Politcal Exercise Technology

Can citizens explore politics through technology? (That is the main question that drives this assignment.) There are two parts to this assignment- posting at least
five times (on at least three different days) to a Google Group discussion forum (https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/talking-students worth 10% of the
assignment), and the second part, where you will do the three exercises below and hand in your typed answers by the due date specified in your syllabus (worth 90% of
assignment). The information from this assignment may be part of the information used for a quiz, so by answering the questions you will also have a general idea about
what types of questions I would be interested in for the quiz.

The Google Group (Talking Students): you simply go to the group and either respond (post) to a topic or theme (such as the charts on equality, housing and segregation,
or the older post on budgets, debt ceilings, and the Affordable Care Act), or you can start your own threads too. This group is used every semester, so all the posts,
questions, and threads are sets of previous posts by different classes, including discussions from over three years ago. When you post on these older threads (as they
were themes that were used in earlier semesters), please note that most of the content is from different semesters (along with discussions and responses). The address
for the group is: https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/talking-students

You will not have to register with Google since your OCC email account already enables you to post to the group (so use your OCC email account when posting to the
group). Remember that you need to post a minimum of five times on three different days. The basic idea is to communicate with all of my different classes and whoever
else is participating during the semester and engage in discussions via the internet as opposed to the classroom. Again, go to Talking Students and start talking to
your classmates. Please be creative and civil as the group is not moderated (this counts toward 10% of your total grade for this assignment). Please turn in a copy of
your five posts or save them digitally (such as taking a screen shot and saving it on your smart phone) as you will need to show me proof of your posts (just copy your
posts right from the Talking Students portal and hand this part of the assignment in by the last day of class).

The second part (90% of your total grade for this assignment) is the most important as far as points, and consists of answering the three exercises below and typing
out your answers–and then please bring your typed answers to class by the date or week specified in your syllabus. The three exercises are focused on Detroit politics
in the 1920-1960 period, Congress and the Presidency, and two important bureaucracies of government (the CBO and the OMB). Please do not email me your answers, as I am
asking for your typed responses (hard copy form) to be turned in on the date noted in the syllabus. If for some reason you are unable to get me a printed (hard) copy
of the assignment, I can only accept email submissions via D2L in the Dropbox section please.

Exercise #1- Ossian Sweet and Detroit in the 1920s (22 points total)

Here is a link to a brief overview of the Ossian Sweet case, occurring in Detroit in the mid 1920s: http://detroit1701.org/SweetHome.htm

While reading the overview, click any of the links (they are in blue or purple) to check out some other related civil rights themes from the Detroit metropolitan area
(especially the “wall” and “Paradise Valley”). Make sure at the leastthat you know:

1) the basics of the Sweet case, with emphasis on why the case is a significant civil rights case in a historical sense (so tell me about the circumstances leading up
to the trial, the outcome of the trial(s), and why it is generally considered one of the most important civil rights case of the 1920s).

2) what and where the “wall” is, but focus your answer on why it (the wall) was constructed, and

3) what was Paradise Valley (during the early 20th century) and what happened to this historic neighborhood? For this part, please discuss why this neighborhood was so
important not only for the African-American community in Detroit but in broader terms as well. Also, please discuss the specific ways in which the neighborhood was
destroyed.

Note: Paradise Valley was next to an area called Black Bottom, historically a farming zone with excellent soil. For additional information see
http://detroithistorical.org/learn/encyclopedia-of-detroit/black-bottom-neighborhood

If the Dr. Ossian Sweet case interests you, Google (i.e. search) “Ossian Sweet” and do some additional research to get some differing perspectives and more information
about the case and any related themes from this time period, but please use your own words to answer the three questions (the questions can be answered just from the
link provided, but feel free to explore differing resources). Your typed responses must be in your own words and at a minimum, should address the three themes above.
As a guideline only, each answer can be addressed in about two paragraphs, or no more than 1-2 pages total, so please stick to the questions asked. Important: When you
directly cite something from any external source, please give that source proper credit (i.e. cite the source please). For two extra-credit points, at the end of your
answer, explain the role of the government, if any (local to national) in each of the three main themes (Dr. Sweet, the wall, Paradise Valley). All three questions are
of equal value for exercise #1 (so each part is worth 7.33 points each and should be given equal reflection).

