1.
Paul LePage
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Paul Richard LePage /ləˈpeɪdʒ/ is an American businessman and Republican Party politician who is currently the 74th Governor of Maine. Born in Lewiston, LePage grew up with seventeen siblings, LePage worked for a lumber company in New Brunswick, Canada, from 1972 to 1979 and then for Scott Paper in Winslow, Maine. He later founded the consulting firm LePage & Kasevich Inc and in 1996, he became general manager of Mardens Surplus and Salvage. LePages political career began when he served two terms as a city councilor in Waterville, Maine, before being elected Mayor of Waterville in 2003, serving until 2011. During his eight year tenure as mayor LePage reorganized city hall, lowered taxes, in 2009, while still mayor, LePage announced that he would run for Governor of Maine in the 2010 election. LePage defeated six other Republicans to win the nomination with 37. 4% of the vote. He won the election with another plurality,37. 6%. He was re-elected with a plurality,48. 2% of the vote. During his tenure as the Governor of Maine, he has extensive use of his veto power issuing 182 as of 2016. He instituted the largest tax cut in the history of Maine, reformed the states system, financed welfare debts for the medical community. As of December 2016, LePage has an rating of 38%. LePage has stated he is strongly considering entering the 2018 U. S. Senate race against incumbent independent Senator Angus King. LePage was born in Lewiston, Maine, the eldest son of eighteen children of Theresa and Gerard LePage, both of French Canadian descent, he grew up speaking French in an impoverished home with an abusive father who was a mill worker. His father drank heavily and terrorized the children, and his mother was too intimidated to stop him. At age eleven, after his father beat him and broke his nose, he ran away home and lived on the streets of Lewiston. After spending roughly two years homeless, he began to earn a living shining shoes, washing dishes at a café and he later worked at a rubber company and a meat-packing plant and was a short order cook and bartender. LePage applied to Husson College in Bangor, but he was rejected due to a verbal score on the SAT because English was his second language. At Husson, LePage improved his English-language skills and became editor of the college newspaper and he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in business administration in finance and accounting and later earned a Master of Business Administration from the University of Maine
2.
Augusta, Maine
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Augusta is the capital of the U. S. state of Maine and the county seat of Kennebec County. The citys population was 19,136 at the 2010 census, making it the third-smallest state capital, located on the Kennebec River at the head of tide, Augusta is home to the University of Maine at Augusta. Augusta is also the city in the Augusta-Waterville, ME Micropolitan Statistical Area. The area was first explored by the ill-fated Popham Colony in September 1607 and it was first inhabited by English settlers from the Plymouth Colony in 1629 as a trading post on the Kennebec River. The settlement was known by its Indian name—Cushnoc, meaning head of tide, fur trading was at first profitable, but with Indian uprisings and declining revenues, the Plymouth Colony sold the Kennebec Patent in 1661. Cushnoc would remain unoccupied for the next 75 years and this area was inhabited by the Canibas Indians. During the 17th century they were on terms with the English settlers in the region. A hotbed of Abenaki hostility toward British settlements was located further up the Kennebec at Norridgewock, in 1722, the tribe and its allies attacked Fort Richmond and destroyed Brunswick. In response, Norridgewock was sacked in 1724 during Dummers War, in 1754, a blockhouse named Fort Western, was built at Cushnoc on the eastern bank. It was intended as a depot for Fort Halifax upriver. In 1775, Benedict Arnold and his 1,100 troops would use Fort Western as an area before continuing their journey up the Kennebec to the Battle of Quebec. Cushnoc was incorporated as part of Hallowell in 1771, known as the Fort, it was set off and incorporated by the Massachusetts General Court in February 1797 as Harrington. In August, however, the changed to Augusta after Augusta Dearborn. In 1799, it became county seat for newly created Kennebec County, Maine became a state in 1820 and Augusta was designated its capital in 1827. The Maine State Legislature continued meeting in Portland, however, until completion in 1832 of the new Maine State House designed by Charles Bulfinch, Augusta was chartered as a city in 1849. After being named the capital and the introduction of new industry. In 1840 and 1850, the city ranked among the 100 largest urban populations, the next decade, however, the city was quickly bypassed by rapidly growing metropolises in the Midwest. Excellent soil provided for agriculture, and water power from streams provided for industry, in 1837, a dam was built across the Kennebec where the falls drop 15 feet at the head of tide
3.
Conservatism in the United States
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Historians argue that the conservative tradition has played a major role in American politics and culture since the 1790s. However they have stressed that a conservative movement has played a key role in politics only since the 1950s. The recent movement is based in the Republican Party, though some Democrats were also important figures early in the movements history, the history of American conservatism has been marked by tensions and competing ideologies. Fiscal conservatives and libertarians favor small government, low taxes, limited regulation, Social conservatives see traditional social values as threatened by secularism, they tend to support voluntary school prayer and oppose abortion and same sex marriage. Some also want the teaching of intelligent design or creationism allowed, the 21st century has seen an increasingly fervent conservative support for Second Amendment rights of private citizens to own firearms. Neoconservatives want to expand American ideals throughout the world, paleoconservatives advocate restrictions on immigration, non-interventionist foreign policy, and stand in opposition to multiculturalism. Nationwide most factions, except some libertarians, support a unilateral foreign policy, the conservative movement of the 1950s attempted to bring together these divergent strands, stressing the need for unity to prevent the spread of godless communism. All other activities of government tend to diminish freedom and hamper progress, the growth of government must be fought relentlessly. In this great social conflict of the era, we are, without reservations and we believe that truth is neither arrived at nor illuminated by monitoring election results, binding though these are for other purposes, but by other means, including a study of human experience. On this point we are, without reservations, on the conservative side, President Ronald Reagan set the conservative standard in the 1980s, in the 2010s the Republican leaders typically claim fealty to it. For example, most of the Republican candidates in 2012 claimed to be standardbearers of Reagans ideological legacy, the 1980s and beyond became known as the Reagan Era. Typically, conservative politicians and spokesmen in the 21st century proclaim their devotion to Reagans ideals and policies on most social, economic and they support a strong policy of law and order to control crime, including long jail terms for repeat offenders. Most conservatives support the death penalty for particularly egregious crimes, the law and order issue was a major factor weakening liberalism in the 1960s. From 2001 to 2008, Republican President George W. Bush stressed cutting taxes and minimizing regulation of industry and banking, Conservatives generally advocate the use of American military power to fight terrorists and promote democracy in the Middle East. According to a 2014 poll, 38% of American voters identify as conservative or very conservative, 34% as moderate, although the study does show some distinction between the concentration of moderates and conservatives or liberals between the Republican and Democratic parties. Among Democrats, 44% are self-identified liberals, 19% as conservatives, for Republicans 70% self-identified as conservative, 24% as moderate, and 5% as liberal. Conservatism appears to be growing stronger at the state level, the trend is most pronounced among the least well-off, least educated, most blue collar, most economically hard-hit states. Conservatives generally believe that government action is not the solution to problems as poverty and inequality
4.
Republican Party (United States)
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The Republican Party, commonly referred to as the GOP, is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, the other being its historic rival, the Democratic Party. The party is named after republicanism, the dominant value during the American Revolution and it was founded by anti-slavery activists, modernists, ex-Whigs, and ex-Free Soilers in 1854. The Republicans dominated politics nationally and in the majority of northern States for most of the period between 1860 and 1932, there have been 19 Republican presidents, the most from any one party. The Republican Partys current ideology is American conservatism, which contrasts with the Democrats more progressive platform, further, its platform involves support for free market capitalism, free enterprise, fiscal conservatism, a strong national defense, deregulation, and restrictions on labor unions. In addition to advocating for economic policies, the Republican Party is socially conservative. As of 2017, the GOP is documented as being at its strongest position politically since 1928, in addition to holding the Presidency, the Republicans control the 115th United States Congress, having majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The party also holds a majority of governorships and state legislatures, the main cause was opposition to the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise by which slavery was kept out of Kansas. The Northern Republicans saw the expansion of slavery as a great evil, the first public meeting of the general anti-Nebraska movement where the name Republican was suggested for a new anti-slavery party was held on March 20,1854, in a schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin. The name was chosen to pay homage to Thomas Jeffersons Republican Party. The first official party convention was held on July 6,1854, in Jackson and it oversaw the preserving of the union, the end of slavery, and the provision of equal rights to all men in the American Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861–1877. The Republicans initial base was in the Northeast and the upper Midwest, with the realignment of parties and voters in the Third Party System, the strong run of John C. Fremont in the 1856 United States presidential election demonstrated it dominated most northern states, early Republican ideology was reflected in the 1856 slogan free labor, free land, free men, which had been coined by Salmon P. Chase, a Senator from Ohio. Free labor referred to the Republican opposition to labor and belief in independent artisans. Free land referred to Republican opposition to the system whereby slaveowners could buy up all the good farm land. The Party strove to contain the expansion of slavery, which would cause the collapse of the slave power, Lincoln, representing the fast-growing western states, won the Republican nomination in 1860 and subsequently won the presidency. The party took on the mission of preserving the Union, and destroying slavery during the American Civil War, in the election of 1864, it united with War Democrats to nominate Lincoln on the National Union Party ticket. The partys success created factionalism within the party in the 1870s and those who felt that Reconstruction had been accomplished and was continued mostly to promote the large-scale corruption tolerated by President Ulysses S. Grant ran Horace Greeley for the presidency. The Stalwarts defended Grant and the system, the Half-Breeds led by Chester A. Arthur pushed for reform of the civil service in 1883
5.
