...January 12, 2016, President Barack Obama presented the State of the Union Address to the American people. In this speech, President Barack Obama spoke about many different issues. In this paper, I will review and evaluate President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address using the two checklists from Catherine Smith’s book entitled, Writing Public Policy. I will evaluate if President Obama’s speech addresses a specific audience about a specific problem, the purpose related to a specific policy action, that it represents authority accurately, uses the appropriate form and design for use. I will also review the clarity, correctness, conciseness and credibility of President Obama’s State of the Union Address. Features of Effectiveness President Obama’s State of the Union speech addressed a specific audience about specific problems. The audience is composed of Senators, Democrats, and Republicans. The President’s speech is the final report on the State of the Union. President Obama’s speech...
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...United States has had the issue of immigration for a long time. This country itself if we go far back enough in history is a country of immigrants. First the Pilgrims from England arrived here to avoid religious persecution and later on people from all around the world and all walks of life. That is why it is called a melting pot of people. The President of the United States Barack Obama gave a speech on 20 November 2014 regarding the immigration laws. He believes that the current immigration system is broken and that it needs to be fixed. The President is taking executive action to fix what he can to help build a new system. He says that welcoming immigrants has given the U.S a tremendous advantage over other nation. He goes as far as saying that it is a country of immigrants but it is also a country of law. The President plan states that anyone who has lived in the United States for more than 5 years, passes a criminal background check and pays their due taxes will be able to stay temporarily in this country without the fear of deportation. As the President said “You can come out of the shadows and get straight with the law”. The President’s actions are popular with the Hispanic community but not so much with the Republican Conservatives. They are threatening to impeach the president or shutdown the government. “We will not stand idle as the president undermines the rule of law in our country,” said Speaker John A. Boehner. The president says that he is only taking actions...
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...immigrants from deportation, president Obama exercises his executive order right to make changes in immigration policy. The new immigration plan will not only protect many unlawful immigrants from being deported but it also gains them access in obtaining driver licenses and social security cards. In another word, they will be legally to work in United States but it offers no path to citizenship. This will open a path for many high skilled workers to the United States labor force. Another major change is that Obama’s action will end a program called Secure Communities, therefore Immigration and Custom Enforcement as well as other law enforcement agencies will begin to priority their focus on criminals and felons rather than working families and security on the border will be increased. While many Americans think this is a righteous move that should have been done long ago to fix our broken immigration policy, the plan is opposed strongly by the Republicans. President Obama has no option but to use his executive action. House Speaker John Boehner states that the president is acting like a king or emperor with his executive action on the new immigration reform. The plan is also facing lawsuit from many different states, but Obama administration believes that the policies could withstand any lawsuit. Obama says in his speech, “The actions I’m taking are not only lawful; they’re the kind of actions taken by every single Republican President and every Democratic President for the past half century...
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...In 2012, President Barack Obama’s secretary of education, Arne Duncan, made the case for passing the DREAM Act on two counts: benefits to the economy and to national security. “The result will be a new generation of college graduates who will help strengthen our economic security and a new set of future taxpayers who will contribute much more as college graduates than they ever would as struggling workers moving from one under-the-table job to another.”In the documents of the DREAM Act, this part out of the document explains how Obama’s secretary of education, Arne Duncan, was trying to allow the DREAM Act to pass. Arne Duncan, proposed two benefits for passing the DREAM Act, benefits to the economy and to national security. He thinks that there will be a new generation of college graduates who will help strengthen our economic security and a new set of future taxpayers. Some may argue that the DREAM Act should be passed.However...they should not pass the DREAM Act pass because of the booming population growth. Here is a quote stating why the Act should not be passed, “This bill, sadly, does nothing to fix our broken...
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...alternative to this law known as the ACHIEVE Act, insisting on an immigration amendment. Also, this policy would bequest legitimate position to unverified adolescents; however, it does not postulate a conduit to citizenship, for both Senators Kyl and Bailey have attested that by not bestowing a trail to nationality to these undocumented immigrants, they are now bound to pursue it through the traditional and conventional way. Nonetheless, Democrats and DREAM Act advocates are tentative to the GOP alternative, for they notion that the route to citizenship is a fundamental characteristic of the DREAM Act, which bequeaths minorities an opportunity to reform and amend...
