William Jefferson Clinton William Jefferson Clinton was born on August 19, 1946,
in Hope, Arkansas. His father, William J. Blythe III was killed in an automobile
collision just two months before William’s birth. At age four, William
Jefferson Blythe IV was legally adopted by his mothers second husband, Roger
Clinton, making him William Jefferson Clinton. At age 22 William received a
Bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University. Just five years later, he
received his law degree from Yale. Soon after graduating from Yale, he became a
law professor at the University of Arkansas. He did not stay in one place for
long though, and in 1978 he became the Attorney General of Arkansas. From this
political position, he moved higher up in the ranks and in 1978 won the election
for the gubernatorial seat of Arkansas. In the 1980 elections, however, William
(Bill) was defeated by Republican Frank White. As the youngest governor of
Arkansas in 40 years, Bill then became the youngest ex-governor in United States
history. During the interim, Clinton was hired by the law firm Wright, Lindsey
and Jennings. In the 1982 elections, Mr. Clinton went after the position of
governor with renewed vigor and defeated incumbent Republican Frank White.
During the campaigning for the election a Time magazine article stated: “If
Clinton does win, it could seem like less a comeback than a canny mid-course
correction in the path of a young, bright political star.” Clinton went on to
win the next two gubernatorial elections in the state of Arkansas. In 1988 he
had the possibility of a Democratic Party presidential nomination, but he
refused to run. Finally, in 1991, Clinton announced that he was going to run for
President of the United States. In the 1992 election, Bill Clinton ran against
Republican incumbent George Herbert Walker Bush and independent Ross H. Perot.
During the campaign, Bill met with some difficulty when the media discovered
that he had dodged the Vietnam draft, been unfaithful to his spouse, and smoked
marijuana while attending Oxford. Bill placated the liberal-biased media by
saying that he didn’t believe in the war, and he “didn’t inhale.”
Opposition mounted when reporters discovered that Clinton and his wife, Hillary
Rodham, whom he married in 1975, had made some questionable dealings over a
piece of real estate referred to commonly as Whitewater. Despite the seemingly
insurmountable odds, Clinton won the election, with 46% of voting Americans
supporting him. Antonin Scalia, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was born
March 11, 1936 in an Italian majority section of Trenton, New Jersey. His
father, Eugene Scalia was a literary scholar and a professor of Romance
Languages at Brooklyn College. His mother was an elementary school teacher.
Scalia attended Xavier High School, a Catholic Military academy. He graduated,
first in his class, in 1953. One of his good friends once said: “He was
brilliant, way above everybody else.” He later majored in History at
Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., where he again graduated first in his
class. Soon after leaving Georgetown, he enrolled in Harvard Law School, where
he was known around the campus as an effective debater. From Harvard he earned
an LL. B. Degree and in 1960 joined the Cleveland based law firm Jones, Day,
Cockly and Reavis. He was one of the most straightforward conservatives on the
staff and there too earned a reputation as a debater. Later, President Richard
Nixon appointed Scalia to the position of Part-time General Counsel in Executive
Office of Telecom Policy. He was confirmed by Congress under the Gerald Ford
administration for the position of Assistant Attorney General in charge of the
Justice Department’s office of legal counsel. At that time his job was mostly
to give advice to the President and the Attorney General. In 1977 he became a
Professor at the University of Chicago Law School. Antonin Scalia is now an
associate justice of the United States Supreme Court. He took his oath in 1986
and is the first Italian-American Supreme Court Justice. He was part of
President Ronald Reagan’s effort to make the judiciary system more
conservative. Mr. Scalia is very outspoken against racially based affirmative
action programs and the “Constitutional Right” to abortion. His views are
closely related to those of the Reagan administration. Scalia is a very
intelligent individual, has an elegant writing style, and has personal charm
that makes him an influential member on the Supreme Court. Legislative
Department The Legislative Department consists mostly of the House and the
Senate, the two parts of Congress. The Senate has 100 members or two per state.
