The U.S. House and it's silly punishments

Representative Charles B. Rangel was censured by The House because of some unethical conduct. He was chairman of the Ways and Means Committee which is heavily involved in writing tax law. His unethical behavior included things like, attending conferences in the Caribbean payed for by corporations, not paying taxes on $75,000 of income from rental properties, not paying mortgage interest for 10 years, and using his office for fundraising activities for the Charlie P. Rangel Center for Public Service including seeking donations from companies that had business before his ways and means committee. In total there were 11 charges he was found guilty on.

From the way he speaks in defense of himself it sounds like he thinks this is all an overreaction and nothing should happen to him, and that his service in the military should count for something. It is clear that he committed these crimes and should be punished for them.

So here's the houses punishment. A censure. A censure is a very serious punishment and is rarely used. It entails his charges being read by the speaker of the house in front of the entire house of representatives (Though from what I've heard she only read one charge). Can you believe the severity! Can you believe people are debating the death penalty and all the while something as horrific as censure is going on!

This is a joke. They could easily remove this guy from office and even put him in prison (I believe Wesley Snipes just got put in prison for not paying taxes). Instead the house basically decided not to do anything. He even got standing applause after he gave his defense.

Miller's Justice - Throw him out of office and put him in prison for 2 years. Throw anyone who applauded him out of office. Revoke voting rights from the people in New York that re-elected him despite the charges until they have taken some basic courses on ethics and how to do some research before casting a vote.

Post Election Commentary

So Elections were Tuesday and I've put together some of my takes on what went on. Some of these thoughts are related to issues that came up in the elections and some are on the candidates and results. You're welcome to comment with your own thoughts, I'd love to hear your analysis.

Where were the issues? Instead of Meg being called a whore and employing an illegal immigrant, why not clear plans on things like water distribution, job creation, budgeting problems, prison expenses, businesses and residents leaving our state, the state deficit?

Campaign Spending! Outrageous! Here's my suggestion. Limit candidates to 1 debate televised and put on the Internet, a website, and a one page summary of why they are a good choice distributed in the sample ballot.

Boo Barbara Boxer! I was really hoping Boxer would lose. If I were running Fiorina's campaign I would have played over and over again the video of her insisting that a general refer to her as "Senator" because she worked really hard to get there. Attention Barbara! You are a democrat from California, did it really take that much work to win? I'd say at the least she didn't work any harder than the man she was addressing.

Fiorina oversaw layoffs at HP! Is it really that difficult to understand the difference between a Senator's responsibilities and those of a CEO at a public company. She has to produce profit or the company goes under, sometimes layoffs are a part of that.

Education - Why all the comparisons to other countries? Isn't the core concern more along the lines of "We want our kids to finish school and be well-equipped to enter the work force or go to college to continue learning" rather than "We want our kids to have better test scores than the kids in Japan."

President Obama - On Wednesday morning the President made a statement and answered some questions. At one point he basically said that moving forward the two parties will need to work together to give Americans what they want. Rational people probably already determined this back when the two party system was established.

Republicans - The party leadership has already come out and essentially said they want to make sure the President is not re-elected. How is that conducive to making progress and helping out our country? Even if that is your aim, what is the value in telling the whole country? Why polarize when now is a chance to start working together.

In closing I hope you all voted even if there weren't great options for you. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the elections, you're welcome to comment on the propositions as well.

How a bill becomes a law

Do you guys remember watching the video in like junior high that explains how a bill becomes a law? It layed out the process pretty clearly and made it sound pretty simple. I think it may be time for a new video. The new video may need to include something about there being two political parties that dislike each other and try to kill each other's bills on a regular basis.

With the passage of the healthcare bill I can't help but think our process for making laws isn't working quite how it should. I would argue that the average person doesn't know much about the healthcare bill and yet it has already been voted on and passed. If the job of our congresspeople and senators is to represent us with their votes it seems like they should have an understanding about how we feel about the bill before they cast their vote. But if most of us don't know what is in the bill then how can we form an opinion and pass that along to our representatives so they can vote accordingly.

Here's my issue. Who's responsibility is it to make sure the public is well-informed about what our government is doing. Is it on us to research on our own and then send our opinions to our representatives? Should our representatives be taking steps to make sure we know what they will be voting on and ask us for our input? Should some one from the whitehouse be making efforts to explain everything? Should TV and other media outlets do more extensive coverage that gives all the information about a bill?

What do you think? Also, do you feel like you know what is in the bill that just passed? (yes or no, you don't have to explain the bill)