Elements That Influence State Government Essay Example for Free

Elements That Influence State Government Essay The special interest group we are going to look at is the Sierra Club. The sierra club is a body of volunteers that come together to fight for the environment. This interest group has offices in every state in the union. As we look at the Sierra Club in whole we will describe what this organization stands for and try to define its relationship two each of the political parties and lastly we will look at how the interest groups influences state government. According to Carl Pope, â€Å"We stand for the principle that ordinary people don’t believe that they’re here to use up the earth and have the bank account exhausted when they die; that most people really see the planet as an ongoing enterprise. They’re inspired by nature. They want to leave it behind and they feel responsible for it Pope (2008), (para. 1)†. That being said the sierra club is an organization with of over 750,000 members with a common goal in mind (Pope, 2008). That goal is to protect the earth we live on. What is unique about the sierra club is depending on what state you’re in, the sierra club will come at you in very different ways depending on the cause at hand. This means if you live in California, the sierra club will fight to protect water rights and conservation as well as air pollution. If one lives in Kentucky then the sierra club will fight you on coal while promoting wind industry. The unique thing the sierra club has going for it is that it has many different platform to speak from while fighting for a common goal. One of the ways the sierra club has found to gain support on different issues is to a line its self with different political party to gain the support and win favor with state voters. What this means is that the sierra club leverages power of their net work of volunteers and members in every state for the chance to help elect candidates that are environmentally friendly and in line with the thoughts and values that the sierra club represents. Another way the sierra club has grown in power is that they have endorsed like minded candidates from state, local, and municipal arenas. One of the ways that make the sierra club so effective in endorsing a candidate is the multi step process; each candidate receives before the sierra club will publicly support said candidate. The sierra club generally a lines its self with the Democratic Party because Democratic are more liberal than Republicans. For this reason this organization will give democrat contributions to help a candidate become elected to office. According the sierra club leadership the more like minded officials we have in office the more changes can be to the ongoing fight to help preserve the environment. The sierra club supports Kentucky Representative John Yarmuth Democrat (Sierra Club Endorses John Yarmuth, 2012). One of the reason the sierra club support Representative Yarmuth is because of his views on the environment, energy as well as the Kentucky Clean Water Protection Act. The Republican Party has not so lucky when it come to getting support from the sierra club. According to the Perspective a news letter, in this news letter the sierra club comments on how they do not believe the republicans care about the environment due to their stand on climate change. The perspective go’s o to tell about how thinks there is not enough scientific fact to support the accusation, it is for these types of reason that the sierra club has failed to support Republican candidates material (The Republicans, The Sierra Club and the Environment, 2012). Since the sierra club is disenchanted with the Republican Party they see very little money or contributions of any kind from this organization. So how does a special interest group influence state government? Interest groups are the ones that fund a lot of the politicians campaigns, so it’s usually an exchange of some kind of service. The interest groups push for certain legislation to go through the House of Representative, and then the Representative relies on their support in their next election. Organizations like the sierra club can influence government by getting candidates elected that have similar goals. Contributions of money on different issues help with advertizing to help sway voters or to inundate the public with information either for or against a cretin issue. Special interest groups like The Sierra Club has become very crafty in the different way they have found to influence government. Most people do not understand that interest groups dont just lobby for legislation and wine and dine politicians. They actually write legislation, to give to politicians to sponsor. For example, the legislation popularly known as No Child Left Behind was actually commissioned by and basically written by an interest group called the Business Round Table. Another angle to look at is that interest groups often employ lobbyists who already have working relationships with the members of the House, and so these groups tend to have more influence over the way the legislation is worded. This way the lobbyist can protect and benefit the company or industry they are lobbying for. References Pope, C. (2008). Big Think. Retrieved from http://bigthink.com/ideas/2378 Sierra Club Endorses John Yarmuth. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.kentucky.sierraclub/newsroom The Republicans, the sierra club and the environment. (2012). Retrieved from http://povcrystal.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-republicans-sierra-club-and.html

