April 15. Voting Questionnaire - Political Science Questionnaire

In any case, I do apologize for not being here Tuesday, however my back went out Monday, but that wasn't the reason. It wasn't the pain that got me. I started taking medication and Monday night I became -- while I was lecturing -- absolutely disoriented. I know what it feels like to have Alzheimers. I'm serious. It was scary and I started lecturing something I had already lectured on which I do naturally when I repeat myself, but I realized it this time which was scary. I need to let the medication get out of me, but boy, I'll tell you now I know I got a feel for what that is all about.

In any case were the interfaces due Tuesday? What I wanted to do was go through the questionnaire with you. We didn't do that yet, did we? No.

Sort of a boring day for our interpreters here. We will go through these answers as I indicated we already talked about this as a voting test. From the state of Alabama. We don't know how many you could have gotten wrong but I think as most of you probably realized you might not have voted in Alabama whether you were white or black and that was the intent to get the voting down.Specifically to keep it down among African Americans. And then in 1965 we indicated that the voting rights act prohibited all testing. I told you about the fact that I had to take a test when I went first to register to vote, a reading test, and spent all night staying up studying for the reading test and how compulsive I was. But that's beside the point. In any case I think that's a good questionnaire. It covers material that I wouldn't necessarily cover in class directly because it's specific, in short answer.But there is material that is useful and I can use all of this to go further in the lectures with material that is not necessarily directly on the questionnaire but related. Since I did indirectly force you to do it, although there were a few students who said I'm not going to do this he's not counting it anyway, because they did critical thinking, the fact is that most of you did it. It's only fair that we at least go over the answers that you can fill in. Will you be able to use it for an exam? Some of the material is usable for some of the essay questions, but it's not going to be that specific by any means. Any questions about the questionnaire before I continue? I did talk about who votes and who doesn't vote, last time I was here?

Which of the following is a right guaranteed by the bill of rights?
A Public education. Is that right? In the bill of rights?

A Employment, voting, trial by jury. I'm not sure. I was thinking voting or public education. We have a right for that.

Q Now there's no right for public education in the federal constitution at all. Only in the state constitutions which is more than a right, it's a demand because most states require you to get an education. It was pretty much is left to the state. Although there has been talk about a national program, but it is not in the constitution at all. The state constitution is like, California I think required you to be in school until you're 16, and then there are other schools so there isn't a guarantee of public education federally. So what is it?

Q Trial by jury is guaranteed by the bill of rights. Now voting is guaranteed in other amendments but not in the bill of rights, certainly in the 14th amendment. But again voting is guaranteed. But education and employment are not. Employment is not guaranteed in any of the state constitutions either. There are some countries that guarantee employment. In fact there are some countries like the former Soviet Union that if you didn't work you went to prison. That was the guarantee of employment. It's always been an interesting issue. Should we guarantee jobs? Certainly, we did, during the depression, create publics works programs.

Q The federal census of population is taken each five years?
A False it is taken every 10 years. Okay. Big question. Why is it taken? Why do we have a census every 10 years and why was --?
A Because isn't it in the house of reps it's based on population.

Exactly. Very good. The house of reps is based on population and therefore with population changes there are bound to be changes in representation from various states and so the first census was actually taken in 1790. For reapportionment to the states. Now today the federal census is being used for other reasons. What is one or two of the reasons that the census is being used for besides representation?

A Check on unemployment rights?
A No isn't that one of the -- good think so. Maybe she used it partially. No because unemployment they got an indication every few months ago to what the law is. I can't say for sure, but I don't think so. What else would the federal --.
Q Would it help with state funding?
A Yes.

