Any true student of the history of government (my degree is in Public Policy) will know that the American democracy was actually intentionally designed to prevent anyone from getting anything done quickly, easily, or without a hell of a lot of debate. Congress is supposed to be a bunch of bickering fools (mission accomplished), which prevents them from making any law unless the people truly and honestly demand it (whoops. Can you say DMCA? I think you can). They are also supposed to be very jealous of their power versus the executive branch, and wary of the Judicial. Lately, however (as in the last 50-75 years, possibly longer), political parties have begun to demand consensus amongst their members, which means that members of Congress either vote with their parties, or risk having their funding dry up at the next election when the party tells its big donors not to donate to that candidate. This is a much smaller threat with long-term incumbents, however, for various reasons. The point is that the framers of the Constitution intended for it to be like pulling teeth to pass any law, which is why they had to put in provisions like bicameral agreement on new legislation, vetos, veto overrides, and practically impossible measures for Constitutional amendment.
So basically, the fact that the this President hasn't issued a veto in the 5+ years he's been in office is a bit of an aberation. And the fact that we can't even decide with a real majority on how to vote for our SC is really true democracy. Thus endeth the lesson. I will now be ignoring this list for the next two weeks until the cheers, jeers, and discussion about bribery, bigotry, Nazism, Communism, anarchy, realism, idealism, Democrats, Republicans, republican government, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Clinton, any Kennedy (living or dead), Ross Perot or Ralph Nader, Micheal Moore, any member of Congress (living or dead), the Warren court, Hobbes' "Leviathan", elderly Floridian voters, Iraq, Iran, North Korea, South Korea, kim chee, barbecue (Carolina or otherwise), impeachments, Enron, gas prices, Hurricane Katrina, hunting accidents, Stephen Colbert, Halliburton, and the correct pronunciation of the word 'nuclear' die down a bit. (Yikes, what have I done.) -Ben Pitzer On 05 May 2006 17:41:13 -0400, jonc <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Damn! I love seeing Democracy in action! I think a nice compromise for now would be to let Kevin print out the ballots and simply leave three or four blank lines that can be filled in at the meeting - though I don't expect many surprises at the meeting - or any additional nominations.... Assuming no other candidates drop out. Jon On Fri, 2006-05-05 at 14:42, Matt Frye wrote: > On 5/5/06, Magnus <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > You cannot propose this now according to the articles of incorporation. > > "Proposed actions...." > > He can propose it, but it won't be acted on it until the next meeting. > However, in the interest of improving processes, I second this > motion. > > I also nominate Tanner and Magnus to the committee that writes the > document. As someone who has experience both writing and approving > committee documents, I also volunteer. > > Matt Frye -- TriLUG mailing list : http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug TriLUG Organizational FAQ : http://trilug.org/faq/ TriLUG Member Services FAQ : http://members.trilug.org/services_faq/
-- TriLUG mailing list : http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug TriLUG Organizational FAQ : http://trilug.org/faq/ TriLUG Member Services FAQ : http://members.trilug.org/services_faq/
