Lots of Snow and Ice

A man,in New Bedford, Mass., used a blowtorch to melt ice on his back porch and ended up setting his house on fire, causing up to $30,000 in damage. Luckily no one was injured. The man used a torch hooked up to a 20-pound propane cylinder. He got too close to the building's wood frame and ignited the vinyl siding. The fire quickly spread into the building's second- and third-floor apartments. It took 25 firefighters to subdue the blaze that damaged bedrooms in the upstairs units, and caused damage to the structure and wiring. The homeowner will not be charged. He is lucky because not only could he have been charged with arson; he could be made to pay the firefighting costs. Also a bummer is that his insurance might not have to pay for fire damage.

Recount Update

Well, the results will be in January 5th. Congress convenes January 6. At this point Frankin is projected to beat Coleman by 78 votes. I guess we will know after Christmas break.

Some Minnesota election facts:

Minnesota has an automatic manual recount law that kicks in whenever the margin of victory is below 0.5 percent. This recount would have happened no matter what--whether Frankin or Coleman wanted it or not.

Minnesota law does not allow for a revote. The ballots will have to be counted and a decision made.

Our recount process and transparency in the process are being called a"model for the country." Yay Minnesota!

What does this refer to? Look up something on past Illinois governors and corruption...there is a history of it. Tell what you found.

No Cake for Adolf

A supermarket is defending itself for refusing to a write out 3-year-old Adolf Hitler Campbell's name on his birthday cake.

Deborah Campbell, 25, of nearby Hunterdon County, N.J., said she phoned in her order last week to the Greenwich ShopRite. When she told the bakery department she wanted her son's name spelled out, she was told to talk to a supervisor, who denied the request.

Karen Meleta, a ShopRite spokeswoman, said the store denied similar requests from the Campbells the last two years, including a request for a swastika.

"We reserve the right not to print anything on the cake that we deem to be inappropriate," Meleta said. "We considered this inappropriate."

The Campbells ultimately got their cake decorated at a Wal-Mart in Pennsylvania, Deborah Campbell said Tuesday.

Heath Campbell said he named his son after Adolf Hitler because he liked the name and because "no one else in the world would have that name."

The Campbells' two other children are named JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell, who turns 2 in a few months, and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell, who will be 1 in April.

Campbell said he was raised not to avoid people of other races but not to mix with them socially or romantically. But he said he would try to raise his children differently.

"Say he grows up and hangs out with black people. That's fine, I don't really care," he said. "That's his choice."

He said about 12 people attended the birthday party on Sunday, including several children of mixed race.

"I think people need to take their heads out of the cloud they've been in and start focusing on the future and not on the past," Heath Campbell said "They need to accept a name. A name's a name. The kid isn't going to grow up and do what (Hitler) did."

What do you think about the store's policy?

MID QUARTER BREAK

all postings from here to the end the quarter will count for your LAST 7 blogs of quarter 2...government is almost over and your senior year is almost half over as well...wow! where does the time go..................

Politics and Perks

Does Congress really want to ban privately funded travel?

Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel is a lovely luxury getaway. Nestled in the bluffs above a sandy beach in Kona, Hawaii, the hotel is perfect for weddings and honeymoons--and apparently for members of Congress attending conferences. Last January, the American Association of Airport Executives paid $40,000 for Republican Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi, who is on an aviation subcommittee, four other lawmakers, and the wives of some of them to go to Kona for a five-day get-together on aviation issues. The list of sponsors included contractors like Boeing and Lockheed Martin. "You'll have an unparalleled opportunity to discuss your ideas and concerns with aviation industry leaders and Washington decision makers," the association said in its invite.

That's the kind of special access that worries government watchdogs. While the excursion was legal, such privately funded jaunts for lawmakers illustrate how interest groups use trips to gain influence in Congress--by paying for members to attend and by providing lobbyists with access to lawmakers. "At dinner ... you are sitting across from a lobbyist from Exxon Mobil or Verizon, and later they pick up the phone and call you and say: Hey, didn't we have a nice time in Italy ... oh, and by the way, you're going to support us on our bill, aren't you?" says Chellie Pingree, president of Common Cause.

