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In the United States of America, November 2, 2010, elections are going to take place for elected positions. This election has had more advertising dollars spent than any other election year. That is the result of the recent 5-4 decision in the Supreme Court in the Citizen United case, allowing corporations the privilege of the 1st Amendment, of free speech by being able to spend money on political candidates with unlimited funds and anonymity. The political right has used this new twist very heavily.
If you have been following this blog and using the tips to prepare for your vote, you should be ready with your decisions on the candidates and various other ballot votes. Please remember to take the practice ballot and fill it out with your decisions, so it will not be a fearful event, but a triumphal event. You will have looked at the candidates and issues over a period of time and made reasoned decisions. If your candidates or issues don't all win, at least you know why you voted the way you did and can feel good about it. Next time, you might have to work a little harder trying to get others to support your candidate and issues. A small tip: voting absentee ballot is becoming more attractive to voters. They can sit down at a table at home figure everything out, place their responses on he actual ballot and mail it to the County Recorder. The entire state of Oregon now only uses the mail-in ballot. Good Luck.
Friday, October 29, 2010
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Readers read Blog worldwide
This blog was intended for United States citizens, however, a check of who is reading the blog shows, yes, the majority of the people are from the United States, however nine other countries have been reading the content. People in the following countries are reading the content of this blog: Netherlands, Germany, China, Canada, Latvia, France, Moldova, Russia and Brazil.
It is good to see people in other countries desire to find out what it takes to be an educated citizen.
If you desire to make comments, go to the bottom of the blog to the comments section. Type in your comment, or as the case may be a request for a topic that needs explanation, or a request for a new topic. A return comment is written in response to your request.
It is good to see people in other countries desire to find out what it takes to be an educated citizen.
If you desire to make comments, go to the bottom of the blog to the comments section. Type in your comment, or as the case may be a request for a topic that needs explanation, or a request for a new topic. A return comment is written in response to your request.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Mid-term elections
Mid-term elections are those elections, primarily of all representatives, and one third of the senators. These elections can turn the fate of a newly elected president. If a newly elected president has had the majority support of Congress until this point, this election will be a referendum upon his first two years of service. If the people like what has been accomplished to date, they will vote for his party again, placing the Congress back under his party's control, if they are not pleased, it could swing the power pendulum to the other party, or worse, make it a draw, when nothing gets accomplished.
At the local levels, this election may have governors, state legislatures, referendums, initiatives, city, education votes, and any other miscellaneous elections. Usually a phamphlet is sent out to voters on these local issues. It is up to the voter to peruse these items and select the ones they can support. Usually money is involved or something to do with changing the state constitution. It is up to the voter to read, select what they can support, then either take in a list of your selections with you to the voting booth, or place them on your absentee ballot and mail it in. Please do not allow these selections to be only in your brain, take something in writing . That speeds up the voting process and insures that you will be happy with your selection. Of course, if you feel compelled to spread your decisions to friends or relatives, prior to the election, that is your choice.
At the local levels, this election may have governors, state legislatures, referendums, initiatives, city, education votes, and any other miscellaneous elections. Usually a phamphlet is sent out to voters on these local issues. It is up to the voter to peruse these items and select the ones they can support. Usually money is involved or something to do with changing the state constitution. It is up to the voter to read, select what they can support, then either take in a list of your selections with you to the voting booth, or place them on your absentee ballot and mail it in. Please do not allow these selections to be only in your brain, take something in writing . That speeds up the voting process and insures that you will be happy with your selection. Of course, if you feel compelled to spread your decisions to friends or relatives, prior to the election, that is your choice.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Educated Citizenry: Will History repeat itself with the mid-term election?
Educated Citizenry: Will History repeat itself with the mid-term election?
See March 27,2009 Blog, Frame of Reference II
See March 27,2009 Blog, Frame of Reference II
Will History repeat itself with the mid-term election?
