the end has no end

My adv. linear algebra course started today. I can already say that POL 106 was much more exciting than learning about bases and linear independence. Given that a hamster has a longer attention span that I do, I have to say that it is quite the feat to keep me listening and engaged for almost three hours. Thanks for not being boring.

I really thought the course was organized very well, and it was easy to take notes and follow along in the text. While the textbook was really bland and not fun to read (sorry for any offense), "Keeping the Republic" more than made up for that. Coming from an economics background and knowing a lot of the economics of social security, medicare, etc... it was very nice to see the topics delineated in a comprehensible fashion. So the last week of class, to me, was the best part of the entire course. My least favorite part was going over the mechanical structure of each branch of government... that tends to be not all that "sexy."

It's funny that I had absolutely no desire to take this class. I already took a similar college class in high school, but they refused to give me credit for the state constitution test (since it was taken through a Missouri university). And learning virtually nothing about Illinois in the class makes me question the effectiveness of these established guidelines. Oh well, I am not complaining because I honestly had more fun and learned more in this course than in any of my other polisci courses! If I would be an undergraduate here for another year, I would definitely make political science another major of mine.

I love my generation. Going to college has exposed me to so many other viewpoints, and this class served as kind of the melting pot for those ideas. It was able to summarize and explain the views of the Millennial Generation, with which I find that I fall right in line. My friends are typically moderately liberal, and even though we may agree on most issues, we still manage to find those wedge issues and argue over them. I believe that enlightenment occurs through discourse, and thus I become evermore knowledgeable about the world as time goes on.

Rankin really hits the ball home when stressing the importance of political participation and making my commitment to this country stronger. Honestly, I always thought local politics were stupid, and how they had no bearing on my daily life. But now I realize how ignorant that train of thought really is. Local politics affect your daily life the most, while the President actually has very little to do with your daily life. In the same vein, it is of utmost importance that people educate themselves about the world around them (it takes, what, 10 minutes a day?), discuss it with their peers, and actually get involved and vote. That is what this country thrives on.

I am very sad to see this class come to a close (and no, I'm not crying... I just have allergies). Although the class was quite short (unlike this blog post) because it was only four weeks long, it felt like it was more like four days. But those "four days" were jam-packed with sweet discussions, awesome knowledge, and Noam Chomski... all party material right there!

Thanks for everything!

"the end has no end"
-The Strokes

Museum... Woot!

Getting out of the classroom and going to the museum was an awesome experience. Admittedly, even after living here a few years, I did not visit the McLean County Museum. I have driven/walked past it a multitude of times, however, and thought "hey, what a cool building." Going to the museum, I think, helped to open the blinds on a lot of the history and political on-goings in Bloomington. And the inside of the building is absolutely asthetically amazing (it would be interesting to see what the buildings looked like the first, second, and third times built).

The Blo-no area really does have a deeply rich history. I thoroughly enjoyed going through each exhibit and seeing the different components of Bloomington's history, which helped me to see how and why the political infrastructure is the way it is. Personally, I found the politics gallery to be the most fascinating. It is interesting to think that the surrounding area is responsible for a lot of the government regulations which are placed on corporations via the case of The People v. Chicago & Alton Railroad. Also, with the help of Bloomington, Illinois became the first state to the east of the Mississippi to grant suffrage to women. It was also very interesting seeing all the different types of people who migrated here from all over the nation and the world, and how they interwove to become the modern Bloomington as we know it.

It is evident, now, how modern politics of Bloomington arose. Being a major transportation hub in the past, as well as majorly a rural community, the deep conservatism that exists here should come as no surprise. It was also fun to look at the role of Illinois State and Illinois Wesleyan, and their large population of "hippies," in the development of the region. I developed a strange sense of pride when looking at those pictures and stories. It's amazing the impact universities can truly have on the surrounding areas, and collectively around the nation.

Overall, the museum visit was very insightful. I'm really glad I did this before I left.

McLean County

This is my third year living in McLean County, yet I still know virtually nothing about the history or the politics of it. However, let me preface that by saying that I only knew of six of the 102 counties in Illinois: Monroe, Macoupin, St. Clair, Randolf, Madison, and, of course, Cook County. And that is just knowing of their existence, let alone their political and historical attributes. I know a *slight* amount about the history of Monroe County (my home county), but I know virtually nothing about the political endeavors.

I do know, however, that Bloomington is the county seat of McLean County, and that there is lots of farming (as a drive through indicates). The main source of my political apathy regarding McLean county may be attributed to my priority list and the respective costs and benefits of deleting/adding items. At point "t" in time, I may choose between, "A," informing myself about McLean County or, "B," doing homework, working, socializing, or a host of infinitely many other activities. What would your typical American do?

