The NRA and Lobbying

The NRA has gotten a lot of negative feedback from the advertisement above, but it is part of a normal legislative strategy which you might want to highlight if you want to discuss legislative report cards and advertising.  You might even raise the question is the ad designed to increase membership or to convince legislators to vote against Obama's proposals (since we don't know when that is going to happen).  Also, here is a great set of graphics from the WashPost detailing members of Congress' NRA legislative report cards and their corresponding donations.  For more information on their PAC donations go to the NRA Open Secrets page. 

Google Goes to Washington

This article is a great one to share with your students.  First off it is about Google, something we all know.  Secondly it discusses how Google has gone from being an outlier to politics in Washington, D.C. to one of the biggest presences in the city.  It discusses how it courts both sides of the aisle, as well as the libertarians, gives to think tanks, looks for future leaders to work for it and donates to a multitude of campaigns.  

If yo go to Open Secrets, you can see who and how much Google has donated to groups. 

Donations & Ambassadors

This is a great blog post from Open Secrets (which aims to bring more transparency to political donations and their connections to how DC works).  In fact 26 nominated or current ambassadors gave money to Obama, the Democratic National Committee or members of Congress.  The current ambassador to Great Britain, Matthew Barzun bundled $1.2 million for Obama.  The ambassadors for Iceland and New Zealand raised a collective $1.6 million.    Of course some posts require ambassadors to pay for social engagements out of pocket.   The last two articles points out that 31% of ambassadors are political and none go to more sensitive places like Egypt and Iraq.  There are rare exceptions to the donation rule.  When I was in high school and living in Paris our ambassador was Arthur Hartman who was a career diplomat - but I believe he was the last career person and that was back in the early 80s. 

Open Secrets
I am in the midst of my Congress/Interest Groups unit and this is one of the sites I am going to use next week. It already has items such as how much has been raised for the 2010 races. So my congressman has three opponents and has far outraised them. You can get information on historical elections. There is much more on the site.

Politics, Hispanics, Immigration & Your Classroom

The Obama administration has been attacked by groups saying they are not doing enough to stem the flow of illegal immigrants.   You can use the issue to discuss the workings of Congress and the executive branch.

• Obama, above, is speaking to the Hispanic Caucus' annual meeting where he addresses illegal immigrants and giving them permanent status in the US.
• At the same time the executive branch has increasingly deported a record number of illegal immigrants (which he did not address in front of the caucus, but is more than Bush, Clinton or HW Bush did as you can see in this Pew report)
• This also can bring up hyperpluralism since nothing has been done on this issue in decades.
• You can even speak about interest groups.  An Hispanic one is the National Council for LaRaza. You could then have your students go to Open Secrets and see what kinds of candidates the group is donating to each year. 

Open Secrets
OpenSecrets.org is your nonpartisan guide to money’s influence on U.S. elections and public policy. Whether you’re a voter, journalist, activist, student or interested citizen, use our free site to shine light on your government. Count cash and make change.