Progress

My paper is progressing......I guess thats how I will state it. I have good information and feel that I have a strong stance, considering I have nine million other things going on for all my classes I would say its not my best work so far. Luckily I have this weekend to make it tres magnifique

Research for Arguement Essay

I have continued my research for my argument essay and have found several more sites that will aide me in my paper.

I have expanded my search to include:

Societies AND death penalty
execution methods
gas chambers
botched executions

Research for Arguement Essay

So far I have found several websites that I have marked in my delicious account. I have also found a few essays in a philosophy book called Contemporary Morals. I will continue to look online for my information.

Keywords for searching

Death Penalty
Pros AND cons AND capital punishment
Aggravated Murder
Lethal Injection
Gas Chamber
Electric Chair

Update on Projects

So far my paper is going just ok. My field research fell through, the politician I had wanted to interview backed out at the last second because of the proximity to the election. I changed it to a public survey that I passed out at my work.

My application project is going to be a letter to the editor based on my research paper

I have several websites bookmarked for my argument essay and am well on my way to getting all the pertinent information for it.

Arguement Essay

I have decided to write my argument essay on abolishing the death penalty.

My research question is:

Is the death penalty ethical in today's society?

Keywords:

Death Penalty
ACLU AND the death penalty
Arguments against the death penalty
Arguments for the death penalty

I have found several websites pertaining to this topic and I have tagged them on my delicious account,

Field Research

My field research is an interview with a local politician on how the Patriot Act has changed local policies. I have submitted several requests to City Councilman through out Colorado and have gotten responses saying they will be happy to talk to me after Nov. 4. I have a backup plan to speak with a compliance analyst at ALPs Financial Services about how the Patriot Act has affected the Advertisements they review.

Application Project

For my application project, I would like to do one of the following:

1. Editorial on why the Patriot Act is bad for America
2. Editorial on why the Patriot Act is good for America
3. News story on current congressional discussions on the Patriot Act
4. News article on persons convicted using the Patriot Act
5. Editorial on what else needs to be done to protect America above and beyond the Patriot Act
   

Arguement Essay

• Stars Wars better than Star Trek
• Legalization of Marijuana
  
• Abolishing the Death Penalty
• VM Servers better than regular servers
• Energizer over Duracell
• Water desalinization good for California
• Oil not in shortage
• Rap is ruining music
• KGB worse than CIA
  

Visual Aides

• Picture of George Bush signing the Bill
• Picture of the Twin Towers destroyed
• Picture of the American Flag
• Pictures of Congress in session
• Pictures of FBI or homeland security agents
  

Patriot Act Presentation

I would like to go over the basic premise of my paper. My intention of my presentation will be to inform the class of the knowledge I have received in researching this topic and hopefully answer some question that they may have. I would like to include in the presentation the what the acronym of USA PATRIOT Act Stands for and also how it was originally passed. I would like to talk about the revisions made to the act the last time it came under review.

Summarizing

http://0-web.ebscohost.com.skyline.cudenver.edu/ehost/detail?vid=9&hid=108&sid=cfc50743-afdd-44e4-aed5-5de807a1349a%40sessionmgr109&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=28819484

The AAUP has joined the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in filing suit against the Departments of State and Homeland Security for blocking South African scholar Adam Habib from entering the United States. In October 2006, Habib was intercepted at John E Kennedy International Airport and denied entry to the United States, where he was scheduled to meet with officers of the Social Science Research Council, Columbia University, the National Institutes of Health, and the World Bank. The State Department subsequently revoked the visas of his wife and their two young children-an unusual act for which no explanation was given. Habib subsequently applied for a new visa, and in October 2007, the State Department denied the application. At the same time, it informed him that it would not give him a "waiver of inadmissibility," which allows entry to persons deemed inadmissible for statutory reasons, if he were to apply for one. The denial was based on a portion of the USA Patriot Act that excludes aliens who have "engaged in a terrorist activity"; the government did not, however, provide any evidence for its determination that Habib had engaged in terrorist activity or cite a specific section of the Patriot Act defining the type of "terrorist activity" in which Habib supposedly engaged.



Under the power granted to them through the US Patriot Act, the United States Government removed the visas of Adam Habib (A scholar from South Africa) and his wife and children. They informed him that they would deny him a "waiver of inadmissibility" because they said he had "engaged in terrorist activity" even though they showed no proof of such action.