Q Based on--
A Population and need. How do they judge need. That's a good question. But one of the things that the census does do for "you", want to call it need or whatever, they do categorical funding after the census. Now you have the word "categorical groups" on your word list. Did I explain categorical groups in this class? Define it? I didn't think so. You see categorical groups on the word list. That is not funding. I'll give you both, but before starting with categorical groups we need to go to two words, primary groups. So -- what we're dealing with, primary groups is your family, your immediate family, and the reason it's on the list is because the sociological term usually is one that's used to look at how people make up their opinions. Why and how they vote, what churches they join because people pretty much follow their parents in their value system. Now granted most of you in your teenage years are feeling rebellious and so-called post adolescence you find yourself. It is how smart your parents were. They've learned a lot. They've grown so you know I've talked to some people and they are so concerned with their kids and some of the things that teenagers do. But the truth of the matter is they're going to return to the family values if you've done a good job or they're going to go bye bye. So it's scary, but a long way through those teenager years for many many parents. Knock wood I haven't had that problem with any kids. So I've been lucky so far. .

Secondary groups are groups who voluntarily join their association groups. They also influence your values. Perhaps you join them because of your value system, because also they send out a lot of information. Groups you join-- that could be your churches, your unions. They could be the National Rifle Association. Any organization and they will definitely lobby you to try and influence your voting patterns and often do. So those are secondary groups. Categorical groups also influence, but very loosely.

Categorical groups are loose association groups, an example of a loose group might be women. Nobody throwing anything at me yet? What am I talking about? Basically women have certain things in common, like perhaps men do, but more issues oriented. We pointed out the other day, women tend to vote more Democrat because of their issues. It came through on my on-line course the other night when we were dealing with candidates and candidate issues and we had to search different candidates and the primaries to see their issues. It was interesting to read a lot of the women in
this class, in fact all the -- registered or registered republican. Every one of them was pro-choice. Now the republican party has traditionally been anti-choice, pro-life, yet the women who were republican found that issue in common. Not all republican women are pro-choice. Obviously some are pro-life, but the point is that there are commonalities because of women issues. Men may or may not have as much interest in it. They may be, such as an issue such as rape. Obviously it's an issue that men are concerned about. However it's a much more direct issue for women. So based on that, there's a sense of commonality that makes them a loose association group in voting, and in concerns, and in issues. Which explains categorical groups.

Another group is one you're sitting in now. You all have different cultural backgrounds. Yet, if the tuition fees were going to be tripled, everyone in this particular class would be upset and organize or at least express opposition to it. So instead of paying $12 a unit, you pay $36 a unit.

Q Like an out-of-state student?
A They pay $120 a unit. I can't understand. You come to college we're worth it, but they're paying $200 and $360 to listen to me. But most of you figure I'm worth the $36 you're paying. All right. At the most. Some of you don't even think it's worth that, granted. In any case, the fact is that people in the community might not be as concerned. It's not of interest to them if the tuition goes up at Ohlone. They don't have children here. It doesn't mean as much to them. So categorical groups do impact your voting, your opinions, your choices.

Now, that takes us to another word categorical, in this sense, funding. Categorical funding is referring to money being set aside for different groups. Again the group issues. So that minorities, or under-represented groups, get funding from the federal government. Well the state gets funding for these groups for programs to benefit these groups. And one of the big issues about the census is that many times in these categorical groups the people are under counted in many cases because of poverty, because of other reasons they don't necessarily get counted. How do you get people who were street people, and know how many people are living in the streets? Years ago New York had a requirement that if a male was living in the household, a woman could not receive welfare. All of a sudden in some of the poverty areas of New York and Harlem and elsewhere they found that only women lived there. They didn't find any men at all. So the counts on African-American men in that area or Puerto Rican men in a different area of Harlem, or the Bronx, was almost nonexistent, which meant that there was less funding. They changed the regulations so that they can get the funding, but also many minority groups, under represented groups, immigrants from different cultures, don't want to be known to be there.

Now the democratic party wanted to, this time, put through as part of a bill a, guesstimate? There's a word for it. I guess estimate? Approximate? something of that nature. They all mean the same. Based on statistics, on these groups so that they would get a higher count. The republicans opposed it in the Congress because they felt it wasn't fair by any means and it was defeated and might be justifiably so. See I told you I was going to do more than just the questionnaire. And then we only got to question two, huh? Question three.

