President to address joint session of Congress tomorrow

 


Tomorrow evening, President Obama is meeting a joint session of Congress to discuss the health care bill he is trying to push trhough. This speech is "...an address billed as the most important of his presidency so far," according to Jackie Calmes and Robert Pear. 

President  Obama has been lobbying for the health care reform since he became president and how it's all come to a head. What will happen if it doesn't pass? People will be left without any health care. That's a serious issue. However, that means that the middle class people (who are also struggling with the economy right now) will not see a change in their policy or prices. 


Some Democrats in Congress think things are moving too quickly, and would like a chance for things to slow down. The health care reform bill could mean a hike in taxes and has very little Republican support.  


The stakes are high for President Obama. No matter what happens tomorrow afternoon with his speech, if the health care reform bill passes or doesn't go through, there will be serious repercussions on both sides of the fence. If  he fails to pass the bill, his presidency will take a huge blow. One that he can recover from but it will take a lot to bounce back from. 


"The time to decide is now," said President Obama. There is no more dancing around the issue. It's time to to decide and act. The issue is what will happen when it is acted upon. Failing to pass the bill will be detrimental to his next four years. However pushing the bill through without the proper support could turn ugly and hinder President Obama just as much. 


With Democrats and Republicans a little wary of what is to come, it make take a while to get a joint decision on the bill. President Obama must know there is a lot riding on this speech.


However most of his campaign and this far in his presidency have depended on his ability to deliver a good speech at the right time. Now, when the country is in such termoil and there are so many questions, President Obama has to keep his poise and keep his head about it. 


President Obama is addressing a joint session of Congress about health care tomorrow. The outcome could go either way. No matter what, it's a big moment in history and in his presidency.

Julie Andrews

Julie Andrews is one of my favorite actresses, so I decided to research her and see what I could find.
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"I was learning on my feet every single performance."

Julie Andrews, born Julia Wells felt right at home on a stage at the age of ten when she joined her mother (a pianist) and her step father (a professional singer) on their family tour.

Julie Andrews spent the early part of her career on Broadway, giving a excellent performance as Eliza Doolittle in "My Fair Lady." After earning an Oscar for her first feature film, Mary Poppins, Julie Andrews was a household name for most people.

After Mary Poppins, she went on to star in one of her most recognizable roles to date, Maria in "The Sound of Music." Her talents as an actress and as a singer were put to the test, due to the extensive music score.

In 1995 Andrews was suffering from vocal cord damage and had surgery to repair it. However the surgery went wrong and caused Andrews to lose some vocal tissue needed to keep singing at her range (four octave). Since then, her acting and singing career has taken a back seat to something else Andrews has longed to do: write childrens books. She currently has 8 children's books published an a memoir, letting her audience a little deeper into her life through words.

Andrews took back up acting by portraying Queen Clarisse in The Princess Diaries. She enjoys being recognized by the younger generation.

"I know, it's phenomenal. There's a whole new generation out there that says 'Do you remember Mary Poppins,' 'yeah.' 'The Sound of Music?' 'yeah,' 'Princess Diaries,' 'oh cool!' and I just love it."
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It was a great interview that started out with a little anecdote about her life and as a child, and then gives more detail and more detail about her life as an actress and singer, and then ends with another little snippet of her life, letting the readers see she is a real person as well as an actress.

Representive Profile Piece

I was looking on the Washington Post website trying to find an article that was a representative profile piece. For some reason, this one caught my eye:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/01/AR2009090103709.html

1 (Lead)-"In the four months that Deborah Ann Brown had been making iced lattes and counting out Munchkins at a Dunkin' Donuts store in Northwest Washington, she became known as the slight, cheerful, generous woman whose personality made others smile" - gives you a little detail about Deborah Brown and what she did, although it does not say what happened (she was killed)

2. (Nut Graf)- paragraphs 3-4 say exactly what happened (she was in the wrong place at the wrong time) and gives a little detail about the man who killed her and gangs (which he was in.)

3. (Body)-the body goes into detail about how this has been a crime in a string of violence in Columbia Heights and gives statistics about the homicide rate being down and how the victim and assailant know each other

4. (ending) "In Brown's case," Fenty said, "she was an innocent victim"-the body brings up the neighborhood as a whole, but the end brings Deborah back into focus and reminding people that not everyone knows their assailant.

The article was gripping and made it realistic by talking about a specific person before branching out and talking about how crime has been fluctuating in Columbia Heights for a spree.