The Conservative Cave
Current Events => The DUmpster => Topic started by: franksolich on October 05, 2011, 08:33:38 PM
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http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2061037
Oh my.
The mountain man primitive who, like all men, nightly pitches his tent one day's march nearer the mausoleum:
ThomWV (1000+ posts) Wed Oct-05-11 04:30 PM
Original message
Would this change to our Government make any sense
I'm trying to think of reforms of our Government system that might make it more responsive to people's needs and the public's assent to do big things and pay for them.
It occurred to me that if the job of the Congress was not to pass legislation but to produce draft legislation and to argue in its support but the final say be by public referendum. Each bit of legislation would have to be accompanied by a financing plan, whatever it might be. In some cases the legislation suggested might be funded by new taxes, in some cases by cuts to existing programs, in some cases a combination and so on. In no event could legislation pass that had not got a majority vote (and probably some minimum number of votes) by public referendum.
Somehow procedural matters would still have to be addressed, and the small and trivial crap Congress wastes so much time on (naming post offices, meaningless resolutions, and crap like that) but on the big matters, things like Health Care, the public should be able to decide what they want and how they want to pay for it.
hack89 (1000+ posts) Wed Oct-05-11 04:34 PM
Response to Original message
1. How would have any Civil Rights legislation been enacted in such a system?
Proud Public Servant (157 posts) Wed Oct-05-11 04:40 PM
Response to Reply #1
2. Bingo
I remember reading somewhere that pollsters in a poll the 1950s folded paraphrases of the Bill of Rights into the poll and asked respondents whether they agreed or disagreed with the ideas expressed. If put to a vote in the Eisenhower era, apparently, the Bill of Rights would have gone down in flames.
ItNerd4life (1000+ posts) Wed Oct-05-11 04:42 PM
Response to Original message
3. Most wouldn't work. There are changes that would help
1) Website where people can actually see budgets, government efficiency% by major operational unit (welfare, military, SS, etc)
2) Change voting to weekends (workdays suck for trying to vote for many people)
3) Some of your ideas have merit: How legislation will be funded, summary document of the legislation available on the internet for at least 2 weeks so people can respond before it's voted on, etc.
4) Truth in Budgeting. Budget 'Cuts' are actually cuts to the actual expenditures, not 'Cuts' to the budget. If Budget is to go up 10% and they change it to 6% they call it a budget cut. It's not, it's a 6% increase!
I like your thinking on ways to improve things.
sinkingfeeling (1000+ posts) Wed Oct-05-11 04:44 PM
Response to Original message
4. Not a good way to run a government. Too dependent on majority rule and time consuming as well.
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Let's just throw out the little paper called the US Constitution.
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I can smell the weed from here.
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I can smell the weed from here.
I'm actually smelling old man breath, from between toothless gums, given what the mountain man primitive's told us about himself.
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Could be, could be. Might just as easily be the horse though.
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Each bit of legislation would have to be accompanied by a financing plan, whatever it might be. In some cases the legislation suggested might be funded by new taxes, in some cases by cuts to existing programs, in some cases a combination and so on.
****ing idiots.
When the debt ceiling debate was going on Reid's plan was to count money not spent on the wars as budget savings to offset the ceiling increase.
Except the withdrawals were already on the books so the money never would have been spent anyway.
They also waive spending caps by declaring mundane shit to be an emergency.
They use gimmicks like that all the time to skate their own laws, what makes you think they won't do the same thing for the next Solyndra?
But just so you know, there's new legislation some are hoping to get to the floor for a vote:
the Honest Budget Act does the following:
•Requires both houses of Congress to adopt a binding budget resolution or face a 60-vote threshold to move any spending bills through Congress (in other words, under the HBA, no budget — in all probability — equals no appropriations);
•Makes it more difficult to label routine expenditures “emergency spendingâ€;
•Eliminates phony rescissions (Congress can no longer use savings from falsely projected spending to justify actual increases in spending);
•Makes real the fake federal pay freeze; and
•Disallows timing shifts, which bill drafters use to make a bill appear deficit-neutral within a certain time frame.
http://hotair.com/archives/2011/10/05/senate-republicans-introduce-bill-to-eliminate-budget-gimmicks/
Feel free to lend your support to Senators Sessions and Snowe.
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Great idea, if you want an election day every week, 52 weeks a year.
