I hear your intent with the "draft a congressman" idea.....but spend some time reading liberal postings on various blogs....that idea sounds good in principle, but is scary as "H" in practice....but here's a little different angle. Eliminate congresspersons sitting on Committees. Why should individual obtain "mini - speaker of the house" type roles as Chair of a comm, where they can bury bills? Also, who believes that congress folk "know everything" as they try to make us believe? Create elected positions as committee members, with a rotating chair. Key is, you have to have experience/education/expertise in particular committee you serve on. Military folk on Armed Services, teachers on Education, etc, etc.
I'm with you. Makes a lot more sense than trying to start yet another party without an apparatus to fight the machines of the Dem/GOP parties. Otherwise, at best, the new party's candidate plays the role of "spoiler". Can you say Ralph Nader or Ross Perot, or to some extent Ron Paul this year?
Something else we can thank Bush for (not building the fence)....and now we're in a tougher spot, because Obama/Dems full well know that last Nov was more a national referendum against Bush....than FOR Obama....so now they're looking to the illegal population to add to the Dem voting rolls with an amnesty plan before the '10 elections.....the fence ain't going to happen under Dem leaders, but we've gotta find a way to stop the amnesty scenario, or we're in for 8 long yrs......
The only other federal honeyhole you left out with the additional restriction in spending.....is a restriction on the fed reserve's printing press too! One key advantage to FairTax scenario would be that it would unlock the $15T or so sitting offshore in accounts that corporations/individuals won't bring back into our economy due to income tax. But as Obama said...can't let a good crisis go to waste....I mean, shoot, why let money already out there come back into the economy and prop things up for free, when you can push your agenda under the guise of "stimulus".
Here's my wish....that everyone would get on the blogs of their local newspapers and send links like the one I'm attaching here, to everyone in their circle of friends, churches and legislators. Ask them to read the gutter snipe nature of the left and if they approve of the attacks specifically on Christianity, but more broadly on religion altogether. It's not just the liberal "media elite" like Bill Mahr, Jon Stewart, Steven Colbert, Keith Olbermann, etc, etc. carrying out the attack on religion....it's people that might be your neighbors posting garbage like this on sites all over the country. But most of us don't spend any time "blogging" our fingers to the bone to push a message of atheism like they are. Please take a moment to read some of the hate filled sewage on this newspaper's blog....take special note of my comments as "DFB" on the site asking about their views on Black Liberation Theology and what Obama might think of their comments...note the deafening silence to the comments...here's the link.
http://blogs.kansas.com/weblog/2009/04/open-threa...
Would be much easier to reform the GOP into what it used to stand for than starting from scratch. When's the last time in history a 3rd party candidate's played any role besides spoiler? Nader, Perot, Paul......I voted for Perot....Clinton won with 39% of the vote.....I might as well have voted for Clinton. The GOP has the apparatus in place, that it would take a 3rd party decades to build. You'd have to start with local elections, then state, then congress, before you could ever sniff a legitimate Pres candidate. Not saying I don't agree with the sentiment...faux Conservatives like Bush have set us back a bit.....but putting the right GOP candidates up at all levels solves all the problems.
Art 5 also does not define the process, so there are a million questions to be answered should a Conv be called. Who's eligible to be delegates, who chairs the convention, what majority requirement justifies approval of an amendment (simple, super, 3/4's, etc), who pays for it, where is it held, how many delegates, how long can it last, etc, etc, etc. In my opinion, irregardless of whether one is called, if we can just get close to it being a reality, it would end the insanity going on in DC for a while....because they ALL know term limits, fed bal budg & line item veto are about the only issues that would almost surely get the 38 state ratification.....it's the only way to send a clear message to every single member of congress!
Just a minor point, but to petition congress for a Const Conv via the states (Art 5), you only need 2/3's of states (34). You need 3/4's (38) to ratify an amendment. An interesting caveat, however, Art 5 does not provide any kind of expiration date on petitions, nor does it require that petitions be for the exact same issue. In our history, 45 states have petitioned congress, with 3 states repealing theirs....so in theory, if a lawyer wanted to make a name for him/herself, they could challenge the issue calling for Congress to initiate a Convention right at this very moment. I'm running out of room, so I'll continue on my next posting.
The way to send a personal message that every single last congressperson will "get", is to get states to start petitioning congress for a Constitutional Convention! It takes 34 states to put it in motion.....and before you start screaming at me about how dangerous that would be....the purpose isn't to actually have a convention. It's purely to send a message, the only message they'll pay attention to, because they KNOW that an amendment requires 38 states to ratify it, and the only issues that might meet this threshold...are TERM LIMITS for congress/fed judges, a fed balanced budget and on the outside, maybe line item veto/campaign fin reform....they'll fold up their ideological insanity like a cheap suit, if they feel the personal pressure of losing their precious toys.....
Great thoughts! Just read a book called "What's So Great About Christianity" by Dinesh D'Souza and it touched on a lot of the very issues you brought up! Specifically relative to evolution, the "human spirit/soul" and that same sort of distinction you so eloquently expressed. Think you'd like it as much as I did! By the way, interesting tidbit on "Roe" of Roe v Wade...did you know she became born again in the 90's and is ashamed that she'll be forever linked to that horrendous court decision? Funny how the left never brings up that little tidbit as they decry the sanctity of that atrocity....
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