Friday, August 05, 2011

Proposal for Amendment to the Constitution

This is from an email which is in circulation which I wanted to post on this blog.

It isn't perfect but it addresses a number of issues which have frustrated many of us. Maybe if a Grassroots effort gets momentum, some of these issues will be addressed, possibly by Amendment and possibly by legislation.

The problem now is that we have the fox guarding the hen house. We are the chicken being plucked!

.....................

The 26th amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds) took only 3 months and 8 days to be ratified! Why? Simple! The people demanded it. That was in 1971...before computers, before e-mail, before cell phones, etc..

Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven (7) took 1 year or less to become the law of the land...all because of public pressure.

Congressional Reform Act of 2011

1. Term Limits. 12 years only, one of the possible options below..

A. Two Six-year Senate terms
B. Six Two-year House terms
C. One Six-year Senate term and three Two-Year House terms

2. No Tenure / No Pension.

A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.

3. Congress (past , present and future) participates in Social Security.

All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people.

4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.

5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

6. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

7. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.

8. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/12.

The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen. Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves.

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.

Tuesday, August 02, 2011

Importance of Redistricing and the Tennor of Legislature

As we enter into the process of sculpting the Legislative Districts for the State of Maryland, we need to look past boundaries and seriously consider the impact these new districts will have on our Country, Our State and ourselves. If we continue to have districts which are politically drawn with unstated but implicit goal of safe seats for the "party faithful" and if the "party faithful" are fanatically "left" or "right", then we will guarantee a continuing dysfunctional Congress.

When it passed the law requiring single-member elections, Congress also created some vague rules for drawing the boundaries of congressional districts; each state's voting districts were supposed to be geographically contiguous, compact in shape, and roughly equal in population.

But those rules were pretty loose and subjective, which opened the door for state politicians to pull all kinds of shenanigans in drawing district boundaries for partisan gain. This is known as gerrymandering—the manipulation of the boundaries of congressional districts to serve the interests of the political party drawing the boundaries. (The odd-sounding name comes from founding father Elbridge Gerry, who was serving as Governor of Massachusetts in 1812 when he drew up the state's legislative districts to favor his own Democratic-Republican Party. Gerry's critics thought that one of the resulting districts, a snakelike creation stretching northeast from Boston, looked like a salamander—a monstrous creation they called a "Gerrymander." From http://www.shmoop.com/legislative-branch/house-of-representatives.html


As the Sunpapers so accurately noted, there is little moderation in Congress and few members are "middle of the road".

Thanks to gerrymandered congressional districts that mean many representatives face competition only in their party primaries, there are few centrists left, and members of both parties' fringes not only have an incentive to embrace extremism but reason to fear for their re-election prospects if they don't. The Baltimore Sunpapers Editioral August 2, 2011.


If the constituents are moderate, then how do we end up with "representatives" who do not represent our ideals and principals? The simple reason is that we have abandoned responsibility.

We as a citizenry have abdicated our role to be involved in our government and have allowed party “hacks” and “zealots” to take control of the local County Party and Central Committees.

Is it any wonder that the individuals who are supported by the local party are carbon copies of the ideology of the Central Committee? That the candidates are extreme and not moderate? That collectively we hold our nose when we cast our votes?

The Calendar for Public Hearings on Redistricting has begun.

Here is the calendar, we need to take notice, educate ourselves and let our voices be heard,

Public hearings will start at the designated time and end following the last testimony of registered persons.

The hearings and start times will be:
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
The Universities at Shady Grove
Building #1 Auditorium
Starts at 7:00 p.m.
9630 Gudelsky Drive
Rockville, MD 20850 (Driving Directions)
Parking in lot 2
• Public Testimony Advance Sign-in

Friday, August 12, 2011
Morgan State University
Student Center - Calvin & Tina Tyler Ballroom (Campus Map)
Starts at 7:00 p.m.
1700 East Cold Spring Lane
Baltimore MD 21251 (Driving Directions)
Park in the stadium parking garage (13 on map) and take bridge on 3rd level into the Student Center
• Public Testimony Advance Sign-in
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
College of Southern Maryland
Center for Business and Industry, #113 (Campus Map)
Starts at 7:00 p.m.
8730 Mitchell Road
La Plata, MD 20646 (Driving Directions)
Park in lots 2, 6 & 7 – Most convenient to BI
• Public Testimony Advance Sign-in

Saturday, August 27, 2011
Harford Community College
Amoss Center (next to Harford Technical H.S.) (Campus Map)
Starts at 11:00 a.m.
200 Thomas Run Road
Bel Air, MD 21015 (Driving Directions)
Parking all around school
• Public Testimony Advance Sign-in
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Towson University
Stephens Hall Theater (Campus Map)
Starts at 2:00 p.m.
8000 York Road
Towson, MD 21252 (Driving Directions)
• Public Testimony Advance Sign-in

Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Anne Arundel Community College
Center for Applied Learning & Technology (CALT) 100 (Campus Map)
Starts at 4:00 p.m.
101 College Parkway
Arnold, MD 21012 (Driving Directions)
• Public Testimony Advance Sign-in
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Howard County
Wilde Lake Interfaith Center, Room 4 (Campus Map)
Starts at 7:00 p.m.
10431 Twin Rivers Road
Columbia MD , 21044 (Driving Directions)
• Public Testimony Advance Sign-in