Blog #4

http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=296401

The article I chose to read and then comment on is called "Locally, Latinos still under-represented on bench," written by Rob Olmsted, a member of the Daily Herald staff.  This article was not really on Sonia Sotomayor's biography, but rather, it was about how her appointment could affect the local courts.  The author only used quotes from people that supported her nomination.  This article also focused more on the fact of her being Latino, rather than a female.  

The author clearly wants equal representation of the citizens of the United States when he says "She would comprise about 11.1 percent of the court while Hispanics make up about 15.4 percent of the nation.  If only things were so easy at the local level."  

The quotes the author used from people he interviewed did not talk about her ideology, but rather about her race, and the fact that "In the U.S., Hispanics are "the second-largest and fastest-growing population ... so I think it's very appropriate for President (Barack) Obama to take that into consideration," said Meza".  Meza also mentioned that if they can find qualified Hispanics for the U.S. Supreme Court, they should have more Hispanics in the local courts.

The article also mentions her achievements, being raised by a single mother in housing projects, and attending Yale and Princeton.  Many of the people mentioned in the article hoped that her nomination to the court will influence others, specifically Hispanics, to join the courts.

A Day in Congress

First of all, I cannot believe how many meetings and appointments are going on in such a short amount of time, as well as the amount of topics covered in that short amount of time.  Before even getting to the schedule for the House and Senate, a section that caught my attention was labeled Convenes: 9:30 am.  This section dealt with resuming the consideration of HR2346, Emergency Supplemental Appropriations.  The reason this section really caught my attention was the fact that I actually understood the meanings of the Majority and why the bill was called HR2346.  I literally knew next to nothing about politics before this class (obviously I still don't know much but hey, for me, knowing that the Majority is the democrats is definitely a step up!)  Just knowing that because the bill started with HR, it began in the House of Representatives, made me feel more informed.  I really feel that this statement "The Republicans will control the first 30 minutes. The Majority will control the next 30 minutes. The final hour will be equally divided with senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each." makes the system appear fair.  However, just because both parties have equal time, does not mean they have equal representation.  The majority is not called the majority for no reason.

Anyways, on to the schedule for the House.  My first reaction at seeing the meetings at or around the same time, reminded me about all of the movies dealing with presidents where the characters are always like "you can have five minutes with the President".  Congressmen and women have ridiculously packed schedules.  I really do not understand when these people sleep or have any time to relax, because although their day does not start until around 9 or 10 am, and may end around 5 pm, they still have more to their job description, such as fundraising constantly and making appearances.  Furthermore, I now understand why there needs to be so many committees.  When the government is dealing with issues from eduction reform to well, meetings on the International Whaling Commission, it makes sense to have people who know education deal with education and to have people who know natural resources deal with wildlife subcommittees.  

For the Senate, once again, I cannot grasp how much and how wide of a spectrum of topics that Congress has to deal with on a daily basis.  The segment at 9:30 that dealt with Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs actually made me laugh out loud.  Obviously the subject matter was not funny, but the fact that I have never seen a sentence that large before blew me away.  I tried and tried to get trough that sentence, but honestly I have no idea what I read.  Do the senators on the committee really know everything they can in order to make an informed decision?  I feel like all people in Congress should be doing is reading and researching, which we know is not true because they have to constantly be running for office rather than completely focusing on the mass amounts of committees they are on.  

If people actually saw how crowded the schedules of Congress are, then maybe they would have a little more sympathy when it comes to their mistakes.  But hey, we have to blame someone for all the problems, right?

Blog #2

Although I am technically living in Normal right now, I still call Rolling Meadows my home, which means I am a resident of Cook County.  Honestly, I feel like Chicago should have its own county because it is so different from the suburbs.  Cook County feels so big to me and I have no idea what is going on politically in it (at least most of the time).  Really, the only thing I knew about it government wise was that Carolyn H. Krause was the 66th District State Representative. The General Assembly Scholarship has paid for my tuition for the last two years thanks to her office.  

According to the 2005 census statistics, Cook County has a population of approximately 5.3 million people, making it the second most populous county in the country.  As a resident of Rolling Meadows, within Cook County, that would make Dan Kotowski of the 33rd district my state senator, and Mark Walker of the 66th district my state representative.

Senator Dan Kotowski is a Democrat that has been serving since 2007.  He has supported at least 40 bills, which included hospice care for veterans and Child-Safe Chemicals Act.  Recently, Senator Kotowski has been in the news for trying to pass a measure that would change the pensions for lawmakers.  Currently, lawmakers receive pensions bases on their last day's salary.  This means they are getting higher paying jobs and then retiring.  Rather, he wants it more like the state workers' pensions which are based on the average of the last four years of pay.

Representative Mark Walker is a Democrat and has been serving since 2009.  I was all excited when he went into office because I was afraid my luck had run out with winning the scholarship twice with Carolyn Krause.  Turns out he was no longer choosing to have the General Assembly Scholarship because of budget cuts.  So, I am not the biggest fan of him so far.  Although he has only been in office for a few months, he has already supported over 20 bills, most of them involving businesses.  Also, when I Googled him, there was more information on other Mark Walkers than the representative.  I guess he is still pretty new to the system!

Blog #1

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2009/05/texting-surfing-while-driving-would-be-outlawed-under-measure-near-approval-in-springfield.html

The article I chose to read was called "Texting, surfing while driving would be outlawed under measure near approval in Springfield," by Ashley Rueff.  Overall, the article is about the Illinois Senate approving a bill to ban reading or sending text messages, as well as Web surfing while driving.  However, using a cell phone as a GPS is still allowed, as well as drivers are allowed to pull onto the shoulder or park in traffic to use the cell phone.  The bill passed with a vote of 45-6.  One member who voted against the bill said that it would just give police officers more opportunities to target drivers based on race.

First of all, I am definitely guilty to texting while driving, even though I know it is a reckless thing to do.  I used to think it was okay to text at stoplights, but then the whole getting honked at while sitting through a green light made me re-think that one.  I am still unsure about having an actual bill passed on banning texting.  People are always going to break the law, especially when dealing with teenagers and their phones.  I am afraid that if this is turned into a law, then people will resort to measures of trying to hide the phone by their side so that a police officer could not see them texting, rather than having their phone up near the steering wheel so they can still see the road.  One comment a voter said was that it should be passes because it is "a commonsense law."  If not using cell phones while driving is so common sense, then should our legislators waste time on such a bill?  Personally, if this was a law, I would think more about the fact that I should not be texting while driving.

An aspect I did not understand, or at least remember from previous classes, is that there is an Illinois Senate.  Does every state have their own senate and house of representatives as well as the federal government?  Does it have the same amount of senators in it?  How exactly does the state senate compare to the federal senate?

My name is Dusti Foster.  I finished my first half-marathon in Green Bay today, and I am completely exhausted.  So once again, I apologize if I am out of it during class on Monday!  I am taking four classes this summer (three of which overlap).   

My expectations of this course are to hopefully learn something that will help me in the future, and also to be able to apply the knowledge of politics to present-day life.

Let's see...my experience with government...I have taken an A.P. U.S. History class and a terrible philosophy class on democracy (no offense..it just was not my thing).  Usually I love learning about politics and government, but I really have to work at it.