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Paul Ryan

Paul Ryan

Paul Ryan, Wisconsin’s Representative for the 1st Congressional District


Paul Davis Ryan, Jr. is most known for his position as a Republican member of the House of Representatives for the 1st congressional district of Wisconsin.
Paul Ryan was born on January 29, 1970 in Janesville Wisconsin where he was raised as the youngest out of four children. He went to Joseph A. Craig High School and after that he went to Oxford Ohio to attend Miami University in where he received his undergraduate degree in political science and economics in 1992. 
During college, Paul Ryan briefly worked as a Wienermobile driver for Oscar Meyer. He also took a position as a college intern for U.S. Senator Bob Kasten in his senior year. After graduating, he worked as a marketing consultant for his family’s business in the private sector throughout the 1990’s. He also worked as a volunteer economic analyst for Freedom Works.
In 1995, Paul Ryan accepted a congressional position that had been offered after his graduation. He became a staff economist for an office that worked in conjunction to U.S. Senator Bob Kasten. Two years later, he began to work in U.S. Senator Sam Brownback’s office as a legislative director. In 1996, Paul Ryan worked as a speechwriter to U.S. Representative Jack Kemp along with the Director of the National Drug Control policy, William Bennett.
Paul Ryan was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1998 after Mark Neumann, the incumbent who was in office for two terms, retired from his position. Since then, he has maintained his seat in and is now serving is 7th term as a Representative.
Paul Ryan is currently the chair of the Committee on the Budget and he also sits on the Committee on Ways & Means as well as the Subcommittee on Health.
Here are some of Paul Ryan’s opinions on critical issues:

Social Security and Medicare
• Social security must be strengthened in order to provide retirement security for future generations.
• Pass reforms to improve the return rate and to make Social Security as well as Medicare permanently solvent.
• Propose legislation that secures Social Security numbers in order to fight against identity theft and illegal immigration.
Federal Budget and taxes
• Create more accountability in Congress by controlling spending which will balance the budget without raising taxes.
• Expose examples of excessive government abuse and waste.
• Reduce tax burden by fixing spending problem in the government.
• Create legislation that simplifies individual taxes while making them fairer.

Education
• Advocating reform to the No Child Left Behind act.
• Strengthening autonomy of teachers, school districts, states, and families.
• Driving down college costs and tuition through accessibility and increased transparency.

Health care
• Providing universal access to all Americans for health care coverage.
• Creating more transparency in the health care market.

Shirley Chisholm

Shirley Chisholm

The Life of Shirley Chisholm


Shirley Chisholm was an American politician, author, and educator most known for her time as the representative for the 12th Congressional district of New York, making her the first black woman to hold a seat in Congress. She also was the first woman to run for in the Democratic presidential nomination as well as the first black major-party candidate for the position of President of the United States.
Early Life, Education, and Career
Shirley Chisholm was born on November 30, 1924 in Brooklyn, New York to immigrant parents from British Guiana and Barbados. Despite being born in the United States, her parents sent her to Barbados where she lived with her maternal grandmother for seven years.
After retuning, Shirley Chisholm attended Girls High School in Brooklyn and then continued her education at Brooklyn College, where she received her undergraduate degree in 1946. She went on to receive her Master’s degree in elementary education from Columbia University in 1952.
Upon graduation, Shirley Chisholm worked as a director from 1953 to 159 at the Hamilton Madison Child Care Center. She then worked as an educational consultant from 1959 to 1965 for the Division of Day Care.

