Unit 4 part 2 (April 1)

President Obama is granting clemency

            President Barack Obama has issued 61 more clemency agreements on March 30, 2016 which added to his previous number brings him up to a total of 248 clemencies over his two terms as president. President Obama and both sides of our countries bipartisan system have decided to work together in weighting the wrongs of the past. The President is giving an executive order to the prison system in the form of clemency, his expressed power, to pardon offenders of their crime and release them from prison. While simultaneously the house and senate are working to create reform in an attempt to limit the unfair punishment for certain crimes. Not only is the POTUS using clemency to release unjustly punished offenders, but he is also meeting with them and arranging for them the best possible outcome for their second chance.

            President Obama’s 248 clemencies have dwarfed that
of his six predecessors combined 139. This is representative of an incredibly important time for the American judiciary system. Major reforms are supported by both sides of legislature and are working towards a more lenient standpoint. It is a great time for the President to help those in need and rally with the congress in an attempt to show unity amongst the government. These 248 clemencies are writing the wrongs of the past creating a second chance for those who have been unjustly punished for their crimes. Throughout the remainder of his term it is expected that the president will grant many more clemencies and work to build up rehabilitation groups for all who will be pardoned. 

     

LINK: https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2016/03/30/president-obama-has-now-commuted-sentences-248-individuals 

Unit 4 Part 1 (March 20th)

Rep. Adrian Michael Smith

    

• Party- Republican.
• District- 3rd district of Nebraska, which is a safe district for republicans.
• Has served five terms in congress.
• Background- Smith is a 45 year old native Nebraskan who has been in his state’s politics since 1999. Other than his original election Smith has won every incumbency aided election by at least 45% of the vote. His original election was near defeat winning only be 10% among an immensely republican district. This race was the most expensive one in the district's history, starting in 1963.
• Committees- Natural Resources, Building Maintenance, vice chair of the Transportation and Telecommunications,  Military and Veterans’ Affairs, and as Committee Chairman of the Four State Legislative Conference.
• The third district is located in the Midwestern portion of the country taking up the vast majority of farmland in Nebraska, a state known for its agriculture. This helps Smith because the rural farmers love to vote for him as a conservative, agricultural loving, republican House Representative.
• The PAC Club For Growth is his only political contributor to Rep. Adrian Smith.
• Bill#1 ENCRYPT Act of 2016- does not support. This lack of support is for many reasons. First and foremost it is backed by the Democratic Party, to which Rep. Smith must appose. Second being the representative in a larger rural Midwestern district the bill means little to his local supporters in the way of how the bill personally effects them. However, they will see it as a means of allowing the "other", consisting of any non-white denomination from other countries, a way of hiding terrorist threats. He must fight the bill for the sake of his districts views.
• Bill#2 Aviation Innovation, Reform, and Re-authorization Act of 2016- support. This bill will be allow this Nebraska Rep. to bring jobs in air traffic control to his lightly populated "fly over state." This bill is also sponsored by the republican party, urging Rep. Smith to vote in favor for it. The republican party is all for the limitation and subsidization of government programs into the average American's hands.
• Bill#3 Sentencing Reform Act of 2015- does not support. Over crowded jailing is not a problem for the scarcely populated 3rd district of Nebraska giving them little concern for for this issue. Also many rural republicans are the type of voters who are in favor of harsher not lenient punishments of criminals. Even though this bill is sponsored by the republican party Rep. Smith must vote against it in order to stay popular in his district.

Unit 3 (March 1, 2016)

Jeb’s Energetic and Overzealous Start Fizzles into Disappointment!

Jeb bush’s spending on the most recent presidential race as amounted to a record breaking 130 million dollars. This mega campaign fund was larger and more expansive than that of all 16 of his competitors combined. However, the money went fast and steady into the black hole of Jeb’s campaign. Jeb and his super PAC, Right to Rise, poured money into ineffective facets which in turn had no true effect on the campaign.  Increased spending on positive ads, travel, and all together poor planning ultimately lead to Jeb’s downfall. After spending the most money in political history on one campaign, one would think a smashing success would be the outcome. However, Jeb didn’t win or even come close to winning a single state’s primary or caucus through South Carolina, where he dropped out of the race.

            It was Jeb’s poor use of media as a campaign strategy that lead to his early drop out. Unlike other candidates he did not pull attention on free media systems. This forced him to choose the medium of television, which is very costly and still does not ensure the public’s attention. On television Jeb ran mainly positive advertisements about himself, while every self-respecting politician knows that the only effective advertisements are those which emphasize competitors’ negatives. Jeb’s frivolous spending of money on trips, food, and ineffective advertisements lead to his defeat in the ever changing political landscape of the modern age.

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/23/us/politics/jeb-bush-campaign.html?em_pos=medium&nl_art=2&nlid=901129&te=1&_r=0

Unit 2 (February 16, 2016)

Who Will Win The Democratic Race?

                In South Carolina Bernie Sanders is starting to turn heads for the February 27^th primary. Many of the Registered African American voters, over 50% from a random sampling, are polling that they would vote for Sanders not Clinton. Sanders likable grassroots approach is attracting and holding the attentions of many. Sanders is also polling well due to his extremely Liberal ideologies. His promises of fee collage and free health care attract a lot of attention with the lower class voters who are struggling to get by. From recent polls and turnouts at his campaign rallies Bernie Sanders is not afraid of South Carolina. Saying that he may not have name recognition but he can appeal and relate to the common citizen.

            The breakdown of South Carolina’s Political Typology on the democratic side shows that sanders has the potential to do just as well if not better than Clinton. These polls show that the common citizen of South Carolina is relating to and agreeing with the ideas that Bernie Sanders is promising to uphold. These polls are being used by sanders to develop a better understanding of what voters want. He will then use this information to develop and evolve his campaigning strategies in order to maximize the amount of votes he will receive. This is the whole point of a political poll. He is finding the people who are least likely to vote for Hillary Clinton, people with low socioeconomic standing, and in turn developing ways to get them on his side.

Link:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/02/16/cracks-in-hillary-s-firewall-black-voters-divided-between-dem-candidates.html

Unit One (February 9, 2016)

Capital Punishment, Yes or No?

The argument is that the use of capital punishment is harsh and should be discontinued. Capital punishment or the death penalty is a sentencing for crimes that are considered heinous. It is legal in just over fifty percent of the states. This is due to the fact that execution is a reserved power. However, only a handful of the states that have kept it legal have actually used it in recent years. These states include Virginia, Florida, Missouri, Texas, Georgia, and Oklahoma. This lack luster amount of participants is due to several reasons. First off it is widely considered immoral to kill others, the method of lethal injection has come into question, and many suppliers have stopped manufacturing the killer drugs.

            Lethal injection is directly against the Eighth Amendment which prohibits the use of cruel or unusual punishment. Recent studies have shown that the drugs used during lethal injection cause pain before death. Also while causing pain up to seven percent of execution by lethal injection have failed to work. This is causing a great loss of revenue in money spent on drugs that never take effect. It is considered to be just a cruel as killing in any other fashion. This a very large debate that very well may never truly come to an end. Some states and people are far to “loving” of the death penalty. This make it hard to bring up such counter arguments as the constitution. Also it has proven difficult to truly test whether it is painful or not to die by lethal injection. Due to the fact that most participants don get the chance to answer that question. Until these questions are answered the death penalty cannot be stopped based solely upon the constitution. However, a federal mandate or a referendum containing the majority rule against the use of capital punishment very well may stop its use in the near future.

Link: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/01/29/things-to-know-death-penalty-and-execution-drugs.html