Paraphrasing

http://0-web.ebscohost.com.skyline.cudenver.edu/ehost/detail?vid=9&hid=108&sid=cfc50743-afdd-44e4-aed5-5de807a1349a%40sessionmgr109&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=28819484

At the same time, it informed him that it would not give him a "waiver of inadmissibility," which allows entry to persons deemed inadmissible for statutory reasons, if he were to apply for one. The denial was based on a portion of the USA Patriot Act that excludes aliens who have "engaged in a terrorist activity"; the government did not, however, provide any evidence for its determination that Habib had engaged in terrorist activity or cite a specific section of the Patriot Act defining the type of "terrorist activity" in which Habib supposedly engaged.

The Government told Habib that they would not give him a "waiver of inadmissibility" which is an exception to those who have been denied visas to enter the country. They were able to deny him admittance by quoting the US Patriot Act and saying that he had "engaged in a terrorist activity" even though they showed no proof that Habib had committed any terrorist act.

Quoting

http://0-web.ebscohost.com.skyline.cudenver.edu/ehost/detail?vid=9&hid=108&sid=cfc50743-afdd-44e4-aed5-5de807a1349a%40sessionmgr109&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=28819484

At the same time, [the State Department] informed him that it would not give him a "waiver of inadmissibility," which allows entry to persons deemed inadmissible for statutory reasons, if he were to apply for one. The denial was based on a portion of the USA [sic] Patriot Act that excludes aliens who have "engaged in a terrorist activity"; the government did not, however, provide any evidence for its determination that Habib had engaged in terrorist activity or cite a specific section of the Patriot Act defining the type of "terrorist activity" in which Habib supposedly engaged.

Field Research

For my field research I am going to interview a politician that my mom knows. My mother works very closely to several politicians and many have offered their knowledge to me. I will probably be conducting this interview over the phone since they are located up in Northern Colorado.

Testing Your Assigned Search Engine

• I used Redzee to search my topic

• I used the Keywords US PATRIOT Act for my search

• This search engine does not work very well. It looks nice but does not function the way it says it will. There are supposed to be roaming thumbnails of relevant pages but when you try to move around they do not rotate.

• It says there are 32 relevant hits, but I can only access a few of them.

• The pages it did bring up were fairly relevant, I would give them a 3
  

Using Internet Research Tools

I usually use the basic search engine tools of Google and Yahoo. I have been using them for many years and I am used to the way they function and their layout. Other tools I have used are the links that Prof. Clark has linked on the class Wiki. I find them to be useful as well, but need more practice with them because I have had trouble finding pertinent information in them.

Title: Patriot Act Reconsidered
Author: Bill Walace
Title of Periodical: PC World
Date: Nov 6, 2003
Pages: 2


Resourced Used: Magportal.com
Keywords Used: Patriot Act
Number of Hits: 526
Relevance: 4

Reference Works

• Resource searched: infoplease.com
• Keywords used: Patriot Act
• Date of search: September 22nd
• Number of hits: 120
• Most hits were did not give very good information for my topic, but there were a few that are very useful.

http://www.infoplease.com/search?fr=ipce6&query=patriot+act&in=encyclopedia&x=22&y=2

• Resource searched: infoplease.com
• Keywords used: September 11 2001
• Date of search: Sep. 22
• Number of hits: <120
• Relevance of hits: A lot of information when I searched this topic, but it is going to be difficult finding information to help me with my topic

http://www.infoplease.com/search?q=September+11%2C+2001&in=all&x=32&y=12&fr=iptn

Reference Works

• Resource searched: infoplease.com
• Keywords used: Patriot Act
• Date of search: September 22nd
• Number of hits: 120
• Most hits were did not give very good information for my topic, but there were a few that are very useful.

http://www.infoplease.com/search?fr=ipce6&query=patriot+act&in=encyclopedia&x=22&y=2

• Resource searched: infoplease.com
• Keywords used: September 11 2001
• Date of search: Sep. 22
• Number of hits: <120
• Relevance of hits: A lot of information when I searched this topic, but it is going to be difficult finding information to help me with my topic

http://www.infoplease.com/search?q=September+11%2C+2001&in=all&x=32&y=12&fr=iptn

Search Strings

Patriot Act + Inalienable Rights

(Patriot Act and George Bush)

Bill of Rights + Patriot Act

Patriot Act - protests

Books

1. From the Palmer Raids to the Patriot Act: A Fight for Free Speech in America
Author: Christopher M. Finan
Publisher: Beacon Press, c. 2007, Boston, Mass.

