 “America’s only native criminal class is Congress”
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This is from a consistently conservative polling outfit, Scott Rasmussen makes better than beer money from his appearances on Fox Snooze and diddling rightwing think tanks.
Heading into the final weeks of the congressional election season, 62% of Likely U.S. Voters believe that no matter how bad things are, Congress can always make them worse. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 19% disagree, with 19% more not sure.
This level of skepticism is shared by a majority of just about every partisan and demographic group, including 53% of Democrats whose party currently controls both houses of Congress.
75% of voters in the political Mainstream say if something is not going well, Congress can always make it worse.
Rasmussen differentiates between folks who are actively political – and ordinary voters who say they’re going to vote.
Other recent results have found that 60% believe most members of Congress don’t care what their constituents think. Also, voters are evenly divided as to whether a group randomly selected from the phone book could do as good a job as the current Congress. Overall, just 16% say that Congress is doing a good or an excellent job.
Can I suggest something STUPID??
What education is required to be a politician?
Business?
Corp TAX?
LAWYER?
Art?
welding?
Carpentry?
ANYTHING??
How about required video games?
Sim city?
Populous?
Sim Circus?
Anything??
HOW about a course on common sense? HOW things SHOULD WORK? ECONOMICS??
How about being able to run a company and NOT GO BROKE? something!!!
#1:
Requirements to become a politician:
– Have money
– Want more money
– Be willing to accept money in exchange for favors
– Do not have a conscience
– Don’t care about anything or anybody other than self
They’re rare… but they’re out there…
I’ve always maintained that we’d get a more representative set of people by picking them at random from phone books every 4 years.
This would also destroy the influence peddling and currying of favors by special interests groups who just throw money at the re-election problem faced by all incumbents.
K Street would become deserted…
My answer to the question “Did your guy get in?” is “Did anybody get elected? Then I lost…”
IT USED TO BE…
they were paid a STIPEND(allowance) and after they were done, they WENT HOME AND WORKED..
These guys a WIMPS to the max.
These are the guys that got beat up in school yards.. trying to make deals so they didnt get beat up.
“I will give you my cookies if you dont beat me up”
Around 35 years ago, we woke up to the fact that we were grooming professional politicians. These were personalities that studied law or other relevant discipline – with the sole intent of working their way into public office – for whatever reason drove them, to eventually receive the generous perks and pension of ‘elected’ office, while ostensibly working for the public good.
The unfortunate side-effect of this single-minded ambition, is that now we have very few passionate individuals putting their hand up for public office.
Where this becomes ugly, is the modern party machines make it very difficult for an individual to reach office unless thee candidate aligns themselves with the party powerbrokers or other ‘friendly’ sponsor.
This is reaching a new level – with rampant collusion between the state and federal levels of government,with one being a stepping stone to the other, or brokering support for local activites which are of little or no business whatsoever in the ‘real world’.
Feathering their nests and back-slapping each other are no use to the electorate. The only beneficiaries are the politicians themselves.
We already have professional public servants, we don’t need professional politicians.
Let’s create some new rules
It’s easy to dump on politicians, but how good is business doing? I don’t see many examples of stellar private performance that the public sector should learn from.
Here is a good list what our biggest companies are up to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_scandal
All of the “next” industries are being dominated by China, and a lot of their technology was developed by us. In exchange for shipping American jobs to China to improve corporate profits we agreed to transfer most of our manufacturing technology as well.
The biggest businesses, the ones that buy our politicians, succeed mostly by cheating regulatory/tax regimes and out-litigate rather than out-compete.
#6
There are a few things that need to happen.
1. the GOV. is the #1 corp.. it SHOULD RULE over the rest..grab the money they NEED from the rest of them.
2. our laws are SUPPOSED to be based on the PERSON/INDIVIDUAL and the protection of..Protect us from the CORPS.
The major corps in the USA? Banks/insurance/Stocks
Blue collar crime..Rob a 7/11 and get 20 years and 20 bucks.
White collar crime.. Rob $1,000,000+ from a retirement fund and get 5-10 years. AND KEEP the $1,000,000
The problem was and is with the present form of government that a minority of the population select the candidate who will represent their party.
Then a minority of the registered voters come to the polls and vote on which candidate will appear on the final ballot.
Finally a minority of voters come to the polls and vote on which party will have dominance in the government.
The other portion of the population either does not vote due to time and work constraints and/or apathy. Others are not registered to vote due to not seeing any representation to their needs, cultural or economic position and from being ineligible to vote.