Political Career
Shirley Chisholm’s first move into politics was in 1964, when she was elected into the State Legislature of New York. Four years after, she ran for a seat in the United States House of Representatives as the Democratic candidate for the 13th Congressional District of York, which she won. This made Shirley Chisholm the first black woman to hold an office in Congress. In 1969, she became a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus.
In her first term, Shirley Chisholm was assigned to the Committee on Agriculture, which was not as relevant to her since her district was in an urban setting. She asked to be reassigned, which surprised many people in Congress. Shirley Chisholm was then reassigned the Committee on Veteran’s Affairs and later the Committee on Education and Labor.
While in Congress, Shirley Chisholm made an effort to improve the lives for those in her district as well as other inner-city residents. She opposed the draft and supported increasing spending for health care, education, and other social services while reducing military spending.
During the United States presidential election of 1972, Shirley Chisholm decided to make a bid for the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party. While she did not win, she felt that this was a symbolic effort of her refusing to admit to a status quo. In 1977, she was elected as the Secretary of the House Democratic Caucus until 1981. The next year, she announced her retirement from the House of Representatives.
After her retirement, Shirley Chisholm still continued her career by teaching women’s studies and politics and Mount Holyoke College. She also participated in the campaign for Jesse Jackson in 1984 and 1988. She was nominated to be the American Ambassador to Jamaica by President Clinton, but was unable to accept due to her health. In 1993 she was put into to the National Women’s Hall of Fame
Shirley Chisholm moved to Florida and passed away on January 1, 2005.

Eric Cantor

Eric Cantor

Eric Cantor: The Representative of Virginia’s 7th Congressional District


Eric Cantor is most known for being the Republican representative for the 7th congressional district of Virginia for the U.S. House of Representatives. He is also the current House Majority Leader of the 112th Congress.
Eric Cantor was born on June 6, 1963 in Richmond, Virginia. He graduated from the Collegiate School in Richmond, a preparatory school, in 1980, and then attended George Washington University from 1981 and then received his undergraduate degree in 1985. During college, Eric Cantor interned at the office of Tom Bliley, a House Republican of Virginia.
He then went to William and Mary Law School where he obtained a Juris Doctor in 1988 as well as a Master of Science degree in 1989 from Columbia University.
From 1992 to 1991, Eric Cantor served in the Virginia House of Delegates. He was on several different committees throughout his time there including: 
• Co-chairman on the Committee on Claims.
• Committee on General Laws
• Committee on Science and Technology
• Committee on Courts of Justice
• Committee on Corporation Insurance and Banking
In 2000, Eric Cantor announced that he intended to run for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives after Tom Bliley left office, with the support of Bliley’s administration as well as with endorsement by Bliley during the primary election.
Eric Cantor became a member in 2001 and was assigned to the Committee on House Financial Services, Committee on House International Relations and the Committee on House Ways and Means. He also sat on the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism & Unconventional Warfare as the chairman.
A few weeks after his second term, he was elected to be the Republican Whip for the 111th Congress, making him the second ranking Republican in the house at the time. He then became the Majority Leader in 2011 at the start of the 112th Congress.
Some of Eric Cantor’s more significant political positions and votes include: 
• Supportive of strong relations between the United States and Israel
• Opposing giving public funds towards embryonic stem cell research
• Opposes same sex marriages
• Opposed elective abortion, and has an entirely pro-life voting record
• Voting against the banning of discrimination due to sexual orientation
• Opposed to gun control
• Supporter of free trade, for example with Australia, Peru, Chile, and Singapore
• Voting for the TARP program, the bank bailout
• Voting against raising the minimum wage in 2007
• Voting against the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

Aaron Schock

Aaron Schock

Aaron Schock: The Young Representative of Illinois


Aaron Schock is most known for representing the 18th congressional district of Illinois as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives.
Early Life and Education
Aaron Schock was born on May 30, 1981 on Morris, Minnesota as the youngest child of four. He was raised on a rural farm but later moved to Peoria, Illinois where he later attended Richwoods high school. Because he finished most of his requirements for high school graduation in his junior year, he co-attended Illinois Central College until he graduated from high school in 2000. He went on to receive his undergraduate degree in finance from Bradley University in 2002.
After graduating high school, Aaron Schock decided to try running for a seat on the local school board because he felt the school board lacked a youthful and diverse perspective. On his first attempt, he did not have the required amount of signatures on his petition, but he soon held a write-in campaign explaining to over 13,000 households in his district how to write his name on a ballot. He beat the incumbent and became the youngest person serving on an Illinois school board at the age of 19.

