#1. Political Commentary On The Television

Almost all day, every day, there is some sort of political commentary, whether it is the news, a talk show, a show even mentioning politics, etc... there is constant political commentary being mentioned one way or another. one of the most common political commentary sources on the TV is the news. There are several different channels where anyone can watch the news such as: CNN, FOX, ABC, MSNBC, as well as other smaller channels. Each one of these channels covers similar stories, but the only thing about them is that they all have different opinions. CNN's news leans more towards the Democratic Party while FOX leans towards the Republican Party. This is one of the things that is limiting some viewers from seeing the whole side of a specific story. FOX talks more about their opinions one the Republican side without even talking about anything on the Democratic side of things, so the viewers are not getting the full coverage that they might be looking for. Although, if a person is either Republican or Democrat, they might prefer one news channel over another for that particular reason. They might enjoy the fact that these news channels are talking about their similar thoughts about a specific subject. In general the Political commentary on TV is not so much limited, but there are defiantly some channels that lean either more to the right or more to the left.

#2. Online Print Media

Online print media is one of the many ways to get the news out to the world, as well as, keep people communicating with one another. One of the more famous online print medias is the New York Times. The New York Times is a famous newspaper that talks a lot about the politics, world affairs, and the economy; This paper is what keeps more people informed about these specific topics than any other paper. Most people have to pay extra money to either subscribe to the newspaper, or buy it in the store, either way individuals are spending money. One way around that situation is by going online to the New York Times Website. This site has all of the articles that are in the newspaper, and it is all for free. Many people, such as myself, even use the online NYT for current event articles; I don't have to go out and try to find the newspaper at a store, but instead i just have to go onto the Internet which is as easy as it comes. one thing that could keep people from being informed is if a person does not have Internet, which at that point they would not be able to access any of the other online print media such as facebook, blogger, and other newspaper and magazine sites. At that point those people will have to venture out to get a newspaper to stay informed on some topics.

#3. Censoring Media

The U.S. has been at was with Afghanistan for several years now, and most people do not know what is going on over in the war zone. The media has tried to give the viewers the story about the war zone, but the military is trying to ban any picture taken of the war zone. There have been several pictures posted online of the U.S. soldiers torturing some of the terrorists, but the world has the right to know what these soldiers are doing. The U.S. needs to know that these soldiers are violating the law of cruel and unusual punishment, but since they are in Afghanistan does that not apply there? We have the right to know what goes on there. Even if the pictures are extremely gruesome the people have the right to see what their own children are doing and going through. If the pictures are too bad for a family viewing environment then those pictures need to be put on a website that states that they are for adults eyes only, and leave the cleaner pictures for the television. Finally, The government did come up with a reasonable system though to resolve some of the censoring issues. If a live video is being taken and some unexpected/ inappropriate even happens, the media has come up with the "three second rule," which makes it so that all live videos have a three second gap between the actual event and the viewers television. If there is something inappropriate that happens, then the media can censor it out before the viewers have a chance to view it.

#4. E-Commerce Taxation

Every day people buy clothes, furniture, makeup, etc... When these items reside on one state, but then have to be sent to another there is no taxes on it. E- commerce is always in debate with the government on how there should be some sort of taxes on these items, but due to the different state regulations the government has found a roadblock in the system. People who go on E-Bay exchange items with people all over the country, not just the people in their own state. The money that is exchanged between the two people is exchanged over several states, as well as,  the item that was purchased. One tax that is ruled over every state for e-commerce is the discriminatory tax.

"For example if a state does not charge sales tax on clothes when purchased in a store but imposes sales tax on the same item when purchased via the Internet, that would be a discriminatory tax"

Another main issue in taxing e-commerce is in-state vendors ability to compete with out-of-state vendors. If an out of state vendor has a cheaper tax then the in-state vendor then the in state vendor will start losing money because people will chose the cheaper vendor. This will cause massive conflict between states.

#5. Political Advertising From Opposing Candidates

Proposition 8 is one of the largest discussed propositions in California. Prob 8 is also known as the  California Marriage Protection Act, which states that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California. For this prob there are two hard hitting extremes to both sides. People who say "yes" on prop 8 feel that marriage should only be between a man and a woman.


ON the opposite side is the people who vote "no" on this proposition. Those people feel that same sex marriage should be legal. especially in the Bay Area there are several strong opinions on this proposition. many gay and lesbian couples live in the bay area  so when there are debates about prop 8 there is a strong apposing side as well.

#6. Internet and Citizen Participation

The Internet has had one of the biggest impacts on today's every day society. Most people use the Internet as a way of communication by using sites such as facebook or twitter. All of this communication keeps people informed on several different basis; one of the most recent events in Egypt is a great example on how people kept communicating through the Internet. Citizens all over Egypt used facebook and twitter to get everyone to join together to revolt against Hosni Mubarak. When Mubarak realized that they are using the Internet to go against him he completely shut it down, but with all of the people who had phones could still communicate and consult one another. Also, during the Egypt revolts all of these people kept updating their twitters to keep the whole world informed on the revolt. The Internet was what brought the people together and kept them in communication with one another. Almost everything in this revolt was documented more by facebook and twitter than the actual news media itself.

Brown v. Board of Education of Topek, Kansas (1954)

In general, Brown v. Board of Educations of Topeka, Kansas deals with the famous line "separate but equal." At the time schools were separated by the Jim Crow Laws, which stated that the all public places were separated by race. One black third grader, Linda Brown, had to walk to the black elementary school that was a little over a mile away from her house, while the all White's school was  just seven blocks away from her house. The communities argued that the Jim Crow Laws should be terminated completely and let everyone join together in equal schools. Together all of the cases regarding black children being denied entrance into white public schools became apparent in the one case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas.

Once reading this case i realized that this little girls could have died just by trying to get to her school. she could have been kidnapped or run over by a train while trying to cross the tracks. Also, when the little girl got to school she probably didn't even get the same education as the white schools did. Overall this little girl, who just wanted to learn, could easily get to the all white school, seven blocks away, not crossing train tracks, and just a straight shot there from her house. In Texas there wasn't even a single black school equal to the white schools, so this case's verdict was the potential turn around for the all black schools. This whole case was defiantly a violation of the fourteenth amendment.

In the end, the Browns won and their case by a landslide which was then the start of the elimination of the overall Jim Crow Laws. The third grader was able to attend the former all white school, and from then on the schools kept combining further and further. Today, all over the U.S., anyone can look onto a campus and find Blacks, Whites, Asians, Latinos, etc... Overall this was just the nudge that the schooling systems needed to start a whole diverse system in schooling.