Deadline for Make-up Posts

No blog post due this Saturday (5/2). Saturday is the deadline though for any make-up posts.

Extra Credit

April 27th will be extra credit night. To earn 25 points toward your final grade you must give a 5 minute presentation on one of the following readings listed below:

Militants Found Recruits Among Guantanamo's Wrongly Detained

America's Prison for Terrorists Often Held the Wrong Men

Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon's Hidden Hand

How TalkingPointsMemo Beat the Big Boys on the U.S. Attorney Story

The Climate Change Lobby Explosion

Web2.0 Debate: Keen v. Weinberger

A Hereditary Perk the Founding Fathers Failed to Anticipate

Net Neutrality's Quiet Crusader

Supreme Court Upholds Voter Identification Law in Indiana

Voter, Beware

Choose one of these readings and then tell the class about it. Be as thorough as possible and be prepared to answer questions. You may use any visual aids, handouts, etc. that you'd like. If you feel you must use a powerpoint slide show, do not include words on any of your slides. I'll discuss more details about the assignment in class next week.

These will be assigned on a first come first serve basis. Use the comments section of this post to claim one of the articles. You'll present in class in the same order. I'll add more articles if necessary.

Class Notes: Week of 4/13

Last night we briefly discussed interest groups and watched the first half of the documentary "Free Speech for Sale."

The text defines an interest group as "a private organization or voluntary association that seeks to influence public policy as a way to protect or advance some interest." In the documentary, how did the group (with the misleading name) "Farmers for Fairness" seek to influence public policy?

What are other examples of interest groups? What is a 527 group? What is issue advocacy?

Class Notes: Week of 3/30 (The Courts)

Article III of the U. S. Constitution creates the federal judicial branch.

The U. S. Supreme Court is the final arbiter of federal constitutional questions. The Court has the power to declare state and federal laws and actions null and void when they conflict with the Constitution. (See p. 425 of the text. This is known as judicial review--a power that the Court basically claimed for itself.)

There are 9 justices on the Supreme Court. Justices and federal court judges are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate. They serve life terms. The number of Supreme Court justices is determined by Congress.

The laws of each state establish the state courts. State court judges are selected in a variety of ways. A majority of states (including Kentucky) choose their judges in elections. Some states use merit selection systems to appoint judges.

The judicial branch is considered the least democratic of the three branches of government. Why?

Grading Update: Week of 3/23

Just got another big batch of blog post and comment scores uploaded to Blackboard. The posts and comments due the Saturday before and after spring break are freebies--everyone gets full credit for those. Back to the normal schedule this week--next posts and comments due this Saturday (3/28) before midnight.

Class Notes: Week of 3/23

Last night we reviewed the mid-term exam. On the final exam be sure to read carefully every question. I'll be offering some kind of extra credit in the next few weeks for those of you not happy with your mid-term exam score.
We discussed social movements. You should know the text book's definition of social movement: "A loosely organized collection of ordinary people; working outside established institutions; using unconventional and often disruptive methods; acting to get their voices heard by the public at large, the news media and leaders of major institutions, and government officials, in order to promote, resist, or undo some social change." The film "Freedom on My Mind" showed us footage of a social movement in action and provided real life examples of portions of the definition above (working outside established institutions...using disruptive methods...acting to get their voices heard by the public at large, the news media...) and also examples of civil disobedience. The book defines civil disobedience as "Intentionally breaking a law and accepting the consequences as a way to publicize the unjustness of the law."
We also watched the first part of a documentary on the women's suffrage movement entitled "One Woman, One Vote," and learned about Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Their efforts helped bring about ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920, guaranteeing women the right to vote.

Assigment: Week of 3/23

Please read again pages 422 - 434 (The Foundations of Judicial Power, The U.S. Court System: Organization and Jurisdiction, and Appointment to the Federal Bench). Take a look at the bios of the current Supreme Court Justices at the SCOTUS web page.

Mid-Term Exam

I just finished grading the mid-term. The results are up on the Blackboard gradebook. I'll return the exams when we meet after the break. We'll go over the questions and answers then. Some of these questions (or very similar ones) may show up again on the final exam.

Assignment: Week of 3/9

Please read Chapter 8 (Social Movements) and pages 422 - 434 (The Foundations of Judicial Power, The U.S. Court System: Organization and Jurisdiction, and Appointment to the Federal Bench) for next time (3/23).

No blog posts or comments due until Saturday, 3/28, at midnight.

Have a good spring break.

Class Notes and Assignment: Week of 3/2

Last night we watched the first part of a Bill Moyers Journal interview with Andrew Bacevich.
Please watch the second part for next time. After watching the entire interview you should be able to define the following terms:

• profligacy
• consumerism
• hubris
• empire of consumption
  

I've added the Journal to our list of article sources, so feel free to blog about this interview or any other government related interview you find at the site.
We also did some review for the mid-term exam. I'll be posting a copy of a final exam from last year's class to Blackboard for your review.

