November 17th assignment:
Is participation always good? Assignment: find a website asking you to participate in
politics in a way that is unambiguously bad for society (or a news article about a person or organization requesting your participation in a normatively undesirable way).

http://washingtonindependent.com/65120/how-to-burn-pelosi-and-reid-and-effigy

Readings for the rest of the semester

Tu Oct 20: Voter behavior- No reading; lecture and discussion re: cohort disillusionment and trust eg Watergate and 9/11

Th Oct 22: Is politics dirty? No required reading. Watch the "Curator's Choice" campaign ads at The Living Room Candidate

Tu Oct 27: Issue publics- No required reading. Optional- Kinder & Kiewiet

Th Oct 29: Rational choice- Anthony Downs AND Feddersen

Tu Nov 3: Activism and social movements- Brady, Schlozman & Verba (1999)

Th Nov 5: Activism and social movements- no required reading.

Tu Nov 10: Civic participation- Dalton

Th Nov 12: Civic participation- Xenos & Moy

Tu Nov 17: Is participation always good? Assignment: find a website asking you to participate in
politics in a way that is unambiguously bad for society (or a news article about a person or organization requesting your participation in a normatively undesirable way). Post the website on the blog, or email it Prof. Scholl before class.

Th Nov 19: Young people and participation- Galston

Tu Nov 24: New media- Tedesco

Th Nov 26: Happy Thanksgiving!

Tu Dec 1: Political Consumption: Stolle, Hooghe & Michelleti AND Shah et al

Th Dec 3: Summing up and review- Schudson

Th Dec 10: Final exam from 3 to 5 pm

three new political blogs on NOLA.com

NOLA.com, the homepage of the Times Picayune (or times Pick-On-You as some would say) introduced three new political blogs to their website this morning: Pelican Briefs, City Hall Insider and Eye on Jefferson city.

Pelican Briefs will focus on State and National politics.
City Insider will be New Orleans city news.
And Eye on Jefferson City will focus on Jefferson parish politics, both East and West Bank.


Pelican Briefs contributors will include Robert Scott, who published an article last week entitled "David Vitter leads Charlie Melancon in latest poll on Senate race".
The article made reference to a poll comissioned by Baton Rouge business man and Republican candidate bankroller Lane Grisby and conducted by Southern Media and Opinion Research.

I contacted the reporter, Robert Scott about getting a copy of the poll (I called him on the phone number published with the article 225.342.4197 ) and he directed me to Southern Media for a copy. I called the Southern Media office at 225.383.4509 and left a message with a secretary Wednesday. I gave her my name and phone number and email, but never heard anything back.

I'm planning to call tomorrow. Hopefully I'll get a copy emailed to me, or a link to it somewhere on the web... If yall want to try calling Southern Media too, we might have better luck getting a copy. I made sure to tell them I was a student from LSU, studying political science so hopefully they will share it with us in the name of education :-)
If they blow me off again, I'm calling back Robert Scott, and asking him for a copy.

I'll try to post it on here when I get it, but until then check out the new NOLA blogs.

New Orleans' Tea Party Exclusive!!!!

MiLkMaN comin @cha straight outta Middleton!

I found this on nola.com's website.
What's up with all the Tea Party gatherings?
Oh, this event actually costs money because of the speaker, Star Jones...j/k
she's on the View...I mean Star Parker.
According to the website, she's a social activist, etc. However, like
the Verba, Brady, and Schlozmann article points out, Parker's stances on certain issues
do not represent the whole of those surveyed (she's African American).
Her books include "Pimps, Whores, and Welfare Brats," "Uncle Sam's Plantation" and , "White Ghetto." lol...wait, that's not funny...

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2009/10/star_parker_to_speak_at_metair.html



http://www.greaterneworleansteaparty.com/CalendarRSVP.cfm?EventID=34



Oh, the website also says there's a rally at the capitol for 11am on the 9th of November,
so if anyone wants to protest with me, then LET'S DO IT

Participation Oppurtunity!!

Congressman Bill Cassidy is having a public meeting TONIGHT @ 6 p.m. at the Marriot Hotel off Corporate.

Upcoming readings

There are no required readings for class tomorrow, Tuesday Oct 20. Readings for Thursday and later meetings coming soon.

Participation Opportunity

If any of yall would like to join me on Friday November 6th, Senator David Vitter will be hosting an informational session in Baton Rouge at the Marriot at 5500 Hilton Ave. You have to reserve a seat, it is free!! The session will be on Louisiana loosing a seat in the House in the 2010 census.

http://lagopredistrictingseminar.eventbrite.com/

Syllabus with up to date reading list

Click for a syllabus (update 10/26 to a .doc file for students with computers that can't read .docx files) that includes full citations to all the readings so far in this course. For links to the files of the actual readings, please refer to my prior posts labeled 'Readings' and the like.