When George W. Bush was running for his second term, intelligent, voters could not conceive his re-election. But, he was re-elected to his second term as our President. Carol Simpson, a newscaster , found that people who voted for G.W.B. were not current with news, legislation, war-items, local news, they just voted, without doing their due diligence.
Will this next mid-term election coming up in November be a re-run? Current news, many pundits, think the Republicans will win as many as 47 house seats and regain control of the House of Representatives, and perhaps the Senate. Again, is history headed to repeat itself?
Evidence: The Democrats have been selling HOPE, in the form of passed legislation, say, the Health Care Reform, Financial reform, the Republicans have been selling the politics of "No" , as an example they stretched out the health care reform legislation so long, this Congress could not address Immigration, perhaps THE most important legislation that needs passage NOW. They have not been bi-partisan in just about everything except an occasional meeting. They have not been for the Greater Good. The Republicans have been selling "No", why would any person in his right mind vote for a group of people that is only looking for the return of GWB politics? Is the only reason Republicans are saying no really about politics or is it about the fact that a black man is President ?
Will this next mid-term election coming up in November be a re-run? Current news, many pundits, think the Republicans will win as many as 47 house seats and regain control of the House of Representatives, and perhaps the Senate. Again, is history headed to repeat itself?
Evidence: The Democrats have been selling HOPE, in the form of passed legislation, say, the Health Care Reform, Financial reform, the Republicans have been selling the politics of "No" , as an example they stretched out the health care reform legislation so long, this Congress could not address Immigration, perhaps THE most important legislation that needs passage NOW. They have not been bi-partisan in just about everything except an occasional meeting. They have not been for the Greater Good. The Republicans have been selling "No", why would any person in his right mind vote for a group of people that is only looking for the return of GWB politics? Is the only reason Republicans are saying no really about politics or is it about the fact that a black man is President ?
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Why emphsize being a knowledgeable good citizen?
The evolution of citizenry has overcome many difficulties along the way. When the Founding Father's saw an opportunity to make a New World with a democratic basis, they jumped at the occasion.
When they formulated our country they did not desire a country where everyone was "equal" as we have it today. They felt the free enterprise system was essential to an economic success and those people who had the most to say about that were the landowners, retail and commercial businesses, men, landed gentry. People who had a stake in the country based on their investment in the country were the people given the vote. Renters, slaves, indebted servants, and women were not allowed to vote, they usually did not have an investment or stake in the country.
The "voters" usually had time and money to read and discuss the issues, favor one over the other and had time to vote. All others were working people and did not have the time or money to get involved.
Over the years, the Constitution has been added to and stretched via Supreme Court decisions to include "all citizens".
Until the past fifty or so years, voters have been involved because they had enough free time provided by good salaries and benefits to get involved in "politics" and make good decisions. Starting around 1973, when the Lobbyist really "got it", and started to lobby congressional members heavily, hire former congressmen because they can get on the floor of their former "body" and discuss lobby goals, our country has started to move from:
Upper-upper class usually inherited wealth and CEO's
Middle-upper class-- Higher management
Lower-upper class-- Lower management --some entrepenuers
Upper-middle-class Hands on upper management Over all
Middle-middle-class Hands on middle management-some independent contractors - successful entrepreneurs
Lower-middle-class supervisors over workers retail managers
Upper-lower class Upper workers responsible for finished work
Middle-lower-class Team leaders, retail workers, independent contractors
Lower-lower-class Hourly workers
Because corporations have been moving out of the nation, with our government's assistance, jobs have been erased, especially in the middle class. People who have many degrees and a little age to them have been let go in favor of younger more technologically sound employees, also, salaries have not increased for the past 15 or more years, yet inflation and the dollar slide has made what people actually receive much less than they have been accustomed to and had made plans upon. The real estate slide has really been a key as well as the financial world's greed towards lowering the class structure in America.
Our class structure looks more like this now:
Upper-upper class old money, Greedy CEO's, investors scaming
people--financial instutitions scaming people
1% of the people have approximately 92 % wealth
those upper class people being able to take
advantage of a taxation system built for them.