A Fairy Tale :: creative writing

He knew that his first prey, the firebird, lived high up in the trees in the heart of the forest. Like lightening, they were hard to miss, and the piercing of its beak left a burn that could never be forgotten. Suddenly, the boy heard a shriek, and he whirled his head to see the blood-red bird swooping toward his face. Panicking, the boy lunged for the ground, and for the net that the wise man had given him. He hurled it at the bird - and missed. The bird, angry, made another giant swoop at the boy - and tore its flesh as it flew straight into the blade of the boy's sword. That was one creature taken care of. His next target, the freezing spider, could be either much harder, or much easier, the boy knew not which. The spider could not run, or jump, unlike some of its relatives, but it was harder to find, and its poison froze the human blood and made its victims helpless, lying on the ground shivering until the arachnid finally took pity on his prey and ate it. He tried not to think about it.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Instead the boy thought of ways to attract his prey; if he could get it to come to him, the killing would be easier - and definitely much safer. The freezing spider would eat any kind of flesh it could, but it was well known that the spider loved most to eat the flesh of humans. Well, what should he do? Obviously bait was safer than waiting for an attack, so the boy pulled out his dagger and held it to his upper arm. That was when he saw the grey bristles of the freezing spider. It was sitting quietly on a nearby shrub, its back toward the boy. Holding back a sigh of relief, he took one quiet step toward his prey, holding the dagger high, and stabbed it through the spider before it knew what hit it. A little less active a kill than the firebird, but just as exhilarating. Now the only victim left in this task of the boy's was the netherworld wolf, and what a creature. About the size of a pig, these dogs could tear up a man in two minutes flat, or so it wa s said. However, being the largest of the creatures made it the easiest target.

Family Dynamics

Nick Vehlewald Mrs. Stotler English 110. 4 17 October 2012 Family Dynamics The way a family works has changed in the last decade or two. Back when this generations parents were kids and even when their parents were young, it is very different than young people today. A perfect example would be the television show â€Å"Leave it to Beaver†, which aired in 1957. It was about the Cleavers, an All American Family, trying to keep their youngest son Theodore â€Å"Beaver† out of trouble.He always finds his way into trouble, at the end of the episode his parents always help him by giving him advice an good life lessons. That show represents how families were close and protected each other. Now, in the 21st century, many families and even communities are not as close. There are less family nights, and some kids do not even go to the parents for help or to talk to, and neighborhoods are neither as safe nor a community as they were, where kids will be playing outside and parents don’t have to stress about the kids getting hurt or lost.Kids rely on social media to express their feelings instead of talking to their parents on what is occurring in their life. One of the main reasons of family destruction is divorce. Gathered research from Oregon State University states â€Å"Divorces’ have increased 22% since 1980 in the United States† (23). Children did not have to deal with that in the past generations. That is the most prevalent occurrence in society today. This did not happen before because divorce was not socially acceptable back then.Society used to believe that marriage was permanent and spouses were meant to stay together no matter the reason. The traditional family structure in the US is considered a family support system involving two married individuals providing care and stability for their biological offspring, however this type of family has become less prevalent, and other family forms have become relevant. In the television show â€Å"Leave it to Beaver† every show was family oriented. It was like watching a real family working through the trials and ribulations that every family will go through on a regular basis. What was different about this family than a real family was that everything always ended on a positive note, the mother and father solving or fixing the problem and helping their children. That did not always work in the real life. Sometimes fights will last a couple hours, days or weeks. People watching the show did not understand that concept. They see the Cleavers being able to work out similar problems but in their household it isn’t that easy.So families and most part parents, would get frustrated and think that they are not a well functioning family. â€Å"There are over 4600 traits and in a family, all traits are demonstrated by the family members. Wherever you have chaos, someone else will have order. Wherever you have order, someone else will have chaos† (1). T his is just how a family works, you have to deal with each others differences and still love each and every member. Families have big issues with trying to be perfect, but they need to understand that individuals cannot expect their family to act and function like an artificial one.The biggest change in family dynamics in the past decades are, moms used to be at home cooking and cleaning doing the responsibilities around the house. That is not the case any more. Mothers are in the work force, doing their part for the family. â€Å"Employment rate of woman since the 1950’s has risen 74%, for full time jobs, and 29% part time jobs† (1). This was never the case before, it was always the father’s job to work and make the money to provide for the family. It has changed drastically since WWII. â€Å"In a study conducted by the Center for American Progress in 2010, only 27. percent of homes in the US had caregiver. Compared to 1975 where more than half the homes had a care giver†(32). The father figure has been affected so much that there are even stay-at-home dads now, where the mother would work and the father would take care of the domestic duties. Stay-at-home dads are fathers that do not participate in the labor market and raise their children. They are the male equivalent to housewives. This is not as popular in American society. There are estimated 105,000 stay-at-home dads in the US today. He would have been a disgrace to the workingman sixty years ago.The main reason for the advancement of mothers in society was woman’s goals have changed drastically. Shifting from the typical housewife that does the cooking, washing, and cleaning, to powerful women that are standing up for them and joining the male society in working for a living. Since then women have been making there way into the workforce, by proving themselves with valuable resource that will help them in every day life. There are a voluminous amount of jobs that wome n could do a lot better than a man because of what they know and the experiences they have had.For instance, making clothing, cooking in a restaurant, and money management. Women are changing the workforce, something that know one would have predicted. The men were always know as the breadwinners of the family but women are taking advantage of the women movement to become financially independent. Also others things have occurred in this day that have never been dealt with before. Same sex marriage. This is something know one has seen before or had to deal with in the past decades.The common way was a man marries a woman; they have children and live happily ever after. There was no such thing as gay marriage or partnerships between two men or two women. This is a huge difference then what the generations before us are used to. The changing times are moving to fast for some people and they can not get used to the idea of two men or two woman raising children. This changes the lives of the kids drastically. They grow up thinking that they have two mommies or daddies and it is perfectly ok and normal, but what they do not know is that they are unique.They will grow up and have a whole different perspective on life, from being raised in such a different family life. The kids will be very confused growing up in this world. Seeing all other kids with a mom and a dad and wondering why they are different. The children are discriminated against for having same sex parents. â€Å"Nationally, 66% female couples, 44% males couples live with children under eighteen years of age† (5). America needs to adapt to the changing times and understand it is not going to be the same as it used to be.

