Web 2.0 Tools

The web 2.0 tool I will most utilize in the future by far will be Google forms. They are easy to use,specific in nature,and effective. Not only can it help you create questionnaires that are interactive and fun but it also helps you conduct research.You are no longer limited to the boring black and  white mark all that apply survey. Now you have interactive research that can be conducted from your room, your survey's are able to be sent via email and eliminates the need for travel. For instance I no longer have to travel to a PWI for research but I can now select a random sample and get them to fill out my survey. This a great learning tool for not only me but anyone in the research field. The forms actually calculate your data and makes graphs for your data. Many types of questions can be asked and can be designed to fit your preference.Out of all the web 2.0 tools I have encountered this will be the tool I most use.

Breakthrough for the Blind

There has been  a new technological advance made specifically for thosw whom are visually challenged.The first smartphone for those whom are blind is currently underway. Mobile devices have become apart of our everyday lives. Nowadays studetns can not only do homework assignments but turn them in via cellphone.Students are able to access dropbox files in ordedr to acesss study materials and there is almost an app for everything these days.One big hurdle is how willl the blind know when they have received a text or email? and how will they respond. The phone is made flat to take the form of braille letters and symbols so that the user can recognize them.Now when the visually impaired receive these messages instead of seeing text the text will be transformed to braille. People who are blind can now enjoy the perks of communication while on the go. This helps them communicate and works wonders for those of them whom have children whom text more than call.This advance can be revolutionary for those with this disability. For more information on the new smartphone click the following link. http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/26/tech/mobile/first-braille-smartphone/index.html

Reducing Gun Violence

 

Project Muse conducted a study on ways to deter gun violence in the U.S. in which criminals have been surveyed and found that most of their armory consists of weapons purchased by friends or family. With that being said straw purchases or illegal purchases in which a friend or girlfriend purchase firearms for their significant other family members. Depending on the gun dealer and shops finding bad sales practices can be hit or miss most times. While some dealer’s sales are linked to hundreds of deaths or crime some dealers hardly have weapons that are recovered from crime. In Milwaukee a dealer was linked to most of the city’s crime guns and due to negative publicity by changing shop practices more than half of new guns were deterred from criminals and a little under half of all new gun crimes were reduced. While shop practices can be a major tool to deter criminals state and or local regulation of gun dealers play a significant role as a gun deterrent. When shop owners are subjected to correspondence and feel the pressure from authorities they are less likely to participate in illegal sales of weapons. Litigation has proven to help reduce gun sales to criminals in recent years as local governments began suing arms dealers whom had negligent selling practices or divulged in illegal sales practices. In suing these gun shops the rate of new guns flowing to cities and gun crimes had drastically decreased as a result of litigation. The involvement of local policing authorities also helped in reducing gun crime in their respective cities. NYPD following the deaths of fellow coworkers set up stings for straw sells in which a male and female undercover would attempt to buy weapons, in these instances the female would be off to herself the male would pick the guns and the female would buy the weapon. Once the evidence was collected the dealers were prosecuted and a series of correspondence ensued in which dealers agreed to follow the procedures of the NYPD and be held accountable to their programs and initiatives to deter guns from the illegal market.

Dream Act: TheDream Kids

 
The Dream Act was originally introduced in 2001 by Sen. Orrin Hatch, a republican or Utah along with Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois, the bill drew 18 co-sponsors comprised of both democrats and republican.  It was made to amend the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 to permit States to determine State residency for higher education purposes and to authorize the cancellation of removal and adjustment of status of certain alien college-bound students who are long-term United States residents. Many saw this as a good sign because it was a bipartisan bill that was sponsored by both parties.  The Dream Act is known as the e original Bill, called the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act. The original bill introduced by senator Hatch and Senator Durbin was molded upon select principles and requirements which consisted of  the alien has applied for relief under this act within two years’ time, the alien could not be 21 at the age of application, must be attending an institution of higher education  in the U.S., the alien has been physically present in the United States for a continuous period of not less than 5 years, and the alien must have been of good moral character during the period. The bill has endured numerous proposals and revisions. In 2010 Richard Durbin added provisions to the bill which made it stricter to appease the wishes of the senate republicans. Many felt as is this was a generous gesture seeing that the bill was drafted by both parties. The revisions included lowering the age cap from 35 to 30 on who could be eligible, specifically excluding anyone who has committed one felony or three misdemeanors; has engaged in voter fraud or marriage fraud; or has abused a student visa, requiring a medical exam and background check, requiring applicants to speak, read and write English. The vote took place in December of 2010. The House passed the DREAM Act by 216-198. In the vote it was noted that five Democrats voted against it and Those five votes could have gotten the DREAM Act to a floor vote.The right to educational resources shouldn't be denied based off citizenship due to the mistakes of parents,this is a rather unfortunate predicament to all families involved.