Q If a person is indicted for a crime, name two rights which he or she has?
A Right to trial by jury, right?
A You have a right against self-incrimination.

Q To a fair trial and speedy trial. What is speedy? The federal law says that you must be tried within 90 days. That's defined as a speedy trial. Yet we know of federal cases where the trials wait a year, two years. So how is that the -- how does that occur? Because it means that the prosecution has to bring you to trial within 90 days. However, if the defense attorneys request delays based on needs to obtain evidence then they can delay the trial for as long as the courts are willing to allow the delay. So it really isn't the federal government that is preventing the speedy trial; it's often the defense attorneys.

Q (by student) Isn't it also true that if you're actually being held in jail that the amount of time that you have is less than if you're not in jail at the time?

A (by teacher) I think it's like 45 days or something. Yeah I think you're right. If you're being held again it may be 45 days, but if you're actually being incarcerated or held for trial because you can't make bail, it is a less of a period of time. Even under those circumstances most of the time the public defender, or whoever is involved, is the one that's going to delay the outcome of that trial. In other words, within 45 days or whatever the time is. Yeah I forgot about that, but that is true.

Q A United States senator elected at the general election takes office on the following year on what date?
A January 4th.

Q January 3rd unless it falls on a Sunday then it would be the 4th.

Q A president elected to the general election in November takes office the following year on what date?
A It is now January 20th at noon. It used to be March 4th. The constitution was amended.

Q Which definition applies to the word amendment? Now hopefully you got that right. A proposed change as in a constitution. A person appointed to the United States Supreme Court is appointed for a term of?
A Life. Actually we always say life. The Constitution says what? Anybody looked it up? The constitution says good behavior.

Q What's the difference between life and good behavior?
A You do something against the will of the people or whatever, like if Clinton was a member of the judicial branch he probably wouldn't be there anymore.

Q That may be true; I don't know. I'm not sure you answered my question. Basically the difference is that you can impeach somebody if it's life. If they're there for life, how do you impeach them? If they're there for good behavior, you have a reason then because their behavior is not so good. I think that's what you were implying but it wasn't directly coming out.

Q When the constitution was approved by the original colonies, how many states had to ratify it in order for it to be in effect?
A Nine. Who would like to tell me why this is a really bad question?
A Because if they don't ratify it they're not part --?
A Was it against it --.

Q Read it. I'll read it again. When the constitution was approved by the original colonies, how many states had to ratify it in order for it to be in effect?
A States not colonies. They weren't colonies. No, they were not -- states are not colonies. When were they states? As of what year? 1776. The United States declared it's independence. What's a colony? It's a colony of Britain, right? If we broke away from Great Britain, then we can't be a colony. Of course the constitution was written when? Testing your knowledge from your mid term exam? 1787 approved in 1789. So if between 1776 and 1787 we had 11 years of states. So it wasn't the colonies approving it which means that the people who made up this test in Alabama should not be voting, right? All right. Sorry folks but that's called critical reading. That's what we try to foster.

Q Does an enumeration effect the --?

(by teacher) Well, teach, I can answer it if I new what the word enumeration meant. What does enumeration mean? So how many answered it without looking up the word, not knowing what it meant? You guessed right. What does enumeration mean? To count. To enumerate means to count. So, is the income tax based on a count? The answer is no. The income tax is based on what? Your income. Many people opposed the income tax say it's illegal because they are not taxing your income; they are taxing your investments as well. And your profits. The word income means something you've worked for in salary. Your stock market benefits are not income and should not be taxed so they refuse to pay their taxes.

Q Persons opposed to swearing in an oath may say instead, I solemnly --
A Affirm. Why do you have an option? Freedom of religion under your beliefs and stuff. Yeah it is freedom of religion under the basis of - because if you are asked to swear in the name of God, that is offensive to some religions not -- forgetting atheist. For some, swearing under God is taking God's name in vain. I just thought of something. I was called for a deposition many years ago and the court reporter in the deposition did the swearing in. And so I was asked, you know, so I said I want to take an affirmation. So the court reporter says do you affirm under God. Wise ass, you can't trust these court reporters.

