Monday, August 31, 2009
Class Question:Pork Barrel Spending:What Is It?
From Wikipedia:
"The term pork barrel politics usually refers to spending that is intended to benefit constituents of a politician in return for their political support, either in the form of campaign contributions or votes. In the popular 1863 story "The Children of the Public," Edward Everett Hale used the term pork barrel as a homely metaphor for any form of public spending to the citizenry. After the American Civil War, however, the term came to be used in a derogatory sense. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the modern sense of the term from 1873. By the 1870s, references to "pork" were common in Congress, and the term was further popularized by a 1919 article by Chester Collins Maxey in the National Municipal Review, which reported on certain legislative acts known to members of Congress as "pork barrel bills", and claimed that the phrase originated in a pre-Civil War practice of giving slaves a barrel of salt pork as a reward and requiring them to compete among themselves to get their share of the handout (emphasis added). More generally, a pork barrel (presumably holding the less-perishable salt pork) was a common larder item in 19th century households, and could be used as a measure of the family's financial well-being. For example, in his 1845 novel The Chainbearer, James Fenimore Cooper wrote, "I hold a family to be in a desperate way, when the mother can see the bottom of the pork barrel."
"The term pork barrel politics usually refers to spending that is intended to benefit constituents of a politician in return for their political support, either in the form of campaign contributions or votes. In the popular 1863 story "The Children of the Public," Edward Everett Hale used the term pork barrel as a homely metaphor for any form of public spending to the citizenry. After the American Civil War, however, the term came to be used in a derogatory sense. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the modern sense of the term from 1873. By the 1870s, references to "pork" were common in Congress, and the term was further popularized by a 1919 article by Chester Collins Maxey in the National Municipal Review, which reported on certain legislative acts known to members of Congress as "pork barrel bills", and claimed that the phrase originated in a pre-Civil War practice of giving slaves a barrel of salt pork as a reward and requiring them to compete among themselves to get their share of the handout (emphasis added). More generally, a pork barrel (presumably holding the less-perishable salt pork) was a common larder item in 19th century households, and could be used as a measure of the family's financial well-being. For example, in his 1845 novel The Chainbearer, James Fenimore Cooper wrote, "I hold a family to be in a desperate way, when the mother can see the bottom of the pork barrel."Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Assignment #1 Busted!
Maureen Dowd's opinion piece in today's New York Times is pretty interesting for us. An Australian Vogue model, Liskula Cohen, is trashed anonymously online by someone calling her a "skank" and a "ho" and the winner of a Skankiest in NYC award. Shocked, the model decided to fight back , hired an attorney, and managed to get the nasty blogger's email and identity from Google. The nasty blogger climed she was protected by the First amendment to the Consitution, guaranteeing free speech.
Read Maureen Dowd's opinion piece below (click on the line below).
Stung by the Perfect Sting
Do you think the nasty blogger should be protected online, or should she be prosecuted in a civil case for defamation of character.
Give your opinion on this case, indicating why you feel the way you do. Due Monday in class.
Thanks!
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