Random Info

1. MEDIA NEWS SOURCES & RADIO STATIONS
C-SPAN Main Resources Directory --- Excellent starting point to many news sources
C-SPAN Radio --- Listen or Watch C-Span online
KXLU --- 88.9 fm -- Alternative Radio
KPCC --- 89.3 fm -- Southern California Public Radio
NPR --- 89.9 fm -- National Public Radio
KPFK --- 90.7 fm -- Pacifica
Townhall --- Conservative Online Radio
KRLA --- 870 am --- Conservative Talk Radio


2. LINKS TO POLITICAL VIEWS & POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONS

C-SPAN Policy Organizations Directory
C-SPAN Political Blogs Directory
C-SPAN Media Directory (Newspapers, Magazines, etc.)


3. LINKS TO ELECTION & VOTING INFORMATION

http://www.opensecrets.org/
http://www.calvoter.org/
http://www.calvoter.org/followthemoney/index.html
http://www.congress.org
http://www.truemajority.com
www.pbs/frontline


4. HISTORY SITES

http://www.pbs.org Public Broadcast Channel
http://www.historychannel.org History Channel
http://www.nationalgeographic.org

5. TOTAL QUALITY AP AMERICAN HISTORY HIGH SCHOOL SITES

http://www.homestead.com/chaffeyaphistory/APUSHistory.html
http://www.historyteacher.net/
http://www.historymentor.com/
http://www.perno.com/index.htm
http://www.mury.k12.ut.us/mhs/apus/
http://www.4j.lane.edu/~conway
http://www.orange.k12.oh.us/teachers/ohs/TJordan/Pages/
http://www.apstudent.com/

6. AP AMERICAN HISTORY PRACTICE MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS

http://www.historyteacher.net/USQuizMainPage.htm
http://college.hmco.com/history/us/bailey/american_pageant/11e/students/ace/index.html
http://www.phschool.com/curriculum_support/brief_review/us_history/index.html
http://occ.awlonline.com/bookbind/pubbooks/garraty_awl/chapter1/deluxe.html
http://www.orange.k12.oh.us/teachers/ohs/TJordan/Pages/unittestquestions.html

7. HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

hrw.org --- Human Rights Watch
amnesty.org --- Amnesty International

8. GEOGRAPHY STATISTICS

a) www.nationalgeographic.com
b) www.cia.gov
c) infoplease.com
d) www.askjeeves.com
e) www.worldatlas.com
f) http://www.un.org/Depts/unsd/
g) http://www.census.gov/
h) http://www.nationalgeographic.com/geospy/

i) GEO STATS BY TOPICS

Gapminder.org - A visual way of looking at global statistics

Indicators on youth and elderly populations
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/social/youth.htm

Indicators on water supply and sanitation
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/social/watsan.htm

Most and Least livable countries
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/a0778562.html

Life expectancy at birth for selected countries
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/a0774532.html

The death penalty worldwide
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/a0777460.html

Literacy in the Nations
http://www.mrdowling.com/800literacy.html

Country Statistics
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/a0762380.html

Percent of household owning selected appliances
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/a0193913.html

Economic statistics by country (2000)
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/a0874911.html

Greatest oil reserves by country
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/a0872964.html

Government and Economy
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/a0004376.html

GEO PRACTICE GAMES

a) http://www.nationalgeographic.com/geospy/

b) http://addictinggames.com/geographygameeurope.html

c) http://www.lizardpoint.com/fun/geoquiz/

GEO STATS BY TOPICS

Gapminder.org - A visual way of looking at global statistics



9. USEFUL RESEARCH AND WRITING METHODS & TOOLS

Students can click on the link below and use it to get quality information
on how to conduct proper research, properly cite resources, learn APA style, etc. Good Luck!

http://www.csulb.edu/~beachmpa/infoseek/

Students can click on the link below and read George Orwell's classic 1946 Essay: Politics and the English Language

http://www.resort.com/~prime8/Orwell/patee.html

10. THE HISTORY OF MAY DAY?

Listen to the ironic history of May Day. Ask yourself, "How come the whole world celebrates May Day except the United States and Canada?" The May Day discussion begins at the 9 minute 55 second mark. The entire radio broadcast is an hour long. Happy listening.

http://stream.realimpact.org/rihurl.ram?file=webactive/demnow/dn20020501.ra

11. IMPORTANT CURRENT ISSUES OF THE U.S. & THE WORLD

a) Education Issues (Budget Cuts)

1. Listen to a report pertaining to the educational budget crisis throughout the United States. School districts are facing major cuts. This NPR radio program speaks with an education official in Portland, Oregon about his school district's desperate measures to keep classes in session and update outmoded textbooks and other materials.