Upper lower-class Old middle class college graduates that still
have their jobs.
Middle lower-class All others looking for jobs that are non-
existent, because people still think there is a
chance at "The American Dream".
Under class People who have given up looking for jobs,
People who are homeless because they lost
job, home, car, everything and are subsisting on government entities, relatives, part-time jobs and charity .
Salaries are deceiving also. A $40,000 salary looks great on paper, however it has an approximate spending value of $10,000--The American Dream is vanishing.
Once the world community figured out how to compete with our juggernaut economy their lower labor costs beat our labor costs all to pieces. If you were a board of a company and were faced with an assembly line worker making (a hard fought for) $75 per hour in wages and $75 per hour in benefits and moving your corporation to a country where the labor costs were $5-10 per DAY and no benefits, and no regulatory commission telling you what you can and cannot do at the workplace, the decision is a very easy, yet harsh. We can no longer compete. America is in the painful process of lowering wages and no benefits for its workers. Even both parents working doesn't cover the expenses. We are not going to talk about the cost of higher education in this Blog, however, it is getting to look like a two "class" society. Those with education and those without.
There was a survey on TV the other day that says our children are not learning cursive writing. They are so into "texting" and writing(or plagarizing reports from the internet) that they see no need to "write" with a writing implement and paper--as in taking notes!!
This Blog has been longer than I intended. This is just the starting to explain, why you need to be a knowledgable citizen. As with money being taken away or stagnating, "rights" are also being taken away. Later.
When they formulated our country they did not desire a country where everyone was "equal" as we have it today. They felt the free enterprise system was essential to an economic success and those people who had the most to say about that were the landowners, retail and commercial businesses, men, landed gentry. People who had a stake in the country based on their investment in the country were the people given the vote. Renters, slaves, indebted servants, and women were not allowed to vote, they usually did not have an investment or stake in the country.
The "voters" usually had time and money to read and discuss the issues, favor one over the other and had time to vote. All others were working people and did not have the time or money to get involved.
Over the years, the Constitution has been added to and stretched via Supreme Court decisions to include "all citizens".
Until the past fifty or so years, voters have been involved because they had enough free time provided by good salaries and benefits to get involved in "politics" and make good decisions. Starting around 1973, when the Lobbyist really "got it", and started to lobby congressional members heavily, hire former congressmen because they can get on the floor of their former "body" and discuss lobby goals, our country has started to move from:
Upper-upper class usually inherited wealth and CEO's
Middle-upper class-- Higher management
Lower-upper class-- Lower management --some entrepenuers
Upper-middle-class Hands on upper management Over all
Middle-middle-class Hands on middle management-some independent contractors - successful entrepreneurs
Lower-middle-class supervisors over workers retail managers
Upper-lower class Upper workers responsible for finished work
Middle-lower-class Team leaders, retail workers, independent contractors
Lower-lower-class Hourly workers
Because corporations have been moving out of the nation, with our government's assistance, jobs have been erased, especially in the middle class. People who have many degrees and a little age to them have been let go in favor of younger more technologically sound employees, also, salaries have not increased for the past 15 or more years, yet inflation and the dollar slide has made what people actually receive much less than they have been accustomed to and had made plans upon. The real estate slide has really been a key as well as the financial world's greed towards lowering the class structure in America.
Our class structure looks more like this now:
Upper-upper class old money, Greedy CEO's, investors scaming
people--financial instutitions scaming people
1% of the people have approximately 92 % wealth
those upper class people being able to take
advantage of a taxation system built for them.
Upper lower-class Old middle class college graduates that still
have their jobs.
Middle lower-class All others looking for jobs that are non-
existent, because people still think there is a
chance at "The American Dream".
Under class People who have given up looking for jobs,
People who are homeless because they lost
job, home, car, everything and are subsisting on government entities, relatives, part-time jobs and charity .