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...Illegal Immigration Reform Proposal The United States has gone from being a nation of one race (Native Americans), to being a country of many nations. This country has increasingly become responsible for immigrants that have decided that the state of their own nation has become unbearable and have decided to make a change in their life from day to day as well as the life of their entire family. The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) estimated in 2010 that there were 11,900,000 illegal immigrants in the United States at the cost of approximately $83,665,408,222. The impact of illegal immigrants on the United States has become an issue that has stirred the emotions of all American citizens for many decades. With the population of illegal immigrants believed to be having a negative impact on the rising cost of healthcare, the contribution to a nationwide problem of unemployment, and citizens and immigrants’ alike calling for fairness to all, a complete immigration reform is something that needs to be addressed on a national level. President Barack Obama has a “commonsense immigration reform proposal.” His proposal consists of four parts that will hold accountable not just the illegal workers, but the employers who hire them as well. There are four parts to President Obama’s proposed reform: 1) continue to strengthen the borders to the United States; by doing so would strengthen our ability to remove criminals and apprehend and prosecute national security threats;...
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...When will we see Change? A Critical look at Barack Obama and the democratic party. Charles Kerber POLS 202 9AM American Government Livingston This paper will take a critical look at the history of the democratic party, its most recent 2012 election, its current presidential candidate Barack Obama, and the latest platform. While the paper may read as being highly critical of President Obama, it should be caveated by the fact that this is an extremely trying time in the history of the United States, and the government is under considerable pressures from outside terrorism threats and international relations, to severe recession and domestic economic concerns. Nevertheless, one must look critically at President Obama, and answer has he really given us “change we can believe in”? Biography & history The Democratic party went through a number of iterations before it became the current democratic party. The party began as the anti federalists under the leadership of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Thomas Jefferson a former secretary of state under George Washington's administration who had resigned to protest the fiscal policies of Alexander Hamilton. These two rivals would become the basis of the first two political parties of the United States. Alexander Hamilton favored the constitution, the creation of a national bank and repayment of the revolutionary war debt with federal funds. Under this philosophy they would name themselves Federalists, for their leaders support of ratifying the constitution...
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...very much linked to the United States. And the two men who are vying to lead it for the next four years would seem to have very different views of the continent. "I think the president wants to turn us into a European-style welfare state, an entitlement nation. That model has not worked anywhere in the world," Romney said on the campaign trail. Barack Obama usually strikes a different tenor when he talks about the continent. "Each step points to the fact that Europe is moving towards further integration rather than breakup and that these problems can be resolved, and points to the underlying strength in Europe's economies," said Obama at the G20 summit last June. Senior fellow Xenia Dormandy of London's Chatham House says that difference in tone has been noticed on this side of the Atlantic. "Romney talks about a strong, exceptional America, a leading America. And he talks about increasing defense spending. All of those things are things that make Europeans a little bit nervous," noted Dormandy. "Contrarily, Obama, I call him a European leader. He's very consensus-driven. He's wanting to work in multilateral institutions, wanting to collaborate. All of these things play very, very well in the European setting. And that is part of the reason that polls indicate Europeans prefer President Obama by 75 percent or more over Governor Romney. And Dormandy says those views have a practical impact. "That really matters," Dormandy added. "It will give freedom to the...
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...Barack Obama Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States —becoming the first African American to serve in that office —on January 20, 2009. The son of a white American mother and a black Kenyan father, Obama grew up in Hawaii. Leaving the state to attend college, he earned degrees from Columbia University and Harvard Law School. Obama worked as a community organizer in Chicago, where he met and married Michelle LaVaughn Robinson in 1992. Their two daughters, Malia Ann and Natasha (Sasha) were born in 1998 and 2001, respectively. Obama was elected to the Illinois state senate in 1996 and served there for eight years. In 2004, he was elected by a record majority to the U.S. Senate from Illinois and, in February 2007, announced his candidacy for President. After winning a closely-fought contest against New York Senator and former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic nomination, Obama handily defeated Senator John McCain of Arizona, the Republican nominee for President, in the general election. When President Obama took office, he faced very significant challenges. The economy was officially in a recession, and the outgoing administration of George W. Bush had begun to implement a controversial "bail-out" package to try to help struggling financial institutions. In foreign affairs, the United States still had troops deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and warfare had broken out between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, illustrating the...