I did a keyword search on the Auraria Library site for Patriot Act. I received several hits and may have to research through several books to find pertinent information, but it does look like there is ample information out there for me.

2. The Four Freedoms Under Siege: The Clear and Present Danger from Our National Security State
Author: Marcus G. Raskin
Publisher: Praeger, c. 2007, Westport, Conn.

This was also from the keyword search Patriot Act on the Auraria Library web site. I found the most information when I used "The Patriot Act" as my keyword search.

3. The Patriot Act
Author: Debra A. Miller
Publisher: Lucent Books, c. 2007, Detroit, MI

I used Prospect and searched under the keyword Government Legislation and did not really find much that would help me in my research. So again, I used "The Patriot Act" as my keyword since it had worked so well for me before.

4. Our Rights
Author: David J Bodenhamer
Publisher: Oxford University Press, c. 2007, Oxford, New York

I used Prospect and searched under the keywords "illegal search and seizure" I was hoping to find an opposing side or a strong, laid out objection to the Patriot Act. I feel this book could offer good knowledge of the law.

Field Research

For my topic, The Patriot Act, some of the ideas that I have had for field research are as follows:

1. Interview a local Politician and get his/her point of view on the Patriot Act
2. If possible, attend a court hearing where the Patriot Act is in use
3. Interview a local telecommunication company to see if they understand or know their rights if the government wants to do a wire tapping.
4. Interview citizens that protest/support the Patriot Act (most likely will have to find them on line)
   

Narrowing my Topic

Because my paper has to follow the parameters of my question for my American National Government class, I do not believe that I will have to narrow my topic further. I should try and compile the three questions that are asked by my professor to one so that I have a single point of attack for my paper. After some more research, it may be easier for me to do so.

Research Question

I kind of lucked out because my American National Government class already laid out the questions for research. My very first post included these questions, but I have re-submitted them here.


1. What do the political parties have to say about it?
2. What actions have been taken so far?
3. What types of obstacles might act as constraints on executive action?

Exploring Topic

I have began adding bookmarks on with delicious.com. I am looking for all material about the Patriot Act that I can find. I want to have a firm grasp on all aspects of the Act and would like to hear the pros and cons that our current politicians are saying about it. I have found a few different websites that list court hearings that the Patriot Act was used in and have found a copy of the exact wording of the document.

I have a lot of reading ahead of me, but I am passionate about this topic and look forward to keep going with it.

Since I received my topic from another class, my question is already laid out for me. My very first post explains this in detail.

My Topic

I have chosen to write my paper on the Patriot Act. I think this current policy must be addressed and redefined. I believe writing a research paper on this topic will be very interesting not only to do, but to further educate myself on.

My current perspective on this topic is that we have had several of our freedoms infringed upon by this policy. I know that wiring taping and the reading of emails without a warrant has been allowed under this Act. This policy has been put in place to help protect us from national threats, but where does it stop?

I am really going to enjoy learning more about this topic. At this time I am strongly opposed to the Patriot Act, but with some research and thought, hopefully I can better understand it and find ways to make it stronger without Americans losing freedoms. I do not know all the aspects of the Act and look forward to increasing my knowledge on it. I hope to learn more about how the Act came into place without the direct consent of the people.

Possible Topics

I have a research paper that I have to write for my American National Government class and so my field of topics has already been somewhat narrowed down. The guidelines for my paper are as follows:

"You have been named to the new president's cabinet in 2009. Pick a current, controversial issue that you believe needs to be addressed, either in the foreign or domestic realm. Analyze and discuss the nature of the problem. What do the political parties have to say about it? What actions has been taken so far? What types of obstacles might act as constraints on executive action? In essence, you are giving policy recommendations to the president backed up by a theoretical analysis as to why concerted action in achieving presidential objectives can often be problematic."

So I still have many topics that I may choose, but would like to tackle an issue that seems to have our country split.

• Abortion
• Illegal Immigration
  
• Lobbyists
  
• Foreign Policy
• War on Terror
• Electoral College
  
• Patriot Act
• War in Iraq
• Iran
• North Korea
  
• Strengthening the Dollar
• Russia vs. Georgia
• Defense Spending
• Universal Health Care
• Gitmo
• Campaign Financing