Red
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Red is the color at the longer-wavelengths end of the spectrum of visible light next to orange, at the opposite end from violet. Red color has a predominant light wavelength of roughly 620–740 nanometers, light with a longer wavelength than red but shorter than terahertz radiation and microwave is called infrared. Red is one of the secondary colors, resulting from the combination of yellow. Traditionally, it was viewed as a primary colour, along with yellow and blue, in the RYB color space and traditional color wheel formerly used by painters. Reds can vary in shade from light pink to very dark maroon or burgundy. Red is the color of cyan. In nature, the red color of blood comes from hemoglobin, the red color of the Grand Canyon and other geological features is caused by hematite or red ochre, both forms of iron oxide. It also causes the red color of the planet Mars, the color of autumn leaves is caused by pigments called anthocyanins, which are produced towards the end of summer, when the green chlorophyll is no longer produced. One to two percent of the population has red hair, the color is produced by high levels of the reddish pigment pheomelanin. Since red is the color of blood, it has historically been associated with sacrifice, danger, modern surveys in the United States and Europe show red is also the color most commonly associated with heat, activity, passion, sexuality, anger, love and joy. In China, India and many other Asian countries it is the color of symbolizing happiness, since the 19th century, red has also been associated with socialism and communism. The word red is derived from the Old English rēad, the word can be further traced to the Proto-Germanic rauthaz and the Proto-Indo European root rewdʰ-. In Sanskrit, the word means red or blood. In the Akkadian language of Ancient Mesopotamia and in the modern Inuit language of Inuit, the words for colored in Latin and Spanish both also mean red. In Portuguese the word for red is vermelho, which comes from Latin vermiculus, in the Russian language, the word for red, Кра́сный, comes from the same old Slavic root as the words for beautiful—красивый and excellent—прекрасный. Thus Red Square in Moscow, named long before the Russian Revolution, in heraldry, the word gules is used for red. Red can vary in hue from orange-red to violet-red, and for each hue there is a variety of shades and tints. Red hematite powder was found scattered around the remains at a grave site in a Zhoukoudian cave complex near Beijing
6.
United States congressional delegations from Maine
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These are tables of congressional delegations from Maine to the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives. Maine became a state on March 15,1820, as of April 2015, there are ten former members of the U. S. House of Representatives from the U. S. State of Maine who are currently living at this time. As of April 2015, there are three former U. S, senators from the U. S. State of Maine who are currently living at this time, two from Class 1 and one from Class 2. The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress, the Historical Atlas of United States Congressional Districts. Congressional Biographical Directory of the United States 1774–present Information from the Clerk of the U. S. House of Representatives
7.
Maine Senate
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The Maine Senate is the upper house of the Maine Legislature, the state legislature of the U. S. state of Maine. Unlike the lower House, the Senate does not set aside nonvoting seats for Native tribes, because it is a part-time position, members of the Maine Senate usually have outside employment as well. The Senate meets at the Maine State House in Augusta, members are limited to four consecutive terms with each term being two years but may run again after a two-year wait. Unlike many U. S. states, the Senates leader is not the lieutenant governor, instead, the Senate chooses its own president, who is also the first in the line of gubernatorial succession. 128th Legislature, 2016-2018 One seat was initially in dispute due to a discrepancy in the number of ballots counted, Senate District 25 was won on election night by Democrat Catherine Breen by 32 votes. However, a recount put Republican Cathy Manchester in the lead by 11, the new Republican-led Senate formed a committee to determine what happened and who won the seat. Manchester, the Republican, was provisionally seated pending the outcome of the investigation, the committee found during its investigation that 21 ballots for Manchester were counted twice, which meant that Breen was the actual winner. Manchester resigned her seat and conceded Breen won the race, districts are currently numbered starting with 1 from north to south. This is reversed after each decennial redistricting, which will occur in 2021 and will go into effect beginning with the 2022 primary. The Maine Senate official government website State Senate of Maine at Project Vote Smart Maine Senate at Ballotpedia
8.
Maine House of Representatives
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The Maine House of Representatives is the lower house of the Maine Legislature. The House consists of 151 members representing an amount of districts across the state. Each voting member of the House represents around 8,800 citizens of the state, because it is a part-time position, members of the Maine House of Representatives usually have outside employment as well. Members are limited to four terms of two years each, but may run again after two years. The House meets at the Maine State House in Augusta, the Speaker of the House presides over the House of Representatives. The Speaker is elected by the majority party caucus followed by confirmation of the full House through the passage of a House Resolution, in addition to presiding over the body, the Speaker is also the chief leadership position, and controls the flow of legislation and committee assignments. Other House leaders, such as the majority and minority leaders, are elected by their party caucuses relative to their partys strength in the chamber. 128th Legislature - 2017-2018 The three nonvoting members within the House represent the Penobscot Nation, the Passamaquoddy Tribe and the Maliseet Tribe, starting with the 126th Legislature, the Houlton Band of Maliseets was given a legislative seat in the House of Representatives. The first elected occupant of the seat is Henry John Bear, after being sworn in by Governor Paul LePage, Bear stated he would introduce legislation to give the Micmac people of Maine a nonvoting seat. They further cited an order by Governor Paul LePage that rescinded a prior order requiring consultation with the tribes on state issues that affected them as a reason for their decision. Subsequently, Matthew Dana II of the Passamaquoddy and Wayne Mitchell of the Penobscot left the legislature leaving Henry John Bear of the Maliseet the only non-voting tribal representative, in response, Speaker Eves said that the tribal representatives, are always welcome in the House. Due to the independent political tradition in the state, the Maine House of Representatives has been a ground for several of the states prominent Independent politicians. From 2002 to 2006, Representative John Eder of Portland, of the Maine Green Independent Party, served in the Legislature and as the highest elected Green politician in U. S. politics. Eder secured recognition as a one-member Green Party caucus in the House, receiving a dedicated staff person assigned to him, in the 2006 elections, Eder lost his seat to a Democratic challenger. Districts are currently numbered starting with 1 from south to north and this is reversed after each decennial redistricting, which will next occur in 2021 and will go into effect beginning with the 2022 primary and general elections. Maine State House Maine Legislature Maine Senate Maine House of Representatives
9.
Governor of Maine
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The Governor of Maine is the chief executive of the State of Maine. Before Maine was admitted to the Union in 1820, Maine was part of Massachusetts, the current Governor of Maine is Paul LePage, a Republican, elected in the 2010 elections, and was re-elected in 2014. The next election is in 2018, the governor of Maine receives a salary of $70,000, which as of 2016 is the lowest by $20,000 of the 50 state governors. Under Article V, Section 4, a person must as of the commencement of the term in office, be 30 years old, for 15 years a citizen of the United States, a governor must retain residency in Maine throughout his or her term. Section 5 provides that a person shall not assume the office of Governor while holding any office under the United States, Maine. Governors are elected directly for four-years terms, with a limit of two elected terms. Thus, a governor can serve a number of terms. Elections are by popular vote, but if two people tie for first place, the Legislature meets in joint session to choose between them, the governor is commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the State, and of the militia except when under federal control. He or she also has the power to grant pardons, reprieves and this clemency power also includes juvenile offenses. The Governor oversees the executive branch, which includes Maines state agencies and his cabinet is often considered to be the states commissioners, which are generally nominated by the governor but legally chosen by the Maine Legislature. As of April 2014, the current cabinet is as follows, the Governors office initially said he might return in 2015, but later said that Rier officially retired on April 17,2015. LePage nominated Acting Commissioner William Beardsley as permanent commissioner, but pulled the nomination in the face of Democratic opposition and he announced on February 11,2016 that he would leave Beardsley in place as Deputy Commissioner once his Acting role expired and be the Commissioner himself. LePage said he did so out of a desire to not put Beardsley through being rejected by the Legislature and her first official act was to reappoint Beardsley as Deputy Commissioner and he remains the cabinet member for the department on the Cabinet website. In November 2016, LePage appointed Robert Hasson, an educator, as a new temporary deputy education commissioner. Beardsley resigned, citing personal reasons, on December 14,2016, Hasson was named Acting Commissioner of the department by Gov. LePage. Hasson was later nominated as permanent commissioner and confirmed by the Legislature on March 29,2017, under current law, if there is a vacancy in the office of governor, the president of the Maine Senate becomes governor. The current Senate president is Republican Michael Thibodeau as of December 3,2014, the Blaine House in Augusta is the official governor’s mansion, and is located across the street from the Maine State House. It became the residence in 1919, and is named for James G. Blaine
10.
Maine
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Maine is the northernmost state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. Maine is the 39th most extensive and the 41st most populous of the U. S. states and territories and it is bordered by New Hampshire to the west, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the north. Maine is the easternmost state in the contiguous United States, and it is known for its jagged, rocky coastline, low, rolling mountains, heavily forested interior, and picturesque waterways, and also its seafood cuisine, especially clams and lobster. There is a continental climate throughout the state, even in areas such as its most populous city of Portland. For thousands of years, indigenous peoples were the inhabitants of the territory that is now Maine. At the time of European arrival in what is now Maine, the first European settlement in the area was by the French in 1604 on Saint Croix Island, by Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons. The first English settlement was the short-lived Popham Colony, established by the Plymouth Company in 1607, as Maine entered the 18th century, only a half dozen European settlements had survived. Loyalist and Patriot forces contended for Maines territory during the American Revolution, Maine was part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts until 1820, when it voted to secede from Massachusetts to become an independent state. On March 15,1820, it was admitted to the Union as the 23rd state under the Missouri Compromise, there is no definitive explanation for the origin of the name Maine, but the most likely origin is the name given by early explorers after a province in France. Whatever the origin, the name was fixed for English settlers in 1665 when the English Kings Commissioners ordered that the Province of Maine be entered from then on in official records. The state legislature in 2001 adopted a resolution establishing Franco-American Day, other theories mention earlier places with similar names, or claim it is a nautical reference to the mainland. Attempts to uncover the history of the name of Maine began with James Sullivans 1795 History of the District of Maine. He made the allegation that the Province of Maine was a compliment to the queen of Charles I, Henrietta Maria. MAINE appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 in reference to the county of Dorset, the view generally held among British place name scholars is that Mayne in Dorset is Brythonic, corresponding to modern Welsh maen, plural main or meini. Some early spellings are, MAINE1086, MEINE1200, MEINES1204, mason had served with the Royal Navy in the Orkney Islands where the chief island is called Mainland, a possible name derivation for these English sailors. Initially, several tracts along the coast of New England were referred to as Main or Maine, Maine is the only state whose name has exactly one syllable. The original inhabitants of the territory that is now Maine were Algonquian-speaking Wabanaki peoples, including the Abenaki, Passamaquoddy, Maliseet and Penobscot, who had a loose confederacy. European contact with what is now called Maine started around 1200 CE when Norwegians interacted with the native Penobscot in present-day Hancock County, most likely through trade
11.
