Many people like to ask: what is politics? It's a good question, since these days it seems like politics covers nearly every subject. In many ways, it does.
If you are asking what is politics in terms of educational subject, by strict definition, it would be an interdisciplinary study of the art (or science) of running a government or the affairs of a state. It is a huge subject and diverges at many points.
In Virginia, only two candidates have qualified for the VA GOP primary election: Mitt Romney and Ron Paul. Why? Because the restrictions for ballot access make it nearly impossible for candidates to gain access, causing Bachmann, Santorum, and Huntsman to not even submit a petition and preventing Gingrich and Perry from getting enough signatures to qualify.
Supporters of independent and third party candidates have long decried the draconian laws regulating ballot access in states across the country. They have argued that the ballot access system, which has been constructed by Democratic and Republican lawmakers over the last century, deprives voters of choice, unreasonably burdens upstart candidates for public office, and insulates entrenched incumbents from political competition.
California's stringent new rules regulating greenhouse gas emissions were scheduled to go into effect on Jan. 1 2012. But on Thursday Dec. 29, U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence O’Neill ruled that California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard violates the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which reserves regulation of commerce to the federal government and is interpreted as meaning that states cannot interfere in interstate commerce.
As a full-time managing editor for the Independent Voter Network (IVN.us), 2010 YAL media intern Wes Messamore is recruiting young writers for a part -time journalism internship writing weekly articles now through November with relevant and critical analysis of news and politics.
As we close the books on 2011, here, in totality, are five underreported stories (as put together by me) for Current.com:
Even as the Democratic Party continues to enjoy the Hispanic community’s support heading into the 2012 election year, the Pew Hispanic Center finds that only 45% of Hispanic voters identified the Democratic Party as the more concerned party (for their interests), while 12% picked the Republican Party.
Pesticide use in California rose in 2010 after four consecutive years of declines, according to a recent report from the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR).