Political Issues Project

May 31st 2015

The Death Penalty

Summary:

In the article The Death Penalty Ends in Nebraska, the death of Omaha police officer Kerrie Orozco is explained to the readers because not too long ago it would have been held up as the sort of crime that the death penalty was meant for.   Only days after Kerrie Orozco's death, lawmakers in Nebraska voted to ban capital punishment forever.  The state's unicameral Legislature has a majority of Republican's, but in the final vote, overriding a veto from the day before by Gov. Pete Ricketts a Republican was passed in a 30-19 vote.  That override made Nebraska the first predominantly Republican state to ban the death penalty in over 40 years, and the 19th state overall.  The article then evaluates the vote and why people voted the way they did.  The article explains how Nebraska's vote was passed by a mix of Republicans, Democrats, and independents, many who were newly elected to their positions in office.  It states that many people of all political ideologies have recognized that capital punishment is a heinous and unjustifiable practice and if that can happen where the majority party is Republican, it can happen anywhere else.

Analysis:

This article, just recently written on May 28, 2015, was released from The New York Times explaining Nebraska's decisions made on May 27 in the final vote to ban the death penalty for good.  Throughout the article the readers will get to here about a case which back before now would have been an acceptable crime worthy enough to deserve the death penalty.  Statistics are given about the death penalty and how it has reached a new low of supporters at 56% in a survey that was done by the Pew Research center released in April.  No one has been executed in Nebraska since 1997 but there are currently 10 men on the state's death row.  As well as in a poll conducted by A.C.L.U. only 30 percent off people would support capital punishment.  Some of the lawmakers voted for the ban said that it was the lengthy, costly capital appeals process that convinced them to go against the executions.  There were also others who had moral objection, or concerns about if the state could procure the lethal-injection drugs that were necessary. The article also informs readers that this is the 3rd time Nebraska lawmakers have tried to end capital punishment; a 1979 ban and a 1999 moratorium were both vetoed.  This article showed that Nebraska has had mixed views on the death penalty practice for a while now, since they tried to ban it back in 1979.  I, myself, have mixed feelings on the subject whether the death penalty should be kept or banned.  I think that the death penalty has done a lot of good for convicted criminals but then again it has troublesome since wrongly convicted criminals have been put to death through the use of executions.  The death penalty is a sensitive subject to many individuals and comes with both positive and negative connotations. 

 

Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/28/opinion/the-death-penalty-ends-in-nebraska.html?_r=0
Photo: http://stevedeace.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/7-27-13deathpenalty.jpg
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucLguOZhonQ

Unit 5
May 12th 2015

Public Policy Schools

Summary:

In the fall of 2013, Georgetown University announced that there was going to be a creation of a new school of public policy.  This was all able to be done thanks to an alumnus donation of $100 million. In October of 2013, the University of New Hampshire announced that the school would use a $20 million gift/donation to launch a public policy school of its own.  The first of the public policy schools were founded in response to the creation of New Deal government agencies in the early 1930s.  "They trained many people who went into government and did good things," said John DiIulio, who runs the Fox Leadership Program at the University of Pennsylvania and was the first director of President George W. Bush's White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.  He said that their training was a virtue of those schools, "they wired the house of American bureaucracy."  The institutions missions began to change in the 1970s, when the Ford Foundation issued multimillion-dollar grants to eight universities, including Yale, Duke, and the University of Michigan. When John J. DeGioia, President of  Georgetown University, announced the university's new policy school, he explained that "the availability of massive data to provide new analytic tools have resulted in an invaluable opportunity for our university."  It has shown that many schools have began to "mishmash" the academic departments from which their faculty members are apart of.  Those such as political science, economics, and sociology.  The article then states that "those people may have no more or less interest than colleagues from their home departments in shaping actual policy."  The article ends with the statement of "If policymakers ignore policy school research or can't understand it, what can policy professors and graduates possibly accomplish?"  Wrapping up the whole article asking what is really the point/motives of these schools nowadays and how do they plan to solve this current issue.

