1. to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one’s own
2. to use (another’s production) without crediting the source
3. to commit literary theft
4. to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source.

http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/plagiarism.shtml

To avoid plagiarism, you must give credit whenever you use

• another person’s idea, opinion, or theory;
• any facts, statistics, graphs, drawings—any pieces of information—that are not common knowledge;
• quotations of another person’s actual spoken or written words; or
• paraphrase of another person’s spoken or written words.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/589/01/

• Develop a topic based on what has already been said and written but write something new and original
• Rely on opinions of experts and authorities on a topic but improve upon and/or disagree with those same opinions
• Give credit to researchers who have come before you but make your own significant contribution
• Improve your English or fit into a discourse community by building upon what you hear and read but use your own words and your own voice

(Mental Floss ) — Negative campaigning in America was sired by two lifelong friends, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Back in 1776, the dynamic duo combined powers to help claim America’s independence, and they had nothing but love and respect for one another. But by 1800, party politics had so distanced the pair that, for the first and last time in U.S. history, a president found himself running against his vice president.

Despite their bruising campaign, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams became friends again.

Things got ugly fast. Jefferson’s camp accused President Adams of having a “hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman.”

In return, Adams’ men called Vice President Jefferson “a mean-spirited, low-lived fellow, the son of a half-breed Indian squaw, sired by a Virginia mulatto father.”

As the slurs piled on, Adams was labeled a fool, a hypocrite, a criminal, and a tyrant, while Jefferson was branded a weakling, an atheist, a libertine, and a coward. 

Even Martha Washington succumbed to the propaganda, telling a clergyman that Jefferson was “one of the most detestable of mankind.”

Jefferson hires a hatchet man

Back then, presidential candidates didn’t actively campaign. In fact, Adams and Jefferson spent much of the election season at their respective homes in Massachusetts and Virginia.

But the key difference between the two politicians was that Jefferson hired a hatchet man named James Callendar to do his smearing for him. Adams, on the other hand, considered himself above such tactics. To Jefferson’s credit, Callendar proved incredibly effective, convincing many Americans that Adams desperately wanted to attack France. Although the claim was completely untrue, voters bought it, and Jefferson stole the election.

Jefferson paid a price for his dirty campaign tactics, though. Callendar served jail time for the slander he wrote about Adams, and when he emerged from prison in 1801, he felt Jefferson still owed him.

After Jefferson did little to appease him, Callendar broke a story in 1802 that had only been a rumor until then — that the President was having an affair with one of his slaves, Sally Hemings. In a series of articles, Callendar claimed that Jefferson had lived with Hemings in France and that she had given birth to five of his children.

The story plagued Jefferson for the rest of his career. And although generations of historians shrugged off the story as part of Callendar’s propaganda, DNA testing in 1998 showed a link between Hemings’ descendents and the Jefferson family.

Just as truth persists, however, so does friendship. Twelve years after the vicious election of 1800, Adams and Jefferson began writing letters to each other and became friends again. They remained pen pals for the rest of their lives and passed away on the same day, July 4, 1826. It was the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/08/22/mf.campaign.slurs.slogans/index.html

Upon the ratification of the Constitution in 1788 came the election of the first president of the United States in the spring of the following year. There seemed little doubt that George Washington – commander in chief of the Continental Army, presiding officer at the Constitutional Convention, and America’s first true hero – would be chosen. Indeed the electoral votes were cast and the decision was unanimous. Washington was inaugurated at New York’s Federal Hall in April 1789.

Historians have well noted Washington’s attempts to remain above party politics and his frequent warnings that factions could only serve to fracture national unity. There were no formal, organized political parties during his administration but two competing political philosophies did arise during his two terms and became more overt during the administration of second president, John Adams. Washington retired after his second term. Washington’s vice president, Adams, defeated Thomas Jefferson in the election of 1796.

Washington and Adams shared the view that a strong federal government was America’s best hope. They and their followers became known as Federalists. The substantial tasks involved in shaping and strengthening a republic spread over vast geographical distances would, in their minds, require guidance that only centralized power could provide. Some historians also believe that Washington and the elite group of men who framed the Constitution feared that local governments were drawing from a well of citizens that did not have the capabilities to lead. These ill-educated men with their narrow parochial interests were not equipped or resolved to look beyond the needs of their sparsely settled regions. In short, they lacked a national vision.

Others disagreed, and they argued that political power, and so political destiny, should reside in the separate states. The best national government was small government: a reduced military force and limited taxes. Those hardworking farmers and merchants at the local level were the same rebels who resisted and defeated a monarchical form of government. They should be left alone to carve out their futures. Thomas Jefferson was the leader of those who favored a less obtrusive federal government and they took the name of Republican.

