[Cialug] Telecom Immunity

[Daniel A. Ramaley]

I sometimes wonder how a government almost identical to ours would work, 
but with a few small tweaks:

The first change is that all laws automatically expire some period of 
time after they are passed, unless they are renewed. That would allow 
the legislature to make as many dumb mistakes that pander to special 
interests as it does now, but at least the effects would not be 
long-lasting. The Constitutions and amendments thereof would be exempt 
from the renewal requirement, and laws would have no limit to the 
number of times they may be renewed.

The second change i would propose is that no bill may address more than 
1 issue. None of the silly riders that legislation has now. If an idea 
can't pass on its own merit, then rather than being attached to some 
other law maybe it simply should never be passed.

The third change i'd advocate is that an individual only be allowed a 
certain number of years in political offices before mandatory 
retirement from politics. My understanding is that originally senators 
and the like were expected to leave their lives for a term in office, 
then go back to their normal life. When people make a career out of 
politics they seem to care more about amassing power than serving their 
constituents.

Finally, the voting system ought to be overhauled to something that does 
not inevitably lead to 2 parties that are more-or-less the same.

Now, returning to the telecom immunity issue... exactly how is giving 
these companies retroactive immunity not a violation of the 
Constitution? Specifically this line from Article 1, Section 9: "No 
bill of attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed."

On Thursday July 10 2008 15:04, Nathan Stien wrote:
>It's better than all others *that Winston Churchill could think of at
> the time*.  We in the tech field should especially be mindful that
> new and better ideas on how to do something can come along at any
> time.

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Dan Ramaley                            Dial Center 118, Drake University
Network Programmer/Analyst             2407 Carpenter Ave
+1 515 271-4540                        Des Moines IA 50311 USA