POL Assignment 4

Assignment: Due 10/8 Choose one Article from the Constitution and choose a specific Section and a specific Clause or short paragraph (for example Article 1 Section 8 Clause 5). Write out the clause, interpret it, and explain why you chose this passage.

Choose an article from either Roll Call or Politico in the list of links on the blog page. Post the link to the article and underneath write your reaction. Do not summarize, but write your response to the article and why you chose it.

Article 1 section 8:

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;

To establish Post Offices and Post Roads;

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;

To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations;

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

To provide and maintain a Navy;

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings; And

To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

 

This is a list of all of the powers that congress has. It shows all the day to day capabilities that congress has in terms of all aspect of our society and government. It shows congresses involvement in our military, taxes, federal services, foreign duties as well as certain punishments for specific crimes like counterfeiting. I chose this particular articles because I found it the most informative. I had no idea about the different powers of congress and it also makes me wonder how many of these things had I not read this would I not know congress was involved in.

 

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/president-obama-government-shutdown-press-conference-97995.html?hp=t1_s

I chose this article because I found it very informative and interesting. With all this talk lately of political crisis and shutdown this article sheds some light from Obama's perspective about the topic. Obama feels like he wants to negotiate but the republicans are almost being bratty it sounds like and It makes out country look weak. I agree with Obama on these view points. This article is current with recent events in our political system and seems to tie in with some of the class as well hence why I choose it.

POL Assignment 3

Assignment (Due 10/1 ): Choose a passage from one of the readings (Adams, Rush, or Paine) and one from the Declaration of Independence. Write out both passages. Under that interpret the meaning of what the author is saying, and why they are saying it. Explain why you chose this passage and how it relates to the lecture.


"Just and true liberty, equal and impartial liberty," in matters spiritual and temporal, is a thing that all men are clearly entitled to by the eternal and immutable laws of God and nature, as well as by the law of nations and all well-grounded municipal laws, which must have their foundation in the former.

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them.

In Both the excerpt from Declaration of Independence and the excerpt In Samuel Adams's "The Rights of The Colonists", The Laws of God and Nature are discussed. I think what they are referring to are laws that all men are entitled to simply based on the fact that they are alive and human. To me the laws of nature refer to laws that are basically embedded into human living for example the right to own land would be a law of nature because any man willing to put in the work, time, and money into land should be able to own it and do as he please with it. The laws made by men are more of a construct on how to be socially civilized amongst each other. The laws of God to me refer to how religion fits into society. No man should be denied right to practice any belief or any variation of beliefs. In both of these documents it is stated that there are rights that a man always has and should never be taken away.

  

Pol Assignment 2

Assignment (Due 9/24): Choose a quote from Chesterton and write it out on your blog. Under that write your interpretation of what you think the author is trying to say. Then, after that write out your own explanation of the meaning of this passage and why you chose this specific quote. Next class, we will talk about the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution.

Of course this generalization about America, like other historical things, is subject to all sorts of cross[Pg 14] divisions and exceptions, to be considered in their place. The Negroes are a special problem, because of what white men in the past did to them. The Japanese are a special problem, because of what men fear that they in the future may do to white men. The Jews are a special problem, because of what they and the Gentiles, in the past, present, and future, seem to have the habit of doing to each other. But the point is not that nothing exists in America except this idea; it is that nothing like this idea exists anywhere except in America. This idea is not internationalism; on the contrary it is decidedly nationalism. The Americans are very patriotic, and wish to make their new citizens patriotic Americans.

I think what Chesterton is trying to say here is in america despite all the different scenarios that have happened with all the people of different races we are still willing to have these people in our country despite that as long as they conform to being American the way we view Americans should be. Other countries are more weary of foreigners and tend to not be so willing to accept a large number of people knowing that they come with different views and opinions and with their own sense of nationalism where as america just wants you to succumb to becoming american.

I chose this quote because it very much indicates what america was formed on and has been about even til this day sure we preach freedom and democracy but it all comes at cost and only then when you obtain it it has to be to american standard, and I sorta agree with this and then I dont I agree with letting everyone come over and start their lives a new in america and to be come american citizens however I don't agree that we should try and change and control so much of these people as well.

POL assignment 1

Assignment Due 9/17: Choose a quote from Bourne and write it out in your blog. Under that write your interpretation of what you think the author is trying to say and explain that. Then, after that write out your own explanation of the meaning of this passage and why you chose this specific quote and how it relates to this class.

"These people were not mere arrivals from the same family, to be welcomed as understood and long-loved, but strangers to the neighborhood, with whom a long process of settling down had to take place. For they brought with them their national and racial characters, and each new national quota had to wear slowly away the contempt with which its mere alienness got itself greeted. Each had to make its way slowly from the lowest strata of unskilled labor up to a level where it satisfied the accredited norms of social success."

I think Bourne is trying to say that when people came from different other parts of the world to america the people who set the social standard as to what america was judged the newcomers to harshly instead of taking them as they were. All of these people brought with them piece of their homeland same as the first Americans did but they forgot about that and instead judged them accordingly not realizing just as they had to work their ways back up to being accredited in this new social environment these newcomers had to do the same. These newcomers to america had only minimal skills and had to educate them selves and re brand them selves to fit in with Americans.

I chose this quote because it was one of the more meaningful of the essay there are other similar quotes to this one in the essay I could of picked but I like this one because it has more of a summary of the entire essay in such a small passage its's basically about the adjustment of newcomers to a society established by people who only recently established a society. I think this relates to the class because this class is about the american political system and society and its roles need to be established before a political system can be established so its almost like an underlying root.