Q To serve as president of the United States the person must -- at age of?
A 35. They went 25 for the house of reps, 30 for the senate, and 35 for president.

Q What about vice president?
A Vice president can be of any age, I suppose, except that they couldn't take over the presidency so it's unlikely. We have had many who have run for president under the age of 35. One that comes to mind was Cleaver who ran the Peace and Freedom party back in the '68 election. However, he was 34 at the time and would not have been able to serve. He was not going to be elected anyway. Usually the vice president has to have the same qualifications because it's anticipated that they will replace the president if something should happen to the president. 35 was the average age. It was life expectancy at the time of the writing of the constitution. Actually by 1900, only 100 years ago, God -- 100 years ago life expectancy was between 40 and 45. Today as you know, life expectancy is 78 for men and 77 to 78 for women. 73 for men. Life expectancy stood at 67 and 63.

So had a tremendous jump in life expectancy. We've doubled in a sense since the turn of the century. Is that why social security is higher now? Well that's part of the reason. More people living and they had to calculate that in, and they didn't, so they've raised social security trying to cover some of the costs. There was fear that social security some of it has to do with the economy.

But yeah. Life expectancy makes a big difference as far as what they call actuarial charts that the insurance companies use. The reason for life expectancy being so short was not necessarily people didn't live long. Some did. It was basically birth deaths and within the first 2 years of birth. Most people had 10-12 kids and maybe 3-4 survived after 2 years. My grandparents came from families like that. In Europe where 12 - 14 children were born and maybe only 6 came out of their families. I think one had only 4. So life expectancy in poor areas of our country is still a problem. But not on that level. For example in the Fremont area here it's basically 3 out of 1,000 births, that's not a tremendous number. However if you get in the poor areas of Oakland and it's 16 out of 1,000 and that's quite a difference because of the kind of healthcare that they can afford in an upper middle class area and obviously the vitamins the care the medical treatment. I probably would not be here if I were born probably in 1900 even. I had three operations before I was two years old. So those make a big difference when you think about it.

Q What words are required by law to be on all papers currency of the United States?

Yeah what they're looking for is "In God We Trust." Which is of course interesting since we talk about separation of church and state. Yet it is required to have "in God we trust" on our coin. Of course in the pledge of allegiance I may have told you this, that when I did the pledge of allegiance when I was in high school and the elementary school "under God" was not in the pledge. Did I mention that in class? In any case it was added in1956.

Q (by student) How did it go?
A (by teacher) oh, one nation invisible with -- no, one nation indivisible. The reason God was added under God was added? Well again I think the reason is pretty clear in my mind. It was a period right after the McCarthy period there was a tremendous fear of communism. It is a Godless atheist world and to distinguish us from the Godless atheists of communism we had our children say "under God" to show that God was on our side, I guess. The removal of the prayer from the schools and the removal of -- was in 1962 and that was under 14th amendment.

Q The Supreme Court is the chief lawmaking bodies of the state? That is false. The Supreme Court is what kind of a body? It's judicial. Right.

14. If a law passed by a state is contrary to the provisions of the United States constitution, which law prevails?
A The federal law. On your words list from the text book from the last part of the semester, and I don't know if it was on your exam.

What number am I on again? Fifteen. Oh, back to fourteen. Supremacy clause is article six of the constitution which states that the federal law will be supreme to the state law. Which proposition that was passed in California is not being enforced to some extent because the federal law supersedes it? Medical marijuana, because federal law does not allow that there is pressure to prevent the uses of medical marijuana.

