Monday, December 15, 2008

Final

THE GOVERNMENT FINAL

Mr. Ring: Fall 2008

Due: 12:01AM Sunday, December 21st (attach or paste in email to davidjring@gmail.com)

OR

1:31PM Friday, December 19th (hard copy)

Instructions:

Answer the following question using your knowledge of government and political organization in the United States. The question is comprehensive, so it is necessary to include information going back to the beginning of the year to completely answer. Use and citation of reference books and online resources is required (minimum of two hard sources; i.e. books, and two online sources [Wikipedia is acceptable, but be sure to also include the internal reference of the information provided at the bottom of the Wikipedia entry to receive full credit]).

BE SURE TO MAKE APPROPRIATE AND ACCURATE REFERENCES!!!

(I will accept any major format; MLA, APA, or Chicago, just be consistent)

Question:

What is the “Incorporation Doctrine” and how does the process reflect the fact that the US Constitution—and therefore the system of governance itself—were purposely designed as a “limited government”?

Expectations/Rubric:

Minimum Length: 800 words (about a full page word-processed document, single spaced);

References: at least four (two books, two online) properly cited;

Key concepts/terms that will help your grade: Lockean definition/purpose of democracy, republicanism, direct vs. indirect democracy, institutional dynamics, federalism (branches and levels), the US Constitution’s ratification history/narrative, legislative vs. executive dynamics, party eras, the campaign process, the ideological spectrum(s), judicial review/impact of Supreme Court decisions, the Bill of Rights, 14th Amendment/Due Process Clause, & civil liberties/civil rights.


(The preceding is the original intellectual property of D. Ring; educators can email me about sharing such an awesome, awesome final.)

Thursday, December 11, 2008

The. Most. Pressing. News.


While my professional life is spent making sure young'ns are growing into responsible free-thinking citizens; in my free time I enjoy listening to some of the best music around in order to keep myself grounded.

That being said; TTU Student Media has just opened up a can. KTXT is one of the few salves for we living in West Texas. If it doesn't come back, I'm afraid that there will be a sudden spike in flaming projectiles across the south plains.

Monday, October 20, 2008

The Beauty of America in 3:09

This clip was taken at a recent McCain rally. I think it really embodies how ugliness in the political arena pales in comparison to the one thing that links us as US citizens: rationality, tolerance, and personal responsibility.

http://www.americannewsproject.com/videos/158

I had it embedded, but being somewhat html-illiterate I'm not sure how to fit it into the blog post so you'll have to go to the ANP site to view it in its entirety.

Also, it's great to see the agents of stupidity not want to give their names and to walk off in defeat...

Friday, October 17, 2008

Exam II

Next week we'll be reviewing chapter 12 and chapter 13 as well as Richard Neustadt's article for the exam that will be Wednesday for 2nd/3rd and Thursday for 5th/6th.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Points to Ponder

Anyone wanna take a guess at Coronado's Project Vote outcome?

I'll give a free 100 to the person who gets the count and winner closest.

(hint: between 1500 and 1800 of your classmates voted)

Good luck!

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Debate...uh, debate.

Over the next couple of days we'll be watching the Veep debate in class. As I will be showing/am right now showing you in class, the blog would be a good place to express your opinion through the impersonal medium that is blog comment threads. And make sure you get participation credit.

Love yooouuu...

For readers.

For watchers.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Ron Paul: "I told you so"

(CNN) -- Two days after the House rejected the $700 billion bailout bill, the Senate is set to vote on the rescue plan for financial institutions.

Rep. Ron Paul said he believes the $700 bailout bill will not solve the financial crisis.

Rep. Ron Paul said he believes the $700 bailout bill will not solve the financial crisis.

The vote is scheduled for after sundown Wednesday.

Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain, Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama, and Obama's running mate, Sen. Joe Biden, all said they would be present for the vote.

Speaking to CNN's John Roberts on Wednesday, House Financial Services Committee member and former Republican presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul discussed why he thinks the bailout bill is the wrong solution to the economic problem and what he would do to secure financial security.

John Roberts: Congressman, great to see you. I was browsing around on your Web site, Campaign for Liberty. And right there on the very front page, you are appealing to your supporters -- and there are tens of thousands of them -- to get in touch with key senators to tell them to vote this bill down when it comes to a vote in the Senate at sundown tonight.