2. Listen to this NPR radio report about the impact budget cuts are having on Washington state universities.

3. Readabout teacher layoffs in various parts of the US

4. Readabout results to a survey on American views on funding for educaton

b) Nuclear Issues (Yucca Mountain)

i) 1. Click here to listen to Dr. Helen Cardicott
One of the most impassioned advocates for nuclear disarmament is physician, humanist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Dr. Helen Caldicott.

Dr. Helen Caldicott has devoted the last 30 years to an international campaign to educate the public about the medical hazards of the nuclear age, and the necessary changes in human behavior to stop environmental destruction. She founded and headed Women's Action For Nuclear Disarmament and Physicians For Social Responsibility.

She has written for numerous publications and has authored five books, the latest of which is The New Nuclear Danger: George Bush's Military Industrial Complex.

2. Read about the Federal vs State Govt debate to store all nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, Nevada.

3. Listen to Burning Warheads as Fuel for Nuclear Reactors by Mary Olson with Jackie Cabasso. Recently a significant announcement by the Bush administration reversed a 20-year-old policy. The US and Russia will now re-process plutonium from nuclear weapons as fuel for nuclear reactors.



c) Media

1. Listen to a speech by Federal Communication Commission (FCC) Commissioner Michael Copps speak at the final public hearing before the FCC overhauls decade-old rules governing media consolidation.

The FCC is expected to pass the rules on June 2nd by a majority of one. FCC chairman Michael Powell - son of Secretary of State General Powell - strongly backs the rule changes. He is supported by the two other republicans on the Commission, and opposed by the Commission's two Democrats, Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein.

The issue is not merely bureaucratic. Analysts say if FCC votes for the rule changes, it will unleash the largest wave of corporate media consolidation the US has ever seen. A single CEO could legally own the largest TV network, the largest radio conglomerate, the largest newspaper, and the largest Internet company in the country.

Corporate media conglomerates lobbying for the rule changes include AOL Time Warner, which in addition to AOL and Time magazine owns HBO, CNN, and dozens of magazines; General Electric, which owns NBC; Disney, which owns ABC, and Viacom, which owns CBS; and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., which owns Fox News and many other outlets.

Consumer watchdogs, trade unions, and media activists have had a harder time making their voices heard. Powell has done everything he can to avoid holding public hearings on the issue. When Democratic Commissioner Michael Copps called on the FCC to conduct public hearings several months ago, Powell refused. Copps said he would hold hearings of his own, and in January, a coalition of trade unions and media activist groups held the first public hearing on the issue in New York City. Powell initially said he would not attend, but as public pressure mounted, he reversed course at the last minute. Another hearing at the University of Southern California was held in April - and Powell did not attend. The FCC convened its only official hearing in Richmond, Virginia in February.

The final hearing was held last night in Atlanta. Again, Powell and the other republican commissioners boycotted the hearing.

2. Massive list of links to a massive number of online media sources. Wow!

3. Listen to How Corporations Destroyed US Democracy by Propaganda. The people of the US have been subjected to the most costly, unparallelled, 3/4 century propaganda effort by corporations in order to expand corporate rights, limit democracy and destroy the unions. This is the history from WWI to Reagan.

d) Labor vs Big Biz

1. Read an Anti-Walmart website Is Walmart bad? If so, why is Walmart bad?

2. Read about Labor vs Walmart

Listen to Democracy Now about US companies like Walmart, Ralph Lauren, Liz Claiborne and others closing factories and moving to 3rd world countries like China. Covers the impact US Companies are having on Americans and international workers.



e) Abortion

1. Read and listen to an NPR report about abortion.

NPR's Kathy Lohr reports that the people on either side of the abortion debate are unsure why a series of new abortion laws signed by California Gov. Gray Davis have gone almost unnoticed by the public. Abortion rights activists in the state hope the new laws can serve as a model for the rest of the country. Abortion opponents are worried that the laws will spread.

