DC gets its own Congress Rep....

[Ned Hamford]

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=111&session=1&vote=00073

Even tho I know that almost no one in the goverment has any respect for the system of goverment with its checks and balances, blatant examples still manage to amaze me.

[Manedwolf]

Yeah, not even close to Constitutional, but who cares, right?

[Jamisjockey]

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=111&session=1&vote=00073

Even tho I know that almost no one in the goverment has any respect for the system of goverment with its checks and balances, blatant examples still manage to amaze me.

I took the spaces out so that the link would work.

A bill to provide the District of Columbia a voting seat and the State of Utah an additional seat in the House of Representatives.

Sounds like an even balance to me.  Utah's seat will surely be an (R).  

[makattak]

I took the spaces out so that the link would work.





Sounds like an even balance to me.  Utah's seat will surely be an (R).  

Yep, nothing like gaining a temporary Republican seat to counterbalance a permanent Democrat one. (Seats are re-assigned after the census as I recall...)

[dogmush]

Interesting.  Unconstitutional definatly, but it kind of helps out DC residents as far as gun rights goes.

Check out Section II: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?c111:3:./temp/~c111qs3iI9:e21440:

To be pissed or not to be pissed?

[Ned Hamford]

As a constitutional court issue if to describe this case is not to decide it, then words have lost all meaning.

As for the benefits of this occurrence, all seem temperary. 

[Jamisjockey]

Yep, nothing like gaining a temporary Republican seat to counterbalance a permanent Democrat one. (Seats are re-assigned after the census as I recall...)

Utah is a growing state, IIRC.

[makattak]

Utah is a growing state, IIRC.

True.

However, I guess this just means the Republicans just traded getting another Representative from Utah early (that they would have gotten anyway) for a permanent addition to the Democrats in congress.

Still the stupid party. (What Republicans voted for this in the Senate, btw?)

[Jamisjockey]

True.

However, I guess this just means the Republicans just traded getting another Representative from Utah early (that they would have gotten anyway) for a permanent addition to the Democrats in congress.

Still the stupid party. (What Republicans voted for this in the Senate, btw?)

Its insane that anyone still supports the GOP.  They've given away so much over the last 20 years.  The only time they've been anywhere near on target was the "contract with america".  As soon as that went away, it became a RINO free for all.
www.lp.org
jis' sayin'......

[Manedwolf]

If the libertarians would only quite loudly kick out the fringe elements of wookiee suits, clueless anarchists, 9/11 troofers, gold cultists and the like, they might have a chance. Libertarians here are politically destroyed by the Free State loons and one who signs as a "libertarian candidate" in every Union-Leader article comments section with rants one step from the unabomber's manifesto. Not at all helpful, there.

As of now, there's way too much tinfoil, way too much of the scary anarchist element still following them, and they need to say "We do not want you" to those sorts before I and many people would be interested.

Less basements, more businesspeople. That's the blunt truth needed.

I would like a new party of professional Goldwater conservatives, myself. One that wanted small business owners, entrepreneurs, and people who work for a living. One that stood for small government, ending welfare and the like, but would have a pair when it came to telling the crazies that they are not welcome at all.

I want a party of people whose leaders can write with Jeffersonian eloquence and speak like Daniel Webster, and who mean it.

[Balog]

Its insane that anyone still supports the GOP.  They've given away so much over the last 20 years.  The only time they've been anywhere near on target was the "contract with america".  As soon as that went away, it became a RINO free for all.
www.lp.org
jis' sayin'......

This^^ If the leadership weren't blithering idiots who keep trying to interview for the CEO job instead of starting at the bottom and working their way up. Also, their cowardly stance on abortion and open borders nonsense.

[Jamisjockey]

If the libertarians would only quite loudly kick out the fringe elements of wookiee suits, 9/11 troofers, gold cultists and the like, they might have a chance.

As of now, there's way too much tinfoil.

Thats just an excuse for little-"l" libertarians to avoid the party.  
Most Democrats aren't screaming, insane liberals.  Most Republicans aren't big government theocrats.  But those are fringe elements of the parties we hear alot from.
I for one think that if the GOP is too stupid to rebuild itself in a truely conservative image, then I'm ready to abandon the GOP for a party more closely aligned with my beliefs.  
All you need to know about the GOP is two words:
Micheal Steele.

[Manedwolf]

Thats just an excuse for little-"l" libertarians to avoid the party.  

No, that's the honest truth. I cringe whenever I see people claiming to be libertarians here with an anarchist "A" symbol. I get ANGRY when I see them with "9/11 was an inside job" signs.

I want no part of that. I cannot help with that party, I will not join with it or support it until they find the courage to vocally tell that sort that their message and lunacy is unhelpful, and they do not want to be associated with it.

Until they find that courage...I'm sorry. I can't take part. Because to me, that means their leadership won't have the courage to do or say other things that need to be done, either, that might "offend" some people. And that means they're just one more useless group.