Members of Congress have received almost $20 million from private groups to travel since 2000, according to PoliticalMoneyLine, a nonpartisan research group. More than 600 members of Congress have made over 6,000 privately funded trips since 2000. In January, for instance, the Aspen Institute paid about $86,000 for 12 lawmakers and spouses of many of them to go to Punta Mita, Mexico, for a conference on U.S. policy in Latin America. In August 2003, Century Business Services, the parent company of the lobbying firm Kessler & Associates, paid $30,000 for six lawmakers to stay at the Ashford Castle in Ireland for a trade seminar.

Who can bring and end to these kinds of trips and the influence that may result from them? Only Congress itself. They would have to pass a law limiting or banning these kind of trips. In 2005 , a ban on privately funded travel was proposed in Congress--it was defeated. Resistance was and remains strong.

What do you think? Does Congress want to ban privately funded travel?

Parents pay lobbyist to fight school closings

Parents on either side of a decision to close four elementary schools in southeast Oakville have drawn lines over influence and affluence.

The Clearview Oakville Community Alliance claims fat-cat rich parents have hired a high-priced lobbyist to fiddle with the Halton District School Board's plan to close the schools in 2010.

It's an unfair fight, says Michelle Sloane, president of the Clearview alliance. The group says closing the schools and building a new one will mean better quality education for all students in the area.

Particularly galling, she said, is a boast by their opponents of a $50,000 to fund the fight.

"We know the fight cannot be to overturn the decisionto close schools made by the district," Sloane said. "The only fight, logically, is to delay everything, unless they find some legal hitch (in the process).

"But to hire a lobbyist firm from downtown – and supposedly this person they've hired is extremely good at the education side of things – we don't have funding to do that. We have to be our own lobbyist.

"It's a scary fight," said Sloane, who won't reveal how much money her group has raised. "We just feel that they have the means that we don't. We are concerned that because they have the ability to hire big time Bay St. lawyers and big time Bay St. lobbyists, that they may have the ability to influence somebody that we don't have the ability to do.

"We're not jealous. We're concerned. We're at a different income level."

Mark Caskenette, an executive member of Oakville Residents for Public Education, said concerned parents who belong to his group have never said that no schools should be closed as population demographics change in Ward 3.

But he said they never imagined that four schools would be shuttered.

"We're not opposed to closing schools," Caskenette said. "What we opposed was a process that we believe was flawed, that lacked openness and transparency."

He said the board didn't provide a review committee of parents and school officials with a selection of scenarios to deal with dwindling student numbers in some schools and how students would be redistributed within the ward.

"It seemed to be a process with a foregone conclusion," Caskenette said. "Our perception was that there was a bias to build a school in Clearview."

He said his group has no specific recommendation about which schools should be closed.

"We've tried to be open-minded," he said.

"What we say is that the process has been flawed. We want to revisit and come up with a solution that satisfies the whole community."

Recount Update

U.S. Senate Race Recount--Most Recent Update

Al Franken (DFL)	1,197,965	Contesting 3,197 ballots
Norm Coleman (R)	1,193,307	Contesting 3,311 ballots
Current Lead	4,658
Net gain from Nov. 4 count	+10 Franken
Learn what numbers mean	See recounted votes by precinct or county
Ballots Recounted: 98.88% Precints Reporting: 99.37% 8:00 p.m. - 12/04/2008

Fla. Congresswoman Hangs Up On Obama, Twice

When a man sounding remarkably like President-elect Barack Obama called a Florida congresswoman Wednesday, she assumed it was a crank call. So Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen hung up. But, the Miami Herald reports, this was no prank. "I thought it was one of the radio stations in South Florida playing an incredible, elaborate, terrific prank on me," Ros-Lehtinen told the newspaper. "They got Fidel Castro to go along. They've gotten Hugo Chavez and others to fall for their tricks. I said, 'Oh, no, I won't be punked."'

The call came about 1 p.m. Obama congratulated her on her re-election, saying he was looking forward to working with her as the ranking Republican member of the House Foreign Affairs committee, Ros-Lehtinen told the newspaper. The conversation lasted about a minute when she cut Obama off, telling him she wasn't falling for the hoax and that he was a better impersonator than the guy on Saturday Night Live, she said.

