Essay #6

Nowadays, people who are older are more likely to vote than people who are younger. Perhaps it's because people today have other areas of entertainment besides the news and therefore aren't as well informed as to what is going on, or maybe the elders feel they have more issues to vote on.

Education also plays a part in voting turnout because many people vary on the scale. In modern day, one must search for political knowledge because it is no longer the only thing in the headlines. People with higher education value knowledge. People with lower education may tend to become overwhelmed with information and result in not voting at all.

Voter registration has caused a lower turnout in votes because it takes away the ease of driving up to the polls on election day and filling in a bubble. Now, one must fill out papers prior to election day and send it in so that there will be a system of one person, one vote.

A linkage institution that differs from the elections is the media. The media absorbs citizen information and publicizes it to the world, allowing policymakers to hear. Because the media is made up of average citizens, the information is sure to shine a fairly accurate light on people's true feelings without having to work extra hard, like public opinion polls, to do so.

Essay #5

A litigation is the process of taking legal action and an interest group may use this process to benefit a certain right. Campaign contributions are the funds used to promote a candidate and interest groups may raise as much money as they can to give their chosen candidate a leg up in the expensive race. Grassroots lobbying is the intention of reaching the policy makers and interest groups have wanted to join forces with candidates to hopefully get their strong opinions heard. Mass mobilization comes from grassroots lobbying and is based off civilian population.

The NRA is a prime example of many of these different tactics. The group uses litigation to sue violators of the second amendment, such as the mayor of New Orleans whom attempted to prevent firearms during Hurricane Katrina. The NRA also uses grassroots lobbying and aligns with conservative republican politicians to carry out their word within the government and and therefore continue to grow more powerful.

Ronald Lee Wyden

Ron Wyden was born in Wichita, Kansas on May 3, 1949. His parents were Jews who fled Germany after the Nazis took over. He spent most of his childhood in Palo Alto, California and went to three different colleges to be educated: University of California, Santa Barbara, Stanford University, and University of Oregon Law. He was elected into the House of Representatives in 1980 and was popular amongst voters. Wyden ran for state senate in 1996 and has been involved ever since.

Committees Wyden is involved in:
Committee of Energy and Natural Resources
Select Committee on Intelligence
Special Committee on Aging
Joint Committee on Taxation
Committee on Finance
Committee on the Budget

On the issue of Libya, Senator Wyden supported U.S. intervention. However, he did not want U.S. soldiers on the ground and instead supported the no-fly zone. Back in 2002, he did not support the President's decision to send troops to Iraq and ended up being one of the few senators to vote the troops come home. Wyden supports legalizing abortion and gun control. In 2001, Wyden promoted the College Tuition Savings Act to prevent taxation on tuition money, which soon became a law. In 2008, he worked with the biking community to give prevent taxes on those who commute by means of a bicycle.

QUESTIONS:
1) What exactly did the no-fly zone include over in Libya?
2) Have the grants distributed to benefit victims of sex trafficking helped the situation?
3) Being so heavily involved in privacy security, what are your thoughts about the internets expansion in face identification and tracking users?

Relief for the Phillipines

Because of the catastrophic natural disaster, Hurricane Haiyan, that destroyed much of the Pacific Islands, such as the Philippines, food and water has become the top concern next to the rising toll of casualties. According to CNN, airports have been ruined and traveling the roads is next to impossible.

As a personal brainstorming process, I would say that money should be spent on high protein and high nutrient food products, water purifiers, and transportation. Purifiers are more practical than carrying large water jugs because they weigh much less. Because airports and roads are not traversable, I would think that ships could be of use. They are able to anchor out in the deeper waters, and require smaller boats to get to shore.

Donations can't just be made directly to the Filipinos; the money has got to be sent to well trained and equipped charities that specifically work with disaster relief. For example, UNICEF is pairing up with the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council to help the affected people of the area. According to UNICEF's home website, different donation amounts help pay for different costly supplies. I noticed the website said an $80 donation can allow for 24 mosquito nets.

