Obama 10: Rahm it through.....even in the shower.

[Priceless]

Re: Obama 10: Rahm it through.....even in the shower.

I was shocked because our population has increased a bit (15%?) but not by 100% ... but the city and school budget has increased over 100% in the last 7 years or so. mostly due to property value (tax revenue) increase. I don't know where all that money went to .. healthcare costs? pension? wages? administration costs? but it's funny that more money hasn't and doesn't mean better perfomances.

There is a link between money and peformances but at certain point more money doesn't equate to better performance since there is a limit to performance but no-limit to pay.... Ie perfect example would be our top executive compensation.
I doubt paying our school teachers $10million/yr will somehow improve our school graduation levels or test scores.

Our town's health insurance costs have averaged +21% a year. A lot of that is school-related.

 

[joecct]

Re: Obama 10: Rahm it through.....even in the shower.

I'm on a Churchill kick tonight -- 2 quotes

Politics is the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn’t happen.

and

Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy.

 

[5mn_Major]

Re: Obama 10: Rahm it through.....even in the shower.

course, if 34 states were against it, then in theory a constitutional amendment could be made overruling the legislation. I'm guessing that's what he means by critical mass.

Why is it that conservatives want to amend the Constitution every time they disagree with something...or want society 'behave'? To me that does not represent the respect they seem to talk about constantly...

 

[Plante26]

Re: Obama 10: Rahm it through.....even in the shower.

Why is it that conservatives want to amend the Constitution every time they disagree with something...or want society 'behave'? To me that does not represent the respect they seem to talk about constantly...

Yeah! Like amending the Constitution to abolish slavery! **** them conservatives!

 

[Bill]

Re: Obama 10: Rahm it through.....even in the shower.

Why is it that conservatives want to amend the Constitution every time they disagree with something...or want society 'behave'? To me that does not represent the respect they seem to talk about constantly...

The conservatives aren't looking to amend the Constitution. They want the Supreme Court to rule mandatory purchasing of health insurance in violation of the Constitution.

 

[Patman]

Re: Obama 10: Rahm it through.....even in the shower.

Why is it that conservatives want to amend the Constitution every time they disagree with something...or want society 'behave'? To me that does not represent the respect they seem to talk about constantly...

I know, the proper place to change the foundation of the nation is by judicial fiat and sketchy legislation. Amendments are for ******* who don't control the institutions.

 

[Foxton]

Re: Obama 10: Rahm it through.....even in the shower.

Yeah! Like amending the Constitution to abolish slavery! **** them conservatives!

Considering social conservatives tend to like the status quo and "traditional" things, why are you crediting them with a liberal action like abolishing the traditional practice of slavery? And of course political parties have always kept the same ideologies, the Republican party of today just has to be the same one from the Civil War era.... right?

 

[Patman]

Re: Obama 10: Rahm it through.....even in the shower.

Of course then you have to get those 34 states to agree on what type of amendment to create and it's wording.

38... I don't expect you to get hung up on the facts though.

 

[Patman]

Re: Obama 10: Rahm it through.....even in the shower.

Obama economic advisor says US should consider Value Added Tax

You are going to start seeing a big push for this. In fact, I can pretty much guanantee that it will be the recomindation from his "defecit panel". It would be a VERY bad idea to impliment this.

I heard some comments bounced around on how the NYT had commentators opined on great it will be that we will finally reach the idea of limitations to health care.

I mean, I don't want to tell you I told you so... but I get the feeling I'll be doing that a lot over the next 20 years on this issue.

 

[Foxton]

Re: Obama 10: Rahm it through.....even in the shower.

38... I don't expect you to get hung up on the facts though.

Unofan went with 34 first, and the main point was trying to get that many groups to agree is a cluster****.. But I'm sure it was too hard for you to scroll up or look at the post I was quoting.

 

[WeWantMore]

Re: Obama 10: Rahm it through.....even in the shower.

I'm still mad at conservatives for shoving through prohibition and the income tax by constitutional amendment.


Wait, what?

 

[pirate]

Re: Obama 10: Rahm it through.....even in the shower.

If you're looking for a reason for the dismal failure of your school system, just realize that it is run by the government.

I posted in the Nice Planet thread over the weekend...as of 2002 there were 13,000 school districts in the US...with 13,000 superintendents, 13,0000 secretary to the superintendent etc. Look up what your local superintendent makes per year...my rough estimate is they average $150k.

Only the government would carve the country up into 13,000 segments that don't work together and produce miserable results.

Why not, there is no accountability, just raise taxes or cut the band and the swim team...the cost gets higher and the results get worse every stinking year.

 

[Patman]

Re: Obama 10: Rahm it through.....even in the shower.