Early Career
After two more years on the board, he was elected to be vice president and then president the year after, making his the youngest school board president at the age of 23 ever in Illinois.
During college, Aaron Schock invested and ran a garage organizing business and then moved on to work at Peterson Companies as a director of development.
Illinois House of Representative
In 2005, Aaron Schock became a member representing the 92nd district in the Illinois House of Representatives. During his four years here, he served on the committee of Financial Institutions, Veteran’s Affairs Committee, and the Environment and Energy Committee. He also participated in two different appropriations committees that typically contained only senior law makers. Aaron Schock also sponsored and passed 18 bills, many which were thought of as landmark reforms.
United States House of Representative
Aaron Schock then became a member of the U.S. House of Representatives in 2009.  In his first term he was assigned three different committees and was also appointed to be a deputy minority whip. Aaron Schock served as the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Contracting & Technology of the Small Business Committee. 
In his second term in 2011 he was appointed to the Committee on Ways and Means where he also serves the Social Security, Trade, and Oversight subcommittees. Current negotiations in the trade committee include pending free trade agreements with Colombia, South Korea, and Panama. 
Aaron Schock also serves on the Committee on House Administration which oversees federal elections as well as the House of Representatives day-to-day operations.
Some of Aaron Schock’s more influential contributions in Congress include:
• Introducing H.R. 513 which would ban transferring federal funds to detained individuals at Guantanamo Bay.
• Introducing legislation that creates the Federal Program Sunset commission.
• Voting against federal hate-crimes law amendments that would include crimes based on sexual gender identity, orientation, gender and disability to be considered hate crimes.

Hank Johnson

Hank Johnson

Hank Johnson: Representative of the 4th Congressional District of Georgia
Hank Johnson is most known for his role as a Democratic representative of the 4th Congressional District of Georgia for the U.S. House of Representatives. He is also known for being one of the first two Buddhists in the United States Congress.
Hank Johnson was born on October 2, 1954 in Washington, D.C. where he grew up as a child. He eventually attended Clark College, and graduated in 1976 with his undergraduate degree. After college, he attended Thurgood Marshall School of Law in Texas Southern University where he received his juris doctorate in 1979. 
After law school, Hank Johnson began to practice law in Decatur, Georgia for 27 years. He later also acted as an Associate Magistrate judge for a decade. He was also elected in 2000 to the DeKalb County Commission where he served two terms.
Hank Johnson ran and won a seat in the United States House of Representatives. He assumed office in 2007 and in just a year, he was elected to be the Southeast Regional Whip for Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, and Georgia. 
As the Southeast Regional Whip, Hank Johnson worked to create support for certain key issues such as the Recovery act, health care reform, and environmental legislation to deter climate change by reducing carbon emissions. During this time he also served in the Obama campaign in Georgia as a supporter and a co-chair.
In the House of Representatives, Hank Johnson sits on the Committee on Armed Services where he is on the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats & Capabilities along with the Subcommittee on Seapower & Projection Forces. He is also on the Committee on the Judiciary where he is a member of the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Crime & Homeland Security and the Subcommittee on Courts, Commercial & Administrative Law.
Some of Hank Johnson’s more influential political positions and votes include:
• Criticizing the State of the Union address by President George W. Bush in regards to the war in Iraq, where he felt that the war was a significant misstep.
• Introducing a bill which would take United States troops in Iraq that would take them off of street patrol duty.
• Voting for H.R. 1591, a bill that aimed to provide funding to various military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
• Voted to cut certain funding towards the Iraq war.
• Voted against the Troubled Assets Relief Program, more known as the Bailout bill
• Voted in favor of the Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009.
• Created H.Con.Res.80 which called for a peaceful resolution between the Lord’s Resistance Army and the Uganda Government in the Ugandan war.