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...Carmen Corbett Mr. Martin Adv. 100 June 23, 2013 Illegal Immigration in America One of the most controversial political issues today is illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants is a serious problem that has to stop, because it is unfair to the people here in America. Illegal immigration is also unfair for the country that the immigrant left. It is public knowledge that the majority of the illegal immigrants in America come from Mexico. This is a problem that must me stopped as it hurts America’s economy and tax paying citizens. Illegal immigrants live off tax payers, take jobs and housing of hard working citizens, and leave there country of birth without skilled workers and help leave their own country into poverty. Legal American citizens pay taxes that help support welfare, health care, public schools and many other social services, many of which are taken advantage of by illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants do not have to pay as many taxes as citizens do, illegal immigrants don’t have to pay social security. This isn’t fair to Americans. I personally don’t care if people migrate here I just want them to have to pay taxes just like everyone else. Illegal immigrants need to abide by the same laws as Americans. If a child is born in America, even if the parents are illegal, the child is a American citizen, making this child a burden to the state to make sure the...
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...Racial & Ethnic Short-Answer Questions (15) Should reparations be paid to the descendants of victims of slavery? • Some reject the decision made in the Bakke case that providing a remedy for the effects of racial discrimination is unconstitutional. They argue that the idea of reparations is rooted in international law. • Affirmative Action is inadequate, the ‘Maafa’ (meaning disaster, i.e., slavery) is a crime against humanity, and therefore compensation is required. • In the past 50 years apologies and financial compensation has been given to a wide range of groups, including survivors of the Jewish holocaust (as well as descendants of the victims), Japanese-Americans who were imprisoned during the Second World War and native Americans who had their land illegally seized in the USA. • African Americans have been demanding compensation for slavery since the end of the American Civil War. Immediately after the abolition of slavery, the demand was for 40 acres and a mule to ensure they would not be dependent on their former slave-owners. Then, between 1890 and 1917, there was a movement to lobby the government for pensions to compensate for their unpaid labour under slavery. Since 1989, Congressman John Conyers Jnr (Michigan) has introduced a bill every year to study the case for reparations. Each of these initiatives has been largely ignored by the political establishment. • Reparations would ensure full recognition of the scale of the Maafa and, at the same time...
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...News! 1. 6/6/2013 Doug Gross. * Barack Obama believes that there should be internet access in all schools. He wants to provide funds to around 99% of public schools for them to be able to have internet, even in libraries. He says that he wants all American students to be connected online in five years. Usually, adults don’t go for this type of thing they want children to not be so ‘connected’ to the internet. They want kids to not spend so much time on computers, but he almost wants just that to happen. People are becoming way too dependent on computers and the internet, which even libraries are eventually only going to be used just for that. Although Obama is more so moderate, this idea is clearly making him to be a liberal. He wants the change and wants to continue to further the change on technology. 2. 6/8/2013 Maureen Dowd * In this article, she quotes the book 1984. She is talking about how Bush felt about 9/11 and some of the after effects. It turns out that, for seven years the N.S.A was taking information from our phone calls. This all started while Bush was president through a program called prism. Prism would let the F.B.I. and N.S.A. into many social media websites and was able to access all of our information. These people were trying to spot out terrorists, and will go to any means necessary. According to Obama, they necessarily can’t hear the conversations; they are just able to learn about who we call. They also are saying that they don’t...