Assignment: Week of 2/23

Don't worry about watching the Bill Moyers Journal video--we'll watch it in class next week (I hope).

Read Chapter 12: The Presidency, for next time.

Class Notes: 2/16

The framers of the Constitution created a bicameral legislature in Article I. Members of the House of Representatives serve 2-year terms. There are 435 members in the House, of these 77 are women, 41 African-American.
The majority party in this, the 111th Congress (in both the House and Senate) is the Democratic Party. The Democrats regained this position in the 2006 elections after 12 years of Republican control.
A state's number of Representatives is determined by population. Redistricting is done after each census. Kentucky has 6 Congressional districts, and therefore 6 Representatives: Ed Whitfield, John Yarmuth, Hal Rogers, Brett Guthrie, Geoff Davis, Ben Chandler.
The leader of the House is known as the Speaker. The current Speaker is Nancy Pelosi, the first female Speaker. The current Majority Leader is Steny Hoyer; the Minority Leader, John Boehner.
The Senate is composed of 2 Senators from each state. Senators serve 6-year terms. Kentucky's Senators are Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning. Senators were originally chosen by the House but now are chosen in direct elections (see the 17th Amendment). Of the current 100 Senators, 17 are women. Five African-Americans have served in the Senate; there is currently one African-American Senator.
A 2002 study by the Public Interest Research Group revealed that 42% of the Senate and 23% of the House were millionaires, compared to 1% of the U.S. population.

More on Grading

I've posted your first post and comment grades in Blackboard. If you wrote a blog post or a comment for the week ending February 14th and did not receive a grade for it, let me know asap.
Include a link to your post and the name of the blog you commented on.

Remember, your second graded posts and comments are due by midnight this Saturday, 2/21.

Some Notes on Grading

Today (2/18) I will start grading your blog posts and comments that were due this past Saturday (2/14). Blog posts are worth up to 50 points each, comments 20 points each. Of your remaining blog posts and comments I'll pick your 10 highest scoring entries to determine your blog post and comment grade. I'll post your weekly post and comment score in Blackboard. I will only be leaving comments on five or so of your posts each week. If you have any questions about a post that I've not commented on, just call or email me and I will explain your grade.

I have read your quizzes and will return them with my comments next week. You won't receive a grade for this first quiz. However, a few of you that did particularly well will receive 10 bonus points for the class.

Reading Assignment: Week of 2/16

Please read the excerpt titled "Disappearance of Oversight" from Thomas Mann and Norm Ornstein's 2006 book "The Broken Branch: How Congress is Failing America and How to Get it Back on Track." (You will need to scroll down at the link above to read this section.)

Reading Assignment: Week of 2/9

Please read Chapter 11, Congress for next time.

You should be able to identify the following terms:

elastic clause
bicameral
redistricting (see the By the Numbers feature on pp. 330-331 for a good explanation)
filibuster
cloture
legislative oversight

Class Notes: 2/2

We watched the first half of the documentary "Freedom On My Mind." You should be able to identify the following and explain their significance:

Fannie Lou Hamer
Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee
Freedom Summer
Robert Moses
Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman

Reading Assignment: Week of 2/2

Please read Federalist No. 10 and Federalist No. 51 for next time. (Both essays are also found in the appendix of the textbook.)

Class Notes: 1/26

We discussed some watershed events in the evolution of the United States from a loose collection of colonies to a unified republic.
Make sure you can identify the significance of the following events in that evolution:

The French & Indian War (ends 1763)
Publication of Common Sense (January 1776)
Declaration of Independence (July 1776)
Articles of Confederation (ratified 1781)
Shays's Rebellion (1786)
Constitution (approved 1788)

Reading Assignment: Week of 1/26

For next time (2/2), read Chapter 2 of the text, the Constitution. Try to answer these questions as you read:

What were the Articles of Confederation?
What's a confederacy?
Who was Thomas Paine?
Who was Daniel Shays?
What was the Great Compromise? (What was created as a result of the G. C.?)
What is federalism?
What are checks and balances? (You should know a few examples--see the figure on page 49, 9th ed.)

What's Due, When

We've had several people join the course in the past week and I've received several questions about what, exactly, is due, and when. I'll try to clear everything up.

Blog Posts
Your first blog post is due by midnight, Saturday, January 31st. Your post should be a summary and critique of one government related article you find at one of the six web sites listed here under "Article Sources for Weekly Posts." You will write one blog post from a different web site each week. Starting on Saturday, February 7th, you'll also be required to make a short comment on a classmate's blog post from the previous week.

