Campaign Asks Congress to ‘Pledge to Read’ Bills Before Voting on Them

reply to post by badmedia

Corporatism is not the same as fascism... they are similar but not the same at all.

corporatism
One entry found.

Main Entry:
cor·po·rat·ism Listen to the pronunciation of corporatism
Pronunciation:
\ˈkȯr-p(ə-)rə-ˌti-zəm\
Function:
noun
Date:
1890

: the organization of a society into industrial and professional corporations serving as organs of political representation and exercising control over persons and activities within their jurisdiction

fascism
One entry found.

Main Entry:
fas·cism Listen to the pronunciation of fascism
Pronunciation:
\ˈfa-ˌshi-zəm also ˈfa-ˌsi-\
Function:
noun
Etymology:
Italian fascismo, from fascio bundle, fasces, group, from Latin fascis bundle & fasces fasces
Date:
1921

:1 often capitalized : a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition

2: a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control

corpratism source
fascism source
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So yes there are similarities but they are not the same...

reply to post by iamjesusphish


It's actually debated a bit on meaning.

www.answers.com...

After the First World War, the idea of corporatism was taken up by the radical right, in particular by Mussolini, who placed it at the centre of the fascist regime in Italy. As a consequence, corporatism suffered from guilt by association. It came to be regarded as a synonym for fascism and disappeared from most political discussion, although it survived in Spain and especially Portugal.

Says guilt by association, but I think it is the centerpiece of modern fascism, because it is not directly noticable and gives the people the illusions of choice/freedom, but they are ruled through economic means. The corporations get the money, and they decide who makes it and who doesn't because of the constant transfer of wealth from the people to the central bank. This is how the "severe economic and social regimentation" of the fascism is done.

So to me they are the same thing, and corporatism is a better word for it as it is more directed towards how it is done which is easier for people to see/understand.



[edit on 7/6/2009 by badmedia]

Been reading through the pages for a while and had to sign up for this one. There's a group called downsizedc.org that has had a "Read the Bills" campaign for quite sometime. And they make it real easy to pester all your senators and reps in dc on a lot of other things as well. here's a link if anyone is interested: www.downsizedc.org...

Well it's about time!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's all I'm saying.

We should all celebrate tonight.

Why is that the only four people that have signed the pledge are all Republican.

As of 7/7/2009
Congress
KS - Todd Tiahrt (R)
KS - Jerry Moran (R)

Senate
OK - James Inhofe (R)
SC - Jim DeMint (R)

pledge to read link

reply to post by Alxandro


Because in a roundabout way of thinking, signing the petition is almost the same as admitting they don't read them in the first place.

Also if the Republicans are signing it, the Democrats are going to be even more unlikely to follow suit, until the bad publicity hits the fan in a more visible way, that is.

Then again, the Repubs could be using this as an opportunity to regain some lustre after all that has happened up to this point to damage their reputation.

Heck, if it were I starting this petition, I would have been doing it strictly to prove the point of how pointless the American political process has become.

Pledge? I think there should be a law forcing each and every legislative member to completely read and understand each and every piece before being able to debate or vote on the issue.

Violation of this new law would be treason punishable by execution.

Yea. They need a literary whip. I made a facebook group about this.

It simply should be common sense to read a bill before passing it.

reply to post by Gorman91


Didn't you get the memo??? Common sense isn't very common anymore! As well as common courtesy, common knowledge, etc. Sorry if we didn't get that to you!

reply to post by JaxonRoberts


Yea I know.


My common sense is tingling.

Did you know that something like this was tried already? A motion to actually read the bill before voting on it.

They hired a freeking SPEEDREADER to read the bill out loud!

www.youtube.com...

It was a travesty! And they did this to applause..... see the youtube vid.

This government expiration date is coming closer if this continues.

Just in case you missed it...the Democratic "leader" has laughed at the notion of actually reading a bill before voting on it.

CNSNews

Hopefully we will get these do-nothing-asses out of office sooner rather than later. Spend our money without even knowing what you are spending it on??? Fire them all!

reply to post by WeAreAWAKE


I saw that this morning. Nice Huh? Thanks for adding it.
Way to show your constituents that you care about your job. Just when I think that I've heard it all from these maroons.

As a person with minute skills as an animator, I think tis about time I make an animation about this BS, calling attention to it.


A congress version of this.

www.youtube.com...

Fortunately, this story is getting some air time on Fox News. They are also reminding people of the fact that our dedicated servants in DC failed to read the text of the stimulus package as well.

We need to make our elected officials look like the fools that most of them really are...

The only refreshing viewpoints I have heard from any congressmen on this issue have come from freshman/newbies on the hill.

Originally posted by WeAreAWAKE
Just in case you missed it...the Democratic "leader" has laughed at the notion of actually reading a bill before voting on it.

This should have been his "political suicide" moment, but so few people keep up with or seem to care about what our politicians are doing in DC it will go unnoticed by the masses and he'll probably still get re-elected.

Democratic Leader Laughs at Idea That House Members Would Actually Read Health-Care Bill Before Voting On

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Tuesday that the health-care reform bill now pending in Congress would garner very few votes if lawmakers actually had to read the entire bill before voting on it.

“If every member pledged to not vote for it if they hadn’t read it in its entirety, I think we would have very few votes,” Hoyer told CNSNews.com at his regular weekly news conference.

Ooohhhh YEAH!!!

Now that makes a whole lot of sense!

So, members of congress should vote on bills, and pass them into law, without knowing everything that the bill says that they are voting for to pass into law!

In fact, Hoyer found the idea of the pledge humorous, laughing as he responded to the question. “I’m laughing because a) I don’t know how long this bill is going to be, but it’s going to be a very long bill,” he said.

[SARCASM]Oh, I see what you mean now!

The people who you were elected to represent, who you work for, can't expect you to actually read a LONG bill and understand all it's intricacies that you are going to vote into law, that would just take too much of your time that we are paying you for! [/SARCASM]


[edit on 7/10/2009 by Keyhole]

Originally posted by jibeho
They owe it to us to actually READ this legislation.

I agree!

Not only to make sure there are no "loopholes" in the bill, but to reduce the amount of "pork" that ends up in these bills!

GOP hits Pelosi for Mouse Funds

The tiny mouse that became a hotly disputed symbol of wasteful spending in the $787 billion economic stimulus bill has returned to pester House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The Obama administration revealed last week that as much as $16.1 million from the stimulus program is going to save the San Francisco Bay Area habitat of, among other things, the endangered salt marsh harvest mouse.

That has revived Republican criticism that the pet project was an "invisible earmark" in the massive spending bill for Mrs. Pelosi, whose San Francisco district abuts the Bay, and epitomizes what Republicans say is the failure of stimulus spending so far to help an economy still shedding jobs.

Well, it wouldn't have been too INVISIBLE if they had read the bill!

Here's a link to "The Congressional Pig Book",

The Congressional Pig Book

The Congressional Pig Book is CAGW's annual compilation of the pork-barrel projects in the federal budget. The 2009 Pig Book identified 10,160 projects at a cost of $19.6 billion in the 12 Appropriations Acts for fiscal 2009. A "pork" project is a line-item in an appropriations bill that designates tax dollars for a specific purpose in circumvention of established budgetary procedures.

The "Pork Barrel Projects" listed in this book/website have to meet a certain criteria, ...

As in previous years, all of the items in the Congressional Pig Book Summary meet at least one of CAGW’s seven criteria, but most satisfy at least two:

* Requested by only one chamber of Congress;
* Not specifically authorized;
* Not competitively awarded;
* Not requested by the President;
* Greatly exceeds the President’s budget request or the previous year’s funding;
* Not the subject of congressional hearings; or
* Serves only a local or special interest.

Here's some samples of "Pork Barrel Spending" that slips through the cracks, probably because they most in Congress don't read the whole bill!

$2,192,000 by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), - for the Center for Grape Genetics in Geneva
******SKIP******
$866,000 - for stable fly control in Lincoln
******SKIP******
In fiscal 2002 there was a $50,000 earmark for a tattoo removal program in San Luis Obispo, in the district of Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.).
******SKIP******
$115,000 by House CJS Appropriations Subcommittee member Mike Honda (D-Calif.) for a program at San Jose State University to train the next generation of weather forecasters.
******SKIP******
$50,000 by House appropriator Harold Rogers (R-Ky.) for the Pulaski County Sheriff Department for helicopter improvements.
******SKIP******
$400,000 by Senate appropriator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), and Rep. Leonard Boswell (D-Iowa) under the Save America’s Treasures program for the Salisbury House, the 1920s home of cosmetics pioneer Carl Weeks, in Des Moines
******SKIP******
$71,000 by Rep. Nydia Valezquez (D-N.Y.) for Dance Theater Etcetera in Brooklyn for its Tolerance through Arts initiative

Maybe some of this pork would have been taken out of the bills before they signed them, that is, if they read the bills.

Representative Government

Originally posted by whatukno
Pledge? I think there should be a law forcing each and every legislative member to completely read and understand each and every piece before being able to debate or vote on the issue.

Violation of this new law would be treason punishable by execution.

Of course, getting Congress to draft such a law -- let alone pass it -- would seem to engender a rather monumental conflict of interest.

Alas, it seems our only logical recourse is the ballot box.

But then, if literacy and diligence were prerequisites for voting, perhaps the current problems with our government would be rendered moot.

reply to post by Majic

Of course, getting Congress to draft such a law -- let alone pass it -- would seem to engender a rather monumental conflict of interest.

I think it could be done, heck they don't read the bills anyway, it could be slipped into a congressional pay raise bill. They would pass it so fast they wouldn't know what they were voting on.