How Washington Works

Facts:

1. Many government officials eventually settle in Washington, because of the time they spend there.
2. Some government officials even catch "Potomac Fever", which is the addiction to the political power that they hold, and when they leave office, most, become lawyers or lobbyist and stay in Washington.
3. Though many of the congressmen debate and quarrel in actual Congress, many of them, whether conservative or liberal, are good friends outside of the Capitol building.
4. Many politicians go to/ strive for Washington because they are motivated by a sense of public service. Of course one must also consider that all of this is written by/ endorsed by politicians.
5. The officials in Washington live, eat, and sleep politics. It is apparent throughout their everyday life.
6. Newt Gingrich sees politics as a game that is as fun as can be.
7. Politicians naturally bind together as an act of self defense, so they are not crushed for their individuality.
8. No individual politician can work as a lone wolf, because they need the support of others to make their ideas, bills, etc. heard.
9. Washington itself is viewed as a whole different "world". It seems like a foreign place to many, even those who have familiarized themselves with it.
10. Washington is very open and welcoming to incoming politicians, because Washington is made up mainly of people who come from different places.

Questions:

1. What would Washington be like to a normal citizen, is it viewed differently by politicians?
2. What political ties does the author have?
3. Would it be fair to say that the author can speak for all politicians, most, or not many?
4. Can this book be view as a illegitimate view/ source on politics because of the age of the book and the time period that it was published in?
5. Is the whole book a bunch of quotes? or is it just this chapter?
6. How was this book taken by the public?
7. Has relationships between congressmen of different parties lessened due to the divide, that is growing larger, between the Democratic party and the Republican party?
8. Are the views of Washington different from current politicians to former politicians?
9. Have any politicians endorsed this book?
10. Has this author written any other books on the subject of Washington?

How Birth Control And Abortion Became Politicized

Facts:

1. The first birth control clinic opened in 1916 by Margret Sanger.
2. At a young age she defined herself as a socialist.
3. The first usage of birth control might have been in the 1850s which started when rubber was first vulcanized.
4. Sanger is arrested for opening up her birth control clinic even though she was only giving out information about the subject.
5. Many women in the 1910s, who used clinics, had illegal abortions. There was even a estimate of as many as 1 out of 3 pregnancies ended in abortion.
6. Sanger was apposed to abortion and that's why she opened up her birth control clinic, because she wanted to show women a different route. Instead of preventing the birth, she wanted to prevent the conception or dangerous births.
7. Sanger, in an appeal, had a court rule that it is possible for a doctor to talk to a woman about abortion and birth control.
8. Margret Sanger founds the American Birth Control League in 1921.
9. Comstock act made it illegal to talk, write or publish anything haveing to do with abortion or birth control.
10. Sanger was a eugenics, meaning she believed her "race", white people, were better that other "races"
11. A survey in the 1970 was taken and it found that there were many members of the Republican party within the American Birth Control League, it was found odd because Republican ideology tends to lean to be more conservative.
12. The birth control movement started as a liberal reform, but then went to a more conservative one, when it got involved with eugenics.

Questions:

1. Was eugenics against women's rights, or the women's rights movement?
2. Were there any other key women figures in the birth control movement?
3. When is the earliest know use of birth control/ abortion?
4. If we looked at Sanger today how would we classify here, what party, ideology,etc would she belong to?
5. Did Sanger's views change as she got older? or were her views solid throughout her life?

Committees!

