10 December 2010

An Idea Whose Time has Come: #TeleCongress

I've seen this idea mentioned a few times on Twitter and ever so briefly discussed on TV: With today's technology, there is no good reason for Congress to gather in one geographic location. The fact that they still do leads to corruption, because they are generally away from the people who elected them, and away from their families, and can be more easily swayed by lobbyists and other influence-wielders.

I believe when the District of Columbia was established, it was never intended to have "residents". The whole idea of a "citizen Congress" is for a person to be elected, serve a term, then go back to work in his or her regular business. Where that went wrong is a subject for another post (or 12), though.

With the money it takes to get elected these days, the winner could easily buy a netbook computer and headset to participate in Congressional proceedings from home. I would even be pleased to see States to set up one or several meeting places for their elected Federal representatives to use for the purpose. At the very least, the lobbyists' resources would be spread much thinner.

Just think of it: when you want to call your Representative or Senator, you can dial a local number, and maybe even get a chance to speak to the officeholder! Also, people who aren't near a TV with C-SPAN could watch proceedings on their office computers, by Congress providing a public URL for read-only access.

The more I think about this, the more advantages I can see. I'd better stop now so I can post this. Let me know what you think!

07 December 2010

Andrea Mitchell Asked a Great Question

I didn't read the article, but this headline was tweeted:

NBC's Mitchell to Republican: How Do You Justify a Tax Freedom for Those Who Don't Need It?

"I'm glad you used that phrase, Andrea. You've admitted that taxing is equivalent to enslaving. Freedom is always justified. Any more questions?"

How's that?

02 December 2010

One Word

Thanks to Paige Worthy for making me aware of the #reverb10 project. Paige is a wonderful writer; check out her blog here. I have not formally enlisted to participate in #reverb10, because I'm not sure I can commit to writing a blog post for every one of their "prompts." Commitment--or lack thereof--notwithstanding, the first prompt immediately inspired me. Therefore I now present the first prompt, and what I was prompted to write.

December 1: One Word.
Encapsulate the year 2010 in one word. Explain why you chose that word. Now, imagine it's one year from today. What would you like the word to be that captures 2011 for you?
(Author: Gwen Bell)

2010: Reclamation
2010 was the year that Americans started to reclaim the policy direction of our cities, counties, states, and nation from the Marxists, statists, and collectivists. The various tea party activists and their fans nationwide made huge strides toward this end, and had huge effects on elections all over the country. Constitutionalists are even affecting the Republican Party leadership races that are now underway.

2011: Restoration
My hope is that with the Republican majority in the House of Representatives, we can begin to restore some semblance of government of the people, by the people, for the people, rather than of the nation, by the ruling class, for the groups that got them elected. I don't expect everything to be done in a year--especially with the collectivists still in control of the Senate and the White House--but I'd like to see the repeal of some of the more heinous legislation of the past two years, and some talk about ending or privatizing social programs like SCHIP, Federal food stamps, Medicare Part D, Part C, and Part B, and Social Security.

I'll even go one word and one year farther, and give my hope for 2012: Rededication. I believe we need to rededicate our nation, by way of ourselves, to pursuing God, by pursuing the life he wants us to live. The founders recognized that a Republic such as is described by the Constitution cannot be maintained if its citizens have no moral compass. We must realize that we need not be compelled to do what the collective society demands, if we are by nature--or supernature--inclined to do what individual relationships require to succeed. Let us begin in 2011 to learn how to be our best to each other, so we may dedicate ourselves to the pursuit in 2012.