Then Rahm Emanuel, Obama's chief of staff, called the congresswoman to tell her it wasn't a joke. But she hung up on him, too. It took a call from Rep. Howard Berman, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, to persuade Ros-Lehtinen that Obama really did want to talk to her. When the two finally talked, Ros-Lehtinen said she and Obama had a good conversation and she congratulated him for his victory despite how hard she campaigned for his opponent, Sen. John McCain. He didn't even blame her for mistaking him for a radio-station prank, she said. "He laughed a lot, saying in Chicago they do it all the time," Ros-Lehtinen said. "He said, 'I don't blame you for being skeptical."'

Study on Teens and the Internet

Results from the most extensive U.S. study on teens and their use of digital media show that America's youth are developing important social and technical skills online -- often in ways adults do not understand or value.

"It might surprise parents to learn that it is not a waste of time for their teens to hang out online," said Mizuko Ito, University of California, Irvine researcher and the report's lead author. "There are myths about kids spending time online -- that it is dangerous or making them lazy. But we found that spending time online is essential for young people to pick up the social and technical skills they need to be competent citizens in the digital age. It concludes that learning today is becoming increasingly peer-based and networked, and this is important to consider as we begin to re-imagine education in the 21st century."

Significant findings include:

• There is a generation gap in how youth and adults view the value of online activity. Adults tend to be in the dark about what youth are doing online, and often view online activity as risky or an unproductive distraction. Youth understand the social value of online activity and are generally highly motivated to participate.
• Youth are navigating complex social and technical worlds by participating online. Young people are learning basic social and technical skills that they need to fully participate in contemporary society. The social worlds that youth are negotiating have new kinds of dynamics, as online socializing is permanent, public, involves managing elaborate networks of friends and acquaintances, and is always on.
• Young people are motivated to learn from their peers online. The Internet provides new kinds of public spaces for youth to interact and receive feedback from one another. Young people respect each other's authority online and are more motivated to learn from each other than from adults.
• Most youth are not taking full advantage of the learning opportunities of the Internet. Most youth use the Internet socially, but other learning opportunities exist. Youth can connect with people in different locations and of different ages who share their interests, making it possible to pursue interests that might not be popular or valued with their local peer groups. "Geeked-out" learning opportunities are abundant -- subjects like astronomy, creative writing and foreign languages.

What do you think about the findings?

You be the Election Judge

What is all the recount fuss about? How hard can it be to recount the ballots and figure out who the votes are for??? MPR has put together a nice site to show you what some of the contested ballots look like. Go to the link below and be the judge.

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2008/11/19_challenged_ballots/


What did you find? What did you think about the ballots?

MN Senate Race

U.S. Senate Race Recount

Here are the most current results of the recount. Both sides are contesting ballots that were thrown out for invalid reasons. The secretary of state's office reports that 3,594 ballots have been challenged so far, with 1,836 questioned by Coleman's camp and 1,758 questioned by Franken's. Some 12,000 absentee ballots were rejected from the initial vote count because of technicalities and errors. These ballots are now being looked over and counted if possible.

There are also reports of missing ballots. In Oak Park Heights, for instance, one precinct showed 1,462 votes on Nov. 4, but only 1,449 during the recount. In some places, election officials have said the mismatched figures were the result of a faulty machine reading on Election Day that led to some ballots being fed through twice. Others located ballots in storage areas.

Both sides have lawyers and observers watching over the recounts in every county.

Norm Coleman (R)	1,044,255	Contesting 2448 ballots
Al Franken (DFL)	1,040,285	Contesting 2292 ballots
Current Lead	3,970
Net gain from Nov. 4 count	Coleman +77

aRe YoU a RePuBLiCaN oR a DeMoCrAt??

Here is a quiz to tell you what party your ideas align with the most. Tell what you found and if you agree with it or not and Why? Click on the Link below.

http://typology.people-press.org/typology/

Supreme Court

This year's election was important in a way we have not talked about yet. President Obama may have a long lasting impact on the Supreme Court. Of the nine Justices, 5 are 70 or older and one is 69. When these Justices die or retire, they will be replaced by the sitting President. They will be selected by the President, approved by Congress and serve a life term. As you know, the decisions of the court have a large impact on our country and the rights and freedom's of its people.

