BLOG ENTRY 6

After reading chapter 4 and 14 and learning about Tinker vs. Des Moines, and after analyzing the Morse v. Frederick case I intensely believe that Frederick should not be penalized one bit for expressing himself and his point of view. Frederick vs. Morse is absolutely no different than Tinker vs. Des Moines besides the fact that the expression "Bong Hits for Jesus" is more crude than wearing a black bracellette. The principal however, is the same. As one of the students protesting at Washington D.C. correctly said, "Because of Tinker the supreme court has come a long way in voting in the favor of the students and protecting their freedom of speech. Today we will see if we have taken a step back or if we will continue to progress". I do not think I could have put this better myself. By displaying his sign, Frederick did not prevent any students from learning or any teachers from teaching. He displayed it at an off campus event, there was no violence involved. It was simply an expression. Last time I checked our Bill of Rights allowed us to have freedom of speech, and therefore, in my opinion, if the supreme court ruled against Frederick it would be ridiculous.
As far as what free speech rights students should have in the classroom, I honestly think that unless a student is preventing his fellow students from learning either by the was he is expressing himself or with what he is expressing it should not be allowed. Other then that students should be allowed exercise their freedom of speech without any restrictions, such as, not wanting to offend the teacher in fear of getting a bad grade. Teachers should also realize that their students have the same rights as them and make the students feel like they are free to express themselves as long as they are not disrupting the learning process for others.
I think that Freedom of Speech is a big part of what defines America, and what sets it apart from so many other nations. Most Americans born and raised here, can not even imagine being shot or taken jail for simply stating that they do not like their President. Many foreign cultures may see talking negatively about the government our country's rules as disrespect; however, it is through freedom of speech that this country was able to reform and evolve and evolve into the nation it is today. Freedom of Speech allows the people to speak their mind. It opens the door to many different opinions and points of view. It allows the government to hear the people and learn of their likes and dislikes so that the government can actually be a government for the people by the people. I think freedom of speech is essential to the constitution and is one of the benefits for living in this country. On a personal note, maybe because it is because I have the kind of personality where i tend to speak my mind, freedom of speech is very important to me. I like knowing that if my rights in any way are violated by any one, be it a manager, a teacher, etc. I have the right to speak out about it. Furthermore, when my government acts in a way that I do not agree with and that I think will not be beneficial to my nation, I have every right to let them know. Whether it is through a protest or a boycott or with crude signs, I can express myself and my opinions. It is very important to me that I have that choice and that right, and I can not imagine living in a country where I did not.

Final FC Post

How did you end up? What did you learn from this game? What would you change in how it works?

I ended up way worse then I could have predicted on this Fantasy Congress Team. I am currently in 26th place out of 40, and therefore am in the lower half of the team. If I were to do this all over again, I would prepare many many weeks in advance and do a very detailed study of all the senate and house members that I am considering to draft. However, what this game has taught me is that not even that would guarantee that my team would perform well because you are playing with actual people, and no matter what, you can never really predict how people are going to act or how many bills they are going to pass. This game really shows that politics is a constantly varying rollercoaster and that we have to be really up to date on our knowledge of congress and current issues to try and predict what legislation will and will not be passed. If I were to play this game perfectly, I would observe congress, its members and the current issues on the floor months before the draft up until the day of the draft and try to find a pattern and observe how different members are reacting to different bills. Then the week of the draft, I would study the issues and bills that are going to be presented in the near future and draft my players accordingly. For example, if during my months I observed that Feinstein always sponsors Health care bills, and I see that health care bills are being brought to the congress table, I would draft Feinstein because based on past performance, she would probably pass the legislation. All in all, this game taught me a lot, and most of all it taught me how unpredictable congress and its member can really be.

Fantasy Congress post #5

The team that i chose to observe and compare and contrast with mine is BeautifulA's team because she is first place in out class and therefore must be doing something right. BeautifulA has earned the majority of her points between drafting Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and Dick Durbin. Her follow up scorers are Patrick Leahy and John Conyers, and also Melissa Bean for the Maverick column. When I compare this team with mine, the two players we have in common are Dick Durbin and Patrick Leahy, who have been earning the majority of points. Chuck Hagel and Jim Oberstar have also earned me a good amount of points; however, it seems they are not as active as John Kerry and Hillary Clinton. BeautifulA has earned most of her points because the amount of legislation her top four players have passed is extremely high. Although my top four is fairly active, it is not active enough. Furthermore, I relied on Chuck Hagel to earn me points in the maverick column, which he did; however, BeautifulA's maverick, Melissa Bean, was way more active and earned more than double the points of Hagel. When I did my research on the senators prior to picking them I noticed that the players I chose had higher numbers for legislation passed than Clinton and Kerry; however, they are currently not as active. A couple of reasons I can think of why these two congress members are particularly active is because one is running for the next Presidential election and want to show the public what she stands for and the other may be wanting to prove himself after losing in the previous election. In conclusion, the reason why BeautifulA's team is doing better than mine is very simple. Her players have passed the most legislation and her one maverick is giving her a lot of bonus points. Good for her.