LGBT Suffrage

 

The issue of gay marriage has sparked a controversial debate amongst Americans whom have conservative traditional values. Homosexuals are seeking marriage reform in congress and on the state level and it seem as if now more than ever, people have so much to say about homosexuality for one reason or the other in America. Food For Thought Our Nation was founded on the principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and has been coined the land of the free. Society now takes these unalienable rights and makes one of the freest countries in the world a walking contradiction. To live in America is to have freedom to do, say, and live as we please but for a man or woman to openly seek marriage with a member of the opposite sex is a problem to most American citizens. Being an American means exercising your free will to choose a partner of your choosing while believing in the equality of these opportunities to everyone regardless of their sexual preference. Values and traditions change across lines of gender, race, culture, demographic, and region. People’s values and traditions are different so trying to eliminate the customs or beliefs of another’s is unconstitutional and is no one’s business. As citizens whom enjoy the idea of free will, press, speech, and religion it is not our duty to deny these same freedoms to homosexuals in regards to marriage. The life of a homosexual person is none of my business neither is it anyone else’s, so who are we to say you cannot marry the person you love. Most of the time when people have issues with gay/lesbian marriage it is based off religious reasons however, how many people are really living by the commandments of the bible? Also how many people share the same religion and how many different religions are practiced in the United States alone? If the teachings of the bible are determinants of legislation then things such as war and capital punishment would be unconstitutional. As a nation we fought against injustice for certain freedoms why should we deny the LGBT community the same?

Random Acts of violence

 Random instances occur everyday especially when  it pertains to violence in America. One place many hope to get peace from stressful situations comes in the form of religion. Sunday at an mass in Albuquerque,New Mexico members of the church were surprised to find no such peace in services when a man stabbed four choir members, http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/29/us/new-mexico-church-attack/index.html?hpt=us_c2. The members of the church were shocked when the man just rose to his feet yelling,"Fake preacher" before jumping several pews and stabbing the choir members.No one really knows what caused the stabbings and the church has identified him as a non-member.Rumors have circulate that the suspect believed the choir was working with the devil and  was a motive for stabbing the choir members. The atmosphere these members are use to when attending mass has been disrupted by a random act of violence.The man was not a member of the church neither did he know the people he attacked. The most surprising thing about the attack is that the suspect yelled fake preacher but went for the choir members. Why take out your frustration on people whom have no quarrel with you then attack those whom haven't harmed nor provoked you.The amount of random acts of violence have been growing at an alarming rate through the country.The hardest thing to grasp is how does one go about stopping instances like this? What is considered safe anymore in America?When social norms and areas of comfort are attacked it's hard to return to previous quality of living. While no one knows the motive for attacking these choir members random acts of violence may be the worst deterrents to peace today.

