...William Hudson's book American Democracy in Peril, has given several challenges facing democracy in American. Hudson's seventh challenge to America's democracy is the “national security state”. Hudson starts the chapter off talking about Ronald Reagan's administration and their involvement in Central America. He talks CIA director William Casey involvement in the conflicted and how he created the contra to prevent the Saninistas from supplying the rebels in El Salvador. Hudson also talks about Oliver North and John Poindexter and the Iran-contra and how they, with the support of Casey, created a hidden government inside the government that used government resources to achieve their own political agenda as Hudson puts it. In the end, North and Poindexter claimed they did what they did for national security. As indicated to Hudson "national security state" from the Iran-contra. Hudson believes "national security state" is harmful to democracy. This essay will investigate the four practices and dispositions associated with "national security...
Words: 1491 - Pages: 6
...presidential power, ruthlessly killed Native Americans and defied the Supreme Court; or was he a proud hero of the common man who sought to bring an end to the power of the wealthy upper class in government? Assignments for the week: You are responsible for reading all of Chapter 12 in the textbook (p. 353-371) by the end of the week. You are also responsible for reviewing this website as homework: http://www.pbs.org/kcet/andrewjackson The Life of Andrew Jackson Video Questions: 1. What incident early in Jackson’s life made him hate the British? Why? 2. Describe Jackson’s early life and social status. 3. List some words that describe Jackson’s character as a young man. 4. What profession (job) did Jackson pursue when he was 18? 5. What happened in Jackson’s first duel? What did it prove about him? 6. Why was Jackson’s marriage controversial? How did this hurt him later? 7. Describe Jackson’s first attempt at serving as a politician in Washington. 8. What happened in Jackson’s second duel? 9. Why did Jackson earn the nickname “Old Hickory”? 10. What was the “Redstick War”? What role did Andrew Jackson play? 11. What did Andrew Jackson do with a young Native American child captured in a battle? Why do you think he did this? 12. Why did some Native Americans fight on Andrew Jackson’s side in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend vs. the Redsticks? 13. How did Jackson’s forces count how many Native Americans were killed in battle? 14. What did the treaty of Fort Jackson decide? ...
Words: 1423 - Pages: 6
...9/11 Macario Vidal Devry University Professor Legare April 15, 2013 9/11 On September 11, 2001 members of Al Qaeda were able to take over US planes in an act of terrorism. Two of the planes struck the Twin Towers in New York and caused them to fall taking many lives in the process. Another plane struck the Pentagon and caused damage and casualties. The last plane was on its way to another attack when it abruptly crashed in a field in Pennsylvania and killed all passengers and terrorists on board.9/11 attacks were orchestrated by Al Qaeda in a move to disrupt the Western economies and to strike fear in our country and the world. It was a form of both economic and social terrorism. As well, the attackers intended to impose the direct and secondary costs on the target nation, the United States. Other nations in the western hemisphere were also part of the target and felt the burden of this attack. The attacks caused immense damage in terms of physical infrastructure as well as loss of lives and earnings. The effects caused many families to lose their earnings, and also slowed down the growth of the global economy. Capital losses were experienced in the stock markets around the world as well. Some of the effects included higher insurance and shipping costs. On the other hand, it had a massive impact on public confidence. It affected tourism and travel in a great way. The effects led to the invasion of two nations...