Elections in the United States
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The United States is a federal republic, with elected officials at the federal, state and local levels. On a national level, the head of state, the President, is elected indirectly by the people of each state, today, the electors virtually always vote with the popular vote of their state. All members of the legislature, the Congress, are directly elected by the people of each state. There are many elected offices at state level, each state having at least an elective Governor, there are also elected offices at the local level, in counties, cities, towns, townships, boroughs, and villages. According to a study by political scientist Jennifer Lawless, there were 519,682 elected officials in the United States as of 2012, the United States Constitution defines how the elections of federal officials are conducted in each state, in Article One and Article Two and various amendments. The restriction and extension of voting rights to different groups has been a contested process throughout the United States history, the federal government has also been involved in attempts to increase voter turnout, by measures such as the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. The financing of elections has always been controversial, because private sources make up substantial amounts of campaign contributions, voluntary public funding for candidates willing to accept spending limits was introduced in 1974 for presidential primaries and elections. S. The most common used in U. S. elections is the first-past-the-post system. Some may use a system, where if no candidate receives a required number of votes then there is a runoff between the two candidates with the most votes. Since 2002, several cities have adopted instant-runoff voting in their elections, Voters rank the candidates in order of preference rather than voting for a single candidate. If a candidate more than half of votes cast, that candidate wins. Otherwise, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, ballots assigned to the eliminated candidate are recounted and assigned to those of the remaining candidates who rank next in order of preference on each ballot. This process continues until one wins by obtaining more than half the votes. The eligibility of an individual for voting is set out in the constitution, the constitution states that suffrage cannot be denied on grounds of race or color, sex or age for citizens eighteen years or older. Beyond these basic qualifications, it is the responsibility of state legislatures to regulate voter eligibility, some states ban convicted criminals, especially felons, from voting for a fixed period of time or indefinitely. The number of American adults who are currently or permanently ineligible to vote due to felony convictions is estimated to be 5.3 million, while the federal government has jurisdiction over federal elections, most election laws are decided at the state level. All U. S. states except North Dakota require that citizens who wish to vote be registered. Traditionally, voters had to register at state offices to vote, other states allow citizens same-day registration on Election Day
12.
Strong, Maine
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Strong is a town in Franklin County, Maine, United States. The population was 1,213 at the 2010 census, Strong is home to the annual Sandy River Festival. The plantation was called Township No,3, First Range North of Plymouth Claim, West of Kennebec River, then successively known as Middletown and Readstown. It was first settled in 1784 by William Read from Nobleboro, Readstown was incorporated on January 31,1801 and named for Caleb Strong, governor of Massachusetts. The Maine Republican Party was founded here on August 7,1854, set on a hilly intervale above a big bend in the Sandy River, the area provided fertile soil for agriculture. Farmers grew hay, wheat, corn, oats and potatoes, the northeast branch of the Sandy River provided water power for mills, helping make Strong prosperous. By 1859, when the population was 1,008, it had sawmills, a gristmill, a mill, a carding machine, a starch factory. The narrow gauge Sandy River Railroad connected Farmington and Phillips in 1879, by 1886, town industries included a boot and shoe factory, machine shops, Maines first cheese factory, a clothespin manufacturer, a maker of cane seat chair bottoms, and an excelsior factory. It was noted as one of the prettiest villages in the county, Strong was called Toothpick Capital of the World due to the productivity of the Strong Wood Products Incorporated plant, which once manufactured 20 million toothpicks per day. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has an area of 28.94 square miles. Strong is located above a bend in the Sandy River, a tributary of the Kennebec River, the town borders the towns of New Vineyard to the east, Farmington to the south, and Temple and Avon to the west, and Freeman Township to the north. Strong is crossed by state routes 4,145,149 and 234, as of the census of 2010, there were 1,213 people,496 households, and 339 families residing in the town. The population density was 42.8 inhabitants per square mile, there were 634 housing units at an average density of 22.4 per square mile. The racial makeup of the town was 97. 1% White,0. 4% African American,0. 5% Native American,0. 2% Asian,0. 1% Pacific Islander, hispanic or Latino of any race were 1. 2% of the population. 23. 2% of all households were made up of individuals and 11. 3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.45 and the average family size was 2.85. The median age in the town was 41.5 years. 22. 5% of residents were under the age of 18,7. 8% were between the ages of 18 and 24,24. 3% were from 25 to 44,30. 1% were from 45 to 64, and 15. 4% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the town was 51. 2% male and 48. 8% female, as of the census of 2000, there were 1,259 people,498 households, and 343 families residing in the town
13.
College Republicans
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The College Republican National Committee is a national organization for college and university students who support the Republican Party of the United States. The organizational structure of the College Republicans has changed significantly since its founding in 1892, founded as an organization for the Republican National Committee, the College Republicans now operate as an independent 527 group. After the Young Republican National Federation was spun off from the College Republicans organization in 1972, the College Republicans were founded as the American Republican College League on May 17,1892 at the University of Michigan. The organization was spearheaded by law student James Francis Burke, who would serve as a Congressman from Pennsylvania. The inaugural meeting was attended by over 1,000 students from across the country, then-Governor of Ohio William McKinley gave a rousing keynote speech. The College Republicans quickly pursued a strategy of sending students to vote in their home districts. This strategy was implemented for the 1900 presidential election between William McKinley and William Jennings Bryan, helping win Bryans home state of Nebraska for McKinley. The College Republicans were financed, at least in part, by the Republican National Committee throughout much of its history. James Francis Burke received significant funding from the RNC to support the American Republican College Leagues founding and to maintain the organizations offices in New York City. By 1924, the organization was operating directly under the auspices of the RNC as the Associated University Republican Clubs, the relative dominance of the Democratic party through the 1930s through the 1960s coincided with a precipitous drop in the membership and effectiveness of the College Republicans. In 1931, the College Republicans were absorbed as an arm of the Hoover campaign, in 1935, the College Republicans were merged into the newly created Young Republican National Federation, encompassing both college students and young professionals. College Republican operations continued under the Young Republicans until the 1965 founding of the College Republican National Committee, in 1967, Morton Blackwell, then a field representative for the CRNC to Kentucky, developed many of the principles now used by the College Republicans. On election day, Nunn became the first Republican Governor of Kentucky in 20 years, the New York Times and Louie Nunn himself credited the efforts of Blackwells volunteers. In 1970, the Young Republican National Federation was permanently spun off from the College Republicans in 1970 to prevent counter-productive infighting among the two groups, in 1972 the Republican National Committee made the College Republican National Committee an auxiliary arm of the RNC. In 1973, Karl Rove ran for chair of the College Republicans and he challenged the front-runners delegates, throwing the national convention into disarray, after which both he and his opponent, Robert Edgeworth, claimed victory. The dispute was resolved when Rove was selected through the order of the chairman of the Republican National Committee. By 1980, only 20 active College Republican chapters remained, by the US Presidential election in 1980, that number had increased to 1,000 active clubs, helping Reagan win 98 of 105 mock elections and recruiting thousands of voters. This success led to $290,000 in financial assistance from the RNC, Abramoffs fund-raising efforts brought in an additional $1,160,000 during the next two years
14.
Young Republicans
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It has both a national organization and chapters in individual states. Young Republican Clubs are both social and political in nature, many of them sponsor various social events and networking events for members. In addition, Young Republican Clubs assist Republican political candidates and causes, the oldest Young Republican club in the country is the New York Young Republican Club, Inc. in New York City which was founded in April 1911 and incorporated in February 19,1912. Although frequently confused, the YRNF operates independently from the College Republican National Committee, although Young Republican organizations existed as early as 1859, the Young Republican National Federation was formed by George H. Olmsted at the urging of Herbert Hoover. The YRNF was officially founded in 1931, the YRNF has limited control over its State Federations. A few states, including Montana, act as both a state & local chapter, while a majority of states, including Texas & California, grant strong autonomy to individual clubs. Some Federations include a Regional Chair to handle issues of clubs in the city or plan larger events in a particular part of the state. State Federations elect a Chair, Treasurer, Secretary, National Committee Man & National Committee Woman, depending on the state, Vice-Chair, Immediate Past Chair, or other Directors are also elected to form the Executive Committee. Voting rights at State Meetings are giving to each member of the Executive Committee, as well as Regional Chairs, the State Chair, National Committee Man, and National Committee Women serve on the National Governing Board and elect U. S. Regional Directors, a National Chair, Co-Chair, Treasurer, Secretary, assistants, presently, the National Federation does not collect dues from either its State Federations or its club members, raising money only through attendance at national events and from private donations. The YRNF is technically not associated with the Republican Party, the YRNF owns the trademark to the term Young Republican and the YRNF logo. It is the first state federation to adopt such a name change, conventions are held every two years. The 2015 Young Republican National Convention was held in Chicago, Illinois The 2013 Young Republican National Convention was held in Mobile, the 2011 Convention was held in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The 2017 Young Republican National Convention will be hosted by the Maryland Young Republicans in Annapolis, senator and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee. John Cornyn, Texas U. S. Fahrenkopf, Jr. S, william Rusher, publisher and activist in the Draft Goldwater movement Rick Santorum, former U. S. Senator of Pennsylvania Richard Schweiker, former U. S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, senator of Pennsylvania Roger Stone, YRNF Chairman, political consultant Don Sundquist, YRNF Chairman, former Tennessee Governor John E. Sununu, former New Hampshire U. S. Senator Mauricio J. Tamargo Chairman of the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission Robert C, tapella, 25th Public Printer of the United States John Tobia, Florida State Representative David Vitter, Louisiana U. S. In JSTOR Young Republican National Federation
15.