The Mark of the Sequester

A sequester is the mandatory cuts of federal programs that WERE supposed to take place on January 1,2013 at the time of the fiscal cliff. In the original plans of the sequester 5 percent in cuts were to come from non defense programs and  8 percent from defense programs. The sequester motion was pushed back to March 1. 2013 in hopes of avoiding the dreadful sequester in plans to reach an agreement with congress on spending cuts. Due to the lack of cohesiveness between congress and the president now the government face a big economic downturn with mandatory spending cuts across the board in the amount of 1.2 trillion dollars for this year. http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/03/01/forced-spending-cuts-begin-today/?hpt=hp_inthenews Many ask whats the big deal with the sequester? When the sequester motion was pushed back until March 1,2013 the congress could negotiate which programs were affected and cut to protect valuable interests such as head-start programs, airport security, transportation, and thing of that nature. With the lack of compromise the President has until 11:59 pm tonight to cut spending across the board which means although border security may be more important than developing another nuclear weapon since we have so many now all government programs must face spending cuts regardless of their importance. This will hurt government employees facing furloughs, airport security, head-start programs, down to capitol security. These programs are essential tot he maintenance of the country it affects not only the economy but our safety. Instead of losing 5 percent in non defense programs and 8 percent in defense programs the country now loses 9 percent in non defense programs and 13 percent in defense programs. The only silver lining to the sequester is that the military budget which takes a huge amount of the governmental budget finally gets reduced and that the president can implement roll backs in the sequester. This means that instead of all the money being taken at once it can be implemented at later dates in chance of congress reaching a deal to cut certain programs spending over others in the coming months saving funding for important programs and helping some people keep their jobs longer. This sequester is an extremely big deal because everyone is affected and citizen vote for their representatives to protect their jobs and to prevent things like this from happening. Congress dropped the ball on this issue and now many innocent children will suffer the ill effects of not starting their learning processes when they are younger when their minds are sponges and easily able to retain and grasp concepts. Families will lose income and jobs which is very ironic that many facing job loss are those whom work for the federal government in which you would think is the most secure of jobs in America.

Texas Legislative Black Caucus(The Secret to Lobbying)

In examining my future profession in law/lobbying I've finally grasped the concept of politics in motion at the Texas Legislative Black Caucus http://texaslegislativeblackcaucus.com/about/. Harold Lasswell defines politics of who gets what, when, and how. There are many ways to achieve goals which also leads to many paths onto how the goal was achieved. Lobbyist are the middle men, the persuasive geniuses, the influential persons that help many interest groups or community of persons achieve their wants. What was very surprising to me was I didn't know that congressman lobby on the behalves of persons, race, or a specific community. The shock factor was during my attendance at bi-annual black caucus many representaives of the districts of texas meet every two years to address the issues that affect the African American community in Texas. My confusion came because most interest groups are representative of all memebers of a certain community for instance the NRA with the gun owning and hunting commmunities. I thought only lobbyist lobby on the behalves of these groups not the state representatives as well. For instance with the NAACP, this organization fights injustices and addresses all issues and concerns of all colored people, so when attending the black caucus I was surprised to see the TLBC lobbying on the behalf of the African American community. Lobbying is a very powerful tool and can be very beneficial to many organization and communities. Being apart of a legislature helps not only protect your values and concerns but your neighbors as well. The cool thing is that anyone can be a lobbyist, when a constituent makes a hit viral video about the LGBT community to their state representative they are now lobbying. When Prairie View A&M university joined with Waller county for the March against the landfill with state representatives the university became lobbyist. Voting is a primary concern and issue that many Americans neglect while some hostile country's deny their citizens this privilege. State representatives now most focus all enegeries on constituentss as they now know the secret of these represenatatives. Many state representatives try to act as if the texas state congress acts as a single governing body and that outsode lobyist due all the bidding but your concerns,beleifs, and values are to be shared by your representative, after all that why you voted for them. No longer can citizens be denied privilege because your state representative represents your values, traditions, and beliefs. With this being said your representative influences legislation and helps your bills to be read on the floor. Who wants what, when,and how can now be solved by telling your representative what you want, when you need it, and how they should go about it or your vote wont be their come re-election. In public administration and legislative processes we always hear the theory's or are given a job description but nothing beats watching it in real time and learning firsthand.