What do you know about the current Justices? Pick one and provide some details.

Supreme Court Case

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear Pleasant Grove vs Summum. People who practice a religion called Summum want to put up a religious statue in a town park next to a monument of the Ten Commandments. The town, Pleasant Grove, Utah has turned them down. The religion's representatives are now sueing the town. The case's decision will impact religious freedom and free speech in public places. What do you think about this case?

END OF QUARTER ONE

This marks the end of quarter one blogs. Begin quarter two NOW!

technology and school

Holland Park School in London and Ku-ring-gai High School in north Sydney have begun taking attendance by using student finger prints. Students are identified and their time of arrival is recorded when they press a finger on an electronic pad located at entrances or in classrooms. If they fail to press they will be recorded as absent. A fingerprint scan of each pupil will be converted into a number that can be recognized by readers each time they press the pads.

Some parents are upset with the fingerprinting of their children. They feel that fingerprints are private data and the school should not be accessing it for attendance. Some call it intrusive. Others say it violates right to privacy and treats kids like criminals. What do you think? Does this violate your constitutional right to privacy?

Joe the Plumber

Who is Joe the Plumber??? What do we know about him and his "influence " on the election?

$$$$

It takes a lot of money to run a campaign. Look at how much the candidates are spending. Post amounts and comment. Look not only at Obama and McCain, but Frankin and Coleman in Minnesota.

Obama Begins Advertising In Xbox 360 Video Game

Last week I told you Obama would be buying a 30 minute prime time "commerical" spot on CBS, NBC and ABC-the main 3 TV stations across the nation. The cost is expected to be $1 million per station. A few former candidates have also departed from the traditional advertising format to buy blocks of airtime. In 1992, Ross Perot bought time on network television and Hillary Clinton paid for an hour-long town hall special on Lifetime television, a cable network aimed at women, during the Democratic primary campaign.

He is now charting new territory. Video game publisher Electronic Arts confirmed that the Obama campaign bought in-game advertising for the Xbox 360 racing game "Burnout Paradise." The ad is actually seen on a roadside billboard. The sign has a picture of Obama and says, "Early Voting Has Begun," and also includes the website voteforchange.com. The company said the ads were sold much in the same way that television, print, and radio outlets handle political advertising. EA also said the ads do not reflect the political policies of EA or the development team.

Why isn't John McCain doing the same? McCain took public financing and by doing so, is limited in how much he can spend. He is on an $84m budget for these elections. Obama has no such constraints. The candidate this week increased his spending on television advertising to $3m a day, and is expected to spend even more as the election approaches. The McCain camp, in contrast, spent about $1.6m a day.

Thoughts...............

the 'global vote' for president

What would happen if the whole world could vote in next month's U.S. presidential election?

The folks at the Economist have launched an international poll asking just that. And they're taking this hypothetical seriously -- they've even redrawn the electoral map.

In the Britain-based magazine's Global Electoral College, each country is given at least three electoral-college votes. Countries are allocated more votes in proportion to their population size. Under the system, for example, the United States has 432 votes. China has 1,900. Iran has 104.

So let's get back to the big question: Who would win the global vote, John McCain or Barack Obama? Well, voting in the Global Electoral College doesn't close until Nov. 1, but early returns show Obama with a massive lead.

The Democrat has 8,482 electoral-college votes. The Republican has just 16.

The World Reacts and Comments on the Bailout Package

The instability and uncertainty affect not only us, but the rest of the world. Financial markets around the world fell after the bailout was not passed and credit is drying up around the world. Here is what some of these world leaders are saying about our current financial problems.

Latin American leaders say the U.S. must quickly fix the financial crisis it created before the rest of the world's hard-won economic gains are lost."The managers of big business took huge risks out of greed," said President Oscar Arias of Costa Rica, whose economy is highly dependent on U.S. trade. "What happens in the United States will affect the entire world and, above all, small countries like ours."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on U.S. lawmakers to pass a package this week, saying it was the "precondition for creating new confidence on the markets — and that is of incredibly great significance."

