Who's who in Congress?

After you’re assigned your Congressperson, go to their websites and do general research to answer the following questions:

1     1.  What is the demographic makeup of your Congresspersons district?

2     2. What are the important issues for the people in your Congresspersons district/state?

3     3.  What are your Congresspersons committee and subcommittee assignments?

4     4.  In what ways does the demographic makeup and policy agenda of your Congresspersons constituents          match up to their committee assignments?

5     5.  How does the prior career or background of the Congressperson lend itself to his/her position?

6     6.  What committee would your Congressmperson NOT want to be a part of?

        Resources:    My Congressional District for demographic info

                     Senate committee website

                     House committee website

Shutdown cartoons

Which of the following political cartoons do you most agree with concerning Obamacare and the ongoing shutdown that was the result of the budget battle?  Are the Republicans going too far in their quest to repeal/change the Affordable Care Act or is the President (and by extension the Senate Democrats) being too inflexible about changes to his signature healthcare legislation?



source:http://www.npr.org/2013/09/30/226882380/double-take-toons-whiching-hour

Government shutdown

Start with this article from CNN, it gives a good overview of the shutdown, why it happened, and issues surrounding the shutdown.  Here is a similar article from FoxNews.  Continue to research the issue and answer the following questions:
1.  Do our representatives have a responsibility to avoid this type of government shutdown?
2.  How can this shutdown affect the US economy?  Be specific.
3.  Is this heated partisanship an indicator that the government is broken or that our system of checks and balances are working?
4.  Should changes to Obamacare  be on the table for this type of budget negotiation?  Why or why not?

Public Policy Participation Posts

This post is going to be your forum to earn some extra participation points and apply the concepts we learned in class to current events and policy developments.

Instructions
1.  Find a recent (last ten days) article on a policy topic you find interesting (truly try to find something you think is significant and interesting).  Make sure it is a reputable news source and not just some blogger spouting conspiracy theories.
2.  Post a link to the article with a brief description/summary of the article.
3.  After your summary, connect the article to at least two concepts we learned about over the course of the semester.  Focus on explaining HOW the article illustrates, clarifies, or characterizes these important concepts and WHY this is significant in a broader understanding of politics.
4.  After the analysis, pose two discussion questions for other students to answer.  These questions are meant to spark discussion and debate.
4.  Following instructions, writing in complete sentences and good organization are imperative to completing this assignment for credit.

You will not get credit unless you explain the HOW (it connects to AP US Government concepts) and WHY (it is significant) of the article.  The purpose of this exercise is to help you connect the concepts we learn in class with current events so you can use some of these examples to help illustrate your point when answering the FRQ on the AP test on Tuesday May 14th.

4B Judicial Branch Q and A

1. What are the different types of court cases? What are some examples?  How do you know if you have a case?  When a court case is decided, how do you know why they made a decision?
2. Who is directly/indirectly involved in court cases? In what ways?
3.How is the court system i the US set up?  How does federalism help us understand the structure and appeals process?
4.  Who is on the SC?  What are the prerequisites for becoming a justice?  How are they selected?  What dot hey typically have in common?
5. What does it mean to be a conservative justice?  liberal justice?  What is meant by judicial independence?
6.  Why would the SC look at a case?   What has to happen for a case to be put on the SC docket?  Who represents the government in a case?

Judicial branch - Q and A

Post responses/diagrams/questions below!
1. What are the different types of court cases? What are some examples?  How do you know if you have a case?  When a court case is decided, how do you know why they made a decision?
2. Who is directly/indirectly involved in court cases? In what ways?
3.How is the court system i the US set up?  How does federalism help us understand the structure and appeals process?
4.  Who is on the SC?  What are the prerequisites for becoming a justice?  How are they selected?  What dot hey typically have in common?
5. What does it mean to be a conservative justice?  liberal justice?  What is meant by judicial independence?
6.  Why would the SC look at a case?   What has to happen for a case to be put on the SC docket?  Who represents the government in a case?

Wealth and inequality in America

After watching the viral video we watched in class respond to the following questions:

1.  Is this level of inequality good or bad for America?  How so? Explain.
2.  Should the government do anything about it?  Why or why not?
3.  Does the government have the right to do anything about it?  Why or why not?
4.  How do you think wealth should be distributed in America or is it good as it is?  Why?
5.  Is this distribution of wealth "fair" for hardworking middle-class Americans? Is this "unfairness" what drives people to achieve wealth?