Pending Bills

1.   S. 1458: Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012: Bill to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2012 for intelligence and intelligence-related activities of the United States Government, the Community Management Account, and the Central Intelligence Agency Retirement and Disability System, and for other purposes.
      Status: This bill was considered in committee which has recommended it be considered by the Senate                           as a whole.

2.   H.R. 3359: Traveling Exotic Animal Protection Act: To amend the Animal Welfare Act to restrict the use of exotic and non-domesticated animals in traveling circuses and exhibitions.
        Status: This bill is in the first step in the legislative process.

3.   H.R. 2359: Safe Cosmetics Act of 2011: To amend title VI of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to ensure the safe use of cosmetics, and for other purposes.
        Status:  This bill is in the first step in the legislative process.


I have chosen to examine H.R. 2359: Safe Cosmetics Act of 2011 further. 


Details of the bill:

1. Designed to give the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authority to ensure that personal care products are free of harmful ingredients and that ingredients are fully disclosed.
2.  It will also help the cosmetics industry by fostering the development of the safer products American consumers are demanding.
3. Phase-out of ingredients linked to cancer, birth defects and developmental harm.
4. Elimination of labeling loopholes by requiring full ingredient disclosure on product labels and company websites, including salon products and the constituent ingredients of fragrance.
5. Required data-sharing to avoid duplicative testing and encourage the development of alternatives to animal testing.
6. Creation of a health-based safety standard that includes protections for children, the elderly, workers and other vulnerable populations.

Questions:

1. Will the bill require companies to test every product?
2. How will the bill impact small business? How about big business?
3. What does the bill say about animal testing?

Political Cartoon 11/29

1. Does the author think the congressional Super Committee?

2. Do you think this committee will be successful, or is it likely to become gridlocked?

3. What would the author predict for the future in regards to the Super Committee?

2008 Presidential Election Returns

Pennsylvania's 2008 Presidential Election Returns by District

1. Obama won 54.7% of the votes, while McCain won 44.3%.
2. The candidates split the white vote, but Obama was the overwhelming choice among blacks and Hispanics.
3. Obama's victory marked the fifth straight presidential election in which the Democrats carried Pennsylvania.
4. Democrats now outnumber Republicans by more than 1 million in PA.
5. McCain spent nearly three times as many days campaigning in Pennsylvania as Obama did. 

PA's Congressional Districts

PA's 19 Congressional Districts

1. Delaware County is split into two different congressional districts- District 1 and District 7.
2. Our district is represented by Pat Meehan, a Republican.
3. The 14th district is made up solely by Allegheny County.
4. 7 out of the 19 districts are represented by a Democrat in Congress.
5. 12 out of the 19 districts are represented by a Republican in Congress.
6. Most of the districts follow a boxy shape, which shows they were probably not gerrymandered.
7. Philadelphia is split into 5 different congressional districts.
8. All 19 districts have about the same number of people living in them.
9. District 5 has the most number of counties in it (17).
10. Some districts have more counties in them and are larger in area, but this is because the counties have fewer people.

Death Penalty Questions To Answer

 1. On average, how long are inmates held on death row before they are put to death?


 2.  Is it more expensive to imprison someone or punish them them with the death penalty?


 3. How many states have banned the death penalty, and how many states still have it?

How Washington Works

Facts and Comments:

1. Political parties have a social impact: most politicians fraternize mainly with colleagues from within their own party.
2. Very few politicians go home to retire or make money. Most stay in Washington and become lawyers, lobbyists, or consultants. 
3. The city and its suburbs are encircled by a 64-mile freeway loop known as the beltway. The political community of Washington talks as if that beltway formed a most separating the capital from the country.
4. Each city has variety, while Washington in spite of its growing world of art, theaters, opera, and symphony has only one passion: politics.
5. Very few politicians admit in print how much they really want public recognition.
6. Washington gives politicians a feeling of being at the center of things, therefore making them feel powerful.
7. Practically everyone in political Washington has come from somewhere else.
8. "Potomac fever" = the incurable addiction of wielding political power of feeling at the political center.
9. Washington is very open to newcomers.
10. Political Washington is a special community with a culture all its own, its own established rituals and folkways, its tokens of status and influence, its rules and conventions, its tribal rivalries and personal animosities. 