Prohibition in the United States
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Prohibition in the United States was a nationwide constitutional ban on the production, importation, transportation and sale of alcoholic beverages that remained in place from 1920 to 1933. One result was that many communities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries introduced alcohol prohibition, Prohibition supporters, called drys, presented it as a victory for public morals and health. Promoted by the dry crusaders, a movement was led by rural Protestants and social Progressives in the Prohibition, Democratic and it gained a national grass roots base through the Womans Christian Temperance Union. After 1900 it was coordinated by the Anti-Saloon League, Prohibition was mandated in state after state, then finally nationwide under the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1920. Enabling legislation, known as the Volstead Act, set down the rules for enforcing the ban, for example, religious uses of wine were allowed. Private ownership and consumption of alcohol were not made illegal under federal law, in the 1920s the laws were widely disregarded, and tax revenues were lost. Opposition mobilized nationwide, and Prohibition ended with the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment, some states continued statewide prohibition, marking one of the last stages of the Progressive Era. Anti-prohibitionists, known as wets, criticized the ban as an intrusion of mainly rural Protestant ideals on a central aspect of urban, immigrant. Some researchers contend that its failure is attributable more to a changing historical context than to characteristics of the law itself. Criticism remains that Prohibition led to unintended consequences such as the growth of urban crime organizations, as an experiment it lost supporters every year, and lost tax revenue that governments needed when the Great Depression began in 1929. The U. S. Senate proposed the Eighteenth Amendment on December 18,1917, upon being approved by a 36th state on January 16,1919, the amendment was ratified as a part of the Constitution. The Wartime Prohibition Act took effect June 30,1919, with July 1,1919, on October 28,1919, Congress passed the Volstead Act, the popular name for the National Prohibition Act, over President Woodrow Wilsons veto. The act established the definition of intoxicating liquors as well as penalties for producing them. Although the Volstead Act prohibited the sale of alcohol, the government lacked resources to enforce it. By the terms of the amendment, the country went dry one year later, by 1925, in New York City alone, there were anywhere from 30,000 to 100,000 speakeasy clubs. While Prohibition was successful in reducing the amount of liquor consumed, it stimulated the proliferation of rampant underground, organized, many were astonished and disenchanted with the rise of spectacular gangland crimes, when prohibition was supposed to reduce crime. Prohibition lost its advocates one by one, while the wet opposition talked of personal liberty, new tax revenues from legal beer and liquor, and the scourge of organized crime. On March 22,1933, President Franklin Roosevelt signed into law the Cullen–Harrison Act, legalizing beer with a content of 3. 2%
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Abolitionism in the United States
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Abolitionism in the United States was the movement before and during the American Civil War to end slavery in the United States. In the Americas and western Europe, abolitionism was a movement to end the Atlantic slave trade, in the 17th century, English Quakers and Evangelicals condemned slavery as un-Christian. At that time, most slaves were Africans, but thousands of Native Americans were also enslaved, in the 18th century, as many as six million Africans were transported to the Americas as slaves, at least a third of them on British ships to North America. Abolition was part of the message of the First Great Awakening of the 1730s and 1740s in the Thirteen Colonies, in the same period, rationalist thinkers of the Enlightenment criticized slavery for violating human rights. A member of the British Parliament, James Edward Oglethorpe, was among the first to articulate the Enlightenment case against slavery, founder of the Province of Georgia, Oglethorpe banned slavery on humanistic grounds. He argued against it in Parliament and eventually encouraged his friends Granville Sharp, soon after his death in 1785, Sharp and More joined with William Wilberforce and others in forming the Clapham Sect. Although anti-slavery sentiments were widespread by the late 18th century, colonies and emerging nations, notably in the southern United States, continued to use and uphold traditions of slavery. Massachusetts ratified a constitution that declared all men equal, freedom suits challenging slavery based on this principle brought an end to slavery in the state, in other states, such as Virginia, similar declarations of rights were interpreted by the courts as not applicable to Africans. During the ensuing decades, the abolitionist movement grew in Northern states, britain banned the importation of African slaves in its colonies in 1807 and abolished slavery in the British Empire in 1833. The United States criminalized the international trade in 1808 and made slavery unconstitutional in 1865 as a result of the American Civil War. Historian James M. McPherson defines an abolitionist as one who before the Civil War had agitated for the immediate, unconditional and total abolition of slavery in the United States. He does not include antislavery activists such as Abraham Lincoln, U. S. President during the Civil War, or the Republican Party, the first Americans who made a public protest against slavery were the Mennonites of Germantown, Pennsylvania. Soon after, in April 1688, Quakers in the town wrote a two-page condemnation of the practice and sent it to the governing bodies of their Quaker church. The Quaker establishment never took action, the Quaker Quarterly Meeting of Chester, Pennsylvania, made its first protest in 1711. Within a few decades the entire slave trade was under attack, being opposed by leaders as William Burling, Benjamin Lay, Ralph Sandiford, William Southby. Slavery was banned in the Province of Georgia soon after its founding in 1733, the colonys founder, James Edward Oglethorpe, fended off repeated attempts by South Carolina merchants and land speculators to introduce slavery to the colony. In 1739, he wrote to the Georgia Trustees urging them to hold firm, If we allow slaves we act against the principles by which we associated together. Whereas, now we should occasion the misery of thousands in Africa, by setting men upon using arts to buy, the struggle between Georgia and South Carolina led to the first debates in Parliament over the issue of slavery, occurring between 1740 and 1742
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Hannibal Hamlin
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Hannibal Hamlin was an American attorney and politician from the state of Maine. In a public career that spanned over 50 years, he is most notable for having served as the 15th Vice President of the United States. The first Republican to hold the office, Hamlin served from 1861 to 1865, a native of Paris, Maine, Hamlin was a descendant of an English family that had originally settled in New England in the 1600s. After his early education was complete, Hamlin managed his fathers farm before becoming a newspaper editor and he studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1833, and began to practice in Hampden, Maine. Originally a Democrat, Hamlin began his career with election to the Maine House of Representatives in 1835. As an officer in the militia, he took part in the 1839 negotiations that helped end the Aroostook War, in the 1840s Hamlin was elected and served in the United States House of Representatives. In 1848 the state elected him to the United States Senate. He served temporarily as governor for six weeks in the beginning of 1857, Hamlin was an active opponent of slavery, he supported the Wilmot Proviso and opposed the Compromise Measures of 1850. In 1854, he strongly opposed passage of the Kansas–Nebraska Act, Hamlins increasingly anti-slavery views caused him to leave the Democratic Party for the newly formed Republican Party in 1856. The Lincoln and Hamlin ticket was successful, and Hamlin served as Vice President from 1861 to 1865, for the 1864 election, Hamlin was replaced as Vice Presidential nominee by Andrew Johnson, a southern Democrat chosen for his appeal to pro-Union southerners. The Republicans considered their support to be necessary during the reconciliation, Hamlin resigned as Collector because of disagreement with Johnson over Reconstruction of the former Confederacy. In 1869, Hamlin was elected again to the U. S. Senate, after leaving the Senate in 1881, he served briefly as United States Ambassador to Spain before returning to Maine in late 1882. In retirement, Hamlin was a resident of Bangor, Maine and he was buried at Mount Hope Cemetery in Bangor. Hamlin was born to Cyrus Hamlin and his wife Anna, née Livermore and he was a descendant in the sixth generation of English colonist James Hamlin, who had settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1639. He was a grandnephew of U. S, senator Samuel Livermore II of New Hampshire. Hamlin attended the schools and Hebron Academy and later managed his fathers farm. From 1827 to 1830 he published the Oxford Jeffersonian newspaper in partnership with Horatio King and he studied law with the firm headed by Samuel Fessenden, was admitted to the bar in 1833, and began practicing in Hampden, Maine, where he lived until 1848. Hamlin married Sarah Jane Emery of Paris Hill in 1833 and her father was Stephen Emery, who was appointed as Maines Attorney General in 1839–1840
18.
Abraham Lincoln
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Abraham Lincoln was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 16th President of the United States from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led the United States through its Civil War—its bloodiest war and perhaps its greatest moral, constitutional, in doing so, he preserved the Union, abolished slavery, strengthened the federal government, and modernized the economy. Born in Hodgenville, Kentucky, Lincoln grew up on the frontier in Kentucky. Largely self-educated, he became a lawyer in Illinois, a Whig Party leader, elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1846, Lincoln promoted rapid modernization of the economy through banks, tariffs, and railroads. Reentering politics in 1854, he became a leader in building the new Republican Party, in 1860, Lincoln secured the Republican Party presidential nomination as a moderate from a swing state. Though he gained little support in the slaveholding states of the South. Subsequently, on April 12,1861, a Confederate attack on Fort Sumter inspired the North to enthusiastically rally behind the Union. Politically, Lincoln fought back by pitting his opponents against each other, by carefully planned political patronage and his Gettysburg Address became an iconic endorsement of the principles of nationalism, republicanism, equal rights, liberty, and democracy. Lincoln initially concentrated on the military and political dimensions of the war and his primary goal was to reunite the nation. He suspended habeas corpus, leading to the ex parte Merryman decision. Lincoln closely supervised the war effort, especially the selection of top generals, including his most successful general, Lincoln tried repeatedly to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond, each time a general failed, Lincoln substituted another, until finally Grant succeeded. As the war progressed, his moves toward ending slavery included the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. On April 14,1865, five days after the surrender of Confederate commanding general Robert E. Lee, Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton launched a manhunt for Booth, and 12 days later on April 26, Lincoln has been consistently ranked both by scholars and the public as among the greatest U. S. presidents. Abraham Lincoln was born February 12,1809, the child of Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln, in a one-room log cabin on the Sinking Spring Farm near Hodgenville. He was a descendant of Samuel Lincoln, an Englishman who migrated from Hingham, Norfolk to its namesake of Hingham, samuels grandson and great-grandson began the familys western migration, which passed through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Lincolns paternal grandfather and namesake, Captain Abraham Lincoln, moved the family from Virginia to Jefferson County, Captain Lincoln was killed in an Indian raid in 1786. His children, including eight-year-old Thomas, the presidents father
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James G. Blaine
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In the general election, he was narrowly defeated by Democrat Grover Cleveland. Blaine was one of the late 19th century’s leading Republicans and champion of the moderate reformist faction of the party known as the “Half-Breeds. ”Blaine was born in the western Pennsylvania town of West Brownsville and after moved to Maine. Nicknamed “the Magnetic Man, he was a speaker in an era that prized oratory. He began his career as an early supporter of Abraham Lincoln. In Reconstruction, Blaine was a supporter of suffrage. Initially a protectionist, he worked for a reduction in the tariff. His efforts at expanding the United States trade and influence began the shift to a more active American foreign policy, Blaine was a pioneer of tariff reciprocity and urged greater involvement in Latin American affairs. An expansionist, Blaine’s policies would lead in less than a decade to the establishment of the United States acquisition of Pacific colonies, James Gillespie Blaine was born January 31,1830 in West Brownsville, Pennsylvania, the third child of Ephraim Lyon Blaine and his wife Maria Blaine. Blaine’s father was a western Pennsylvania businessman and landowner, and the lived in relative comfort. On his father’s side, Blaine was descended from Scotch-Irish settlers who first emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1745 and his great-grandfather, Ephraim Blaine, served as a Commissary-General under George Washington in the American Revolutionary War. Blaine’s mother and her forebears were Irish Catholics who immigrated to Pennsylvania in the 1780s, Blaine’s parents were married in 1820 in a Roman Catholic ceremony, although Blaine’s father remained a Presbyterian. Following a common compromise of the era, the Blaines agreed that their daughters would be raised in their mother’s Catholic faith while their sons would be brought up in their father’s religion, in politics, Blaine’s father supported the Whig party. Blaine’s biographers describe his childhood as “harmonious, and note that the boy took an early interest in history, at the age of thirteen, Blaine enrolled in his father’s alma mater, Washington College, in nearby Washington, Pennsylvania. There, he was a member of the Washington Literary Society, Blaine succeeded academically, graduating near the top of his class and delivering the salutatory address in June 1847. After graduation, Blaine considered attending law school at Yale Law School, in 1848, Blaine was hired as a professor of mathematics and ancient languages at the Western Military Institute in Georgetown, Kentucky. Although he was eighteen years old and younger than many of his students. Blaine grew to enjoy life in his state and became an admirer of Kentucky Senator Henry Clay. He also made the acquaintance of Harriet Stanwood, a teacher at the nearby Millersburg Female College, on June 30,1850, the two were married
20.