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...Part I Chapter One – Her Time Chapter Two – The Alternative Chapter Three – The Ground Beneath Her Feet Chapter Four – Getting to Yes Chapter Five – The Inevitables Chapter Six – Barack in a Box Chapter Seven – “They Looooove Me!” Chapter Eight – The Turning Point Chapter Nine – The Fun Part Chapter Ten – Two For the Price of One Chapter Eleven – Fear and Loathing in the Lizard’s Thicket Chapter Twelve – Pulling Away and Falling Apart Chapter Thirteen – Obama Agonistes Chapter Fourteen – The Bitter End Game Part II Chapter Fifteen – The Maverick and His Meltdown Chapter Sixteen – Running Unopposed Chapter Seventeen – Slipping Nooses, Slaying Demons Part III Chapter Eighteen – Paris and Berlin Chapter Nineteen – The Mile-High Club Chapter Twenty – Sarahcuda Chapter Twenty-One – September Surprise Chapter Twenty-Two – Seconds in Command Chapter Twenty-Three – The Finish Line Epilogue – Together at Last Index Author’s Notes About the Authors Copyright About the Publisher Prologue BARACK OBAMA JERKED BOLT upright in bed at three o’clock in the morning. Darkness enveloped his low-rent room at the Des Moines Hampton Inn; the airport across the street was quiet in the hours before dawn. It was very late December 2007, a few days ahead of the Iowa caucuses. Obama had been sprinting flat out for president for nearly a year. Through all the nights he’d endured in cookie-cutter hotels during the months of uncertainty and angst —months of lagging by a mile in the national polls, his...
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...current affairs for all competitive exam preparation .. Source : Various Location on Web Portal . Contains : 1. International Awareness 2. National Awareness 3. States News 4. Confrences 5. Sports and News 6. Awards and honors 7. Persons In News 8. Important dates 9. Books and Authors 10. Science and technology 11. Economy News INTERNATIONAL Mahama Re-elected as Ghana’s President : On 10 December Ghana’s incumbent President John Dramani Mahama of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) has won the country’s presidential election.Mahama took 50.70 percent of the total valid votes cast, while his closest challenger, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) obtained 47.74 percent.With his re-election, Mahama becomes the fourth president to be elected under the Forth Republic.He had served as Ghana’s vice president since 2009. UN, Pakistan Launched ‘Malala Fund’ : Pakistan joined forces with the United Nations on 10 December 2012 to launch a fund aimed at boosting girls’ education throughout the world.The fund is named for Malala Yousafzai, the 15-year-old Pakistani girl. Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari also announced a $10-million donation for a global war chest to educate all girls by 2015 set up in the name of Malala Yousafzai for campaigning for girls’ education. Shinzo Abe Elected As Japan’s New PM : The former Prime Minister and the Leader of LDP Shinzo Abe elected as a Prime Minister with a clear victory over the Prime Minister and leader of the...
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...Evan Mandery Professor, John Jay College of Criminal Justice • Why I'm Skipping My Harvard Reunion (A Call to Action) Posted: 05/06/2014 8:51 am EDT Updated: 07/06/2014 5:12 am EDT In a few weeks, the Harvard class of 1989 will be reuniting in Cambridge. There'll be mini-TED talks, a "Taste of New England Dinner," and a chance to sing with the Boston Pops, but I'll be spending the weekend coaching my son's Little League team and hanging out with my family. Reunions seem unnatural to me. I refuse to participate in the charade of pretending to be surprised to see a classmate, and when I'm asked, "What have you been doing?" as one inevitably is, I never know where to draw the line between "stuff" and the full, self-reflective version one might share with a close friend. I think too much detail implies an exaggerated sense of self-worth and is hence a greater faux pas than too little detail, so I've always hewed closer to the "stuff" version, but this runs its own risk of suggesting you don't think the other person is important enough to merit the full telling of your own story. It's a minefield and, in the social media era, one that's entirely avoidable. I've never been unable to locate an old friend or classmate online. It's particularly easy for graduates of Harvard, which maintains a great alumni website--it's where Facebook started, after all. Anyone interested in me can find my professional record on LinkedIn, family photos on Facebook, and many hilarious tweets. If one wanted...
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