American Civilization

This coming Tuesday will be a primary election in California.  Primary elections select the candidates of the different political parties who will get to compete in the « real » election in November.  So, every political party has its own ballot of candidates.  Since the Democratic and Republican political parties are the major American political parties, this [...]

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The U.S. Supreme court made a key ruling today.  While the ruling was interesting, what I found to be more interesting was the composition of the majority decision. The case, which will have far-reaching effects,  involves juvenile offenders.  The court decided that it was unconstitutional to lock up teenagers for life without any chance of [...]

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According to any civics class in America, a bill becomes a law after a majority in Congress votes for the piece of legislation.  Then, the bill is sent to the president for his signature – or, in some cases, his veto. However, that doesn’t seem to be really the way it works.  Especially right now [...]

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American students learn that Baron de Montequieu helped to shape the government of the United States.  Key to the U.S. system is Montesquieu’s idea of different governmental branches to provide a separation of powers.  The U.S. government has these three branches of government:  the executive, the legislative, and the judicial branches. Now I’m beginning to [...]

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A special election will be held this coming Tuesday in Massachusetts to elect the replacement for the seat Ted Kennedy held in the U.S. Senate. Kennedy was a member of the Democratic Party, and, given the state’s long Democratic tradition, it would should have been a shoe-in for the candidate from the Democratic Party.  NOT! [...]

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This new year, 2010, promises to be an important one for California.  In the November 2010 election, the state will select a new governor and decide on a U.S. senator.  In addition, there will be most likely  a number of initiatives on the ballot for voters to consider.  One possible area of the voter initiative [...]

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Last Tuesday  the San Francisco Bay Bridge was closed.  A 5,000-pound steel beam and two steel tie-rods crashed down on the upper level of the bridge.  These parts had been holding together a key support structure for the bridge.  Fortunately, only 3 vehicles were damaged and no one was hurt.  But, the commute between San [...]

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I awoke this morning and heard the report that Barack Obama had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.  First I thought that maybe I wasn’t quite awake and that I hadn’t heard the name correctly.  But, of course, I had.  I continued to be stunned for most of the day.  And I guess I wasn’t [...]

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I read recently that Obama has a  88% approval rate in France. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case in the United States at the moment. Many accounts that I’ve read or heard recently seem to suggest that he’s losing support. And, I’m not simply referring to those who are still questioning whether he’s [...]

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Here he is He’s Charles Rivkin, the U.S. ambassador to France. I heard an interesting report on the radio this morning; the claim was that Obama is continuing in the tradition of naming some ambassadors based on their political contributions.  Charles Rivkin was one of the names mentioned.  That led me to try to find [...]

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