Politics in the United States

The American government is built up by the Congress (legislative powers), the President (executive powers) and the Supreme Court (judicial powers). And each state have the power over following areas; foreign affairs, defense, monetary policy and trade. 

• The Congress consists of two chambers, the House of Representatives and the Senate. They have the power to pass law, levy taxes and decide how federal money is to be used. 
• The President is Head of State, chief executive, commander-in-chief and chief diplomat.
  
• The Supreme Court has nine members and they get appointed for life. The Supreme Court is the highest court in the land. That means that have the last word when it comes to decide laws.    

The two major parties in the US are the Democratic and the Republican party. 

The Democratic Party

They have support in the large cities and states on the coasts and among working class and minorities.

• Liberal
• Supports stronger federal authority
• Shape the American society. Example: reduce gap between the rich and the poor
• Support welfare programs
• Use taxes wisely for the good of the citizens of the US

The Republican Party

They have support in the suburbs of larger cities, heartland of the Midwest, the south and among business people.

• Conservative
• Against social welfare schemes because they believe that every man shoud be able to take care of himself
• Support lower level of taxation
• Support lower level of federal spending except on defense

A president (and its vice president) is elected every four year. In order to run, the candidates have to be at least 35 years of age and native-born American citizens.  They must have been US-residents for the last 14 years as well.

A presidential election is in fact 51 separate elections (each in every state + District of Columbia) A candidate needs 270 or more electoral votes to gain absolute majority. If a candidate wins in one state, it gets its electoral votes. The number of electoral votes is calculated regarding to how many citizens who reside in that very state. 

In the Valley of Elah

We just watch the movie the Valley of Elah which shows what kind of impact the war can have on young people. It is about a father that finds out that his son is absent without leave and starts to look for him. He finds out that he was found dead, burnt and cut up in pieces close to the local base. This is the second son he lost and he is determined to find out what actually happened to him. During his investigation he discovers some very disturbing new facts. And it makes him understand why his son sent him some pictures and videos that he previously didn't quite understand. This is all after a long research and when he ended up at the base talking to some of his sons friends at the base. They explain some of the videos and the pictures that Mike sent him. And they tell him stories on how they once hit a child because they couldn't stop because they might get shot and killed by someone else. There were also other incidents like that down there, and they also explained what happened in the video were they tortured a guy by poking him in a wound several times when they knew he was in deep pain.

That's what the war can do to people, and after seeing and experiencing such horrible things down there it made it hard for them to go back and adjust to a normal life again. They couldn't separate right from wrong anymore and it made them do horrible things even to people they liked. That's why they were the ones who actually killed Mike. It all started with a little fight and it developed to a big fight where they beat him to death. Then they burnt him and cut him into pieces.This is an example of how sick some people can get after being in a war...

Why the US school system doesn't work properly

I just watched the movie Lions for Lambs and I was surprised to find out that so many americans are so dumb. Well actually I wasn't really surprised because I've lived in the states and went to school there for a year. I was a senior at a small high school in West Virginia. It made me understand a lot of things about americans and why they have so little knowledge about the rest of the world and why so many are far behind the rest of the world. The problem in many cases is the learning methods. First of all they always use multiple choice tests and also in many cases they also use that in everyday assignmenst. In my point of view this is not a very effective way of learning. It's very easy to cheat and it doesn't make you think for yourself and come up with a critical answer. Another thing about the multiple chioce is that some people might just copy someone else's paper and not even read the quesitons. They also use worksheets that you're only supposed to fill in the blanks. This is not very effective either. You can find the same problem as in the multiple choice assignments because you can just copy someone else's paper and get an A without even thinking or get caught for cheating.

I think you learn more by coming up with your own answers in stead of just filling in blanks. Another good way to learn is to have projects where you have to do your own research and come up with a creative answers. Roleplay and discussions are also good ways to learn because if you have to put yourself in another ones position or make up your own opinion about things makes you think and develop a great communication skill at the same time. I also know that people need different ways to learn and some methods doesn't learn as fast in every way. But I know for sure that you don't learn much from multiple choice or already filled out worksheets, because you don't get the whole picture and you only learn the few things you need to put on the paper and the you forget everything.

The second problem is they're point of veiw of some things. Everything they learn is from the US point of view and they almost don't learn anything about other countries and world geography. Most high school students don't know much about world history or other cultures. And when most of them don't travel much, they get a really narrowminded sight of the world.