Jefferson made his views known discretely, first as Washington’s secretary of state and then as vice president under Adams. Both the Federalists (Gazette of the United States) and Republicans (National Gazette) controlled their own newspapers and through anonymous articles published in them, opponents Alexander Hamilton and Jefferson could argue their causes. Because the Constitution did not anticipate political parties it was possible for the president and vice president to hold different political viewpoints and in 1796 that is, in fact, what happened. Adams received the most electoral votes and Jefferson came in second and so they won the top two positions in the executive branch. This led to incredible tensions over key policy issues, especially the Alien and Sedition Acts, championed by Adams. In brief, the Republicans and their press charged Adams and the Federalists with attempting to thwart them on a number of hot political issues during the United States’ undeclared war with France. Many Republicans tended to be Francophiles and they worried that the Alien Act targeted immigrants who would likely be attracted to Republican ideals. The Sedition Act, the Republicans argued, was an attempt to stifle legitimate newspapers because they opposed Federalist policies: a free speech violation. As it became clear that Adams would lose the election of 1800, he added to the animosity between the president and the president-elect when he appointed a number of Federalist judges, including Chief Justice John Marshall, in the waning weeks of his administration. On March 4, 1801, the first inauguration day in the new capital city of Washington, Jefferson made his presidential pronouncement on the past difficulties and his vision for the future.

http://www.whitehousehistory.org/04/subs/04_b_1801.html

Thomas Jefferson ABC’s

A. Thomas Jefferson wrote a bill on behalf of educating the general public. He outlined a system with “Aldermen” monitoring that gives an educational opportunity to the people. He wanted to educate the people to make the gov’t better and avoid tyranny.

B: Degeneracy: process of declining.

Indigence: seriously impoverished condition.

Amercement: punish with a fine not fixed by statute.

C. Why was this bill declined?

Why are there so many people that check up on the educational system?

Why was TJ one of the only few that valued education for everyone?

Subject:

Thomas Jefferson believed in education for people. He set up a system where elected Aldermen would look over the groups of “convenient” numbers of children. He based this system from gov’t and how in come cases those with power tend to control everything and it corrupts them. He noticed that educated people made good laws and the educated people would watch over them which would make everyone happy. One the whole, TJ wanted citizens to be educated so the ending outcome would be prosperity and growth for the gov’t in the new country.

Tone:

TJ’s tone was very formal, serious and sure of himself. He knows how education affects things and has this plan that will make it happen. He supported education and believed opportunities should be available. His tone is matter-of-fact since he wanted this bill to be passes since education, in his mind, is the key to success.

There have been multiple places where lines or phrases from William Butler Yeats’s poem Second Coming have appeared with ties to the war in Iraq.  However, the context in which Yeats wrote this poem many years ago is not quite the same as what people are comparing it to today.  Yeats did not necessarily believe in Christianity but yet there is a line which references Bethlehem, and liked when things were in “ruin,” but he describes a good place in the beginning.  <Really this article just debates through Yeats’ poem and how it relates to the Iraq war, but I get lost in what it is really trying to say.>

Occasion:

Yeats’ poem was originally written during a rough period which is like the US with the Iraq war.  Lines from his poem make some sort of parallel toward the war and scholars have been trying to dig into Yeats’ mind frame to see it.  From the article, a direct example of this is where it states, “The world would have to look toward Bethlehem to see what “rough best” arrived….The story of the Iraq war is one of confident predictions that never came to pass: ‘We will find weapons of mass destruction’; ‘we will be greeted as liberators’; ‘the insurgency is in its last throes.’”

Igbo

Two different generalized definitions of Igbo:

Igbo: A culture of people that come from Nigeria that have many individual groups separated by little things like language and villages.

Igbo: The Igbo are the second largest group of people living in southern Nigeria. They are socially and culturally diverse, consisting of many subgroups. Although they live in scattered groups of villages, they all speak one language.

Some Igbo language:

Water-Mmiri
Stove-Ekwu
Kitchen—Ekwu
Television—Onnyonyo
Bag—Akpa
Book—Akwukwo

My Commentary:

Why the Igbo? Before today I had not known that Igbo was even a word, yet it is a (fairly large) group of people. From my researching it seems that the Igbo people have a deep culture. There were MANY web sites on Igbo and a large amount of pictures of the people along with a lot of artwork. On most of the web sites I had looked at, they all seemed to include the fact that they live in villages, farm, and religions. However, each web site said something different than the last one. For example, one said that the Igbo people believe in many Gods focusing on one big one, and then next said that they are Christians. With this confusing research, I am wondering who the Igbo are and what they are all about since each site seemed to have its own opinion on things?

P.S. There is supposed to be a picture in the left corner of this post…