[geeks] 4th Amendment Gone

[Phil Stracchino]

On Wed, Mar 31, 2004 at 09:26:03AM -0800, N. Miller wrote:
> On Wed, 31 Mar 2004 10:49:55 -0600, "Jonathan C. Patschke"
> <jp at celestrion.net> said:
> > On Tue, 30 Mar 2004, Phil Stracchino wrote:
> > 
> > > Yup.  And Congress was intentionally not allowed time to read it before
> > > they voted on it.
> > 
> > Non-sequitur.
> > 
> > Anyone who didn't read it should've entered "Present, but not voting" as
> > their vote.
> 
> But many, many times, there are voice votes on critical issues where
> a "recorded" vote is refused by the leader of the House or Senate.  
> This is what happened on the >10-round mag ban (and the recent
> renewal).

Or more accurately, failure to renew (right?  Or did they slip a renewal
through separately somehow?)

  If the vote is not recorded, Congress-critters can say 
> they voted whatever way is politically expedient when they are 
> asked how they voted.  It also allows any "pet" issue the leaders
> want to shove through to be passed in spite of not having a majority.
> 
> My belief is that all votes should be recorded votes.

Agreed.  If Congress wants to do something but doesn't want the public
to know about it, it SHOULDN'T BE DOING IT, period.


> The things that go on in our Congress are scary--it's no wonder 
> everyone cheered in Mars Attacks when "they killed Congress".

And in Independence Day when the first saucer fired on the White
House...


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