Immigration Act Of The Border - 1473 Words

Border Patrol began in 1904 when illegal crossings at the border were prevented by seventy five â€Å"mounted guards† who were given directives by the U.S immigration service to patrol the border (U.S. Customs and Border Protection, n.d). Patrols were, however, not consistent because of limited resources and little supervision. They attempted to prevent Chinese illegal migration as they patrolled along the border in California. However, from 1915, resources such as horses, cars and boats were added to a more specified group, authorized and named â€Å"mounted inspectors† by Congress. They patrolled the southern border with instructions from Commissioner-General of Immigration (U.S. Customs and Border Protection, n.d). Their patrolling efforts were†¦show more content†¦The U.S. government under Franklin Roosevelt therefore provided the required resources such as badges, uniforms, revolvers, salaries and oats for horses already owned by some of the recruits. Oper ating under two directors in charge of the Mexican border office and Canadian border office in 1932, the Border Patrol worked to counter liquor and alien smugglers at the border. The Immigration and Naturalization Service was formed in 1933 when President Franklin Roosevelt merged the Bureau of Naturalization and the Bureau of Immigration. In December 1934, classes in horsemanship and marksmanship were attended by thirty four trainees after the first Border Patrol Academy was initiated in El Paso (U.S. Customs and Border Protection, n.d). Although cars and radios were used in the patrolling exercise, horses remained convenient for the Border Patrol because of the rugged terrain. The Border Patrol became more effective as the duties continued to be executed over the years and much of its efforts as seen during the war years (Wallechinsky, n.d.). It expanded more after the Immigration Service was shifted to the Department of Justice from the Department of Labor in 1940. The number of officers in Border Patrol rose to 1531 and after World War II, more personnel joined the force (U.S. Customs and Border Protection, n.d). The Border Patrol’s effectiveness during the war was seen in its ability to manage detention camps, to exercise strong control at the border, to assist U.S.Show MoreRelatedIllegal Immigration Is The Act Of Migrating Across A National Border1310 Words   |  6 Pages By its nature, illegal immigration is hard to measure and control. But to fully understand the solutions and properly analyze them; the origin, causes, and effects must be clear. Illegal immigration is the act of migrating across a national border without a legalized permissi on from the target country. Illegal immigration has long been a problem in the USA since the latter half of the 20th century. 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