Rankin consistently brings up a very good point, however. The politics surrounding McLean County are the politics that impact those who reside here directly. What the President does rarely affects our daily everyday lives, but it's our representives and locally elected officials who do impact our daily lives. And I think therein lies the reason for having a solid knowledge of both the political history and the modern political undertakings of this county. If I still have another two years here, the least I can do educate myself about the McLean County, and I really think that the old courthouse museum will enable me to do that.

P.S.: It did.

Green

Well, I took the the Political Compass test, and, to say the least, I am very satisfied with my results. This is the political ideology that I viewed myself as for the last couple of years. With regards to my economic philosophy, I always thought I was more on the conservative side. However, maybe I need to rethink that!

Funny story though, if you would have asked me in high school with which party I identified myself, I would have indubitably said Republican. Soon after attending college however, I became aware of my robot-icism. Because my dad identified himself as a Republican, I, too, assumed I was Republican... like it was genetic trait. But after entering the real world and becoming a real person, I forge my opinions on things.

I believe the little red dot situates me within the democratic party, which is now the party I lean to the most. Apparently I also have similar values as The Dahli Lama, and I'm just a bit more right-ist and libertarian than Ghandi. I dig it. It is interesting to the note the lack of people in the green space. Everybody (Bush, Sarkosy, Merkel, Brown, Thatcher, Hitler) seems to be fairly Republican on the map. And it's funny to see nobody other than Friedman (whom I very much admire) in the purple.

Going to the Democratic Party's website, the first thing that I noticed was the giant heads of Sotomayor and Obama... makes sense. I really like the layout and user-friendliness of the website. It does an outstanding job of delineating the agenda of the party by providing a link aptly named "agenda." This navigates you to any number of issues ranging from "healthcare for all" to "economic stewardship" to "immigration reform." Another tactical thing I noticed was the giant button for "Espanol." This is evident of the war that is raging between the Dems and Repubs for the hispanic population vote. However, when I went to the Republican website, I could not find a single link to translate the page en Espanol... uh oh! I feel like the Democrat website has SO much information about the party that it would take me months to comb through it all. Not necessarily a bad thing though.

It looks like the Democratic party is really playing the game well this time around.

Sotomayor

When attempting to find an article on the newly appointed Sonia Sotomayor, I immediately went to Fox News. This is because Fox is known to favor the conservative political scene over the liberal, so, I thought to myself, it would be interesting to see if there are hints of aggression in the articles written about her.

Reading the article, I get the feeling that the author is attempting to portray her in a negative light, while understanding and heeding the invariable caveat which comes with bashing Sotomayor. The author him/herself states that "any Republican effort to block Sotomayor's confirmation could be risky for a party still reeling from last year's elections and struggling to gain back lost ground with Hispanics, the fastest-growing part of the population. Republicans don't want to be seen as insensitive to the historic significance of Sotomayor's nomination." The video of the announcement of Sotomayor as the pick for the justice position, on the other hand, is a perpetual stream of praise regarding her immaculate academic credentials, her experience in the U.S. court system, and even her personal life.

The article is much less enthusiastic about her meritous works, saying that "though Sotomayor's personal story and her academic and legal credentials earn her respect from all quarters, conservatives see plenty to criticize in her rulings and statements." It seems as though the author was very cautious with the beginning of the article; however, when you get in the middle and towards the end you can sense a distinct distaste for the appointment of Sotomayor. Furthermore, however, the author does do an excellent job of portraying her Hispanic hertiage as a positive factor in the eyes of the conservatives. An obvious sentiment of "no, no... it's HER we don't like, not the fact that she is Hispanic" is being radiated.

Overall, it appears as though the Republicans are cornered yet don't want to admit it. They keep "...promising a thorough and perhaps lengthy hearing process that delves into her record and judicial philosophy." However, it seems almost an idle threat since there appears to be no interest in fillabustering her nomination, and the Democrats are in more than enough of a position to confirm her on their own. The article does not fully come out and say "hey, she's a liberal!" but the careful beat-around-the-bush wording certainly screams it. The author really seems to believe that she will be a hit with the Hispanic population (for obvious reasons) and the Democrats (again, even though Obama and other sources say she is moderate, she has a perceived liberal persona).

It will be very interesting to see her true colors once she begins ruling on cases.

Congress Matters

Congress convened on Wednesday, May 20th to discuss a number of things, which is conveniently reported by www.congressmatters.com (thank-you). On first glance, I was confused and overwhelmed with the massive amount of information, but, as with the super cool magic eye books, the longer I stared at it the clearer the picture became.

Let's start by looking at a day in the House. They begin their day at 9:30 a.m., and that's when all the appropriations begin. During the four and a half hours that Congress spends in the session, every committee from the Armed Forces Committee to the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee will be begging Congress for money. Each of the appropriation requests (as well as all other Congressional matter) will go through either a full committee or a subcommittee (as reminscent of Tuesday's lecture). It is also interesting to note that under 15 of the 26 headings, it is a type of subcommittee. And, as we know, since subcommittees are where bills go to die it doesn't surprise me that most bills that enter Congress do not make it out alive.