2. Read and listen to an NPR report about a Congressional Bill on abortion

NPR's Julie Rovner reports on today's debate in Congress on a bill that would let hospitals and doctors decline to provide abortions. The bill's supporters say religious hospitals shouldn't be forced to provide the service.

3. Read and listen to an NPR report about Roe vs Wade

f) Election Process

1. Listen to Steven Hill on NPR. He is the author of a book called FIXING ELECTIONS

g) Military Industrial Complex

1. Read about US Military Industrial Complex

2. Read President Eisenhower's 1961 Farewell Speech: Military Industrial Complex

Watch Why We Fight and take notes, write questions and comments you have related to the documentary subject matter. It is an American made documentary made by Eugene Jazecki (interview #1 = Democracy Now, interview #2 = PBS NOW)that has been aired on BBC and public TV in other countries. Ironically and unfortunately, it is not being aired on mainstream media sources in America. The film looks in depth at Eisenhower's farewell warning of the Military Industrial Complex. This stuff is incredibly related to your life and contemporary politics whether you realize it or not. Read about the movie online, if you cannot watch it.


h) Prison System

1. YOUNG PEOPLE RESPOND TO PRISON CRISIS
Young people were an integral force in the Critical Resistance conference. This week, a number of high school students in the Bay area will stage a walkout protesting the rate of incarceration of young people.

2. Read an article from the Atlantic Monthly about the Prison Industrial Complex

3. Click on3. Motherjones.com to go the a website that examines the cost of the prison system.

i) Health Care & Food

1. Read about The Politics of Food at the Democracy Now website.

2. Listen to The Politics of Food: The Food Industry Spends $33 Billion in Advertising This Year, While Over One Quarter of U.S. Adults Are Obese

3. Read about Health Care issues facing Americans.

4. Listen to NPR's Talk Of The Nation report on Health Care.

5. Listen to a talk on Farms & Genetic Engineering. Has planting healthy food become an act of rebellion? Are banks and seed companies trying to force farmers to plant engineered seeds? What are the problems, if any, with this issue?

6. Listen to FATAL HARVEST by Andy Kimbrell and Vandana Shiva. Kimbrell talks about the transformation of nature via biotechnology to make life fit a dangerous system rather than changing technology to make it appropriate to life. Vandana Shiva reports on rural resistance and WTO free zones in India. Taking back the seed from the 5 corporations that now control the source of food of the planet is for her the symbol of the new freedom.


7. Listen to Food & Genetic Engineering
Organic Food VS Genetic Engineering

Part A: Peter Rosset, Brewster and Cathleen Kneen
Side B: Vandana Shiva and Brian Leahy

The program begins with a list of myths about genetic engineered food presented by Food First director Peter Rosset. Brewster Kneen, former goat farmer and publisher of the Ramshorn says that our foods and the systems by which they are grown and distributed are being deliberately contaminated by genetic pollution. His wife, Cathleen Kneen, reminds us that eating is very personal. The food becomes our body. Food is the basis of culture and community.

Vandana Shiva from India reminds us of the impact of the Green Revolution that was imposed on the Third World. She found in her research that this “revolution” did not produce more food, but poisoned the land with chemicals and created population explosions of insects. Brian Leahy is the Executive Director of California Certified Organic Farmers, CCOF. He invites us to take a closer look at the food in a supermarket, to see that this is food for a dead culture.

8) Listen to Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals; Knight professor of journalism, University of California, Berkeley

In his new book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, journalist and writer Michael Pollan argues that many Americans suffer from a national eating disorder based on super-sized, corn-fed diets.



j) Patriot Acts vs Civil Liberties

1. Read survey results about civil liberties and national security.

2. Read more recentsurvey results about civil liberties and national security.

3. It's crazy! Read about how civil liberties in the United States are disappearing like..like...everything else good in this world.