I checked the committees for both of my representatives, this is what I got:
Pete Stark:

• Committee on Ways and Means

Bob Casey:

• Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry
• Committee on Foreign Relations
• Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
• Special Committee on Aging
• Joint Economic Committee

Here are some Facts that I've learned about the Committee on Ways and Means, the Committee on Foreign Relations, and the Joint Economic Committee:

1. The chairman of the Committee of Foreign Relations is John Kerry.
2. The C.F.R.'s latest action was involving a nuclear-weapons-free-zones treaty.
3. The C.F.R. was founded in 1819 and had such accomplishments as the purchase of the state of Alaska.
4. The Committee on Ways and Means is the oldest in the US.
5. The Committee on Ways and Means is the main tax writing committee in the House of Representatives.
6. The Committee on Ways and Means has six subcommittees, Pete Stark is on three of these, and he is a ranking member on two of them.
7. Bob Casey is the Chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, which Senator Pat Toomey is also a member on.
8. The J.E.C. was established in 1946 by the Employment Act of 1946.
9. The J.E.C.'s last hearing was held yesterday, Nov. 16, and the topic was job creation and its involvement with the infrastructure of America.
10. From what I have researched not many of these committees see much action each month, but they all seem to be significant.

               

Frontline: Lost In Detention

Facts:

1. The thinks that allowing the importation illegals immigrants, into America, hurts the public.
2. Obama pushed for the deportation of illegal immigrants so he could gain the favor and support of the Republican party, and possible convince them to vote for reform on illegal immigration.
3. The new anti-illegal immigration system, which was supposed to deport serious criminals, started to deport immigrants right away, even if they were not involved in serious criminal activity.
4. ICE has a quota of 400,000 illegal immigrants to deport each year they try to, "You pick up whatever you can," meaning that ICE goes for whatever they find not only serious criminals.
5. Roxana was force to leave behind five of her children when she was pulled over without a driver's licence and she was found out to be an illegal immigrant from Mexico.
6. The conditions within the detention centers were not good.
7. So far more than 1million illegal immigrants have been deported under Obama's new policies.
8. There were many claims of abuse within the detention centers for illegal immigrants, much of the abuse reported was related to racism. There were also around 170 cases of sexual abuse reported.
9. Detention centers for illegal immigrants has become the fastest growing incarceration system in the country with over 250 centers already running.
10. This video was biased and did not show the actual criminals, but described stories of mistakes or wrongs within the system.

Questions:

1. How many illegal immigrants that have been deported have been from mexico?
2. How should we feel about Canadian illegal immigration and Canada's "brain drain"?
3. Has Obama gotten a positive response from the Republican party because of his changes to the system, has there been any compromise on immigration reform?
4. What kind of organization is ICE, are they a police like group, or can are they closer to an FBI type organization?
5. How does ICE deal with children left behind by their illegal parents?

Issue of the Week: Illegal Immigration

For the issue of this past week, we had Illegal Immigration. I chose three questions that really got me thinking: when did the problem of illegal immigration first become a big issue, how will inflation affect products produced by illegal immigrants, if those immigrants are deported, and what are the advantages and disadvantages economically that we face when hiring illegal immigrants?

When did the problem of illegal immigration first become a big issue?
Immigration to North America has been present from the time it was found and settled on. Immigration was current throughout America's history, but in the 20th century it started to boom. From the 17th to 18th century it is suspected that as little as 400,000 people immigrated to the United states. Then from 1836 to 1914  30 million immigrants crossed over from Europe. From the information I found immigration has been around for, well forever, but only in the past half century have we really made it a problem.


How will inflation affect products, produced by illegal immigrants, if those immigrants are deported?
Apparently yes, from what I've seen, it seems to be thought all around, that if the illegals were deported, assuming the company hires American citizens, then the prices of the products will rise. Just like we saw in the video on the new bill in Alabama, there were no workers, and those that were working on the farms did not wan to work at the same prices that an illegal immigrant would accept. It seem that if the farmers were to hire American workers they would have to raise the workers pay, causing a raise in the cost of the vegetable, or what ever product is being made/ produced.

