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Brian D. Bray
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« Reply #1 on: December 01, 2007, 06:45:32 PM » |
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Only persons can contribute to election campaigns--by claiming to be persons corporations can spend billions to influence the electorate whereas that would be unlawful if they were non (artificial) persons. Think about that along with the 14th Amendment.
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Life is a school. What have you learned?  The greatest danger to our society is apathy, vote in every election! |
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kathyp
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« Reply #3 on: December 02, 2007, 11:29:57 AM » |
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of course you have a lot of small family farms and businesses that incorporate for legal and tax reasons.
maybe the focus should be on activist courts and judges that choose to reinterpret and misinterpret the constitution and rulings?
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"Nay, it [this constitution of government] must perish, if there be not that vital spirit in the people, which alone can nourish, sustain, and direct all its movements. It is in vain, that statesmen shall form plans of government, in which the beauty and harmony of a republic shall be embodied in visible order, shall be built up on solid substructions, and adorned by every useful ornament, if the inhabitants suffer the silent power of time to dilapidate its walls, or crumble its massy supporters into dust; if the assaults from without are never resisted, and the rottenness and mining from within are never guarded against. Who can preserve the rights and liberties of the people, when they shall be abandoned by themselves? Who shall keep watch in the temple, when the watchmen sleep at their posts? Who shall call upon the people to redeem their possessions, and revive the republic, when their own hands have deliberately and corruptly surrendered them to the oppressor, and have built the prisons, or dug the graves of their own friends?
– Justice Joseph Story, "Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States," Volume II, Chapter XIII: Mode of Passing Laws, Sections 900-901, pp. 364 (1833)
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reinbeau
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« Reply #4 on: December 02, 2007, 03:58:56 PM » |
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of course you have a lot of small family farms and businesses that incorporate for legal and tax reasons.
maybe the focus should be on activist courts and judges that choose to reinterpret and misinterpret the constitution and rulings?
Agree about the small family and small business stuff, and also about the judges, but I still think the whole focus has shifted away from the individual and individual rights. Lobbyists in Washington are one of the biggest problems. It's all a huge mess and I don't see a way out of it, because the way out is for the individual, and few can afford to take on the legal costs. |
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 - Ann, A Gardening Beek - ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ  |
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kathyp
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« Reply #5 on: December 02, 2007, 04:55:04 PM » |
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the way out is to not have a full time congress sitting there legislating. that way, the lobbyists have nothing to lobby. let the states deal with their elected face to face. if congress had to be home and available to account for actions most of the year, they might be a little more careful about what they do when in washington....not to mention the fact that they'd have to choose between doing the peoples business in those few months of work...or screwing around with the peoples money before going back home.
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"Nay, it [this constitution of government] must perish, if there be not that vital spirit in the people, which alone can nourish, sustain, and direct all its movements. It is in vain, that statesmen shall form plans of government, in which the beauty and harmony of a republic shall be embodied in visible order, shall be built up on solid substructions, and adorned by every useful ornament, if the inhabitants suffer the silent power of time to dilapidate its walls, or crumble its massy supporters into dust; if the assaults from without are never resisted, and the rottenness and mining from within are never guarded against. Who can preserve the rights and liberties of the people, when they shall be abandoned by themselves? Who shall keep watch in the temple, when the watchmen sleep at their posts? Who shall call upon the people to redeem their possessions, and revive the republic, when their own hands have deliberately and corruptly surrendered them to the oppressor, and have built the prisons, or dug the graves of their own friends?
– Justice Joseph Story, "Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States," Volume II, Chapter XIII: Mode of Passing Laws, Sections 900-901, pp. 364 (1833)
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taipantoo
House Bee
 Offline
Gender: 
Posts: 91
Location: Merrimac, Massachusetts, 01860, United States of America
Me after six weeks of sun in Nome, Alaska
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« Reply #6 on: December 03, 2007, 07:00:55 AM » |
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Another thing that would help out a lot would be if the Governors were to be able to appoint their Senators.
The Senators should be representing their State and acting on behalf of the Governor, not representing the people.
That's what Representatives are for.
Lobbyists should be prosecuted for bribery because that is the crime they are committing.
I am a Libertarian and usually stay out of political discussions because it generally comes to no good end.
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kathyp
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« Reply #7 on: December 03, 2007, 11:22:08 AM » |
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well, don't stay out!! what's the worst that can happen?? as much as i have wanted to over the years, i have not figured out how to reach through the computer screen and throttle anyone  . i always figured that part of freedom maintenance is the exchange of ideas, even the arguing of ideas. i think that the early meetings of our founders must have been a blast! |
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"Nay, it [this constitution of government] must perish, if there be not that vital spirit in the people, which alone can nourish, sustain, and direct all its movements. It is in vain, that statesmen shall form plans of government, in which the beauty and harmony of a republic shall be embodied in visible order, shall be built up on solid substructions, and adorned by every useful ornament, if the inhabitants suffer the silent power of time to dilapidate its walls, or crumble its massy supporters into dust; if the assaults from without are never resisted, and the rottenness and mining from within are never guarded against. Who can preserve the rights and liberties of the people, when they shall be abandoned by themselves? Who shall keep watch in the temple, when the watchmen sleep at their posts? Who shall call upon the people to redeem their possessions, and revive the republic, when their own hands have deliberately and corruptly surrendered them to the oppressor, and have built the prisons, or dug the graves of their own friends?
– Justice Joseph Story, "Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States," Volume II, Chapter XIII: Mode of Passing Laws, Sections 900-901, pp. 364 (1833)
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Brian D. Bray
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« Reply #8 on: December 03, 2007, 10:13:56 PM » |
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Lobbyists should be prosecuted for bribery because that is the crime they are committing.
Not according to the elected representatives, they're the ones who passed the laws that define the distrinctiion between labbying and bribery. The nice thing about one of the people who makes the laws is that you get to exempt yourself and self-interest. |
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Life is a school. What have you learned? The greatest danger to our society is apathy, vote in every election! |
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Understudy
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« Reply #9 on: December 03, 2007, 11:30:32 PM » |
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wrong thread post removed.
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The status is not quo. The world is a mess and I just need to rule it. Dr. Horrible
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