U.S. Government and Politics

Summer Project

Welcome to U.S. Government! I’m looking forward to a great year of studying and discussing government and politics. To begin your preparation, I am offering and extra credit summer assignment. I strongly encourage you to complete it!

In order to be a successful student of United States Government, you need to get in the habit of following current political events. You need to know who the leaders are, what decisions they are making, and how it may affect your life. To get in this habit, complete the following assignment:

For each week of the summer (you can start after July 4), choose one important political event, and give the following information:

a. Summarize what happened in a brief paragraph

b. List the media source form which you got your information (date and page #/time)

c. Name one key decision maker in this event – their office and where they are from

d. State two or three political terms used in the story and give a brief definition

You should not repeat the decision makers or terms, and you should use at least five different media sources.

The terms should be new or unfamiliar to you (i.e., not “President”). Some examples of words you may come across are: Bully Pulpit, sound bite, photo op, Filibuster, Cloture, Apportionment, Gerrymandering, Conference Committee, bipartisan, judicial activism, soft money, NAFTA, etc.

We will focus on national politics, so your stories should as well. You may also include state and local issues. Foreign policy stories (especially where our government is involved) are great.

Suggested media sources:

A daily newspaper – look at headlines, national news, editorials, oped page (opposite the editorials).

An online newspaper – www.nytimes.com, www.washingtonpost.com are excellent

- both also have member centers which offer free daily emails of the headlines, & politics pages:

- www.nytimes.com/pages/politics/index.html, www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/politics/

- also check out www.boston.com/globe/ and www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/

News magazines – Newsweek, Time, US News &World Report – all offer excellent weekly summaries

- www.newsweek.com, www.time.com, www.usnews.com – publish online Sunday/Monday

Nightly local news (5-6:30 on most stations) and network news – 6:30 on ABC, NBC, and CBS

Weekly news shows – most are on Sunday mornings (e.g. ABC’s This Week – 10:30 on Channel 5)

- PBS has a couple Friday night – McLaughlin Group (7:30), Washington Week in Review (9PM)

Cable news networks – CNN, MSNBC, FoxNews, NECN, etc. – also offer websites – www.cnn.com is excellent

-CNN also has a daily show- Inside Politics at 4 PM – check out www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/

Various other sources – e.g. if you have a yahoo.com home page, you can set it up to give you the

headlines from the Associated Press (AP) every time you log on

Please bring all your weekly stories in the first day of class. You may email me your weekly assignments if you would like comments on them, or if you have any questions: dickson@harwich.edu

Additional Suggested Summer Reading

These are good books on politics. You can receive extra credit for handing in a reflection on any of these.

Man of the House, Tip O’Neill with William Novak

All Politics is Local, Tip O’Neill

Thirteen Days, Robert Kennedy

All the President’s Men, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward

Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville

Hard Ball, by Chris Matthews

The Courage of their Convictions, by Peter Irons