Here’s the transcript of the segment.
Members of Congress and their aides have regular access to powerful political intelligence, and many have made well-timed stock market trades in the very industries they regulate. For now, the practice is perfectly legal, but some say it’s time for the law to change.
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there is a lot that needs to be changed for elected officials,
like minimum wage for all elected officials, no health care, let them buy their own on their new wage level, must live in public housing, their kids must attend public schools, must make them accountable for how they vote.. means more insurance for them to cover the cost of their screw-ups while in office., must give all their wealth to charity upon entering office.. 🙂 i like that one the best… there is more, but you get the idea..
Nah, too complicated… You’ve already got rules and exceptions and exemptions.
Leave everything in place but make just ONE change.
We get rid of elections and move to selections.
I’ve thought about enforcement and, apart from the sheer constitutional difficulties with pulling a Vlad Teppish and impaling corrupt politicians, there are arguments to be made for not bothering to create a more rules than they currently are, except that now they’d actually be enforced.
Sounds nice in theory, but how would that get rid of corruption? In one sense, wouldn’t it encourage corruption (might as well make as much money as I can, while I can, since I’m stuck here for this term).
Do as I say, not as I do.
what education is required to be an elected official?
What life experience, is required?
How many have lived at LEAST 1/2 of their lives in your state?
Who gets more representation due to population density…
1 square mile of CITY/200 square miles of farm land?
BACK to the Stipend system(allowances), pay for transpotation and living expence while in washington..THEN GO HOME AND WORK the other 6 months.
ALSO,
haw many jobs have you had, where you VOTED your own wage?
http://newscientist.com/article/mg21228354.500-revealed–the-capitalist-network-that-runs-the-world.html
And since you didnt post this from Cagematch…
http://newscientist.com/article/mg21228354.500-revealed–the-capitalist-network-that-runs-the-world.html
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed”
where does it say…”ALL MEN, except….”?
To quote Anatole France: The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor, to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets and to steal bread.
Now Oakland cops are cracking heads just like their grand-fathers did when demolishing the Hoovervilles.
I think the next step is for homeless families to Occupy the banks that dispossessed them.
http://newscientist.com/article/dn21133-frogkiller-disease-was-born-in-trade.html
http://newscientist.com/article/mg21228383.800-is-it-time-to-let-some-species-go-extinct.html
Anyone here know what an “indicator species” is?
Its a species that shows something BAD is happening.
Frogs and Bess fall into this classification.
find the life expectancy of an EX-president..
Not too shabby, actually.
Both Bushs are still seemingly healthy and should be around a while.
Jimmy Carter is well into his 80s and doing fine.
Bubba survived his heart problems and looks predatory, again. If he can just avoid Hillary…
O’Bama will soon be an ex and he’s so damned young we’ll be paying him for many years to come.
Deceased now, of course, but Ford and Reagan both ran well into their 90s, though apparently Reagan didn’t know it.
Hell, even Nixon managed to drag on to 82, I think!
Maybe that’s why we should elect Ron Paul. He won’t hang around too long…
There is definitely something wrong with this situation. However, the solution is not to get rid of our democratic republican system, but rather for average citizens to become more informed and engaged in the political process. That is the way the founders intended our country to be, and that is the only way a democracy is viable in the long run.
How can we be a democracy, with it takes only 15%(2 groups, at 15% in each=total 30%) of the nation to elect a president?
Couple of problems with your statement.
One) that 30% does not elect a president. The Electoral college does. Each state select it’s Electors according to local law and I think the total is somewhere around 540 then select the pres and vice-pres by a majority vote.
Two) isn’t a hallmark of freedom that you don’t have to vote if you don’t want to? Personally I’d druther have 30% of the population care enough to vote (and presumably informed) than 100% when 70% of them will vote for the best looking candidate or the one their union tells them to vote for. Yes, I know that’s the way it is with the current 30%, too. I said it was my druther.
