- Instead of using my generation because most of my friends are older I'm going to use the military. Which is mostly republican. We have Fox News on at all times in our office and I don't know anyone that I work with that voted for Obama. If they did they definately were not fessing up to it.
- I'm going to continue to be in the Air Force and who knows about the future...
- Had a good time in class! See ya in August!
Thursday, June 11, 2009
The End again
sorry I didn't get the rest in before I published
The End
- I enjoyed the "Where did the Money Go?" class because I like being able to bitch about taxes and spending without looking like an ignorant butt. That and I genuinely like knowing where the money goes.
- The class that was probably my least favorite was the one on public opinion because I don't feel that its something that a class needs to take up. This is because I think people understand how public opinion plays into politics and the rest have google.
- I had a fairly good amount of knowledge about government but I definately learned quite a bit in this class.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Museum Part 2
I learned about the history of McLean County over the last couple of centuries and the impact its leaders and community had on the United States as a whole. Also, how agriculture and industry had impacted those leaders and members of the community. It is important to know the history of where you live, however it tends to get missed when you haven't grown up in the area. Newcomers to an area are to busy with moving, jobs, kids, school, etc. to take the time to notice.
The reason I've never visited the Museum is because of the reasons mentioned before (minus the kids part). When I do get two seconds to breath its usually spent doing other things that I've neglected. There is definitely a connection between politics and McLean County (hence the Political Gallery) but going through the different galleries you see the impact on politics from the Vietnam War to Lincoln's famous "Lost Speech" that catapulted the Republican Party into view. Also the displays for women suffrage, all of the past wars, and even agriculture and industry play into politics. We already talked about the Vietnam War display and obviously that is what interested me. It was a very nice display but I think the POW/MIA section could have been bigger and better attributed to these soldiers. I don't think hardly anyone of my generation or the one before mine, for that matter, even come close to understanding the horrific pains and torture that these soldiers went through. That is something that holds true and dear to my heart and I didn't like to see it put off in a corner like it was in this display.
The reason I've never visited the Museum is because of the reasons mentioned before (minus the kids part). When I do get two seconds to breath its usually spent doing other things that I've neglected. There is definitely a connection between politics and McLean County (hence the Political Gallery) but going through the different galleries you see the impact on politics from the Vietnam War to Lincoln's famous "Lost Speech" that catapulted the Republican Party into view. Also the displays for women suffrage, all of the past wars, and even agriculture and industry play into politics. We already talked about the Vietnam War display and obviously that is what interested me. It was a very nice display but I think the POW/MIA section could have been bigger and better attributed to these soldiers. I don't think hardly anyone of my generation or the one before mine, for that matter, even come close to understanding the horrific pains and torture that these soldiers went through. That is something that holds true and dear to my heart and I didn't like to see it put off in a corner like it was in this display.
Monday, June 8, 2009
The Museum before
I've never been to the Museum or courthouse. This would be because I just moved here six months ago and haven't had a second to breath since I moved here. It would be interesting to see the museum and to know more about the history of this area since I plan on being here for quite a few years. It does matter since it is important to know the history of where you live.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
I seem to be in the moderate to liberal side of things. There is no one on the chart that was anywhere close to me so I have no idea who I would be linked to. I'm not really surprised by where I fit. I consider myself a liberal republican (I know that's an oxy-moron but that's where I place myself). I believe some social issues are morally wrong but I don't believe the government has the right to step in and have any control over these issues. Economically I believe for the most part that the government should also stay out of things also. I despise the welfare and social security systems because I believe they are too easy to take advantage of and too many people abuse the system.
Like I said I have voted republican both in the 2004 and 2008 elections and have not been able to vote in any other elections but I'm not such a strong republican that I wouldn't look at a democrat. What I noticed about the GOP website is it was being rebuilt so hopefully it will come back much more user friendly and helpful. One thing I truly believe hurt John McCain in the last election was the republicans inability to use the web or atleast to use anywhere close to what Obama did. Also what I noticed was the giant tin-man on the homepage saying that we were under scrutiny. This is just alluding to the democrats need for a large and costly government which most republicans do not like. This would be a case of the now Government Motors formerly known as General Motors.