European Union Commission spokesman Johannes Laitenberger said: "The United States must take its responsibility in this situation, must show statesmanship for the sake of their own country, and for the sake of the world."

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe blasted the world's most powerful country for egging on uncontrolled financial speculation that he compared to a wild horse with no reins."The whole world has financed the United States, and I believe that they have a reciprocal debt with the planet," he said.

What do YOU think?

Campaign Slogans

What are the slogans for this years campaign?

Here are some interesting ones that worked in years past.
1964--Barry Goldwater and Lyndon Johnson-Barry Goldwater's slogan" In Your Heart Heart You Know He's Right" was popular with the Republican right. Johnson countered with "In Your Guts, You Know He's Nuts." Johnson won.

1868; Ulysses S. Grant ran for the presidency under the slogan "Vote as You Shot" He was referring to his Civil War victories and telling Union voters to vote Republican. He won.

In 1976 Jimmy Carter used the slogan " Jimmy Carter~Not Just Peanuts" to help propel himself into the White House. He tried to stress that he was a humble peanut farmer and a candidate to be taken seriously.

In 1940, FDR ran for his third term as president. His opponent, Wendell Willkie, put "Roosevelt for EX-President" on his buttons. As you know, FDR won.

One More Dirty Campaign..the Worst in History??

John Adams lived long enough to see his son become president in 1825, but he died before John Quincy Adams lost the presidency to Andrew Jackson in 1828. Fortunately, that meant he didn't have to witness what many historians consider the nastiest contest in American history.

The slurs flew back and forth, with John Quincy Adams being labeled a pimp, and Andrew Jackson's wife getting called a slut.

As the election progressed, editorials in the American newspapers read more like bathroom graffiti than political commentary. One paper reported that "General Jackson's mother was a common prostitute, brought to this country by the British soldiers! She afterward married a mulatto man, with whom she had several children, of which number General Jackson is one!"

What got Americans so fired up? For one thing, many voters felt John Quincy Adams should never have been president in the first place. During the election of 1824, Jackson had won the popular vote, but not the electoral vote, so the election was decided by the House of Representatives. Henry Clay, one of the other candidates running for president, threw his support behind Adams. To return the favor, Adams promptly made him secretary of state. Jackson's supporters labeled it "The Corrupt Bargain" and spent the next four years calling Adams a usurper.

Beyond getting the short end of the electoral stick, Andrew Jackson managed to connect with voters via his background -- which couldn't have been more different than Adams'.

By the time John Quincy was 15, he'd traveled extensively in Europe, mastered several languages, and worked as a translator in the court of Catherine the Great.

Meanwhile, Andrew Jackson had none of those privileges. By 15, he'd been kidnapped and beaten by British soldiers, orphaned, and left to fend for himself on the streets of South Carolina.

Adams was a Harvard-educated diplomat from a prominent New England family. Jackson was a humble war hero from the rural South who'd never learned to spell. He was the first presidential candidate in American history to really sell himself as a man of the people, and the people loved him for it.

Having been denied their candidate in 1824, the masses were up in arms for Jackson four years later. And though his lack of education and political experience terrified many Adams supporters, that argument didn't hold water for the throngs who lined up to cast their votes for "Old Hickory."

Ever since Jackson's decisive victory, no presidential candidate has dared take a step toward the White House without first holding hands with the common man.

Thoughts on this one??

Dirty Campaigning..now you know the rest of the story.....

Negative campaigning in America was begun by two lifelong friends, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Back in 1776, they had nothing but love and respect for one another as they worked to claim America's independence. But by 1800, politics had so distanced the pair that, for the first and last time in U.S. history, a president found himself running against his vice president.

Things got ugly fast. Jefferson's camp accused President Adams of having a "hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman."

In return, Adams' men called Vice President Jefferson "a mean-spirited, low-lived fellow, the son of a half-breed Indian squaw, sired by a Virginia mulatto father."

As the slurs piled on, Adams was labeled a fool, a hypocrite, a criminal, and a tyrant, while Jefferson was branded a weakling, an atheist, a libertine, and a coward.

