State of the Union

A link to the State of the Union Speech.

Mr. Thompson

Campaign Finance Reform/State of the Union

Article from George Will. Did you know that during the 2007-08 election cycle, as much was spent on campaign contributions by Americans as we spent on potato chips in the US in one year. (according to Will). Do we need campaign finance reform or a better diet plan? Anyhow, hope you got to watch the president's State of the Union last night. If you didn't a pox on you (but watch some of it later). It was worth it to listen to him speak about his direction/agenda. Pay attention to his tone, his silence, his rhetoric, and whatever else good AP Gov't/Language students would look for.

Mr. Thompson

Thank you and (first post Post APL/G)

...and you thought the articles would end just because the semester is over. Article in today's Washington Post about Pres. Obama's attempt to create more bureaucracy to deal with the current budget crisis (what!? you weren't aware of our budget crisis!)
This article has all kinds of good stuff that was referenced and studied intently during the semester. Ironically no member of Congress wants his name on a commission that might be forced to raise more revenue or cut spending on entitlements during an election year. What would Machiavelli say about this???

I will continue to post sources I think might be of benefit to you in your preparation for the AP Gov't test in May. I am rooting for all 3's and 4's with a 5 or two.

Thanks, for a great semester and all the best in the future. I came to JM to teach this class and every year I think just how lucky I am get to work with and help further cultivate such great minds. Continue to work hard and remember "nothing in life worth earning comes without hard work"

Lastly, don't forget, you must come back and visit when you have earned your fame.

Mr. THompson

Campaign Finance - High Court Ruling WOW!!!

Read all about the Supreme Court's ruling yesterday overturning some of our most recent and sweeping campaign finance reform laws. Feel free to comment on teh impact this might have on the 2010 midterms.

Mr. Thompson

Final Prep

Here is the outline from College Board for the AP Gov't Test. It is the best thing I can give you to prep for the final.

Final = 60 multiple choice questions (my questions not AP's with 4 choices not 5)
Pick 1 of 2 choices for essay (20 pts) 1 FRQ or 1 traditional essay prompt.

Content Area Percentage Goals of Exam (multiple-choice section)
I. Constitutional Underpinnings of United States Government........................................ 5–15%
A. Considerations that influenced the formulation and adoption of the Constitution
B. Separation of powers
C. Federalism
D. Theories of democratic government
II. Political Beliefs and Behaviors..........................................10–20%
A. Beliefs that citizens hold about their government and its leaders
B. Processes by which citizens learn about politics
C. The nature, sources, and consequences of public opinion
D. The ways in which citizens vote and otherwise participate in political life
E. Factors that influence citizens to differ from one another in terms of political beliefs and
behaviors
III. Political Parties, Interest Groups, and Mass Media.............................................10–20%
A. Political parties and elections
1. Functions
2. Organization
3. Development
4. Effects on the political process
5. Electoral laws and systems
B. Interest groups, including political action committees (PACs)
1. The range of interests represented
2. The activities of interest groups
3. The effects of interest groups on the political process
4. The unique characteristics and roles of PACs in the political process
C. The mass media
1. The functions and structures of the media
2. The impacts of media on politics
IV. Institutions of National Government: The Congress, the Presidency,the Bureaucracy, and the Federal Courts................................................35–45%
A. The major formal and informal institutional arrangements of power
B. Relationships among these four institutions and varying balances of power
C. Linkages between institutions and the following:
1. Public opinion and voters
2. Interest groups
3. Political parties
4. The media
5. Subnational governments
V. Public Policy.......................5–15%
A. Policymaking in a federal system
B. The formation of policy agendas
C. The role of institutions in the enactment of policy
D. The role of the bureaucracy and the courts in policy implementation and interpretation
E. Linkages between policy processes and the following:
1. Political institutions and federalism
2. Political parties
3. Interest groups
4. Public opinion
5. Elections
6. Policy networks
VI. Civil Rights and Civil Liberties............................................5–15%
A. The development of civil liberties and civil rights by judicial interpretation
B. Knowledge of substantive rights and liberties
C. The impact of the Fourteenth Amendment on the constitutional development of rights and liberties.

If you have any questions feel free to post or ask in class. If you are wondering others may be too.

You are welcome,
Mr. Thompson

HDT-MLK Rubric
Clear process is communicated which follows the ideas of King, Thoreau, and Gandhi. They would agree with your approach.
Speech has kairos:
Purpose, audience, moment in time, and effective use of language are integrated.

Due Thurs: Close diction analysis
Find a specific sentence or image and analyze how those word choices lead to an effective result.

Due Fri: Purpose analysis paragraph
Why is the piece, as a whole, written?

Due Tues: Audience analysis paragraph
Who is the audience? How does the language/structure/focus indicate this? Are there specific references or appeals to this audience?

Civil Disobience

Find a contemporary (past 10 years) example of a non-violent civil disobedience. Post a link to the article and briefly describe what was happening.

Example. Cindy Sheehan and other Code Pink members were arrested for trespassing on private property to protest the actions of the US Government in Iraq (it was a US Government building that was actually leased to a private entity). Here is her journal about it.

Your turn!

Guest Blogger: Gretchen F.

