Did you know Turkey recently shot down a Syrian fighter jet for allegedly violating Turkey's airspace? No? Neither did most people. It is a story that hasn't gotten much coverage here at home. Maybe it is simply because cable news networks -- colloquially known as the mainstream media -- don't think it is major news (read: ratings driving news). However, according to independent investigative journalist Ben Swann, it may be bigger than many people realize.

"Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer."

John F. Kennedy spoke these words in 1958 regarding the political challenges faced in America. Kennedy called for following a path of compromise -- to move the nation forward by seeking common ground between opposing interests.

Nate Silver made waves on Sunday when he predicted a GOP win in the mid-term Senate elections.

After Silver's success predicting the 2012 elections, many are keeping a close eye on what he says this year. However, the media response could be counting chicks before the eggs have hatched.

For decades, the American prison system has grown in size and shape.

According to the ACLU, the U.S. represents 5 percent of the world's population, but holds claim to 25 percent of the world's prison population.1 out of 99 adults are living behind bars, and 1 out of 15 African-Americans are imprisoned. Further, 1 out of 13 African-Americans cannot legally vote because of laws which deny ex-felons the right to vote.

Cable news has long been the subject of mockery by late night talk show hosts and comedians like Jon Stewart for either sensationalizing current events and political news or reporting on pure speculation. This is not even reasonable speculation, either, but knee jerk, "throwing darts with a blindfold on" speculation.

The most recent example of this was the 24-hour news coverage of Malaysia Flight 370 where CNN treated theories like black holes and aliens as worthy of airtime and Fox News spent its time ridiculing CNN, thus creating an on-air spat between the networks.

Though support for the tea party has been waning since 2010, it is hard to deny that it is still a mainstream movement in America in terms of awareness and media focus.

Let’s first consider the two questions that everybody is asking. The first of these — Can the government force business to purchase a particular insurance product? — is a question for your Facebook friends. It is not before the Supreme Court, which has essentially already decided that, yes, the government can do that. State and federal governments have been regulating things like this for the better part of a century.

In Rebecca Traister’s fantastic book, Big Girls Don’t Cry: The Election That Changed Everything for American Women, she identified 2008 as a truly groundbreaking year. It was the year that a woman won a state presidential primary for the first time in the nation’s history, and saw only the second female vice-presidential candidate on a major party ticket.

America is often referred to as a democracy, but in truth that is shorthand for a more nuanced reality. America is democratic, but it is also a republic. Democracy and republicanism, though related, are also opposed, much like the American political parties that bear those names.

The signing of the 1787 Constitution of the United States was significant to mankind for a myriad of reasons, not least of which was its innovative application of governance. Perhaps the most ingenious idea put into practice was federalism: the layering of local, state, and national government.