4. Listen here to Constitutional law scholar and University of Southern California Law Professor Erwin Chemerinsky. Speaking recently at an event hosted by the Coalition for Civil Liberties, Chemerinsky warned that a number of threats exist that endanger our constitutionally-guaranteed freedoms traditionally protected under the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Professor Chemerinsky talks about various events of US history that have threatened civil liberties. Chemerinsky starts with the Alien & Sedition Acts of 1798 through today's Patriot Act. The talk on Civil Liberties starts at the 32:40 minute of the October 1, 2003 Pacifica Peacetalk radio broadcast. It is about 30 minutes in length. If this doesn't interest you, check your pulse. You might be dead.

k) Israel & Palestine

1. Listen to NPR's The Mideast: A Century of Conflict
A Seven-Part Series Traces the Israeli-Palestinian Dispute

2. Click to read Israel and Palestine: Ancient History - Recent Events

3. Click to read a brief history of the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict 1897 - Present

4. Listen to a Democracy Now report about Israeli and Palestinian women working together for peace.
Important Maps: Israel Maps including West Bank Maps


l) State vs Federal

1. Read the perspective of those favoring strong state rights.

2. Read about the State vs Federal Govt. decision to store all nuclear waste in one state.

3. Read about results from a survey pertaining to American attitude towards government

m) Globalization Issue (International Monetary Fund / World Trade Organization)

1. Listen to public debate on NO LOGO vs PRO-LOGO or Pro-Globalization vs Anti-Globalization. Good stuff!

2. Read general background about Naomi Klein (NO LOGO) and Sameena Ahmad (PRO-LOGO).

3. Listen to protestors prepare to shut down the WORLD BANK and IMF

4. Read information from an Anti-World Bank website.

5. Listen to Technology & Globalization Series TV is the most efficient medium for globalization. The landscape of the mind is shaped to accept the external monolculture of corporate logos, fast food franchises and clear-cuts.

n) Federal Budget & Taxes

1. Read about American attitudes towards taxes.

2. Read general information and statistics about the Federal Budget.

o) Social Security

1. Read about results from a social security poll.

p) 21st Century Water Issue

1. Read about World water problems of the 21st century.

q) The Growing Gap Between Rich and Poor

1. Read an interview by Bill Moyers about the increasing disparity between rich and poor. Moyers interviews Kevin Phillips. He is the author of the book entitled Wealth and Democracy

2. Listen to a discussion about the problem with an increasing different between rich and poor. Callers call in and give their opinion.


12. VOICES ON THE IRAQI WAR

A) Listen to SCOTT RITTER, FORMER U.N. WEAPONS INSPECTOR IN IRAQ, SPEAKS ON WEAPONS INSPECTIONS & THE HUMAN COST OF ANOTHER GULF WAR

B) Listen to 'COME SEPTEMBER': AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR ARUNDHATI ROY SPEAKS OUT ON IRAQ, U.S. FOREIGN POLICY, PALESTINE & CORPORATE GLOBALIZATION

C) Listen to ARUNDHATI ROY give a speech on May 19th, 2003 at Riverside Church in Harlem, New York. The speech is titled: Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy. It starts at the 11:30 mark.

D) Listen to DENNIS HALLIDAY Responds to the End of Sanctions In Iraq. Starts at 5 minute mark

13. VOICES ON SEPT 11th

A) Listen to Author Dan Briody connects the dots between the Bush family, the Saudi Royal family, Osama Bin Laden's family and Donald Rumsfeld's inner circle. Dan Briody's book is "The Iron Triangle: The Secret History of the Carlyle Group"

B) Listen two author Isabel Allende compare September 11th, 1973 and September 11th, 2001Read more about the acclaimed author Isabel Allende compares two September 11ths: the 1973 CIA-backed coup that overthrew her uncle, the Democratically elected President of Chile, and the 2001 Attacks. Click here for more information about Isabel Allende.

14. Click here and listen to Howard Zinn do his talk about his thoughts on history, how history is taught, words like "democracy" and "national interest" and other interesting things.