PA Congressional Districs

1. Bill Shuster won a 70% republican vote 
2.Delaware county has two districts, 1 and 7
3. Most boundaries has no jagged lines. Accords the gerrymandering law.
4. all districts have almost same population. 
5. 7th district has north and wets philadelphia
6.The 7th Congressional District is 98.56% urban and 1.44% rural.
7.PA's 8th Congressional District is represented by Republican Mike Fitzpatrick, since this year
8. Ever since the 6th congressional district was redrawn in 2002, the district has gotten much more competitive.
9.District 5 has the most number of counties in it
10Before the 200 census there was 21 districts in PA

2008 Election District Returns

1. PA's votes were in favor of Obama by 54%
2.Bob Bar won about 20,000 votes.
3. Joe Biden was a senator from Delaware.
4.Most blacks and Hispanics voted for Obama.
5. McCain spent 3 times as many days as Obama did in PA

Political Cartoon

1. What are political analysts' thoughts and predictions on Obama's next move?
2. How did the citizens react to Newt Gingrich news?
3. Is the pizza bill rational?

Death Penalty Questions

1.How many countries have abolished it? 
According to Amnesty International, 139 countries have abolished the death penalty. In 2010, only one country, Gabon, abolished the death penalty for all crimes. During 2010, 23 countries executed 527 prisoners and at least 2,024 people were sentenced to death in 67 countries. More than 17,833 people are currently under sentence of death around the world. 

 The Death Penalty Worldwide — Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0777460.html#ixzz1fcoMG8RY


2.How many people on death row have been found innocent?


Since 1973, 139 people in 26 states have been released from death row with evidence of their innocence. 
There is no definitive answer to the question of how many innocent people have been executed in the U.S.; 


however, Northwestern University School of Law's Centre on Wrongful Convictions (CWC) documented 38 


executions carried out since the mid-1970s where there was compelling evidence of innocence or serious 


doubt about guilt. Another 130 death row inmates were exonerated, instead of executed, between 1973 and 


2008 due to emerging evidence, including DNA analysis. A smaller number of people have been exonerated 


posthumously. My personal opinion is that judges and investigators sentence death penalties when the 


evidences and investigations are definitive in proving the criminal guilty. My point is that the when judges sentence death penalties, the criminal is definitely guilty and there is a slim chance of innocence or error. 


Read more: 


http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_innocent_people_have_died_from_the_death_penalty#ixzz1fcpN2zHl
3.What alternatives do we have or could we have to the death penalty? 


Instead of death penalties, we can have a laboring system. It is where death row inmates can choose to work for the rest of their lives with proper care and be treated normally. This will reduce all the citizen's tax money spending on expenses of keeping the inmate alive for rest of his or her life.While the inmate is in jail, I believe he should be put to some kind of work for the better of society - with all his earnings going to the family of the victim. This alternative would help most if the victim was the sole provider of income for that family. Just killing the accused would not bring peace or better anybody, it would just bring more pain and vengeance. However, if the accused is put to work, then the family of the victim will at least receive a little money to help them get through their hard times, and move on with life. I do believe in second chance and I simply do not see a huge difference between prison for life and death penalty. 

How Washington Works

Facts: 
1. It is difficult to get a bill passed
2. Congress works from Monday afternoon to Friday morning
3.Politics are usually one subject "passions" in Washington.
4.The political community lurches from one passion to the next
5.personal relationships often cut across party and ideological lines
6.Most politicians are vain and want to be noticed.
7.Newly elected officials have very little power when they arrive
8The city and its suburbs are encircled by a sixty-four-mile freeway loop known as the beltway.
9. in 1988, Newt Gingrich enjoyed the spotlight.
10.Washington is not isolated


Q's  : 
1. Is there any type of initiation for new comers?
2. Without the barriers of distinct political parties, how are the relationships between the politicians?
3. How much of politicians personal life is exposed?
4. Do politician parents raise their children to become involved in politics?
5. Why did the politicians chose their career?
6. What is a politician's strongest desire?
7. What is a politicians worst fear?
8. What kind of occupations would politicians work in if they were laid off?
9. Are most politicians lawyers?
10. What are the percentages of non-lawyer politicians?

Lost in Detention

Facts.
1.The boarder strength is dramatically improved from before.
2. Since Obama took office, immigration control is more strict
4. Some people are deported by minor crimes
5.ICE has offices in all 50 states and 47 other countries.
6.Over 1 million illegal immigrants have been deported since Obama took office.
7.Three million immigrants have been detained in detentions
8.ICE is the United States Immigration and Custom's Enforcement Agency
9.  There are around 250 detention centers.
10, ICE's goal is to get 400,000 illegal immigrants every year.