Q If a vacancy occurs in the United States senate, the state must hold an election; but meanwhile the place may be filled by a temporary appointment made by the?
A Governor of the state. Chief executor, but the governor is correct. The reason they use chief executor is that it was possible for states to name their governor something else. But all states have named them governor. However, four states are not states. Four states are commonwealths: Virginia, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, maybe it's three are actually known as commonwealths. Do they function any differently? No. I think that they maintain it because they took that name on independence when they were under the thirteen colonies.

Q A United States senator is elected to a term of?
A Six years.

Q Appropriation of money for the armed services can be only for a period limited to --?
A Two years.

Q The chief executive and administrative officers make up the --?
A Executive branch of government.

Q Who passes laws dealing with piracy?
A Congress. Because piracy is usually interstate or open seas. Do we have piracy still today? Yes we do. Forgetting software and going to the flea market and buying CDs. The fact is that there is piracy on the open seas especially by the Carribbean and back by the China Sea. We have problems with boat people, that has been a problem. But the Pirates of the Caribean are still floating around. They closed down, they changed the exhibits at the Pirates of the Caribbean it caused a big stir.

Q. The number of the representatives which a state is entitled to have in the House of Reps is based on --
A Population.

Q The constitution protects an individual against punishments which are?
A Cruel and unusual. Did we decide what a cruel and unusual punishment was in this class? What do you think a cruel and unusual punishment is besides listening to my lectures? Nobody's got any idea what a cruel and unusual punishment is?

A Torture. Yeah. Does it have to be both cruel and unusual or does it -- if you die their skin purple it's not necessarily cruel, but it's definitely unusual. I don't know. Good question. It does say cruel and, not cruel or. So think -- what about the gas chamber. They did declare the gas chamber cruel and unusual in the sense that they decided that it was too long a wait for the person to die, and so now lethal injection is being used. So the gas chamber has been basically outlawed I guess. They stopped using it in California. But if a person is going to get the death penalty for killing someone else isn't it the whole point to give them pain or just to die? Yeah it's just to die.They're still dead no matter how you do it. In Utah they give you an option of how you want to die. In Utah you can choose either the firing squad or hanging. Yeah. Which has not been declared cruel and unusual because hanging is immediate; once your neck is broken you're dead. The firing squad is an immediate death because they are supposedly expert. I decided if I got my choice in Utah I'd
ask them to do both, hang me and see if they can shoot me. See if they can shoot, you know, it's harder to shoot somebody falling. I'm sorry. I told you we have these weird images. Mine may be weirder than any of yours.

Q When a jury has heard and rendered a verdict in a case, and the judgment on the verdict has become final, the defendant cannot be brought again for the same cause?
A True.
OJ Simpson -- did you hear that he got mugged and took the gun away from the guy? I heard he had a knife. Yeah, wearing black gloves. Wise ass. OJ Simpson was tried -- once in criminal; once in civil. It's a different charge so if the charge was worded differently you can be tried twice. For the same crime. Although it's not the same crime as
such. Is there anybody who believes that OJ Simpson was innocent? Usually I like to give the benefit of the doubt. In this particular case it's very hard. However, if I were on the jury I would have voted not guilty without a second question. As much as I am absolutely convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that he did it, I think the city of Los Angeles screwed up royally. Why? Basically because you got a person there that's lying to them, Furman, he's not a racist, they come up with the evidence that's number one.

Number two, to find a glove sitting in the yard and somebody hopping over a fence supposedly without a search warrant raises a lot of constitutional questions in my mind. There are a number of those factors that are very much a part -- consider it to have been a very very questionable kind of case, especially the police involvement, as to -- I have little doubt in my mind that that glove was specifically dropped -- picked up at the crime scene and -- because somebody does not take a glove with them, leave one at the crime scene and drop one in his yard; I'm sorry.

Q Name two levels of government which can levy taxes. Any level. Can you think of any level that can't levy taxes? City, local, state, federal, water board. Dog catchers. They can all levy taxes.