Words: 1917 - Pages: 8
...World War II and two, how the President at that time, Franklin Delano Roosevelt handled conflicts at home as well as conflicts overseas. During that time the United States was going through some challenges dealing with the Great Depression and the difficulties of Germany beginning to start conflicts in Europe where there was nothing being done about it. World War II was a situation America had stayed out of for about three years, but when the U.S. finally did get involved the balance was then tipped in the favor of the allies due to the U.S. involvement. Also, as it was shown in World War I, when the United States gets involved with conflicts dealing with issues overseas we are very effective and are resolute on becoming triumphant. This resolve continued with a Reaganite point of view, it was president Regan who responded to the Soviet proxies with a proxy war built on the Nixon doctrine of preparing to wage low-intensity conflicts against military nationalist regimes in the Third World. Although by 9/11 the methods changed drastically from low-intensity proxy war to high-intensity direct warfare. [1] No different than the conflict the U.S. has dealt with and continues to deal with today in Iraq and Afghanistan. The era of proxy wars began with America’s defeat in Vietnam and closed with the invasion of Iraq. [2] Iraq became the real launching pad for a brazen U.S. intervention undertaken in the midst of international opposition. [3] Many people did not agree with the...
Words: 1707 - Pages: 7
...teachings started spreading rapidly “through the Middle East to Africa, Europe, the Indian subcontinent, the Malay Peninsula, and China”(Mahdi, Rahman, Schimmel). Today, there are about 1.6 billion Muslims in the world which makes it 2nd largest religion of the world. However, Islam is perceived to be radical and contradictory religion by many non-Muslims. Moreover, due to the terrorist attacks which had been associated with this “religion of peace,” Muslims call it, Islam had been viewed as a “bad” religion. Since America is the “melting pot” of different cultures and religions, non-Muslims should strive to learn about the Islamic religion, its teachings and interpretations, its differences and similarities with Christianity and Judaism, and how to improve their interactions with Muslims (Mahdi, Rahman, Schimmel, 2014). In order to become familiar with Islam, one has to learn about its teachings. The faith is practiced through “Five Pillars of Faith” which, formulated shortly after the Prophet’s death were to serve as “anchoring points of community life” (Mahdi, Rahman, Shimmel, 2014). The shahadah, or profession of faith, is the first...
Words: 3021 - Pages: 13
...have occurred in the last few decades that attempted to invoke fear and disrupt American Society. There was the 1993 World Trade Center bombing where Ramzi Yousef, and his co-conspirators detonated a truck bomb in the basement, killing six, injuring more than 1,000 people, and caused a 98 feet hole in the buildings basement. Thankfully, their original plan to bring the buildings failed and the buildings were repaired and reopened shortly afterwards. Also, there was another display terrorism when Timothy McVeigh detonated a bomb at a government building in Oklahoma City, killing nearly 170 and injuring almost 700 people in 1995. Although this wasn’t a jihadist carrying out the attack like in the 1993 bombing, it was still a big deal considering the damage done by the bomb, and the fact that it was only two years after the 1993 bombing in the trade center....
Words: 1998 - Pages: 8
...Lebanon The Israel Hamas Hezbollah Conflict The United States and the Israel-Hezbollah War Prof. Jeremy Pressman Although American soldiers were not involved in the fighting in Lebanon and Israel this past summer, the United States was nonetheless a central player in the war. U.S. policy was defined by staunch American support for Israel and repeated calls by U.S. officials to use the crisis as a means to get at the root causes of violence in the region. What were the American objectives in this war? Does a preliminary assessment suggest that Washington took steps toward achieving them? How does U.S. policy on the Arab-Israeli conflict look moving forward? American Objectives in the Israel-Hezbollah War Two global foreign policy commitments informed the United States view of the Israel-Hezbollah confrontation this past summer; the war on terror and the democratization of the Middle East. Since September 11, 2001, the American war on terror has been defined to include several different international actors. In his speech of September 20, 2001, President George W. Bush stated that the war would “not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated,” and that “any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime.” In addition, he warned, terrorists could not be accommodated but instead must be met by force. This approach has most directly been applied to al-Qaeda and its satellites...
