Families living in cars: Are policies, politicians to blame?

This 60 Minutes piece Sunday should make us all think. But what is the answer to the problem. Is policy, politicians or the people? Interesting to read the viewer comments on the website:

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7389750n&tag=contentBody;storyMediaBox

What does this say about American Political Culture?

SuperCommittee Primer

(From apgov.org)

Watch from 1:00-6:00. Learn a little about the "Super Committee" for next week (may have a policy deliberation next Thursday). BTW, the "Super Committee" is a joint (House and Senate) select (members selected by the leaders of each chamber for a specific purpose) committee.


Boehner, Reid Duel Over Super Committee Failure in Op-Eds

(From National Journal)


House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., squared off in dueling USA Today op-eds over the super committee's failure to produce a plan to reduce the deficit, each blaming the opposing party for its refusal to compromise.


“I did everything possible to support the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction,” Boehner said.

Republicans, he added, made “good-faith offers,” even when not everyone in the party was enthusiastic about their content. Boehner blamed President Obama and Democrats who “insisted on dramatic tax hikes on American job creators.”

Reid, on the other hand, said that Republicans caved to the “tea party extremists and millionaire lobbyists” in their party. Democrats were ready to make a grand bargain, but Republicans refused to meet them halfway, Reid wrote.

The Senate majority leader said that he would oppose any efforts to walk back the automatic spending cuts that are scheduled to take place since the 12-member panel failed to reach agreement. Boehner said his next effort will be finding common ground with Democrats to address health care costs without tax increases.

Chief Turkeys: A Presidential Thanksgiving history

(From the WSJ.com, Melanie Kirkpatrick)

Last I checked, Thanksgiving is still scheduled to take place Thursday. The economic news may be gloomy, but unlike President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression, President Barack Obama has not tinkered with the date of the holiday.


In 1939, FDR decided to move Thanksgiving Day forward by a week. Rather than take place on its traditional date, the last Thursday of November, he decreed that the annual holiday would instead be celebrated a week earlier.

The reason was economic. There were five Thursdays in November that year, which meant that Thanksgiving would fall on the 30th. That left just 20 shopping days till Christmas. By moving the holiday up a week to Nov. 23, the president hoped to give the economy a lift by allowing shoppers more time to make their purchases and—so his theory went—spend more money.

Roosevelt made his decision in part on advice from Secretary of Commerce Harry Hopkins, who was in turn influenced by Lew Hahn, general manager of the Retail Dry Goods Association. Hahn had warned Hopkins that the late Thanksgiving, Nov. 30, might have an "adverse effect" on the sale of "holiday goods."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704888404574548082613991744.html
This year marks the 64th anniversary of the National Thanksgiving Turkey presentation. Though live Thanksgiving turkeys have been presented intermittently to presidents since the Lincoln administration, the current ceremony dates to 1947, when the first National Thanksgiving Turkey was presented to President Harry Truman.


So while they say not to talk about religion or politics around the Thanksgiving Day table, call this entire post the Political Warrior cornucopia of political/historical/religious/culture info to impress your guest this Turkey Day.

Starting with the 'Chief Turkey.' At right, President George W. Bush pardoned "Pumpkin & Pecan" the two birds that were saved by the president's signature in 2008.

On Wednesday, November 23, 2011, President Obama will pardon two National Thanksgiving Turkeys from Minnesota in a ceremony in the Rose Garden. Both birds will live out their days at George Washington's Mount Vernon estate. The President will celebrate the 64th anniversary of the National Thanksgiving Turkey presentation, reflect upon the time-honored traditions of Thanksgiving, and wish American families a warm, safe, and healthy holiday. If last year's embeded ceremony below, you can watch the TBN (To be named National Turkeys live at http://www.whitehouse.gov/.



Happy Thanksgiving.....I'm thankful for your blogging comments!

Broken Government? Your Job: Fix it

Mike Adams,the creator of the above cartoon, thinks things are bad at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA):"Of all the cartoons we've ever done on the FDA, this is the one that people seem to like the best."


It addresses the issue of FDA conflicts of interest. The Food and Drug Administration, an agency that suffers under the hallucination that it protects the public from dangerous foods and drugs, has actually become the marketing department of Big Pharma. It actually takes money from drug companies in exchange for evaluating and approving their drugs, and the decisions concerning which drugs to approve almost always come down to a panel of "experts" who have strong financial ties to the very companies impacted by their decisions.''

Well, if it's "Broken Government" then it's your job to fix it.

Before you start with your poster/policy pitch assignment due Tuesday, consider this article from US History.org

http://www.ushistory.org/gov/8d.asp (take note or the merit system and bureaucratic accountability).

Have one person from your stake your claim for an agency in the comment section starting 11/22. Also, list the 3 or 4 members of your group.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

 
EPA Chief: Enviroment should be above partisanship. Do you agree? Also, would Richard Nixon (before Watergate) make it in the current GOP. Afterall, it was his administration that created the EPA in 1970.
 

Posting of last week's assignment

Go to http://www.congress.org/ (Type in your zip code)


Who are they? What party? When were they elected?

What percentage did they win by in the last election?

What committees are they on?

Go their webpage: What legislation are they currently working on? (2 or 3 examples)

Redistricting Game
http://www.redistrictinggame.org/
 


1st, Click on “play the game.”

Go to: Mission 4: The Voting Rights Act

Go to: Learn More

2nd, Read about the Voting Rights Act of 1965

Explain the purpose of the Voting Rights Act and how it relates to redistricting.

3rd, Have fun! See if you can “win” the game - redistrict the State of Hamilton.

______________
 
Post your result in the comment section of the redistricting game post below

Obama: 'Long and painful chapter' is over; New Book to be written in Lybia

(From CNN)

Washington (CNN) - President Barack Obama on Thursday called the death of former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi both the end of a "long and painful chapter for the people of Libya" and the hallmark of a successful U.S. foreign policy.


In the first official government remarks on the killing of a longtime foe who was behind terrorist attacks against U.S. citizens, Obama pledged his government's support as Libya builds a democratic system from the ruins of dictatorship.

FULL STORY

With regime change in Lybia, what needs to happen next for the revolutionaries to create a democratic government. Are you optimistic, or pesimistic about the future of Lybia?

A Big Victory Shout Out

This site allows allows you to type in a member of Congress and see how many bills he/she has introduced, how many earmarks he/she have asked for and received. The site does not give its definition of earmarks, nor tell if the bills are for one's entire career (I suspect it is), but nonetheless, it is an interesting starting point.


Judy Biggert (R) our representative from the 13th District has just two bills to her credit as of 2010. She was first elected in 1998. She won re-election in 2010 to a seventh term with 64% of the vote.

But she has given a big shout out to WVHS. I found the above video on the Warrior's Back-to-Back State Champion Women's Soccer Team Website. A couple of summers ago U.S. Rep. Judy Biggert gives her one-minute shout out to the Tribe. While we make fun of these "One-minute resolutions" legislatures use them to make constituents feel happy and proud. I did when I saw it.

Do we like our lawmakers doing this type of constituent service for us, or is it really a waste of time when there are more important matters at hand?

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/videoLibrary/clip.php?appid=595320026