Q's.
1. Is there any circumstance where an illegal immigrant is allowed to stay?
2. How can ICE find illegal immigrants?
3. What percent of illegal immigrants are criminals? 
4. How does illegal immigrants affect crime rates in a city?
5. Do cities with more populations of illegal immigrants have higher crime rates?

Terry Gross Interview

Facts: 
1. By the 1930s, a Gallup poll showed that 75 percent of Americans favored contraception. 
2. The first clinic for birth control was established in 1916.
3.People strongly accused Sanger of being a eugenicist. 
4. The actual term "birth control" was from Sanger. 
5. Margaret Sanger was one of 11 children. 
6.During her time, it was illegal to distribute information, mail, or write about contraception.
7. Issue of abortion has been a controversial debate over the years. and now days, the debates are argued in many different ways.
8. Mississippi rejected an initiative that would have granted rights of personhood to an fertilized egg.
9. Sanger's American Birth Control League was renamed the Planned Parenthood Federation of America
10. 41% of women who received care never used contraceptives


Q's.
1. How were the qualities of child birth in that time?
2. Should abortion be illegal? since it is a murder?
3. How does birth control affect birth rates?
4. How  much is an abortion procedure?
5. How does abortion affect the mother's life in a long run?

Committees

Pat Meehan


Budget Committee
-Creates economic policy
-Drafts the annual budget for the federal government
-Sets parameters for congressional spending

Finance Committee

-Has jurisdiction over all taxes and revenue

-Has jurisdiction over many health care programs

-Has jurisdiction over international trade policy and customs

Bob Casey
Member, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
-acquisition of land and buildings for embassies and legations in foreign countries.
-international activities of the American National Red Cross and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
-international law as it relates to foreign policy.

StackHouse Filibuster

Facts : 

1. 1.The person who is filibustering keeps the floor as long as he talks,
2. 2."Filibuster"  means "freebooter".
3. 3.No leaning or sitting during a filibuster.
4. 4.The senator speaking in the filibuster may pause if someone asks a question.
5. 5.. Can talk about any topic during a filibuster
6. 6.After a filibuster ends there is a cloture vote.
7. 7. Stackhouse delayed a vote with a filibuster.
8. 8.No eating or drinking during a filibuster.

Questions :


1. Should the law of filibuster be amended?
2. What is the general view of filibustering of the citizens?
3. What was the longest filibuster?
4. Are the Senate members required to stay until the filibuster ends?
5. Does the vice president attend and stay at a filibuster?

Immigration Questions

1.What happens if illegal immigrants have children that were born in the US? Are they (the children) also considered illegal immigrants? 
- 300,000 children of illegal immigrants born in the United States every year, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. They're given instant citizenship because they are born on U.S. soil, which makes it easier for their parents to become U.S. citizens. I believe that it is not fair or just to give them citizenship automatically because this method will cause excessive increase in number of future illegal immigrants. Say for example, illegal immigrant married couple, the Gonzalez family,gives birth to Pedro in Texas. Pedro gains citizenship by law even though his parents are illegal. Years past, Pedro is able to give his families in Mexico an invitation visa to U.S. This would eventually cause epidemic problems. 
2. Would there be cases in which illegal immigrants are allowed to stay in the United States? 
-No, there should not be any case which an illegal immigration is legal in any circumstances. It would be unconstitutional and it would be ruled against in the Supreme Court. Also for example, if one case of illegal immigration is allowed, it would set a precedent for future immigrants cases and it would lead to a weaker enforcement of illegal immigrations. 3. What is life like for the child of an illegal immigrant?
I personally know couple families and friends who are illegal residents by law, and one can say that their lives are not very much different except in the events of schoarships, loans, insurance, medicare, licenses. In fact, it is very harsh and difficult to live because they do not have any aid or benefits of a citizen like insurances and medical cares. 

Electoral College

Facts.
1.52% to 40%, voters prefer the present winner-take-all Electoral College system rather than the winner-by-congressional district proposal)
2.Last week Governor Tom Corbett and Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi raised Pennsylvania's profile in the 2012 presidential race.
3. President Obama took all 21 electoral votes from John McCain.
4. Charlie Dent (R-15), Jim Gerlach (R-6), Mike Fitzpatrick (R-8) and Pat Meehan (R-7)--have all opposed the new plan which is, the Republican nominee could lose the popular vote but still win a majority of the electoral votes.
5.The concept of awarding electoral votes by congressional district was introduced and followed by since the 1950s, when a republican senator and GOP Rep. wanted to fight the liberal push for direct popular election of President.
6.A secretive, nonprofit group called All Votes Matter has been pushing the electoral vote scheme since May in PA.
7.Between April and June, this group spent $77,700 to get support from legislation to actually implement this scheme.
8. Even though Democrats have won Pennsylvania in the last five presidential elections, the state remains competitive
9.  Nebraska's Republicans are looking to switching back to the old system of winner takes all.  
10.State legislators who are on the ballot with these congressmen in 2012 may be at risk.  