Grover Cleveland
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Stephen Grover Cleveland was an American politician and lawyer who was the 22nd and 24th President of the United States. He was also the first and to date only President in American history to serve two terms in office. Cleveland was the leader of the pro-business Bourbon Democrats who opposed high tariffs, Free Silver, inflation, imperialism and his crusade for political reform and fiscal conservatism made him an icon for American conservatives of the era. Cleveland won praise for his honesty, self-reliance, integrity, and he fought political corruption, patronage, and bossism. As a reformer Cleveland had such prestige that the wing of the Republican Party, called Mugwumps, largely bolted the GOP presidential ticket. As his second administration began, disaster hit the nation when the Panic of 1893 produced a national depression. It ruined his Democratic Party, opening the way for a Republican landslide in 1894 and for the agrarian, the result was a political realignment that ended the Third Party System and launched the Fourth Party System and the Progressive Era. Cleveland was a formidable policymaker, and he also drew corresponding criticism, critics complained that Cleveland had little imagination and seemed overwhelmed by the nations economic disasters—depressions and strikes—in his second term. Even so, his reputation for probity and good character survived the troubles of his second term, biographer Allan Nevins wrote, n Grover Cleveland, the greatness lies in typical rather than unusual qualities. He had no endowments that thousands of men do not have and he possessed honesty, courage, firmness, independence, and common sense. But he possessed them to a degree other men do not, today, Cleveland is considered by most historians to have been a successful leader, generally ranked among the second tier of American presidents. Stephen Grover Cleveland was born on March 18,1837, in Caldwell, New Jersey to Richard Falley Cleveland, Clevelands father was a Presbyterian minister who was originally from Connecticut. His mother was from Baltimore and was the daughter of a bookseller, on his fathers side, Cleveland was descended from English ancestors, the first of the family having emigrated to Massachusetts from Cleveland, England in 1635. On his mothers side, he was descended from Anglo-Irish Protestants and he was distantly related to General Moses Cleaveland, after whom the city of Cleveland, Ohio, was named. Cleveland, the fifth of nine children, was named Stephen Grover in honor of the first pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Caldwell and he became known as Grover in his adult life. In 1841, the Cleveland family moved to Fayetteville, New York, neighbors later described him as full of fun and inclined to play pranks, and fond of outdoor sports. In 1850, Clevelands father took a pastorate in Clinton, Oneida County, New York, despite his fathers dedication to his missionary work, the income was insufficient for the large family. Financial conditions forced him to remove Grover from school into a mercantile apprenticeship in Fayetteville
21.
Thomas Brackett Reed
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Thomas Brackett Reed, occasionally ridiculed as Czar Reed, was a U. S. Representative from Maine, and Speaker of the U. S. House of Representatives from 1889–1891, Reed was born in Portland, Maine, the son of Matilda Prince and Thomas B. Reed attended public school, including Portland High School, before graduating from Bowdoin College in 1860, after college, he went on to become an acting assistant paymaster for the United States Navy from April 1864 to November 1865 and was admitted to the bar in 1865. He practiced in Portland and was elected to the Maine House of Representatives in 1868 and 1869 and he served in the Maine Senate in 1870 but left to serve as the states Attorney General from 1870 to 1872. He was known for his acerbic wit and his size, standing at over 6 feet in height and weighing over 300 lbs, was also a distinguishing factor for him. Reed was a member of the circle that included intellectuals and politicians Henry Cabot Lodge, Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Adams, John Hay. Tilden to appear in person to defend his reputation and he chaired the Committee on the Judiciary and chaired the Rules Committee. Reed was first elected Speaker after a fight with William McKinley of Ohio. Reed gained the support of young Theodore Roosevelt, his influence as the newly appointed Civil Service Commissioner was the decisive factor. Reed served as the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1889 to 1891 and then from 1895 to 1899, Reed set out to put into practical effect his dictum, The best system is to have one party govern and the other party watch. That was accomplished by carefully studying the existing procedures of the US House, most dating to the original designs and that is popularly called the disappearing quorum. Reeds solution was enacted on January 28,1890 in what has popularly been called the Battle of the Reed Rules and that came about when Democrats attempted to block the inclusion of a newly elected Republican from West Virginia, Charles Brooks Smith. The motion to seat him passed by a tally of 162–1, however, at the time, a quorum consisted of 165 votes, and when voting closed Democrats shouted, No quorum, triggering a formal House quorum count. Reed began the call, when members who were present in the chamber refused to answer. Startled Democrats protested heatedly, issuing screams, threats, and insults at the Speaker, mcCreary, a Democrat from Kentucky, challenged Reeds authority to count him as present, Reed replied, The Chair is making a statement of fact that the gentleman from Kentucky is present. Unable to deny their presence in the chamber, Democrats then tried to flee the chamber or hide under their desks, Democrats finally dropped their objections on January 31, and Smith was seated on February 3 by a vote of 166–0. Six days later, with Smith seated, Reed won a vote on his new Reed Rules, eliminating the disappearing quorum and lowering the quorum to 100 members. In 1889 and 1890, Republicans undertook one last stand in favor of federal enforcement of the Fifteenth Amendment to protect the rights of blacks in the Solid South
22.
Margaret Chase Smith
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Margaret Madeline Chase Smith was a United States politician. A member of the Republican Party, she served as a U. S Representative and she was the first woman to serve in both houses of the United States Congress, and the first woman to represent Maine in either. A moderate Republican, she was among the first to criticize the tactics of McCarthyism in her 1950 speech, Declaration of Conscience. Upon leaving office, she was the longest-serving female Senator in history, a distinction that was not surpassed until January 5,2011, to date, Smith is ranked as the longest-serving Republican woman in the Senate. Margaret Chase was born in Skowhegan in western Maine, to George Emery and she was the oldest of six children, two of whom did not survive to adulthood. Her father was the barber, and her mother worked as a waitress, store clerk. She received her education at Lincoln and Garfield Elementary Schools. At age 12, she went to work at a local five-and-dime store and she also shaved her fathers customers when he was busy or away from the shop. She attended Skowhegan High School, graduating in 1916, during high school, she played on the girls basketball team, of which she was captain in her senior year. She also worked as an operator with a telephone company during this time. In that position she met Clyde Smith, a prominent local politician, following her high school graduation, Chase briefly taught at the Pitts School, a one-room school near Skowhegan. She also coached the basketball team at Skowhegan High. She became involved with womens organizations. She co-founded the Skowhegan chapter of the Business and Professional Womens Club in 1922, from 1926 to 1928, she was president of the statewide organization, the Maine Federation of Business and Professional Womens Clubs. She became treasurer of the New England Waste Process Company in 1928, and was employed as an office worker with the Daniel E. Cummings Woolen Company. On May 14,1930, Chase married Clyde Smith, who was 21 years her senior and she soon became active in politics, and was elected to the Maine Republican State Committee, on which she served from 1930 to 1936. After Clyde was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives from Maines 2nd congressional district in 1936, Smith accompanied her husband to Washington, in this position, she managed his office, handled his correspondence, conducted research, and helped write his speeches. She also served as treasurer of the Congressional Club, a composed of the wives of congressmen
23.
