The Phillippines

  One month after a deadly typhoon hit the Philippines and killed almost 6,000 people, the death toll continues to rise each day.  Yet even with all the donations and celebrities going to visit and help out, and the online charities, the people still need help.  They are in desperate need of food, clothing,and water.  And unfortunately, only 10% of online donations to charities such as Red Cross, actually make it to the country in need. A recent campaign for the Alzheimer's Association by a telemarketing company received $16,101 in donations from Hawaii, but the charity was only given $19.71, according to the latest state Attorney General's charitable solicitation financial report.  The best way to help the Philippines would be to directly ship "care packages" or simply tangible items instead of money.  If people in America opened their closet and pulled out all the clothes they don't wear or don't fit anymore and put them in a box with some bottles of water and non-perishable food items, wrote an address on the box and shipped it, they would be saving more lives than the person donating $100 to the Red Cross' Philippines relief fund.  
  Yet if money is the only option for someone to help,they should directly hand it to a charity or organization who then has to send it to the country in need.  But think about what happens when you donate money. Even if it reaches the country, what are they going to do with it?  A majority of their towns have been destroyed, which means they don't just have a Super Walmart open for business, so in all honesty, sending money there would be a waste- for you and them.  

Watergate: Charles Colson

Charles Colson was born on October 16, 1931 in Boston, Massachusetts.  As a kid, he would organize fundraising campaigns at school for the war effort and even raised enough money to buy a jeep for the Army.  After working at a self-developed law firm, he became a Captain in the Marines and once out in 1955, he was appointed as Special Counsel to President Nixon in 1969.  Nixon called him his “hatchetman” as he would make things happen.  In an interview with Slate magazine writer David Plotz, Colson said he was “willing to be ruthless to get things done” and he would “run over his own grandmother to re-elect Nixon.”  Soon enough, he became even more radical about his determination to keep Nixon in power that he hired thugs to beat up anti-war demonstrators and proposed firebombing the Brookings Institution in order to steal documents while the fire was being put out in another part of the building. 

            Eventually, he and John Ehrlichman appointed E. Howard Hunt to special ops. aimed towards stopping leaks in the Nixon administration.  So in order to stop war information from being leaked, they planned for Hunt to steal the Pentagon Papers which expresses the U.S.’s involvement in the Vietnam War.  This was just the start of what would be known as Watergate, the biggest political scandal ever.  After the scandal was uncovered, Colson admitted to leaking information from Ellsberg’s FBI file but denied all allegations that he was the one who told Hunt to leak the information.  Later in a book he wrote in 2005, he “expressed regret” for trying to cover up his involvement in Watergate. 

            On March 10, 1973, 17 months before Nixon’s resignation, Colson resigned from special Counsel and returned to his law practice.  Yet even though he was out of the White House, Nixon used him as a special consultant for many months.  On March 1, 1974, he pleaded guilty and was convicted for “conspiring to cover-up the Watergate burglaries.”  On July 9, 1974 Colson, along with six others known as the “Watergate Seven” were sentenced to jail in Alabama.  He was the first person from the Nixon administration to be jailed for Watergate charges, and was the second to last to be released on January 30, 1975.  Years after, a tape recording of a June 20, 1972 White House conversation between Nixon and Colson revealed that they were involved in Watergate.

            In 1973, Charles Colson was inspired by the words and writings of C.S. Lewis and became a Christian.  He wrote over 30 books and became a public speaker.  He also founded “Prison Fellowship” in 1976 where he spread the Word to prisoners and their families.  He only recently died in 2012, and worked with George W. Bush about war efforts.  His mid-life turnaround was drastic and he was soon being praised for his good works with Prison Fellowship and his books rather than being scolded for Watergate. 

General Watergate: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate_scandal

Charles Colson:

       "Charles Colson." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 2 Nov. 2013. Web. 8 Nov. 2013. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Colson.

        Dobbs, Michael. "Charles Colson, Nixon’s ‘dirty Tricks’ Man, Dies at 80." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 21 Apr. 2012. Web. 8 Nov. 2013. <http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-04-21/politics/35454160_1_dirty-tricks-minimum-security-prison-charles-w-colson>.

Consitution

  The meaning of the U.S. Constitution has been tampered with over the last two centuries through both formal and informal methods.  In order to add amendments to the constitution, it must be considered and go through a formal method.  Proposal and ratification are just two examples of formal methods, in which an amendment must be passed by 2/3 vote in the House, and 3/4 vote by the state national convention.  From there it can be ratified by either 3/4 of the state special election or 3/4 of the state legislature.  On the other hand, informal methods are possible, and are used more often than the formal amendment process.  For example, the two party system was created by the people- no where in the Constitution does it say anything about this.  The Democratic and Republican system, formerly federalist and antifederalist, parties were created by citizens.  And as a result of being so opinionated, the electoral college votes reflect what the majority of a senators state wants rather than just what the senator himself wants. 
  Federalism is a way of organizing nation so that two or more levels of government have formal authority over the same land and people.  And with that process comes power.  Categorical grants, for example, are extremely restricted and come with many terms and conditions by the federal government.  States no longer look to grants with a smile because of all the regulation and difficulty to apply them to what it is the state actually needs.  Federal mandates force state and local governments to comply with federal rules, and to set a budget for more funds for a project in order to receive more money. 
  And while the federal government may have more power over the states in some situations, it also works the other way with block grants and the tenth amendment.  Block grants are given to states or communities to support local programs such as community development and social services.  The percentage of federal aid to states has been increasing since 1995 when Republicans passed for more federal aid in the form of block grants.  But the most important power given to the states is the tenth amendment which states that " the powers not delegated to the United states by the Constitution...are reserved to the states...".  This is huge for the American people, and through the court cases trying to revise this amendment, the people have only made it stronger.  This amendment provides a sense of security for citizens, and lets them know that they do have rights, and the government is not a monarch over them.