[geeks] 4th Amendment Gone

[N. Miller]

On Thu, 1 Apr 2004 15:52:45 -0600, "Jonathan C. Patschke"
<jp at celestrion.net> said:
> On Thu, 1 Apr 2004, Phil Stracchino wrote:
> 
> > I have thought EXACTLY this myself for many years.  This particularly
> > applies to the Presidency -- anyone who wants to become the President of
> > the world's only hyperpower badly enough to spend anywhere from 40 to
> > (reportedly) 170 million dollars to get to the Oval Office, is probably
> > the absolute *LAST* person you want there.
> 
> It's certainly a symptom of powerlust.
> 
> > Another thing I've considered is the passage of a Constitutional
> > amendment stating that if you are in elected office and you write or
> > sponsor a bill that is ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of
> > the US or of your state, you are immediately removed from office and
> > permanently barred from running for public office again.
> 
> Yes, yes, yes!
> 
> However, it would essentially give the surpeme court the power to end
> the careers of legislators they dislike purely out of spite.

I have tossed around the idea with friends on numerous occassions whereby
positions in Congress are filled by draft.  Each and every American,
barring
those with chronic illnesses or mental disability would be required to do
4
years of service.  As an alternative, individuals could chose military
service
over Congressional service.

Individuals could chose a second 4-year stint, separated by a minimum of
4 years, should they like doing the work well enough to want to put in
additional service.  This limit would not apply to military service.

The downside of this is the power that "career bureaucrats" would then 
wield in the system because of the high number of inexperienced
legislators.
However, I don't think the problem is insurmountable..

=Nadine=
-- 
  N. Miller
  vraptor at promessage.com