Exercise #2- The Presidency and Congress: The Separation of Powers Doctrine and the Concept of Checks and Balances–Exploring your government via technology (21 points
total)

Below are the websites for the White House (with an obvious focus on the presidency, located in the executive branch) and the US Congress ( the House of
Representatives and the Senate, which make up the two federal legislative branches of the US government). These three websites are portals for connecting with at least
two-thirds of the federal government (we will discuss the US Supreme Court but not for this exercise- the focus here is for you, as an individual, to interact
digitally with the representative aspects of the US government: the presidency and Congress).

1) Discuss, just from exploring the three websites, the main differences and purposes of each of the institutions (please only use the three websites below in
answering this question- the idea is to see what information a citizen can obtain just from looking at these websites). This question is asking you to tell me the main
purposes and powers of the Presidency and the two chambers of Congress, so while it would be difficult to list all of the various purposes, powers and differences of
and between the Presidency, the House of Representatives, and the Senate, try to focus on what you feel to be the most important powers, purposes and differences.
Please note that this question is asking about the Presidency and Congress, NOT the purposes of the websites (that is addressed to some degree in questions 2 and 3).
Again, what are the most important powers, purposes and differences of the Presidency and Congress? You should be able to answer this first question with about a page
of text. (11 points)

2) Spend some time checking out each website and reflect on the similarities and differences of the three websites in terms of their purpose. In addition, pay
attention to whether or not you think the sites are user-friendly and why (or why not). (5 points)

3) Finally, when checking out the White House portal in particular, take a quick look at the legislative achievements of the current administration and reflect on
President Obama’s record so far (initiatives, accomplishments, executive orders, bills signed, pending, vetoed and other things considered achievements either by you
or as presented on the website). For this last part, also reflect on the different ways the House and Senate present (if at all) the accomplishments or “achievements”
promoted by the White House website. Since each institution is controlled by a political party, expect those biases to be evident (explicitly or in more subtle ways),
and please feel free to include your own bias when reflecting on what the White House website will call the “achievements” or successes of the Obama administration. (5
points)

Again, please only use the three websites below for the three parts of the exercise. You are not being asked to go to another website that explains the functions of
government- the point here is to see what kind of information is contained in each of the websites that are produced by each institution and to analyze that. As long
as you spend some significant time exploring each of the three websites and write about the powers of the President of the USA, the US House of Representatives, and
the US Senate, (and make sure that you answer all of the three questions from this section), you should do fine on Exercise #2! Each of the websites have icons or
menus (at the bottom or top of the website), and lots of information is contained in these websites, so please make sure that you fully explore the three websites.
While this set of questions is not difficult, it is challenging to navigate the three websites. You should be able to adequately answer this part in 2 pages (or less-
the first question is worth the most so spend the most time with that question, meaning it should be the longest in length- my guideline was approximately one page for
the first question since it is worth more points than the other two questions combined).

http://www.whitehouse.gov/

http://www.house.gov/

http://www.senate.gov/

The main question for this part above on the presidency and Congress is question #1 (11 points), so spend most of your time on that. However, as you are checking out
the various websites this will enable you to comment on user-friendliness and the third question (parts 2 and 3 are worth 5 points each).

Exercise #3-Fun times with the CBO and the OMB! (22 points total)

Below are two websites: one for the CBO and the other for the OMB. Just from checking out the main page (and going further by clicking on various links from the main
pages), you should be able to answer the following questions:

1) Where are these organizations in the federal government (not their geographical locations, where they are located in the national government please) 2 points

2) What are the the primary functions of the OMB and the CBO, and in addition, what events lead to the creation of the CBO? (10 points)

3) What are the differences between the OMB and the CBO? For this last part, you should be focusing primarily on what kinds of things the OMB does that the CBO does
not do, and noting any biases of these institutions, if any. (10 Pts)

Please use your own words for this exercise and only use direct quotes if it is absolutely necessary (and make sure you use quotation marks when merited). In addition
to the above questions, if you think you can comment on this,briefly comment on how the CBO and the OMB function in the context of the separation of powers and checks
and balances (2 extra credit points). For this set of questions, the majority of the points are attached to questions 2 and 3 (8 points each= 16 total, so question 1
is worth only 2 points). As a guideline only, you should be able to fully answer #3 in 1-2 pages (typed).

http://www.cbo.gov

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/

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