Annotated Bibilography, Earthday

Kitchell, Mark. "Watch Film: A Fierce Green Fire." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2014.

"A Fierce Green Fire" is an educational video on the movements that lead up to the origin of earth day. This video was produced by Frontline, PBS's educational video source. The video goes through three stories of environmental issues. One is about a woman who lived in an area called Love Canal. Love Canal was seriously polluted by industrial waste that was buried years before in the area and started seeping up through the soil. Almost all of the babies born that year had birth defects and many people were seriously ill. One woman took a stand against this and got the entire community involved in getting the government to get the area cleaned up. This is a reliable source and I plan to use it again on future research.

"Earth Day: The History of A Movement." Earth Day Network Main. Earth Day Network, n.d. Web. 03 May 2014. <http://www.earthday.org/earth-day-history-movement>.

This short educational article explains the origin of earth day and the event surrounding it. It takes a lot to create a movement but with all the commotion surrounding the Vietnam war, the Hippie movement, and the change in industrial standards environmentalists had grounds to stand on to start a revolution. The Vietnam War created distrust in the government and people rose up to stop the slaughter and create a healthier America. America's youth saw the pollution and issues and decided to make a change. Rachel Carson's Silent Spring brought every ones attention to chemical pollution and its likely outcome. In 1970 earth day capitalized on America's new conscious. Its creator Gaylord Nelson came up with the idea after 20 million Americans took to the streets to protest April 22. I believe this is a reliable source because it is a .org website and it follows all of the information I have heard previously.

 "American Experience: TV's Most-watched History Series." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 07 May 2014.

This source has provided a timeline of the environmental movement for the last 60 years beginning in 1948 with the Water Pollution Control Act. Following that act was the first U.S. conference on air pollution as a reaction to 20 deaths due to sulfur dioxide emissions from a steel wire plant. Other noted events were 170-260 New Yorkers killed by smog in 1953.  President Eisenhower's State of the Union address on air pollution in '55 and an amendment to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1948. In 1960 CO2 emissions climbed above 300ppm and in '62 "Silent Spring" was published bringing widespread awareness of chemical pollution. '63 the Clean Air Act passed and in '66 the first legislation on endangered species went through. April 22, 1970 was the first Earth Day. Today, we are doing our best to improve emissions and 76% of Americans consider themselves environmentalists.

Interest Groups

(1999_2)National interest groups often target national-level policy making institutions to achieve their policy objectives.

Select one of the following national interest groups.
- AARP
- AMA (Medical Association
- NAACP
- NAM (national assoc. of Manufacturers)

For the group you selected do each of the following.
- a identify one major national-level policy making institution that this group targets.
- b describe one resource or characteristic of the group you have chosen and explain how it influences the choice of the target you have identified in (a)
- c describe another resource or characteristic of the group you have chosen and explain how it influences the choice of the target you have identified in (a).

 a) The AARP targets Congress do get their policies and legislation passed.
b) The AARP tries to pass legislation benefiting retirees such as medicare congress can help them by writing legislation and getting it passed.
c) Congress is made up of older people. So many of them pass the legislation because it is mutually beneficial for older people.

 http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/members/repository/govpol_us_99.pdf

presidential election campaigns

(1999_1)In the 1990’s presidential election campaigns have become more candidate centered and less focused on issues and party labels. The change has been attributed both to how the media cover presidential campaigns and to how candidates use the media.
1) Identify and explain two ways in which the media have contributed to candidate-centered presidential campaigns.
2) Identify and explain two ways in which presidential candidates’ use of the media has contributed to candidate-centered campaigns.

Your answer should not include a discussion of presidential primary elections.

1) Two ways in which the media has contributed to candidate-centered presidential campaigns are image centered coverage/ personality coverage and coverage of the backgrounds of candidate's. Image centered coverage has become more important since elections have become televised. The more attractive candidate tends to be more well liked. It has also become important for voters to know who the candidates are for likability purposes.