Now lets take a look into the House's ritzy and powerful cousin -- the Senate. They meet for five and a half hours in a day, and begin at 9:00 a.m. and end at 2:30 p.m.. It appears as though they deal much less with appropriation bills, but, rather, deal more with substantive law-potentials as opposed to the House. The Homeland Security and Government Affairs really sticks out by virtue of its massive amount of text... I bet that's a good importance proxy. Also, there appears to be a high volume of health-care related bills going through the Senate.

This is more of a petty question, but why are all the committees and appropriations typed in all capital letters, but the Senate they are not? It is also interesting to note the "Recognizing May 25, 2009, as National Missing Children's Day" request, which was a "Postponed Suspension Vote." As indicated, this bill was passed in the House yet it is still awaiting Senate approval. This begs the question that we asked in lecture today "Who would vote against this?" It is interesting to be able to see this question in action, and to see the potential voters who may be *against honoring missing children.* The Senate did, however, manage to ammend two things: H.R. 627 and H.R. 2352 , which involve credit cards and job creation, respectively. Nice work Congress!

Overall, I can see how chaotic being in the House and Senate may be. Between all the meetings and casework, no wonder confusion and impassability is an evitable part of our legislative process. However, even through all this mess we still manage to get things accomplished and bills passed; thus, the system works so why try and change it?

Source:
http://www.congressmatters.com/storyonly/2009/5/27/1030/-Today-in-Congress

Monroe County Representation

Waterloo, my hometown, is the county seat of Monroe County (originally it was Harrisonville, but now that place is underwater). I found this quaint little tag-line on their website: "Monroe County is a vibrant community known for its quiet neighborhoods and bustling business districts. With many community groups, places to worship and cultural activities, we offer something for the entire family." Don't let them fool you, it really is Hicktown USA. The largest two cities sit five minutes apart: Columbia and Waterloo (each has a population of about 8,000), and the rest are villages and "unincorporated communities."

Here is some neat Monroe County historical brain food to chew on. Did you know that Monroe County was carved out of the Illinois Territory in 1816, and was named after our fifth president, James Monroe? Suffice it to say that I did not. The county also suffered some severe losses from the Great Flood of 1993 (we moved to Waterloo that year because our house in Fults was eaten by the Mississippi).

My elected State Representative is Dan Reitz (Democrat). Reitz would frequently visit my elementary and high school, so it didn't surprise me that he was still our representative. And David Luechtefeld (Republican) is my State Senator (I don't believe I've ever met this guy). Dan Reitz only possesses a high school education, yet has been re-elected continuously since 1997. He is the Chairperson of the Agriculture & Conservation Committee and the Vice-Chairperson of the Environment & Energy; Ethanol Production Oversight Committees. When looking at his chiefly sponsored bills, wildlife and natural resource conservation is heavily stressed in his agenda. As for interpreting the statuses of the bills, I'm not really familiar with the lingo presented. I'm going to take a guess and say that "Session Sine Die" means the bill died while "Public Act . . . . . . . . . xx-xxxx" means that it has been made an official act.

David Luechtefeld has been the 58th district's senator since 1995, and possesses a Bachelor's degree from SLU and a Master's degree from SIUE. The majority of his bills have the status "Session Sine Die," which may be a bad thing. However, I do realize that it is probably a much more difficult task to get things passed in the Senate than in the House. He did, however, get the "Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail" extended -- that's something, right? On a more serious note, however, a lot of his bills appear to deal with medical issues involving health care, medical malpractice, etc... He states on his website, and seems like he is trying to take personal credit for, "the Illinois Senate passed a $28 billion capital infrastructure plan today that will put thousands of Illinoisans to work." The majority of which will be spent on repairing roads, bridges, etc... which is a very good thing.

I really wish my Representative would have their own website. It is very difficult to clearly see their agenda from their IGA web space. And also "Dave" Luechtefeld's website isn't very informative and doesn't appear to be real; however, I did learn that he is the Assistant to the Minority Leader... which is pretty sweet.

While Monroe Countian politics is the epitome of the uninteresting; McClean County politics is much more relevant to my current lifestyle. And since I'll be here for another two years, it may be worthwhile to see what is going on here... because right now, I'm pretty ignorant of the local political scene. I just hope that uptown normal gets fixed soon... it impedes my walking.

Sources:
http://www.elections.illinois.gov/districtlocator/selectsearchtype.aspx
http://luechtefeld.senategop.org/
http://www.ilga.gov/house/Rep.asp?MemberID=960
http://www.monroecountyil.org/