What are the advantages and disadvantages, economically, that we face when hiring illegal immigrants?
There are both advantages and disadvantages to having and hiring illegal immigrants. For the most part illegal workers are paid less because they do not have the same rights as an American citizen. The products produced by the illegal are significantly less then those produced by a legal American citizen. This can be seen as both an advantage and a disadvantage. While it is good that the product can be a lower prices, sometimes even at the risk of the illegal workers health (which most Americans could care less about), it can also be seen as a bad thing because it takes the job from the citizen and lowers the wages, so that citizen cannot compete with the company hiring the illegal worker. So can we say that it is an advantage to hire illegal workers, while we enjoy the fruits of there hard under paid labor, or do we say that it is a disadvantage and tell them to leave the "land of opportunity"?

source:
(this isn't all of them i couldn't find some of them)
http://reason.com/archives/2011/07/12/immigrants-dont-need-a-friend
http://geekpolitics.com/illegal-immigrants-problems-and-solutions/
http://money.msn.com/investing/would-a-us-default-mean-disaster-jubak.aspx
http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2010/05/immigration.php

The Electoral College: Does Our Vote Count?

Tom Corbett

Facts:

1. In early September Senators Tom Corbett and Dominic Pileggi proposed the idea of getting rid of the winner-takes-all policy that Pennsylvania takes with their electoral college votes.
2. The new plan would be to award one Electoral vote per Congressional district, the winner of each district gains the vote.
3. According to Pennsylvania's vote in the last election Obama would have beaten John McCain by a small margin (you know what they say, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, with Alabama in between).
4. Both parties are, for the most part, opposed to this idea.
5. The Republican side thought it would be good, at first, because they realized that Obama could have gotten on 11 votes from Pennsylvania, instead of 21. But they then realized that it could backfire because there is a possibility that Obama could turn many of the districts blue.
6. Under this new system the state-wide campaign fund, of Obama, would be used in each district instead of using it on the state as a whole. This would increase voter turnout. Also the Republican party realized that if Democratic voter turnout is increased then there is an much higher chance that they will lose, because of the 201 million registered voters in the US, 72 million are Democrat while 55 million are Republican. (this is an est. made in 2004 so the number must be higher, here a link http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/columnist/neuharth/2004-01-22-neuharth_x.htm ).
7. GOP Rep. from New York is fighting the liberal push of a direct popular vote for the President, getting rid of the Electoral College entirely (yeah!).
8. The Democrats are against this even though it could possible create a greater turn out of Democratic voters.
9. This was called "vote manipulation," which is funny because this would be a clearer way for peoples votes too actually count, while both sides say that its bad and that it changes your vote, while the actual electoral college has the control of "your" vote.
10. Dem. Dalyn Leach says that this is rigging the election and it is not good. (I completely disagree)

Questions:

1. Do both sides see this as bad because it would give more power to the people?
2. If there was a poll, public opinion, how well would this idea be perceived?
3. Has President Obama said anything on this?
4. How were the processes in Maine and Nebraska changed?
5. Would this be seen as a liberal concept or a conservative concept, also would it be seen differently by both sides?

John Boehner

Facts and Details:

1. He considers his "biggest regret" the passing of the multitrillion-dollar deficit reduction deal with President Obama.
2. He feels that in his past year, in office, that the most important thing that has happens was the transition from talk of spending, to talk of cutting spending.
3. Boehner is no longer in threat of being overtaken by those who can be considered his rivals, like Eric Cantor and Kevin McCarthy.
4. Hard-line Conservatives believe they help him out when they tell him "no."
5. He seems to be unchanged by the pressures he faces as the Speaker of the House.
6. Many Conservatives want Boehner to compromise less with the President.
7. He believes that in 2012 the House will be mainly stay the same and still be in the sane place by the next election.
8. Many Republicans think that as his term goes on, his job will get harder.

Questions:

1. Will someone be running against John Boehner, in his district?
2. Is there a term limit for the Speaker of the House?
3. Can John Boehner be viewed as having the same ideology as Obama, when looking at how they try to get things done?
4. Would the GOP rather have someone who tries to compromise with both parties, or someone who sticks with their party's ideology?
5. Will John Boehner go back to being a Rep. after he is no longer Speaker of the House?



John Boehner