The House of Representatives has one representative per 30,000 people in the
state, currently 435, not including the one from Washington, D.C., who is not
allowed to vote. This is called the “great compromise” because when the laws
were first being written the larger states wanted to have a system like the
House of Representatives, and the smaller states wanted an equal voice and liked
the Senate system better. Finally, in a compromise they decided to have both.
Facts on the House of Representatives: · House of Representative members are
elected to a 2 year term. · The minimum age to become a member is 25 years. ·
In order to become a member, you must have been a citizen of the United States
for 7 years. · Members must be a resident of the state they are elected by. ·
The House of Representatives has the ‘power of impeachment.’ This means that
the House can vote to put the president of the United States on trial before the
Senate. The only president to have ever been impeached was Andrew Johnson in
1867. When the Senate finally voted, however, he missed being removed from
office by one vote. Facts on the Senate: · Senators are elected to six year
terms. · The minimum age for a senator is 30 years. · You must have been a
citizen of the United States for 9 years. · The Senate tries cases of
impeachment. Powers Granted to Congress The congress shall have the power: 1. To
lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and
provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all
duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; 2.
To borrow money on the credit of the United States; 3. To regulate commerce with
foreign nations and among several states; 4. To establish a uniform rule of
naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the
United States; 5. To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign
coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures; 6. To provide for the
punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United
States; 7. To establish post offices and post roads; 8. To promote the progress
of science and useful arts by securing for limited times to authors and
inventors the exclusive rights to their respective writings and discoveries; 9.
To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court; 10. To define and punish
piracies and felonies committed on the high seas and offenses against the law of
nations; 11. To declare war and make rules concerning captures on land and
water. 12. To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money for that
use shall be for a longer term than two years; 13. To provide and maintain a
navy; 14. To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval
forces; 15. To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the
Union, suppress the insurrections, and repel invasions; 16. To provide for
organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, and for governing such part of
them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the
states, respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of
training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress. Ronald
Wilson Reagan Ronald W. Reagan was born February 6, 1911, in Tampico, Illinois.
He attended Eureka College and graduated in 1932 with a Bachelor of Arts degree
in economics. He was also popular on his high school football team and played in
college. Soon after graduating from college, Reagan began working as a radio
sports announcer. His big break, however, was in 1937 when he became a contract
actor for Warner Brothers starring in such movies as Knute Rockne-All American,
King’s Row, and probably his most famous, Bedtime for Bonzo. During WWII
Reagan patriotically served his country (unlike some other presidents) as a
captain in the army. It was soon after this that he became active in Democratic
politics, supporting Harry S. Truman for president in 1948 and Douglas over
Nixon in the California senatorial race in 1950. In 1952, Ronald Reagan married
actress Nancy Davis, a contract actress for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. They had two
children. Between the years of 1954 and 1962 Reagan was the host of a television
program called General Electric Theater. In the early 1950’s, Reagan wised up
and became more conservative, this time supporting Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952
and Richard Nixon in 1960. In 1962, Mr. Reagan switched his voter registration
to Republican, and was elected governor of California in 1966 and 1970. He was
not able to do everything that he had hoped as governor, because for six of the
eight years there was a democratic majority in the state legislature. However,
he did find time to cut welfare and start the Medi-Cal program to pay medical
bills for the poor. Reagan increased income taxes to avoid a projected deficit
but later gave rebates when the state government had a surplus. Reagan also
lowered the high property taxes of California. In 1976, Ronald Reagan challenged
Gerald R. Ford for the Republican nomination but lost by a small margin. He was
not a quitter, however, and in 1980 he chased after the nomination again and
easily beat George Bush whom he later chose for his vice president. During the
Reagan Administration, Reagan brought conservatives to power both in the
Republican Party and in the nation. Reagan’s economic program, sometimes
called Reaganomics, was a tax and spending cuts budget which stimulated economic
growth between 1982 and 1987. The Constitution of the United States of America
The constitution of the United States is the framework of the government. On it
all laws are based, and if there is a conflict, the law will be determined
unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. An amendment to the constitution is when