Sorry this is getting in late, I had to work.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
U.S. Supreme Court Nominee
The 'Empathy' Nominee, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124338457658756731.html. 27 May 2009.
The word that gets the closest to this authors tone in this reading is skepticism. The author's view on Judge Sotomayor is that her idealogy has nothing do with the law but rather her background. The article brings up that when Judge Sotomayor said, "I am . . . not so sure that I agree with the statement. First, . . . there can never be a universal definition of wise. Second, I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life." She set the agenda that she will base her decisions on cases based on her life rather than her interpretation of the law and how this will effect her decisions on the Supreme Court. The article uses two cases that she had heard in her lower court that have been overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court such as, Riverkeeper v. EPA and Merrill Lynch v. Dabit. The article also brings to light her ruling on Ricci v. DeStefano. The author is also scared that she will rule in favor of minority groups instead of ruling in a fair and just way. I think this author feels that she was not nominated because of her merit and accomplishments but because she fit the President's " ideal match for his view that personal experience and cultural identity are the better part of judicial wisdom." (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124338457658756731.html).
The word that gets the closest to this authors tone in this reading is skepticism. The author's view on Judge Sotomayor is that her idealogy has nothing do with the law but rather her background. The article brings up that when Judge Sotomayor said, "I am . . . not so sure that I agree with the statement. First, . . . there can never be a universal definition of wise. Second, I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life." She set the agenda that she will base her decisions on cases based on her life rather than her interpretation of the law and how this will effect her decisions on the Supreme Court. The article uses two cases that she had heard in her lower court that have been overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court such as, Riverkeeper v. EPA and Merrill Lynch v. Dabit. The article also brings to light her ruling on Ricci v. DeStefano. The author is also scared that she will rule in favor of minority groups instead of ruling in a fair and just way. I think this author feels that she was not nominated because of her merit and accomplishments but because she fit the President's " ideal match for his view that personal experience and cultural identity are the better part of judicial wisdom." (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124338457658756731.html).
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Congress Matters
Well, I'm going to write about May 20th's Today in Congress because I have no idea how to find May 26th's, so hopefully this works. I even tried to switch the 20 in the web address to 26 but that gave me the same information. Cross my fingers lol.
I will say I'm glad we went over the things we did in class because it gave me a much better understanding of what I was reading. For instance, the HR in front of the bill numbers, etc. Like, it was said in class I believe Congress is a very hard idea to wrap your head around so the clarification made this blog/article, whatever it is a lot simpler to navigate.
One thing I noticed about this was how informal the writing style was and how biased it seemed to be. I know, I know media/politics is always at some sort of bias, but I was wondering who writes for this website. He's definately not a conservative from what I read. Not a fan of any Republicans (I clicked on his name). Is it a random reporter or it someone that Congress has appointed to write these articles, knowing this would help me put this into a little bit better context.
Okay, so the first thing I noticed when reading this blog was what the House was meeting on. What popped out at me was the National Missing Children Day and Teacher Appreciation blah blah. Don't get me wrong I'm not an ass (sorry I know you said not to cuss but I can't help it), and these things are important, but do we really need to be spending time in Congress on this kind of thing. I know you mentioned in class about these sorts of debates but why couldn't we send around a professional survey (or something equivelant) and congressmen and women could vote on it during their own time. There are so many important issues out there and why are we spending tax dollars (there I go with the whole tax card) to decide these issues. I would like to know how much time and money is spent on these mundane issues. Now that I've made myself look like a biatch I'll move on.
Moving on, I did notice that the House spent the majority of their time on bills such as the Credit Cardholder's Act which I'm divided on and need to do better research on. They also met on the Small Business Act and the PACT Act. I clicked on the PACT Act because I wasn't sure what it was about so I was interested in that it was about the tobacco taxes. It was good to see that these sort of bills are what is spent the most time on.
