$700 Billion to do What?

Buyout Plan for Wall Street is a Hard Sell on Capitol Hill
By Mark Landler and Steven Myers
New York Times

The impact between Marbury vs Madison is that the supreme court could not declare laws that were unconstitutional. The reason for that was because the Constitution is the very foundation of our country. So our government believes thats any law we provide for our people can not contradict the original document·

Mr. Paulson urged lawmakers "to enact this bill quickly and cleanly, and avoid slowing it down with other provisions that are unrelated or don't have broad support." What Mr. Paulson wanted to do was to take $700 billion plan to buy up and hopefully resell troubled mortgage-backed securities which he is planning to get from our taxes. The down side is that Mr. Paulson wants the $700 billion dollars without informing the public of what he plans on doing with that massive amount of money. So either the choices he makes with it can help out the United States, or if the chance of him making a mistake could send the country in a negative direction.

The class connection relating to this article is that we talked about the constitution and how it relates to our form of government. When we have a issue happening in todays news, and it happens to contradict the constitution, it is considered a "constitutional crisis". And since Mr. Paulson's plan is a crisis because he would not allow review to the public.

To see a video concerning this article click here.

Blogicon Reflection

The purpose of this project was to create a universal way
to interact with our classmates to share our views on our
history and current events. Twice a week we would have a
topic from something that we learned in class, and tie it
into an article that we would find on the internet such
as nytimes.com, cnn.com, or washingtonpost.com. By using
blogger we were able to easily navigate to our classmates
webpages, read their articles, and leave each other
comments.

Something I am most proud of about my blog is that I
have the most difficulty with computers imaginable.
Throughout the weeks of the project, I would always
complete my assignments, but it was always a challenge
posting them on my blog. By being able to overcome my
technical blogger challenges, I was capable to think
of other possibilities to post my work on time.

What I will improve in my future blogs is that I feel
like my connection to my articles and to my historic
events can be written out even clearer. I feel like
it always turns out choppy, and too informative
without much of my own opinion and voice. What I
think can help that problem is by rewriting it once
or twice before I post it on blogger. That way I have
a chance to move sentences around, and by revising it,
it will come out so much better in the end.

I think a better way to connect our blogs would be to
include links in our sentences. Also we should make
references to other blogs on other people's pages and
provide a link so that the viewer can go check it out
themselves.

Blogging has mostly impacted my knowledge relating
to the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and
the Federal papers. The reason for that is because
I have to fully understand what they are to be able
to find an article and relate them to each other.
This way I am forced to make sure that I know all
aspects about the topics that I am studying.  

The Constitution is "Gay"

Same-Sex Marriage, Civil Unions, and Domestic Partnerships

New York Times



Gay marriage was recently allowed into several states like Massachusetts, Maine, Washington, Oregon and California since the year 2004. Even though many states legislatives are ready to extend the rights of the same sex marriage, the high courts of New York, New Jersey and Washington ruled that there is “no right to same-sex marriage under their Constitutions.” On May 15 2008, the supreme court of California said that the state law banning same-sex marriage could be counted as illegal discrimination.

The class connection is that gay marriage is considered a “constitutional crisis” because some states like it, and yet some do not. It does not state in the constitution whether gay marriage should be allowed or not, and that is why people are deciding it for themselves.

My personal response is that I believe that the people should be able to decide that for themselves. The constitution is what we based our country upon, and it does not claim anything about marriage. It should be up to us to decide for ourselves instead of making it a "constitutional crisis".

Child Slavery in China

Fast-Growing China Says Little of Child Slavery’s Role

New York Times

By Howard W. French
Published: June 21, 2007

Color China Photo, via Associated Press

Heng Tinghan was the manager of brick works, who got arrested for beating and abusing his underage workers, and depriving them from pay in China. There has been several reports of labor abuses against children, where a 14 year old boy was killed in an explosion while filling a tank with naphthalene at a chemical factory, and when a 15 year old boy was pulled into a cotton gin and crushed.
The class connection is that “all men are created equal, and they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Which is stated in the unanimous Declaration of Independence. China does not have the same natural human rights as Americans do, but that does not make it any more right to have child slavery. We believe that all men are created equal, but when children are beaten or poorly paid, they are not being treated as the human beings they are.
I think that this is wrong; there cannot be slavery because we are all equal. We all have natural rights when we are born, and it stays with us until we die. Just because China has different rules does not mean that they can take advantage of the natural rights all humans have.

