the weaker party

I just ran across this and thought it illustrated a point we made when discussing voter turnout and political participation generally. Ele...

I had a hunch this would happen sooner or later. This puts a damper on no refusal weekends, when the police could force someone they pull ov...

Most of the reviewing for lecture classes will be done in class, but if you look at these past posts you can get a general idea about the s...

Andrew Sullivan is worried that Obama's executive order on immigration contributes to expanded executive power. - Click here for the art...

Who knew ?

Obama's immigration executive order: Here are the details . This walks through the executive order. Some explainers from Vox.com - cli...

Here's the story . It fits with this week's look at interest group influence. Senate Democrats successfully blocked a bill Tuesd...

Texas' Emptiest County Filling Up with Oil Workers, Hope. - I'll post anything about Loving County. Textbook Battles Heat Up as S...

Analysis: As Lineup Changes, So Will Balance of Power . - With a new governor and lieutenant governor, things will be different this se...

We've been discussing polarization in 2305 and you can't do better than this to explain the factors driving it. - Click here for the...

The President seems to be itching for a fight with Congress, but doing so also helps rally Democrats behind him. - Click here for the artic...

Voting is compulsory in almost two dozen countries, and they make the electorate look like the general population. Here's a look at how ...

From Wonkblog , using data from the Pew Research Center . A full two-thirds said they simply didn't have enough time to vote. Mor...

Lot's of links - but there's lot's to do: Democrats in the Senate: - Time for Dems to elect new leaders? - Democratic Caucus Kee...

Talk about Texas turning blue might have been overblown . Republicans have been trying to lure Latinos to identify with the party: Governo...

Affirmative action at the University of Texas is back on the court docket. UT can still still use race in a limited manner, but that might s...

A board handpicked by Governor Perry thinks Texas should. - Click here for a Texas Tribune article in the subject . Comment: I bet Perry sup...

We've had some fun in 2306 going over the bills being pre-filed for the 84th Session of the Texas Legislature, especially one flagged by...

The court has a long history of hearing cases claiming that a minority's voting power has been been minimized by the majority. These two...

One of the themes of the election is the marginalization of the Tea Party . As opposed to Texas - where the movement remains strong - the ...

Who needs parties when you have money to burn? And the Supreme Court has allowed it to influence the political process. While attention has ...

The Center for Responsive Politics points out a few facts regarding spending on the 2014 election: Perhaps the most striking is this: Mor...

The Dish flags a book that suggests we that the presidency is not only based on the British model, but that the colonists - prior to becom...

Newly elected - or re-elected - members of the Texas Legislature could start filing bills Monday the 10th. The bill can be found on the Texa...

As well as Republicans did in national races - they did better in state wide races. They now control more state legislatures and governorshi...

The voters in Denton chose to ban fracking in the city, and neither the oil industry or state regulators are happy about it. It's a good...

. . . which creates a conflicts the Supreme Court can sink its teeth into. Remember that earlier this semester the court opted to not review...

Here's more from ScotusBlog .

Was it due to Voter ID? From the Texas Tribune : Texas turnout, already the worst in the country, dropped. The state’s population is large...

This continues a trend.  Some argue its part of a deliberate attempt to make the Democratic Party the Party of minorities. Some don't...

A neat little video if you have time to kill . And they list the winners of last week's election - which includes stoners in Oregon and...

In 2305 we'll be covering party coalitions. Here are a few stories detailing what we know about how these coalitions for each of the mai...

Not great for Democrats, but not an historically large loss .

Here's the data : And an explanation: Though political scientists long have noted the midterm dropoff, they don’t agree on precisely...

From Al Jazeera : Here are the national numbers. They report that that percentage of eligible voters in Texas that actually voted was 27%. T...

Election 2014: Coverage and Results . - A look at all of the national races. 2014 Election Scoreboard . - Find out how the Texas delegatio...

A few items related to Tuesday's election as it impacts Texas and local areas: Election Scorecard . - The Texas Tribune has an easy to...

Lincoln's Media Strategy . - There's nothing new about president's manipulating how the press covers them. The Bumpkinificati...

Settled Into GOP, Lozano Hopes to Hold District . - Can the Texas Republican Party lure more Latinos into the fold? Do Falling Oil Pric...

League City target of civil rights audit . - The audit stems from the city's ban on undocumented minors being housed in the city and mi...

California voters will be able to decide if certain felonies can be reclassified as misdemeanors . - The purpose is to reduce prison over c...

For today's look at the judiciary in 2306: Texas Supreme Court case set water groundwater rules for state .- The court is about to mak...

Supreme Court Will Consider Police Searches of Hotel Registries . - Motel owners don't like a city ordinance that requires them to open ...

All of these are from the Texas Tribune; Texas on Lonely Side of Battle Over Ozone Science . - Who controls the Texas Commission on Environm...

The malware scare might be over - so I'll get back to posting things for class. Thanks to the student that cleared this up.

Some of you have been getting a notice that this blag has been infected with malware, so its best to avoid it for a while. Make Blackboard y...

We have a little unfinished business with local governments to complete, in addition to a discussion of the nature of separated powers - I ...

In lecture classes we will be reviewing material related to federalism and the Bill of Rights - and also start in on the issues surrounding ...

As promised - this week I want you send me a detailed proposal for your 1000 word essay. Base it on the assigned work. I'll give you s...

An amendment to the continuing resolution needed to keep the government funded after October 1st - but only until mid - December. - Here...

According to a writer in Slate : Everybody in competitive races. Georgia Rep. John Barrow, Minnesota Rep. Collin Peterson, and West Virgi...

I dropped the section on due process - it's not quite ready for prime time.

Texas election laws places limits on the ability of churches to campaign. Two churches in Texas filed suit in federal court trying to have t...

He will go from being Agriculture Commissioner to head of a major lobbying group - as these folks tend to do. Another example of the revolv...

That seems to be the conclusion of this recent essay in Houstonia: - Click here for the article . A large part of this distrust [of cities...

The plan is to finish through Federalist #10 , then hit the main parts of Federalist #51 , and look through the powers delegated to the nati...

This marks a significant demographic shift. We should consider what changes might result in the types of items that come to the public agend...

Here's something related to our look at the Texas Bill of Rights in 2306 - notably the guarantee that people do not have to face trial u...

- Something fun to chew on : Texas nationalists are awaiting Scotland's pending vote on seceding from the United Kingdom in the hopes ...

This is the law referenced in the previous post. We will be looking at the legislative branches in both 2305 and 2306 soon. We'll look o...

We're reading through some of Federalist #10 in GOVT 2305 this week and this story reminded me of some of the paper's content. In it...

In class we will reading through the parts of the Texas Constitution, specifically the articles related to the Texas Bill of Rights, Countie...

I linked to three new sections, one of which still needs another couple of days for tweaking - the one on due process. I'll describe eac...

I suggested in class that I might postpone asking you for your paper proposals until week 5 since the president suggested we might be headed...

The previous post will call to mind Benjamin Franklin's famous quote. I stumbled on one person's explanation of the context of the ...