Words: 6445 - Pages: 26
...Cjs 220 06/19/2011 As a democracy, the United States is governed by laws enacted by public officials. The legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government work together as a system of checks and balances. A single branch of government is not free to act on its own accord; oversight from the other two branches is required. The legislative branch, at both state and federal levels is responsible for enacting laws. The executive branch controls law enforcement agency practices. Upon enactment, the executive branch is responsible for enforcing laws. The judicial branch acts as a median between the legislative and executive branches. This branch is responsible for applying and determining the validity of laws in comparison to the principles established in the United States Constitution. Usally provide for the formation of legislative bodies empowered to perform criminal and other laws. U.S. constitution creates congress and gives it lawmaking power. The bill of rights of the U.S. constitution as well as similar amendments to states constitution, also describe procedural laws that dictate hoe substantive laws are to be administered. Constitutions are important to the substantive criminal law they set limits on what can be defined as a crime. The common law heritage of the American legal system is rooted in medieval English legal practices. Judges decided both civil and criminal cases individually, and according to their interpretations of existing customs. Because of...
Words: 958 - Pages: 4
...The Cold War period lasted for nearly 45 years, from 1945 to 1991. It began at the end of the Second World War and with the collapse of the Soviet Union. The war was the stage for the West's struggle against communist ideas and changes. This long wearing conflict brought to pass an increase in production and trade of arms and an appearance of a new world order formed by America. The main principle of the cold war can be seen as the East-West competition in ideas, arms and spheres of influence. (REF) After Afghan terrorists dramatically attacked the United States on September 11, 2001; America declared a war on terror and flew its troops into Afghanistan in pursuit of avenging their nation and capturing al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Again America found itself in opposition to the East, nevertheless this time a different region. And Again the East was fighting against this new world order and America's quest for world domination in a globalising world. The aim of the essay is to explore the relationship between the cold war and the ‘war on terror' in Afghanistan and to find similarities in political patterns and warfare, in order to answer the question Main Body - History Main question - Relationship The cold war marked the struggle between America and the USSR after the Second World War. The war influenced international affairs majorly. It influenced the way conflicts were handled, the way countries were divided up and the increasing growth in weaponry production...
Words: 3840 - Pages: 16
...American Political Science Review Vol. 106, No. 2 May 2012 doi:10.1017/S0003055412000093 The Missionary Roots of Liberal Democracy ROBERT D. WOODBERRY National University of Singapore T his article demonstrates historically and statistically that conversionary Protestants (CPs) heavily influenced the rise and spread of stable democracy around the world. It argues that CPs were a crucial catalyst initiating the development and spread of religious liberty, mass education, mass printing, newspapers, voluntary organizations, and colonial reforms, thereby creating the conditions that made stable democracy more likely. Statistically, the historic prevalence of Protestant missionaries explains about half the variation in democracy in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Oceania and removes the impact of most variables that dominate current statistical research about democracy. The association between Protestant missions and democracy is consistent in different continents and subsamples, and it is robust to more than 50 controls and to instrumental variable analyses. ocial scientists tend to ignore religion in the processes of post-Enlightenment modernization. In individual cases and events, the role of religious actors is clear—especially in the primary documents. Yet in broad histories and comparative analyses, religious groups are pushed to the periphery, only to pop out like a jack-in-the-box from time to time to surprise and scare people and then shrink...
Words: 26573 - Pages: 107
... What Thomas Jefferson was trying to do was to improve foreign relationships and establish a foreign policy. It is necessary to do so when creating a new country. Countries need to create a basis of how they will interact with other countries. Jefferson decided to create a friendly and welcoming policy with other countries. Years later, however,...
Words: 2194 - Pages: 9
...Search Go! Going Global: The Impact of Satellite Television on News and Society "Consider man, the prosthetic god. Not being able to run very fast or for very long, he has grafted onto himself additional feet, until he can travel farther and faster than any other animal, and not only on land but also on and under water and in the air. He can reinforce his eyes with glasses, telescopes, and microscopes. Thanks to orbiting satellites, he can, without displacing himself, count wildebeest in the African veldt, or missile silos outside Novosibirsk. Lacking the dolphins ability to communicate great distances, he amplifies his voice with the aid of radio waves...[H]e has acquired a perpetually growing communal memory in the shape of the written word, the photograph, and the recording. Everything we know now, we know forever." –W. Rybczynski (1983) from Taming the Tiger: The Struggle to Control Technology Introduction Satellites have changed the way news is distributed and received around the world. Privatization of news media has allowed global news networks, namely CNN and the BBC, to break up longstanding government monopolies. Continuous news has found a global audience, both for convenience and the most updated story details. Breaking news relies on up to the minute updates, and every second counts in the competitive global news arena. CNN dominates the global airways, but critics maintain that this product is merely a cultural export from the United States. E...
