I'm sorry but I can't help but think all this chest beating in Congress is an insult. Am I angry with AIG? To some degree, but remember the safeguard for those bonuses was written in the stimulus bill by Congress with the knowledge of the president! Chris Dodd lied and admitted he lied but then went on to use the "it's not my fault" excuse. He said he was pressured by staff to insert that clause. BY STAFF!!! Does the staff run other members of Congress as well? This bill was shoved down the throats of Congress to sign without any ability to read it first. Am I angry with AIG? I am not nearly as angry with AIG as I am our own elected official who signed that bill not even knowing what they were signing with the exception that billions of dollars spent would be the end result. I am extremely angry with both sides of the aisle. Both Democrats and Republicans voted for this Pandora's box.

Many have mentioned creating a third party and I agree. It takes a long time, however, to get a credible movement going in that direction. We have a third party now that has a few elected officials on the hill and is gaining ground. We want a third party that already has that credibility and is growing then go with the Independent Party. The more people who register Independent will dilute the obvious target of the democrats to realign districts in 2010. As an Independant you can still vote whichever way you like but the higher the numbers the more difficult for either party to scew the districts. In addition, if we can get major numbers flocking to the established Independent party both Democrats and Republicans will have to start looking over their shoulders as we gain on them. I am a Republican but I will be changing my party to Independent this week.

If the numbers are there, both other parties will feel the pressure with three equally established parties in Congress we stand a much better chance of all three paying greater attention to us, the voters. Please consider this idea and I would appreciate your comments.

I agree. Please see the meat of the Smith Act that I posted below:

The Alien Registration Act or Smith Act (18 U.S.C. § 2385) of 1940 is a United States federal statute that makes it a criminal offense for anyone to
“knowingly or willfully advocate, abet, advise or teach the duty, necessity, desirability or propriety of overthrowing the Government of the United States or of any State by force or violence, or for anyone to organize any association which teaches, advises or encourages such an overthrow, or for anyone to become a member of or to affiliate with any such association.”

It also required all non-citizen adult residents to register with the government; within four months, 4,741,971 aliens had registered under the Act's provisions.

I think that this forum is a perfect field from which to start a petition against ACORN's involvement but more importantly, this administration has pulled the census into White House. A huge threat to fair representation for all of us. They also claim that they want to use the "estimated" count process. The census is the tool used to determine representation for districts, allotments of monies for districts and the very realignment of districts. It is the fertile ground of gerimandering. It is one area where we need to be protected by that second layer of government. Give it to the White House and let ACORN choose the volunteers is abominable. They are under Federal investigation for voter fraud now. One member is on trial in Missouri (I believe) What's to stop them from committing census fraud? I would be happy to create such a petition on my own email or this site whichever you prefer. Please let me know if you agree.

As an aside, were any of you aware that Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was one of the founders of the ACLU and was on their board? She then joined the communist party and told the ACLU and they had her resign. She was later arrested and convicted of violating the Smith Act. She served two years in prison. When she was released she went back to the communist party. She was elected National Chairman of the Communist Party for the US in 1961. and held that position until her death. After her death the ACLU reinstated her membership posthumously.

We now know where the origin of the philosophy of the ACLU came from.

Thank you pathfinders. It is difficult but a wonderful experience. I always tried to vote my conscience and what was best for the majority and not special interest.

Another fear I have of have of term limits is the loss of institutional memory. If everyone serving is relatively new then their staff and the lobbyist could easily take advantage and could ultimately have a greater influence on the elected official. I have seen this happen.

I still think the answer is the term limits already in place in the voting booth.

Dan, I understand your feelings and on some level I agree, but mostly I am cautious about term limits. I was a local elected official for eight years. I can tell you there are some good elected officials out there and we need to ad to their numbers not punish them. I believe that term limits at at any level may end up throwing the baby out with the bath water. In an ideal world voters would have their thumb on what their representatives are doing. I think that this is one goal that this movement hopes to accomplish. I can't tell you how many times, when I was in the government world, I asked our representative to do something and his response was "well I tried, but I'm only one vote out of eighty votes".

As this movement matures we can respond to that statement with "I understand, I am only one of hundreds of thousands of voters. Let me take it to them and I'll let you know what they think about it" I think you'll find the doors and minds of our elected officials will start to open to us or they will be shown the door. We as the American people have to be accountable for who we put in office. Our own apathy is probably the biggest contributor to bad representation from our elected officials. Apathy and ignorance are what allow emotions to predetermine the outcome of an election. When many voters support a candidate they do it for one or two reasons. If you ask them to go deeper many can't explain more than it's time for a change or don't vote for any incumbents. We need to show the bad ones they will no longer be tolerated and reward the few good ones up there. When a friend of yours supports a candidate, ask them why. If their response is "time for change": ok, change to what or from what. How is that change going to take place? What will the ripple effect be? We should ask the same question of ourselves and others no matter who, or what party, the candidate we support.

We must all remember that we are a Republic not a democracy. We are a Representative form of government. Remember when you send someone to Washington you're technically not sending them to represent you personally. In a Representative form of government you elect officials because you trust their judgement to make a good decision and an honest decision. If we all remember that, we have to take responsibility for our choices of who we send as our representative and do we know enough about them to trust their judgement to make decisions for us. Doesn't mean they won't make mistakes but at least you'll feel that they did what they really felt was in the best interest of their constituents

Make our elected official feel the same connection to their constituents as local government does. When they start feeling like they are meeting America in the super market or at the drug store, they'll take notice. This forum is the super market and the drug store.

Glen, thank you for starting this and to all who are responding, you are restoring my faith in the passion of the American people in our country.