URL: http://www.mlive.com/lansing-news/index.ssf/2015/10/report_devos_family_michigans.html
Report: DeVos family, Michigan's 'most potent interest group,' spent $4.9M in 2014 elections
There are plenty of interest groups who give money to politicians who are running for the house or the senate. This week Michigan found the interest group that has given the most highest amount of money to fund in state political candidates and committees in 2013 and 2014. "... The DeVos family is the most 'potent interest group in state politics' said Rich Robinson of the Michigan Finance Network..." Next to him in second place is the Bernstein family who gave over 2 million dollars towards Richard Bernstein's campaign to run for State Supreme Court, which he successfully won. In addition the DeVos family has been ranked one of the most philanthropic families in the entire country.
Because this country is founded on many basic freedoms there are people who have become very wealthy as well. Also because of these liberties, people are able to give money to the political causes or politicians that they like. There are not many rules on how much they can give but the donors do need to let the public know how much they gave. This kind of giving is both good and bad. People should not be restricted from giving to others but at the same time I wonder how people who do not have money can be represented. Even if poorer people join groups of other people, it still takes money to fund an operation. That means that politics depends a lot on money and that is not such a good thing.
This article is relevant today to our class studies on interest groups. Interest groups are a part of the way that we the public can participate in government and politics here in the USA.
Thursday, October 29, 2015
Thursday, October 22, 2015
Citizenship/ Immigration
URL:
Citizenship is a big thing for someone who has been striving to come to America all their lives. This week like many others, there was a naturalization ceremony for new citizens of the United States. These men and women all took the Oath of Allegiance during the ceremony as well as being welcomed to the United States by Solano County Supervisor Erin Hannagan. All new citizens worked very hard to get to this point. Sometimes citizenship can take months and even years depending on where you live, and your record. It is also very limited to how many new citizens the US can take in each year so this ceremony only included 34 once immigrants, representing 20 different countries. All these people at the ceremony were given a code and welcomed by government officials. The idea of citizenship didn't hit all these people until Hannagan said, "You now all have the right to run for my job." For most of these immigrants they were not used to being treated this way and were welcomed happily into the family.
There is nothing wrong with immigration that is what makes America the
greatest country in the world. That is doing; it the correct way of
becoming a citizen and going through the process and being able to assimilate into
our laws. Illegal immigration is a different thing; breaking the law and coming into the country illegally
and demanding that we should give you money and work and more importantly that we should bend
to your demands. But the liberal left wing democratic machine
loves the illegals and are pushing for more of them. I do like the idea that when you become a citizen legally you can register to vote. The
liberal left are not making this country any better they want to see us become a
3rd world country.
I can relate this to what we ar doing right now because our recent unit has been on acquiring citizenship.
Thursday, October 15, 2015
School Prayer // Football
URL:http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2015/10/14/exclusive-football-coach-says-will-defy-schools-prayer-ban.html
There has always been plenty of controversy about religious freedom and what the limits of the subject are. Joe Kennedy, a high school football coach in Washington that leads a group of boys at Bremerton High School has done something like plenty of other schools have done before. The boys at Bremerton kneel down on one knee and pray before every game, and each time Joe Kennedy would lead this prayer praising God no matter what the end result of the game was. This was not something new, the coach had done this for years and some students had started to join him voluntarily. So he decided to take it a step further and have a post game prayer.
Our family is a Christian family that believes in God and also prayer to God. Prayer is an expression of our faith and our identities. We pray at home during our meals. Most of the time we also bow our heads and say verbal prayer before eating meals even out at a restaurant. From our family's perspective, there is nothing "unlawful" about public prayer.
This article is about the freedom of religious expression. Like in many other cases, this involves a public school and some type of group in the school that wants to do some public prayer. Usually the public school would say that prayer is not allowed because of the separation of church and state. But the Constitution does say that we have the right to religious expression, but the Constitution says that the state is not to establish any religion. These are usually the 2 sides to the argument in cases like this article.
There has always been plenty of controversy about religious freedom and what the limits of the subject are. Joe Kennedy, a high school football coach in Washington that leads a group of boys at Bremerton High School has done something like plenty of other schools have done before. The boys at Bremerton kneel down on one knee and pray before every game, and each time Joe Kennedy would lead this prayer praising God no matter what the end result of the game was. This was not something new, the coach had done this for years and some students had started to join him voluntarily. So he decided to take it a step further and have a post game prayer.
Our family is a Christian family that believes in God and also prayer to God. Prayer is an expression of our faith and our identities. We pray at home during our meals. Most of the time we also bow our heads and say verbal prayer before eating meals even out at a restaurant. From our family's perspective, there is nothing "unlawful" about public prayer.
