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To: conservatism_IS_compassion
I like your list quite well, though I’d prefer more formal language for some of them.

Thank you.

I do have one more serious quibble - you mention forfeiture of pensions for misbehavior. That seems to establish a precedent against term limits. Under term limits, nobody should be an elected officer long enough to justify getting a pension from it.

I'm not thinking solely of elected officials, but also the unelected bureaucrats and judges. The inclusion of elected officials therein is to emphasize that they are not immune (it is, after all, loss of position in addition to pensions).

My other impulse is to add things which would make it even more impossible to get ratified. But they’d be off-topic.

I have three other amendments I've been working on — one that would remove the ability of the federal government to define the value of the Dollar (defining it in terms of physical gold) and limiting the amount of debt that can be incurred to 110% of the amount [of physical gold] the Treasury has possession of and forbidding the imposition of unfunded liabilities upon the states. &mdashl I think that one would be more impossible than this one.

44 posted on 03/06/2014 12:45:06 PM PST by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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To: OneWingedShark
One idea I have in mind is that if we could convene a constitutional convention, thereby bypassing the president and the Congress - and get ratification by the states - we could identify the members of SCOTUS by name. Even if it did nothing more than name the present incumbents, it would establish the precedent that the states actually have authority over SCOTUS. The states could fire SCOTUS justices. Of course if the Senate actually represented the States rather than the people of the States, that would have a similar effect.

Ironically, in a world where Representatives have computer programs and data which allow them to choose their voters, the state governments which draw the district lines have a stronger say over Congressional delegations than they do over Senators. I’d rather have Senators be the running mates of governors, so that the effects on the states of unfunded mandates passed by the Senate would reflect directly on the governors who nominated them.

That would require that senatorial terms be either 4 or 8 years. If 4 years, then the governor would have to either name (e.g., renominate) a senator for the four years after his term as governor or take over the senate seat himself. That would have the merit of assuring governors, (if not state legislators) would get respect in Washington.

46 posted on 03/06/2014 2:03:28 PM PST by conservatism_IS_compassion ("Liberalism” is a conspiracy against the public by wire-service journalism.)
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