Ideas for Occupiers

Here are a couple of ideas for the Occupy Wall Street movement:Secret Ballot and Trust Bust--both pertaining to Capitol Hill, Washington D.C.

BILL TROUBLE
In the United States Congress, as in virtually any legislative body, there are two kinds of bills: those that pass and those that do not. That is the key difference. A bill that passes becomes law and effects policy. One that does not pass is essentially irrelevant.  As the joke goes, “Close” only counts in horseshoes, tidddly winks and hand grenades.
You can talk all you want about raising consciousness for a cause, getting sponsors, etc. but when the bill fails to make it, these efforts are in vain.

Nor does a bill that almost passes achieve anything tangibly more than one that is utterly ignored.

Legislators communicate with each other about voting likelihoods—this is allowed—so that they might often vote in ways that are politically advantageous, whereas if the fate of a bill hinged on their vote, they would go the other way.

A savvy politician may pretend to support environmental preservation, for example, by voting for a forest protection bill that has no chance of passage, in order to curry favor of the "green" constituency.

Congressional turnover in the House of Reps. assures that those bills that legislators do not want to pass (due to the moneyed power interest groups' control over them) will wallow around in various committees, possibly appear to be gaining momentum, but fail to get enough supports to become law. It may appear that the bill's passage is an achievable outcome, but before you know it, whoops, congressional elections have arrived, and the process must start all over again, minus, in all likelihood, several sponsors.

SECRET BALLOT
It's clear that Congresspersons are frequently made to feel beholden to powerful special interests in determining how they vote. The best way to minimize the role of lobbyists is to remove the possibility of a vote being "bought". This is doable by instituting a system of confidential balloting--like is standard practice in trial by jury, and was like used in classical Athens, Greece. It would enable a Congressperson to vote his/her conscience without the pressure of accountability to the special interests.

The Constitution can be construed as providing an opening. Article 1, Section 6, Paragraph 2; states that "and for any speech or debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other place." A Congressperson who reports repeated intimidation from strong-arming lobbyists or from other politicians should be able to be protected via a secret ballot.

The entrenched, standard policy of posting the vote result in Congress on a name-by-name basis, applies, constitutionally, only to votes following a Presidential veto (U.S. Constitution Art. 1, Sect.7, P'grphs 1-2). So Congress could enact a rule giving itself confidentiality in routine matters. An amendment could subsequently be adopted to cover veto-overrides.

Granted there would be no accountability to John Q. Constituent, either, but nobody really believes their voice matters anymore anyway unless they're tapped into the Lobbocracy, so this proposal might just level the playing field.

TRUST BUSTING
If Congress can't reform itself, it may be time to "break up" the parties—Dems., and Repubs., because they are too big and overconfident (as well as over-cautious), decadent, set in their ways, uncreative, reactive rather than pro-active, and so on.

It's a healthy thing to do—like pruning a bush that has grown too tall too fast. Cut it back some and you might notice how it tends to sprout multiple shoots where snipped—growing back fuller and thence more sturdy and more substantial, less susceptible to wind/snow/ice/pest damage.

Such an action would probably come about as some sort of antitrust argument in the courts--leading ultimately to a Supreme Court ruling to break up the parties like they did AT&T. Clearly they represent a duopoly of the business of political governance. To illustrate, recall the treatment of H. Ross Perot's independent presidential candidacy a few years ago. Even though he was leading in the polls, the two parties conspired to keep him out of debates.

SALARY EQUANIMITY
Towards greater economic equality: one goal of a fair society could be to establish a salary structure that reflects the reality of the workplace. Rank occupations according to how odious, tedious, exhausting, dangerous (to self & others), stressful they are to the average person. Compensate workers accordingly. Also factor-in a position’s complexity, training requirements, etc. And holders of so-called “dead-end” jobs would be rewarded for their dedication and devotion.

Salary structures are not carved into stone, as the labor union movement has proven.

P.S. Note the reality TV show cerca 2008 where the bosses tried doing the dirty work for a week or even a day, with considerable difficulty. It's coming back on in 2012. .

DC Voting Rights---an Idea Whose Time has Come

The Christmas season is a time for concern towards those less fortunate than us. In a nation that prides itself on its democratic principles, the residents of the District of Columbia certainly qualify. They are nowhere in Congress represented with a vote on national issues.

When I, a Virginian, wrote to one of my Congressman (one of my Senators, actually) several years ago about the DC voting rights issue, I got back this nice letter saying that all is well on Capitol Hill. The US Constitution--Article 1, Section 8--mandates that Congress control Washington, DC. The exact wording is "The Congress shall have Power to exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District."

So, in essence, what he was saying was "don't fret about DC being left out in the cold, all of Congress is looking out for her." But about the only time one ever hears about a Congressperson doing something notable in the D of C it's a sex scandal.

