let American suffer a terror attack, just to save his presidency seems to be rather outlandish. Just a few weeks ago we heard rumors that Obama doesn’t really care if he wins the 2012 election, as he has other political goals in mind. Bob Woodward never claimed that an Obama terror attack scenario is what his the current administration needs or hopes for. He just talked about how Obama believes that America is a strong country; one that can handle a terror attack of huge proportions and still stand strong.

It is the remarks of people like Michael Savage, and blogger Warner Todd Huston who create these rumors. Huston responded to the Woodward books claim with the following:

But somehow I can’t escape the feeling that this flippancy comes from Obama’s envy that George W.Bush got a “big event” to make his presidency while all Obama has gotten is a bad economy, massive job loss, and dissatisfaction at every level of society. No big disaster that he could make his nut on. Heck he even wasted the BP Oil spill with weeks of inactivity.

I can just see him, green with envy that Bush got that big moment. If ONLY Hussein could get a big attack of his own, why THEN he’d show the world what a great president he could be! If only we could “absorb” a big one like 9/11, eh Barrack? And we’d take it…. and take it….

Now, remember the old days when we had a president that was willing to take the fight to the terrorists? Now we have a president that is waiting to “absorb” attacks on us, HERE. And we take it…

Obama continues to leave troops on foreign soil even though he’s pulled most out of Iraq.

What do you think? Are these pundits fabricating rumors just to hurt the Obama Administration, or are they on to something? Would Obama really instigate terrorists in order to save his presidency?

If you are interested in reading Bob Woodward’s new book “Obama’s Wars”, you can purchase it Here.

Jesse Jackson Jr.

In talking about the relationship he had with Giovanna Huidobro, Jesse Jackson Jr., who has been married for some time had this to say.

“The reference to a social acquaintance is a private and personal matter between me and my wife that was handled some time ago. I know I have disappointed some supporters, and for that I am deeply sorry.”

Giovanna Huidobro is a hostess in the D.C. area. There is no proof of any affair or sexual relationship that Jackson and Giovanna Huidobro have engaged in. It’s all speculation at this time.

This latest news comes about the same time as Jesse Jackson Jr. is responding to reports, that he tried to pay for a senate seat.

When Barack Obama was elected as President of the United States, Rod Blagojevich was assigned to appoint a senator to take Obama’s former seat. There are allegations that Jesse Jackson Jr. and Blago were close to deal for this empty senate seat. Blagojevich is currently still in an ongoing trial for these reported crimes.

As for what Jesse Jackson Jr. had to say about his alleged dealings with Blagojevich for the seat, he said, “Bring it On” (referring to proof of the allegations).

Jackson also has said the following about his desire for the senate seat:
“The allegations about fund-raising and the Senate seat are not new. I’ve already talked with the authorities about these claims, told them they were false, and no charges have been brought against me. The very idea of raising millions of dollars for a campaign other than my own is preposterous. My interest in the Senate seat was based on years of public service, which I am proud of, not some improper scheme with anyone.”

Meanwhile, Huidobro claims not to know anything about any negotiations between Blogojevich and Jackson Jr.

This latest news could potentially harm any chance Jackson had at running for Mayor of Chicago, which he is rumored to be considering.

A few hours ago, Rick Sanchez on CNN referred to President Barack Obama as “the cotton picking president”. As bad as this sounds, the intent was clearly not there and the context was not even close to how bad it sounds.

Sanchez used the phrase while in discussion with Jessica Yellin, where they were talking about the many lies that are being spread about the president, such as him being a Muslim. As Sanchez clearly becomes frustrated, his tone of voice rises and he says, “He is the cotton picking president of the United States! If the president of the United States doesn’t have enough of a bully pulpit to convince people that…a lie is a lie…what the hell is going on here?”

After the discussion, CNN went to a commercial break. When programming returned, Rick Sanchez immediately apologized after being contacted by numerous people on Twitter during the break, bringing his attention to the matter. His apology went as follows, “You know I didn’t even realize it? I was just saying ‘cotton picking’ because it’s a term that I’ve used because I grew up in the South…however, I apologize for using it, in case it was taken by anyone as an act of disrespect.”

It is unlikely much fuss will be made of this incident because of the way in which the phrase was used. It was clearly an innocent slip up.

Today is the day that a lot of Americans have been waiting for, and others don’t agree with. Today begins the first week of sending Army National Guard troops to the Mexican border to keep illegal immigrants from sneaking into the United States.

Eventually all bordering states, including California, Texas, and New Mexico will see deployment of troops as well. However, today approximately 30 soldiers were sent to the Arizona-Mexico border.

The borders are already protected by the U.S. Border Patrol, but the Obama Administration feels it’s necessary to deploy further authorities to the region. Obama authorized federal funding for the deployment back in May, and it was supposed to begin on August 1. However, there have been delays. By October, the entire Mexican border will be staffed by 524 U.S. National Guard soldiers.

It should be interesting to see if the 524 additional men and women will be enough to make a difference.

Embryonic stem cell research now on hold

U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth’s ruling said that any embryonic stem cell research involves destroying embryos, which is against the Dickey-Wicker Amendment included in federal spending bills.

“The Dickey-Wicker Amendment unambiguously prohibits the use of federal funds for all research in which a human embryo is destroyed,” according to the ruling by Lamberth.”

The Justice Department is still reviewing Lamberth’s ruling. The hold is temporary, so nothing is set in stone yet.

Mortgage Foreclosurs may increase again

The Treasury Department has announced that almost 650,000 of the 1.3 million homeowners that had enrolled in the program have now dropped out of it.

According to this report, only a little over 35,000 had their monthly mortgage payments lowered via the $75-billion Home Affordable Modification Program in the month of July. This is the lowest amount since December of 2009.

We could be looking at a continued fall in real estate prices nationwide, if foreclosures start to pick up once again. If this is the case, we could see a cycle begin to form, where more people elect to foreclose on their homes because of falling prices.