Federal v. State Power Essay Example for Free

Federal v. State Power Essay As citizens of the United States we exist under a federal system of government. There are different levels of the system, each cooperating with the next and each having some form of formal authority over the people. The age long argument has been: â€Å"more state power is most effective – no, more federal power is most effective†. There are also those who believe that an equal cooperation between both state and federal governments, our current way of separating power, is the most effective. So where should the line be drawn and which is most effective? The Constitution gave us a basic outline for how we should run our government. The bottom line is cooperative federalism – powers and policy assignments are shared between states and the national government and they may also share costs, administration, and even blame for programs that work poorly (Edwards 81). The idea of cooperative federalism has raised an important question: Where do the boundaries of national government end and where do the boundaries of state governments begin? The tenth amendment has somewhat of an answer to where the state boundaries begin. It says that if a state is not given a power directly by the constitution but is not prohibited from using that power then it is the state’s right to use and regulate that power. As for the boundaries of the national government, the supreme court case of McCulloch v. Maryland gives a good example. In 1791 the government established a national bank. This bank could print money and make loans as well as a number of other banking responsibilities. Many people who believed that the government should have a limited amount of control over the economy were opposed to the idea of a national bank. Eventually the government stopped funding the bank, but not long after came the second national bank. Out of defiance to the bank, the state of Maryland passed a law taxing the Baltimore branch $15,000 a year which it refused to pay. Maryland decided to sue the branch’s cashier, James McCulloch, and after the state’s law was upheld McCulloch took the case to the Supreme Court. Chief Justice John Marshall ruled in favor of the bank on the grounds that Congress has certain implied powers and that because of these implied powers creating a national bank was perfectly acceptable. Just like the state governments, the powers of the national government are not always clear and can be interpreted rather narrowly or quite broadly. In Article 1 Section 8 of the constitution the powers of congress are specifically listed-enumerated powers-but this section of the constitution also includes the â€Å"necessary and proper clause† This clause states that Congress may create any laws or policies it sees fit to apply the powers specifically spelled out. Going hand-in-hand with implied powers and the â€Å"necessary and proper clause† is the commerce clause. The commerce clause gives congress the right to regulate commerce. Commerce can be defined today as the movement of goods, radio signals, electricity, telephone messages, the internet, insurance transactions, and more (Edwards 77). Congress regulates the movement of all of these between the U. S and foreign nations, between states, and between Indian Tribes. With an extremely broad definition of commerce people have become concerned with how much power the national government actually has. Contributing to this concern are grants-in-aid and unfunded mandates. Grants-in-aid are grants given to state government from the federal government to aid in different programs and projects. Concern arises because grants often come with strings attached and sometimes are not given to states until they fulfill certain requirements (this would be an example of a mandate). Sometimes the government passes a law and expects states to follow that law and fund it without help from the government; this is an unfunded mandate. The federal government often uses grants-in-aid and unfunded mandates to have more control over what happens within the states which is where the concern of cooperation and boundaries comes from. In addition to the different components of federalism, there are pieces of legislature that also make people question whether more, less, or the same amount of power to the states is most effective. Among these pieces of legislature are the Affordable Care Act and the Clean Air Act. The Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, was designed to make health insurance more readily available and more affordable. Obamacare, has two key components: an individual mandate and Medicaid expansion. People who do not have health insurance, either through their employer or personally, are required to purchase health care before 2014. Anyone who does not follow this mandate will be required to pay a â€Å"shared responsibility payment† to the Federal government. As of right now Medicaid covers pregnant women, children, needy families, the blind, the elderly, and the disabled. Obamacare would expand this by requiring states to provide care to adults with incomes up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level. This act also increases the amount of money states will receive for this mandate. In the case that a state does not follow the Medicaid expansion it may lose all funding for both the requirements and Medicaid. The Clean Air Act regulates the amount of pollutants floating in the air, the amount of pollutants released by industrial and mobile sources, and the types of fines and sanctions levied against pollution violators (Potoski 335). The environmental protection agency allows states to take responsibility of the requirements in their state and as long as they follow the minimum requirements the state will receive funding from the government. If a state does not comply with the minimum standards for clean air, the Clean Air Act will become an unfunded mandate just the same as Obamacare would become an unfunded mandate. Where Obamacare and the Clean Air Act are concerned, policymaking is most effective through state and federal cooperation. First and foremost if a state decided not to follow the requirements of expanding Medicaid, the burden of an unfunded mandate would rest on the shoulders of its citizens and its government. The same would go for the Clean Air Act. This may even be worse considering the point of the Clean Air Act is to keep our air clean. Without the cooperation of the states we don’t have clean air and without clean air we have sickness and unhealthy conditions for our citizens. This being said cooperation is extremely important between the levels of government. If the federal government were to have more control, at least where these policies are concerned, there is the potential danger of the government issuing these policies and not providing funding for them because they don’t want to spend the money or they want to show how powerful they are or for whatever reason. In the event that this happens the states are stuck with a pretty large burden of making sure that they have enough money to meet the standards of Medicaid expansion and the clean air act. In the case that states had more power, inconsistency would become a reality. Every state is different. They want different things and not all are willing to meet the same standards. If enough inconsistency occurs and each state creates different standards for their policies, there’s almost no point to having the federal government because states start to believe themselves to be independent. With all of that being said, policymaking is most effective through state and federal cooperation. With more power to one or the other we lose sight of a democracy. Our country was designed on the basis of cooperative federalism. We wouldn’t be the United States anymore without the federal government, without the states, or with one having more power over the other. Our system of checks and balances provides us with an effective way of accomplishing our goals and staying united. Federalism In America

