A Website For Political Sciences

Here is a website that maybe of use to the Political Science instructors. This site teaches students how redistricting works.

Iranian Political Science Students

This video made me think of our political Science teachers. I recognized some of the Iranian in the video as students in one of our American Government classes!

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Jason Jones: Behind the Veil - Ayatollah You So
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Jason Jones in Iran

Earth Day and Birthdays

Did you know today was earth day? Yes it was.
The Psychology teacher with the distinguished beard wished me a happy earth day and I heard him say "happy birthday".
Did you know a certain someone (NOT ME) is always collecting papers and cans to take them home so he can be certain they are recycled. He does not do it for the money he does it for the planet. He gets upset when he sees me doing something environmentally unsound and starts with his admonishments. He carpools with a History and a Psychology teacher to cut down on his CO2 footprint. Today I understood why he is so ecological. He was born on Earth Day.
Also today I discovered the exact time he was born, 5:55PM and how much he weight at birth 9 pound and 9 ounces.
The most important thing I learned about our Earth Boy is that he is a decent guy. Since I knew it was his birthday, I offered to pay for dinner anywhere around Rio, and he chose one of the cheapest place in town.
As you pass him in the hall wish him a happy 32 birthday!

Republican Budget Plan from School Services of California (click here)

I got the following from the CCA. I have highlighted the sections that will have the greatest effect on the community college. The most dangerous part of this proposal is the education flexibility provision.

Senate and Assembly Republicans on December 15, 2008, released their plan
to address the State Budget crisis.

Of the $15.6 billion in reductions, $10.63 billion is from
Proposition 98, which brings funding down to the minimum guarantee.

Republicans propose the following education flexibility provisions:

Restore the ability for schools and community colleges to
contract out for services such as student transportation, cafeteria services,
landscaping, and payroll.
Allow certificated employees to be laid-off after a 45-day notification
Enhance local control by cutting strings to categorical programs and
allowing schools to redirect funding to their highest priorities.
Give the Legislature more flexibility to allocate after-school program funding (with voter approval)

The Assembly will meet today to discuss the Republican proposal. If you live in a Republican District write and or phone them to stop this horrible proposal. This means less classes for our students. This means good bye March 15 and good bye 50% rule.

He's Caught

....our full-time political science instructors, should be given a
commendation. Colin performed a service for the entire campus community by
giving his time to put together a campaign forum in Wray Theater on October 30th
to enable students and staff to discuss Proposition 8 and the positions held by
Senator Obama and Senator McCain on foreign policy and domestic matters.
To prepare for this event, he compiled a summary of each of the state-wide
propositions, recruited a faculty panel, selected questions for all of the
presenters, and encouraged all faculty to provide extra credit to
students. I have never seen the Wray Theater so full, with students
literally overflowing into the aisles. The forum was scheduled for one hour, but
students were so interested, many stuck around for an extra half hour to
continue the discussion...

I believe Manuel should have gotten this award since he, a true Democrat, had to play John McCain. Some of the students (Obamamites) were ready to go up there and hurt poor Manuel.

Political Science Teachers

Here is an interview with a Political Science Prof. and candidate for Governor. He claims in order to teach business one must bankrupt a business, and in order to teach political science one must lose an election. Our political science department has two elected officials. Did they ever lose?

Youtube Trouble and Forum Video

I have been trying to load up the video taken at the forum but I have been having trouble with loading it up. After 2 days of attempting and failing persistence paid off and here is the first part which introduces the propositions.
I am sorry but YouTube has a time and size limit. I had to lower the quality of the video and cut it into smaller time frames. The rest of the 60 minutes will be uploaded later in separate postings.

Political Science

I saw the following on Bill Moyer's Journal. It may be of use to our Political Science faculty as they teach the Electoral College.

Paris Hilton For President

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Tracking Hassan Elahi (Click Here)

This is an interesting video and I highly recommend it. This guy is a professor of something at San Jose State. Art? Social Science? If you wish to track this guy click on the title of this post.

Barack and Hillary Need Superdelegates

Amazingly it is quite probable that neither Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama wins the 2025 delegates necessary for the Democratic nomination. Thus the decision falls on superdelegates, a mix of elected Democrats and non-elected prominent members of the Democratic Party organization (i.e. Howard Dean, the chairman). The website in the link to this post is a work in progress, but it has a list of all superdelegates and which candidate they currently lean toward.

There is also a Youtube explanation of how the superdelegate process works if you.

This will become more relevant over time. Enjoy. If you want me to put you to sleep, I'm also happy to explain how this all works:)

Bariloche

I am in Bariloche now. I got a little depressed in Mendoza because of the poverty. It was difficult for me to eat at a restaurant while there were beggars coming up to my table. Here in Bariloche it is more affluent, so eating does not come with a guilt trip. The town was set up by Germans and Swiss immigrants so the town has an European feel to it. Bariloche is the highlight of this trip. Since I do not wish to drive, I have signed up for various tours as I did in Mendoza. I will post the pictures after my return.
Yesterday our tour guide could speak English. She was Argentinian but her ancestry included German and Irish. My friend asked ´how do Argentinians feel about foreigners?´
She replied with¨We like them. Except when they buy up land here.¨ She told us about Ted Turner and how he bought a big piece of land near here. However, in another story she told us how she wished her grandmother would sell a small piece of her land so they can go visit Germany. This was contradictory for me as an economist. She could not see that Ted Turner by buying up land had pushed up the price she could ask for her grandmother´s land. Also we met a lawyer/Lobbyist for GE capital. She was a nervous wreck. She had been on vacation for a month but yet you could sense how wound up she was. She had paid for the more expensive tour on the boat but stayed on the bus with us because there were too many people on the boat. She had quit her job after 9 years and is only a consultant now. My friend and her discussed the mortgage and credit markets.

The people have spoken!

The votes for our first poll are finalized. There were seven votes ( I voted twice), and it was 5 in favor of having a poll and two against.

Who is Liberal? (Click Here 4 the Story)

Political Orientation of Faculty Members — 3 Categories

Liberal 44.1%
Moderate 46.1%
Conservative 9.2%

I was reading Inside Higher Ed and saw an interesting story titled "The Liberal (and Moderating) Professoriate". This story was based on a study which shows that college Professors are not as liberal as their reputation.
Community Colleges have the largest number of moderate and conservative teachers compared to those "Liberal Arts Colleges".
There are other breakdowns and this is an interesting story. Click here or on the title to see the complete story.

Polls A New Feature of Blogger

I use Blogger as an announcement page for my classes. It is easy to use. I can email my posts to blogger and they get posted. I have one for my Micro class and one for my Macro class. Next semester I will be teaching a hybrid Macro class for the first time.
So I started building a page for it. As I was building the page, I noticed a new tool. They have a poll option.
I quickly came back here and put one up for you. Look to the right of the screen.
Well... What Do You Think? Do we need a poll?
We could use it for informal surveys. I have not gone through the whole reasoning process yet. I just want to play with this new toy!

Love & Hate

Presidential Election