There has been a lot of recent concern about private contracting in Iraq; I have commented on it myself. While browsing the New York Times site a few days ago, I came across more, and not entirely what I was expecting. I don't know about you, but when I think about private contracting, I think of security agencies like Blackwater USA. But no: the subject of scrutiny is this time electrical contractors.

According to this article, there have been, "... at least 283 electrical fires [that] destroyed or damaged American military facilities," and this is just in the past six months; back in 2006, a fire at a base close to Tikrit resulted in the deaths of two soldiers. Soldiers have a lot to fear if they go to Iraq - they should have to worry about electrical outlets.

I don't know, am I? As you may have seen before, I can lose my concentration and sanity both in a very short time. De ja vu: I was on the NYTimes at about five in the morning, and an ad for the new Samsung Instinct (new phone) caught my attention. I'm used to the General's car insurance ads letting me crash into cars while I'm checking my e-mail, but I was a little surprised that there was a game with this phone ad, let alone a memory game. Since no one else was up so early and I really had nothing better to do, I decided to play. I had been able to remember 12 of the flashing buttons (too hard to explain) before I finally lost.

I attend an out-of-district school which is about 16 miles from my house. The only bad thing is that it costs us anywhere between 40 and 50 dollars to fill up the gas tank in my mum's Mazda. Unfortunately, after a year of driving two sixteen mile trips a day, our gas bill has really skyrocketed. And to think that as recently as two years ago gas was only about $2.00 a gallon. It's too bad we live so far from our school, otherwise we could just walk.

One thing I'd like to quickly get out of the way: now that the two candidates for president are Barack Obama and John McCain, I am officially endorsing Barack Obama. Wonderful: with that out of the way, let's get rolling. 

Since the Democratic National Convention, many people have questioned whether or not Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama will choose Hillary Clinton as his running mate. Some supporters of Hillary Clinton's initial run for president began a campaign, "...to pressure Senator Barack Obama into choosing her as a running mate," (thanks NYTimes).  According to the article, Clinton stopped the campaign, saying that it was up to Obama to decide, and no one else.

This week, my school in Place-You've-Never-Heard-Of, California, began administering the California Standardized Tests (CSTs). This year is different for me than in previous years because, instead of just testing in math and language arts, we are also taking tests for science and social studies. Unfortunately, I was not very satisfied with my education this year. We had a textbook, but we never really read much in it, and instead focused on a limited assortment of principles. I never really understood why we focused on such a limited spectrum of information, but I just ran with it.

These days, air travel ends up in the media quite frequently for various reasons: bankrupcy, terror threats, and new regulations about what we can and can't take with us on planes. It's nice knowing that another sky terror plot has been foiled and that it's now even harder for terrorists to get explosives on our planes. It makes many of us feel very safe on these flights. Well, isn't it nice to know that instead of fearing the person sitting next to us on the plane or what's in their bag, we now have to fear the plane itself.

The New York Times reported back on March 7 that Southwest Airlines might be fined up to "$10.2 million" over its continued flying of "older Boeing 737"s which they had failed to inspect for cracks in their fuselages. FYI: the fuselage is the body of the plane, shown flashing in green below:

Reading the New York Times website this afternoon, I ran across an article describing President Bush's latest veto, this time on the subject of interrogation techniques. If this bill had been past, it would have made methods such as waterboarding illegal. For those in the dark: during waterboarding, the victim is strapped to a board, head inclined down with either a cloth or cellophane across their face. Water is then repetitively poured across the victims face, sparking the gag reflex. Some try to claim that waterboarding is not actually torture, but I definitely say it is, and that it is criminal.

As a student, this may sound a little odd to you, but there's something about school that I've always liked. I think the main thing I've liked was the learning and the knowledge I gained. Knowledge is something I hold quite highly, and school seemed like the best way to gain it and to share what of it you have with others. Of course, who are the individuals who try their best to get us the best learning experience; to ensure that we can reach our greatest potential? The answer is teachers, the ones who dedicate themselves to our betterment and learning.

Being a teacher certainly is not an easy thing. If a student fails, it's the teacher whose head gets put upon the line. And hey, I know there are days when they feel like they've just had enough, especially when the kids just won't be quiet. For all that they go through though and do for us, it doesn't seem that teachers are appreciated enough. I mean, appreciation from students can be anything from simple cooperation to telling them just how much they've inspired you. But it's not the students that I'm worried about.

The race for the Democratic nomination has gotten quite interesting; with John Edwards out of the race, we are left with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Senator Barack Obama fighting for the remaining delegates to send to the national convention. Now, many people have been asking me, if I could vote, who would I vote for? For the past several months, the answer to that question for me was John Edwards, primarily for his stance on healthcare. But now, it looks like I have to choose someone else.

Since I haven't really been nitpicking, I haven't really seen any major differences between Clinton's and Obama's campaigns. However, I will now take the time to examine the two campaigns and see with whom to place my "vote."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Hillary Clinton: The Potential First Female President

I'll honestly say, I'm surprised. For one thing, the media kept saying that it looked as though Obama had a significant hold over New Hampshire; that the primary there would be a breeze for him. Then again, though, all of the results were rather surprising. All things considered, all of the results were surprising. I have not really heard all that much about Senator John McCain lately, so finding out that he had won the Republican primary was quite a shock.

Let me just get this out of the way: I don't really have anything wrong with John McCain per say. My only point is that it seems that his only platform is that he spent twenty-two years in the Navy. It's great that he spent so long serving his country, but it seems to me that political and public experience would be a little more desirable. Of course, it does not help that McCain was brought into the Keating Five scandal, though it seems that a small number of people remember this incident.