10. "Occupy movement worth millions, except for Occupy Dallas at $0"

A recent report was released which estimated the costs to cities for to deal with the Occupy movement protests. The three most notable are New York, Oakland, and Dallas. New York has estimated their fees at approximately $7 million and Oakland estimated $2.4 million.


What sets Dallas apart, is that Occupy Dallas has not cost the city anything. The reason is because of how it is organized.

"Beginning on October 6, movement committees recognized as "working groups" were specifically designed for the expertise of volunteers who wish to help the protesters.

But more than anything, what has separated Occupy Dallas from movements like Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Oakland is a continued cooperation with the city's local police and city government, in addition to a continuous appreciation for the Dallas Police Department that has worked out for both sides."

 While protesters other places have also remained non-violent, they did nothing to try to get the police to remain the same. Such as at UC Berkeley, where the protesters where non-violent but the police pepper sprayed them. What Occupy Dallas did was to maintain cooperation with the local police and city government. This greatly, possibly completely, lessens the risk that the police will use force against them, and along with that it keeps the cost to the city and nothing.

http://ow.ly/7FglL

9. "Occupy Wall Streeters plan to shut down stock exchange, swarm subways"

Chapter 11 was on interest groups. Occupy Wall Street could be considered a interest group, it matches the definition of "an organization of people with shared policy goals."

The First Amendment guarantees the right to freedom of speech and the right to peaceably assemble.

Up until recently, Occupy Wall Street has stayed within these rights, thus staying under the protection of the Constitution in those regards. They were staying within the limits of the freedom of speech and they were keeping their protesting peaceably. However, recently their protests have stopped being so peaceable. Once the protests stopped being peaceable, the protection of their protests ceased.

"In one of the largest demonstrations in recent city history, the ant-greed rabble plans to swarm the subways, take over the Brooklyn Bridge and shut down the stock exchange today."

Swarming a subway, taking over a bridge, and shutting down the stock exchange isn't exactly within the definition of "peaceably." Along with the loss of protection, these actions could be taken as hostile, which could warrant police intervention.

http://ow.ly/7zJ0y

8. "Sharon Bialek accuses Cain of "sexually inappropriate" behavior"

Recently in the reading, the book talked about how the media gives more attention to stories with high drama. A recent event is a perfect example of this.

"A Chicago woman accused Herman Cain on Monday of trying to get sexual favors more than a decade ago in exchange for his help finding her a new job just after she had lost her post at an arm of the restaurant association he was then running.

The woman, Sharon Bialek, is the fourth woman who has accused Cain of sexually inappropriate behavior in the late 1990s and the first to go public with her charges. She outlined her story at a high-profile New York City press conference at the Friars Club."

This story has received a lot of coverage. In 2010, there were 11,717 charges of sexual harassment filed with the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission,) and FEPA (Fair Employment Practices agencies.) Not many, if any, of these charges were shown on the news, and those that were shown on news, where shown to nowhere near the extent. That is, unless someone of notability was involved.


http://eeoc.gov/eeoc/statistics/enforcement/sexual_harassment.cfm
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57319854-503544/sharon-bialek-accuses-cain-of-sexually-inappropriate-behavior/?tag=contentMain;contentBody

7. "Republicans criticize Obama over Iraq withdrawal"

Recently, Obama was criticized by Republicans for pulling troops out of Iraq. This links to two things from the reading this week, campaign promises and Democrat vs. Republican views.

During his 2008 campaign, one of Obama's main promises was that all troops would leave Iraq by the end of 2011. The reading mentioned findings that a majority of campaign promises are kept by those that get elected. Obama's announcement is another example of a campaign promise that was kept.

In another section of the reading, there was a chart with Democrat and Republican views on certain issues. One of the issues was the war in Iraq. The criticism Obama is receiving from Republicans is an excellent example of the differing political party views. As the chart shows, the main difference in the views, is that Republicans support the war and Democrats do not. Since Obama is a Democrat part of his decision was probably based on party alignment. This combination, of being part of an opposing part and of taking troops out of Iraq, practically guarantees criticism from Republicans.

6. Obama campaign now on Tumblr

Chapter 7 covered how technology is changing politics. 

"In 2008, Obama made good use of Facebook to reach out to what was then a largely younger audience on the social networking site, and get them excited by and involved in his campaign."

Facebook is just one example of the technologies that are making an impact in politics. Just recently a Tumblr blog was made for Obama's campaign.

"We’d like this Tumblr to be a huge collaborative storytelling effort — a place for people across the country to share what’s going on in our respective corners of it and how we’re getting involved in this campaign to keep making it better,"

The fact that more and more, politicians are using online and social networking for their campaigns and policies is a perfect example of the ways that politics is being changed by new technologies.


http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/10/24/8471085-obama-campaign-now-on-tumblr

5. Political Polls

In chapter 6 there was a section on polling. In it it mentioned a Gallup poll. gallup.com has tons of polls on it, aptly named after Gallup.
An example from the Political Polls section, there is a poll taken on Occupy Wall Street.