The Texas Legislative Black Caucus is composed of 17 members of the Texas House of Representatives committed to addressing the issues African Americans face across the state of Texas. Rep. Sylvester Turner is Chairman of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus for the 82nd Session. State Senators Rodney Ellis and Royce West, the two members who comprise the Senate Legislative Black Caucus, are included in every Caucus initiative as well. - See more at: http://texaslegislativeblackcaucus.com/about/#sthash.I43syG9i.dpuf

The Texas Legislative Black Caucus is composed of 17 members of the Texas House of Representatives committed to addressing the issues African Americans face across the state of Texas. Rep. Sylvester Turner is Chairman of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus for the 82nd Session. State Senators Rodney Ellis and Royce West, the two members who comprise the Senate Legislative Black Caucus, are included in every Caucus initiative as well. - See more at: http://texaslegislativeblackcaucus.com/about/#sthash.I43syG9i.dpuf

The Texas Legislative Black Caucus is composed of 17 members of the Texas House of Representatives committed to addressing the issues African Americans face across the state of Texas. Rep. Sylvester Turner is Chairman of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus for the 82nd Session. State Senators Rodney Ellis and Royce West, the two members who comprise the Senate Legislative Black Caucus, are included in every Caucus initiative as well. - See more at: http://texaslegislativeblackcaucus.com/about/#sthash.I43syG9i.dpuf

The Texas Legislative Black Caucus is composed of 17 members of the Texas House of Representatives committed to addressing the issues African Americans face across the state of Texas. Rep. Sylvester Turner is Chairman of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus for the 82nd Session. State Senators Rodney Ellis and Royce West, the two members who comprise the Senate Legislative Black Caucus, are included in every Caucus initiative as well. - See more at: http://texaslegislativeblackcaucus.com/about/#sthash.I43syG9i.dpuf

Professional Football: Is the sport Profesisonal or Barbaric

Most view the world of professional football as a walking contradiction in which athletes are paid millions of dollars to collide into each other for 60 minutes once a week. On one hand the athletes are expected to maintain squeaky clean images, dress professional to games and social events, and to develop a code of ethics. An individual may compare these requirements to many businesses in which a dress code is required, a certain code of ethics is to be revered, and their are certain rules to be followed. From a business perspective these requirements would indeed be qualified as professional but the actions and repercussions of these actions of the business is far from professional. The current business on the agenda for discussion is the NFL in which players are paid to exact and use brute force to stop opponents from crossing their end zones. Many players are injured and unfairly penalized for jobs they must perform while under contract in a competitive business. Player's are expected to maintain the top physical physique while sacrificing their bodies not only in practice but against rivals. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/845125-seahawks-vs-49ers-video-watch-madieu-williams-controversial-hit In modern society no employer would expect for an employee to follow their directions and then be written up or fined for doing so. The NFL is so brutal in nature often times players incur serious injuries that are career ending or life altering. Once these injuries are sustained players are released from the roster, traded, and or fired. Teams no longer want to take risks or pay lower wages due to past damage on their bodies and their is no pension in professional football. The Professional football industry requires so much from its employees but gives so little in return. For hours on television modern gladiators battle for what seems like an eternity in order to win a game while sacrificing their bodies. Most professional businesses offer insurance but NFL players are required to purchase their own when team doctor's cant repair the damage. The brutality, the hard hits, the bruises are that draws and attracts the masses not the suits, community service, and code of ethics. I now leave you with this, professional football: Is the sport Professional or Barbaric?

Who am I

Hello everyone my name is Jahred Harris, Im a junior Political Science major at Prairie View A&M University.  My current ambitions as a student are to become a very successful corporate lawyer in route to becoming a future public servant. I have many goals I want to achieve starting down the path in my career. Before I graduate undergraduate school I would like to meet my requirements on the LSAT exam while also becoming a member of the Political Science Honor Society. Afterwards I would like to be accepted into law school preferably UT Law or Thurgood Marshall. My next goal is to complete my program and area of study successfully in the 3 year time frame and pass my Bar Exam. I would like to work for a very prestigious firm for 5-10 years and after which start my own practice. Through learning the legal system and practicing law I would then like to venture into becoming a public servant either in congress or the Texas state legislature.