a change is made to the constitution. In this section of my Government Booklet,
some of the most important amendments will be discussed. Amendment 1: Congress
shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or
the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the government
for a redress of grievances. The first amendment is probably the most famous
amendment, because it gives citizens of the United States their basic rights and
privileges. However, these rights do have limits, and once you go past the
limit, you are breaking the law. Amendment 2: A well-regulated militia, being
necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and
bear arms shall not be infringed. Ask any member of the NRA what the second
amendment is, and 9 times out of ten, he will be able to quote it for you. With
the laws going more and more to the left, it is my guess that this right will be
infringed within the next ten years. Amendment 4: The right of the people to be
secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable
searches and seizures, shall not be violated; and no warrants shall issue but
upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly
describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
This amendment is basically saying that the government, police, etc., cannot
come into your house without a warrant and ‘just cause’ for wanting to
search the area. Amendment 8 Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive
fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. This amendment is
one of the ones for people accused of a crime. In essence, they are not to have
bail unreasonably high, fines unreasonably high, or tortured. Many people say
that the death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment, but they are wrong.
Amendment 13 Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment
for a crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within
the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Congress shall
have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. This
amendment totally abolishes any slavery within the legal jurisdiction of the
United States. Amendment 19 The right of the citizens of the United States to
vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on
account of sex. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by
appropriate legislation. This amendment, made in 1920, gives women the right to
vote. Previously, women had almost no rights, and voting was a privilege that
they were not allowed to have. Amendment 21 The Eighteenth Article of amendment
to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed. The transportation
or importation into any state, territory, or possession of the United States for
delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws
thereof, is hereby prohibited. This amendment repealed, or took back the
eighteenth amendment which made alcohol illegal. Amendment 22 No person shall be
elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has
held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of
a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the
office of President more than once. This amendment makes it so that a president
can only serve for two terms in his lifetime. This keeps the United States from
ever having a dictatorship. Amendment 26 The right of citizens of the United
States, who are 18 years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or
abridged by the United States or any state on account of age. The Congress shall
have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. This
amendment, made in 1971, lowers the voting age from 21 to 18. The Presidents of
the United States President Election Years in Political Party Home State Year
Office George Washington 1788 1789-1793 None Virginia George Washington 1792
1793-1797 None Virginia John Adams 1796 1797-1801 Federalist Massachusetts
Thomas Jefferson 1800 1801-1805 Republican Virginia Thomas Jefferson 1804
1805-1809 Republican Virginia James Madison 1808 1809-1813 Republican Virginia
James Madison 1812 1813-1817 Republican Virginia James Monroe 1816 1817-1821
Republican Virginia James Monroe 1820 1821-1825 Republican Virginia John Quincy
Adams 1824 1825-1829 Republican Massachusetts Andrew Jackson 1828 1829-1833
Democrat Tennessee Andrew Jackson 1832 1833-1837 Democrat Tennessee Martin Van
Buren 1836 1837-1841 Democrat New York William H. Harrison 1840 1841 Whig Ohio
John Tyler 1841-1845 Whig Virginia James K. Polk 1844 1845-1849 Democrat
Tennessee Zachary Taylor 1848 1849-1850 Whig Louisiana Millard Fillmore
1850-1853 Whig New York Franklin Pierce 1852 1853-1857 Democrat New Hampshire
James Buchanan 1856 1857-1861 Democrat Pennsylvania Abraham Lincoln 1860
1861-1865 Republican Illinois Abraham Lincoln 1864 1865 Republican Illinois
Andrew Johnson 1865-1869 Republican Tennessee Ulysses S. Grant 1868 1869-1873
Republican Illinois Ulysses S. Grant 1872 1873-1877 Republican Illinois
Rutherford B. Hayes 1876 1877-1881 Republican Ohio James A. Garfield 1880 1881
Republican Ohio Chester A. Arthur 1881-1885 Republican New York Grover Cleveland
1884 1885-1889 Democrat New York Benjamin Harrison 1888 1889-1893 Republican
Indiana Grover Cleveland 1892 1893-1897 Democrat New York William McKinley 1896
1897-1901 Republican Ohio William McKinley 1900 1901 Republican Ohio Theodore
Roosevelt 1901-1905 Republican New York Theodore Roosevelt 1904 1905-1909
Republican New York William H. Taft 1908 1909-1913 Republican Ohio Woodrow
Wilson 1912 1913-1917 Democrat New Jersey Woodrow Wilson 1916 1917-1921 Democrat
New Jersey Warren G. Harding 1920 1921-1923 Republican Ohio Calvin Coolidge
1923-1924 Republican Massachusetts Calvin Coolidge 1924 1925-1929 Republican
Massachusetts Herbert Hoover 1928 1929-1933 Republican California Franklin D.