Our elections have never been a majority of the population. Only a majority of those whom vote.
What can we expect from government when we do not have enough people encouraged to even vote let alone run for the job.
The system is broken. Until it is fixed, using the same system in place will not solve any problems.
New Constitution
New System
Abandon the Old
It is the only way you will get real change.
Cursor_
#9 then I dont need to explain to you,
about how farming communities having LESS voting power then the larger CITIES, or even most Towns..
Farming STATES, really dont get a vote.
Part of this is WHERE IS THE WORK..Where are the big companies and corps.. They dont spread out. Even the MALLS/Stores have consolidated.
“75% of voters in the political Mainstream say if something is not going well, Congress can always make it worse.”
Sounds about right to me. Dems or Repubs in control. So what’s your point, Eideard? Other than that one on your head that aims left.
#9 Cursor – Bite your tongue … err. fingers! The last thing we want right now is for the idiots running this country to establish a new constitution! We’d end up an insignificant nanny state maybe renamed the United States of Finland.
I think his point is to whine that Rasmussen is conservative, therefore their polls should not be believed. Never mind that other polls tend to go in line with them.
Don’t overlook the professional staffers who really run Washington. These are the folks that write the bills their current boss (i.e. the elected representative) introduces to the floor. If you want to know how some odd, mysterious bit of wording (giving clear advantage to one industry at the public’s expense) gets into a bill, look no further than a bribed staffer. And these blood suckers don’t leave with the defeated representative, they just transfer to a new host.
Alfie–BushtheRetard was a meat puppet handled by the neocons around him. Sure he had input from time to time but he was just the useful idiot put in position to draw the attention away.
Congress was lied to by the BushCo administration about the threat/evidence Sadam represented BUT I don’t think most congresscreeps believed him. No, our spineless gutless corrupt self dealing power aggregating incumbents wanted to avoid any challenge to their PATRIOTISM by the idiot american voting public. You know who the idiot american voting public is don’t you Alfie?===yes, morans just like you. Luddite, religious, slogan controlled morans who take pride in starting wars.
Similarly, starting two wars without an exit strategy in mind, removing financial controls without the consequences in mind, dug a hole so deep that it has created a “new normal” that we still have not come to grips with.
Ideas are powerful things. Good ideas and bad ideas. For good and for ill. The Pukes and BushtheRetard have given us a demonstration of bad ideas that will be noted in the history books.
And no one has gone to jail for it.
Silly/Sad Hoomans.
What exactly would a profit model for a private DMV be? How would that model attract enough competition to maintain your hypothetical level of customer service?
Cable, Telephone, Airlines all have traditionally poor customer service, yet make vast amounts of money and remain powerful businesses.
Across the board privatization is not a magic bullet.
#15, #17, Why is it you and I are the only ones who see this fact?
Eideard is a toad.
How to get “honest” politicians:
1. Start by rounding up all the incumbents as well as anyone who has held elected office in the last 4 years. Then kill them.
2. Announce new elections. After the candidates have been selected, round them up and kill them.
3. Repeat step 2.
Privatising DMV could work just like the Postal Service: charge more than 10 times the governmental monopoly price, create a work force of minimum wage slaves while pocketing huge executive profits while removing any service at all for the bottom 75% of the market that is very satisfied with the service they are getting today.
Just what the Pukes want. Actually a very good demonstration of what is wrong with capitalism.
#21–Faxon==why indeed? All fed lead paint as a baby?
#12
There is no difference between the two parties and has not been since the 1870s.
A plutocrat is a plutocrat. So long as the rich run the government, the middle and lower class have taxation without representation.
#13
I never said entrust the drafting of a new constitution to the present people in power. They cannot be trusted to do that. You have start with a new group of people. When we started the first one we didn’t ask the two houses in Britain for input. Neither should we now.
#14
Gov Christie of NJ is the solution, privatize. No doubt a privately run DMV would actually care about customer service, ending those 4hr waits
Yeah that great private run prison that let those murderers escape and then kill two more people while on the run was a shining example of privatisation.
Cursor_
#12 “The Democrats began running the show in 2007, tanked the economy (via fannie and freddie) in 2008, and prevented the recession from ending ever since.”
You have a very selective reading of history. Bush II was still in ’07. Without a 60% in the senate the Dems would still not run the show, even if the president wasn’t planning on vetoing their bills. Focusing on Fannie and Freddie, which is only a part of the larger securitization debate, ignores the fact that those problem loan resets were on mortgages written 3-5 years earlier.