I'm not quite sure I can come up with a new and improved invention for disaster relief, but I do really like the idea of the personal straw water purifier. They run about $15-20 each and allow for someone in need to drink directly from any water source without getting sick!

Watergate-White House Plumbers

Although the provided name White House Plumbers sounds uninviting, the group is far from the suggested occupation. The White House Plumbers was a secret organization formed under President Nixon in 1971. The job of the Plumbers was to discover the source of confidential leaking information and do whatever it took to prevent possible damage to President Nixon's re-election campaign. They were directly ordered by the President of the United States to bend the laws of the country and illegally carry out their assignment. Some of the men included in the group are G. Gordon Liddy, John Paisley (a member of the CIA), John Erlichman and E. Howard Hunt.

The first order of business for these men included breaking into the psychiatric office of Daniel Ellsberg's therapist, Dr. Lewis Fielding, in Los Angeles. Daniel Ellsberg had leaked important information about a bombing in Cambodia, initiated by Nixon, to the New York Times in documents known as the Pentagon Papers. The Plumbers were to break into Dr. Lewis' office to discover the personal files of Ellsberg and manipulate them to discredit Ellsberg and ruin the allegations. The operation started after three men waited for the last cleaning lady to leave the office, and broke in to find the files. They left pills on the floor to make it appear as though the break-in was for drugs. Below is a picture of poor Daniel Ellsberg.

Pentagon Papers

Members of the White House Plumbers also took part in other researching missions, like Ted Kennedy's involvement in mysterious incidents. For example, they looked into the assassination of a South Vietnamese President that Kennedy might have been involved with.

Ted Kennedy

Later on, a few of the plumbers were recruited to join the Committee of Re-electing the President, also known as the CRP. The CRP took part in illegal money laundering to fund the secret manipulations to re-elect Nixon. The CRP was then directly responsible for the Watergate Scandal in 1972. The Scandal was a break-in by Nixon officials to wiretap telephones and make copies of top secret documents. However, according to Wikipedia, it's still unknown what exactly the CRP was looking for. The burglary was caught and traced, and the plumbers, Hunt and Gordon, along with others, were sentenced to a number of years in jail based on charges of conspiracy and illegal tapping into government property. Ultimately, these scandals ended in President Nixon's resignation from office in 1974.

President Nixon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_House_Plumbers
http://www.historycommons.org/timeline.jsp?nixon_and_watergate_tmln_pentagon_papers=nixon_and_watergate_tmln_ellsberg_break_in&timeline=nixon_and_watergate_tmln
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate_Complex
http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Fall06/Weiner/pages/People/plumbers.htm

Federalism

Federalism is a way of organizing the nation into two levels to have formal, fair authority over the people and the land. Federalism uses categorical grants as an advantage by attaching strings to money they give to state and local governments and influencing them to be a certain way. Federal mandates are the strings attached and only allow the grants to continue if the rules are complied. On the contrary, states have also gotten power through block grants because these grants don't require a specific purpose, rather just federal money given to communities to fund whatever necessary. The tenth amendment aids the states as well by stating that any powers not specified in the Constitution are automatically assumed by the states.

Formal/informal changes to the Constitution

Two formal methods to changing the Constitution include 2/3 of Congress in favor of proposing an amendment and passing it onto the state legislature to ratify it by 3/4 vote or passing it onto the state convention to ratify it by 3/4 vote. Two informal methods to changing the Constitution include judicial interpretation and increasing demands on policymakers due to foreign affairs. Judicial interpretation is the decision of whether an act is constitutional or not. As for the increasing demands of government officials-time has brought upon larger concerns in foreign nations, such as nuclear weapons, and the government needs to be efficient and prepared to handle sticky situations. The Constitution was written in a time when these worries didn't exist, so it's necessary to adjust the Constitution according to modern day. Because the formal process requires a long process of creating amendments, the informal process is practiced more often because it's a quick way to bend the laws of the constitution while still being constitutional.