Back then, presidential candidates didn't actively campaign. In fact, Adams and Jefferson spent much of the election season at their respective homes in Massachusetts and Virginia.

The key difference between the two politicians was that Jefferson hired a hatchet man named James Callendar to do his smearing for him. Adams, on the other hand, considered himself above such tactics. To Jefferson's credit, Callendar proved incredibly effective, convincing many Americans that Adams desperately wanted to attack France. Although the claim was completely untrue, voters bought it, and Jefferson stole the election.

Jefferson paid a price for his dirty campaign tactics, though. Callendar served jail time for the slander he wrote about Adams, and when he emerged from prison in 1801, he felt Jefferson still owed him.

After Jefferson did little to appease him, Callendar broke a story in 1802 that had only been a rumor until then -- that the President was having an affair with one of his slaves, Sally Hemings. In a series of articles, Callendar claimed that Jefferson had lived with Hemings in France and that she had given birth to five of his children.

The story plagued Jefferson for the rest of his career. And although generations of historians shrugged off the story as part of Callendar's propaganda, DNA testing in 1998 showed a link between Hemings' descendants and the Jefferson family.

Just as truth persists, however, so does friendship. Twelve years after the vicious election of 1800, Adams and Jefferson began writing letters to each other and became friends again. They remained pen pals for the rest of their lives and passed away on the same day, July 4, 1826.
It was the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

While this is not a Paul Harvey story, it sure sounds like it could be. Thoughts?

MID QUARTER END

ALL posts prior to this post will be counted towards midquarter of Quarter 1.

Pastors challenging the IRS

A 1954 amendment to the Internal Revenue Service code submitted by Democratic Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson permits the IRS to revoke a church's tax-exempt status if the preaching gets too political.

This political season some pastors around the country are defying this amendment and challenging the IRS. "Pulpit Freedom Sunday"was organized by the Alliance Defense Fund, an organization of lawyers dedicated to defending religious liberty. The ADF believes that pastors have a First Amendment right to speak on politics if they choose, and that by using its tax authority to limit pulpit content, it is the government, and not the preacher, who is violating the separation of church and state.

What do you think? Should the government limit what pastors can preach about? Should they try to ban politics from the pulpit?

New Penny

Starting on Feb. 12, 2009 the tails side of the penny will get a new image. The coins will be commemorating the bicentennial of President Abraham Lincoln's birth. The new coins will debut in three-month intervals. In 2010, the penny will get a new tails side image that has yet to be selected.
The penny has not been redesigned in 50 years.

Penny facts:

• The profile of Lincoln that debuted on the "obverse" side of the penny in 1909 was the first image of a president to appear on a circulated U.S. coin.

• Unlike other presidential profiles on coins, he's facing right.

• The Lincoln Memorial first appeared on the reverse side in 1959 in honor of the 150th anniversary of Lincoln's birth.

• "In God We Trust" appears on the heads side of the penny. The phrase became a standard feature on U.S. money in 1963.

Some think we should just stop making the penny because it can cost more than a cent to make one because of copper prices. Some lawmakers in Congress have pushed that the penny be phased out.
What do you think?

Gore, Gwyneth Paltrow Go Overseas To Rally Voters

Former Vice President Al Gore and actresses Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate Hudson swept into London to encourage US citizens living in Europe to vote-and make donations -to the Democratic party.

"Every single day for the last two or three weeks we've been registering voters," said Miki Bowman head of the British branch of Republicans Abroad. "The lessons have been learned from 2000, that the ex-pat (ex-pat meaning ex-patriot-which is a term used to describe a US citizen living in another country) vote can be critical."

Both Republican and Democrats are working to round up the votes and dollars of overseas US citizens. There are approximately 6 million US citizens who live overseas and are eligible to vote in the election.

Americans living overseas can vote in their home states by mail and can offer donations to campaign funds. Democrats Abroad said that only around 1 million voted in the 2004 election.

With the election getting closer and the race very close, both sides want to get as many overseas votes as possible.


Did you know about overseas voters? Are you surprised at the large number of US citizens living abroad? Do you think they should be allowed to vote in the election?