As far as the Senate goes, why did they only convene for one bill when the House spent their time on five different bills. I understand that the Senate has will filibuster a bill but are there other reasons for this. I also noted that the list of committees was much longer for the House than what it was for the Senate. Is this basically because of size or are there other reasons for this. Piggy-backing on this I will say the Senate sets up a better schedule than the house and seems to be a little bit more organized than what the House. But with a quarter of the people to corral I guess it might be easier to be more organized.
I'm gonna Google this David Waldman guy because I want to know what I am reading. I have a hard time reading stuff like this because I don't really care about what other people wonder or their opinions. I have my own so when I'm reading something like this I want "just the facts." So I'll have to do some personal homework after I send this in.
I will say I'm glad we went over the things we did in class because it gave me a much better understanding of what I was reading. For instance, the HR in front of the bill numbers, etc. Like, it was said in class I believe Congress is a very hard idea to wrap your head around so the clarification made this blog/article, whatever it is a lot simpler to navigate.
One thing I noticed about this was how informal the writing style was and how biased it seemed to be. I know, I know media/politics is always at some sort of bias, but I was wondering who writes for this website. He's definately not a conservative from what I read. Not a fan of any Republicans (I clicked on his name). Is it a random reporter or it someone that Congress has appointed to write these articles, knowing this would help me put this into a little bit better context.
Okay, so the first thing I noticed when reading this blog was what the House was meeting on. What popped out at me was the National Missing Children Day and Teacher Appreciation blah blah. Don't get me wrong I'm not an ass (sorry I know you said not to cuss but I can't help it), and these things are important, but do we really need to be spending time in Congress on this kind of thing. I know you mentioned in class about these sorts of debates but why couldn't we send around a professional survey (or something equivelant) and congressmen and women could vote on it during their own time. There are so many important issues out there and why are we spending tax dollars (there I go with the whole tax card) to decide these issues. I would like to know how much time and money is spent on these mundane issues. Now that I've made myself look like a biatch I'll move on.
Moving on, I did notice that the House spent the majority of their time on bills such as the Credit Cardholder's Act which I'm divided on and need to do better research on. They also met on the Small Business Act and the PACT Act. I clicked on the PACT Act because I wasn't sure what it was about so I was interested in that it was about the tobacco taxes. It was good to see that these sort of bills are what is spent the most time on.
As far as the Senate goes, why did they only convene for one bill when the House spent their time on five different bills. I understand that the Senate has will filibuster a bill but are there other reasons for this. I also noted that the list of committees was much longer for the House than what it was for the Senate. Is this basically because of size or are there other reasons for this. Piggy-backing on this I will say the Senate sets up a better schedule than the house and seems to be a little bit more organized than what the House. But with a quarter of the people to corral I guess it might be easier to be more organized.
I'm gonna Google this David Waldman guy because I want to know what I am reading. I have a hard time reading stuff like this because I don't really care about what other people wonder or their opinions. I have my own so when I'm reading something like this I want "just the facts." So I'll have to do some personal homework after I send this in.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
State Representative and Senator
I actually just officially changed my address to McLean County so that's why I used for this assignment. A little background on McLean is even though it is the largest county in Illinois it ranks 13th for population. McLean was originally formed out of Tazewell County in 1930 and named after John McLean. John McLean was a Senator for Illinois and died in 1930. As far as farmland goes it is one of the top-producing counties for both corn and soybeans.
The state representative for McLean County is Dan Brady who is a Republican. He was the McLean county coroner from 1992 to 2000. In 2003, he became the State Representative for McLean County. A few of the issues that Brady supports is keeping the existing gun control laws, stopping unfunded state mandates placed on local governments, and developing new markets for agriculture in Illinois. He is also a pro-life supporter.
The Senators for Illinois are Richard Durbin and Roland Burris. Richard Durbin was appointed to his Senate seat in 1996 and then was reelected in 2002. According to his website his issues are protecting consumers, fighting for farmers, enforcing gun control, and working for a fair tax credit.