Fantasy Congress post #4

The Person I dropped from my Fantasy Congress Team is Diane Feinstein. I did this because from my four senators, she is the one that is scoring the lowest, which is still surprising me. Although she is currently pushing for some legislation in congress, it is not being passed fast enough and it's making my team fall behind! Therefore instead of her I drafted Ted Kennedy. I drafted Kennedy because he has one of highest numbers for amount of legislation passed, and therefore, if he has been active in the past, he will most likely be active in the present and future. Furthermore, this is the mentality I used to draft my other senators, mainly Patrick Leahy and Dick Durbin,and my allstar Jim Oberstar and they have earned my team the majority of its points. Since my goal is obviously to earn more points by the number of legislation passed by each team member, I'm hoping this change will move my team up a few spots.

who's doing well on my Fantasy Congress Team

I am actyually extremely surprised by my Fantasy Congress Team players. It seems the people I was depending most upon to get me the most points have gotten me the least, and the people I thought would not score so high have been getting me the most. For example I was really banking on the fact that Diane Feinstein would get me the most points. She is currently in the process of passing some bills regarding immigration, and so I'm hoping she will start scoring soon. The most surprising player to me was Jim Oberstar. To be quite honest I had never heard of him before this, and he is my star player. He has earned my team the most points. When I tried researching him online yesterday I realized he is an extremely active senator and is currently pushing forward legislation regarding Public Buildings & Economic Development,Railroads,Surface Transportation, and Water Resources & Environment. These are all extremely hot topics on the congress floor. My other players have been doing average. I have not been doing as well as I like so I think I am going to give it one more week then switch some players around. At first I didn't want to draft Hillary Clinton because I assumed she would be too busy campaigning to pass any legislation; however, it seems though she's pulling off both, so I am considering trading in someone for her.

How I chose my Fantasy Congress Team

I chose my fantasy congress Team Mostly on the Number of legislatures each congress member has passed because if they have been active up until this point, I can only predict that they will continue to be active. The one upper senator I was depending on to get me the most points was Diane Feinstein because she is heading efforts to pass legislation on immigration reform which is a current hot topic in congress. I wanted to choose Hillary Clinton but then I thought if she is going to be running for office, she's going to be working on her campaign and won't really have that much time to pass legislatures in congress. Just to have variety, I also chose one maverick, Chuck Hagel, to see if he could win me some points. Regarding the rest of my team players, like I said above, I based my decision based on the amount of work they have done so far in the government. So far however, I'm not scoring so high, so I may have to change my strategy.

Blog Entry #2

The Youtube clip in a cute, corny, extremely dramatic and straight-forward way basically shows us some of the disadvantages Americans would have if congress did not exist. The character Bentley verbally bashes congress and then has a dream that it has been suspended and realizes that life is much harder. In his dream each state is making its own currency because there is no congress to decide standard monetary policy. This angers Bentley a great deal and when he tries to buy a ticket to Washington D.C. to see for himself that congress is no more, he realized travel expenses have gone up because there is no congress to regulate commerce or railroad fares. Each state also has their own navy and military because congress used to regulate that as well. This dream or nightmare helps Bentley realize that congress does more good then it does bad and he says himself that everyone is so quick to be displeased by congress or complain about taxes but no one is quick to notice all the good and balance congress bring into the life of Americans giving us pure, clean food and federal highways. If congress was suspended in our current day and age, I do not think changes would be that drastic or dramatic; but, I do believe that it would give out president too much power. Just as Bentley's dream helped him become more appreciative of our government's legislative branch, the clip clearly showed me in a dramatized what an important role congress plays In the life of Americans. We should not take it for granted.

After reading chapter 11, and learning more about how congress is put together and exactly what its responsibilities are, honestly, I'm really impressed that the framers of the constitution and those who put together the American government so many years ago came up with a very efficient almost fool-proof system. I think our government is so successful because of our checks and balances system not giving one single branch of government too much power. Furthermore congress has a checks and balances system within itself. The Senate and the House divide and balance congress to once again even out power. I think it is also very efficient for each state to have equal representation in the senate and then representation by population in the House. Because the elastic clause exists giving "congress broad power to pass any legislation necessary to carry out its enumerated powers", which are the most defining powers and national responsibilities of our nation, I also think it is very important that the members of congress are elected by the American people. We vote for who we want making the laws of our country. If there was one thing I would change about congress it is to have term limitations. Chapter 11 talks about the Incumbency Factor which states that it is fact that current officeholders have more of a chance of being reelected into congress than someone who is campaigning for the 1st time. Current office holders are obviously more well known by the public and therefore the public feels safer reelecting them; however, if there were term limitations where each senate or house member could only serve a few years, it would give equal opportunity to all candidates running for congress and even the inexperienced candidates would have equal opportunities to get a seat. More importantly, according to chapter 11, the only way to introduce a bill in congress is to have a member of congress sponsor that bill. For example if I wanted a bill that was near and dead to my heart to be looked at by congress, I would have to go make nice with a member of congress and do my best to convince that member to sponsor and represent my bill. I wish there was some law allowing every citizens to represent their own bills in congress. Congress obviously would maintain its right on voting for the bill; however, I think legitimate citizens should be allowed to introduce their own bills in case of misrepresentation. Mind you there would have to be a strict screening process where only a selective few citizens who really know what they are talking about would be permitted; but, I think it would be a really good idea.