THE 30% ARE THE REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS AND THEY VOTE FOR THEIR own PARTIES..
the 70% stopped voting, as we DIDNT select who we wanted to run. and we dont have enough money to back them.
Yeah, I knew they all leave Congress RICH but didn’t know about this provision.
Pro’s and Con’s to every issue and response. This is bad because it holds these people “above the law” and splits their attention from the public service they are always talking up to a conflict of interest in tending to their own wealth accumulation.
On the good side: at least they are only ripping off the stock market–a kind of tax on the people that can afford it the most, and thats a good thing.
Self dealing/Conflict of Interest/Bribery/Contributions==its all about feathering one’s own next while claiming to do the people’s business.
VOTE ALL “NO NEW TAXES” POLITICIANS OUT OF OFFICE.
The best regulation is already in place: the vote! This sort of thing is just people whining about their own choices.
You just caught on to the fact that Congress made it illegal for everyone except a Congress critter to engage in insider trading?
And the progressives want to give these critters more power. I fail to understand how anyone can be such chumps.
I’m not trying to insult them but it is so patently brain dead that I just don’t understand.
That’s an opportunity for the rest of us.
All you need to do is to monitor what those guys are doing.
If they buy a piece of land in a wortless place, you just have to do the same.
problem..
hOW TO CLEAN IT UP??(gov)
its not EASY..
Clean up the pres??
Clean up the senate?? Congress??
Clean up the idiots that have been working in WASHINGTON, 20+ years..NON-elected..
Cleanup the Advocates/sponsors/corps…
Where do you start??
We should require our elected officials to be ethical. If they are found to have acted unethically during their term, they should face a stiff fine of not less than a million dollars, plus the cost of a bullet. Then they should be put against a wall, and shot.
It is my belief that we would only have to penalize a few dozen of them before they stopped being so flagrant and cavalier in their fleecing of the people.
They’ll continue to steal us blind, they’ll just be more discreet about it.
I just had a great idea, let’s all buy stock in Kevlar, and make this new rule happen. We can beat them at their own game. Drats! They can use this post to prove inside trading, and arrest us all. Oh those crafty politicians.
#14: “On the good side: at least they are only ripping off the stock market–a kind of tax on the people that can afford it the most, and that’s a good thing.”
Since many working people are stockholders by virtue of their 401K’s, I have to believe this is bad for the general population.
Sadly, our political system is too big to monitor. It’s like trying to watch a 1000 stage magicians palm cards from the balcony. And if you see and then try to reveal their tricks, you might get kicked out of the theatre!
Whether they participate or not, I think politicians all take the secret “magician’s oath”.
#25–Sam==lots of people don’t have 401 K’s.=====Context.
#16–do-ill==still brain dead after all my best efforts: you can’t imagine? I can’t imagine you imagining anything. Imagine for us if you will exactly how anyone, progressive or not, wants to give these creeps more power===except perhaps power as you call it that would otherwise be exercised by Corporations? I’d much rather have Congress ineptly trying to curb the Corporations than have the Corporations running wild. Don’t you?
Shut my mouth. Of course you don’t. You want to do-ill.
Evil self destructive hooman.
Become Legally Rich Doing Things That Are Illegal For The Rest of Us
That’s why everyone in my town will join the police department
$90K median salary, raids without warrants, driving at 120 MPH weaving recklessly on a highway, passing on the shoulder without indication of any emergency, speeding without indication of any emergency, beating 70yo men at protests without indication of any emergency, yada yada
You can’t just “join” the US Congress my friend. Police work is accessible to more people. I’m recommending police work to all my neighbors’ kids.
And Warren Buffett secured special dispensation from the SEC that he did not have to reveal the IBM purchases he was making.
sheeple have got to lose the idea that the rich are subject to the same laws as the rest of the canon fodder….
NO,
Sheep need to learn they out number the wolf…
SHEEP need to learn that a democracy STARTS at the bottom. its the PEOPLE that should create the regulations.. the TOP acts toPROTECT the people..