Questions:

1. Because Washington isn't represented in Congress, do the people feel disconnected from the rest of the country or left out of decisions?
2. Is Washington different than other cities or is it merely isolated?
3. How many people living in Washington do not work in politics at all?
4. Do politicians get along outside of work? Are they friends even if they are from different ends of the political spectrum? 
5. Do citizens of Washington feel excluded from the country?
6. Do families of politicians make sacrifices to live in Washington and to be a part of the limelight?
7. What about Washington causes narcissism? 
8. Does the author suggest that politicians join the government for the wrong reasons?
9. Do political titles bring power or do they just suggest an idea of power?
10. Do politicians come to Washington already with the narcissistic attitude, or does such a trait develop as one becomes an insider?

How Birth Control And Abortion Became Politicized

Facts/Details Learned

1. The first birth control clinic in the U.S. opened in 1916 and was operated by Margaret Sanger.
2. At this time, it was illegal for Sanger to give out information on contraceptive options, which angered poor, young women. 
3. Passing out such information was illegal under the 1873 Comstock Law, which prohibited the distribution of any printed information deemed obscene.
4. Nine days after opening her clinic, Sanger was arrested after an undercover cop came in and requested a pamphlet about STDs and contraceptives.
5. On appeal, the court ruled that is would be permissible for doctors only to talk to women about contraception, which allowed Sanger to open up clinics across the country.
6. In 1936, a federal appellate court removed contraception from the obscenity category.
7. The Griswold v. Connecticut ruling established that the Constitution protected a right to privacy, which meant that contraceptives were legal.
8. By the late 1960s, Richard Nixon was pushing Congress to increase federal funding for family planning. In 1970, he signed Title X into law.
9. 1973- Roe v. Wade made abortion legal.
10. Sanger's American Birth Control League was renamed the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

Questions

1. Is it right to make these types of issues so political? What would happen if there were no laws on birth control, abortion, and other similar moral issues?
2. Is interest in birth control a result of the growing population concerns or because it is a way to minimize abortions?
3. Are there federal regulations on the number of abortions someone can receive?
4. Are all forms of birth control legal now?
5. Why wasn't Sanger allowed to distribute information on contraceptives? Did this violate her right to free speech?
6. If abortion were illegal, isn't it likely that people would still find ways around it by looking into more dangerous an illegal methods?

House of Representatives: Committees

Andrew Roberts of New Jersey is a member of the following two committees in the House:

• Committee on Armed Service

1. Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities
2. Subcommittee on Strategic forces

• Committee on Education and the Workforce

1. Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training
2. Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions 

The other Congressman I follow is Bob Casey. Aside from the two above, I also decided to research the 

Ethics Committee.

1.  The Committee on Armed Service was created by the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946.
2. The committee chairman is Republican Buck McKeon from California.
3. This committee funds and oversees the Department of Defense.

1. The Committee on Education and the Workforce oversees education and workforce programs that affect all Americans, from early learning through secondary education, from job training through retirement.
2. This committee oversees the No Child Left Behind Act.
3. This committee also deals with pension and retirement for workers.

1. Unlike the rest of the committees, the Ethics Committee has an equal number of members from each party.
2. Agrees on a set of rules that regulate what behavior is considered ethical for members and conducts investigations when behavior violates these standards.
3. The first issue this committee ever handled was in 1798, when Rep. Lyon of Vermont was accused of gross indecency after he spat on Rep. Griswold of Connecticut.

Frontline: Lost In Detention

Facts/Details Learned

1. Numbers of illegal immigrants are higher under Obama than Bush.
2. There is little to no support for immigration reform on the Republican side.
3. 195 thousand immigrants were removed last year.
4. ICE checks fingerprints and assesses if a person is a citizen.
5. Less than 20% of illegal immigrants have been convicted of serious crimes.
6. 400,000 = target deport numbers per year.
7. The Secure Communities program was set up to target and deport dangerous criminal immigrants.
8. Secure Communities was set up with the intention of reducing racial profiling.
9. State and local jurisdictions cannot opt out of this program.
10. ICE = U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement

Questions

1. Are illegal immigrants ever caught and allowed to stay?
2. Are immigrants not being held for crimes still placed in prison-like facilities?
3. Are legal immigrants detained if they commit a crime?
4. What are the negatives and positives of Secure Communities?
5. What happens if the deport target number are not reached?

West Wing Episode: Filibuster

Facts/Details Learned

1. Voting can begin as soon as filibuster is over.
2. During a filibuster, the person cannot stop eat, sleep, sit down, or stop talking. 
3. If multiple people are involved in the filibuster, they can take turns talking.
4. The person can only yield for a question.
5. They do not have to even talk about the bill- they just must continue talking.
6. A bill must have 60 votes to pass in the Senate.
7. Cloture means the ending of a debate.
8. Filibusters give more power to individual Senators.
9. This is a method of holding up legislation.
10. Many Senators want new laws to minimize the effects of filibusters because they are becoming more common.