Right to Bear Arms..in school???

The school district of Harrold, Texas began allowing teachers and staff members to carry concealed firearms to school this year. They are hoping to deter and protect against school shootings. For employees to have a gun, they must have a Texas license to carry a concealed handgun, must be authorized by the district, receive training in crisis management and hostile situations, and use ammunition designed to minimize the risk of ricocheeting bullets. No other school in the US is known to have such a policy.
What do you think? Would you be comfortable with this policy?

Freedom of Speech on the Internet.....sometimes with consequences attached.

Last January 13 students from Eden Prairie High School were punished when pictures of them drinking and partying were taken from someone's Facebook and given to school officials anonymously on a disc. A few days later 4 students at Woodbury High were disciplined for partying pictures of them taken from Facebook. This time, however, a student took the pictures off the website, used them in a powerpoint on drinking, showed the powerpoint in health class and now the kids in the pics are in trouble.
If you thought what you post on the Internet is safe, think again.
What many young people may not realize is the long term consequences of networking sites. "It's an electronic trail right now. And it can be found by college administrators, by potential employers, by friends, by grandparents, by people who you don't want to see some of the mistakes you've made," Media Specialist John Rash.

"It's becoming increasingly common for schools or potential employers to check social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, and to penalize kids or other people for what they find," said William McGeveran, a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School and expert on data privacy.

"Facebook is largely a public space. Users don't always perceive it that way, but that's what it is," McGeveran said.

Employers check?? In an interview with Tim DeMello, owner of Internet company Ziggs,
when DeMello was asked if he does an Internet search for online profiles when he chooses whom to hire, he replies, "Of course. Everybody does."

DeMello estimates that about 20 percent of companies are secretly scanning online profiles before they interview applicants.

"Within a short period of time, you could find these 83 photos on every search engine on the Web, and these 83 photos could be attached to your name for the rest of your career," says DeMello.

An Ottawa , Canada grocery store (Farm Boy) fired two employees after they read postings on a Facebook groups called " I Got Farm Boy'd" The employees had talked about stealing merchandise from the store. One of the employees spoke out and denied stealing from the store. He said the post was only hypothetical.

A minimum wage Argos employee in the UK was fired for gross misconduct after he vented on Facebook about a frustrating day at work.

A 29-year-old police officer from Ohio was fired from his department after he posted photos of evidence from criminal cases and of the speedometer of a police car going 100 mph on MySpace; he was the subject of a recent ABC News story.

People across the country have been fired for “not living up to the moral code of the company,” Stacey Elderbroom, co-creator of the “Protect Your Privates” campaign, said.

Last May, LSU swimmers Eddie Kenney and Matt Coenen were kicked off the team after athletics officials discovered they belonged to a Facebook affinity group that put up disparaging comments about swim coaches.

Loyola University Chicago is forbidding its athletes from belonging. Loyola athletics director John Planek says he ordered athletes off the site to protect them from gamblers, agents or sexual predators who could learn about them, or contact them, through their profiles. It is also an image issue for schools. Schools could be deeply embarrassed if underage star athletes are seen on a website drinking from a beer bong.

Officials at the University of Oxford are using Facebook to find — and fine — students that engaged in a spasm of "trashings," rowdy revels after exams end that include dousing classmates in foam, eggs and flour.

Disciplinary officials at Oxford scanned Facebook, found pictures of the rowdies and have begun e-mailing students fines equivalent to about $85 to $210 for breaking campus rules.

So...it is not just high schools using Facebook and Myspace to gather info. From what I read it sounds like coaches are just starting to use Myspace and Facebook as a place to keep tabs on their athletes. Employers look at it. It sounds like you have to be careful what you post--even if your account is set to private. Thoughts??????

We're in the RED

The White House foresees a $389 billion deficit for 2008, growing to $482 billion in 2009.

In 2008, the government will take in $2.66 Trillion dollars. It will come from:

• $1.25 trillion - Individual income tax
• $927.2 billion - Social Security and other payroll taxes
• $314.9 billion - Corporate income tax
• $68.1 billion - Excise taxes
• $29.2 billion - Customs duties
• $25.7 billion - Estate and gift taxes
• $50.7 billion - Other

The government will spend much more than this. This year they are expected to spend $389 billion more than what they take in. What will it be spent on?