The federal government admitted that the Constitution was wrong about slavery, citizenship and voting rights when it passed the 13th through 15th amendments. And it went partway in recognizing the inequitable situation of DC when it passed the 23rd amendment giving Washingtonians a say in presidential elections. If they're allowed to vote for the presidency but have no vote in Congress, that's a glaring inconsistency!

When I, a Virginian--or a Texan, Iowan, New Yorker, Missippian, Arizonan, Minnesotan, Californian, North or South Dakotan, North or South Carolinian, Hannah Montanan, Georgian, Missourian, Floridian, New Mexican, Minnesotan, Pennsylvanian, etc.--want to query or comment to someone in Congress, I've got three people at the top of my list and they've all got a vote--my two Senators and my Congressional District Representative. And they're accountable to voters like me because I voted them into office and I can vote them out.

Now imagine you're a schoolteacher in the District of Columbia--assigned to give a civics lesson on democracy. What are you going to tell them? That at the time the Constitution was written, Washington DC was not a city? That the founding fathers didn't expect Congress to be in session more than a couple of months per year? That DC is a hostage to partisan politics? That home-rule was a failure? Though true, these are not very satisfying answers.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to notice that something is wrong with this picture. Anytime you're calling somebody a "shadow delegate"--she can walk and talk all she wants, she just can't vote--you know it's a farce.

A Public Relations Nightmare
It's a bad thing for the United States--not only because it's wrong, but because it's downright embarrassing. How can you project your image across the world as the defender of democratic ideals, and an enforcer of democratic elections, when within your own nation's capital, the entire populace is disenfranchised? That's about 600,000 people! It's absurd!

Don't think that this disparity between what we say others should do and what we do ourselves--this apparent hypocrisy--escapes the world politic. There are plenty of media outlets covering the US for an international audience these days. Every vote in Congress against DC Voting Rights, and every rally for it, gives networks like Al Jazeera and R-TV another excuse to take a potshot at ole' Uncle Sam.

Surely there's room for compromise. To wit, DC gives up its bid for statehood & senators in return for a full-fledged voting member in the House. Call it the US congressional voting district of Columbia. Making it happen this year would be a good New Year's resolution.


steve kearney

World Government Democracy: Regional System Proposal

An Open Letter to Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of Great Britain and Barack Obama, President of the USA (Both of whom have called for a stronger, more effective U.N.)

World Government Regional System Proposal

Gentlemen:

The recent Copenhagen climate talks struggled to arrive at any definitive agreement on a matter of great importance to the entire world. The proceedings were full of posturing, finger-pointing and half-hearted promises.

A simple way to form a world governing board would be to give equal weight to each major region of the world. This arrangement should balance the democratic flavor of the UN General Assembly with the leadership character of the UN Security Council.

To arrive at the delineation of regions, it's sensible to model after existing organizations of voluntary affiliation meant for economic, social, cultural, scientific, and diplomatic purposes These include: The African Union (AU), The League of Arab States (AL), The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), The Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARI-COM), The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), The European Union (EU), and The Organization of American States (OAS).

A careful balancing of a variety of factors leads to something like this for regional groupings of the Earth:

* AmericA—Canada, Greenland, the USA mainland, Bermuda and Mexico.

* LatinA--The Americas from Belize south through Ecuador, including Brazil, and the Islands of the Caribbean.

* ArgenticA--South America from Peru south through Chile/Argentina (all but Brazil), the Falklands and the continent of Antarctica.

* EuropA--Iceland, Scandinavia, The British Isles, most of mainland Europe, Turkey and the Canaries.

* UrsA—Most of Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, the Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.

* ArabianA--Coastal Africa from Mauritania east through Somalia, and the Sinai Peninsula north through Syria and Iraq.

* AfricA--The continent except for part in ArabianA, and Madagascar.

* WestAsiA--India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Iran and most of the "-stan" lands.

* EastAsiA--China and the members of ASEAN.

* OceaniA--Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia.

* JaponicA--Japan, the Koreas, northeast Siberia and Alaska.

That's 11 regions, 6 votes for a majority.

Captain Countries
No individual country within any given region should have more than 50 percent of that region's vote input. The likely 50%ers are USA, Brazil, Argentina, Russia, India, China, Japan and Australia. The regions of AfricA, ArabianiA and EuropA would be coalition-oriented from the get-go. Beyond the 50% rule, the allotment of voting percentages within each region would be guided by formula involving population, land size and value, and other factors.


Such a world governing board would derive strength from the strength of its regions, and would serve as a stepping stone to Earth's inevitable entry into larger realms. If we're going to one day officially interface with extraterrestrials, it helps to have our terrestrial situation in decent order.
　
Demographics
(Aspects considered in delineating regions include: geography, economy, population, affiliation, ethnicity, belief systems, history, culture, language, geo-politics, diversity, leadership, etc.)