Questions :
1. Should the whole nation use this method?
2.is electoral college constitutional?
3.How to elections affect economy ?
4. Does Obama have any Republican support?
5. How did it work in some states?

3 Immigration Questions

1.What happens if illegal immigrants have children that were born in the US? Are they (the children) also considered illegal immigrants? 
2. Would there be cases in which illegal immigrants are allowed to stay in the United States? 
3. What is life like for the child of an illegal immigrant?

John Boehner

Facts: 
1.He has passed free-trade agreements.
2.Boehner thinks its important to spend less money.
3.Boehner said there were  no surprises during his first year has Speaker.
4.Not many people back Boehner's leadership
5.He had to pull his debt-limit bill from the floor at the eleventh hour before reviving it with concessions to conservatives
6. He lost a leadership position in 1998 but has come back to be Speaker.
7.Republicans have gotten $1 trillion cut from the deficit over the next ten years.
8.Boehner doesn't have the backing to get a deal done


Questons :
1. What was the whole deal about him crying?
2. How long can he last in his position since he is not in favor currently?
3.What is his approval rating?
4. What are some views of Democrats on Boehner?
5. What do Republicans think of Boehner?

Representatives' Personal Finance

-Pat Meehan has 16 assets totaling $72,016 to $380,000.  He ranks 316th in the House. For his income he has 3 totaling $260,000.
Our PA Senator, Pat Toomey is not in the wealthiest side of the Senate. His net worth is 1,770,062 to 4 millon, it is high however compared to other members in the Senate he is ranked at 46th. He has total of 44 assets and liabilities of 100k. 
Finally his income equals to 186807 dollars. it is similar income to most upper class americans. 
I strongly and most definitely believe that the financial status of the government severely matters to our nation. About 1 percent of all Americans are millionaires. In Congress, that number regularly hovers between 40 percent and 50 percent, meaning elected leaders generally need not worry about the economic pressures many Americans face – from securing gainful employment to grappling with keeping a family financially afloat. Decide for yourself if these congressional millionaires are adequately representing your financial interests. If the leaders and law makers can not even sympathize with the people, he or she is not qualified as a representative or a leader. 

Is the U.S House to small?

Facts : 
1.The House has consisted of 435 members since 1911.
2. The bigger the institution, the less smoothly it often operates
3.From 65 members in its vintage 1789 configuration, the lower chamber grew steadily with each new census count, accommodating the growing population of the country.
4. members of larger districts may have a more difficult time connecting with and representing their constituents.
5.Taking the cube root of a nation’s population provided a remarkably good predictor of the size of that nation’s lower house.


Questions : 


1. What would happen if the House had 50 members just like the senate?
2. When determining the census, is it only the American citizens who are counted?
3. Since population from 1911 has dramatically grown to today, should the capacity be increased?
4. How efficient would it be if the capacity increases?
5. If the House of Rep becomes too big, can it have too much power?

Justice Steven

http://www.oyez.org/cases/2000-2009/2002/2002_02_102


Lawrence vs Texas


1. Police entered Lawrence's residence because of a reported weapon firing 
2. The officer found Lawrence and Garner in bed involving a sexual act. 
3. At that time, Texas prohibited same sex sexual act. 
4. It was unconstitutional for Texas to outlaw it because of due process.
5. Lawrence's rights were protected. and won the case. 
6. . In a 6-3 opinion delivered by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, the Court held that the Texas statute making it a crime for two persons of the same sex to engage in certain intimate sexual conduct violates the Due Process Clause.
Q's. 
1. Do the criminal convictions of John Lawrence and Tyron Garner under the Texas "Homosexual Conduct" law, which criminalizes sexual intimacy by same-sex couples, but not identical behavior by different-sex couples, violate the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee of equal protection of laws? 
2. Do their criminal convictions for adult consensual sexual intimacy in the home violate their vital interests in liberty and privacy protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment? 
3. Should Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U.S. 186 (1986), be overruled?
4. If this case was ruled in favor of Lawrence, would gay marriage be legal? 


I do not think the capacity of the House of Representatives should increase dramatically. The efficiency, productivity and work done in House of Rep. currently are significantly low and unefficient. Thus, if there are more members in the House, the efficiency and productivity will even become worse. 

