[Cialug] Telecom Immunity

[murraymckee at wellsfargo.com]

On Thu, Jul 10, 2008 at 4:38 PM, David Bierce <david at bierce.org> wrote:

Shorter bills could be a side effect of requiring all members voting on
the bill must be present for an unabridged reading of the bill, before
being eligible to vote.


I find that a very interesting proposal.  Seems like it would help
prevent PATRIOT acts and such.  Can anyone think of possible
disadvantages of it? 

 

 

What were you thinking?  ;-)  

 

Requiring legislators to listen to an unabridged reading of the bill
would require them to be in session instead of spending months raising
funds and campaigning for reelection or election to another office.  

 

Oh, wait a minute.  That's what we elected them to do.

 

In fact, I'd like to require their presence for the debate over the
bill, as well as the reading of it, to be eligible to vote on it,
instead of sitting in their office and dashing in just in time for the
vote.  

 

In Iowa legislators don't even have to go to their seats and push their
voting button on their desk.  They just poke their noses in the back
door and signal to the moderator a thumbs up or down and retire back to
what ever they were doing instead of paying attention to the debate.  A
loud "door" bell sounds in the hallways of the capital building to
signal that a vote is going on in one chamber or the other so they know
when to take a break from taking a break and go vote.

 

I suppose it would be too much to require them to be awake and paying
attention during the debate and reading.  (I've seen several legislators
playing computer games during debate.)

 

I would certainly insist that no incumbent be allowed to campaign while
the legislature was in session.  In addition to term limits, that would
help tip the scales away from incumbents, or shorten the legislative
season.  I would like to see a 2 term limit, no matter now long your
elected term in office, and then you would have to be out of office for
twice as long as you served before you could be reelected again.  Even
if you were running for a different office.  I believe term limits
should apply at all levels of government, city, county, state, and
federal.

Murray McKee
Operating Systems Engineer
WFFIS - Wells Fargo Financial Information Systems 
800 Walnut Street
MAC F4030-037
Des Moines, IA 50309-3605
WORK (515)557-6127 Cell (515) 890-9660  FAX (515) 557-6046 
MurrayMcKee at WellsFargo.com 
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