Stanley Kramer’s Inherit the Wind :: Stanley Kramer Inherit the Wind

Stanley Kramer’s Inherit the Wind    History is consistently used in films as a technique to teach the values and morals of events that occurred. But what’s the point in teaching history through films when they are terribly fictional? In films, the director finds the best scheme to intrigue their audience only by changing the actual event to satisfy their interest. This is true for Stanley Kramer when he made the history of John Scopes and his â€Å"monkey trial† into a film called Inherit the Wind. Kramer knew the exact stereotypical â€Å"Hollywood history† his audience enjoyed. The trial itself had a series of conflicts, the main one being evolution vs. religion. Yet there was also a series of tensions throughout the movie, including the argument between individual vs. society. The same themes from Inherit the Wind can also be seen from the actual â€Å"monkey trial† event in Dayton, Tennessee. It is sometimes said that truth is stranger than fiction and according to this film, truth is al so stronger than fiction. Inherit the Wind ignored the true dramatic moment, which is essential to the actual trial that happened in Dayton, Tennessee. Kramer even portrayed his own opinion of this trial in this film. The truth was so distorted in the film so now the argument is not individual vs. society or evolution vs. religion but history vs. fiction. Inherit the Wind is set in the little town of Hillsboro when Bertram Cates (played by), a biology teacher, was thrown into prison for teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution. Two famous lawyers were behind this case, Henry Drummond (played by) as the defender and Mathew Harrison Brady (played by), as the prosecutor. Mathew Harrison Brady who was â€Å"voted 3 times for a presidential candidate† was sent to Hillsboro is carry out the job as a prosecutor for this trial. As for Cates, a journalist from Baltimore Herald by the name of E.K. Horrbeck willingly provided a lawyer named Henry Drummond for him. Horrbeck was inter ested in the Cates, expecting to make big bucks from this big â€Å"media† case. The two opposing lawyers, Drummond and Brady, were Kramer’s two main characters, both with different opinions on how humans arrived on earth. Drummond supported the evolution theory, while Brady, the creation theory. In this film, Kramer distorted the facts of the actual trial to make this film more of a drama than a history documentary.