National Security Agency
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NSA is concurrently charged with protection of U. S. government communications and information systems against penetration and network warfare. Moreover, NSA maintains physical presence in a number of countries across the globe. SCS collection tactics allegedly encompass close surveillance, burglary, wiretapping, breaking and entering, additionally, the NSA Director simultaneously serves as the Commander of the United States Cyber Command and as Chief of the Central Security Service. Originating as a unit to decipher coded communications in World War II, NSA surveillance has been a matter of political controversy on several occasions, such as its spying on anti-Vietnam-war leaders or economic espionage. In 2013, the extent of some of the NSAs secret surveillance programs was revealed to the public by Edward Snowden, internationally, research has pointed to the NSAs ability to surveil the domestic Internet traffic of foreign countries through boomerang routing. The origins of the National Security Agency can be traced back to April 28,1917, a code and cipher decryption unit was established as the Cable and Telegraph Section which was also known as the Cipher Bureau. It was headquartered in Washington, D. C. and was part of the war effort under the executive branch without direct Congressional authorization, during the course of the war it was relocated in the armys organizational chart several times. On July 5,1917, Herbert O. Yardley was assigned to head the unit, at that point, the unit consisted of Yardley and two civilian clerks. It absorbed the navys cryptoanalysis functions in July 1918, World War I ended on November 11,1918, and MI-8 moved to New York City on May 20,1919, where it continued intelligence activities as the Code Compilation Company under the direction of Yardley. MI-8 also operated the so-called Black Chamber, the Black Chamber was located on East 37th Street in Manhattan. Its purpose was to crack the codes of foreign governments. Other Black Chambers were also found in Europe, during World War II, the Signal Security Agency was created to intercept and decipher the communications of the Axis powers. When the war ended, the SSA was reorganized as the Army Security Agency, on May 20,1949, all cryptologic activities were centralized under a national organization called the Armed Forces Security Agency. This organization was established within the U. S. Department of Defense under the command of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The AFSA was tasked to direct Department of Defense communications and electronic intelligence activities, in December 1951, President Harry S. Truman ordered a panel to investigate how AFSA had failed to achieve its goals. The results of the led to improvements and its redesignation as the National Security Agency. The agency was established by Truman in a memorandum of October 24,1952. Since President Trumans memo was a document, the existence of the NSA was not known to the public at that time
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United States Senate
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The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress which, along with the House of Representatives, the lower chamber, composes the legislature of the United States. The composition and powers of the Senate are established by Article One of the United States Constitution. S. From 1789 until 1913, Senators were appointed by the legislatures of the states represented, following the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913. The Senate chamber is located in the wing of the Capitol, in Washington. It further has the responsibility of conducting trials of those impeached by the House, in the early 20th century, the practice of majority and minority parties electing their floor leaders began, although they are not constitutional officers. This idea of having one chamber represent people equally, while the other gives equal representation to states regardless of population, was known as the Connecticut Compromise, there was also a desire to have two Houses that could act as an internal check on each other. One was intended to be a Peoples House directly elected by the people, the other was intended to represent the states to such extent as they retained their sovereignty except for the powers expressly delegated to the national government. The Senate was thus not designed to serve the people of the United States equally, the Constitution provides that the approval of both chambers is necessary for the passage of legislation. First convened in 1789, the Senate of the United States was formed on the example of the ancient Roman Senate, the name is derived from the senatus, Latin for council of elders. James Madison made the comment about the Senate, In England, at this day, if elections were open to all classes of people. An agrarian law would take place. If these observations be just, our government ought to secure the permanent interests of the country against innovation, landholders ought to have a share in the government, to support these invaluable interests, and to balance and check the other. They ought to be so constituted as to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority, the senate, therefore, ought to be this body, and to answer these purposes, the people ought to have permanency and stability. The Constitution stipulates that no constitutional amendment may be created to deprive a state of its equal suffrage in the Senate without that states consent, the District of Columbia and all other territories are not entitled to representation in either House of the Congress. The District of Columbia elects two senators, but they are officials of the D. C. city government. The United States has had 50 states since 1959, thus the Senate has had 100 senators since 1959. In 1787, Virginia had roughly ten times the population of Rhode Island, whereas today California has roughly 70 times the population of Wyoming and this means some citizens are effectively two orders of magnitude better represented in the Senate than those in other states. Seats in the House of Representatives are approximately proportionate to the population of each state, before the adoption of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, Senators were elected by the individual state legislatures
25.
Susan Collins
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Susan Margaret Collins is an American politician who currently serves as the senior United States Senator from Maine. She is considered one of the most moderate Republicans in office and she also is known for her long consecutive voting streak, which reached 6,000 votes in September 2015. She is the current dean of Maines congressional delegation, born in Caribou, Maine, Collins is a graduate of St. Lawrence University. She was then appointed as the Commissioner of the Maine Department of Professional and Financial Regulation by Governor John R. McKernan, in 1992 she was appointed by President George H. W. Bush as the director of the Small Business Administrations regional office in Boston. Staying in Massachusetts, Collins became that states Deputy State Treasurer in 1993, after moving back to Maine in 1994, Collins became the Republican nominee for Governor in the 1994 general election. Becoming the first woman to become the nominee of a party for Governor of Maine. After her bid for Governor in 1994, Collins became the director of the Center for Family Business at Husson University. Collins was first elected to the Senate in 1996 and she has been re-elected three times, in 2002,2008, and 2014. After former Senator Kelly Ayotte lost reelection in 2016, Collins became the only Republican in the US Senate currently representing a state in New England, one of six children, Collins was born in Caribou, Maine, where her family has operated a lumber business since 1844. Her parents, Patricia M. Collins and Donald F. Collins, each served as mayor of Caribou and her mother was born in Barrancabermeja, Colombia, to American parents. Collins has English and Irish ancestry and her uncle, Samuel W. Collins, Jr. sat on the Maine Supreme Judicial Court from 1988 to 1994 and served in the Maine Senate from 1973 to 1984. Collins attended Caribou High School, where she was president of the student council, Collins is the first program delegate elected to the Senate and currently holds the seat once held by Smith. After graduating from Caribou High School, she continued her education at St. Lawrence University in Canton, like her father before her, she was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa national academic honor society. She graduated from St. Lawrence magna cum laude with a degree in government in 1975. Following graduation, Collins worked as an assistant to U. S. Representative. Senator William Cohen from 1975 to 1987 and she was also staff director of the Oversight of Government Management Subcommittee on the United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. In 1987, Collins joined the cabinet of Governor John R. McKernan and she was appointed the New England regional director for the Small Business Administration by President George H. W. Bush in 1992. After briefly serving in this post until the 1992 election of Democrat Bill Clinton, she moved to Massachusetts, returning to Maine, Collins won an eight-way Republican primary in the 1994 gubernatorial election, becoming the first woman to be nominated by a major party for Governor of Maine
26.
United States House of Representatives
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The United States House of Representatives is the lower chamber of the United States Congress which, along with the Senate, composes the legislature of the United States. The composition and powers of the House are established by Article One of the United States Constitution, since its inception in 1789, all representatives are elected popularly. The total number of voting representatives is fixed by law at 435, the House is charged with the passage of federal legislation, known as bills, which, after concurrence by the Senate, are sent to the President for consideration. The presiding officer is the Speaker of the House, who is elected by the members thereof and is traditionally the leader of the controlling party. He or she and other leaders are chosen by the Democratic Caucus or the Republican Conferences. The House meets in the wing of the United States Capitol. Under the Articles of Confederation, the Congress of the Confederation was a body in which each state was equally represented. All states except Rhode Island agreed to send delegates, the issue of how to structure Congress was one of the most divisive among the founders during the Convention. The House is referred to as the house, with the Senate being the upper house. Both houses approval is necessary for the passage of legislation, the Virginia Plan drew the support of delegates from large states such as Virginia, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, as it called for representation based on population. The smaller states, however, favored the New Jersey Plan, the Constitution was ratified by the requisite number of states in 1788, but its implementation was set for March 4,1789. The House began work on April 1,1789, when it achieved a quorum for the first time, during the first half of the 19th century, the House was frequently in conflict with the Senate over regionally divisive issues, including slavery. The North was much more populous than the South, and therefore dominated the House of Representatives, However, the North held no such advantage in the Senate, where the equal representation of states prevailed. Regional conflict was most pronounced over the issue of slavery, One example of a provision repeatedly supported by the House but blocked by the Senate was the Wilmot Proviso, which sought to ban slavery in the land gained during the Mexican–American War. Conflict over slavery and other issues persisted until the Civil War, the war culminated in the Souths defeat and in the abolition of slavery. Because all southern senators except Andrew Johnson resigned their seats at the beginning of the war, the years of Reconstruction that followed witnessed large majorities for the Republican Party, which many Americans associated with the Unions victory in the Civil War and the ending of slavery. The Reconstruction period ended in about 1877, the ensuing era, the Democratic and the Republican Party held majorities in the House at various times. The late 19th and early 20th centuries also saw an increase in the power of the Speaker of the House
27.
