Bourbon Pundit

US Government 101

The US, unlike other countries is not a parliamentary democracy. Parliamentary Democracies have votes of "No Confidence", in which case the current glorious leader is tossed out.

In the US we have 4 branches of government each with a distinct purpose.

The House of Representatives, who job it is to express the will of the people. If the will of the people was free ice cream for everyone, than that is what the House of Representatives should vote for.

We then have the Senate, the purpose of the Senate is to evaluate the long term impact of the actions of the House of Representatives on the Nation. The Senate has a couple of peculiar rules, designed to keep it from making less than wise long term decisions.

One such rule is that it takes 60 votes to actually vote on something.

The other interesting rule of the Senate is that only 1/3rd of the Senate is ever within 2 years of an election.

Go and check you history on the pernenial "Anti Flag Burning Amendment", every Senator has voted in favor of it at least twice, and every Senator has voted against it at least once. Despite "coming close" to passing 3 times every year that it is brought up, it has never passed. It will never pass, simply because Senators don't think limiting speach is in the long term interest of the country.

Then we have the Supreme Court, I might be wrong, but there isn't a way to 'undeclare' a war or change the Commander in Chief absent an election. There is also plenty of old court cases that allow the Military to "Quarter the Horses" during wartime in the absence of congressional funding to do so.

I'll just repeat, the House of Representatives was designed to "Throw the Baby out with the bath water". The Senate was designed to keep the house for doing so.

In the absence of a Military Budget signed by the president, and not overridden by the Senate (66 votes there) the president can spend whatever he damn well pleases on defense. Feeding and Quartering the Horses includes feeding and quartering the Soldiers and buying spare parts and ammo and all the rest.

Try to remember, about half the news comes out of countries with parliamentary democracies. The reporters don't really have a clue.

Proof we don't spank enough

After watching this, I feel a whole lot better about letting my truck warm up every morning. I think I'll go fire it up and let it run for a while today just because.

What's he think he's gonna do? Wack me with his light saber? Billy, go back to your playstation and shut up like a nice little boy.

Non-binding post

So, the House decided to vote on and pass the silly non-binding resolution on Iraq. For the un-informed, this is a bill dissapproving of the President's decision to deploy 20,000+ combat troops to Iraq. It is additionally a prelude to an actual vote on and actual binding bill where funding will be voted on. It's political grandstanding and little more than show, but it should not be dismissed out of hand.

Let me make this crystal clear; the United States, as an open society with open borders has it's basis of security resting solely on the fact that there's an enormous deterrent value to being able to rapidly move men and material anywhere in the world. This bill explains to the world in what manner and case that this type of deterrent can be dimished.

Here's the roll call on that vote. It was mostly along party lines, as to be expected in the newly democrat-controlled house, and the number of republicans that broke ranks was lower than they expected (they were expecting north of 40, but only got 17); let's not be foolish into thinking if there were zero defections, this, somehow would have been halted. The few people I actually have some respect for in this process, either by purpose or by accident are the few who didn't vote. By not attaching their names, either way, to this wart of a bill, they've given themselves some room to make and honest vote when the spending bill comes up.

What is really concerning is the senate, under the leadership of Harry Reid, has decided to remain on the skirt of Nancy Pelosi by calling a very unusual vote on a very similar resolution in the senate, on a saturday no less. Why is this significant? Two things really. First, the democrat leadership of the senate quick scheduled the vote because the republicans, being only slightly in the minority would easily deny the democrats the 60 votes needed to move forward. Second, and more important, is the troubling development that the senate is being led by the house. Not so much because of the timing of the vote, but by the action of Harry Reid by involking proceedure to deny votes to end debate on competing or contradictory bills.

The house has traditionally been the more the body that spew out bill after bill, sometimes one contradicting the previous. That's normal and part of the design of that branch of government. The senate, on the other hand, is designed to debate until their blue in the face and then produce a bill. Then, they send to a conference committee to hash out the final where most of the house language is stripped out of the combined bill before it goes to the president for signature. What is extremely problematic here is the senate moving so quickly to take a bill that's had little debate, no allowed competing bills with debate, no ammendments, and a hurry-up vote. Now OK, again, non-binding here, but this is a big departure for the senate and it should have you concerned...it does me.

I think something is being set up here and I'm not sure what it is yet. My gut tells me to suspect there's going to be a proceedural issue come up that hasn't been seen in a long time and it's going to surprise a lot of people.

For those that have forgotten their grade-school civics classes; remember, the bill still would have to go to the president and be signed to become law. When the president rejects this bill (he damned well better or I'm gonna toss him under the bus too), it'll go back to congress; forcing both the house and senate to get 2/3 vote to make it law. This, althought not guaranteed, has assured this bill it's death.

JFK, in his inaugural addres; probably the last democrat that had a clue...

“We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans — born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage, and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

This much we pledge — and more.”

Someone should...

be making a list of everyone screaming about how all this man-made global warming is killing the planet so that in 20 years, we can bundle them up and burn them for warmth.

World Climate Data: 400,000 years ago to present

I was contemplating global warming while shoveling a foot of snow out of my driveway this morning.