Questions

1. How often do filibusters occur in Congress?
2. Are filibusters usually successful?
3. Does the House experience something like this, too?
4. Where did this term come from?
5. When was the first known filibuster in the US Senate?

Illegal Immigrant Questions

1. Why do some immigrants opt to come to the US illegally rather than legally?

• There are only a certain number of immigrants allowed to enter the country per year. The one who do not make the cut usually do no just give up; they choose to enter the country illegally. Some come illegally because it takes too long to file for citizenship, and their situation calls for immediate action. Others like illegal immigration because it means they do not have to pay taxes.

2. Would our country likely face immediate financial problems if all the illegal immigrants left due to the empty jobs? Or, would the situation improve?

• At first, our economy would probably collapse a little because there would be huge gaps in industries such as farming and factories where the illegal immigrants mostly worked. Americans will not want to fill in these positions because they are not used to this type of back-breaking labor, because they would be underpaid, and, sometimes, because the are overqualified. Eventually, the economic situation would likely improve.

3. Do young illegal immigrants attend school?

• Children of illegal immigrants are allowed to attend public school because public schools do not ask citizenship questions upon enrollment; they only ask residential questions to prove that the student lives in their district. As long as the student lives in the district, the school is required to teach them. However, if the child of an illegal immigrant chose to never attend an American school, it would fly under the radar because nobody knows the child exists in the country. 

Electoral College Votes

Facts/Details Learned

1. Currently, we have a "winner takes all system," but this is being petitioned to be changed.
2. One electoral college vote would be awarded for each of the state's congressional districts, and the winner of the popular vote would receive two more.
3. With the 2012 election expected to be close, this system would likely benefit the Republicans more than the Democrats. 
4. Our representative, Pat Meehan, has opposed the change. 
5.  It only takes six defections in the Senate, or 11 in the House, to stop the bill.
6. Democrats have won PA in the last 5 presidential elections, but the state has always been very competitive.
7. This new voting system could potentially reduce overall voting turnout. 
8. This bill has also been introduced in Wisconsin. 
9. This bill could mean that one candidate could win the state but actually receive fewer electoral college votes than the other candidate. 
10. A secretive nonprofit group called All Votes Matter has been pushing the electoral vote scheme since May. All Votes Matter has close ties to the Pennsylvania GOP

Questions

1. Was the bill proposed by Democrats, Republicans, or a mix of both?
2. Has this system of voting been successful in the other states that use it?
3. Would this new system reduce our power in elections?
4. What are the negatives and positives of this bill?
5. Could this piecemeal electoral college voting system have a huge impact on the outcome of the presidential election?

This bill was proposed by Sen. Pileggi

John Boehner

Facts/Details Learned

1. He failed to cut a multitrillion-dollar deficit-reduction deal with President Obama.
   
2. He had to pull his debt-limit bill from the floor at the eleventh hour before reviving it with concessions to conservatives.
   
3. Boehner and the Republicans have used the leverage of controlling the single chamber of Congress to cut one trillion dollars from the budget for the next decade.
4. Member of the Republican party
5. He has been leader of the House since 2006.
6. There seems to be frustration with him because he does not accomplish much.
7. He has a reputation of always voting "no."
8. Represents Ohio's 8th Congressional District.

Questions

1. Does Boehner have any plans to work with the President and the Senate, rather than against them?
2. Boehner often calls for the creation of more jobs, but does little to make this happen. How does he suggest we create more jobs?
3. Who elects the Speaker of the House?
4. Is he well-liked in the House?
5. Has he impacted the Congress in a major way?

Is the House of Representatives Too Small?

Facts

1. Research shows that as districts get bigger in population, constituents are less likely to report that they had contact with their member of Congress, less likely to think their member would be helpful, and less likely to favorably evaluate their member of Congress.
2. Our House has less members than both the British House of Commons and the Germans Bundestag, and Germany has 80 million people and Britain has 60 million people. 
3. Only about 20% of people support increasing the size of the House, whereas 60% are in favor of keeping it the same and 20% favor decreasing the size.
4. When asked whether they would support increasing the House to improve representation of minorities and women, support goes up to 48%.
5. Most support for a larger  House comes from Democrats, women, and African Americans.

Questions

1. How do Representatives go about trying to keep in touch with all the people (nearly 640,000 citizens each) that they represent?
2. In what ways would having smaller districts and more Representatives benefit the people?
3. Could a larger House slow down progress?
4. What is the argument for not wanting a larger House? Is one reason the possible tax increase that would result from this change?
5. Do minorities feel as if they are represented in our current House?

