Americas Tv Role Model Essays - Television, Series, Entertainment

Americas Tv Role Model Essays - Television, Series, Entertainment Americas Tv Role Model Americas TV Role Model What America needs is a family like The Waltons, not families like The Simpsons - at least according to President George Bush. A strange remark, given that one does not normally expect the President of the United States to pass judgments on television dramas like The Waltons, let along cartoon shows like The Simpsons. The producers of The Simpsons were quick to respond, by making Bart Simpson remark that the Simpson family was really just like the Waltons family - waiting for the end of the depression. The Waltons were an imaginary rural family waiting for the 30s depression to end, while The Simpsons are a postmodern family of today. Both belong to the curious history of the American TV family. A history so central to the past, present and future of American culture that no one - not even Presidential candidates, can afford to ignore it. Before radio and television, the family home was a space that could function in relative seclusion from public life. In the advice manuals of Victorian times, the ideal middle class home was one that sheltered women and children from the evil influences of the public sphere. The virtues of thrift and self-improvement - the sort of values Bush associates with the Waltons - were a 19th century notion of the good life. In this vision of the family, men worked in the outside world and had the final say at home; women were to be protected from the outside world but managed the day-to-day business of the home and the raising of the children. Of course, things were not like that for many people, but this was the ideal that the home manuals proscribed. Every good middle class Victorian home aspired to have a piano, and women were supposed to learn to play it teach the children to play it also. The piano was a civilizing influence, supposedly. With the rise of consumerism, however, all this began to change. The phonograph, the radio and finally the television replaced the piano. The virtues of thrift and self-improvement gave way to consumerism and the pursuit of leisure for its own sake. Conservatives have always decried these changes and called for a return to the old ways, but modern capitalism depends on its consumers to keep going. Without this shift in family life from thrift to spending and from self-improvement to consumption, the industrial age might never have kept going. Indeed, the collapse of the economy that produced the return to thrift and discipline exemplified by The Waltons TV family happened in part because consumerism didn't quite take off in the 20s. It was only after the massive expansion of manufacturing that took place during the war and the deliberate efforts to turn war production into consumer production that the conditions were set for the kind of TV family we know today. The 50s saw a tremendous boom in housing construction. Young couples who had put their lives on hold during the war got into home making with a vengeance. The period of suburban ecstasy had begun. One of the new consumer technologies that filled the new suburban homes was the television. By 1955 about 65% of American homes had one. Like all new media technologies, it began by reproducing the popular fare of the media it replaced. Just as the early gramophone records were reproductions of popular music hall tunes; early television reproduced popular radio shows. This is the first phase of any new media - when it borrows and adapts the formats of the old media. Not all of the popular radio programs successfully made the transition to television. Father Knows Best, a well-known TV situation comedy of the fifties, was one program that did survive the transition from radio to television. Interestingly, the 'ethnic' radio sitcoms like Amos'n'Andy and Life with Luigi did not. The general public would listen to, but not watch, minorities on television. Father Knows Best is typical of early American TV families. Its name sums it up, really, and sums up how different it was from The Simpsons. Homer Simpson usually hasn't a clue what is best for his family or even for himself. He is a figure

Information About the Presidents Cabinet

Information About the Presidents Cabinet The presidents Cabinet includes the Vice President of the United States and the heads of the 15 executive departments  - the Secretaries of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, State, Transportation, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs, as well as the Attorney General. At the option of the president, other officials typically holding Cabinet-rank, include the White House Chief of Staff; the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency; the Director of the Office of Management and Budget; the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers; the Administrator of the Small Business Administration; and the U.S. Trade Representative. The president can also designate other senior White House staff members as members of the Cabinet, However, this is a symbolic status marker and does not, apart from attending Cabinet meetings, confer any additional powers. Why a Cabinet? The term cabinet comes from the Italian word cabinetto, meaning a small, private room. A good place to discuss important business without being interrupted. The first use of the term is attributed to  James Madison, who described the meetings as â€Å"the president’s cabinet.† Does the Constitution Establish the Cabinet? Not directly. Constitutional authority for the Cabinet comes from Article 2, Section 2, which says that the president ... may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices. Similarly, the Constitution does not specify which or how many executive departments should be created. Just another indication that the Constitution is a flexible, living document, well capable of governing our country without stifling its growth.  Since it is not specifically established in the Constitution, the president’s Cabinet is one of the several examples of amending the Constitution by custom, rather than Congress.   Which President Established the Cabinet? President  George Washington  convened  the first cabinet meeting on  February 25, 1793. Present at the meeting were President Washington, Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, Secretary or War Henry Knox, and Attorney General Edmund Randolph. Then as now, that first Cabinet meeting featured tension when Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton butted heads on the question of centralizing the then widely fragmented U.S. banking system through the creation of a national bank. When the debate became particularly heated, Jefferson, who opposed a national bank, tried to calm the waters in the room by suggesting that the acrimonious tone of the debate had no impact on the achieving a sound governmental structure. â€Å"The pain was for Hamilton and myself but the public experienced no inconvenience,† stated Jefferson. How Are the Cabinet Secretaries Chosen? The Cabinet secretaries are appointed by the president of the United States but must be approved by a simple majority vote of the Senate. The only qualification is that a department secretary cannot be a current  member of Congress or hold any other elected office. How Much are the Cabinet Secretaries Paid? Cabinet-level officers are currently paid $210,700 per year. Their pay is set annual by Congress as part of its approval of the federal budget. How Long Do the Cabinet Secretaries Serve? Members of the Cabinet (except for the Vice President) serve at the pleasure of the president, who can dismiss them at will for no cause. All federal public officials, including Cabinet members, are also subject to  impeachment  by the House of Representatives and trial in the Senate for treason, bribery, and other high crimes and misdemeanors. Generally, Cabinet members  serve as long as the president who appointed them remains in office. Executive department secretaries answer only to the president and only the president can fire them. They are expected to resign when a new president takes office since most incoming presidents choose to replace them, anyway. Certainly not a stable career, but U.S. Secretary of State 1993-2001, would certainly look good on a resume. How Often Does the Presidents Cabinet Meet? There is no official schedule for Cabinet meetings, but presidents generally try to meet with their Cabinets on a weekly basis. Besides the president and department secretaries, Cabinet meetings are usually attended by the vice president, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and other top-level officials as determined by the president.