Posting of last week's assignment

Go to http://www.congress.org/ (Type in your zip code)


Who are they? What party? When were they elected?

What percentage did they win by in the last election?

What committees are they on?

Go their webpage: What legislation are they currently working on? (2 or 3 examples)

Redistricting Game
http://www.redistrictinggame.org/
 


1st, Click on “play the game.”

Go to: Mission 4: The Voting Rights Act

Go to: Learn More

2nd, Read about the Voting Rights Act of 1965

Explain the purpose of the Voting Rights Act and how it relates to redistricting.

3rd, Have fun! See if you can “win” the game - redistrict the State of Hamilton.

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Post your result in the comment section of the redistricting game post below

Obama: 'Long and painful chapter' is over; New Book to be written in Lybia

(From CNN)

Washington (CNN) - President Barack Obama on Thursday called the death of former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi both the end of a "long and painful chapter for the people of Libya" and the hallmark of a successful U.S. foreign policy.


In the first official government remarks on the killing of a longtime foe who was behind terrorist attacks against U.S. citizens, Obama pledged his government's support as Libya builds a democratic system from the ruins of dictatorship.

FULL STORY

With regime change in Lybia, what needs to happen next for the revolutionaries to create a democratic government. Are you optimistic, or pesimistic about the future of Lybia?

A Big Victory Shout Out

This site allows allows you to type in a member of Congress and see how many bills he/she has introduced, how many earmarks he/she have asked for and received. The site does not give its definition of earmarks, nor tell if the bills are for one's entire career (I suspect it is), but nonetheless, it is an interesting starting point.


Judy Biggert (R) our representative from the 13th District has just two bills to her credit as of 2010. She was first elected in 1998. She won re-election in 2010 to a seventh term with 64% of the vote.

But she has given a big shout out to WVHS. I found the above video on the Warrior's Back-to-Back State Champion Women's Soccer Team Website. A couple of summers ago U.S. Rep. Judy Biggert gives her one-minute shout out to the Tribe. While we make fun of these "One-minute resolutions" legislatures use them to make constituents feel happy and proud. I did when I saw it.

Do we like our lawmakers doing this type of constituent service for us, or is it really a waste of time when there are more important matters at hand?

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/videoLibrary/clip.php?appid=595320026

Elephants, Donkeys and Gerrymanderers, Oh My!

Here is a way for you to continue your education, win or lose, on the world of Congressional gerrymandering.

The Redistricting Game is designed to educate, engage, and empower citizens around the issue of political redistricting. Currently, the political system in most states allows the state legislators themselves to draw the lines. This system is subject to a wide range of abuses and manipulations that encourage incumbents to draw districts which protect their seats rather than risk an open contest.

By exploring how the system works, as well as how open it is to abuse, The Redistricting Game allows players to experience the realities of one of the most important (yet least understood) aspects of our political system. The game provides a basic introduction to the redistricting system, allows players to explore the ways in which abuses can undermine the system, and provides info about reform initiatives - including a playable version of the Tanner Reform bill to demonstrate the ways that the system might be made more consistent with tenets of good governance. Beyond playing the game, the web site for The Redistricting Game provides a wealth of information about redistricting in every state as well as providing hands-on opportunities for civic engagement and political action.

The Redistricting Game was created at the USC Game Innovation Lab - part of the USC School of Cinematic Arts', Interactive Media Division.

Play the game here: http://www.redistrictinggame.org/index.php

Redistricting Game for Real in Illinois

In January, it was announced that Illinois will lose a congressional seat, the U.S. Census Bureau said; following the 2012 elections, Illinois will send 18 members to the House of Representatives, down from the current 19.


Lynn Sweet of the Sun-Times wrote about the redistricting, re-apportionment, possible gerrymandering and the political wrangling that will be going on in Springfield. To an earlier post with the re-districting game, how would you draw Illinois' new 2012 Congressional map?
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WASHINGTON--Illinois will lose a congressional seat, the U.S. Census Bureau announced on Tuesday; following the 2012 elections, Illinois will send 18 members to the House of Representatives, down from the current 19.