Personally, I do not think all of our diverse population is fairly represented in government. In larger districts, the minorities do not have a representative to reflect their needs, which tend to be overlooked in our current House. I think we should increase the size of the House to better include all people, but not so drastically that our taxes totally shoot up. 150-200 additional members of House would do our country well due to the ever-growing population that deserves to be fairly represented in government.

Representatives' Personal Finances

Robert Andrews
Andrews has a net worth of between $66,005-$206,000, ranking him 346th in the House. He has a total of 5 assets that total between $81,005-$216,000. He has had one liability of between $10,000-$15,000.


Bob Casey
Casey's net worth is from $160,020-$578,000, ranking him 84th in the Senate. He has a total of 14 assets of between $160,020-$578,000. He has had three transactions totaling $45,003 and $150,000.

One reason why knowing members of Congress' personal  finances is important is because we are able to get a better idea of where many of their opinions are coming from. For example, it might be harder for someone who is very wealthy to accurately represent many common Americans. With millionaires forming nearly 50% of our Congress, this is often the case. It's not that these millionaires are bad Senators or Representatives, but how can we expect them to totally understand the perspective of something they have never truly experienced?

Due Process

Facts and Details:

1. Eyewitnesses can sometimes be unreliable.
2. only 25% of cases have biological evidence.
3. Kevin Rojas, a high school senior, was wrongly accused of murder because the claims of witnesses were untrue.
4. After four years in prison, a mother-daughter team fought for his case and won. 
5. DNA plays an important role in trials, but they are developing ways to prove people innocent without it.
6. Quincy Spruell served 24 years in prison for a murder he did not commit.
7. Texas has more executions than any other state. 
8. A group called Last Resort deals with the innocence of prisoners. They usually do not have DNA to work with.
9. A person sentenced to death can potentially wait 25 years before being executed.
10. There are 55 innocence projects in the United States.

Questions:

1. How much are the claims of eyewitnesses considered in a trial? 
2. What is more crucial to a trial: eyewitnesses or DNA?
3. After an innocent person is released from prison, is the case forgotten or do the search for the rea criminal?
4. How could we prevent the sentencing of innocent people? How could be change or system?
5. How many people a year are found innocent after being kept in prison?

Justice John Paul Stevens' 10 Most Important Supreme Court Decisions: Atkins vs. Virginia

ATKINS VS. VIRGINIA

Facts of the case:

1. Supreme Court ruled that executing mentally retarded people is unconstitutional. 
2. In a 6-3 majority, they used the 8th amendment to back up their votes.
3. The court used cases such as Coker vs. Georgia and Enmund vs. Florida as precedents.
4. Georgia was the first state to outlaw the execution of mentally retarded people.
5. Atkins had an IQ of 59, therefore reinforcing the idea that he was mentally retarded and could not be held accountable for his violent crimes. 
6. The case had only one witness- a forensic psychologist.

Questions:

1. How much do witnesses matter in Supreme Court cases? Are their testimonies taken into a lot of consideration?
2. Are there other types of citizens who are exempt from the death penalty besides those with mental retardations?
3. Did the public react positively or negatively to the ruling?
4. Is it a federal law that mentally disabled people cannot be executed? 

Supreme Court Justices

1. John G. Roberts, Jr. is the Chief Justice. He served as a law clerk to the Rehnquist court and practiced law in Washington.
2. Antonin Scalia is an associate justice. He was appointed Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1982. He was nominated to the Supreme Court by Reagan.
3. Anthony M. Kennedy is an associate justice. He was a member of the California Army Nation Guard and took part in two committees of the Judicial Conference in the U.S.
4. Clarence Thomas is an associate justice. He became a Judge to the U.S. Court of Appeals in 1990, then Bush appointed him as an associate justice to the Court.
5. Ruth Bader Ginsburg is an associate justice. She played a major role is launching the Women's Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union. Clinton appointed her to the Supreme Court.
6. Stephen G. Breyer is an associate justice. He served as a member of the Judicial Conference of the U.S. and of the U.S. Sentencing Commission. He was appointed tot he Court by Clinton.
7. Samuel Anthony Alito, Jr. is an associate justice. He was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in 1990. George W. Bush nominated him to the Supreme Court and he took his seat in 2006. 
8. Sonia Sotomayor is an associate justice. Before being nominated to the Court in 2009 by Obama, he served as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. 
9. Elena Kagen is an associate justice. Obama nominated her to serve at the 45th Solicitor General of the U.S. Later, he also nominated her to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court.
10. A few recently-retired associate justices are Sandra Da O'Connor, David Souter, and John Paul Stevens.