

96% of Congressmen Agree: Bad Legislation Is Easier To Craft In Secret - llambda
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111211/01563717032/96-congressmen-agree-bad-legislation-is-easier-to-craft-secret.shtml?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

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billybob
Nice to see that Ron Paul voted against conducting these proceedings in
secret.

You know, I heard somebody on NPR saying about him, essentially, "he may come
off as a bit kooky, but he's been very consistent with his principles." I'm
starting to think I'm willing to "throw away" a vote in favor of that.

~~~
HotKFreshSwag
Kooky is the wrong word to describe Ron Paul. Lets be clear about what Ron
Paul's principles are. Ron Paul wants to eliminate the Department of
Education, the Department of Energy, the Department of Commerce, the
Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Homeland Security,
the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Interstate Commerce
Commission and the Internal Revenue Service.

~~~
tyree732
Many of those departments are completely unnecessary. Was the US really at
risk before the Department of Homeland Security came around after 9/11? Did we
learn nothing in school before the Department of Education came around in
1980?

~~~
dalke
The Department of Education first started 100 years previous, but then was
demoted to part of the Department of the Interior, then Federal Security
Agency, and then Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. FEMA used to be
part of Housing and Urban Development, and before then there were many
different federal organizations involved in disaster management, with no clear
leadership. DHS of course is made of a number of separate groups, including
the Coast Guard.

In other words, it wasn't that there was nothing, but rather it was a
reshuffling and reprioritizing of what was already there.

~~~
dalke
WTF? -2 karma for pointing out that we had federal-level organizations
involved with education even before we had a DoED? And similar for the other
departments mentioned?

Do you also think that before the DoD was created in 1949 that there was no
federal response to defense?

Or do you justify even bad logic in support of your view of how the government
should work?

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teilo
And once again, the "conservative" representatives in my state, Michelle
Bachmann, John Klein, Erik Paulsen, and Chip Cravaak, vote against
transparency and freedom, and the one "liberal" representative that everyone
in my party was the most deathly afraid of, Keith Ellison (because he is a
Muslim), votes on the side of liberty. More and more I just want to skip the
Republican caucuses next year.

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wisty
Let's face it, 96% of Congressmen probably agree it would be better to make
all terms including those of current members 12 years.

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lutorm
Look at the Bay Area concentration among those 17...