Blaming the credit revulsion on the Dems is similar to saying Afghanistan is Obama’s war. It ignores history that we just lived through. I can understand rewriting history for future people, but we were actually there to witness it. That nobody called you out on this yet is troubling.
All they think about is getting ‘reelected’ and they will say anything to do that.
Now what they actually do is another matter.
We shall see if it works again this year.
Sooo… Let’s all do the logical thing and elect more members of the political party that put us squarely in this mess in the first place?
16% think Congress is doing a good job? WTF is wrong with them? I can’t believe the number is that high.
congress should be like jury duty. You serve your four years, you get NO pay for life like they’ve given themselves now, you use the SAME healthcare everyone else is forced to use and you return to your regular life afterward, living with the consequences of what you did. Allow no meetings whatsoever with special interests, no gifts, no trips, etc.
Problem solved
11,
very good..
12,
you are a fool..This started at the point we RAISED wages for gov. jobs..Look back to the 70’s.. Giving a JOB that no one REALLY wants, and pays little, SHOWS when you are corrupt. You START OWNING/BUYING STUFF..NOW we have EXPENSIVE salaries and NO TRANSPARENCY and cant TELL who is making How much..
14,
This is easier..
IF the corps dont hire people…the STATE DOES and raises TAX on the corps to do business.
“Find them a Job, or WE WILL, and you still pay for it.”
16,
CORRECT, ding ding ding..
Those USED to be out of pocket to our reps…NOW WE PAY THEM.
18,
I like this question..we sent the money to the banks, and WHAT mortgages were paid? NONE..it went to wages.
#22
rather give them basic k-6 tests.. Then ask COMMON everyday tests..Whats the price of bread/milk/ice cream…most couldnt pass the 5th grade.
#23,
Almost…but RUN the GOV. like the CORPS run there business…top 1% get GREAT wages, and no one ELSE DOES. MIn wage for EVERYONE..
#28,
NOPE…QUIT THE UNION..scare them…badly.
#30,
NOT enough..very good, but not enough.
Part of the problem are the ones that WERENT elected. those incharge of major sections of the gov.
Veterans affairs.
Pentagon.
FDA
CIA
FBI
…
…
What would be nice for elected officials is a REGIONAL-NATIONAL selection..NOT 2 groups deciding FOR US, among those we never heard of.
5 groups, 10 states EACH. select a runner.
5 running people..
OLD time DEBATE…the ones that can LAST DAYS..
AND..
A vote of no confidence.
If enough persons in the USA VOTE no confidence, a NEW election for ALL SEATS.
Another button..
yes/NO/None of the above
requirement..
50% of the USA MUST VOTE, or no election. ALL are fired/quit.
1 Electorate vote PER STATE. this balances the farm states with Major cities. It also forces CORPS/people/dems and repubs to spread out. 16 states CANT RUN THIS NATION, and give NOTHING to the other 34.
ANd the BIG ONE..
no min wage..
MAX WAGE.
no one gets paid MORE, unless no-one wants the job or its dangerous.
Clearly, the political system we now have needs some adjustment.
Didn’t Darwin say we have to ‘evolve’ or perish?
I ‘vote’ for evolve..
Bobbo, that is not a good analysis of the postal service. The monopoly part in certain services makes it impossible to know what the privatized price would be. Plus the postal service is subsidized, which in some ways leads to lower prices, while the political interference leads to higher costs borne by having too many post offices.
In the parts that are more competitive, like packages, you do not see a 10-1 price differential. On top of that UPS and FedEx are a more reliable service.
Mike==fair and sensible counter. In the end, I believe the net/net benefit with the waste of government run postal service is far better than the net/net benefit with the profit skimming of for-profit run postal service.
For example: what is wrong with “too many post offices?” More locations = better service/selection. If that results in too many people being employed isn’t that “good” for society??? How can more people/locations providing a service be a bad thing? All comes down to “price” and price is the tax paid/fee paids/quality of society we live in.
No. I think the postal service is a most excellent example of the difference between government and for-profit services. NetFlix uses the USPO because it is reliable and cheaper than for profit.
Same is true for many/most other “basic” services that society needs/benefits from. I doubt you have any info regarding lost package rate for USPO or Fed-Ex other than their advertising???
Competition among providers makes “sense” mostly only for those items/services that the public doesn’t really need. Once you “need” a service, the free market required assumptions don’t apply.
Face it Mike–gov and free market each have their roles==neither is better at everything. Sorry not to get lock step stupid with you on this one.