So, next week you'll have to write a blog post. The next week, and each week after, you'll have to write a blog post and a comment on a classmate's previous post.

What You Should Have Done By Now
By now you should have created your blog, posted the web address of your blog in a comment to my post "Creating Your Blog," practiced making posts (that include links), read the syllabus at Blackboard, read all the posts here, completed the reading/viewing/listening assignments posted here under First Reading Assignment-Week of 1/12.

Please feel free to post any questions or concerns you have here in the comments as opposed to sending an email. I'll be glad to answer your questions via email, but the whole class might benefit from seeing the answer here as your classmates may have similar questions.

Class Notes: 1/12

Note: You do not need the text American Government Annual Editions by Stinebrickner.

The Constitution:
We will study the Constitution in depth throughout the course. For now, just be familiar with its structure. The Constitution contains a Preamble (an introductory paragraph that lists reasons for establishing the C.) and seven sections called articles. Below are brief summaries of the articles:

1. the legislative branch
2. the executive branch
3. the judicial branch
4. directions to the states
5. how to amend the C. (the C. has been amended just 27 times)
   
6. ranking our laws
7. how the C. was to be ratified

Benchmarks of Representative Democracy:
Greenberg and Page list three benchmarks of a healthy representative democracy:

• Popular Sovereignty

1. government policies reflect the wishes of the people
   
2. government leaders are selected in competitive elections
3. elections are free and fair
4. people participate in the political process
5. high-quality information is available
6. the majority rules

• Political Equality (one person one vote, equal protection)
  

• Political Liberty (First Amendment rights)
  

First Reading Assignment-Week of 1/12

Hope you are all getting your blogs set up with no problems. Let me know if you need any help.

Here's what I'd like for you to read this week:

1. The Declaration of Independence (posted here under "Landmark Documents")
2. The Constitution (posted here under "Landmark Documents")
3. Pages 2-15 of the text

Also, please listen to the audio clip at NPR.org on former Attorney General Griffin Bell and view the video at Bill Moyers Journal concerning earmarks. Links to both can be found here under "Readings from the Web." Please be prepared to discuss the questions I've posted under both items.

Setting theTime and Writing Posts

The first thing you should do once your blog is created is set the time. Every post you create will contain a date and time stamp indicating when the post was published. To set the time click on the Settings tab near the top left of the page, then the Formatting tab. Scroll down to Time Zone, select "GMT-05:00 Eastern Time - Montreal" and save your settings at the bottom of the page.

Now you're ready to write a post. Don't worry about making your post perfect, you can always edit (or even remove) posts after they've been published. To write a post, click on the Posting tab (by the Settings and Layout tabs at top left). Then click Create.

At the top of the page you'll see a text box where you can title your post. Think of the title as a newspaper headline--it should tell the reader what the post is about. Below the title is the editing window where you'll write your post. It will look very similar to a text editing window in Blackboard. At the top of the window you'll see some editing tools, including the Link tool. For each post you write you must include a link to the news article you're writing about.

I want to give those of you who've never blogged some time to get familiar with everything, so the first blog posts you create for week 2 will not be graded. Use the first couple weeks of class to practice creating posts.

Creating Your Blog

I'd like for you to use Google's free blogging software, Blogger, to create your blog.

Directions for creating your blog can be found here.

There are three steps to the process:

1. Create a Google Account-To complete this step you'll need a valid email address. You'll also be selecting a Display Name, the name that you will use to sign your blog posts. Your display name should be your first name and last initial. For example, my display name is Clay H.
2. Name Your Blog-In this step you'll choose both the name of your blog and the URL, or web address, for your blog. You can name your blog whatever you'd like, so long as it makes sense. It will appear near the top of your blog. I've named my blog for the course "United States Government." You can make the URL whatever you like too--so long as no one else has already chosen that URL. The URL I chose for this blog is http://gov141spring09.blogspot.com/
3. Choose A Template-Templates determine the overall look of your blog. You can choose whichever template you'd like. You won't be graded on the appearance or layout of your blog. This blog uses the default template.
   

At this point your blog will be created. Click the "Start Blogging" arrow to go to your blog. The next post will explain how to write blog posts.

Welcome

Welcome to the course and welcome to the course blog. Blogging will play a big role in this class. You'll be reading this blog and I'll be reading all of your blogs. That's right, we'll all be blogging.

Your blog will be the place you post your weekly article responses. These weekly written responses will make up the majority of your grade for the course. Since there's no research paper assignment, I'll be expecting you to put a strong effort into your blogs posts.

My blog will be the place I'll post reading assignments and questions for you to comment on and be prepared to discuss in class. I've created a Blackboard course also, but I'll use it mainly to post scanned readings and to post your grades. Blogging will be our primary mode of communication outside the classroom.

In the next post I'll describe how to create your blog.