Bruce Poliquin
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Bruce Lee Poliquin /ˈpɒlᵻˌkwɪn/ is an American businessman and politician. A Republican, he represents Maines 2nd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives, Poliquin was elected to his seat in the 2014 general election. From 2010 to 2012, he was the Maine State Treasurer and he was a candidate for the Republican nomination for the U. S. Senate in 2012, finishing second in the primary election. In January 2017 at the start of the 115th United States Congress Poliquin is the only Republican representing a House district in New England, Poliquin was born and raised in Waterville, Maine. He grew up in a family of French-Canadian ancestry and his father was a school principal and his mother was a nurse. He attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, and later received a scholarship to attend Harvard University, after college, Poliquin worked in the investment management industry in Chicago and New York City. At Avatar Investors Associates Corporation, a management company, Poliquin helped manage nearly $5 billion in worker pension funds. In 2010, Poliquin sought the Maine Republican Partys nomination for Governor of Maine and he spent $711,000 of his own money on the campaign, finishing sixth of the seven candidates behind winner Paul LePage. Following LePages election in November 2010, Poliquin was elected by the Maine Legislature to serve as Maine State Treasurer, in 2011, Poliquin expressed concerns about the Maine State Housing Authoritys plans to construct a low-income housing complex in Portland. Poliquin cited the proposed $314,000 per unit cost as an example of government spending. Dale McCormick, the director and an appointee by Democratic Governor John Baldacci. In 2012, Maine Democrats accused Poliquin of violating the state Constitution by allegedly engaging in commerce while in office. The complaints against Poliquin centered around his involvement with the Popham Beach Club, a club in Phippsburg, Maine, and Dirigo Holdings LLC. Maine Attorney General William Schneider advised Poliquin to disassociate himself from his business ventures, the Maine House voted unanimously to send the issue to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court in order to settle the matter. The Court declined to offer a ruling, concluding there were no circumstances in Poliquin’s case requiring immediate attention. The program reduced the value of his property from the originally assessed $1.8 million to $725,500 and they did state, however, that as long as the property was 10 acres, it could remain in the program. Poliquin later transferred the property in question to the Open Space program, Poliquin stated that the issue was a distraction for the town and was politically motivated due to Democrats dissatisfaction with his policies as Treasurer. At the end of his term, Poliquin wrote an op-ed in the Bangor Daily News with a list of his offices accomplishments as Treasurer, in March 2012, Poliquin announced he would be running for the U. S. Senate seat being vacated by Olympia Snowe
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Kenneth Fredette
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Kenneth Wade Fredette is a member of the Maine House of Representatives for District 25. Fredettes district represents part of Penobscot County, Maine including the towns of Corinna, Maine, Exeter, Maine, Newport, Maine, Plymouth, Maine, in 2012, he was elected Minority Leader of the Maine House. Fredette announced in June 2013 that he would not enter the 2014 race for the Republican nomination for Maines Second Congressional District, Fredette was born in rural Maine on March 3,1964, as one of five children in his family. In 1982 he graduated from East Grand High School in Danforth, Fredette earned a B. S. in accounting from the University of Maine at Machias in 1987. He received a J. D. from the University of Maine School of Law in 1994, Fredette has been a Tribal Prosecutor for the Penobscot Indian Nation. He is currently an attorney, and a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard. In 1985, Fredette was an intern for United States Senator Warren Rudman, in his freshman term, 2011–2012, Fredette served on the Maine Legislatures budget-writing Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee. He opposed the expansion of Medicaid in Maine and he also sponsored a bill that allocates funds for the use of electronic monitors on defendants in domestic violence cases. Fredette commented in the Maine House on potential expansion of medicaid on June 12,2013 and he referenced the book Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, contrasted a mans brain with womens, and questioned whether the proposed Medicaid expansion was really free. The Maine Peoples Alliance criticized Fredette, saying that it was distasteful for him to use offensive. Fredette endorsed Sen. Marco Rubio for President in the 2016 election on July 2,2015, while also announcing he would appear with Rubio in a 4 July parade in Wolfeboro and he was also named the Rubio campaigns Maine chairman. Fredette and his wife reside in Newport, Maine and they have two children, Morgan and Colby. Fredette is a past President of the Board of Directors of the Sebasticook Valley Federal Credit Union
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Tea Party movement
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The Tea Party movement is an American political movement known for its conservative positions and its role in the Republican Party. Members of the movement have called for a reduction of the U. S. national debt and federal deficit by reducing government spending. The movement opposes government-sponsored universal healthcare and has described as a mixture of libertarian, populist. It has sponsored protests and supported various political candidates since 2009. According to the American Enterprise Institute, various polls in 2013 estimate that slightly over 10 percent of Americans identify as part of the movement, the movement began following Barack Obamas first presidential inauguration when his administration announced plans to give financial aid to bankrupt homeowners. A major force behind it was Americans for Prosperity, a political advocacy group funded by the businessmen and political activist brothers David H. Koch. Supporters of the movement subsequently have had a impact on the internal politics of the Republican Party. Although the Tea Party is not a party in the sense of the word. The movements name refers to the Boston Tea Party of December 16,1773, the Tea Party does not have a single uniform agenda. The decentralized character of the Tea Party, with its lack of structure or hierarchy, allows each autonomous group to set its own priorities. Goals may conflict, and priorities will often differ between groups, many Tea Party organizers see this as a strength rather than a weakness, as decentralization has helped to immunize the Tea Party against co-opting by outside entities and corruption from within. The Tea Party has generally sought to avoid placing too much emphasis on traditional conservative social issues, National Tea Party organizations, such as the Tea Party Patriots and FreedomWorks, have expressed concern that engaging in social issues would be divisive. Instead, they have sought to have activists focus their efforts away from social issues and focus on economic, the Tea Party generally focuses on a significant reduction in the size and scope of the government. Tea Party members generally advocate a national economy operating without government oversight, among its goals are limiting the size of the federal government, reducing government spending, lowering the national debt and opposing tax increases. Tea Party groups have voiced support for right to work legislation as well as tighter border security. On the federal health care law, they began to work at the state level to nullify the law, after the Republican Party lost seats in congress. It has also mobilized locally against the United Nations Agenda 21 and they have protested the IRS for controversial treatment of groups with tea party in their names. They have formed Super PACs to support candidates sympathetic to their goals and have opposed what they call the Republican establishment candidates, even though the groups have a wide range of different goals, the Tea Party places its view of the Constitution at the center of its reform agenda
30.
United States Department of Education
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The United States Department of Education, also referred to as the ED for Education Department, is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government. Recreated by the Department of Education Organization Act and signed into law by President Jimmy Carter on October 17,1979, the Department of Education Organization Act divided the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare into the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services. The Department of Education is administered by the United States Secretary of Education and it has approximately 4,400 employees and an annual budget of $68 billion. The agencys official abbreviation is ED, because DOE instead refers to the United States Department of Energy and it is also often abbreviated informally as DoEd. The Department of Education does not establish schools or colleges and this has been left to state and local school districts. The Departments mission is, to student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence. For 2006, the ED discretionary budget was $56 billion and the mandatory budget contained $23 billion, in 2009 it received additional ARRA funding of $102 billion. As of 2011, the budget is $70 billion. A previous Department of Education was created in 1867 but was demoted to an Office in 1868. As an agency not represented in the cabinet, it quickly became a relatively minor bureau in the Department of the Interior. In 1939, the bureau was transferred to the Federal Security Agency, in 1953, the Federal Security Agency was upgraded to cabinet-level status as the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. In 1979, President Carter advocated for creating a cabinet-level Department of Education, carters plan was to transfer most of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfares education-related functions to the Department of Education. Carter also planned to transfer the education-related functions of the departments of Defense, Justice, Housing and Urban Development, however, many see the department as constitutional under the Commerce Clause, and that the funding role of the Department is constitutional under the Taxing and Spending Clause. The National Education Association supported the bill, while the American Federation of Teachers opposed it, as of 1979, the Office of Education had 3,000 employees and an annual budget of $12 billion. Congress appropriated to the Department of Education an annual budget of $14 billion and 17,000 employees when establishing the Department of Education, once in office, President Reagan succeeded significantly to reduce the budget. In the 1982 State of the Union Address, he pledged, after the Newt Gingrich-led revolution in 1994 had taken control of both Houses of Congress, federal control of and spending on education soared. The GOP platform read, The Federal government has no authority to be involved in school curricula or to control jobs in the market place. This is why we will abolish the Department of Education, end federal meddling in our schools, during his 1996 presidential run, Senator Bob Dole promised, Were going to cut out the Department of Education
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Federal Reserve System
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The Federal Reserve System is the central banking system of the United States. Over the years, events such as the Great Depression in the 1930s, the U. S. Congress established three key objectives for monetary policy in the Federal Reserve Act, maximizing employment, stabilizing prices, and moderating long-term interest rates. The first two objectives are sometimes referred to as the Federal Reserves dual mandate. S, the Fed conducts research into the economy and releases numerous publications, such as the Beige Book. S. member banks, and various advisory councils. The federal government sets the salaries of the seven governors. Nationally chartered commercial banks are required to hold stock in the Federal Reserve Bank of their region, thus, the Federal Reserve System has both private and public components to serve the interests of the public and private banks. The structure is considered unique among central banks and it is also unusual in that the United States Department of the Treasury, an entity outside of the central bank, prints the currency used. The U. S. Government receives all the annual profits, after a statutory dividend of 6% on member banks capital investment is paid. In 2015, the Federal Reserve made a profit of $100.2 billion, the primary motivation for creating the Federal Reserve System was to address banking panics. Before the founding of the Federal Reserve System, the United States underwent several financial crises, a particularly severe crisis in 1907 led Congress to enact the Federal Reserve Act in 1913. Today the Federal Reserve System has responsibilities in addition to ensuring the stability of the financial system. S. S and this practice is called fractional-reserve banking. As a result, banks usually invest the majority of the funds received from depositors, on rare occasions, too many of the banks customers will withdraw their savings and the bank will need help from another institution to continue operating, this is called a bank run. Bank runs can lead to a multitude of social and economic problems, the Federal Reserve System was designed as an attempt to prevent or minimize the occurrence of bank runs, and possibly act as a lender of last resort when a bank run does occur. Many economists, following Milton Friedman, believe that the Federal Reserve inappropriately refused to lend money to banks during the bank runs of 1929. Because some banks refused to clear checks from certain others during times of economic uncertainty, to address these problems, Congress gave the Federal Reserve System the authority to establish a nationwide check-clearing system. It took over this role from the private sector clearing houses which operated during the Free Banking Era, whether public or private, through its discount window and credit operations, Reserve Banks provide liquidity to banks to meet short-term needs stemming from seasonal fluctuations in deposits or unexpected withdrawals. Longer term liquidity may also be provided in exceptional circumstances, the rate the Fed charges banks for these loans is called the discount rate. By making these loans, the Fed serves as a buffer against unexpected day-to-day fluctuations in reserve demand and this contributes to the effective functioning of the banking system, alleviates pressure in the reserves market and reduces the extent of unexpected movements in the interest rates. For example, on September 16,2008, the Federal Reserve Board authorized an $85 billion loan to stave off the bankruptcy of international insurance giant American International Group
32.
