Obama's half brother was arrested.

Guess what, Obama's half-brother George Obama was recently arrested on a charge of marijuana possession. So what, he just resisted arrest and denies all allegations, nothing special. Stuff like this happens all the time. I just cannot believe something like this could even make a headline. Lots of people are arrested everyday for possession of marijuana and for even worse crimes. What makes a half-brother of our president so special? Barack barely even knows him. What has our media become so that it will cover almost anything just to make some cash. Where are all the real stories that we use to have? The degradation of media standards is unacceptable, it is quality not quantity.

The Politics of Facebook

I recently added Chuck Devore as a Facebook friend. He's currently an Assemblyman running against incumbent Barbara Boxer in the 2010 U.S. Senate race in California. Other prominent Republicans may possible declare their candidacies, most notably Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. I, for one, hope that Devore wins the nomination for two selfish reasons:

1) He's a FB friend of mine.
2) He's a Claremont McKenna alum.

There was a WSJ article today written about how Republicans are trying to catch up on the technological divide that exists between the GOP and Democrats. Thoughts?

Feel free to add Mr. DeVore as your Facebook friend. I have invited him to come to Los Altos to speak and it looks like a good possibility that he will actually do so.

The House just passed an 819 billion dollar stimulus bill with the hope that it will jumpstart the economy. I personally find this remarkable on many levels especially since Barack Obama has only been president for 8 days.
Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (shudder) said of the measure, "The ship of state is difficult to turn, but that is what we must do." Wait...that is what you must do? I understand that Madam Speaker has the power to pass such legislation, but does the constitution, the unanimous source for legitimacy in our country's government, grant her and her congressional counterparts, as well as the president, the authority to take such a monumental role in our capitalistic economy? I doubt whether any of the Founding Fathers, with the exception of Alexander Hamilton and others of his opinion and persuasion, would agree that the constitution grants any branch of the government to play such a large role.
There was expected opposition to this bill on behalf of House Republicans. What wasn't expected was that the hostility towards it was unanimous among the GOP. It was the belief that the president had made great strides among representatives of the minority party, and that he might have convinced a few Republicans to “sip the kool-aid” as Rush Limbaugh would unaffectionately say, and get on board with his much anticipated stimulus plan. As the vote played out, however, it became quite clear that Republicans would be sticking to their guns by opposing the bill across the board.
I personally have no problem with government aid. I understand that in dire times like these, even conservative experts say that federal intervention is necessary. What I have a problem with, and what House Republicans have a problem with, is all the special interest groups and wasted spending there is outlined in the bill. For example, millions of dollars are going to build ATV trails and millions more to finance STD research. Granted, this is all well and good, but will it help stimulate the economy? I was watching Glenn Beck the other day and he received an e-mail from a fellow who suggested that congress go line by line determining whether each beneficiary of the stimulus package would in turn stimulate the economy. If the answer was no, then that beneficiary would be crossed off the list. Sorry, can’t do that, it would make too much bloody sense! When I hear proposals like this from ordinary citizens and see the lack of competence people like Barney Frank and Christopher Dodd flauntingly display, I question whether the Founding Fathers were justified in not trusting the common man to make governmental decisions over elected officials.
Since he was elected on November 4th, I have to admit, Barack Obama has grown on me. I really would like to see him succeed, because if he does, America will too. That, along with my confidence in his intelligence, is why I am not so ardently against government aid. I, however, would be in favor of the alternative bill House Republicans conjured up in response to the 819 billion dollar bill that eventually passed. Though the GOP bill failed, the president himself acknowledged there were positives in it, the biggest being the claim that there would be 6.2 million jobs created at half the cost as the Democrat supported bill. Brushed aside as impractical and insufficient, this alternative failed in the House. Unlike House Republicans, I do not feel defeated, in fact, for some reason; I’m willing to trust Washington despite the recently passed bill’s size and ambiguity as to how it will evolve in the Senate. My only fear is that there is no guarantee that this isn’t just the beginning.
In electing Barack Obama, America has essentially entrusted the revival of our economy in one man. Though he obviously has advisers who help him in the decision making process, it is clear that Obama is sticking to a core belief that it is his duty to jump-start the economy by all means necessary. Hail to the Chief.

House Approves Obama's Stimulus Bill

Why is he approving a $819 billion stimulus plan? I thought everything he said was to work lo9ng term. In fact, I did my C-span project on how it is a mistake to just keep approving larger and larger stimulus plans. That's NOT the way to do it! We're just digging ourselves into a bigger and bigger national deficit. How much more money are we going to spend? How much longer can we hold on before we collapse completely financially? We need to think long term. We need to grind it out. But... what else can we do except for stimulus plans?

Course Description & Current Events

For those of you that would like to take a look at the course description for AP Government & Politics, here's the link.

For the "Week in the News" Presentation on Monday, I will allot the first 10-15 minutes in class for 2 students to discuss a minimum of 6 news stories under the following categories:

I. Constitutional Underpinnings
II. Political Beliefs and Behaviors
III. Political Parties and Interest Groups
IV. Institutions of Government (Executive, Legislative, Judicial, Bureaucracy)
V. Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
VI. Public Policy (Economic, Foreign, Environmental)

For each article, share with the class the title of the article and the source (ie. "Republicans blast Obama," FoxNews.com) and how it fits into the course curriculum. You may choose to use PowerPoint, but that is not required. You may choose to use a news format or something more creative, but please do not have the format distract from the information.

And just for the heck of it, feel free to add a news story of the bizarre.

Please turn into me a 1-2 page summary that includes the title of the article and source as well as a brief paragraph summarizing the contents of the article.

Since the inaugaration, I've been wanting to keep all my thoughts of President Obama positive. However, it is becoming increasingly difficult as he begins to, well, be PR

AP Government

Welcome to 2nd Semester AP Government & Politics! Many of you have been waiting to take this course for the past semester while some may not be too thrilled at the prospect of tackling political stuff. And then there's those of you who equally love (or hate!) government and economics.

At this juncture, I haven't quite finalized how I plan on using this blog, but here's a preliminary list.

1. Post class information and provide links to pages you will be required to read.
2. You must post at least one blog per semester responding to any aspect of American Politics that you have come across in class, in your Wilson text, or in the media.
3. Provide a forum for students to comment, which will be part of the 10% Class Participation grade in the course.

Feel free to comment and start reading newspaper articles from sources such as Politico, NY Times, CNN.

If you read this, please purchase a spiral-bound notebook solely for this class as I will require a certain amount of note-taking/outlining from your Wilson book and utilize "open-notes" quizzes for this semester.

Let's hope you know more about the Constitution than Barney Fife.

Thanks for including me!

I'm looking forward to it!