:mental:
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ItNerd4life (1000+ posts) Wed Oct-05-11 04:42 PM
Response to Original message
3. Most wouldn't work. There are changes that would help
1) Website where people can actually see budgets, government efficiency% by major operational unit (welfare, military, SS, etc)
2) Change voting to weekends (workdays suck for trying to vote for many people)
3) Some of your ideas have merit: How legislation will be funded, summary document of the legislation available on the internet for at least 2 weeks so people can respond before it's voted on, etc.
4) Truth in Budgeting. Budget 'Cuts' are actually cuts to the actual expenditures, not 'Cuts' to the budget. If Budget is to go up 10% and they change it to 6% they call it a budget cut. It's not, it's a 6% increase!
I like your thinking on ways to improve things.
Actually I can get on board with number 2. It's difficult enough for he DUmmies to get out of bed before noon on a weekday imagine them trying to get to the polls before they close on a weekend!
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Actually I can get on board with number 2. It's difficult enough for he DUmmies to get out of bed before noon on a weekday imagine them trying to get to the polls before they close on a weekend!
The problem with that, though, is that the primitives tend to live in areas dominated by corrupt Democrat party machines, and whether or not a primitive gets to the polls on time is unimportant.
The guy downtown at city hall can do their votes for them.
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Hey DUmmie, we vote on Tuesdays because that's the day after you come out of a coma and 2 days before you go into your next coma. :-)
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ThomWV says he has cancer.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x9797361
ThomWV (1000+ posts) Wed Oct-05-11 12:48 PM
Original message
Every ache and pain counts, or "How I found out I have Cancer"
It started with a small pain in my side. It wasn't much but it was there (right about where the appendix is) every morning. It wasn't getting any better but it really wasn't very bothersome.
My wife made appointments for each of us to have a general checkup last spring. I had one 7 years ago when I retired, but nothing since. We had no family doctor, but my wife thought the guy we were going to for the exams would probably be it. As the Doctor went over my history and complaints I almost forgot to mention the little morning pain. Almost. I told him about it and he thought it was worth pursuing, So he sent me for an ultrasound. It came up clear and that was that.
By mid summer the morning pain had got worse and was lasting longer into the day. Some days it would go for an hour or more before fading out, sometimes the pain was pretty extreme. I went back to the doctor. I told him I thought my appendix was going south. He poked around and then got other Doctors involved. This was done, that was done, Cat-scans and MRIs, biopsies galore, and then they found my new friend. It was hiding behind my stomach, feeding on the blood supply returning from my legs. Its reach spanned my abdomen to the right but I'm not very big so that's not as much as it sounds. As its been described to me the tumor is about the size of a tennis ball, but shaped more like a toothpaste tube.
And thats it. Today I'm waiting to schedule the surgery that will remove the thing. They may take a couple of other parts too. But the pain is great now, even the Oxycodone won't touch it, and so its going to have to come out soon. If I survive the operation its going to be a long winter.
And what is the purpose of this? Well, if you're like me and spent most of your life avoiding Doctors you too might be reluctant to go for a visit for every ache and pain. All I can tell you is to go. Get yourself a Doctor you can talk to and then talk to her or him. It starts so little and grows into so much. Please, don't be like me and brush it off until it hurts so much it effects what you can and can not do. Please.
sinkingfeeling (1000+ posts) Wed Oct-05-11 02:59 PM
Response to Original message
7. Sorry to read about the diagnosis. Will you be getting chemo/radiation as follow up?
ThomWV (1000+ posts) Wed Oct-05-11 03:19 PM
Response to Reply #7
9. So far, probably not. Or should I say hopefully not?
The cancer I have is not particularly responsive to Chemo, or that's what the Doctors are telling me. My son's ladies' (Unmarried, 1 child) father is an oncologist and he recommended a fellow Doctor at the Cleveland Clinic to do the operation. I am told this fellow is the best that can be had anywhere. So I went and saw him and he agreed to cut my friend out. Then, along with a bevy of other Oncologists they thought I probably would not have to to through Chemo. Of course that's still up in the air, but so far I don't have a port.
You know what amazes me more about this than anything? Well, its the pain of course, that part will certainly get your attention. But the thing that I don't understand about myself is that I'm not terribly concerned about it. I don't feel any great apprehension, no great fear of the future, nothing like that. My wife was pretty upset at first, but she's calmed down a good bit in the last month but my two sisters, my goodness, who knew they'd go nutzoid on me?
:o
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Civil rights wouldn't have been enacted without Republicans.
Cindie
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ThomWV says he has cancer.
Announcing terminal maladies is all the rage at the DUmp these days.
They all saw Pammie win DOTY after going through her chemo storyline, and that must have given them ideas.