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?