Little Advice to my Hooligans

Wow....this summer has been crazy busy. A little advice to my students out there: When y'all are older, I recommend NOT getting married, buying a house that need some fix-me-ups , and having your truck break down all within a month of each other. Otherwise, you'll find yourself neglecting other things...like maintaining your government class blog. Anywho, I hope y'alls summers are going well. Your responses to the Machiavelli questions were great....for the most part. I look forward to getting your Paine responses here soon, and especially to starting the school year in less than a month. Until then, a few tidbits on some major political happenings over the last couple of weeks:

- Elena Kagan, President Obama's Solicitor General, has been sworn in as the newest justice of the Supreme Court. Democrats have praised her previous work as a prosecutor and for adding another female voice to the Court, while Republicans have criticized her for her lack of judicial experience (she's never been a judge) and for some of her rathery cryptic answers during the confirmation hearings. Overall, this doesn't change the make up of the Court, as we still have four conservatives, four liberals, and one independent who has become the Court's swing vote. (5 bonus points for the first person to identify who that independent voice on the Court is!)

- Yesterday, a small plane crashed in Alaska, killing former Senator Ted Stevens. Stevens, 86 years old, was a long time member of the U.S. Senate, and was the longest serving Republican member until he lost re-election in 2008 (after being convicted of concealing several hundreds of thousands of dollars in inappropriate gifts). Stevens was famous for being a stubborn advocate for his state, and funnelling millions of dollars in pork barrel projects toward Alaska (a Little Debbie cake on the first day of class for the first person to identify what a pork barrel project is!). Stevens was also famous for requesting $250 million for a "Bridge to Nowhere" and for once referring to the Internet as a "series of tubes."

- Finally, we come to the issue of gay marriage in California. In summer 2008, the California Supreme Court ordered that homosexuals be allowed to marry in that state. In November of that year, voters approved Proposition 8, which overturned the Court's decision, outlawing same-sex marriage. Now, just last week, a federal judge in California found that Proposition 8 was unconstitutional. So the issue of same-sex marriage in California is currently in a state of chaos. And in a strange twist, many homosexual advocates in California are criticizing President Obama for his opposition to same-sex marriage. Can Obama, already facing an approval rating of only 45%, afford to lose this key support base? Well, can he? Looking for your comments, reactions, questions, rants!