Houses on sand

February 12, 2017

It seems that we have a very active group in this country that disagrees with parts of our constitution.

Instead of using the mechanisms the constitution offers to make amendments, some of them want to change the rules by supreme court fiat and public opinion.

At the end of the day what is written in the constitution is the only definitive set of rules that control our government.

If not then we don’t have a set of rules but instead will be governed by a committee.

Just as we are seeing that presidential executive orders can be reversed by a new president, any court ruling can be negated by a future court.  Anything short of formally modifying the constitution is founded on quicksand.

We deserve better

Brutus

1 Comment | Federal Government | Permalink
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Filibuster

February 8, 2017

The is quite a bit of talk of there being a filibuster in the senate to delay the confirmation of the current supreme court nominee.

Please correct us if our understanding of the process is incomplete or wrong.

It works like this:

Any senator can speak for as long as he/she wants

The senator cannot sit down or leave the senate floor even momentarily

The senator can yield the floor but must remain in attendance

The senator can only take the floor one time to speak about an item under debate

In practicality that means that each senator might be able to filibuster for about 24 hours before nature’s call requires them to quit.

The senator is entitled to a quorum of the senate and may call for a confirmation of there being a quorum at any time.  That means that at least 51 senators need to be in their seats throughout the process.  Otherwise the senator that is filibustering can take a break until there is a quorum.

Keeping the other senators from going home will not go far to engender feelings of good will.

Short term

The long and the short of the issue is that the filibuster cannot last forever.

However while it is going on the senate cannot get anything done.

To some of us that would be a good thing.

It looks like the nominee will be confirmed eventually.

We deserve better

Brutus

7 Comments | Federal Government | Permalink
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Condemned for doing what they want

February 6, 2017

Our situation gets “curiouser and curiouser”.

USA TODAY wants us to know that the current supreme court nominee is “pro gun”.  You should be able to read their condemnation here.

Their proof?

Evidently the justice heard a case in 2012 where a convicted felon was accused of violating the terms of an earlier guilty plea that banned him from possessing firearms.

The justice agreed that the lower court had interpreted prior rulings correctly and refused to reverse the conviction.

He voted to affirm the conviction thus sending the felon to jail for possession of a firearm.

Pro gun?

How does that make the justice  “pro gun”?  Well, he wrote in his opinion that he personally thought that the government had not been held to the congressionally specified burden of proof.  However he felt it was his duty to uphold prior circuit court rulings.

His duty

It seems that we have a justice that had a personal opinion that was different from what prior courts had ruled.  He felt it was his duty to follow the decisions of prior majorities.

In our book that makes him a justice that enforces the law instead of making up his own.

Isn’t that what we want from our supreme court?

And since when has being “pro gun” bad?  Don’t we have a second amendment?

We deserve better

Brutus

 

1 Comment | Federal Government | Permalink
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Shipping more money out of town

January 28, 2017

The November 1, 2016 of our mass transit board (sun metro or city council in another form) has two unfortunate items on it.

Sun metro staff sought approval for two $13 million dollar contracts with different firms.  The contracts would be to provide engineering and management services relating to TXDOT and federal highway administration funding over a period of four years

It appears that the city will dole out work to the two firms depending upon current circumstances.  It is not clear whether they are talking about a total of $26 million or they plan to use both firms to spend the $13 million.

That level of transparency would require a desire to tell us the complete story.

No talent in town?

Isn’t it a shame that in a city of this size they think that we don’t have the talent to do this with local  firms?

We deserve better.

Brutus

 

 

 

1 Comment | City government, Federal Government, State Government | Permalink
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Less pomp?

January 18, 2017

We’ve never been to a presidential inauguration but from what we can see it is not something that the common man is usually invited to.

We would hope that with the promise to “clean house” the new group might keep things simple and short.

We deserve better

Brutus

13 Comments | Federal Government | Permalink
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