the weaker party

Last week was about the development, establishment and evolution of legislative power in the US. This week we do the same for executive powe...

I've yet to list the specific proposals that President Obama laid out in his SOTU address last week - but that'll come soon. We shou...

It looks like Senator Cruz continues to make quite the impression in the Senate. Here's the latest : “I made promises to the people of...

Thanks to the student who brought this up in class. Earlier I posted a story about a man indicted for premedidated murder of the drunk drive...

This article might be a bit harsh to some , but I call attention to it because it tries to get to the heart of the differences between the S...

In 2305 last we we looked at parties in Congress and how slowly over time they have become the dominant institution there. Charlie Cook disc...

Make all the states the same size  (not a serious proposal - but a fun look at the different regions in the US). Bad news, we lose Texas. Go...

Hopefully you've gotten caught up with past assignments - I need to stress that the May 9th deadline for all work in class is a hard dea...

Its a good thing the cold war is not on - the Soviets might have figured that this was a bomb. So how soon before we have congressional com...

Here is a lengthy list of the caucuses that area US House members belong to. We briefly talked about caucuses in some classes - informal org...

There's concern in Washington that Rand Paul might make an independent run for the presidency and split the Republican Party in half and...

This fits our recent 2306 discussion of the design of the governing institutions in Texas, and especially the consequences of a part-time, a...

Which would be both unprecedented and a further indication that the partisanship that has calcified the House is doing the same to the Senat...

For chewing on in 2305: - Recorded votes in the House. - Recorded votes in the Senate. - Public laws passed so far.

I am without speech. Ted and Sheila have an excellent adventure.

For informational purposes, here are the standing committees area US House members, and Texas' two Senators serve on. Some committees ha...

For informational purposes, here are links to the offiial websites of area US House Representatives and Texas' two Senators: Senators:...

Newly elected Senators are expected to spend the first part of their term of office keeping quiet, deferring to senior members and learning ...

Something to file away as we prep for a look at the Texas budget, and the budgetary process. The Texas House’s chief budget writer has fi...

We discussed this idea in a few classes this week, especially regarding Governor Perry's attempt to lure California jobs here. If one is...

Not a good result for a city trying to increase its economic status. Central Connecticut State University puts together an annual list of ...

The NYT covers the speech here and The Dish links to various reactions here - including a few live-blogs. The consensus opinion is that ...

A very sad local story raises a troubling question: An Alvin father remained in the Brazoria County Jail Monday, charged with murder in...

Free Press Houston looks at the politics behind Segment E of the Grand Parkway - the world's longest "ring road," which will ...

The Texas Legislature is reviewing the tests used to assess high school students amidst concerns that the focus on assessments has had a neg...

Good question asked in class today. I do not know. Media people are hired by folks in Congress and the executive branch to face other media ...

The State of the Union Address is tonight - which is how presidents fulfill the requirement that they provide information from time to time...

We have three separate section to cover this week. Here are the study guid question for them on the wiki: Section One: The Development of th...

The Texas Tribune uses the fight between Governor's Brown and Perry (Moonbeam and Goodhair) over jobs to look more deeply at the differ...

The Texas Tribune looks at the road ahead for the lawsuits against school funding in Texas. The authors points out that the Texas Supreme C...