Just as a heads up Schneiter, the links button still won't work, it's not that I'm being lazy but the button shown when writing a new post labeled link literally won't work on my blog...

and I have looked over the project guide and I believe I have all the requirements...

*have a description of the problem as well as pictures, articles, etc...

*have the book review (was an interesting book)

*have the two things to affect change through government action
-Banning the citizens united bill
-The Super PAC's paragraph

*the four thing to affect private action
-Occupy Wall Street
-Ending Lobbying to some extent
-The pro-voting T-shirt
-Just need to create the xtranormal video, but can't find the freebies to make the video with so if you could show me what to do that would be great

email me back with anything I'm missing or I will talk to you tomorrow

The other example for incurring change in the government would be passing a law that would cancel citizens united (the law saying that corporations can act as an individual and support campaigns), so that corporations wouldn't be able to spend their unlimited money on candidates. Which in turn would reduce their power to affect change in a democratic government which in definition should be solely decided upon by its voters and not determined by the wealth of a specific class.

An article labeling 10 reasons Citizens United endangers Democracy: http://www.demos.org/publication/10-ways-citizens-united-endangers-democracy

Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress—and a Plan to Stop It by Lawrence Lessig is a book largely talking about how, in Lessig's opinion, special interest money is steadily corrupting America and his ideas on how to stop it. The largest argument being how the U.S legislative branch relies on donor money from a legal, but corrupt system of campaign financing. Lessig also looks into the lack of follow through on party interests in congress: left-wing activists don't get global-warming legislation and right-wing crazies don't don't see tax policy changing. Basically buying into the statistic that 76% of American voters believe that money buys results in government. The middle chapters of the book describe in detail the lobbying system of the United States, especially in its role with affecting congress.

"Our current tax system with all its complexities is in part designed to make it easier for candidates, in particular congressmen, to raise money to get back to congress ... All sorts of special exceptions which expire after a limited period of time are just a reason to pick up the phone and call somebody and say 'Your exception is about to expire, here’s a good reason for you to help us fight to get it to extend.' And that gives them the opportunity to practice what is really a type of extortion – shaking the trees of money in the private sector into their campaign coffers so that they can run for congress again." - Lawrence Lessig

The last few chapters of the book are explaining Lessig's plans for rectifying the corruption in Congress;

1. Congress could pass a law reforming campaign funding.

2. How a popular, non-politician individual could run for office within the House of Representatives in multiple jurisdictions in the same state, promising to campaign until the other candidates promised to reform their campaign funding procedures.

3. The president could kill government until Congress enacts a campaign finance reform.

4. An amendment could be put forth requiring a change in campaign finance policy

A shirt I designed calling citizens to take an active part in voting which has all the impact in regulating government according to the populace's opinions and not just the persons with enough money to turn heads among the higher ups...

Very in depth project talking about why Super PAC's are bad for democracy, who's supporting them, how they work, etc... (also shows why it's necessary to stop them). Very interesting and clears up a lot of misconceptions and reasons as to why Super PAC's should be considered dangerous. Just as basic information a super PAC is a nonprofit that has been set up as a donation recipient that can receive money from just about anyone... the funds of which are then used in a political campaign. Why they're considered legal though is how the money is not allowed to be directed by the candidate or his staff, but there are plenty of ways to sleaze around this ruling. It would be a huge victory in cancelling the corruption of our government if we could stop these unregulated, anonymous payouts to government official candidacies. possibly through a good protest or law proposal:

http://www.demos.org/publication/auctioning-democracy-rise-super-pacs-and-2012-election

Fairly basic look at the beginning of lobbying and information on the subject:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobbying

Occupy Wall Street:

http:/occupywallst.org

*Can also look at an individuals reasons as to why the protest was formed against wall street:

http://www.demos.org/publication/why-occupy-wall-street

The ethics and morality of lobbying is a double edged sword, as people with socioeconomic power can serve their own interests by corrupting the law. On the other hand; however, are the lobbyists representing voters against the tyranny of the masses or non-profit movements. Their relative evil can be judged on how good a group's lobbyists are at presenting their corrupt ideas as good ones and as to what exactly they're using their power to do in government. For example; corporations looking to support oil drilling in a nature preservation are significantly more evil than Greenpeace lobbying to get their voice heard over an issue of an illegal logging in national parks, for example. Thus one of the more significant things we could do in government today is to protest the power corporations and other socioeconomic groups have when affecting change in government through the use of lobbyists. This protest would hopefully lead to government policy limiting the ability for outside entities to have an active part in promoting nominees or affecting other legislative bodies over independent voters.