Nationally, the reapportionment favors Republicans: states that vote Republican gained the most seats, which has implications not only for the balance of power in Congress, but in the 2012 presidential campaign, because the the electoral votes are based on the new census counts.

In Illinois, Democrats will take the first stab at drawing the new district maps at a time when the GOP just picked up four seats. Presumably, the Illinois Democrats will mull whether they can throw together in a fight for survival any of the 11 Illinois Republicans who will be sworn in on Jan. 5 with GOP Reps. Joe Walsh, Bob Dold, Adam Kinzinger, and Bobby Schilling potentially the most vulnerable.

Illinois remains one of the top five most populous states in the nation, with a new official population total of 12,864,380, according to the new Census figures.

The Tuesday announcement just deals with reapportioning the 435-member House of Representatives. Starting in February, the Census Bureau will start announcing the state-specific numbers that are needed in order for redistricting. In Illinois, the Democratic controlled Illinois General Assembly will try to draw new boundaries for House, state legislative, city wards, judicial and other districts--though if there is not agreement, the job is kicked over to a commission.

The reapportionment favors Republicans: Texas picked up the most seats--four, with Florida gaining two and Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina, Utah and Washington gaining one.

In all, ten states lost seats. Eight of them are states that vote Democrat: New York and Ohio lost two seats, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey and Pennsylvania are down one.

Missouri and Louisiana are also down a seat.

Illinois has been loosing congressional seats since 1930. Here's a recap on the number of House members Illinois has been sending to Washington each decade:

2010: 18

2000: 19

1990: 20

1980: 22

1970: 24

1960: 24

1950: 25

1940: 26

1930: 27

In Illinois there will be a political struggle over whether a new congressional map drops a seat from northern Illinois or Downstate. There also will be internal wrangling between GOP and Democratic incumbents who would not be threatened with losing their seat because of population shifts--but would want to improve or enhance political viability by having new district maps include neighborhoods that would be reliable Republican or Democratic votes.

If the census shows a big Hispanic population increase in Illinois--and if that growth is not scattered across the state--Illinois Democrats may be under pressure to create a second Hispanic district. The first Hispanic district in Illinois was drawn following the 1990 census--a convoluted "C" shape district that includes Hispanic neighborhoods on Chicago's North and South Sides wrapped around a district running from the lakefront to the near western suburbs drawn to yield an African American representative.

Following the 2000 and 1990 census, in Illinois, the GOP and Democratic House incumbents got together and cut deals with each other in order to try to protect their own seats in the wake of the musical chair scenario where it would be impossible for all of them to return to Congress. Still, they could not all save their seats. The remap after the 2000 Census saw Democratic Rep. David Phelps and GOP Rep. John Shimkus running against each other in the same district. Shimkus won and has been re-elected ever since.

State Sen. Kwame Raul (D-Chicago), who chairs the state senate reapportionment committee, told me on Monday the legislature will try to seize more control of the congressional remap process because it is their "responsibility," he said. Redistricting reform measures Raul backed never won state legislative approval.

View the current Illinois Congressional map, with its represenatives here:

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/findyourreps.xpd?state=IL

Cup and Saucer

(From CBS 2 School)
Cup and saucer is a metaphor used to differentiate the roles played by the House of Representatives and United States Senate.

Thomas Jefferson once expressed his doubts about the usefulness of the Senate. “Why did you pour that coffee into your saucer?” George Washington asked. “To cool it,” Jefferson replied. “Even so,” Washington declared, “we pour legislation into the senatorial saucer to cool it.”

Our bicameral legislature was divided for reasons other than compromising between big states and small states. Each house represents the people, yet they also possess remarkably different responsibilities. The House, modeled on the British House of Commons, represents the passions of the people. The Senate, modeled on the British House of Lords, responds to these passions with reason. James Madison saw the Senate as an “anchor,” a “necessary fence” against the “fickleness and passion” of the people. The Senate is to “cool” House legislation just as a saucer was used to cool hot tea. Today, with the advent of directly elected Senators and the 24/7 televised news cycle, it is more difficult to discern between the passions of the House and the Senate. You could say two overflowing cups now characterize our Congress. Who is going to clean up the mess?