Why do you want them to vote it down?

Rep. Ron Paul: I think it's a bad bill. I think it's bad for the taxpayers. I think it's doing more of the same thing. The same policy that we're following now with this bill is exactly how we got into that trouble. Video Watch Ron Paul explain why he opposes the bailout »

And you know, I really don't have that much clout in Washington, D.C. And I recognize it. But there are a couple people outside of Washington that care about what I'm thinking and care about free market ... economics. And they will respond. And I think we did help generate a little bit of mail to the House members.

So you go where you can have the influence. And I think that people -- the grassroots -- understand this a lot better than members of Congress give them credit for.

Roberts: So, instead of the bills that are currently before the Senate, the one that may be before the House as early as Thursday, what would you do?

Paul: Well, we need to do a lot, but a lot differently. We have to recognize how we got into this problem. We have too much debt. We have too much malinvestment.

Roberts: OK, OK. So we recognize all of the things that got us here. But, right now, today, what would you do, if not this bill?

Paul: You have to liquidate those mistakes. Those mistakes were made due to monetary policy. So you have to allow the market to adjust prices downward. And that's what we're not allowing to do.

If there are too many houses and the prices are too high, the sooner we get the prices down to the market level, as soon as we quit trying to encourage more housing -- this is what we're doing. They're trying to stimulate houses and keep prices high. It's exactly opposite of what we should do.

So, we should get out of the way and not buy up bad debt. There's illiquid assets, but most of those are probably worthless. They're mostly derivatives. And we're sticking those with the taxpayer. So we have to recognize that the liquidation of debt is crucial. And if we did that, we would have tough times, there's no doubt about it, for a year. But if we keep propping a system up that's not viable, we're going to have a problem for decades, just like we did in the Depression. That's what we're on the verge of doing.

Roberts: Congressman Paul, what do you think of this idea that's being floated -- this process called mark to market, which would, they would modify the rules so that the, right now, paper that a lot of these institutions are holding, which is worth nothing, they would actually be able to assign some sort of value to it.

Some people are saying that that would just hide the problem. Other people are wondering if maybe that might create some sort of voodoo accounting that would allow widespread abuse in the system.

What do you think?

Paul: It demonstrates the problem. You know, when they prevented them from marking them down, this was an SEC [Securities and Exchange Commission] regulation. Shows how regulations backfire.

If you had a market economy and then if you had a market-adjusted FDIC, where insurance was based on the strength of the bank, this would have happened on a daily basis. But instead, we insure everybody, no matter what the bank is doing, and we do it, either we overkill -- we give you too much credit on bad investments -- and then we make changes all of a sudden, and they're drastic, to what they have done.

So, it's impossible. It's either too little or too much. And what you need is insurance of, FDIC type of insurance, has to be driven by the marketplace to measure the viability of a bank.

Roberts: So what do you think?

Paul: This adds to all the moral hazard that we have in the system.

Roberts: So what do you then think of this idea of raising the limit on [FDIC] insurance to $250,000, from its current cap of $100,000?

Paul: Well, on the short run it will calm the markets. People will feel better. I might even personally feel better for a week or two.

But I know that long term, it's the wrong thing to do. I opposed this in the early '80s when they went from 30 [thousand dollars] to 100 [thousand dollars], saying it would lead to more problems like this with malinvestment. It would cover over the mistakes. And the same thing will happen.

But if we raise it to 250 [thousand dollars], people are going to feel better, then it will keep the bubble going for a little while longer and putting more pressure on the dollar. If the dollar lasts longer, then finally the world will give up on the dollar -- and then we will have a big problem that nobody has even really begun to think about.

Roberts: A lot of people might hope that you're wrong with your projection.

Paul: I do too. I hope I'm wrong.

Roberts: You tend to be right on these things on occasion, though. Dr. Paul, it's good to talk to you. Appreciate it.

Paul: Thank you

Thursday, September 25, 2008

The Men Who Will Save America

Here's a great article from Entertainment Weekly with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. If you don't know (then I'm disappointed), these two have really made an impact on how we talk about politics. Yes it's long but I think totally worth it.

And come on, if you don't crack up at 'satrio-industrial' complex, you're dead to me.