Words: 5916 - Pages: 24
...than speech. These ways could be art, writings, songs, and other forms of expression. If speaking freely and expressing ourselves freely is supposed to be without any consequence, then why are there constant law suits and consequences for people who do. Freedom of speech and freedom of expression should be exactly what they mean. Although most people believe that they can speak about anything without there being consequences, this is very untrue. One of those spoken things that have consequences is speaking about the president in such a negative way that it sends red flags about your intentions. Because of the high terrorist alerts, people have to limit what they say about bombs, 9/11, and anything they may say out of anger about our government or country. In the documentary called Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore spoke of a man who went to his gym and had a conversation with some of his gym buddies in a joking way. He made a joke about George W. Bush “bombing us in oil profits”. The next morning the FBI was at his front door because someone had reported what he freely spoke. Although the statements might have been...
Words: 1993 - Pages: 8
...Kevin December 11, 2007 Field Guide to the U.S. economy Chapter one from Field Guide to the U.S. Economy analyzes the distribution of wealth between the family and the structures of corporate power. The idea that the wealthy, usually become wealthier is stressed in this chapter. Most of the United States income is distributed to the wealthy; “The richest ten percent of all households own eighty percent of the financial wealth in America (1)”. Average families have most of their wealth invested in their homes. As for the wealthiest, most of their wealth is invested in the form of business equity, real estate, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and trusts. This chapter also stresses that wealth does not only create a higher standard of living, but that wealth influences political outcomes. The economic power of the United States is held in large corporations with single corporate owners. Chapter two expands on the information given in chapter one and expands on welfare and education. The main point of the chapter is poverty hurts kids. I will be expanding on the ideas in the two chapters to show that the gap between the wealthy and poverty is extreme and how it effects households, welfare, and education. Section 1.1 concentrates on who owns how much in America, showing the difference between the worker and owner income. “The rich are different from you and me (3)” said F Scott Fitzgerald. The richest ten percent of U.S households own eighty percent of the countries financial...
Words: 2242 - Pages: 9
...Quotas: From Discrimination to Democratic Legitimacy EARLY DRAFT – NOT FOR CITATION It is an established rule of U.S. constitutional law that the state cannot impose or pursue race or gender quotas.[1] In the private sector, an employer’s pursuit of numerically fixed race or gender balance is suspect under Title VII.[2] Under both bodies of antidiscrimination law, quotas are regarded as discrimination. If a civil rights initiative can be portrayed as encouraging employers to adopt quotas, its political demise is nearly certain in the United States.[3] Narrow forms of affirmative action have survived, legally and politically, only to the extent that they can be distinguished from quotas. Quotas are so widely regarded as legally, politically, and morally repugnant that they are taboo: The “q-word”[4] is rarely the subject of any serious debate, even by those who favor stronger civil rights protections for women and minorities. The related belief in the illegitimacy of ever pursuing numerically informed demographic balance – especially along lines of race or gender -- is gaining strength in the Supreme Court’s major antidiscrimination cases in the last several years.[5] It is widely accepted – even by civil rights advocates – that pursuing racial or gender balance as a goal, “for its own sake,” would be illegitimate.[6] This principle threatens the constitutionality of race-based affirmative action, which may meet its demise in Fisher v. Texas next Term. Meanwhile...
Words: 13862 - Pages: 56