This article is about the freedom of religious expression. Like in many other cases, this involves a public school and some type of group in the school that wants to do some public prayer. Usually the public school would say that prayer is not allowed because of the separation of church and state. But the Constitution does say that we have the right to religious expression, but the Constitution says that the state is not to establish any religion. These are usually the 2 sides to the argument in cases like this article.
Thursday, October 8, 2015
Fair Pay Act of California Bill Passes
URL: http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-84642428/
The issue of equal pay between men and women has
always been a topic in lawmaking. For example, at this year's Oscar awards one
of the winning actresses spoke about equal pay in Hollywood and the speech made
a lot of news. This is the issue in California's "Fair Pay Act “which just
passed. This bill is better because it is not just against gender
discrimination but guarantees equal pay to women for doing "similar"
work as men. In the article, it says how Jennifer Lawrence will get the same
profit sharing as Bradley Cooper for the movies they do together.
This issue is important in Hollywood because many actresses are famous
and whatever they say gets lots of attention. But there is also a problem for
the employers "because it shifts the burden of proof to employers,
who will have to justify the differences in compensation between male and
female workers." This situation makes it a lot more difficult for them to
hire workers under this new circumstance. I like the idea that popular actresses are giving this topic a lot more attention because this issue is important but at the same time it shouldn't be hard for business owners to follow the law.
This article is related to our studies because it is about laws that protect from discrimination. The Fair Pay Act of California is supposed to give more protection for women against wage discrimination. A law against discrimination is about protecting the rights of one group, like women, from being treated unfairly by another group, like a business or employer.
Thursday, October 1, 2015
Kim Davis/Pope Francis
URL: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/pope-francis-added-to-religious-liberty-debate-by-meeting-with-kim-davis/2015/09/30/4a5fb380-679c-11e5-9ef3-fde182507eac_story.html
Pope Meets with Kim Davis -- Pope Watchers are asking what did Francis mean?
This news article is about the Pope meeting "secretly" with the Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis during the Pope's recent visit to the USA. Kim Davis made other news recently because she went to jail for refusing to sign same-sex marriage licenses, and signing marriage licenses was her job as a government employee. The article interviews different people who have different opinions about this meeting and are wondering why the Pope met with Kim Davis and her husband. Unlike the Pope's other public appearances, the meeting with Davis was private and the Pope's representatives have said very little about it.
Pope Francis has been called the "People's Pope" because he acts very humble, for example, he decided to live in an apartment instead of living in a Vatican mansion. He is also vocal on many social issues like immigration when he spoke before the US Congress. A lot were surprised when they learned that he met with Kim Davis because some people think that Kim Davis is a criminal because she is a government employee who did not obey the Supreme Court and she is an enemy of social justice, but is she? The pope most likely met with her because he supports her right to "conscientious objection"as a Christian and she is just upholding her religious conviction which is also her right. The pope was said to say something like "Stay strong" to Kim Davis. After all, the pope is a Christian first and in fact he is a church leader who is sworn to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ.
This article is about the civil liberties of the right to conscientious objection and the right to religious expression versus the duty of government employees like Kim Davis to follow what the Supreme Court ruled about same-sex marriage.
Pope Meets with Kim Davis -- Pope Watchers are asking what did Francis mean?
This news article is about the Pope meeting "secretly" with the Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis during the Pope's recent visit to the USA. Kim Davis made other news recently because she went to jail for refusing to sign same-sex marriage licenses, and signing marriage licenses was her job as a government employee. The article interviews different people who have different opinions about this meeting and are wondering why the Pope met with Kim Davis and her husband. Unlike the Pope's other public appearances, the meeting with Davis was private and the Pope's representatives have said very little about it.
Pope Francis has been called the "People's Pope" because he acts very humble, for example, he decided to live in an apartment instead of living in a Vatican mansion. He is also vocal on many social issues like immigration when he spoke before the US Congress. A lot were surprised when they learned that he met with Kim Davis because some people think that Kim Davis is a criminal because she is a government employee who did not obey the Supreme Court and she is an enemy of social justice, but is she? The pope most likely met with her because he supports her right to "conscientious objection"as a Christian and she is just upholding her religious conviction which is also her right. The pope was said to say something like "Stay strong" to Kim Davis. After all, the pope is a Christian first and in fact he is a church leader who is sworn to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ.
This article is about the civil liberties of the right to conscientious objection and the right to religious expression versus the duty of government employees like Kim Davis to follow what the Supreme Court ruled about same-sex marriage.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)