Unofan went with 34 first, and the main point was trying to get that many groups to agree is a cluster****.. But I'm sure it was too hard for you to scroll up or look at the post I was quoting.

Not unofan's fault you can't handle a simple figure.

---

Hell of a day for the administration to drop "Islamic radicalism" from the federal lexicon, huh?

 

[joecct]

Re: Obama 10: Rahm it through.....even in the shower.

Saw this here -- interesting

Popular Amendment

One other way of amendment is also not mentioned in the Constitution, and, because it has never been used, is lost on many students of the Constitution. Framer James Wilson, however, endorsed popular amendment, and the topic is examined at some length in Akhil Reed Amar's book, The Constitution: A Biography.

The notion of popular amendment comes from the conceptual framework of the Constitution. Its power derives from the people; it was adopted by the people; it functions at the behest of and for the benefit of the people. Given all this, if the people, as a whole, somehow demanded a change to the Constitution, should not the people be allowed to make such a change? As Wilson noted in 1787, "... the people may change the constitutions whenever and however they please. This is a right of which no positive institution can ever deprive them."

It makes sense - if the people demand a change, it should be made. The change may not be the will of the Congress, nor of the states, so the two enumerated methods of amendment might not be practical, for they rely on these institutions. The real issue is not in the conceptual. It is a reality that if the people do not support the Constitution in its present form, it cannot survive. The real issue is in the practical. Since there is no process specified, what would the process be? There are no national elections today - even elections for the presidency are local. There is no precedent for a national referendum. It is easy to say that the Constitution can be changed by the people in any way the people wish. Actually making the change is another story altogether.

Suffice it to say, for now, that the notion of popular amendment makes perfect sense in the constitutional framework, even though the details of effecting popular amendment could be impossible to resolve.

And I would not call WH Taft "conservative" in the same term as, say, RR. After all Taft gave us trust-busting, civil service reform, strengthened the Interstate Commerce Commission, improved the performance of the postal service, and presided over the Congressional passage of the Sixteenth Amendment. 100 years ago the GOP were the progressives. After WWI, things changed to isolationism, laissez-faire, and as a reaction to the Crash of 1929, stiffened morality and we got prohibition as a knee jerk reaction.

 

[SteveP]

Re: Obama 10: Rahm it through.....even in the shower.

Thomas Lifson on Obama's credibility crisis, and his lack of sports skills.

It is one thing to try to bamboozle the American public on politics. Voters expect pols to have a loose relationship to the truth. But sports is all about authenticity, the truth expressed in a moment of action on the field, court, or rink. There are more sports fans than political junkies in America. Whatever teams they may root for, the one team they all root against is the Washington Phonies.

The sand is rapidly draining from the hourglass containing Obama's ability to command respect and allegiance. His partisans, living in their social and media bubble, do not notice. But everybody else in America does.

 

[WeWantMore]

Re: Obama 10: Rahm it through.....even in the shower.

Oh Bob McConnell
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/04/07/virginia-gov-mcdonnell-brings-confederate-month-years/

 

[Foxton]

Re: Obama 10: Rahm it through.....even in the shower.

Not unofan's fault you can't handle a simple figure.

So it's fine if unofan doesn't use the correct amount, but when I use his figure out of simple convenience, you think it's some big clever gotcha moment?



And I don't see how a "popular amendment" could ever be instituted. It's basically the same argument of "well the people don't want it so the government should listen." which ignores that the people already said what they wanted when they voted those people in to vote for them.

 

[Bill]

Re: Obama 10: Rahm it through.....even in the shower.

And I don't see how a "popular amendment" could ever be instituted. It's basically the same argument of "well the people don't want it so the government should listen." which ignores that the people already said what they wanted when they voted those people in to vote for them.

Except that once voted in, whatever the people wanted gets lost in the shuffle. In too many cases, the politicians vote the way their party leaders tell them to vote, or if "telling" doesn't work, bribing or threatening often does. The way the politicians vote doesn't necessarily reflect what their constituents want.

 

[Priceless]

Re: Obama 10: Rahm it through.....even in the shower.

Oh Bob McConnell
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/04/07/virginia-gov-mcdonnell-brings-confederate-month-years/

Don't you celebrate the attacking of America by a foreign nation?

 

[Foxton]

Re: Obama 10: Rahm it through.....even in the shower.

Except that once voted in, whatever the people wanted gets lost in the shuffle. In too many cases, the politicians vote the way their party leaders tell them to vote, or if "telling" doesn't work, bribing or threatening often does. The way the politicians vote doesn't necessarily reflect what their constituents want.

That's the beauty of the system, you can then vote them out.