United Nations
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The United Nations is an intergovernmental organization to promote international co-operation. A replacement for the ineffective League of Nations, the organization was established on 24 October 1945 after World War II in order to prevent another such conflict, at its founding, the UN had 51 member states, there are now 193. The headquarters of the UN is in Manhattan, New York City, further main offices are situated in Geneva, Nairobi, and Vienna. The organization is financed by assessed and voluntary contributions from its member states, the UNs mission to preserve world peace was complicated in its early decades by the Cold War between the US and Soviet Union and their respective allies. The organization participated in actions in Korea and the Congo. After the end of the Cold War, the UN took on major military, the UN has six principal organs, the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Secretariat, the International Court of Justice, and the UN Trusteeship Council. UN System agencies include the World Bank Group, the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, UNESCO, the UNs most prominent officer is the Secretary-General, an office held by Portuguese António Guterres since 2017. Non-governmental organizations may be granted consultative status with ECOSOC and other agencies to participate in the UNs work, the organization won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001, and a number of its officers and agencies have also been awarded the prize. Other evaluations of the UNs effectiveness have been mixed, some commentators believe the organization to be an important force for peace and human development, while others have called the organization ineffective, corrupt, or biased. Following the catastrophic loss of life in the First World War, the earliest concrete plan for a new world organization began under the aegis of the US State Department in 1939. It incorporated Soviet suggestions, but left no role for France, four Policemen was coined to refer to four major Allied countries, United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and China, which emerged in the Declaration by United Nations. Roosevelt first coined the term United Nations to describe the Allied countries, the term United Nations was first officially used when 26 governments signed this Declaration. One major change from the Atlantic Charter was the addition of a provision for religious freedom, by 1 March 1945,21 additional states had signed. Each Government pledges itself to cooperate with the Governments signatory hereto, the foregoing declaration may be adhered to by other nations which are, or which may be, rendering material assistance and contributions in the struggle for victory over Hitlerism. During the war, the United Nations became the term for the Allies. To join, countries had to sign the Declaration and declare war on the Axis, at the later meetings, Lord Halifax deputized for Mr. Eden, Wellington Koo for T. V. Soong, and Mr Gromyko for Mr. Molotov. The first meetings of the General Assembly, with 51 nations represented, the General Assembly selected New York City as the site for the headquarters of the UN, and the facility was completed in 1952. Its site—like UN headquarters buildings in Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi—is designated as international territory, the Norwegian Foreign Minister, Trygve Lie, was elected as the first UN Secretary-General
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Convention on the Rights of the Child
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The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is a human rights treaty which sets out the civil, political, economic, social, health and cultural rights of children. The Convention defines a child as any human being under the age of eighteen, Nations that ratify this convention are bound to it by international law. Compliance is monitored by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and their reports and the committees written views and concerns are available on the committees website. The UN General Assembly adopted the Convention and opened it for signature on 20 November 1989 and it came into force on 2 September 1990, after it was ratified by the required number of nations. Currently,196 countries are party to it, including member of the United Nations except the United States. Two optional protocols were adopted on 25 May 2000, the First Optional Protocol restricts the involvement of children in military conflicts, and the Second Optional Protocol prohibits the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. Both protocols have been ratified by more than 160 states, a third optional protocol relating to communication of complaints was adopted in December 2011 and opened for signature on 28 February 2012. It came into effect on 14 April 2014, the Convention deals with the child-specific needs and rights. It requires that the nations that ratify this convention are bound to it by international law, ratifying states must act in the best interests of the child. The Convention obliges states to allow parents to exercise their parental responsibilities, the Convention forbids capital punishment for children. The European Court of Human Rights has referred to the Convention when interpreting the European Convention on Human Rights, global human rights standards were challenged at the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna when a number of governments raised serious objections to the idea of universal human rights. Some scholars link slavery and slavery-like practices for many child marriages, Child marriage as slavery is not directly addressed by the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Currently 196 countries are parties to the treaty and this includes every member of the United Nations, plus the Cook Islands, Niue, the State of Palestine, and the Holy See. The United States has not ratified it, somalias domestic ratification finished in January 2015 and the instrument was deposited with the United Nations in October 2015. All successor states of Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia made declarations of succession to the treaty, the convention does not apply in the territories of Akrotiri and Dhekelia, Gibraltar, Guernsey and Tokelau. Canada became a signatory to the Convention on 28 May 1990, Youth criminal laws in Canada underwent major changes resulting in the Youth Criminal Justice Act which went into effect on 1 April 2003. The Act specifically references Canadas different commitments under the Convention, the convention was influential in the administrative Law decision of Baker v Canada. India ratified UNCRC on 11 December 1992, agreeing in principles all articles except with certain reservations on issues relating to child labor
34.
Global warming
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Global warming and climate change are terms for the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earths climate system and its related effects. Multiple lines of evidence show that the climate system is warming. The largest human influence has been emission of gases such as carbon dioxide, methane. These findings have been recognized by the science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing. Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe, anticipated effects include warming global temperature, rising sea levels, changing precipitation, and expansion of deserts in the subtropics. Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic, with the retreat of glaciers, permafrost. Effects significant to humans include the threat to security from decreasing crop yields. Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction, adaptation to its effects, building systems resilient to its effects, most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change. Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing, a global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54% consider it a very serious problem. There are significant regional differences, with Americans and Chinese among the least concerned, the global average surface temperature shows a warming of 0.85 °C in the period 1880 to 2012, based on multiple independently produced datasets. Earths average surface temperature rose by 0. 74±0.18 °C over the period 1906–2005, the rate of warming almost doubled for the last half of that period. The rest has melted ice and warmed the continents and atmosphere, the average temperature of the lower troposphere has increased between 0.12 and 0.135 °C per decade since 1979, according to satellite temperature measurements. The warming that is evident in the temperature record is consistent with a wide range of observations. The probability that these changes could have occurred by chance is virtually zero, temperature changes vary over the globe. Since 1979, land temperatures have increased about twice as fast as ocean temperatures, ocean temperatures increase more slowly than land temperatures because of the larger effective heat capacity of the oceans and because the ocean loses more heat by evaporation. Since the beginning of industrialisation the temperature difference between the hemispheres has increased due to melting of sea ice and snow in the North. Average arctic temperatures have been increasing at almost twice the rate of the rest of the world in the past 100 years, the thermal inertia of the oceans and slow responses of other indirect effects mean that climate can take centuries or longer to adjust to changes in forcing. Some of this warming will be driven by past natural forcings which are still seeking equilibrium in the climate system
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Austrian School
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The Austrian School is a school of economic thought that is based on methodological individualism – the concept that social phenomena result from the motivations and actions of individuals. It originated in late-19th and early-20th century Vienna with the work of Carl Menger, Eugen Böhm von Bawerk, Friedrich von Wieser and it was methodologically opposed to the Prussian Historical School. Current-day economists working in this tradition are located in different countries. Austrians are likewise critical of mainstream economics, in 1883, Menger published Investigations into the Method of the Social Sciences with Special Reference to Economics, which attacked the methods of the Historical school. Gustav von Schmoller, a leader of the Historical school, responded with a review, coining the term Austrian School in an attempt to characterize the school as outcast. The label endured and was adopted by the adherents themselves, the school originated in Vienna, in the Austrian Empire. Carl Mengers 1871 book, Principles of Economics, is considered the founding of the Austrian School. The book was one of the first modern treatises to advance the theory of marginal utility. The Austrian School was one of three founding currents of the marginalist revolution of the 1870s, with its major contribution being the introduction of the subjectivist approach in economics. ”Mengers contributions to economic theory were closely followed by those of Böhm-Bawerk and Friedrich von Wieser. These three economists became what is known as the first wave of the Austrian School, several important Austrian economists trained at the University of Vienna in the 1920s and later participated in private seminars held by Ludwig von Mises. These included Gottfried Haberler, Friedrich Hayek, Fritz Machlup, Karl Menger, Oskar Morgenstern, Paul Rosenstein-Rodan Abraham Wald, by the mid-1930s, most economists had embraced what they considered the important contributions of the early Austrians. Fritz Machlup quoted Hayeks statement, the greatest success of a school is that it stops existing because its teachings have become parts of the general body of commonly accepted thought. Mises student, Israel Kirzner recalled that in 1954, when Kirzner was pursuing his PhD, after the 1940s, Austrian economics can be divided into two schools of economic thought, and the school split to some degree in the late 20th century. Henry Hazlitt wrote economics columns and editorials for a number of publications, hazlitts thinking was influenced by Mises. His book Economics in One Lesson sold over a million copies, and he is known for The Failure of the New Economics. Hayeks work was influential in the revival of laissez-faire thought in the 20th century, according to economist Bryan Caplan, by the late twentieth century, a split had developed among those who self-identify with the Austrian School. Caplan wrote that if Mises and Rothbard are right, then economics is wrong, Austrian economist Walter Block says that the Austrian school can be distinguished from other schools of economic thought through two categories – economic theory and political theory. However, both criticisms from Hoppe and Block to Hayek seem to apply to the founder of the Austrian School, Carl Menger, Hoppe emphasizes that Hayek, which for him is from the English empirical tradition, is an opponent of the supposed rationalist tradition of the Austrian School
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United States presidential election in Maine, 2012
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The 2012 United States presidential election in Maine took place on November 6,2012 as part of the 2012 General Election in which all 50 states plus The District of Columbia participated. Obama and Biden carried Maine with 55. 37% of the vote to Romneys and Ryans 40. 33%. Barack Obama swept both of Maine’s two congressional districts, the Republican caucuses were held between Sunday, January 29, and Saturday, March 3, at various locations throughout the state of Maine. Presidential preference polls were held at the caucuses, but those polls were not binding on the choices of delegates to the Maine Republican Party convention, the caucuses chose delegates in processes separate from the straw polling. The state party encouraged all municipal committees to hold their caucuses between February 4 and February 11, although each committee was free to choose a different date, the first caucus was in Waldo County on January 29 and the last one in Castine on March 3. On Saturday, February 11, after 84% of precincts had completed voting, the results were revised in a second declaration on February 17 to include previously-missing results from several caucuses. The state Republican Party issued a third compilation on February 24, adding all the February 18 caucuses. All three statewide totals showed former Governor Mitt Romney leading Representative Ron Paul by small margins, with other candidates well behind, at the State Convention held over the weekend of May 5–6, Ron Paul won 20 out of 24 national delegates. One elected delegate, Governor Paul LePage is uncommitted, like most Republican Party caucuses, there are two components to the Maine caucuses. First, delegates are elected from among the attendees to represent them at the state convention, candidates generally provide slates of delegates to voters who are interested in supporting them, and voters can ask prospective delegates whom they support for president. Then, a poll, called a presidential preference ballot, is taken of the individuals in the room. No delegates from Maine are pledged to any candidate, as of February 11,98 precincts had yet to report. Forty-seven of those precincts were in Washington County, where reports of a snow storm caused the caucus to be rescheduled to February 18. As of February 14,177 towns in Maine had not reported any results, updated results were released by the Maine GOP on February 17. Republicans in the town of Rome held their caucus on Thursday evening, according to a post in the unofficial Daily Paul blog,3 votes were cast for Ron Paul,2 for Rick Santorum, and 1 each for Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. Aurora/Amherst, Eastbrook, Franklin, Mariaville and Osborn caucusing in Eastbrook, Paul 19, Santorum 8, Romney 7, Republicans in the town of Castine held their caucus on Saturday, March 3, but presidential preferences have not yet been reported. On Thursday, February 16, the Executive Committee of the Maine Republican Party authorized Party Chairman Charlie Webster to release a statement that concluded, the results of the Washington County caucus will be reviewed at the March 10 Republican State Committee Meeting. Updated results were released by the Maine GOP on February 24, the new table does not show returns from Rome on February 16 or Castine on March 3, but does include returns from the towns listed above for February 18