Roland Burris was just recently appointed to his Senate seat after President Obama won the election in November and left the seat vacant.
I didn't find anything as far as current events for these guys when I googled them.
The state representative for McLean County is Dan Brady who is a Republican. He was the McLean county coroner from 1992 to 2000. In 2003, he became the State Representative for McLean County. A few of the issues that Brady supports is keeping the existing gun control laws, stopping unfunded state mandates placed on local governments, and developing new markets for agriculture in Illinois. He is also a pro-life supporter.
The Senators for Illinois are Richard Durbin and Roland Burris. Richard Durbin was appointed to his Senate seat in 1996 and then was reelected in 2002. According to his website his issues are protecting consumers, fighting for farmers, enforcing gun control, and working for a fair tax credit.
Roland Burris was just recently appointed to his Senate seat after President Obama won the election in November and left the seat vacant.
I didn't find anything as far as current events for these guys when I googled them.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Democrats in Senate Block Money to Close Guantanamo, by David M. Herszenhorn. New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/us/politics/20detain.html?_r=1&ref=politics.
This is an article I feel very strongly about because I think it shows how little our president knows about homeland security or defense. I'm very glad to see that his own party has taken a stand and decided to tell him how ridiculous of an idea it is to allow terrorists into the U.S regardless of them being in a prison. As the article states no one has escaped from Guantanamo since 9/11, I don't really believe that the same would hold true if these prisoners were moved to the states. I also liked how the article mentioned that the money that was going to be used to close the prison in Guantanamo would take money away from our defense in Iraq and Afghanistan (oh let's not forget that these terrorists are part of the reason we are there). $80 million dollars is a lot of money that I don't really think we need to be spending on terrorists or moving the prison where they are detained.
I do agree with the statement that something will have to happen with Guantanamo eventually but this is definitely not the time or the way to do it.
This is an article I feel very strongly about because I think it shows how little our president knows about homeland security or defense. I'm very glad to see that his own party has taken a stand and decided to tell him how ridiculous of an idea it is to allow terrorists into the U.S regardless of them being in a prison. As the article states no one has escaped from Guantanamo since 9/11, I don't really believe that the same would hold true if these prisoners were moved to the states. I also liked how the article mentioned that the money that was going to be used to close the prison in Guantanamo would take money away from our defense in Iraq and Afghanistan (oh let's not forget that these terrorists are part of the reason we are there). $80 million dollars is a lot of money that I don't really think we need to be spending on terrorists or moving the prison where they are detained.
I do agree with the statement that something will have to happen with Guantanamo eventually but this is definitely not the time or the way to do it.
Monday, May 18, 2009
About Me
Well, a little bit about me is I am currently a full time student and work for the Illinois Air National Guard in Peoria and Macy's in town. I have a dog named Allie who drives me nuts because she is about 6 months old and likes to tear shit up. lol. I was active duty military for 4 years and have been in the guard for a little over a year now. My title in the AF is called a loadmaster and I basically load up big cargo planes and fly random crap and people wherever they need to go. I also do a lot of airdrop which is kicking that crap and people out of the airplane in-flight. I like to walk my dog, spend as much time outside as possible, get some gym time in, and watch as much Law&Order:SVU as possible (although that's not very often).
My expectations of this class are to boost my knowledge of U.S. politics and get rid of the Constitution Test requirement that I need.
Since I've been in the military I've definately pay attention to daily issues. Because of this background I tend to lean towards a more conservative view of things than the rest of my generation. I like to debate controversial topics so I usually try to be well informed when doing so.
Hopefully, this is what I was supposed to do for this assignment.
Lacey
My expectations of this class are to boost my knowledge of U.S. politics and get rid of the Constitution Test requirement that I need.
Since I've been in the military I've definately pay attention to daily issues. Because of this background I tend to lean towards a more conservative view of things than the rest of my generation. I like to debate controversial topics so I usually try to be well informed when doing so.
Hopefully, this is what I was supposed to do for this assignment.
Lacey
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