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On Wednesday, December 10, Congress passed a bill called the "Intelligence Authorization Act for 2015." Not very many people have heard of this bill, much less its passage since the media's main focus is on the CIA torture report. However, the Act contains language that U.S. Representative Justin Amash (R-Mich) calls "the most egregious sections of law" he has encountered during his time in Congress. "It grants the executive branch virtually unlimited access to the communications of every Amer

Although the midterm election fever has largely subsided, the courts are heating up over the issue of redistricting and gerrymandering lawsuits. For the 2014 term, the U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear three cases on redistricting commissions, and the Florida Supreme Court has also heard its own case over redistricting. Elections are contentious contests and at the heart of these arguments is who has the power to draw district lines that influence the outcomes on Election Day. All of these case

Redistricting is a process that occurs once every ten years, where census data is utilized to redraw the boundaries of each congressional district, so as to keep the representational power of each district relatively even. The underlying rationale for redistricting is to ensure that the "one man, one vote" ethos stays meaningful. Yet a political party can redraw districts in a way that favors itself at the expense of the others. By packing voters from other parties in a small number of district

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy. --attrib. Alexander F. Tytler Nothing quite transcends party lines like the ability of politicians to deliver s

Each year as we approach the end (or beginning) of Daylight Saving Time (DST -- Daylight Saving in the United States is the correct term, not Daylight Savings as it is usually mistakenly called), there seems to be a political debate as to the usefulness of such a scheme. Some encourage year-round DST, while others advocate totally departing from the system. Looking to the wisdom and humor of Benjamin Franklin gives us a unique insight to his thoughts on saving daylight. Paris, 1784 Franklin'

No matter what political ideology a voter identifies with, every single election comes down to one thing: voter turnout. If voters don't go to the polls to cast ballots, their party affiliation, or lack thereof, doesn't matter. But which states have the worst turnouts and why?According to Nonprofit Vote, a group that works with nonprofit organizations to increase voting opportunities, in 2010, there were about 91 million votes cast across the country, which means that approximately 42 percent o

The 2014 midterm elections are less than a month away and the GOP is poised to seize a majority in the Senate, though that would require winning some close races. Some are expected to come down to just a proportionally small amount of votes. RealClearPolitics rates 10 Senate races as “toss-ups” and 7 of them involve Democratic incumbents. The difference between victory and defeat will come down to voter turnout, which in turn depends on voter access laws, which state governments have been keen

In an interview with the Laura Ingraham Show, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) accused the Obama administration of "underplaying" the threat of Ebola now that it has been identified in Dallas, TX. The senator said the public was not being properly warned of the serious nature of the virus because the White House and health officials maintain that the response should be politically correct. Because the issue is being “dominated by political correctness, we’re not really making sound, rational, scientific

As service members approach the looming fiscal year with uncertainty, a recent survey from Feeding America found that a quarter of the families that their food banks serve are military families and 20 percent of veterans depend on food banks and other charities to provide for their families as well. High ranking military officials have called the accuracy of these numbers into question, but it's clear that the situation isn't going to get any easier for military families. This situation is noth

On August 1, independent U.S. Senate candidate Joy Allison filed a lawsuit against television stations KHNL and KGMB, collectively known as Hawaii News Now, for not allowing her to appear in a televised debate on the networks. Allison is running for the Senate seat currently held by Democrat Brian Schatz. Schatz was appointed to the Senate by Governor Neil Abercrombie after the late Sen. Daniel Inouye passed away in 2012, and is currently running for his first full term. He scraped by a tough p