Analysis:

It has been said that there is a critical need to reexamine public policy and it's impact on people's lives.  The challenges we now face in our world are more complex compared to before.  Challenges and issues which include things like climate change, demography, and budget problems.  It requires Universities to seek for more ways that they can harness resources around it and expand the schools capacity so that they are able to respond to these complex challenges that we are facing.  Fulfilling missions about continuing to do good.  It is no longer just about studying, learning, and teaching, but it is about the impact and effect we can have on the world.  Problems are not a package deal that all look the same.  People, such as faculty members, are needed to have opposing opinions and viewpoints to be able to make good policy.  The colleges will be bringing experts from many different areas of study to come together to find solutions to specific issues that have risen.  Anyone working in the businesses like sociologists, lawyers, politicians, people from different walks of life assist policy making by contributing their different viewpoints.  The key to policy formation is the use of evidence, the data that is available is exceeded expectations and data analysis is becoming an important skill to obtain.  It is expected that schools like Georgetown University will have a trans-formative impact on the study and implementation of public policy.  So here it is stated that, yes, there is a lot of benefits in public policy schools but there may be some drawbacks. I think that the implementation of the public policy schools in Universities is a good idea and will have a positive impact in the world.  This article fits into our current unit of study by dealing with policies and public policy is a key subject in unit five.

Article 1: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-problem-with-public-policy-schools/2013/12/06/40d13c10-57ba-11e3-835d-e7173847c7cc_story.html

Article 2: http://www.usnews.com/education/articles/2009/04/22/public-policy-reinventing-the-world

Photo: https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2013/12/04/Outlook/Images/AP0606080189371386196501.jpg?uuid=U1lUpl00EeONJDHAFrl2sg

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BFJ1BT9zzE

Unit 4

April 19, 2015

GPS monitoring of sex offenders for life?  Supreme Court reverses N.C. case

Summary:

In recent a recent Supreme Court ruling, it was declared that the Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches apply to government actions in both the civil and criminal cases.  In a five-page unsigned opinion, the justices reversed North Carolina's "judicial decision upholding a program that allows state official to us a GPS device to monitor the movements of repeat sex offenders 24 hours a day, seven days a week- for the rest of their lives'.  The state appeals and the North Carolina Supreme Court ruled that since the program was created under civil law, rather than criminal law, the GPS monitoring did not amount to a search under the Fourth Amendment.  The Supreme Court then remanded the case back to the lower courts to decide whether requiring an individual who has already served his/her entire criminal sentence to submit to GPS monitoring for the rest of his/her life in an unreasonable search under the Fourth Amendment.

Analysis: 

This issue came about back in 1996 when, at the time, 17 year old Torrey Dale Grady was convicted twice of a sex offense.  He was found guilty of a second degree sexual offense in 1996 and in 2006 he was convicted of "taking indecent liberties with a child".  He received a 3 year sentence for the crime and his prison term was completed in 2009.  Since Grady was considered a recidivist by the North Carolina Department of Correction, he was considered eligible for the state's satellite-based monitoring program.  A judge then ordered him to enroll in the monitoring program "for the remainder of his natural life.  The ankle bracelet was required to be wore at all times and a GPS monitoring station was to kept in his home.  Since the ankle bracelet needed to be recharged, Grady had to spend 4-6 hours every day plugged into a wall socket.  I believe that we should keep an eye on registered sex offenders and recidivist people but I think there should be a limit on how long each monitoring system is on each person based off of the crimes they have committed and if they have improved over the time they have been released.  North Carolina is not the only state to issue the ankle bracelets to sex offenders.  Since 2005, forty states have passed laws authorizing GPS monitoring for sex offenders.  Eight of these states- including North Carolina-provide for such monitoring for the rest of one's life.  The judge in North Carolina base his decision on the fact that Grady had been a recidivist (re-offended convicted criminal) of a sex crime.  The judge did not look at whether Grady actually constituted a potential future danger to the society and community, but only the fact that he was a repeated offender.  I think that the judges should examine all aspects of a person and a case before they make their final ruling decision.  It is important to see all sides of a story and take into consideration who a person really is, while understanding the crime they may have committed.

Article: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2015/0330/GPS-monitoring-of-sex-offenders-for-life-Supreme-Court-reverses-N.C.-case-video 

Photo: http://content-img.newsinc.com/jpg/1569/28793170/20494339.jpg?t=1427751240

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rs5GVP00NOU 

Unit 4
April 7, 2015 

House Passes Keystone Bill, Sending It To Obama For Veto

Summary:

The Keystone XL Pipeline has to one of the most argued and most controversial topics in Congressional history.  On Wednesday February 11, 2015, the House of Representatives passed the Senate's version of legislation approving construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.  The bill passed by a vote of 270-152 and was then sent to President Obama's desk for a much anticipated veto.  This is the 11th time the House has voted on a bill to force approval of Keystone.  It has been 7 years since the 1200 mile long pipeline was first proposed and parts of it are already under construction.  Many lawmakers believe that the pipeline will create needed jobs but environmentalists and land owners argue that it would cause more harm then it would good.  The Keystone XL veto marks President Obama's 3rd rejection of Congressionally approved legislation during his six years in office.

