The budget gap : gender discrimination in the U.S. federal budget process, 1962-2011.

The persistent private sector wage gap between men and women is one of the more intractable deficiencies of modem American society. It may be symptomatic of male privilege, a theory that outlines pervasive, ubiquitous discrimination that favors men from birth until death. However, egalitarian wage laws passed by Congress rigidly enforce equal pay for equal work at the highest echelons of public service, including Congress, the Cabinet, and the presidency. Is male privilege likely to manifest despite such legislation? If we assume that members of the Cabinet are lobbyists or representatives of their agencies, with Congress as the constituent, pervasive discrimination against women might result in reduced budgetary capacity for female-run Cabinet agencies. This project examines the budgetary outlays data of the US Cabinet from 1962-2011 to examine whether or not the sex of secretaries in the Cabinet influence the size of their department\u27s budget. The results show that there is a relationship between gender and budget size, but other characteristics of Cabinet secretaries are more influential, such as marital status, career choice, and level of education

Primary primers: moving the Republican convention is all about Trump’s ego – not his reelection

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused major shifts and changes to this election year’s political schedule, among them the Republican National Committee’s decision to shift the party’s presidential nominating convention from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Jacksonville, Florida. Kevin Fahey writes that President Trump has been the driving force behind this change, and that he believes that moving the convention will bolster his chances in Florida, avoid #BlackLivesMatter protests, and provide a red- carpet spectacle for his voting base

The 2022 Midterms: why the triumph of Republican true believers means the outcome in Florida may be too hard to call

In recent years Florida has voted reliably for Republican candidates at both the national and statewide level, with the 2022 midterm results looking likely to continue that trend until recently. Kevin Fahey writes that new political events including the conflict between the state’s Governor Ron DeSantis and the Disney corporation, the US Supreme Court’s overturning of the right to an abortion, and revelations from the January 6th Commission mean that GOP electoral victories in Florida this November may no longer be a certainty. He writes that the Democratic anger these developments may engender makes predicting the midterm results in the Sunshine State near impossible

What happened?: Florida has already sounded a 2024 warning for Joe Biden

Once thought of as a battleground state, Florida now leans Republican in presidential elections. Kevin Fahey takes a close look at county-by-county results and trends in the 2020 election in the Sunshine State and finds that given the Republican Party’s growing appeal in rural areas, there is no further deep well of Democratic voters for Joe Biden to turnout. Winning [...

In times of war, who is conscripted may depend on who they voted for

In many circumstances, governments attempt to protect their supporters from adverse outcomes, and this can also be the case in wartime. In new research on conscription in the US during the Second World War, Douglas B. Atkinson and Kevin Fahey find that counties that narrowly voted for Democratic presidential and congressional candidates had lower levels of enlistment than other counties, which they attribute to the discretionary power of politically appointed local draft boards

Studying ballot endorsements shows that even in the digital age, newspapers still matter to voters

Recent years have seen falling subscriptions and declining revenues as print media like newspapers face growing competition from their digital counterparts. But if newspapers are becoming less and less effective at conveying information to readers, do their political endorsements matter anymore? In new research which examines newspapers' endorsements for state constitutional measures, Kevin Fahey, Carol Weissert and Matt Uttermark find that while they do not mobilize voters to vote, their endorsements mean that those that do are more likely to support an amendment

Peripheral Heating with Negative Pressure Increases Arterial Blood Flow

Over half (53%) of adults in the United States have some form of diabetes. Traditional treatments have been inadequate in stopping this epidemic suggesting the need for novel therapies. Peripheral heating with negative pressure has previously been shown to reduce blood glucose. The mechanisms behind this effect are unknown but may be related to changes in blood flow to the treated extremity. PURPOSE: To examine changes in flow rate (time averaged mean velocity (TAMV)), vessel cross-sectional area (CSA), and blood flow in the popliteal artery before and during peripheral heating with negative pressure applied to the feet. METHODS: Measures of TAMV, CSA, and blood flow were obtained from the left and right popliteal artery of participants using an ultrasound doppler (Philips CX50, General Electric, USA) before and during peripheral heating with negative pressure. Heat (42°C) was applied to the sole of the feet and negative pressure (-75 mmHg) applied from the feet to the top of the calves while participants remained seated. Vessels were matched for pre and post measures using anatomical landmarks and vessel diameter. Blood flow was calculated as TAMV * CSA. Data are presented as mean (SD) and were analyzed with paired two-sided t-tests. RESULTS: Participants’ (N=8, 4 men and 4 women) demographics are as follows: age: 26.5 (6.1) years; height: 177.7 (9.0) cm; BMI: 25.5 (3.9) kg/m2; body fat: 18.9 (5.7) %. From baseline to during the intervention, TAMV increased 22.3% from 13.0 (13.4) to 16.0 (16.5) cm/sec, p=.059 and 24.7% from 10.5 (10.7) to 13.0 (13.3) cm/sec, p=.067; CSA increased 9.7% from 0.42 (0.34) to 0.46 (0.39) cm2, p=.247, and 10.4% from 0.65 (0.62) to 0.72 (0.70) cm2, p=.122; and blood flow increased 32.3% from 5.2 (3.1) to 7.0 (4.0) mL/sec, p=.115 and 29.5% from 7.2 (7.3) to 9.3 (7.4) mL/sec, p=.032, in the left and right popliteal arteries respectively. CONCLUSION: In this pilot study, applying heat and negative pressure to the feet increased arterial blood flow largely by increasing flow rate with lesser changes to vessel CSA. Without reader blinding and assurance that the same vessel and portion of said vessel were used for pre and post measures, these results should be considered exploratory and interpreted with caution

Secrecy and the politics of selective disclosures: the US government's intervention in Guatemala

Recent scholarship debates the signaling function of secrecy and covertness. At the international level, covertness is used to achieve strategic objectives without risking escalation or openly violating international law. Domestically, secrecy is understood as a method to pacify domestic constituencies. These are typically understood as obstacles to the conduct of (covert) foreign policy. Building primarily on archival material, the analysis highlights the role of ‘selective disclosures’ of information regard- ing covert operations. This article analyses the Eisenhower Administration’s 1954 intervention in Guatemala (PBSUCCESS). We find that the executive used disclosures – and not secrecy – to pacify hawkish domestic constituencies