Showing posts with label Government. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Government. Show all posts

Monday, November 4, 2013

Elections!

Ranked Choice Voting in Minneapolis


Why use Ranked Choice Voting?




Sample ballot

City Questions (Ballot Measures)
CITY QUESTION 1 (Minneapolis)
PROPOSAL TO AMEND THE MINNEAPOLIS CITY CHARTER
Shall the Minneapolis City Charter be amended in the form of a complete revision which (1) modernizes the Charter; (2) redrafts its provisions for brevity and in plain language; (3) reorganizes the Charter into nine articles, and groups related provisions together; (4) removes from the Charter certain provisions for possible enactment into ordinance; and (5) retains the current role and relationships of City boards and commissions? Must be passed by 51%

CITY QUESTION 2 (Minneapolis)
PROPOSAL TO AMEND THE MINNEAPOLIS CITY CHARTER LIQUOR-LICENSING PROVISIONS
Shall the Minneapolis City Charter provisions relating to the sale of liquor and wine be amended by reorganizing and rewriting in plain modern language?" Must be passed by 55%

Which offices are up for election?
What do these offices do?
Mayor
City Council
Board of Estimate and Taxation
Park and Recreation Commissioner

Candidates for Mayor



Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Friday, November 2, 2012

Understanding the Election Map



1) Media Influence



2) Money in Politics

What is a SUPER PAC?

Super PACs

Super PACs are a new kind of political action committee created in July 2010 following the outcome of a federal court case known as SpeechNow.org v. Federal Election Commission.
Technically known as independent expenditure-only committees, Super PACs may raise unlimited sums of money from corporations, unions, associations and individuals, then spend unlimited sums to overtly advocate for or against political candidates. Super PACs must, however, report their donors to the Federal Election Commission on a monthly or quarterly basis -- the Super PAC's choice -- as a traditional PAC would. Unlike traditional PACs, Super PACs are prohibited from donating money directly to political candidates.   For more information about how much money Super PACS spend and how, check out the source of this excerpt:  Opensecrets


Super PAC Media




Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Senators and Representatives

As we have already discussed two of the most important jobs in the Government are those of Senators and Representatives (Members of Congress).
This year we will be electing both a senator (elected for 6 year terms) and a representative (elected for 2 year terms) to speak for MN and (district 5) in Congress).



Here are your choices for Senator

Stephen Williams (Independence)
Kurt Bills (Republican)
Amy Klobuchar *Incumbent  (Democratic-Farmer-Labor)
Tim Davis (Grassroots)
Michael Cavlan (Minnesota Open Progressives)

(As of right now, Amy Klobuchar has a significant lead over here challengers and is expected to win easily)


Here are your choices for Representative of the 5th District

Chris Fields (Republican)
Keith Ellison *Incumbent (Democratic-Farmer-Labor)

(As of right now, Keith Ellison is expected to win)

Monday, October 29, 2012

My Ballot

1) Type in your Zip Code   HERE

Type in Your Address

2) Find your Sample Ballot at the bottom

3) Find your Polling Place (if you are 18)

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Gay Rights in MN


or 



What are the arguments for the Marriage Amendment?

What are the arguments against it?

How will it be decided? 

Sunday, June 19, 2011

MORE MORE MORE

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/25/wearable-collections-clothing-recycling_n_866839.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/31/huffpost-greatest-person-david-auerbach_n_869354.html

http://noimpactproject.org/educators-middle-high-school-environment-curriculum-html/

http://www.radicalsimplicity.org/home.html
http://www.onearth.org/article/radical-simplicity


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksZjZw2BeG0&feature=feedu

http://www.ted.com/talks/thomas_thwaites_how_i_built_a_toaster_from_scratch.html

http://www.storyofstuff.com/blog/
http://www.storyofstuff.com/

http://www.preserveproducts.com/recycling/index.html


http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/solid-waste/


http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/earth-2100-final-century-of-civilization/


endciv


http://www.laborrights.org/sites/default/files/publications-and-resources/sweatshop_hall_shame_2010.pdf

http://www.thefutureoffood.com/


http://www.thecorporation.com/

behind the swoosh


http://www.greenisthenewred.com/blog/minneapolis-the-green-scare-using-terrorism-laws-to-silence-political-activists/916/

http://www.worldchanging.com/


http://www.laborrights.org/


http://www.nextstep.state.mn.us/section.cfm?topic=16


http://affluenza.org/

http://onthecommons.org/

http://retailanarchy.com/

http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/tv/extreme-couponing

http://www.aetv.com/hoarders/

http://www.objectifiedfilm.com/

http://www.lesblank.com/more/TeaFilm.html

collapse

food inc

climate of change

tapped

blue gold

dirt!

