Unconstitutional: The War on Our Civil Liberties

The Patriot Act was unconstitutional because after watching the film I got a sense that it showed that the Patriot Act was implemented by using terrorism as a cover in order to greatly expand federal law enforcement. They abused their powers without real evidence, of course 9/11 was huge, but they just stereotyped all middle eastern people into a group that they were all terrorists. They damaged so many people, by defamation of character and it made people turn on each other. The Patriot Act changed the character of America it made us look worse and strain even worse our relations with other countries. It conflicted with the ideas that our country was founded upon because it went against our constitutional rights. It has made America and its people not really safer because at any moment the Middle East or Asia can attack us because of our prejudiced towards them.

Most influential court cases

For me the most influential case that we talk about as a class was Plessy vs. Ferguson because this case posed as a way for justice that black should be able to sit with the white, since under the constitution we are all equal. the historical question was can the states constitutionally enact legislation requiring persons of different races to use"separate but equal" segregated facilities? Yes the states can do that, because at that time the verdict and trial was corrupt. the decision was Ferguson 7 and Plessy 1 and because of that, later in Brown vs. Board, the state ruling was declared that not "all people are equal". There was some corruption and unfairness and it just showed me that back then and at times now, court rulings aren't fair but because of people who stand up, it's that there's change.  

the Illinois State government

What I have learned this past week about the Illinois State government is many different things. The Illinois government is like the nation’s government that it also has 3 branches. Which is the Executive Branch, they carry out the laws passed by Congress. The Legislative Branch that is made up of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives. The court system, which is headed by the U.S. Supreme Court, makes up the Judicial Branch and interprets the laws. Another thing I learned was that, amendments must be proposed by a two-thirds vote of both the houses of Congress and also be accepted by three-fourths of state legislatures. Lastly, I learned about some of the candidates that are working down at Springfield. Like our state representative, Mrs. Sandy Cole. I thought it was a very nice treat to have her come to our class and speak about pressing issues about our government.  She is an environmentalist republican, I believe. She spoke about the same things we learned while making the books for the children. She talked about many different things like the story about that couple who use their home as a home daycare, and that the law says there not supposed to be fine but that the home association wants to charge them a lot. Another thing was about the unanimous vote that takes place. How 117 house reps., can agree but 1 can say no to listen to some bills and they will never be heard. It was brought by the republicans, so never wish what you want for. Last, working with my group was very good. Even though we were slow at first, we in the end made a really good book. I feel we came up with a really good idea and, personally I feel that we wrote enough information where 4^th graders will understand it. 

2012 Political Candidates

I think for 2012 Newt Gingrich would be a good fit for the presidency candidacy. I looked over what he believes in and I feel that what he stands for will potentially help our nation. Like making sure that there are more jobs out there. Supports health care reform, Plans to reform health-care by giving states more freedom and flexibility to customize their programs to suit their needs, and is for more money and less taxes and regulations. I feel that he would make a good president, if he is for the people always.

Expectations

When researching this project with my group, I have learned couple of things about the candidates and what they do. In the past two weeks, we have been in the lab to do some research about the elections coming up and what new voters should do. The three things I have learned about elections are that there are many rules and regulations to follow, for example a new voter must eighteen and a citizen of the United States. We have days where we can registrar and when we can vote and what places to vote at. Then I learned about the candidates who are running for Illinois’s office. I learned information about Mark Kirk and Richard Durbin. I also learned more about Joe Walsh and what these candidates do, and why there running again or why there running for office. My thoughts on how they work is that they do a lot but I feel it’s stuff that sometimes doesn’t benefit us the people as in how much it benefits them. I feel that some do care about the welfare of this great nation but are easily changed because society might not agree all the times with them. The two things that I have learned about working with a team and using GoogleDocs is for one my team is was very good. They were very productive and if I had questions about any of the assignments they were there to helpful with me and gave me lot of positive feedback. Another thing was that they were all on top of the things they had to do and also kept each other productive. My group members were very awesome, and I got along very well with all of them. As for GoogleDocs, I thought it was both easy and hard to manage. Easy because we could help each other with docs and correct the mistakes. But I thought it was hard because sometimes the Docs would come back blank on one computer and not the other. It opens up to many windows and when everyone was writing at the same time it was just a pain in the butt. But overall this when researching this project with my group, I learned a couple of things about the candidates and what to do with GoogleDocs also.

XYZ Website

 For me when I'm accessing things on the internet regardless of what it is, I like it to be like Wikipedia because that website is easy to manage and and very helpful. I like that it is easy to read, very organize, and if we need more information it has other links we could go to, to get more. I like it to light and not many things popping at me because then I'm not to sure where to start or I can get easily distracted or bored and just leave the website. What makes me turn away and look at other websites is that it's either the writing is to long or that too many things are there and not enough information. I want it be informative but not t the point where there is so much. And I also value how efficiently the website is.