Posted on 07/03/2009 8:43:37 PM PDT by smokingfrog
Here's a real dander-raiser on the eve of the 233rd anniversary of the Declaration of Independence:
Few if any members of the U.S. House of Representatives that last week narrowly voted to pass the outrageous and deceitfully titled American Clean Energy and Security Act actually read the bill.
That's the hardly surprising -- but still unacceptable -- conclusion of Jonathan Adler, a Case Western Reserve University legal scholar writing in National Review Online. The legislation, commonly called the "cap-and-trade" bill, would impose an onerous, if not socialist, regimen on just about every aspect of American life at a cost ridiculously low-balled by the supposedly nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
Hilariously billed as a "market-based" approach to dealing with "climate change," a dubious concept to begin with, it is government command economics at its writ-large worst. Let's call the Waxman-Markey bill, as it's also known, what it is -- the "Wackey" bill.
But just as bad as is the measure that the Senate will consider in the fall is the manner in which it passed the lower chamber. From NRO's Adler:
"When Waxman-Markey finally hit the floor, there was no actual bill. Not one single copy of the full legislation that would, hours later, be subject to a final vote was available to members of the House. The text made available to some members of Congress still had 'placeholders' -- blank provisions to be filled in by subsequent language -- including one for the regulation of climate derivatives. ... Even the House Clerk's office lacked a complete copy of the legislation and was forced to place a copy of the 1,200-page draft side-by-side with the 300-page amendments."
Let's call this what it is -- a cluster cluck molestation of the legislative process,
(Excerpt) Read more at pittsburghlive.com ...
The legislative equivelent to card check.
Exactly right.
I will stake a month’s pay that there are some scary restrictions on basic civil liberties in that bill. And some very heavy penalties for those of us that try to assert our liberties.
Every single Representative who voted for this piece of {expletive} bill, regardless of party affiliation, absolutely needs to be voted out at the very next election. (even better if they could be recalled now) It is inconceivable that they can look anyone in the eye and say they are doing their job when they are literally writing legislative blank checks. If anyone who works with me, or for me, did something this irresponsible I would have them fired, period. Since our representatives nominally work for us (they may need to be reminded of that fact), they should be fired, now.
These people are pushing us. Hard. They are trying to see how much they can get away with in the shortest amount of time before people open their eyes, blink, and say “Haaaaaaaayyyy...whaaats goin’ on here?”
It may already be too late.
It doesn't matter if you're for or against the bill. What matters is their callous, criminal, disregard for their duties.
Can the mechanic finish your oil change later, let you drive off with an empty crankcase and missing filter?
Can the surgeon close you up and finish your procedure later, after a round of golf?
Can the airline pilot take the afternoon off, and have a passenger land the aircraft for him/her?
Can the firefighters put out most of the fire, then leave the rest to you?
Can your spouse be faithful to you throughout the week, and only stray on the weekends?
Should a representative that passes legislature not yet written be any less ridiculous, any less deserving of scorn, condemnation, and consequences?
They need to be hanged, every last one of them. I would like to include every member of Congress who voted for the Bail Out Bill.
"It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged."~G.K. Chesterton
There is nothing about the Politburo that 435 bullets couldn’t fix. Just add another 100 for the House of Lords.
Grapeshot.
One would think, for a couple of hundred grand a year, they would at least pretend to be doing their jobs.
Traitors, all. With Sarah now out of office, I say vote every incumbent out of office across the land, they are all as worthless as tits on a bull.
Why impeach when you can impale?
Every single Representative who voted for this piece of {expletive} bill, regardless of party affiliation, absolutely needs to be voted out at the very next election
Personally, I think this has gone far far beyond an election. Removed from office for criminal behavior, ethics violations, violation of oath of office, and the only one that matters, treason. All 219 of them.
Where are the lawyers who has the guts to take all the congress clowns on, Oh, I forgot they are all in Congress.
Not having the full bill in the well of the House is illegal according to House rules. If we are still following laws and rules, that is.
Sounds good. Now for those who happen to live in a district that is represented by one of the 219...get working hard to get a conservative replacement in your rep’s stead. Let us all know how we can help you.
The real problem is far deeper than just the drug-addled fiends who hold public office. The problem is that democracy is a stupid system that just doesn't work.
My representative voted against it. It would be easy to solve this problem if he hadn't; I could just take a baseball bat to him the next time we meet for some dinner, apologize to his wife (who would probably say something like "that's ok; he deserved it" if he actually had voted for it), and then get a more sane representative in the next election cycle.
But the problem isn't my representative. It is those other people. And even if I were to eliminate them all by some violent means, the electorate in those other districts and states would simply vote for someone indistinguishable in the next election, and we'd be back to where we started.
The Founders set up a republic for this very reason, so people in one region couldn't pass laws that negatively affected people in another, except for a very narrow set of carefully defined powers involving things like roads, mail, immigration, and money that have to be "common" within a nation. Unfortunately, we no longer have that republic, but instead a "democracy" where the sins of evil people in New Jersey, Wisconsin, and California oppress the morally superior people of places like Texas and Montana with their sinister and wicked "laws".
The problem is that the people in those other states aren't content to just foul their own nests with the oppressive refuse of socialism; they have to taint everyone at the national level, in direct violation of the underlying principles of the Constitution that established the republic in the first place.
In some ways, it is the same reason why gun control doesn't work. By definition, criminals don't obey the law so those laws (or Constitutional restrictions) only apply to those willing to abide by them. And as recent events so clearly demonstrate, the cocaine-snorting "elite" who think they are running the country don't consider themselves bound by those restraints.
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