Campaign Ads: What Works the Best?

• One of the first techniques I noticed was the word "change", it was used mostly by the party that was not in office. As seen in multiple ads, the word change was used if the economy or US foreign relations were bad.

• Jimmy Carter South: http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1976
• Gerald Ford Change:http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1976

• Another really big tactic is blame, blaming other politicians, especially the President before. The tatic usually involves the candidate saying that they would fix mistakes made by others.
• John Kerry "Mistakes were Made (Web)":http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/2004
• Barack Obama "This Year": http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/2008
• Out of the Party, as in the candidate speaks of being outside of the party and working for the voter, you, and not there party.
• Adlai Stevenson "Peace is Non-Partisan":http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1956
• John McCain "Original Maverick":http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/2008
• Speak of Family, show that your an American! Show the American people that you are not just the candidate, but a family person who care blah blah blah. It gets the attention because it warm the heart of the people.
• George Bush "Family/ Children":http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1988
• Also a major factor is the tone or attitude of the commercial itself. It can "shed" light on a situation or scandal that involves one of the candidate. The darker and more serious ads tend to be about our problems, while the lighter joyful ads focus on nationalistic ideals.
• John McCain "2013":http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/2008
• The last technique I will discuss is words used, as it seems like there are words used to specifically darken or lighten the mood. Like change, is usually good, while debt makes is bad or less hopeful.
• Ronald Reagan "Inflation":http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1984

1. In battleground states the lack of advertising heavily affects the voters decision.
2. More advertising alone will not produce better results, there is a need of policy and ideology advertising.
3. The regulation of campaign finance would equal the bias causing a better "fair" vote. 

Electoral College Reform: Should the Electoral College Be Abolished?

Facts:

1. The two-party system, that was unseen by all, except George Washington, became the destruction of the Electoral College.
2. The original Electoral College was meant to choose the best candidate, not the Democrat or Republican that won the most states.
3. The arguments for the Electoral College were that it was supposed to balance the powers of the states that were screwed by the Constitution, and confiding the election of the President to Congress.
4. The Electoral College is unbalance in a democratic sense, because each state gets two votes no matter their population.
5. The Electoral College can also choose the "wrong" President, in a sense that it can mess up the President with the most votes by the people, instead of choosing the candidate who won the public opinion, they choose the candidate who gets the most states. Just like the 2000 election, which i think we can all agree Bush wasn't the best President this country has seen.
6. The original Electoral College's logic may seem odd to us, but it was intended that people of a higher intelligence  than the average American citizen at the time, would make the better choice.
7. The Electoral College makes it so the Candidate only needs to visit the swing states, and can ignore the states which vote one way because of this two party system.
8. The electors are had picked and not elected, how ironic.
9. There are laws the require an elector to vote for the candidate who selected them.
10. There have only been 10 electors that have violated their pledge to a candidate.

Questions:

1. Would the author support an new system, party wise, in hopes of balancing the Electoral College?
2. Does the author see the majority of American are unfit to select their President?
3. How would the author changed the system so the 2000 election occurred differently?
4. Are there any reforms that the author would agree with or do they think that the Electoral College is not the problem?
5. How should we, as voters,citizens, etc. feel about the Electoral College?

Political Cartoon #2 12/6

1. How ignorant, according to the cartoon, would you say Fox News is towards proven theories like global climate change?
2. Would you say this is bashing Fox News or pointing out that they do not acknowledge scientific fact?
3. Why are Fox News viewers generally less informed compared to political comedy shows, like The Daily Show or people that do not watch the news?
4. Why does Fox News go against scientific fact such as global climate change, is it because of their own theories?

Link to Polls about viewer knowledge:http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2011/11/21/fox-news-viewers-uninformed-npr-listeners-not-poll-suggests/

Umm not really sure this a great cartoon, but it shows that people can be affected by media for better or worse, and that political bias also affects the media which in turn the people.

Two Articles from Taxpayers For Common Sense

Article 1: The Department of Energy FutureGen Initiative
link: http://www.taxpayer.net/resources.php?action=issues&proj_id=5002&category=&type=Project

• FutureGen was a multi-million dollar project aimed at building and operating the first coal powered zero emissions power plant.
• The plant was intended to produced hydrogen and electricity from coal, while capturing the harmful CO2 emissions and storing them underground.
•  The first FutureGen project was canceled in 2008 due to the prices in the economic market.
• In 2010 the project was taken up again, but instead of building a whole new plant the $1 billion dollars would go to an oil-burning plant that would be re-designed so the plant had the ability of "advanced oxy-combustion".
• As of now the company Ameren, that supported the porject, is backing out causing a lose in the money being spent on the project.