Alexander Hamilton while speaking to a group of foreign visitors observing action on the floor of the House of Representatives said, “Here Sir, the people govern.” For this reason our legislative branch continues to be our democracies most prized possession.

Know how these terms empower the U.S. Congress:

Incumbency


Necessary and Proper


Special orders


Franking


Gerrymandering


Leadership


Logrolling


Constituent Service


Commerce Clause

A tough case to make?

(From Political Warrior, Jan., 2011)
I  should cry, but it's healthier to laugh. So as any meaningful filibuster reform went dead in the Senate, the Onion News Network reported on how lawmakers may have forgotten how to pass laws even with big, or unanimous majorities.

For real, the Washington Post's Ezra Klien reports on how it will continue to be true that a simple majority will not get bills passed in the 112th Congress.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2011/01/wonkbook_filibuster_reform_dea.html

Yet, both Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell did make some changes in the stalling process. The broad agreement is the most significant change in the chamber's rules in 35 years. That's really saying something about the saucer chamber, because other than dropping the confirmation process for about 400 federal agency nominees, it seems like it will be more like business as usual than "Change We Can Believe In," on Capitol Hill.

Lee Hamilton makes the case for Congress

http://kropfpolisci.com/congress.hamilton.democratictheory.pdf

Make sure you read Hamilton's article, as well as 301-317 in the Patterson text, possible quiz??
After the filibustered block of the American Jobs Act last week, Politico reports that Teachers will come (or go) first in the first stage of the pieced together jobs plan:

"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will begin breaking apart President Barack Obama’s jobs bill with a vote on the provision that helps states pay teachers and first responders, his office and the White House said Monday.

Reid will hold a press call Monday afternoon “to announce the introduction of the first individual component of President Obama’s jobs bill,” his office said in an email to reporters soon after White House press secretary Jay Carney alerted journalists aboard Air Force One. “The Teachers and First Responders Back to Work Act will help states and local governments keep teachers in the classroom and police officers and firefighters on the beat.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1011/66144.html#ixzz1b3qRNOKm


 
 

The F-Word Senate takes in-action, again

WASHINGTON – Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and a group of Senate colleagues went to the Senate floor Wednesday to speak out against the Republican filibuster of the American Jobs Act. Levin and Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Richard Durbin of Illinois spoke to highlight the Republican decision to thwart the will of a majority of the Senate and prevent a bill designed to address the nation’s jobs crisis.

In Senator Levin's remark's take note of key terms in play in the delaying legislation techinque: policy; filibuster; bully pulpit.




In CBS News reporting of the the filibuster that was to happened, why is the key number to pass a bill in the 100-member, 112th Senate 60?

Blog you thoughts on the merits of the filibuster in the comments section.

Filibuster and Cloture


Using the filibuster to delay or block legislative action has a long history. The term filibuster -- from a Dutch word meaning "pirate" -- became popular in the 1850s, when it was applied to efforts to hold the Senate floor in order to prevent a vote on a bill.

In the early years of Congress, representatives as well as senators could filibuster. As the House of Representatives grew in numbers, however, revisions to the House rules limited debate. In the smaller Senate, unlimited debate continued on the grounds that any senator should have the right to speak as long as necessary on any issue.

In 1841, when the Democratic minority hoped to block a bank bill promoted by Kentucky Senator Henry Clay, he threatened to change Senate rules to allow the majority to close debate. Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton rebuked Clay for trying to stifle the Senate's right to unlimited debate.