america the beautiful

the greatest movie ever sold

cradle to cradle design

transforming apartment

no impact man

tattoo advertisements

consumer protections


Questions:
A) What do you personally need for a day? Week?  a year? 10 years? Your life?
(record the stuff and people that come to mind in order)
What about as a small community?  -are the needs different? in what way?
B) What do you want in your future house? What will it look like? What does society expect it to look like?
C) When you spend time with friends or family, how much of that time is spent focused on stuff? Which stuff? Is there a difference between kinds of things?  Can some stuff be a good for conversation/play?
D) Is more better? Is growth good? 
E) Is having more choice better?
F) Does freedom mean freedom to buy?
G) What is the hidden cost of cheap goods?
H) Is organic better? Is local better? Is vegetarian better? Is seasonal food better?  is Humane treatment important?
I ) What is in your room?
J) How much do you waste in a day?
K) What is recyclable, reusable, reducible, avoidable?  What can be recycled in Minneapolis?
L) How do we keep civilization alive? Is it possible? Is civilization good?
M) Where is your stuff from? Technology, clothes, food, other stuff? 
N) Where are the materials to our stuff from?  How do we get them?
O) Can you make a toaster?
P) How many of the shows/commercials on tv are about stuff?
Q) Who are your “Joneses?”
R) What does the middle class look like?
S) Does stuff, require more stuff?
T) What are the working conditions like to make our stuff?
U) What does the process of making stuff do to the environment?
V) What is garbage? What is the impact of trash?
W) What is the Story of stuff?
X) What is affluenza?
Y) What is the commons? Is the tragedy of the commons real?
Z) What is green?
1) Are we working too hard? What would happen if we didn’t work so hard?
2) Are there better ways to distribute impacts?
3) What could we do instead producing and consuming stuff?
4) How does our system impact our health, relationships, environment, community, values, others
5) What is important to “quality of life?”
6) What is the role of corporations, Financial institutions and governments?
7) Is there a difference between systematic violence and protester violence?
8) What is a farmers market?
9) What can we make?
10) What is life like without negative impact? How do we do it?
11) What is the role of design in making products? How can design be used to make things better?
12) What is the role of bio-mimicry? how can we use it to make things better?
13) What is life like without advertising?
14) How could we make the school waste free?
15) How could we make recycling work at school? at home?
16) What is the role of a citizen vs a consumer?
17) What can we cut out of our lives?
18) What can we add to make our lives better?
19) What is externalizing costs?
20) Where is away?
21) Is mass productivity good?
22) Is unemployment real?
23) Capitalism? Socialism? Communism? Anarchy? Consumerism?
24) Technology?
25) Pollution?
26) What is fair? free? prosperity? human rights? is disparity necessary/inevitable?
27) How do we avoid collapse? is it possible?
28) Overpopulation?
29) Consumer protections?
30) what do you need in your space ship? To survive? To start over?



Monday, December 13, 2010

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Party Platforms and Candidates

1) Look at the various "planks" (positions on an issue) in the "platform" (The overall set of beliefs of the party) what are some examples of each party's platform(pick 2-3 from each party).

2) Pick one issue on the national level, how does each party feel about it. Do they give examples of how they plan on dealing with the issue?

3) Pick one issue on the local level, how does each party feel about it. Do they give examples of how they plan on dealing with the issue?

4) Do you think that there are some issues in which a local party may disagree with the national party? Can you think up an example?

5) Pick an election race, (governor, representative etc) and visit the webpages of the candidates how do they compare and contrast on issues?

6) If you have time left, check out the third party websites. What good ideas do they present?
It should be noted right now the governors race is really close with the Independence Party, GOP and DFL candidates all in the running.
Recent polling:
Dayton 40 percent
Emmer 38 percent
Tom Horner 15 percent
5 percent are still undecided.

7) Check out Project Vote Smart


National Democratic Party Platform

National Republican Party Platform

MN Democratic-Farmer-Labor Platform

MN Republican Party

What about a third party?


Independence Party

The Resource Party

Green Party


Grassroots Party of MN -Chris Wright for Governor


Independent-Progressive -Michael Cavlan for Representative

Ecology Democracy Party of MN

Independent Party -Lynne Torgerson for Representative

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Debate?

In your notes answer the questions provided.











In what way is a court scene similar to a debate?




((In this scene Tom Cruise's character is a military lawyer trying to uncover the "truth" of what happened to a soldier (who died). Jack Nicholson's character was the commanding officer on the base and was responsible for the soldier's well being.))





A casual conversation or an argument


What is Robin Williams' character's argument?





How does Martin Sheen's character (the president) handle the ideological argument that "Governor Ritchie" makes.

"We don't need a Federal Department of Education (or national government programs)... let the states decide."




Justice Affirmative Action

Monday, April 26, 2010

Monday, April 5, 2010

Timeline to healthcare (check out some of the articles from each decade)

The case for change
(pick a couple of states)





Friday, May 1, 2009

Recent Acts of Civil Disobedience




Your MN Representative being arrested for acts of Civil Disobedience in regards to Sudan