Analysis:

The long expected veto has come and while some are happy about the President's decision, others are not quite as satisfied.  This 8 million dollar project could cause damage to the environment it runs through but others say it would raise U.S. energy independence and the economy as well. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said "We build pipelines all around America every single day. Keystone has been reviewed and approved numerous times.  Even the president's own State Department will say that it creates 42,000 new jobs."  He believes that with the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline thousands of  new jobs will be created and that the President should listen to what the American people want and stop standing on the far left side with the extremists. Obama said that the bill "attempts to circumvent long-standing improving processes used for determining whether or not building and operating a cross-border pipeline serves the national interest."  This is the first time that Obama has rejected a bill since the Republicans took full control of Congress this year.  The Republicans would need to get a 2/3 majority vote in the House and Senate to override the veto. While the Keystone XL pipeline is at the top of their priorities, neither chamber has enough votes to override a presidential veto.  I believe that the pipeline could be very beneficial but I do agree with the fact that dangers do come with the construction of the pipeline.

Article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/11/house-keystone-veto_n_6663392.html  

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hl7ps178ZNY

Image: http://media1.s-nbcnews.com/i/newscms/2015_09/903076/obama_vetoes-jpeg-01d1d_12920d474d4660331a715b4fc638f5c5.jpg

Unit 4

March 24, 2015

Obama Orders Cuts in Federal Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Summary:

President Obama is well known to support renewable energy and trying to reduce the United States' greenhouse gas emissions.  On Thursday March 19, 2015, President Obama signed an executive order that calls for reduces in the government's carbon footprint.  The President's plan calls for a forty percent reduction in heat trapping emissions over the next decade from the 2008 measured levels.  The White House said this plan will save 18 billion dollars in taxpayer money and will increase the federal government's use of renewable resources like wind and solar power by 30 percent.  Major government suppliers such as IBM, General Electric, Honeywell, and many other U.S. firms expected to announce their new plan to reduce their carbon footprint as well.  In November of 2014, Obama pledged to lower the U.S carbon emissions by 28 percent over the next decade.  Conservative lawmakers and industry groups are not fond of the administration's and the President's actions to address climate change.  They believe that this plan jeopardize reliability and could possibly raise utility rates in the future.

Analysis:

Even though the Republicans oppose the environmental regulation that has been set, the President proceeded to sign the executive order that removes the federal government's greenhouse gas emissions.  The Environmental Protection Agency and other groups have been used by the President to avoid the Republican opposition in Congress and with taking actions against global warning.  When a person is elected president they receive implied powers and being able to sign an executive order is one of the most significant ones.  President Obama has recently used that power to act on his promise to the U.S. to make this matter a core focus of his second term as President of the United States.  This relates to our current unit of study because we are learning about Presidential roles and the powers he/she receives when they are in that position of power.  I believe in protecting the environment and doing anything possible to keep it healthy and safe but I do not want the utility rates to raise like the Republicans say it will.  I do agree with President Obama's methods of trying to reduce the United States' carbon emissions because I care a lot about the environment and I would try to do as much as I could to protect it as well.  

Article 1: http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/03/19/obama-cuts-federal-governments-carbon-emissions-to-address-global-warming 

Article 2: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/20/us/politics/obama-order-to-cut-federal-greenhouse-gas-emissions.html?ref=topics&_r=0

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKVz6U341ow 

Unit 3

March 2, 2015

Blue Dot For Obama Prompts Red Nebraska to Revisit Electoral College Rules

Mostly everyone in the state of Nebraska is a republican making Nebraska known as a completely red state.  Looking at a constant trend set in Nebraska, it is shown that all of Nebraska’s Electoral College votes are coming out as republican as well.  Nebraska is one of only two states that does not practice the “winner-takes-all system” along with the other state of Maine.  This article brings up an important issue that is relative to Unit 3 because it discusses the Electoral College and how each state uses it differently.

