Congress.org might be useful as you attempt to keep track of your congresscritters’ shennaegans. A recent mailout included the opportunity to “vote” on some issues (and submit emails to one’s own congresscritters), an invitation to check on congresscritters’ voting and attendance records and more. Sample:
…vote for the one idea you think Congress should adopt by clicking once on the “Best Idea” link next to your favorite.
– 92 Percent Agree: No Pay for Congress When Approval Under 50 percent
Agree| Disagree | BEST IDEA
– 52 Percent Agree: Raise the Minimum Wage Every Four Years
Agree | Disagree | BEST IDEA
– 77 Percent Agree: Replace All Taxes With a National Sales Tax
Agree | Disagree | BEST IDEA
– 73 Percent Agree: Drug Tests for Those on Unemployment/Welfare
Agree | Disagree | BEST IDEA
– 82% Percent Agree: Constitutional Amendment – Right to Privacy
Agree | Disagree | BEST IDEA
– 75% Percent Agree: Remove All Overseas Troops and Put Them on U.S. Borders
Agree | Disagree | BEST IDEA
OK, so you know how I “voted” 🙂 In addition to simply “voting” in a poll, the links lead to pages where you can send emails to your congresscritters. Mine referring to the “No pay for congresscritters… ” link included my assertion that congresscritters’ family income should be limited during their terms of office (and for a decade thereafter) to NO MORE than the median income mof those they represent. Oh, that one will fly… (straight to the circular file).
We don’t need a Constitutional amendment to protect our privacy. What we need it citizens who run congresscritters outa office when they enact bills that enable bureaucraps and LEOs to invade our privacy… and a Constitutional amendment requiring all adult American citizens who have the right to vote to WEAR a loaded sidearm at all times. Adjunct to that MUST be an amendment restricting the right to vote in such a way as to exclude ALL feddle gummint employees who are NOT active duty military, as well as ALL persons who recieve income in any other way from the feddle gummint.
That’d go a long way toward getting the feddle meddlers outa our pockets, outa our homes and outa our lives, sending them back to the fevered swamps of D.C., where they belong.
As to bringing the troops home to protect our borders… well, that’d be hard cheese for some Iraqis, and it’d pretty much show the EU up for the bankrupt economy it is (and likely put a pretty big spike in the South Korean economic “miracle”), but tough luck. Send the Kurds all the military (hardware, intel) aid we can and let the Sunni and Shiite population of the rest of Iraq iron out their own feuds.
Use our troops on our borders to turn away (or shoot) illegals who try to cross. First option, of course, would be to turn ’em away, but if they come armed or resist, just send the bodies back.
That would free up PLENTY of resources to
a.) enforce existing laws against hiring illegals, benefitting ALL citizens of our country (even those cheap bastards who hire cutrate illegal workers would benefit in the long run).
b.) spur development of alternative energy (a few hundred billion hwere, a few hundred billion there, and pretty soon we’d be selling nuclear-generated electricity to Canada at cut rates they’d not be able to compete with, electric cars would become really practical–at least for city use, and funds for Izlamic savages would start to dry up a tad)
c.) have enough left over to send out any black ops teams anyone’s heart could desire to sow dismay in the hearts of Izlamic savages faced with an eternity in hell, courtesy of their own choices and a little introduction to Satan via a .50 calber bullet in the brain from one of these:
Of course, since all of this is simple common sense, none of this has ANY chance of surviving a pack of congresscritters…
The real question, of course, is why reasonable suggestions like the ones you’re making won’t ever make it to Congress. The answer, of course, is probably very close to the one Plato suggests in the Republic: only a philosopher (read: someone who searches for and understands Truth and the highest good, and seeks only the highest good for the state and its people) is qualified to rule, but no philosopher wants to. Instead, those who seek to rule are those who wish to rule not in order to pursue the highest good, but to pursue a personal agenda. Only the man who doesn’t want the job is qualified to do it.
Sadly, not much has changed in the last 2300 years.