The Gypsy Swing Cats and the Beginning of Jazz

Joshua Pauly Professor Hsu Artistic/Cultural Plunge Essay 11 April 2013 The Gypsy Swing Cats and the Beginning of Jazz On Wednesday April 10th I decided to go to the Kaffee Meister Coffeehouse, located at 9225 Carlton Hills Blvd Santee Ca. 92071, for the specific reason of enjoying some Jazz music played by the San Diego based Gypsy Swing Cats. I was quite impressed with how they performed by mixing an energetic and innovated blend of Swing, Jazz, and Blues. From what I observed, their music merges Gypsy melodies and rhythms, with the influences of American Jazz reminiscent of Paris in the 1930's: cool, charming, and classy.The music of the Gypsy Swing Cats is thoroughly modern infused with the wild, mysteriously free and exciting Gypsy flavors. The tantalizing melodies of the Gypsy Swing Cats bring the audience a unique and new experience. Their highly rhythmic sound will electrify your listening experience with a new exciting energy. Gypsy Jazz, also known as Gypsy Swing, is a musi cal expression often said to have been started by guitarist Jean â€Å"Django† Reinhardt. He was foremost amongst a group of Gypsy guitarists working in and around Paris in the 1930's.The music combined the exciting sound of American Jazz that transformed the old into the new. The guitarists supercharged the music further by adding Swing to the fire and melancholia of the unique Gypsy sound. The tantalizing melodies of the Gypsy Swing Cats bring the audience a unique and new experience. My dad is a big fan of Jazz music and he played it a lot around me when I was growing up, but I never really paid attention to it or who the famous musicians of the genre were.Yeah, this Jazz music was and still is very soothing to my mind, but I just personally never had any drive to listen to it on my own. After Hearing The Gypsy Swing Cats’ band play this genre of music that I was not very familiar with, I decided to embark on a journey of discovering something new to add to my not-s o-vastly knowledgeable brain, how Jazz was born. Jazz started when World War I had just ended and a social revolution was on its way. Customs and values of previous social norms were rejected. Life was to be lived to the fullest.This was also known as the era of the â€Å"lost generations,† and the â€Å"flapper† with her rolled stockings, short skirts, and straight up-and-down look. They disturbed their elders in the casino, night clubs, and speakeasies that replaced the ballrooms of prewar days. Dancing became more informal. At the close of the nineteenth century in the unpleasant dance halls and brothels of the South and Midwest, the word Jazz commonly meant sexual intercourse. Southern blacks, delivered from slavery a few decades before, started playing European music with Afro modifications.The first place of jazz has many origins: New Orleans, St. Louis, Memphis, and Kansas City are just a few. But New Orleans was and still remains an important jazz center. The e thnic rainbow of people who went to the bars and brothels were a big part of the development of jazz. This city had been under Spanish French rule because of the Louisiana Purchase. By 1900 New Orleans was a blend of Spanish, French, English, German, Italian, Slavic and countless blacks originally brought in the country as slaves.The first jazz bands contained a â€Å"rhythm section† consisting of a string bass, drums, and a guitar or banjo, and a â€Å"melodic section† with one or two cornets, a trombone, a clarinet, and sometimes even a violin. Years later, jazz was taken over by large orchestras; A â€Å"society jazz† contained fifteen or more musicians. Today, there is a renewed interest in the â€Å"big band† era, even though the music has very little to do with real jazz. Jazz is characterized by certain features. The first is a tendency to stress the weak beats of the bar (2nd and 4th) in contrast to traditional music which stressed the first and t hird beats.The second feature is syncopation through an extensive repetition of short and strongly rhythmic phrases or â€Å"riffs†. The third feature of jazz is swing (regular but subtle pulsation which animates 4/4 time). The swing must be present in every good jazz performance. Jazz as a musical style it has been with us for more than a century. Jazz originated in the United States, It has spread over the entire world, and its influence can be seen everywhere. It is a universal language and means of communication, understood by people in all nations and all walks of life.It has been a major influence on many styles and classes of music since its origin in the late 1800's. It has also influenced dance, clothing styles, the recording industry, the film industry, radio and television, our language, and many other aspects of our lives. One major contributor to jazz was Louis Daniel Armstrong who was born in the Storyville District of New Orleans, Louisiana, on August 4, 1901. He always celebrated his birth as July 4, 1900 because that is what he was told and believed.His real date of birth was not known until after his death July 6, 1971. His father Willie, a laborer, left the family soon after he was born, his mother, a domestic servant and a part time prostitute called Mayanne, left Louis and his sister Beatrice, also called Mama Lucy, in the care of his grandma much of the time, however he always believed the love of his family helped him make it through those rough times. Louis dressed in rags and usually shopped in garbage cans. He sang with other boys on the streets for tips and began to develop his musical talents.At this time in his life, it was not a promising time for young Louis. To celebrate the New Year in 1913 Louis discharged a borrowed pistol into the air and was arrested. A very fortunate occurrence for Jazz and probably for him, he was then sent to the city's Colored Waif's Home for Boys, where he came under the very capable tutorship o f Peter Davis, the music instructor at the home. Louis had some background in harmony singing, as a natural ability, and the experience of singing on the streets, but under Mr.Davis he began to study music. First vocals, then percussion, then he became the home bugler, and finally cornet. The music was very structured mostly marches and other ensemble music. When being released from the waif's home at age fourteen, Louis worked selling papers, unloading boats, and selling coal from a horse and cart. He also listened to bands at clubs like the Come Clean Dance Hall and Mahogany Hall, in Storyville. Joe â€Å"King† Oliver with the Kid Ory Band was his favorite and he quickly became young Louis's mentor.By 1917 Louis was playing in various groups at dive bars in New Orleans' Storyville section. In 1919 he joined Fate Marable's band in St. Louis, and stayed with him until 1921. Marable headed a band and he played in Zutty Singleton's Trio, Papa Celestin's Tuxedo Orchestra, The Si lver Leaf Band, and When King Oliver left New Orleans in 1919 to go to Chicago, Louis took his place in Kid Ory's band, at the suggestion of Oliver. In 1922 Louis received a telegram from Joe Oliver, asking him to join his Creole Jazz Band at Lincoln Gardens in Chicago.Louis learned much working with Oliver. The experience of playing second cornet helped to develop his ear and harmonies, and, the importance of playing straight lead, as Oliver did, were lessons that he would use for the remainder of his life. While playing in Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, Louis met Lillian Hardin the piano player for the band, and they were married in February of 1924. By the end of 1924 she pressured Louis to leave the Oliver band. He moved to New York to play in Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra for 13 months.While in New York he worked many recording sessions with numerous Blues singers including Bessie Smith on her 1925 classic recording of â€Å"St. Louis Blues†. In 1925 Armstrong moved back to Chicago and joined his wife's band at the Dreamland. He recorded his first Hot Five records that same year. This was the first time Louis had made records under his own name. The records made by Louis Armstrong's Hot Five and Hot Seven are considered to be absolute jazz classics and the peak of his creative powers. The band never played live, but continued recording until 1928.Louis Armstrong died in 1969 his manager was Joe Glaser. According to records the first person to play jazz music was a man born in 1878, the legendary Buddy Bolden. The old-time musicians say that Buddy Bolden was â€Å"the first musician to start the big noise in Jazz. † They say he'd shine his cornet â€Å"till it glistened like a woman's legs†. Then he'd put his horn out the window and say to his band, â€Å"Let's call the children home†. He would blow and his children would come running. It has also been said that, â€Å"his trumpet could be heard all over New Orleans, and even acro ss the river in Algiers†.