In 2008, the state was in shock when President Obama won one Electoral College vote in the election.  There are predictions that in 2015, a proposal will be passed that says about changing the winner-take-all system that has been occurring for many years.  They believe that this proposal will make it through to the governor’s office through a conservative push.  It will gain a greater drive because of the conservative believers and the approaching election which seems right now to be a close one.  The Republican voters in Nebraska are defending this proposal to keep up their saying in the Electoral College. They are saying that since they did not get their way and did not get their vote, they want to go change the rules. The article positions that “Switching to winner-take-all is a matter of fairness, not partisanship.  Democrats think otherwise, and some call the Republicans’ efforts an attempt to extend their monopoly of state politics.”

In the article it is stated that through pushing this proposal into the legislature, they can eliminate the tiny Democratic vote and make all votes from the Electoral College be Republican due to the majority rules method.  Democrats are refuting this proposal by testifying that Republicans are “shying away from competition” and the proposal will be biased because it will end in zero chance for the Democratic candidates to have even a fractional victory in the state. Obama won the urban Omaha Congressional District in 2008 in spite of the point that Democratic nominees typically tend to lose a lot.

Even though I typically have Republican views, I have to agree with the Democrats views on this issue.  Having Nebraska’s Electoral College system to be changed to the winner-take-all system will be unfair for the Democratic voters in the state.  I think the Democratic votes should be able to go through the Electoral College and count for something since the state is already a majority Republican.  The public could gain a lot of support by having more voters registering and more voters able to know that their votes mean/stand for something in this world. 

Article:  http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/01/us/politics/blue-dot-for-obama-prompts-red-nebraska-to-revisit-electoral-college-rules.html?ref=topics

Video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9H3gvnN468

February 16, 2015

Unit 2

Political Beliefs

Synopsis

The first article taken from The Atlantic shows the opposing viewpoints from four different people.  The backgrounds of the four individuals are on completely ends of the political spectrum ranging from staunch liberals to strong conservatives.  The article talks about how the 1961 Bobo Doll experiment showed that children interacted with the doll the same way that was modeled for them by their parents and adults.  That experiment then leads into the thought of parents' political beliefs rubbing off onto their children.  In the other article from the Gallup brings up the question if children, especially teens, stay true to their parents political perspectives.  The Gallup displays different survey results from questioning teens about their political views and if they follow in the path of their parents' or to part and take a different path.  The multiple surveys that were taken show the break down of the different groups of beliefs.  From if their views are liberal or conservative, to where they compare to their parents beliefs.  The children's thoughts on their own beliefs are shown as well as a comparison of the teens and adults political ideology. 

Analysis

This topic relates to the Unit 2: Political Beliefs and Behaviors by being about opposing political beliefs and if children take after their parents political perspectives.  Some parents want to force upon their children to think one way, some share their opinion and let their kids decide for themselves.  And then there are the parents who choose not to share their political opinions with their children and do not want to shape their child's political views in any sort of way.  The British Journal of Political Science recently published a study which found that parents who are firm that their children take on their political views unconsciously influence their children to leave behind the belief once they develop into adults.  Researcher Elias Dinas led the study and found that "Children exposed to strong political beliefs are most likely to engage in other views once they leave home."  The article said that these changes are presumably to take place during the children's college years.  The child leaves home and is around different viewpoints coming from their peers, professors, and other adults sharing their views on political issues.  This especially happens if the child comes from a home where politics is a frequent topic of discussion.  There are four different sets of people with opposing backgrounds and current views listed throughout the article. The Russon parents are teaching their eight year old and six year old to become devoted liberals and atheists.  John Wilder is a strong conservative who influenced his children at a young age but then let them decide their future for themselves. Jacqueline Church Simonds grew up with conservative parents then changed her views to the liberal side of the spectrum while in her twenties.  Ben Miller grew up in a family where his parents never shared their political views, now he considers himself to be non-political.  I have grown up in a family where my father is very open about sharing what he believes in and his opinions on politics throughout the world.  My mother on the other hand is more reserved, she has beliefs but does not share them as often as my father.  My views on political issues differs sometimes compared to my parents but I do belief they have a great impact on my thoughts.  For now I believe I lean more to the conservative Republican side but my views may change in the next couple of years after I head off to college and understand more about politics.

Articles:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/05/parents-political-beliefs/361462/ 

http://www.gallup.com/poll/14515/teens-stay-true-parents-political-perspectives.aspx
Picture:
http://i1040.photobucket.com/albums/b407/starflavour/political-spectrum.jpg