Q Communism was the type of government in -- All right, first of all why would I find this question poorly worded?
A Because first of all we could see Soviet Union was socialist and that's true because it hadn't yet reached communism, but I think communism is actually a government and I think I said that in class that communism and socialism are economic systems that communism would be anarchy exist in itself Soviet Union was really totalitarian.

Q Cases tried before a court of law are of two types, civil and criminal.

Q By a majority vote of the members of congress, the Congress can change provisions of the constitution of the United States; true or false?
A That is false. Anybody here remember how our federal constitution is amended at all? Doesn't it need -- 2/3 in the senate and the house. Then it goes to the states. Where does it go to in the states? It goes to the state legislatures, right. You don't vote in the states. It goes directly to the legislatures. How many state legislatures have to pass for the amendment to be an amendment? Three quarters. Which will account for 38 states today. Three quarters of the states have to approve it after 2/3 of the house and senate. In California, what do we have to do to amend the constitution in California? The state constitution? Remember it goes on the ballot. Either by the legislature or through an initiative and if it goes on the ballot, it means that we the people have to vote on it. So in California we the people actually do get to vote and it takes 50% majority plus one, whatever it is, to pass as a constitutional amendment in California.

27. For security, each state has a right to form a --?
A Militia.

28. The electoral vote for president is counted in the presence of two bodies; name them? What are the two bodies?
A The house and the senate. The house of reps and the senate. If no candidate for the presidency received a majority of the electoral voted who decides who will become president? The house of representatives decides. Among the five top candidates. If nobody gets a majority of the electoral votes. Going back and testing. Memories. How many electoral votes does somebody have to get to become president? How many votes does somebody have to get to become president? How many electors are there voting for president. It's 538 and the majority of that is 270. So it was 270. Good. Some of you remembered something. Most of you forgot it after you took the exam, but I just want to see who has the memories.

Q Of which branch of state government is the Speaker of the House a part?
A Legislative.

Q Of the original thirteen states, the one with the largest representation in the congress was --
A Virginia. And the way to have known that is that in the beginning of the Constitution there is a little section where it divides the thirteen states with electoral votes. Virginia had ten electoral votes, New York eight, and Pennsylvania eight. I put down Pennsylvania because I knew that Philadelphia was the largest city. It had 35,000 people which of course is not extremely large by today's standards. Boston we hear so much about had 10,000 people at the time to have the constitution.

32. In case the president is unable to perform the duties of his office, who assumes them? Monica Lewinsky, Hillary Clinton?
A The vice president of the United States. Who is? Al Gore.

Q Capital punishment is the giving of a death sentence; true or false?
A True. Amazed -- nervous on that one. All right what's corporal punishment. A beating. Giving of bodily sentence. Corporal giving to the body.

Q Involuntarily servitude is permitted in the United States upon conviction of a crime. Which means what? Slavery. Is permitted in the United States upon conviction of a crime true or false? That is true. Those people on the highways in their orange jackets that pick up stuff. One of the best cases from my perspective during the 1960s, and during the '60s the Vietnam war was underway, as you know ,and there was a draft. The number of people that went to the courts arguing that drafting people into the military was actually involuntary servitude without committing a crime, makes all the sense in the world to me. However, the courts threw it out. Surprise; surprise.

Q If a state is a party to a case, the constitution provides that original jurisdiction shall be in --
A The state.

Q Congress passes laws regulating cases which are included in those over which the United States Supreme Court has --
A Appellate jurisdiction.

Q The legislatures of states decide how presidential electors may in chosen.
A That's true.

Q If it were proposed to join Alabama and Mississippi to form one state, what groups would have to vote approval in order for this to be done?
A The state legislatures, and the federal legislature.

Q The vice president presides over? Tipper Gore.
A The U.S. Senate. He is the president of the senate. And as president of the senate, does he get to vote? Maybe. In cases of a tie only.