Salaries are deceiving also. A $40,000 salary looks great on paper, however it has an approximate spending value of $10,000--The American Dream is vanishing.
Once the world community figured out how to compete with our juggernaut economy their lower labor costs beat our labor costs all to pieces. If you were a board of a company and were faced with an assembly line worker making (a hard fought for) $75 per hour in wages and $75 per hour in benefits and moving your corporation to a country where the labor costs were $5-10 per DAY and no benefits, and no regulatory commission telling you what you can and cannot do at the workplace, the decision is a very easy, yet harsh. We can no longer compete. America is in the painful process of lowering wages and no benefits for its workers. Even both parents working doesn't cover the expenses. We are not going to talk about the cost of higher education in this Blog, however, it is getting to look like a two "class" society. Those with education and those without.
There was a survey on TV the other day that says our children are not learning cursive writing. They are so into "texting" and writing(or plagarizing reports from the internet) that they see no need to "write" with a writing implement and paper--as in taking notes!!
This Blog has been longer than I intended. This is just the starting to explain, why you need to be a knowledgable citizen. As with money being taken away or stagnating, "rights" are also being taken away. Later.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Be a good citizen based on your frame of reference and knowledge of democracy
Be a good citizen. Of course, that means following the rules. Being a good example to everyone, be fair in evaluations of businesses and individuals, help your family and friends understand democratic processes, help get out the vote. If you do not fully understand a specific area, say, the electoral college, do research so you can explain it to others. With Goggle and others, you can type in a word and have a pretty good understanding of that word, almost instantly. That assumes you have picked up technological skill along the way to help yourself and others work with and within the democratic process. A democracy MUST have democratic principals deeply engrained within a person's frame of reference. Constant revision of those items and updating them makes you a more informed citizen.
Up to this point, this blog has been explaining what is needed within a citizen in a democracy to function and benefit the society.
In reality, all our lives are becoming full from sun-up to sun-down. Raising kids, getting ahead at work, keeping everyone happy, paying bills, makes it difficult to enrich our frame of reference in democratic activity.
Start your quest by considering what you think is reasonable for you. No, we can't be activitist full-time, just take a small chew of the problem. Choose an issue that interests you most, then start contributing what you can towards progress--contacts, money, time, skills, etc. No contribution is too small.
Try to keep yourself informed. Pick your media to coincide with your beliefs and it will give you insights on any given topic, allowing you to gain a "citizen's level" of expertise so you can talk with others about it.
Use the computer that you have available, in home, in library, use it.
Our democracy is a living breathing thing. It belongs to all its citizens. Join with others, everyone feels better when they're part of a group, a movement, a community (whether real or virtual).
Become the media, write a blog, a newsletter, internet radio broadcast, etc.
Start up a local neighborhood group that meets periodically and discusses the issues. Move the group around, not always at one house, have the group bring refreshments--many successes in politics have come from these type meetings.
Up to this point, this blog has been explaining what is needed within a citizen in a democracy to function and benefit the society.
In reality, all our lives are becoming full from sun-up to sun-down. Raising kids, getting ahead at work, keeping everyone happy, paying bills, makes it difficult to enrich our frame of reference in democratic activity.
Start your quest by considering what you think is reasonable for you. No, we can't be activitist full-time, just take a small chew of the problem. Choose an issue that interests you most, then start contributing what you can towards progress--contacts, money, time, skills, etc. No contribution is too small.
Try to keep yourself informed. Pick your media to coincide with your beliefs and it will give you insights on any given topic, allowing you to gain a "citizen's level" of expertise so you can talk with others about it.
Use the computer that you have available, in home, in library, use it.
Our democracy is a living breathing thing. It belongs to all its citizens. Join with others, everyone feels better when they're part of a group, a movement, a community (whether real or virtual).
Become the media, write a blog, a newsletter, internet radio broadcast, etc.
Start up a local neighborhood group that meets periodically and discusses the issues. Move the group around, not always at one house, have the group bring refreshments--many successes in politics have come from these type meetings.
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