I kind of feel gypped out of my blog "week". Only having two days of class to get information on for my blog. This is kind of hard because Government is done talking about Government. Thompson is now on the AP test. Then In English we are writing this semi confusing paper on education where we have to "continue the conversation". Now i don't want to write my blog on what i think on this topic because i don't want to waste my few ideas on here. So the question again comes to WHAT SHOULD I WRITE ABOUT? We are talking about education in English, and higher education in Geography so what am i suppose to talk about with this insperation? Well i spend time thinking about this and come up with a brilliant idea. I can talk just about the broad term education.
education is deffined as
1."The act or process of educating or being educated."
I figured this really didn't give any insight into what education was (seriously just using the word two diffrent ways!?)
2. "The knowledge or skill obtained or developed by a learning process"
This gives me a little more to think about. So if education is really just the knowledge or skill that you have gained then couldn't a high school drop out have the same amount of education as a college graduate. Video gaming takes skill or so im told, and when your life takes a bad turn you may end up a few rungs down the ladder but you now have gained the education on what not to do in that situation. So i don't think someone can be MORE educated then someone. Even a gamer who lives in his parents basment can have the same AMOUNT of education as a college grad. it's just the quality of that education that makes the diffrence. So its not education that is the key. Its GOOD education.

Thankyou and this concludes deep thoughts with Gretchen. Thankyou for understanding why this is here and not on the blog.

Campaign Finance - Open Secrets

As a preview of next week and for those of you who love dollar signs, check out this site. It is called Open Secrets and provides a plethora of data on just how much money is raised for a campaign, where it came from and who was it given to. See if you can find out how much money Mr. Decker/Mr. Thompson donated in 2008 to political candidates and which candidates did we give to? Bring some brilliance with you to class next Wednesday to share with your peers. Yes you must as I will be asking you for it!!!

Mr. Thompson

Guest Blogger: Jake H.

Pros and Cons of the Two Party System

***Disclaimer: Any reference to America excludes the state of Nebraska***

As those of you who were awake on Monday probably know, it appears we are going to be studying political parties in the near future of APLG. America has many political parties, but in reality only two have significant influence on our country. The Democratic and Republican parties dominate the American political process, and it doesn’t look like that will change anytime soon. There has been a long-raging debate on the effectiveness of our unofficial “two party system”, and I will highlight some of its pros and cons.

Pros: Despite what always happens in congress, it is easier for two parties to compromise than it is for three, four, five, or more to compromise on an issue. Having just two major candidates in an election would remove the need for runoff voting, or anything like that, thus saving time and taxpayer money. It encourages politicians to be more centric to appeal to the most voters. It avoids small political parties that only focus on one issue and don’t really care about anything else.

Cons: It divides the country into two main groups: democrats vs. republicans, liberals vs. conservatives. It lumps people into one broad category, rather than a specific area the person is interested in. It polarizes our nation and makes for bipolar power shifts in every election like those we talked about on Monday. It makes it extremely difficult for third-party candidates to win an election, because of fierce blue or red party loyalty, and because people don’t want the minor candidates to take away votes from their favorite major candidate (thanks Ralph).

In conclusion, there are many pros and cons to our two party system, but ultimately a multiple party system would be better for America. I’m not saying we should have like over nine thousand parties or anything, but a fewbc more would make a great improvement.

Health Care Reform vs Supreme Court?

Article in this mornings Washington Post about the current health care legislation and possible implications for Supreme Court actions. Read all about it!

Mr. Thompson

News flash-Minnesota possibly loses Congressional Seat

You have probably read about this topic already as it has been in the news all over Minnesota and in editorials. Check out this story though. If we truly do lose a seat which one is dissolved and absorbed by the neighboring districts. This article gives 2 suggestions and they are very different. Note the possible consequences of District 1 or District 6 being affected. Anyone know of a few thousand people wanting to move to an area with a projected budget deficit and a wind chill of a guzzillion below before 2010?

Mr. Thompson

American Political Parties

This website gives you a pretty comprehensive list of political parties currently active in American politics. What's that? You haven't heard of many of these. I said they were active not successful. Our electoral system is set up to perpetuate the 2 party system as we have learned in class (don't worry I'll remind you in case you have forgotten). It is very difficult for a third party to get it's foot in the door of our national political scene. Anyhow, check out the list of political parties. As I always say, there is a party out there for everyone.

Mr. Thompson

Exit Polls

CNN.com has great graphics and data on elections. Check out the 2008 election results. Access previous elections and note the changes with regard to blue and red states. Scroll down to access the exit poll data and you can get a pretty good picture of the American voter and his tendencies.

Mr. Thompson

Gallup/Rasmussen etc

Here are websites that you need to spend some time on. We love a good poll in America. Why wait until the event happens when you can access info that might predict what will happen.

Gallup is one such poll. Check out their web page and all the topics they conduct polls about.

Rasmussen is another such site.

Electoral Vote is a great site with tons of info. Check out the link to the "data" along bottom of the homepage.

Washington Post always is conducting polls. Check out President Obama's approval rating since he has taken office.

Where do you get your political information from??? Do you have your finger on the political pulse of America?

Mr. Thompson

Happy New Year APLGers.

Hope you are all refreshed and rejuvenated as we head down the homestretch of APLG. We have a few items left to tackle involving the people (you) and politics. Within this unit, you need to find out where you fit. In adition to what we do in class, you need to go to one of the websites below and then follow the prompt beneath the websites listed.

The Political Spectrum
The Political Compass
Beyond Red and Blue
How Liberal or Conservative are you?

Take one of these (or more if curious) and then write a quick reflection of what you learned about yourself. Post should be done before class starts on January 11th.

Enjoy-Mr Thompson