• Mandatory spending: $1.788 trillion (+4.2%)
  • $608 billion (+4.5%) - Social Security
  • $386 billion (+5.2%) - Medicare
  • $209 billion (+5.6%) - Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP)
  • $324 billion (+1.8%) - Unemployment/Welfare/Other mandatory spending
  • $261 billion (+9.2%) - Interest on National Debt

• Discretionary spending: $1.114 trillion (+3.1%)
  • $481.4 billion (+12.1%) - United States Department of Defense
  • $145.2 billion (+45.8%) - Global War on Terror
  • $69.3 billion (+0.3%) - Health and Human Services
  • $56.0 billion (+0.0%) - United States Department of Education
  • $39.4 billion (+18.7%) - United States Department of Veterans Affairs
  • $35.2 billion (+1.4%) - US Department of Housing and Urban Development
  • $35.0 billion (+22.0%) - State and Other International Programs
  • $34.3 billion (+7.2%) - Department of Homeland Security
  • $24.3 billion (+6.6%) - Energy
  • $20.2 billion (+4.1%) - Department of Justice
  • $20.2 billion (+3.1%) - Department of Agriculture
  • $17.3 billion (+6.8%) - National Aeronautics and Space Administration
  • $12.1 billion (+13.1%) - Department of Transportation
  • $12.1 billion (+6.1%) - Department of Treasury
  • $10.6 billion (+2.9%) - United States Department of the Interior
  • $10.6 billion (-9.4%) - United States Department of Labor
  • $51.8 billion (+9.7%) - Other On-budget Discretionary Spending
  • $39.0 billion - Other Off-budget Discretionary Spending
  
  
• Look over the list. Do you agree with where the money is being spent?
  
• How do you feel about the overspending?
  
• Go to the national debt clock to see more about how much we owe due to years of overspending--click here http://zfacts.com/p/461.htm

Should the DrIvInG AgE be RAISED???

More than 5,000 U.S. teens die each year in car crashes.

The rate of crashes, fatal and nonfatal, per mile driven for 16-year-old drivers is almost 10 times the rate for drivers ages 30 to 59, according to the National Highway Safety Administration.

Statistics like these have several groups pushing to raise the legal driving age to 17 or 18. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a research group funded by the auto insurance industry, is calling on states to raise the age for getting a driver's license.


Many industrialized countries in Europe and elsewhere have a driving age of 17 or 18.

"Getting the highest of the high-risk drivers away from the wheel probably isn't a bad idea," said Dr. Barbara Gaines, trauma director at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC. What do you think??

GOP VP

Sarah Palin, John McCain's choice of Vice President, is big news this first week of school. She is unknown to most voters in the US. As more details emerge about her and her family, we get a better idea of who she is. What can you find out about her? Here is one to get you started.

Sarah Palin is the FIRST woman to be selected as a Republican Vice Presidential Candidate.

OR

What do you think about the controversy surrounding her daughter? Should family be a consideration in an election? What about the comments that as a mother of 5, one a baby with Down's Syndrome, that she will not have time to be Vice President?

Welcome to Government!

Welcome to Senior Government. This is a place to read up on current events and happenings in government. It will also be a discussion area for topics covered in class. You are required to come here 14 times per quarter and post a response. That is almost twice a week. So bookmark this site and visit it often. You will receive points for your posts and some extra points for extra postings.

Your responses should include what you think about the topic and how it affects your life. You may also respond to other's responses as long as you are appropriate. (AVOID PROFANITY AND RACIAL SLURS)You will be awarded points for your postings based on how your responses show your understanding of the topics.

If a current topic does not interest you, wait for the next. You must have at least 7 responses completed by midquarter with another minimum of 7 after midquarter. So, you must be an active blogger all quarter.



Have you been following the elections so far? Have you watched the conventions? Maybe some attended the Republican convention in St. Paul? What do you think so far? Share your ideas, comments or what you have done. If nothing, don't worry...we will take care of that! :)