We need people who have fire...and wear nice suits. Who start from the boardroom, not just the basement as I said.

[mtnbkr]

We need people who have fire...and wear nice suits. Who start from the boardroom, not just the basement as I said.

What you're saying is you want someone else to do the heavy lifting, to make the party what you think it should be.  Or, we could all join the party and crowd out the nuts...

Right now, the GOP has people that look nice but are nothing more than big govt types with a slightly different spin than the Democrats.  Yeah, they look good, but they're singing the same nation-destroying song as the Democrats, just in a different key.

Chris

[makattak]

I have no allegiance to the republican party.

Most people would label me as a conservative.

However, more than anything, my political philosophy is Federalism. I want the federal government doing as little as possible and EVERYTHING ELSE back to states and localities.

That way, if you want to screw up your own state with whatever foolish ideas you have (social security, "universal" healthcare, gay marriage, abortion, inter alia), you are free to do so. At least my state can avoid your fate.  

Why can't we bring back the Federalists? (Or, rather, from American history, the ironically named "Anti-Federalists")

[Manedwolf]

Right now, the GOP has people that look nice but are nothing more than big govt types with a slightly different spin than the Democrats.  Yeah, they look good, but they're singing the same nation-destroying song as the Democrats, just in a different key.

Oh, I agree.

I just don't think the libertarians are it. Too much suffusion of anarchy, and I think the brand is irrevocably tainted.

I would be all for a new party that also inspired pride even in its name. A new Federalist party would be good. Even just Conservative Party, but why not something that makes people really think they're part of the same idea that caused a bunch of learned landowners to gather in Independence Hall and risk hanging that long ago, to sign their names to a document that was formalized, firey defiance from start to finish?

Those words are inspiring now as they were then. Not enough people read them...if they even can read them, if they're a product of liberal public schools.

The feeling I get when I read the Declaration, the Constitution, any of the papers written then, THAT is the feeling I want to get from our elected representatives when I see them speaking. Statesmen and women.

Pride.

[Balog]

Taking over the libertarians and kicking out the anarchists and troofers is possible I suppose. Might even be easier than purging the rinos. But it's the same problem: entrenched bureaucracy in either party. As always, if you want change start local.

[Jamisjockey]

It can be done.  After all, the GOP was once a party of conservative values, and the reasonable voices have been crowded out by the NeoCONS. 
At its core, the LP would appeal to many conservatives and many liberals.  People who just want to be left alone to pursue their own version of the American Dream. 
As mtnbkr said, the GOP is just the same song in a different tune. 

[mtnbkr]

It's easier to poke fun at troofers in wookie suits than to do anything about it.

Chris

[Jamisjockey]

Oh, and I've got two words to say about the LP:
Bob Barr. 
Not exactly a wookie suit wearing troofer. 

[Manedwolf]

It's easier to poke fun at troofers in wookie suits than to do anything about it.

Chris

It's not so much the making fun, it's that they contaminate everything. Any time there has been a "libertarian" speaker at a bookstore or something here, it's as if flies to honey. I'd stopped at a few. While there may have been professionals and family sorts who came, curious, they were quickly crowded out (and seemingly freaked out) by a swarm of unkempt sorts in Ron Paul shirts and a few 911truth.org shirts who seemed to have absolutely no concept of "inside voice".

So I stopped stopping...they keep ruining it. That's the problem.

[MicroBalrog]

If the libertarians would only quite loudly kick out the fringe elements of wookiee suits, clueless anarchists, 9/11 troofers, gold cultists and the like, they might have a chance.

The wookie suit is merely the 21st century equivalent of the bluecoat.

Libertarians here are politically destroyed by the Free State loons

You mean, guys like Richard Heller and Itse, right?

I suppose you will cheer at those libertarians who join the GOP, attend the committee meetings weekly  and vote to change the agenda -

Oh wait, that's too radical. It can't be allowed.

The fact is, libertarianism isn't for people who want the Federal government to get out of their life only so they could go on doing their three-piece suit thing and giggle when they see police beat down on a protestor. People who cheer when a police officer beats on a victimless-offender are why we can't have nice things, period.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

If the libertarians would only quite loudly kick out the fringe elements of wookiee suits, clueless anarchists, 9/11 troofers, gold cultists and the like, they might have a chance.


qft   painfully

[lupinus]

They'd also have a chance if they focused more energy at the state and local levels rather then throwing it away on national elections they don't have a snowballs chance at winning.

I've lost count of the number of times I've said Libertarian only to be met with a blank stare.  People don't know who the hell they are, what they stand for, or that they even exist.  Rather then blowing millions on presidential campaigns and the like they should be using it where they can get their name out there at the least, and quite possibly win.

[Fjolnirsson]

I stumbled across this party recently:http://americanconservativeparty.org/
If they can hold the lunatics at bay, they might have something...