Well, whatever the proper collective noun is for members of Tim Blair’s Comment Academy, here are some blog posts of interest from the professoriate.
1) Swampie celebrates the job-creating effects of Obama’s stimulus plan in Florida.
2) El Campeador draws attention to our jet-set political class (I don’t mind so much that they go overseas; it’s the “coming back” part that I find objectionable).
3) Mythusmage says talk loudly and carry a big broom.
4) kae wonders why the Saudis want to build the world’s biggest fence.
5) Carol of Carol’s Closet brings us the ominous, though hardly surprising, news that some in Washington would like to efface the name of Ronald Reagan. Forget it, liberals; you can efface neither his name nor his ideas.
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I'd say you're becoming quite a Blogfather yourself, Paco (Blogfather. Sounds like a Terry Pratchett title).
ReplyDeleteAnyhoo, kangaroo patch sounds just right.
Mythusmage offers a reasonable solution to California's woes.
ReplyDeleteBut the next step MUST be erasing the concept of the professional legislator. At the state level, at the very least.
Congress as well, but one step at a time.
In case I don't get another chance, may I wish all American friends a great July 4th. As Richie Havens once said,
ReplyDeleteFreedom! Freedom!
Jeff S,
ReplyDeleteThe problem is, California's legislators are amateurs. We have term limits, which means we get a high turn over, with experience and institutional memory suffering for it. Since term limits are not about to go away any time soon, I thought I'd present a way for voters to get politicians' attention. :)
California has term limits, but it's a full time job while they are in office.
ReplyDeleteThat makes them professionals (PowerPoint file!) in the sense that they don't need a full time job as well, as with the citizen legislatures, or hybrids.
There's a nice graphic in the PPT file that shows how the various states approach this; I note that the states with "professional" legislators tend to have fiscal woes (not always, but enough).
Professional legislators aren't in touch with the real world, like a lot of career bureaucrats. I'd rather have an amateur legislator who cared about the consequences of his or her actions than a full timer looking to improve their resume.
So you might do away with the term limits, or increase them somewhat, but eliminate the full time nature of the job. Although that's hardly a total fix, at this point, I suspect any relief would be welcome.
In keeping with the Australian theme, I should suggest that the proper collective noun for we Blairites, like kangaroos, is: a mob of Blairites. In view of the high proportion of members of the International Neocon Conspiracy (TM) among us, perhaps: a conspiracy or a sinisterium of Blairites. If you want a less alarming word, perhaps: a palindrome of Blairites. But that word really ought to be reserved to be the collective noun for bishops.
ReplyDeleteMichael: Ah! A "sinisterium." I like that.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that Saudi wall will be condemned by every Human Rights organization on the planet, not to mention the barrage of resolutions that will come out of the UN, just like with the Israeli fence.
ReplyDelete...
(crickets)
...
Or not.
California legislators are amateurs?
ReplyDeleteWell, they surely do love spending OPM, but I don't think that's what mythusmage had in mind.
All term limits have done is to ensure that the same bunch of rascals get periodic job title changes. They're still out there doing damage.
You can spend a very long time on the public teat with just an occasional office move.