It isn't told how many people were asked the questions, or how the answers were obtained, only that the results were based on a October 15-16 USA Today/Gallup poll.

From the results, it can be drawn that of the people that felt they know enough to comment, more approved than disapproved of the goals and how the protests are being conducted. But the percentage that answered is 26% and 10%, respectively, lower than the amount of people that felt they do not know enough to comment.

4. "Obama Administration Abandons a Piece of Health Care Reform"

"The Obama administration is giving up on a big piece of its health care reform, the  Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced today. The CLASS program would have created a new long-term health insurance plan that would have allowed workers of any age or health status to buy in, pay premiums, and then collect insurance if they became disabled. But the administration wasn't able to figure out a way to get enough healthy people to sign up to offset the program's costs, Sebelius said in a letter to Congress. Today's announcement isn't terribly surprising given that at the end of last month, much of the program's staff left, including the actuary whose job it would presumably be to calculate how to finance the program."

The sixth line of the preamble to the Constitution is to "Promote the General Welfare." Health care easily fits into general welfare. If the health care reform mentioned above had passed, it would have made it possible for any worker to get health care, despite age or current health. This would have helped general welfare by allowing anybody working to have health care, instead of being denied or charged too much for their budget by health insurance companies.



http://news.yahoo.com/obama-administration-abandons-piece-health-care-reform-213054851.html;_ylt=A2KLJkeP45lO60EAAkOyFz4D;_ylu=X3oDMTNncDc3OW11BG1pdAMEcGtnAzU4NzQzZGRkLWMxNGYtM2ZiYy1iNDM3LTQxYzNhYmZkYTBmYQRwb3MDNgRzZWMDbG5fQ29uZ3Jlc3NfZ2FsBHZlcgNmOTg5ZTgwMC1mNmFiLTExZTAtYmZmMS1lYzU5NDJiZmMzYmE-;_ylv=3

3. US Budget & Millionaire Tax

"Senate Democrats are rewriting portions of President Barack Obama's jobs bill to include a new 5 percent tax on income above $1 million."


"According to the IRS, in 2008 there were 321,294 U.S. taxpayers with an adjusted gross income of $1,000,000 or more." A 5% tax on them would draw over $32 billion dollars, as only about 141 thousand of the total is $1-1.5 million a year. The roughly 180 thousand remaining make over $1.5 million a year.

In class we went over the 2012 U.S. Budget, showing a $1.1 trillion dollar deficit. If a 5% tax was set in place (using numbers from 2008,) the deficit could be down a bit from the current $1.1 trillion


Sources:
http://www.irs.gov/taxstats/indtaxstats/article/0,,id=96981,00.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/30-years-spending-priorities-federal-budget-2012/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44785065/ns/politics-capitol_hill/#.TpnW_PYr27s

2. "Can the U.S. kill an American citizen without charge or conviction?"

"Is it legal for the federal government to kill a U.S. citizen overseas, someone who has never been charged or convicted of a crime? Civil liberties groups are condemning the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, but many legal scholars say it is fully justified."

Anwar al-Awlaki was, according to U.S officials, "a senior talent recruiter and motivator who was involved with planning operations for the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda." He also happened to be a US citizen. Today (Sept. 30) he was killed in northern Yemen.


This has brought up a debate. Since he was a US citizen and he was not allowed a trial before he was killed, is his 6th amendment violated? Or, since he was not on US soil at the time and he was said to be working with al-Qaeda, is he not entitled to his 6th amendment right?

"In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence."

There is not mention that the person in question has to be in the US, or even a US citizen. The only thing that could be applicable in this case is the "impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed."


Source:
Can the U.S. kill and American citizen without charge or conviction?

1. "Obama to exclude Social Security from deficits plan"

In class, and in chapter 1, it was mentioned that voters over 65 vote more often than those under 25. President Obama recently gave his deficits proposal. In it he did not affect Medicare or Social Security.

In 2004, there almost 30% more of the voters over the age of 65 than those under 25 voted. Social Security benefits start at 62, so for those over 65 politicians opinions of Social Security has at least some affect on their voting. If Obama made changes that upset those that are drawing from Social Security, it could have a big impact on his outlook for future terms in office, especially if there are still more voters over the age of 65 than 25, as is/was the trend.

"President Barack Obama will not include reforms to the Social Security retirement program in his deficits proposals to Congress next week, the White House said Thursday." He probably did not make his choice solely based on the next presidential election, but it would not be surprising if it had at least some affect on his decision.

Sources:

"Obama to exclude Social Security from deficits plan" - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44536231/ns/politics-white_house/

"Obama's deficit proposal marks a move away from compromise" - http://articles.latimes.com/2011/sep/19/nation/la-na-obama-deficit-20110920