Sharing Powers in ZImbabwe

Zimbabwe Rivals Strike a Bargain to Share Power
New York Times


Celia W. Dugger
Published: September 11, 2008




The President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and the
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai made a deal
to divide their authorities of government. By
having the power separation they can help the
political problems that Zimbabwe has had for
months. But the arrangement shows that clearly
neither of them have full control which can
affect the chances of stability and that they
might need to seek foreign aid to help their
country's bad economy. South Africa has also
tried hard to resist against Western efforts
in the United Nations to impose international
sanctions on Robert Mugabe's government and
insisted that the Africans can solve the crisis
on their own. But Mr. Muhabe has the confidence
that if he signs the agreement that he can bring
health care, humanitarian assistance and jobs
to his people.

The Class Connection is that this is based off the
Federalist 10 and 51. By having a republic where the
powers are spread throughout different representatives
thinking that by doing so, they would help their country.
Or by suggesting a more democratic approach that the people
can solve their problems which is also a “Hobbes” move.

My personal response is that I believe the government
should try anything that they think would work best for
their own situations and their own country. 

Getting money in the Bank

"Mortgage Giants' Rescue Imperils Some Banks"

Washington Post

By Binyamin Appelbaum
Tuesday, September 9, 2008

The government-chartered companies had relied on banks to raise money and that the government should have protected those investments. Ben Berry, chief executive of Gateway Financial, also noted that the ability of any bank to raise money by offering preferred shares was now compromised by the precedent that the government had established.
The class connection is that by reading the Federalist 10 and 51, I learned that they support the government being in control of the country. That they have the power, and that it is essential for a thriving community. In this situation Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were created by the federal government to increase the supply and reduce the cost of mortgage loans. The companies used that to borrow money at a low cost the involvement of the government gave the banks a false sense of security. And when the stocks dropped the banks instantly lost a whole lot of money that the government would not really help out.
What I think is that we do need a government to help keep the country under control. But thats why the people with that position but make every sacrifice they can for the people and their happiness.

Hurricane Goverment

Countdown to Hurricane Gustav
New York Times




By Mike Nizza
Published August 31, 2008

Hurricane Gustav thrashes the Gulf coast of New
Orleans, forcing thousands of people to flee from
the torrential rains and winds topping 39 mph. The
National Guard is helping as quickly and efficiently
as they possibly can to help the citizens on the
coast escape to higher ground. Unlike the situation
with Katrina, Texas authorities are taking no chances
this time about evacuating more then 10,000 people
from the three county area surrounding Beaumont. When
Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf coast in 2005, the
government took days to respond. By the time help had
arrived it was too late. During Katrina, the residents
put up more of a fight to leave their homes, and they
had to stand up against the storm by themselves.

The class connection to this article is that of the
Enlightenment. John Locke believed that there should
be a government to protect the natural rights of the
people. That way the people were able to depend on them
for their safety. Thomas Hobbes on the other hand
believed that every man was to fend for himself. Which
means every man was on their own, survival of the
fittest. That is displayed with Hurricane Gustav because
the government is now taking action to help the people
to safety, instead of when Hurricane Katrina came the
people were on their own to survive.

Civilian Deaths Caused by NATO

NATO Accused of Civilian Deaths Inside Pakistan
New York Times

By Pir Zubair Shah and Jane Perlez
Published September 3. 2008


The soldiers from the International Security Assistance
Force, which is made up of NATO and American forces,
hovered three helicopters overhead of a Pakistan village
carrying soldiers. When they landed, the soldiers came out
and opened fire on the people. Killing mostly women and
children but they were all innocence.

The class connection of that article is that the concept
of the Declaration of Independence clearly states that
every humans natural rights include “Life, Liberty and
the Pursuit of Happiness”. By soldiers killing and taking
away the lives of innocent people they are interfering with
their natural rights. This isn't right and the NATO had no
purpose in hurting the innocence in the world.