Q The constitution limits the size of the District of Columbia to -- what? Oh, is -- ten square miles. Square miles. No, ten miles square. Not ten square miles. I want you to numerically give me the difference between ten square miles -- excuse me, number forty. I missed that.
A Ten miles square. Not ten square miles, but I wrote it right. I did. I believe you. But I still want the mathematical difference. I want you to explain it to me what is the difference between ten miles square and ten square miles. Come on, give me this crap. I want to see if you can give me basic math.

A Ninety miles. What kind of math teacher did you have? Ninety? The difference is ninety square miles. Thank you. You didn't add the rest of it and that gives you --. Now those of you who don't understand what the hell we just did definitely need to go back to your calculus class. Isn't that nasty? Don't you hate the math teacher when they take a point off? And you tell me I'm picky, right?

41. The only laws which can be passed to apply to an area in a federal arsenal are those passed by the -- federal government, the congress provided consent for the purchase of the land is given by -- the state legislature.
Q In which branch of government is the Supreme Court justice a part?
A Judicial.

Q In which document or writing is the bill of rights found? Hard one, huh.
A Constitution.

Q If no person receives a majority of the electoral votes, the vice president is chosen by the senate.
A That's true. Yeah. The president is chosen by the house and vice by the senate; the reason? In case the house can't agree on a presidential candidate, the hope is that the Senate can agree on a vice president candidate, and then we can have a president. Because the vice president would take over.

45. Name two things which the states are forbidden to do by the United States constitution.

A Coin money. Issue titles of nobility. They're not allowed to have any other system of government besides a republic. They're not allowed to have import or export tariffs.

Q If the election of the president becomes the duty of the United States house of reps and it fails to act, who becomes president and when?
A The vice president on January 20th at noon.

Q Circle the offenses below which, if you're convicted of them, disqualifies you for voting.
A I know that any felony usually does. Murder is definite. Petty larceny is not a felony. Issuing worthless checks maybe depending on the size of the check and boot legging may or may not be. Generally it is. What is boot legging? Know what is boot legging really refers to what? Is now referred to boot-leg videos or CDs, but that's not the original term. Liquor. You're allowed to make a certain percentage for yourself but that is considered boot legging.

Q Name two purposes of United States constitution. Now the purposes of the United States constitution are where? In the Preamble. So what are two purposes?
A Create a more perfect union. Establish justice. Ensure domestic tranquility. Provide for the common defense. Promote the general welfare.

Q Congress is composed of -- idiots.
A Congress is composed of the house and the senate.

Q All legislative powers granted in the United States Constitution may legally be used only by -- the congress. Legislative would mean congress.

Q Impeachments of United States officials are tried by -- the senate.

Q If an effort to impeach the president of the United States is made, who presides at the trial? 51 is what? The congress. Who presides at the trial?
A Chief justice of the Supreme Court. Who is the chief justice of the Supreme Court. His name is on your word list but you won't find it because you don't know it. Because there are other names -- you might. Who is the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court? William Rehnquist.

Q On the impeachment of the chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, who tries the case?
A The senate again in this case however, the presiding officer would be the president of the senate who is the vice president of the United States.

Q Money is coined by order of -- U.S. Congress. Have any of you seen the new quarters. God, it's like play money. It feels lighter. I've not seen it yet. Yeah, they're putting out a whole set. You got some. Oh, here? Oh, no not with me. I took a look at it. I couldn't believe it felt so much lighter. You talk about the money not looking real, this absolutely, you know, I -- so if some people are checking is it a horse is on it or something. Well it's not so much what's on it. Each place that's done is has a different -- for six weeks. Is that what it is? They go to a different state, but it's the weight and the look and the feel that doesn't feel like a quarter. I want money that feels like money. I just want money. Are vending machines going to have to make change to adapt to the quarter? It may not be interesting. So vending machines just have some slide in the slot. The machine doesn't take the new twenty dollar bill. Yeah that doesn't surprise me because the design is so different. I wonder about the quarters as well. Yeah that's right. It will take the quarters. It will. That's interesting so I guess it isn't as dramatic as we --

Q Persons elected to cast a state's vote for United States president and vice president are called presidential -- electors.