Lost notebook

Someone left a blue spiral notebook with class notes inside in the Tureaud Hall classroom today. I didn't want a student in another class to take it just for the paper. I rescued it and left it with Judy Roberts in the main political science department office on the second floor of Stubbs Hall. Please pick it up there.

Just FYI

Today I read in the New York Times that President Barak Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize for diplomacy. There have been only three other presidents who have won the prize. The first was Theodore Roosevelt who won the award for his work ending the Russo-Japanese War in 1905. Woodrow Wilson was awarded the prize for his efforts to start the League of Nations. The third president to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize was Jimmy Carter. He is the only president to receive the award after he had left office. According to the article, Barak Obama joins the group “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” I just thought this was some interesting news from this morning.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/10/world/10nobel.html?_r=1&hp

Getting the News

If you're like me, you don't like listening to highly inflammatory pundits. Although they do have good points, I don't like listening to yelling, and I feel like they perpetuate the culture of fear, that populates much of the media.

That being said, I'd like to offer up NPR (National Public Radio) as an alternative source for news. Reading can be time consuming, but NPR is radio broadcast that you can listen to in the car, or stream live from the web. It's relatively non-partisan...

Just thought I'd make this suggestion as staying abreast of the news is so important to poli sci major!

here's a link to stream NPR on the web.
http://www.npr.org/audiohelp/progstream.html

enjoy!

FIlm and Politics

I am taking a Film and Politics class with Professor Regina Lawrence, wherein we study how film affects our views on politics and how politics affect the business and art of film making.
The genre of film in relations to politics is not one that has been widely studied, and there is little research on the relationship...
This bring to my question: How does film potentially affect our political participation.
We have studied participation patterns in youth, but it is difficult to determine what determines their level of participation. There is a general presumption that younger people view films more often (I love going to the movies!) however youth participation is significantly lower... my grandparents love going to movies both often walk out of the movies (if they don't like the story the 'picture' is taking).
In my film and politics class we are also studying the differences between politically explicit and politically implicit films....

But what does this all mean?
We are trying to figure out in Film and Politics how film affects how we think about politics, but can we tell how film affects how much we participate.

What do yall think? Does film affect participation? Could it potentially inspire more participation? Does the medium then delineate to propaganda?
I personally don't know the answer to these questions... but what's your opinion?

For those of you especially interested in Film and Politics Wag the Dog, will be showing Monday Oct. 5th at 6:00 in the Holliday Forum of the Journalism Building sponsored by the Manship School.

How Healthy is our current Democracy?

We recently read about Ambivalent Social Networks and that caused me to start to think about the health of our democracy. I have been reading a bunch of Op-Ed opinions about the tone of our political discourse and how dangerous it is. Thomas Friedman recently wrote about this reminds him of the environment leading up too the assignation of Israel Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Friedman talked about how Rabin's political opponents did not discourage the violent rhetoric against him. His opponents really helped to create this environment in which the assassinator believed he was doing the country a favor by getting rid of this guy. I think about our current political debate about HC and the opponents of President Obama are doing the exact same thing. I must ask myself what will this lead too? The President's critics simply do not criticize his policies but suggest the guy is something "different". Members of Congress question his legitimacy as if to say this guy should be picked up like some illegal immigrant. David Brooks of the NY Times recently made a great point about the criticism from the opponents of the President. Brooks thought the race of the President is simply not driving the opposition as President Carter suggests, but the fact that this President has Hollywood and Silicon Valley friends and the idea of big change. Brooks is one of the smartest conservatives in the country. I think he right partially because race is too simplistic of answer to the question of what is driving the opposition. If Clarence Thomas was President I do not believe these same folks would be taking to streets to question his legitimacy and policies. Clarence Thomas would have a much different agenda and vision of the future of America. I think it is the combination of liberalism, race, and change that is driving the opposition to the President. I think some people are uncomfortable with idea that America will really change and there children want have the same advantages they did. The important question is can we solve problems if one side is simply determined to see the President's policies fail? We have American problems that need American solutions. Is this achieve able if all the solutions the President propose is painted as simply far left winged solutions? I would go on the NY Times web page or any other news site and the most popular stories are always opinions. As a society we seek out information from sources that we agree with agree or disagree? The most popular television programs are all opinion and either liberal or conservative. The question is if we are so dug in as a society can the President really move anyone? I worry about the fact that if one sides goal is to see the other side lose what about the country? The article talks about how healthy disagreement is in society but, what about when there is no consensus on anything? I think people should be free to criticize the Presidents policies without being deemed a racist or unamerican. I think to say race is not a factor in the oppostion is a bit unrealistic. I think the elected officials in the GOP have a responsibility to separate themselves from the lunatics and don't encourage violence by not discouraging it. Even as a liberal I believe two viewpoints are great for the country, but the current GOP is going the way of the whigs. I think the people are being deprived there is only one solution being proposed to many problems we face. I also believe people fear government in this country to much. Can we continue down this path without huge consequences?