politics
A source of mild entertainment amid the financial carnage has been watching libertarians scurry to explain how the financial crisis is the result of too much government intervention, not too little. One line of argument casts as villain the Community Reinvestment Act, which prevents banks from "redlining" minority neighborhoods as not creditworthy. Another theory blames Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for subsidizing and securitizing mortgages with an implicit government guarantee.
Blame The Libertarians
Copyright 2005 (revised 2010) StudentNewsDaily.com We all want the same things in life. We want freedom; we want the chance for prosperity; we want as few people suffering as possible; we want healthy children; we want to have crime-free streets. The argument is how to achieve them… Liberals believe in government action to achieve equal opportunity and equality for all.
Conservative vs. Liberal Beliefs
George F. Will: Weighing standards of decency
In the 1790s, a Tennessee man convicted of horse theft got off easy. Instead of being hanged, as horse thieves often were, he was sentenced to “stand in the pillory one hour, receive thirty-nine lashes upon his bareback well laid on, have his ears nailed to the pillory and cut off, and that he should be branded upon one cheek with the letter H and on the other with the letter T, in a plain and visible manner.” Tennessee could not do that today because of what the Supreme Court has called “the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society.” The Eighth Amendment, ratified in 1791, forbids “cruel and unusual punishments.”
(NaturalNews) Most people, even smart people, know surprisingly little about the way money really works in Big Government. With the debt ceiling fiasco suddenly raising awareness of the possibility of a total global financial blowout, now seems like a good time to remind people of seven disturbing facts about money that are almost never acknowledge in the old media. Fact #1 - There is no FDIC insurance fund. The money at your bank is insured against loss by the FDIC's insurance fund, right? Nope.
Seven startling things most people still don't know about the national debt, banking and the money supply
Landmark Supreme Court Cases
Marbury v. Madison (1803) Holding: Established the doctrine of judicial review. In the Judiciary Act of 1789, Congress gave the Supreme Court the authority to issue certain judicial writs.
Scholastic Update Every clique has its own language — an insider's jargon that people outside the group don't always understand. Filmmakers talk about "panning" and "fading." Retailers talk about "floor sales" and "back orders." Politicians have a language of their own too, and it often appears in media reports about politics.
Vocabulary: Political Words
Glossary Act : Legislation that has passed both Houses of Congress and has been either approved by the President, or passed over his veto, thus becoming law. Also used technically for a bill that has been passed by one House of Congress. Alien : A person residing under a government or in a country other than that of one's birth without being a citizen of that non-native country. Amendment : A proposal by a Member (in committee or floor session of the respective Chamber) to alter the language or provisions of a bill or act. It is voted on in the same manner as a bill.
s Guide (6-8): Glossary
The 2012 tech primary - Kim Hart
As GOP presidential contenders stump for votes from Iowa to New Hampshire to South Carolina , Google, Facebook and Twitter are in a race of their own — for millions of dollars in political ads. The tech giants are offering candidates new ways to advertise — Mitt Romney has spots on YouTube and Rick Perry ’s Facebook ads target Christian college kids in South Carolina — and hiring political consultants, sponsoring debates and poaching from each other’s ad sales teams to jockey for the top spot in political social media circles. Continue Reading “This is the Twitter election,” boasted Peter Greenberger, who Twitter recently lured away from Google, where he started the search giant’s political ad sales team in 2007. “We’ll be a core component.” Not so fast, says Google, the most experienced Web company when it comes to political advertising.
The Republican National Convention is trying to go high tech — and it has enlisted Google to help it out. GOP leaders are designating the search giant and YouTube as the "Official Social Platform and Live Stream Provider" of the 2012 convention in Tampa, Fla., which kicks off on Aug. 27. Continue Reading For the RNC, the new partnership with Google and YouTube means it can upgrade its convention experience ahead of the most digitally oriented presidential election ever.
Google tapped for Tampa convention
How Romney, Obama Camps Use Google Search Ads to Target Voters | PBS NewsHour | April 19, 2012
JEFFREY BROWN: Now we continue out regular look at the campaign as it plays out in social media and on the Web. For that, we're joined again by two journalists from the new website Daily Download . Lauren Ashburn is the site's editor in chief and is formerly with USA Today Live and Gannett Broadcasting. Howard Kurtz is Newsweek's Washington bureau chief and host of CNN's "Reliable Sources." And welcome back. HOWARD KURTZ: Thank you.Sen. Graham slams NLRB as the ‘Grim Reaper of job creation’ - The Hill's On The Money
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) will introduce legislation to stop a controversial National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling that could allow unions to form smaller bargaining units. Graham, appearing Wednesday on a conference call organized by business groups, said he would introduce an NLRB amendment to the Labor, Health and Human Services appropriations bill when the Senate Appropriations Committee marks it up on Thursday. The measure would ban the use of federal funds to implement an August 2011 NLRB ruling, known as Specialty Healthcare, that critics argue allows for the creation of “micro-unions.”House oversight committee schedules contempt vote for Holder
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has scheduled a vote for next week to consider holding Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress over the controversial Fast and Furious gun-tracking operation. Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., released a 64-page memo in early May outlining the case for holding the attorney general in contempt. The chairman based his argument around Holder's failure to respond to an October 2011 subpoena for internal Justice Department documents on the operation. The committee's vote for contempt is scheduled for June 20.As lawmakers across the Capitol hear appeals Tuesday from Obama administration secretaries pleading for their budgets, duplication and overlap in dozens of areas of government is wasting "tens of billions of dollars annually," a new government report shows. According to the Government Accountability Agency's 2012 annual report, nearly every department of the Executive Branch has room for improvement. The report, which gives 51 areas and recommends 130 actions, follows a 2011 GAO report that showed 81 areas and 176 actions to be taken to "reduce or eliminate unnecessary duplication, overlap, or fragmentation or achieve other potential financial benefits."
Report: Government Wasting 'tens Of Billions' Of Dollars Annually On Duplication, Overlap
The Federal Reserve System (also known as the Federal Reserve , and informally as the Fed ) is the central banking system of the United States. It was created on December 23, 1913, with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act , largely in response to a series of financial panics, particularly a severe panic in 1907 . [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ] Over time, the roles and responsibilities of the Federal Reserve System have expanded and its structure has evolved. [ 3 ] [ 8 ] Events such as the Great Depression were major factors leading to changes in the system. [ 9 ]
Federal Reserve System
US poverty on track to rise to highest since 1960s
The ranks of America's poor are on track to climb to levels unseen in nearly half a century, erasing gains from the war on poverty in the 1960s amid a weak economy and fraying government safety net. Census figures for 2011 will be released this fall in the critical weeks ahead of the November elections. The Associated Press surveyed more than a dozen economists, think tanks and academics, both nonpartisan and those with known liberal or conservative leanings, and found a broad consensus: The official poverty rate will rise from 15.1 percent in 2010, climbing as high as 15.7 percent. Several predicted a more modest gain, but even a 0.1 percentage point increase would put poverty at the highest since 1965. Poverty is spreading at record levels across many groups, from underemployed workers and suburban families to the poorest poor.US Economy