Outline

10/30

1. The legislative branch is most closely tied to the citizens because the officials are directly elected, rather than appointed. The constitution created limits on majority rule by putting the House of Representatives in sole control of voting. Additionally, the constitution limited control of different sections in the government by giving different powers to different positions, such as two year senator terms. The primaries have created a more democratic nation because it allows voters to be a part of the election process and allows them to select a president they want to represent them. Similarly, the expansion of suffrage has also created a more democratic America by including people, other than white males, in the voting process so they, too, can be represented by a person of their choice.
2. People can participate in politics by petitioning and by civil disobedience. Petitioning requires advocates to go out into the public and get signatures for a cause. This can be beneficial because it can educate citizens on important issues and hopefully help them to form an opinion besides indifference. Civil disobedience is beneficial participation because it expresses the intense opinions of some Americans, without the violence used often in protesting.

*Describe the significance of money in a modern presidential election campaign. How does the government regulate the fund-rasiing and expenditures of presidential campaigns? Is the government regulation adequate? Explain

Nowadays, money is one of the most important aspects of a candidate's campaign. Campaigns require a lot of staff from counsels and managers, to people who are needed to just stamp the envelopes. Not to mention, the travel expenses for flying/driving all over the country. But perhaps the costliest demand of a competitive campaigner is the advertisements.

However, the government has taken a special interest in campaign spending and has begun to create limitations since the 1970's. The Federal Election Campaign Act of 1974 has established a few different regulations such as the Federal Election Commission and the Presidential Election Campaign Fund. With the help of a few more regulations, the act has created a more restricted and fair election system. On the contrary, people have found loopholes within the system which sometimes tampers with the adequacy of the restrictions. For example, in 1979 the use of soft money tip-toed around the disclosure requirement and was quickly resolved by the McCain- Feingold Act 2002; an act that clarified the limitations. All in all, regulating elections is a good idea for fairness and the requirements have created a more equal opportunity. But like most things in the world, it isn't going to be perfect and people will manipulate the system.

13 Things That Define the New American Center

As a new member of the voting society in America, my views and opinions are not fully developed. I am still taking the time to learn how it all works. However, the survey on the Center of American Politics has shown some interesting points; some conservative views and some liberal. For some liberal examples, the website stated that 44% of the Center thought marriage should be open to every couple whom love each other. On the stance about guns, 45% said that background checks are a necessity. They want to raise taxes on the rich and are in support of recycling. On the other hand, the people of the Center share more conservative views on the government's involvement in every day life. The Center wants limited involvement from the government and is in favor of continuing the death penalty.

Are public opinion polls a benefit or a curse to American politics? What influence do they have on campaigns? On governing? What do critics point to as the key weaknesses of public opinion polls? Do you agree? Explain?

Public opinion polls are beneficial in the original sense of the idea. However, the end results of public opinion polls seem to have too many setbacks to be accurate. For Example, random digit dialing, a common way to sample, can easily be full of errors. Some Americans don't want to take the time to listen to the message and hang up; some don't even have phones. Additionally, quick polls encourage candidates or government leaders to focus on the preferences of their peers rather than taking their own bold stand on issues. In the same effect, uncertain voters pick up on other people's voting trends in samples and therefore begin to follow others instead of thinking for themselves. Public opinion polls are a good idea, but with the reality of human nature polls are not very beneficial; concluding to be more of a curse.

                                              The percentages of correct answers out of 5


Team Hadlie, Hannah, Megan and Meg
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SUMMER

Hi I'm Meg Meagher. This summer I worked at Emerald City Smoothies and took a couple trips. I went to Sun Valley for a week and stopped by a music festival at the base of the Baldy. I also stayed up at Hayden Lake in Idaho for a week with ten of my close friends which was really fun. Another fun memory I had this summer was attending the Taylor Swift concert with my girlfriends. That's all I have to share.