Article 2: Pet Rock Budgeting

link: http://www.taxpayer.net/resources.php?action=issues&proj_id=5008&category=&type=Project

• Instead of cutting spending in certain places, the Super Committee is too busy fighting over whose programs gets cut.
• Many things like NASA and earmarks have been discussed within the committee; we already know what happened to NASA, which is odd because it was one of the only extremely popular programs with in the system.
• The defense secretary says that the Pentagon is doing its part, but there is still evidence to show that the defense budget will go up in the next ten years, and not down.
• The members of the committee do not want to touch tax expenditures, at all.
• The article talks of how the committee has not done nearly enough and there should be more cuts and less wasting time.

Death Penalty: The Answers

Questions and Answers:

1. Why do we spend an excessive amount on this system?
• It seems that the only reason we spend the amount is for the death of whoever we are dealing with. As I researched I found that in California alone taxpayers are paying almost 140 million dollars a year for death row. It has also been show and proven many times that it is less expensive to put someone to in jail for Life without Parole. The real reason for the costs are the legal procedures that have to be taken, which are required by the Constitution. Though why would the constitution have so many rules and procedures for death penalty (many because its wrong?). From a study in Los Angeles, it was found that of the last 11 executions in the past 27 years they spent over $250 million on each person. I think the spending is 'justified' by the 'results' but even then when we start comparing the amount of money spent to the actual results we are still left with the need for the reason of this excessive spending.
• Source: https://death.rdsecure.org/article.php?id=42
2. Has there been any Supreme Court cases that have tried to abolish the death penalty?
• Yes there have been many court cases dealing with the death penalty. Considered one of the most important cases, Furman v. Georgia, changed the view of the death penalty, within courts. This case declared that the death penalty went against the Eight and Fourteenth amendments, because it was seen as a form of cruel and unusual punishment.
• Source: http://deathpenalty.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=001769
3. Can it be considered cruel and unusual punishment, and what is cruel and unusual punishment in the first place?
• As seen in my previous question, the death penalty is in some cases considered cruel and unusual punishment. As for Americans we can only wonder, but there are polls on whether Americans agree or disagree with the death penalty. In a poll taken in 2011, adult Americans for the most part agree with the death penalty, with around 60% saying they think it is justified. While 28% opposed it an the other 12% were undecided. This question seems to be more opinionated, but i was able to get some facts at least. I Do wonder what Children think of the death penalty?
• Sources:http://deathpenalty.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=001769
  http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/documents/Rasmussen_Reports_DP_Poll.pdf

I left this topic with still many questions like: Can you justify the killing of a murderer?, How many countries do not use capital punishment?, what are the main reasons for the penalty of death?, and Is it one person that decides?. It almost seems like the decision of putting someone to death is like playing "god(s)".

Pennsylvania's 2008 Elections

Facts:

1. Delaware County was very Democratic, party wise, as the percentage of votes for Barack Obama were over 80% in 2008.
2. The heavily populated, urban, areas voted more Democratic, and not Republican.
3. Despite spending almost three times longer campaigning in Pennsylvania John McCain's efforts were in vain, as Obama took victory at about a 10% margin.
4. Sen. Joe Biden, now VP, helped Obama by campaigning in PA were he was born, hoping to gain more voters.
5. Democratic voters, not counting the registered just those who voted, now out number Republicans by over one million. This isn't too surprising considering there are around 15% more Democratically registered voters than Republican voters.

Pending Bills!

Bills:

• HR: 2865: 9/11 Memorial Cross National Monument Establishment Act of 2011
• status: Referred to a Committee
• purpose: to erect a cross memorial at the National 9/11 Memorial Museum
• reason of picking: At first i thought it was a cool bill to memorialize 9/11, but I soon realized it could be offensive to victim's families because of the cross and how it can represent a religious purpose.
• HR: 3261: Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)
• status: Referred to a committee
• purpose: to prevent theft of US online property
• reason for picking: I dislike the bill, not the piracy part, just the fact that piracy is almost how the internet runs, and the pirates are everyday people some doing it unknowingly.
• S:1108: 10 Million dollar Solar Roofs Act of 2011
• status: Referred to a Committee
• purpose: to get the tools necessary for the production/ use of solar panels to local communities.
• reasons for picking: I love this bill! The idea of providing solar energies to communities around America is cool, reducing our carbon foot print little by little!