Roosevelt 1932 1933-1937 Democrat New York Franklin D. Roosevelt 1936 1937-1941
Democrat New York Franklin D. Roosevelt 1940 1941-1945 Democrat New York
Franklin D. Roosevelt 1944 1945 Democrat New York Harry S. Truman 1945-1949
Democrat Missouri Harry S. Truman 1948 1949-1953 Democrat Missouri Dwight D.
Eisenhower 1952 1953-1957 Republican Pennsylvania Dwight D. Eisenhower 1956
1957-1961 Republican Pennsylvania John F. Kennedy 1960 1961-1963 Democrat
Massachusetts Lyndon B. Johnson 1963-1965 Democrat Texas Lyndon B. Johnson 1964
1965-1969 Democrat Texas Richard M. Nixon 1968 1969-1973 Republican California
Richard M. Nixon 1972 1973-1974 Republican California Gerald R. Ford 1974-1977
Republican Michigan Jimmy Carter 1976 1977-1981 Democrat Georgia Ronald Reagan
1980 1981-1985 Republican California Ronald Reagan 1984 1985-1989 Republican
California George Bush 1988 1989-1993 Republican Texas Bill Clinton 1992 1993-
Democrat Arkansas The Executive Branch The executive branch of the government is
led by the president, currently Bill Clinton. His main duties are to: A) Enforce
laws. It is the in the oath of office of the president to ‘uphold the laws and
constitution of the United States.’ B) Act as Commander in chief of the armed
forces. The president has this title because he is the ‘head honcho’ in the
military. The buck stops there. The president can ask congress for the right to
go to war as did Franklin Delano Roosevelt after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on
December 7, 1941. Congress voted yes and the United States entered WWII. C)
Appoint key officials in the government. Among the many that the president
appoints are Supreme Court Justices, the surgeon general, and the attorney
general. D) Recommend laws to congress. The president can introduce a bill to
congress. The Senate and the House will vote on the bill. If both approve it, it
goes back to the president for him to sign. Once he has signed it, it is a law.
Either part of Congress may introduce a bill as well. If it passes through both
the House and the Senate, it goes to the president for him to sign. If he
disagrees with the bill, he may choose to veto it. Veto is a combination of the
words vote no. When the president vetoes a bill, it goes back to Congress for
them to review it. In order to check the president’s power and pass the bill
into law, there must be a two-thirds majority when the ballots are cast. The
president also has the power to grant a reprieve or pardon to any convicted
criminal or even someone who has not been charged yet. This is illustrated by
Gerald Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon before he was to be charged for any
involvement of his in the Watergate scandal. The pardon was granted to keep the
United States from being embarrassed at having one of their presidents on trial.
On the upside, Nixon was respected globally for his efforts to open and
establish relations with China. The president of the United states has a four
year term. He may serve up to two terms in his lifetime. The salary for the
president is $200,000 per year. The president must also be a natural born
citizen and must have lived in the United States for 14 years before running.