Three quarters of a century later, in 1917, senators adopted a rule (Rule 22), at the urging President Woodrow Wilson, that allowed the Senate to end a debate with a two-thirds majority vote, a device known as "cloture." The new Senate rule was first put to the test in 1919, when the Senate invoked cloture to end a filibuster against the Treaty of Versailles. Even with the new cloture rule, filibusters remained an effective means to block legislation, since a two-thirds vote is difficult to obtain. Over the next five decades, the Senate occasionally tried to invoke cloture, but usually failed to gain the necessary two-thirds vote. Filibusters were particularly useful to Southern senators who sought to block civil rights legislation, including anti-lynching legislation, until cloture was invoked after a fifty-seven day filibuster against the Civil Right Act of 1964. In 1975, the Senate reduced the number of votes required for cloture from two-thirds to three-fifths, or sixty of the current one hundred senators.

Many Americans are familiar with the filibuster conducted by Jimmy Stewart, playing Senator Jefferson Smith in Frank Capra's film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, but there have been some famous filibusters in the real-life Senate as well. During the 1930s, Senator Huey P. Long effectively used the filibuster against bills that he thought favored the rich over the poor. The Louisiana senator frustrated his colleagues while entertaining spectators with his recitations of Shakespeare and his reading of recipes for "pot-likkers." Long once held the Senate floor for fifteen hours. The record for the longest individual speech goes to South Carolina's J. Strom Thurmond who filibustered for 24 hours and 18 minutes against the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

(From Polictical Warrior archives)

Your text defines filibuster as a procedural tactic in the U.S. Senate whereby a minority of legislators prevents a bill from to a vote by holding the floor and talking until the majority gives in and the bill is withdrawn from consideration.

Like Rodney Dangerfield, this Congress doesn't get much respect. Just Unlucky? Congress Job Approval at 13% Americans rate it slightly above sludge, but below President Obama and former president George W. Bush, the least admired president in the history of polling.

Who gets the blame for the so-called "Do Nothing Congress?"

Well, as the chart from Secretary of the Senate, a record number of cloture motions were filed in the 110th Congress, and the non-momentum didn't stop in the 111th. Majority Rule?

Did this week's inaction show just more of the same?

Majority rule has essentially been repealed by the F-word Congress. Without the super-majority of sixty votes to end the filibusters, the accomplishments of the 110th Congress were limited (GI-Bill, Children's Health Care and minimum wage as riders as notable exceptions to Progressives; continued stimulus packages to all Americans a victory in the conservative column). The 'Do Nothingness' was reinforced by over 131 veto threats by President Bush (who never issued a veto when Republican majority Congresses ran up record deficits on Capitol Hill).

So the question for the 112th Senate is should it move to remove the filibuster? Or is the procedure a needed part of the Cup and Saucer dance that is currently like a slow Washington waltz? A 51-vote majority to pass a law seemingly has been replaced by the super majority 60.

In our texts, of civics and history, we note how Strom Thurmond (he who served in the Senate till he was 100 years old) filibustered for 24 straight hours to block civil rights legistlation. It was rare, historic and self-hurting (Thurmond sat in the sauna the entire night before so he wouldn' t have to lose his podium to take a pee). And the procedure worked. Now the F-word has been so common, that the minority party can just make a resolution to block. They don’t have to read newspapers and phonebooks and sit in a sauna the night before to pull one off.

With 40 votes to block, minority Republicans have kept the Democrats at bay at the end of the 110th Congress. On the American Jobs Act that was just blocked from being debate or voted on, the majority Democrats needed all 53 of its members (counting Independent Joseph Lieberman)  plus 7 GOP members to debate the bill. No up or down vote on the Jobs Act, just more procedural theater. There has been no vote on immigration legislation, or Don't Ask, Don't Tell, for that matter, on any real important governing policy. Governing is Hard, Politics is Easy.  The 110th, 111th and so-far the 112th has mostly been a do-nothing Congress -- some may say filibustered to death.

When the Republicans were in the majority they devised a "nuclear option" to consider outlawing the procedure, when Democrats threatened to filibuster several of President Bush's judicial appointments. Now it seems to be their only winning play in the Senate.

Jimmy Stewart filibustered and become a populist hero in the classic film, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Those were the days...