Stephen Low

Stephen Low

 


Stephen Low served as an American diplomat to Zambia and Nigeria throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. His work as a diplomat led him to establish new schools to help codify and prepare aspirants for the profession. While Stephen Low did not possess a law degree, his work as a diplomat required him to frequently interact with lawyers to help handle many different situations.

 

When he was posted to Zambia in August of 1976, Stephen Low was eventually drawn into turmoil in Rhodesia, a neighboring country then under the leadership of Ian Smith. Smith, who was white, led a government whose policies discriminated against black citizens on the basis of their color. The opposition to Smith's campaign was led by Robert Mugabe, a black politician. As an American ambassador, Stephen Low attempted to lead negotiations between Smith and Mugabe.

 

Due to violent conditions as a result of political turmoil, the goal of Stephen Low and his fellow diplomats was to create a cease fire agreement. Initially, Mugabe and fellow opposition leaders were reluctant to accept the assistance of Stephen Low, since they believed that the primary responsibility for transitioning from Ian Smith's government to an independent Rhodesia lay with the British, who were formerly in charge of the colony. However, Stephen Low helped create an Anglo-American Resolution that laid the foundations for a government transition.

 

As part of his diplomatic efforts, Stephen Low was the liaison between a number of different state governments. During his time supervising Rhodesia's transition, Stephen Low was responsible for keeping government officials in South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania and Botswana about the progress being made. At the same time, Stephen Low was also responsible for coordinating American and British participation in the negotiations.

From 1979 to 1981, Stephen Low served as an ambassador to Nigeria. While he continued to monitor negotiations in Rhodesia, Stephen Low also observed the election of Shehu Shagari, who was elected to serve as the country's president following the termination of its military regime. Under the new laws of Nigeria, the winning candidate had to receive both a majority of the popular national vote and two-thirds of states' votes. However, in 1979 the question of how to measure states' votes had been resolved. Stephen Low observed as the case was decided by the Supreme Court of Nigeria, which determined that Shagari had garnered sufficient votes to legitimately attain the presidency.

 

In 1980, negotiations concerning Rhodesia were impeded by newly elected Senator Jesse Helms, who supported the Ian Smith administration. As a result, Stephen Low learned that he was shortly to be withdrawn from diplomatic service. When this occurred in 1981, he returned to California. The following year, he was appointed director of the State Department Foreign Service Institute, which handles the training of the diplomatic corps. Throughout the remainder of his career, Stephen Low served in a number of academic and diplomacy-related capacities.

Treaty of Tripoli

Treaty of Tripoli

The 12 Articles of the Treaty of Tripoli


The Treaty of Tripoli was a treaty written by Joe Barlow, an American diplomat, describing the first treaty between Tripoli and the United States of America.
In 1796 The Treaty of Tripoli was approved unanimously by the Senate in 1797, after being signed the year before in Tripoli, as well as in Algiers.
The purpose of the Treaty of Tripoli was to simply a diplomatic agreement containing 12 articles:
• Article 1: Established a friendship and peace between the United States and the Bey and those of Tripoli and Barbary.
• Article 2: If either country was at war with other parties, any vessels carrying goods would pass free and not get detained.
• Article 3: If a citizen of either party was found on a prize vessel from an enemy or other party, they will be set free and given their possessions.
• Article 4: Passports were to be issued to all vessels of either party.
• Article 5: a citizen of a party who has purchased a vessel condemned by the other party can consider that a passport for a year until he obtains a proper passport.
• Article 6: Vessels using other ports that need supplies or provisions would get them at market value.
• Article 7: If a vessel of either party was cast on the shore, assistance would be given. No pillaging would be allowed. 
• Article 8: IF a vessel of either party was attacked within a certain distance of forts, it would receive assistance.
• Article 9: Commerce between the two parties was given the same footing as other favored nations.
• Article 10: Any presents or money demanded by the Bey of Tripoli for the Treaty of Tripoli was acknowledged and promised by the United States.
• Article 11: The United States is not considered a Christian nation.
• Article 12: Any disputes would not be settled with arms or war but rather the Dey of Algiers would be used as a mediator.
The Treaty of Tripoli was quickly considered moot since the Pasha of Tripoli then declared war on the United States in 1801. The United States retaliated by sending the Navy as well as the Marines to Tripoli where they defeated the Pasha’s armies.
While the Treaty of Tripoli was a very normal treaty, Article 11 is the reason that the Treaty of Tripoli is very well known. Article 11 has often been used in debates about the separation of church and states in the United States and its application to the founding of the nation.