Reading Comprehension Issues Can Negatively Impact Math...

Reading disabilities or reading comprehension issues can negatively impact math performance. In this lesson we will discuss the importance of connecting reading abilities with math so that students can benefit from a different approach to the subject. !!! Connecting Math and Reading â€Å"I don’t understand math.†, ‘’I hate word problems.†, â€Å"I don’t even know what the problem is asking!† If you are a math teacher, surely you have heard these comments, or some variation, from students more often than you would care to. Although you empathize, try to explain mathematical concepts in different ways, perhaps, you do not always get the positive result you were looking for which is for your students who struggle to overcome mathematical hurdles. Well, have you ever considered that their problem with math may be related to reading difficulties? With word problems which are sometimes called story problems, it may be sometimes easier for us teachers to make the connection between diminished math performance due to reading comprehension issues. With other types of math proficiencies, this math-reading connection may not be as evident, but it is still there and should be addressed so that students can overcome them. !!!Research Says†¦ Let’s continue our discussion on the importance of connecting reading and math with some facts. Research has shown that there is often a connection between reading comprehension and mathematics. As a matter of fact, a 2002 study titled: A Longitudinal StudyShow MoreRelatedSickle Cell Anemia Essay1530 Words   |  7 Pagesinherited disease in which the body is unable to produce normal hemoglobin, an iron-containing protein. Sickle cell anemia is a disease in which the body is unable to produce normal hemoglobin, an iron-containing protein. 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