Immigration

[drmichaelhardy]

Since immigration is at the top of the headlines, see how you do on this quiz:

(1) Which brief passage in the Constitution of the United States limits federal regulation of immigration?

(2) Why did the authors of the Constitution avoid the use of a certain blunt monosyllable in that passage, in favor of a circumlocution?

(I have a speculative theory about the answer to the second question.)

Some news stories cannot be properly understood without some background information on things that are not new.  E.g. some state legislatures have recently considered altering the way their states choose presidential electors.  I wonder how many people know that the Founding Fathers did not ordain that states give all their electoral votes to whichever candidate wins in that state, but instead said that the way in which electors are chosen is to be decided by state legislatures, and two states do not currently use the winner-take-all system.

[Ed Poor]

I knew about the electoral college thing, and I note that often US journalists present the presidential election process without reminding readers/viewers that winner-take-all isn't automatic.

I also noticed that in 2000 major networks called Florida for Gore even when the western panhandle (highly pro-Bush) still had open polling places. It is in the Central Time Zone. The effect was to discourage Bush voters, thus engineering the recount which came to dominate the news thereafter. I know about this because at the time I worked for ABC and my boss was the programmer for their election software.