Otto von Bismarck

Otto von Bismarck

Otto von Bismarck: The German Empire’s first Chancellor 


Otto von Bismarck is most well known for being a German-Prussian statesman in the late 1800’s as well as being the first Chancellor of the German Empire.
Otto von Bismarck was born in April 1815 in Brandenburg, in the Prussian Province of Saxony, west of Berlin. He went to school at the Graues Kloster and Friedrich-Wilhelm secondary schools and later attended the University of Gottingen where he studied law from 1832 to 1833.
At the age of 32, Otto von Bismarck became a representative in the Vereinigter Landtag, the new Prussian legislature, where he became known as a reactionary politician and Royalist. He was then elected into the lower house of the Prussian legislature, the Landtag, in 1849. Here he opposed unification of Germany the Parliament eventually failed to bring unification to Germany.
Otto von Bismarck later left the Landtag and was obtained a seat on the Prussian House of Lords, where he slowly lessened his reactionary views. In 1862, he was appointed by King Wilhelm I to be the Minister-President as well as the Foreign Minister.  From here into the 1860’s, Otto von Bismarck helped reorganize Germany with the goal of unification under Prussian Leadership.
1n 1870, Otto von Bismarck felt that if France was shown to be an aggressor against the German states, the states would be unified behind the King of Prussia. Otto von Bismarck instigated the Franco-Prussian War by publishing a heavily edited transcription of a conversation between the French Ambassador to Prussia and the King of Prussia. 
Because of Otto von Bismarck’s actions, France declared war five days later, resulting in a victory for Prussia. Otto von Bismarck used this to secure Germany’s unification. At the end of the war, France surrendered some of Lorraine and Alsace to Prussia.
At the end of the war, Otto von Bismarck was made into the Prince Von Bismarck as well the Imperial Chancellor of the German Empire.
One of Otto von Bismarck’s most significant contributions to society was his creation of the first welfare state. In the 1880’s he introduced many different programs in Germany regarding social insurance to promote the well-being for the citizens, particularly workers which would also help keep the economy running efficiently.
Because of his ideas, the German system started to provide worker’s compensation, retirement benefits, disability benefits, accident insurance, unemployment insurance and health insurance. None of these had ever been included in any previous society. Despite his right wing views, Otto von Bismarck is often thought of as a socialist because of these policies.

