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.)