Due Process

1.A significant amount of innocent defendants have been convicted based on perjury. 
2. Barry Scheck, who was a lawyer who helped defend O.J. Simpson, is the leader of a movement to free innocent inmates.  
3.There are procedures to ensure that eye-witness identification is accurate, like the "double-blind" procedure.
4. Prosecution must be willing to admit that it made some mistakes to allow more exonerations.
5.  In California, it takes 25 years from the sentence to execution for people on Death Row.  California may abolish the death penalty.
6. In 1992, a man called Kevin Rojas was sentenced for life for a crime he did not commit.
7. The lead/reasoning for his conviction was the orange color of his jacket, and false witnesses.
8 Only 5% of cases use DNA to help figure out who is guilty is a crime.
9. Rojas spent 4 and a half years in jail before the court figured out the injustice of their wrong decision.
10 Since there was no concrete or DNA evidence in the case for lawyers to work with, they had to use many more methods of crime solving to figure out the case; which is probably why it took so long to get Rojas free.


Q's.
1. Should not there be more laws to prevent false witnesses?
2. Is there a punishment for false reporting of witness?
3. Is there a government compensation for people who were accused falsely?
4. Since even OJ subtlety admitted that he was guilty of the crime after court ruled him innocent, should not the government take action?
5. How many people in prison are innocent?

Supreme Court Justices

Facts/Details/Q's

1. Antonin Scalia, "received his A.B. from Georgetown University and the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, and his LL.B. from Harvard Law School

2.Antonin Scalia was a Sheldon Fellow of Harvard University from 1960–1961(about)".

3. Anthony Kennedy served in numerous positions during his career.

4. Anthony Kennedy served as amember of the California Army National Guard in 1961.
5.Clarance Thomas married Virginia Lamp in 1987 and has one child, Jamal Adeen, by a previous marriage.

6. Ruth Ginsburg was a research associate and then associate director of the Columbia Law School Project on International Procedure from 1961 to 1963.
7. Stephen Breyer was a Professor at Harvard University Kennedy School of Government, and a Visiting Professor at the College of Law, Sydney, Australia, and at the University of Rome.
8. Samuel Alito was Assistant to the Solicitor General as well as US Department of Justice.
9. Sonia Sotomayor was nominated by Obama to be Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.
10. Elena Kagan served as a law clerk to Justice Thurgood  Marshall of the Supreme Court in 1987

Court Cases

1. Meyer V. Nebraska 1992
Nebraska, along with other states, prohibited the teaching of modern foreign languages to grade school children. Meyer, who taught German in a Lutheran school, was convicted under this law.
-This stood out to me because as a student learning foreign language in school, i found this law to be unfair and inappropriate. Nebraska violated the liberty protected by due process of the Fourteenth Amendment. Liberty means more than freedom from bodily restraint. 


2. Abington vs Schempp 1962


This stood out to be because i thought this case was similar to Engel vs Vitale. However the difference was that in this case, it was not voluntary and the students needed parent's note for to excuse themselves from the bible verse reading. i could not agree more with the court's decision that state that the school violate the 1st amendment of the constitution. The Court found such a violation. The required activities encroached on both the Free Exercise Clause and the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment since the readings and recitations were essentially religious ceremonies and were "intended by the State to be so." 


Wisconsin v. Yoder 1971


This is interesting because I am very compelled by Amish culture and their beliefs. I was also wondering if there was a circumstance where majority of nation's youth were Amish and they did not attend high school, would it impact our nations future? I believe that it was unconstitutional for the school to require Yoder to attend school.  individual's interests in the free exercise of religion under the First Amendment outweighed the State's interests in compelling school attendance beyond the eighth grade. 

Roe vs Wade

1.Abortion Mills are offices that illegally performed abortions.
2. Viability can occur at the earliest of around 24 weeks.
3. The right to privacy is listed in the Constitution.
4. Texas believes that life begins at conception.5.. The Court's decisions recognizing a right of privacy also acknowledge that some state regulation in areas protected by that right is appropriate.
6. The State's interest and general obligation to protect life then extends, it is argues to prenatal life.
7.After the end of the first trimester, the morality of abortion may be less than morality in normal childbirth.
8.The "compelling point" is at the end of the first trimester; also at viability.
9.A pregnant woman's privacy differs from others because she is carrying another life within her.
10. Many other courts have ruled that the right to privacy is broad enough to protect abortions, but is subject to some limitations.


Questions :
1. When does life begin?
2. Shouldnt abortion be illegal since it is technically a murder?
3. Does a baby in a womb have rights?
4. If abortion is legal, why is stem cell  illegal?
5. Should the government create some kind of "punishment", "compensation" for the women who gets aborted ?