Q If a person flees from justice into another state, who has the authority to ask for his return?
A The governor of the state. The chief executor. Does the person have to be returned? Constitution says yes. Stangely even though we know of many many cases where governors have refused. How have they gotten away from it? Because they argued that the laws of that state do not apply and so simply have refused to do so. Now, the only major court case that I know of where the situation --was the Dred Scott decision back in 1850 and he was ordered returned of freeing slaves the constitution does require it but. What if countries don't have extradition agreements?

Yeah there are many countries and sometimes the agreements are specific. Many countries have extradition agreement, but they will not return to a state that has capital punishment. Like France or Israel. Therefore if a person has committed a crime, we just had a case where somebody -- they agreed -- had kicked him of the death penalty and all of a sudden they back away so that they could get him back.

Q Whose duty is it to keep congress informed of the state of the union?
A President. He does it once a year in January. Usually, it has been for many, many years verbal.

Q If the two houses of congress cannot agree on an adjournment, who sets the time?
A The president.

Q The power to declare war is vested in --
A Congress. Can the president declare war? Officially not. As you know military troops are being sent into action. American soldiers could easily been killed so far. I'm anticipating in the next month or so we'll have ground troops going into Serbia under presidential orders.

Well that pretty much finishes the elections and voting, but we're moving on to the two-party system. I still have six minutes or so. So don't run away from me.

Q (by student) Is there any way for us to make up something on our test like if we got a really low grade?
A Oh, no. The only way that I give you to make up is in the sense of the interfaces. That gives you 100 points to average in, which pulls your grades up at least one or two. However the best way to make it up is to study twice as hard for the final and do well there if the grade was extremely low. Extremely low - what I recommended is anybody under 30 drop the class. Because there is no way to make that up I think to a passing grade. Anything above a 30, is a possibly of a D and above a 55 is a possibly of a C. Strongly.

We are moving onto what we call the two-party system and I think it's pretty obvious. It's not one thing they've to explain, but the two-party system because in the United States we have basically we have two major parties. The republicans and the democrats. We do have third parties. We call them third parties because basically they seldom if ever win an election. We just had it happen where? A third party won an election? In Oakland. The green party for the first time ever. Yep. Previously they've never gotten more than 12% of the vote, this time 52%, and are sending a woman to the California assembly. It was quite a shock for everybody especially the democrats. So seldom, if ever, win an election the Green party is an example of a third party. It's strange for many people from other countries because except for England and maybe one or two other countries most countries have multiple parties. They don't have two major parties. And their parties are very distinct based on ideology. While most of us would argue that there are differences between the republicans and the democrats. Compared to other systems many people have argued that really what we have is Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb. Alice In Wonderland. They are the twins. The so-called identical twins in Alice In Wonderland. The only difference was that one sucked his thumb? I don't know. One had a red shirt and one had -- well, meaning you can't tell the difference.

For the $64 thousand question, who wrote Tweedle Dee Tweedle Dumb? Louis Caroll. Did we go through this before? Yes. Well in any case. There are differences. And often humor has been involved in the papers and on the radio to distinguish the parties and within the humor maybe there is some basis for reality. Some of the kinds of lines that distinguish the parties. Republicans read the business section of the newspaper first. The democrats take the business section and put it on the bottom of the bird cages. Republicans fish from the sterns of boats; democrats sit on the dock and wait for the fish to come to them. Republicans hang the fish on the wall; democrats eat the fish. The republicans -- the democrats name their children after sports figures, entertainment figures; republicans name their children after grandparents or their parents, wherever the most money is.

Let me see if I can think of some more. Republican men want to marry republican women, but they insist on dating democratic girls first because they figure they're entitled to a little fun. Republicans always pull down their shades in their bedrooms even though there's no reason to; the democrats never do, but they ought to. Republicans sleep in twin beds, that's why there are more democrats than republicans. We'll see you on Tuesday.