Remember, over the weekend be sure to read McCulloch v. Maryland (p. 69-Woll) as well as chapter 12 in your green textbook.

I know; I really can't think of any greater way to spend my weekend than diving into the US Congress. Except maybe a weekend diving into 17th Century European balance of power politics. That's what I call a party.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Reminder

This Friday is (potentially) the first presidential debate. If it goes down expect for us to talk about it next week. Reminders to come.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Silly Mortals...

So, sadly after grading all the scantrons it appears none of you are quite 100% smart. Just kidding; I figured that before.

But seriously, the grades will be up sometime during the weekend. And by that I mean next week. There will be a curve so don't freak. To remind you, I like my grade distribution to be nice and clustered around 70-77.5%, so the farther the class average is away from that, the larger a curve will be awarded.

Remember, exams are only 30% of your six-weeks and there will be another before this six weeks is over, so you have a chance to redeem yourself (besides the chances you get every (other) day to wow me with your intellect).

Besides that, no homework or reading. All I need for you to do is bring your books the next time I see you (yes, both) so that we can make sure we all have the right books (which we don't). Also if you haven't figured out the twitter thing maybe it'd be a good idea to give it a shot sometime.

Tonight is the DC Trip meeting at TTU's SUB. If you can't make it just make sure you talk to me in the next couple of days and I'll get you the information you need. Also you can email me and I can send you the links you need.

Be good.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

DC Trip Meeting

It's official. Our meeting is going down on THURSDAY the 18th (tomorrow night) at Tech in the west side of the Student Union Building (the building east of the library) at 7:30 pm. If you or your parents cannot attend, just come talk to me and I'll try to get you up to speed. I now have the registration forms in my room so if you need you can stop by and pick one up for more info...

Map to SUB

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Reminder

Say your prayers/align your chakras/behead your chickens because you have an exam on Wednesday (G)/Thursday (R)!

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Name Change

Until we start to put forth content on which the entire Western culture will be based, I felt "Forum" was a little too presumptuous.

First real post

Alright, it seems those of you who have tried to follow the latest rule about what kind of account to create, so keep it up. Those of you who haven't tried or commented before I came up with this new requirement, um, well; suck it up. The beauty of the internet is its fluid nature, right?

So yep, it's easy and free. I'll probably walk you through it this week in class but that's no excuse for being lazy and not doing it now.

Kinks Deux

Please read the latest email about getting an actual blogspot account.

DO IT.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Kinks

Just workin them out.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Welcome

Just a test post for those who have gotten the email. Try to post a comment to make sure we're at least somewhat savvy. If you'd like you can sign up for a blogspot ID and it will keep track of when you post; if not make sure you always sign your name with your comment (does not require creating an account).

Again, POST A COMMENT POR FAVOR. Also I'll do something about these drab digs.

Rules

Like all functional societies, this site is based on freedom and responsibility. As we have learned from Locke and Jagger; you can't always get what you want, but if you try, sometimes you get what you need.

1. Keep it civil. DO NOT insult people personally here. If you do this to a classmate you will be banned and I'll give you dirty looks in class. This is a place for discussion, yes; but if it becomes a place to abuse the opportunity it will be shut down and we'll go back to the stone ages of talking face to face.

2. Try to stay on topic. I will do my best to moderate the blog subjects and comments--and I am myself a bit of a rambler, but make sure all comments and posts don't stray too far from the subject at hand.

3. Keep it professional. Imagine we are still in the classroom. Language and any links must be appropriate. Remember that your parents and other teachers/administrators can access this blog so anything you wouldn't want them to see ought not to be posted. I will also be monitoring the comments and removing anything vulgar or ugly.

4. If you are going to link to outside sites make sure it is relevant/appropriate/responsible. If you are using it as proof for your point make sure it does that and isn't some crazy blogging-in-their-underwear conspiracy theorist in a tinfoil hat telling his mom he'll be "up in a minute".

5. Always make sure you either are signed in (if you decide to create a blogspot account) or that you put your name at the bottom. You can't take credit for something if we don't know who you are. When you comment it will allow you to do so anonymously, but if you don't you won't get credit (yes this can be considered participation) and plus we don't want any stealth comments ruining all the fun, do we?

6. If nothing else remember these two things: treat others as you'd like to be treated and what happens in cyberspace DOES NOT stay in cyberspace.

Good talk