Jack Metcalf Jack Metcalf, a Washington State senator, attended the University
of Washington between 1944 and 1948. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from
Pacific Lutheran University in 1951 and then later in 1965-66 went back to the
University of Washington. He also patriotically served his country in the armed
forces between 1946 and 1947. Metcalf, a teacher and bed & breakfast owner,
has a wife, Norma, and four children. Metcalf has a colorful background as a
good Republican public servant. His political career began in 1958 when he
received the Republican nomination for one of the Washington House of
Representatives positions. Between the years of 1961 and 1965, Jack Metcalf
served his state in the Washington House of Representatives. In 1964, however,
he was defeated for re-election. Never a quitter, though, Metcalf ran for a
Washington State senator position, and won. He served as a senator between 1967
and 1975. In 1968 and 74, Metcalf, now a seasoned politician, received the
Republican nomination for the Senate. He served in the Washington Senate from
1981 to 1993. He was the Republican nominee for the United States House of
Representatives in 1992. At the age of 67, he took his House of Representatives
oath, and was the oldest member of the “Class of ‘94.” In his 1992
campaign for the Congressional seat against Democratic challenger Al Swift, he
promised to limit his terms to six years in Congress. He has described himself
as a “guy willing to take some kamikaze runs.” Metcalf has stated a call for
the restoration of the gold standard, and criticizes the Federal Reserve System.
In 1994, it did not look like Metcalf was indeed going to again win the
Republican nomination. He had to survive direct attacks from Republican rival
Senator Tom Erwin in the primaries. He won the nomination, however, but it
looked bleak for Metcalf against State Senator Harriet Spanel. However, most of
her financial backing came from unions, environmentalists, and women’s groups.
1994 was the wrong year to be a liberal. Although Spanel had the better funding,
she was hurt by her support of the assault weapons ban and the Brady Bill.
Metcalf opposed both. Another thing that helped Metcalf was his total opposition
to abortion, which made him popular among conservatives. Spanel won support from
San Juan County, but Metcalf won the rest of the counties in the district.
Review There are three branches of the United States Government. The
legislative, judicial, and the executive. Ideally, no one is more powerful than
the other two. They are all equal. They all have certain powers as well as
certain checks on powers. Congress is the main body of the legislative branch,
and is composed of two parts: the Senate and the House of Representatives. The
judicial branch consists of all of the courts in the United States, but is
headed by the Supreme Court. The president is the leader of the Executive
branch. In order to become a president, one must be at least 35 years of age and
a natural born citizen living in the United States for 14 years. The term of
office for a president is 4 years. The term of office for the Unites States
House of Representative members is 2 years, while Senators enjoy 6 years in a
term. In order to be in the House, you must be at least 25 years of age, for
Senators the minimum age is 30. There are 100 members of the Senate, two for
every state. The House of Representatives, however, has 435 members, plus one
from Washington D.C., but he/she is not allowed to vote. In order for a bill to
become law, it must pass the Senate, House of Representatives, and the President
must sign it. If the president vetoes a bill, it is kicked back into Congress,
where it may undergo revision, or simply be voted upon again. If Congress votes
and both halves get a 2/3 majority, the bill is passed into law without the
president being able to do anything about it. Some of the president’s jobs are
to be the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, to enforces laws, and to grant
pardons to criminals. Congress sets and collects taxes, has the power to borrow
money, declares war, provides for an army and a navy, creates lesser courts, and
coins money.
Bibliography
Blough, Glen O. The Young People’s Book of Science. United States of
America, McGraw-Hill, ©1968, pp. 1-436. Claiborne, Robert. Word Mysteries &
Histories. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, ©1986. pp. 2-308. “Congress.”
The New American Desk Encyclopedia. Volume 1, page 302. United States of
America, Penguin Books Incorporated, 1989. Markoff, John. Cyberpunk. New York,
Simon & Schuster, © 1991, pp. 1-366 “Webster’s New World Dictionary
Second College Edition,” United States of America