The White House on the Internet

One example on how the internet has had an impact on citizen participation in politics is The White House's YouTube channel. Making presidential speeches and other important White House news easily available on YouTube makes it easier for citizens to connect and share the president's messages, as well as current news. It has also created storms of feedback and debate, which gets people more involved in creating opinions and connecting with the political matters at hand, making them more likely to act. The White House's use of the internet has proved and will continue to prove effective in stimulating the interest and involvement of citizens in politics.

Ad Campaigns - Carly Fiorina vs. Barbara Boxer

 Carly Fiorina


Barbara Boxer


I feel that Barbara Boxer's ad was a lot more effective. While these two ads show the opponents at each other's necks instead of highlighting their own achievements, Boxer's ad gets Fiorina's right between the eyes and makes her look like a hypocrite. I'm sure this was terrible for Fiorina's campaign.

E-Commerce Taxation

This issue is very hard to resolve because many orders are interstate, and taxes are established by each state, so it will be difficult to decide who gets tax revenue between the state that the package is from or the state that is receiving the package.

My idea is to take half of each state's sales tax, and apply it to the purchase. So for example, if a package is going from California to Washington, and California's sales tax is 8% and Washington's is 6%, then half of each state's tax will be applied to the purchase, meaning 4% for California and 3% for Washington. This will scale sales by half of each state's taxes, which is not optimal, but it keeps tax cheap for the consumer and gives the states more than what they get now, which is nothing.

Censoring Internet Pornography

The Communications Decency Act of 1996 was an attempt by Congress to regulate pornography and obscene materials from being spread on the internet. This was overturned soon after, partly because of the fine line between "indecency" and "obscenity," and that both are subjective, open to a given person's interpretation, as influenced by their region, culture, and beliefs; but the bigger issue was that it infringed free speech as defined by the First Amendment, mainly by not allowing parents to choose for themselves what content they want their children to see on the internet.

I don't think this law should have gotten anywhere to be begin with. They should have had more foresight into the internet. Though there is no way they could have known how big the internet would get, they should have at least realized that pornography is allowed in society, but only to an extent; so not in public advertising. They should have used this model for their internet laws, so they could have not wasted all this time.

A Great Example of Quality Online Publishing

Give an example of online print media (blog, newspaper, magazine) and describe how it works to support or detract from keeping the public informed.

Here is an example of a great article that informs readers in-depth, without detectible bias, and stays true to known facts. The article is complete with video, images, quotes from people at the site, links, and an interactive tornado map. I can't think of much else to put in an article. I remember a few years ago when I'd see an article and wish there was a video with it, but now there's a video for the vast majority of online articles on comprehensive news network sites. The information is from the facts that are most recently known, and a lot of the time are updated as soon as new information comes in. It starts out with the facts on the issue, and then goes to people's opinions and whatnot. This is great because the reader gets the facts first, then can form opinions, and then see other people's opinions. This is how it should be.

Earthquakes and Tsunami "Punishment from god"

In this video, Glenn Beck is basically explaining that the earthquake(s) and tsunami in Japan were "punishment from god," and therefore are justified. I don't think Glenn understands how bad our own country has been. He must think we have been great to other countries in the past, considering that he thinks our "god" has the authority to punish other countries instead of our own. Japan has endured endless struggle, oppression, and poverty -- maybe not as much as some other countries, but a substantial amount, and many times more than us. The way Glenn mixes religion with news can make faithful people believe some messed up things. I'm glad he's off the air.

Regents of the University of California v. Bakke

This case was basically about affirmative action in schools, and how a white student was mad that a colored student got into the school with lower grades while the white student was rejected.

The court ruled that while the school's policy was in violation of the law, they would not order the student to be admitted.

I think this is an interesting case because whites are typically very privileged and do not know the struggles of colored people. However the school's equal opportunity clause was based on race, which is discrimination; instead it should be based on income, and whether the student is going to be the first in their family to go to college. I would not mind giving up my spot at a school for a colored student because I know my place in society as a higher-class white kid, and I have not had to deal with economic hardship or indirect discrimination.