Sunday, October 19, 2008

The Legislative Branch

The Legislative Branch

The Legislative branch is a part of our government we have all heard of before but most of us to do not know what it means and how it really effects our country. I'm going to tell you a little about this branch what they do and how they check on other branches. This branch is broken into two parts the house of represnitives which has 435 people, and the senate which has 100. The amount of people in the house of repersentives is decided by the population of the sate like New Hampshire has three and Virginia has ten. This means that Virginia has a larger population then New Hampshire, so in the house of represenitives Virginia has more say then New Hampshire. The amount of people in the senate is the same for all states, they all have two senators. When they made these two branches they decide to separate the power because if they just kept it like the house of represenitives the states that have more people would have more say then the other states that do not have as many people this would be unfair to the smaller states. These branches are both very important to the people, they are the division that makes the laws. Even though they make the laws the president must sign them with in ten days to make it a law, if he dose not sign it in that time he must send a letter back to either the house of represenitives or the senate so they can vote on it again.
Even though I know this branch does so much for the people and our whole government was made for the people. I do not believe the government is really living up to what they promised to do with our people. They are getting lost in power and we are letting them stomp all over us. Do not get me wrong there are people that are trying to stand up for what is right. But the government is not hearing us and what we have to say. The media also they get so caught up in what celebrity is doing what or how fat they are. We lose the really news about the war and what is going on in different countries. How do you think we can help our government not to get lost in this power any more?
The legislative branch are in control of raising taxes, raising and spending money to take care of the nation, but all taxes must be the same for all the states, to borrow money using the credit of the united states, make rules for hoe people buy and sell things to people in other country among the sates and with Native Americans, the choose when to print money and make coins, and how much it will be worth, and how much money from other countries is worth, to build post offices and roads, to keep the systems of courts around the country to support the Supreme Court, to make war, to bulid a army and pay for it, to build a navy and pay for it.
After all that, this branch can do even more! They can also check on the other two forms of government the executive and the judicial branches. They do this by a really long and confusing presses but it works, it has been what has kept our government the way it has been for so long.






This is a diagram showing the ways the laws go through the legislative, executive, and judicial branch. This is the way that each of the branches check on each other. First the laws start at the legislative branches , because they make them up, then it goes to the executive branch or the president, he has the choice to either sign the law or to veto it. If he signs it is a law, if he does not then it has to go back to the legislative branch where they vote on it again and they can also override the bill meaning it just becomes a law. If it is a tie the vice-president will put there vote in. If it is not and 2/3 of the branch vote for it then it will go to the judicial where they test the law in the court system. Is this presses the one that has made our government become bullies and want to have so much power? How can we change is? Is there away the people can become more involved with the
system?

The natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on Earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but only to have the law of nature for his rule. Samuel Adams

This quote makes me think about the fact that to me right now the legislative branch and really all branches of our government are stopping our right to be free and speck our mind because to me there is a difference between saying what you think and having some one listen. The reason why I do not speak my mind to the government is because I know that they will shout me out. And I do not want to think that but it is hard when you do not know how to change it.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

In our government there are six principles that make it up these are popular sovereignty, limited government, separation of powers, checks and balances, judicial review, and federalism.

One that really stood out to me was the separation of power, this one stood out to me because i think this is really important to have in a government. So to understand this I read an article on the state of nature. It was talking about what the founding fathers were thinking when they had first made our government.

They said a lot of things that I think would connect to the separation of power one thing was that all men are created equal. This has to do with separation of power because if each of us are created equal we should all have control of what we do and we should all be equally listened to. Another thing was that we all have this idea of life, liberty, and property. All of these things are talking about freedom, and that if our government is flowing this that we should be free to live to speak our minds and to be happy. This has to do with separation of power because we should all have the freedom to choose what power we want and if everyone wants we should all have the same amount.

I feel that our government now is getting to caught up in the power we have gave them and they are not using it in a way that will help the people they are using it to put them up higher and they are leaving the rest of us behind and not giving us the power needed to have a real democracy.
What do you think? How can we fix it?

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Got Democracy for real

"Civility costs nothing and buys everything." by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, 1756

This is connected to a democracy, because if you are not civil to people and cant talk to people in a way that others feel comfortable, then whole point of a democracy is not going to let the people have the freedom to say what they believe. The people would be to scared to what what they think. So this quote means that we all must be civil with each other, but still get our points across, and if we are able to do that we will be able to win the votes or buy the people.

Do you our democracy has been civil? Do you think people are scared to speak there minds?