California Democracy: Recent Comments

Comment on It Is Time to Abolish the U.S. Senate

Eric — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 22:27:49 GMT

I disagree with the author. I actually think that the 17th amendment should repealed and that the upper houses of the States' Legislatures should again choose Senators to represent their States in DC. The Framers intended for the Senate to be "a monument to the Sovereignty of the several States". Senators were ambassadors representing their States' governments. With the adoption of the 17th amendment, the States ceased to have any official representation in DC. Equatorial Guinea's government has official representation in DC. None of our States' governments do.

Comment on It Is Time to Abolish the U.S. Senate

mhead — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:50:55 GMT

I write this comment on Constitution Day. In response to your column above, I suggest that U.S. citizens ought to consider the Declaration of Independence to be our founding document, not the U.S. Constitution. In the Declaration, it says "Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness." Today, as I write, millions of U.S. citizens are denied adequate health care because of a legalized racket called the health insurance industry. Of those millions, thousands go bankrupt each year because of disease. The obstacle to change is the U.S. Senate. We need no further evidence in order to work and call for abolition of the U.S. Senate.

Comment on Mussolini's Corporate State

Wang — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 02:19:52 GMT

Speaking of Barack Obama: LONG LIVE EMPEROR OBAMA!

Obama is a racial-minority individual, and in his heart and mind he inevitably condemns racism:

There is bad news about George Herbert Walker Bush.

What if basically all racial-minority people would subscribe to the interpretations that George Herbert Walker Bush committed monstrous, racist, hate crimes while he was the President of the United States?

It will eventually come out: it is only a matter of time.

Respectfully Submitted by Andrew Yu-Jen Wang, J.D. Candidate
B.S., With the Highest Level of Academic Honors at Graduation, 1996
Messiah College, Grantham, PA
Lower Merion High School, Ardmore, PA, 1993

(I can type 90 words per minute, and there are thousands of copies on the Internet indicating the content of this post. And there are at least hundreds of copies in very many countries around the world.)
_________________
“If only it were possible to ban invention that bottled up memories so they never got stale and faded.” Off the top of my head—it came from my Lower Merion High School yearbook.

Comment on It Is Time to Abolish the U.S. Senate

unreasnablwoman — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 05:36:11 GMT

If 80% of the population live in those cities then -- yes? I don't believe that's called socialism, I believe that's called ... what's the word ... "democracy"??

Comment on It Is Time to Abolish the U.S. Senate

Booger — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 06:33:03 GMT

Would you like to see this country forever dominated by socialist-controlled major cities?

Comment on It Is Time to Abolish the U.S. Senate

Mike OTW — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 08:42:17 GMT

Just a quick note to say that I enjoy your writing and have just added your homepage to my bookmarks.

I wanted to point out a typo. (I'm no perfect writer myself - just trying to help) I believe this 'to' should be 'two'.

"Each state elects to persons to the U. S. Senate"

Please continue your informative writing, it's very interesting and well spoken! : )

_ MIKE OTW _

Comment on It Is Time to Abolish the U.S. Senate

ScottS — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 20:44:04 GMT

As a former Senate staff, I think you missed much of the undemocratic features of the Senate. For instance, Caro, in his book on Lyndon Johnson notes how the undemocratic Senate made itself more undemocratic by the filibuster rule and the Seniority Rule. Filibusters allowed a few southern states to stop
Civil Rights Legislation for over 80 years. Seniority gave all the power to one-party (Southern) states so that at the Civil War every committee was headed by Senators from states that left the union. Electing a 1/3 of the members every two years guarantees an impossibility of rapid change -- The Republican Senate could not pass the Republican House's legislation; now the Democratic Senate cannot follow through on what the House did.

Comment on Mussolini's Corporate State

Ron H — Tue, 15 May 2007 18:46:36 GMT

I am guilty of lumping the corporate state of fascist Italy with the corporate rule in America not because of a lack of knowledge of structure but because of the similarities of characteristics that all forms of fascism share. Perhaps we can come close to agreement by stating that not all fascism is corporate but certainly all corporate entities demonstrate fascist like propensities.

Comment on Mussolini's Corporate State

Jan Edwards — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 17:52:07 GMT

Yes!Wikipedia says the famous quote from Mussolini is a hoax:
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini
Your piece is a good short overview of Italian Facism and this often misused concept that US style corporatism is the same as facism.

Comment on Mussolini's Corporate State

Kirsten — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 20:05:29 GMT

This is most interesting. Thank you to the author. Who IS the author, by the way?