On Wed, 01 Nov 2006 12:47:48 -0600, Asha DeVelder <asha@xxxxxxxxxx> jammed all night, and by sunrise was heard saying: > James, > > On Wed, 01 Nov 2006 18:19:20 +0930, James McArthur > <jamesm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> was caught saying: > > > >Asha DeVelder wrote: > > >>> Guess that means, don't vote for me :-) > >> > >> Why not? > > > >Too extreme? You'd really want someone a bit more balanced, I s'pose. :) > > Actually, I think it would be great if there was a huge range of > opinions in the House and Senate. It might slow things down (though > with the current Congress working for so little time one might not > notice the difference) but it would also expose to debate more sides and > options. That seems to me to have been the original idea. Congresscritters were intended to honestly represent local interests above anything but perhaps an overall sense of duty to the Country and Constitution. While it's hardly them alone, the latest crop of Republicans have demonstrated that, when your loyalty is primarily the Party, it's easy to forget your oath to Country and State, as so many of the incumbants have, to the point of tossing it into the trash bin, along with the Constitution and their all their morals. The fact that a guy like McCain didn't expose this torture bill as a national travesty, but rather ultimately cowtowed and voted for it, shows that even the best of them aren't fit to polish the boots of our Founding Fathers, much less serve in Congress. Washington needs an enema! Toss 'em all out; arrest and proscute the worst of 'em. I'd like to see some changes, and big ones. For example, the Oath taken by the President, VP, Judges and all Congresscritters should REALLY have the force of Law. If you promise to uphold the Constitution, and are later shown (for example, by voting "aye" on the Patriot Act or the Torture Act, etc) then you're not simply disgraced in public, but you're held libel. Anything you voted on/signed that's judged in any serious way to be Un-Constitutional, and you're no longer in office, and perhaps subject to arrest and trial, both for purjury and perhaps for the damaging effects of passing an obviously Un-Constitutional bill. The fact of the matter today is that when you elect cretains, they're pretty much free to do as they will; the only real recourse is kicking them bums out. High offices need higher standards than that. I guess our original Founding Fathers simply didn't forsee the level to which men would fall in the acquisition of power... they had a faith in humanity that our current Congress/Senate so very clearly contradicts. Of course, then we have to deal with the Judges themselves, not upholding their Oath. That's certainly trickier, since their job is certainly to interpret the Constitution. The real cure here is to make the job of becoming a judge, particularly a Supreme Court judge, far more stringent. Your entire history needs to be considered with the same razor used for the President and Congresscritters; any transgressions disqualify you from the job, before any votes. -- Dave Haynie | dhaynie@xxxxxxxxxx | High Definition EVERYTHING! Chief Toady | Frog Pond Media | Audio/Video/Hardware/Software Consulting "The Deathbed Vigil" on DVD, now!! http://www.frogpondmedia.com/dbv