War On Terror

War On Terror

A Short Explanation of the War On Terror


What is the War on Terror?
The War on Terror is also called the War on Terrorism or the Global War on Terror. The War on Terror is a current military campaign held internationally that is led by the United States as well as the United Kingdom. It is supported by many other counties in NATO as well as other countries that are not in the organization.
The phrase War on Terror was used by former president George W. Bush as well as other U.S. officials in response to the global struggle in a political, military, ideological, and legal aspect against many terrorist organizations and regimes. Most often, the term was used to denote the struggle against al-Qaeda and other militant Islamists.
There were many precursor events to the War on Terror such as the bombing of United States embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, the growth of al-Qaeda, and the many attack plots of 2000. However, the most influential factor that set off the start of the War on Terror was the September 11, 2001 attacks.
On September 11, 19 terrorists hijacked four commercial airplanes crashed two of the planes into the World Trade Center in New York City, one into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and one in Pennsylvania, resulting in the loss of thousands of innocent lives. The War on Terror was officially declared less than a month later, on October 7, 2001.
The objectives of the War on Terror, as described by the George W. Bush administration included the following:
• Defeating terrorists and destroying their related organizations, such as Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda.
• Identifying, locating, and dismantling terrorists and their organizations.
• Denying any support, sponsorship, or sanctuary to terrorists.
o Establishing a means of accountability when combating terrorism.
o Strengthening the global fight against terrorism.
o Eliminate any structures that allow for sanctuaries or havens for terrorists.
o Disrupting of removing material supply lines that terrorists use.
• Diminishing any underlying conditions that can be exploited by terrorists.
o Preventing emergence or reemergence of terrorism by creating a group effort to strengthen weak states.
• Defending all United States citizens as well as all U.S. interests both home overseas.
o Use the National Strategy for Homeland Security.
o Creating protective measures for all citizens abroad.
o Ensure information-based infrastructures so they are reliable both home and overseas.
Some other events that happened in response to the heightened awareness of terrorist after the September 11 attacks include:
• Creation and passage of the USA Patriot Act
• Reorganization of many different government bureaucracies
• Creation of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
• New registration procedure for certain non-citizen males in the United States

Dennis Kucinich

Dennis Kucinich

Dennis Kucinich: Representative of the 10th Congressional District of Ohio


Dennis Kucinich is most well known for being the Democratic Representative for the 10th Congressional District of Ohio in the United States House of Representatives. He was also a candidate for the Democratic nomination for both the office of President of the United States in 2004 and 2008.
Dennis Kucinich was born on October 8, 1946 in Cleveland, Ohio as the eldest of seven children.  He moved 21 times while growing up and finally wound up at Cleveland State University where he graduated in 1970. Dennis Kucinich then attended Case Western Reserve University, where he graduated in 1973 with both an undergraduate and a Master of Arts degree in communication and speech.
Dennis Kucinich began his political career where he ran but lost for a seat in the Cleveland City council in 1967. He ran once more in 1969 and was elected to a seat. Three years he ran for a Congressional seat in the United States House of Representatives as a representative for Ohio, but lost to the incumbent.
Dennis Kucinich ran again in two years but did not manage to get the Democratic nomination. He then ran again as an independent candidate but still did not get the seat. Instead, he became a clerk in a Cleveland municipal court the year later, where he served for two years.
After his clerkship, Dennis Kucinich took on the role of Mayor for Cleveland, which he served from 1977 to 1979. He lost his re-election bid in 1970 and then worked to keep a low profile for a while. He struggled to find employment and then moved to California, where he worked as a radio talk-show host followed by a lecturer and a consultant.
Upon returning to Cleveland, Dennis Kucinich ran to Secretary of State but lost to Sherrod brown in 1982. The next year, he managed to win a special election of a seat as a city councilman. He gave up this seat to run for Governor of Ohio, but wound up withdrawing from the race.
In 1996, Dennis Kucinich was elected as the representative for the 10th Congressional District of Ohio and since then was reelected six more times.
In the House of Representatives, Dennis Kucinich is currently on the Committee on Education and Workforce where he sits on the Subcommittee for Workforce protection and the Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor & Pensions. He is also on the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform where he is the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs, Stimulus Oversight & Government Spending.
Some of his more influential votes include:
• Voting for President Barack Obama’s health care bill without the component of a public option
• Voting against the Military Commissions Act of 2006 as well as against the USA Patriot Act
• Voting against the Violent Radicalization & Homegrown Terrorism Act
• Voting against the Iran Freedom and Support Act
• Voting against President Bill Clinton’s impeachment
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