2) Two ways in which presidential candidates’ use of the media has contributed to candidate-centered campaigns. Presidents have historically used the media to make themselves look good one way in which they do that is by pre scripting their interviews and only taking interviews they can control.  They also use the media to show the good work they do, to gain support.
    


http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/members/repository/sg_gov_pol_us_99.up_7047.pdf

Bureaucratic systems

a) One key characteristic of the merit system is hiring based on merit and testing rather than favoritism.

b) The structure of the federal bureaucracy contributes to bureaucratic independence by being large, specialized and merit based. Because the bureaucratic agencies are so specialized there is not much intervention by the state. The complexity of public policy problems also contribute because agencies are delegated authority —because Congress and the president cannot handle everything, they delegate authority to the bureaucracy. 

c) Congress, The Courts and Interest Groups can check the bureaucracy based on constitutional provision. Congress can do so by rejecting presidential appointments to the bureaucracy. The courts can judicially review and declare bureaucratic actions unconstitutional. Interest groups can use the first amendment to protest and lobby against the bureaucracy.  

http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/repository/ap10_us_govt_politics_q2.pdf

Partisanship change over time

a) The percentage of southern seats in the house held by democrats has been steadily decreasing for centuries.
b) Southern voters elected Democratic candidates to Congress more frequently than they elected Democratic candidates to the presidency because of incumbency advantage. Even though southerners started to lean Republican in choosing presidential candidates they felt safer keeping their incumbents, who were often Democrats, in the house. Another reason is differences between state and national parties which are independent of each other. To get votes Democratic congressional candidates responded to local interests, whereas Democratic presidential candidates responded to a national constituency.
c) Parties have changed in composition with respect to Catholics and women. Catholics have become less democratic voters over the years. Women have become more supportive of Democratic candidates and have become a large part of the Democratic voting population.    

http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/repository/ap10_us_govt_politics_q3.pdf

Bureaucratic Agencies

2006-3 The United States congress and the president together have the power to enact federal law. Federal bureaucratic agencies have the responsibility to execute federal law. However, in the carrying out of these laws, federal agencies have policy making discretion.
(1) Explain two reasons why Congress gives federal agencies policy making discretion in executing federal laws.
(2) Choose one of the bureaucratic agencies listed below. Identify the policy area over which it exercises policy-making discretion and give one specific example of how it exercises that discretion.
a. Environmental Protection Agency
b. Federal Communications Commission
c. Federal Reserve board
(3) Describe two ways in which Congress ensures that federal agencies follow legislative intent.

1) Two reasons why Congress gives federal agencies policy making discretion in executing federal laws are congress does not want to be blamed for bad policy and agencies have the expertise that congress does not to create new policy.  
2) The Environmental Protection Agency exercises policy-making discretion over clean air and water laws they do this by working with companies like BP to keep our waters clean.
3) Congress ensures that federal agencies follow legislative intent by using legislative oversight and budget appropriations.


http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/repository/_ap06_gopo_us_sg.pdf

Entitlement Programs

2006-2 In recent decades, entitlement programs have constituted a substantial portion of the United States federal budget. Social Security is the largest entitlement program in the US. From the information in the chart above, and your knowledge of the US government and politics, perform the following tasks.
(a) Define entitlement program
(b) What is the primary source of revenue for the Social Security program
(c) Identify one threat to the future of the Social security program should the trends depicted in the chart continue
(d) Describe on demographic trend that threatens the future of the Social Security program and explain how it is responsible for the threat that you identified in (c )
(e) Explain how any one of the trends in the chart above would change if the age of eligibility for social security were raised.

a) Entitlement programs are government-sponsored programs providing mandated/guarantee/required benefits to those who meet eligibility requirements/qualifications.
b)  The primary source of revenue for the Social Security program is taxes of different sorts mostly payroll and earned income taxes,
c) One threat to the future of the Social security program is the increasing number of retirees who can not be sustained by the smaller number of people entering the work force so we are going to run out of money for seniors. The trends in the cart should continue.
d) There are more older people and people are living longer, that is why we may run out of money.
e) If the age eligibility for social security was increased the amount of money we have for social security would stop decreasing at such a fast rate and hopefully even out and start increasing again soon. 



http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/repository/_ap06_gopo_us_sg.pdf